UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

[LTsatch]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

There is an excerpt by the author Tim Rappleye dated 6 December 2017 on CHN that describes Dave Silk taking his stick to a frat guy hanging over the glass at Thompson Arena who spit on him. Apparently this game occurred around the same time that a crew was on campus filming for the movie 'Animal House.'

A few incidents with New Haven as well. He enjoyed the hockey life.

[chickod]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

A few incidents with New Haven as well. He enjoyed the hockey life.

Yes, both true. I am 80% through the book...can't put it down.

[Felger]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

Following up on Chuck's reference to the College Hockey Dark Ages....

Wiseguys is of course about the 1978 Terriers. The passage chickod posted earlier really hit home with me. Because as we all know UNH won the ECAC title the following season. I can still remember, all these years later, driving home from Boston with a bunch of my pals, and thinking to myself that it was in some ways the end of an era. Not because UNH had won, but because the league would never be the same again for a couple of reasons. The following season the ECAC would be split into three divisions (East, West Ivy.) Standardized schedules would replace the haphazard ones, which would lead to a waning of some rivalries. A new program, the University of Maine, was joining the league. And as now seems inevitable, in less than five years there would be a move to create a so-called Super League, which would ultimately be refined to Hockey East.

And that '79 Championship Game was the last played without facemasks. Again, a move towards safety that was inevitable but came with growing pains. While the eastern teams had facemasks the western ones didn't. When UNH met Ohio State to open the 79-80 season, the first game quickly degenerated into a melee and UNH ultimately forfeited both games.

Perhaps the only time in my life I ever had a really prescient thought. Not saying those days were better or worse, just different.

[chickod]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

Following up on Chuck's reference to the College Hockey Dark Ages....

Wiseguys is of course about the 1978 Terriers. The passage chickod posted earlier really hit home with me. Because as we all know UNH won the ECAC title the following season. I can still remember, all these years later, driving home from Boston with a bunch of my pals, and thinking to myself that it was in some ways the end of an era. Not because UNH had won, but because the league would never be the same again for a couple of reasons. The following season the ECAC would be split into three divisions (East, West Ivy.) Standardized schedules would replace the haphazard ones, which would lead to a waning of some rivalries. A new program, the University of Maine, was joining the league. And as now seems inevitable, in less than five years there would be a move to create a so-called Super League, which would ultimately be refined to Hockey East.

And that '79 Championship Game was the last played without facemasks. Again, a move towards safety that was inevitable but came with growing pains. While the eastern teams had facemasks the western ones didn't. When UNH met Ohio State to open the 79-80 season, the first game quickly degenerated into a melee and UNH ultimately forfeited both games.

Perhaps the only time in my life I ever had a really prescient thought. Not saying those days were better or worse, just different.

Agreed. The one certainly in life is that there will always be change. Whether or not we always want to call it "progress" would require a 10 year discussion...for me, I am thankful for the wonderful memories and I'll leave it at that.

(finished the book - I have never read an entire book in one day in my life - unless it was one of those short "novella" things)

[HockeyRef]

Agreed. The one certainly in life is that there will always be change. Whether or not we always want to call it "progress" would require a 10 year discussion...for me, I am thankful for the wonderful memories and I'll leave it at that.

(finished the book - I have never read an entire book in one day in my life - unless it was one of those short "novella" things)

Kind of hoping the phrase "the more things change the more they stay the same" doesn't hold true for the future of UNH hockey 😉

[chickod]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

Because as we all know UNH won the ECAC title the following season. I can still remember, all these years later, driving home from Boston with a bunch of my pals, and thinking to myself that it was in some ways the end of an era. Not because UNH had won, but because the league would never be the same again

I think we left before the second game, because we were so bummed out after losing to Dartmouth, 1-0. We hit the crossbar in the opening minutes and then they completely shut us down. There is a slight mention of that in the book, how Dartmouth's coach "borrowed" the tactic that Tim Taylor of Yale successfully used when they stopped our winning streak the previous year. It was actually the forerunner of what would now be known as the "center ice trap."

