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BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

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Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

Big Papa said:
I agree. It's like 'chicken little, chicken little. The sky is falling down."

Just chill baby. BU has an awesome team and super coaching.

I'm a Black Bear fan and we have fairweather fans too. They think they know everything and blame everyone. Who cares!
It's college hockey. relax and enjoy.
Be happy you have a team that you can watch play.

BU is a great school with a great hockey program.

Hey if you beat BC these same yahoos will flip flop and talk about how great BU hockey is.

Good Luck the rest of the season.
Enjoy the ride. It's a lot of fun!
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I don't think Sterlippo was referring to the issue of BU fans blaming their coach, so much as the posts regarding gambling.

I for one have been calling for a coaching change, and I don't consider myself a fair-weather fan or a "yahoo". I was a season ticket holder for 7 years (until marriage and kids got in the way) and have followed this team since 1986-87. Other than Scarlet, I don't know many people who put BU Hockey as high on their priority list as I do. My desire for a new coach is not something I have jumped on in a short time frame, it is based on 25 years of watching Jack Parker-coached teams, the effort they give, and the results they produce. Nobody would be happier than me if we saw this team turn things around - more consistent effort, better PP, etc. If Parker shows me that he can still drive this bus, I'll be happy to stop saying I want a new driver.
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

Rover said:
I think JD might be that Westfield St grad with a degree in typewriter repair or something, so perhaps its not worth the time to argue BU-BC with him. ;)
Click to expand...

Again, you know nothing about me.
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

defkit said:
I don't think Sterlippo was referring to the issue of BU fans blaming their coach, so much as the posts regarding gambling.
Click to expand...

correct, that and the religion issue.............I dont get into the blaming Parker thing as it's not my place IMO
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

defkit said:
I for one have been calling for a coaching change, and I don't consider myself a fair-weather fan or a "yahoo". I was a season ticket holder for 7 years (until marriage and kids got in the way) and have followed this team since 1986-87. Other than Scarlet, I don't know many people who put BU Hockey as high on their priority list as I do. My desire for a new coach is not something I have jumped on in a short time frame, it is based on 25 years of watching Jack Parker-coached teams, the effort they give, and the results they produce. Nobody would be happier than me if we saw this team turn things around - more consistent effort, better PP, etc. If Parker shows me that he can still drive this bus, I'll be happy to stop saying I want a new driver.
Click to expand...

How was Parker's driving in 2008-09 ... when they won more titles than any team in a season in the history of college hockey?
OK, they may have played in more competitions, but they won them all.

So obviously he hadn't lost the plot then.
So has he lost it over the past two seasons?

I go back even further than you ... to Jack Kelly's NCAA title teams. I can certainly remember the 1970s, which was an even better decade for BU hockey than the 1990s.

I think the real issue is: has BU been as good as we think it should be since 2000, when BC started to make its rise to national prominence?
BU has generally been good, but there have been a few too many NCAA tournament misses by teams with records in the vicinity of 20-14-2 for my liking.
It is not as if the program has gone bad. Far from it. But it hasn't consistently achieved at a level that we expect, or know that it could.

If I really want to look at where the program is, I think we need to go back no further than the opening of Agganis Arena in Jan., 2005.
Prior to then, I think Parker did a terrific job of keeping BU at or near the top with substandard facilities. The facilities at Conte Forum, as well as at Maine, UNH and UMass were far better.
Agganis Arena was not only a great equalizer, it also gave BU an advantage of having the best facilities in the East.
Has Parker taken full advantage of that change? The results would indicate that not to the extent that it probably should.
In fact, it may have changed some of the focus of recruiting to the pro prospects rather than those that really wanted to play from BU, and weren't looking ahead before it was time.

I agree that BU has been too inconsistent over the past several years, getting up for the big games and skating through others, with some poor losses. Robert Morris anyone?

As a recognized "signature" college hockey program, BU shouldn't be having losing seasons.
Unless that started to happen, Jack Parker won't be going anywhere.

I am interested to see how the team reacts this weekend ... and beyond. It is still very early, and there is a lot to analyse before coming to any conclusions about the head coach or the coaching staff.
 
