2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

[observer85]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

Back to hockey since there was a game last night.

Saw the game and was surprised at some of the lineup changes. Milo out, Leonard out. Stacey in. Stalberg in. No changes to the defensive pairings. Anybody have the scoop what caused Milo to be out? Injury? Figured Leonard would be out after the 5 minute major penalty.

I thought the game was pretty workmanlike for the Cats. Just taking care of business. Read in the BFP that this and next week are finals for the players so practice time is reduced. Based on how the team played, maybe they should operate on reduced practice time on a regular basis – especially if the game next Saturday vs. Dartmouth has a similar result.

The 3 defensemen power play unit (MacKenzie, Miller, Lawson along with forwards McCarthy and Pacan) moved the puck real well. They did not score but seemed to being doing well as Sneddon put them out to start all 5 power plays. I hope he keeps these guys together, they seem to be compatible.

The other unit scored the only PP goal (the empty netter was a credited as a PP goal but was a 4 on 3 with Cullity and Miller out as defensemen). The other unit (4 forwards – Roloff, Downing, Vock, Irwin and defenseman Medvec) does not move the puck as well, although it seems as if the puck is moving until it hits Irwin’s stick then it is a shot from the middle of the ice...whether the shot is there or not. It appears they are trying to set Irwin up to shoot one-timers but his one-time shot is not that good. He has a better wrist shot from the slot. Perhaps he should be replaced on this PP unit with someone like Milo, who moves the puck better than most, and move someone else to shoot one-timers.

Madore was solid when he needed to be and got lucky with one shot that hit a post in the 2nd period. Even though he was solid, I hope that Spillane will get the call against Dartmouth as I think it is too early to go with one guy yet.

[midge843]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

Back to hockey since there was a game last night.

Saw the game and was surprised at some of the lineup changes. Milo out, Leonard out. Stacey in. Stalberg in. No changes to the defensive pairings. Anybody have the scoop what caused Milo to be out? Injury? Figured Leonard would be out after the 5 minute major penalty.

I thought the game was pretty workmanlike for the Cats. Just taking care of business. Read in the BFP that this and next week are finals for the players so practice time is reduced. Based on how the team played, maybe they should operate on reduced practice time on a regular basis – especially if the game next Saturday vs. Dartmouth has a similar result.

The 3 defensemen power play unit (MacKenzie, Miller, Lawson along with forwards McCarthy and Pacan) moved the puck real well. They did not score but seemed to being doing well as Sneddon put them out to start all 5 power plays. I hope he keeps these guys together, they seem to be compatible.

The other unit scored the only PP goal (the empty netter was a credited as a PP goal but was a 4 on 3 with Cullity and Miller out as defensemen). The other unit (4 forwards – Roloff, Downing, Vock, Irwin and defenseman Medvec) does not move the puck as well, although it seems as if the puck is moving until it hits Irwin’s stick then it is a shot from the middle of the ice...whether the shot is there or not. It appears they are trying to set Irwin up to shoot one-timers but his one-time shot is not that good. He has a better wrist shot from the slot. Perhaps he should be replaced on this PP unit with someone like Milo, who moves the puck better than most, and move someone else to shoot one-timers.

Madore was solid when he needed to be and got lucky with one shot that hit a post in the 2nd period. Even though he was solid, I hope that Spillane will get the call against Dartmouth as I think it is too early to go with one guy yet.

I agree with everything you said but i vehemently disagree with you on the goalie situation. If you watch the highlights of the UVM/UNH game, which you can at youtube.com/uvmahtletics, you can see spillane giving up a NUMBER of soft goals. He was completely out of position on a few of them, and was wandering away from the net on countless occasions. I think you go with Madore against dartmouth again (hopefully with another solid performance), and ride him for the season.

[snwbrdr]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

Been busy, never posted my thoughts about the UNH game.

Here they are.

Thought UVM had the better of the play in the first, UNH in the second, and even in the third.

However UNH buried their chances and UVM squandered theirs. Chances were even to favoring UVM. UVM hit 4 posts/crossbars and missed MANY partially open nets high or wide. Should have been a 6-5 game

UVM had a number of BAD defensive breakdowns, particularly on UNH goals 3 and 4. And the 5th UNH goal was another horrible turnover by a UVM forward.

The first two UNH goals were bad goaltending on the first, and seeing eye wrist shot through a huge crowd on the second.

