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Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

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  • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

    A couple of years ago Parker switched the defensive scheme and the team was great after Christmas. Is there something he can switch this year? It is time for some changes because what is happening now isn't working. There is no offensive "flair". There is little defensive consistency. They seen to be a team of muckers and grinders with very little finesse.

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    • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

      Originally posted by mookie1995 View Post
      ". Led Victoria in scoring in 2008-09 with 63 points (22g, 41a) after finishing second on squad in 2007-08 with a 19-32--51 line ..."

      I stand corrected. Wasn't aware of that. For what my now not-so-credible opinion is worth, I haven't seen much in the way of offensive skill out of him in games or in practice.

      Otherwise, consider me embarrassed...
      Boston Hockey Blog

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      • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

        Originally posted by Federal League View Post
        I disagree with just about everything in this post.

        1) Your first paragraph seems to suggest that the freshman class is the problem this year. I could not possibly disagree more. Chiasson's shown that he has what it takes to be a star. Megan has proved himself to be more than capable as a 3rd-liner for now, and probably a 1st- or 2nd-liner in the future. Santana's a good penalty killer and serviceable 4th-liner. Courtnall adds a nice physical presence. Do they make up for the losses of 5 of the top 6 forwards from a year ago? Of course not. But no freshman class could replace that. On defense, I think Escobedo and Nicastro have both experienced some growing pains, but they've also shown that they are and will continue to be solid players. Nicastro could be a star 2-way defender. Escobedo could be a top lockdown defender. Again, they don't replace Gilroy and Strait, but to even suggest that they should is ridiculously unfair to them.

        2) "Other top teams don't face these problems every season like BU does." Given, you and most others who post here have probably been following college hockey longer than I have, but in the decade-plus that my memory stretches back, I recall programs such as BC, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota (among others) all having reputations for getting off to slow starts. Sure, there are also the Denvers, Michigans and UNHs of the world who always seem to storm out of the gates, but to say BU is the only team with that reputation is flat-out wrong as far as I'm concerned. And this is a much slower start than normal. BU doesn't start 4-8-3 every year. As for lines, everyone tinkers with lines throughout the first semester, if not longer. When did the freshman line come together last year? December? It certainly wasn't right off the bat. Minnesota-Duluth had arguably the best line in the nation this year in Jack Connolly, Justin Fontaine and Mike Connolly, but they recently replaced M Connolly with Rob Bordson. As for what Parker's doing this year, did you forget that he's had to deal with injuries/illnesses to Bonino, Connolly, Chiasson, Popko and Megan? Are those somehow not supposed to affect the lines?
        You're mostly right, and you really shouldn't listen to anything 84 says. He's negative like Jofa, but with roughly half the hockey knowledge. Even last year he was a stick in the mud, just an unpleasant dude in this message board setting.

        This team would not be having as much trouble if our first pairing was performing as they should, but really, to me it's the goalies.

        Yes the defense was much better least year, but Kieran was as well, and he hasn't been nearly as good this year. Rollie has not improved like I expected so far (though his time missed may explain that) and that lack of a consistent guy is a huge issue right now. Say what you will about our effort against Vermont, the third goal was a Bennett-esque softy and just a terrible play. Last year defensive breakdowns were more rare, AND Millan did a much better job covering for them when those breakdowns happened.

        Add to that an offense that is clearly not as good and forwards who are not playing instinctively and you get a weekend like we got.

        Our returning players have not given us enough, and while the freshman class looks solid, there is no immediate superstar and this team can't afford that.
        I love BC people - without them, everyone would want to move to Boston. They keep the numbers down. - Bill Simmons

        Boston University: 2009 National Champions

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        • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

          Originally posted by stripes99 View Post
          A couple of years ago Parker switched the defensive scheme and the team was great after Christmas. Is there something he can switch this year? It is time for some changes because what is happening now isn't working. There is no offensive "flair". There is little defensive consistency. They seen to be a team of muckers and grinders with very little finesse.
          As I recall, Parker had decided to venture into some sort of zone-based defensive spring that fall, and it was just too complicated for his players to keep up. He went back to the man-based scheme his players were used to from previous years, and things seemed to click when that happened.

          That said, I'm not sure I foresee anything like that resulting in a big, quick improvement this year. It just seems like its something different every game (injuries, intensity, finishing skills, defensive breakdowns, lousy goaltending, plain bad luck...).

          I still think if this team put together a complete effort, they're one of the better teams in HE. I just don't see how or when that's going to happen at this point.
          Boston Hockey Blog

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          • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

            Originally posted by Bomber View Post
            Does anyone remember any stellar saves by Muse? He's good. He did his job, but BU is making an awful lot of goalies look like world beaters.
            Muse was really quick, I remember him making some huge post-to-post saves that most goalies in HE would not have gotten to. Nothing completely spectacular, but that was quite impressive. He could also teach Rollie a thing or two about controlling/smothering rebounds.

