UNH Hockey 2023 Off Season Thread Turn and Face the Strange

[Whalers]

Lifted from the UMaine thread ...

2023-24 Hockey East Writers and Broadcasters Association Media Poll

1. BU (11) 156
2. BC (2) 135
3. Merrimack (2) 135
4. Connecticut 102
5. Providence 92
6. Northeastern 86
7. Massachusetts-Lowell 83
8. Massachusetts 79
9. Maine 74
10. New Hampshire 26
11. Vermont 22

Wow has Merrimack come a long way in a short span of time. Maybe we could look into hiring their recruiter and coach? They seem to get great results on a limited budget. How big is their jumbotron?

 

[HockeyRef]

Well, shucks, at least we're not last Echoing past years when we've been here (which has been often) "We aren't happy with this result and plan to
use it to our benefit". Yeah, surprised Maine didn't fare better. Oh, well polls are just...polls right???? Ha!

 

[HockeyRef]

Wow has Merrimack come a long way in a short span of time. Maybe we could look into hiring their recruiter and coach? They seem to get great results on a limited budget. How big is their jumbotron?

As Snively would say 'hey, why can't we get coaches like dat? Oh, wait...'

 

[Dan]

These polls are often based entirely on what people remember from previous seasons. MC is riding the wave of their HE Tournament performance. All due respect and congratulations to Borek, but I’d like to see them do it again before I buy in at this level…

Truthfully, this is probably how HE should be ranked this season:

BU
Everyone Else
UNH/UVM

And that’s a stark reality…

Here’s the question. IF Vermont’s coach doesn’t get caught up trying to sext with a student and their best F talent doesn’t transfer as a result, is UNH picked dead last instead…? Probably.

 

[HockeyRef]

Mike McMahon puts UNH at number 51 out of 64 in his pre season rankings. He sees the loss of Chase Stevenson as hard to overcome with the hope that perhaps incoming
Ryan Comny can fit the bill. Most of the season will be determined by the development of players such as Liam Devlin (who is a jr so you'd expect alot out of him
this year) Colton Huard as well. (HR's note: we need a big year from Rob Cronin and continued offense from Stiven Sardarian)

He mentions Carfagna in this grouping but we all know where he is this season (Ohio State) so maybe he meant Cafarelli, who he sees
as a player to watch. Doesn't mention Cy LeClerc EDIT: he does mention Cy my bad... or a few others (LeClerc's development is to me, huge...if he doesn't have a good season I'll be very disappointed).
As far as goal tending goes he sees Muszelik and new comer Jakob Hellsten (NoDak transfer) competing for the starting job. Brendan Fitzgerald should add something
to the D mix.

I truly hope that we do better than 51 out of 62...time will tell. 'Watcher, how about a roster look from your POV? That always cheers me up on some level...
To think that when I started following the 'Cats in the bottom half of the 2013 season they were ranked 10th going into the Regionals..but I don't
have to tell you that...and were the number one team in Dec. 2012.

 

[Chuck Murray]

Still no love for Maine and Coach Barr....interesting.

I know this will come as a shock to folks on here, but my sense here is that writers (1) are the first to fall in love with a storyline, and (2) tend to vote for their pals otherwise in a default setting. Hence, right now, Merrimack is "the story" and has taken the place of Luce's program, which slipped last season after being "the story" when they finally made it to Boston. UMass - a program that not so long ago was dominating Hockey East - clearly has fallen out of favor, while Providence - which has NEVER dominated HEA (not even when they won it all) still gets the benefit of the doubt, unlike almost anybody else (just because). And in the meantime ... the guy who made both Coach Carvel and Coach Leaman the D-1 champs they both are - and also did the same thing in Schenectady before that - quietly builds his latest juggernaut far, far away from the old boys network that makes up the rest of Hockey East. 9th place is an absolute joke consensus for a growing team that already finished two slots ahead of this year's prediction LAST year, and is now finally going to look like a 90+% Ben Barr team.

