2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

[unhpuckfan2001]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Speaking of UMass and UNH . . .

How long before we have an outdoor hockey game at Gillette?

[i'zonprize]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articl...SPORTS-2040407

Wish the boys a heathly recovery.. and a great opportunity for guys to step up.. should still be a great weekend for hockey!

[C-H-C]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

The Curse of Poriveau (posted on Jan 24)

Oui, I agreeing, dey cans ang anudder "Bestest Team in January" banner agains dis year!! It'll looking good wit dey udder one towsend of dem dey ave. Lucky for dem dey ave plenty of space where da March et Aprile banners supposed a be.

(Mon ami, I a beeg UNHs, reelly. Mais evury yeear it duh same premature "appiness" goings on. Tell me ow dey doing two munt from nows, eh)

[billb]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

I'm happy that the so-called Frenchman has not reappeared to spew his own brand of venom over this swoon. I believe there was a consensus that UNH were playing very well, but that the talent was thin; they're fortunate to be in first place. In fact, I don't see much difference among the top three teams.
I'm not surprised by the sweep, and I'll look ahead, not back.

[catsfan]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Two surprisingly difficult weekends have dropped the Cats to 16th in the PWR; out of the playoffs as of today. The next few weekends are extremely important; would hate to have to win the HE play-offs as the only way to make the NCAAs.

[zoofer]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

I totally agree with BillB....at the beginning of the year, before the Miami weekend, a few of us saw making home ice as the goal...with the loss of scoring and defense, it looked like a semi rebuilding year, so on the second week of February to be leading Hockey East, I'm okay....a split up at Alfond is winning the weekend to me, so I'm not surprised by a sweep by a surging Maine...how do you think Umass felt after BC dismantled them! Hopefully we'll rally down the stretch,split with BC and make the NCAA's. Otherwise we need to be in the tourney championship game to makle them....Go Cats!

[Gibber]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

5/7 remaining games at home should help (likely 7/9 or 8/10 next games at home including QF's)... Hopefully they can keep up their good home play and hang on to first place, beat some TUC's along the way (UVM and BC) and solidify a post-season spot...

[thecomicbookguy]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

I have to agree with bill (and, well, JRP) as well. I've been reading the boards, and seeing people praising Umile, and acting as though this team was going to run away with the RS title (and bfd if they did, anyway), win HE, and then "make some serious noise come April". Hopefully these last two weekends will temper those high hopes and make people see this team a little more realistically again.

UNH is in first place in Hockey East, but I think that's more of an indicator of the overall mediocrity of the league than of the talent of this team.

Now, they might have the pieces for a run in the Spring. The current lull could be a precursor to a late surge, as we've seen other teams do, and if that happens, I'll be as excited as anyone. At the moment, though, I think we have to see this team for what they are - a good team in HEA, but just above middle of the pack nationally.


(Though, maybe it's not just UNH fans guilty of this: I had to listen to the Maine broadcast of Friday night's game, and you'd think AIC was beating Miami the way they roared about Maine "knocking off" UNH. )

[C-H-C]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Coach Umile and his staff have done a remarkable job. Honestly - did anyone predict or imagine they would be in first place in Hockey East or ranked nationally after the Wisconsin weekend? He's gotten his team to work their butts off, even when they are behind in games.

Just as the season doesn't end in January, when UNH is in first place - it doesn't end when they lose 3 out of 4 in early February. The test comes over the long haul and I see no signs that this team is going to give up and collapse.

In hindsight, there is one area which has hurt the team now that they are dealing with injuries to key players. I've noticed that the team seems to have less jump and energy in the third period over the last three games. It could be that they relied too much on the first three lines during their winning stretch. Perhaps it would have been better to settle on who would play on the fourth line and, more importantly, given them much more icetime in good times and bad. With Burke and Speelman out of the lineup, the team is forced to rely on guys like McCarey, Henrion, Pavelski, Manz and Block to step up. Overall, they have seen too little and too inconsistent icetime to be ready to meet the higher expectations. Hopefully, they will learn and develop quickly now that their chance has arrived.

[thecomicbookguy]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Coach Umile and his staff have done a remarkable job. Honestly - did anyone predict or imagine they would be in first place in Hockey East or ranked nationally after the Wisconsin weekend? He's gotten his team to work their butts off, even when they are behind in games.

Just as the season doesn't end in January, when UNH is in first place - it doesn't end when they lose 3 out of 4 in early February. The test comes over the long haul and I see no signs that this team is going to give up and collapse.

I'm not trying to dismiss what Umile's done this year (I agree that he's done a fine job); nor do I think the team is going to collapse down the stretch. I just think a number of people got ahead of themselves when the team was doing well. I think the same of this team as I did back in November - should get home ice, might make the Garden, will possibly make the NCAAs as a low seed, and will probably lose in the first round. It's not the most cheerful outlook, but that's about all I think we can expect from this team. Maybe I'm wrong, and hopefully they exceed my expectations,

[amherstblackbear]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

It's been 4 years since Maine swept a weekend series against ANY of the "big 4." Got to go back to Feb 2006 (BC).

(If you thought the Foster's sign was getting old...)

Be glad the opponent was happy to beat your team. It's a lot better than the alternative; when your opponents stop caring, you know you've become irrelevant.

$.02

[UNHhockey29]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

It's been 4 years since Maine swept a weekend series against ANY of the "big 4." Got to go back to Feb 2006 (BC).

(If you thought the Foster's sign was getting old...)

Be glad the opponent was happy to beat your team. It's a lot better than the alternative; when your opponents stop caring, you know you've become irrelevant.

$.02

Personally the Umile sign was my favorite of the weekend. Very creative.

[thecomicbookguy]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

Personally the Umile sign was my favorite of the weekend. Very creative.

What was it?


ABB - I've seen plenty of UNH losses at the Alfond. What bugs me is blowing early leads. Third game in a row that UNH blew a 2-goal lead (they led MC 2-0 and 3-1 at stages in the game last Saturday). They managed to sneak away with a W in the first game, but in all 3 the offense virtually disappeared. I know Braithwaite and Darling played great games, but the offense was there early, and then just evaporates. Very frustrating.

[UNHhockey29]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

ABB - I've seen plenty of UNH losses at the Alfond. What bugs me is blowing early leads. Third game in a row that UNH blew a 2-goal lead (they led MC 2-0 and 3-1 at stages in the game last Saturday). They managed to sneak away with a W in the first game, but in all 3 the offense virtually disappeared. I know Braithwaite and Darling played great games, but the offense was there early, and then just evaporates. Very frustrating.

The offense didn't just disappear. We didn't play so well in the second both nights but they didn't let up. We had some good chances but Maine played some great hockey this weekend.

[amherstblackbear]

Re: 2009-2010 UNH Wildcats Season

I'm not sure when it happened, but when we weren't paying attention we somehow teleported to a parallel universe when Maine is 4th in the country in team scoring.

The best way to hold a lead against Maine (this year) is to keep adding to it. Maybe Foster would like to have one or two of this weekend's goals back. But UNH didn't give him much margin for error.

In all seriousness, some of the blame has to go to UNH's power play for going 0-for-the-weekend. And Darling probably gets some of the credit for making some key 2nd and 3rd period saves. As much as anything, I think those two things were the difference.

Either way, UNH has had Maine's number lately. It was nice to get back in the win column.

Maybe we'll get a March rematch...