UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

[HockeyRef]

Obligatory hockey comment: UNH better win a recruiting battle or they will have no chance at any points in the future.

Sigh...this keeps me up at night...Wanna say I met Ty Conklin last night and thanked him for his work with our team. Glad hes been on board. Would've liked to have been able to read his mind as he watched...

 

[norbert]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

O-8-2 in last 10 games with BU? Think the last time we beat them was in 2015? 'Cats have backs up against the wall.

Last win 5 years ago last night. Outscored 21-44 since last win

2/14/20 1-4 L @ Home
10/26/19 0-3 L @ Away
11/10/18 2-3 L @ Home
1/1/19 2-5 L @ Away
11/11/17 0-4 L @ Away
1/12/18 2-3 L @Home
2/17/17 2-2 T @ Away
2/18/17 4-8 L @ Home
2/19/16 3-3 T @ Home
2/20/16 2-3 L @ Away
2/13/15 3-6 L @ Away
2/14/15 4-3 W @ Home

 

[e.cat]

Obligatory hockey comment: UNH better win a recruiting battle or they will have no chance at any points in the future.

Sad but true Watcher!

 

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Sad but true Watcher!

I'll add more once the season is over, but the lack of top end forwards was noticeable. The D exited the zone pretty decently last night, but have little threat once they get into the zone. The preferred play seems to be for the forwards to pass back to the point. Very little ability to beat the defense with puck skills, quick short passing. And when they get an opportunity, very little sniping ability. And on D they have a couple of weak links. I have a prejudice against some of the D, that I try to seperate out from my watching the game (because its easy to see those things that reinforce the perception), but one D directly led to one of the early goals by an inability to handle a puck and get rid of it when open for a couple of seconds. Led to him being trapped and giving up the puck for the eventual goal. Also made a couple more mistakes that cost team.

 

[Snively65]

I'll add more once the season is over, but the lack of top end forwards was noticeable. The D exited the zone pretty decently last night, but have little threat once they get into the zone. The preferred play seems to be for the forwards to pass back to the point. Very little ability to beat the defense with puck skills, quick short passing. And when they get an opportunity, very little sniping ability.

Sitting behind BU's net for two periods last night, I thought that Tucker played very well, and gave up very few rebounds. Granted, our forwards wiffed on a few, and they got down too low, which made passes into the slot difficult to collect or to make one timers. But, agreed, we do not have any snipers.

 

[defkit]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Agree after the first BU goal things went in their favor and no doubt their talent is what it is..but someone explain to me why Ryan Verrier gets the gate when there were obvious BU players throwing punches to the head in that skirmish and they get zipp?

I didn't see the game in person, but based on the TV broadcast, it seemed like the Verrier/Boguslasky tussle after the cross-check to Chabot was pretty even-sided. Boguslavsky skates at Verrier in defense of his teammate and grabs him tugging on his jersey under the neck, and Verrier responds with a glove to Boguslavsky's cage. The camera cuts away at that point, but I would think that at that point the refs are not going to call any of that - it's pretty standard post-whistle tussling. Now if Boguslavsky started throwing real punches (versus tugging on the jersey and pushing at him as is often done) and Verrier did not, then yes, that should be called.

FWIW - I didn't think the initial penalty deserved a major. It was a pretty standard cross-check minor except that it was into the goal post. Yes, that is more dangerous, but it wasn't like Chabot was injured.

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Who are the "entitled" and the "elite" on this thread to which you refer, Chuck? Most of us actually attended UNH, and many of us on in-state tuition.

I didn't use those terms specifically with anyone on this thread, Snives. If I mean to, you know me well enough from posting that I'd say so. If the remarks hit someone close to home … then it is what it is. I'm just one person with one set of opinions, and I try to be very clear who I'm responding to - be it e.cat, Greg, 'Watcher, Dan, you, Ref, scoreboard, etc. And it's why I excluded HR in one of my recent posts, since I know her, and I know she doesn't like getting caught in the crossfire on here.

Both of our kids went to UNH, graduated (one with a Masters) and are working in their fields.

UNH has done quite well for all things WIS and Effingwoods, and we are certainly grateful.

