UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

[Greg A]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Now that that is off my chest - the best long-time USCHO poster no longer posting is DaBigBadCow / I don't think UNH was ever really in on Gilles (we can argue whether that was the right decision later) because they already had DiGi, DeSmith and a cheap, but capable goalie in Wyer. They hoped to wait on adding another scholarship goalie / Downing's 50 goals compared to other UNH scorers shows how talented he really is and how much of his own offense he had to create! He didn't play with great play makers and didn't rack up assists playing with other scorers / Dean Woodman didn't get enough credit when that great early 90s class was discussed - kid was SMOOTH, should have stayed in school...

Cow is now the women's hockey coach at Franklin Peirce. He started the program from scratch 4 years ago and has won 20+ games in each of the last three years. He has been known to lurk in the corridors of the Whit in October before his season gets going. A very insightful poster back in the day.

 

[Dan]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Snively, it has bothered me no end that we don't have as a focus the recruiting of New Hampshire kids, for two reasons. First, we have lost out on a lot of good players over the years, Freddy Meyer, Lee Blossom, and the Guiliani kid from Nashua as examples.

John Rheault (Providence), Mark Fayne (PC), Brandon Rogers (Michigan), Broc Little (Yale), Ben Lovejoy (BC-Dartmouth), Zach Sanford (BC), Joey Dudek (BC), Ryan Bliss (Cornell), Conner & Danny Moynihan (OMJHL) - just off the top of my head...

I fully believe that the biggest hurdle to UNH's recruiting are self-limiting, but firm beliefs by the coaching staff. Whether it be how they perceive local talent, the areas they target for recruiting or the type of recruits they think they are deserving of.

I think they beat themselves by overlooking NH talent (there's quite a bit of big time recruits listed above), zeroing in on certain pipelines for better or worse (worse lately - NJ, MD) or avoiding the targeting of top prospects.

I may be wrong on that last point - they landed JVR and they reportedly were close on Gaudreau - but the fact that UNH is SO rarely mentioned for top recruits makes me think that they write those kids off as kids they can't get. Essentially saying no for the prospect, which to me would be unforgivable.

All of the above is just more evidence that younger coaches are needed - at least in the assistants role - if for no other reason than younger assistants tending to think they can convince anyone recruit to attend any school because they're young and idealistic. Meanwhile, older coaches get jaded...

 

[Dan]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Take a look at this article from USHR - apparently UNH attracts this type of talent to its team camp every year. Anyone notice a particular common theme among the participants?

http://www.ushr.com/news/20130802/4955?label=Top+‘99s+and+‘00s+at+UNH+Camp

Now, some are already committed when they come to camp and some have not yet committed - but why is UNH never an option? Did/have they ever even offered ANY of these kids? Are they not blue collar enough? Does UNH have hard and fast policy on avoiding potential MJ kids after Bourque (they haven't come close to a controversial kid since)? Are they afraid to recruit against the bigger programs (they may not get all or many, but wouldn't some be better than not trying)? Or do they do all the right things and simply lose every battle?

Whatever the answer is - its not hard to see why the program is where it is...

 

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

As far as Gillies goes, I seem to recall that UNH opted for DeSmith over him. That might be a convenient explanation for losing out on a kid but I do remember that story going around. The larger frustration for me anyway is that in all the years that I have been following UNH, they have never had the son of a former player on the team. I can think of a few offspring who did pay college hockey - Dave Sheen's son Colin (BU), Bruce Crowder's son Scott (UMass), Bill Beaney's son (forget name) who played at Princeton, and I think Gordie Clark had a son who played at Northeastern. From what I can tell Gillies is the best of these offspring so the fact that he is playing someplace else is doubly frustrating. And just like the recruitment of NH kids, I think former players would look more favorably on the school if they could see that a son from this special family was playing at UNH.

Sheen was the only one worthy of recruiting. And with Gillies, I know the father was not a stellar character while at UNH, so perhaps that played into it -- I regularly kill the team for recruiting failures, but know a bit about the father, I have no problems not recruiting the son. Also, Gillies was thought to be a significant flight risk to the Quebec league, and with the family issues, perhaps the team perceived a significant flight risk. With just two goalies, losing one that you have had in the pipeline would ruin the goalie situation for a while. (Ironically, who knew DeSmith would have legal issues cause him to leave early.)

