UML '09/'10 Season Thread

[WisemanFromUmass-Lowell]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

Coaches can definitely have an impact on how players come to play but its the players responsibility to play the best game they can every night.

Excellent point Patman. Coaches get too much blame when teams lose and too much credit when teams win. Although I wonder if in college sports a fan can't depend completely on the student-athlete to understand your point about responsibility?

 

[UMLGoon]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

They were also 4-8 including a losing stretch of 6 from around this time year (when they couldn't put the puck in the net) until late January.

you are aware that we are still six games out from it being the end of the first half, right? this is not the second half. you were talking about the second half. this is not that.

Look, I'm willing to admit I'm an idiot if fortunes can change over the next handful of games but can you tell me you're happy with the way the team has looked the last couple? Especially after the way they have looked up until now?

of course not. don't be stupid. but you're also changing what was originally an asinine and wrongheaded argument into one on which no one will or could disagree with you.

it's two games, it's november. let's not drum blaise out of town just yet.

 

[WisemanFromUmass-Lowell]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

you are aware that we are still six games out from it being the end of the first half, right? this is not the second half. you were talking about the second half. this is not that.
...
of course not. don't be stupid. but you're also changing what was originally an asinine and wrongheaded argument into one on which no one will or could disagree with you.

Right you are. I used data that wasn't entirely accurate to try and make the point of being frustrated by a team that doesn't continue to consistently improve over the course of a season.

it's two games, it's november. let's not drum blaise out of town just yet.

Deal. Let's wait a couple of weeks and reconvene....

 

[John_Fuller]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

Try to make the point of being frustrated by a team that doesn't continue to consistently improve over the course of a season.

I'll make a supposition to this...it's not that Lowell doesn't continue to consistently improve over the course of a season it's that Lowell always seems to consistently find the most inopportune times to go into a slump that has cost them either a good ranking, home ice, or a NCAA berth

The point that Wiseman is trying to make is that we've (and by we've I'm talking about the long time Lowell supporters) have seen this story unfold before over the past decade...just when you think Lowell is going to make a leap into the big time, it blows up. For a five to six games stretch in "good" years, Lowell takes a vacation and goes into a nosedive. They then go on a tear, make things interesting and everyone gets excited again. It happen last year around the same time, with games against New Hampshire and BU and got swept, following by the Chicago debacle, and losing seven of eight games from 'December to mid-January. It cost them an NCAA berth. It happened in 2001-2002 when they were #3 for a week, then proceeded to lose five in on a row; 1-8-2 over an eleven game stretch and cost them an NCAA berth. The 2005-2006 season where high expectations were over when the season began in Colgate on a very sour note.

Unfortunately for River Hawks fans over the long haul, the bad coffee after this week's games is starting to brew once again. I'm actually not surprised that some people have raised a yellow flag, this team can't afford to lose five or six in a row and expect to make the NCAA's on an at-large bid. While it's true the players on the ice are responsible for their actions, the coaching staff are just as culpable; regardless of your affinity or them or not. I do agree with Wiseman to a point...it does start to make you wonder.

However, let's look at the numerous positives...

• 
  <p>
• 1. Polls in November are crap...for people on here that know me both personally and on the board, you know what stock I give polls. In some ways, I think it is good that the River Hawks will drop dramatically (five or more spots) in Monday's poll.
  <p>
• 2. We are still four full games above .500
  <p>
• 3. There are four HE pts up for grabs next week..they still have a chance to get to 13 league points in ten games...65% of your league points ain't bad and they still have 17 more HE games to play after next weekend.
  <p>
• 4. There are four more games before the holiday break and three of those games are at home. (FYI, I'm considering the January games to be part of the second half due to the long layoff)
  <p>
• 5. Even without the services of Barry Goers for one month, this team still has won games.
  <p>

The game @ Providence will happen to any team during the year; they simply laid an egg. The game vs. Maine I have concerns about, especially since this was the only visit (in the regular season) that Maine will have this season. We all know their track record in Maine over the past decade, so I'll leave that be. Lowell was a team that had something else on my mind on Friday night. Ugly as those games were, Lowell scored the opening goal in both. Here's my point...Lowell still controls its own destiny.

