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UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

Martin St. Louis Fan said:
Boy, we really miss Lenes!
He shot the puck, FINISHED, and was one hell of a leader on the bench!
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Must be about time for Sneddon to kick someone off the team or throw a player under the bus in the press in order to deflect away from the fact that his style just doesn't work anymore. His teams only perform in the years his contract is up for renewal so we are going to have to wait a few years for some teasing of success.
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

Who / Where is the problem with this team?

A.) Sneddon can't coach offense
B.) Asst Coaches can't coach anything
C.) Recruiters have totally failed
D.) We cant' get top recruits


I'm going to pin this mostly on the Asst. Coaches at this point. Although they are obviously Sneddon's guys, but look at the team since they came on. We have recruited twice as many recruits as needed. They have utterly failed at bringing in another Stalberg, McCarthy, Lenes, etc. The special teams have gone from bad to worse. And offensively we have gone from worse to pathetic. I never liked Michelleto much and I didn't think he was much good but his UMA team that won 2 games outscored the Cats... really?

I think it's probably time Sneddon starts looking for some guys who can identify recruits, get them to commit and that have a strong offensive minded background. With a new AD coming in the coach and coaching staff could find themselves on the way out if they can't find sustained success soon. What was a several year waiting list for season tickets is non-existant and where there was once a 70+ game sellout streak.... now it's common place to not reach capacity. The university has a new budgeting policy and losing 8006 ticket sales because the team phoned in a deciding series and couldn't break the bottom third of the league isn't going to go over well, especially if it happens more then once in a blue moon.
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

jcarter7669 said:
Who / Where is the problem with this team?

A.) Sneddon can't coach offense
B.) Asst Coaches can't coach anything
C.) Recruiters have totally failed
D.) We cant' get top recruits


I'm going to pin this mostly on the Asst. Coaches at this point. Although they are obviously Sneddon's guys, but look at the team since they came on. We have recruited twice as many recruits as needed. They have utterly failed at bringing in another Stalberg, McCarthy, Lenes, etc. The special teams have gone from bad to worse. And offensively we have gone from worse to pathetic. I never liked Michelleto much and I didn't think he was much good but his UMA team that won 2 games outscored the Cats... really?

I think it's probably time Sneddon starts looking for some guys who can identify recruits, get them to commit and that have a strong offensive minded background. With a new AD coming in the coach and coaching staff could find themselves on the way out if they can't find sustained success soon. What was a several year waiting list for season tickets is non-existant and where there was once a 70+ game sellout streak.... now it's common place to not reach capacity. The university has a new budgeting policy and losing 8006 ticket sales because the team phoned in a deciding series and couldn't break the bottom third of the league isn't going to go over well, especially if it happens more then once in a blue moon.
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I agree with your assessment and I think a big issue is the inability of this coaching staff (Buck stops at Sneddon) to develop players. The philosophy is to just go out and try and find new ones instead of working with and having the patience to see kids develop confidence thru constructive feedback. Players are not held to consistent standards. The players that make it 4 years digress during their tenure and that's a real problem. Sneddon does a great job of being a public face for The University but I am very skeptical as to his ultra ego behind the scenes effectiveness. My guess is that he selects a chose "few" in order to keep a moat in the locker room but the realty is a lack of respect from most of the players. It shows in the way they play. When you throw a guy like Kyle Wallack (who still wants to be a good college hockey player instead of a coach and one of the "guys" instead of a leader i.e. read his Twitter account) in the mix it only complicates and divides things more. There is talent here right now as there is every year.
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

Talented freshman are consistently being added to the team. There then seems to be a plateau where the players stop progressing. The good ones leave early and the upperclassmen lose their spots to underclassmen. So I think we have a coaching issue vs a recruitment issue. And I think it is a combination of offensive philosophy and coaching.

Dump and chase ONLY works if you can win the battles in the corners. I would love playing defense against UVM. They either dump the puck in the corner or carry it there. Hard to score from behind the net. Once you gain the blue line, stop rather than going into the corner. Or drop a pass back to the trailer once in a while. You instantly create separation and put the puck in a position with a shooting angle towards the net.

On the defensive side I see the defense is constantly backing in on the goalie rather than making plays at the blue line. Don't surrender the blue line. Also have not seen a consistent back check effort from some of the forwards. A little too much coasting waiting for the D to make a play.

The current breakout strategy seems to be based on clearing the puck out of the defensive zone and hoping to get it back at the other end. Might be time to work on puck possession based breakout strategy.

