Off the Record with Luke Devoe

via ECAC Hockey

By: Luke Devoe

Your weekend recap will be forthcoming from our newest, cutest, little blogger Ben Rego but prepare yourself for a bi-weekly segment that is sure to rock your world. Off the Record is something I will post on the blog every two weeks taking a look at our Bobcats' performance over the two weekends being covered, as well as anything else I'd like to discuss while I'm up on my soapbox.

First off, not a bad way to start the year. The Cats head to Orono, Maine, might as well be Mars for this Hamdenite, and take a huge opening night win away from the vaunted Hockey East New Englanders. In this win, we got a chance to see the highly discussed transfer Jordan Samuels-Thomas net his first goal as a Bobcat in the most dramatic of fashion. We are also given a glimpse into what freshman newcomer Travis St. Denis can bring as he netted our first and his first goals of the year. We also saw a team, though ugly at first, weather an opening night storm in the first period in a hostile environment playing against a team that seemed to want to hit anything that moved. Though we were outshot by a large margin and thoroughly outplayed, this spoke more to me than if we came out and squeaked a goal or two in early. This can be attributed to our veteran leadership. There's a buttload of seniors on this team and while some will play more than others, this will not be a team to cower in the face of competition. On opening night, we were led by senior goalie Eric Hartzell. Hartzy was excellent and settled in nicely after allowing an early goal. Hartzell is our goalie this year and despite being yanked in game two against Bobby Mo, (more on this later), our season relies on him being a top flight goalie in the ECAC. He was this and more on opening night turning away 31 of 32 Black Bear shots.

I won't go into great detail on Sunday's exhibition 2-0 loss to Acadia because it is and forever will be a non-factor game. Rand got to see his freshmen and seldom used upper classmen while resting some regulars. Acadia played like it was the gold medal game against a Gunner Staal led Iceland squad and came away with the victory over a QU team whose lines looked as if they were picked by the kids who wait by the tunnel to get a broken stick. Captain Zack Currie said all the right things after the game about not being ready and not using the bus trip as an excuse and even went as far to say "we're not 40 years old," but the fact is the game didn't matter, the result didn't matter and anyone who claims it did needs to wear a helmet in public.

So they have a week off and plenty of time to prepare for a Robert Morris team who returns some top scorers, a senior goalie but also adds plenty of new faces to the mix as well. The Bobcats eventually got it going in game one on Saturday and asserted their dominance in route to a 4-0 victory. Some Bobby Mo folks were calling "not fair" after the Colonials' 8 hour bus ride but at the end of the day the Bobcats wiped the floor with the Colonials in a game that had it been closer may have set up the Bobcats for more success on Sunday. In the win, we saw excellent efforts from blue color guys like assistant captain Cory Hibbeler, seldom great but often very good Russell Goodman and Bryce Van Brabant, who just seems to hit anything with a pulse. We saw Mike Dalhuisen mix it up in a hand shake line that should have never been and goalie Eric Hartzell turn away 16 in a shutout effort. It was the kind of game that showed the separation between the Q and a mid-level Atlantic Hockey squad. Defensively the Bobcats looks downright impenetrable. The three Zach/k's (Davies, Tolkinen, Currie) are all playing at the top of their game. Loren Barron is still smoothly doing his thing and Danny Federico has settled nicely in as a #5 D. Even Dalhuisen, who has shown his mental makeup can be questioned, played exception at times and finished as a +3 for the game. Sunday was a different story.

Check out the rest what what Luke has to say on FTNTTB.