Hockey East: Midseason Report (SBN College Hockey) | The Boneyard

Hockey East: Midseason Report (SBN College Hockey)

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Hockey East: Midseason Report

>>Connecticut

Kummins: It seems this season could be called “The Year of the Freshman Goaltender” in college hockey. At Connecticut, there’s another good one in Adam Huska. The starter for Slovakia’s World Junior Championship team, Huska boasts the best save percentage (.940) in Hockey East play. As expected, he has received plenty of help from sophomores Tage Thompson and Max Letunov as well. The forwards are UConn’s leading scorers, with Thompson having scored ten of his team-best 20 points on the power play. The standout team stat is the Huskies’ penalty kill, which ranks fourth in Hockey East at 84.8 percent. All the right pieces are in place, but getting some other guys going up front and carrying the momentum from winning the Desert Hockey Classic against Brown and St. Cloud State ― without Thompson and Huska, to boot ― will be key for the Huskies as league play resumes.

Cox: As Josh alluded to, UConn has also benefited from a terrific freshman goaltender. Adam Huska is a legitimate game changer in net for Mike Cavanaugh’s team. While much of the hype regarding the Huskies prior to the season surrounded sophomores Max Letunov and Tage Thompson, the Huskies have received secondary scoring. Spencer Naas has 11 goals and Karl El-Mir has six. The defense is better than it has been in Cavanaugh’s tenure in Storrs, and the blue line just received a nice addition of Phillip Nyberg, a Buffalo Sabres prospect, for the second half. Sophomore Miles Gendron and freshman Wyatt Newpower have been solid for the Huskies. The Huskies still might be a year away, but road wins at UMass Lowell, Notre Dame and Boston University prove this is a team to be reckoned with down the stretch.<<
 
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The NCHC and Big Ten are developing into leagues to reckon with.
 
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WTF????????????? Pardon my french but did I go to sleep for a few years? Penn State is now ranked #1? Yikes! It seems just like a couple years ago the Huskies were taking two from them in Storrs.
 
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WTF????????????? Pardon my french but did I go to sleep for a few years? Penn State is now ranked #1? Yikes! It seems just like a couple years ago the Huskies were taking two from them in Storrs.
They're a very good team but have played a VERY weak schedule. Kudos to them for winning the games, and they deserve a lot of credit for doing so, but they have not been tested much. Their OOC schedule includes nine OOC games against Niagara, Mercyhurst, ASU, UAA, and Canisius, KRACH rated 60, 46, 48, 54, 38 respectively. Eight of those games were at home.
 
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Well, their OOC schedule may be very weak, but KRACH has them at #1 too. That must be a record for start of program to #1. They used to have a great club program and I remember talking to Coach Batista on the phone once in those days. He thought it was very unlikely that they would ever have a varsity program even though they were drawing large crowds as a club team. Then, of course, a guy with deep pockets stepped up. Owner of the Sabres, right?

Oh, as a club team Penn State played a scrimmage in Storrs and beat the Huskies. Bruce was unimpressed though. He was working on his final cuts and did not play his top guys much.
 
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Well, their OOC schedule may be very weak, but KRACH has them at #1 too. That must be a record for start of program to #1. They used to have a great club program and I remember talking to Coach Batista on the phone once in those days. He thought it was very unlikely that they would ever have a varsity program even though they were drawing large crowds as a club team. Then, of course, a guy with deep pockets stepped up. Owner of the Sabres, right?

Oh, as a club team Penn State played a scrimmage in Storrs and beat the Huskies. Bruce was unimpressed though. He was working on his final cuts and did not play his top guys much.
Penn St is a PERFECT example of what can be done when a good coach is given a proper facility.
 
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Penn St is a PERFECT example of what can be done when a good coach is given a proper facility.

Correct on both accounts. Coach Gadowski promotes an exciting style of hockey that puts a lot of shots on goal. It appeals to both die hard fans of the sport and casual observers alike. Pegula Ice Arena is a truly awesome facility. It is a jewel of our sports complex. One man's generosity breathed life into a dream shared by many for decades. His kindness has been repaid in success. Five years ago this program did not exist at The D1 Level. Last week it ascended to the Number 1 Ranking in multiple polls. Truly unreal even to a fan like myself.
 
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Penn St is a PERFECT example of what can be done when a good coach is given a proper facility.
With unlimited money. Let's not forget that. $100 million, right?
 
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With unlimited money. Let's not forget that. $100 million, right?

Yes it was an incredible amount of money invested by one family, however it was not "unlimited money." It was a gift earmarked specifically to bring College Hockey to PSU. It built us first rate facilities, funded both a start up men's and women's program, and hired top coaches. It was never a question in the majority of PSU Supporters minds whether hockey would succeed in HV.

There is a tremendous love for the sport in PA despite the majority of us older fans not growing up playing the game like is the case in MN, MI or throughout New England. It is fun to watch fans of NHL Rivals like the Pens, Flyers, Rangers, and Devils all rally around one team inside The Pegloo. I imagine there is a bit of that going on for Uconn Hockey as well among the fans of NHL Teams in your neck of the woods.
 
