Q's UNH hockey preview

Well its fall in New Hampshire and that can only mean one thing. No I am not talking about the infusion of tourist to see a bunch of leaves dying, or the hordes of media to watch the circus that is called the New Hampshire primary. I am of course talking about the start of a new UNH hockey season. With practices starting on Oct. 6th with an exhibition game on Oct 12th and the season starting on Oct. 19th at BU. The 2007-08 season on paper should be a very exciting season. After the roller coaster season last year that started with a slow start then a huge rise in the middle of the season that saw them shot up to #1 in the country it ended on a downfall with 2 consecutive losses, in the Hockey East finals and the 1st round of the NCAA tourney. The exceptions going to last year were not so great, they were picked to come in 4th in Hockey East and ended up winning the regular season title. So in the end they ended up meeting and exceeding exceptions. This year is different. Now is the time to move on to the new campaign.
Loses from last year
The first thing that to look at is what is lost from last year. The main thing they lost is some scoring punch. The biggest losses will be Jacob McFlicker, Brett Hemmingway and Trevor Smith. To me the key one of these will be McFlicker. He has been known to bring up his game a notch in the big games, to me he was the emotional leader of the team that will be very hard to replace. Hemmingway and Smith could put the puck in the net, but seemed to do it against lesser competition. It seems to me that they didn’t know always show up and bring that extra effort for the big games. Shawn Vinz is also gone from last years roster. Of course Vinz was a favorite of mine so I am a little biased. But Vinz was key contributor on the penalty kill, and on the 4ht line he seemed to help the freshman bring their game up, he proved to be a good influence on them. Also gone is last years captain Josh Ciocco. Ciocco should some leadership with the team and had a really good last year, to me McFlicker was the real captain of the team. Like Vinz Ciocco added a lot to the penalty kill with his great speed. He also stepped up to the #1 line pretty well when there was injuries. The last member of the 07 class was Chris Murray, he was the only defenseman that the Cats lost. Murray was an average defenseman that I do not think will be to hard to replace. His graduating will open up some more ice time for some of the other defenseman.
Offense
So where will the scoring come from this year? I see the offense being a well balanced attack this year. I see many players with the capitates of getting 30 or more points this year. Of course we can expect Mike Radja, Matt Fornataro and Jerry Pollastrone to put up really good numbers. All 3 really stepped up there game last year and should continue with their scoring touch. Other key returnees who should add scoring and bring their game up a notch are Peter Leblanc, Bobby Butler, Thomas Fortney, Greg Collins and Danny Rossman. Leblanc, Butler and Rossman are entering their sophomore campaign and should great promise last year. They were integrated slowly into the line up. All shared time on the 4th line. As the season progressed all 3 raised their game up. Butler really improved over the course of the year, and showed he should be one of the top scores on the team over the next 3 season. Fortney and Collins are entering their Junior year. Both will not but up huge numbers, but add with the little things, both play a good fore check and pass the puck pretty well. Fortney is probably the best face off man on the team. The incoming class up front is probably one of the best in recent history for the Cats. Of course it is highlighted by James VanRiemsdyk (JVR), he was the second over all pick in last summers NHL draft. The consensus is that he will be in Durham for no more then 2 years. I think he will come in and have an impact. He will add some size, 6’3”, which will be very helpful. He also showed he can score, with the US under 18 team last year he put really good numbers against college teams and in international play. Of course he will probably be loss for the series at North Dakota right after Christmas, as he will be more then likely playing for the US in the under 18 world championship. Another key addition will be Phil Desimone, who was the USHL player of the year putting up 70 points in 56 games. He has shown to be a good set up man who will play well with either Radja or JVR. Some other freshman who might contribute this year are Mike Sislo and Paul Thompson. They might not get a lot of playing time early in the year but as the season progress they will have the opportunity to work themselves into the line up. There will be much more competition for playing time this year, which in my opinion will be a big plus. I think that was lacking last year and hurt the team. Other players who could fight for some time are Dan Dries, Dan Vranek, Greg Manz, and when he is healthy Paul Thompson.
Defense
