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BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:04 pm
by shockdoct
I will be present both games. I am hoping for a great crowd (students should be back) and plenty of hunting attire from the visiting fans.

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 4:36 pm
by claver2010
Maine sucks but is always a big draw (believe both are or near sold out)


Also, according to BC hockey news, York returned from the detached retina procedure

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:38 pm
by claver2010
Matheson is doubtful for the weekend, would be pretty surprised if he played

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 10:19 pm
by claver2010
As expected, Matheson is out for the weekend and Dyroff will move back to D. It was a disaster a couple of weekends ago we'll see how much Jerry & Brown cycle him in there.

Game was supposed to be on NESN but they have the Bruins game instead, they did pick up Jerry York night in a couple of weeks vs UML.

Maine is terrible, 1-9-4 in HE less than 1.3 goals per game. BC did struggle up at Alfond back in November, winning 4-2 w the late ENG.

Edit: For those with a lot of time on their hands, College Hockey Inc released a new database where you can customize essentially aynthing: http://collegehockeyinc.com/stats/filters.php

Ex: The 1st line is 1, 2, 2 in the nation for points with under 5:00 to go in the game. Gaudreau 5, Whitney, & Mullane 4.
Whitney leads the country in 3rd period points (15).

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 7:51 pm
by shockdoct
Well that was unimpressive.

We are back to the reality of everyone else right now. We have 1 line of elite forwards.

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:14 pm
by AdamBC
Such bad hockey. Painful.

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:18 pm
by claver2010
shockdoct {l Wrote}:Well that was unimpressive.

We are back to the reality of everyone else right now. We have 1 line of elite forwards.


Yup

The problem with the 5 F on the powerplay is there aren't enough for the 2nd unit

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 9:16 am
by claver2010


Yeah that was pretty bad

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 1:29 pm
by pick6pedro
claver2010 {l Wrote}:

Yeah that was pretty bad


Combo of bad luck and soft goals. While this team is better than their current stretch, I have been concerned about depth from the start. This is to your typical BC powerhouse club that can beat you in several different ways before you even knew the puck dropped.

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 1:38 pm
by claver2010
Posted this on BCI, I guess we've been spoiled. The last 3 years, here is the game's third line along with points that season:

11-12: Gaudreau (45) -Mullane (40) -Carey (30) =115
10-11: Almeida (21) -Arnold (20) – S. Whitney (16) = 57
09-10: Kreider (23) -Smith (37) -Hayes (35) = 105

Right now: Spiro (3) - Brown (3) -Silk (3)

Add in a 4th line that provides nothing offensively and a young D without the unit's most talented player (certainly most talented offensive player), no wonder this team is struggling.

Also kudos to whoever said it, unless Destry is still hurt he hasn't made the jump at all.

Agred, there was zero puck luck last night. Not that it should be needed playing Maine.

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 3:59 pm
by claver2010
RT @bchockeyblog1: INJURY NEWS- Colin Sullivan is out tonight w/upper body injury. Whitney will play defense. Totally new lines for BC.



We now have 4 healthy defensemen

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 5:44 pm
by claver2010
Billet in net tonight

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 9:24 pm
by claver2010
Another abortion

Sucks is a good way to put how this team is playing right now. They have literally slept walked through the last month, disgustiad

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 9:59 pm
by eepstein0
claver2010 {l Wrote}:Another abortion

Sucks is a good way to put how this team is playing right now. They have literally slept walked through the last month, disgustiad


Another great weekend in the land of BC sports

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:12 pm
by shockdoct
Im still not sure what happened this weekend.

First period on Friday we had a ton of opportunities to score and didn't. Ended up giving up some cheap goals and then just went into the tank for the next 5 periods sans a decent stretch at the end of Friday's game. Unfortunately as has been mentioned previously, the most concerning aspect of this month's swoon compared to previous years is that this team's talent and depth is just not at the same level as the teams that have mailed in the month of January.

Random Observations

I don't think I have seen Johnny whiff on so many point blank opportunities on Friday.
He proceeded to fire pucks right into the chest of the black bear goalie on Saturday.
To be clear, I'm not blaming him at all for the loss, but unfortunately we are in the position where unless he is spectacular we have a serious trouble putting pucks in the net.

Putting whitney back there on defense saturday was sheer desparation and it didn't work out as his offensive instincts put him out of position numerous times and directly lead to 1 goal (again not his fault as it is tough to expect a guy who plays defense on the powerplay to just slide right to the backline on 5v5)

My one observation on Billet is that he is a butterfly goalie on the shorter side who leaves the top corners absolutely wide open when he goes down. Maine didn't have the skill players to take advantage of it, but other teams will.

Oh and these losses were awful. Minus a talented goalie who definitely got more comfortable as the weekend continued, Maine looked every bit of 1-9 in Hockey East. They have some guys who struggle skating at this level, but they grinded it out along the boards and in the corners while our defensemen just let them walk out in front of the net several times. We had guys playing the puck all weekend instead of the man and our forecheck was very un-BC like (minus start of 1st period and last 10 min of 3rd period) which resulted in the maine defenseman having no issues breaking out of the zone.

I was impressed with Danny Linnell. Unfortunately on previous year's teams he would be a great asset on the 3rd line, but he is bumped up on the top line due to injuries and lack of depth.

We need juniors like Kevin Hayes and Bill Arnold to step up and play like they have previously. Hayes came out quick this season while Arnold was spectacular during the end of year run last year, but both struggled mightily this weekend.

Two games this weekend against opponents with a ton of losses, UVM at home and and then the late game against Harvard on Monday. I hope this weekend's sweep woke them up.

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:27 pm
by claver2010
Too bad you planned the trip up for January.

