UConn v. Northeastern 2/17 @ XL -- 2/18 @ Northeastern | Page 3 | The Boneyard

UConn v. Northeastern 2/17 @ XL -- 2/18 @ Northeastern

RSTuthill said:
HCREv1.0 took FB to the Fiesta Bowl playing in an off campus facility and practicing on campus just like hockey. I don't think that has anything to do with it. JMHO ....
Expand ...
He had the Burton Complex, hockey does not have anything remotely close to that. Not to mention it's FAR more important for a hockey team to practice on the surface they play home games on than it is for a football team. Cav is at an enormous recruiting and competitive disadvantage not having home games on campus and not even having a decent practice facility on campus. RE also took UConn to the Fiesta Bowl out of the 5th or 6th best conference in the country. If he took UConn to a BCS bowl out of the SEC or Big 10 then you'd have a comparable example.
 
huskymedic said:
He's not talking about a sheet of ice - he's talking about high end training and practice facilities.
Expand ...

brasssbonanzaa said:
He had the Burton Complex, hockey does not have anything remotely close to that. Not to mention it's FAR more important for a hockey team to practice on the surface they play home games on than it is for a football team. Cav is at an enormous recruiting and competitive disadvantage not having home games on campus and not even having a decent practice facility on campus. RE also took UConn to the Fiesta Bowl out of the 5th or 6th best conference in the country. If he took UConn to a BCS bowl out of the SEC or Big 10 then you'd have a comparable example.
Expand ...

@RSTuthill these guys understand EXACTLY what I was talking about! @brasssbonanzaa and @huskymedic thanks for clarifying my point about the on-campus situation.
 
RSTuthill said:
I was always a Bruce Marshall fan. He did a whole lot with a little. But I dunno. Understand you are deliberately using hyperbole a bit here though. If your point is that they played better fundamental hockey back in the day with far less talented kids, I guess you might have something of a point but you would have to look at film to substantiate that.
Expand ...
Did a whole lot? He had two winning seasons in Division 1 and zero in Atlantic Hockey. Yes, he had garbage facilities and no scholarships but he couldn't finish .500 being in the second-worst or worst conference in the country after the CHA disbanded. Zero AHA tournament/regular season championships. Marshall wasn't given much in the way of resources from UConn but to say he did "a whole lot" is not true.
 
brasssbonanzaa said:
Did a whole lot? He had two winning seasons in Division 1 and zero in Atlantic Hockey. Yes, he had garbage facilities and no scholarships but he couldn't finish .500 being in the second-worst or worst conference in the country after the CHA disbanded. Zero AHA tournament/regular season championships. Marshall wasn't given much in the way of resources from UConn but to say he did "a whole lot" is not true.
Expand ...
Won the league tournament championship in the second year. By the time it transitioned to AHA everyone was giving scholarships and UConn could not keep up because they weren't. Even Holy Cross was giving scholarships. It's really as simple as that.
 
I have to side with Dick here. Bruce had teams that got to the league semi finals a few times. One year the leagues top scorer got hurt in the 1st period and they lost a close one. His teams weren't great but he lacked resources. When they played d3 where nobody had scholarships his teams were very competitive. He wasn't York but he was far from awful.
 
freescooter said:
I have to side with Dick here. Bruce had teams that got to the league semi finals a few times. One year the leagues top scorer got hurt in the 1st period and they lost a close one. His teams weren't great but he lacked resources. When they played d3 where nobody had scholarships his teams were very competitive. He wasn't York but he was far from awful.
Expand ...
Sure he wasn't awful, but he also couldn't get a team over .500 while competing against some of the worst competition in the country. UConn regularly finished in the bottom 10% of teams in the PWR in the mid to late 2000s too. He was at beast an mediocre coach, considering UConn gave him so few resources to work with.
 
brasssbonanzaa said:
Sure he wasn't awful, but he also couldn't get a team over .500 while competing against some of the worst competition in the country. UConn regularly finished in the bottom 10% of teams in the PWR in the mid to late 2000s too. He was at beast an mediocre coach, considering UConn gave him so few resources to work with.
Expand ...
The worst competition whose players were nonetheless on scholarship. Not 18 rides mind you but a fair number depending on the year. Btw, UConn's record says we are much better this year despite a bunch of high profile kids.
 
We really want to use the facilities excuse? The team is under-performing, the end.
 
TheDoggPound said:
We really want to use the facilities excuse? The team is under-performing, the end.
Expand ...

So in the end - your opinion is that sub par facilities don't matter at all in player development and recruiting or just particularly this year?
 
RSTuthill said:
The worst competition whose players were nonetheless on scholarship. Not 18 rides mind you but a fair number depending on the year. Btw, UConn's record says we are much better this year despite a bunch of high profile kids.
Expand ...
There was a typo in this that I did not catch until too late. Should read:

Btw, UConn's record this year says that they are not much better than back in the day despite a bunch of high profile kids. At the bottom of HE and still losing to the likes of SH.
 
huskymedic said:
So in the end - your opinion is that sub par facilities don't matter at all in player development and recruiting or just particularly this year?
Expand ...
Medic @TheDoggPound thinks that the XL Center is the end all be all and that all UConn sports should compete with in a 20 minute drive home for him. He has no real clue what is needed facility wise to bring in talent and develop that talent.
 
