BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

[brassbonanza]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

MacGregor looks like a new player. He's skating well, hits hard, and doesn't turn the puck over. Also has a surprisingly improved shot. I think he needs to stay in there.

Not possible, Parker can't coach. But really, he does look very much improved. Though I still am a little concerned when he handles the puck for more than a couple of seconds, and I wouldn't have much confidence in him handling the puck in traffic in his own zone.

[Harry Cleverly]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

MacGregor looks like a new player. He's skating well, hits hard, and doesn't turn the puck over. Also has a surprisingly improved shot. I think he needs to stay in there.

MacGregor is certainly an early candidate for Most Improved Player. The biggest thing is that he seems so much more confident. He is more composed in his own end, and his distribution is much better.
He has size, will play physical (without Grybra-like penalties), is a decent skater and has a cannon of a shot. The improvement on his shot is not velocity - he's always had that. It is that he is getting on net.
That is a reason he is getting some time on the powerplay, although the BU pointmen still don't shoot enough - and that, IMO, is one of the main reasons that the powerplay is so frustrating. More shots and less passing, please.

Clendening and Nicastro sometimes get a bad rap because they aren't the second and third comings of Kevin Shattenkirk. Clendening has all-america potential, but needs to be more consistent. Nicastro is very good when he plays within himself and remains composed.

Escobedo is an enigma. I thought he would be a Brian Strait-type. He skates well enough. He's physical. But he just makes too many bad decisions for a player that could be so much effective if he played within his limitations.

Rosen did an excellent job as a fourth line center a year ago. He doesn't seem physically strong enough defensively, although he reads the game fine and has some skills.

Ruikka will really help when he's healthy if he returns to his first half form of last season.

I have liked Privitera more and more with each game. I expected him to do big things right away, and was a little disappointed when he didn't stand out. But seening more of him, he does so many of the little things well that the big things will come.

I haven't mentioned Garret Noonan yet. He has been consistently BU's most solid all-around blueliner.

[Harry Cleverly]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

US News & World Report has published its ranking of the 400 best universities in the world:

http://www.usnews.com/education/worl...e-world?page=1

BU was rated #70 in the world.
That would be #1 of Hockey East schools, #8 of D1 college hockey schools and in the top-25 overall nationally.

For our friends down the avenue, BC was rated #349.

BU had a combined score average of 69.7, more than double BC's 32.8.

[candycanes99]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

US News & World Report has published its ranking of the 400 best universities in the world:

http://www.usnews.com/education/worl...e-world?page=1

BU was rated #70 in the world.
That would be #1 of Hockey East schools, #8 of D1 college hockey schools and in the top-25 overall nationally.

For our friends down the avenue, BC was rated #349.

BU had a combined score average of 69.7, more than double BC's 32.8.

And Forbes or whoever will come out with one again that buries BU. I rarely read these things anymore; it's a bunch of kindling.

[SteveF]

And Forbes or whoever will come out with one again that buries BU. I rarely read these things anymore; it's a bunch of kindling.

The methodology of that one is worth a chuckle. 40% based on academic reputation from a global survey of academic professionals? I'm sure that is meaningful data to high school students

But hey, congrats you finally found one!

[SkinsFan09]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

Anyone who takes college rankings seriously needs to review their life. I mean, is there a bigger waste of time? You go to wherever fits you best, end of story. Unless you are going to an Ivy school or a school like Cal Tech, your degree's reputation pretty much means the same as everyone else's in the mid-range (not elite, super-reputation schools).

[Harry Cleverly]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

Anyone who takes college rankings seriously needs to review their life. I mean, is there a bigger waste of time? You go to wherever fits you best, end of story. Unless you are going to an Ivy school or a school like Cal Tech, your degree's reputation pretty much means the same as everyone else's in the mid-range (not elite, super-reputation schools).

Spoken like a true Northeastern alum.

BTW, the rankings are good conversation pieces. How seriously people tend to take them are directly proportional to how well their school faired in them.

[SteveF]

Spoken like a true Northeastern alum.

BTW, the rankings are good conversation pieces. How seriously people tend to take them are directly proportional to how well their school faired in them.

Does that mean the obscurity of the ranking being trumpeted is inversely proportional to how well a school does in the majority of all other rankings?

[brassbonanza]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

Oh boy, college rankings again!

[J.D.]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

So umm if Rollheiser can't even get in there against Holy Cross, who would he play against?

[brassbonanza]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

why couldn't parker throw clendening off the team last year instead?

[J.D.]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

why couldn't parker throw clendening off the team last year instead?

I don't get it...

[Jacques Joubert]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

Where to begin...the net? Typical 5 goals against from Kieran Gillespe. Max Nicastro stunk. He fell down twice on the same play. Then the puck got banked in off of #31's butt.

"Bad Max" should sit when Ruikka is ready.

Then...Team decided to play the last 7 minutes and made it close.

Sooooo bad. Then when it was all over Clendening attacks the HC celebration.

If theprofromdover, JD, carmine, or stevef want my season tickets they can have them, the're not worth the paper they're printed on.

So...all a team needs to do to beat BU is to skate right at them, send in one guy to forecheck, shoot whenever possible, and crash the net. That's it. The Natick High team could have beat this team.

Fire Jack...We miss Quinn. blah, blah, blah.

I'm out.

[mookie1995]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

i hope one of our little woodward or bernstein's went into the post game presser and asked....

"coach, your team put a lot of pressure on holy cross at the end there - begun by cory trivino winning **** near every faceoff he took. then for some reason in the last minute you pulled him and sent in superstar charlie coyle. luckily for you coyle lost the last two faceoffs so badly that the HC d-men didn't have time to react and the puck got deep enough that BU was able to get in and continue to mount pressure.

question 1 - how did you know that superstar charlie would get beat so cleanly and quickly that you'd be able to continue to keep the pressure on and question 2 - which play is easier to draw up after a time out? setting up an attack with your d-men moving the puck in after a faceoff win, or chasing down a deep puck cleanly won by the opposing centerman?"

[J.D.]

Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

I don't see any PIMs listed for Clendening at the end of the game, but sounds like he's a real cement head.