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University of Maine 2024–2025: Freel-ing good

Fishman'81 said:
I haven't seen every goalie in the nation, but he's the best I've seen with my own eyes. And he's easily the reason why Maine is where it is right now.

Two goals per game won't get you an NC as a general rule, but if Albin keeps doing what he's been doing, and Maine can find just a little more offense, the FF isn't out of the question.
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The 5v5 scoring lull is concerning, but I'm hoping that has to do with the recent quality of opponent. Unfortunately, there's no breaks in Hockey East. UConn is now #11 in the pairwise
 
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acs64 said:
Whats the word on Breen? Anybody hear what his injury was and timetable for return, or is he out for the season or what ?
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I saw him friday night at the game, he looked good, no limping or anything, walking good. He just said he was doing good and be back soon. Whatever that means.
 
Maine is 4th in goals per game in the country, so offense isn't a strictly problem. However, Maine shoots a lot for the goals it gets. Barr made the point about taking 40+ shots on goal to get 2 goals after the second Denver game. The forwards shot percentage make interesting reading. Scott has had 80 shots on goal this year for 21 goals (a 0.188). Freel is 59 for 9 (0.153). But Renwick has 29 for 6 (0.207). Shoot the puck Renwick! Breen was 20 for 5 (0.200). On the flip side, Scholle has 40 for 1 (0.025) and guys like Nadeau and Mitton are below .100.

It's tempting to say that Maine needs to improve its shooting/shot selection. Maine only has 7 skaters with a shot percentage above 0.100 (includes Djurasevic and Pichette, who has only dressed for 6). But BC only has 7, Michigan State has 8, and Denver has 9.
 
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I am less worried about goals scored as I am winning against good competition. Last year Maine fizzled out when the big games came. Maine is now winning tight low scoring games which is great experience for them. In a lot of ways I think the last 3 games have been as good as they've played all season. To get closer to mistake free hockey is important for the playoffs. A guy that seemingly played mistake free for the most part was Nobes as the 3rd pair RD. He seems much improved over last season. Let's hope for that to continue as it can sure up the defense if we have a 3rd pair that can play mistake free as well.

The only issue I see is if Boija goes down or gets sick. Berzins has been given only one start. He looked decent, so I would think they would want to get him some more battle time under his belt. Last year Boija was ill going up against Cornell and Maine had to rely on Ostman, who did not play that well the second half of the season and in that game. Would hate to see a similar scenario happen and Maine not having given Berzins enough time for him to be comfortable/confident.
 
Sparkee said:
I am less worried about goals scored as I am winning against good competition. Last year Maine fizzled out when the big games came. Maine is now winning tight low scoring games which is great experience for them. In a lot of ways I think the last 3 games have been as good as they've played all season. To get closer to mistake free hockey is important for the playoffs. A guy that seemingly played mistake free for the most part was Nobes as the 3rd pair RD. He seems much improved over last season. Let's hope for that to continue as it can sure up the defense if we have a 3rd pair that can play mistake free as well.
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I'm not necessarily worried, but it's something I'm watching. We have played 5 straight games scoring 2 or fewer goal if we exclude empty nets. The team is absolutely flying right now, so it's perplexing that the goals aren't following. But at the same time, your margin for error drops in low scoring games and fluky games like Bentley are more likely
 
I think part of it is just that Maine will eventually experience some positive regression to the mean in terms of shooting percentage; as demonstrated previously in this thread, a lot of Maine's skaters have some pretty low S%, and eventually those will go in a little more often.

Sparkee mentioned Nobes, and I agree he's worthy of a shoutout. But I also want to take a minute to give some props to his partner, Jack Dalton. I think he has also shown very noticeable improvement on last year, and he along with Nobes have really shored up the third D pair. I see Dalton as a guy that will keep getting better every year and by the time he's a senior, he will be an excellent player and possibly top pair capable. Kind of like how guys like Holt and Chabrier took big jumps in development and became key pieces. I view Komarov the same way, I think he will also be a guy who grows every year until he's part of the inner core.
 
amkirby10 said:
I think part of it is just that Maine will eventually experience some positive regression to the mean in terms of shooting percentage; as demonstrated previously in this thread, a lot of Maine's skaters have some pretty low S%, and eventually those will go in a little more often.

Sparkee mentioned Nobes, and I agree he's worthy of a shoutout. But I also want to take a minute to give some props to his partner, Jack Dalton. I think he has also shown very noticeable improvement on last year, and he along with Nobes have really shored up the third D pair. I see Dalton as a guy that will keep getting better every year and by the time he's a senior, he will be an excellent player and possibly top pair capable. Kind of like how guys like Holt and Chabrier took big jumps in development and became key pieces. I view Komarov the same way, I think he will also be a guy who grows every year until he's part of the inner core.
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How do you guys think Lesakowski has been playing ? I haven’t noticed many if any flubs recently. He’s soph right?
 
acs64 said:
How do you guys think Lesakowski has been playing ? I haven’t noticed many if any flubs recently. He’s soph right?
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He’s been playing well lately. Puck handling needs improvement. Often times whiffs on passes and other times doesn’t ceil the point tight enough. The pucks that get by him at the point in our ozone often turn into odd man rushes. But he has not had that happen lately. On the positive side I like how physical he is on the boards, can pin opposing forwards easy. He also can battle in front of Boija to clear the net front. I liked it when he and Nobes played together. I imagine they would gel into a solid 3rd pair.
 
walrus said:
Boija has been a stud, thats for sure. If Breen can come back maybe those 2 1 games become 3 1 games. Getting Josh going would help also.
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Josh has played pretty well lately, IMO, and I think that his points will come down the road.

