cherrylax wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 9:26 am
Well not the ending we wanted, but a season I think most of us could've never imagined. This team blew expectations out of the water, and made this super senior class proud. My personal expectation for this team is that I thought Georgetown might be down and we'd have a chance of winning the Big East and sneak into this the tournament. If you had told me that this team would beat Hopkins, Georgetown, Ohio State, Cornell, Michigan, and Syracuse I would've called you crazy (alright Ohio State sure).
Notre Dame is just too good. They were strong all over the field, and Denver keeping it to 5-4 at halftime was the best we could expect. The second half Face Offs just caught up with us, and we got caught in quicksand. Sillstrop looked like he was hurting quite a bit but props to him for toughing it out.
The biggest question marks going into 2025
Face Offs
Who replaces Stath? Stath has been a great player for DU over the past five years, but it has also lead us to under-developing our entire Face off Unit. Looks like we'll have three guys on the roster going into 2025, with no incoming freshman. This is an area that we need to go to the portal for, there are a number of guys in there and its an area we can't afford to ignore. Not saying we can't run Lair or Ciardullo out there, but I hope we learn from this past few years of only having one guy. It's not fair to the rest of the team when you have one guy who is untouchable but is going out there and losing every draw. Have to develop a unit.
Defense
Six Returning Poles, 2 with legitimate experience. think we'll get Overly back and hopefully he can play LSM. The others on the roster have very little to know experience. Looking at it our starters down low should be Freehill, Caldwell, and who? LSM Overly has experience but as a shortstick. Luckily rope unit is set, would love to see Colm Barnett embrace the role as a Casey Wilson esque player, since he does play defense in box. Wouldn't be surprised to see us add a transfer in this area as well. Goaltending seems like we have options, McNammera was apparently going to see time this year before Kleban took hold of the job. Personally I think incoming freshman Grayson Manning takes the job. Having seen him play a number of times I will go out on a limb and say that he has the tools to become the best goalie in Denver history. Big kid, with ridiculously fast hands.
Who do we lose?
It is the nature of the sport now that some of these underclassmen will go. Luckily I think DU is in a better position than some other schools out there, but having this super senior class has probably set us up to lose a few younger guys. Really hoping a certain midfielder who saw limited time on man up (but seemed to produce every time he was out there) doesn't get a call from the GM at Syracuse.
Who Steps Up?
Polls we have Freehill, Midfield is Kelly, who steps up at attack? Fairly certain we'll see Malawsky back on the left side again next year, but who goes with him? Tzagornis seemed to get better and better as the year went on, and having watched him in high school he is about as pure as an X attackmen as there is. The right side is a big question mark. Feel like Manning has never quite broken through at Denver, has shown flashes but just has never taken that next step. Does a freshman come in and play? Chris Mergeres was a big time player for St. Seb's this year in Mass, and Liam Connors scored about a million goals for Erie. Who knows?
As always I will be keeping my ear to the grindstone with our guys who play up north, but I am excited to see what 2025 brings.