Scotty, you stick with me and with Coach Barr, and we'll get to rain "we told ya so's" all over the USCHO forums for the next six-plus months. It will be fun, if nothing else, to watch him beat Luce (yet again) while the little rat faced git from Storrs tumbles back down to irrelevancy. Jerry York HAS to be amused by this phenomenon ...

 

[Chuck Murray]

... oh, and BTW as much as we admire him sticking it to UNH and showing us all we may have underestimated him, Scotty B. has no chance of finishing in 3rd place. Again, "nice story", but not sustainable over the long run of a full season, sorry.

 

[HockeyRef]

I know this will come as a shock to folks on here, but my sense here is that writers (1) are the first to fall in love with a storyline, and (2) tend to vote for their pals otherwise in a default setting. Hence, right now, Merrimack is "the story" and has taken the place of Luce's program, which slipped last season after being "the story" when they finally made it to Boston. UMass - a program that not so long ago was dominating Hockey East - clearly has fallen out of favor, while Providence - which has NEVER dominated HEA (not even when they won it all) still gets the benefit of the doubt, unlike almost anybody else (just because). And in the meantime ... the guy who made both Coach Carvel and Coach Leaman the D-1 champs they both are - and also did the same thing in Schenectady before that - quietly builds his latest juggernaut far, far away from the old boys network that makes up the rest of Hockey East. 9th place is an absolute joke consensus for a growing team that already finished two slots ahead of this year's prediction LAST year, and is now finally going to look like a 90+% Ben Barr team.

Scotty, you stick with me and with Coach Barr, and we'll get to rain "we told ya so's" all over the USCHO forums for the next six-plus months. It will be fun, if nothing else, to watch him beat Luce (yet again) while the little rat faced git from Storrs tumbles back down to irrelevancy. Jerry York HAS to be amused by this phenomenon ...

Good post Chuck about how these 'stories' don't always pan out and are not always based in 100% reality of a given situation. Will be I think, most interesting to see how Maine
fares esp down the stretch. I realize I have to take rankings etc 'with a grain of salt' as there are just so many examples of how a team will actually do. Going back to my 2013 example I doubt
many people expected Yale to win it all, much less Union in '14 given where they were at the end of the reg. season (both were 15/14 if I have that right without looking it up).

Like its been said you just have to have the 'right guys' at the 'right time' and excellent coaching sure can't hurt...Took a look at the UNH schedule tonight to refresh what we have
coming and it's going to be a 'learn by fire' first 6 games. Personally I look forward to seeing QU at the 'whitt; imagine Rand's family from my neck of the woods will most likely
be in the stands. Glad we are going to be on home ice as it will surely showcase from that first game v BU to the last one v PC what we might have even in the early goings on.
Good thing Dartmouth is in that mix.

Second half Wildcats?? First half surprise? What kind of 'story' will they write for themselves...will surely be interesting to see.

Ps...fans of the jumbo tron look out Maine got a new score board

 

[NCAA watcher]

Rankings 5-9 are pretty close, one or two judgment differences. So, as Dan says, its BU, then two teams (UConn/BC). Not sure I'd put Merrimack there, but local reporters must like Borek (local bias shows if they put Stevenson as a key player). But if things break right, then it might come to pass. He has a hard working team of lots of interchangeable older, B players - the very thing we didn't like about his roster remake for UNH.

As for Barr: this isn't the 2000s when an impact coach has an immediate impact on the roster. Recruiting goes out two/three years, and so expecting him to impact last year with a completely made roster, or this year, with some of his freshmen, is not reasonable. (Think about that for UNH 2024). So by default, it's easy to pick them 9th until they show you on the ice. But the key is they are now in that 5-9 grouping rather than the 9-11 group. Spend a few years moving up that grouping, and suddenly you're U.Conn, becoming a staple in the "top 4."