I wonder how healthy he's been until recently. I suspect that he had some kind of nagging injury in the first half that slowed him down.
 
OronoKO said:
Maine is 4th in goals per game in the country, so offense isn't a strictly problem. However, Maine shoots a lot for the goals it gets. Barr made the point about taking 40+ shots on goal to get 2 goals after the second Denver game. The forwards shot percentage make interesting reading. Scott has had 80 shots on goal this year for 21 goals (a 0.188). Freel is 59 for 9 (0.153). But Renwick has 29 for 6 (0.207). Shoot the puck Renwick! Breen was 20 for 5 (0.200). On the flip side, Scholle has 40 for 1 (0.025) and guys like Nadeau and Mitton are below .100.

It's tempting to say that Maine needs to improve its shooting/shot selection. Maine only has 7 skaters with a shot percentage above 0.100 (includes Djurasevic and Pichette, who has only dressed for 6). But BC only has 7, Michigan State has 8, and Denver has 9.
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Nice job with that research. A good read.

I always tend to agree with The Great One, that 100% of the shots you don't take stay out of the net.

Maine's "shoot first and crash the net" mentality has worked lately.

"If it ain't broke..."
 
Sparkee said:
He’s been playing well lately. Puck handling needs improvement. Often times whiffs on passes and other times doesn’t ceil the point tight enough. The pucks that get by him at the point in our ozone often turn into odd man rushes. But he has not had that happen lately. On the positive side I like how physical he is on the boards, can pin opposing forwards easy. He also can battle in front of Boija to clear the net front. I liked it when he and Nobes played together. I imagine they would gel into a solid 3rd pair.
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Finally not taking as many boneheaded penalties too!

PS- Shout out to the ref who called that penalty on Renwick on Friday. AWFUL. He literally couldnt see the goalie coming out of the tunnel. I assume it was Hansen
 
Fishman'81 said:
Josh has played pretty well lately, IMO, and I think that his points will come down the road.

I wonder how healthy he's been until recently. I suspect that he had some kind of nagging injury in the first half that slowed him down.
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Josh is missing something huge in his game.

​​​​​​??? No idea what.
I thought maybe the renwick line just didnt fit with him.
But he was off prior to that.
​​​​​MUch better line with Mitton, imo.

His shots are missing by a hair, his puck handling and passing have been off, hes getting stripped and knocked off the puck too much, since he isnt carrying the puck well he hurries his passes resulting in a turnover.
Some games he appeared to me to not be all that motivated.
Injury, maybe.
I watched him practice a month ago or more and his shots were dead on.

He has been really good as the PP conductor lately.
He played better saturday than previous games so hopefully he gets rolling.
 
NorthMike said:
Josh is missing something huge in his game.

​​​​​​??? No idea what.
I thought maybe the renwick line just didnt fit with him.
But he was off prior to that.
​​​​​MUch better line with Mitton, imo.

His shots are missing by a hair, his puck handling and passing have been off, hes getting stripped and knocked off the puck too much, since he isnt carrying the puck well he hurries his passes resulting in a turnover.
Some games he appeared to me to not be all that motivated.
Injury, maybe.
I watched him practice a month ago or more and his shots were dead on.

He has been really good as the PP conductor lately.
He played better saturday than previous games so hopefully he gets rolling.
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The only aspect of his game that I'd change is that he draws contact too much for someone his size. Makes it easy to bump him off the puck and that extra punishment is just unnecessary.

Kind of figured from a self-preservation standpoint he would have learned from a lot of the nasty cheapies he took last year, but hasn't happened so far. And that was with Bradly in the mix to draw extra attention away from him, now he's the priority that defenders key in on.

He's so skilled offensively that I would much rather see him operate to draw defenders to him to open up lanes and space to find teammates because he's a great distributor. Not sure if he's just feeling the pressure to be more of a finisher but his linemates are 1st & 2nd in goalscoring on the team so maybe deferring to them isn't the worst option.
 
He's still Maine's most talented forward. He's missing a shooter for his creativity. The closest Maine might have is Russell. If Breen was available, I might be tempted to try that line and move Fowler or Scholle with Scott and Freel.
 
Very talented player for sure. It seems he needs a bit more time and space to work his magic, which he isnt getting except on the PP. I would have thought defenders would be keying in on scott alot due to his tenacity and ability to score leaving some more room on the
Ice for josh. With breen out it does bring more attention to josh, breen always draws a defensive crowd.
 
Woof...looking at some numbers based on pairwise- the USCHO article confirmed, with Maine at a 3 seed and UHN making the tournament since they are still #13 in PWR -we get sent to Fargo. Gross. We need to bury UHN in Orono and make sure that doesn't happen. I'm sure they will lose a few along the way lol
 
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