It's the larger "bubble" of academia that I'm (far) less enamored with … and I'm not limiting my voiced concerns in that post to academia, mind you. Identity politics has been the emerging scourge of society in general, and we all need to walk away from that crap ASAP. But I'm guessing that most folks on here are wondering if UNH is going to find a way to get an important win tonight in Boston, so I'll leave it at that. Happy to pick that up later if anyone wants to, though.

And before I forget … thanks for clarifying the wanna-be Bandwagoner was Harvard (and Oxford) graduate William Floyd Weld (RINO-MA), Snives.

 

[defkit]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Didn't see that, was out at the time, saw most of the last two periods. So I can't comment accurately.

Having said that … never forget, it's a Boston-centered league, with most of the officials from that area.

Going back at least to the Parker era, BU has usually gotten the rub of the green on tight calls.

Just sayin' ...

So based on the last week of BU Hockey, the order of preference by all the Boston-born Hockey East refs is:

1. Northeastern
2. BU
3. UNH

Correct?

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

So based on the last week of BU Hockey, the order of preference by all the Boston-born Hockey East refs is:

1. BU
2. BC
3. Northeastern
.
,
.
9. UNH

Correct?

Fixed your post.

The Verrier call was probably a make-up for the miscarriage of justice this past Monday night.

 

[HockeyRef]

I didn't use those terms specifically with anyone on this thread, Snives. If I mean to, you know me well enough from posting that I'd say so. If the remarks hit someone close to home … then it is what it is. I'm just one person with one set of opinions, and I try to be very clear who I'm responding to - be it e.cat, Greg, 'Watcher, Dan, you, Ref, scoreboard, etc. And it's why I excluded HR in one of my recent posts, since I know her, and I know she doesn't like getting caught in the crossfire on here.

Both of our kids went to UNH, graduated (one with a Masters) and are working in their fields.

UNH has done quite well for all things WIS and Effingwoods, and we are certainly grateful.

It's the larger "bubble" of academia that I'm (far) less enamored with … and I'm not limiting my voiced concerns in that post to academia, mind you. Identity politics has been the emerging scourge of society in general, and we all need to walk away from that crap ASAP. But I'm guessing that most folks on here are wondering if UNH is going to find a way to get an important win tonight in Boston, so I'll leave it at that. Happy to pick that up later if anyone wants to, though.

And before I forget … thanks for clarifying the wanna-be Bandwagoner was Harvard (and Oxford) graduate William Floyd Weld (RINO-MA), Snives.

Yep...HR hates being in the crossfire..that's as far as it goes!! But seeing how I was voted "most argumentative" in HS I try to hold my own...ha! The political landscape just drives me insane...but so does alot of things. Right now I'm tryin' to cope with the very real possibility of FOMO where the HE tourney is concerned. Ireland was a blast tho...

 

[HockeyRef]

I didn't see the game in person, but based on the TV broadcast, it seemed like the Verrier/Boguslasky tussle after the cross-check to Chabot was pretty even-sided. Boguslavsky skates at Verrier in defense of his teammate and grabs him tugging on his jersey under the neck, and Verrier responds with a glove to Boguslavsky's cage. The camera cuts away at that point, but I would think that at that point the refs are not going to call any of that - it's pretty standard post-whistle tussling. Now if Boguslavsky started throwing real punches (versus tugging on the jersey and pushing at him as is often done) and Verrier did not, then yes, that should be called.

FWIW - I didn't think the initial penalty deserved a major. It was a pretty standard cross-check minor except that it was into the goal post. Yes, that is more dangerous, but it wasn't like Chabot was injured.

Trust me...punches were thrown but I digress. And agree..a 5 minute major was really overblown
Agree tho with MS7's presser comments that when you play a team with the skill that BU's PP unit has you are not going to fare well if you are in the box most of the game. Better team won no question. Moving on...

 

[Darius]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

I’ll start off by saying that I graduated from UNH is ‘72. My wife, who I met at UNH, is from North Conway. I have very good friends who live in various corners of the state and I vacation in Moultonboro every July. And there was a fairly significant period in my life when I thought I would retire to the Seacoast but just couldn’t make the move. All that being said, there is really no sane reason why New Hampshire (and Iowa) should be the first in the nation primary. I know all the reasons, people get close to the candidates, those running need to deal with people face to face, all the old retail politics arguments. But the demographics of New Hampshire don’t reflect the demographics of the country. It’s old, it’s rural and it’s white. There are states, relative small ones, where retail politics could still be practiced but have the ethnic and generational diversity that New Hampshire, in fact, all of New England lacks.

