Re: UNH Wildcats 2016-17 Vol II -- We Do Have a Hockey Season Here!?!
WIS Productions brings you the latest edition of "Umile's Last Stand - The _____ for 600".
"Umile's Last Stand - The Quest for 600"
Coach Umile's current career wins total: 58
1
Wins Remaining to the next round number:
19
*Games Remaining (Next 2 Seasons - Min.): 52
Win Pct. Required to Hit Target: 36.6%
WIS Estimated Likelihood of Success: 67%
2016/2017 Cupcake Conversion Ratio (CCR): 9/15 (60%)
* - minimum games remaining assumes 34 regular season games, and at least 2 games in the MBPBEGAM "playoffs"
No surprises this past weekend, as UNH (as predicted) fell short in a deceptively close 2-1 loss to UMass-Lowell, and then after unexpected weather-related free time in Providence on Saturday night, the 'Cats blasted the Brown Brownies ... err, Cupcakes ... oops, Bruins 7-4 after running up a 7-1 edge. Another productive night from UNH's emerging Hobey frontrunner (and D-1 leading scorer) Tyler Kelleher masked what I'd say was the hidden story of the weekend ... and that's whether or not Kelleher is going to be able to grind out some production in the tough conference games coming up over the next month-and-a-half. Getting shut out (and largely shut down) against Coach Bazin's Riverhawks definitely set off warning bells around the place. No one wants to see the same horror movie we saw in early 2016 again.
The Big Picture - WIS experts' projection that Coach Umile's Wildcats would amass at least 10 wins in the opening 18 games of the season missed the mark, but with today's win (and a 10-8-2 record), the boys are only slightly behind the projected pace, and close enough to keep hope alive that they can at least get to the 15 win mark by the end of the season. This next set of games against Northeastern will be arguably the closest UNH gets to a cupcake opponent for the rest of the regular season. And make no mistake - Northeastern is NOT a cupcake, as their schedule has been tougher overall, and they managed to not lose to Bentley OR ASFU in two games apiece. Northeastern has to be looking at this week's games as their chance to jump-start their season - Coach Mad-Again I'm sure won't miss this trick - and last year that's exactly what they did. For UNH ... they've got to win at least one of these two games. A sweep would set the boys up for the tough stretch ahead as well as we could have hoped (exceeding last year's win total already); getting swept would put a dent in things.
WIS is also setting up a proposition bet on how long into the game it will be before BottleRocket Jim goes off for the first deigned slight to his Huskies' chances (over/under 20:00). The smart money is on whenever Kelleher lights the lamp, and an "illegal fish" gets thrown onto the ice too close to NU's netminder. If it happens on his way off the ice between the first and second periods, that's a push (and WIS keeps the whole kitty
). That's a trick of the trade I learned from my old pal Sully, a BC alum/alcoholic/bookie from Southie. But I digress.
Predictions:
Thursday (Jan. 12th): @ UNH 4 Northeastern 3
Saturday (Jan. 14th): UNH 2 @ Northeastern 2
NEXT CUPCAKE ON THE SHELF: None on the horizon, at least until the MBPBEGAM playoffs
IS BS35+4 PAYING ATTENTION YET?
Paying attention? Yes. Worried? Again, heck no. UNH had a decent, unsurprising week, and has somehow nipped in ahead of UNH Hoops as the first to 10 wins (kudos Felger). Another win next weekend, and it's just kicking the can another block down the street, while Coach Herrion and his crew try to regain positive momentum and attention on his program across the street. A sweep over Northeastern, and it's impossible for UNH to slip below .500 before the end of this month. But with BS35+4 likely to be entertaining some of his most important boosters (internal and external) on Saturday night at Fenway, a strong performance in that setting could give Coach Umile even more cover than he's already built up this season to date. As noted earlier ... UNH is closing in on last year's win total, so the "nuclear option" of not allowing Umile to finish up the 3rd and final year of his long goodbye tour is starting to gradually fade away. The trick from here on out is to build a cushion as far over 15 wins as possible this season, and then let the soon-to-be BS35+5 do the rest with his scheduling magic.
On another note Kelleher leads the nation in points with 40!