The changes have made the game more technical and "scientific." Personally, I preferred the more "free wheeling" style that was used in the old days. The book alludes to that also (I don't remember the exact quote, but something to the effect that Charlie Holt's philosophy was a constant wave of offense and winning by outscoring the opponent as opposed to playing defense). Many of the BU/UNH games were wild, high-scoring affairs. The gigantic goalies, combined with the pads, have really shunted offenses today. I don't know, there's something wrong when you have to "struggle" to score goals. I think it takes a lot of the excitement away. In some aspects hockey has become like soccer, and it's not meant to be. It's played in a more confined area, and the beauty of the game (the speed and skill) has been somewhat negated by the equipment. I don't believe the composite sticks compensate for the miniscule area the players have to shoot at these days. Watch any highlights...when's the last time you saw ANY goalie "stack the pads" and make an acrobatic save. They would have to "go down" all the time and that required agility and athleticism because you couldn't just stand there and cover almost the entire net. Not saying every game should be 8-7, but I just preferred a "little" more scoring. It really showcased the skill of these players.

If you want to laugh, the last page of the book, after the Epilogue, shows the stat sheet for that season. BU scored an insane 199 goals. In today's era, 100 goals is a good season. This year in Hockey East:

Team	Goals
Northeastern	136
BU	124
Providence	117
Maine	117
BC	108
UMass - Amherst	104
UMass - Lowell	101
UConn	100
UNH	88
Merrimack	83
Vermont	79

[Felger]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

I think we left before the second game, because we were so bummed out after losing to Dartmouth, 1-0. We hit the crossbar in the opening minutes and then they completely shut us down. There is a slight mention of that in the book, how Dartmouth's coach "borrowed" the tactic that Tim Taylor of Yale successfully used when they stopped our winning streak the previous year. It was actually the forerunner of what would now be known as the "center ice trap."

The changes have made the game more technical and "scientific." Personally, I preferred the more "free wheeling" style that was used in the old days. The book alludes to that also (I don't remember the exact quote, but something to the effect that Charlie Holt's philosophy was a constant wave of offense and winning by outscoring the opponent as opposed to playing defense). Many of the BU/UNH games were wild, high-scoring affairs. The gigantic goalies, combined with the pads, have really shunted offenses today. I don't know, there's something wrong when you have to "struggle" to score goals. I think it takes a lot of the excitement away. In some aspects hockey has become like soccer, and it's not meant to be. It's played in a more confined area, and the beauty of the game (the speed and skill) has been somewhat negated by the equipment. I don't believe the composite sticks compensate for the miniscule area the players have to shoot at these days. Watch any highlights...when's the last time you saw ANY goalie "stack the pads" and make an acrobatic save. They would have to "go down" all the time and that required agility and athleticism because you couldn't just stand there and cover almost the entire net. Not saying every game should be 8-7, but I just preferred a "little" more scoring. It really showcased the skill of these players.

If you want to laugh, the last page of the book, after the Epilogue, shows the stat sheet for that season. BU scored an insane 199 goals. In today's era, 100 goals is a good season. This year in Hockey East:

Team	Goals
Northeastern	136
BU	124
Providence	117
Maine	117
BC	108
UMass - Amherst	104
UMass - Lowell	101
UConn	100
UNH	88
Merrimack	83
Vermont	79

All you have to do is remember the 1977 ECAC semis and finals at the Garden. 55 goals in four games. Insane. But I don't think I ever sat through a more exciting weekend of hockey, even given how it turned out.

FWIW, Charlie Holt's '77 UNH squad (which was loaded) scored 245 goals...of course they also gave up 181...

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

The changes have made the game more technical and "scientific." Personally, I preferred the more "free wheeling" style that was used in the old days. The book alludes to that also (I don't remember the exact quote, but something to the effect that Charlie Holt's philosophy was a constant wave of offense and winning by outscoring the opponent as opposed to playing defense). Many of the BU/UNH games were wild, high-scoring affairs. The gigantic goalies, combined with the pads, have really shunted offenses today. I don't know, there's something wrong when you have to "struggle" to score goals. I think it takes a lot of the excitement away. In some aspects hockey has become like soccer, and it's not meant to be. It's played in a more confined area, and the beauty of the game (the speed and skill) has been somewhat negated by the equipment. I don't believe the composite sticks compensate for the miniscule area the players have to shoot at these days. Watch any highlights...when's the last time you saw ANY goalie "stack the pads" and make an acrobatic save. They would have to "go down" all the time and that required agility and athleticism because you couldn't just stand there and cover almost the entire net. Not saying every game should be 8-7, but I just preferred a "little" more scoring. It really showcased the skill of these players.

