DU is a .500 team this year. Small roster and slightly undersized team. The good part is the schedule is softer with the non-league opponents then in previous years,
No team in the conference lost more undergrads to the NHL than DU.
Our defense will be small and thin, but mobile. Big question mark.
Scoring depth will also be a concern beyond the top six.
As much as I hate to say it, I think that's probably a pretty fair assessment of where DU is right now, relative to the other teams in the conference.
I will be very interested to see how Montgomery's systems philosophy and style of play differentiate themselves from those of Gwoz...and whether or not that style's demonstrated effectiveness in Juniors will translate to the college game.
Though it will likely take half the season before we can gain any insights, it will also be interesting to see what effect (if any...) Montgomery's player/team management philosophies have on the team's on-ice performance.
Not sure I agree about DU's blueline being as good as it gets.
It's about 2/3rds good, 1/3 scary.
DU will put up some serious points from the backline with Laleggia, Makowski, Zajac and and Butcher. All of them can move the puck and skate well.
But all 4 of those guys are on the smaller side, which will be tested in the new league, and over the course of the season, we know how smaller guys can get knocked around and injured more easily.
Didier is the only large d-man on the team and is a good stay-at -home option, but after the top 5 guys, there is a steep, steep drop off in talent.
Van Voorhis struggled in juniors, and Neville was lightly recruited. Not much weight there, either. With Ausmus' de-commit, there is no size to replace Mayfield.
Good points, but I wonder how important large Dmen are in the current NCAA environment.
All the talented large forwards appear to be going to major-juniors and with all the penalties imposed with hits to the head and checking into the boards physical play may become less of an issue.
I've always liked speedy puck moving defensemen and DU seems to have more than their share.
Not sure if DU is typical but they only have five forwards over 6 feet and 200 lbs.
I thought Mayfield was borderline goon, and was great for keeping the penalty bench warm, and also for giving exercise to the guy who opens the zamboni door each time he got ejected during a game. Anyone guy who was drafted, teetering on his future right about now. Not saying that's a bad thing for him though. He certainly had a place on some team.
A guy that's strong and nasty really helps - not so much for the hits they give out, but for the way the opposition is forced to react to that vs other defensemen.
Will the undersized defencemen be gritty or just speed bumps? UND just tossed Joey aside last season. I hope Monty can push him to be more physical in his own end.
Sad to see Denver's commitment to excellence and tradition of NCAA post season appearances fall by the wayside. I think the poll is quite kind to a program in decline.
I don't think Denver has lost it's commitment to hockey. Coaching changes happen in programs, and we were lucky to get 20 mostly good years from Gwozdecky.
It may Monty a few years to get DU back to NCAA tourney participants, but right now there is no reason to think he can't get the job done. He's been a winner at the USHL level and he's likely to be a winner at the NCAA level.
Your stirring analysis of a 5 month old event that has been repeatedly hashed, re-hashed, chewed up, spit out, mutilated, stuck to some fat North Dakota fan's dogshit covered shoe and drug back to her double-wide in Grand Forks is noted.
Bonehead move? You're in your underwear in your mom's basement, posting on the internet and looking at YouTube videos of when Connor James played for DU.......while George is in his new house surrounded by palm trees, getting a paycheck from a major sports franchise, shopping for a boat, and watching Gulf of Mexico sunsets every night. Please give Gwoz some respect. Hard as it this to grasp....there IS life after DU.....for some people.
George is gone and to many people it is "good riddance...". Then there are the dorks who don't know squat and think this is some travesty. The dude left the program in shambles ( roster-wise) and it will definitely take a couple of years to get full depth back into the program. The page is turned and now it is Monty's job to straighten out the mess.
Gwoz built an outstanding program. The team was successful on the ice as well as in the classroom. It's a shame that Peg and her superiors didn't recognize that. The players, students and fans are the ones that will suffer for that short sightedness.
I hope Jimmy and the new kids do well but my heart just isn't in it for the new program yet.
