But gotta like those late in the period goals.
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UNH Hockey 2023-2024 Season Thread - End Of The Cellar-Dweller Era??
- Thread starter Scott
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But gotta like those late in the period goals.
d.gerry
Five for Fighting
Can’t argue that!
At least we scored a shortie also. I do not know what to make of a team that does not support Hellsten for two games in a row and then erupts for six goals in front of Muszelik.
Good call by e.cat earlier today.
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HockeyRef
Well-known member
Yes way to go e cat! Had a great time tonight lots of great hockey and company. Was pleased to see UnH come out the way they did and I thought Muz had some great saves...
Nice to get the W desperately needed those points...
Ok time to party some in Burlington!!!
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Bonus points to 'Ref for being on the right track. VERY impressive!!
F33.9 is the ICD-10 medical diagnosis code for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
Say what you will, but when you/your program has a history of underperforming once the calendar shifts past the holidays, into the long, dark days of winter, you are what your record says you are. SAD.
Glad the boys won tonight, but there were two other games they've recently pizzed away. If I sound angry, I am. I went all in on this not being a mirage (again), and right now I'm feeling like the biggest stooge in the room. You wanna get me back onside, and pronto?? Two regulation wins next weekend will be a nice start. Anything short of that ... bye-bye Top Four, hello (probably) MBPBEGAM round (as home team - yippee) followed by a road game/series in the quarters to get to Boston. That's just the start of things.
Then, you gotta win the HEA Tourney to get to the NCAA's. THAT's what the last two losses have done to UNH.
So yeah, guys, no sweat, gack up the UConn and UVM hairballs, no big deal, all is fine, blecccchhhhh ...
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Great to see you tonight!!!
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Ya know? When I saw this I was actually ok with it. Felt he played well (and of course it helped UNH poured it on esp in the first).
Now I don't think he gets the nod against the Terriers (eek) ...and would be surprised if he gets the nod for.Sat nite as UNH will want to grab some HE points...if possible from MC.
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Yeah what 6 penalties? Do that against BU and see what happens! And as for our 5 min majors BU would rack up 3 goals. At least we got 1 PPG last night.
So Cafarellis misconduct..looked like a basketball technical so to speak. We could see he was having words with the official.
Awful boarding of Conmy...reminiscent of the days Potsy would be taken down in games...
d.gerry
Five for Fighting
When I look at the current HE standings I understand your anger. Look at where we could be if we had swept the last two weekends versus where we are. It’s definitely frustrating to say the least . As far as going “all in”, I never truly believed this year, just had a feeling the early success wasn’t sustainable. This isn’t an “l told you so”, as I’ve bought in plenty of times in the past, only to get burned, so I get your anger. But, still a lot of hockey to be played, so maybe a few more surprises are on the way!
Darius
Go 'cats!
Get in line. Huge opportunity lost. The brass ring is now fifth place which offers a bye followed by a road game in the first real round of the HEA tournament. BU can take out their frustration on NU Tuesday (ESPNU) so there's that.
AD Rich's end of season decision might come down to available options. She moved fast replacing Coach Herrion which tells me she had a plan, probably a plan B too, and executed it.
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HockeyRef
Well-known member
Oh that's right forgot they play NU next...and gee maybe they look past us to their Beanpot re-match with BC!!
Take a look at which teams Hellsten has beaten and which teams Muselik has beaten.
Hellsten beat Princeton, Notheastern (missing a few players), Sacred Heart, Dartmouth and UConn …That’s not, all by itself, All-American goaltending.
He lost to Maine, BU, Uconn, Providence.
his best performance (in the win-loss column) was a tie against Providence…again not All-American
I think people might be mistaken thinking he is a lot better than muselik (who beat BU and Quinnipiac—missing a couple of their best)
Both very good goalies, but neither is Conklin-quality (in my HUMBLE opinion)
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
I disagree that BOTH are "very good goalies", KIA2. Muselik has never been "very good" at his current level. Over two D-1 seasons, his save percentage is running at roughly 88%, with this season slightly trailing last season. Hellsten's save percentage is slightly over 92%, which means that between the two goalies, for every 20-25 shots the opposition takes, Muselik allows one more goal than Hellsten does.
Hellsten's GAA per 60 minutes this season (1.72) is roughly half of Muselik's 3.38 GAA. This weekend alone, Muselik got a win allowing 3 goals while Hellsten took a loss by allowing 2 goals, against the same opposition.
If you're going for a comparison to the '99 tandem of incumbent Matile/newbie Conklin ... even in what was widely considered a more wide open game in D-1 hockey than nowadays ... Hellsten's GAA so far is slightly below Conklin's '99 GAA (save % numbers not available, to me anyway), and Matile was still almost a full goal per game less than Muselik - plus Matile had led the '98 team to the Frozen Four semis.
Muselik to date has done nothing to approach a "very good" assessment at this level. To be fair, Muselik's first two seasons at UNH look a lot like Hellsten's first two seasons at UND. But stylistically AND numbers-wise, there IS a fair comparison to be made between '99 Conklin and '24 Hellsten ... so far. And it's a discussion that Muselik isn't even close to approaching ... so far. Maybe it will take Muselik another year, and a portal move out of Durham, to finally get to something approaching his potential, just as Hellsten needed to get out of UND?
