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UNH Wildcats 2018-2019: Souza the Opportunity or Louza the Opportunity

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Re: UNH Wildcats 2018-2019: Souza the Opportunity or Louza the Opportunity

Terrific bounce-back weekend for the 'Cats, and an indicator there is a little more fight left in the team after a tough weekend vs. Northeastern. Getting 3 out of a possible 4 points against a UMass-Lowell squad that's literally fighting for its NCAA Tourney life was no small feat. Now there's a further chance to go down to St. Botolph St. and give a better accounting of themselves against a possibly overconfident NU squad. Even another tie would give the 'Cats some momentum heading into the HE Quarters, and a 4 points from 5 games finish would nail my prediction. Personally, I'm rooting for e-cat to be right with a 2-2-1 (5 point) finish. :)

We also saw Coach Souza go with Robinson on both nights (and that certainly paid off) rather than giving TT one final start, so it's fair to say that (barring injury or other such catastrophe), the 3rd period blitz against NU last weekend will put a cap on his freshman season. He can't say he wasn't given chances, but it looks like in retrospect, TT's frosh season was mostly a dud (or chalk it up to a learning experience), and he's got a challenge in front of him over the next six-plus months to get ready to try to stake a claim for a bigger role in the 'Cats' 2019/2020 season. Robinson has made it tough for him, no doubt, and there's little reason to think Robinson won't be back (and likely even better) for next season.

Couldn't care less whether UNH faces UMass or PC in two weeks' time. Still kind of hoping to match up with UMass, and testing their (lack of) post-season mettle.

If nothing else happens this year, it's still been a good season for UNH, floating around .500 after three hellacious seasons in a row, and ridding themselves of the bas-team stank they finished up last season with. Reasonably, I think that's all we could've hoped for at the start of the season, and certainly gives Coach Souza and his staff something positive to point to when they resume recruiting. Thanks guys! :)
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2018-2019: Souza the Opportunity or Louza the Opportunity

NU has losses to Merrimack & UConn, earlier THIS season. No way will they be over confident taking on any UNH squad. If anything, they should play with added intensity & discipline (no matter the final seedings), hopefully take care of business & get into playoff mentality with our final regular season game. No easy nights in H.E.
 
wildcatdc said:
Few stats in support of your statement....

- 59 other teams in D1 have averaged 3.44 ties this season
- With us in the mix, that number jumps to 3.56 ties
- our 9 ties are 5.3 standard deviations from the mean

Crazy crazy year. Only five other teams have more than 5 ties, with 7 being the tops.
Click to expand...

Amazing, eh?

Some would argue that many of these ties should have been wins. But, I would argue that many of these ties could have been losses. So, overall, an improved regular season, even if we do not reach 14 wins.
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2018-2019: Souza the Opportunity or Louza the Opportunity

northeastern said:
NU has losses to Merrimack & UConn, earlier THIS season. No way will they be over confident taking on any UNH squad. If anything, they should play with added intensity & discipline (no matter the final seedings), hopefully take care of business & get into playoff mentality with our final regular season game. No easy nights in H.E.
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Theoretically, of course, you would be correct. In the real world, though … Northeastern just rang up eleven (11) unanswered goals ("only" ten if we don't count an ENG) against an overmatched UNH team weekend before last. I don't care how much you try to prepare yourself not to be overconfident, but when you've just had that kind of dominant success against an opponent, it's going to be there - at the very least, subconsciously. I mean, look at the way things played out during that recent weekend:

* On the Friday, UNH goes up 3-1 in its own barn. Midway through the second period, NU literally turned the switch, and they were uber-dominant in pulling away for a 6-3 win;
* A day later, UNH hangs close for the better part of two full periods, but NU comes out and wipes them out in the 3rd period, when (theoretically) two evenly-matched teams should otherwise be scrapping to get two points towards better HE tourney positioning.

In both games, NU arguably went through the motions for half of the game, then found another gear UNH couldn't match. If there isn't some degree of subconscious OR conscious overconfidence on their part, I'd worry about the general intelligence of the Huskies' roster. That dominance wasn't an accident.

The big issue next weekend will be, does UNH take advantage of the passages in the game when NU won't be at their best? To some degree, they did in the Friday game. If they can do that again, and then realize they're going to have to dig in and make a lead stand up - kind of like what they did this past weekend against Lowell - and not fall into the "Hey, look at us, we're two goals up on the Beanpot champs, how good are we now?!?" trap they fell into in that Friday game, they could get something out of the game. But if NU plays its best for 60 minutes, UNH hasn't shown its ability to match that kind of play this season. Yet. :)
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2018-2019: Souza the Opportunity or Louza the Opportunity

How I see Friday: the good news is UNH played UML tough for two games, and, could've won Saturday. They played just as hard hitting game as they got! The bad news is....they're playing NU who is gearing up for a big run (most likely) in the post season. The possibility of beating them is there and it depends on how NU handles whatever UNH throws at them, and, can UNH match that intensity throughout. We tied them there last season (but then there was that next game) so I'm thinking it's up to the 'Cats entirely. We haven't won at the 'DogHouse' in awhile so now's as good a time as any!! Not sure if we will have Wyse back (am doubting it) or Grasso; think they are both playoff holdouts.

Never the less it's a possibility to grab 7th depending on how BC does with PC. It's a long shot but it's out there. Possibilities for this time of the year are good things; we will still be skating after Friday regadless!! Go 'Cats!!
 
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Re: UNH Wildcats 2018-2019: Souza the Opportunity or Louza the Opportunity

Getting back to the powerplay.

