BU 2017 Season Thread II: Terriers rising

[Harry Cleverly]

Re: BU 2017 Season Thread II: Terriers rising

Agreed. It's not that they lost, but (with all due respect to an excellent Harvard team) how they lost.

How BU performs the next 2 weekends will be a bellwether for its potential of postseason success.

A parting thought...There's quite the disconnect between BU's skill level and offensive output. 2.83 GPG over its last 24 games is not what I expected. There's very little secondary and tertiary scoring. JFK had his streak last month, (as already mentioned) Greenway and Harper have fallen off, a player of Bellows' ability should have more than 5 goals, and Cloonan is on a 50-game goalless drought dating back to November 2015.

The offensive outbursts in October appear - albeit against inferior talent - seem very much like outliers as the season has progressed.

Bottom line on Cloonan is he BU's third line center with no goals and two assists. Great skater, but his stick is like a foreign object. Roberto, Curry and Olsson should have been a good third line, but Olsson is injured again. Cloonan needs to step up his game and be a player, not just a skater. Maybe play them between Chabot instead?

I expected a lot more from Andren.
Kelly, Phelps, McDermott - they will work, and work and work and have to work really hard just to get the puck out of the zone.

The offense of this team comes through the defensemen. And the forwards, outside of Keller now, have not produced.

 

[BUtogether]

So that begs the question. Is this the way it's going to be from now on? Because I, for one, have no interest in watching an NHL farm team. I have been going to BU hockey games since 1971. I get it that "things have changed," but why can't he also recruit some "middle tier" talent who will not go to the NHL and provide some continuity for the program as well as leadership when they progress to upperclassmen? It doesn't have to be "all or nothing." And if that is what it is going to be, then you are going to have a hard time convincing me that Quinn WANTS to be anything more than a "developer" of NHL players. As an alumnus, I would have thought he would want to maintain (I won't say "restore" because that will make some of you apoplectic) the status of this storied program. Understand...I am not making absolute statements. I am ASKING. Is this an anomaly? I would like to watch a team where a good percentage of the players stay more than one year. Because you will NEVER develop a cohesive unit with this much turnover. And if that is what it is going to continue to be, I'm not interested.

He has recruited them but they produce and then sit in the stands. The word is out..not an NHL guy..don't go to BU. Please take a look at Michigan..that is what the future looks like when you play this game. The NHL does not care one iota if BU wins or not only that their players plays...if he's good...Bye bye...if not we will leave him there because we have an "advocate " in coach Quinn....translation they are playing no matter what. You do not win championships in college hockey this way...Eichel was an outlier and might end up being the worst thing ever for BU hockey

 

[BUtogether]

Bottom line on Cloonan is he BU's third line center with no goals and two assists. Great skater, but his stick is like a foreign object. Roberto, Curry and Olsson should have been a good third line, but Olsson is injured again. Cloonan needs to step up his game and be a player, not just a skater. Maybe play them between Chabot instead?

I expected a lot more from Andren.
Kelly, Phelps, McDermott - they will work, and work and work and have to work really hard just to get the puck out of the zone.

The offense of this team comes through the defensemen. And the forwards, outside of Keller now, have not produced.

And yet the offense from the defense is near the bottom of hockey east...another false narrative

 

[BUtogether]

I can only speak for myself here. And I realize fans from other threads are probably rolling their eyes and saying "What are they complaining about?" But here goes...I want to see a team that improves throughout the year, plays hard every night and doesn't underachieve. I don't think that's asking too much. (Personally, I prefer your description of 'teams you can get to know and really enjoy watching develop' but I get it that those days are probably gone). What was great about '09 was that you had four senior leaders who put this team on their back and carried them to a National Championship. But we had watched these guys play for four years and almost felt as though we knew them (and we DID know the parents, many of whom sat in the stands with us for four years). As they say in pro sports when players get traded, "We hardly knew ya!" I can't help when I was born. Perhaps it was a more "idyllic" time...I don't know. There was more stability. Now I just feel as though we're watching a bunch of mercenaries. I'm not going to argue with the people who say that they "are vested." We can't get inside their heads. But it just doesn't seem that way. As they say, take the "eyeball" test. What do your eyes tell you? What they tell ME is that we have a high percentage of (at least in their minds) high-end talent, many of whom seem distracted and thinking about the next level, which leads to inconsistent play at best and selfish play at worst. That's my opinion. I can't help it. That's what I see.

