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Post by A Clock Tower Purple on Feb 11, 2020 12:58:51 GMT -5
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Post by beachbound on Feb 13, 2020 21:29:35 GMT -5
Lost a couple of verbal commits to Ohio State and Cornell. Otherwise, a good class. Gale fits a big need at goalie. Radomsky has been great and Gale provides a nice back-up who can provide a breather and challenge him for minutes over the next 3 years. Ricketts/ Thorne are 2 older kids who have maxed out their junior eligibility. Both big point producers, leaders and hopefully their games translate to college hockey. Ricketts is a captain top 5 scorer in the OJHL and his team is in the top 10 of junior teams in Canada. Thorne is one of 4 players nominated as MVP for the Alberta Jr League and the 3rd kid from Bonnyville in the last 2 yrs (Constable and Young are freshmen this year). A verbal commit ( Daniel Colabufo) for next year Is going to do a yr of juniors in Bonnyville next year, so becoming a bit of a pipeline. Cicero is having a nice year in the OJHL for the Buffalo Jr Sabres and captain of his team. Kane is a forward with a prep school background. Jr career has been marred a little by injury but can score goals. Robilotti and Higgins are big defensemen and excited to see what they can contribute. Neither will be big point producers but solid stay at home defenseman. Pinault is coming directly from prep school and maybe a response to one of the prep school kids they lost this year after a hot start to his junior season. Pinault is the captain of his prep and is very well regarded by the scouting services but maybe slow to adapt to the college game. They have some good verbals in the pipeline for next year as well.
Key for Berard and staff is continued development of the underclassmen to replace the contributions of Darrar, Robinson, and Skelley.
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Post by hchoops on Feb 13, 2020 21:36:46 GMT -5
Key for Berard is winning a playoff game or two
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Post by matunuck on Feb 13, 2020 22:07:48 GMT -5
Any idea of our recruits other offers?
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Post by beachbound on Feb 13, 2020 22:18:43 GMT -5
That’s what I want too, but please recognize that we do start about 2 goals down against the rest of the league in terms of recruiting. Atlantic Hockey is not like the patriot league where all the schools are close academically and price wise. We can’t recruit a lot of the players on the other teams in this league because they are not academically qualified for HC. Also, Hockey is a partial scholarship sport at HC (28-30 players vs 18 max scholarships per NCAA vs whatever HC funds, which is most likely equal or less than basketball). We are by far the most expensive school in Atlantic Hockey. When this league started as the MAAC in the 90s we had one of the best facilities, now 20+ years later, we are in the bottom 2 or 3 of the league in terms of facilities because they are the same when the league formed. And I am not advocating for a SHU financially crippling investment in the hockey program. But maybe some realistic expectations and be pleasantly surprised when they exceed them by winning a series or two. Sorry, getting off the soapbox
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Post by beachbound on Feb 13, 2020 22:25:56 GMT -5
Hockey recruits don’t publicize their offers, like other sports. Not sure if it is a NCAA specific rule for hockey or not. It goes from verbally committing to signing a NLI. For the 2 kids we lost, they dropped HC during the fall of 2019 as they got interest via their “advisor” from stronger programs. Same thing happened last year to our leading scorer who dropped out after a semester and transferred to Miami (OH). Btw, he is a top 6 forward for them now.
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Post by hchoops on Feb 13, 2020 22:28:25 GMT -5
Thanks for the info
How do you explain our consistent play vs strong teams in the OOC games, then faltering in the league and playoffs every season.?
This season tbd
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Post by matunuck on Feb 13, 2020 22:29:28 GMT -5
Hockey recruits don’t publicize their offers, like other sports. Not sure if it is a NCAA specific rule for hockey or not. It goes from verbally committing to signing a NLI. For the 2 kids we lost, they dropped HC during the fall of 2019 as they got interest via their “advisor” from stronger programs. Same thing happened last year to our leading scorer who dropped out after a semester and transferred to Miami (OH). Btw, he is a top 6 forward for them now. Many thanks. |
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Post by beachbound on Feb 13, 2020 22:59:59 GMT -5
Thanks for the info How do you explain our consistent play vs strong teams in the OOC games, then faltering in the league and playoffs every season.? This season tbd I wish I knew. My speculation is that OOC games are the stereotypical “trap game” for our opponents. Some of these teams are a little overrated this year (see ASU, Quinnipiac and providence) and took us lightly, while our guys were fired up. Northeastern, while not overrated, did completely overlook us and to HC’s credit, they played a great game to get the tie. Also, a lot of these games are early in the season where coaches are trying new players and systems. Finally, Atlantic Hockey has never been better due to increased scholarships (the league allows the NCAA maximum, which it didn’t before) and investment in facilities from a number of schools. I do think our coaching can do more and Berard has to own our post season failures in his tenure, but he his team is skating uphill against the other Atlantic Hockey teams. |
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Post by bfoley82 on Feb 14, 2020 3:19:02 GMT -5
Thanks for the info How do you explain our consistent play vs strong teams in the OOC games, then faltering in the league and playoffs every season.? This season tbd I wish I knew. My speculation is that OOC games are the stereotypical “trap game” for our opponents. Some of these teams are a little overrated this year (see ASU, Quinnipiac and providence) and took us lightly, while our guys were fired up. Northeastern, while not overrated, did completely overlook us and to HC’s credit, they played a great game to get the tie. Also, a lot of these games are early in the season where coaches are trying new players and systems. Finally, Atlantic Hockey has never been better due to increased scholarships (the league allows the NCAA maximum, which it didn’t before) and investment in facilities from a number of schools. I do think our coaching can do more and Berard has to own our post season failures in his tenure, but he his team is skating uphill against the other Atlantic Hockey teams. And Northeastern is in 9th place in hockey east which is out is the playoffs...Quinnipiac just beat #1 at the time Cornell 5-0 a few weeks ago. |
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