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Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

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Dutchfan said:
Exactly. Nobody outside of the BU/BCs of the country is going to set the world on fire with seven freshmen in the lineup. The injuries and lack of development from the returnees just set things back even worse.
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Not that I disagree entirely, but the most frequent SLU roster has 8 first year players (one, Horn, is a soph transfer) and 6 sophomores, which if including our solid #2 goalie would make 7. ECAC teams have to work harder, but SLU is where it is because of the last two classes and should be better next year.
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

Got 6 said:
Not that I disagree entirely, but the most frequent SLU roster has 8 first year players (one, Horn, is a soph transfer) and 6 sophomores, which if including our solid #2 goalie would make 7. ECAC teams have to work harder, but SLU is where it is because of the last two classes and should be better next year.
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Greg Carvel has clearly done a great job with that group and has probably garnered several votes for CoTY.

Us Union fans can make all the excuses we want, but it boils down to executing and performance on the ice. Guys like Ciampini & Vecchione can't be blamed for Union's lack of success this year, but we all thought offense wasn't going to be an issue...which it wasn't...until now. Losing Bodie & Ghost hurt us in a number of ways, but losing the role players like Sullivan & Ikkala probably hurt more than people thought it would. Those two were arguably the unsung heroes of Union's championship run with their on-ice (and probably off-ice) leadership, combined with their grinding, work-ethic style of play. When you don't replace that, you're in trouble.

I do feel a little for Champ, Coatta, Novak, & Stevens - their senior year was quite anti-climactic compared to their junior year, but they will still have that trophy to look upon.

What I do like is the freshmen are starting to improve - Brassard, Desimone, & Scarfo have shown me something over the past month. I just hope with the incoming freshmen on D next year, we'll have a solid group of d-men, combined with the return to form (hopefully) of Taylor & Gingras.
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

aweise said:
Greg Carvel has clearly done a great job with that group and has probably garnered several votes for CoTY.
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A few votes? ... Not only should he get a few votes, he hands down should win the COTY. Absolutely 100% no questions asked about that one! The transformation of that team from one year to the next, after losing a tremendous amount of talent is astounding!! We went from the worst defensive team in the country to one of the best in one year, with a young defensive core to boot. Plus, he has that team ready to play each and every game at a level has many have not been able to match of late. Picked to finish 11th and finished in 2nd ... Yeah, to me, it seems like a pretty obvious choice?
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

aweise said:
Greg Carvel has clearly done a great job with that group and has probably garnered several votes for CoTY.

Us Union fans can make all the excuses we want, but it boils down to executing and performance on the ice. Guys like Ciampini & Vecchione can't be blamed for Union's lack of success this year, but we all thought offense wasn't going to be an issue...which it wasn't...until now. Losing Bodie & Ghost hurt us in a number of ways, but losing the role players like Sullivan & Ikkala probably hurt more than people thought it would. Those two were arguably the unsung heroes of Union's championship run with their on-ice (and probably off-ice) leadership, combined with their grinding, work-ethic style of play. When you don't replace that, you're in trouble.

I do feel a little for Champ, Coatta, Novak, & Stevens - their senior year was quite anti-climactic compared to their junior year, but they will still have that trophy to look upon.

What I do like is the freshmen are starting to improve - Brassard, Desimone, & Scarfo have shown me something over the past month. I just hope with the incoming freshmen on D next year, we'll have a solid group of d-men, combined with the return to form (hopefully) of Taylor & Gingras.
Click to expand...

Carr was key in last years team as well and Hatch another nice role player. The thing that has struck me most about this year is how unbalanced/inconsistant they are.
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

Got 6 said:
Not that I disagree entirely, but the most frequent SLU roster has 8 first year players (one, Horn, is a soph transfer) and 6 sophomores, which if including our solid #2 goalie would make 7. ECAC teams have to work harder, but SLU is where it is because of the last two classes and should be better next year.
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Well there is one team in the ECAC that doesn't seem to have much problem reloading with more A recruits than their roster can hold.. but thats a topic for another day ;)
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

Nottme said:
Carr was key in last years team as well and Hatch another nice role player. The thing that has struck me most about this year is how unbalanced/inconsistant they are.
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"Inconsistent" is probably the mantra for the 2014-2015 Union Dutchmen. They've had stretches where the offense was clicking, but the defense/goaltending wasn't...blowout losses right the night after a solid win...and defense playing well while they (literally) couldn't score. Sadly, it harkened me back to the early 2000s where they'd have games where they either couldn't do anything right or did everything right, but score.
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

Former Union forward Kevin Shier will be featured in an upcoming TSN production called Heroes' Welcome.... watch the trailer at: http://t.co/7Ig4gzSuic

TSN had a film crew at Messa back in November when Shier was honored before the game against Princeton.
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

aweise said:
Greg Carvel has clearly done a great job with that group and has probably garnered several votes for CoTY.