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To those of us fans of UConn, $100 million is unlimited money. UConn could barely scrape up $3.4 million to get rid of Bob Diaco. It fact, in this state if someone gave $100 million to do something like that there would be tremendous criticism if the university accepted it. Different values.
 
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To those of us fans of UConn, $100 million is unlimited money. UConn could barely scrape up $3.4 million to get rid of Bob Diaco. It fact, in this state if someone gave $100 million to do something like that there would be tremendous criticism if the university accepted it. Different values.

Why anyone would be critical about a billionaire donating a huge sum of their own personal fortune to further enrich their state university is beyond me? I suppose critics could say that the money could be better served elsewhere, and it could, but it could also not be offered at all.

Terry's gift has been only a good thing for PSU. The team/arena provide an additional sense of pride for our students and alums alike, and through TV and ticket sales has provided our AD with another outlet to generate revenue. Its unfortunate to think that a Uconn Version of this scenario would be negatively received in your state.
 
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To those of us fans of UConn, $100 million is unlimited money. UConn could barely scrape up $3.4 million to get rid of Bob Diaco. It fact, in this state if someone gave $100 million to do something like that there would be tremendous criticism if the university accepted it. Different values.
I 100% disagree with you on this Dick! If someone came along and donated $100 million to finish off all the athletic facility upgrades including hockey they would be looked at as a hero right now. The AD had a presser when Tony Rizza made his donation for soccer.
 
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To those of us fans of UConn, $100 million is unlimited money. UConn could barely scrape up $3.4 million to get rid of Bob Diaco. It fact, in this state if someone gave $100 million to do something like that there would be tremendous criticism if the university accepted it. Different values.

I 100% disagree with you on this Dick! If someone came along and donated $100 million to finish off all the athletic facility upgrades including hockey they would be looked at as a hero right now. The AD had a presser when Tony Rizza made his donation for soccer.

I disagree as well. No one got upset about large donations by Harry Gampel to basketball, or the donations by others to the football facilities. The only difference is that in large parts of the country such as the midwest and south it is ingrained in the culture for wealthy folk to make large donations, to athletics or otherwise, to public universities. For some reason, the same notion has never had the same traction to make these donations to public schools in the northeast. At the same time, there has never been a bad reaction to someone who does make such a donation. At the same time, there is a bad reaction whenever there is the suggestion that State government money might be used to build up athletic facilities.
 
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Nah nah nah no no no. You've got it wrong. If someone came along and contributed $100 million, not to the university's priorities, but to start a new sport that the donor happened to like. Say, ski jumping for instance, and they wanted to build an HS120 hill on campus with a huge towering trestle. That is the equivalent to what was done at HV.
 
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Nah nah nah no no no. You've got it wrong. If someone came along and contributed $100 million, not to the university's priorities, but to start a new sport that the donor happened to like. Say, ski jumping for instance, and they wanted to build an HS120 hill on campus with a huge towering trestle. That is the equivalent to what was done at HV.
False equivalency. As Ldandy rightly pointed out hockey is a sport that is very popular in PA and was underrepresented at PSU. He donated $100 million not because he simply liked the sport and wanted a team, but also because it was a pretty safe bet the fans would get behind it and that they had an immediate home in a major conference. This meant it was very likely the program would very quickly become a revenue-generating sport for the university, which it has indeed become. Starting a ski jumping program is pissing money down the drain because it's never going to make any school any money, there isn't an immediate home, and there isn't nearly enough fan support. If someone donated $100 million to the UConn hockey program, of course the idiotic complainers of the state would come out and whine that it's being wasted, despite it being an earmarked donation that UConn would very likely get sued for if it was used elsewhere.
 
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OK, have it your way. Imagine that there was only a club hockey team at UConn that was very popular because of the NHL's historic ties here. And imagine that Freitas comes along with $100 million and UConn accepts it to start men's and women's hockey teams and build a new 5,000 seat barn.

Can you imagine the reaction, especially from the hoops community? Or from the football community? Or from people who do not like bigtime sports in general? There would be SCATHING criticism here.
 
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From John Cullen and Zarley Zalapski to PSU. This is messed up. Penguins would have likely moved if that trade was not made.
 
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OK, have it your way. Imagine that there was only a club hockey team at UConn that was very popular because of the NHL's historic ties here. And imagine that Freitas comes along with $100 million and UConn accepts it to start men's and women's hockey teams and build a new 5,000 seat barn.

Can you imagine the reaction, especially from the hoops community? Or from the football community? Or from people who do not like bigtime sports in general? There would be SCATHING criticism here.
You're right, some would be mad but that's not the same as the ski jumping example you brought up. The thing is, those people would have no basis to be mad at UConn about anything. Someone making a private donation to UConn conditioned on it being used for a specific purpose means the university has to use it for that purpose. So those people could all well and good be mad, but they'd be wasting their energy.
 
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From John Cullen and Zarley Zalapski to PSU. This is messed up. Penguins would have likely moved if that trade was not made.
Care to explain that? It went flying over my head despite the fact I had Whalers season tix during that era.
 

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