This years defense should be pretty deep. Last year there were only 7 defenseman which made it hard on the top 6, gave little time for them to rest and made them have to avoid injuries at all cost. There are no stand out stars on the blue line, but there is depth and quality. There are 5 returnees with 4 who were regulars last year. The top 4 this year will be Jamie Fritch, Craig Switzer, Kevin Kapstad, and Brad Flashins. Of those 4 I believe Kapstad has the capabilities of having a break out year. Sophomore Nick Krates has a good chance of making the top 6 defenseman this year, only getting time in one game last week Krates did not have an opportunity to show what he can do. He will battle freshman Matt Campanale for playing time, another Freshman Mike Beck comes into the season injuries and might see any ice time this year, if he does come back healthy he will add depth on the blue line, and give some guys a chance to rest later in the season on those 2 game weekends. I would like to see the defense play a little more physical this year. There were time when they played against a big team that they would be pushed around some, this was evident over the last month of the year. This defensive bunch might not have a lot of all stars but are pretty equal in the top 6 which is a positive and will help match the depth on the front line.
Goaltending
There is no question in net for the Cats. The cats return a top notch tandem between the pipes. Coming back are Senior Kevin Regan, one of the top goalies in the country the last 2 years. Regan will be the #1 goalie for the year having proven himself extremely capable last year of handling that duty as he had many outstanding games and helped steal some games for the Cats that could have gone in the lost column. The only question is how much time will sophomore Brian Foster see this year. Foster started off the season very hot with a couple of shut outs. Foster did have a few hiccups later in the year, one while coming into the game in the second in that awful game at Providence. Foster should see more game time this year, this will not only help him improve but give Regan more time to rest and save himself for the last push at the end of the year. Foster has pedigree to be a #1 goalie, he was one of the toped recruited goalies when he came and was a 5th round draft pick of Florida. Foster should be using this year to set himself up to be the #1 guy in the net for his final two years in Durham. I could see him getting 10-15 starts this year. With more back to back games this year and less middle of the weeks games, Foster will be needed more this year.
Special Teams
With the added depth this year I think the cats should be outstanding with their special teams. The power play has the potential of being one of the tops in the country. The power play should be let by Mike Radja and should be at least 2 units strong, with the possibility of a good 3 line that can contribute, there is also the possibility of playing 4 forwarders playing on the PP unit. I know this is something Coach Umile normally doesn’t do, but with the depth this year it is an option that should be looked at. The penalty kill units should be pretty solid to. Greg Collins and Thomas Fortney should be a good unit that has the chance of quite a few shorthanded chances. Mike Radja has proven to be a really good penalty killer, he will miss his running mate Ciooco on the PK but I see Pollastone being able to use his great speed to help him on the PK. I would not also be surprised to see JVR get a shot at some PK time.
Expectations
Well if you made it this far you can probably guess my exceptions are pretty high this year for the Cats. There is a really good mixture of returning upperclassmen and a really solid incoming freshman class that will make this team a deep team on offense and the blue line. The proof of how solid this team will come playoff time. The cats should be a solid contender for the regular season title. The shared the preseason coached poll for top spot in Hockey East with BC. BU, Maine and Vermont should also be in the top half of Hockey East. Going into the season I would say UNH has the less amount of question marks. The loss of Cory Schneider will be a tough one to get over for BC and will be relying on two freshman goalie, if they can find a solid #1 they will be extremely tough to beat. UNH also has some tough non conference games that will be a really good taste for them for the post season. The cats host Colorado College in Oct for 2 games, and go out to North Dakota right after Christmas. The also host St. Lawrence in January. They games will show what the cats should be able to do come March. So were do I see the Cats at the end of the year. If all goes right, the freshman come and play up to expectations, the sophomore improve over a solid freshman year, and of course the injury bug stays away, there is no reason that this team can further then last couple of year and make a solid run at the frozen four. The expectations should be high for this years team and will be a disappointment if they do not show an improvement in the post season over last years team.

