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Vermont 2022-23: New Jerseys, New Attitude

I thankfully chose not to watch either game. Seems like the same old, same old going back to the Sneddon era -- the offense sucks and the Cats can't generate scoring chances to save their lives. Unless something changes, the Cats will struggle to finish above anyone in HE.

Ya, I know it's early, but what a depressing start.
 
Yea, they still seem lost in the offensive zone. Very easy to defend. Just plug the shooting lanes and wait for them to flub the pass or the cycle
 
I honestly think it's mostly a talent issue and I don't really think it's that much of the staff's fault. We're still dealing with the aftereffects of the last admin's poor recruiting, since commits tend to be for 2-3 years out and we've basically been sifting through for scraps.

If it's still very bad next season (which I think is the real gamechanger class) then I'll start to worry, but I'm very much on the "benefit of the doubt"
 
TovarishchLisa said:
I honestly think it's mostly a talent issue and I don't really think it's that much of the staff's fault. We're still dealing with the aftereffects of the last admin's poor recruiting, since commits tend to be for 2-3 years out and we've basically been sifting through for scraps.

If it's still very bad next season (which I think is the real gamechanger class) then I'll start to worry, but I'm very much on the "benefit of the doubt"
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Got it. Tough start. But even tougher when one sees Andrew Lucas, the best Cats defender, wearing UConn colors. I know he was the previous coaches recruit, but why didn’t he want to stay? Dumb question?
 
KennyCat said:
Got it. Tough start. But even tougher when one sees Andrew Lucas, the best Cats defender, wearing UConn colors. I know he was the previous coaches recruit, but why didn’t he want to stay? Dumb question?
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I don't know exactly, but it could be something as simple as he wanted to experience some winning.
 
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I think UVM isn't that bad, they looked worse than they are, but the fact is that they were playing against a top 10 team who is actually a very good team with perhaps the best goalie in college hockey. I was at the game and NU was much faster and could really cycle in the O zone at will. That said, UVM never got into any rythem and kind of just packed it in early in the 3rd when the lead was insurmountable. You just can't go down 3 or more against Levi and the UVM kids knew it was over. That's why they looked so bad. I think LEVI tied the NU record for shutouts as a Soph tonight..You guys will be fine but it's going to be a couple of seasons
 
Clearly we can’t play with the upper echelon of Hockey East. A better measuring stick will be games against the lower half. If I’m not mistaken, the best players on the team are still Sophomores, so let’s give them some slack. The boys from Minnesota will be coming next year and it can only get better.

im frustrated too, but Coach will get them focused. Have you listened to him? He is a true pro, smart, respectful, classy. The effort will be there, results not too far behind.
 
I agree we still have to expect some of these ups/downs. I've now watched (TV-Live) 7 periods of play. Todd's recruits are basically Fresh/Soph and as Lisa stated the cupboard was left extremely bare by the previous administration. With us playing UConn/NU off the bat we were definitely out talented. In those games we would have had to almost have 3 perfect periods and get incredible goal-tending. As it stands the 2nd period was our undoing and once we fell behind it was difficult to play catch-up. The break is coming at a good time and the staff will reset the lineup. Last year we had 8 wins, any shift to ~12 this year would be considered movement in the right direction.

On a positive - good crowd on Saturday Season opener. Announced crowd at slightly more than 3,000 and versus other announced crowds I definitely could see a path to close to that #. Student section was filled. Need some success when students are there to keep them coming. Sunday was difficult as it competed with NFL, and Pat's.
 
Yea this is the part of a rebuild where you want to see some progress. It was easy to write of games that last couple of years. It's definitely frustrating. Still, we can't be surprised that they got swept in 4 games against UConn and NU. Levi is so good. It hurts my soul that at one point he was a UVM commit. I'm not sure there's sports betting on College Hockey yet, but I'd guess the over/under for UVM goals this weekend would've been around .5

I do wonder if this group needs to get a bit faster. They definitely have the size and physicality but I wonder if that is also part of the reason they seem to take so many penalties.

The future recruits look encouraging and hopefully as the season goes on this group puts a few wins together.
 
Year 3. Carvel, Baizin, Leaman seemed a lot quicker to competitiveness. A lot of years of awful hockey and dwindling interest/crowds. Patience is wearing thin. I will say Woodcroft says all the right things and seems a great coach.
 
GreenCat said:
Year 3. Carvel, Baizin, Leaman seemed a lot quicker to competitiveness. A lot of years of awful hockey and dwindling interest/crowds. Patience is wearing thin. I will say Woodcroft says all the right things and seems a great coach.
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Yeah, this is how I feel. I'm certainly willing to give Woodcroft the benefit of the doubt but, at the same time, I was hoping to see a little more in terms of the teams competitiveness. And just because there are a lot of sophomores are on the team, isn't a reason to have hope for the future. If they're not all that good as sophomores, they're only going to be marginally better as seniors. We'll see what happens from here on out, but this season is not off to a good start.
 
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GreenCat said:
Year 3. Carvel, Baizin, Leaman seemed a lot quicker to competitiveness. A lot of years of awful hockey and dwindling interest/crowds. Patience is wearing thin. I will say Woodcroft says all the right things and seems a great coach.
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I'll give Bazin and Leaman (admittedly in Leaman's case it wasn't his first college job), but Carvel had a booster rocket in Makar that the previous regime had left behind.
 
Probably would have been better to start with Holy Cross before jumping into league play. Not sure how much of last night was Vermont getting 2 good weeks of practice or Holy Cross being so much worse than UCONN and NU. Prob mostly the 2nd reason but we can always hope.
 
Agree with the comments concerning Carvel, Baizin, and Leaman. Interesting that Carvel followed John Micheletto (UVM #1 assistant under Sneddon). John got alot of props for the early years success under Sneddon, but that certainly didn't translate at UMASS. Agree with Lisa that Carvel had the NHL connections and he landed some great classes quickly. Bazin and Leaman are good coaches and did flip their programs quickly. Neither program was as depleted as UVM but you can't argue with their turnarounds.

UVM-HC. I was at the rink in the morning and a good vibe was evident from the team on ice and off. Todd pushed them hard for 12 days and they responded. Solid 3 periods, goals from 3 of the 4 lines, and 1 PP goal (which was point of focus since last game). We were physically the bigger team and that wore on HC. We won battles, races and were the faster/quicker team as well. Pairwise has us mid/late 40's and HC in 50's. This was a game we needed, and it turned out how it should have. Better team next week at Colgate but one we can certainly compete with. Need to keep the momentum going in a positive direction.
 
This team needed a reset after those first two weekends. Good to see them score in bunches even if it is against a weaker team. Obviously this isn't any kind of world shaking victory, but after the last few years it just feels good to dominate another team for 60 minutes.

In terms of timeline it is really important to remember that UMASS, PROV and UML are examples of turnarounds going perfectly. All of these are home run hires and guys who should get opportunities as NHL head coaches. Also I think each of these schools have much more competent leadership in their athletic departments...and more money. It's hard because when we got to HE we were on par/ahead of these programs and now we are so far behind, but the reality is this was always going to take time, if it works at all.
 
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