Amen...and a coach who rewards it

 

[Hank81]

Also, the refs were ****ing horrible last night. The only thing worse than the officiating was how BU played. I didn't recognize these morons so I assume they were ECAC refs?

What a soft call on the Bellows interference penalty. So stupid. You can't call interference on a player who is directly in front of another player and who is skating in the exact same direction. If you call a penalty in that situation, you are literally penalizing someone for not skating fast enough. That is so dumb.

I don't understand why BU's fourth goal against BC last Monday was disallowed but Harvard's first goal was not. Both pucks were partially covered. Furthermore, how many times have pucks been loose and resting on top of a goalie's arm or chest and a BU player tries to knock it back to the ice and they get called for a slash? Why wasn't that a slashing penalty last night?

No idea why boarding wasn't called when Hickey was injured. Was he not checked down into the boards? Andy Brickley said he wasn't hit from behind so no boarding penalty but being hit from behind isn't a component of boarding. It was a worse hit than the two boarding penalties called on BU earlier.

The hooking call on Fabbro as the first of two penalties on the second 5x3 was a horrible call. He lifted the Harvard player's stick with his stick. That's not a hook, it's a great defensive play. He should be doing that every single time he's on the ice.

You must be a personal friend of GQ. Most all players improve over the 4 years. My point is Quinn so busy loading pipeline of recruits that no money for team players...grinders...hustlers, working players... How many of those 3rd and 4th line players other than Olsen who is hurt 50% of time have come back after Sophmore year..The players you referred to were all recruited by Parker.....including Eichel...last time BU won Beanpot. Sullivan wanted job,family in Hingham...married with children. Instead we have a 47 year old bachelor from GQ

 

[BUtogether]

Have you missed the contributions from Curry and Chabot this year as well as Nik Olsson, John MacLeod, and Chase Phelps? You can also make a strong case for Harper to be in this category as well, he's a long way off from the NHL. I agree with you a championship level team needs strong experienced leadership guys as well as the high-talent players, but to argue BU has none of the former is factually wrong.

I think you missed someone but that's not surprising because clearly you don't watch the games or know anything about hockey

 

[Hank81]

I think you missed someone but that's not surprising because clearly you don't watch the games or know anything about hockey

Roberto love that kid...wish he got more playing time and coach gave him injection of confidence. Does he have 1 more year?

 

[defkit]

Re: BU 2017 Season Thread II: Terriers rising

You can stay less than four years and still be fully invested in the team. If you think Matt O'Connor wasn't fully invested, then you are nuts. You can stay one year and still be fully invested in the team. You can have plans to play in the NHL in the near future but still be fully invested in the team. These guys are invested. They are trying; they care. It can still be a struggle to figure out how to play when you are 18 to 20 years old. That is where the coaching staff is supposed to come in and ease the struggle. In this case, I think Quinn is struggling to create a cohesive team with an effective offensive strategy and he's failed to adjust the game plan as other teams have found ways to beat his schemes.

I agree with all of this 100%.

 

[defkit]

Re: BU 2017 Season Thread II: Terriers rising

So that begs the question. Is this the way it's going to be from now on? Because I, for one, have no interest in watching an NHL farm team. I have been going to BU hockey games since 1971. I get it that "things have changed," but why can't he also recruit some "middle tier" talent who will not go to the NHL and provide some continuity for the program as well as leadership when they progress to upperclassmen? It doesn't have to be "all or nothing." And if that is what it is going to be, then you are going to have a hard time convincing me that Quinn WANTS to be anything more than a "developer" of NHL players. As an alumnus, I would have thought he would want to maintain (I won't say "restore" because that will make some of you apoplectic) the status of this storied program. Understand...I am not making absolute statements. I am ASKING. Is this an anomaly? I would like to watch a team where a good percentage of the players stay more than one year. Because you will NEVER develop a cohesive unit with this much turnover. And if that is what it is going to continue to be, I'm not interested.

Guys likely recruited to play 4 years: Phelps, Olsson, Roberto, Chabot, Carpenter heck, even Harper. That's half of the forwards, isn't it?

The coaching staff understand the need to have 4 year players, leaders who will provide the needed mentoring to the younger hot shots.

