UNH Men’s Hockey 22-23: the start of something new, or more of the same?

[Robert Balin]

Perhaps there will be a shifting of players/recruits who knows? You are absolutely correct..need to bring in a higher skill level. Who are you referring to as possible "good ones" for next season if I may ask?

It's a small group as of right now. Jason Siedem will be 21 former BC recruit and Ryan Conmy rookie in USHL tied for 2nd in goals scored. Those are the 2 that could make an impact. The other 3 who knows.

 

[JB]

Two additional points.
JB, why are you only counting five years. The whole purpose of this stupid plan was to put Souza into the seat three years early and put his stamp on the program. Why not make him own those years, too, where he was the Master Recruiter redoing the program as he wanted it, the Head Coach in waiting. It's not like he wandered in in 2018 and was stuck with the existing rot.

Because it was easy to just clip the data from HockeyDB of Souza as head coach... their table doesn't do records for assistants.... and I was too lazy to go pull up the other three years.

I think this is all you need to know about Souza
2015-16 UNH 11-20-6 10th
2016-17 UNH 15-20-5 10th
2017-18 UNH 10-20-6 11th
2018-19 UNH 12-15-3 8th
2019-20 UNH 15-15-4 9th
2020-21 UNH 6-14-3 10th
2021-22 UNH 14-19-1 9th
2022-23 UNH 11-21-3 10th

I like how he has clearly hit his stride the last 4 years, amazingly consistent. It is a really nice flat trend line... shockingly the slope is up (err down, well better seeding). It is wonderfully glacial, at this rate we can expect to be solidly 9th on an annual basis by 2028. Now if you remove the coach in waiting years the trend flips and we are headed for 11th by 2025. That 8th place in 2018-2019 really screws him for trending his solo head coaching years... without doing any analysis I would say that is the beginning of a nice normal distribution tails of one 8th and one 11th with the gaussian centered around 9.6-9.7 - almost like this is the goal.

 

[JB]

Sick of the mediocrity thats allowed at UNH.

Mediocre - of only moderate quality; not very good. Similar words - ordinary, common, tolerable, passable, average, middle-of-the-road, .... 4th - 7th year in year out in a 11 team league...

Mediocrity would be an improvement, dare I say vast improvement. 8 years of an average 10th place (9.625th place but sorry whole numbers only) in an 11 team league - that is horrible, dreadful, horrendous, awful, terrible



Let's play fill in the blank:

The Souza experiment 269 games of _________.

 

[HockeyRef]

Because it was easy to just clip the data from HockeyDB of Souza as head coach... their table doesn't do records for assistants.... and I was too lazy to go pull up the other three years.

I think this is all you need to know about Souza
2015-16 UNH 11-20-6 10th
2016-17 UNH 15-20-5 10th
2017-18 UNH 10-20-6 11th
2018-19 UNH 12-15-3 8th
2019-20 UNH 15-15-4 9th
2020-21 UNH 6-14-3 10th
2021-22 UNH 14-19-1 9th
2022-23 UNH 11-21-3 10th

I like how he has clearly hit his stride the last 4 years, amazingly consistent. It is a really nice flat trend line... shockingly the slope is up (err down, well better seeding). It is wonderfully glacial, at this rate we can expect to be solidly 9th on an annual basis by 2028. Now if you remove the coach in waiting years the trend flips and we are headed for 11th by 2025. That 8th place in 2018-2019 really screws him for trending his solo head coaching years... without doing any analysis I would say that is the beginning of a nice normal distribution tails of one 8th and one 11th with the gaussian centered around 9.6-9.7 - almost like this is the goal.

There used to be a great article online about Umiles failure to win the NC and that "placing second" was actually feted by UNH ...now I'm not going to bash DU as his record speaks for itself and I doubt MS7 will ever.rise to his accomplishments..but like you say...the guys IS consistent...which it seems UNH is just fine with.

 

[Felger]

Heck give Stewy the reigns next season while looking for someone to dig out this mess.

So replace a lame duck coach with an even lamer one?

 

[Chuck Murray]

So replace a lame duck coach with an even lamer one?

My thought was more along the lines of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Where is our old buddy EJ Smith when you need him? Maybe out sunning in Jamaica with GUNHer and Ramona??

 

[Robert Balin]

So replace a lame duck coach with an even lamer one?

Another issue for Souza is the Portal. UNH has done a horrible job and has hardly used it to their advantage. Fessendon was a ok pickup but that's about it, the stats show the results and they stink.