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

I think Gordie Clark had a son who played at Northeastern.

Not sure how many kids Clark has but he did have one son Brendon that went to Merrimack. He is currently a local scout for the Rangers under Gordie's director of personnel scope.

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Cow is now the women's hockey coach at Franklin Peirce. He started the program from scratch 4 years ago and has won 20+ games in each of the last three years. He has been known to lurk in the corridors of the Whit in October before his season gets going. A very insightful poster back in the day.

Fantastic, good for him. His more prolific days on the board bring us back to the glory days here once again. The battles between him and eaglebunny were good reading.

 

[Snively65]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

I mostly post on SOG to get Chuck and e.cat going, as they would not bite on FOW (face offs won). I will take a 5-minute major for instigating.

Looking forward to my first Schneider visit tonight; hope that tickets will be available at the door.

 

[Greg A]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Sheen was the only one worthy of recruiting. And with Gillies, I know the father was not a stellar character while at UNH, so perhaps that played into it -- I regularly kill the team for recruiting failures, but know a bit about the father, I have no problems not recruiting the son. Also, Gillies was thought to be a significant flight risk to the Quebec league, and with the family issues, perhaps the team perceived a significant flight risk. With just two goalies, losing one that you have had in the pipeline would ruin the goalie situation for a while. (Ironically, who knew DeSmith would have legal issues cause him to leave early.)

Bruce Gillies was somewhat of a wild man at UNH, no doubt, but so have plenty of others been, past and present. I can believe they shyed away from the kid because he might go to Quebec, but not because his father got in some campus scrapes.

 

[The Zlax45]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

I mostly post on SOG to get Chuck and e.cat going, as they would not bite on FOW (face offs won). I will take a 5-minute major for instigating.

Looking forward to my first Schneider visit tonight; hope that tickets will be available at the door.

PC hoops is playing at the same time as the hockey game...People rather stay home to watch the PRO college sports team in the city over going to the hockey game.

 

[The Zlax45]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

John Rheault (Providence), Mark Fayne (PC), Brandon Rogers (Michigan), Broc Little (Yale), Ben Lovejoy (BC-Dartmouth), Zach Sanford (BC), Joey Dudek (BC), Ryan Bliss (Cornell), Conner & Danny Moynihan (OMJHL) - just off the top of my head...

I fully believe that the biggest hurdle to UNH's recruiting are self-limiting, but firm beliefs by the coaching staff. Whether it be how they perceive local talent, the areas they target for recruiting or the type of recruits they think they are deserving of.

I think they beat themselves by overlooking NH talent (there's quite a bit of big time recruits listed above), zeroing in on certain pipelines for better or worse (worse lately - NJ, MD) or avoiding the targeting of top prospects.

I may be wrong on that last point - they landed JVR and they reportedly were close on Gaudreau - but the fact that UNH is SO rarely mentioned for top recruits makes me think that they write those kids off as kids they can't get. Essentially saying no for the prospect, which to me would be unforgivable.

All of the above is just more evidence that younger coaches are needed - at least in the assistants role - if for no other reason than younger assistants tending to think they can convince anyone recruit to attend any school because they're young and idealistic. Meanwhile, older coaches get jaded...

Tim Schaller from Merrimack, NH also went to PC and is in the NHL now..

 

[Greg A]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Take a look at this article from USHR - apparently UNH attracts this type of talent to its team camp every year. Anyone notice a particular common theme among the participants?

http://www.ushr.com/news/20130802/4955?label=Top+‘99s+and+‘00s+at+UNH+Camp

Now, some are already committed when they come to camp and some have not yet committed - but why is UNH never an option? Did/have they ever even offered ANY of these kids? Are they not blue collar enough? Does UNH have hard and fast policy on avoiding potential MJ kids after Bourque (they haven't come close to a controversial kid since)? Are they afraid to recruit against the bigger programs (they may not get all or many, but wouldn't some be better than not trying)? Or do they do all the right things and simply lose every battle?

