LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

This aint good. This has the makings of a long losing season . Makes you wonder where the talent went from last year to this year .

[Suze]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

This aint good. This has the makings of a long losing season . Makes you wonder where the talent went from last year to this year .

You gotta feel good about your freshman goalie ... your announcer was all about praising Mantha, but Mitens made some amazing saves on numerous point blank shots by the Seawolves.

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

This aint good. This has the makings of a long losing season . Makes you wonder where the talent went from last year to this year .

Yeah, a very disappointing loss. Even without our injured players, I expected the Lakers to play 2 strong games and get a sweep.

I think I have come to realize that the early loss of 4 players (Hults, Morgan, Headrick, Bindulis) from last season's team has hurt far more than expected. The talent level of the team just isn't deep enough yet to be able to overcome losing those guys early. Offensively we lost 56 points between Hults and Morgan at the forward position. We brought in 3 freshmen as replacements. Erikkson seems like he could become a good player but hasn't put up any points yet and is out injured. Gamelin just saw his first action this weekend and didn't get on the scoreboard. Miura isn't eligible yet (maybe soon?) but he is also injured. So thus far we don't have any scoring from our freshmen who are replacements for Hults and Morgan. I think almost everyone expected Hults to turn pro early but it would have been nice if he stayed one more season. I think the loss of Morgan (transferred to UM) was a huge loss. He was our best freshman last season. Losing Bindulis early to the pros and Headrick to the OHL also hurt at D. Behind Saccoman, they were our leading point getters at D even though neither played the full season. That forced us to bring in more freshman D this season and kept us younger and less experienced at that position than desirable. It should help when Ruggiero is eligible after this semester. He is supposed to be a very good skater as a Dman.

Giving up early and late goals in a period continues to be a big bugaboo and killed us again tonight. Anchorage scored early goals in both the 1st and 3rd periods. Mantha is an excellent goalie and when Anchorage gets a lead of a couple of goals like that, Mantha can be especially hard to beat. I think we needed to score fairly early tonight to give ourselves some momentum and a better chance of winning.

It could turn out to be a long season as you say. We really miss having Saccoman and Kaelble in the lineup at D. I don't know how long they will be out but the longer it is the tougher it will be on the Lakers. Somehow we have to hope that our forwards can pick up their play, especially scoring but D play as well. At this point, it doesn't look like we can expect to get much scoring out of our few freshman forwards this season so our other guys need to pick it up. When Ruggiero is eligible to play it could give us a big boost at D. We're pretty thin at goalie now so we have to hope that Kossoff and Mitens both stay healthy. If Bengert becomes eligible at some point this season, that will help our goalie depth.

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

After twenty plus years of going nowhere , the excuses have gotten old and repetitive . Good talent wins , bad talent loses. Good coaching wins, bad coaching loses. Winning brings fans in, losing keeps fans home . It is not rocket science .

[Section P]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

This weekend's series gave me a feeling that took a while to figure out. It felt like the last season of Roque. As I looked around the empty arena, I seriously wondered why we have season tickets.

[Deman]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

I was watching on my laptop, but it looked like UAA had two or three great chances in OT? No?

Really surprised by the low attendance, 1200? Is this typical, or an off night? College hockey overall seems to be struggling with the attendance, it seems. Even some college football games I have watched recently (Yale) have had a ton of empty seats.

Re: Attendance: Attendance since Whitten has taken over has been up, but until Friday, we've only won a single game. I think a lot of people are less willing to come to the building just to watch a team lose.

Normally I'd say that it could've been because the Eagles (Junior A) team were playing, but they were on a road trip, and high school hockey hasn't started yet.

[Deman]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

...I think I have come to realize that the early loss of 4 players (Hults, Morgan, Headrick, Bindulis)...

I still don't think losing Headrick was a huge loss, personally. Bindulis is an odd case. He was really good, but he was also out for most of the year, but when he was healthy he was noticeable, for the right reasons, on the ice.

I didn't think that losing Hults and Morgan were going to be that big of a deal, but I think those two losses are the biggest, especially Morgan: Not only did he have good hands, but he was quick.

Without Saccooman and Kaelble in the lineup, it's really highlighting McArdle...but not in the way he wants. Last season he looked alright, but this season it's almost as if he looks lost, making some really bad plays. Once the team gets healthy, I wouldn't be surprised if he started becoming a healthy scratch.

Sounds like Kaelble is in rough shape: In addition to an injury, I guess he has Mono and was in the hospital over the weekend, so here's hoping for a quick recovery from it.

[jsmithe]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

I was watching on my laptop, but it looked like UAA had two or three great chances in OT? No?

Really surprised by the low attendance, 1200? Is this typical, or an off night? College hockey overall seems to be struggling with the attendance, it seems. Even some college football games I have watched recently (Yale) have had a ton of empty seats.

I don't know how much I would trust that attendance number. LSSU hasn't had an SID in place since September-ish. Their new one is supposed to start this week.

[altazo]

I do not think I have ever seen the Laker thread this dead .

Internet message forums in general are on the decline. You should check out the D3 forum on this website. I would say it sees 20-25% of the traffic and use that it did 5 years ago.

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

I still don't think losing Headrick was a huge loss, personally. Bindulis is an odd case. He was really good, but he was also out for most of the year, but when he was healthy he was noticeable, for the right reasons, on the ice.

I didn't think that losing Hults and Morgan were going to be that big of a deal, but I think those two losses are the biggest, especially Morgan: Not only did he have good hands, but he was quick.

Without Saccooman and Kaelble in the lineup, it's really highlighting McArdle...but not in the way he wants. Last season he looked alright, but this season it's almost as if he looks lost, making some really bad plays. Once the team gets healthy, I wouldn't be surprised if he started becoming a healthy scratch.

Sounds like Kaelble is in rough shape: In addition to an injury, I guess he has Mono and was in the hospital over the weekend, so here's hoping for a quick recovery from it.

Headrick was young and had talent even though his game was still rough around the edges. He was a more offensive minded D which helped the Lakers who have been lacking in that respect. It's no secret Erie of the OHL had been after him even before he became a Laker. The timing (mid-season) of his leaving hurt. It left us a bit short on D for the remainder of last season. And if he had decided to leave earlier, like after his freshman season, it's pretty likely that Mitch Hults' brother Cole would have stuck with his commitment to the Lakers and been with them last season. He really upped his game last season in the USHL before going to Penn State this season.

If McArdle is struggling, he could get bumped out by Ruggiero once the first semester is over. We'll also have a couple of new D next season who hopefully kick up our skating at that position a notch. Probably Mannara or Pilawski or both will be here then. Or if they find another good D for next season, one of those 2 may be a couple of seasons away.

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

I see that the Lakers will be playing in the GLI next season.

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

After this weekend of play the Lakers will have one third of their season finished and they need wins as you don"t want to see one third of a season netting you two wins only . They need at least a split . I will be there for Saturdays night game as we have good friends who are Bowling Green fans .

[LSSULaker889294]

I see that the Lakers will be playing in the GLI next season.

Great news. 1999 was the the last time the Lakers were in the GLI so it's been quite a long time.

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

Went to the game in Bowling Green tonight and it was a waste of time and money . The only thing we enjoyed about the game was getting out and getting back home .

[jsmithe]

Re: LSSU Lakers Hockey: 2017-18

Thru 12 games:
2014-15: 2-10 (19 goals for, 43 goals against)
2015-16: 2-8-2 (24-37)
2016-17: 6-6 (44-38)
2017-18: 2-7-3 (26-44)