Obligatory hockey content. If UNH is going to split this weekend, it better be tonight. BU may have lost the Beanpot in double OT to NU, but they dominated all but the second period. Better beat their average goalies early.

Hard to argue with the second bold, although the downtown Manch Market Basket does have a Bosnian section in addition to Goya, Asian, others. English is likely to be the 2nd or 3rd language you hear spoken when entering the store. On the first bold point, no argument at least not here, but I love chatting with the canvassers when they come to the house. Last week I had a nice 15 minute chat with a Warren supporter, a 20 minute chat with three mayor Pete supporters and while chatting with them a Bernie guy walked up the driveway. The weather was cold and I thanked all of these young people for being involved and wished them luck. One of my all time faves was eight years ago when a group of evangelical types rang the bell to talk abortion. We chatted for a while and I tried to explain to them that the opposite of choice is not death. I didn't think much of it when saying it, but at one point I apparently responded to something they said with something along the lines of, "Then that would make me pro-death?" I walked back in the house and my daughter's boyfriend, who heard the entire conversation was pretty much rolling on the floor laughing.

To be entirely fair, it didn't look like UNH even belonged on the same ice as BU tonight... it felt like BU was in total control throughout, and would have just found another gear whenever they needed to in order to get another one... Seemed like only Crookshank could keep up and pose a consistent threat at the other end... a mediocre UConn team...

Agree after the first BU goal things went in their favor and no doubt their talent is what it is..

BU had many early departures last year, had to bring in (((a lot))) of their typical high end future NHL type recruits. It took them a while, but they are starting to gel and they were/are really ticked off about losing the Beanpot on a very controversial penalty call. Angus is a cut above. Without some help his career will be categorized with the careers of guys like Moses, Downing. Uconn beat ME in Orono last night. Maine is now 10-1-2 at home.

Obligatory hockey comment: UNH better win a recruiting battle or they will have no chance at any points in the future.

+1. It is one thing raising (maximizing?) your level of play against top league opponents mid season. It is an entirely different story late season when opponents are playing for something tangibly close.

I'll add more once the season is over, but the lack of top end forwards was noticeable. The D exited the zone pretty decently last night, but have little threat once they get into the zone. The preferred play seems to be for the forwards to pass back to the point. Very little ability to beat the defense with puck skills, quick short passing. And when they get an opportunity, very little sniping ability. And I have a prejudice against some of the D, that I try to seperate out from facts, but one D directly led to one of the early goals by an inability to handle a puck and get rid of it when open for a couple of seconds. Led to him being trapped and giving up the puck for the eventual goal. Also made a couple more mistakes that cost team.

Yeah. See Crookshank comment above.

 

[Darius]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Didn't see that, was out at the time, saw most of the last two periods. So I can't comment accurately.

Having said that … never forget, it's a Boston-centered league, with most of the officials from that area.

Going back at least to the Parker era, BU has usually gotten the rub of the green on tight calls.

Just sayin' ...

True and after the 'pot final, BU has more calls in the bank. Kind of justifiable. BU will probably ride that non call into the NCAAs (currently PWR 25).

 

[Greg Ambrose]

(sigh)

Greg, I've always had a ton of respect for you (still do) and a lot of time for your thoughts/opinions. At least as I understand it, you ran your own small business for several decades, did so quite successfully, and you've never shied away from expressing a fiercely-independent viewpoint on here on a wide range of subjects - hockey or otherwise. When you post, I tend to read it.

So I see your comments above, and I wonder to myself, when did you allow your independent thought process to get hijacked by some boilerplate HR policy or consultant-driven group-think? You're entitled to your opinion, not saying otherwise ... but maybe NH and Iowa are first because they want to be first? And because the two parties allow them to be first?? How many more traditions must we tear down in the name of "diversity" and "demographics" before everyone is happy???

Maybe Massachusetts should move their state capital to Worcester, or even Springfield? Boston's not exactly geographically in the middle of the Commonwealth, and gosh, those two other cities sure could use the boost that being state capital might bring, no? Pretty much every other state in the Northeast handles it using a geographic center approach. There's "no sane reason" to keep the capital in Boston, when you look at it that way.