 

[Felger]

My thought was more along the lines of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to lay this at the feet of Glenn Stewart. I rooted for him as a player, just like I rooted for Mike Souza. But come on, in 20 years as an assistant coach Teflon Glenn has been part of a grand total of TWO staffs that posted winning records. I hardly see him as part of the solution. Over on the UML thread somebody was equating Norm Bazin with the Peter Principle. I think GS is a better example.

P.S. He's pulling down six figures from state government. Great country, America.

 

[HockeyRef]

My thought was more along the lines of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Where is our old buddy EJ Smith when you need him? Maybe out sunning in Jamaica with GUNHer and Ramona??

Come on Chuck you said so yourself this could be a temporary solution...which is all I'm offering...

 

[HockeyRef]

So replace a lame duck coach with an even lamer one?

Oh I don't know it has been brought up before on this board as solely as a temporary solution...but I think that was fir an "in season" temp replacement...I know we need a different solution...

 

[NCAA watcher]

Jr.Devlin---------------So.Leclerc------------Sr.Cafarelli
So.Sardarian----------Fr.Ring---------------Fr.Conmey
So.Dunlop-------------Jr.Cronin-------------So.Skrastins
Jr.Sweeney------------So.Winters-----------Sr.Gendron
Jr.Margel--------------Fr.Turner-------------Fr.Siedem
Jr.Lovett--------------Fr.Walsh

So.Carfagna------------------Jr.Gagne
Jr.Huard--------------------Sr.Jenson
Sr.Reid----------------------Fr.Fitzgerald
Jr.Babbage-----------------Jr.Devita

So.Muszelik-----------------Fr./transfer----------------------Jr.Forman

 

[JB]

Jr.Devlin---------------So.Leclerc------------Sr.Cafarelli
So.Sardarian----------Fr.Ring---------------Fr.Conmey
So.Dunlop-------------Jr.Cronin-------------So.Skrastins

Why these two in this order not flipped? Just curious your thinking, you generally have interesting thoughts.

AND would you want Stevenson back?

 

[deltabravo62]

Why these two in this order not flipped? Just curious your thinking, you generally have interesting thoughts.

AND would you want Stevenson back?

I would take Stevenson for another season. However with how he played this year I bet he gets offered to grad transfer somewhere else and I would bet he takes that opportunity. The only senior I'm thinking we see back next year would be Fessenden on his super senior COVID freebie.

 

[Snively65]

Jr.Devlin---------------So.Leclerc------------Sr.Cafarelli
So.Sardarian----------Fr.Ring---------------Fr.Conmey
So.Dunlop-------------Jr.Cronin-------------So.Skrastins
Jr.Sweeney------------So.Winters-----------Sr.Gendron
Jr.Margel--------------Fr.Turner-------------Fr.Siedem
Jr.Lovett--------------Fr.Walsh

So.Carfagna------------------Jr.Gagne
Jr.Huard--------------------Sr.Jenson
Sr.Reid----------------------Fr.Fitzgerald
Jr.Babbage-----------------Jr.Devita

So.Muszelik-----------------Fr./transfer----------------------Jr.Forman

Wow, the only scorer in the biggest game of the season is buried four deep in forwards sitting in the stands next season? Nice reward, dat.

 

[JB]

Wow, the only scorer in the biggest game of the season is buried four deep in forwards sitting in the stands next season? Nice reward, dat.

Conor Lovett 29 Game Played - 1 Goal, 1 Assist... Transferred after 2 years (really one and a trip back to USHL) at Merrimack - 15 Games played 3 goals and 2 assists.

Now I don't see him practicing and I truly hope there is improvement. BUT that goal looks more of a right place right time kind of thing.



IF this team is going to get better the Coaching staff needs to bring in Freshman (like 4 or 5) that will be top 6 forwards and push everybody down. Remember this squad finished 10th of 11 teams. We want Cy LeClerc and Liam Devlin to be 3rd line forwards. That means there are 6 guys scoring 30+ points ahead of them on the team.

College hockey scoring has changed and still 1997-98 team had 2 forward with 60+ and 2 with 50+ points... Souza on the 3rd line scored 25. The 1998-1999 team Krog at 85 with Souza and Haydar are 60+. That top heavy team had 3rd line forwards in the high teens for scoring.

To get a little more current U Denver National Champs last year had 7 forwards score more than Liam Devlin and 8 more than Cy LeClerc. It is reasonable the Devlin and LeClerc might be on that teams 4th line.

 

[HockeyRef]

I would take Stevenson for another season. However with how he played this year I bet he gets offered to grad transfer somewhere else and I would bet he takes that opportunity. The only senior I'm thinking we see back next year would be Fessenden on his super senior COVID freebie.