On the weekend:
Think Friday was some bad puckluck, a lot of shots simply trickled wide. Granted that shouldn't be an issue vs Maine.
Saturday night was a complete trainwreck. 2 F playing D is impossible to overcome. Not only did they allow decent chances, probably the least amount of chances for BC in a game I can remember.

On the whole/team:
Agree Danny shows skill. When he scores, it's usually a pretty goal. Problem is we're looking at 3 goals so far in 20+ games.
Hayes has taken the biggest jump from previous year IMO, he's much more of a playmaker than Jimmy is but he's so much more confident and powerful with the puck opposed to the last couple of years. Problem is he needs to be more selfish.
Love Billy's game but he's gone cold.
Wouldn't be shocked to see a complete shuffle of the lines come Friday night.
The forecheck point is a great one, this is the slowest BC team I can remember. Just look at the fact that they only have 1 SHG (an ENG at BU), they lead the nation in those virtually every year.

Both Sullivan & Matheson have concussions, Matheson should be back this weekend. Not sure on Sullivan, he got dinged pretty good in the corner Friday night and came back to the bench holding his head. Haven't heard on him.

Matheson will help a suddenly struggling powerplay (maybe just regression for fellow :ugeek: ) but 1 for last 21 after operating at 25%+ for a long time. Hopefully we've seen the end of the 5 F powerplay unit, hate it. We didn't have the opportunity to see gorgeous drop passes from that unit to no one in particular cause they had trouble entering the zone.

Going forward, three optimistic points:
1) is this team was 11-2-0 through a pretty difficult part of their schedule
2) last year at this time this team 14-10-1 around this time last year coming off a raging hot start (8-1-0) and some second half stinkers (shutout at UMass, 0 points on a weekend against Maine, etc.). The counter people will drop is Dumo/Kreider aren't walking through that door. And I agree. But at that stage we had a full on goalie controversy and weren't really sure what we had in any of them.
3) Absolutely no one is running away in this conf or really nationally (I think Minnesota is the best but they got upset by Minnesota St this weekend).

Pessimistic:
1) Not getting absolutely anything from the bottom 2 lines (coming into Saturday night they averaged 1.1 points per game, that's comically bad.
2) FR D have been FR D, inconsistent.

Realistically, this team isn't of the talent level of the past couple of years but most talented team doesn't always win (2007-08). Let them get healthy (Matheson solves a lot from being a healthy Dman to the powerplay to the physicality). HE is mediocre enough that no one is going to create much separation from them (I question whether anyone will pass them) so they can work through their issues.

I know there isn't another coach I'd take in this situation than coach champion.

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:55 pm
by claver2010
As expected, Matheson is cleared to play this weekend

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 1:43 pm
by Supahfan99
claver2010 {l Wrote}:Saturday night was a complete trainwreck. 2 F playing D is impossible to overcome.

2) last year at this time


1 I'm pretty sure they rolled 5 D and had Dyroff back at forward on Saturday with Whitney moving back. Failed experiments with Whitney on D seems to run in the family!

2 I can't possibly compare this year's team with any team they have had recently that even made a FF run. Just look at this roster, particularly the forwards. I mean some of those FF teams had some useful forwards that didn't score but had value in other things. Can we reasonably say Sit, Straight, Brown, Linell, Smith, Dyroff, Spiro bring much to the table on any given night? I can't.

One additional thing, I said this months ago and had some comments on it but Destry Straight really is a bust at this point.

All that being said anything can happen because the first line is so ridiculous, assuming it is not broken up. If BC were to somehow win a national title it would be the crappiest team to win one since Michigan State in 2007 (and they were not a very good team). They would need incredible defense performances and Milner to one-up his postseason from last year to win low scoring games, though.

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 2:41 pm
by The Knife of Asia
One of the weaker teams depth wise i've seen in a long time at BC... Very top heavy = inconsistency. Bottom two lines are borderline liabilities. Kevin Hayes has solid hands but he's really slow out there. Defense is probably as should be expected other than the fact Jerry is such a fine coach you figure he can turn them instantly into seasoned players. Hopefully see some maturity down the stretch and hit our stride heading into trophy time.

Looks like next years recruiting class is top notch as well which is good to see. Could use a stud goaltender to compete with what BU is putting together w Oconner.

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 7:13 pm
by claver2010
Thought I saw Dyroff take some shifts at D, regardless 4 true D isn't a recipe for success.

Agreed on the bottom lines, there are far too many playing every night who would be in suits in previous years. Smith plays a role (1st PK unit), Linell has skill, you could argue Sit on faceoffs (2nd best C at 55%, but really 0 goals in 60+ games?), the rest I agree.

Apparently York has really shuffled up the lines this week.

As to the above, I'm not sold on O'Connor but BC has the #1 goalie recruit coming in next year (though he'll be very young for a FR). If next years class is as expected, it's going to be a needed upgrade in talent at every position

Edit:

For those in NYC:
BCNYC Alumni Chapter ‏@BCNYCAlumni
#Beanpot NYC Gamewatch: Mon 2/4 & 2/11 at @TheRoyalNYC. Free happy hour prior and specials all game! @BCAlumni @bcinterruption @bcatleagle

Re: BC vs Maine

PostPosted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 7:50 pm
by shockdoct
claver2010 {l Wrote}:For those in NYC:
BCNYC Alumni Chapter ‏@BCNYCAlumni
#Beanpot NYC Gamewatch: Mon 2/4 & 2/11 at @TheRoyalNYC. Free happy hour prior and specials all game! @BCAlumni @bcinterruption @bcatleagle


Not a bad snag for a game watch. New establishment that was featured in the WSJ a few weeks ago.

If it sucks, can always go to Standings around the corner. They will put any game on tv (Harvard/Yale hockey was on a few Friday's ago).