BC Eagles 2020-21 - in memory of Steve Gerrish

[Lemonade]

BC is a lifetime 1-4 vs. SCSU. If you keep losing to “a team like St. Cloud,” perhaps it’s more representative of the program as a whole than just what happened yesterday.

St Coud has an acceptance rate of 90%. St Clouds avg player is almost 23 years old....not sure BC ever wants to become one of those on either end.

[J.D.]

UMD, the current gold standard. Their entire top six forwards are JR/SR and eight of their top nine forwards. So all of them have at least one national title and the seniors have two. They also have four JR/SR on defense.

Minnesota State has eight JR/SR forwards and four JR/SR dmen along with a seasoned vet in goal.

St. Cloud has seven JR/SR forwards and five JR/SR dmen. Along with a senior in net.

While Minnesota State and SCSU haven't had that tournament success until now, they too have the battle scars of coming up short after great years.

UMass...2nd straight FF. They have eight JR/SR forwards, three JR dmen and Lindberg.

There's some commonality there when you compare this to the first NCAA tournament game for anyone on the BC roster. BC put out no senior forwards and four juniors to go along with Karow and St. Ivany on defense.

And then you need to compare BC to BU, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota etc. No doubt in my mind Michigan would have lost to UMD. But just keeping it to the teams that played, they all got smoked in their last game and I think are on a quest to find the right mix of players on a yearly basis. The goal should be to continuously be in the hunt and not have these one year chances with great young talent and then have to start over again.

[J.D.]

BC is a lifetime 1-4 vs. SCSU. If you keep losing to “a team like St. Cloud,” perhaps it’s more representative of the program as a whole than just what happened yesterday.

I'm not sure what the historical record against St. Cloud has to do with anything here but you seem offended at what I said. I didn't say a team like St. Cloud in a negative way. But I can understand why SCSU fans are sensitive. Being a historical choker can do that to you.

[St. Clown]

St Coud has an acceptance rate of 90%. St Clouds avg player is almost 23 years old....not sure BC ever wants to become one of those on either end.

You will never see me defend my state school’s academic rigors vs. more selective private schools, because it’s completely unrelated to the game on the ice. (I would think a fan of the school with such greater academics than mine would know that.) I’m just saying that SCSU is a team to whom BC routinely loses. Like last night’s score, SCSU is 4-1 vs BC.

[J.D.]

They put up a telling stat during yesterdays game that BC was 0-22-1 the last 3 years when trailing entering the 3rd period.

That's probably more telling of the age we're in with "structure and systems". Most teams have similar records when trailing. But the "0" does stand out for sure.

[Lemonade]

UMD, the current gold standard. Their entire top six forwards are JR/SR and eight of their top nine forwards. So all of them have at least one national title and the seniors have two. They also have four JR/SR on defense.

Minnesota State has eight JR/SR forwards and four JR/SR dmen along with a seasoned vet in goal.

St. Cloud has seven JR/SR forwards and five JR/SR dmen. Along with a senior in net.

While Minnesota State and SCSU haven't had that tournament success until now, they too have the battle scars of coming up short after great years.

UMass...2nd straight FF. They have eight JR/SR forwards, three JR dmen and Lindberg.

There's some commonality there when you compare this to the first NCAA tournament game for anyone on the BC roster. BC put out no senior forwards and four juniors to go along with Karow and St. Ivany on defense.

And then you need to compare BC to BU, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota etc. No doubt in my mind Michigan would have lost to UMD. But just keeping it to the teams that played, they all got smoked in their last game and I think are on a quest to find the right mix of players on a yearly basis. The goal should be to continuously be in the hunt and not have these one year chances with great young talent and then have to start over again.

Wisconsin will take step back since Caufield left, Michigan has next year then a mass exodus of players (Beniers, Power, Johnson, Bordeleau), BC could be devasted if Knight/Boldy/Newhook all leave, BU lost Farrance....not only are the "blue chip" programs not making progress they are continuously reloading and staying young because of that. If you arent going to take the blue chips you need to totally cross them off the board and go for older players who are aging out of juniors because that's what working right now. There are no studs on the remaining Final Four teams they are just good players that should have graduated college 3 years ago.

[DNAEagle]

Very difficult to build teams when the top talent stays for a year or two. That is the state of college hockey right now, you may not like it but that is the way it is.During BC's up years most of the kids stayed at least 3 years and many of them 4. They also had some kids who never fulfilled their initial commitment, Bracco, Valtrano, the Finnish kid and a few others. Now you have to assume a NHL GM role and mentality to put together a sustainable top shelf winning program. When the Red Baron was coach at Michigan, he had very high recruits every year, and then they were gone and they are no longer an elite program. There is a world of difference in college hockey from just 6-8 years ago and I don't think it is for the better.

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Adapt or die.

