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Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

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Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

vtcats said:
Thoughts to the lineup?
Until the last month or so, Decenzo had been the odd man out. But since then, Decenzo has been playing with Brickley and White. it's been an ongoing change to the 59 line first with Massar out, and most recently Forgione out. The first playoff game game against Lowell they were together and Walls sat with Lenz roving on a few lines.
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I love Decenzo out there, he is playing with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. He plays hard and has a lot of hustle in his game. I certainly hope he stays in the line up. Hopefully the 59 line is back together for the tourney, they are far and away our best defensive line and will be needed. Union put up some really solid offensive numbers and UVM will need to be very good defensively if they want to pull out the win. That line will need to log a lot of minutes.

I haven't seen any Union games, but I expect Walls in the line up will be determined based on whether Sneddon wants to play a more physical game or whether he wants to be more offensive minded.
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

jcarter7669 said:
I haven't seen any Union games, but I expect Walls in the line up will be determined based on whether Sneddon wants to play a more physical game or whether he wants to be more offensive minded.
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I saw a few including the Mayor's Cup. UML was great prep for Union and if you're looking for upside positives, we had a weekend off an it sounds like a few players needed it. UVM can't come out like they have a number of times after a break. The comparison of the Friday night record vs. other nights, thank you, that's great. Switch the Poweraid for RedBull or something. Do what it takes to come out and play the A game Friday. I'm not ready to go out and take bets that UVM is going to the frozen four, all 4 teams in Bridgeport are great. But I think all UVM fans would agree that we have a good chance. And I'd love to see a rematch against Providence. UVM played their hearts out that weekend but didn't collect any league points. Time for payback.

Keys to the game against Union... Def bring the physicality. Study the game against RPI. Agitate agitate agitate. Union is a finesse team. They pass as well as any team I've seen, they're fast, they do a great job creating opportunities to score, they transition well from D to O. They earned the #1 and UVM has to show up ready to play.
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

Tough draw for the Cats but good to get the opportunity. Union put a beatdown on a hot Colgate team. Have to hope Inions has an off night and Cats have an all time showing.... Union is not Yale 2009, they are battle tested.....
 
vtcats said:
Thoughts to the lineup?
Until the last month or so, Decenzo had been the odd man out. But since then, Decenzo has been playing with Brickley and White. it's been an ongoing change to the 59 line first with Massar out, and most recently Forgione out. The first playoff game game against Lowell they were together and Walls sat with Lenz roving on a few lines.
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I would like to see the Lenz, White, Brickley line put back together and Massar works as hard as any player we have. Walls was in the HE officials doghouse (some of which was deserved), but I like what he brings to the game. Seems like a gamble to dress only 5 D. Whatever happened to Muscoby? Injured?
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

It's been quiet on here and the boys have a game in 2 days!

Who's in net? I assume it's a foregone conclusion that it will be Hoffman, but could Sneddon out-think himself?
How many goals will it take to win? Other than the "1 more than Union" response, I'm thinking they need 3. Maybe 4. That might be a tall task.
Other keys to the game? Goal tending is #1. Hoffman needs to steal a game. Stay out of the penalty box. Play physical, but in control. Block shots.
Other than the usual guys, who comes up big for the Cats? I'll say Decenzo, he puts up a goal and an assist.
Prediction? UVM 3-2 in OT.

Also, just read a good article about former Cat Kevan Miller:

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/brui...ing-all-the-right-moves?ex_cid=espnapi_public
 
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Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

UVM - Bruin said:
It's been quiet on here and the boys have a game in 2 days!
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I agree! Where did people go? I don't miss all the UML back and forth but there must be other things to discuss.

I'm guilty of repeating myself but the way we played against UML means we have a great chance. We have to come out ready to play, frustrate the crap out of these guys who have been dominating people the last month. Union won't be as effective as UML at shutting down our top line. But they have to finish their chances. Our 5' 9" has shown what they can do.

I'm not ready to bet money on UVM, but I'd be worried betting money on Union too.

How about this, is there a #1 seed you expect to have a more difficult time winning their 1st game this weekend then Union?
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

Jayden_Stoff said:
How about this, is there a #1 seed you expect to have a more difficult time winning their 1st game this weekend then Union?
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Maybe Wiconsin? I wouldn't want to play North Dakota right now.

But I understand your point about this being a trap game for Union. Sneddon needs to have these guys ready to go, set the tone quickly and let Union know it's not going to be a cupcake.
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

Personally, I think we win about 40-45% of the time against Union over many games. We are underdog, but not a big one.
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

UnionHockeyManiac said:
Just curious..What's this based on?
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The fact that UVM has won the last 4-5 matchups... one of which was last year when UVM was a pretty weak team and Union was (as it is this year) ECAC champions. That and because we just played the 2nd best team in the country 5 games and won 2 of those losing the other 3 by 1 goal.