And that's another thing, there are not a lot of weaklings where you can see them stumbling into the 10-11 group (allowing you to get into the top 9). U.Mass is not failing downward, but had a bad year and apparently some internal unhappiness judging by two top freshmen leaving (Wisconsin/Nebraska-Omaha). (As an aside, for the league you hope that isn't a sign HE is losing status to Big 10, NCHC conference - but as a UNH fan, you hope Carfagna/Dunlap leaving is a conference choice, not a vote on UNH )

When the coach's poll comes out this week I imagine that jumble will be different. And then you get into actually playing the games, and see how the newcomers impact the actual games.

The way I see it the key to UNH this year is Comny and Sardarian (and Muszelik). Their defense is good enough (but missed a chance to be above average by Lindner/Carfagna trade), but they need scoring. Sure, some will come from full season Skraskins, but they need an impact from one or both of Comny/Sardarian if they want to get in the bottom part of that 5-9 jumble.

And for UNH, they're hoping this year is a growing year, but with a coaching change in March, any players who grow (and recruits with options) become flight risks. You have to hope the new coach can keep them, like U.Mass kept Makar despite all reasons for him to decommit in their coaching change.

 

[Chuck Murray]

And for UNH, they're hoping this year is a growing year, but with a coaching change in March, any players who grow (and recruits with options) become flight risks. You have to hope the new coach can keep them, like U.Mass kept Makar despite all reasons for him to decommit in their coaching change.

If the team finishes where we all pretty much expect them to finish - last or next to last - I can accept that some of the players might become "flight risks" because a new (better) coach will either replace them with better players, and/or will do a better job of coaching up whatever is left for him to work with once the dust settles ... which has been a rare phenomenon during the Souza era. One step back, then two steps ahead. I've been living it for the last 4+ seasons with DRW, and the organization is FAR deeper and more talented now than when Yzerman began (even when he had to shed some of his own "flight risks" to turn those into draft picks/prospects).

If the Herrion situation is any indication, MS7's gonna need WAY more than a .500 season and a lucky first round MBPBEGAM "win" to save his bacon. Coach MacDonnell (football) got off to a slow start for a few (5?) years post-Bill Bowes before he turned it around, but that's kinda rare, and I don't see any Chip Kelly-types currently assisting Souza.

So "We're on to March" then, right 'Watcher?!? Can't come soon enough ...

 

[NCAA watcher]

Today's HE media day, so coach's poll should be out shortly

 

[Snively65]

Mike McMahon puts UNH at number 51 out of 64 in his pre season rankings. He sees the loss of Chase Stevenson as hard to overcome with the hope that perhaps incoming
Ryan Comny can fit the bill. Most of the season will be determined by the development of players such as Liam Devlin (who is a jr so you'd expect alot out of him
this year) Colton Huard as well. (HR's note: we need a big year from Rob Cronin and continued offense from Stiven Sardarian)

He mentions Carfagna in this grouping but we all know where he is this season (Ohio State) so maybe he meant Cafarelli, who he sees
as a player to watch. Doesn't mention Cy LeClerc or a few others (LeClerc's development is to me, huge...if he doesn't have a good season I'll be very disappointed).
As far as goal tending goes he sees Muszelik and new comer Jakob Hellsten (NoDak transfer) competing for the starting job. Brendan Fitzgerald should add something
to the D mix.

I truly hope that we do better than 51 out of 62...time will tell. 'Watcher, how about a roster look from your POV? That always cheers me up on some level...
To think that when I started following the 'Cats in the bottom half of the 2013 season they were ranked 10th going into the Regionals..but I don't
have to tell you that...and were the number one team in Dec. 2012.

If Mike McMahan had done his homework and knew that Damien Carfagna had left for Ohio State, I wonder if he would have ranked UNH as high as 51st?

