BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

With the season about to start and people complaining that BU doesn't have any dominant players and considering the fact that I believe BC started their Hobey-watch on Gaudreau at about this time last year, I'll just leave these stats here for people to make of them what they want.

Freshman Year:

Johnny Gaudreau: 21-23-44 in 44 games. That was on a team that scored 414 total points putting him at 10.63% of BC's points
Danny O'Reagan: 16-22-38 in 39 games. That was on a team that scored 326 total points putting him at 11.65% of BU's points

Now obviously their playing styles are different but why are BU fans not as excited about what O'Reagan might do this year as BC fans were about Gaudreau last year? Is it because Gaudreau scored some goals in the NCAA tournament as a freshman and O'Reagan didn't because he didn't get a chance?

Interesting post. Two guys that get it done. The difference is where and how they get it done as to why there is a different perception on these two. O'Regan simply gets it done, like a smaller Ben Smith, nothing flashy. Gaudreau has the crazy no look passes for easy tap in goals and dangles like crazy one on one. All that being said, I think you have to recognize what he did in that freshman season. Big game player. Beanpot MVP (2-2-4). HE tourney MVP(3-4-7, 2-1-3 in the title game). And could have been FF MOP if not for Milner(1-2-3 and that 1 is a big ONE). It's a little misleading to say he "scored some goals in the NCAA tournament" and O'Regan didn't get a chance. The style of their play does differentiate them, yes, but the weight you can put behind what Gaudreau did in the big games is considerable (understandly so).

With that momentum coming into the prior season and the great early season stats and even WJC performance, BC's coaching staff went into full Jack Parker senile/dementia mode that you guys have been seeing for the past 1.5 decades and flushed a decent season and a Hobey down the drain by putting Gaudreau with a borderline D1 player that not only made the whole team bad but also ruined the Hobey shot.

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

How did those BU offensive defencemen who made it to the NHL ever survive those shackles and chains of the unimaginitive BU coaching staff?

Did you expect the coaching staff to tell the defensemen to stay next to their own goalie all game? Not exactly an intelligent way to debunk the theory you seem to disagree with so much, which is aimed at what the forwards were being asked to do.

 

[Terrance]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

Interesting post. Two guys that get it done. The difference is where and how they get it done as to why there is a different perception on these two. O'Regan simply gets it done, like a smaller Ben Smith, nothing flashy. Gaudreau has the crazy no look passes for easy tap in goals and dangles like crazy one on one. All that being said, I think you have to recognize what he did in that freshman season. Big game player. Beanpot MVP (2-2-4). HE tourney MVP(3-4-7, 2-1-3 in the title game). And could have been FF MOP if not for Milner(1-2-3 and that 1 is a big ONE). It's a little misleading to say he "scored some goals in the NCAA tournament" and O'Regan didn't get a chance. The style of their play does differentiate them, yes, but the weight you can put behind what Gaudreau did in the big games is considerable (understandly so).

With that momentum coming into the prior season and the great early season stats and even WJC performance, BC's coaching staff went into full Jack Parker senile/dementia mode that you guys have been seeing for the past 1.5 decades and flushed a decent season and a Hobey down the drain by putting Gaudreau with a borderline D1 player that not only made the whole team bad but also ruined the Hobey shot.

Gaudreau did/does step up in big moments. O'Regan did score two goals in a huge semi-final matchup in the Hockey East tournament last year though and also had a goal in the Beanpot opener. It'll be interesting to see if his production is negatively affected by the loss of Nieto and Megan. It's a good thing BU's schedule is so easy early on with them only playing teams like Wisconsin, Michigan, BC, PC, and Cornell all in the first 6 weeks. It'll give the players a chance to get into a groove while they play 6 of the top 15 teams in the country in a total of 8 of their first 13 games. But I guess a difficult schedule is just part of finishing the season outside the top 15 for the past 4 seasons. If you want to lose 15 games every year and still have a chance at making the tournament, you've gotta play the best teams. And let's face it, BU hasn't missed the tournament recently because they've lost games. They've missed the tournament because half of their losses are to unranked teams. If BU could play all of their games against top 5 teams, they'd probably make the tournament every year. So let's set a goal for this season right now. Don't lose to Harvard, Bentley, Uconn, Umass, and Northeastern. That would be a good place to start.

 

[mookie1995]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

Yo terry!! Didn't you just read that nu is good and on par with bu and stuff?!?