[The Zlax45]

Very difficult to build teams when the top talent stays for a year or two. That is the state of college hockey right now, you may not like it but that is the way it is.During BC's up years most of the kids stayed at least 3 years and many of them 4. They also had some kids who never fulfilled their initial commitment, Bracco, Valtrano, the Finnish kid and a few others. Now you have to assume a NHL GM role and mentality to put together a sustainable top shelf winning program. When the Red Baron was coach at Michigan, he had very high recruits every year, and then they were gone and they are no longer an elite program. There is a world of difference in college hockey from just 6-8 years ago and I don't think it is for the better.

The reason high NHL draft picks are playing college now is the caliber of play is better than 25 years ago. The NHL teams are happier with the college game when compared to the past to develop their players also.

It sucks we get one or two years of top level talent in the college game, but that is the way the pros have it.

[Sean Pickett]

I'm no Coach York apologist, but I do find the post-season tournament titles are all that matter mindset by some posters disappointing. As pointed out Coach York has had no titles the past nine* seasons, but in that time he has 6 regular season titles that are being discounted/discarded. So, if you compare him to Coach Sandelin over that span Coach York has 6 RS titles, 6 HE semifinal appearances, 2 runners-up, 5 NCAA appearance and 2 Frozen Fours while Coach Sandelin has 5 NCHC semifinal appearances, 1 runners-up, 2 titles, 6 NCAA appearances, 4 Frozen Fours, one runners-up and 2 titles. The post-season favors Coach Sandelin, but in that time he also has no RS titles. Furthermore, if you go back over his first dozen seasons he wasn't quite as good in the post-season, with just 4 WCHA semifinals, 1 title, 4 NCAA appearances, 2 Frozen Fours, a runners-up and a title (in his 11th season). Over the same dozen seasons Coach York won 6 RS titles, 10 HE semifinals, one runners-up, 7 titles, 10 NCAA appearances, 7 Frozen Fours, 2 runners-up and 4 titles. That was an unprecedented run that apparently distorted some BC fans' concept of success. Here is a graph showing the cumulative winning percentage of Coach York at BC vs Coach Sandelin at UMD:



Coach Sandelin has had a run of NCAA tournament success, but if I go to a game to see a team win I'll take Coach York over him every time. I agree that Coach York is getting near the end of his coaching career, but he can still recruit and coach and is more than capable of winning additional post-season hardware before then.

Sean

[cridge]

Who is potential flight risk for this team? Newhook, boldy, Knight are the clear favorites, but is there any chance that McBain and Helleson leave? Helleson had an exceptional year, but COL is loaded on D so I don't see any way he signs.

[altazo]

St Coud has an acceptance rate of 90%. St Clouds avg player is almost 23 years old....not sure BC ever wants to become one of those on either end.

Oh, so you mean schools like BC consistently get blue-chip 18 and 19 year olds who are NHL first rounders, while schools like SCSU get older, undrafted players who have exhausted all their Junior hockey eligibility in hopes of landing a scholarship? Poor BC.

Dude, you sound like the worst sour grapes.

And don’t forget, when life hands you lemons, make... oh wait

[claver2010]

Oh, so you mean schools like BC consistently get blue-chip 18 and 19 year olds who are NHL first rounders, while schools like SCSU get older, undrafted players who have exhausted all their Junior hockey eligibility in hopes of landing a scholarship? Poor BC.

Dude, you sound like the worst sour grapes.

And don’t forget, when life hands you lemons, make... oh wait

you realize he's not a bc fan right?

helleson is a risk beyond the big 3 but seems like colorado is happy w development at bc

[altazo]

you realize he's not a bc fan right?

c

Ha! Could’ve fooled me.

But it really doesn’t matter. I did say “schools like BC.” That whole age defense comes across as sour grapes every time I hear it.

Maybe when you have a bunch of 24 year old seniors on your roster they look at the potential of their last college game (and perhaps last meaningful game) a little more seriously than a 19 year old who has one foot out the door and has been told their whole life they can do no wrong on the ice? Just a thought.

[DNAEagle]

At 76 he has to be close to the end of his career, but despite negative recruiting because of his age he is still able to draw elite talent to the Heights. 12 drafted players and 3 number 1's. I think that is right. Anyhow getting players to come is not the issue as much as building a team that has the right mix of ages and talents. Umass the 3 or 4 kids who are 24 or 25 and Bazin has had success with recruiting 21 year old Freshman. The 18 yo Freshman are just not big enough or strong enough to compete right away, Newhook is an exception and so is Knight. Look at Bellow at BU, was disappointing for them, spent a few years in the minors and he is now getting ice time for the Islanders. I thought both he and Whalstrom needed more time to develop, but you can take sophomore English or you can get and up or down NHL deal for 750K. Let me think about that.