What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

UNH Hockey 2023 Off Season Thread Turn and Face the Strange

Status
Not open for further replies.
Felger said:
JVR, Lucic and Shattenkirk are a combined 103 years old.

The Bruins will be the second oldest hockey team in Massachusetts next season, trailing only Merrimack College.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but, if Bergeron does not come back, the Bruins will have shed a combined 107 years of age with Foligno and Krejci. And, even if Bergeron comes back, the Bruins will still have shed a combined 101 years of age with Foligno, Krejci, and Hall (or Orlov). :-)
 
Snively65 said:
Yeah, but, if Bergeron does not come back, the Bruins will have shed a combined 107 years of age with Foligno and Krejci. And, even if Bergeron comes back, the Bruins will still have shed a combined 101 years of age with Foligno, Krejci, and Hall (or Orlov). :-)
Click to expand...

Given their abysmally poor performance this offseason, others might opt to shed 115 years by dispatching Sweeney (57) and Neely (58), and the older B's fans might get behind pressing the Jacobs Family to sell - but I doubt Jeremy (83) or son Charlie (52) are thinking that way at this point.

Bringing back Harry Sinden (90) as the greatest living B's GM would trim 25 years off the Sweeney/Neely combo.

It's unfortunate that his predecessor and architect of the "Big Bad B's" Milt Schmidt (105) passed away at age 98.

Jaromir Jagr (51) remains active as player/owner of his Czech top-tier club in hometown, waiting for the phone to ring ...
 
Chuck Murray said:
Given their abysmally poor performance this offseason, others might opt to shed 115 years by dispatching Sweeney (57) and Neely (58), and the older B's fans might get behind pressing the Jacobs Family to sell - but I doubt Jeremy (83) or son Charlie (52) are thinking that way at this point.

Bringing back Harry Sinden (90) as the greatest living B's GM would trim 25 years off the Sweeney/Neely combo.

It's unfortunate that his predecessor and architect of the "Big Bad B's" Milt Schmidt (105) passed away at age 98.

Jaromir Jagr (51) remains active as player/owner of his Czech top-tier club in hometown, waiting for the phone to ring ...
Click to expand...

The irony of Jagr becoming a player/owner of the Bruins to counter the Fenway Group ownership of the Penguins is not lost on me. Moreover, maybe Jagr could play on a line with JvR and add to the 11 games that he played with Bruins earlier.
 
Excuse me but I just need to spend some team time occasionally. While many could care less at this point, I have always enjoyed speculating on upcoming team leadership. I know a few of you have thought about this.
Here is my take:
C - goes to super senior Blaisdell took 2 of the coaches year end awards
A - goes to Jenson, he too may have taken 2 awards
A - goes to Cafarelli, a senior who will return next year for the C. He has been campaigning for the C.
A - Reid or Gagne, sad to take it from Gags but Reid is a senior. Why not both?
 
After the Whistle said:
Excuse me but I just need to spend some team time occasionally. While many could care less at this point, I have always enjoyed speculating on upcoming team leadership. I know a few of you have thought about this.
Here is my take:
C - goes to super senior Blaisdell took 2 of the coaches year end awards
A - goes to Jenson, he too may have taken 2 awards
A - goes to Cafarelli, a senior who will return next year for the C. He has been campaigning for the C.
A - Reid or Gagne, sad to take it from Gags but Reid is a senior. Why not both?
Click to expand...

So, four assistant captains? Maybe two of the four could be associate captains? Then we can slightly tweak Chuck’s expression to MBPBEGAL (L = letter). :-)
 
After the Whistle said:
Excuse me but I just need to spend some team time occasionally. While many could care less at this point, I have always enjoyed speculating on upcoming team leadership. I know a few of you have thought about this.
Here is my take:
C - goes to super senior Blaisdell took 2 of the coaches year end awards
A - goes to Jenson, he too may have taken 2 awards
A - goes to Cafarelli, a senior who will return next year for the C. He has been campaigning for the C.
A - Reid or Gagne, sad to take it from Gags but Reid is a senior. Why not both?
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention this ATW...I was just thinking about this today, and, I was thinking Reid or Blaisdell gets the C nod. Was also thinking that Devlin might be in the mix an A. I like your pics!!!
I am not sure if I"m going Monday (depends on a few things; am referring to the cookout gig)...we'll see!
 