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Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

collegefan06 said:
Where was "religion" brought up on this thread by a BU poster?
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go read page 32 of your own thread, the subject was brought up 3 times just on that page, by BU fans . i am not interested in flaming with you or anyone else and the fact that a BU fan agreed with me that the thread was being desecrated on and only one of your fellow fans agreed with you while all the others said nothing tells you something so go take your flaming to someone else. I have been nothing but complimentary to BU fans and this thread and have great respect for the BU hockey program..............
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

sterlippo1 said:
go read page 32 of your own thread, the subject was brought up 3 times just on that page, by BU fans . i am not interested in flaming with you or anyone else and the fact that a BU fan agreed with me that the thread was being desecrated on and only one of your fellow fans agreed with you while all the others said nothing tells you something so go take your flaming to someone else. I have been nothing but complimentary to BU fans and this thread and have great respect for the BU hockey program..............
Click to expand...

Your comment is fair. I'd missed that page entirely but now see what you are referring to. Thanks for the clarification.
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

Harry Cleverly said:
How was Parker's driving in 2008-09 ... when they won more titles than any team in a season in the history of college hockey?
OK, they may have played in more competitions, but they won them all.

To be honest, if you remember that season, many of those games were similar to recent games. Look at every game in the tournament. Ohio State made something of a comeback scoring three consecutive goals. Vermont came back to take a lead after being down by 2. Miami took a 3-1 halfway through the third. The current problems started that season, but that team was just good enough to recover from it's mistakes. They would score and think "oh we got this" and lighten up, but they could turn it back on in time. With the leadership and talent on that team Parker didn't need to do much coaching. I think he got senioritis (pun intended) and lost control of the team. The team has now just generally acquired that idea that they don't need to try hard because they will somehow just win. It's also possible that all Parker does is scream and belittle them so they just started ignoring him.

People are taking this 7-1 loss way too hard. Yeah it was a bad loss, but those things happen from time to time. A loss is a loss whether it's 2-1 or 7-1. Remember we beat DU, UNH, a Umass team that beat BC. We lost to a much improved PC and UML team (I'm ignoring the HC loss because it was awful). BU will come out hard against MC, I think hard enough to get a W. I can't say how we will look against BC, but generally we play hard. I also think Parker should play Rollie against BC because they have less experience against him.

Look for 2 points for BU this weekend and another week in the top 20.
Click to expand...
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

Harry Cleverly said:
How was Parker's driving in 2008-09 ... when they won more titles than any team in a season in the history of college hockey?
OK, they may have played in more competitions, but they won them all.

So obviously he hadn't lost the plot then.
So has he lost it over the past two seasons?

I go back even further than you ... to Jack Kelly's NCAA title teams. I can certainly remember the 1970s, which was an even better decade for BU hockey than the 1990s.

I think the real issue is: has BU been as good as we think it should be since 2000, when BC started to make its rise to national prominence?
BU has generally been good, but there have been a few too many NCAA tournament misses by teams with records in the vicinity of 20-14-2 for my liking.
It is not as if the program has gone bad. Far from it. But it hasn't consistently achieved at a level that we expect, or know that it could.

If I really want to look at where the program is, I think we need to go back no further than the opening of Agganis Arena in Jan., 2005.
Prior to then, I think Parker did a terrific job of keeping BU at or near the top with substandard facilities. The facilities at Conte Forum, as well as at Maine, UNH and UMass were far better.
Agganis Arena was not only a great equalizer, it also gave BU an advantage of having the best facilities in the East.
Has Parker taken full advantage of that change? The results would indicate that not to the extent that it probably should.
In fact, it may have changed some of the focus of recruiting to the pro prospects rather than those that really wanted to play from BU, and weren't looking ahead before it was time.

I agree that BU has been too inconsistent over the past several years, getting up for the big games and skating through others, with some poor losses. Robert Morris anyone?

As a recognized "signature" college hockey program, BU shouldn't be having losing seasons.
Unless that started to happen, Jack Parker won't be going anywhere.

I am interested to see how the team reacts this weekend ... and beyond. It is still very early, and there is a lot to analyse before coming to any conclusions about the head coach or the coaching staff.
Click to expand...

