Weekend Recap- Underrated

The #2 ranked Boston University Terriers went up to Burlington, VT last weekend and swept the Vermont Catamounts. The Terriers won Friday night 4-2 behind goals from Ahti Oksanen, Cason Hohmann, Evan Rodrigues and empty netter from Jack Eichel.  Rodrigues struck again on Saturday to overcome a late 1-0 deficit to tie the game late in regulation(once again) before Eichel won it for BU in OT(once again). Matt O'Connor was solid as per usual this season and won Hockey East Defensive player of the week. The defensive corps were much better on Saturday night than Friday as BU gave up some chances due to some bad changes and bad gap control. The improved play allowed BU to control play even without Doyle Somerby who was suspended for a legal hit on Friday night.

Hockey East once again missed on a disciplinary call as Somerby was suspended for hitting a guy in open ice who had his head down the puck. The head certainly was not the principal point of contact either as it appeared to be a shoulder to shoulder hit.This is the second time in as many seasons that Hockey East has missed a call on Somerby. He was given a game misconduct and thrown out of the Beanpot game vs BC due to a Kevin Hayes flop that the director of officials later admitted was a missed call. Hopefully HE is missing all their calls before the Beanpot and postseason play this year.

Weekend Preview- Flatlanders vs Highlanders

The #3 ranked BU Terriers travel north this weekend for two games at the University of Vermont. UVM is ranked # 12 in the country and leads the league in goal allowed on their way to a 15-6-2 record. Now this team may not be as good as their record indicates as their strength of schedule is 31st out of the 59 teams in the country. The Gutterson Fieldhouse has been kind to BU the last four seasons(they didn't play there last season) as they have won four straight games there by a margin of 15-6. BU looks to extend on that streak and put some distance between themselves and the rest of the field in the Hockey East race. BU currently sits tied with Lowell for first with UVM 3 points back. BC is also two points back but the other three schools have two games in hand over BC.

Weekend Preview- Boston College is bad at hockey

Tonight BC travels to Agganis Arena at BU to renew the rivalry of Comm Ave.  BU beat BC 5-3 earlier this year at Conte Forum in what was one of the Terriers' shakier performances of the year. Two of the three BC goals were directly off BU turnovers. BC fans are proud of how the team played against BU last time and thinks they played pretty well. The BU freshmen played tentatively for the entire first half of that game and I wouldn't expect that again tonight. Brandon Hickey, who had a bad turnover in the first matchup, has made huge strides since then and is a force on the blue line. Upperclassmen Evan Rodrigues and Matt Grzcylek are BC killers and primed for big nights. Grizz is quietly having an all Hockey East type of year on the blue line. The new first line (Rodeo) line of Rodrigues, Eichel, O'Regan is going to be fun to watch as putting the top 3 scorers in Hockey East on the same line is an absolute ruthless move by Coach Quinn.

BC may be completely healthy for the first time all year but they don't scare me. Writers are hyping them up for their recent "hot" streak while BU has "tailed off". BU hasn't lost a game since November but they have trailed off? Don't buy into the narrative. BU is top 2 in the league in both offense and defense. BC is not. BU has 3 players with more points than anyone else in the league. BC does not. BU has two goalies with over a .931 save percentage. BC has 0. BC fans will keep telling themselves that anything is possible in this rivalry game. Typically this is true. Not tonight. If this game is within 2 goals, its because of mistakes BU made not that BC played well. BC's confidence is based off of wins over Brown and  Malden Catholic ..Northeastern. BC isn't good this year. They are a bubble tournament team at best and I hope they stay in it until the Hockey East tournament and then lose a heartbreaker to miss the field by one spot. BC's forwards shouldn't scare you. BC as a team shouldn't scare you. Their defense is full of "NHL talent"  yet last time they played, did anybody notice Noah Hanafin because I didn't. I only noticed Mike Matheson when he was kicking the puck into his own goal. I hope Santini tries to "put Eichel through the glass"(see below) because then Eichel can skate right past him when he doesn't take the perfect angle and set up a 2 on 1 goal with O'Regan. BU's defense is better than BC's (look at the stats). BU's forwards are better than BC's because well because Medford High has better forwards than BC.