Us Union fans can make all the excuses we want, but it boils down to executing and performance on the ice. Guys like Ciampini & Vecchione can't be blamed for Union's lack of success this year, but we all thought offense wasn't going to be an issue...which it wasn't...until now. Losing Bodie & Ghost hurt us in a number of ways, but losing the role players like Sullivan & Ikkala probably hurt more than people thought it would. Those two were arguably the unsung heroes of Union's championship run with their on-ice (and probably off-ice) leadership, combined with their grinding, work-ethic style of play. When you don't replace that, you're in trouble.

I do feel a little for Champ, Coatta, Novak, & Stevens - their senior year was quite anti-climactic compared to their junior year, but they will still have that trophy to look upon.

What I do like is the freshmen are starting to improve - Brassard, Desimone, & Scarfo have shown me something over the past month. I just hope with the incoming freshmen on D next year, we'll have a solid group of d-men, combined with the return to form (hopefully) of Taylor & Gingras.
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Of course I agree with Saints#1 about COTY going to Canton. That one seems painfully obvious.

You can't replace guys like Bodie and Ghostisbehere. They logged probably 30 minutes a night for you guys and were dominant at both ends of the ice. I would happily trade 5 winning seasons for one NCAA title. You guys were absolutely awesome last year. The biggest issue is team defense for Union. The younger blueliners have not stepped up to fill some big shoes and I don't think the forwards are playing a system that will enable them to win consistently. As good as Ciampini and Vecchione are, perhaps, too much emphasis on scoring. Also, just my opinion, but Nate Leaman was a good coach, a good recruiter and he absolutely worked his *** off recruiting the older guys on that team. In my mind, he is one of the hardest working head coaches. I like Rick Bennett, but I have to say that there are questions in my mind about him to be able to rebuild the way Leaman did. Still, a new season starts a week from Friday...SLU has been in that position a lot, there is no doubt you could surprise some people in the second season.
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

Got 6 said:
Of course I agree with Saints#1 about COTY going to Canton. That one seems painfully obvious.

You can't replace guys like Bodie and Ghostisbehere. They logged probably 30 minutes a night for you guys and were dominant at both ends of the ice. I would happily trade 5 winning seasons for one NCAA title. You guys were absolutely awesome last year. The biggest issue is team defense for Union. The younger blueliners have not stepped up to fill some big shoes and I don't think the forwards are playing a system that will enable them to win consistently. As good as Ciampini and Vecchione are, perhaps, too much emphasis on scoring. Also, just my opinion, but Nate Leaman was a good coach, a good recruiter and he absolutely worked his *** off recruiting the older guys on that team. In my mind, he is one of the hardest working head coaches. I like Rick Bennett, but I have to say that there are questions in my mind about him to be able to rebuild the way Leaman did. Still, a new season starts a week from Friday...SLU has been in that position a lot, there is no doubt you could surprise some people in the second season.
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Well, my understanding is that Bennett had a huge hand in recruiting the guys that Leaman brought in. This isn't to say Nate doesn't deserve credit - he brought in a lot of guys that would have likely gotten little playing time at the big-time scholarship schools and built teams of team-players, but Rick Bennett was a key cog in the recruiting process.

