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2022 - 2023 Season BOSTON COLLEGE

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.:)
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
DNAEagle said:
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.
Click to expand...

They are a team with talent but with a lot of obvious deficiencies. The PK in particular is a glaring problem almost the whole season. Since the UVM series each PP goal given up is a killer and you can even go back to the ASU loss where a PP goal was given up in a 2-1 loss.

They do the same thing almost each game / loss and teams are on to their game as mentioned by someone.

Shot selection and pass selection are poor at times which accounts for many shots blocked or missed or lead to bad turnovers.

It is very rare they play a complete 60 minute game and it shows when you consistently lack offense and lose.

Going back to the PK, their passivity does not work. They tend to bunch up around the goalie or overload one side too much leaving the weak side wide open, and give up too much space around the perimeter. On almost every PP goal given up, the backdoor is wide open for a open net goal.

Why they can't address that is a total head scratcher and it reflects on the coaching staff each and everyone of them involved.

I had the same thought on shootouts. Maybe they should yank Benson and put in someone else in Shootouts.

The focus is not there in critical situations and boom it happens like last night. 1 second before the shootout, they let up and get caught on a 2 on 1 again.

I was lukewarm on Brown as coach and his assistants but next year with the #1 recruiting class coming in and if they have the same recurring problems then Brown was not the right choice to succeed JY.

I was hoping for an upset win last night but knew down deep this team is too flawed and vulnerable to the same issues each game almost.

Realistically I don't expect them to pull off an HE Tournament win to avoid sitting at home and watching the NCAAs.
 
DNAEagle said:
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.
Click to expand...

The NCAA decided this and it was in place for last year's Beanpot.
 
I thought the schools rejected that last year. Whatever it is still a bad way to end a tournament. Consolation game yes, semi's and finals no.
 
DNAEagle said:
I thought the schools rejected that last year. Whatever it is still a bad way to end a tournament. Consolation game yes, semi's and finals no.
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The Connecticut Ice Cup and the Great Lakes Invitational both appear to have also adopted these rules SHU, Yale, Quinnipiac and Yale played these rules in 2022 and 2023, so not likely anything to do with Dunkin. Are you sure the NCAA didn't? I believe they thought the OT games were simply too long. I think that's why. In 2020 the final the 2nd longest on record ended after midnight. People didn't get out of the garden until nearly 1am...causing the MBTA to keep the T and public transport open at considerable expense to the city.
 
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I am not sure of when the change was made I just think it they should play until they have a 5X5 winner. I am not in favor Shoot outs under any circumstances except skills competition but not in hockey games.
 
DNAEagle said:
I am not sure of when the change was made I just think it they should play until they have a 5X5 winner. I am not in favor Shoot outs under any circumstances except skills competition but not in hockey games.
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The NCAA refused to allow the team to play a regular 5-5 overtime- They specifically asked for it
 
It’s important not to over-react after these weekly losses and ties (and shootout losses). That being said, we need to take a serious look at firing the entire coaching staff.

This team is goddamn terrible.
 
The Eagle has landed, wow, lots of shots but little result. By the end of the season they could be in the HE basement. I am not sure what the problem is but i don't think it is coaching but it there could be a motivation issue.
 
I really wish Hokydad would come back and give us his honest assessment of this BC team and the program overall.

This entire athletic department needs an enema.
 
I look at the Hockey Program as a separate division fro the rest of the Athletic Department. But I also care very little about the other sports.
 
I feel weird saying this, but can we try not to overreact? This has been a disappointing season to put it charitably, but it's Brown's first season, so I think we can hold off on building the gallows for the moment. Now if multiple players from next years incoming class don't end up coming or they do and despite the influx of talent the product on the ice does not improve, then that will be a different story.
 
Well you are never as bad as you look and never as good as you think you are. Nice win after a brutal stretch of a games and a very tough January and early February schedule. Gasseau is coming on and Benson was solid.
 
Cross Check said:
I feel weird saying this, but can we try not to overreact? This has been a disappointing season to put it charitably, but it's Brown's first season, so I think we can hold off on building the gallows for the moment. Now if multiple players from next years incoming class don't end up coming or they do and despite the influx of talent the product on the ice does not improve, then that will be a different story.
Click to expand...

I agree. Haven't been on here in a while but does anyone actually follow how these games have been going? They routinely outshoot the opponent which typically leads to good results. There's a couple problems. Last time I looked at save percentage #s I think Benson was near the bottom of Hockey East. He's been ok but not good enough for what this team needs. The PK has killed them but are they getting enough saves from the goalie? They also can't score enough to overcome the average at best goaltending. So you see a lot of low scoring close losses where they outshoot the opposition. They were worse last year. They were hovering around the NCAA tournament bubble and have had a rough stretch where they are now around 25. It's not like they are 40th. The scorers are coming next year. What needs to end is the grad transfer goalie route. It hasn't worked. Hopefully Jacob Fowler is the next guy. It's not like they are getting run off the ice every night. Frustrating for sure but they probably deserved some better results over the last few weeks.
 
He is not Knight but it is tough to hold opponents to goose eggs. BC has had too many 1 goal games and too many ties and shoot out losses in part because BC can not put it in the net on shoot outs. Once thing is clear picking goalies up on the waiver wire is not a winning strategy.
 
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