Hellsten is providing UNH with the quality of goaltending they haven't had since the days of CDS and Danny Tirone's first (shortened) season, so they have a realistic shot (expectation?) of their first winning record during the MS7 Era. But I think they're gonna need more than a narrowly-winning record to keep Coach Souza in a job come this time next year. I agree with Darius, I'm sure AD Rich already has two plans in place, and for every subsequent hairball that gets hacked up between now and the HE Semifinals, MS7's job status gets more and more perilous ... so going with Muselik last night was likely a message to everyone that failure to produce will have its ramifications, and seeing six goals materialize just like that seems to suggest that said message was taken on and registered well.
Hellsten more than likely will be back for both games next week. 'Cuz MS7's job depends on it ...
Agree with Chuck’s take over KIA’s take on UNH goaltending so far this season. Besides Chuck’s GAA and SV% comparisons, I note that Muszelik gave up 13 goals in the three games against BU and Quinnipiac to begin the season. Moreover, Muszelik gave up 5 goals in the loss to RIT (yes 3 were PPG’s), and then gave up 5 goals (again, 2 were PPGs) in the loss to Army, which got him benched for the next 7 games as MS7 began to see his contract extension slip sliding away.
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Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Meanwhile, down on the farm ... former UNH forward Angus Crookshank (apparently selected for one of the AHL All-Star teams!) had quite an interesting night last night in Grand Rapids MI, facing the Yzerman/DRW talent incubator known as the Grand Rapids Griffins. Bringing his team back from a 3-0 deficit with two goals, the Belleville Sens took a 4-3 lead until the streaking Griffins struck back for two goals to take a 5-4 lead. Finally, in the closing seconds, Crookshank completed a fairly unique "hat trick" of sorts, scoring the Griffins' final goal into his own empty net to give the hosts a 6-4 victory. Angus could have stopped there, but ...
... showing a mixture of poor sportsmanship and dubious judgment, Crookie first shows his frustration by trying to disrupt the Griffins' ENG celly (which of course he netted for them) by jabbing and pushing some folks around ... still, not quite done, he lingers in a scrum long enough, then escapes briefly to shovel an opponent's helmet halfway down the rink, drawing the (unwanted) attention of "Victor Hedman 2.0" a/k/a DRW #1 pick Simon Edvinsson (he's the really tall guy wearing #77), who takes the time to separate from a previous engagement to take exception to Crookie being such a sore-sport. At this point, all is still salvageable for the spunky Sen ...
... but then Angus - probably spotting Edvinsson about a foot in height (and at least that much in reach), tries to fire off two shots to Simon's chin. Edvinsson seems to laugh at his first attempt that fell short, but Crookie tries a second shot, and that apparently was the breaking point, after which Edvinsson rips off Angus' helmet, fires off his glove, and rag dolls AC to the ice, giving him a little "what for" during and after what amounted to this skirmish - when Sens #9 finally realizes he's in over his head just a wee bit, and skates quickly away.
Good Crookshank news - he's obviously playing well in Belleville. Bad AC news - he's not ready for prime time yet, and if he keeps making the dumb mistakes he made last night, he's gonna get himself killed ...
... showing a mixture of poor sportsmanship and dubious judgment, Crookie first shows his frustration by trying to disrupt the Griffins' ENG celly (which of course he netted for them) by jabbing and pushing some folks around ... still, not quite done, he lingers in a scrum long enough, then escapes briefly to shovel an opponent's helmet halfway down the rink, drawing the (unwanted) attention of "Victor Hedman 2.0" a/k/a DRW #1 pick Simon Edvinsson (he's the really tall guy wearing #77), who takes the time to separate from a previous engagement to take exception to Crookie being such a sore-sport. At this point, all is still salvageable for the spunky Sen ...
... but then Angus - probably spotting Edvinsson about a foot in height (and at least that much in reach), tries to fire off two shots to Simon's chin. Edvinsson seems to laugh at his first attempt that fell short, but Crookie tries a second shot, and that apparently was the breaking point, after which Edvinsson rips off Angus' helmet, fires off his glove, and rag dolls AC to the ice, giving him a little "what for" during and after what amounted to this skirmish - when Sens #9 finally realizes he's in over his head just a wee bit, and skates quickly away.
Good Crookshank news - he's obviously playing well in Belleville. Bad AC news - he's not ready for prime time yet, and if he keeps making the dumb mistakes he made last night, he's gonna get himself killed ...
Maybe Angus Crookshank thinks that he needs to behave like a jerk to get noticed and called back up to the mother ship?Speaking of which, I have been watching the Rangers come back to go ahead of the Senators 5-2, and it ain’t over yet.
edit: oops, the game is a replay from last night, in which the Rangers scored 7 unanswered goals for 7-2 win. Ouch!
edit: oops, the game is a replay from last night, in which the Rangers scored 7 unanswered goals for 7-2 win. Ouch!
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Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
The "mothership" is already loaded with young, emotionally immature forwards (see Tkachuk (C), Brady) and as you saw against a real team like the Rangers, they are terrible. They are also mired in last place in the Atlantic Division. Lots of bold predictions were made for this bunch after last year's perceived improvement, but they have (again) regressed, gotten their HC fired, and look to be playing out another futile string of a season. Maybe after some of the immature idiots running around impersonating NHL players get traded or released, AC will get another chance at The Show. But he'd be well advised to leave the Brad Marchand/Ken Linseman Starter Kit home, and play things straight. Say what we will about MS7, but I don't think he learned any of his Saturday night skillz from his time in Durham.
But if the franchise model citizen is Tkachuk, well ... when in Rome, do as the Romans, I guess ...
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