Going to New York = Win for Boston!

Corny post title, I know. How about that Red Hot Hockey game over at Madison Square Garden!!! For you BU fans out there reading this, I know that you’re really happy about it. I know because I was ecstatic and I was there! A quick start and solid overall game by the Terriers led to a 6-3 victory over the Big Red of Cornell University. While the crowd was highly partisan towards Cornell, our contingent was strong, and the Terriers made it all worth it.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much Red and White at an arena for a hockey game before. It reminded me of something that you’d see at a college football game, where everyone is sporting their team colors. Of course not everyone was rooting for the same team, but you couldn’t really tell just by looking. Overall, the presentation of the event was awesome. The Garden, BU, and Cornell did an excellent job of planning this, minus some of the issues that people had with seating. I personally didn’t have a problem with it, but I wasn’t planning on sitting in the middle of the student section. For those of you who did plan on it, I know that you were probably disappointed, but trust me, it was worth it just to be there for this game.

On to the game itself now! BU looked strong right from the faceoff, holding Cornell shotless for quite a while. Of course, two consecutive tripping penalties offset that, but the PK was pretty solid on the extended 5 v 3. Quickly afterwards, freshman Joe Pereira scored his first collegiate goal to make it 1-0. Within the next 3 minutes, the Terriers would make it a 3-0 lead, a lead that they would not relinquish. Strong play by both teams through the next two periods made it an even game, but the damage had already been done, and the Terriers skated away with the victory.

Some comments I did have on things about the game, perhaps not completely related to hockey. Cornell has a passionate fan base, and I admit that I was extremely impressed with their exclamation of “Red!” during the national anthem. I wasn’t too impressed with the creativity in the fans though, I expected better. Reading on the boards at USCHO shows that they couldn’t really get anything organized, which is ok, since it was a huge venue when you compare it to Lynah. I do, however, have few comments on Cornell fans after the game. There was a girl on the way out who was complaining that we (BU) “plagiarized” all of the Cornell chants, and that the band plagiarized all of the Cornell’s songs.  Well…..

•  If you’ve been to ANYTHING other than a Cornell game, you’d see that a lot of student sections do the same traditional chants.
• On the same point, a lot of Hockey pep bands play the same traditional songs.  I actually thought that the BU band played more variety when it came to the music.

So I don’t know what she was getting it.  I think she was being a sore loser. :-).  Anyway, I also did not appreciate the Red Sox Suck chant after the game, especially with so many Cornell fans saying that they were being good sports after the game.  It wasn’t even a student that started that one, it was an adult… so….

One more thing, my Best Band Ever post has been pretty popular… for Cornell fans.  No one is leaving a comment, but all the hits are coming from some sort of email list.  Hey guys, I still stand by that.  I think that the BU band is better than the Cornell band, especially after this weekend.  More variety does help.  Cornell had a bigger band, so saying that they were louder does nothing for me.  Here’s hoping that this happens again!

Overall, it was a great experience, and the Terriers are in a good position coming into BC weekend.  Hope you guys are as excited about this as I am.  I’ll see you at Agganis on Saturday.

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What’s Wrong with the Terriers?

As you can tell, I haven’t updated this blog in a while. It’s tough to maintain your focus when what you’re trying to focus on is just letting you down so much. Since I’ve last updated, the Terriers have played three games. They’ve lost two of them and won one. The one game they won was a blowout against Vermont, 9-1. After that game last Friday, I was thinking that this was the “turn the corner” that they needed so badly. It was almost justified when they took a quick 3-1 lead in the encore the next night. A few defensive breakdowns and stupid penalties later, Vermont held a 4-3 lead that they would not relinquish.

Then there was the game that was last night. BU taking on former ECAC rival Harvard University. Would the Terriers have what it takes to bring down the smart boys? After a wicked slapper from Pete MacArthur that beat Kyle Richter, I thought we did. BU was dominating in shots, and had a lot of very good possessions in the first, but only had one goal to show for it.  There were some interesting decisions made in that game, especially for personnel on the ice for that last faceoff.  Two of our worst faceoff guys, Pete MacArthur and Chris Higgins out there.  While they are great offensive players, they don’t win that many faceoffs.  In your defensive zone, with 1 minute left in overtime, you want to win that puck.

So where does this leave the Terriers right now?  They’re 3-7-2 now.  3-3-1 in Hockey East.  While their Hockey East Record is ok, it’s not great.  They are benefiting from the fact that Hockey East is so wide open this year.  However, those 4 out of conference losses will be sure to come back and bite them in the butt come tournament time.. that is.. if they make it.  What are your thoughs on what is wrong with the Terriers?  If this is the way the season is going to continue, it’s going to be a very long season.

Congrats to Boomer Ewing, who’s 7 points last weekend (two weekends ago) led to him being named Hockey East Player of the week and INCH player of the week.  Here’s to hoping that he continues on this trend.  He’s currently leading the team with 15 points, which is excellent for a Terrier, especially at this time of the year.  He’s actually up there for the nation as well, averaging over a point a game.

