UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

[UML Puck Hawk]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Agosta Charged with Arson

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

As disappointing as the NU series was, and this season is - it'd feel a lot better if there was some recruiting news and a light at the end of the tunnel. The recruiting silence is starting to make me awfully nervous and I hope its not a sign that these guys can't close. There are a lot of good young players (defensemen included) in the USHL and BCHL its time to start offering, setting deadlines and committing kids...

Yeah, that ongoing silence on the recruiting front has a few of us on edge. You're in good company.

 

[Dan]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Nice of them to post a picture of Agosta in a UNH jersey and not one of the three teams he has played for since. He couldn't skate and was a pylon on defense - I was happy he transferred to Quinnipiac. They can claim him now...

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

And here's the perfectly pathetic follow-up to a similarly pathetic hockey weekend in UmileWorld:

Hockey Player Burns Girlfriend's Love Letters, Loses Control Of Fire, Calls 911

http://deadspin.com/hockey-player-burns-girlfriends-love-letters-loses-con-1753605753

You know it's going to be a crappy day when your mugshot shows up in Deadspin.

Some of the reader comments after the story are worth the extra few seconds ...

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Not that I want you to be here, but welcome to my world. it sucks

Hey wally, I usually go read the Maine thread to cheer me up. It's not working as well today though.

What fun we could all have again if Leaman returned to UMO, and we lured Bazin to Durham.

 

[Dan]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Hey wally, I usually go read the Maine thread to cheer me up. It's not working as well today though.

What fun we could all have again if Leaman returned to UMO, and we lured Bazin to Durham.

Fred Harbinson - http://www.pentictonvees.ca/coaching-staff (British Columbia connections)
Assistant of His Choice
Assistant Mike Ayers (USNTDP connections, BC & local prep connections)

 

[wildcatdc]

So, we better earn home ice for the HEA first round?

Doesn't have to be the Whitt - I travel pretty well...

 

[Snively65]

Doesn't have to be the Whitt - I travel pretty well...

Whatl if we come in last and NICC fifth?

 

[HockeyRef]

Whatl if we come in last and NICC fifth?

UGH wouldn't that be a disaster!

 

[Snively65]

UGH wouldn't that be a disaster!

Ok, what if we come in 11th and NICC 6th?

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Ok, what if we come in 11th and NICC 6th?

No way. UNH isn't THAT bad, and NICC isn't THAT good.

I say NICC finishes 8th and UNH finishes 9th. Problem solved ... or not??

actually, I can't think of a more fitting place for this season to end than in that godforsaken he11ho1e

 

[HockeyRef]

No way. UNH isn't THAT bad, and NICC isn't THAT good.

I say NICC finishes 8th and UNH finishes 9th. Problem solved ... or not??

actually, I can't think of a more fitting place for this season to end than in that godforsaken he11ho1e

Careful what you wish for...btw Chuck what does your crystal ball say about this weekend? Also folks going to the game Sat it's a 5:00 start...

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Fred Harbinson - http://www.pentictonvees.ca/coaching-staff (British Columbia connections)
Assistant of His Choice
Assistant Mike Ayers (USNTDP connections, BC & local prep connections)

Maybe he's going to be the proverbial "guy who replaces the guy who replaced THE guy"? Sounds like he is happy where he is (at least for now) but accepts he's going to be looking to step up and challenge himself at some point in the future. Former St. Cloud assistant, turned down a high profile associate head coaching job at Wisconsin ... it looks like he's probably in his mid-40's now, so someone who *could* be poised for a solid 10-15 year run somewhere in D-1 - or five incredibly successful seasons, leading to an NHL job as HC of the hometown Calgary Flames.

Watch him end up in Orono, and be the second coming of Walshy. FWIW doesn't seem to fit the HE mold, and probably would be more interested in a Western/Midwest D-1 program if/when he makes such a move.

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Careful what you wish for...btw Chuck what does your crystal ball say about this weekend? �� Also folks going to the game Sat it's a 5:00 start...

