LaxPower Back-Up Stick

Ugly officiated game, but boys battled hard. Poor defense on both sides. Not sure why Hobart waited til mid-3rd to show zone AND why slide off Dordevic, ever?? Oh well, at least it was a game. Herlihy was a warrior and our stars definitely showed up. A couple of poor shots that led to transition goals were killers…we can’t get into a track meet with Cuse. Man up was deadly!

Statesmen played well
Best showing I’ve seen from EMO is years.
Needed a few more possessions , Phaup was tough.
Couple of questionable calls , but fact is Dordevic and Curry are just good enough to turn the game .
Let’s go get the NEC

I'm cheap / was busy today, so I just tuned into Ted and Dave on WHWS. This (and Tuesday) was a winnable game. A few boneheaded defensive lapses (that crease vio that led to a coast-to-coast pole goal being a major one) and a GB / call here and there and we win a close one.

Herilhy, Mott and Archer had solid days. This offense can play with anyone.

Our new GK (what a name) did well in his debut in the 2nd half. Not sure what's happened to us at the X after going toe-to-toe with Sisselberger, but you have to hope with two weeks of practice before we open at SHU that it'll get worked on.

Ultimately, I had hoped we'd be 3-1 at this point, but I can live with 2-2 with close losses to Top 15-20 teams. Just need to shore up on some little things here and there. This team will be tough to beat in the NEC.

She’s took 37 draws and one went to Dickson. Might’ve been worth throwing Shaifer in and get him a couple of reps as some point.

Still the played hard all day and fought until the end.

Painfully obvious that this game was more than winnable. I will echo FMU's comment about covering Dordevic. Why TF did you ever slide off of him?? He killed us in 2020. All you had to do was stay on top of him and make him a feeder. Let him dump the ball to #2 who was O-fer shooting. Whomever drew up tonight's defensive plan either 1) didn't look at the 2020 tape or 2), couldn't see the what was happening on the field. It's called making adjustments. You don't have to wait till halftime to change things up. Holtby had 6 uncontested goals scored on him. Not a check was administered, nor a body knocked down. Toughness wasn't apparent in the 1st half. Shot selection was questionable a bunch of times. Another shortcoming that I don't know how to overcome is the lack of speed on D. We had no one who kept up with Curry. That resulted in 5 goals. Unfortunately, Shea just wasn't as quick as Phaup today. It happens. What shouldn't happened is Bart was out GB's 35-22 The most maddening play happened very late in Q4. After a timeout, with the ball and trailing by 1 and a play called on the sideline. What the heck was the middie thinking (was he?) trying to dodge though a double team. Of course the ball was coughed up and that effectively ended any real chance Hobart had of tying the game. A true BONEHEAD play. Essentially, game over. Time for some bench time. On another note, what happened to Chad Bach? After a promising FY, he has hardly stepped on the field. Not at all today. While I'm on my soap box. What was up with those refs? They missed tons of calls on both teams. There had to be at least 8 push in the backs on faceoffs. They missed 5 on Cuse, 3 on the Statesmen on the faceoffs. Slashes were an afterthought. A referee friend of mine called them "somewhat oblivious". The switch to a zone did help. Why wait so long? The goalie change may or may not have been necessary. One thing Sotiropoulos cannot keep doing is flopping on every shot he try's to save. If there is a rebound, he is automatically out of position. He has quick hands and came in on short notice, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt

Now for the good. That is the best man-up I've seen from Bart in years. If Johnny Herlihy can stay healthy, he's going to have a great season. Mott had a solid bounce back game after Cornell blanking him. Archer didn't have his best night shooting. Yet still managed 4 pts on 1G 3a. He could have had a couple of more assists if the resulting shots had been a bit better.

The team has almost 2 weeks off till they face Sacred Heart in the start of league play. Time to get healthy and work better on field decision making.

