The Future is Bright!

I’m going to start by saying…….sorry I hadn’t posted in awhile.  Had been very busy, and last season took a lot out of me.  That said…….I couldn’t be more excited to have college hockey back.

Normally, for a team that historically peaks in the first half of the year, opening the season by getting swept would have my in a foul mood this morning.  This year, nothing could be further from the truth.  Obviously nobody likes to get swept, but I find tons of reasons for optimism after the first two games in the land of 1000 lakes.

First, this is a young team.  I have almost no expectations of them.  My only hope for them is that they improve steadily throughout the year, rather than starting fast and fading down the stretch.  So losing early, well, isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world.

Now we all know there were lots of defections last year, and one of the big questions (aside from the youth) was where the offense was going to come from with the team losing it’s top 5 scorers.  Offense was certainly not the problem in Minnesota.  Mike Perreria looks like the real deal.  TJ Syner and Danny Hobbs appear to have taken steps forward.  I was very impressed with Branden Gracel and Connor Sheary.  I don’t think offense is going to be as big a problem as we thought.

Defensively was a bit rough, but that’s to be expected with the amount of youth on this team.  I honestly think we can expect the defense to steadily improve as the year goes on.  I’m pretty excited to see what this team looks like in January, and super excited to see what they will be in two years.  The future here is very bright I think.

UMass got down in both games, but you saw some grit and mental toughness out of this club.  They refused to quit, clawed back into each game with chances to tie it late.  Maybe the Navy Seal mentality is paying off, because it would have been easy for a young team on the road to get down on themselves falling behind by 2 and 3 goals.  But they didn’t.  That might be the most encouraging sign of the weekend.

Obviously it would have been nice to steal a win.  But short of that, I really see more reasons to be optimistic about the future here.  After last season, it’s refreshing to see a team with some determination.

Let’s just hope it translates into some wins!

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