Chuck Murray said:
Reid and/or Jenson. Actively "campaigning" for the captaincy should be immediately disqualifying.
Click to expand...

I wonder if 2015-16 senior Collin MacDonald campaigned to be Co-Captain with lots of injury time in the stands to assess team play during his first three seasons? His senior season was also a disappointment, injury-wise and point-scoring-wise (6 goals and 11 points in 68 games over four seasons). Cafarelli already has 7 goals and 24 points in 52 games over his first three seasons and had lots of injury time in the stands the second half of last season to assess team play. However, I would prefer captains, co-captains, and assistant captains who can lead by example, score points, remain healthy, and stay on the ice. Just my opinion.
 
Snively65 said:
I wonder if 2015-16 senior Collin MacDonald campaigned to be Co-Captain with lots of injury time in the stands to assess team play during his first three seasons? His senior season was also a disappointment, injury-wise and point-scoring-wise (6 goals and 11 points in 68 games over four seasons). Cafarelli already has 7 goals and 24 points in 52 games over his first three seasons and had lots of injury time in the stands the second half of last season to assess team play. However, I would prefer captains, co-captains, and assistant captains who can lead by example, score points, remain healthy, and stay on the ice. Just my opinion.
Click to expand...

Yup, the "staying on the ice" part being particularly important. IIRC MacDonald had a hard time doing just that in his first couple of seasons, and then had some really nasty injury/condition during his junior year that he worked like a dog to overcome. It apparently was this determination to return to the ice that formed the basis for his selection as Captain. Not much thought was seemingly given to whether he was good enough to get on the ice regularly, and then stay there. Keep in mind, in retrospect, this was Warren Foegele's second (and last) season at UNH, and as a kid who'd been drafted in the 3rd round by Carolina already, the fact that Gaudreault/Smith/MacDonald was getting outsized ice time at his expense wasn't lost on him or his advisors.

Here we are now almost 8 years later, and Foegele is finishing off an 8 figure NHL contract, while those three seniors were all out of hockey within a year of leaving UNH. And UNH carries this credibility stigma that seems to keep most of their best would-be recruits from matriculating here. MS7 was a first year assistant at the time, and one wonders what his thoughts were at the time - but probably saying nothing, like the obedient legacy hire he was - this didn't help the program's reputation, something he probably should have been more vocal about.

As if we needed any further reminders on what a clusterfark the last decade or so has been up here ...
 
Moral of the story? In light of the Supreme Court's recent ruling ending racial quotas in the college admission process, much talk in the "social justice" world has been directed to whether overcoming adversity by an applicant should instead be a measure considered for admission instead. The early word seems to suggest that "overcoming adversity" might work, so long as it's color-blind. And likewise, maybe "overcoming adversity" for a player like MacDonald trying to earn a regular slot on the 3rd or 4th line could/should have been a legitimate consideration too? But to take it to the next level, and make him a Captain, always seemed to be driven by this weird PC SJW mindset.

The UNH leadership core at the time trivialized an important decision for that year's on-ice leadership team with an "own goal" of epic proportions that the program has yet to recover from. So when it comes to making a hockey decision ... be sure that it is hockey that is driving the decision, not some dumb-a$$ PC feel-good agenda stupidity. Because that's not gonna be there to help you when you need it at nut-cutting time at the end of a game. JMHO.
 
And you would be correct! Trust me, he deserves an “A” as he is clearly the most steady and consistent D man. He just rarely screws it up. He doesn’t score much but has picked up with the assists as he has grown over his career.
 
