BU v. Michigan Updates

Not the greatest weekend for the Terriers, with two losses, 2-4 on Friday night, and 2-6 on Saturday night. I don’t really know who we can blame for this, but there were some positives that I could draw from the weekend (and what I saw). I wasn’t at either game, but I did watch the Friday night game, and read a lot about the Saturday night game.

From what I can tell, the Terriers mounted a tremendous amount of pressure to start the game on Friday. It looked from the way we were playing, that we would steamroll Michigan. However, Michigan was able to persevere and a huge reason for that is something that has been a problem for the Terriers for a couple years now. We could not put the puck into the net! Its tough to explain why this is. We have the talented forwards and skill players to bury it, and put up huge numbers. What I think it comes down to right now is confidence. Our guys have got to gut it out for a bit, and get those initial goals. Once that happens, we’ll be able to put a ton of pucks in. Dan McGoff already kind of got us started on this, firing one from the right faceoff circle, and buried it.

The second night seemed like it was a bit different. Having not watched the game (saw only the highlights), I can only offer some speculation. First, the goaltending was not as good as the previous night. I still think its a competition as to who is going to be the goaltender for the year, but Bennett definitely made a statement. His 60 minutes in net were much stronger in my opinion.

Back to the second night, the game stories make it appear as if Michigan caught up to us and “figured us out”. 6 different players scored for them, so it was no one single threat that put us down. We need to be able to contain an entire team, and help out our goaltending a bit this year. We don’t have an All American to back us up this year. Not that our goaltenders are incapable, but they don’t have the confidence that Curry did.

So basically we need to bury our opportunities, and not try to be so pretty, as coach Parker has been saying all season. They’ve got a chance against a Providence team who’s coming off a very strong weekend against Massachusetts, so you know that they’re going to provide some threat. We can’t take these games lightly anymore. Get one in the bag so that you have confidence coming into your second home game at the (seemingly not so friendly) confines of Agganis Arena.

Picks Record (7-6)

Subscribe to my Feed, much more Terrier and Boston Sports news to come!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Red Sox win 2007 World Series!!!!

They did it again! The Boston Red Sox have won the 2007 World Series! So much for that curse! It’s definitely not coming back now! Just an incredible series from end to end. Close games, blowouts, they persevered through it all. And an incredible reward to top it all off. I know that this blog is mainly for Terrier Hockey, but being from Boston, you can’t help but write about this. Read more

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

HE Weekend Predictions 10/26/07

15 Hockey East games this weekend, so lets get started on the predictions. My first time doing this, so bear with me if I’m totally off :-).

Friday Games:

Massachusetts @ Providence - 3-2 Massachusetts.
Maine @ Northeastern - 4-2 Maine.
Merrimack @ Boston College - 3-1 Boston College
Colorado College @ New Hampshire - 5-3 New Hampshire
Alabama Huntsville @ UMass Lowell - 3-2 UMass Lowell
Boston University @ Michigan - 3-2 Boston University

Saturday Games

Providence @ Massachusetts - 2-1 Providence
Maine @ Northeastern - 3-2 Maine
Colorado College @ New Hampshire - 4-3 Colorado College
Alabama Huntsville @ UMass Lowell - 3-1 UMass Lowell
Boston University @ Michigan - 4-2 Michigan

Sunday Games

Boston College @ Merrimack - 3-1 Boston College
Dartmouth @ Vermont - 2-1 Vermont

Thursday Games

Merrimack @ UMass Lowell - 3-2 Merrimack
Boston University @ Providence - 3-1 Boston University

Well that’s it for the games this weekend. I’m not going to say that I got the exact scores right, but we’ll base it on wins and losses. Lets see if I can end up better than 0.500 at the end of the season!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Opposing Arenas: Yost Ice Arena

We all know and love Agganis Arena. Some of us know and love Walter Brown Arena too (I did for 1.5 years). But our Terriers don’t always get the luxury of playing in friendly confines of home. So let’s take a look at one of the opposing arenas that the Terriers have to face. This week, we’ll look at Yost Ice Arena, home to the Michigan Wolverines, the Terrier’s opponent this weekend.

Yost Ice Arena was built as Yost Fieldhouse in 1922, and was home to Michigan’s basketball and track. It was the nation’s first field house and was named after their famous football coach and athletic director, Fielding H. Yost.

