Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

[brassbonanza]

Re: Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

I think BU only pushed it to OT thanks to Millan. While the shot discrepancy improved over the course of the game, I thought BC still outnumbered BU significantly in Grade A scoring opportunities. Millan robbed BC many more times than Milner did BU.

Until two weeks ago, I would have agreed that these two teams are very close, but unfortunately, now I think BC has found their typical late season push, and BU is dealing with the downstream impacts of the two losses at center and a couple injuries on d. With Privitera back and Nicastro healthy, I'd say BU closes the gap somewhat, but BC is still the superior team in my book. Sure, with Millan in net, on any guven night, BU could win. But I like BC's chances much better at this point.

We played a great third period, controlled play for a large part of the time, held BC to five shots, and had numerous opportunities to put in the go-ahead goal. We also did a stellar job of limiting their grade-A chances on the PP, specifically on their 5 on 3's. They did pile up a lot of shots during those 5 on 3's, but many were lower quality point shots. IIRC, none of their goals came form the grade-A area. BC is clearly playing at the top of their game right now, and playing extremely well, as good as or better than anyone in the country, and with key injuries at the blue line, we competed with them last night and had numerous chances to win. Clearly, they did as well, and they did a better job of cashing in on them.

 

[J.D.]

Re: Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

Last night made me feel a whole lot better about the goaltending matchup should these teams meet again. Not that Milner is better than Millan. If he/BC play like they did last night, he won't have to be better than Millan. And I know Millan is having a good year, but he just doesn't scare me.

re: faceoffs

Just another thing Bertagna will do nothing about.

 

[brassbonanza]

Re: Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

Last night made me feel a whole lot better about the goaltending matchup should these teams meet again. Not that Milner is better than Millan. If he/BC play like they did last night, he won't have to be better than Millan. And I know Millan is having a good year, but he just doesn't scare me.

re: faceoffs

Just another thing Bertagna will do nothing about.

Milner definitely looks improved, and seemed to be playing his angles a lot better. That said, BU missed more than a couple of open net opportunities.

 

[ericredaxe]

Re: Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

Still wondering if this team has the stones to go places this year.

I would suggest that if anything, what this BU team DOES have this year is "stones"... while depeleted of depth from departures and injuries, this team does show up to play every night. Very different from the complaints we have heard off and on over the past few years about how we have talent but the players dont seem to care.

 

[Bomber]

Re: Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

I would suggest that if anything, what this BU team DOES have this year is "stones"... while depeleted of depth from departures and injuries, this team does show up to play every night. Very different from the complaints we have heard off and on over the past few years about how we have talent but the players dont seem to care.

Agree 100%.

 

[Tater]

Re: Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

I would suggest that if anything, what this BU team DOES have this year is "stones"... while depeleted of depth from departures and injuries, this team does show up to play every night. Very different from the complaints we have heard off and on over the past few years about how we have talent but the players dont seem to care.

Agree 100%.

Exactly. Win or lose, I have been much more proud and pleased with this team than many of the past decade.

 

[Rover]

Re: Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

I would suggest that if anything, what this BU team DOES have this year is "stones"... while depeleted of depth from departures and injuries, this team does show up to play every night. Very different from the complaints we have heard off and on over the past few years about how we have talent but the players dont seem to care.

Let me rephrase then - do they have the ability to rise up and win big games? I'm thrilled with their ability to overcome the Trivino debacle (for the umpteenth time, anybody who thinks Coyle was a difference maker before he left is an idiot or was attracted to the guy). See, the problem is they don't hand out hardware for overcoming the loss of a player, nor for trying hard every night. They award it for finishing the title game with the most goals. To that end, lets see if they can bag a trophy at the end of the HE playoffs. That's going to require playing 4 games much more solidly than the've played the last 2.

 

[J.D.]

Re: Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

Forget if Coyle was a "difference maker". The fact of the matter is, he's better than Rosen, Hohmann, Rodrigues, and Courtnall. That's been my point the entire time.

 

[Rover]

Re: Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

Forget if Coyle was a "difference maker". The fact of the matter is, he's better than Rosen, Hohmann, Rodrigues, and Courtnall. That's been my point the entire time.

A fair point, although I doubt that would have changed the team's fate last night unless Coyle would have put 20 shots or so on net to make up for the disparity in play.

 

[J.D.]

Re: Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

You never know though as all it takes is one play in a game like that...a play that he's more likely to make than the guys I mentioned. Had BU got blown out of the building, you'd probably have a better case of saying Coyle wouldn't have made a difference.

 

[brassbonanza]

Re: Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

A fair point, although I doubt that would have changed the team's fate last night unless Coyle would have put 20 shots or so on net to make up for the disparity in play.

I've come to see what those talking about Coyle were saying. Lots of talent, but really didn't contribute a whole lot on the ice in terms of the whole team. These guys are great at playing together, passive effectively, knowing where each other will be, Coyle was kind of a puck hog along the boards, cycled to nowhere, drop passed to no one, etc. That said, Trivino's puck awareness in front of the net is a big loss, there have been multiple times where there's been a loose puck lying around that no one got to, which is how he racked up many of his goals in the first semester.

 

[carltonbarrett]

Re: Beanpot LX: All your Beanpots are belong to us

I've come to see what those talking about Coyle were saying. Lots of talent, but really didn't contribute a whole lot on the ice in terms of the whole team. These guys are great at playing together, passive effectively, knowing where each other will be, Coyle was kind of a puck hog along the boards, cycled to nowhere, drop passed to no one, etc. That said, Trivino's puck awareness in front of the net is a big loss, there have been multiple times where there's been a loose puck lying around that no one got to, which is how he racked up many of his goals in the first semester.

Coyle had 14 pts in 16 games, so how can you say he didn't contribute? Maybe not the superstar you were expecting, but c'mon, the kid wasn't chopped liver.