At 08:26 AM 3/11/2003 -0500, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>I don't usually comment but i have to on the comments below.  The two I am
>targeting is blaming Coach Sneddon and the 5 forwards on the power play.  I
>would not blame coach Sneddon for ANYTHING.  For those of us who remember
>what it was like when we first went D1, I will take this over back then any
>time.  It took a long time to start to get players to respect Union when
>they came to visit.  Our goaltender was a Freshman, and whether we can
>label his errors as "Freshman mistakes" or not, who can tell, but
>considering that we were in position to finish as high as 4th, I will give
>coach Sneddon nothing but credit.

Well, I didn't mean to imply that I "blamed" Kevin Sneddon for anything. I
couldn't agree more that Sneddon has done an exceptional job running the
Union hockey program. In my book, he's probably one of a few candidates
in line for ECAC Coach of the Year. Additionally, I sent him a note on Sunday
to congratulate him and the team on their achievements this past season and
to express my support for him and the program. As a Union graduate, hockey
fan, and season ticket holder, I couldn't have been more proud of how they
played this year.

>Regarding the 5 forwards.  If you watched the Pittsburgh Penguins the last
>few years (before the trading of Kovalev and when Straka was healthy), they
>did the same thing.  Nothing scared opponents more than to see the 5
>forwards on the ice against only 4 players.  Union's power play struggled
>this year, as was never more evident than watching Fri's game on YES.
>Something had to be done to get goals.  It was something Union tried.
>Maybe it should not have been done, but I will take "going for it" anytime
>over not "going for it."

Believe me, I witnessed the power play struggles first-hand. As I said, I don't
dismiss the need for doing *something* to generate some badly-needed offense.
I just felt (for the past few weeks, actually) that it was a bit dangerous
to not have
any defensemen on the ice during a power play. My general understanding is
that
a defenseman would be more "trained" to stay back and play defense first,
instead
of jumping into the offensive fray (if there are any current/former players
reading
this, please don't hesitate to correct me if I'm wrong).

This was simply one item on which I disagreed with Sneddon. By no means was
this meant to say that he's responsible or should be blamed for anything.

-Andy



>At 09:53 AM 3/10/2003 -0500, Kelly Hubicki wrote:
> >Almost as hard for me were the chants of "overrated" coming from the RPI
> >section.  As I reminded one fan on the way out the door, if it weren't for
>
> >the new ECAC playoff rules, RPI would not have even been in the playoffs.
>
>The "overrated" chants didn't surprise me. You see that all the time when a
>lower-seeded team upsets the higher seed. But yes, as a Union fan, it hurt
>coming from Troy.
>
>I agree, though - RPI should be thanking their lucky stars that they even
>made
>the playoffs. I am still a bit surprised as to how miserable a season they
>had
>and they probably shouldn't have been in the playoffs the way their season
>went. You can't argue against the rules, though. Union's 2001-2002 team was
>just as good (if not better) than this year's RPI team and they ended up
>home
>for the playoffs.
>
> >I found Mayotte's quotes in the Sunday paper interesting - not sure that I
>
> >agree that he made the right decision, but then I don't play hockey.
>
>I don't know if he made the right decision, but he had to make it right
>away.
>  From the accounts I read, he actually beat the RPI player to the puck in
>both
>instances, but just didn't get it past him. All Mayotte really had to do
>was get
>the puck out of the zone - just more bad luck for Union.
>
>In my opinion, Union probably could have avoided either position in the
>first
>place. During the last several games in the season, I noticed that Kevin
>Sneddon
>has been starting 5 forwards on the power play unit. Joel Beal had been
>playing
>the point position for most of the year, but we started seeing the
>Goodjohn-Seney-
>Neron line start the PP with Beal and (forward) Nathan Gillies playing the
>point
>positions. When RPI started the play up ice towards their tying & winning
>goals,
>Gillies & Beal were caught deep in the RPI zone and couldn't catch up to
>the play.
>I can't help but think that if at least one defenseman was on the ice, then
>
>maybe
>Mayotte wouldn't have had to play the puck.
>
>Does anyone else do this? I can understand the need for offense on the
>power
>play and that Sneddon would trust two of his best players to remember
>they're
>playing defense, but I'm not sold on the idea yet. I'm also not a hockey
>coach, so
>I'll bet there's another good reason.
>
>-Andy
>
>-
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