Whatever the answer is - its not hard to see why the program is where it is...

Your points are well taken. NH kids, kids who come to the camp, and the failure to sign any of them, is a failure. Just have never understood it. UNH is the state school. The greatest native UNH player ever was Frank Roy (Berlin) and he graduated in 1979. You know, UNH is not really thought well of in many parts of the state, witness the constant budget cuts emanating from Concord. I know that higher education should be more about academics than athletics, but I also know that a warm and fuzzy feeling among the natives can be brought about if high profile athletic teams are successful. And I would think even more so if they were led by kids who come from Manchester, Concord, Laconia, etc.

As far as the camp goes, my guess is these kids are invited partially because they can look around the campus, interact with some of the coaches and maybe decide UNH isn't a bad place to park yourself for 2, 3, 4 years. If you're not making the effort to recruit these kids, why bother inviting them.

Missed opportunities on both scores.

 

[C-H-C]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

2018 UNH recruit Joel Farabee and the Selects Hockey Academy U16 team played at the Whittemore Center in October, 2014 as part of the Fall Beantown Classic. Farabee verbally committed to UNH two months later:

http://unhhockeyblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/joel-farabee-becomes-unhs-youngest.html

 

[walrus]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Cow is now the women's hockey coach at Franklin Peirce. He started the program from scratch 4 years ago and has won 20+ games in each of the last three years. He has been known to lurk in the corridors of the Whit in October before his season gets going. A very insightful poster back in the day.

Talked him all the time when he was at Maine, good guy, good to hear he is doing well.

 

[Snively65]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Prov'd has a nice arena, and a jumbotron, but no clam chowdah.

Good first period, even up 10-10 SOG (sorry, Dan). Tirone got some help from two shots that clanked the cross bar and post.

Tirone played great in second, as Friars now up 30-17 in SOG.

UNH evened up extracurricular activities by winning the balloon contest during second intermission.

 

[e.cat]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Chuck *wins* because despite all this statistical hogwash, UNH finished 8th in the league (and that was with a late push to get them out of 10th/11th where they spent most of the season), and just with the last game finally got to the exalted .500 level.

As the noted philosopher Herm Edwards once so succinctly said ... "You play to win the game". And SOG's win you nothing. Just a meaningless statistical diversion. This is hockey - not baseball.

Just for kicks ... go check out the SOG for/against data on the 1980's Edmonton Oilers, and let me know what you find.

Why do I get the sense that the 80's oilers might be an outlier?

It may take me a couple days but I'll check it and others. My sense is the NHL is a bit more defensive oriented than the NCAA and teams focus more on keeping opps SOG low. I would bet in the NHL the team that wins SOG wins the game for the most part.

BTW, that illustrious philosopher Wayne Gretsky is quoted as saying "you can't score if you don't shoot."

 

[sterlippo1]

Prov'd has a nice arena, and a jumbotron, but no clam chowdah.

Good first period, even up 10-10 SOG (sorry, Dan). Tirone got some help from two shots that clanked the cross bar and post.

Tirone played great in second, as Friars now up 30-17 in SOG.

UNH evened up extracurricular activities by winning the balloon contest during second intermission.

Yes! Even after one but a 20-7 advantage for PC in second . Long way to go for 'cats to catch up !

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Looks like this one is going to OT. Thank goodness you-know-what isn't the tiebreaker.

 

[Snively65]

Yes! Even after one but a 20-7 advantage for PC in second . Long way to go for 'cats to catch up !

Ha! Willows had a great chance to tie the game when he went in alone on Gillies with 2.5 minutes left, and Kelleher converted on PP about a minute later. But, point taken, as Tirone is standing on his head tonight. Friars up 42-23 SOG in regulation. Great game! Forgot to mention earlier that UNH fans may be outnumbered, but we have the cowbell.

My other team going to OT also tonight, 0-0.

 

[Snively65]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Annnnnndddd, Chuck wins!

 

[chickod]

Re: UNH Wildcats Official Wait til Next Year...14/15 thread

Great job! Finish 'em off tomorrow night!