I hope DU continues to find and develop young talent. I think people forget what a misery it was between Murray and George. Not that DU didn't have great players during that period, it's just that their talent wasn't utilized. The especially applies to Frank. He's done a fine job at Air Force but was a flop in developing NHL level talent. Oh sure the RECing Crew was a crowd pleaser but to have Annti and Anderson ride the bench while they ate up ice time was a sin. I'd rather see DU have a chance to win it all than to have a team of scrappy four year players that can't get above .500
Points from defensemen are good, but nobody seems to remember the goals they give up by being too optimistic, or worse, indecisive in their positioning. Look at the whole picture.
See: Matt Donovan. Everyone, including DG, seems to think he was some kind of superstar D. Which he was, on the stat sheet. But the stat sheet didn't reflect the number of times he got burned in the neutral zone and gave up a goal. I'd venture that happened as much or more often than when he scored on a snipe.
I think a number of players jumped early and at least one decommitted due to a concern over development of young players under the new coach. Not that Monty won’t try, just that he hasn’t proven that he can take them to the NHL level. With that in mind I’m hoping that slap the C on Q Shore or Ty Loney. Both these players have pro potential. Making them a captain would be incentive for them to finish the season at DU even if things turn ugly.
PioVision has the worst coverage I've ever seen. A university with a telecommunication legacy like Denver should be embarrassed. The production quality remains in the dark ages and connection issues abound. You'd do better to have a student record the game on his cell phone and post it on youtube.
28 comments:
Sounds about right to me.
DU is a .500 team this year. Small roster and slightly undersized team. The good part is the schedule is softer with the non-league opponents then in previous years,
No team in the conference lost more undergrads to the NHL than DU.
Our defense will be small and thin, but mobile. Big question mark.
Scoring depth will also be a concern beyond the top six.
As much as I hate to say it, I think that's probably a pretty fair assessment of where DU is right now, relative to the other teams in the conference.
I will be very interested to see how Montgomery's systems philosophy and style of play differentiate themselves from those of Gwoz...and whether or not that style's demonstrated effectiveness in Juniors will translate to the college game.
Though it will likely take half the season before we can gain any insights, it will also be interesting to see what effect (if any...) Montgomery's player/team management philosophies have on the team's on-ice performance.
Interesting times ahead, to be sure....
Often a new coach can give a program a bump in the first year as new ideas and a fresh approach is brought in.
DU's blueline is as good as it gets IMO, so it wouldn't surprise me to see DU battling UND and Miami near the end of the season.
Not sure I agree about DU's blueline being as good as it gets.
It's about 2/3rds good, 1/3 scary.
DU will put up some serious points from the backline with Laleggia, Makowski, Zajac and and Butcher. All of them can move the puck and skate well.
But all 4 of those guys are on the smaller side, which will be tested in the new league, and over the course of the season, we know how smaller guys can get knocked around and injured more easily.
Didier is the only large d-man on the team and is a good stay-at -home option, but after the top 5 guys, there is a steep, steep drop off in talent.
Van Voorhis struggled in juniors, and Neville was lightly recruited. Not much weight there, either. With Ausmus' de-commit, there is no size to replace Mayfield.
Good points, but I wonder how important large Dmen are in the current NCAA environment.
All the talented large forwards appear to be going to major-juniors and with all the penalties imposed with hits to the head and checking into the boards physical play may become less of an issue.
I've always liked speedy puck moving defensemen and DU seems to have more than their share.
Not sure if DU is typical but they only have five forwards over 6 feet and 200 lbs.
Poll seems pretty reasonable to me. Can't give a whole lot of credence to them as the games have to be played.
I thought Mayfield was borderline goon, and was great for keeping the penalty bench warm, and also for giving exercise to the guy who opens the zamboni door each time he got ejected during a game. Anyone guy who was drafted, teetering on his future right about now. Not saying that's a bad thing for him though. He certainly had a place on some team.
A guy that's strong and nasty really helps - not so much for the hits they give out, but for the way the opposition is forced to react to that vs other defensemen.
Didier is our only hitter back there now....
Borderline goon? Take out your tampon!
Will the undersized defencemen be gritty or just speed bumps? UND just tossed Joey aside last season. I hope Monty can push him to be more physical in his own end.
