Re: UNH Wildcats 2019/2020 Ready to Rock and Roll!!
What's with the lights going out after every UNH goal? Our group voted 4 - 0 to keep the lights ON. Geez, you can't even see the players, let alone the fish. Or maybe the fish will go the way of Black Betty. (I thought UNH was "sustainable" - why are you wasting all that energy re-lighting?)
When UNH scores fans want to SEE what's going on, not be subject to an inept, useless light show!
IIRC it wasn't that long ago when the lighting at The Whitt was upgraded. I seem to recall before that, on a few occasions when power was interrupted, it took several minutes to get up to full luminescence again.
As pointed out by others here, this "lights out" is done elsewhere in HE. It would be nice if UNH came up with something original, and not just "follow the leader" on gimmicky stuff like this. Whatever.
Give me winning hockey, and the rest just pales by comparison, fades into obscurity, etc.
Gildon has matured and is now avoiding the mistakes he made as a younger player. As Dan points out (and I've agreed all along), Gildon has been the most talented player in the program since his first day as a frosh. And as Greg points out … much is expected of those who have the talent that Gildon has, and there is a long list of players beyond those mentioned in the thread here who have been "that guy" to take the heat when they didn't live up to their billing. It does go with the territory.
Of the various names Dan put out there as similar to Gildon because they were derided for not delivering the goods, really only JVR is comparable, and he was already gone by this point in his career, while Gildon is still here. There's already a fairly decent argument that Gildon has impacted the UNH program more positively than JVR did, and he's not even a quarter of the way into his junior season. JVR certainly had more talent around him than Gildon does, but it seems pretty clear MS7 has begun to infuse his program with more depth in talent than we've seen for at least the last 5 years.
It will be interesting to see how this season plays out, and what Gildon can accomplish, both individually and as a dynamic on-ice presence for this year's Cats. I'd love to see them get some quality postseason experience, and maybe - and I realize this is more and hope than likely reailty - Gildon will become one of those cherished 4 year players we don't see enough of these days. Give the kid a reason to return - successful year, compelling games late in the season, more talent coming in, and a legitimate shot at doing something special with his teammates next season as well. If he continues to develop - and it seems he's made that next adjustment, where other teams started to target and sit on him more often last season, and now he's adapted his game to that - he's young enough, and maybe Florida will see some benefit in keeping him where he is right now.
I wouldn't bet the house on it, and I realize the smart money is he'll leave as Pesce did after his junior year. But a lot of folks on here thought he would be gone after last season, and he's still here.
I guess the best approach is, enjoy and appreciate what he's doing, and hopefully further program growth and progression, and further development of Gildon's game, will see us "luck out" with a 4 year career to remember, a la Krog, Mowers, Bogey, and a Chicago draft pick from roughly 20 years ago who calls the shots nowadays.