**If** Barry Goers returns to the lineup next week, which I ***hope*** will come true, it will go a long way in settling this team. Notice that this statement has been intentionally highlighted as a hypothetical. I have no reservations about next week if Goers can return to this team.

While I would love for the River Hawks to take pts from Moo-N-H, Saturday's game against Amherst is much more important. We'll see what kind of team Lowell is made of by this time next Saturday night.

One last thought:

Lowell 2008-2009 Record to Date: 5-3-0 = 10 pts ; 8-5-0
Lowell 2009-2010 Record to Date: 4-3-1 = 9 pts ; 8-4-1

Had they not blown that two-goal lead in VT, they would have the same exact record as last year. Spooky, isn't it.

 

[UMLGoon]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

It happen last year around the same time, with games against New Hampshire and BU and got swept, following by the Chicago debacle, and losing seven of eight games from 'December to mid-January. It cost them an NCAA berth. It happened in 2001-2002 when they were #3 for a week, then proceeded to lose five in on a row; 1-8-2 over an eleven game stretch and cost them an NCAA berth. The 2005-2006 season where high expectations were over when the season began in Colgate on a very sour note.

oversimplification on all counts.

last year, the loss of hutton-then-hamilton plus roebothan hurt the team significantly. and we all know that. this was the least-egregious of the examples, and again they did exactly what should have been expected of them.

01-02, you don't think the loss of three of the team's four best players to the olympics had anything to do with the problems? the frenchmen were gone from mid-January to mid-February and missed seven games. lowell's record with them: 21-9-1; without them: 1-4-2. there's your answer on that one.

05-06 the team lost a hobey baker candidate who had scored 20 percent of the team's goals the season prior a week before classes started and was replaced with no one.. well, technically it was roebothan but you think you're gonna count on him to replicate benny walter's production? (plus no one liked peter vetri and the team had no desire to play in front of him. that too.)

did i slip into a coma and wake up in a world where no one thinks about the things they post?

 

[John_Fuller]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

They did exactly what should have been expected of them.

This is the exact point I've been trying to make for the past ten years, once this team, its coaches, and its fan base (by attendance) get past this point, we will then return to the NCAA's. I'll use a "Joe Morgan reference" and say that the River Hawks haven't been to the show in 14 years.

Personally, I'm pretty tired of all of the excuses (yes, I call them excuses) over why this team can't make the next step. Fair or unfair as that statement may be, this team hasn't dealt well with adversity under the current regime. Missing one or two people didn't matter back in 1994 and 1996 because others picked up the slack.

Everyone knew for over a full year that the Frenchmen were going to the Olympics and it was going to be rough. Losing that many games is on the coaching staff because that's a sign of a lack of displicine and planning.

Losing Ben Walter had an immense impact on the team and Peter Vetri was an issue but there's I'm sure a lot more to those story that anyone on here knows (or would care to know). During that year, it was like the team and its coaches gave up before the season even began...certainly that was not a team to be six games under .500.

Sure, Lowell was impacted by injuries for the first half of last year. Any team would be non-immune from struggles given those facts. For an entire team to go downhill as a result is way too much over that middle stretch.

In my view and take, Lowell hasn't been able to get past them and move to the big time. I'm just tired of hearing the swan songs for all of their "troubles" and getting this team back to basics. I'm waiting for that Lowell player and coach to say "bleep it" and just play hockey. This is what made the 1994 and 1996 teams so special...everyone was on board. I didn't get that sense in 01-02, 05-06, and for the first half of 08-09. I don't want to hear four months from that the reason that the River Hawks missed the NCAA's was because Barry Goers was injured for over a month.