 

[ericredaxe]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

It's a good thing BU's schedule is so easy early on with them only playing teams like Wisconsin, Michigan, BC, PC, and Cornell all in the first 6 weeks. It'll give the players a chance to get into a groove while they play 6 of the top 15 teams in the country in a total of 8 of their first 13 games. But I guess a difficult schedule is just part of finishing the season outside the top 15 for the past 4 seasons. If you want to lose 15 games every year and still have a chance at making the tournament, you've gotta play the best teams. And let's face it, BU hasn't missed the tournament recently because they've lost games. They've missed the tournament because half of their losses are to unranked teams. If BU could play all of their games against top 5 teams, they'd probably make the tournament every year. So let's set a goal for this season right now. Don't lose to Harvard, Bentley, Uconn, Umass, and Northeastern. That would be a good place to start.

As you have mentioned, head to head games against the Wisconsins and North Dakota types have not been our downfall as far as being out of the NCAA's... it has been the letdowns against Harvard etc.

 

[Rover]

As you have mentioned, head to head games against the Wisconsins and North Dakota types have not been our downfall as far as being out of the NCAA's... it has been the letdowns against Harvard etc.

But why does that happen if the O was sound, the D was sound, the coaching solid, and the team was full of superstars?

Furthermore, we lost to the good teams in the Beanpot/HE tournament too so your theory makes no sense.

 

[defkit]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

As you have mentioned, head to head games against the Wisconsins and North Dakota types have not been our downfall as far as being out of the NCAA's... it has been the letdowns against Harvard etc.

Bingo to you and Terrance. In the good times, BU rarely lost to poor teams that they were supposed to beat. And when they did, they usually came back with a vengeance (see the run after getting spanked by PC 8-1 or somehting like that in the 1990-91 season). Lately, those losses to Holy Cross, Robert Morris, etc. have been killers.

While the list of teams the "should beat" may be shorter this year due to the fact that BU is picked to finish around 6th or 7th and because they are playing some strong OOC teams, this is the barometer that will tell us over the next 2-3 seasons if Quinn has turned the program around. It gets back to the whole "motivating of players" thing.

 

[ericredaxe]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

But why does that happen if the O was sound, the D was sound, the coaching solid, and the team was full of superstars?

Furthermore, we lost to the good teams in the Beanpot/HE tournament too so your theory makes no sense.

Who were the superstars the teams were full of?

 

[Terrance]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

Yo terry!! Didn't you just read that nu is good and on par with bu and stuff?!?

Technically I said not to lose to them so the opportunity for 2 ties (or three if they play them in the Beanpot final) is still open. And really, who wouldn't want to see BU play NU to 2 ties. Nobody wins, but everyone loses. Although I do specifically remember a season not too long ago that BU and NU "skated to a tie" (felt like I needed to use one of Hockey East online's patented phrases there) 2 games in a row. I feel like BU had a good season that year too.

Just looked this up. BU is 7-6-0 vs NU in the last three seasons (and a lot of those losses were pretty important). So as far as recent head-to-head record goes, they are about even.

 

[Rover]

Bingo to you and Terrance. In the good times, BU rarely lost to poor teams that they were supposed to beat. And when they did, they usually came back with a vengeance (see the run after getting spanked by PC 8-1 or somehting like that in the 1990-91 season). Lately, those losses to Holy Cross, Robert Morris, etc. have been killers.

While the list of teams the "should beat" may be shorter this year due to the fact that BU is picked to finish around 6th or 7th and because they are playing some strong OOC teams, this is the barometer that will tell us over the next 2-3 seasons if Quinn has turned the program around. It gets back to the whole "motivating of players" thing.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't have winning the HE tournament accomplished what we were looking for? If the team's problem was playing down to lesser teams, how does that explain losing in HE, the Beanpot, etc...essentually everything over the last 4 years? Surely we played good teams in those contests (BC, Lowell, etc). Perhaps the problem isn't losing to bad teams, its losing in general because the team just wasn't playing well enough vs everybody.

 

[FiveHole12]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

Better hot dogs, better team. Simple.

 

[ericredaxe]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

Better hot dogs, better team. Simple.

The hot dogs really are very much like the team. We need to start off with better ingredients than we have been, and we then have to execute the procedure better than we have been as well.

The result could be a national championship and a better meal to enjoy while following along.