Union hasn't faced many quality opponent this year and when they do I think they will get frustrated and unravel like a cheap blanket
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

UnionHockeyManiac said:
Just curious..What's this based on?
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We play good teams very, very tough. Look at the results of our 5 games with Lowell this season. Sometimes it's more the games we're expected to win that we have trouble with. Actually, I really like how this game sets up for us with you guys being prohibitive favorites. If you think it's gonna be easy, you got another thing comin.
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

UnionHockeyManiac said:
Just curious..What's this based on?
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Hard to look back any further than last year(before that they last played 8 or 9 years ago), where UVM won 2-1. Granted it was a home game for UVM, but UVM was horrible last year and Union won the ECAC.

Union's 2013-2014 SoS was .5120, good for 23rd in the country. UVM was 5th in the country. Again part of that is who's in your conferance, ECAC isn't as good as HE top to bottom, but it is what it is.

If they played 10 games, Union should win 6 times and UVM 4. That's all he's saying. Not an outrageous statement.
 
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Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

Seems like they have not been taking as many dumb penalties in the games since the long road trip.

Hoffman has responded well to becoming the starter - I wonder if there were some lingering injury issues early in the season that made platooning between him and Santaguida necessary.

Looking forward to Friday's game.
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

j24vt said:
Seems like they have not been taking as many dumb penalties in the games since the long road trip.

Hoffman has responded well to becoming the starter - I wonder if there were some lingering injury issues early in the season that made platooning between him and Santaguida necessary.

Looking forward to Friday's game.
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I don't think so, Santaguida was playing just as well as Hoffman if not slightly better. That's why they were splitting time. In fact Sneddon had planned on Santaguida being the goto guy in the playoffs, but he was sick the last weekend against UML where Hoff stole the show and the position... at least for the rest of the year.

I will almost guarantee you see a rotation next season as well and I wouldn't be surprised to see Santa come out on top. Hoffman has improved significantly over last year, having that goalie coach to work with makes a huge difference and I expect Santa will be better next year then he was this year (which was actually pretty good).
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

UVM - Bruin said:
Maybe Wiconsin? I wouldn't want to play North Dakota right now.

But I understand your point about this being a trap game for Union. Sneddon needs to have these guys ready to go, set the tone quickly and let Union know it's not going to be a cupcake.
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My upset pick is Denver over BC. BC showed how young they are and Montgomery will have Denver very very well prepared.
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

jcarter7669 said:
I don't think so, Santaguida was playing just as well as Hoffman if not slightly better. That's why they were splitting time. In fact Sneddon had planned on Santaguida being the goto guy in the playoffs, but he was sick the last weekend against UML where Hoff stole the show and the position... at least for the rest of the year.

I will almost guarantee you see a rotation next season as well and I wouldn't be surprised to see Santa come out on top. Hoffman has improved significantly over last year, having that goalie coach to work with makes a huge difference and I expect Santa will be better next year then he was this year (which was actually pretty good).
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No way both of them stay and play a rotation...one will leave.
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

catmandoo said:
No way both of them stay and play a rotation...one will leave.
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No, I don't see that happening at all. Hoffman's certainly not going anywhere because, at least right now, he's The Man. Vezzano and Faust left because they weren't playing at all. They were in Sneddon's dog house, or just weren't that good, or some combination of the two. Santa, however, got a bunch of playing time this year, and barring Hoffman winning the job outright on a somewhat permanent basis, that should continue in seasons to come. Santa's still mostly an unproven talent and there's no shame in being part of a rotation at a D-1 school. There have been a number of very good goalies who were rotated at some point in their college career, some for much of it. I'd be shocked if one left.
 
Re: Vermont 2013-2014 Season Thread : The Golden Year

UVM Cat in Texas said:
No, I don't see that happening at all. Hoffman's certainly not going anywhere because, at least right now, he's The Man. Vezzano and Faust left because they weren't playing at all. They were in Sneddon's dog house, or just weren't that good, or some combination of the two. Santa, however, got a bunch of playing time this year, and barring Hoffman winning the job outright on a somewhat permanent basis, that should continue in seasons to come. Santa's still mostly an unproven talent and there's no shame in being part of a rotation at a D-1 school. There have been a number of very good goalies who were rotated at some point in their college career, some for much of it. I'd be shocked if one left.
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Doug Carr got playing time this year. Enough said.
 
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