Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

[buoldtimer]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

True or False - BU freshman D Patrick MacGregor is the son of former Terrier ('86) Brad MacGregor.

[Scarlet]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

True or False - BU freshman D Patrick MacGregor is the son of former Terrier ('86) Brad MacGregor.

False.

[mookie1995]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

True or False - BU freshman D Patrick MacGregor is the son of former Terrier ('86) Brad MacGregor.

gee... if only we had an athletic department that put out media guides.

[TommyNoblesIsLife]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

Clendening was horrible, I thought. A lot of standing around and some not-smart plays.

I didn't think Clendening was fantastic, but I wouldn't say he was horrible. I saw him really taking control on the ice a couple of times, instructing players where to go, reminding people to get back etc. That's great to see from a freshman who is paired with the team's best defenseman. I also thought he stayed back a few times where others might get jumpy which is also important to do when paired with Warsofsky. He made freshman mistakes IMO.

I thought Nieto, aside from the goal, had a few real bad passes where it looked like he was just trying to hit the puck as hard as he could rather than reach his teammates.

Courtnall was a mess. Not sure why he played instead of Gilroy.

I thought Trivino looked lazy out there. He wasn't moving his feet well for the majority of the game and he would win battles along the boards, and then do nothing with the puck. It didn't look like he had his head together.

Chiasson was too slow to shoot. The only other thing I noticed about him was he looked bigger to me. Maybe that's because Gryba's no longer on the team?

[Federal League]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

Nice start. Bad finish. At one point BU was outshooting the Minutemen 20-10. Next thing I knew it was 25-20 UMass.

Gill was my favorite Freshman. I was very unimpressed with Coyle. I think we need to back off the Colin Wilson comparisons.

I'm surprised that Gilroy was the one to sit.

Millan played well. Good to see.

The band has a new director. You could tell. The tempos were slow and there was a general lack of energy. Hopefully, they adjust and find their game.

BU Hockey: Bad Tie

Hmmm. I thought Coyle looked good. Really strong on the puck and made a couple beautiful passes for great chances. Wish he was a little more involved. And from my angle, he should have taken the shot on that 2 on 1. Had his pick of 5 hole or the whole glove side of the net.

Really disappointed with the last 30 minutes overall. Not only do they give the puck away, they do it in the most asinine places. Warsofsky and Connolly were among the worst offenders. Against a better team, or with Millan playing only average, they get smoked tonight.

That UMass goalie- fun to watch, but a little coo coo bananas. Haven't seen a goalie wander that much or take more hits in a long time. High risk/reward type.

Agree with exactly what Bomber says. He saved me time. A few things to add:

Clendening will be OK but he's got to can this "let me skate/pass it right up the slot" routine. Very fortunate he didn't cost us more.

Freshman forwards look good. Defensemen are all shaky. The squad gets caught way too deep too often. A lot of odd man rushes for UMass eh?

Is it we don't have one stay at home guy or is that the strategy?

Alex C. needs to shoot more. That extra pass on the two on one was silly.

Trivino coasts all the time out there. He just doesn't move his feet and glides around. If he had 1/2 the hustle of Joe P. or CC he'd be good.

Kevin Gilroy >> Courtnall

Very fortunate to get a point to a game UMass squad. Maybe this will wake them up?

Agree on Gill, I like his energy. Disagree on Coyle, he made some real man-sized plays out there, had good presence. Clendening was horrible, I thought. A lot of standing around and some not-smart plays.

I didn't think Clendening was fantastic, but I wouldn't say he was horrible. I saw him really taking control on the ice a couple of times, instructing players where to go, reminding people to get back etc. That's great to see from a freshman who is paired with the team's best defenseman. I also thought he stayed back a few times where others might get jumpy which is also important to do when paired with Warsofsky. He made freshman mistakes IMO.

I thought Nieto, aside from the goal, had a few real bad passes where it looked like he was just trying to hit the puck as hard as he could rather than reach his teammates.

Courtnall was a mess. Not sure why he played instead of Gilroy.

I thought Trivino looked lazy out there. He wasn't moving his feet well for the majority of the game and he would win battles along the boards, and then do nothing with the puck. It didn't look like he had his head together.

Chiasson was too slow to shoot. The only other thing I noticed about him was he looked bigger to me. Maybe that's because Gryba's no longer on the team?

Time to take a break from studying...

Re: Coyle- Might not have been his best game last night, but I thought he still played well. He's just so strong on the puck. He fended off two defenders with relative ease before setting up Connolly's goal. If that's a "bad" game for him (and it probably was compared to the other 3 games I've seen), then I'd say he's gonna be just fine.