UNH will rise from their comatose state of last weekend, and find a way not to lose this weekend.

Whether that's two wins, two ties, or one of each ... it just feels too easy to say they'll get swept again.

I'll stick to my guns - besides, NICC is the most chronically overrated D-1 program out there.

 

[Felger]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

I'm sticking with what I said a few weeks back. UNH was picked to finished between 6th and 8th in Hockey East. And that is where they will finish.

The 'Cats still have two or three games in hand on all the teams around them. Most of those teams play each other.

The only thing last weekend changed was to throw cold water on those fans still living under the delusion that this was anything more than a .500 team. They entered the weekend 27-27-6 dating back to the start of last season. Did Saturday surprise/disappoint me? Sure. But Friday didn't. I expected a split last weekend, and still expect one this weekend.

Of course maybe DU could pull a Shoeless Joe Belichick and go dead in these two contests, giving the Irish 4 points which all but locks them into the top four and guarantees the 'Cats no trip to South Bend in the first round.

 

[Darius]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

UNH will rise from their comatose state of last weekend, and find a way not to lose this weekend.

Whether that's two wins, two ties, or one of each ... it just feels too easy to say they'll get swept again.

I'll stick to my guns - besides, NICC is the most chronically overrated D-1 program out there.

Chuck. The eternal optimist. Hope you are right.

Oh yeah, spring is in the air.

 

[Greg Ambrose]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Greg


Just the counterpart to UNH treating it as a business when they had the upper hand. You want to do that at the expense of loyalty, it works both ways.

On your other points, it will be interesting to see how UNH will honor its promises to kids. Although Umile went back on promises/assurances about what years the kids would arrive (Vecchione, Laleggia) and on rare occasions even on promises of money (Campbell, O'Neill), they have not done what most programs do -- cut kids or turn them away. I hate that part of the game, because for the most part the kids' not developing is on the recruiter, not the recruit. If teams want early commits, they should have agreements that bind both sides. That moralism aside, teams do this -- the more ruthless "professional" ones more so than others. North Dakota for example has about 10 kids who never made it on campus. Providence does this a fair amount now. Even BC, which is pretty honorable, has turned away Tiefenwerth, Evan Richardson, McMasters, Begert, Colin Sullivan.

Especially with a coaching change there is attrition. For UNH is has been uniformly negative -- the goods kids left, and with a few exceptions, we are left with Borek mistakes, those who have no real options. With them (and the current non-playing freshmen) being in the system for 5 more years, UNH is in a weaker position for a rebuild.

Just a couple of context points. Babcock was playing for Triton, which is where big recruit Bobby Corkum played. I wonder whether he was to entice Corkum, because Babcock certainly had no pedigree of his own. Roth was drafted after his junior HS year, so was not really under the radar. The Hockey News cited him as the star of the 85 Minn HS tourney. His problem was he was a linebacker, who tried to hit everything, and so was out of position. Schrader also was an NHL draft, for his size 6'3. Neither one had any mobility. Schrader, by the way, was the second best street hockey player, behind Quinton Brickley. His shot was lethal, from everywhere. Cournoyer was part of the Mt St Charles dynasty, but probably their fourth D. Again, not a real pedigree of his own, and I wonder whether UNH hoped to get one of Mt. St.Charles' real prospects.

Between Schrader, Wotton, Roth, and Al Brown, that was the slowest D I've ever seen.

My apologies to Mark Babcock. I was thinking of Matt Shramek. He was from Burlington, an all scholastic. My general criticism of Kullen back then was that he was recruiting players who might be able to compete in an Ivy League, old ECAC schedule, ignoring the fact that UNH was headed towards the Hockey East/WCHA interlocking schedule. It was time to ramp up the recruiting and he didn't.