The one thing I think could improve the powerplay conversion rate is placing a big body in the low slot to take away the vision of the goalie. The two most likely candidates for this role would be Vela or BvR, but I think the best candidate would be Wyse. He is the biggest body on the team. I think he would embrace the opportunity to be in this role. I would put him on the powerplay unit that includes Gildon. When Gildon and Wyse are both healthy they have been defense partners as of late. Also, this would help with the work/rest ratio of the defensemen and help to get the defense pairings back in order coming out of the powerplay. The powerplay unit with Maas on it place Vela and/or BvR in the low slot to do the screening. I feel the goal scoring chances on the powerplay would increase tremendously if this were to happen. We need to find a way to score more goals!

Thoughts?
 
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Chuck Murray said:
Couldn't care less whether UNH faces UMass or PC in two weeks' time. Still kind of hoping to match up with UMass, and testing their (lack of) post-season mettle. :)
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I think you are underrating UMass and overrating PC Chuck. Until UMass actually falters you have to assume that they are going to continue to be prolific. Plus UNH has had a habit over the years, even when they were clearly better, of not performing well at UMass. As for Providence, they are indeed well coached but every time I see them play they appear to struggle scoring. Hawkey is a good goalie but I can see UNH winning down there. Of course,in order to play Providence we would have to beat Northeastern at Matthews, a very tall order.
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2018-2019: Souza the Opportunity or Louza the Opportunity

Greg Ambrose said:
I think you are underrating UMass and overrating PC Chuck. Until UMass actually falters you have to assume that they are going to continue to be prolific.
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Could be, Greg. Then again, UMass has lost its last three games to ranked opponents ...
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2018-2019: Souza the Opportunity or Louza the Opportunity

Andrew Poturalski has 56 points this season, and is in 10th place in Checker's history for most goals in a season...there's 17 games left and he needs 19 points to do it! Call that boy up...good luck Andrew!
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2018-2019: Souza the Opportunity or Louza the Opportunity

HockeyRef said:
Andrew Poturalski has 56 points this season, and is in 10th place in Checker's history for most goals in a season...there's 17 games left and he needs 19 points to do it! Call that boy up...good luck Andrew!
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Do you want him to set a scoring record in Charlotte, or get the call to The Show? Unlikely both will happen, and with Carolina in the hunt for a rare playoff berth, barring injuries, I think he'll get his chance to set that record. :(

There's a lot of young guys ahead of him right now with the big club, so the fact that he hasn't been called up yet probably tells its own tale. I mentioned that earlier in the season, and the success Carolina is enjoying so far this season suggests he's in the wrong place at the wrong time. Talented, undersized player, but at least playing on the plus side of plus/minus this season … can't help but think it's another Darren Haydar scenario, unless Poturalski finds another organization where he'll get a legitimate chance. He's 25 yrs. old now, so it's gotta happen soon if he wants to have even a modest Krog-like NHL career.
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2018-2019: Souza the Opportunity or Louza the Opportunity

Chuck Murray said:
Do you want him to set a scoring record in Charlotte, or get the call to The Show? Unlikely both will happen, and with Carolina in the hunt for a rare playoff berth, barring injuries, I think he'll get his chance to set that record. :(

There's a lot of young guys ahead of him right now with the big club, so the fact that he hasn't been called up yet probably tells its own tale. I mentioned that earlier in the season, and the success Carolina is enjoying so far this season suggests he's in the wrong place at the wrong time. Talented, undersized player, but at least playing on the plus side of plus/minus this season … can't help but think it's another Darren Haydar scenario, unless Poturalski finds another organization where he'll get a legitimate chance. He's 25 yrs. old now, so it's gotta happen soon if he wants to have even a modest Krog-like NHL career.
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He has been called up once...short lived. Yeah..great forwards are always in surplus. Went to see him play last year when the team was in CT at the Excel Center...amazing. Hope he gets his shot... Speaking of the 'Canes...would love to be in Boston tonight but alas...have to watch it on the telly! Go B's!! (oh, and to answer your question, BOTH...if that's possible)
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2018-2019: Souza the Opportunity or Louza the Opportunity

JvR at 19+16=35 points in 50 games; with 16 games remaining, including two against middle bro TvR, Flyers chances for making postseason look shaky, 5 points out in 10th place.
 
Chuck Murray said:
Do you want him to set a scoring record in Charlotte, or get the call to The Show? Unlikely both will happen, and with Carolina in the hunt for a rare playoff berth, barring injuries, I think he'll get his chance to set that record. :(

There's a lot of young guys ahead of him right now with the big club, so the fact that he hasn't been called up yet probably tells its own tale. I mentioned that earlier in the season, and the success Carolina is enjoying so far this season suggests he's in the wrong place at the wrong time. Talented, undersized player, but at least playing on the plus side of plus/minus this season … can't help but think it's another Darren Haydar scenario, unless Poturalski finds another organization where he'll get a legitimate chance. He's 25 yrs. old now, so it's gotta happen soon if he wants to have even a modest Krog-like NHL career.
Click to expand...
Seen this movie before for too many UNH early departures!
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2018-2019: Souza the Opportunity or Louza the Opportunity

e.cat said:
Seen this movie before for too many UNH early departures!
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Agreed. Jeff Levy, Derek Bekar, Trevor Smith, Blake Kessel, just to name some of the most notable ones prior to Poturalski. I almost hesitate to include Smith, who did get some decent NHL service time in. And I'm not saying Poturalski won't get there, but the writing does appear to be on the wall with his current organization. IIRC he signed a two-way, one year deal last summer, so maybe he will be free to explore other options next season, if he so chooses (and he probably should).
 
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