Thursday, March 19, 2015

2014-2015 Hockey LEast Awards

With the Hockey East awards being announced tonight, it is time for the fourth annual Hockey Least Awards. We made our preseason predictions back in October and we weren't far off the mark on most of our selections. If you don't want to get made fun of in this post, you should stop sucking at hockey.

(Worst) Coach of the Year- John Micheletto(UMass)- Micheletto lead his team to a last place finish despite having two underclassmen already sign pro contracts within a week of their season ending. He clearly can recruit(besides goalie) but his lack of ability to install any type of defensive system whatsoever typically is not a good recipe for success. UMass literally tried to go chance for chance with a BU team loaded with draftpicks and highly skilled guys. You are never going to win that battle. Micheletto seems like he will return for next season which is mostly because UMass doesn't have an AD to fire him and as a Massachusetts tax payer I thank them for this because I don't want to be paying his buyout.

Our pre-season pick, Mike Cavanaugh, gave Micheletto a run for his money with a second half for the ages. Cavanaugh lead his team to a stellar 1-6 record over their last 7 games. None of which were against the top 5 teams in Hockey East.

Pre-season Pick- Mike Cavanaugh

(Worst) Player of the Year -Danny Linell(BC)- Linell played in an astounding 25 games for the Eagles this year at both forward and defense. He did little to help the team in either position notching one assist during the course of the season. This was coming off back to back seasons where he did record double digit points for the endangered species Eagles BC fans are very confident about their team getting better next year and they should be...because Danny Linell won't be on it. Linell really is the definition of addition by subtraction. For these reasons, he wins the anti-Eichel award. Congrats to Danny on a great career! You are so good below average at hockey.

Our-preason pick, Thomas Di Pauli, had a career year with 28 points so we missed on that one. Well played Di Pauli , well played.

Pre-season Pick- Thomas Di Pauli(ND)



(Worst) Rookie of the Year- Henry Dill(UMass)- Now our pre-season pick had 0 points in 9 games played which normally would be enough to seal the deal but oh boy did Henry Dill steal the show this year. Dill finished the year with a .869 save percentage and 4.13 GAA, both good for dead last in the conference. UMass would have been better off putting a jar of dill pickles in net than running this train wreck out there 25 times. My favorite Dill moment of the year was when Micheletto kept him out there for 9 goals against vs BU. Ahti Oksanen was literally shooting for below the goal line and scoring. I really think 100% of  goalies in juniors would be better off in net than Dill.

Teddy McCarran sucked as we predicted with 0 points in 9 games but he didn't play enough to hate on too much.

Pre-season Pick- Teddy McCarran(Merrimack)

(Biggest) Goon of the Year- Jared Kolquist(MC), 73 penalty minutes lead the conference for the freshman from the Merrimack Warriors. There is no true "goon" in the league this year since Santini got hurt and was too afraid to goon it up(or represent his country) after the injury. Kolquist did set a nice foundation to rack up the penalty minutes moving forward with his multiple majors this season so for those reasons he wins Goon of the Year but there was no fun pick this year now that Bigos and Joey Diamon are gone and NU didn't have anyone go off the rails a la Ferreiro last year.

Pre-Season Pick-Steve Santini


**New*** Diver of the Year- Brett Seney(MC)- He flopped more than a fish out of water this past season drawing numerous embellishment penalties and going down anytime a stick was near his skates last weekend against BU. Try to stay upright next year!

Runner-up: Matt Gaudreau(BC)


Hockey Least First Team

Forwards- Dawson Cook(ND) 0-1-1, -6; Brendan Silk(BC) 0-3-3, +1; Anthony Petrella(UMass) 1-3-4, -6
Defensemen- Steve Santini(BC) 1-4-5, -1 ; David Drake(UConn) 1-4-5, -15)
Goalie- Henry Dill UMass (.869 save percentage, 4.13 GAA)

Honorable Mention: Dax Lauwers NU (1-1-2,35 games, 14 penalties)




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