 

[Greg Ambrose]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Nice of them to post a picture of Agosta in a UNH jersey and not one of the three teams he has played for since. He couldn't skate and was a pylon on defense - I was happy he transferred to Quinnipiac. They can claim him now...

There was a reason he and Knodel didn't play as freshmen

 

[Greg Ambrose]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

I'm sticking with what I said a few weeks back. UNH was picked to finished between 6th and 8th in Hockey East. And that is where they will finish.

The 'Cats still have two or three games in hand on all the teams around them. Most of those teams play each other.

The only thing last weekend changed was to throw cold water on those fans still living under the delusion that this was anything more than a .500 team. They entered the weekend 27-27-6 dating back to the start of last season. Did Saturday surprise/disappoint me? Sure. But Friday didn't. I expected a split last weekend, and still expect one this weekend.

Of course maybe DU could pull a Shoeless Joe Belichick and go dead in these two contests, giving the Irish 4 points which all but locks them into the top four and guarantees the 'Cats no trip to South Bend in the first round.

Felgie, it's not that they lost, it's the way they played. I was there Friday night and I could not believe how disengaged the team was. Poor breakouts, poor passing, no jamming in front of the net on those rare occasions that they had zone time. Defensively allowing a mediocre Northeastern offense to just wheel in the zone. Ironically Tirone had one of his better games considering he was under siege the whole game. Yes, I missed the first period plus of the Saturday game but when I walked in the show was the same. We all know UNH does not have talent beyond maybe 4 or 5 players. As a result, I expect them to lose against teams that are better than them. But I don't expect a lack of effort. What happened between the 1-0 loss vs. Lowell when they played probably their best defensive game of the year and this past weekend when they did nothing? Games in hand mean nothing if you have no chance of winning them. Their next six are against ND, Providence, BC and Lowell, the latter four on the road. Maybe one win or two at the most. Go Pats.

 

[HockeyRef]

I'm sticking with what I said a few weeks back. UNH was picked to finished between 6th and 8th in Hockey East. And that is where they will finish.

The 'Cats still have two or three games in hand on all the teams around them. Most of those teams play each other.

The only thing last weekend changed was to throw cold water on those fans still living under the delusion that this was anything more than a .500 team. They entered the weekend 27-27-6 dating back to the start of last season. Did Saturday surprise/disappoint me? Sure. But Friday didn't. I expected a split last weekend, and still expect one this weekend.

Of course maybe DU could pull a Shoeless Joe Belichick and go dead in these two contests, giving the Irish 4 points which all but locks them into the top four and guarantees the 'Cats no trip to South Bend in the first round.

Hmmmm well just so you know THIS fan was under no delusions about how this team would fare this season. To be honest sure I expected better than what we have so far but it was nothing more than last season. Defensively I knew we'd struggle from the get go and when AC went down that pretty much sealed that deal. Still even with the loss of Pesce I thought we would fare better as the young D got going. Still impressed most of all with the play of Matt Dawson.

At the same time I don't see why it was a terrible thing to enjoy the mild success with the win streak albeit small v teams like Maine. Or the fact that we saw some scoring in the OTHER lines in those games. Right now we are looking for scoring wherever we can get it and it only will get tougher in the games ahead as its been pointed out.

IMHO too much emphasis was placed on coming out of the blocks thinking the 'Cats would go undefeated in those early OOC games or something like it. I mean we all knew that's what they HAD to do. (But they should've done much better too...the Sparty weekend comes to mind) I do get the idea behind that thinking given the tough HE stretch we are in now...Hence the pick up of CC for next year?

College hockey can be a finicky thing and I really would not be surprised if the 'Cats end up where you suggest. That being said it am hoping for some surprises along the way...I mean heck I bought HE tix at the Garden already when they first went on sale. Can this present team do what the past 2 have and claw their way back there? Who knows at least I'm ready haha OR I really love trips to Boston!?!

Now that's...optimism but it could also be seen as delusion And Felger I do love your optimism for the coming weekend...A split would be much appreciated after last weekend.