Finally, if there is no one between you and the goalie TAKE THE SHOT. Don't stand there and wait for the defense to realign.

Full disclaimer: We had a lot of fun at the home games this year and, for the most part, I thought UVM lost games rather than the other teams winning games. I think this year's freshman class has a lot of talent and am looking forward to the next couple of seasons.
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

j24vt said:
Talented freshman are consistently being added to the team. There then seems to be a plateau where the players stop progressing. The good ones leave early and the upperclassmen lose their spots to underclassmen. So I think we have a coaching issue vs a recruitment issue. And I think it is a combination of offensive philosophy and coaching.

Dump and chase ONLY works if you can win the battles in the corners. I would love playing defense against UVM. They either dump the puck in the corner or carry it there. Hard to score from behind the net. Once you gain the blue line, stop rather than going into the corner. Or drop a pass back to the trailer once in a while. You instantly create separation and put the puck in a position with a shooting angle towards the net.

On the defensive side I see the defense is constantly backing in on the goalie rather than making plays at the blue line. Don't surrender the blue line. Also have not seen a consistent back check effort from some of the forwards. A little too much coasting waiting for the D to make a play.

The current breakout strategy seems to be based on clearing the puck out of the defensive zone and hoping to get it back at the other end. Might be time to work on puck possession based breakout strategy.

Finally, if there is no one between you and the goalie TAKE THE SHOT. Don't stand there and wait for the defense to realign.

Full disclaimer: We had a lot of fun at the home games this year and, for the most part, I thought UVM lost games rather than the other teams winning games. I think this year's freshman class has a lot of talent and am looking forward to the next couple of seasons.
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I agree with your assessment, save for the talent level of the freshmen. Lee was ok and looks like he could be a 3, 4, 5 in a year or two but was played this year like a top 4, and he wasn't. Coughlin scored 2 goals and one was an empty netter. He looked lost a lot and took some stupid penalties. O'Neill has the jets but looked lost at times. Puffer is a kid who looks like he could be a good set up guy but how can you set up if the puck is dumped in the corner. He is definitely not a chaser. Munson was the only impact freshman in my view.
If some of you are correct and the coach will just ditch the juniors and seniors for the rather large incoming class next year, I am scared at what may happen.
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

Will people please remember that this is not the NHL or other pro-sport league where the coaches have control over who they get. College sports
are like this country the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and those in the middle get stuck there. Every year the NHL draft is loaded with
players going to BC, BU and the same 10 teams. Same as Duke in BBall or Alabama in Football. Those of us in the middle can have a few good
seasons once in a while when we get lucky with a player or if really lucky 2, then we return to the middle again after they leave. Sneddon cant
make players come here over BC who dressed 11 draft picks against us a few weeks ago(2 1st rounders and 4 2nd rounders mind you).

Vermont is a great place to go with a great location and great fans but will continue to lose out on the bluechippers (you know the ones who finish)
Until we level the playing field some and the only real way we can start to do that is with a new rink. We get that and then maybe get a bluechipper
or two a year instead of once every 5 years or so like we do now. We win more games and then maybe you get 3 a year and so forth.

There is nothing a coach can do alone, no system or magic line mixing that can make a team consistantly win without talent. And for those who blame
the coaches who do you think could do any better??? Parker and York cant do any better. The reason they stayed where they are for so long is in
college sports once you get to the top its easy to stay there because the talent comes to you.
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

Nosmo King said:
"Scared at what may happen".......What win more games with more skilled players?!
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Other then Colton, what forward do you think is going to be impactful from the incoming class?
And to Cat Lover's point about recruiting, remember that we do have three BU recruits on our roster this year, Privittera, Abramson and Coughlin. This makes one wonder about the coaching game plan, i.e. dump and chase and dump it out, and the lack of player development.
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

