UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

[JB]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

JB please find another team as you have been a Umile hater forever. It was a very disappointing year but I am a fan first and a naysayer on places other than message boards. Please send your apologies to the players and I am sure Coach Souza and Coach Stewart are much smarter about hockey and player talent than you.

Please let me know where your season ticket seats are as I want to be sure the haters on the board are at least at the games and supporting the players.

WOW wander away from the message board for a couple days and look what happens.

First let me clarify I don't hate Dick Umile, I don't really know him. I have had the privilege to meet him multiple times and he is a very nice guy. Prior to about 5 years ago, I was the voice of reason, more than once replying to fans calling for his head after a playoff blow out to "be careful what you wish for" the next guy could be much worse. Some place in the last 5 years it became obvious to me that our once great coach had either lost it, or wasn't into it any longer and the next guy (assuming a coaching search) couldn't be worse. It hasn't been a disappointing year it has been a disappointing series of years and to stick your head in the sand about that pattern isn't being a good fan.

I am a fan of UNH hockey, not necessarily any particular coach. I really don’t care who is coaching the team as long as there is progress. That progress could be as little is watching young players grow. Any action that looks to be bring the program forward is progress.

As to my fandom I probably have just about everybody on here beat for the percentage of my life I have been a fan and attending UNH hockey games. Some of my first memories in life are UNH games at the end of the 78 season and during 78-79 season. I am a graduate both BS and MS. I was there for the great and bad of Holt in the 80's. For Umile's first season as acting coach. For the end of Snively, for the year in Manchester, for the opening of the Whitt. I was one of the few that still believed in the 97-98 team that collapsed down the stretch and was rewarded in Albany with Mowers OT shorthanded goal. I have been to frozen fours and plenty of road games. I am a coach’s club member of the friends. I still volunteer my time to the university in a number of ways, I found a way for my company to sponsor two graduate students. My user name is not to hide, those are my initials, I was on when this message board was still new so I could still get something short and be lazy logging in. If you want to find me I am pretty sure we (my father and I) are the only 2 season ticket holders left in our row 101-N-15... Charlie Holt used to sit about 5 rows back over my right shoulder.

If you are from the athletics department you are attacking the wrong problem. Any one on here still is passionate about UNH Hockey and would love to make it better, do **** near anything to make it better. USCHO used to be filled with posting UNH fans, lots and lots of them, just as the arena used to be filled. They have all gone away - just quietly disappearing. Many left when the athletic department thought there was an endless supply of fans so they could mistreat the ones they had. When needed that waiting list turned out to be a paper tiger. They got fed up with lack of action as the problems are obvious, just open your eyes.

Nothing I have seen stated on this message board is inside information. It is all observation. If I can see it then trained hockey eyes can see it. My posts aren’t scaring away recruits, they can see it too.

 

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

I understand the concept behind the play down low, to maximize the space and opportunities for their best powerplay weapons, Gildon and Maass (one timers). It worked early, but once the teams realized they didn't need to sag down low because the forwards lacked finish, the passing lanes back out remained clogged.

 

[JB]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

Excellent summary, watcher. For your fourth to last sentence, I just want to hear an admission that the idiotic 5-3 PP was a misstep and will never happen again. I found that to be the most embarrassing and humiliating experience as a fan on the two occasions that I watched it. I wanted to walk out on those two games immediately, but just sat in my seat fuming. Third worst fan experience for me was watching the implosion against RIT in the Albany 2010 regional final, especially after knocking off a much better Cornell team the night before; two intermissions, and no in-game adjustments. I agree that recruiting has been bad the past few years, but deferring recruits, sitting them in the stands for the first year, and in-game coaching has been worse, I think. I do not get to see what happens in practice, except for a couple of times on the off day at the FF a long time ago, so I cannot comment on that.

That has been the only 5-3 I have seen all year. I am amazed that is the go to move.

You must have missed the recent 4-3. One player below the goal line and outside the face-off dot. So basically the plan was to make it a 3 on 3? Since the other team didn't bother covering that guy.

It did make passing the puck around the outside, where there was little danger to the defense, much easier.

 

[Snively65]

I understand the concept behind the play down low, to maximize the space and opportunities for their best powerplay weapons, Gildon and Maass. It worked early, but once the teams realized they didn't need to sag down low because the forwards lacked finish, the passing lanes back out remained clogged.

Maybe if I had seen the down 5-3 PP work early, I would not have been so irate. So, file that one as another lack of in-game adjustments when other coaches obviously had figured out a strategy to defend against it.

 

[JB]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

I understand the concept behind the play down low, to maximize the space and opportunities for their best powerplay weapons, Gildon and Maass (one timers). It worked early, but once the teams realized they didn't need to sag down low because the forwards lacked finish, the passing lanes back out remained clogged.

It might even work if the offside guy moved to the post with the right timing for a backdoor or rebound. I think the problem is there isn't really a clear plan, neither guy behind the net knows when to pop out front or if his partner is about to pass it back.

