As a season ticket holder for 25+ and lurker here for over a decade, I have really enjoyed the posts and analysis by everyone here over the years. I agree with nearly all of your post Dutchman. With the losses to Vermont, UMass x2, Omaha x2, and the general play of the ECAC out-of-conference it seems that, for practical purposes, Union is not going to make it as an at-large team (barring something like a 13-1 finish). Thus, we have to focus our attention on improving for March. While still early, it appears that Clarkson, Cornell, Colgate, Union and Harvard are the teams most in contention for a top 4 spot (although I still think QPac/Princeton are dangerous). As it would be much preferred to be a #4 home team or better, rather than a #5 away team in the second round, our 2 games vs Harvard and Colgate, in particular, will be crucial.
Our losses to BU, Minny, and Mich Tech were nearly expected with such a young team. I agree that our performance vs Vermont and UMass were disappointing. Our hot streak was then a pleasant surprise and fantastic to watch. But, after watching the past few weeks and in hindsight, it does appear, however, that we knocked off some poor teams and some teams that haven’t quite yet played to their potential (QPac/Princeton). We had a great weekend out in North Dakota and it was one we can hang our hat on. Strong performance in which we finished our opportunities- as any good team must. But it also appeared NoDak controlled periods of play and on different weekends they likely would have been victorious. That seemed to come to light even more this weekend vs Omaha- another very good team.
It seems to me that to be a true contender we lack one additional player who can create their own shot and score consistently. Supinski seems to be the best at that and Rinaldi has vastly improved in that category. I was hoping Luc Brown would become that, and while he has the potential, he has not done so quite yet. Scarfo, Maier, Vidmar are all terrific players who have put the puck in the net. They are a crucial part of our team. But they do not always strike me as players who can create their own scoring opportunities and finish when necessary, at least not the way a Foo or Vecchione did (I know, tough shoes to fill). I also think one additional puck handling defenseman would also be an asset. Obviously, Foo and DeSimone both somewhat unexpectedly left and would fill those two criteria.
That is not to say I haven’t been impressed by our team so far. I thought we had a terrific freshman class with some great Soph/Jrs. I expected this to be a semi-rebuilding year. But this team has performed equal to or exceeded my expectations for this year. And we are still very young with players improving everyday. With the return of Vidmar and (hopefully?) Supinski, and a great deal of room for improvement for our younger players- who have already performed solidly- we have the potential to cause havoc come March if we continue to improve. Perhaps by then one more of our young players will step up to be consistent scoring threat. I am now optimistic for March and think we could have the ability to play with anyone in the ECAC.
Just a couple of random thoughts I have had over time……. We seem to be much better when we have puck moving, shifty defenders (Gostisbehere, Taylor, Bodie, DeSimone). In that respect I have high hopes for Kolias and Campolieto. And even to some extent Estes considering he is a freshman…….. we seem to consistently struggle on the PP vs teams that attack our point men aggressively compared to those opponents who sit back……. Leaman (one of the best coaches in college) built a terrific program. I was somewhat concerned that Bennett was riding his coattail in recruiting and player development the Nat’l Champ year. That is not to say it doesn’t take a good coach to win a Nat’l Champ, I just wanted to see a couple of years to see what he could sustain. Since then he has been very impressive in his coaching and recruiting. I hope he never leaves. The Union athletic administration should be applauded for hiring and keeping fantastic coaches. And also a shout-out to Tapp for the terrific job he has done with the goaltenders over the years.