Re: UNH Wildcats 2013-14 Season Thread
OK ... with the team back in action this weekend down in Florida, we swing into the second half of the season with a tourney which presents UNH with an early challenge to start things off on the right foot after what has to be classified as a mediocre first half of the season. Traditionally, UNH usually hasn't managed their return to action games at this stage of the season particularly well, and while it's easy to pass that off as "being rusty" etc. that obviously begs the question, well, isn't the opposition just as rusty in these games?
It's an interesting stretch that lies ahead of UNH, with their next 7 games being non-conference games (despite a possible match-up against UMaine this Sunday evening), before finishing up the regular season with 10 Hockey East games. The most compelling issue looking ahead at these games is that after this weekend, the Wildcats will be playing 10 of their next 12 games at The Whitt, with one of the other two games being against Dartmouth in Manchester. UNH then finishes up with 3 road games, one against BU and two with a Merrimack team which has not exactly been up to its recent standards so far this season.
I'd personally really like to see this team break character and come out quickly with a pair of wins this weekend, and parlaying that into what hopefully would be 5-6 wins during this initial 7 game non-conference stretch. Is this realistic? Is the team experienced enough to play consistently well enough to move from being the mediocre .500 team they currently are, and forge a bona fide identity as a legit contender for HE honors and an NCAA berth? Or will there be more inconsistent play, with the team hovering at or around .500 and leaving themselves with the "OK we'll just have to win the HE Tourney" route to the real postseason that's never quite panned out?
They certainly aren't going to be able to complain about the schedule not working in their favor from here on out if they can't raise their collective game to the point where many of us think they are capable of competing. Let the games begin.
