Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Final 11 games…..
UConn away
UConn away
Mack away
UConn home
Vermont away
#12 Lowell home
Maine away
Maine away
Mack home
#12 Lowell home
#12 Lowell away
A team from the early 2000’s would be looking at that back half of the schedule licking their chops. For the 21/22 version, it should be a nice test of what this developing team is. A good run likely gets us somewhere near the top 20 in PWR. A wobbly finish likely lands us at around 40. (Since hardware is not likely how this team will be measured, I’ll go with PWR as a proxy for advancement).
I’ll lay my predictions out here for craps and giggles…
Split with UConn away
Beat Mack away
Beat UConn at home
Beat Vermont away
Lose to Lowell at home
Win and a tie at Alfond
Beat Mack at home
Split the final Lowell series
7-3-1 to finish the season at 18-13-2. That’s certainly glass-half-full thinking, but I’m having what Mr. Sheen is having!!
I like your thinking on this, 'dc. Here's the problem ... which UNH team will show up to play those final 11 RS games? If it's the team that's played the last two-plus weekends, your predictions are quite realistic, and could even be conservative. But getting something out of 4 of the next 5 games seems crucial, then getting something out of 4 of the final 6 games, ditto.
But if it returns to the same form as the team that went down a mediocre path in late 2021, then it could be just .500 down the stretch, and whatever momentum may have been built over these last few games can easily go pffffttttt.
I want to be an optimist. Huard and Devlin, plus Robinson, all seem to have lifted the team in recent weeks.
If UNH does better than a split this coming weekend, that would be a great signal.
The UML and UConn games shape up as the most challenging of the batch. The remaining 5 games could be classified as the "cupcakes", but you just know UNH will trip up in at least one of those games, possibly more.
I'll plunk down on a 6-4-1 finish, including losses to UML, UConn and UMaine, which gets UNH to .500 in the league, 3 games over .500 overall, and out of the NCAA's. With a strong HEA tourney showing in a very weird HEA season, it could make for a very interesting March. Which would make for a nice change ...