I'd love to.see Chase return but agree he'd be gone in a heartbeat if another school offered. Question tho..what would have to happen to have him stay as in roster numbers? If it meant they would defer someone who we could lose to someone else then I'd have second thoughts...like Ryan C for example.

 

[Chuck Murray]

Come on Chuck you said so yourself this could be a temporary solution...which is all I'm offering...

That's a fair point, 'Ref - I did say that at some point, I forget the context of it, though. I've always felt it was a little weird how Stewart ended up getting "jumped" in the succession plan when Umile hired him a year before Souza. In retrospect, the comforts of being second in command at his alma mater probably outweighed any slight he may have felt at the time? I think we had a bit of fun with that whole scenario a few summers ago with my monosyllabic "Fun with Souza Dick & Stew" creation. Fun times. But the ship has run aground, and Stewart unfortunately is a part of the leadership that's come up wanting. Sad but true. And I probably liked Stewart as a player more than Souza (MS roughly 5 yrs. younger?).

If we play "What If?" for a moment ... MS7 leaves, Stewart is hired as his replacement ... what is Stewart's message? To the current roster, he's probably been an integral part of their recruitment, and he's coached them all in every game and practice they've been involved in during their time at UNH. What's he going to do differently now? And how does Stewie in charge look in any way different from the outside (recruits)??

I saw someone on another website saying that Stewart has more fire, and that'll make the difference. Uh ... no. That might work for a game or two, but eventually, you gotta know the game, you gotta be able to teach and develop players for the next level, and there is scant evidence of anyone on the current staff being able to do that. Possibly excepting (ironically) Ty Conklin, if we accept the facts that Fessenden has been a (modest) success in the portal, and the much-hyped Mucinex has managed to turn a corner early in his career. And he's probably the least committed guy on that staff time-wise and travel-wise.

It's gotta be a clean sweep, and the sooner the better. The early 2023 "turnaround" did indeed turn into fool's gold.

The AD doesn't need anyone to point out the obvious. If she doesn't see it, and the need to fix it, then she's just as underqualified for her job as it turns out Souza was for his job. Show us your stuff now ...

 

[Felger]

I saw someone on another website saying that Stewart has more fire, and that'll make the difference. Uh ... no.

Spot on Chuck. If "fire" was all it took to win games at UNH, Gerry Friel would have more wins than John Wooden.

 

[Nifty16]

Not going to lie that the little 6 game unbeaten streak might of give me some hope, then reality came back the last couple of weekend. Looking back and those game were an outliner built on some hot goaltending , still averaged only 2.83 goals per game in those 6 games which over a full season would still only be 35[SUP]th[/SUP]in the country, Had a few games where I thought well maybe Souza has earned another shot if things keep improving. But as we know it didn’t and the Vermont was that cold shower. The lack of any changes after the first and the miserable play in the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP]and 3[SUP]rd[/SUP]was more of what the season was. Think the cold hard facts show its time for a change. Have had 5 years which is no small sample size, and that included going into his first year with the guys he recruited so there is no excuse that they were not his players. As I have noted back in December over those 5 years really cant look at any player who has made a major jump in their productivity, which is a indicator of coaching to me. Still have not seen much in game coaching either. I am still very much on the fence on renewing my season tickets for next year. If there isn’t any type of change that will show me what the University really things of the program and is fine with being a bottom tier team. I am not fine with that, I understand there are years that might happen but to be consistently in this situation not fun. Been 10 years since the last Tourney bid, 8 years since the last trip to the Hockey East Semifinals. With out any changes this offseason we will go from a dying program to a dead program. I am not sure if I can spend my hard earned money or even my time with a dead program.
The Souza Era:

• 50[SUP]th[/SUP]in Pairwise, worst in Hockey East this season
• 58[SUP]th[/SUP]in Offense (2.11 Goals per Game) this season
• 38[SUP]th[/SUP]in Defense (3.0 Goals Per Game) this season
• 34[SUP]th[/SUP]in Power Play (19.81%) this season
• 30[SUP]th[/SUP]in Penalty Kill (80.56%) this season

• Leading score is 151 in the nation this season
• 5 seasons as Head Coach with a .420 Winning Percentage.
• 1 season at .500
• Average final place in Hockey East Standing 9.2 out of 11
• Never made it past the Hockey East Quarterfinals
• Never hosted a Hockey East Playoff game

 

[Darius]

Not blaming y'all, I "know" you too well , but to diverge slightly from the broken record (old timer LP reference) fire everyone now theme of this thread: who should be more more surprised and disappointed this morning: UNH or UMO fans?