BU takes 3 of 4 fake nonleague points from Wisconsin

The BU Terriers traveled to Madison this weekend to face the lowly Wisconsin  Badgers. Wisconsin was ranked 56th out of 58 D-1 collegiate hockey teams coming into the weekend. BU struggled Friday night and found themselves down 2-1 late in the third when one of the weirdest goals of all time was scored by Wisconsin. BU goalie Matt O'Connor came out of the net to play a puck and somehow shot the puck into dman Brien Diffley who could not prevent the puck from trickling into the net.  After said goal, I tweeted the following because I'm pyschic.

Down two goals in under a minute in the 09 title game too. Not worried
— BayState RoadSports (@bsrs_blog) January 10, 2015

Weekend Recap BU ties Union without Eichel

BU battled to a 3-3 tie with defending champion Union college on Saturday night at Agganis Arena. BU was without the service of freshman phenom Jack Eichel was given the day to rest after returning from World Juniors earlier in the weekend. The rust was evident defensively as the three goals was the most BU has given up since 11/25 and only the 4th time all season that they have allowed more than two goals. BU got goals from AJ Greer, Nikols Olsson and Evan Rodrigues in the tie but special teams let them down as they were only 1/7 on the powerplay while also allowing a shorthanded and powerplay goal. The shorthanded goal is definitely one goalie Matt O'Connor would want back as Daniel Campini did not even get a shot off but the puck slid 5 hole.  Rodrigues' powerplay goal tied the game with under 4 minutes remaining and was crucial for BU in getting the out of conference tie.  The Terriers return to action next weekend against 2-11-1 Wisconsin.

I couldn't agree more with the decision from Coach Quinn to rest Eichel after his return from World Juniors. Eichel had played 4 games in the last 7 days on an international stage so while other schools rush their guys back *cough BC cough, Quinn definitely did what was best for Eichel and the team long term.



There was some chatter on twitter after the game about how the ECAC is a stronger conference than Hockey East this year because 2 of BU's 3 losses this season have come to ECAC teams while some of the top ECAC teams have not lost that many games in conference yet. It's just another attempt by ECAC fans to make the "we're good too" argument to Hockey East aka their big brother. The facts fly in the face of this argument throughout history (12 national championships from current HE schools to 7 for current ECAC schools) and this season. In 2014, Hockey East teams have a .569 winning percentage out of league while ECAC teams have a .505 winning percentage. Strength of schedule also favors Hockey East as they hold a .5147 to a .5121 advantage in this category as well. The ECAC may have the last two national champions and the league is improving but let's stop pretending it's in the same league as Hockey East because it's not.  Harvard and Quinnpiac have been good teams thus far this year but overall the conference is not on the same level as Hockey East and Union tying a BU team without their best player doesn't change that.

This Week in #DISRES9ECT

- First there was "news" coming out of Canada that Jack Eichel would leave BU to go play for the used car salesmen in the CHL. It may have been baseless and completely wrong but that won't stop a Canadian "reporter" from making stuff to benefit themselves. It really doesn't get much more #DISRES9ECTFUL than making up lies because you are jealous of all the young American talent developing as of late.

Sign here at Bell Centre claims: 2015 Draft: 1-McDavid. 2-Eichel.
— Mike Morreale (@mikemorrealeNHL) December 31, 2014

@John_Pomponio at least this year the kid that's gonna go second is jack eichel he's good too... Not quite mcdavid but a stud
— dan hina (@Hina37) January 6, 2015

If the GM of the NHL team that is drafting 1st overall this year is still debating Eichel over McDavid, he should be fired NOW
— Scott Boulton, CHRP (@HR_ScottBoulton) January 6, 2015

McDavid > Eichel
— Stefan Driedger (@Driedger19) January 6, 2015

In conclusion, Canada is full of idiots. Eichel is better than McDavid. That's why you were making up false rumors about him going to a Canadian junior league. You don't see any college hockey fans making up rumors about McDavid going anywhere ...

Why are no Canadians getting riled up by our McDavid to BU rumors? WELL PLACED sources say McDavid to transfer to BU #McDavid #Canada #sucks
— BayState RoadSports (@bsrs_blog) December 19, 2014