Or maybe, that's just the way things have worked up until now, and there's no real reason to change what ain't broken, no??

What if Iowa and Hampshire gave parties and no one came? It could happen. My pet peeve about Iowa is the caucus system where the winners are, first, self selected by those willing to spend 3-4 hours in a high school gym and, second, succumb to horse trading if their candidate fails to meet the 15% threshold. So what happens is a sliver of a minority of the eligible voters in the state (and this is true for both parties) wind up choosing who wins. On top of that, the Dems spend six months slogging around a state with six electoral votes that they can’t win in November. I’ll admit that the absurdity is nowhere near as stark in New Hampshire but I’ll stick to my original premise. And please don’t be offended. I’ve thought of this often, going back to when New Hampshire was “rock ribbed Republican” as the saying went.

I’ll also stick to my guns about Gildon. I really don’t care that he is 20 years old. He has been playing at the D1 college level for three years. The goal at UNH was for him was to improve his skills and decision making and get ready for the next level where the competition is faster and more sophisticated. What I see is a guy who is making the same mental mistakes he was making two years ago. It is disheartening, for a fan of course, but also for him because he does have enormous physical skill.

And btw, I have read the comments since I first logged onto this forum 21 years ago that any criticism of a college player should be off limits. I disagree. D1 hockey, HE hockey and its brethren are big boy hockey. If I have to pay to get in order to watch players who, for the most part, are skating here because they are getting a free education, then assessing their play and verbalizing about it, positively and negatively is not off limits. The idea that players in junior hockey, who are subject to criticism as well, would be less likely to come to UNH or any other school is absurd.

 

[Greg Ambrose]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

UNH is one point out of fifth as I write this, with five games left. Technically they are still in the hunt with BU, Lowell and BC left. I say 0-5. Can someone convince me that there are two or four points left? Losing all four to Maine and UConn was the killer. Oh well. On to the Sox where, like with UNH, I have never been a fair weather fan. I remain faithful with a dose of realism.

 

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

And btw, I have read the comments since I first logged onto this forum 21 years ago that any criticism of a college player should be off limits. I disagree. D1 hockey, HE hockey and its brethren are big boy hockey. If I have to pay to get in order to watch players who, for the most part, are skating here because they are getting a free education, then assessing their play and verbalizing about it, positively and negatively is not off limits. The idea that players in junior hockey, who are subject to criticism as well, would be less likely to come to UNH or any other school is absurd.

Maybe its because I now have two kids at that age and know a couple of college players, including one who scored on UNH last nite, and one heading to Providence next year (and also in other sports), but I have less interest in bashing their lack of skills. To me, the UNH talent is a sympton of a failure by the top guy (Marty) for whom I've shovled lots of criticism, secondarily to MS7, who bears a great deal of responsibility for the current situation, albeit because he was put in over his head by Marty, and at least could grow into the job (we'll see), and of course, the guys supposed to bring in the groceries who have done a sub par job at this for a while.

Complaining about the groceries themselves seems pointless, and to the pont of Greg's comments, a bit unfair. Gildon sacrified to come to UNH to buy into a rebuilding vision. Turns out he was one of the few to take that plunge (see comments below), and his game is suffering from the lack of complementary skilled players able to finish his plays. As a result, he does too much, and gets more minuses.

If we want to critiise, but without inside info, I'm curious why UNH is unable to land players on whom they have an inside track. See Gildon's brother, Mike, Ty Taylor's brother, Trey, Stewart's teammate's kid, Scott Morrow, BVR. That's a lot of voting with feet. Let's see how UNH does with John Evans.

Of course, the beauty of sports is that everything we fans "know" can be proven wrong (I hate the Bruins' team building, and keep awaiting their fall, but seems my "knowledge" is just wrong). If MS7 gets a BC pipeline from Ardanaz with some buy-in by Evans, and that leads to Y, that leads to Z, then Marty will have been shown to be right. But if MS7 continues to pursue the Lou Finnaoccio comfortable recruiting network (Austin Prep/Malden Catholic guys) or the Boston Advantage/South Shore guys, we'll end up with a lot of bottom 6 wingers.