Never forget!

Today is the 6th anniversary of attack of America on 9/11/2001. Six years have past since that awful Tuesday morning. A lot has happened since morning, but one thing that has not is we still loss over 3000 fellow Americans to a bunch of sick and demanded people. I for one will never forget that day, as I was on vacation that week and was watching it live on TV. Those are images I know I will never forget. But to many people have forgotten what happened to us as a country that day. To many people have forgotten about the thousands of brave men and women of the fire and police dept who risked their own lives to save the lives of total strangers. There was also the people who were in the buildings who perished in attempts to get people they never met out of the buildings. People have forgotten the hero's on United 93 who bravely took their own lives to over take the horrible people who hijacked their plane, by doing they saved probably 100 if not thousands of more lives. All of these hero's should never be forgotten, and should be honored and remembered by every American. These days we are to preoccupied by such partisan bickering on both sides of the aisle that we do not see they things that united us on that day, and the days following. We are to busy pointing the finger at everyone for every little thing. We are to worried about offending anyone to honor the people who should be honored. We do not show the images from that day enough, we worry that is will effect people or it might help or hurt one political party. Well those images should effect people, and should be shown what happened and what happened afterwards. I worry that we will have a generation that will know what 9/11 is, but it will just be words and watered down. Every school child should see the images from that day, when they reach an appropriate age. They should also be shown the movie United 93, this move in my opinion is a great piece of work that shows what the people on that flight did and sacrificed. These images should not be sheltered from young people they should be shown, we need to let them know what exactly happened. To many times Dec 7th goes by with a word about what happened in Pearl Harbor that day, to me that is a shame, we should never forget that day and what happened either. We need to take these days to honor the people who gave the ultimate sacrifice those days. Both of these days are part of history and have helped shaped us to what we are today.

Nothing but scumbags!!

Well I have to use my freedom of speech to say that Moveon.org is nothing but a bunch of good for nothing scumbags who are just a bunch of cowards who can’t handle someone having a difference of opinion. They try to pull politicians to their way of thinking, they are like other lobbyist that they say they are against. But today they officially became scumbags in my opinion. While General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker gave a progress report before congress the jerk off at moveon.org were out running ads calling a 4 star general Gen. Betray Us, and questioned his credibility. The questioned a man who has given so much for his country to become a 4 star General, a man who risk his life everyday to lead 160,000 brave men and women who put their lives on the table every day. This ad stats the good General is "Cooking the Books for the White House" they make these accusation from their comfortable offices that are furnished by George Soros. Because I am sure they know more of what is going on in Iraq then the man who is leading the multi country forces. I think it is despicable people at moveon make these accusations and I would hope anyone who has supported them or had received support from them distance themselves from this cowardly group. I doubt this will happen, as moveon has used it bully tactics in the past to get their way, look at Joe Liberman, but who got the last laugh in that one. In the long run moveon’s fight against him actually made him a more powerful voice in the Senate. I know one way not to get my vote in NH, that is to side with moveon. I know people will argue that moveon has their first amendment rights, and they do, and so don’t I in what I write about them.
To the people at moveon.org, you are a bunch of scumbags and you are everything you claim to be fighting against.

With you eyes close you can’s see what is going on around you

http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070906/NATION/109060064/1001
Even when there is some good news in Iraqi the “leadership” of democrats in congress is nothing but negative and counter productive. On the heel of Gen. Petraeus progress report on Iraqi in a few weeks. The so called leadership is dismissing the report before they even hear it, they are calling it “Bush’s report” This comes after some good reports coming out Iraqi and the surge being effective. This does make me question what they want out of Iraqi, do they want the US to be successful or do they want the US to fail so they can use it on the 08 election, to me I would say it is the latter. They make it sound like Petraeus is a puppet to Bush, even though the Senate unanimously approved Petraeus to be the leader in Iraqi. To me this is showing Petraeus very little respect, and the men he is leading. The democrats are showing no leadership in this. I have heard them complain many times that President Bush can’t admit when he is wrong, which is one of his major faults, but people like Reid, Pelosi, and Durbin can not admit when they are wrong, or if they are proven wrong they call it lies. They want to put there faith in the GAO report that measure is goals are met, but does not measure if there is progress on the goals, it looks to me they want to find any report that will help them in their views, and not the people who are actually doing the job on the ground. Then there is Sen. Schumer who claims that any progress in the Anbar province is not due to the US troops but due to the natives of the area had no other alternative but to join together to fight against Al Queda because the US was not doing the job. I find this all very dishearten, and nothing but political grandstanding, and they wonder why the Congress approval rating is lower then the President’s.