 

[ericredaxe]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't have winning the HE tournament accomplished what we were looking for? If the team's problem was playing down to lesser teams, how does that explain losing in HE, the Beanpot, etc...essentually everything over the last 4 years? Surely we played good teams in those contests (BC, Lowell, etc). Perhaps the problem isn't losing to bad teams, its losing in general because the team just wasn't playing well enough vs everybody.

Well... unless you expect that we will win Hockey East every year, the simplest path to the NCAA is to beat all the teams we are "supposed" to beat (as defkit pointed out). I think most people agreed that at the end of last season we were playing in a way that would have been competitive in the NCAA's... but a couple of "bad" losses during the doldrums of the season killed us in the PWR so we obviously didn't get the chance.

I dont know the reason for the bad losses... lack of motivation from the coaching staff as some speculate? lack of players who can prepare themselves to play week in and week out through the season? or just not talented enough and deep enough overall?

 

[mookie1995]

Technically I said not to lose to them so the opportunity for 2 ties (or three if they play them in the Beanpot final) is still open. And really, who wouldn't want to see BU play NU to 2 ties. Nobody wins, but everyone loses. Although I do specifically remember a season not too long ago that BU and NU "skated to a tie" (felt like I needed to use one of Hockey East online's patented phrases there) 2 games in a row. I feel like BU had a good season that year too.

Just looked this up. BU is 7-6-0 vs NU in the last three seasons (and a lot of those losses were pretty important). So as far as recent head-to-head record goes, they are about even.

So y'all raising a banner?!

 

[Agganis]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

the simplest path to the NCAA is to beat all the teams we are "supposed" to beat (as defkit pointed out).

With the new PWR math you are actually more likely to make the tournament if you beat the good teams and lose to the bad ones than vice versa. Not that this has much bearing on the converstion at hand.

So y'all raising a banner?!

They have banners honoring good teams unafilliated with NU who used to play there, so how could they not?

 

[Rover]

Well... unless you expect that we will win Hockey East every year, the simplest path to the NCAA is to beat all the teams we are "supposed" to beat (as defkit pointed out). I think most people agreed that at the end of last season we were playing in a way that would have been competitive in the NCAA's... but a couple of "bad" losses during the doldrums of the season killed us in the PWR so we obviously didn't get the chance.

I dont know the reason for the bad losses... lack of motivation from the coaching staff as some speculate? lack of players who can prepare themselves to play week in and week out through the season? or just not talented enough and deep enough overall?

All beating bad teams would have gotten us is a first round exit in the NCAA's. I don't consider that a successful season. For this program, I'd expect at the very least each senior class to have a HE tourney title, a couple of NCAA runs including a FF appearance and multiple Beanpots since there's only 1 team we realistically have to go thru to win the thing. We've gone 0-0-0 in these categories since '09.

 

[defkit]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

All beating bad teams would have gotten us is a first round exit in the NCAA's. I don't consider that a successful season. For this program, I'd expect at the very least each senior class to have a HE tourney title, a couple of NCAA runs including a FF appearance and multiple Beanpots since there's only 1 team we realistically have to go thru to win the thing. We've gone 0-0-0 in these categories since '09.

I think the difference is semantics that may have been switched around through the conversation. There is a difference between beating bad teams and beating the teams you are supposed to beat. The better you are, the more teams you are supposed to beat. I certainly want us to do more than beat bad teams. As a team expected to finish somewhere in the 6/7 range, we can't be losing to teams like UMass and Vermont. Hopefully some wins about teams above us (in the polls) get us up higher in the standings. With good progress, perhaps we will be picked to be in the top 3 next year. Then the list of teams we really shouldn't be losing to grows beyond just "bad" teams.

In the mid-90's, the only team that wasn't in the bucket of teams we should beat (within the conference) was Maine. A loss to any other team was a disappointment. But there weren't that many of them.

 

[BUPhD]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

Recent posts remind me why I love having mookie participate in these threads.

 

[Carmine Scarpaglia]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

Speaking of mookie... looks like Coach Tomlin went all Jack Parker on his Steelers.

The Steelers' locker room has gone from restrictions on games such as pool and pingpong to a recreation-free zone.

 

[mookie1995]

Re: BU 2013 Offseason Thread - Bring on the Mighty Quinn

Speaking of mookie... looks like Coach Tomlin went all Jack Parker on his Steelers.

you have me quoting Bishop Pickering now, "there is no god". thanks!