RSTuthill said:
There was a typo in this that I did not catch until too late. Should read:

Btw, UConn's record this year says that they are not much better than back in the day despite a bunch of high profile kids. At the bottom of HE and still losing to the likes of SH.
Expand ...
I would say that the only true "high profile" recruits on this team are Letunov and Huska. You can stretch it to include Thompson and Masonius only because USA hockey deemed them good enough to play for the USNTDP in the USHL. I don't consider that a "bunch"
 
Alright, have it your way, change the word bunch to some if that floats your boat. The point is that they are getting close to 18 rides and the results this year should have been in the stratosphere compared to even the best of AHA days. Yet they are not really.

It is a hard business in which to make progress. This year looks like a step back.
 
RSTuthill said:
Alright, have it your way, change the word bunch to some if that floats your boat. The point is that they are getting close to 18 rides and the results this year should have been in the stratosphere compared to even the best of AHA days. Yet they are not really.

It is a hard business in which to make progress. This year looks like a step back.
Expand ...
I brought this up in a post back in the beginning of the season...the Jr class had to step up and provide scoring for this team to take the next step. They didn't.....in reality they are a good group but 3rd line/3rd pair D seems to be their ceiling. My point being...would they be first line/first pair D kids in the AHA? IMHO not..they would be maybe 2nd at best. Which brings us to the S&C issue again. What's the one way you can over come a more talented team...be in better shape that they are and bring it the entire game.
 
This team looked like it was coming early in January. The Desert win then close lossto BC and they played really well against Vermont . Since then they have just looked slow. Clearly they need more scorers. They have been in the second half of the league in scoring all season.

One thing I think is that Cav has brought in some younger guys who other programs would have left in the USHL for another year in hope that they'd develop here. Those guys are not quite ready for prime time yet. But losing to Sacred Heart and firing AIC simply should not happen in any case.
 
RSTuthill said:
Alright, have it your way, change the word bunch to some if that floats your boat. The point is that they are getting close to 18 rides and the results this year should have been in the stratosphere compared to even the best of AHA days. Yet they are not really.

It is a hard business in which to make progress. This year looks like a step back.
Expand ...
I would say that wins over BU. Lowell, Vermont, St. Cloud, and winning the Arizona tournament are a huge improvement over the AHA seasons. Yes, many expected UConn to be in a higher position than they are now with the talent on the squad and there have surely been some bad losses, but to say the program has not progressed since the Marshall AHA days is categorically false. Every HE team has seasons with bad losses where they've underperformed. Heck, my guys were supposed to beat down the whole world yet we got swept by Merrimack, lost at home to UConn, eeked out a close win over a brtual UMass team, and got pasted in the Beanpot final. Ebbs and flows happen, it's important to take stock of the overall progress both on and off the ice. Fan interest is way up, wins against top teams are up, and recruiting is up. UConn is competing well against other HE schools and has exceeded expectations on the ice in its first three years. The program is not that doormat many thought it would be, and has established itself as a contender in the league night in and night out. Cav has built a good foundation considering the resources he's been given and the program is undoubtedly in a better position than it was five years ago.
 
I'm not that sure it truly exceeded expectation other than those of other teams' fans. But I think what Dick means is that this is a replay of some of the stuff we have seen in AHA days. A team that seemed to under achieve when it got to crunch time.
 
freescooter said:
I'm not that sure it truly exceeded expectation other than those of other teams' fans. But I think what Dick means is that this is a replay of some of the stuff we have seen in AHA days. A team that seemed to under achieve when it got to crunch time.
Expand ...
That's fair. The difference is it's happening on a much different platform against vastly different competition, so saying Cav is doing just the same as Marshall still is comparing apples and oranges.
 
Where do we go if the "stars" leave after this season (which is quite possible). Guys of the Thompson, Letunov, and Huska caliber often spend only one or two years in college.
 
RSTuthill said:
Where do we go if the "stars" leave after this season (which is quite possible). Guys of the Thompson, Letunov, and Huska caliber often spend only one or two years in college.
Expand ...
The only one who could sniff the AHL right now would be Thompson. I think he's definitely a candidate to go pro, but the other two I don't see leaving to sign at all.
 
huskymedic said:
So in the end - your opinion is that sub par facilities don't matter at all in player development and recruiting or just particularly this year?
Expand ...

Nope but facilities aren't going to be the reason the team finishes worse than they did last season if that occurs.
 
FDNY99 said:
Medic @TheDoggPound thinks that the XL Center is the end all be all and that all UConn sports should compete with in a 20 minute drive home for him. He has no real clue what is needed facility wise to bring in talent and develop that talent.
Expand ...

How can you use the facilities as an excuse when all the players coming into the program the last 3 years know the deal? You think facilities are the reason we can't do better than last season when this years team has more talent?

*UConn losses 4-2 to Sacred Heart*

FDNY: "BRO, it's the faciltieeeesss!"

*UConn ties American International*

FDNY: "MAN, AIC got all the facilitieeeeeeeess!"
 
TheDoggPound said:
How can you use the facilities as an excuse when all the players coming into the program the last 3 years know the deal? You think facilities are the reason we can't do better than last season when this years team has more talent?

*UConn losses 4-2 to Sacred Heart*

FDNY: "BRO, it's the faciltieeeesss!"

*UConn ties American International*

FDNY: "MAN, AIC got all the facilitieeeeeeeess!"
Expand ...
LMFAO...nice try there sport...too bad I actually speak using proper english. The main issue with this year's team is S&C plain and simple. As for your understanding of what is needed on campus to continue the upward trajectory of the program...well that's up for debate!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Online statistics

Members online
186
Guests online
1,225
Total visitors
1,411
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Share This Page

Forum statistics

Threads
164,041
Messages
4,380,049
Members
10,173
Latest member
mangers


.
..
Top Bottom