Putting aside the "hockey has become more like soccer" thing - as someone who has enjoyed both, and continues to play and coach the latter, the similarities and differences of the two sports are pretty obvious - you have definitely touched upon an issue that I feel needs to be dealt with ASAP to make hockey an even better sport to play and (maybe more importantly) to enjoy watching. And that's the lack of athleticism in the goalie position as it is currently instructed in modern-day hockey. In short, while the game is played with the same size goals (4 ft. H x 6 ft. W) as it's been for probably over the last 100 years ... the goalies who stand in front of those goals, and the size of the equipment they use while doing it, has indisputably changed the way the goalie position is played. And frankly, not for the better.

The evolution is not difficult to track ... back in the old days, wooden sticks were mostly (if not entirely) flat-bladed, and the use of the slapshot was a rarity, and greatly frowned upon (all of us old-timers will recall former B's color analyst Johnny Pierson, who would moan almost on a nightly basis in the '70's and '80's about the evils of the inaccurate slapshot, and the virtues of the accurate wrist/snap shot). Enter Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull circa 1960 and the curved sticks, which would allow better elevation of shots - including slappers - that would terrorize mask-less goalies, who then over the next decade (led by Jacques Plante) adopted the protective mask, which gradually evolved into the cage and the mask/cage, to the current state of the art 50 years later. Not too long after the last mask-less goalies were retired or converted, came the evolution away from the wooden sticks to the composites that rule the landscape nowadays. No one has any real worries about goalie safety from head injuries now, so by extension, the safety problems of puck elevation have waned as well. Nevertheless, the non-mask protection offered to/used by modern-day goalies has expanded, and gotten better (i.e. much lighter) too. Overall, good things for goalies, not being weighed down by heavy, often water-logged equipment as their predecessors often were.

In the last generation, the evolution of the way the goalie position is played has become much less athletic, and much more a calculation of how best to cover the 24 square feet of space. The cynical answers are (1) get bigger goalies - with bigger equipment than offered to predecessors from the olden days; and (2) instruct them to sit back, fill space and play angles - mostly while already on their knees. You used to be able to tell most of the NHL goalies apart from each other, not because of what sweater they were wearing, but simply because so many of them played a different style. It's not like "big" goalies are entirely new - Ken Dryden was that guy almost 50 years ago - but there would be other guys like Gerry Cheevers, Rogie Vachon, Ed Giacomin, Gilles Meloche, Gilles Gilbert, and Tony Esposito (who might have been the prototype for a lot of the currently favored technique) who all played differently, and all played at a very high level.

Today's NHL is arguably the most athletic it's ever been ... with one blatantly obvious exception: the goalie position. Other than guys like Jonathan Quick and Henrik Lundqvist, it's hard to believe the Dominic Hasek era has passed so quickly, vanishing without a trace to some degree. Maybe Hasek was a one-off ... but should he have been? His was a uniquely athletic style that was hugely entertaining (and I say that as a fan and a former goalie) and the sport is worse off for its virtual absence. Goalies simply spend too much time pushing back and forth, from post to post on their knees. Is it effective? Apparently so. Is it athletic and/or entertaining to watch? Hardly.

As I've discussed and suggested in the past ... with all of the other changes around the sport over its hundred year evolution, the time has arrived to look at the size of the goal itself. And my proposed solution remains, lift the crossbar by a foot, implement it first in the ECHL or AHL, and see how it works with scoring, and (to me, more importantly) keeping goalies up on their skates more. Maybe at some point, the goals might need to be made wider too? But first, the crossbar. Giving shooters more space upstairs no longer creates an increased safety risk for the well-protected goalies (although it might force more defensemen to wear face shields?), and it might force them to play on their skates a little more often. Allow stick blades to have bigger curves too. If the cynical sliding back-and-forth thing has to do with shooters' inability at times to get elevation on their shots ... then let's give the shooters a little more help with that, no?



