ColinWilsonFan
Registered User
Re: BU Terriers 2018-19: Albie in Charge
have been a long time reader of these boards and haven't commented in a while... There are so many passionate BU Hockey Fans which is great!! and I think everyone makes some great points and I sort of look at the status of this program from both a Macro and Micro level.
From the micro-technical level I believe so many points that have been made on this board are accurate and fall into these general categories. 1) Lack of D zone discipline and proper coverage 2) Seemingly no real breakout with everyone looking to create something one on one 3) Very little creativity in the offensive zone with a lot of stagnancy and all too often looking for the perfect play.
While it took Quinn some time to figure it all out I believe there is much more talent on this team then what Quinn had when he took over the program. We have enough talent on this team to be better and that is evidenced by a string of "almost" games (Qunnipiac, first UMass game, NU at beanpot etc..) which were all close and had we won or not tied in those instances we would have a much better story to tell. I believe the team has had enough talent and absolutely outstanding Goaltending from Oettinger this year. By far his best work as he is facing an incredible amount of shots and high quality shots more than he ever has.
All these issues and problems and struggles the team has had are symptoms of a larger pathology.
There was no greater advocate than myself for Albie getting the job I felt it was well deserved (not that my 2 cents meant that much in the grand scheme of things lol) . Albie is a wonderful human being, has a great hockey intelligence and is a hell of a recruiter. It might be (and I too feel he deserves at least one more crack at this but who knows) that not everyone is cut out to be a head coach. I think if I had to put my finger on one thing that is an overriding issue on this team it would be a lack of passion a lack of fire a lack of urgency and a lack of structure. While many of us are at these games and watching intently I also watch other things watch the bench, look who is the one standing and yelling and screaming , look who the players look to when the come for a time out it generally and most often is not Albie but rather Paul Pearl. I think its clear that there is something missing there. This then of course presents itself to on ice things as well. I think they can teach defensive structure, a break out , etc... But when there isn't structure and accountability it is hard to have that permeate throughout the team. In addition when fire and passion dont come from the coach (and he doesn't have to break walls) then that too doesn't come through in this team. Individually there is plenty of talent on this team (and yes Bobo's loss hurts us but this has been a problem long before Bobo's injury) while maybe not the dominant teams of years gone by there is still plenty here and plenty in the pipeline. However I think the culture that maybe had been put in place while Quinn was here has maybe gotten a little lost. No we didn't win a national championship while Quinn was here , yes he had a rough start too , yes our PP wasn't great with all the talent we had but there always seemed to be a plan and structure and I dont see that at the moment. It can very possibly be that you can have a great hockey IQ , be a great recruiter, a really wonderful person but maybe not head coach material. Maybe Albie can grow into it and that is my hope but I don't know if that will be the case we shall see...
As for those leaving.... Outside of Fabbro I am not sure players are running to leave nor are the teams going to force them to leave even with the fear of looming FA. I think a lot of the players and even teams so what happened when you pressure a player to leave early who was not ready to do so -- JFK and have learned some lessons. Quinn always said better to stay another year in college (well at the time he was coaching) then to ride the buses of the AHL Or ECHL
I agree with previous posts in that Oettinger has nowhere to go in Dallas at the moment and will likely stay, Krys I hope stays but am unsure Chicago doesn't have great fondness for BU, Harper surely should stay he needs to fully recover and its clear he is still not himself 100 percent. You dont play hockey for as long as he didn't and just expect to magically come back it takes time but the kid works so hard. I hope and think Farabee will stay but Philly has been pushing a lot of guys up before their times but hopefully lessons learned... I think Bowers does go... I am hopeful that the BU magic re recruiting doesn't get affected that much and our commits come as they are supposed to. Zegras is a stud... As we are all supporters of this team what I can say as well is that the overall facility while at the time was top of the line has now fallen back a little and many other programs have passed us by and it could certainly use an upgrade... to continue helping with the recruiting process
have been a long time reader of these boards and haven't commented in a while... There are so many passionate BU Hockey Fans which is great!! and I think everyone makes some great points and I sort of look at the status of this program from both a Macro and Micro level.