I agree with almost eveything you said, though I do think that Parker started to lose the ability to relate to and motivate his players prior to 2009. Like Terrance said, I think that team benefited from very strong player leadership (if Parker had kicked Zach Cohen off the team as he wanted to, would someone else have been there to score the first goal agaist BC in the three goal outburst in the HE semis, or the goal with 59 seconds left in the national title game? Perhaps, but I think keeping him on the team was the right move). I think the combination of losing a very strong assistant coach (QUinn), and general lack of leadership among the captains has accelerated the downturn. Speaking of which, we recruited three straight USNDTP captains (Strait, Shattenkirk, Warsofsky) - one would think they were ready to be very strong leaders, but at least two of them didn't really turn out to be (seemingly). Again I wonder if the inability to relate motivate is a factor.
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

To write off the entire 08-09 season saying Parker had little or nothing to do with it because there were good captains and the team was that good is utterly foolish. He certainly has a lot to be questioned for over the past few seasons, but calling that team plagued with problems related to him that they simply overcame with talent is ridiculously false. And Ohio State was never close to being in that game, they got three garbage time goals after spotting us a 6-0 lead. The closest they got was 6-3 with 9:00 left, that's not exactly staging a comeback.
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

I agree with very little of what Harry said, and I'm not stating that to be a jerk. BU started going downhill in the late 90's. IMHO the coach got enamored with a certain style of play and tried to force every player to play that way regardless of whether or not it fit their skill set. This is a big departure from York who seems to tailor the team's gameplan according to who he has on the roster. I also think this has a lot to do with the respective effort and enthusiasm gap between the two teams. If you're a goal scorer and now the coach is telling you to clog the zone and dump and chase for 4 years, you might not give your best every game. There aren't a lot of Chris Drury's out there, guys who are strong players both ways.

A good way to measure the team's slide is vs their rivals. No need to rehash the BC comparison, but look at vs Maine, another team with a substandard rink. After BU's last FF appearance, Maine went to 3 title games with one win. BU didn't even make the FF for another dozen years. Imagine what would have happened had Walshy lived? He'd most likely still be coaching and that program would be a lot stronger than it is now. Furthermore, they also had a couple of HE championships in there. It took BU 9, that's n-i-n-e tries before it finally won the league tournament again after their previous one in '97. Even New Hampshire, serial big game chokers if there ever was one, potted a few HE titles in that stretch.

2009 was a great year. I personally don't think its necessary to suffer through another 15 year malaise before we get another title. With Notre Dame joining soon, its going to be that much harder to compete. The recruiting, the development, and the effort need to skyrocket in order for this team to get back to where it should be with all the advantages (new rink, location, academics, fan support, etc) the program has.
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

There is no sense in talking about the coaching staff anymore on here. People have gone back and forth on thier arguments 1000 times. By now we can just cut and paste old posts. People have their opinions and they are not going to change.
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

brassbonanza said:
To write off the entire 08-09 season saying Parker had little or nothing to do with it because there were good captains and the team was that good is utterly foolish. He certainly has a lot to be questioned for over the past few seasons, but calling that team plagued with problems related to him that they simply overcame with talent is ridiculously false. And Ohio State was never close to being in that game, they got three garbage time goals after spotting us a 6-0 lead. The closest they got was 6-3 with 9:00 left, that's not exactly staging a comeback.
Click to expand...

I have certainly been critical of the coaching and general leadership of the program but agree that this is not a black and white issue and that Parker should not get credit for success when it occurs. Jack was a big part of the success of that team as a great blend of talent, good breaks, tradition, coaching, background players contributing behind the scenes, fan support, etc all came together for a magical run. So, with that said, of course Parker was a big part of the 09 national title as he should be as head coach and I give him his share of credit for that cohesive group accomplishment.

My concern is related to the long term trends of the program. I believe that most would agree that on paper BU consistently gets talent that would rank it in the top 10% of NCAA hockey programs programs. That translates to a top 5-6 program in the country. If that is a valid assumption we should be seeing at minimum trips to the NCAA tournament every year with a Frozen Four appearance at least every 3-4 years (see BC, North Dakota, DU as examples).

We are not seeing that type of result and in addition we are constantly disappointed by the apparent lack of effort, lack of focus, social media distractions, suspensions for breaking team rules, etc. by the plaers. That to me is a result of a general lack of respect by the players for the program and coaches that lead the program. Is that the right response from the players? I don't think so but it is what it is. If a coach can no longer put a program together where the entire team, coaches, supporting staff, etc are consistently on the same page rowing in the same direction with the same priorities and values one needs to assess that coaches effectiveness and demand accountability. That is why I worry that Parker isn't the right guy any longer. It's not black and white but the overall gray that comes from blending the good and bad into a final result, relative to what reasonable expecations should be for the Terrier hockey program suggests the current leadership is not getting the job done.
 
