BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

[bc6696]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

Megan is the best D I have watched play at the 19U level for the past couple of years. She was great all season, and yet had another gear at nationals in April! Led U18 team in +/- in Budapest this spring. She is going to be an impact player at BC-great addition to the team.

[wwhyte]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

I don't know Keller, but Miano and Flanagan are very strong offensively (BTW - Flanagan played for the Wizards this season, not the Shamrocks). I would be concerned however about the quality of the complete defense group on the defensive side of the puck. Given the tenuous goalie situation (at least to start the season), seems like this should be a focus area. This BC team could be one that has to outscore other teams to win games (aka Edmonton Oilers of the '80s). Be interesting to see how it develops - if any team has the firepower to outscore opponents, it should be this one. Could turn out to be a fun ride if you like games with scores like 8 to 6!!

Returning D are Pfalzer/Kickham (Sr), Bender/Johnson (Jr), Wedell (So); Pfalzer and Bender are clearly national quality and Johnson led the team in +/-. Kickham had transitioned from F and Wedell got limited ice time. I hear what you say about D, the team is clearly more comfortable on the attack and penalty kill was the weakest area last year (12th in the nation), so it seems like D is their weak point. But in practice they let in three goals only three times in 2014 out of 19 games. (And they won one of those games anyway). Overall team D was 6th in the nation last year.

So last year was actually pretty good, and this year should be an upgrade. So my money's on a lot of 8-2 games :-)

[sheagle008]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

BC is stacked this year. Last year Skarupa and Boyles won games for them. This team may be better than the 2012-2013 eagles.

[ARM]

BC is stacked this year. Last year Skarupa and Boyles won games for them. This team may be better than the 2012-2013 eagles.

The objective for BC in 2015 should be an NCAA title given its roster. The historical problem is that the field of the top five or six teams is very strong in the season following the Olympics. In 2007, Harvard had a lot of star power and couldn't get home ice because of the presence of teams like Wisconsin, Mercyhurst, Dartmouth, and UNH. The top six in 2011 were pretty deep: Wisconsin, BU, Cornell, BC, Minnesota, and Mercyhurst. Any of those teams had enough to win it all if it had been playing its best hockey in the tournament.

Looking at the upcoming year on paper, FF teams like Minnesota and WIsconsin should be better. Other NCAA teams like BU and Harvard get multiple impact players back, and Cornell returns Jenner. BC should be right in that mix, but whether the Eagles are seeded first or second or have to travel for a quarterfinal will depend largely on defense and goaltending. Their skaters will dominate play against most Hockey East teams, and that may lead to a great record and a high seed. To win it all, the goaltending will need to be seasoned for when the Eagles meet a team that can skate with them.

[TonyTheTiger20]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

The objective for BC in 2015 should be an NCAA title given its roster. The historical problem is that the field of the top five or six teams is very strong in the season following the Olympics. In 2007, Harvard had a lot of star power and couldn't get home ice because of the presence of teams like Wisconsin, Mercyhurst, Dartmouth, and UNH. The top six in 2011 were pretty deep: Wisconsin, BU, Cornell, BC, Minnesota, and Mercyhurst. Any of those teams had enough to win it all if it had been playing its best hockey in the tournament.

Looking at the upcoming year on paper, FF teams like Minnesota and WIsconsin should be better. Other NCAA teams like BU and Harvard get multiple impact players back, and Cornell returns Jenner. BC should be right in that mix, but whether the Eagles are seeded first or second or have to travel for a quarterfinal will depend largely on defense and goaltending. Their skaters will dominate play against most Hockey East teams, and that may lead to a great record and a high seed. To win it all, the goaltending will need to be seasoned for when the Eagles meet a team that can skate with them.

Yes indeed. To your point, you're right, a lot of these top teams are stacked post-Olympics. There are really the fun years -- in theory you should have about 4-5 teams with the talent to win the whole thing. Nice to see BC in that group.

Hopefully Hockey East isn't a totally disaster again this year.

I'm not too concerned about the D -- the goaltending will be the question. Hopefully Blake, Switaj, or -- well, we'll call her "Option K" for now -- will step up. The competition for the position can only help, I think. I'm a pro-'have a primary goalie' guy so hopefully one answers the call.

[sheagle008]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

I want to see the competition BC will be playing this year. I hope we play Minnesota,Wisconsin or Clarkson.

[TonyTheTiger20]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

I want to see the competition BC will be playing this year. I hope we play Minnesota,Wisconsin or Clarkson.

