Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

[northeastern]

tough going tonight thus far. not unexpected.

[RossiRules]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

They say hockey is a game of battles, tonight we won most of the battles but lost the war. I actually think we played better tonight but so did BU by closing the shooting lanes down and back checking a lot more tenaciously in the NZ and OZ. As my rating is fairly red I will keep it short and simple. # 1 We are too small #2 Our D is only Fair # 3 Ruck is a B or B- goalie at best, put these all together and add the fact that we have no Nolan Bros and I smell a 5th place finish. To tell you the truth we only had 5 bad minutes in the 2nd, but during those 5 bad minutes BU scored 3 times. My son's grew up playing with John Picking and it was nice to see him really make some terrific offensive runs and get pucks deep and battle bigger BU players behind the net and dig pucks, just like he did at WHS for a couple of years. Anyway, onward and upward. On a positive note we did manage to keep the shot total fairly close and played hard. However in the 5 minutes where BU played like a team possessed we had no 5th gear to match them and that concerns me.

[Gr8Sk8M8]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

I don't know about that....bu had some great chances and I thought Ruck really played well most of the night and kept them in it. NU had some very nice snipes but I thought there was a lot of play in their own end...but maybe that's just me being scarred by our history of terrible defensive play (and reinforced by Williams' turnover). NU certainly had the better of OT.

You definitely did not watch the same game. Ruck fought the puck all night and saying that the 4th goal was as bad as it gets is an insult to the first and third goals he gave up. He needs to stop flopping around and get more aggressive with his stick around the net. He needs to get "sticky", too. Way too many rebounds...yes...Williams had a bad turnover but Ruck froze, flopped, and was skated around...

I thought the refs were very good for 2 periods....the third was not good. ZAR would've been goat of the game for that stupid penalty he took with 5 minutes left that gave bu the PP that put them ahead, he needs to be smarter than that.

You're delusional. IN the sequence that BU ran Ruck and did not get called, the non puck carrying forward was offsides (play was right in front of me); go ahead and look at the sequence near side forward's back skate loses contact with the ice before puck crosses line. The tripping call on Collier was idiotic as he was clearly playing the puck and the BU player dived like he was shot from the Book Depository. The second call on Kurker was a ref on LSD.

BS call on ZAR, too. ZAR had the puck...whistle blew for offsides (which it clearly was not as Sikura's backfoot is clearly in the neutral zone and replay that sequence if you don't believe me} the BU player stepped up on ZAR and he pushed him away. Maybe that's a foul in basketball but certainly not in hockey. Bad, bad sequence for the stripes...a BS offsides call led to a BS roughing call...

[Gr8Sk8M8]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

They say hockey is a game of battles, tonight we won most of the battles but lost the war. I actually think we played better tonight but so did BU by closing the shooting lanes down and back checking a lot more tenaciously in the NZ and OZ. As my rating is fairly red I will keep it short and simple. # 1 We are too small #2 Our D is only Fair # 3 Ruck is a B or B- goalie at best, put these all together and add the fact that we have no Nolan Bros and I smell a 5th place finish. To tell you the truth we only had 5 bad minutes in the 2nd, but during those 5 bad minutes BU scored 3 times. My son's grew up playing with John Picking and it was nice to see him really make some terrific offensive runs and get pucks deep and battle bigger BU players behind the net and dig pucks, just like he did at WHS for a couple of years. Anyway, onward and upward. On a positive note we did manage to keep the shot total fairly close and played hard. However in the 5 minutes where BU played like a team possessed we had no 5th gear to match them and that concerns me.

IF you take away that sequence and watched the game, you'd think NU won. I'm going to respectfully disagree about Picking. Talented kid for sure but he and Jozifek, who seems to not be very capable of playing the level, are fishes out of water so far. He needs to go back to Jamison and Rosenthal. The team needs experience on the 4th line if they are going to be rolled out as often as they are. < That is another issues altogether. I was sandwiched between two of BUs fattest last night and they were actually laughing that NU kept throwing the 4th line out there. Keller, Bellows, Harper were out there every 2-3 shifts and Quinn juggled all night. By my watch, we kept rolling the lines until about the 14 minute mark of the 3rd. That should have started after the 3rd goal.

The coaches really need to step up their game and start adjusting to how the game flows. Hopefully, we get JS back by Providence, if not Notre Dame.

I noticed on the score sheet that ZAR was -2 and Pond -1...think stats guy confused 12 with 22 on the 3rd goal: https://youtu.be/QM5YyWwrlag

[Gr8Sk8M8]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

So does anybody have any idea when the Stevens will be back or are these season ending injuries?

I heard third hand NStevens was offered a RS and he refused it. That should tell you something about the '17/'18 season. JStevens should be back for sure by Providence and, possibly, this weekend.

