The Miami University RedHawks is a good hockey team went all the way to the Frozen Four last season. The RedHakws played in the final game before losing to the Boston University Terriers in the Championship game. Most teams including championshiop teams go through rough patches but the Miami University RedHawks 13-4-5 seem to fall off right after the Christmas holiday break. This year seems to be starting out the same way.
A Look at the "Rico Swoon" (through the first ten games, post-holiday break)The RedHawks started the second half of this season getting swept by the CHA's RMU Colonials 5-12-3. I believe that the Miami RedHawks are going to be very happy to see the CHA get disbanded after this season because the RedHawks are 0-3 in nonconference games against the CHA this season. That being said the Miami RedHawks are still sitting pretty even after laying an egg this past weekend. Check out this blog post; talk abut blasting your favorite team.
1999-2000: 4-5-1
2000-2001: 6-4-0
2001-2002: 3-6-1
2002-2003: 3-6-1
2003-2004: 7-2-1 (NCAA Participant)
2004-2005: 5-4-1
2005-2006: 6-3-1 (CCHA Champions, NCAA Participant)
2006-2007: 3-4-3 (NCAA Participant)
2007-2008: 7-2-1 (NCAA Participant)
2008-2009: 4-5-1 (NCAA Championship Game)
2009-2010: 0-2 "?"
[The Brother Hood]
BOTTOM LINE: Miami has had some embarrassing losses in previous seasons, but this weekend series may top them all. Robert Morris hadn't won a game since Nov. 13, and the RedHawks made this team look like the 1991-92 Pittsburgh Penguins.First thing I would tell this guy is get off the ledge. Talk about disrepecting your opponent after they have beaten your team twice. Seriously! After reading this post you would have thought that the Miami RedHawks were a bunch of talentless hacks sitting at the bottom of the CCHA and in danger of missing the NCAA tourney. Not so fast, Miami (10-1-3 and 13-4-5) is sitting second in the Pairwise rankings (which mimic the NCAA tourney selection) and tied for the lead in the CCHA with the Ferris State Bulldogs (10-2-2 and 16-4-2) with 34 points. Miami has some mojo even with the loss and can probably miss their conference tourney and still be a number one seed or high second seed in the NCAA tourney.
Miami's new offensive strategy of pass-and-redirect-pass-to-the-defense worked to perfection on Sunday, squelching every chance the RedHawks had to gain the attacking zone. I can't remember Miami completing consecutive passes on the transition, and a team this talented should never have to resort to playing dump-and-chase on the power play.
There's absolutely no excuse to lose one of two, much less two, against a team that has one or two semi-talented skaters at best and a goalie who regularly floats 20 feet out of the crease for no reason.
And who decided four weeks off would be a good thing for Miami, considering its history? I realize the Ohio Hockey Classic is defunct and the team had four off weeks in its CCHA schedule, which it couldn't help, but seriously, the RedHawks couldn't get another weekend series in?
I have seen Miami play twice in person this season and they are the real deal, they are big, fast and buy into a defensive system. The RedHawks are coached by former RedHawk Enrico Blais who had an impressive 223-154-37 record. They may have lost a couple of game to an opponent that they should have beaten, there is still a lot of season left and no reason to get excited just yet.
The guy who writes that blog does nothing but slag on Blasi all the time -- speaking as if he's a hockey coach or something, who knows better what systems to run. I've left comments there before, knocking him for some absolutely ridiculous criticisms.
ReplyDeleteIt's guys like that which give the media a bad name in the eyes of sports figures. Someone from the Cincinnati Enquirer writing a blog ripping Blasi to shreds, as if he knows what he's talking about.
The guy's a clueless jerk. There, I said it.
I agree with you Adam, if you're going to blog about a team it doesn't hurt to bring up some things that they may need to work on, but holy cow if I was the coach this guy isn't getting into my locker room.
ReplyDeleteThis guy could have least come back and found a silver lining or something nice to say about your opponent. The RMU goalie is a pretty decent tender.
This is good stuff there goon. I don't read much about teams outside the WCHA, but clearly a series sweep by lowly Robert Morris is quite possibly the worst weekend in the history of Miami Redhawk hockey, seeing that they were ranked #1 for 13 straight weeks. I definately wouldn't count them out of anything as of right now. They have beaten some darn good teams in the past couple seasons and quite frankly have been a thorn in the side against WCHA competition too.
ReplyDeleteWhile I tend to agree with you Goon, and Adam, the blogger does cover Miami hockey at a clip never before seen in the Tri-state area (e.g., SW Ohio and the surrounding area of SE Indiana and Northern Kentucky). Unfortunately, we have to take the good with the bad. For the Enquirer to even give them a shred of coverage, that kind of comes with it. He also posts his opinions at www.miamihawktalk.com so I'm quite familiar with him.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, we'll bounce back this weekend against a tough Ferris team, but admittedly seeing the Friday game in Pittsburgh, they were slow and "fat." WAY too much time off and RMU looked faster than us, to be quite honest.