 

[defkit]

Re: BU 2017 Season Thread II: Terriers rising

Have you missed the contributions from Curry and Chabot this year as well as Nik Olsson, John MacLeod, and Chase Phelps? You can also make a strong case for Harper to be in this category as well, he's a long way off from the NHL. I agree with you a championship level team needs strong experienced leadership guys as well as the high-talent players, but to argue BU has none of the former is factually wrong.

Ok, so you basically said what I said, I should have finished reading the thread before replying. And I forgot about Curry.

 

[BUtogether]

Ok, so you basically said what I said, I should have finished reading the thread before replying. And I forgot about Curry.

BU has the most NHL draft picks in the country...a number of them were supposed to be one or two year players...they have now been here three and counting...guess what that means?...you have no elite players at forward who will be here 4 years except for Carpenter. Quinn needs to stop whining about being young...you chose to be young ..there aren't different rules for the other teams...."the only person who can screw this up you are looking at him"....NHL Network

 

[BUtogether]

Guys likely recruited to play 4 years: Phelps, Olsson, Roberto, Chabot, Carpenter heck, even Harper. That's half of the forwards, isn't it?

The coaching staff understand the need to have 4 year players, leaders who will provide the needed mentoring to the younger hot shots.

On most teams it's all the players who are recruited to play four years....if they leave early it's because they are NHL players ...not NHL draft picks

 

[LTsatch]

Re: BU 2017 Season Thread II: Terriers rising

Guys likely recruited to play 4 years: Phelps, Olsson, Roberto, Chabot, Carpenter heck, even Harper. That's half of the forwards, isn't it?

The coaching staff understand the need to have 4 year players, leaders who will provide the needed mentoring to the younger hot shots.

But how long before the hot shots overshadow and ignore the four year players? You need a really great coach to keep any sort of team mentality together in that type of locker room. Also when the 4 year player gets ice time taken away every year by another hot shot, how do you think that works team chemistry wise? I really hope the traditional elite NCAA hockey programs aren't going the way of NCAA Basketball, because it seems to be getting that way.

 

[mookie1995]

So that begs the question. Is this the way it's going to be from now on? Because I, for one, have no interest in watching an NHL farm team.
. .

GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!!

 

[mookie1995]

Re: BU 2017 Season Thread II: Terriers rising

Bobo may not be a bigger body player, but Mookie will take the over that someone signs him as a free agent before his sr season

 

[mookie1995]

You must be a personal friend of GQ. Most all players improve over the 4 years. My point is Quinn so busy loading pipeline of recruits that no money for team players...grinders...hustlers, working players... How many of those 3rd and 4th line players other than Olsen who is hurt 50% of time have come back after Sophmore year..The players you referred to were all recruited by Parker.....including Eichel...last time BU won Beanpot. Sullivan wanted job,family in Hingham...married with children. Instead we have a 47 year old bachelor from GQ

GQ is 50yo.

(You ain't insinuating GQ is ummmm, er..... yah? "Good looking older bachelor type"?? Are you?)

 

[Thiessen'sBetter]

Eichel was an outlier and might end up being the worst thing ever for BU hockey

In the 2017 world of hot takes, this one is en fuego.

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: BU 2017 Season Thread II: Terriers rising

Bobo may not be a bigger body player, but Mookie will take the over that someone signs him as a free agent before his sr season

I'm going to take the under on that.

 

[Agganis]

Re: BU 2017 Season Thread II: Terriers rising

BU has the most NHL draft picks in the country

This is also untrue, you're on a roll this week.

 

[defkit]

Re: BU 2017 Season Thread II: Terriers rising

BU has the most NHL draft picks in the country...a number of them were supposed to be one or two year players...they have now been here three and counting...guess what that means

Who is here that wasn't supposed to be? The only Juniors and Seniors that I can think of that could fall into the mold are McLeod and Somerby. I'll agree that I expected more from McLeod. Somerby could certainly have signed after last year (not saying he would have stepped into an NHL role), but wanted to come back for his senior year. Come to think of it, so did O'Regan. Did O'Regan come back because he hadn't developed enough? I think he has shown in his first pro season that he developed quite nicely in his 4 years at BU. While I have some concerns about the coaching situation, I think one thing not really mentioned through all this is that the players seems to really like playing for Quinn. Not always a good thing, but all else being equal, it is in my book.