            As for Colby, he is by far the worst player on the team. It's great that he has such a good shot, but that really is all that he has. Any one that stands up for him is picking out the few decent plays he makes and overlooking the fact that he is out of position 90% of the time and has surrendered countless giveaways. I wish I had a count going of the number of opponent goals on which the scoring shot would not have occurred had Colby not given the puck away. He cannot skate like a top-4 defenseman, and positioning is usually the saving grace for solid defensemen that lack in the skating category, but like I said, he has nothing going for him there. The only way he ever plays in the NHL (or even AHL) is if he gets a really level head and someone just revamps nearly all aspects of his game. Colby winning MVP of the championship was one of the very few disappointments last year (2 of his giveaways led to Miami goals, yet because he scored the winner, despite the incredible play of Bonino, Gilroys and others, he gets MVP). Things like that only serve to strengthen his ego and his thinking that he is on track for the NHL. Hopefully someone is trying to talk some sense into him. It would not upset me in the least though to see him go the way of Brett Bennett.

            As has been mentioned, Vinny is clearly having some finishing issues. He always seems to be in position on the powerplay, and as it often did last year, the puck always seems headed for his stick, but he just whiffs or misses the net. Lawrence is clearly missed in that spot, but there has to be someone that can be put there on the 1st PP that can actually finish that play. I think he has a ton of potential, but just may need to settle down a bit and try to gain some comfort in confidence in order to be successful.

            Originally posted by 25 N Countin' View Post
            Yes the defense was much better least year, but Kieran was as well, and he hasn't been nearly as good this year. Rollie has not improved like I expected so far (though his time missed may explain that) and that lack of a consistent guy is a huge issue right now.
            For the first two periods last night, Kieran looked to be back to normal. He looked calm, cool, and collected making saves Rollie surely would have missed the previous night. He was controlling rebounds with consistency and was a rock for us when we needed him. For some reason that quickly changed in the 3rd period, but the first two periods were very promising.

            I am not really sure why you think Rollie has improved, as his terrible starts against UVM and Cornell pretty much led us to those ties. He was horrific against UVM, giving up Bennett-esque rebounds in the slot, and again like Bennett, flopping around aimlessly, completely out of position.

            Kieran's play in the first two periods last night, combined with Rollie's play for the entire games against UVM and Cornell, very much make me hope Jack sticks with Kieran from here on out with only the odd start for Rollie.

            EDIT:
            I want to add that I think this is a very talented team, and with a few more bounces going in BU's direction I think our record could look very different. If we can avoid injuries and we get hot at the right time, a lot is possible with this group.
            It's BU's Beanpot

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            • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

              Originally posted by ItsBUsBeanpot View Post
              Hopefully someone is trying to talk some sense into him. It would not upset me in the least though to see him go the way of Brett Bennett.
              Colby is not the best player on the team but I do not think he should go the way of Brett Bennett. He is big and he can shoot, the rest is training, experience, and focus. I remember when Gryba was in his freshmen and sophomore years and the student sections would groan with "Gryba!!" after every stupid thing he did. I had no idea why Gryba kept being put out on the ice. All he seemed to do was rack up penalties, lose pucks, and was overall just a bad defense man. But then he almost miraculously got better. He was making smart plays, controlling pucks, clearing out rebounds and became a much better player. I think Colby has the same potential and I think he can really turn his play around. I hope he can turn his play around.

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              • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

                Originally posted by ActionJoe View Post
                Colby is not the best player on the team but I do not think he should go the way of Brett Bennett. He is big and he can shoot, the rest is training, experience, and focus. I remember when Gryba was in his freshmen and sophomore years and the student sections would groan with "Gryba!!" after every stupid thing he did. I had no idea why Gryba kept being put out on the ice. All he seemed to do was rack up penalties, lose pucks, and was overall just a bad defense man. But then he almost miraculously got better. He was making smart plays, controlling pucks, clearing out rebounds and became a much better player. I think Colby has the same potential and I think he can really turn his play around. I hope he can turn his play around.
                You are completely right about Gryba, but the difference with Colby is that he is already in his junior year and you are comparing our thinking to the way we thought about a freshman.
                It's BU's Beanpot

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                • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

                  Originally posted by ItsBUsBeanpot View Post

                  EDIT:
                  I want to add that I think this is a very talented team, and with a few more bounces going in BU's direction I think our record could look very different.
                  If scoring goals is #5 on your list of required skills.
                  It Happened!!!!