Re: Gill- I was interested to see if his game changed at all playing the wing, but it really didn't. Still the playmaker of the line, still always looking for the open man. He just reads the game really well and I haven't seen him make a stupid pass or play yet. I still think he's a more natural center (and definitely a better faceoff man than Gaudet or Santana), but I understand moving him up a line instead of keeping him on the 4th line.

Re: Clendening- I commented on the live blog when he made that first turnover in the slot that it was the first time I've seen him look like a freshman. Then he made 4 or 5 more turnovers down the stretch. Really shocked to see that after the way he played in the first 3+ games (including the exhibition). UMass was much more aggressive on the forecheck than Toronto, Wisconsin or ND, so I'm sure that had something to do with it. I think he's good enough and smart enough to avoid having another game like last night, but he definitely got caught off-guard several times... and that caught me off-guard.

Re: Trivino and Chiasson- I agree that both of them need to be more aggressive (Trivino forechecking, Chiasson shooting), but I thought they both had pretty good games for the most part. That line possessed the puck a lot and obviously they had the goal. They're not scrappy speedsters like Pereira and Connolly. That's just not their game. If that's what you're expecting, then you'll probably never be satisfied with them. They're more in the Zach/Vinny mold- big guys who use their bodies to protect the puck. They create chances off possession, not speed. Sure, sometimes that means a slower pace than other lines, but that can be just as effective, even if it's not as exciting.

Re: Gilroy vs. Courtnall- I agree that Gilroy brings more to the table. I know Courtnall did great with the Blackhawks this summer, but I'm just not seeing it. Maybe he's doing well in practice and it's just not translating. I don't know. But I thought Gilroy played better in the Ice Breaker and it seems like he's much more likely to make something happen at this point.

One other thing I wanna point out- this team is absolutely killing people on faceoffs right now. Check out these numbers through 3 games:

Coyle: 39-27 (.591)
Megan: 26-15 (.634)
Gill: 15-11 (.577)
Trivino: 12-5 (.706)
Santana: 4-5 (.444)

The only one who's seen more than a handful of draws and been real bad is Gaudet. He's 7-24 (.292), but he's been moved to wing now.

We'll see if the faceoff dominance continues, but it's definitely good to see after how bad they were early on last season in the circle.

[Scarlet]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

gee... if only we had an athletic department that put out media guides.

Talk to the NCAA. This wasn't a BU thing.

[defkit]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

A few thoughts:

- Saying Clendening played poorly is based on how good we think he really is. I sat next to Scarlet at the game, and I must have said on two or three occassions "he is friggin' awesome", or "he may be better than Warsofsky". He definitely had a couple bad turnovers, but so did Warsofsky. Clendening made some unbelievable defensive plays on a couple occassions where Warsofsky was beat. In my book he is a very good d-men for this league, very impressive for a freshman.

- I thought Coyle played pretty well. Obviously, he had a tough shift when he missed the wide open net and then took a penalty.

- I thought Gill started slow, but played better down the stretch

- Poor Nieto - could a better script be written for a freshman playing their first home game?....expcet that he missed the net. What a pass by Chiasson to set up that breakaway.

- Great game by Millan. Obviously good to see.

- Noonan looked solid out there. Also good to see.

- Next weekend will be a true test.

[mookie1995]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

http://www.pursuantsports.com/blogpo...e-legislation/

[Bomber]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

I suppose I'm being a bit unfair regarding Coyle. The buzz was off the charts and I was looking forward to seeing a few quality shots on goal. Last night, the peanut butter was safe.

Are we sure Coach's quotes were from last night? I swear that was "cut and paste" from at least 8-10 games last year.

Oh, and this game was my fault. I was chirping to everyone that this team was going to score some goals this year and at least be fun to watch. Of course they only score 2 last night.

[Federal League]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

Are we sure Coach's quotes were from last night? I swear that was "cut and paste" from at least 8-10 games last year.

Hammer actually brought that up in the press conference. Parker made sure to clarify that this was different from last year. Last year was a lack of effort; this was trying to do too much on offense and turning the puck over. I think I agree. It didn't seem like they stopped playing; they just got greedy and started forcing passes and/or trying to do it all by themselves.

PS- Anyone else having problems multi-quoting? I tried just quoting Bomber's last post, but it came up with everything I multi-quoted in my last post. Annoying.

