You redeemed yourself Chuck. Good call.
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UNH 2024/2025 Goldberg Edition
- Thread starter norbert
- Start date
TheGrouchyCat
Litter Box of Bad Ideas
Despite the win, it was one of the more boring games I've seen in years. Felt like the team was merely going through the motions against a team that could barely skate.
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
It was definitely cupcake-level opposition that ran out of options quickly, once the goon factor wore off.
All is far from clear sailing on the UNH front, but a win is nice, and we'll see how NU weekend goes next ...
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Well whatever. And if they hadn't scored on any PP we'd be talking about.that. I watched it online but I thought they looked better than they have.
But let's see how it goes next weekend. NU has a score to.settle for last seasons sweep...
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Meanwhile, our hockey neighbor to the North is undefeated and #3 in PWR...fwiw dept on this Monday Nov. 11. Thank you to all
who have served our country...appreciate you!
who have served our country...appreciate you!
Unfortunately, we play the Big Green in Hanover on December 13th; lucky us!
Meanwhile, we are smack dab in the middle of HEA teams in the PWR, 6th and 29th overall, with BC, Maine, PC, BU, and UML above, and NU (30th overall), UMass, UVM, Mac, and Yukon below. A lot of PWR on the line for Cats and Huskies this coming weekend.
HockeyRef
Well-known member
....And HE points as we are in the cellar at the moment. I'll
be at Matthews for one last time.
2013hockeyfan
New member
AIC dropping their program (to DII). Very unfortunate and likely the first of many dominoes to fall in the college hockey world.
Very curious to see where the HC Lang ends up. He's the type of guy UNH needed to bring in, and still does.
Very curious to see where the HC Lang ends up. He's the type of guy UNH needed to bring in, and still does.
BlueLine Bob
New member
He had a slightly higher than .500 record in the worst college hockey conference in the country.
But Lang’s Yellow Jackets have dominated Atlantic Hockey since he became HC.
Perhaps I will catch a game at Bentley this weekend, my last chance to see the Yellow Jackets. Bzzzzz!
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
The other side of the coin is, he took a bottom-of-the-bottomest D-1 league team to six straight winning records (active streak), including some real postseason play. He will be 50 years old this coming summer. I would have him on my UNH prospects list for next season if/when our AD decides to buy out the current coach and staff. There's a lot of games between now and then, but if I were the AD, I'd be sounding him (and others) out now ...
Taking another look at your “slightly higher than 0.500” comment on Eric Lang’s record. Over his eight seasons through 2023/24 as HC, AIC was 142-116-29, but if his first two seasons with mostly his HC predecessor’s players are dropped, his record for the past six seasons is 119-76-17. There is not another Atlantic Hockey coach that comes anyway near this record over these six years.
BlueLine Bob
New member
If the head coach at St. Anselms was 119-76-17, no one would bat an eye. Atlantic Hockey is essentially a Division 3 conference. It’s a far cry from coaching against BU, BC, Providence every weekend. Look at Quinnipiac. They have the fortune of not playing in Hockey East where they would get banged around every weekend. They were fresh in April because of their pillow fights from November through March. If they were in Hockey East, they would be a .500 or below team. Look at their record against Hockey East schools over the last couple of years. And the ECAC is head and shoulders above Atlantic Hockey.
Fishman'81
Black Bear since D-2
Right now, this is the post of the year. Every point is spot-on.
(And I hope that "pillow-fights" isn't patented intellectual property, because I intend to trot that out at some point in the future.)
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
"Pillow fights" has been in the public domain for many years now, so no worries about patent infringement, Fishy!
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
OK, so let me approach it this way ... I don't think anyone on here disputes that overall, the best NCAA players are competing in D-1, and there are at least two (if not three, if I'm reading your take correctly?) general league categories across D-1. I suspect you and I disagree on the size of the gap between Hockey East and the ECAC, as I'm not in agreement with your take on Quinnipiac, which won a D-1 title just over a year ago whereas PC (almost 10 years), BC (over 12 years) and BU (over 15 years) haven't exactly been nationally dominant recently. And two of those three school's legendary leaders of their last title winning teams have been retired since.
So maybe this is down to my UNH perspective ... but do you really think just because they get many of the top players every season, that HEA also has the best D-1 coaches?? I know I don't. My take is the best coaches make their players (and teams) better, regardless of the level they are situated in. The only coach currently in HEA that I'd consider top echelon/elite is Ben Barr at UMaine, and only because he has a long line of teams/players/programs he's made better, virtually at every stop he's made. Pandolfo and Brown are coaching where they are largely due to their schools putting value on having an alum in charge. You can say the same about Lowell (Bazin) and UNH (Souza). I don't necessarily think all of those four guys are better coaches than counterparts/colleagues coaching in AHA, or even at some elite D-3 programs. Souza for sure, I'd think is in way over his head. Luce at UConn has also failed to prove himself to be the guy behind York's dynasty at BC earlier this century, but he sure is getting paid like it. Carvel at UMass has a ring ... but does he have that ring without the efforts of Barr?? I suspect no, but we'll never know that for sure.
When you come into a D-3, D-2 or low level D-1 program like Lang, and take it from the well-established doormat of the league to consistently at or near the top of that same league in a relatively short span, that is attention-grabbing stuff. I don't know the AIC situation as well as Snives does, but following what I take to be your logic ... let's say someone in Storrs wakes up and decides it's time to move on from Luce at long last. You are the AD, and you're putting together a list of potential hires. Are you saying that you would not consider guys like Lang (low D-1) or Joe Dumais (mid-D1 at the Q) as underqualified, BUT would put MS7 (Souza) on your list because he just happens to coach at elite D-1 (HEA) level?
FWIW I think you too easily credit the abilities of HEA HC's, where at least half of those guys could probably be easily replaced by other coaches from lower levels of D-1 (if not juniors or elsewhere) who have shown an ability to establish consistently winning programs. JMHO.
I agree, as the win dug us out of the HEA cellar. Watched on NESN and was surprised that the two announcers seemed to think that the Whitt still has a “big sheet” (their words).
Meanwhile, waiting for Chuck’s take on BC losing to Luce’s Huskies in Storrs tonight.
Gosh, I hate it when my Huskies go into an opponent’s rink and score on their first shot, or within the first few minutes. They get the idea that the game will be easy. They promptly go into “cruise mode”, while any decent opponent goes into overdrive. Your guys overdrove us right out the game after Gagne scored his breakaway goal. That was an awfully early “turning point”. Your goalie was okay, but your D, and forecheckers deserve a ton of credit for limiting our chances.
Hopefully, Keefe will look at the game tapes and realize that his line scrambling didn’t cut it. Perhaps he should have scrambled the D, which is mature, experienced and was supposed to be the strength of the team. Tomorrow night has to be different!
Hopefully, Keefe will look at the game tapes and realize that his line scrambling didn’t cut it. Perhaps he should have scrambled the D, which is mature, experienced and was supposed to be the strength of the team. Tomorrow night has to be different!