Utica College 2016/2017

[jcase]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

Nice to see UC can hang with Frozen Four talent.
Not scoring on the 5 minute major sealed the deal.
Superficially, I blame the pink jerseys...

[UCBadger]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

Superficially, I blame the pink jerseys...

Auction them, retire them, or just burn them............

[Fishman'81]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

I had a sinking feeling about the Amherst game as I listened to King Gary's pre-game interview. Seems that Utica's 8-1 start wasn't up to snuff in his curious universe, and he was all about a radical re-tooling of his "systems". (Whenever he references his "systems", I groan and utter the F-word, except with about 57 added u's... Just ask The Warden about that one.)

Now, never you mind that UC's only loss was largely due to bad puck-luck vs. a good UMB team... Oh no, the whole deal needed an overhaul, said D-3's answer to Scotty Bowman. And by God, we were going to be privy to his genius tonight at The Aud.

So, it appears that the "systems" we saw tonight were designed to hamstring the attack and to castrate the PK. Worked perfectly.

Yes, Dill pretty-much sucked, but no more than Amherst's goalie, and this was very easily the worst game Utica has played all season long... A "systemic" failure.

[jcase]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

A "systemic" failure.

Well if Coach's system is also to turn the clock back eight years and have the team play "not-to-lose" hockey late again and then proceed to blow leads game after game, count me out. The D3 version of the NFL's prevent defense fails yet again. And yes, Dill was horrendous to boot. Stunning loss...

[jcase]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

Auction them, retire them, or just burn them............

I'll happily bring the matches.

[Fishman'81]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

Well if Coach's system is also to turn the clock back eight years and have the team play "not-to-lose" hockey late again and then proceed to blow leads game after game, count me out. The D3 version of the NFL's prevent defense fails yet again. And yes, Dill was horrendous to boot. Stunning loss...

Thing is, with this talented team, all he needs to do is to toss out a puck and let the guys do what they were born to do. His ego has tripped him up so many times via trying to fix what isn't broken. He seems to need to have his fingerprints on everything.

I have often wondered how good UC hockey might have been over the years had they just realized the inherent recruiting advantage they have, and hired a coach who had the sense to stock the larder and then get out of the way.

[bakdraft21]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

Looks like The U is raiding the USPHL,they have 5 recruits already from the league for next year or so..

[sshablak]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

WTH has happened, the wheels fell off the bus ?

[Fishman'81]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

I don't believe the wheels have come off, Shabby... UC is still a very good team, IMO.

Yes, I tend to have excuses, but I truly think that Utica could easily have won the UMB game, and absolutely should have beaten Amherst and Cortland. The goaltending was very poor against former, and UC skated rings around the latter. (To expound, Utica's skaters played well v. UMB and Cortland, and managed to score 5 while Dill and the boys took an inexplicable night off v. Amherst in a flukey loss... Kind of a perfect storm all the way around.)

I blame the fickle Hockey Gods for this skid, but I stand by my assessment of this team. The guys will be fine if they continue to play an open style in order to exploit their team speed, but the 'tending needs to get more consistent.

PS: To give credit where it's due, I have to say that Cortland's McCormick looked All-World on Friday, and that Weigman positioned himself perfectly all night long... In a just universe, UC wins that one 6-2.

[sshablak]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

I like your response fish !

[UCfan30]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

Well, never expected to see this coming after that great start, but, hey, you can't win them all. Although they should've had at least 1 win in the last 3 *yikes*. In all due respect to Heenan, if he is "re-tooling", it's really not necessary at this point. Team seemed to have everything 'clicking' in the 8 win stretch. Not sure what happened after the Hobart win, but ever since then, team has gone down the slippery slope. IMO I feel it's best to just let the boys play, don't over-coach them or "re-tool". Yes I understand some aspects could use fine-tuning but not an entire re-working. This team seems to have a bunch of talent, just some shaky moments the last 2 weekends, especially against Cortland. Gotta throw in that Baggetta looked pretty solid in relief, hope to see more of him. Hoping they can get this turned around before the break or it's going to be a long 2nd half of the season.

[sshablak]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

Flat tires on the bus, looks like goaltending is the real issue.

[Birdwatcher]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

Flat tires on the bus, looks like goaltending is the real issue.

call it rubbing it in if you like....Canton is ahead of Morrisville 5-1 late in the third

[sshablak]

Re: Utica College 2016/2017

Plattsburg had a great weekend too.

[PSUChamps2001]

Plattsburg had a great weekend too.

Who did they play?