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!
) to expect UNH to be poised for post-season success this year. But after a rare year out of the tourney, you want to see them back in it so it remains a baseline expectation for the program, and to ensure that your players get that postseason experience under their belts, as early AND as often in their careers as possible. Let's face it, with last year's post-season "whiff", roughly half of this year's team has no practical experience with real postseason play (not counting the HE first round stuff). And when you see the way they played this afternoon, you can see exactly how that relative lack of experience in contentious, end-of-season games can trip them up when the importance of the games goes up yet another level.
JMHO.A quick summary of what you said:OK - so I realize a three point weekend on the road at this stage of the season is nothing to sneeze at. That's the "glass half full" argument, and today's tie isn't the end of the world by any stretch. But if there is going to be any realistic hope of this year's postseason being a productive one, this UNH squad needs to be finding ways to WIN games like this one. Find a killer instinct, win their battles consistently, and take it to the opposition. None of that was on display today, and frankly there was no reason for it NOT to be on display AND in spades. It's because of performances like this one that tempers my enthusiasm for the postseason.
As expected, DeSmith was back on his game, and thank goodness for that, because if he wasn't then UVM would (and arguably should) have taken two points. Based on performances like this one, the only way I see UNH having any realistic shot at postseason success this Spring will be if DeSmith puts the team on his back and carries them there himself, a la Chris Terreri circa 1985. It shouldn't have to be this way, but right now I don't see how it happens otherwise.
Realistically, after last season, I'm not sure it's "fair" (yes, that 4-letter F word
Three point weekends in the "first semester" are great. Three point weekends from January on all depends on who you are playing and where. *Maybe* it's OK on the road against a UVM squad battling to earn a playoffs berth. All I know is it is NOT going to be OK next weekend, with two home games against UMass Amherst and anything short of 4 points tells me that regardless of what happens these next two weekends, this team simply does not have the ability to impose their will, and win when they have to. That stuff just does not emerge out of nowhere when the really important games finally do arrive. Maybe if you're BC, and you have tons of past experience, you have an outside shot at "turning on the switch" against a run of poor form, but in the case of this UNH team, they first need to show us they even know where that "switch" is. I did not see that today (besides from DeSmith) and that's all I really wanted to see. I'm disappointed.
OK - so I realize a three point weekend on the road at this stage of the season is nothing to sneeze at. That's the "glass half full" argument, and today's tie isn't the end of the world by any stretch. But if there is going to be any realistic hope of this year's postseason being a productive one, this UNH squad needs to be finding ways to WIN games like this one. Find a killer instinct, win their battles consistently, and take it to the opposition. None of that was on display today, and frankly there was no reason for it NOT to be on display AND in spades. It's because of performances like this one that tempers my enthusiasm for the postseason.
As expected, DeSmith was back on his game, and thank goodness for that, because if he wasn't then UVM would (and arguably should) have taken two points. Based on performances like this one, the only way I see UNH having any realistic shot at postseason success this Spring will be if DeSmith puts the team on his back and carries them there himself, a la Chris Terreri circa 1985. It shouldn't have to be this way, but right now I don't see how it happens otherwise.
Realistically, after last season, I'm not sure it's "fair" (yes, that 4-letter F word
Three point weekends in the "first semester" are great. Three point weekends from January on all depends on who you are playing and where. *Maybe* it's OK on the road against a UVM squad battling to earn a playoffs berth. All I know is it is NOT going to be OK next weekend, with two home games against UMass Amherst and anything short of 4 points tells me that regardless of what happens these next two weekends, this team simply does not have the ability to impose their will, and win when they have to. That stuff just does not emerge out of nowhere when the really important games finally do arrive. Maybe if you're BC, and you have tons of past experience, you have an outside shot at "turning on the switch" against a run of poor form, but in the case of this UNH team, they first need to show us they even know where that "switch" is. I did not see that today (besides from DeSmith) and that's all I really wanted to see. I'm disappointed.
-- this weekend, as we outscored UVM by a total of 1 goal in 2 games. I'm a longtime UNH hockey fan -- I attended my first game as a freshman in (gulp) 1973. It's taken me a long time to realize this, but I have come to believe that a team is only as good as showed in its last game; that "past performance is no guarantee of future success" (or failure, I suppose.) What's scary is that UNH could easily have ended up with *0* points --
OK - so I realize a three point weekend on the road at this stage of the season is nothing to sneeze at. That's the "glass half full" argument, and today's tie isn't the end of the world by any stretch. But if there is going to be any realistic hope of this year's postseason being a productive one, this UNH squad needs to be finding ways to WIN games like this one. Find a killer instinct, win their battles consistently, and take it to the opposition. None of that was on display today, and frankly there was no reason for it NOT to be on display AND in spades. It's because of performances like this one that tempers my enthusiasm for the postseason.
As expected, DeSmith was back on his game, and thank goodness for that, because if he wasn't then UVM would (and arguably should) have taken two points. Based on performances like this one, the only way I see UNH having any realistic shot at postseason success this Spring will be if DeSmith puts the team on his back and carries them there himself, a la Chris Terreri circa 1985. It shouldn't have to be this way, but right now I don't see how it happens otherwise.
Realistically, after last season, I'm not sure it's "fair" (yes, that 4-letter F word
Three point weekends in the "first semester" are great. Three point weekends from January on all depends on who you are playing and where. *Maybe* it's OK on the road against a UVM squad battling to earn a playoffs berth. All I know is it is NOT going to be OK next weekend, with two home games against UMass Amherst and anything short of 4 points tells me that regardless of what happens these next two weekends, this team simply does not have the ability to impose their will, and win when they have to. That stuff just does not emerge out of nowhere when the really important games finally do arrive. Maybe if you're BC, and you have tons of past experience, you have an outside shot at "turning on the switch" against a run of poor form, but in the case of this UNH team, they first need to show us they even know where that "switch" is. I did not see that today (besides from DeSmith) and that's all I really wanted to see. I'm disappointed.
I suppose it's a good thing our PP has been working a bit better of late! It's hard to believe we needed to rely on that being successful, given our dismal rate over the past several years.
Double check the numbers for this season, despite it being an embarrassing, no movement umbrella, its worked.
And thank goodness we aren't going through what BU has been this year!