To some my previous post may be oversimplification, that's fine. As I learned in math class at UML for so many semesters of calculus, one of the most basic laws is that

d/dx (constant) = 0

or in English, if there is no change in area, the value must be zero.

My UML professors taught me the simple method, it's worked out for me most of the time.

did i slip into a coma and wake up in a world where no one thinks about the things they post?

Some will agree with things people post and some won't agree with people post, it's part of the ballgame. Open exchange and peer review is great, but insulting your own team's fans doesn't get you any bonus points or make friends.

 

[UMLGoon]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

there's something in baseball that stat nerds hate (and by the way it's hilarious to me that you brought up Joe Morgan for this exact reason), and that's the word "consistent." they hate it because no one brings it up when a team or a player is outperforming expectations. but when a player or team is slumping, it's because they're "not consistent." statistically it's insane to expect a player that's a .300 hitter to hit exactly .300 no matter what portion of the season you look at. "what'd he hit today? .300. what'd he hit in june? .300. what'd he hit against sidearm lefties on NL teams in night games on artificial turf west of the mississippi river? .300." averages are averages because that's the only way to properly judge something. they take everything into account.

the problem i see in this thread time and again is that people a) have this perception that reality does not apply to the river hawks in some way and b) don't know anything about the sport they've watched for at least 20-something games over the last however many years.

yes, lowell slumped for six games last season. i gave you the reasons why. you say teams should be prepared for things like that. yeah, they are. it's called "what happens over the course of a season."

the problem is also that you're looking at last season in hindsight. what would you have considered to be a reasonable expectation for that team headed into the 2008-09 season? i posted on my really excellent blog that they needed to compete for home ice (they did), win the first round of the playoffs regardless of venue (they did), maybe win at the garden (they did) and compete for an ncaa bid (they did). funny how literally every one of my expectations worked out exactly, but i guess that's because i understand the sport and can look at the big picture without some sense of entitlement and say "this is are how things are and therefore this is how i feel things should be at the end of the season."

by the way i didn't see you vultures crying about consistency when the team was 8-2-1 this time last week. but now that's it's 8-4-1 you're all pulling the emergency 'chute and praying to christ we don't hit ground too hard. BU went through a stretch in mid-november last year where it lost three of four games. it's true! they didn't win 8.22 of every 10 games they played and everything worked out a-okay for them! crazy i know.

do i think blaise has done a perfect job? of course not. but do i think you guys are expecting far too much from a program that's criminally underfunded by the umass system (at least vis a vis what they get out amherst way) and was undersupported by the lowell administration until marty meehan showed up, and then overlooking the giant-sized strides the program has made in the last two or three years? obviously.

(p.s. you're all lucky i didn't go into advanced hockey metrics and explain about shot percentage always regressing toward the mean and shots on goal totals having just a not as much of effect on win percentage as you'd think and all kinds of things.)

 

[leswp1]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

I am going to interject real reason in this thread. I think on the way down to PRoVICID!11!! the team bus was hi-jacked and they replaced all our guys with aliens. SO THERE!

 

[Go-UML]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

<snip>... insulting your own team's fans doesn't get you any bonus points or make friends.

You're operating under the incorrect assumption that he gives a $hit. That's prob the one thing he has in common with jcarter.

 

[ushl d man]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

Maybe Lowells coach is like his fans, to smart for his own good. He will be putting (as will some on here) his head in a oven and turning on the gas next week if Lowell losses ( and goning to UNH and then Umass isnt going to be easy). Maybe just think about it this way. All that matters is two weekends. Just like last year.

 

[John_Fuller]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

You're operating under the incorrect assumption that he gives a $hit. That's prob the one thing he has in common with jcarter.

He has his view, I have mine. Disagreement is fine, but I'll say something every time to any UML fan that sounds demeaning to other UML fans. Having each other at our throats is really not my idea of a good time. Maybe I hope for too much, but most UML fans (him and me included) on here are reasonable most of the time and intelligent enough to make their own decisions and express them Whether or not he (or others) gives a $hit is really not my problem.