While this season has been disappointing, I won't complain. As a friend told me the other night, we've got something that 58 other teams didn't get last April. I suppose this is almost like what Red Sox fans felt for the few years after 2004 - we finally won, so everyone gets a pass for the next 5 years. :cool:

I am always interested in the second season - this is the ECAC...anything can happen. Brown has seemingly found their stride and can be dangerous to a 6 or 7 seed. Union could finally start to consistently click and be as dangerous to the 6-7 seed, as well. It's rare in this league to see the expected results happen.
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

ECAC fans that make it to Lake Placid will look up to see very prominently displayed, the banners of the 12 ECAC teams and written on them are the years they have won the ECAC tournament going back, I believe to 1963. Some banners have many years listed like Cornell and Harvard and St. Lawrence and Clarkson. Three teams have no years listed, meaning they have never won an ECAC Tournament Championship. They are Brown, Dartmouth and I believe Quinnipiac. The Union Banner shows three years, the last three years. That winning of the ECAC tournament, three years in a row, is a program accomplishment that has only been achieved, since 1963, by two other programs, Cornell and Boston University, (although I think St. Lawrence has won two in a row on a few occasions). We have much to be proud of. Going forward I do not know what to expect. Given that we have scored 2 goals in our last five games, and have given up 14, probably not very much. I feel sorry for the freshmen. Everyone else on the team has been a member of last years national championship team and the tales they will tell to their grandchildren will be something else :)
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

Don't give up on this team.

Union has a goal against average of 1.5 in the last four games (empty netter excluded), and have outshot their opponents by 17 in that span. While Colin has made several big saves, he'd tell you he'd like two of those goals back.

I think we can expect Colin will continue to be good, and over time, shots correlate with goals. Union has run into exceptional goaltending, but in a three game series, I'll take Colin over any of the admittedly outstanding ECAC goalies. This Union team doesn't have the scoring depth to score five goals/game, but if they give up 1.5 a game, their win probably is high. Opponents know to look beyond game outcomes, and they know Union will be a handful in any playoff series.
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

aweise said:
Well, my understanding is that Bennett had a huge hand in recruiting the guys that Leaman brought in. This isn't to say Nate doesn't deserve credit - he brought in a lot of guys that would have likely gotten little playing time at the big-time scholarship schools and built teams of team-players, but Rick Bennett was a key cog in the recruiting process.

While this season has been disappointing, I won't complain. As a friend told me the other night, we've got something that 58 other teams didn't get last April. I suppose this is almost like what Red Sox fans felt for the few years after 2004 - we finally won, so everyone gets a pass for the next 5 years. :cool:

I am always interested in the second season - this is the ECAC...anything can happen. Brown has seemingly found their stride and can be dangerous to a 6 or 7 seed. Union could finally start to consistently click and be as dangerous to the 6-7 seed, as well. It's rare in this league to see the expected results happen.
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There is no doubt Bennett had a big hand in recruiting. I can just tell you that when Nate was at Union, I saw him very regularly at JR games on the east coast that I would attend. That's hard core to have games on Friday and Saturday and get in the car for a road trip on Sunday afternoon. He is a very hard worker and that has brought him good results.

As for the comparison to the Red Sox, it's probably more like the last one where they won it and then went from first to worst the next season. Not that Union is by any stretch the worst. I don't even want to play Union on Friday, let alone in the playoffs. Too much talent to overlook.
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

Vaportrail said:
Don't give up on this team.
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I wouldn't, either. This season hasn't been anything close to what was expected. But there's still a lot of big game experience in that locker room, and I have to think some of the higher seeds would be weary about taking Union on in the playoffs.
 
rdf8585 said:
I wouldn't, either. This season hasn't been anything close to what was expected. But there's still a lot of big game experience in that locker room, and I have to think some of the higher seeds would be weary about taking Union on in the playoffs.
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Rick and the senior class have still yet to lose an ECAC playoff game. The 2013 team was going through a pretty bad rut at this time of the season as well before things started clicking In the final regular season weekend at home against Clarkson/SLU. A repeat of that weekend could serve as a nice kickstart to some sort of playoff run for this team.
 
Re: Union College Hockey 2014-2015 "ReUnion 2015? Why "Nott"?

rdf8585 said:
I wouldn't, either. This season hasn't been anything close to what was expected. But there's still a lot of big game experience in that locker room, and I have to think some of the higher seeds would be weary about taking Union on in the playoffs.
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Key point right there...plus as Vaportrail pointed out, this team isn't giving up a lot of goals right now. Hot goaltending can result in quite a playoff run.

That said, Union still needs to find a way to put the puck in the net. The Brown & Cornell games (Yale to a lesser extent) had everything going well for them, but they just couldn't finish. They also had two GOLDEN chances to score at Starr Rink and didn't. These kind of results start making you squeeze the stick a little tighter and overthinking.
 
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