2022 - 2023 Season BOSTON COLLEGE

[DNAEagle]

I wouldn't put it in miracle category, as a Catholic institution the standards for miracles are pretty high. It will be an uphill battle and if they get behind in the first it could be over early. BU will try and put the hammer down early, BC has to have better dzone coverage and stay out of the box. Have to survive the 1st period.

[Carmine Scarpaglia]

Ice began to tilt to BU after Nesterenko missed on the breakaway. BU is playing very well and has a lot of talent all over the ice. They would be better with a little less woofing, got wo penalties for it. I am sure Benson was exhausted and it was smart to pull him

I'm generally a "take it like a man or play better" kind of guy, but yea, BU was really dbagging it up last night.

I thought the front of the net area in front of Benson was a large problem last night. The first BU goal was a scramble and one of the next ones in the second was a roofed loose puck in the top of the crease area. Even one of the last BU goals was due to the screen in front where Warren lost the battle.

[DNAEagle]

This could be a repeat of last January in which they went 0 for, only this time they have all their players. NU on Tuesday,(who had the week end off), UML away and then Harvard. Yikes. No fault on Benson last night, the three goals were just rockets and well placed. The tip on the third goals just found the far post. BC played well but maybe a little over passing in the OZone, some of the passes are really clever and fun to watch but do not result in a high quality shot. Keep playing hard and good things will happen.

[Cross Check]

It's not a great sign when last night was one of BC's better efforts of the season and it was still an L to a BU team without Fensore. I hate to admit it, but the talent difference between those two teams this year is significant. BU's season will continue past the HE playoffs. BC will be a .500 team, maybe a couple of games over, but barring a run to a HE tourney championship, will be staying home come NCAA time.

In particular, that Lane Hutson is really something. Kid can play.

[DNAEagle]

Yup he can, very confident with the puck. Yes lots of bad signs but I think there wasn't much difference between the two teams them last night. BC dominated the third period and the first two periods were at even, maybe a territorial edge to BC. Commesso was the best player on the ice, he didn't have to made spectacular saves but he was always in great position all night. The lone goal was a terrific pass by Nesterenko and Gasseau wasted no time putting it in. The pipe saved him once, it was a rocket by Izck but other than that he was more than solid. Friday night was a different story.

[brassbonanza]

Of course there was a territorial edge, BU played four defensemen all weekend and were gassed by the end of the second game of the weekend. The fifth and sixth D got sporadic shifts Friday and the sixth I believe got zero shifts last night. Playing on your home ice after getting embarrassed the night before - I'd hope your team could muster an effort by the end to throw in the kitchen sink and go for the tie. Even then, your only goal came on a 5 on 3 when both guys in the box were two of those four defensemen.

[DNAEagle]

I guess we should have given the goal back because it was so unfair, 4 defensemen, two nights of hockey,5 on 3,next you will want an investigation of the refs, maybe they went to BC. Good thing BU won or the whining would have been deafening.

[mookie1995]

Good news is y’all get a home game in the first round of hea playoffs to help your chances for pairwise ;-)

[Marshmont_63]

Just figured I'd throw this out there, but does anyone have an extra ticket they wouldn't mind parting with for the BC vs NU game on Tuesday (1/31) at Matthews? Thanks

[DNAEagle]

Winning a game with only 1 goal is a very tough thing to do. The top 6 have to put the puck in, they were all over NU for most of the game. Levi was terrific but these losses aren't Benson's fault he is playing well and keeping them in games. They need to put the puck in the net

[Carmine Scarpaglia]

Took the quick trip to UML on Friday night (luckily the car started on the way home). I gotta say this is a very weird team we have this year. They really aren't THAT bad. BUT you are what your record says you are. They are able to carry play against teams like BU for long, long periods of time. Hitting a lot of posts lately (4 in the last two weeks that I can think of off the top of my head) and generally not able to put the puck in the net enough IMO. Benson really hasn't been bad but maybe that is an assessment I am wrong with? The PP is above average. You can't really point to any single player that is playing poorly. The effort is solid across the board IMO. There generally aren't a lot of glaring mistakes. So what is the problem?

- PK is not good and is somewhat of an outlier when compared to other things, putting them around the bottom third of D1 (39th technically) where most other things have them in middle of the pack or higher. It's just bad. Could an elite tender have bolstered this unit and erase some mistakes? Sure.
- The PP is very good and one of the better units in the nation. Even with the bad PK, they are a +5 net in special teams when you add in their 2 SHGF.
- Even strength... they are a net -9. Hmmm. Big issue. This stands out a lot when considering the below stats.


- Faceoff win % is 8th in the country. Terrific. Faceoff wins = possession = shots. They outshoot opponents on average of about 2.3 shots per game. Not a lot but it's better than being outshot.
- Overall BC is 15th in CF%. Digging between shot attempts and unblocked shot attempts (hello UML game where they blocked a ton of BC shots as always) you see about a drop of 4 positions nationally which further amplifies the issue.
- And the big one. Shooting % is just bad. 46th in the country. And not surprising to be honest.

CORSI CF% ranks: 15th overall, 19th ES, 9th PP.
NCAA rank GF/G 32nd. GA/G 30th.

It's tough to tell if they are unlucky or will continue to trend this line. Or who knows what else. It's clear they lack pure goal scorers and true creative players that can dominate when they are on the ice. We knew that and I think that speaks to the problems on even strength scoring and shot %.

I think the defense/Benson is generally being let off the hook here in this discussion because there is also a discrepancy on the numbers for the goals against but that may be a discussion for another day. Or another poster.

PiszPot tomorrow.

[bruinsfan11]

Benson isn’t bad but he doesn’t exactly steal anything either. If a game goes to a shootout we may as well replace him with an orange cone.

[Carmine Scarpaglia]

Given that even strength is such an issue, the +/- numbers are VERY interesting. We have only 3 players that are in the plus column. Absolutely crazy.

[DNAEagle]

SOL are more the absence of SCORING, it is really a liability and Nesterenko has to come up with a different move, he uses the same one and they are onto it, he also tries to go backhand loses it off the end of the stick. Overall Benson is not the pronblem it has more to do with scoring. Sat night UML gave up 5 goals, hard to understand. The PP has to look for other plays than the diagonal to Gathier, they are all onto that. Crash the net, the only Kuntar and Gausseau consistently do that.

[DNAEagle]

Hockey is a cruel game but this season it is beyond painful to see them lose in the last seconds after staging a great comeback. The 3X3 and shoot out is a terrible way to end a tournament game, can help but wonder if Dunkin had something to do with it.