 

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

So the solution apparently was to now bench Maass/Gildon and instead have Richard Boyd quarterback the powerplay.

 

[Dan]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

BU fans never anoint themselves. Fans didn’t select them as preseason #2, or whatever they were ranked preseason in Hockey East. In fact, fans have questioned it. So knock it off.

Wow your ability to misconstrue message board posts and take everything personally is unmatched on USCHO - and that is an impressive feat. The point of the post was that you're good, even if not as good as you wish to be. Your coach is winning at a .640-ish clip with his own players and it is not good enough. Thats a fan base essentially 'annointing' itself as deserving more. Its not a slander, and has nothing to do with pre-season rankings, just a point - so don't take it as anything more.

Instead, calm down and and work on your overall reading comprehension. This is at least the third time in a year you've completely misread a post of mine and thrown a tantrum (out of, three times we've ever crossed paths)...

 

[Snively65]

That has been the only 5-3 I have seen all year. I am amazed that is the go to move.

You must have missed the recent 4-3. One player below the goal line and outside the face-off dot. So basically the plan was to make it a 3 on 3? Since the other team didn't bother covering that guy.

It did make passing the puck around the outside, where there was little danger to the defense, much easier.

I saw one 5-3 PP debacle go on for almost 90 seconds in Hanover, and another one for over 75 seconds at the Whitt. Our two guys down low were incapable of even passing the puck between themselves behind the net, let alone finding anyone open out front, which of course they were not as the other team could play them each one on one. If the plan was to stuff the puck into a corner behind the goalie, then that is simply an arrogant expectation of incompetent forwards, and a major disrespect for the defending goalie. Maybe TyK could have succeeded with that play, but no one we have now.

 

[Dan]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

I’ll start off this post by reminding Dan that BU did little in the way of a national search when they hired Quinn. The two BU people I stay in touch with both told me that Quinn was the focus even before Parker was eased out the door. If there was any uncertainty, it was because Quinn was pretty successful in the pro ranks and there was a school of thought that he would just follow in the footsteps of Mike Sullivan. But I digress. .

Greg - BU contacted a number of candidates, interviewed a handful, developed a search committee and started the process only when Parker's final season was wrapping up. They also excluded the outgoing coach from the search committee. The AD was quoted as saying, "We're looking at everybody" - including current HE head coaches, BU Alumni and non-BU Alumni. Perhaps they arrived at their pre-process favorite, but they had a process and a national search to verify that he was their man. As a result of following due process and casting a wide initial net - they got an absolute bear of a recruiter...

THAT is how things are done. That is not how it was done at UNH. There is a HUGE difference in the processes followed by the two schools. UNH asked the outgoing coach to hand-pick a replacement and never even considered considering additional names.

https://dailyfreepress.com/blog/2013/03/20/search-is-on-for-next-bu-hockey-coach/

 

[Dan]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

Maybe if I had seen the down 5-3 PP work early, I would not have been so irate. So, file that one as another lack of in-game adjustments when other coaches obviously had figured out a strategy to defend against it.

That's the problem - it did work early. They scored on that set-up one of the first-times they trotted it out this season. It was a nice idea to start with. Then opponents adjusted, but UNH has never back, because it worked once...

The worst was the 5x4 PP - teams started confronting the points on the PP after UNH (Gildon especially) had so much success getting pucks to the net. UNH failed to adjust for a LONG period of time. Finally, they did adjust - as Watcher noted - by taking Gildon and Maass off the top PP and replacing them with Boyd and the first-unit forwards who haven't had PP success all season. Now Gildon and Maass, UNH's two best QB's are playing 30 seconds a PP or so. Its mind-boggling. Its why Ref is right to have an issue with the PP. Its why the PP is 9-for its last-69 (13%)...

The PP worked the last two years because they had superior talent in TK and AP - wheeling around the zone until they found someone with an open look and put the puck directly on their tape. They have not been able to scheme up a PP, or properly adjust when needed, in years...

 

[Scarlet]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

Wow your ability to misconstrue message board posts and take everything personally is unmatched on USCHO - and that is an impressive feat. The point of the post was that you're good, even if not as good as you wish to be. Your coach is winning at a .640-ish clip with his own players and it is not good enough. Thats a fan base essentially 'annointing' itself as deserving more. Its not a slander, and has nothing to do with pre-season rankings, just a point - so don't take it as anything more.

Instead, calm down and and work on your overall reading comprehension. This is at least the third time in a year you've completely misread a post of mine and thrown a tantrum (out of, three times we've ever crossed paths)...

You posted:

BU fans like to complain because they anoint themselves as the favorites every pre-season and have then turned out to be just another very good team each year.

What did I misunderstand there?

 

[Darius]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

What did I misunderstand there?

That the best we can do is anoint our team to (((maybe))) winning on the road in the 1st round.

 

[Darius]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

The PP worked the last two years because they had superior talent in TK and AP - wheeling around the zone until they found someone with an open look and put the puck directly on their tape. They have not been able to scheme up a PP, or properly adjust when needed, in years...