Here is my quick list of issues that I think could easily be addressed through coaching:
1. Retaliation penalties. Stupid selfish penalties has been an ongoing issue for several years. It is a very easy call for the refs to make. Taking a penalty AFTER giving up a goal should earn you a seat on the end of the bench for the rest of the game. Putting your team a man down because you are frustrated is not a good outcome.
2. Checking technique. There is no excuse to ever take a cross checking penalty. If you are going to shove someone, drop one hand off your stick. And the numbers on the back of the uniform are essentially a stop sign. You have to hold up if you can see their numbers. Crushing them in the back will get called every time. I think players are using this to generate power plays for their teams. Finally, stay low and pull in your elbows when you are checking. Be a bowling ball rather than a hammer.
3. Break out. Very one dimensional and simple to defend against. Either the puck gets dumped into a corner or the forwards are in a line across the ice which allows the defense to play the pass and still hold position and force the forward to a corner. Need to occasionally have one of the forwards consider slowing to create the opportunity for a drop pass rather than just blindly skating forward to the net while the puck gets carried into the corner.
4. No coasting. It drives me crazy watching players coast to the bench for line changes while the play is still going on. Where is the sense of urgency? Get the fresh legs on the ice faster. Shorten up the shifts or work on conditioning if the players are consistently coming off the ice gassed.
5. Miscellaneous little stuff. Defense needs to make plays at the blue line instead of backing in on the goalie.. Munson needs to stop swinging his stick like a bat. Lee's top hand positioning is throwing off his skating. Abramson skates like his feet hurt; I wonder if he has skate fit issues. Lackluster back checking by some of the forwards in the defensive zone. I think part of this is caused by the current dump it up the ice breakout strategy.
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

Cat lover said:
Vermont is a great place to go with a great location and great fans but will continue to lose out on the bluechippers (you know the ones who finish)
Until we level the playing field some
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I don't believe we need a roster of blue chippers to be competitive year in and year out. Dean Strong wasn't a blue chipper, nor was Lenes... but they had the right mentality, work ethic and leadership ability. McCarthy was a blue chipper, but what set him apart was also the effort and leadership factors. Sifers wasn't a blue chipper, but was arguably the hardest working guy to put on a Catamount sweater. We don't need a slew of blue chippers, we need to identify guys that want to work twice as hard as the blue chippers because that's the way this team will have success. We need to identify guys like Lenes and Sifers who would single handed change the momentum of a game simply by jumping over the boards or have big open ice hit.

And identifying and recruiting kids with those intangibles is on the coaching staff. Sure, we still need guys who can finish, guys like Mario and J. Priv, but what we are lacking are the guys that are going to dig the pucks out and get them to those guys. McCarthy made Mario a superstar... not because he was good, but because he would chase down every puck at top speed and out work and out hustle everyone else on the ice. We don't have that guy on this team. There is no spark plug, no leader... Everyone can find a blue chipper, we need guys the can identify and recruit the pieces of the puzzle that are missing. Based on the current "throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks" method of recruiting, I don't think we have those guys out on the trail.
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

Well played road game from the Cats last night, got lucky on a few plays including the no-goal at the end of the first period
when they stopped playing hard a few seconds too soon. Funny that the 2 biggest stars of the game for VT(Santa and Darrar)
are to guys that have not been playing much lately. Liked the fact that the Cats didnt sit on the lead all third period but instead
tried to get another goal.
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

Anyone have a preference for who we play in the quarters? I don't think it matters too much, as we're not likely to beat either team, but if I had to choose I'd probably go with Providence. As you'll recall, we played two particularly bad games against them at the Gut where we took a buzzillion penalties, and seemingly lost our collective minds in the process. For whatever reason, these two teams REALLY don't seem to like each other, which always has the potential to make things interesting. Either way, Go Cats Go!
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

Nice sweep!! That was the best match-up for the first round they could have gotten. Let's see if they can keep it going in the next series. We will be the lowest seed left so will have to take on BC, correct?
 
GreenCat said:
Nice sweep!! That was the best match-up for the first round they could have gotten. Let's see if they can keep it going in the next series. We will be the lowest seed left so will have to take on BC, correct?
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No, we'll play Providence if UNH beats Merrimack. It's BC if Merrimack wins.
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

Cripes, nothing about the quarterfinals? Too much hemp up there? JCarter finally got committed to Waterbury? Did you knuckleheads forget you won this series last year? Shape up and start posting.
 
Re: UVM 2015-2016 The New Season

theprofromdover said:
Cripes, nothing about the quarterfinals? Too much hemp up there? JCarter finally got committed to Waterbury? Did you knuckleheads forget you won this series last year? Shape up and start posting.
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Perhaps the indifference can be attributed to the lopsidedness of this match-up and the very real prospect that our season will be over this weekend. I don't see a repeat of last year -- you guys are significantly better, and we're significantly worse. In the preview for this series, York says "[UVM has] a club that can cause fits for anybody, so we're prepared for a well-structured, very disciplined team in the Catamounts." Actually, while generally true with UVM teams, I think those are two glaring weaknesses with the Cats this year -- we're not particularly well-structured, and we're REALLY not disciplined. Very unCatamount-like. Hopefully we can at least take a game to make things interesting, but if I were a betting man, I'd go with a BC sweep. Good luck and Go Cats.
 
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