BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

[mookie1995]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

and Wally B??????

 

[RoughEmUp]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

This PK where BU just concedes 2 minutes of opponent possession? Sucks!

 

[OldAlum]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

No compete or intensity tonight.... just skate a few strides and then glide.... lots of careless, sloppy passing. Maine out-hustled us. Cloonan is a beautiful skater but otherwise offensively useless. He did manage to draw to penalties tonight, but that about the most productive he's been in years. Losing Farrance to a game misconduct really hurt. [first time I've ever seen a 5 minute game misconduct for face mask (basket) infraction]. Kotkansalo is only average, and Blixt struggles. Maybe a better plan going forward is to dress a spare defenseman as the extra skater - losing a forward is easier to cover up. I was just starting to feel optimistic, now I'm not so sure. Albie, Paul and Len need to figure out how to light a fire in these guys - the talent is there, but the heart (with the exception of Bobo) is missing right now.

 

[DLG]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

One five on five goal all weekend
Of the six forwards dressed for third and fourth lines tonight not one has scored a goal this year
Power play bailed BU out last night but was empty tonight

 

[brassbonanza]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

No compete or intensity tonight.... just skate a few strides and then glide.... lots of careless, sloppy passing. Maine out-hustled us. Cloonan is a beautiful skater but otherwise offensively useless. He did manage to draw to penalties tonight, but that about the most productive he's been in years. Losing Farrance to a game misconduct really hurt. [first time I've ever seen a 5 minute game misconduct for face mask (basket) infraction]. Kotkansalo is only average, and Blixt struggles. Maybe a better plan going forward is to dress a spare defenseman as the extra skater - losing a forward is easier to cover up. I was just starting to feel optimistic, now I'm not so sure. Albie, Paul and Len need to figure out how to light a fire in these guys - the talent is there, but the heart (with the exception of Bobo) is missing right now.

They did skate Vidoli as the 7th D last night but he struggled.

 

[Jofa]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

This season is turning into a big waste of everyone’s time. Even the wins have been unimpressive. O’Connell is a big dud as a coach so far. Hard to believe he waited his whole life to be this inept and uninspiring. Sometimes there is a reason a guy has been basically just been a recruiter/assistant his whole career. His team just got outscored at home over the weekend by arguably one of the worst 5 to 10 programs playing D1 hockey. As far as attendance why would you pay a cent to see that snooze fest never mind wasting several hours of your life.

 

[defkit]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

I think it's amazing how the actual result of the game influences everyone's feeling about how the team is playing. I thought BU looked better last night than Friday night. The difference was Swayman. Do we have to improve parts of our game? Of course. Are some players struggling to get it going? Sure. But when I compare how we looked this weekend with how we looked in the loss to Merrimack, it is night and day. The team has some offensive flow (2 nights with over 40 shots). Losing Farrance was a big factor - I think the chances of getting another PP goal go up significantly if he is out there, versus Kotkansalo.

 

[ericredaxe]

I think it's amazing how the actual result of the game influences everyone's feeling about how the team is playing. I thought BU looked better last night than Friday night. The difference was Swayman. Do we have to improve parts of our game? Of course. Are some players struggling to get it going? Sure. But when I compare how we looked this weekend with how we looked in the loss to Merrimack, it is night and day. The team has some offensive flow (2 nights with over 40 shots). Losing Farrance was a big factor - I think the chances of getting another PP goal go up significantly if he is out there, versus Kotkansalo.

I was thinking the same... if anything i agree we likely played better last night than Friday. Things to improve on all around for sure, but it’s a young team with a work in progress.... Farrance for sure makes a difference. Really the biggest difference between the two teams last night was in net. Not saying Ottinger let in any softies, and didn't play bad but the Maine goalie stopped a lot more shots.

We do need to find our scoring touch, and our compete, but I think it will come.

 

[ericredaxe]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

Whatever the reasons, attending a college hockey game pales in comparison to even ten years ago. I recall when HAA opened, it wasn’t electric like WBA could get, but it was loud and exciting most times.
My culprits: smartphones, over the top security, ridiculous game day productions, horrendous concessions, rising prices, constant large-scale roster overturn. Specifically, I think the music died when HAA had both ends packed with students for the first BC game of the year, place was jumping, and freaking Destry Straight scored right out of the gate- 2012 maybe? The whole game was a downer. 3-0 in the 3rd before BU scored once or twice. Never got it back.

I agree that smartphones (and being so connected) plays the biggest role here. I remember the time when it might not be so easy to reach your friends if they did not happen to be by their landline phone in their room, that heading to the game and T's after was simply a place where you were likely to run into people you knew.