These are things that can easily be changed, without limiting the speed or size of the players, altering the footprints of the rinks, or silly - over-officious rule changes (P.S. - get rid of the trapezoid too - why penalize a goalie who can actually, y'know, skate like Marty Brodeur?) but just some well-overdue tweaks to make for a better game, and bring at least a little athleticism back to a position where it's been held back for the better part of this new century. At least initially, you don't even have to change the location of the post anchors. Simple, eh?

Those who want to criticize soccer (and I'm looking at you, chickod ), we can have that discussion later. We've got six months of off-season to kill, no reason to blow through all of the fun stuff right off the bat.

[chickod]

you have definitely touched upon an issue that I feel needs to be dealt with ASAP to make hockey an even better sport to play and (maybe more importantly) to enjoy watching. And that's the lack of athleticism in the goalie position

. Gotcha back...I knew that would hit a nerve!

[Greg Ambrose]

I accidentally clicked on the UNH thread and found posts about BU, Bill Buckton and Peter Marzo. Who would have thought!





No, BU did not have to forfeit any games that Buckton and Marzo played in. Buckton and Marzo went to court and got an injunction to maintain their eligibility and not impact BU's won-lost record in games they played during the 1973-74 season. In the end an agreement was reached (which the NCAA refused to sign) in which, among other things, the players maintained their eligibility for the rest of their collegiate careers at BU.

The 11 forfeit losses happened the previous season (1972-73) when another player on the Terriers, Dick DeCloe, was reported by Cornell after BU trounced the Big Red at Lynah, 9-0. Instead of getting a lawyer DeCloe went back to Canada where he finished the season playing for the Toronto Marlboros of the OHA.

Interesting, as Harkness had left Cornell after the 1969-70 season to become the head coach of Detroit for one season and then GM for another three seasons. If it was Harkness his hatred of BU ran very deep. I think it more likely that Stanfield meant Cornell and confused the DeCloe affair with the Buckton-Marzo affair, or maybe Cornell did report both.

Sean

No, we were talking Buckton and Marzo. I remember because I mentioned to Stanfield the Green Line story. Don’t forget that Bertrand was Harkness’ hand picked successor. And this is before he took the job at Union.

[Greg Ambrose]

Obviously I'm biased. I basically remember EVERYTHING he talks about (even the "pre-season" game that they played at Salem State...which I went to). So "most" people won't experience that level of "connection." But in general, if the story is compelling enough, it will usurp the "ability" of the author (which is a kind way of saying that the author's "limitations" won't hinder the reader's enjoyment of it).

Everyone will have to make up their own mind, but I can tell you those years were amazing to experience in person. Those were the days before ESPN and a million other networks. We would have to "hope" that a local station (like channel 38 or 56) would "pick up" the syndication of a game from out of town. A big regret was never actually SEEING that infamous NCAA semi-final vs Minnesota (the one that got stopped by the bench-clearing brawl). I remember listening to the game in our dorm room on the radio. Boy, have times changed!

And I'm only through three chapters; haven't even gotten to the stuff about the Blizzard of '78 (I was at the Garden that night, too). So it certainly would have more meaning for me, but I have to think that other fans would enjoy it also (UNH is mentioned a few times as well) - especially those who followed college hockey (and especially in the East) at that time.

Did BU play at Salem State as part of their recruiting of Dick Lamby? I shared a beer with Lamby at a Lynn watering hole once. He was utilizing his BU degree at the time by working construction. We shared a couple of UNH stories. Seemed like a good guy.

[theprofromdover]

Did BU play at Salem State as part of their recruiting of Dick Lamby? I shared a beer with Lamby at a Lynn watering hole once. He was utilizing his BU degree at the time by working construction. We shared a couple of UNH stories. Seemed like a good guy.

