It will be the question I ask tonight when I stop by the table.O ye of little faith lol ...
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UNH- How Far West Do We Go?
- Thread starter norbert
- Start date
If the season ended today, they would travel to NU and who knows where the game would be. If you jump a spot, you then travel to Maine. I don't expect a run, but I would take the trip to Boston over Maine to see if they can win the make believe playoff game.
With the two games in hand (I know Chuck, they only matter if you win) any sort of end of the season streak you can jump Lowell and head to Andover, which has been a house of horrors.
It will be interesting to see how they come out tonight. Are they flat? Is there a 5 minutes surge at the start which results in giving up a goal and deflation or do we play like we did against BU?
Hopefully a full roster tonight though that means both Lavin's and LeClerc playing hurt. Should know how this will go by 7:08
With the two games in hand (I know Chuck, they only matter if you win) any sort of end of the season streak you can jump Lowell and head to Andover, which has been a house of horrors.
It will be interesting to see how they come out tonight. Are they flat? Is there a 5 minutes surge at the start which results in giving up a goal and deflation or do we play like we did against BU?
Hopefully a full roster tonight though that means both Lavin's and LeClerc playing hurt. Should know how this will go by 7:08
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Wasnt it someone on here who coined the “Champions of October (or December)” phrase? That has been the theme for this team even going back to the Umile days. Everything goes great up until the winter break, then when they return and HEA schedule starts in earnest, they fall flat - almost every single year… Except it has really become apparent in the last 5-6 years under Souza.
Maybe they should try and schedule as many conference games as possible before the break, although I don’t know if that is up to them or HockeyEast… build up a nice reservoir of points before the almost inevitable “January Swoon”.
It’s almost like they come into every year with a decent game plan and catch teams (even good ones, occasionally) off guard. Then, once the tape is out on UNH and other teams better get their footing, UNH can never make the necessary adjustments to compensate…
Something has got to give soon. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems there’s something a bit “different” this year with how others (maybe even some in power) are viewing the current debacle.
We will probably find out one way sooner or later.
Onto tonight… as others have said, I agree we will probably have a good sense of how this game will go in the first 4-5 minutes. With another loss tonight, I really don’t see any more points this year, as everyone is gonna be playing their A game to finalize their spot in the standings, and all 3 of our opponents will be vying for NPI positioning for an at large bid should they falter in the HE playoffs
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Darius
Go 'cats!
I’m basically with you although I disagree about the “oh well”. I’ve never had season tix but my general impression is that many on here that do, not you specifically, have unrealistically high expectations. Want to be treated like a UNH hockey VIP? Try donating $10K/year. Don’t have the dough? Volunteer at the golf tournament which was by far the largest source of FoH funding and is likely still a major $$$ supplier.
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Great idea about the golf tournament. Will see if I can get my son amd husband on a foursome...and I'll drive the beer cart...!
TheGrouchyCat
Litter Box of Bad Ideas
Many STHs
The event isn't open to the public. Parents of players have shared that they aren't even invited to play or volunteer. This was confirmed by no less than six sets of parents and a number of older players.
Darius
Go 'cats!
“Many STHs” what? Have unrealistically high expectations? Thanks for confirming.
Second ppg - I cant even… except “invited… to volunteer”. Invited to volunteer? Words for that are recruited and drafted. Volunteer? Ask.
TheGrouchyCat
Litter Box of Bad Ideas
I did and was rebuffed.
Darius
Go 'cats!
Hmmm. PM me with the name of the askee/rebuffer if you are still interested in volunteering. No guarantees but I can make an attempt to find out why rebuffed and see if volunteers are needed. Up to you.
Right two weekends in a row! (Well, kinda - scores are off but results are correct). What crystal ball are you looking into for this? I hope you think another win next weekend could be in the books?
Great defensive effort tonight. Countless blocked shots! MacPherson seems to have picked up his game a little these last few weeks, I hope he continues to build on this as we could really use another scorer outside of the Winters-Ring-LeClerc line.
The goalie UMA has (Hrabel) looks legit. Wouldn’t be surprised if they make a deep run in HE playoffs this year, and the NCAAs if they get a bid.
Worked our way back out of the basement, at least for now. And it looks like UVM is gonna lose against PU, so perhaps we can hold onto 10 for a week. If the season ended tonight, we’d have a return trip to Agganis, where I think we may be able to squeak out a W on a good night.
Tough weekend coming up against the top dogs. Gonna have to bring the A++ game to get any points.
Yea they mentioned it was #4 for him this year.
When his defense plays even semi-decent, he has the ability to steal some for the ‘cats. It’s just when he is completely left out to dry/people missing their assignments etc… there’s nothing he can do.
Wonder if he will get a contract to play somewhere in the ECHL, or perhaps Europe at seasons end.
Went to renew my ticket and it is 4 payments if you renew now which is not horrible. I asked if any of the extra money was going to a new coach. One of the ticket guys asked me if I though the problem was the coach and I responded yes. I said what do you think the problem is and he said I will not comment and if that is how you feel don't renew.
On a different note, renovations start March 16th. $19.7M with new locker rooms for men's and women's to start first and then weight room and other facilities. Just because I know someone will call me out, it will be done by Suffolk Construction and goal is done by next season. Nothing will impact the ice for the season.
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Lucky guess, if I'm being honest. But I've coached teams since I was literally a HS kid, and for the last 25 years consistently, at a lower level in a different sport ... so I've seen a lot of my teams (and their opponents) and come to understand that many teams experience their ups and downs, and even the best teams are challenged to maintain their high standards through the course of a long season. As it turns out, I was coaching my team last evening, when UNH was playing their game up in Titletown, and after a strong run of results with come-from-behind wins against decent-but-not-great opponents, we came out flat against our top competitor tonight. Apparently, the kids figured it would be just another second half come-from-behind victory ... until we couldn't finish our many chances, and the deficit slowly expanded to the point that a late comeback just wasn't gonna happen. Stuff like that happens from time to time, I recall UVM plastered BC recently in very similar fashion. Some teams just get out too far over their skis, and there is the inevitable correction to the mean. In UNH's case, BU isn't that good this season anyway ... turns out, ditto UMaine. And UMass was on a nice run, but they're not really a Top 3 team in this league. So it was all kinda foreseeable.
I'll chime in with my thoughts for next weekend at some point this week. Like everyone else's, it will be a guess. Like some on here, I've been following UNH regularly for several decades, so that's one source of info to draw upon ... and maybe not like too many other folks on here, I've literally coached well over fifteen hundred games, and you compile a lot of data and make a lot of observations in that process, some of which you can draw upon, but most of which is probably totally irrelevant. Having said that ... it's a coach's job to understand his own team's motivational dynamic, and to also be modest enough to know if you do see danger on the horizon - for example, our pregame tonight included warnings about our recent trend of getting out of the gate slowly - it might not register to your players until they're already foundering on the rocks. And a motivated opponent isn't always gonna oblige you with a get out of jail free card.
Coach Carvel has no doubt already chalked tonight up to just being "one of those nights". So have I. Thankfully, my ride home was way shorter than his ...