Going to offer up some quick thoughts here.... Seeing as i've made my triumphant return. First post since.... last March.
1. While this team continually wins on the margins, they've got something going here. Would be nice to see them convert this into a couple of dominant no-doubters, but if playing close to the vest is going to win them games, not a problem. That Manhattanville game, as it was last year in the conference semis, was the team's biggest win of the season up to this point without doubt IMO. They might not be as GOOD as Hobart, but to gut out an OTW in that barn ain't easy. Do it there, and you can do it anywhere.
2. Take stock in some of these wins here of who's scoring the goals. Game has been simplified greatly after the Naz loss and the guys that play that game, are the ones doing a lot of the work here. And it's picked everyone up. Love watching Roman and Bush go to work... but for awhile that line was missing the right mix after a great start with A-Rob. Enter Derlago. Positionally he's outstanding, he's skated well enough(and by no means is he all that fast) to provide adequate support for those guys, and he's a typical Manitoba kid. Pain to get rid of at the net front. He's taken a bit more time to get going in his career, but he's honestly Brent Wold 2.0. Riley Egan got the two in Reg against the Ville... and then Fitzy, who plays one of the better grease games i've seen on a rookie fwd here in quite some time,
3. Other big keys to that win on Saturday.... PK clears got infinitely better from Friday to Saturday (not easy to do on a Hobart team that forechecks the daylights out of you and constantly plays a high pressure O-Zone game), there was a lot more purpose there than there was Friday with the shot blocking, they did a nice job jamming the backdoor looks Hobart likes to pull off.... just an outstanding job and a well earned 5/5. Same with our backcheck, which got better as things went along I thought.... not easy to do against this team, either. Dalton has stepped up his game back there, and as impressive as that GWG one-timer was on Friday(called for it the whole stinking time and drilled it off the one touch. Beauty if you didn't see it. Missile.), his most impressive play of the weekend was busting up that shorthanded rush that preceded Utica's first goal. Was on ice for the first two Hob goals... and one goes in odd-man after a preceding rebound at the other end, and then the second one just looked like it was whipped there and bounced off Toupal. Hobart loves that stuff. But you get that recovery by Dalton and when Roman scored.... I thought the roof was going to come off the place. I really did. Draws a hooking call on Haskell to boot, they go back and Fitzy gets that floater goal peeling out of the corner. His kind of play... and one just as good in the third to set up Lynch's game-winner. Brought them to the bank on the forecheck, and Lynch turned it into cash.
3. It's Virtanen's net now. Rebound control still has some ways to go, but I think we see Pat unless he royally messes up down the stretch. He's been good enough.
Chemistry is getting there, locker room is getting its' swagger back, and going to the rink... is a lot more fun. Prior to the Potsdam game I just got this vibe like... "Tonight this year is either going to turn around, or it's going to melt away because they're running out of bullets in the gun here." Safe to say they picked up some more ammo in Herkimer before that one and sat in a treestand for a bit before using it...... If i'm Steveo or LebVal, i'm excited and frightened at the same time because the sleeping giant is awake.
That all said, I was very impressed with Hobart. Mark's done an outstanding job with that group up front this year, as things have stayed relatively dynamic with a pretty different group being counted on up front. Guy comes up with some great recruiting pulls year after year and has been superb at bringing that talent along.
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Hope they can keep it rolling, finally some good, hard-fought games being played the last 2 weeks. That's what the ECAC West is all about.