I also wonder how much the general increase in traffic in the region has affected attendance? I remember (what seems like not all that long ago) heading in from the North Shore, if I left 60 minutes before game time, I could reliably be in my seat with beer in hand before the drop of the puck, now if I leave an hour and 20 minutes before game time, I may or may not make it in on time. As the traffic goes up, the hassle goes up and I'm sure there are some who decide it is just not worth it. I know for myself, there has been more than one game where I just decided I didn't have it in me to wait in Tobin bridge traffic and skipped the game.

As to the game day productions, I agree. We were kind of laughing last night (actually it is kind of sad) at the whole intro thing where the announcer is screaming about how we are doing something different this year... everybody get on your feet etc etc... and when you look around nobody is following the lead, getting on their feet etc.

 

[brassbonanza]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

I think it's amazing how the actual result of the game influences everyone's feeling about how the team is playing. I thought BU looked better last night than Friday night. The difference was Swayman. Do we have to improve parts of our game? Of course. Are some players struggling to get it going? Sure. But when I compare how we looked this weekend with how we looked in the loss to Merrimack, it is night and day. The team has some offensive flow (2 nights with over 40 shots). Losing Farrance was a big factor - I think the chances of getting another PP goal go up significantly if he is out there, versus Kotkansalo.

Agree Farrance was a huge loss. He's our best offensive rush starter, more than Fabbro, so that's kind of like losing your quarterback. There were a couple of instances on the PP where we skated 4 Fs and Kasper as the only D. Eek.

Lots of shots last night, but a good percentage of them were right into Swayman's chest. He played excellent but we didn't force him to make any ten-bell saves. I can remember at least two or three instances where we had a guy with an one-timer on an open net who whiffed, didn't make good contact, or my biggest frustration - the receiver held the puck for a few seconds then shot....after the defense and goalie had time to reposition and square to the shooter. Those opportunities have to start connecting for the team to be successful.

 

[Sean Pickett]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

Indeed. 2883 would at least seem full-ish in WBA compared to basically empty in HAA. (Wasn’t capacity 3806? I seem to remember that number announced by Jim Prior an awful lot of times).

The capacity of WBA fluctuated over the years, but yes, including standing room the highest announced attendance was 3,806. I was at WBA yesterday and counted the permanent seating which is currently 3,205 and was 3,256 when the rink opened (the TV broadcast booth built in the nineties on the visitor side accounts for the decrease). Originally there was also bleacher seating at both ends of the rink, but the bleachers under the entrance balcony were removed to build the Friends of Hockey lounge (in the late eighties I believe). When it opened the BU media guides listed capacity as 4,000 for the first 2 seasons, 3,750 for the third season, 3,652 from '75-'76 through '77-'78, 3,684 from '78-'79 through '97-'98 and then 3,806 from '98-'99 on. By the way, the first time the announced attendance was 3,806 was on 6 Nov 1993 vs RPI, a 4-2 loss. It was reached for five more games that season (6 out of 15), including both Maine games, but not the lone BC game at WBA that season (3,632 on Saturday 15 Jan 1994, which I believe was the weekend students returned from break). In '94-'95, '95-'96 and '96-'97 eight games had attendance of 3,806 (of 14, 16 and 15 regular season games respectively), '97-'98 had 5 out of 16, '98-'99 had 2 of 15, '99-'00 had 4 of 15, '00-'01 had 3 of 16, '01-'02 had 2 of 16, '02-'03 had 5 of 15, '03-'04 had 2 of 15 and '04-'05 had 7 of 9 (with one another just 7 short) before HAA opened.

For what its worth, the first game after HAA opened that had attendance below 3,806 was the first game of the Ice Breaker to open the '08-'09 season, when just 3,753 attended (the Ice Breaker was not part of the season ticket package and had to be purchased separately). The next time was a Wednesday night game on 8 Dec 2010, when 3,636 attended for a BU-NU game. Two games had attendance below 3,806 in '12-'13, one on Sunday and the other on Tuesday. The next season ('13-'14) 8 of 17 games had attendance below 3,806. All games in '14-'15 had attendance above 3,806, '15-'16 had three games below it, '16-'17 and two below it, '17-'18 had six below it and this season 3 of the 4 have had attendance below it.

Sean

 

[ericredaxe]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

JFK nets one for the B’s

 

[Harry Cleverly]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

One five on five goal all weekend
Of the six forwards dressed for third and fourth lines tonight not one has scored a goal this year
Power play bailed BU out last night but was empty tonight

On Saturday night, BU dressed 13 forwards, and 8 have yet to score a goal this season. Included were the entire third hand fourth lines, spare forward Witkowski (who had only dressed in one other game), and two-time World Juniors winger Patrick Harper, who has yet to return to pre-illness form when he was a threat every time he hit the ice.

BU brings in more than its share of high-end prospects. But the lack of third and fourth line production has been a killer later.


