Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"
Re: Boston University: 2010-11 part I - "so...you're saying i get a calendar??"
Nice start. Bad finish. At one point BU was outshooting the Minutemen 20-10. Next thing I knew it was 25-20 UMass.
Gill was my favorite Freshman. I was very unimpressed with Coyle. I think we need to back off the Colin Wilson comparisons.
I'm surprised that Gilroy was the one to sit.
Millan played well. Good to see.
The band has a new director. You could tell. The tempos were slow and there was a general lack of energy. Hopefully, they adjust and find their game.
BU Hockey: Bad Tie
Hmmm. I thought Coyle looked good. Really strong on the puck and made a couple beautiful passes for great chances. Wish he was a little more involved. And from my angle, he should have taken the shot on that 2 on 1. Had his pick of 5 hole or the whole glove side of the net.
Really disappointed with the last 30 minutes overall. Not only do they give the puck away, they do it in the most asinine places. Warsofsky and Connolly were among the worst offenders. Against a better team, or with Millan playing only average, they get smoked tonight.
That UMass goalie- fun to watch, but a little coo coo bananas. Haven't seen a goalie wander that much or take more hits in a long time. High risk/reward type.
Agree with exactly what Bomber says. He saved me time. A few things to add:
Clendening will be OK but he's got to can this "let me skate/pass it right up the slot" routine. Very fortunate he didn't cost us more.
Freshman forwards look good. Defensemen are all shaky. The squad gets caught way too deep too often. A lot of odd man rushes for UMass eh?
Is it we don't have one stay at home guy or is that the strategy?
Alex C. needs to shoot more. That extra pass on the two on one was silly.
Trivino coasts all the time out there. He just doesn't move his feet and glides around. If he had 1/2 the hustle of Joe P. or CC he'd be good.
Kevin Gilroy >> Courtnall
Very fortunate to get a point to a game UMass squad. Maybe this will wake them up?
Agree on Gill, I like his energy. Disagree on Coyle, he made some real man-sized plays out there, had good presence. Clendening was horrible, I thought. A lot of standing around and some not-smart plays.
I didn't think Clendening was fantastic, but I wouldn't say he was horrible. I saw him really taking control on the ice a couple of times, instructing players where to go, reminding people to get back etc. That's great to see from a freshman who is paired with the team's best defenseman. I also thought he stayed back a few times where others might get jumpy which is also important to do when paired with Warsofsky. He made freshman mistakes IMO.
I thought Nieto, aside from the goal, had a few real bad passes where it looked like he was just trying to hit the puck as hard as he could rather than reach his teammates.
Courtnall was a mess. Not sure why he played instead of Gilroy.
I thought Trivino looked lazy out there. He wasn't moving his feet well for the majority of the game and he would win battles along the boards, and then do nothing with the puck. It didn't look like he had his head together.
Chiasson was too slow to shoot. The only other thing I noticed about him was he looked bigger to me. Maybe that's because Gryba's no longer on the team?
Time to take a break from studying...
Re: Coyle- Might not have been his best game last night, but I thought he still played well. He's just so strong on the puck. He fended off two defenders with relative ease before setting up Connolly's goal. If that's a "bad" game for him (and it probably was compared to the other 3 games I've seen), then I'd say he's gonna be just fine.
Re: Gill- I was interested to see if his game changed at all playing the wing, but it really didn't. Still the playmaker of the line, still always looking for the open man. He just reads the game really well and I haven't seen him make a stupid pass or play yet. I still think he's a more natural center (and definitely a better faceoff man than Gaudet or Santana), but I understand moving him up a line instead of keeping him on the 4th line.
Re: Clendening- I commented on the live blog when he made that first turnover in the slot that it was the first time I've seen him look like a freshman. Then he made 4 or 5 more turnovers down the stretch. Really shocked to see that after the way he played in the first 3+ games (including the exhibition). UMass was much more aggressive on the forecheck than Toronto, Wisconsin or ND, so I'm sure that had something to do with it. I think he's good enough and smart enough to avoid having another game like last night, but he definitely got caught off-guard several times... and that caught me off-guard.
Re: Trivino and Chiasson- I agree that both of them need to be more aggressive (Trivino forechecking, Chiasson shooting), but I thought they both had pretty good games for the most part. That line possessed the puck a lot and obviously they had the goal. They're not scrappy speedsters like Pereira and Connolly. That's just not their game. If that's what you're expecting, then you'll probably never be satisfied with them. They're more in the Zach/Vinny mold- big guys who use their bodies to protect the puck. They create chances off possession, not speed. Sure, sometimes that means a slower pace than other lines, but that can be just as effective, even if it's not as exciting.
Re: Gilroy vs. Courtnall- I agree that Gilroy brings more to the table. I know Courtnall did great with the Blackhawks this summer, but I'm just not seeing it. Maybe he's doing well in practice and it's just not translating. I don't know. But I thought Gilroy played better in the Ice Breaker and it seems like he's much more likely to make something happen at this point.
One other thing I wanna point out- this team is absolutely killing people on faceoffs right now. Check out these numbers through 3 games:
Coyle: 39-27 (.591)
Megan: 26-15 (.634)
Gill: 15-11 (.577)
Trivino: 12-5 (.706)
Santana: 4-5 (.444)
The only one who's seen more than a handful of draws and been real bad is Gaudet. He's 7-24 (.292), but he's been moved to wing now.
We'll see if the faceoff dominance continues, but it's definitely good to see after how bad they were early on last season in the circle.
They're not working.
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