 

[Felger]

I know this will come as a shock to folks on here, but my sense here is that writers (1) are the first to fall in love with a storyline, and (2) tend to vote for their pals otherwise in a default setting. Hence, right now, Merrimack is "the story" and has taken the place of Luce's program, which slipped last season after being "the story" when they finally made it to Boston. UMass - a program that not so long ago was dominating Hockey East - clearly has fallen out of favor, while Providence - which has NEVER dominated HEA (not even when they won it all) still gets the benefit of the doubt, unlike almost anybody else (just because). And in the meantime ... the guy who made both Coach Carvel and Coach Leaman the D-1 champs they both are - and also did the same thing in Schenectady before that - quietly builds his latest juggernaut far, far away from the old boys network that makes up the rest of Hockey East. 9th place is an absolute joke consensus for a growing team that already finished two slots ahead of this year's prediction LAST year, and is now finally going to look like a 90+% Ben Barr team.

Scotty, you stick with me and with Coach Barr, and we'll get to rain "we told ya so's" all over the USCHO forums for the next six-plus months. It will be fun, if nothing else, to watch him beat Luce (yet again) while the little rat faced git from Storrs tumbles back down to irrelevancy. Jerry York HAS to be amused by this phenomenon ...

Speaking of falling in love with story lines, Coach Cav is 4-0 head to head against Coach Barr.

 

[NCAA watcher]

Rank	Team (1st Place Votes)	Pts.
1.	Boston University (9)	109
2.	Boston College (2)	99
3.	Merrimack	81
4.	Northeastern	75
5.	UConn	68
6.	Providence	65
7.	UMass Lowell	62
8.	Massachusetts	54
9.	Maine	52
10.	New Hampshire	30
11.	Vermont	20

[TD="bgcolor: #003882, colspan: 3, align: center"]Hockey East 2023-24 Men's Preseason Coaches' Poll[/TD]

On the Women's side, another easy pickin decision for AD Rich next March
2023 Hockey East Women’s Preseason Coaches Poll
1. Northeastern, 88 points, 8 first-place votes
2. Vermont, 75
3. Providence, 74, 1
4. UConn, 65, 1
5. Boston University, 59
6. Boston College, 58
7. Maine, 38
8. New Hampshire, 35
9. Merrimack, 28
10. Holy Cross, 20

 

[HockeyRef]

If Mike McMahan had done his homework and knew that Damien Carfagna had left for Ohio State, I wonder if he would have ranked UNH as high as 51st?

Corrected that post to reflect that he (McMahon) does mention Cy LeClerc...not sure how/why I missed that. Yeah, we are going to miss Damian Carfagna to be sure.
Here's hoping that Brendan Fitz can fill in that gap? once he acclimates to the D1 game. I'm not expecting him to be an immediate impact due to this, and I am not expecting
him to rely on his 'last name' but it's good to have him here.

'Watcher is right; its going to come down to what kind of season Muszelik is ultimately going to have and can we score goals, our Achilles heel...and you know
me I'm all about the leadership on the team so will be looking to see who MS7 brings to the HE Media Day (thanks for that info 'Watcher)

 

[Chuck Murray]

I didn't quite expect to run into the "Luce Canaan Apologists' Circle" when I came back on here today, but it is what it is. Just gotta go out and make the points that need to be made ... et tu, Felgie (j/k) ...

Speaking of falling in love with story lines, Coach Cav is 4-0 head to head against Coach Barr.

... and of course, looking at it through the limited scope of the last two seasons, when Luce has enjoyed almost a decade's worth of a head start, you would be right. Let's look at it a few slightly different ways, though ... and remember, both of these guys made their respective marks as two of the most successful D-1 assistant coaches of their times, which didn't quite dovetail over each other. Here's a snapshot of their success:

* Luce was Jerry York's (purportedly) top assistant at BC for all four of Coach York's D-1 title runs at The Heights. This was a factoid that Luce loved to give oxygen to during AND after his time at BC, almost as if he deemed himself the real power behind the throne. Putting that aside, I've always thought it was important to note that Luce wasn't the only four-time D-1 champion BC assistant (see Logue, Jimmy), and they were both joined for the last three by Greg Brown. BC lost both Luce and Logue after the 2013 season, so to the extent that Luce has never flinched to point out that York never won at BC without him ... the same could be said for Logue. Of course, that overlooks the important fact that York also won a D-1 title at perennial nobody program Bowling Green without either Luce or Logue ... and when the time came for York to retire, and Luce would have sold his own children to replace him on The Heights, BC hired ... Greg Brown. Not Luce. A penny for Coach York's thoughts LOL;

* Barr, in the meantime, started about a dozen or so years after Luce, and initially built a good chunk of a D-1 championship roster at perennial nobody program Union for Nate Leaman, which didn't come to fruition until a couple of years after Leaman left for Providence and took Barr with him. Barr would go on to build a second D-1 championship roster at perennial nobody program Providence, then left for a third perennial nobody program at WMU for a couple of years before he would build a 3rd D-1 championship roster for Greg Carvel at perennial nobody program UMass. It needs to be pointed out none of Rick Bennett (Union), Leaman (PC) nor Carvel (UMass) have won diddly-squat without Barr's recruiting efforts. Bennett's Union program returned to its mean (average), arguably so has Leaman's Providence program (average), and Carvel's UMass program is also headed back in the direction of where he started with it (below average).

* Luce has now been in charge for nine (9) years in Storrs, and during his time in charge, he's enjoyed two (2) winning seasons - the last two. In that same period of time, three (3) separate traditional nobody programs built by Barr have earned their first and only D-1 titles. Luce had his BC success under a legendary already-proven winner who ended up as the winningest coach in D-1 history, shared most of it with two other assistants, and was passed over by York/BC when that HC job finally opened up last year ... for a former contemporary BC assistant colleague.

* Barr built his champions for one above-average coach (Leaman), a lifetime .500 D-1 coach (Carvel), and a guy who is now coaching in the Coast (Bennett). In his first head coaching job, he has already taken a moribund post-Gendron UMaine basement program up to almost .500 and 4 slots out of the basement in his second season. I shouldn't have to draw you a map of what kind of trajectory that is pointing at. UNH fans will rue the day when Blue Skies extended MS7 and refused to move aggressively for Ben Barr (or Joe Dumais).

In summary, Ben Barr is better at his job than Luce Canaan - for sure as an assistant and recruiter nonpareil, and well on his way as a head coach as well. He's only one (1) trip to the Garden away from matching Luce's greatest HC accomplishment. I figure it'll be three years, four tops before Barr surpasses Luce and his two former bosses (Leaman and Carvel) on a regular basis when UMaine resumes its old occupancy of the HEA penthouse. JMHO.

 

[Whalers]

Heard a great quote today in reference to the Red Sox moving on from Chaim Bloom, but it fits SO much better with UNH hockey. "When your fans go from angry to apathy, you are in BIG trouble." Most of the dedicated fans on here entered this stage several years, and from the attendance at the Whitt, a large amount of others have followed as well.

UNH Admin??? UNH AD??? Anyone listending??? Not just b!t#%ing, trying to locate some accountability.

 

[Scott]

Heard a great quote today in reference to the Red Sox moving on from Chaim Bloom, but it fits SO much better with UNH hockey. "When your fans go from angry to apathy, you are in BIG trouble." Most of the dedicated fans on here entered this stage several years, and from the attendance at the Whitt, a large amount of others have followed as well.

UNH Admin??? UNH AD??? Anyone listending??? Not just b!t#%ing, trying to locate some accountability.

Maybe the larger font will help.

 

[HockeyRef]

Saw a Twitter post about the golf tourney today from AD Rich regarding "new and former UNH hockey Captains"...looked like Alex Gagne was one ...couldn't recognize the others. Anybody else see that? Edit: Gagne Capt Jenson Blaisdell get the A's

 

[Darius]

https://x.com/unhmhockey/status/1702833193928261641?s=61&t=SD8SPvNAozVVNdZeXfluiw