[HHound]

I heard third hand NStevens was offered a RS and he refused it. That should tell you something about the '17/'18 season. JStevens should be back for sure by Providence and, possibly, this weekend.

Why should Nolan accept the Redshirt status now? Why not wait to see how his recovery and rehab progress?

[walrus655321]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

You're delusional. IN the sequence that BU ran Ruck and did not get called, the non puck carrying forward was offsides (play was right in front of me); go ahead and look at the sequence near side forward's back skate loses contact with the ice before puck crosses line. The tripping call on Collier was idiotic as he was clearly playing the puck and the BU player dived like he was shot from the Book Depository. The second call on Kurker was a ref on LSD.

BS call on ZAR, too. ZAR had the puck...whistle blew for offsides (which it clearly was not as Sikura's backfoot is clearly in the neutral zone and replay that sequence if you don't believe me} the BU player stepped up on ZAR and he pushed him away. Maybe that's a foul in basketball but certainly not in hockey. Bad, bad sequence for the stripes...a BS offsides call led to a BS roughing call...

OK, Tommy Heinsohn

[Gr8Sk8M8]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

OK, Tommy Heinsohn

You "thought" that the call on Collier was good? You thought that it was okay for Carpenter to run Ruck with no call? Did you go back to the game and see how Carpenter's back skate loses contact with the ice at the blueline just before he ran Ruck? Did you watch the replay on the offsides call just before ZAR was called for the rough? Who was offsides? Why did the BU player step up on ZAR after the whistle?

Jamie Koharski, apparently carrying on his family's tradition of being great donut eaters but very poor officials, has stepped up and quite capably taken over for Cameron Voss.

[Gr8Sk8M8]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

Why should Nolan accept the Redshirt status now? Why not wait to see how his recovery and rehab progress?

A RS assumes he'll be back next year. I wouldn't count on that.

I know you're working on a PA and I'm not trying to impugn on your field of study but he out until Beanpot, at least.

[walrus655321]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

You "thought" that the call on Collier was good? You thought that it was okay for Carpenter to run Ruck with no call? Did you go back to the game and see how Carpenter's back skate loses contact with the ice at the blueline just before he ran Ruck? Did you watch the replay on the offsides call just before ZAR was called for the rough? Who was offsides? Why did the BU player step up on ZAR after the whistle?

Jamie Koharski, apparently carrying on his family's tradition of being great donut eaters but very poor officials, has stepped up and quite capably taken over for Cameron Voss.

Are you referring to the second goal? There was barely any contact there. I thought it was ridiculous that they even reviewed it. If you think that was "running the goalie" I suggest you switch to being a soccer fan. No problem at all with the call on Collier, it doesn't matter if you're playing the puck, you're responsible for your stick and if you stick it between someone's legs it's a trip regardless of intent. I don't care WHAT the bu player did there, after the Greenway taunt you had to know refs were going to be looking for any overreaction and ZAR gave them one, he has to be smarter than that and you should be smarter than defending his actions there (though I've seen enough of your posts here to know you're not).

I stand by comments...after watching 4 games of terrible hockey thanks to overofficiating I thought they did a pretty good job on Friday. They let a lot of things go, there were quite a few times where I looked around a few times searching for an arm up in the air and was pleasantly surprised to see NU "got away with one"...and bu got away with quite a few too (much to ZAR's dismay leading to his 10 minute misconduct...though I loved seeing the bu fans who were confused by NU remaining at full strength there, must've been the first time they saw a 10 minute misconduct) and for about 45 minutes I had no issues with them. Heck, even now all I really would like is an explanation on the Pond penalty where it looked like he was interfered with prior to making contact with the goalie.

[Split-N]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

OK, Tommy Heinsohn

Actually, I'll defend GR8 to a point. If you do a little research into the average number of penalties called per game and break it down by conference, you'll find that HEA and the ECAC (which share a certain number of referees) are averaging about six more penalties per game than are the B1G and NCHC. I don't want to go into specific penalties but I've been left scratching my head about more than a few.

And the public stance taken by the league office to the effect that this is the way games are called in the NHL is pure nonsense.

[RossiRules]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

IF you take away that sequence and watched the game, you'd think NU won. I'm going to respectfully disagree about Picking. Talented kid for sure but he and Jozifek, who seems to not be very capable of playing the level, are fishes out of water so far. He needs to go back to Jamison and Rosenthal. The team needs experience on the 4th line if they are going to be rolled out as often as they are. < That is another issues altogether. I was sandwiched between two of BUs fattest last night and they were actually laughing that NU kept throwing the 4th line out there. Keller, Bellows, Harper were out there every 2-3 shifts and Quinn juggled all night. By my watch, we kept rolling the lines until about the 14 minute mark of the 3rd. That should have started after the 3rd goal.

