Jeff Jacobs: UMass proves if you are all in, hockey national titles are within reach...

[huskymedic]

I know this has been whacked around pretty good from the UConn perspective the last few pages of the NCAA Tourney thread but here’s a wider landscape view...




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[SubbaBub]

Anyone who thinks Cav isn't on this very path isn't paying attention. Imagine if UMass fired their coach after that 5 win season?

If there are any questions about commitment, they belong with the UConn administration and the state.

Hockey is a sport where a few guys in the locker room can make a huge difference and it's not always about a few star players like in basketball.

 

[Adios]

Anyone who thinks Cav isn't on this very path isn't paying attention. Imagine if UMass fired their coach after that 5 win season?

If there are any questions about commitment, they belong with the UConn administration and the state.

Hockey is a sport where a few guys in the locker room can make a huge differendumband it's not always about a few star players like in basketball.

What are you yapping about? Carvel went from 12th to 1st in 3 seasons. In freaking Amherst.

 

[The Viking]

Yeah, I've said before we can argue about the number of seats in the new arena - but everything else regarding the arena will be light years ahead of what they've got now and the players will love it.

And they also have the XL for big games, with the chance to bring in big crowds as another tool for recruiting along with the new facility. I remember reading comments from the players about the XL crowd after great endings and the players absolutely loved the noise.

 

[gioff2323]

Seems like a bit of hyperbole. Didn’t they finish 3d in conf? Did they go more in than us? I’m not sure what point of this is - they got hot at right time. We’ve seen this in MBB.

Look at the bright side, we beat the national champs!

 

[freescooter]

I think you need to keep in mind that they did not come from the bottom half of Hockey East but the mid point of Atlantic Hockey. Until Year3 or 4 Cav didn’t even have a full scholarship load. So you need to kind of give him some slack in the first few years. He has taken a bit of a page out of Pecknolds book as far as recruiting. Where QU recruited Canadians who basically aged out of Juniors, Cav has substituted Eastern Europeans. But the concept is the same. Top US and Canadians are going to be a tough sell against BC, BU, Providence, even Cornell and Yale. Establish yourself as a legit program and you can compete for those guys. We are even getting one or 2. I like the Flynn kid from midway between Boston and Providence for example.

There are some things that concern me about Cavannaugh. He has never had an effective power play nor a really good pp defense. Relying on your goalie to stop everything isn’t a Power play defense. But his recruiting has absolutely been right on the money. For the first time we have a full complement of Hockey East players in 20-21.

I say this in jest sometimes but I also truly have a concern about the UConn basketball fans being both a drag on the program’s growth and an impediment if it gets too big. But I’ll wait and see how that goes.