2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

[jcarter7669]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

The Power Rankings also have UNH behind UMass-Amherst, Maine and Vermont.
The criteria are:

"The PWR compares the top 25 teams in the RPI Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), judging them by four criteria: record against common opponents, head-to-head competition, record against other top 25 teams if the team has faced at least 10 top 25 opponents, and the RPI."

Head-to-head competition doesn't appear to outweigh the other criteria.
I realize the rankings in March are all that matter but a better gauge of how the Hockey East team's stack up, IMO, is revealed by head-to-head competition.

Head to head is a better comparison at the end of the year. At the moment, some teams have played each other 3 times, some once. You can not compare for example UNH's 1 win against VT to their OOC with UNH 0-5-1 and UVM 6-1.

Hope you guys pull it off agaist DC this weekend, not that it will help the PWR, but you sure are dragging the interleague record down.

[kdaddy]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

The Power Rankings also have UNH behind UMass-Amherst, Maine and Vermont.
The criteria are:

"The PWR compares the top 25 teams in the RPI Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), judging them by four criteria: record against common opponents, head-to-head competition, record against other top 25 teams if the team has faced at least 10 top 25 opponents, and the RPI."

Head-to-head competition doesn't appear to outweigh the other criteria.
I realize the rankings in March are all that matter but a better gauge of how the Hockey East team's stack up, IMO, is revealed by head-to-head competition.

So true. If UNH keeps this up in HE then they can be unranked in the "polls" but their PWR will put them in the top 10. Win the ones you are supposed to and take 4 out of 6 from Maine, BC, UVM and you are in.

[UNH09]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Head to head is a better comparison at the end of the year. At the moment, some teams have played each other 3 times, some once. You can not compare for example UNH's 1 win against VT to their OOC with UNH 0-5-1 and UVM 6-1.

Hope you guys pull it off agaist DC this weekend, not that it will help the PWR, but you sure are dragging the interleague record down.

A question... With UNH's winless OOC record, does their winning against Hockey East hurt many other Hockey East teams chances come March?

The battle for the River Pebble tonight in Manch-Vegas at the Verizon House of Horrors... I assume the usual 20-19 game will ensue, with UNH still playing some defense optional hockey against the inferior opponent...

[thecomicbookguy]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

The battle for the River Pebble tonight in Manch-Vegas at the Verizon House of Horrors... I assume the usual 20-19 game will ensue, with UNH still playing some defense optional hockey against the inferior opponent...

UNH is 5-2-1 in the RiverStone, and only one of the losses was "awful" (the 9-8 game in '05); UNH has outscored Dartmouth 38-24. I'm going to guess that UNH will look more like the team that played UML rather than UMA, but I don't think it's going to be as bad as certain people are worried about.

[UNH09]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

UNH is 5-2-1 in the RiverStone, and only one of the losses was "awful" (the 9-8 game in '05); UNH has outscored Dartmouth 38-24. I'm going to guess that UNH will look more like the team that played UML rather than UMA, but I don't think it's going to be as bad as certain people are worried about.

If I remember correctly the tie was bad too... UNH up three goals going into the third and getting the sister kisser...

[UNHHKYRKS]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Finally an OOC win!!!

[thecomicbookguy]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

If I remember correctly the tie was bad too... UNH up three goals going into the third and getting the sister kisser...

Nope. Wasn't a GREAT offensive game, but they did come back to tie it, and the defense obviously played well.

I'm sure the couple in the back of the student section who were screaming at the team every single time something went wrong (it's tough to shoot when the puck is bouncing over your stick, or when the defense ties up your stick; and really, when the team is up 4- or 5-2, and you're SCREAMING for them to score, maybe it's time to think about calming medications), but I thought UNH played pretty well tonight. A bit lax in the first, but after that, they took the game to Dartmouth pretty well. A little trouble clearing the puck in the third, but, unlike in the Cornell game, they weren't letting Dartmouth get many chances.

Great special teams for the 'Cats tonight, scoring 3 PP goals, and generating a number of short-handed opportunities.

Was UNH trying to trap at the start of the 3rd, or was there some mis-communication? DeSimone makes a nice play to get by the defender and get the puck deep, but there are 4 UNHers behind the blue line. I'm thinking wires got crossed, as DeSimone sent the puck back blindly, thinking there'd be someone there. Never saw the single forechecker again.

[C-H-C]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

A thoroughly enjoyable evening at the Verizon Bat Cave (sitting in the "upper bowl" feels like a bat clinging to the side of a cave). An impressive turnout of UNH fans - I'd guess over 80% of the crowd. Dartmouth gave UNH a game for the first period but were a tad overmatched. I felt a little bad for the sophomore goalie O'Neill. I thought he played pretty well, all things considered. Doug Jones, another sophomore, is also a talented player.

Thompson-DeSimone-Butler continued their dominance. In November/December, I thought the top two lines were going to be scoring machines but the first line has really distinguished itself. Reminds me of the years when much of the scoring came from the first line (e.g., Haydar-Krog-Souza; Winnik-Micflikier-Hemingway).