I’m going to be heading to the MSG game, so I’ll be blogging about that.  Hopefully the Terriers can muster a much better performance than they have been giving recently. The game is sure to be exciting.  I hope that the turkey doesn’t affect the boys too adversely.  I also hope that something is done by the captain to let his team know that the way that they’ve been playing is not acceptable.  They have the talent to take it to the next level, and it’s time to do that.  What better stage than the world’s most famous arena?

See you in New York!

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Taking 1 out of 4

This is becoming quite the theme with the Terriers here.  Two games this weekend and what were our results?

1. One loss and one tie.
2. Fell completely out of the polls (not even under “teams receiving votes”)
3. Goaltending issue again???

The first game this weekend featured the Terriers against the Minutemen of Massachusetts.  (That’s my Jim Prior for ya)  It started out with a bang, with Pete MacArthur potting one just 33 seconds into the game.  However, UMass was quick to come back and skated away with a 5-3 (ENG) win.  The things I noticed in that game were that the defense often seemed to be pushed off the puck and retreating back into the zone.  Also, UMass forechecked extremely hard and we seemed unable to counter it at all.

On the plus side, it was the debut of the alternate uniforms for the year, though I doubt with Jack Parker’s superstitious ways that we’ll see them for a while.  UMass had some nasty alternate uniform, I didn’t really like it at all.  It doesn’t counter what happened in the game though.  A defensive breakdown leading to a wide open player putting it in the open net.  The only thing about the game that was effective was our first line, which was really buzzing.

The second game this past weekend didn’t start any better.  Northeastern got off to a quick 2-0 lead before we managed to make any sort of attempt.  Luckily, we came off with a tie.  In a hard hitting game, it looked like the Terriers developed some legs toward the end.  We simply can’t give up the quick goals and have every game be a fight to tie.

It’s so frustrating to see what has happened to this team.  As a bright spot, the top line played well again, and were the sole reasons why we came out of this with a tie.  You can’t win with only one line putting pucks int he net though.  One thing I liked about this game from hearing it on the radio was how the crowd got into it.  I have to admit, it seemed like it was a great game.  I just wish that we could’ve come out with more than one point.

After this weekend, I’m not so confident about the Terriers anymore.  I know that there are going to be alot of people playing the “they’ll turn the corner” game, but it’s 9 games into the season and we’ve won 2.  That’s not saying that there is no talent on this team, there just seems to be no cohesion and confidence in this unit.  Of course, only time will tell what will happen, but I’m picturing another repeat of the 2003-04 season.  The only exception is that this team is, IMO, much more talented than that team and deserves a lot better.  They have many of the same characteristics, though.

As for my predictions!  I was … phew.  Only got 3 games right.  Not a good way to start the season.  Maybe I should predict the Terriers will lose more often.

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Hockey East Predictions 11/9-11/10

Man, I forgot to do this last week. Oh well, I’ll have to remember for each week from now on. I haven’t had too good of a record so far, but hopefully it’ll be better this week.

Friday, 11/9 Games:
UMass Lowell at New Hampshire - UNH 4-2
Vermont at Northeastern - NU 3-1
Providence at Maine - UMO 4-1
Massachusetts at Boston University - BU 4-2 (ENG)
Merrimack at Boston College - BC 4-1

Saturday, 11/10 Games:
Massachusetts at UMass Lowell - UML 3-2
Vermont at Merrimack - UVM 2-1
Boston University at Northeastern - BU 3-2
Boston College at New Hampshire - UNH 4-3
Providence at Maine - UMO 5-2

There are my 10 predictions for the week. I know that there’s a thread on USCHO so nobody will probably comment here. Let’s hope that I do better this week than last week! For those of you who read this and are going to be at the game on Friday, I will see you there! Does anyone who read this go to the games at Agganis? Let me know!

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Where are they now? David Van der Gulik

David Van der Gulik was a great player for BU from 2002-2006.  He was Co-Captain along with Brad Zancanaro on a Terrier team that won the Beanpot,the Hockey East Regular Season Title, the Hockey East Championship, and made an appearance in the NCAA tournament, with one win before being bounced.  They were the end of the regular season #1 team in the country, and had a record of 26-10-4. Read more

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NCAA Men’s Hockey Top 20 11/5/07

The polls weren’t friendly to BU this week.  I’ll update the table with the poll tomorrow, but the Terriers didn’t crack the top 20 this week despite two strong performances.  It does make some sense, as UMass Lowell and Providence are not the two strongest teams in the NCAA.  With a few more wins, we should be able to eke our way to a ranking again.  The poll didn’t move around much either, with a few changes here and there, but the teams that were near the top stayed there, and there were no real dramatic changes, save Minnesota dropping 6 spots to 14. Read more

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BU v. UMass Lowell Recap

The boys did it again, this time coming back in dramatic fashion, scoring 5 goals in the final frame to defeat the RiverHawks 7-4. It definitely didn’t look that way from the beginning, and the goaltending didn’t look strong again, but the Terriers did manage a win in a game that seemed like should’ve been over by the end of the second. Again, there were a lot of positives and a few negatives in the game.