Not sure what was happening with refs, but I couldn't figure out what they were looking at sometimes. But I am sure every losing side says the same ... I was complaining after Cornell too, so maybe it is just sloppy play on our part.
The end to end run and goal on the restart was a nightmare. Just slack of awareness.
Shea was slower than Phaup tonight, but our wing play and ground balls did him no favors. There were about 5 faceoffs that we should have gotten hold of ....with all respect to Phaup.
The O looks good. We'll put up numbers against anyone. As the season goes one I wonder if we'll see Ward or Rosa sub in on attack now and again. I think ward gives us a great inside threat.
Despite a good game on O, there were a couple of poor high to high shots that amounted to turnovers.
D is struggling a bit. 18 goals is a lot. Not sure how Curry was allowed to run right in and put it over Holtbys left shoulder so easily in the first quarter. We also let them get their hands free and plant their feet up top too often. I'd like to see us more physical on D.
Not sure where Bach was. He had good time against Cornell and Lehigh. Hope to see him out there again soon.

Interesting stats by laxreference. Some obvious/intuitive but the positives are through four games we are way better on off efficiency, to % and gb % than historically. (Off eff ex partial 2020). Even compared with 2017,2019 and especially 21. So we seem to be a lot cleaner. Flip
Side is save % and FO aren’t looking so good. Can’t blame the FOGO and goalies in isolation, wings and D are a big part of that.

https://lacrossereference.com/teams/a0027/

Why not play the zone all time.... what's the disadvantage?

SMAIN wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 11:52 am Why not play the zone all time.... what's the disadvantage?

Bombs away from up top, 10 yards out or so.

Bombs away from up top, 10 yards out or so.

Well, a zone is played on extra man defense and is quite successful.

SMAIN wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 12:54 pm

Bombs away from up top, 10 yards out or so.

Well, a zone is played on extra man defense and is quite successful.

Worked for Army! Thought we were going to score a few more goals coming from behind but we dropped our stick low & shot low. A Syracuse buddy of mine was surprised Gator made the goalie switch. Gavin has been struggling.

Do we know why Coach Raymond switched goalies?

At the point in time both GKs got pulled they'd only made 7 combined saves on like 22 shots I believe. That was probably why.

Article on Herilhy: https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/stor ... 416592002/

FL-GO wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 11:51 am At the point in time both GKs got pulled they'd only made 7 combined saves on like 22 shots I believe. That was probably why.

Article on Herilhy: https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/stor ... 416592002/

How many of the goals scored on Holtby were from guys where no one was even on their hands ,let alone putting the body on them? I don't blame Holtby for Dordevic and Curry being left untouched. . After Dordevic's 1st 2 goals, they should have never slid from him. We need another Stan Gilbertson type guy to cover the likes of Curry.

Again, the mental breakdowns defensively continue to plague Hobart.

Wrong slide, rotation, defensive position....maddening when it can be corrected.

With that amount of goals scored on Cornell and Syracuse, both of those games could have been won.

Until the mental errors defensively are corrected, look for more of the same, ridiculous open looks by the opponent.

FIX IT!

Shoothi, I think you're right. The problems on O are so minor. Maybe we could put up one or two more ... maybe. And for sure we could do better with wing play on faceoffs. But the biggest help would be cutting goals against by 3, 4, or more. Glad the guys have time off to work on it, but I hope they come out ready to roll next week. Time's up for working things out ... every game matters now.

Hobart added a big defenseman from Pal-Mac for their 2023 class.

Robert Kinslow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJv9C7Psri8

Good to see Bart keeping some of the Rochester kids home with him and 2023 Goalie Jackson Faiola.

There’s a D man from Canandaigua coming next fall as well.

Was kidding with a friend that I hope this young man is the D equivalent of Ben Reeves and Andy Shay stays far away!

D2fan wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 11:23 am Hobart added a big defenseman from Pal-Mac for their 2023 class.

Robert Kinslow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJv9C7Psri8

Good to see Bart keeping some of the Rochester kids home with him and 2023 Goalie Jackson Faiola.

Hate to be a bit critical, but shouldn't a long pole highlight video show a little bit more than his offense and sliding from a zone?

Pregame event in Fairfield for Saturday’s game:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sacred-hea ... 7189179297

Which probably got moved to earlier, since now faceoff is scheduled to noon to avoid late pm storms.