Overall thought Spillane played poorly. Yeah, UNH had 3 stellar chances on bad plays by UVM but they buried all 3. The goaltender has to make a few stops now and then.

UVM probably had their best game thus far offensively in terms of creating chances, but they did not finish them.

For yet another game I liked what I saw from Pacan. And McCarthy continues to impress. Roloff continues to fly but is not getting the numbers to back up the effort. Where was Stacey? They need him if they are going to go anywhere this year.

[snwbrdr]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

And now my thoughts on the SLUt game

Good game defensively, only had a few scares where I felt they had a bad D miscue or gave up a real good opportunity. Offensively I thought they created a lot less than against UNH, and again, what they created, particularly in the second period, they did not finish.

Overall I felt UVM had the game relatively under control despite the lack of a decent lead.

Madore looked good but was not severely tested other than the post shot, which was a nasty shot.

Lawson did scare me a few times but liked him on the PP.

Not noticing Irwin as much as early season.

Where was Milo? We can't seem to get our top six forwards into the line-up in every game this year. They need him. Anyone know what the story is? sick or injured?

Hopefully the cats can continue to rack up some W's OOC against Dartmouth and in the New Year tournament. Figure the UMD matchup will be a tough one though - UMD is GOOD this year. Right now you have to figure they are well outside the tourney bracket but they need these OOC wins in case they put together a nice second half conference run (as I expect they are going to) and put themselves in good position.

Below .500 in HE at the break. But plenty of time to get it going in the right direction, although BC, UNH and Maine are going to be tough to catch. Can the Cats catch UML and UMA? Possibly, I think they are both overrated, but the Cats need to play better or they are looking at finishing as bad or worse as they every have in their brief HE tenure.

[jcarter7669]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

Hopefully the cats can continue to rack up some W's OOC against Dartmouth and in the New Year tournament. Figure the UMD matchup will be a tough one though - UMD is GOOD this year. Right now you have to figure they are well outside the tourney bracket but they need these OOC wins in case they put together a nice second half conference run (as I expect they are going to) and put themselves in good position.

They are ranked currently 19th in the PWR so they really aren't that far out of the tourney bracket. The UAH and DC games will not help since they won't be TUC at the end of the year. The in conference schedule is what's going to be key.

Agree with midge on the goaltending. Ride Madore from here on out. He has played well lately and Spillane was horrible during the UNH game. I however expect we will see a rotation until after the christmas tourney at least

[grantfan]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

Great bounceback win for the Catamounts! The team showed a ton of guts and energy in such a completely dominating effort, beating a very solid and offensively dangerous St. Lawrence team. It was very exciting in the building! The team again showed they can compete, and even dominate at times, a tournament-calibre team. Now, they have to come up with a similar effort next weekend against another team that will likely be competing for the ECAC title, Dartmouth.

Has Sneddon solved the powerplay 'problem'? Two PPGs for the second game in a row makes me think he has. The three defenseman/two freshmen PP unit was almost unstoppable. Either three D should be the norm on PPs throughout hockey or UVM is blessed with an abundance of defensemen who are excellent on the PP. And that's not even including Burrows, who didn't get PP time but scored again 5-on-5. In any case, Sneddon seems to have come up with a winning formula for the PP and that should not be an issue again. Miller is a master at the center point. His fake shots always get the penalty killers to overcommit and when he does occasionally not fake the shot, sometimes it gets blocked but that happens in hockey. Though Lawson's blasts from the half wall last night mostly missed the net and cleared the zone, he moved the puck extremely well and set up shots for the other players. I hope that PP unit gets more time together and becomes even more dangerous than they were last night with Coach Sneddon's guidance.

The team again showed its' depth with Milo and Leonard out. Two guys that seemed like regulars in the lineup were barely missed with the great team effort. I like what Nilsson-Roos brings to the Roloff-Downing line. I don't think it's a coincidence that Roloff scored 2 goals to become the team's goal scoring leader. That line throws the puck around very nicely and looks like a dangerous unit.

Surprised to see less-than-positive comments about Brayden Irwin. I thought he was flying out there last night. Sometimes passes bounce off his stick and sometimes he falls down, but I think he has been dominant in many games and is emerging as this season's Viktor Stalberg-type breakout player. A couple of his shots were very dangerous last night and St. Lawrence was fortunate that several missed their target. Wahs Stacey also looked good last night. With his energy and effort, the team is noticeably better when he's in the lineup. I hope he stays in the lineup the rest of the season. I don't know if they keep track of such things, but he strikes me as one of the team's better conditioned athletes. He never stops moving and can make plays at high speed.