Q, Bill and Hillary

Ok the title sounds like a bad adult movie. But its not. On Sunday night I went downtown Portsmouth to see Bill and Hillary Clinton speak. As many of you probably can figure out I am probably not going to vote for Hillary. But I thought it would be interesting to check out, plus I am a big fan of seeing the process in action. First to the stage was President Clinton, I am not his biggest fan but will admit I am not totally against him I did vote for him in 92 and will say he is a masterful politician. Will say he is a great speaker, I didn’t agree with a lot of what he said but was highly impressed with the way he said it. Though from listening to his speech you would think we are in a great depression, also that he had nothing to do with the statues of the military, he never mentioned his cuts in military spending and kept saying how we need to revamp the military. That was my pet peeve with speech. Next up was Sen. Clinton, I do have to say I was not impressed with her speech, well besides that I disagreed with most of it, but it seems like when she talks it is forced, were when Bill talks he does come across as genuine. She comes across as having a higher then though attitude. Now I am sure anyone who is reading this is probably thinking that I am a staunch Republican and would not go into the night with an open mind. I have to say I did not, well know I was not voting for Hillary but was interested in hearing her speak. Plus I will say I have voted Democrat before, I am not one of those who will only vote for one party, I have an open mind. As I said before I vote for Clinton in 92, voted in the Democratic primary in 00 and 06, voted for Joe Lieberman both times, who I think got screwed over by the democrats, and have voted twice for Democrat Governor John Lynch, and will probably again. So those are my credentials as a voter. Plus I have a great interest in Bill Richardson in the Democratic primary, no I don’t agree with him over Iraq but the man has dam impressive credentials. Just wanted to put that out for anyone who thinks I am here just to bash Hillary, just calling it like I saw it.

No excuses!

Well as I am sure most of you have heard Rodney Harrison of the Patriots has been suspended 4 games for using Human Growth Hormones. So the last couple of days I have been listening to the Boston talk radio shows. I have heard so many excuses for Harrison. Harrison came out said he only used it to get back from an injury quicker. So many people are letting him get away with this excuse. They are also praise him for being a “stand up guy” and “admitting” to it. If he was truly a stand up guy he would have come out and admitted to it with out being caught. The only reason he is saying all of this now is because the doctor who gave him these got busted and they found Harrison’s name. Harrison also wanted to make it clear he never used steroids, well technically he didn’t, but he used a drug that does the same thing, but he used one that was no detectable by the NFL drug testing, so to me that is worst. He know what he was doing the whole time and did what he had to get around the NFL drug program. Now everyone seems to be on Harrison’s side and buying all of his excuses. Most of these are the same people who criticize Barry Bonds and call him all sorts of names. To me Harrison and Bond are in the same category, I don’t care what uniform he is wearing, he is a cheater and a liar. There are no excuses that can make up for it, I don’t care how many other guys in the NFL are doing it and don’t get caught, that does not make it right. So to everyone who is making excuses for him, I say get a taste of reality and see a cheater for what he is!

The Random Q Thoughts are back!!

