Re: Boston University off-season thread (preparing for 16/17).
The first time I met Sully was at Captain Nemo's in Kenmore, when he was a gawky skinny freshman newly arrived on Comm Ave. We had a pretty stacked team that year (though they were ultimately disappointing), but he stuck with the team, played a prominent role, and was obviously a high quality player from the start. If he hadn't badly injured his ankle in the series against Michigan State in '90 (and despite this, still carried the team on his back), who knows what might have happened in those final two games.
Perhaps, my memory has failed me again, but I think Sullivan was the 3rd line center on the 1989-90 team. McEachern centered the 1st line, Dave Tomlinson the 2nd. Now, that was a team that was stacked.
Actually, Sullivan only played 14 games at center in 1989-90. He started the season as the 1st line center for 12 games, then he was moved to the left wing, where he played 23 of 24 games, 20 on the 2nd line, 1 on the 3rd and 2 on the 4th (the other game he played 1st line right wing). He finished up playing his final 2 games at center again, this time on the 4th line. He did not play in 6 games, all during the postseason.
The regular centers were McEachern (31 games: all on the first line), Tomlinson (43 games: 1 on the first line, 25 on the 2nd line, 7 on the 3rd line and 10 on the 4th line), Koskimaki (40 games: 18 on the 2nd line, 16 on the 3rd line and 6 on the 4th line) and Mark Bavis (40 games: 1 on the 2nd line, 21 on the 3rd line and 18 on the 4th line).
The 1986-87 team, Sullivan's freshman season, was supposed to be good and I believe it was the pre-season #1 ranked team. It was lead by John Cullen and included Clark Donatelli, Ed Lowney and Scott Young. That season the centers were John Cullen (36 games: all 1st line), Mike Kelfer (30 games: 29 on the 2nd line and 1 on the 3rd line) and Jeff Sveen (34 games: 3 on the 2nd line, 25 on the 3rd line and 6 on the 4th line). The fourth line had no regular center as John Preston (13 games), Sullivan (8 games), Brian Foreman (4 games), Ville Kentala (3 games), and Ian Wood (1 game) all took turns along with Sveen centering the line.
Sean
