Johns Hopkins 2023

[nrthcrosslax]

Would love to see Grimes get stronger. He gets bodied up by ssdms half his size way too much. Also gets blown up too much for a guy who is 6'4" 215.
Get stronger my guy.

I think the most stinging thing a certain legendary Virginia coach ever said was that a certain big Navy player didn’t play like a big man.

I always liked John Greeley, but I think the same could have been said of him. Despite his injuries, I thought a little bit less finesse and a bit more power play would have helped Greeley in his development.

Grimes is having his best season, but I would generally agree with your comments. He has 15 goals and 10 assists, but I think I would rather see him play a more power-type game and have 20 goals. But maybe that’s because of the PM/JC offensive system.

DocBarrister

I'm not even saying he has to change his game to a power game. Just get stronger and not get stood up on his dodges and get the defense on their heels instead. The whole world opens up for him

[nrthcrosslax]

Anyone else get flashes of Michael Kimmel in English? I hope his development continues.
Really glad Evans wasn't seriously hurt. I was worried.
I thought McDermott was in danger of getting Wally Pipp'ed for a minute but he is looking confident and coming on strong after injury.

[primitiveskills]

A special thing about this team is the sheer number of guys who have made big plays in critical moments. Today, I thought McDermott's goal in the third quarter was huge. Rutgers was up by 2, on a 7-2 run, had all the momentum, and we were getting nothing on offense. It could have really gone south from there, but McDermott stepped up, made a great dodge and shot, and we suddenly had our juice back.

Every week it seems to be someone new making a big play at the right time.

[primitiveskills]

Anyone else get flashes of Michael Kimmel in English? I hope his development continues.
Really glad Evans wasn't seriously hurt. I was worried.

Not sure he's the same shooter that Michael was, but same kind of field vision.

[DocBarrister]

Would love to see Grimes get stronger. He gets bodied up by ssdms half his size way too much. Also gets blown up too much for a guy who is 6'4" 215.
Get stronger my guy.

I think the most stinging thing a certain legendary Virginia coach ever said was that a certain big Navy player didn’t play like a big man.

I always liked John Greeley, but I think the same could have been said of him. Despite his injuries, I thought a little bit less finesse and a bit more power play would have helped Greeley in his development.

Grimes is having his best season, but I would generally agree with your comments. He has 15 goals and 10 assists, but I think I would rather see him play a more power-type game and have 20 goals. But maybe that’s because of the PM/JC offensive system.

DocBarrister

I'm not even saying he has to change his game to a power game. Just get stronger and not get stood up on his dodges and get the defense on their heels instead. The whole world opens up for him

I think we are in agreement. I think if he gets stronger, more of his dodges will result in an open shot for him, leading to more goals and maybe more slides to him.

DocBarrister

[nrthcrosslax]

McDermott has always seemed to have the faith of the coaches and we are seeing why. Glad he seems to be healthy now.

[HopFan16]

Just a reminder that Grimes had a severe back injury. That could have affected his development in the weight room.

I think it's more of a confidence thing anyway. Matt Collison is roughly the same size, but he invites contact and plays with an edge. Grimes can adopt that mentality, but it takes time. Collison was essentially born with it playing the indoor game north of the border but they're not exactly teaching it at Boys Latin.

Either way, he's already scored 11 more points than last year so this feels like nitpicking a guy who is an important player for us and making strides.

Speaking of Boys Latin guys, the improvement of Ryan Evans is quite something. He came in as a likely SSDM and I had heard at one point was close to getting cut. But he's worked his way into the offensive rotation and this year has more points than last in half as many games. He has also doubled his shooting percentage. Gotta be making gramps proud.

[DocBarrister]

Anyone else get flashes of Michael Kimmel in English? I hope his development continues.
Really glad Evans wasn't seriously hurt. I was worried.

Not sure he's the same shooter that Michael was, but same kind of field vision.

I think Kimmel was a better dodger as well.

Very different players overall, but maybe shades of Joel Tinney? Not a classic downhill dodger like Paul Rabil, but more of a well-rounded skill guy like Joel Tinney?

DocBarrister

[DocBarrister]

Eleven different Blue Jays scored 16 goals against a pretty talented Rutgers team.

All of a sudden, the Blue Jays are getting harder to game plan for ….

DocBarrister

[Hoponboard]

McDermott has always seemed to have the faith of the coaches and we are seeing why. Glad he seems to be healthy now.

McDermott has regained the quickness of his freshman season. Plus, he’s much more confident as shown in his second tally where he moved the goalie low and fired a shot at his vacated head.

[primitiveskills]

Scott Smith had the same amount of points as the "midseason AA" attackman he was covering today LOL

Haven't seen Sag A lately. Don't look now but the Fighting Nadelens are 2-7 after a loss to Stony Brook. Has a take ever aged as bad as that one? It has reached "transformational class" levels of bad. If he's smart (he's not), he won't show his face in here again.

A couple of other observations:
- Rutgers was 0-3 on the man-up
- Knobloch did not score after we finally put a pole on him but it took way too long for that to happen. Not really sure what the gameplan was there in the first half
- 2 goals and 2 CTs for Martin. Nice day at the office
- How long till English is on the first midfield? Do we even have a "first" midfield? Both lines play about equally and today the "seconds" were more productive
- We played 27 guys today and that was without Bauer, Chauvette, or Krampf. We can go even deeper if necessary

As guys like English emerge, will be interesting to see what Crawley does (if anything) with the lines. Maybe they like the idea of having a "big" line (Collison/ Grimes/ Peshko; which worked well against Michigan but not today) and a "small/quick" line (some combo of English/ Evans/ McDermott/ Bauer/ etc; which worked really well today)? By the 4Q today, that small line was on the field for the majority of the possessions. Whatever the mix, its clear that Crawley can recognize what's working and adapt mid-game.

