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
) 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.