A favorite of many good Coach Umile weekend moments was joking with a former player, asking what it would take for him to come back and coach the team on backdoor PP positioning. He responded, "I lived there!" I said, "Yeah, I know, that's why I'm asking." Clearly he had not observed our PP recently.

 

[Dan]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

What did I misunderstand there?

Just the entire point and overall context of the post. Its actually perfect that you quoted JUST that sentence in your response - because when you read the post the first time you focused only on that one sentence and completely missed what was actually being said. I bet you zeroed in on that sentence and yelped, "I can be offended by that!". Who cares what the other sentences discussed, right? At least this time, yes, you read the words correctly - next time focus on the broader context as to what those words mean...

If BU fans have such an issue with a .640 winning percentage from their coach - it means they think they should be winning more. If BU fans are unhappy with bowing out in an OT regional it means they believe their season deserves a top-4 finish at worst. That would lead some to think they believe they should be a favorite and they're underachieving. Its not difficult...

 

[Scarlet]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

Just the entire point and overall context of the post. Its actually perfect that you quoted JUST that sentence in your response - because when you read the post the first time you focused only on that one sentence and completely missed what was actually being said. I bet you zeroed in on that sentence and yelped, "I can be offended by that!". Who cares what the other sentences discussed, right? At least this time, yes, you read the words correctly - next time focus on the broader context as to what those words mean...

I read your whole post, understood it and actually agree with it. However, you had to throw in the comment about BU fans to make your point and that's what I was commenting on. Apologies it bothered you so much. You apparently have an issue when it comes to me so I will step out of this conversation. For the life of me I can't recall ever commenting on anything you post but it's obvious I struck a sensitive nerve. Good luck the rest of the way.

 

[Dan]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

LOL, I'm not sensitive. I'm observant - and I've certainly noticed something about you...

http://board.uscho.com/showthread.p...52&highlight=dan+bu+scarlet+quinn#post6466152
**(Posts 172-174)

In all seriousness, Chickod, let me know how you think you and other BU fans would have acted if the BU admin had not acted in the best interests of the program and instead let Parker set his retirement date (at least 3 more seasons down the road) and pick his own (inexperienced) successor...

How on earth is David Quinn "inexperienced" in coaching? He was Parker's Associate head Coach. He was also an assistant coach at Northeastern, University of Nebraska-Omaha and was head coach of the U17 team. I think that's a solid resume. How experienced is Mike Souza?

I agree. Quinn has a lot of experience and Souza has little. That's why I said exactly that...

I think BU Fan 84 said it best at the time...

Wow, after your response to my post in the BU vs NU QF thread and this quoted gem, I've learned you are really bad with reading comprehension.

Anyway, bye...

 

[Felger]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

I thank my lucky stars everyday for that Jumbotron and all the help it has given us in recruiting. Just imagine how bad things would be without the shot in the arm that panacea brought us.

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

I thank my lucky stars everyday for that Jumbotron and all the help it has given us in recruiting. Just imagine how bad things would be without the shot in the arm that panacea brought us.

Well, at least we've got that going for us.

 

[Snively65]

I read your whole post, understood it and actually agree with it. However, you had to throw in the comment about BU fans to make your point and that's what I was commenting on. Apologies it bothered you so much. You apparently have an issue when it comes to me so I will step out of this conversation. For the life of me I can't recall ever commenting on anything you post but it's obvious I struck a sensitive nerve. Good luck the rest of the way.

Just like the sensitive nerve that chickod tried to strike by mocking me/us for not being rich enough to attend a private college such as BU, or words to that effect. The BU threads must be incredibly boring (BORRRR-RINGGG, as the Cornell fans chant), for Terrier fans to be constantly trolling our threads.

 

[chickod]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

Just like the sensitive nerve that chickod tried to strike by mocking me/us for not being rich enough to attend a private college such as BU, or words to that effect. The BU threads must be incredibly boring (BORRRR-RINGGG, as the Cornell fans chant), for Terrier fans to be constantly trolling our threads.

Well at first I was going to follow the sage advice of my Dad, who would always say to me, "Consider the source...then ignore it." But I can't. Because you have GOT to be kidding me. Are you on drugs? Seriously. You don't know one ****ing thing about me so I don't know what you are trying to stir up. And I am NOT going to go back and look through all of my posts in an attempt to ascertain what you might be referring to. No doubt you misinterpreted what I said (which seems to be a theme today).

I don't "mock" anyone. My parents worked their a**es off to put me through school. Fortunately, it was only $3000/year when I attended. It's too bad you have to "incite" discord with someone who, first of all, you don't even know (or know ANYTHING about), and second, who has taken a genuine interest in your program and tries to make periodic contributions. If you want to call that "trolling" then I can't explain the difference to you. Are you "BlackI" (the person on the Maine thread who tells everyone to "keep out of our thread and cheer for your own team")?

Why would I waste my time doing that? But, since you brought it up, you know what? Fine. You won't hear from me again. Good luck to you all. And Snively, you can go **rew yourself.