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Message: [QUOTE="JeremyCuse, post: 927611, member: 43"] Been meaning to get this out there for about a week now but just haven't had the time. Lots of good posters on the Lax board these days Woody, Roysrunts, outoftownie, wvlax, and several others, hope they add to this thread to give there thoughts. Used to love when Frontierlax would post here but hes been MIA for awhile, Woody if you see him on Laxpower give him a shout to come back over here and post again we would appreciate his thoughts. Lots of positives for this years team but a few concerns so lets run through them first: Schedule: The schedule as it looks right now on paper is ridiculous borderlining on absurd. If Cornell and JHU weren't in down modes this might have been the toughest schedule of all time for Syracuse and I dont think thats a stretch. The ACC is beyond loaded and while Cornell and JHU aren't at there normal strengths those games will be far from picnics especially with both on the road. A few quick thoughts on the schedule: Like that were opening with Siena and closing with Gate, should be two fairly easy Wins and its always good to be able to get a win late in the year especially if the season didnt go as planned. Less then thrilled with how the entire schedule is laid out, Syracuse not having a home game between Feb 22 and March 29th is absolutely ludicrous. Terrible job by the ACC and Syracuse, the preason #1 ranked team should not have a schedule like that. This would be the equivalent of Alabama football not having a home game in October. Also not a big fan of playing St. Johns in Atlanta. I understand the reasons behind it but coming into the inaugral year of the ACC and the schedule as tough as it was I dont think this was the year to suddenly become the Lewis and Clark of the Lax world. To make matters worse this game has no television right now, bad job by the ACC. Its going to sound like sour grapes but I also think we should have scrapped the Albany game this year. I know from mentioning this a few months ago that it would come off like SU is afraid to play them but with the schedule as difficult as it is does this team really need yet another game against an opponent who considers this there "super bowl". We already have a game like that in Hobart not sure we really needed another one here. If were were still in the BE I would have zero issue with playing Albany this year but adding Duke, UNC, Maryland, to an already loaded schedule (UVA, JHU, Cornell) seems like overkill at this point. Especially when the game is a lose/lose from Syracuse's standpoint as Albany's conference schedule is so weak we will get little credit for what most Lax people will think is Syracuse simply "righting" the ship against an inferior opponent (save for the Thompsons, great players for sure). Other major issue as we all know is faceoffs. Unfortunately despite the coaching staff and the team spending more time practicing at the X then they have in years and years the results are still pretty much the same if not worse. I was a bit dissapointed to hear coach Desko say they really worked hard on the X this year when it has been a problem for the better part of at least 3+ years, really more like 4. Daddio again seems like the odds on favorite to take a majority of the draws (at least early in the year) which to me is surprising. Daddio is surely a hard worker but when push comes to shove hes simply been dominated by the upper level X guys ie Nardella, Croonquist (the Nova Guy), Fowler, the kid from Bryant, etc. I dont see that changing much this year, I am already dredding the duke game. I had high hopes for Iacono but so far his numbers have been abysmal. Really hope its just some early jitters transitioning from JUCO to Div 1 because we really need some help there. Buhr is back from last years hiatus but he was pretty much in line with Daddios struggles so other then another body not sure what to really expect there if anything. The two guys I am most interested in are Paduda and Demarco. Paduda getting hurt was a big blow to the competition at the X, he was the guy who I think showed the most promise last year despite the fact he was so raw. An article on him early in the pre-season had my hopes up because he spent the entire summer at camps trying techniques and working at taking draws. Really interested to see what he brings this year, hopefully he plays against Siena. To me the dark horse guy who could get some PT by the middle of the year is Demarco, guy had a crazy win pct in high school and all though hes only taken 2 draws in the scrimmages is 2-2. Not much to go off for sure but love the potential and would like to see him take a few in game situations especially if were struggling. Doing the positives in a second post so this thing doesnt get to big. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?