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Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

Rover said:
IMHO the coach got enamored with a certain style of play and tried to force every player to play that way regardless of whether or not it fit their skill set. This is a big departure from York who seems to tailor the team's gameplan according to who he has on the roster. I also think this has a lot to do with the respective effort and enthusiasm gap between the two teams. If you're a goal scorer and now the coach is telling you to clog the zone and dump and chase for 4 years, you might not give your best every game. There aren't a lot of Chris Drury's out there, guys who are strong players both ways.
Click to expand...

Agreed on the certain style of play point. I don't think it's been as much of an issue in recent years as it was from about 2000 - 2005. There was certainly a trend during those years where BU recruited some high-end skill players (i.e. Sabo, Skladany, Johnson) who had potential to be impact players, yet were disappointments b/c there was a bad fit between BU's style of play and theirs. I think it was a reaction to BU not winning some of the recruiting battles they used to win and, as a result, landing players that were high on talent, but weren't necessarily "BU hockey players" in the truest sense of Parker's definition. There were other guys who had the size and hockey sense to play the dump-and-chase, grinding game, yet still didn't flourish as much as they could have (McConnell, Maiser, Magowan come to mind).

Disagree on the point about York. I think a big part of his success is that he has a certain philosophy and style of play he prefers, and he recruits players that are a strong fit for that style. As a result, many of those players are quite successful during their time at BC.

I think in the Agganis years leading up to the 2009 title, the majority of the 4-year players on those teams developed at or close to what was projected. The Senior classes of 2006 and 2007 weren't necessarily filled with studs, but some solid 4-year players whom improved each season (with the VDG/Zancanaro/LaLiberte/Spang/etc. class > Sullivan/Roche/Schaeffer/Morrow/Curry class IMO). The 2008 class had MacArthur and Ewing as very solid 4-year contributors; the some of the role players in that class could've developed a little more, but didn't necessarily hurt the team (Baby Tiger incident notwithstanding).
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

collegefan06 said:
My concern is related to the long term trends of the program. I believe that most would agree that on paper BU consistently gets talent that would rank it in the top 10% of NCAA hockey programs programs. That translates to a top 5-6 program in the country. If that is a valid assumption we should be seeing at minimum trips to the NCAA tournament every year with a Frozen Four appearance at least every 3-4 years (see BC, North Dakota, DU as examples).
Click to expand...

With the tradition and resources BU has, the benchmark for each class of players, assuming a 4-year BU career, IMO, should be:

at least 1 FF appearance
at least 1 HE championship
at least 1 HE regular-season title
multiple Beanpot championships
95+ wins

The only class to meet/exceed those benchmarks in the post-Drury era is the 2009 Senior class (1 FF appearance, 2 HE Championships, 2 HE Regular-Season Championships, 3 Beanpots, 104 wins).
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

Rover said:
I agree with very little of what Harry said, and I'm not stating that to be a jerk. BU started going downhill in the late 90's. IMHO the coach got enamored with a certain style of play and tried to force every player to play that way regardless of whether or not it fit their skill set. This is a big departure from York who seems to tailor the team's gameplan according to who he has on the roster. I also think this has a lot to do with the respective effort and enthusiasm gap between the two teams. If you're a goal scorer and now the coach is telling you to clog the zone and dump and chase for 4 years, you might not give your best every game. There aren't a lot of Chris Drury's out there, guys who are strong players both ways.
Click to expand...

Not sure that York tailors his gameplan to his players...but rather recruits players who fit the system that York wants to employ.
 
Re: BU 2011-2012 Season: The bar is low, boys!

Parker shared his thoughts today on the Penn State scandal: http://www.thebostonhockeyblog.com/2011/11/parker-disgusted-at-questions-timing-of.html

Also, for those of you who do not follow us on Twitter, Trivino will not play this weekend due to an ankle injury. Privitera will sit and Nicastro will replace him. Forward lines are in flux because of the Trivino injury (didn't know he'd miss the weekend until today).

Preview for the weekend (including goaltender info/quotes from Millan) should be up on the blog later tonight.
 
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