Boston College hockey 2021-2022

[J.D.]

Eh if they're gonna do a new rink I want the men playing games there. Women too. No issue with that. Much better than having 4 teams share Conte Forum. If anyone can name another D1 school with that setup please share.

[sigx15]

Eh if they're gonna do a new rink I want the men playing games there. Women too. No issue with that. Much better than having 4 teams share Conte Forum. If anyone can name another D1 school with that setup please share.

I think what Zlax might be suggesting is they could build something with a smaller footprint and less money they could use for women's games who don't draw as well & practice? The only setup kind of like that is BU with the women playing at Walter Brown and the men using Agganis but that had a bunch of other reasons why it happened and what the original plan was for Agganis that didn't really work out

I'm pretty obviously with JD on the new rink, it's 100% needed now that York has retired. I also think it has zero to do with the money or the land. I think it 100% to do with whether or not it's a priority for the administration. If BC announced tomorrow they were starting a fundraising effort for a hockey only Jerry York arena and needed $80 million to get it done, it would be done very fast

[J.D.]

I think what Zlax might be suggesting is they could build something with a smaller footprint and less money they could use for women's games who don't draw as well & practice? The only setup kind of like that is BU with the women playing at Walter Brown and the men using Agganis but that had a bunch of other reasons why it happened and what the original plan was for Agganis that didn't really work out

Ya to me a practice rink where the women play their home games would be a secondary option. I selfishly want the new gameday arena for the men to play in (and women can play there too). Something like Agganis, Pegula, Compton. A hockey specific facility where the men's team play their games. As for Agganis I don't really understand why the women's team doesn't play their homes games there. Is it because of all the other events Agganis has?

If you build a practice rink where the women play their home games, the men's team still has to share Conte with both basketball teams.

[sigx15]

Ya to me a practice rink where the women play their home games would be a secondary option. I selfishly want the new gameday arena for the men to play in (and women can play there too). Something like Agganis, Pegula, Compton. A hockey specific facility where the men's team play their games. As for Agganis I don't really understand why the women's team doesn't play their homes games there. Is it because of all the other events Agganis has?

If you build a practice rink where the women play their home games, the men's team still has to share Conte with both basketball teams.

The Agganis thing happened because BU looks at it like you have to draw a certain number of fans in order to play there. They kicked out their own basketball team from Agganis back to Case Gym because their attendance was so bad. The whole idea when Agganis was built was to fill it every night they could and keep Walter Brown so the hockey teams could practice as much as they wanted without basketball or events getting in the way. I don't think it was ever in the plans for the women's team to play full time at Agganis, just some off games here or there

[eaglekeeper]

I think JD might be onto something with Forrest. A head coach in the AHL has to be a candidate, especially given that he is an alum. How has he done record wise in the AHL? I have no concerns about JD’s ability to recruit. BC is the top choice in the East, it’s a destination school. The key is for the coach to know which recruits to go after and how to structure a roster of young talent and older players. I think Cav would do an excellent job at BC.

The answer is too build two hockey rinks either on Hammond Pond Parkway or the newly acquired Pine Manor campus. Rent both rinks out to the public, huge money makers. They just built two rinks in Wellesley that are booked full time. They are not building a new arena for either hockey or hoops. There will be renovations to Conte at some point.

Go Eagles!

[PullTheGoalie]

I'm liking the idea of a Cav/JD/Ayers staff. Any other tandem ideas?

[Chuck Murray]

I'm liking the idea of a Cav/JD/Ayers staff. Any other tandem ideas?

No chance it'll ever happen. Putting aside my own personal feelings, any one of these three guys would want the top job to themselves, and each has an argument that favors them for the job. Forrest has advanced the furthest of the bunch, Ayers is arguably the top choice from the leftover York staff, and Luce is already running a D-1 program. If Ayers (least probable top HC candidate) were selected, why do the other two come to work under him? If Forrest gets the job, why would Luce leave to assist him? And should Luce get the nod, why does Forrest want to take a step down AND a pay cut? The only guy who might choose to stay is Ayers, who would presumably be status quo. Luce probably wouldn't want to bring in either of those two on his staff, were he allowed the choice, but I suspect Luce would accept any terms BC insisted upon just to get the job, even if it meant that he'd have to hire Jack Parker and Mike Eruzione as his assistants. #desperatetimes

[J.D.]

I'm liking the idea of a Cav/JD/Ayers staff. Any other tandem ideas?

I don't think Forrest would go from HC in AHL to assistant at BC. If he's coming back it would be for the HC position.

[BC/HE]

Do you have to have a head coach? What about the possibility of co-head coaches being implemented instead? It could be the start of something new if it works. One for the Forwards, the other for Defense and Goal.

[J.D.]

Do you have to have a head coach? What about the possibility of co-head coaches being implemented instead? It could be the start of something new if it works. One for the Forwards, the other for Defense and Goal.

Ok but then do you pay each guy the same? Doubt any program would do that and there has to be someone who makes final decisions unless they do rock, paper, scissors behind the bench.

[BCeagle]

Anyone who doesn't think BC needs a new, hockey only arena/facility is crazy imo. When UConn & Sacred Heart are about to have better facilities for hockey than BC, it's time. BC has fallen behind not just every major national powerhouse in hockey in terms of facilities but now regionally as well, it's wild

Have you been to Yost ? That hasn't hurt Michigan's recruiting over the years and they came back strong this year and how do you explain them getting Berniers ? Though I admit it's by accident when HU decided to have no hockey due to the pandemic

[J.D.]

Ya but Yost is dedicated to one team. Hoops plays at Crisler Center and they don't have a women's hockey team.

[Split-N]

Eh if they're gonna do a new rink I want the men playing games there. Women too. No issue with that. Much better than having 4 teams share Conte Forum. If anyone can name another D1 school with that setup please share.

Your friends over on Huntington Ave. have an almost identical situation with Matthews although women's hoops doesn't play many games there. NU has done a nice job over the years modernizing Matthews but there's only so far you can go with a 103-yo facility. There's been talk about expanding the building footprint to include space for hockey and hoops practice facilities plus some creature comforts but the city hasn't exactly been accommodating and that's before the historic preservation people get involved.

[BC/HE]

Ok but then do you pay each guy the same? Doubt any program would do that and there has to be someone who makes final decisions unless they do rock, paper, scissors behind the bench.

I seriously doubt a school like BC would be the first to do it but maybe it would be a good experiment at a lower level program perhaps in the AHC. If it works there it could expand.

[Chuck Murray]

Do you have to have a head coach? What about the possibility of co-head coaches being implemented instead? It could be the start of something new if it works. One for the Forwards, the other for Defense and Goal.

Someone has to have the final say, so ultimately it's unworkable. If you have two guys in charge ... well, it's like the saying in the NFL, if you have two starting QB's, then you have no starting QB. Think about it ... if your two guys disagree during the flow of the game, how do you hash that out in real time? If the two HC's disagree about program-wide issues, yeah, maybe the AD can become your tiebreaker, but that's going to get really old, really quickly for the AD. Also ... why would someone who aspires to be an HC ever want to share that role in the first place?

I can see some small-time program trying something like this out in a unique situation with two rising AC's, but why would an elite program like BC even consider it?

There are lots of reasons this hasn't been tried - often, if at all - at high level competitive sports.