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[QUOTE="Powellfan, post: 5087970, member: 4819"]
That's a big return for the Orange.  Obviously he didn't have the season we might have expected last year, but he's shown the ability. He went from 27 goals as a sophomore to 14 points as a Junior. It was the same as his freshman year totals, though he took 20 more shots as a Junior.  Some of the point decrease probably has to do with playing alongside someone like Jake Stevens, whose usage was pretty significant (73 shots to Birtwistle's 48).  As a sophomore, Birtwistle was running on the second line with a freshman in Luke Rhoa, and Griffin Cook, who combined for 27 points - Stevens and Rhoa combined for 57 this year. I'm not expecting Birtwistle to replace Steven's scoring entirely, but I think it's reasonable to expect he can score 30ish points if given the opportunity.

The only "concern" I have is the man-up stuff, which isn't just on Birtwistle but the unit in general.  Birtwistle went from leading the country in man-up goals with 11 as a sophomore, to just three last year.  The group in general went from 56% in 2023 to just 41% last year. A better unit really would have swung a couple of games last year (one goal loss to Cornell they were 2-5, two goal loss to Denver they were 0-2, one goal loss to Army they were 1-5(!), etc.  I'm not sure if teams just caught onto what they were doing, or if the personnel was just wrong, though all they did was replace Alex Simmons from a year ago with Stevens.  Either way it's imperative that the Orange figure it out going into next year.  They lose Stevens from the unit, but return everyone else.
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