 

[HockeyRef]

Maybe its because I now have two kids at that age and know a couple of college players, including one who scored on UNH last nite, and one heading to Providence next year (and also in other sports), but I have less interest in bashing their lack of skills. To me, the UNH talent is a sympton of a failure by the top guy (Marty) for whom I've shovled lots of criticism, secondarily to MS7, who bears a great deal of responsibility for the current situation, albeit because he was put in over his head by Marty, and at least could grow into the job (we'll see), and of course, the guys supposed to bring in the groceries who have done a sub par job at this for a while.

Complaining about the groceries themselves seems pointless, and to the pont of Greg's comments, a bit unfair. Gildon sacrified to come to UNH to buy into a rebuilding vision. Turns out he was one of the few to take that plunge (see comments below), and his game is suffering from the lack of complementary skilled players able to finish his plays. As a result, he does too much, and gets more minuses.

If we want to critiise, but without inside info, I'm curious why UNH is unable to land players on whom they have an inside track. See Gildon's brother, Mike, Ty Taylor's brother, Trey, Stewart's teammate's kid, Scott Morrow, BVR. That's a lot of voting with feet. Let's see how UNH does with John Evans.

Of course, the beauty of sports is that everything we fans "know" can be proven wrong (I hate the Bruins' team building, and keep awaiting their fall, but seems my "knowledge" is just wrong). If MS7 gets a BC pipeline from Ardanaz with some buy-in by Evans, and that leads to Y, that leads to Z, then Marty will have been shown to be right. But if MS7 continues to pursue the Lou Finnaoccio comfortable recruiting network (Austin Prep/Malden Catholic guys) or the Boston Advantage/South Shore guys, we'll end up with a lot of bottom 6 wingers.

Bingo.

 

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

I'll add, that I used to be more vocal on evaluating talent when the players were elite guys in the early 2000s. I think Greg's "they're pros" has more relevance when the kids really are likely future pros, and the degrees of talent was critical to evaluating whether we would beat BC in the final.

When UNH is unlikely to get far in the playoffs, and most of the roster is likely working out of hockey after graduation, I don't see the need to dissect their limitations.

 

[Ray Dorn]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Speaking of winning. It is going to be a very fine line between making the Hockey East playoffs or not. Six games remaining for UNH so we are going to have to do some winning. It starts with Boston University this weekend. It appears the BU supporters are not very happy after Monday night. The word is that their goaltending has been a little shaky this season.


My three keys to the BU games this weekend are:

1. The UNH forwards must backcheck hard and defend the BU defenseman who joins their offensive attack. BU has one or two defensemen who likes to jump up in their offensive rushes.

2. The UNH defensemen need to exploit the fact that a BU defenseman will likely over commit to their offense so we need to counterattack quickly from defense to offense. We need to get the puck up ice 80 to 100 feet as quickly as possible to take advantage of this. We can create a few odd man rushes, mostly 2 on 1's, from a quick transition to offense.

3. Special teams play will be important. The BU powerplay is better than what we have seen over the last couple of weeks. Our penalty kill needs to rise to the challenge. The best way to keep BU from scoring on their powerplay is to not give them powerplay opportunities. Don't take bad penalties.


Other thoughts?

Referring back to my post a few days ago. UNH did not do a good job in these three areas. All of those penalty minutes the first half of the game killed UNH chances of winning this game. One of the BU goals was from a defenseman jumping up in the play. The only UNH goal was from a quick transition from defense to offense quickly getting the puck up ice.

I did think UNH played very well the first 6 to 8 minutes of the game. We were controlling the play. Then the penalties started coming. Things just unraveled very quickly.

I do feel that these three key things still apply for tonight's game. Let's hope the players can bounce back tonight!

 

[After the Whistle]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Last win 5 years ago last night. Outscored 21-44 since last win

2/14/20 1-4 L @ Home
10/26/19 0-3 L @ Away
11/10/18 2-3 L @ Home
1/1/19 2-5 L @ Away
11/11/17 0-4 L @ Away
1/12/18 2-3 L @Home
2/17/17 2-2 T @ Away
2/18/17 4-8 L @ Home
2/19/16 3-3 T @ Home
2/20/16 2-3 L @ Away
2/13/15 3-6 L @ Away
2/14/15 4-3 W @ Home

Okay i saw some positive play last night. Stop the stupid and untimely penalties! I am willing to say UNH 3 Bu2. And a shout out to Liam who is so much fun to watch 1 on 1 in the dirty spots with these big palukas, drives them crazy.