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Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction
Obviously, given my username, I am a bit biased here, but I am going to take exception to this. You do realize UNB has beaten the likes of Providence/BC (x2)/Union/Denver/Maine (x3)/Vermont (x2)/RPI/Holy Cross/UMass (x2)/New Hampshire over the last 8 or so years? They also beat Portland of the AHL last year. They take these games against NCAA teams quite seriously and generally do quite well in them. The games they have played against NCAA teams over the last decade have all been very competitive for the most part. Obviously this wasn't their best weekend, but it wasn't like they were getting beat 8-0 and out-shot 60-10 or something. I believe Jerry York has said on a couple of occasions that UNB wouldn't look out of place at all if they were in Hockey East.
As for the guys that they were missing yesterday...they included 4 players (3 defencemen) who attended NHL training camps this summer/fall as well as a top line forward. In fact, I believe they only played with 4 defencemen yesterday. With all of those guys in the line-up you can imagine an even closer game. They also have two former NHL draft picks on their team (which is the same number as UNH I believe? Correct me if I'm wrong on that though) and basically every player on their team was a top-6 F/top-4 D on their CHL team and some have already played in the AHL/ECHL. So to say they are full of guys with decent at best talent seems a but of a stretch and somewhat disrespectful. These aren't beer-league players we are talking about. Many will go play pro somewhere after they finish their university careers.
With regards to the penalties and "goonery"...I certainly don't condone the actions that reportedly took place against Merrimack, and reading the reports afterwards made me a bit embarrassed and disappointed about their undisciplined play. Having said that, the NCAA game is certainly called much, much differently than the CIS game (majors for 'face-washing' and 'hitting after the whistle' are minor or double-minor penalties here) and no doubt the players were getting frustrated the longer the game went on. Keep in mind too that the average CIS player is bigger and stronger than the average NCAA player (and the CIS in general plays a more physical style of game) so hits that might be fine against a bigger CIS player might look really bad against a smaller NCAA player. Also, the NCAA is much quicker than the CIS which undoubtedly leads to the CIS taking more hooking/tripping type of penalties. Also, the fact that so many games had a high number of penalties leads me to believe that maybe NCAA refs are calling it tighter than usual this year? I certainly don't remember many (if any) UNB/NCAA games that disintegrated into the gong show that we saw Saturday night.
Anyways, I don't want to get into a back and forth here, I just wanted to throw in my two cents and try to defend my team and clear up some common misconceptions.
OK so someone's got to take on "wet blanket" duty, and I'm here to do a little of that ...
First, briefly a note on our guests from New Brunswick ... if ever there was a ready-made team for the Federal League, this was it. Just a couple of guys with decent talent, a lot of low talent (and slow) players, and I think we got a sense from some of the 19 kids who skated for them last night what we missed out on the previous night down in North Andover....One can only imagine what their missing players from the previous evening's melee would have brought.
Obviously, given my username, I am a bit biased here, but I am going to take exception to this. You do realize UNB has beaten the likes of Providence/BC (x2)/Union/Denver/Maine (x3)/Vermont (x2)/RPI/Holy Cross/UMass (x2)/New Hampshire over the last 8 or so years? They also beat Portland of the AHL last year. They take these games against NCAA teams quite seriously and generally do quite well in them. The games they have played against NCAA teams over the last decade have all been very competitive for the most part. Obviously this wasn't their best weekend, but it wasn't like they were getting beat 8-0 and out-shot 60-10 or something. I believe Jerry York has said on a couple of occasions that UNB wouldn't look out of place at all if they were in Hockey East.
As for the guys that they were missing yesterday...they included 4 players (3 defencemen) who attended NHL training camps this summer/fall as well as a top line forward. In fact, I believe they only played with 4 defencemen yesterday. With all of those guys in the line-up you can imagine an even closer game. They also have two former NHL draft picks on their team (which is the same number as UNH I believe? Correct me if I'm wrong on that though) and basically every player on their team was a top-6 F/top-4 D on their CHL team and some have already played in the AHL/ECHL. So to say they are full of guys with decent at best talent seems a but of a stretch and somewhat disrespectful. These aren't beer-league players we are talking about. Many will go play pro somewhere after they finish their university careers.
With regards to the penalties and "goonery"...I certainly don't condone the actions that reportedly took place against Merrimack, and reading the reports afterwards made me a bit embarrassed and disappointed about their undisciplined play. Having said that, the NCAA game is certainly called much, much differently than the CIS game (majors for 'face-washing' and 'hitting after the whistle' are minor or double-minor penalties here) and no doubt the players were getting frustrated the longer the game went on. Keep in mind too that the average CIS player is bigger and stronger than the average NCAA player (and the CIS in general plays a more physical style of game) so hits that might be fine against a bigger CIS player might look really bad against a smaller NCAA player. Also, the NCAA is much quicker than the CIS which undoubtedly leads to the CIS taking more hooking/tripping type of penalties. Also, the fact that so many games had a high number of penalties leads me to believe that maybe NCAA refs are calling it tighter than usual this year? I certainly don't remember many (if any) UNB/NCAA games that disintegrated into the gong show that we saw Saturday night.
Anyways, I don't want to get into a back and forth here, I just wanted to throw in my two cents and try to defend my team and clear up some common misconceptions.
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I do the obnoxious thing better than most. It's a personal strength these days. 
"Walshy being Walshy".