First, the negatives:

• KG looks like he still hasn’t settled in well yet. Gave up 3 tough goals on only 6 shots, with one of em being a slow trickler that slid underneath his legs.
• Need to be more careful with the puck on the PP, and realize how much time is left.
• Our top line seems too need a bit of settling down so that they can score. MacArthur does have a bad wheel though, so that might have something to do with it.

Now the Positives

• 7 goals, from 6 different scorers (McGuirk, Popko (2), Wilson, Weston, Z. Cohen, Bonino)
• Bennett looked solid coming in cold.
• Zach Cohen demonstrated some nifty moves tonight, showing that he deserves some more time. Increased his speed a lot too.
• Jason Lawrence was buzzing all night, crashing the net and creating opportunities. Same with Ewing.
• Fourth line acted like a scoring line, controlling play and scoring opportune goals.
• Didn’t give up when they were down by 3.
• Powerplay looked decent, converting on one of four opportunities.
• PK was ok, did kill off one of the 5 v 3 situations.

Overall, the boys did a great job limiting the opportunities that Lowell had before they could really dominate the game, giving them only 4 in the first, and 4 in the 3rd. Luckily for us, it seemed as if Lowell let up a bit after taking a 3 goal lead, so that might have been their downfall. I didn’t see them play hard enough until there was only 2 minutes left in the game, so in my opinion Lowell deserved to lose. There’s too much talent on the BU team to let them take that many shots. I mean, a 42-17 shots advantage is huge. I can’t remember the last time we outshot an opponent by this much.

Also, I think that KG will be ok after this game, despite the poor play. Here’s a quote from Jack Parker after the game, he seems to think the same thing (From USCHO):

“I told him ‘You weren’t on top of your game; we had to get you out of there. You’ll be back in there, just keep working and don’t worry about it right now.’ That was all I said to him. As the game progressed, he was like another coach on the bench. He was pumping guys up, walking up and down, pounding on guys after they got goals, screaming at guys to play harder. I couldn’t believe that he could turn himself into such a great teammate after having such a disappointment like that. It’s a credit to him as an athlete and as a person.”

So it looks like Jack Parker still has confidence in Gillespie, so there’s no reason we shouldn’t… right? We’ll see what happens. I still see a split goaltending situation with it being leaned a bit towards Bennett. I was also extremely impressed with Zach Cohen, and sure enough, Parker had a great quote for him too:

“It was certainly a coming-out party for Zach Cohen,” Parker said. “I thought he looked like Frank Mahovlich a couple of times coming down the wing. I told him, ‘Geez, you actually are fast!’ We finally got him in shape; that’s why he’s fast.

He speaks truth, and I really did like what I saw tonight. The question remains now on who is going to sit next week, because Yip should be coming back. He’s going to bring back another huge physical presence. Our team does look bigger this year than it has in years past, so I do like that. One of our big men, Eric Gryba, does need to watch it a bit on his penalties, but it does seem like he is getting some of these penalties just for being a big guy, which could be an issue. (Photo Courtesy of The Daily Free Press)

Anyway, that’s it for me for now. Can’t wait till next Friday. Terriers will be taking on the Minutemen of Massachusetts, game time, 7:30 pm.

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Win #1 for BU!

Well, the Terriers finally got one in the bag, taking a game at Providence Thursday Night. After not winning ALL of October, they got one. 5-2 was your final score, and while I didn’t get to see the game, from reading the notes and looking at the stats, there were a ton of positives in this game. However, there were also some negatives, and we’ll look those as well.

I guess we’ll start with the negatives first. Two shorthanded goals. Two. Count em. And while they didn’t totally affect the outcome of the game, this is a 5-0 game without them. You just can’t give up those kinds of rushes when you’re up a man. There are far speedier and more skilled teams than Providence that will just tear you up if your power play doesn’t take care of the puck. It’s a risk that we’ve been living with for what seems like forever. It needs to stop. A power play should be an advantage, not something you have to weather through. Can you imagine what would’ve happened if a Nathan Gerbe had been there… or anyone from Boston College in general? They love the shorthanded game, and we can’t let that be as much of a weakness as its’ been.

Now we can get to the positives. The boys finally put the puck in the net! 5 different goal scorers tonight, and even one power play goal. The thing that struck me the most was that a lot of these points were coming from guys who are struggling to get them, like MacArthur, Higgins, and Strait. Even Gryba got in on the fun. It really looks like the guys are finding their legs and starting go gel as a team. This is the kind of offense that we’re going to need to compete in Hockey East.

Let’s hope they keep it up this weekend. Here are your five goal scorers tonight:

• Kevin Shattenkirk
• Eric Gryba
• Ryan Weston
• Pete MacArthur
• Chris Higgins

Congrats on the win, guys, let’s keep it up this weekend.Subscribe to my Feed, much more Terrier and Boston Sports news to come!

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