No luck. It's the same OOC schedule as last year with flipped home/away:

2x SLU
2x Cornell
Yale
Quinnipiac
Princeton
Harvard
Dartmouth
Syracuse
2x Beanpot

They are working on a WCHA team for the upcoming 2 seasons though.

[wwhyte]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

Not sure why BU is so much better at organizing tough OOCs then we are -- they had Wisco last year in Colorado and they have Clarkson this year. But maybe I'm being distracted by the top matchup: going a bit deeper, we have three tournament or near-tournament teams in Cornell, Quinni, Harvard and they had four in Wisco, Harvard, UMD, Robert Morris, and their weakest matchups of Union and St Cloud are weaker than any of ours. A WCHA matchup would be great.

[TonyTheTiger20]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

Not sure why BU is so much better at organizing tough OOCs then we are -- they had Wisco last year in Colorado and they have Clarkson this year. But maybe I'm being distracted by the top matchup: going a bit deeper, we have three tournament or near-tournament teams in Cornell, Quinni, Harvard and they had four in Wisco, Harvard, UMD, Robert Morris, and their weakest matchups of Union and St Cloud are weaker than any of ours. A WCHA matchup would be great.

Well keep in mind, Cornell is usually more of a premier eastern OOC opponent than Clarkson is. I think you'll find Cornell will be better than Clarkson next year.

Based on the way things have turned out I'm guessing Kinger has 2 year home-and-home agreements with the school's we're playing this year/last year and will probably get an all-new slate in '15-'16, '16-'17.

[TonyTheTiger20]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

As for the comparison with BU, these are the OOC opponents we did not have in common with them this year:

BU:
Wisco -- 3rd in KRACH
RMU -- 12th in KRACH, usually meh, surprised everyone with one of their best seasons ever
Duluth -- 13th in KRACH, uncharacteristically poor season for them
SCSU -- 26th in KRACH, usually awful despite being WCHA
RPI -- 28th in KRACH, usually meh
Union -- 34th in KRACH, usually meh to bad

BC:
Cornell -- 5th in KRACH
QU -- 11th in KRACH
Cuse -- 16th in KRACH
Princeton -- 18th in KRACH
SLU -- 23rd in KRACH

I wouldn't exactly say BU had the edge there. It played out pretty even.

Going back to the year before, the non-common OOC's were:

BU:
RPI, Union, Robert Morris,

BC:
Dartmouth, QU, Yale, Clarkson, SLU, Mercyhurst

Not as easy without having historical KRACH ratings but I would give BC the edge on that one.

More than anything it just seems like BC and BU are on alternating scheduling patterns. BU's 12-13 and 13-14 OOC schedules appeared to be the same (other than the trip to Vail) so they will probably have an all-new slate this year. BC's looks like its pattern is 13-14 & 14-15.

Give BU credit for getting so many western teams on the schedule last year but it was more of an anomaly than a pattern, I think.

[Eeyore]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

Give BU credit for getting so many western teams on the schedule last year but it was more of an anomaly than a pattern, I think.

BU is traveling to Minneapolis this year to play Minnesota and St Cloud once each.

[TonyTheTiger20]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

BU is traveling to Minneapolis this year to play Minnesota and St Cloud once each.

Like I said, new schedule deals probably started up for them. I suspect -- hope -- that might mean Minnesota will come out to Boston to play BU in 15-16, and possibly start up a home-and-home with BC at the same time.

The 'anomaly' comment was more about the fact that they played 4 games against western teams last year, half of which were from the Colorado series.

[Sean Pickett]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

Give BU credit for getting so many western teams on the schedule last year but it was more of an anomaly than a pattern, I think.

Since BU started the varsity program Coach Durocher has scheduled WCHA teams every season except the inaugural season in 2005-06. Usually there are just two games, but there have been four games in 2007-08, 2011-12 and 2013-14. Of the 24 games only 8 have been at BU, 12 have been at the other teams home rink and 4 have been neutral site games requiring road trips. Of the teams BU has scheduled neither Minnesota or Wisconsin have made trips to BU.

Sean

[TonyTheTiger20]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

Usually there are just two games, but there have been four games in 2007-08, 2011-12 and 2013-14.

Well then, I stand corrected.

Of the teams BU has scheduled neither Minnesota or Wisconsin have made trips to BU.

Naturally

Sean

Grant

[Sean Pickett]

Re: BC Women's Hockey '14-'15: #SOAR

Grant

Good to know you stand by what you post Grant.

Sean