[primitiveskills]

Eleven different Blue Jays scored 16 goals against a pretty talented Rutgers team.

All of a sudden, the Blue Jays are getting harder to game plan for ….

DocBarrister

But the "expert" IL analyst said we were too dependent on a too few guys in his insightful game preview? [Eye roll]

[DocBarrister]

A special thing about this team is the sheer number of guys who have made big plays in critical moments. Today, I thought McDermott's goal in the third quarter was huge. Rutgers was up by 2, on a 7-2 run, had all the momentum, and we were getting nothing on offense. It could have really gone south from there, but McDermott stepped up, made a great dodge and shot, and we suddenly had our juice back.

Every week it seems to be someone new making a big play at the right time.

Yep, not just one or two guys anymore on offense.

But with all this talk about the O, it’s the D that has been coming through big in key moments. Today, it was forcing two Rutgers turnovers late because of shot clock violations, and the EMO D shutting out Rutgers.

DocBarrister

[primitiveskills]

Anyone else get flashes of Michael Kimmel in English? I hope his development continues.
Really glad Evans wasn't seriously hurt. I was worried.

Not sure he's the same shooter that Michael was, but same kind of field vision.

I think Kimmel was a better dodger as well.

Very different players overall, but maybe shades of Joel Tinney? Not a classic downhill dodger like Paul Rabil, but more of a well-rounded skill guy like Joel Tinney?

DocBarrister

I don't know. Tinney was "different". Not a guy I would want to compare anyone to (or be compared to!).

[nrthcrosslax]

Perhaps a product of having the pieces to play with but Crawley definitely seems open to making changes based on the situation. He isn't of the philosophy of "this is how we play, do or die".
JHU was accused in the past of not developing players. If you weren't a 5 star coming out of HS, you probably are a career bench player. Doesn't seem to be the case anymore?

[DocBarrister]

Eleven different Blue Jays scored 16 goals against a pretty talented Rutgers team.

All of a sudden, the Blue Jays are getting harder to game plan for ….

DocBarrister

But the "expert" IL analyst said we were too dependent on a too few guys in his insightful game preview? [Eye roll]

That was probably true back in early February. Analyst needs to catch up.

DocBarrister

[primitiveskills]

A special thing about this team is the sheer number of guys who have made big plays in critical moments. Today, I thought McDermott's goal in the third quarter was huge. Rutgers was up by 2, on a 7-2 run, had all the momentum, and we were getting nothing on offense. It could have really gone south from there, but McDermott stepped up, made a great dodge and shot, and we suddenly had our juice back.

Every week it seems to be someone new making a big play at the right time.

Yep, not just one or two guys anymore on offense.

But with all this talk about the O, it’s the D that has been coming through big in key moments. Today, it was forcing two Rutgers turnovers late because of shot clock violations, and the EMO D shutting out Rutgers.

DocBarrister

Second half (and especially 4th quarter) D has been phenomenal all year. Again, we're lucky to have a coach and coordinators who make great in-game adjustments.

[51percentcorn]

yes '16 it must suck a little bit to be a Hopkins anti Hopkins fan. Team creeping up on a Top 5-7 ranking - if the home team wins tomorrow night they are all alone in first in the BIG - they are probably one maybe two wins away from the tourney - if they figure out a way to beat Penn State they are in the driver's seat to get a bye and play the semis on their home field - they are guaranteed a winning season and regardless they have been fun to watch - if sometimes excrutiating. But all the credit to Crawley and Kelly

[RURICK]

When your coach was hired a few years ago, I said to give him some time and that he was your best recruit in many years. Today, he actually stole the playbook to beat Rutgers this year from OSU. After Cameron went down a few games ago with an injury, Our entire team changed. Cameron was Rutgers leading scorer and setup man. Take Scott and Knobloch out and have someone else beat you. In today's game, Knobloch had 3 goals and an assist and Ross Scott had one goal on the game's first play. After halftime, the tandem was held to 1 assist and zero goals. Rutgers is done for the season. The same thing happened to Rutgers basketball when Mawot mag tore his ACL with 10 games remaining in the regular season. I think their season and NCAA tourney hopes just ended. Congrats to Hopkins.

[primitiveskills]

When your coach was hired a few years ago, I said to give him some time and that he was your best recruit in many years. Today, he actually stole the playbook to beat Rutgers this year from OSU. After Cameron went down a few games ago with an injury, Our entire team changed. Cameron was Rutgers leading scorer and setup man. Take Scott and Knobloch out and have someone else beat you. In today's game, Knobloch had 3 goals and an assist and Ross Scott had one goal on the game's first play. After halftime, the tandem was held to 1 assist and zero goals. Rutgers is done for the season. The same thing happened to Rutgers basketball when Mawot mag tore his ACL with 10 games remaining in the regular season. I think their season and NCAA tourney hopes just ended. Congrats to Hopkins.

Not sure things are that desperate, Cameron is good but not an irreplaceable talent. The offense does need another look when Scott gets taken out of the game (will need that against Maryland at a minimum). Bottom line is that others need to step up like Justin Kim did today. Kulas especially. He was….not good today. On a more positive note, Apgar really impressed me, and Knoblauch is a special player. Oh, and stick with #30 in goal.

Edited to say that the B1G is panning out to be the best/toughest conference this year. No one is going through the conference schedule unscathed. Good luck the rest of the way.