UMass-Lowell RiverHawk luncheon highlights leading into the big home-and-home
with BC:
* The apple pie was good.
* Jeff Daw was the featured RiverHawk. He said that he does not consider
himself a powerplay specialist, despite picking up 11 out of his 12
goals on the man advantage. He said that as a kid in juniors he was
always looking to make the perfect play whereas he's realized that in
Division 1 there just isn't time to make the perfect pretty play and
you just have to take your shots. He doesn't consider himself to have
either a hard or quick shot but just credits his teammates with setting
him up and screening so the puck just seems to go in. He said his role
last year was more of a screening one. He likes shooting better. :-)
A question from the audience was whether the band or the sellouts have
pumped the team up more this year. He said that as a player he doesn't
notice it so much when he's playing. He said that the partially filled
house last year against BU made more noise than any of the sellouts
this year. (Personally, I can't believe he was including the opener
this year against "The Other UMass School" because that was the loudest
I've ever seen Tully. Of course, I was right next to a tuba in the
band...) He also added that the acoustics at Tully may not lend itself
to noise echo the way that places like BU do. He said that a band of
5 people at BU would still sound loud.
* Scott Fankhouser will start in goal tonight and Craig Lindsey on
Saturday. As expected, Martin Fillion seems to be out of the rotation
for the time being. Coach Crowder mentioned that they are still high
on him but he needs to better channel his nerves.
* UML made no attempts to get recruits during the early signing period.
They want to have as long as possible to evaluate their young club
before deciding who to go after. (IMO that can be no more evident than
between the pipes.)
* Crowder moved Neil Donovan onto the first power play unit in place of
Christian Sbrocca because he felt that Sbrocca and Bullock were too
similar in terms of what they brought to the pp. They were
duplicating each other too much, skating around in circles with the
puck. With Donovan he was hoping to get a more complimentary player
with Bullock and Daw. He's still happy with the job Sbrocca and the
rest of the second power play unit are doing. Although statistically
UML is about in the middle of HE on the power play (and second on the
penalty kill), Crowder says he's happy with the 27% (or so) they
they're getting, considering the losses from last year's nationally
ranked pp.
* In general he feels the team is teasing him. They can play very well
or terribly. He feels that's a sign of a young team and they just
have to get mentally tougher. But they have the ability based on the
positive teases. He feels the mental toughness has to come from within
and that endless hollering will not do the trick. To that end, after
the first period of the second game against Air Force (after they
played terribly for 2 1/2 periods in the first game and pulled out a
win, only to start this second game with another dreadful first period)
"Hey, you guys are good enough to take a period off and still win the
game. I suggest you take this second period off too, and while you're
at it take the first 15 minutes of the third period off too." He then
left the locker room. Although they went on to lose, they apparently
dominated play at least in the third period so you couldn't say that
the speech backfired.
* He wants the team to get more shots on net. In the loss to Air Force
they charted 33 offensive "attempts" in the third period alone. There
were two goals, ten saves, two that hit the post, and the rest either
never resulted in a shot or the shot went wide. He said that's the
biggest difference between college players and pros. The pros know
how infrequent scoring opportunities are and so they make sure they
don't squander them. Most collegiate players don't optimize their
use of big chances.
* Bullock's stats are down and he's struggling a bit because he's seeing
a lot of special attention. He said in the Alaska tourney, Bullock
had a Western Michigan player shadowing him the entire time.
* Yours truly won the ticket giveaway for the second time in the last
three luncheons. Somebody, I think it was AD Wayne Edwards, said,
"How does he do it? He wins everytime." :-)
Dave Hendrickson When privacy is outlawed, only GO
[log in to unmask] outlaws will have privates. LIBERTARIANS
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Although I can't remember ever having an original thought, and am certainly
parroting someone who actually has a brain, these opinions are mine, not HP's.
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