Lambs told me he was playing in Either Finland or Sweden in early October when he got a call from Parker recruiting him. He thought it was for the following season but Parker informed him he had been enrolled already and was expected the following week. Lamby didn’t know I was a BC guy when he disclosed his on the golf course. He had an original Ping that pinged!

[chickod]

Did BU play at Salem State as part of their recruiting of Dick Lamby? I shared a beer with Lamby at a Lynn watering hole once. He was utilizing his BU degree at the time by working construction. We shared a couple of UNH stories. Seemed like a good guy.

You’re really testing my memory now, but I believe they scheduled the game after they knew he would be enrolling. All I know is my friend who lived in Marblehead, which is right around the corner from Salem State, told me “You have to see you this guy,” so we went.

[chickod]

Kind of hoping the phrase "the more things change the more they stay the same" doesn't hold true for the future of UNH hockey 😉

Good point. I second that emotion!

[jeteye1717]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale

Following up on Chuck's reference to the College Hockey Dark Ages....

Wiseguys is of course about the 1978 Terriers. The passage chickod posted earlier really hit home with me. Because as we all know UNH won the ECAC title the following season.

The late '70s corresponded to my undergraduate years at UNH, and the end of the 1978 season cemented my abiding hatred (now mellowed into respectful loathing with the passage of time) of the Terriers. The thrilling (up to a point) conclusion to the 1977 ECAC season (beating Brown in ot at Snively, then Cornell in 2ot in the Garden, only to fall to BU in the Championship Game) surely meant Next Year we were gonna do it, right, finally win that elusive title. Yet as the 1978 ECAC season drew to a close, UNH found itself barely over 0.500 in league play, clinging to the 8th - and final - playoff spot, and on the road at #1 BU in the 1-game quarterfinal round. A carload of us made the drive down to Walter Brown Arena, and sat there in stunned disbelief as the 'Cats skated toe to toe with the mighty Terriers for much of the game, only to fall (this time in ot) once again to BU when it mattered most. What made it even worse was learning as we filed out in sad despair that it had been a monumental night of upsets in the ECAC, with #2 Cornell, #3 Clarkson and #4 RPI all losing at home that same Black Tuesday night, thus paving the way for BU to waltz through the lower seeds at the Garden on the way to another ECAC title.

But, BUT ... no, Providence rolls over BU in its ECAC semi-final, and suddenly the nation's #1-ranked team was looking awfully vulnerable. We all smugly basked in BU's fall, knowing that despite their gaudy record (30+ wins at that point) they'd be golfing just like UNH soon enough. But, BUT ... no, the Terriers smoke Brown in the ECAC consolation game, and in reward the NCAA pooh-bahs grant Jack and Co. an unprecedented do-over vs. Providence @ Providence to determine who'd join BC (the ECAC Tournament Champion) in the NCAAs. Suddenly we weren't so much smug as outraged! Perhaps Sean can confirm the explanation I heard sometime in the following few years that Parker's wife had been quite ill, and understandably his full attention was elsewhere. The NCAA was sympathetic to these 'extenuating circumstances' and viola - the one off, never to be repeated play-in game was born. (To be fair, I know that CC played at BGSU in a corresponding 'West' play-in game that year, but was this planned from the start, or just an ad hoc response to the BU situation? Sean?).

You know the rest. BU beats PC in its play-in game, then Wisconsin and BC at the Providence Civic Center to win the 1978 National Championship. Barely 0.500, #8 UNH was an ot goal away from derailing the BU train at the station, but couldn't get the job done. I was heart-broken for my 'Cats; ****ed beyond reason at the special treatment afforded Parker and BU. UNH's first ECAC title the next season (#17 at 17:17 and all that) took some of the sting away, but there's a black spot in my heart still reserved for all things BU. Twenty years later as I'm happily bouncing around in Albany as M. Mowers beats Drury et al. with an ot shorty, the first thing that comes to mind is "This one's for you, Charlie," some cosmic retribution for 1977, 1978, 1984 (the 'mini-game' debacle) and all the other wrenching losses to BU over the decades. I've ordered up a copy of Wiseguys for a trip down Memory Lane; something tells me BU's Title Trek won't be presented with quite the same bile as *I* remember it ...