[BU Fan 84]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

I was pretty disappointed in the result because there's no way that game should have been close. BU blew them out of the water in the first period, then came out for the second and progressively packed it in for the rest of the night. I think someone mentioned shots were 20-7 at one point and next time they looked, it was 25-20 in favor of UMass. They picked it up again for the second half of the third but by that point, it's nearly impossible to turn things around, especially when you've given the other team confidence like that. I don't know if it was a conscious shift in strategy to try to take the air out of the ball (rubber out of the puck, in this context?) or if it was that dreaded over-satisfaction with the results to that point, but after reading great quotes from the captains about effort and intensity and things being different this year, I felt it looked awfully similar to last year, albeit with better goal tending. I was going to make a half-joking comment about how maybe Trivino's and Chiasson's playing time should be limited seeing as how the two suspended players come back and I perceived such a drastic difference between this weekend's game and last weekend's games, where I think Notre Dame's coach commented on BU playing so hard right to every whistle. Then I read the message board and see other people are commenting on Trivino's coasting ....

As for individual players, I agree with the people who thought Coyle played well - I like that first line. I like the fourth line, too. I don't mind Courtnall playing, I think while he might not be a threat to score, he brings a lot of energy and some emotion. I think he is more effective in that regard than Santana but that is Santana's game, too, so I was a little surprised to see both of them out there. I think Gilroy gets in if Parker's looking for more offense out of that line, or if a forward on another line gets injured for a game or two, Gilroy will get plugged into that spot. If he's looking for more a more defensive line or physical presence, it's going to be the line we saw last night.

The other two lines weren't too impressive in my mind. Chiasson and Trivino possess the puck well, make solid plays and passes, dig it out of the corners and keep it moving and cycle well, but that's about it. They might not get scored on much, but I don't see them scoring much either. There's just not much offensive flair there right now. And it's the same thing with the third line. I guess Parker is hoping Nieto and Gill bring that flair and maybe they will when they get some more experience. And if they do, I think the lines might work because Chiasson and Gaudet, based on last year, should be able to handle scoring 15 goals each this season. Nieto kinda stunk last night, after he scored his goal until he had that nice chance near the end. Gill didn't suck but wasn't as good as last weekend either. Consistency is one of those things that will come with more experience.

Defense wise, I like Riukka and Noonan. Quiet, not flashy, but solid. Clendening is going to need to develop that consistency like Gill, but when he does, I think we'll all be very happy with him. Nicastro has continued to be unimpressive; it seems like he took a step backwards. If you have to sit someone to get Rosen or MacGregor a game, it'd have to be Nicastro at this point.

[BU Fan 84]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

Hammer actually brought that up in the press conference. Parker made sure to clarify that this was different from last year. Last year was a lack of effort; this was trying to do too much on offense and turning the puck over. I think I agree. It didn't seem like they stopped playing; they just got greedy and started forcing passes and/or trying to do it all by themselves.

PS- Anyone else having problems multi-quoting? I tried just quoting Bomber's last post, but it came up with everything I multi-quoted in my last post. Annoying.

I disagree(see my post below this one). There's a noticeable difference between flying around out there and being sloppy with mistakes, bad passes, turnovers, etc. and what happened last night. There was a definite shift in play style during the second period. Like I said, it might have been strategic to back off and play more conservatively, a less natural playing style, which can lead to overthinking and bad passes and turnovers, etc. but I hate seeing that in a two goal lead during the second period type situation.

[slurpees]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

Hammer actually brought that up in the press conference. Parker made sure to clarify that this was different from last year. Last year was a lack of effort; this was trying to do too much on offense and turning the puck over. I think I agree. It didn't seem like they stopped playing; they just got greedy and started forcing passes and/or trying to do it all by themselves.

PS- Anyone else having problems multi-quoting? I tried just quoting Bomber's last post, but it came up with everything I multi-quoted in my last post. Annoying.

I agree on the effort comments. There wasn't a whole lot of laziness and lack of caring, more inexperience, guys playing with other guys for the first time, and I think they were surprised that UMass didn't roll over and die after we came out firing for the first 1/3-1/2 of the game. These are young kids don't forget. We essentially have one senor and three junior skaters who were integral parts of the championship team. There's a lot they need to work on, but I didn't see the frustrating things that plagued last year's team - bad attitued, laziness, lack of overall hustle, boneheaded penalties resulting from said laziness and lack of hustle.

[defkit]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

If it's any consolation, the 1990-91 team that reached Triple OT in the NCAA title game and was stocked with future NHLers gave up FIVE goal leads on TWO occassions at the beginning of the season (Colgate, Michigan). And both were at home. Those were tough pills to swallow. And, that team was much more experienced than this one (only two freshmen - Tkachuk and Lachance).

So just pointing out that these things happen and let's not get too concerned unless it starts happening regularly.

[Federal League]

Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"

So apparently tying UMass bumps you up two spots in the polls. Good to know.