And it looks like regular ice time and set linemates is bringing out the best in John Higgins. Five shots on goal, wow. Sneddon's faith in the "fourth" line is paying off and the Cats are dangerous when that line is on the ice. Last night, St. Lawrence faced a team with four lines that are legitimate scoring threats.

I guess coach Sneddon is more patient than some of us, and I mean me, and his track record seems to indicate that his patience is usually rewarded. Last night seemed to be the team responding to some great coaching.

[snwbrdr]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

Grantfan - I'm not sure what you're smoking from one post to the next.

Leonard is not a "regular" and it's not surprising to see him sit in favor of someone else, the fourth line is not a legitimate scoring threat of the same caliber as the other lines, I don't think Roos had anything to do with either of Roloff's goals - in fact I don't believe Roos was on the ice for either. I actually want to see someone else on that wing with Roloff's line - Roos is not the answer, at least not at this stage in his freshman year.

And I highly doubt the PP is suddenly "fixed". PP's tend to go through ups and downs and they had been on a season long down and were due to bury some chances and they finally are. I do like the three D unit BUT they need to get the pucks on net and crash the net mor if they want to be consistently effective. They also have to play with a greater sense of urgency. The PP with 1:52 left in the second was awful - while others were good.

19th is not a good place to be sitting in the PWR at this stage. Figure only the top 12 to 14 get in as you have a couple of conference championship winners that are not in the top 15 who always sneak in. You need to be in the top 12 to be safe. You are right about the DC and UAH games not helping much - look at UML with their decent record against soft competition - they are actually behind UVM in the PWR and RPI.

Maybe I was too hard on Irwin but yes the puck seems to be bouncing off his stick a lot lately. I do look for him to bury more pucks in the second half. UVM needs someone to step up and snipe regularly.

Hopefully scoring will become infectious and get the team rolling and onto a winning streak.

[grantfan]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

Snwbrdr, if you want some, meet me at the top of Section 16 after each period.

[snwbrdr]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

I may swing by and try some

Think snow

[Cat lover]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

The last few games we have seen Stalburg and Roos on the first line which I think might be more a result of late scratches of Stacey and Milo and Sneddon not wanting to mess up all the lines that practiced together all week.

I agree that Roos for now is not at the same level as Roloff and Downing and we probably would have seen Milo in that spot if he was able to play.

I think Madore should play vs Dartmouth and then maybe split the tourney between the two as he looks to be back to the form he have in the second half of last year.

[Martin St. Louis Fan]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

The last few games we have seen Stalburg and Roos on the first line which I think might be more a result of late scratches of Stacey and Milo and Sneddon not wanting to mess up all the lines that practiced together all week.

I agree that Roos for now is not at the same level as Roloff and Downing and we probably would have seen Milo in that spot if he was able to play.

I think Madore should play vs Dartmouth and then maybe split the tourney between the two as he looks to be back to the form he have in the second half of last year.

I agree, I think Madore looks more focused. I am no goalie coach, but from my seat, it looked like Spillane was easily distracted. Maybe he was just checking out the coeds

[midge843]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

I agree, I think Madore looks more focused. I am no goalie coach, but from my seat, it looked like Spillane was easily distracted. Maybe he was just checking out the coeds

Madore just looks more calm and collected. Spillane worries me because he always seems jumpy/anxious. When Madore gets beat, it's usually on a great shot. When Spillane gets beat, it's usually pretty ugly.

[joegrav]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

I would just like to let jcarter know that by the holy decree of this week's infallible Inside College Hockey Power Rankings, BC is not only better than Yale, but is by far the best team in Hockey East. Far be it from we little people to question the INCH Power Rankings, so I figured you'd appreciate the update.

Thanks and enjoy the rest of your thread.

[SteveF]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

welcome back, grantfan. we thought we had lost you.

I would just like to let jcarter know that by the holy decree of this week's infallible Inside College Hockey Power Rankings, BC is not only better than Yale, but is by far the best team in Hockey East. Far be it from we little people to question the INCH Power Rankings, so I figured you'd appreciate the update.

Thanks and enjoy the rest of your thread.

winner

[Carmine Scarpaglia]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread

I see 5 Hockey East teams in the almighty INCH power rankings. But I don't see Vermont. Hmmmmmm.