I noticed that the second and third lines were juggled early in the game tonight, no doubt, in an attempt to increase Sislo's production. Moses was up with LeBlanc and Burke and Sislo was down with Borisenok and Speelman. It apparently didn't work out that well since Moses and Sislo switched back later in the game. I paid attention to Sislo and noticed, once again, that he is bound and determined to hang out on the left side of the rink while in the offensive zone - without much success. Maybe coach should just try putting him on the left wing with LeBlanc in the center and Moses on the right wing. Playing left wing as a right hander seems to be working for Thompson.

Burke looked solid again and Moses was all over the place. It's gratifying to see Nick Krates return to his role as rock-solid defenseman. However, I miss seeing Connor Hardowa out there - I thought he was an impressive, tough defenseman. I'd also like to see Henrion out there every night though the battle to play on the fourth line has lead to a spirited competition.

Last, but not least, Bobby Butler for Hobey!

[bostonfan86]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Postgame video from Dartmouth-UNH Courtesy of Biz Jacobs from Inside Hockey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl826jjHbd0 (Umile, Blake Kessel, Paul Thompson)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8PpyTCi1kM (Dartmouth Postgame)

[RockTheWhit]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Bummer that last night's win caused the Cats to drop to 15th in the Pairwise. Crazy system .

[thecomicbookguy]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Bummer that last night's win caused the Cats to drop to 15th in the Pairwise. Crazy system .

I thought we were tied for 16th after last week's games. I suppose the Tuesday/Friday games probably helped, though. I don't really check until after the weekend's over.

[RockTheWhit]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

I thought we were tied for 16th after last week's games. I suppose the Tuesday/Friday games probably helped, though. I don't really check until after the weekend's over.

Yeah, they were t14th after friday's games and were as low as 16th again before all of last night's scores came in.

[e.cat]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Postgame video from Dartmouth-UNH Courtesy of Biz Jacobs from Inside Hockey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl826jjHbd0 (Umile, Blake Kessel, Paul Thompson)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8PpyTCi1kM (Dartmouth Postgame)

Thanks for the links. What I find very interesting are Gaudet's glowing comments about Thompson. He said that he aggressively recruited Thompson but UNH won. His candor about it, especially with a Dartmouth player sitting right beside him, baffle me in a way. Why would you do that? I guess he's just being honest but wouldn't you keep those thoughts under wraps. As a UNH alum and fan I'm happy Thompson chose UNH though

[Snively65]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Bummer that last night's win caused the Cats to drop to 15th in the Pairwise. Crazy system .

Yes, and for what it's worth, the Cats' RPI SOS also dropped from 4th to 8th over the weekend......

[PSW]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

A thoroughly enjoyable evening at the Verizon Bat Cave (sitting in the "upper bowl" feels like a bat clinging to the side of a cave). An impressive turnout of UNH fans - I'd guess over 80% of the crowd. Dartmouth gave UNH a game for the first period but were a tad overmatched. I felt a little bad for the sophomore goalie O'Neill. I thought he played pretty well, all things considered. Doug Jones, another sophomore, is also a talented player.

Thompson-DeSimone-Butler continued their dominance. In November/December, I thought the top two lines were going to be scoring machines but the first line has really distinguished itself. Reminds me of the years when much of the scoring came from the first line (e.g., Haydar-Krog-Souza; Winnik-Micflikier-Hemingway).

I noticed that the second and third lines were juggled early in the game tonight, no doubt, in an attempt to increase Sislo's production. Moses was up with LeBlanc and Burke and Sislo was down with Borisenok and Speelman. It apparently didn't work out that well since Moses and Sislo switched back later in the game. I paid attention to Sislo and noticed, once again, that he is bound and determined to hang out on the left side of the rink while in the offensive zone - without much success. Maybe coach should just try putting him on the left wing with LeBlanc in the center and Moses on the right wing. Playing left wing as a right hander seems to be working for Thompson.

Burke looked solid again and Moses was all over the place. It's gratifying to see Nick Krates return to his role as rock-solid defenseman. However, I miss seeing Connor Hardowa out there - I thought he was an impressive, tough defenseman. I'd also like to see Henrion out there every night though the battle to play on the fourth line has lead to a spirited competition.

Last, but not least, Bobby Butler for Hobey!

The second and third lines on Saturday started out as Moses/Leblanc/Speelman and Burke/Borisenok/Silo. I agree that it is most likely a move to try to jump start Silo. I thought that Borisenok line was playing really good, they had good opportunities. However, the Leblanc line gave up the first 2 goals(-2) after that the lines changed to Silo/LeBlanc/Speelman and the third went to Burke/Borisenok /Moses.
I watch Silo play and don’t think he is playing “HIS” game………something I think he thinks he’s DeSimone trying to make the cute pass….stick handling around. I see Silo’s games as a straight forward game……shoot….crash the net…use physical strength to get to the net…