The Ice Wolverines took the ice here for the first time in 1973, and have played there since. It’s known to be one of the toughest places to play in all of college hockey. Hopefully, the Terriers won’t find this to be a problem. I think they’ve got what it takes to shut the crowd down. Yost Ice Arena seats 6603, just a little more than Agganis.

Yost has also had a lot of renovations done. It’s an old building, but they’ve done their best to keep it up to date. Here’s something our Boston College friends can appreciate. In 1992, Michigan added a Dessicant Dehumidification System, and in 1996, they rennovated their water, gas, electric, HVAC, and north end lighting. You hear that Eagles fans. Yost is 84 years old, and it has AIR CONDITIONING. Why don’t you fog out another game before you get that installed though.

Anyway, I know there are a select few Terrier fans who are heading out there for this game. I wish I could join you. Let’s try to make Yost seem a bit more like Agganis.. or at least like Conte Forum when we play BC. Let me know what you think of the place! Go Terriers!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Best Band Ever?

BU Hockey fans are crazy. They are some of the best fans in the country, and I think that anybody who comes to Agganis has GOT to be intimidated by the Dog Pound. As fans, we make a huge effect on the game. The players get pumped when they see the sea of red scarlet and white out there. However, in addition to having some of the best fans in the country, I think we have one of the best, if not the best pep band in the country. I do have a bias, having been in the pep band, but I still think that this is true.

The band has an incredible array of songs to play. I wasn’t a fan of every single one, but new ones were added every year, and they just helped the crowd get into it more, and I really liked that. You don’t really see the relationship between the band and the student section as well with the other Hockey East Schools. Let’s take Boston College for example. Their band, while having a good sound, doesn’t interact with the crowd well. And they lack variety. They can’t get the crowd to jump up and dance like BU does. They also don’t have the chants with the band like BU does. I loved watching the crowd go crazy when we played, and it just kept the tempo up.

That being said, another great pep band is at Cornell. As you all know, we’re going to be playing Cornell at MSG about a month from now, and you can be sure that they’re going to bring their band in full force. Hopefully BU will allow us to bring our band in full force too, it wouldn’t be the same showdown without em. I think it could be just the thing to bring the Terriers over the top.

One of my favorite songs to play was “You Can Call Me Al”. What was/is your favorite? (I’m in the video below! :-] )

Subscribe to my Feed, much more Terrier and Boston Sports news to come!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

BU v. UNH 10/19/07 Thoughts

I’m sure that everyone has had a lot of time to think about this game now. Definitely not the greatest start for the Terriers, but there have been some things that I’ve been seeing that are definitely better than in years past, and things that need to improve if we want success.

First the Good:

• Our Freshmen look pretty good for having only a few college games under their belts. Shattenkirk and Wilson have stood out for me.
• Guys are putting a ton of pressure on the net, something that they weren’t really doing last year.
• Forechecking looks a bit better, the guys are getting more aggressive with that.
• We’re winning a ton of faceoffs.

Then the “NI”:

• We need our goalies to step it up for sure. This has something to do with the D also, but when you’re giving up almost 4 goals a game, its tough to win. (Duh.)
• Same old dump and chase is being used too much. We need to take the skill guys in and try to make something happen instead of just throwing it in and hoping.
• Power play guys… power play. I don’t know if this is our system or if its a real issue with the guys, but we need to generate some offense here. Get the % above 20% and we should be golden.

That being said, Kevin Regan was really good on Friday night. At least we did our best job to make him look that way. Agganis was rocking, as usual, and the band threw in some new things. I’m not sure how much I like the drums on the other side, or the mic-ing of the cowbell, but if it gets the crowd more into it then I’m all for it.

What did you guys think of the new intro video? I really think they should just stick with the BOOM. Feel free to discuss in the Forum!

Subscribe to my Feed, much more Terrier and Boston Sports news to come!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Welcome

Welcome to my Terrier Hockey blog.  I’m a new season ticket holder who hopes to put his thoughts about the season so far into words.  I know I’m a little late since the season already started, but hopefully I’ll still get some readers.  Just graduated from BU last year so I’m still really really into the Terriers.  I’ve got a forum set up here where we can talk hockey, and anything else we want to.  I know there’s already a popular one over at USCHO, but who says I can’t have my own?  Besides, this way we can have a huge bias towards the Terriers and no one can do anything about it since I’m the admin.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy, I’ll be sure to post up again soon!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!