How many consecutive games has Ryan Cloonan played without scoring a goal? In 2016-17, he played 34 games as the third line center and did not score a single goal. Who's going to put his picture on a milk carton?

 

[chickod]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

Hard to believe he waited his whole life to be this inept and uninspiring. Sometimes there is a reason a guy has been basically just been a recruiter/assistant his whole career.

Yeah...I don't want to make judgments this early, but it's certainly a valid point. As happens in most walks of life, whether it be a promotion to manager of a company or anything else, some people just have "it" and that's usually identified relatively early. Not to say that one can't be a "late bloomer," but based on what I have seen that's the exception rather than the rule. And the argument that "Well, he waited a long time as an assistant so he 'deserves' it" is exactly the WRONG reason to hire him. As you say, maybe there was a reason that nobody has until now.

But (as Tom Cruise said in "A Few Good Men") I think there's a concept we all need to start warming up to. And yes, I've said this ad nauseum, yet many people don't seem to want to accept it. With the high level of turnover in the roster every year, this is going to be a team that is going to have to come on strong in the second half of the season. Despite those who have said "It's always been that way," I don't entirely agree. There were some players who left early years ago, but IN GENERAL the average player stayed longer, which resulted in more continuity. I also believe that the dearth of local talent has diminished the enthusiasm and interest in this team. It's pretty much the reputation now that you come here if you want a fast track to the NHL.

 

[defkit]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

There were some players who left early years ago, but IN GENERAL the average player stayed longer, which resulted in more continuity. I also believe that the dearth of local talent has diminished the enthusiasm and interest in this team. It's pretty much the reputation now that you come here if you want a fast track to the NHL.

It is pretty remarkable that we have had 3 one-and-done players in the past 4 years. Who else has ever gone to the NHL after 1 year at BU? Anyone? Keith Tkachuk and Scott Lachance were only at BU one year but played the next year on the Olympic team. I don't think either would have left after a year if the Olympics weren't calling.

 

[mookie1995]

It is pretty remarkable that we have had 3 one-and-done players in the past 4 years. Who else has ever gone to the NHL after 1 year at BU? Anyone? Keith Tkachuk and Scott Lachance were only at BU one year but played the next year on the Olympic team. I don't think either would have left after a year if the Olympics weren't calling.

So gone to BU if they didn’t want to keep Olympic hopes alive....

 

[Sean Pickett]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

How many consecutive games has Ryan Cloonan played without scoring a goal? In 2016-17, he played 34 games as the third line center and did not score a single goal. Who's going to put his picture on a milk carton?

Saturday was the 87th straight game in which Ryan has played without scoring a goal (and in which he has had 13 assists) . Compare that to his 4-4-8 in his first 7 games, with his last goal coming 6 November 2015 vs Northeastern.

The Terrier record for playing games without scoring a goal goes to Mark Krys, who played in 123 straight from his first game until finally scoring in his 124th game, the only goal in his 134 game BU career. Of course he was a defenseman, as were the other three players who played in 87 or more straight games without scoring a goal since 1984. Cloonan is just the 5th player and first forward since then to not score a goal in 87 straight games. The only other forward who came close was Scott Perry, who finished his BU career without a goal in the last 73 games he played for the Terriers. The other forwards who went 40+ games without a goal are: Bobby Hanson, 41 games; Mike DiMella, 45 games; Ryan Santana, 45 games; and Ryan Priem, 61 games.

Sean

 

[Harry Cleverly]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

Saturday was the 87th straight game in which Ryan has played without scoring a goal (and in which he has had 13 assists) . Compare that to his 4-4-8 in his first 7 games, with his last goal coming 6 November 2015 vs Northeastern.

The Terrier record for playing games without scoring a goal goes to Mark Krys, who played in 123 straight from his first game until finally scoring in his 124th game, the only goal in his 134 game BU career. Of course he was a defenseman, as were the other three players who played in 87 or more straight games without scoring a goal since 1984. Cloonan is just the 5th player and first forward since then to not score a goal in 87 straight games. The only other forward who came close was Scott Perry, who finished his BU career without a goal in the last 73 games he played for the Terriers. The other forwards who went 40+ games without a goal are: Bobby Hanson, 41 games; Mike DiMella, 45 games; Ryan Santana, 45 games; and Ryan Priem, 61 games.

Sean

Yikes!

So that means that Cloonan will score this weekend in Northern Ireland.

 

[mookie1995]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

Yikes!

So that means that Cloonan will score this weekend in Northern Ireland.

inshalla

 

[defkit]

Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge

Yikes!

So that means that Cloonan will score this weekend in Northern Ireland.

I think it also means that if your first name is Ryan, you have a good chance of having a long goal scoring drought!