Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo
They can obviously recruit blue chippers. But haven't gotten the balance right between one/twos and done and four-year guys.
Out of the seniors that we honored on Saturday, how many will be difficult to replace?
Hickey, and ...
McLeod and Diffley's best years were their freshman years. Melanson has only been here for one year after coming over from RPI. Phelps and Olsson have one goal between them. Role players who had reduced roles as their careers continued.
I think there was a bit of a learning curve w/ BU's recruiting approach following the coaching change. Out of
what would've been this year's Senior class, Eichel, MacLeod and Piccinich had all committed to BU under Parker. Following Quinn's hire, he and Greeley had to work quickly to get incoming players arriving for the 2014-15 season. IIRC Phelps, Diffley, Hickey, Greer and Olsson all committed to BU only months prior to matriculating; ditto with Fortunato after his late decommitment from Harvard.
As we all know, despite the potential, not everything was worked out to its desired results across blue-chippers, role players and recruits, due to a combo of:
Blue-chippers not panning out and departing (Bellows, Greer)
Surprise departures (JFK)
Dismissal from program (Collier, MacAfee, D. Lawrence, Fortunato)
Role players departing for more playing time elsewhere (Kurker, Duane, Piccinich, McDermott, Andren)
No-shows for different reasons (Letunov, Sherwood)
Decommitments (Coughlin, MacTavish, Kolias)
Depth players not developing as they became upperclassmen (Phelps, Olsson, MacLeod, Diffley, Cloonan)
I'll still say that I would like to see more emotion - some fire, and at least a pulse - from David Quinn on the bench. He's not Jack Parker. He doesn't have to be. But when they are taking a half or whole period off, playing with no motivation, it would be nice to see life on the bench.
There isn't any fire on the bench from the assistants, either.
Wherever Albie O'Connell has been, the power plays have tended to be pretty effective. BU's was better than many seem to realize this season. How much does he have to do with coaching the forwards? He is the only former forward on the staff.
Len Quesnelle was a very curious hire. He isn't a BU guy. His tenure as a head coach at Princeton was a disaster. He didn't fair much better as an assistant at UMass. And he had been a scout for the Detroit Red Wings when he was hired. Like Quinn, he was a defenseman in his playing days.
I'm not sure what he offers. It is not obvious, whatever it is. So these points may or may not be unfair to his contribution.
The penalty killing, unlike the power play, has been pretty atrocious. See: Beanpot final, among others.
Brian Eklund has a solid rep as a goaltender coach.
BU does not need a new coaching staff. A different mix, and more of a pulse, is another story.
There's been some instability around the program in the 5 years since the coaching change. As cited previously, it goes beyond the high turnover rate on the roster. There's also been quite the rotation of assistant coaches besides Albie (Powers, Greeley, Young, Quennelle), hockey ops (3 different individuals in the role in last 4 years), strength & conditioning (3 different S&C coaches in last 4 years).
I think Albie has done a very nice job in his role; ditto with Brian Eklund. The same can be said of the current hockey ops director as well as the S&C coach; each of the preceding S&C coaches left for very legitimate reasons/opportunities.
IMO, the assistant coach position could've been fortified in recent years. Despite being a BU guy and for all of his accomplishments in the NHL/Team USA, I was never convinced Scott Young was a good fit in that role or in the college game. He always struck me as very much a NHL guy and to me, never seemed particularly invested in his job at BU.
And despite being a long-time college hockey coach, I found the Quennelle hire to be a bit curious given he had zero ties to BU and his track record @ Princeton and @ UMASS. I was expecting the hire to be a young, hungry assistant climbing the coaching ladder, ideally with BU ties (i.e. Joe Pereira).
I also believe there's priority placed on developing the blue chippers at the expense of the role players, which may be a factor in why most of BU's role players have either regressed or flatlined since their respective Freshman years. They've often been replaced in the lineup by the next wave of Freshmen, only to see some of those players then subsequently replaced by the following Freshmen class and so on.
You're right that BU doesn't need a new coaching staff, but it needs to fine tune its recruiting philosophy and player development to better manage roster turnover and improve consistency of in-game execution.