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                  • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

                    Originally posted by Federal League View Post
                    I disagree with just about everything in this post.

                    1) Your first paragraph seems to suggest that the freshman class is the problem this year. I could not possibly disagree more. Chiasson's shown that he has what it takes to be a star. Megan has proved himself to be more than capable as a 3rd-liner for now, and probably a 1st- or 2nd-liner in the future. Santana's a good penalty killer and serviceable 4th-liner. Courtnall adds a nice physical presence. Do they make up for the losses of 5 of the top 6 forwards from a year ago? Of course not. But no freshman class could replace that. On defense, I think Escobedo and Nicastro have both experienced some growing pains, but they've also shown that they are and will continue to be solid players. Nicastro could be a star 2-way defender. Escobedo could be a top lockdown defender. Again, they don't replace Gilroy and Strait, but to even suggest that they should is ridiculously unfair to them.

                    2) "Other top teams don't face these problems every season like BU does." Given, you and most others who post here have probably been following college hockey longer than I have, but in the decade-plus that my memory stretches back, I recall programs such as BC, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota (among others) all having reputations for getting off to slow starts. Sure, there are also the Denvers, Michigans and UNHs of the world who always seem to storm out of the gates, but to say BU is the only team with that reputation is flat-out wrong as far as I'm concerned. And this is a much slower start than normal. BU doesn't start 4-8-3 every year. As for lines, everyone tinkers with lines throughout the first semester, if not longer. When did the freshman line come together last year? December? It certainly wasn't right off the bat. Minnesota-Duluth had arguably the best line in the nation this year in Jack Connolly, Justin Fontaine and Mike Connolly, but they recently replaced M Connolly with Rob Bordson. As for what Parker's doing this year, did you forget that he's had to deal with injuries/illnesses to Bonino, Connolly, Chiasson, Popko and Megan? Are those somehow not supposed to affect the lines?
                    I didn't mention the freshmen at all. But since you did, let's talk about Wade Megan. 1st or 2nd line guy?? Really? Sure, maybe he'll pull a Jason Lawrence and get good out of nowhere, but what exactly has he done this season so far to make you say that? The only reason he's on the third line now is that BU has six guys who suck worse than he does at this point. Courtnall doesn't add a nice physical presence. I've seen him fall flat on the ice on his own accord twice as many times as I've seen him hit anyone. Chiasson has shown he has what it takes to be a star? Okay ... he has four goals. Other than on those four scoring plays, he hasn't done anything that makes me think he's going to be a star. Can he score 10-15 goals a season? Sure. Does that make him a star? I haven't seen anything in the other aspects of his game to make me think he's anything other than decent in those areas. I think Escobedo and Nicastro are decent defensemen and better than most team's third pairs, but I've yet to see anything out of Escobedo that makes me think he could be a top lockdown defender. Will he be better than Tom Morrow? Yes. Will he be as good as Strait had become, let alone Gryba? I doubt it.

                    I never suggested any freshmen should replace any seniors or guys who left early. I suggested Parker's not doing his job. He's not preparing for upcoming seasons as he should be. Good programs don't swing wildly back and forth like BU does. Good programs are consistently good - BU is not. Other program's slow starts are not as consistently poor as ours. Sure, we don't start 4-8-3 every year, but in the past seven years, we've been pretty ****ty several times at the break. .500 or below four out of seven times is not okay. The programs you listed don't have that consistency and when they are slow, they aren't that slow. As for line juggling - I'm not talking about what Parker's doing this year. It's every year. Obviously there have been injuries and things keeping players out, but this is EVERY YEAR that I'm talking about.

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                    • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

                      Originally posted by Terrierbyassociation View Post
                      1) I think Parker thought Strait was coming back. To his credit I don't think anyone thought Strait was going to leave early.
                      2) I don't think anyone could prepare for Quinn leaving for the AHL. He's been very important on defense.
                      3) This team's problems haven't been found in the freshman: we lost a lot of players, many expected and some unexpected. The problems reside in who stayed after the title and have somehow gone backwards. This starts with Shattenkirk and Cohen the duo for whatever reason have regressed big time. Almost no facet of our game is close to last season's. You have to expect a good portion of your players to improve from last year and almost none of them have.

                      Quinn was in charge of the defense last season, is Coach Powers in charge of it now?
                      I didn't say whether Parker should have or should have not known that Strait was leaving. I said that as a coach of a program like BU, with players who are supposed to be highly skilled, you have to work under the assumption that one of your top-3 round draft picks is going to leave after his junior or sophomore seasons.

                      But your #3 is in my opinion the cause of the problems this year. Guys like Glass and Gilroy have failed to step up. Popko's done nothing. Trivino and Saponari aren't panning out (By the way - Saponari has to be the slowest skater on the team. He just gets blown by going the other way by every player on every team we've faced this season).