Sad to see Denver's commitment to excellence and tradition of NCAA post season appearances fall by the wayside. I think the poll is quite kind to a program in decline.
I don't think Denver has lost it's commitment to hockey. Coaching changes happen in programs, and we were lucky to get 20 mostly good years from Gwozdecky.
It may Monty a few years to get DU back to NCAA tourney participants, but right now there is no reason to think he can't get the job done. He's been a winner at the USHL level and he's likely to be a winner at the NCAA level.
Firing Gwoz was a bonehead move. The whole process was an embarrassment.
@ Anon 2:19...
Your stirring analysis of a 5 month old event that has been repeatedly hashed, re-hashed, chewed up, spit out, mutilated, stuck to some fat North Dakota fan's dogshit covered shoe and drug back to her double-wide in Grand Forks is noted.
Thank you.
Anything else to add to the conversation?
Bonehead move? You're in your underwear in your mom's basement, posting on the internet and looking at YouTube videos of when Connor James played for DU.......while George is in his new house surrounded by palm trees, getting a paycheck from a major sports franchise, shopping for a boat, and watching Gulf of Mexico sunsets every night.
Please give Gwoz some respect. Hard as it this to grasp....there IS life after DU.....for some people.
George is gone and to many people it is "good riddance...". Then there are the dorks who don't know squat and think this is some travesty. The dude left the program in shambles ( roster-wise) and it will definitely take a couple of years to get full depth back into the program. The page is turned and now it is Monty's job to straighten out the mess.
Good riddance to National Championships and guaranteed NCAA appearances.
Hello to the basement and under .500 seasons.
Gwoz left the roster in shambles because guy's got snapped up by the Big leagues. Shame he developed NHL talent.
It is what it is. New Era for DU.
Gwoz built an outstanding program. The team was successful on the ice as well as in the classroom. It's a shame that Peg and her superiors didn't recognize that. The players, students and fans are the ones that will suffer for that short sightedness.
I hope Jimmy and the new kids do well but my heart just isn't in it for the new program yet.
Has anyone signed up for PioneerVision this season? I'm not seeing the value in it right now.
I hope DU continues to find and develop young talent. I think people forget what a misery it was between Murray and George. Not that DU didn't have great players during that period, it's just that their talent wasn't utilized. The especially applies to Frank. He's done a fine job at Air Force but was a flop in developing NHL level talent. Oh sure the RECing Crew was a crowd pleaser but to have Annti and Anderson ride the bench while they ate up ice time was a sin. I'd rather see DU have a chance to win it all than to have a team of scrappy four year players that can't get above .500
Points from defensemen are good, but nobody seems to remember the goals they give up by being too optimistic, or worse, indecisive in their positioning. Look at the whole picture.
See: Matt Donovan. Everyone, including DG, seems to think he was some kind of superstar D. Which he was, on the stat sheet. But the stat sheet didn't reflect the number of times he got burned in the neutral zone and gave up a goal. I'd venture that happened as much or more often than when he scored on a snipe.
But that's just me, I guess.
Donovan was a turnover machine. Phillips was too, as a freshman, but really turned it around.
@ 3:57
I think a number of players jumped early and at least one decommitted due to a concern over development of young players under the new coach. Not that Monty won’t try, just that he hasn’t proven that he can take them to the NHL level. With that in mind I’m hoping that slap the C on Q Shore or Ty Loney. Both these players have pro potential. Making them a captain would be incentive for them to finish the season at DU even if things turn ugly.
Getting out of a coaching change with only one de-commit is nothing short of miraculous . Give him 3 years or so to get his guys in.
Give him 6 years and his team may break .500
Anon Sept 22 7:54AM
PioVision offering 20% off until Oct 2. Sign up now. It's worth every penny come hockey, hoops, and lax seasons.
PioVision has the worst coverage I've ever seen. A university with a telecommunication legacy like Denver should be embarrassed. The production quality remains in the dark ages and connection issues abound. You'd do better to have a student record the game on his cell phone and post it on youtube.
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