What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

Vermont 2022-23: New Jerseys, New Attitude

When UVM hired Woodcroft I figured it was at least a 4 year process to de-Sneddon the team. Expect to see the grind it out team for a couple more years until the recruiting kicks in for real. Been encouraged by the year-to-year growth of some of the players this year. The overall lack of desire in some of the games has been disconcerting. It's a great sign to see upper classmen transferring into the program. Curious to see if we lose any players over the break.
 
GreenCat said:
Woah! What happened? 5 goals, 35 shots! Did Dartmouth have a Covid outbreak or something?
Click to expand...

ok, got it. Dartmouth only has one win. But get over it. In the NHL or college hockey, anybody can beat anybody on a given night. Providence should beat Vermont 80% of the time. But just maybe Woodcroft will get them to believe and get 1 or 2 of the upcoming 3.

This should give us some confidence as we go back to HE games in 2023. And it was the first years who scored. Richards’s goal was Victor Stalberg like.
 
j24vt said:
When UVM hired Woodcroft I figured it was at least a 4 year process to de-Sneddon the team. Expect to see the grind it out team for a couple more years until the recruiting kicks in for real. Been encouraged by the year-to-year growth of some of the players this year. The overall lack of desire in some of the games has been disconcerting. It's a great sign to see upper classmen transferring into the program. Curious to see if we lose any players over the break.
Click to expand...

Yup - we knew this was going to take time. I get being upset in the moment, I really do.

But for context, when Sneddon retired, this was our recruiting pool (from the 2020 Heisenberg list, and excluding those that are still committed) and where they are now:

Dovar Tinling - Currently in the BCHL, but appears to be uncommitted to a new team.
Jagger Benson - D3 SUNY-Plattsburgh.
Whim Stalberg - Appears to be out of hockey - transferred to D3 Plymouth State last year, but is not listed on their roster this year.
Ronan Walsh - UNH.
Azzaro Tinling - UNLV, a club team.
Dylan Finlay - Alaska-Anchorage.
Lucas Mercuri - Flipped to UMass.
Philip Waugh - Mercyhurst, like Burns transferring after one year.
Logan Cash - appears to no longer be involved in hockey
Vincent Salice - Flipped to Ohio State, but is once again uncommitted. Is teammates with Bump @ Omaha
Austin Cook - Albertus Magnus (D3 - actually coached by ex-UVM assistant Kyle Wallack)
Trevor Smith - Army
Brett Wieschorster - Alberta Augustana (ACAC, whatever that is)
David Paluch - Trinity (D3)
Kyle Mandleur - Wilkes (D3)
Mickey Burns - Mercyhurst, transferring after one year
Conner Hutchison - Sacred Heart (I believe this one was due to off-ice reasons, the rumor was COVID protocol breach)
Anthony Cipollone - Quinnipiac, following his brother.

You get what I'm putting down? These guys are better at hockey than I am, so don't mean to disrespect them, but for the most part we were recruiting D3/Atlantic Hockey level guys. That's not good enough for Hockey East. There's a reason Woodcroft basically cleared out Sneddon's recruit pile right away, but by that point we were already YEARS behind the curve. Not to mention how much COVID probably messed with recruiting, not only do you have basically nothing to work with, now you're also working somewhat blind.

Has this team laid some eggs this season, absolutely (that Maine series was brutal). But like...we're more than likely going to end the season with more wins than last season, the underclassmen have shown flashes, and I think Todd's done a solid job at utilizing the portal (Mullin two years ago, Lagunov last year, Stucker, Gotz). We knew this was going to be a multi-year build and we knew it was going to take time.

If we're still here in two years, I'll ask questions then. But for now I understand where we were and how thin the deck was.
 
Lisa - great analysis and research. Alot of great points made over the past few months by other members regarding the rebuild. Some legitimate compares to UMASS, UMASS-Lowell, and Providence. But - their programs were not in the state of UVM's and arguably they picked up very high level coaches. Their rebuilds have gone well.

As Lisa points out the cupboard at UVM was below bare. You can see it in the recent yearly results as well:

22-23 - Current year 6 wins YTD - leading scorer - 10 points.
21-22 - 8 wins, leading scorer - 16 points (transfer).
20-21 - 1 win (covid year - 13 games) - leading scorer - 7 points.
19-20 - 5 wins, leading scorer - 15 points.
18-19 - 12 wins, leading scorer - 21 points.
17-18 - 10 wins, leading scorer - 23 points.
16-17 - 20 wins last season over .500 winning %

Last 100 point scorer - Chris McCarthy - 2009-2014. Current leading career scorer on roster - 43 points in 97 games. From the point totals listed you can see the skill level was not there. I didn't do a PP % analysis but from what I see it relates here as well. In my opinion its coming back as evidenced by the 2 recruiting classes and transfers, Todd W. has on current roster.

The skill level decline was going on for some period of time. Previous regime missed out on key recruits they targeted and were left with the scraps, and were basically picking whomever they could. The word was out on the street from a recruiting standpoint and others used UVM's decline to suggest - "why would you go to UVM?". As Lisa points out no disrespect to players who came or are here, as I've met many of them and they are good kids who are trying hard, but you can't have a team of 3rd, 4th, 5th liners...