The coaches really need to step up their game and start adjusting to how the game flows. Hopefully, we get JS back by Providence, if not Notre Dame.

I noticed on the score sheet that ZAR was -2 and Pond -1...think stats guy confused 12 with 22 on the 3rd goal: https://youtu.be/QM5YyWwrlag

Good points and I can't disagree on asking too much of Freshman too soon, that said, I while I don't completely disagree with you on JP, having played against his Dad in college I think he will be a scoring threat in the league as an upperclassman. I think 20 shifts into a HE career he sees and finds lanes, works and digs pucks to create scoring opportunities better than many of the Fresh I have seen so far. I think the best offensive players are those who play from behind the net and he did that well last night again and you should expect to see more of him I would bet he is in the top 4 or 5 fastest skaters on this team. Other than that, I agree and have always agreed on JM, he got a little lucky last year and even a blind squirrel finds a nut every so often. I never expect much from behind our bench so don't expect a great decision to evolve from behind the bench, except on occasion. I do think the team is talented and has a good chemistry that they most likely have built on their own. As a result, they will win some games and could go deep. However, I do not think they will take many pts against the metal of the league, UML, BC, BU and PC.

[northeastern]

Are you referring to the second goal? There was barely any contact there..

i too have to disagree on this..it was goalie interference to the head but for whatever reason they decided to play on.. resulted in bu goal few seconds later and that was that..we have to play to the whistle, our guys decided to ease up & paid the price. Gotta play intil the whistle.

but to say there was 'barely' any contact.. let's respectfully agree to disagree on that one.

[northeastern]

i too have to disagree on this..it was goalie interference to the head but for whatever reason they decided to play on.. resulted in bu goal few seconds later and that was that..we have to play to the whistle, our guys decided to ease up & paid the price. Gotta play intil the whistle.

but to say there was 'barely' any contact.. let's respectfully agree to disagree on that one.

and i know koharski reviewed it.. he barely reviewed it & could tell had his mind made up and was not going to overturn the G. Luckily for us that night.. the players moved on.. were resilient and played full 3 periods & more. not so much on saturday. was a weak 2nd & team paid for it. hopefully take all this as learning and keep getting stronger as the season progresses.

[McBain75]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

I made the trip out this weekend for the series, here's what I thought.

bu seems like a team with a lot of potential but still a work in progress. Albeit one with a high ceiling, depending on how long they stick around.

Friday night - first of all, great job by the Dog House and the pep band. I thought things had gotten kinda stale about five years ago but there's a lot more life to it now. And the band sounds great. I agree with RossiRules that NU was outplayed by bu but the Huskies kept answering the bell. bu had much more composed possession in the offensive zone and I was worried every time they got a shot from the point, as evidenced by the goals they were good at getting deflections and rebounds. I thought the penalty on Pond in the third was bogus, looked to me like he was pushed into the goalie. It was important that they never went down by more than 2 - that early third period goal by Gaudette was huge. The team weathered the storm in the second period and was in a position to get at them in the third. Lots of energy in the building and the team picked up on that.

Saturday night - I thought NU actually played much better hockey even though they lost 3-0. Other than a 5 minute spell late in the second, I thought their defense was much tougher and better organized than on Friday. Once bu moved that puck around a little quicker, and got on those rebounds, they were able to capitalize.

Pond - as others have noted, he gives you everything he has. Not sure how high his ceiling is though.
Leraro - a lot of fun to watch. He took on Greenway even though he was vastly outsized. Could be a really useful guy in the future.
Gaudette - he's good, plays very confidently, and has the potential to be great. A big opportunity for him to step up in the Stevens' absence.
Filipe - ditto. Uses his size and strides to power past people.
Freshmen defenders Shea and Davies - lots of potential. However, they're the team's achilles heel right now. They're going to learn on the job this year, trial by fire.
Ruck - I couldn't fault him for most of the goals, depending on how much you expect him to deal with those deflections and rebounds. I thought he kept them in it with a strong second period on Friday, and made the saves he was supposed to make on Saturday.

What has really impressed me most about Madigan is how the team seems better mentally prepared than the teams before him. After what I saw this weekend I'm not worried about being able to compete this year, though without the Stevens' it may be tough to crack the top 4. Big chance for Gaudette and Filipe to step up.

My first trip to Agganis. A nice, clean place, but still sterile and kinda lifelessly corporate. It wasn't loud and intimidating like their old place. I was surrounded by some absolutely ancient bu fans. Did they measure wrong when they designed the rows? I'm 5'6" and I had no leg room there. I can't imagine being tall (or wide) and trying to fit in those seats. From the tone of their promotions it seemed like they're really trying to challenge BC for getting casual fans (non alums or students) from around the area. Not sure how well that will work. Is NU on a Saturday not a draw for them? NU got several times as many students there on Friday with half as large a student body to draw from.