With all ten Hockey East teams playing each other Friday - Sunday of next weekend, there could be a lot of movement and change, especially in the top half of the standings. Four points and first place are there for the taking...how bad does Lowell want it. We'll find out soon enough.

 

[bottomdweller]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

You're operating under the incorrect assumption that he gives a $hit. That's prob the one thing he has in common with jcarter.

Was anything he said incorrect? I'm thinking no.

 

[Patman]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

All that matters is two weekends. Just like last year.

If all we're hoping to concern ourselves with is those two weekends (and only two weekends?!) then there's bigger problems here. I hope your insight isn't the same as the team's. If this team wants to be mediocre up until March I'll happily turn off the radio and turn my attention away until they have to go on the road as the #6th seed in HEA instead of the #1 or #2 they should be.

You know, we lose... fine, it happens. Its the how that matters. If the team doesn't want to hear it then tough. They'll stop hearing it when they start doing as they are able.

 

[leswp1]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

If all we're hoping to concern ourselves with is those two weekends (and only two weekends?!) then there's bigger problems here. I hope your insight isn't the same as the team's. If this team wants to be mediocre up until March I'll happily turn off the radio and turn my attention away until they have to go on the road as the #6th seed in HEA instead of the #1 or #2 they should be.

You know, we lose... fine, it happens. Its the how that matters. If the team doesn't want to hear it then tough. They'll stop hearing it when they start doing as they are able.

You made sense of that quote? I didn't get it.

 

[ushl d man]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

If all we're hoping to concern ourselves with is those two weekends (and only two weekends?!) then there's bigger problems here. I hope your insight isn't the same as the team's. If this team wants to be mediocre up until March I'll happily turn off the radio and turn my attention away until they have to go on the road as the #6th seed in HEA instead of the #1 or #2 they should be.

You know, we lose... fine, it happens. Its the how that matters. If the team doesn't want to hear it then tough. They'll stop hearing it when they start doing as they are able.

So I guess that 8-4-1 is mediocre? You know that the last two weekends are the biggest. This team will have home ice, no doubts about it, but they will not beat everyone. They ane not used to being the team to beat every weekend,. Plus how many freshmen and sophmores have gone thru what the juniors and seniors have, They have to all play hard for 60 minutes, and its going to take all year to get them to do that. hopefully the last two weekends they will.

 

[ScottK]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

I have an extra ticket for Friday's game at UNH. If anyone is interested, just let me know.

 

[boblav1]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

Maybe Lowells coach is like his fans, to smart for his own good. He will be putting (as will some on here) his head in a oven and turning on the gas next week if Lowell losses ( and goning to UNH and then Umass isnt going to be easy). Maybe just think about it this way. All that matters is two weekends. Just like last year.

Yes, the UNH and UMA games are going to be very tough. That's why it was important to take points from PC and Maine. I know you can't win them all but watching that Maine game was brutal. The Hockey East playoffs are important but I'm looking for an NCAA bid this season, and that will take wins. Last season UNH and UVM took care of business during the season so the last two weekends didn't impact their NCAA chances. Hopefully Lowell will be in the same position this season.

 

[UMLFan]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

OK bad week for UML hockey (and bad weekend on this thread).

The Tuesday game was disappointing in that you know it's going to happen (a let-down game) at points in the season, but Friday was just frustrating ... and in front of an amazing crowd for the Friday after Thanksgiving.

This weekend will be tough, but I hope to see the resilience of this team.

 

[boblav1]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

I have an extra ticket for Friday's game at UNH. If anyone is interested, just let me know.

I've heard the turnout of UML fans at UNH should be pretty good. The school is running a student bus and a second bus has been organized by a group from one of the sections at the Tsongas. That's great to hear, it should be a fun night. Tickets are still available through UML, unsold tickets go back to UNH tomorrow.

 

[pressbox]

Re: UML '09/'10 Season Thread

I think its time to remake the ice at the Tsongas. The Devils had an 0-fer week as well.