Re: Boston University 2009-2010 Season Thread II: Still got a pulse, time for CPR
Does anyone remember any stellar saves by Muse? He's good. He did his job, but BU is making an awful lot of goalies look like world beaters.
Muse was really quick, I remember him making some huge post-to-post saves that most goalies in HE would not have gotten to. Nothing completely spectacular, but that was quite impressive. He could also teach Rollie a thing or two about controlling/smothering rebounds.
As for Colby, he is by far the worst player on the team. It's great that he has such a good shot, but that really is all that he has. Any one that stands up for him is picking out the few decent plays he makes and overlooking the fact that he is out of position 90% of the time and has surrendered countless giveaways. I wish I had a count going of the number of opponent goals on which the scoring shot would not have occurred had Colby not given the puck away. He cannot skate like a top-4 defenseman, and positioning is usually the saving grace for solid defensemen that lack in the skating category, but like I said, he has nothing going for him there. The only way he ever plays in the NHL (or even AHL) is if he gets a really level head and someone just revamps nearly all aspects of his game. Colby winning MVP of the championship was one of the very few disappointments last year (2 of his giveaways led to Miami goals, yet because he scored the winner, despite the incredible play of Bonino, Gilroys and others, he gets MVP). Things like that only serve to strengthen his ego and his thinking that he is on track for the NHL. Hopefully someone is trying to talk some sense into him. It would not upset me in the least though to see him go the way of Brett Bennett.
As has been mentioned, Vinny is clearly having some finishing issues. He always seems to be in position on the powerplay, and as it often did last year, the puck always seems headed for his stick, but he just whiffs or misses the net. Lawrence is clearly missed in that spot, but there has to be someone that can be put there on the 1st PP that can actually finish that play. I think he has a ton of potential, but just may need to settle down a bit and try to gain some comfort in confidence in order to be successful.
Yes the defense was much better least year, but Kieran was as well, and he hasn't been nearly as good this year. Rollie has not improved like I expected so far (though his time missed may explain that) and that lack of a consistent guy is a huge issue right now.
For the first two periods last night, Kieran looked to be back to normal. He looked calm, cool, and collected making saves Rollie surely would have missed the previous night. He was controlling rebounds with consistency and was a rock for us when we needed him. For some reason that quickly changed in the 3rd period, but the first two periods were very promising.
I am not really sure why you think Rollie has improved, as his terrible starts against UVM and Cornell pretty much led us to those ties. He was horrific against UVM, giving up Bennett-esque rebounds in the slot, and again like Bennett, flopping around aimlessly, completely out of position.
Kieran's play in the first two periods last night, combined with Rollie's play for the entire games against UVM and Cornell, very much make me hope Jack sticks with Kieran from here on out with only the odd start for Rollie.
EDIT:
I want to add that I think this is a very talented team, and with a few more bounces going in BU's direction I think our record could look very different. If we can avoid injuries and we get hot at the right time, a lot is possible with this group.