                      On an unrelated note, it continues to astound me how so many of you can talk **** about Brett Bennett. If Brett Bennett was our goalie right now, BU would be above .500. Bennett's stats were better in 07-08 than either Rollheiser's or Millan's are this year, and there's absolutely no way anyone in their right mind can claim that this year's D is worse than 07-08's. It may have been the right thing to do for last year since Millan had a great season, but right now, we'd be much better off with him than we are without him.

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                      • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

                        Originally posted by BU Fan 84 View Post
                        If Brett Bennett was our goalie right now, BU would be above .500. [snip] It may have been the right thing to do for last year since Millan had a great season, but right now, we'd be much better off with him than we are without him.
                        Yeah, it's quite possible that if we kept Bennett the 4 time NCAA Champion Terriers could be 7-6-2.

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                        • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

                          Originally posted by Agganis View Post
                          Yeah, it's quite possible that if we kept Bennett the 4 time NCAA Champion Terriers could be 7-6-2.
                          be careful, don't forget we won last year in spite of millan.
                          time to write new history

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                          • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

                            Originally posted by BU Fan 84 View Post
                            I didn't mention the freshmen at all. But since you did, let's talk about Wade Megan. 1st or 2nd line guy?? Really? Sure, maybe he'll pull a Jason Lawrence and get good out of nowhere, but what exactly has he done this season so far to make you say that? The only reason he's on the third line now is that BU has six guys who suck worse than he does at this point. Courtnall doesn't add a nice physical presence. I've seen him fall flat on the ice on his own accord twice as many times as I've seen him hit anyone. Chiasson has shown he has what it takes to be a star? Okay ... he has four goals. Other than on those four scoring plays, he hasn't done anything that makes me think he's going to be a star. Can he score 10-15 goals a season? Sure. Does that make him a star? I haven't seen anything in the other aspects of his game to make me think he's anything other than decent in those areas. I think Escobedo and Nicastro are decent defensemen and better than most team's third pairs, but I've yet to see anything out of Escobedo that makes me think he could be a top lockdown defender. Will he be better than Tom Morrow? Yes. Will he be as good as Strait had become, let alone Gryba? I doubt it.
                            Chiasson has 4 goals in 11 games played. In a full season, that'd be 12 goals give or take some decimal points. That's as many as Colin Wilson had as a freshman, and honestly, I could see Chiasson producing more than that working with Bonino and Connolly the rest of the season.

                            Of course, Alex Chiasson IS NOT Colin Wilson -- not what I'm saying. Wilson has way better play-making abilities and is clearly on a whole different planet from Chiasson in many ways.

                            What I'm saying is that Chiasson's production has been pretty darn good for a freshie, and aside from the first 4-5 periods he played coming off the chin/head injury, he's looked like a budding star, considering he's been on a sub-par hockey team.

                            Also, having watched the team all season, I stand behind pretty much everything FL said in his post, especially for Nicastro and Escobedo. It doesn't seem farfetched to me that Scoobey could be almost playing at a Strait-like level in two years.
                            Boston Hockey Blog

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                            • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

                              Also, Megan is well on his way to being at least a 2nd-line center. Remember, these guys are just wrapping up their first 15 or so games at the collegiate level. There's a lot of growth left in that group, and they're already a strong supporting cast.

                              BU needs its top guns to step up more than it needs its checking liners to pick up the slack.
                              Boston Hockey Blog

                              Comment


                              • Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR

                                Originally posted by ItsBUsBeanpot View Post
                                Colby winning MVP of the championship was one of the very few disappointments last year (2 of his giveaways led to Miami goals, yet because he scored the winner, despite the incredible play of Bonino, Gilroys and others, he gets MVP). Things like that only serve to strengthen his ego and his thinking that he is on track for the NHL. Hopefully someone is trying to talk some sense into him. It would not upset me in the least though to see him go the way of Brett Bennett.
                                The MVP topic has been rehashed enough, I know, I know. But Colby didn't have the turnovers that led to any of the Miami goals, go watch it again. Miami goal 2 was a turnover by a forward taking a Smolinsky pass at Miami's blue line, they took it all the way back, shot it off of Shatty's pad and then knocked it in. The 3rd was Shatty whiffing on a clear, it was a routine play. That was one game where Colby was far from the worst defenseman out there for the majority of the game, but he definitely wasn't the MVP. Brett Bennett is still the only one that should go the way he did.

                                Originally posted by slurpees View Post
                                be careful, don't forget we won last year in spite of millan.
                                Brett Bennett would have given up 7 goals in that game.
                                Boston University 2009 Champs
                                Notre Dame 2012-?

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