From the micro-technical level I believe so many points that have been made on this board are accurate and fall into these general categories. 1) Lack of D zone discipline and proper coverage 2) Seemingly no real breakout with everyone looking to create something one on one 3) Very little creativity in the offensive zone with a lot of stagnancy and all too often looking for the perfect play.
While it took Quinn some time to figure it all out I believe there is much more talent on this team then what Quinn had when he took over the program. We have enough talent on this team to be better and that is evidenced by a string of "almost" games (Qunnipiac, first UMass game, NU at beanpot etc..) which were all close and had we won or not tied in those instances we would have a much better story to tell. I believe the team has had enough talent and absolutely outstanding Goaltending from Oettinger this year. By far his best work as he is facing an incredible amount of shots and high quality shots more than he ever has.
All these issues and problems and struggles the team has had are symptoms of a larger pathology.
There was no greater advocate than myself for Albie getting the job I felt it was well deserved (not that my 2 cents meant that much in the grand scheme of things lol) . Albie is a wonderful human being, has a great hockey intelligence and is a hell of a recruiter. It might be (and I too feel he deserves at least one more crack at this but who knows) that not everyone is cut out to be a head coach. I think if I had to put my finger on one thing that is an overriding issue on this team it would be a lack of passion a lack of fire a lack of urgency and a lack of structure. While many of us are at these games and watching intently I also watch other things watch the bench, look who is the one standing and yelling and screaming , look who the players look to when the come for a time out it generally and most often is not Albie but rather Paul Pearl. I think its clear that there is something missing there. This then of course presents itself to on ice things as well. I think they can teach defensive structure, a break out , etc... But when there isn't structure and accountability it is hard to have that permeate throughout the team. In addition when fire and passion dont come from the coach (and he doesn't have to break walls) then that too doesn't come through in this team. Individually there is plenty of talent on this team (and yes Bobo's loss hurts us but this has been a problem long before Bobo's injury) while maybe not the dominant teams of years gone by there is still plenty here and plenty in the pipeline. However I think the culture that maybe had been put in place while Quinn was here has maybe gotten a little lost. No we didn't win a national championship while Quinn was here , yes he had a rough start too , yes our PP wasn't great with all the talent we had but there always seemed to be a plan and structure and I dont see that at the moment. It can very possibly be that you can have a great hockey IQ , be a great recruiter, a really wonderful person but maybe not head coach material. Maybe Albie can grow into it and that is my hope but I don't know if that will be the case we shall see...
As for those leaving.... Outside of Fabbro I am not sure players are running to leave nor are the teams going to force them to leave even with the fear of looming FA. I think a lot of the players and even teams so what happened when you pressure a player to leave early who was not ready to do so -- JFK and have learned some lessons. Quinn always said better to stay another year in college (well at the time he was coaching) then to ride the buses of the AHL Or ECHL
I agree with previous posts in that Oettinger has nowhere to go in Dallas at the moment and will likely stay, Krys I hope stays but am unsure Chicago doesn't have great fondness for BU, Harper surely should stay he needs to fully recover and its clear he is still not himself 100 percent. You dont play hockey for as long as he didn't and just expect to magically come back it takes time but the kid works so hard. I hope and think Farabee will stay but Philly has been pushing a lot of guys up before their times but hopefully lessons learned... I think Bowers does go... I am hopeful that the BU magic re recruiting doesn't get affected that much and our commits come as they are supposed to. Zegras is a stud... As we are all supporters of this team what I can say as well is that the overall facility while at the time was top of the line has now fallen back a little and many other programs have passed us by and it could certainly use an upgrade... to continue helping with the recruiting process
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No offense but when I watch the team play I'm not seeing too much in the way of NHL talent out there. I can see 1 or 2 guys but Krys for example? Okay. 
