Ok so I got to thinking about this leadership thing (you know, Captain, Assistant Capt, etc) and it got me to thinking/wondering about our hockey 'culture' at the U...I see tons of social media about other teams there that are sponsored by who knows who and very, very little from UNHHockey. Not that it has to be a social media thing but we are very quiet on the hockey end unless something has happened and unhinsider or unhwildcats put it out. Now I'm not saying this is absolutely necessary to have for a successful season but it does create some type of atmosphere for the fan/teams. Football of course is all a buzz as you'd expect with the new stadium (went down there last week; it is amazing) and last summer we had the 'tron to ogle over (sore subject here) but that's not what I'm talking about. Last week on Twitter they were interviewing past players like RJ Harris (and others) about their 'football family'. Now to be fair it's my impression that our hockey team is very well cared for so that's not meant to create an 'us v them' where football is concerned but I do, see a difference in how the hockey team is portrayed. YES winning games helps this out to be sure. This is one of the reasons why we join the FOMH so that we can feel we are contributing somehow towards these ends...
I don't have to remind anyone here about how NU had a what, 1-12 record going into the second half of the season, and then after sweeping US (I think this is when it started) they did their thing and became the eventual HE champs getting a ticket punched to the NC. I watched their captain Kevin Roy talk about the 'culture' they created there and that it was totally unacceptable to be in that position and they pulled it together or something to that effect. Even their fans I think were amazed at this turn around. Looking at their roster they did have a balanced core of players, decent enough goal keeping, to do what they did so yep, talent obviously accounts for something so I get that. My question to anyone who wants to answer it: what is our hockey 'culture'? Do we have one?
Not even sure where I am going with this but just a thought about how things are very, very quiet most of the time regarding UNH hockey; and I'm not talking about the summer down time. I'm grateful for the news we get from C-H-C's blog; with out that I don't know how we would even know what's up with the team and recruits. I hope that the Captains articles will continue! They gave great insight into what's up with the team and how they are working through successes and failures. As a fan I really looked forward to these articles. hint, hint C-H-C
I admit that yes I am a social media freak (no surprise there huh) so I do see / follow a few of the other HE teams and see what they do to foster positive stuff for their teams. Maybe Cleland and his eventual Asst. Captains can breathe some life into the team of course, winning games really helps. With what we know about the schedule we should be able to do ok OOC at least and have a shot with some HE games. Looking for my jersey already.
ps...speaking of social media, Matt Willows signed a one year contract with the AHL San Jose Barracudas (formerly the Worcester Sharks whom he played for initially). Congrats Matt!