Ok it has been awhile since I wrote anything so figure get some of my thoughts out there
-First Michael Vick, well my first opinion is that he deserves what ever he gets. I am sure he will get a good prison term. What gets me is the reaction all the sports media has over it. Yes he did an awful thing and his a huge scum bag, but these are the same people who hero worship Ray Lewis, a man who was part of a murder. To me is just as big of a scum bag as Vick and should be treated the same. But no he gets to come back and do commercials with very little questions ask. To me that is a double standards because the media is in love with Lewis because he is what they think a team mate is, well a scumbag is a scumbag no matter who they are. As far as Vick goes I do not see any team taking a chance on him when and if his suspension ever gets lifted. I see him playing in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Canada for a couple of years and then fading away.
-Sen. Larry Craig, yes is a big hypocrite he has taken a stupid stance on gay marriage one I totally disagree with and then supposedly found trolling for some guy sex himself in a Minnesota airport bathroom. But by hitting another guys foot under a stall really against the law? To me this sounds very stupid and more of a little thing made into a huge story in a slow news cycle. Of course he was extremely stupid to plead guilty with out a lawyer, for that he deserves a slap aside the head. This is a much bigger story then Rep. Jefferson from Louisiana being charged with taking bribes, which one is really a big threat to democracy, a in the closet guy Senator, or a Rep. taking bribes? What about Sen. Clinton taking money from Norman Hsu, a man know to fleece investors out of lots of money, To me it is the last two. Seems to me the priorities of what is important and what isn't are all mixed up. I don't think he should be forced to resign, it should be up to the people of Utah to decide if they want him to represent them, isn't that what democracy is all about? I can see why the Republican part would want him to go away, but it should be the people deciding who represents them, not a party.
-I haven't heard to much from people who were saying all summer we need to get out of Iraq now. Why is that? Could it be that they see the surge is working to an extent and has a possibility of doing some good, of course now need to focus some on the political situation, but that will be some what easier with a more secure population. Think everyone needs to realize this is a long process that will take many, many years to get Iraq to be totally stable. There are centuries of hatred between ethic groups that will not go away in a few years. The problem is we look at things in election cycles, which in this case is so unrealistic. AS the 08 elections gets closer I see more arguing coming, and people not seeing the big picture, just saying what they think will get them elected. It is just sad that groups like Moveon.org have so much power and can not see past there own political views to see what the right thing to do it. It took the US many years to get from the end of the Revolutionary War to the Constitution, we had the Articles of Confederation in between that failed, some time need failure before you get success. My fear is we pull out to soon and have another Vietnam case on our hands, were some nut case comes in and ends up killing thousands if not millions of people who oppose him. That will make Darfur look like a day at the park, and will have all the in crowd who cry about Darfur crying about Iraq and say why did we let that happen.
-To all the people who are crying they can't pay their adjustable rate mortgage, what are you an idiot? Who in their right minds gets a adjustable rate? Did they really think the rate they got it at would stay that way. It is economics 101, the interest rate will fluctuate. The economy does not always stay in an upward swing. I am far from an economic expert but I know that. Its like the people who cry when the stock markets goes down, it goes up and then goes down. The economy grows, then is slows.
-The little message on the bottom of any email you get from someone sending from an Iphone "this message send from my Iphone" is really stupid and annoys me. Do you need that much attention?
-Only a week left to the NFL kicks off, should be a interesting year for my Steelers. Not sure which way to go with them. Think they can make a run this year, but hard to tell how the coaching change will effect them. Do except a more psychical defense though. Speaking of football NBC now has Keith Olbermann on there Sunday show, not sure how long I will be able to listen to him, talk about a guy who is so in love with his own voice and will not listen to anyone who has a different view on things. Did have my fantasy football draft last weekend, I am really screwed if Payton Manning, LaDalian Tomlinson or Steven Jackson get hurt. Have a very deep group of receivers, actually have 8 of them, figure a couple of them will have to step up. Ended up with New England's Defense, really wanted San Diego but Jay screwed me by taking them a few picks before me, guess everyone is finally on to the strategy to win, and only took them about 5 years as I have won 3 out of the last 4 years.
- Only 43 days till the first UNH Hockey game of the year, looking forward to another solid year and hopefully a run at something big. Should be a good team this year with lots of depth. Will write up my preview of the team soon, but see them going into the year as one of the teams to beat, with Minnesota probably the team to beat. GO CATS!!
-What's with Van Halen taking Michael Anthony off the cover shot of there old albums on their web site and replacing them with Wolfgang Van Halen? Don't think that is right. I understand you have parted ways, which sucks but does happen, but he is a huge part of your history and really disrespecting him with that. Think its great they are back with David Lee Roth, he is the original singer and they truly rocked and would love to see them live. I do appreciate both the DLR and Sammy Hager years, but with out the DLR there would have not been the Sammy years.
- November 18 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band are playing the Fleet Center in Boston, really hoping to get tickets to that. Have seen Bruce once in my life and would love to see him again, puts on a great show!! A true must see. Did just hear the first song of the new album, has a very Pearl Jam feeling to it, a little different then some of his other stuff.