UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

[riverchief1]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

Adam Chapie suspended by Hockey East for his incident at the end of the UNH game. He'll miss Friday's game at BU.

http://hockeyeastonline.com/men/pres...02/feb8hea.php

Well that's great. Chapie had been taking some stupid penalties in the first half of the season and he seemed to get under control. Evidently not. Hopefully his selfishness doesn't cost the team Friday's game. Any chance Norm takes the "A" from Chapie to make a statement?

[boblav1]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

Adam Chapie suspended by Hockey East for his incident at the end of the UNH game. He'll miss Friday's game at BU.

http://hockeyeastonline.com/men/pres...02/feb8hea.php

That's great...not surprised.


Wow. I saw this rant from Vinnie Vega from the HE Hockey blog article.
http://www.uscho.com/hockey-east-blo...st-round-byes/

Vinnie Vega • 6 hours ago
UML showed me absolutely nothing last weekend, except their continued willingness to play down to their competition, and by play down, I mean attempting to play Madigan thug hockey on Friday with NU and squandering a dozen opportunities on Saturday.

I'm looking at a team that is still trying to find chemistry. Bazin continues to shuffle lines (granted, after Hough got hurt on Friday, it was a bit more necessary) in an attempt to find combinations that work. One would have thought that this would have been done before Christmas at the latest, but it's still going on. I wasn't going to throw guys under the bus on Saturday night as a knee jerk reaction to the lost weekend, but I've had a couple of days to think about this and I'm still as ****ed and confounded as I was then. So, here goes...

There are by my count, exactly three guys on this team with heart, well two guys and one guy with ice water in his veins (Boyle IMO, can not be criticized here, he's exceeded all expectations). McGrath and Gambardella never take a shift off, EVER! If half this team played as hard on the puck as these two guys, we'd be in great shape, but they don't. I still see guys with no concept of puck pursuit. I see guys who bolt through the neutral zone and then coast from the dots on a forecheck, this is absolute garbage, and if you think that got you in trouble with NU and UNH, wait until next weekend.

Discipline is again becoming an issue with this team and guys who are wearing letters on their jerseys are part of the problem...yes Chapie, I'm talking about you. For a guy with the kind of skills he possesses, it's mind-boggling to me that he feels the need to agitate. Every game though, it's the same thing, Chapie doing stupid things to put his team in jeopardy.I'm not sure when this guy thought it was going to be his role to be an agitator, but here's a clue...it ain't working. The D-1 officials have no patience for it, you've obviously been watching too many NHL games. STOP!

Confusion in the D-zone. Again, I chalk this up to more line juggling. If there is anywhere where familiarity with your linemate is essential, it's on D. More juggling = more confusion, IMO. I still see two D men pursuing a single puck carrier. I still see two D-men confused over their responsibility during a breakout.

Tentative play overall. Some of this can be attributed to some of the younger guys getting a bit squeamish as the level of play intensifies down the stretch, but not all. I still see these wishy-washy passes at half speed getting intercepted, when a difintive hard pass would not have. Very frustrating to watch.

And now, I'll do something that I have not done since he got here, which is, criticize Bazin. First off, let me say that I'm not qualified to coach this team and could not do near the job that he has, not even close. That said, something is going on internally, IMO. The team seems lack-luster since the break. Are some of them souring on Bazin's message/system?

OK, let's start with the PP and the 'fake the entry and play it back to the point man in the Neutral zone' move, to gain entry into the O-zone...IT AIN"T WORKING, and hasn't for many games (well, many games not played against teams not named ASU). Stop, Normie, just stop. IMO, we're also getting too cute, trying to play for the perfect shot scenario. Friday against NU, their goalie gave up a rebound on almost every shot, but instead of just getting pucks on net and crashing for the rebound, we went the cute route. Again, tough to watch. Again, ineffective.

Maybe, I'm making too much of a late season slump, but the Pairwise machine is always watching and I fear, just as last year, we're letting the tournament slip away after it was firmly in our grasp a month ago.

/rant over.

[leswp1]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

Well that saved a lot of typing.

[UMLFan]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

Interesting rant, and he makes some points I definitely agree with (the lazy passing is a major irritant).

[Patman]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

Adam Chapie suspended by Hockey East for his incident at the end of the UNH game. He'll miss Friday's game at BU.

http://hockeyeastonline.com/men/pres...02/feb8hea.php

Let me know when they suspend that Vermont player for last year's HEA tournament game's action

(For the record, I didn't see what happened w Chapie)

[boblav1]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

Interesting rant, and he makes some points I definitely agree with (the lazy passing is a major irritant).

Maybe Norm should post it on the bulletin board for the team to read.

[leswp1]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

I missed it too, only heard the announcement at the end of the game as I was leaving. Did anyone see it?

[Go-UML]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

I missed it too, only heard the announcement at the end of the game as I was leaving. Did anyone see it?

When I was walking out, I was talking to someone who did. He thought it was quite a legit call.

[leswp1]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

When I was walking out, I was talking to someone who did. He thought it was quite a legit call.

I believe it. Aggravating to watch him that night. So much skill but not playing a team game. Who did he spear? Usually you see someone fold over and a scrum. Never saw any sort of disturbance.

[UMLFan]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

What should be a ****ed off Lowell team against a ****ed off BU team. This could be a great weekend. Or it could suck. Blech.

[boblav1]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

I believe it. Aggravating to watch him that night. So much skill but not playing a team game. Who did he spear? Usually you see someone fold over and a scrum. Never saw any sort of disturbance.

I'm not sure who the UNH player was but I saw someone bent over after the final whistle. He then straighten up and gestured with his arms to the ref who must have saw the whole thing. He also drives me crazy with the bad penalties and his habit of trying to stick handle through multiple defenders each game. Never mind the turn overs that result from him holding on to the puck too long.

[boblav1]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

Wow...I saw this over on the ASU thread. Not a good situation for the first year program if true.

A Power(s) Trip leads Chaos in the ASU Dressing Room

There is most definitely something weird going on in the Sun Devil Dressing room these days. I spoke with some very credible sources in the ASU Hockey World this past weekend who had some very interesting stories to share. Schmidt and Zucarrinni are no longer ASU Sun Devils which is old news by now but leads to all the new rumors. Masters is threatening to leave after he was asked to stay home from a recent road trip and is considering other College options at this time and has convinced a close teammate or 2 to consider using the same option. Other top players are not happy with Powers Chaotic approach and are weighing their options.

All three Captains were recently stripped of their C's and subsequently given to Newmeyer who was a healthy scratch on Saturday evening???

[bottomdweller]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

What should be a ****ed off Lowell team against a ****ed off BU team. This could be a great weekend. Or it could suck. Blech.

I'm going with the latter. Unless Boyle allows 0 or 1 goal each game, Lowell is going to be in trouble. Take out ASU games and Lowell has scored 2 or fewer games in just under half their games this year. That's not going to cut it.

[boblav1]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

I'm going with the latter. Unless Boyle allows 0 or 1 goal each game, Lowell is going to be in trouble. Take out ASU games and Lowell has scored 2 or fewer games in just under half their games this year. That's not going to cut it.

It could be tough weekend. Hopefully the Tsongas will be sold out for the Saturday game with a packed student section.

[UMLFan]

Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

It could be tough weekend. Hopefully the Tsongas will be sold out for the Saturday game with a packed student section.

Hopefully the student section will learn something beyond "Let's Go Lowell" and "UML."