There have been a few poor games this year (injuries/youth), but I see an upswing. Excitement and level of compete increasing. They are slowly learning how to win. I'd like to see a few more HE wins and we'll see what the boys have for 2nd half of year. Being told next years incoming class has good skill level.
 
looks like not waiting till next year to try to get some scoring
Massiminno Lombardi coming from BCHL for second semester- point a game producr this year
 
I know it's just Lindenwood, but that first period was probably the best all season until the penalties started to rack up.

...Not to mention some other schools in Hockey East forgot how to beat this kind of competition tonight.
 
Win is a Win. Lemay and Spitserov back in lineup after recovery from injuries, good to have bodies. New guy Massiminno not dressed maybe today. Special teams real difference, as UVM goes 2 for 7 on PP and kills off 9 minutes of PK. Easy to overlook teams but UVM didn't do that tonight, now they can go get the sweep. Like the fact that UVM is developing a good home team advantage as our record is now 6-4 at the Gut.
 
Catfantoo said:
Win is a Win. Lemay and Spitserov back in lineup after recovery from injuries, good to have bodies. New guy Massiminno not dressed maybe today. Special teams real difference, as UVM goes 2 for 7 on PP and kills off 9 minutes of PK. Easy to overlook teams but UVM didn't do that tonight, now they can go get the sweep. Like the fact that UVM is developing a good home team advantage as our record is now 6-4 at the Gut.
Click to expand...

Yeah, definitely nice to see Spits back. And to the easy to overlook teams point, look at some of the other teams in HEA last night...ok, Lowell got goalied, but Merrimack needed OT to dust off a terrible Dartmouth and Northeastern lost at Bentley.

Win the games you should, and hopefully it'll translate into wins against some of the bigger teams. The game this afternoon and the Yale game are very winnable, hopefully we can end 2022 and start 2023 with some momentum.
 
Ouch. Trying to stay optimistic but Cats should have wanted this one more than Lindenwood. I liked Zapernicks game, otherwise way too many poor passes and missed shots. When are the Minnesota recruits coming?
 
Bump should be next season.

To be fair, this Lindenwood team is a pain (they've given fits to the likes of Minnesota, Michigan, and Denver this season), but that feels like one we should've won.
 
I am now officially worried about this program. Less about playing on level with a startup team—comprised of NAHL players and guys who left Atlantic Hockey teams to get more playing time—than the maine series, in which they outworked every minute.
 
OUCH - Too Bad. Controlled the lead and shots in the games most of the weekend. Now its about stretching's leads when you have them. As coach indicated in post game the team didn't take advantage of opportunities and bury chances. Let Lindenwood hang around, and we know what happens when that occurs. Need a big bounce back against a lower ranked Yale team.
 
Not alot of dialogue lately, so will drop a few lines. Was at Yale game on Sunday. Basically two offensively challenged teams, hence the 1-1 tie. Yale goalie turned in a good game. Couple comments. UVM outshot Yale (+), UVM scored PP goal (+). Oscar Autio (+) in nets for Cats and turned in a solid game as Yale had PP opportunities and could have easily won the game. Too bad we couldn't get ahead of Yale and get a W on our side. I saw Todd's comments and he is putting a positive spin on the outcome. I feel that unfortunately we've left a few games (Lindenwood, RPI, Colgate, Yale) on the table that maybe could have boosted our record and position in the Pairwise rankings. But you are your record and hopefully we can steal some in the 2nd half of season and show continued improvement over last year.
 
Interesting score yesterday as Yale beats RPI 4-1 (team we split with). Yale came in to Gut last weekend playing better than record. Yale goalie change in last 6 games has resulted in save % over .950 and 2-1-3 record. We caught them on an upswing. Having said that still think we "should" be beating teams like this - you find a way. Which leads me to tonight's opponent AIC. They are 10-9-5 and ranked 43 in pairwise and we're 49. We're playing at home, and this is our last out of conference game. AIC beat Lindenwood (twice), but lost to Holy Cross (we beat them 6-0). AIC is 0-2-1 against Hockey East teams. I can see why AIC is ranked ahead of us but this certainly isn't a David and Goliath story. I'm hoping the boys come to play and we get a solid effort and some goals and get a W. We'll see........
 
Also a couple new commits have come in last few days. Matt Cato from Trenton in the OJHL (48pts/35gp) and Jack Malinski from Austin in the NAHL (29pts/27gp as a D) are older but are having excellent seasons. And also Jackson Krill (28pts/33gp) from Merritt in the BCHL.
 
Well that was frustrating. In my mind I had built the game up (see previous post) and expected a certain level of push. Coaching staff (head coach on postgame comments) and assistant coach on radio both declared that AIC out worked UVM. That confirmed my eye test from my seats. Outshoot in 1st period 11/6 - score even 0-0. Then midway through 2nd period a very poor UVM PP where we mishandled the puck, had difficulty setting up and no shots. AIC player comes out of box and streaks on mini-breakaway. UVM makes the save but resulting confusion on defensive zone coverage leads to all important 1st goal. Rattled we give up a 2nd off a defenders skate 1:27 later. Game over. Late UVM push but AIC defended well and UVM only got a few sniffs. Empty net goal was right down in front of me and 1 AIC player won the puck from 3 UVM players and flung it down 170 feet into the empty goal. This summed up the game for me as AIC won races and battles. Nice road win for AIC and super disappointing game for UVM. We'll see where it goes from here as tough HE schedule upcoming.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top