Yup, Nicolai Jenson was a +6, not bad for an overall lousy (aka mediocre) team. Next best was Kristaps Skrastins at +0, followed by Stiven Sardarian and the aforementioned Cafarelli at -1. Maybe I need to reconsider my comment whether Cafarelli is Captain-worthy. I think that +/- is sometimes more revealing than total points scored.
 
Snively65 said:
Yup, Nicolai Jenson was a +6, not bad for an overall lousy (aka mediocre) team. Next best was Kristaps Skrastins at +0, followed by Stiven Sardarian and the aforementioned Cafarelli at -1. Maybe I need to reconsider my comment whether Cafarelli is Captain-worthy. I think that +/- is sometimes more revealing than total points scored.
Click to expand...

With the key word being "sometimes" no doubt, but all in all, I trust +/- as a decent-but-not-perfect measure of a player's two way responsibility. As you pointed out, a +6 is a statistical outlier in comparison to the rest of the team, so either Jenson was (way) luckier than most everybody else on his team, OR was more reliable out there in making good decisions with the puck, and in taking away the opposition's play in dangerous areas of the defensive zone. And it's not like he's piling up the points, like a Huard or Carfagna was. But in the simplest way possible, it's always good when your team scores more often at even strength than the bad guys do. And when you only have one (1) player with a positive, and everyone else is in negative territory, you'd better have a super-efficient set of special teams (PP and PK) to make up for that delta (which never happens).

It's no secret that Bobby Orr was my childhood idol, and if you want to see the impact he had on a game in the early days of +/-, look at what he posted for the first five (5) seasons they posted the stat (1971-1975) which coincide with the last 5 full seasons of his great but too short career. He averaged a +85 - that's more than a +1.0 per game! - and had a ridiculous +124 the year AFTER they won their first Cup, and God only knows what he posted that season, when he won pretty much everything a player could win. To put a slightly different spin on his greatness, you can even take the 36 game sample of his last 3 seasons combined, split with one year in Boston and the last two in Chicago, all which were played on virtually one leg, and you end up with prorated numbers (doubled to a full year's level of 72 games) of 22G-68A-90 points, and a +36. Maybe not prime Orr, but if you put those stats up without a name on it, it would be enough to have warranted Norris Trophy consideration in contention with guys like Denis Potvin and Larry Robinson, who won those honors post-Orr in the mid-to-late '70's.
 
At the barbecue...didn't know UNH will host the Women's Frozen Four this season. Met a bunch of players and will be hearing the new sound system shortly.

AD Rich outlined the improvements and they hope to break ground next Spring as they await some big bucks to make that happen.

Both Hilary Witt and Mike Souza addressed the crowd (which was decent). Both enthusiastic about the upcoming seasons and the things you dont see in the win/loss record that count as successes.

Souza was esp grateful to AD Rich as she has embraced the renovations to the Whitt. Also mentioned UNH has a ton of.players in dev camps right now..mentioned Harrison Blaisdell as a force for leadership (captain nod?) for the summer school students. Said there was a "different feeling" for the comimg season..guys are.ready to work and get better...

Kevin Dean was in the house as well and met with players as well as 3 other NHL coaches...interestingly Dean was on the UNH golf team? Cool to hear him speak.

Talked about the importance of supporting the team in good times as well as bad. Lauded the coaching staff and felt that UNH is on the upswing after the second half of last season.

Didn't hear anything that was new per se and didn't expect to but left thinking most are excited for October...

Go 'Cats!
 
HockeyRef said:
Kevin Dean was in the house as well and met with players as well as 3 other NHL coaches...interestingly Dean was on the UNH golf team? Cool to hear him speak.

Talked about the importance of supporting the team in good times as well as bad. Lauded the coaching staff and felt that UNH is on the upswing after the second half of last season.
Click to expand...

For all the spin surrounding the "upswing" in the second half, let the record show that UNH posted a 7-7-2 record after the holiday season break, and failed to win any of its final five (5) games in regulation. And then proceeded to lose many of its best/most promising players to the transfer portal. The "upswing" was just Three Weeks in February.

That's it. Look it up if you don't believe me. Can't wait to see what "success" looks like in '23/'24 ...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top