Guest Post from @BurntBoats

Editor's Note: This is a guest post from @burntboats on twitter and you should take the time to read it if you are a BU hockey fan or if you root for another college team and want to become depressed.


If you’ve been following @BurntBoats for any period of time you know by now that possession stats have proven to be a valuable tool when evaluating hockey teams (if you haven’t and you want to learn, tweet at me and I’ll send you links to things written by people smarter than me). Obviously Eichel is a generational talent and comparing what he did to the prior year’s team is beyond unfair, so I have been comparing this season’s 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lines to the prior year’s entire roster on twitter all season, this is my final comparison:

BU 2013-14 possession [5v5 Corsi] (35 games): 44.8%

Now who were the key players from 2013-14 who weren’t on the lines 2-4 in 2014-15?

Half of Baillargeon (Mono)
Half of Ahti (split 14-15 on 1st and 2nd lines)
O’Regan (1st line all of 14-15)
Noonan (graduation)
Half of Rodrigues (split 14-15 on 1st and 2nd lines)
Grzelcyk is a wash as he missed almost half of 2013-14 with an injury and likely spent about half of his 2014-15 with the 1st line.

So this year’s 2nd-4th line lost 3.5 of the best players from last year’s team, they and a handful of role players were replaced by a rotation of four freshman forwards and four more freshman defensemen. This year’s group had the advantage of playing against easier opponents than last year, as this year’s 1st line took up the majority of other teams’ top unit’s ice time. They had the disadvantage of score effects from playing with a lead most of the time, instead of from behind.

All these factors work to somewhat counterbalance each other, my rough educated guess is their net effect on possession is slightly positive, but under 2%.  So if this year BU’s 2nd-4th lines were around 46% that would be equivalent to last year, if they were at 48% that would represent a substantial but reasonable improvement, anything over that would be quite the turnaround.

Senior Series Post #2 Cason Hohmann

This is the second Senior Series post. You can read the first one on Anthony Moccia here.

Cason Hohmann gave 110% on every shift for his four years at Boston University. That is fact not opinion.  Hohmann was the heart and soul of this year's team along with fellow senior Evan Rodrigues. Hohmann put up 92 points in his career for the Terriers and it felt like he hit 92 posts too. He may have been snakebitten at times but he never let that affect his effort level. Hohmann was always going as hard as possible for the Terriers whether he was  healthy or playing through a shoulder injury that seemed to plague him throughout his career.

                                                    Photo by Maya Devereaux/Daily Free Press

The smallest forward on the team never let his size or lack thereof be an excuse or define what type of player he would be. He was not afraid to block a shot or dig out pucks in the corner. He was not afraid to take a hit to make a play. He was a very underrated playmaker and it showed this year as he was the one constant on the second line. He played with Evan Rodrigues, Ahti Oksanen, JJ Piccinich, AJ Greer, Robbie Baillargeon, and Nik Olsson during the year. All of those guys produced when they played with him. That isn't by accident. He is a great offensive player and an even better back checker/penalty killer.

Weekend Recap: BU beats BC, ties UConn

This weekend the #5 ranked BU Terriers had a set of Hockey East Games which on it's own would make for just another weekend in league play. Friday night's game was anything but another game in league play. The game was broadcast live on NBC Sports nationally to an audience looking to see the first matchup  of BU and BC this season lead by their freshmen superstars. Jack Eichel lived up to the hype once again for the Terriers with 5 SOG along with a goal and a +3 rating for the night. Noah Hanifin didn't do anything to stand out to me as a top 10 pick as he was on the ice for 4 BU goals for a -4 rating.

BSRS Weekly Awards

We are a little late this week with the Wednesday night game so we apologize as we know many people plan this weeks around this post...

Greg Jennings Award- given to the Terrier who best exemplifies the qualities of Greg Jennings through doin' shit and putting the team on his back. (YOU CAN'T STOP HIM)



Winner- Cason Hohmann, F- Hohmann has potted goals in his first two games since returning from a first half shoulder injury. He certainly makes a difference in this offense as he has posted 2-1-3 in the first two games of the second half.  Hohmann may not be the biggest guy on the team but he certainly knows to put the puck in the net even with a bad shoulder. He is just like Greg Jennings except he has a broken shoulder instead of a broken leg but still finds a way to put the team on his back.

Joe Pereira Trophy- Given to the Terrier who, through grit, hard work, and determination helps the team to victory on and off the scoresheet. Just like Joey did. (Interview can be read here)

Weekend Recap- Terriers win,tie vs North Dakota

                                           

The Terriers welcomed the North Dakota {Redacted}  this weekend to Agganis Arena  for a pair of nonleague games and came out with a win and a tie. The Terriers were lead by sophomore goalie Matt O'Connor who made 92 saves on 96 shots over the weekend. Friday night he made 37 saves on 38 shots as he frustrated North Dakota all night long. BU got on the board in the first period off of a 2 on 1 rush where Cason Hohmann froze the lone defender and NoDak goalie Clarke Saunders before ripping a wrister low short-side. Hohmann, who is typically a pass-first guy, used that to his advantage as everyone in the rink though he was going to try to feed O'Regan who was flying to the far post. BU would make it 2-0 before the end of the first on a greasy ,power-play  O'Regan goal that just got tucked in the near post off a deflected pass from Noonan. BU had a goal called back early in the second as it was ruled that Mike Moran tipped the Doyle Somerby wrister with a high stick. I honestly couldn't tell if he did or didn't but there certainly didn't seem like there was enough evidence there to overturn it but the refs, Benedetto and Miller, disagreed with me.

Weekend Recap- BU splits pair with non-conference foes

The #15 BU Terriers split their pair of weekend home games with non-conference opponents this weekend. They dropped their Friday night affair to a physical, hungry RPI team who played a solid 60 minutes to withstand BU's surges. Saturday's game was much different as Wisconsin played very little defense allowing 7 BU goals as the Terriers gained a big non-conference victory at home in front of a raucous crowd at Agganis.

The Terriers struggled to have a sustained effort Friday night against the RPI Engineers as they put themselves in a quick 2-0 hole and never full recovered as they suffered a 3-1 loss.. Defensive miscues cost the Terriers two early goals along with a few shots that goalie Sean Maguire clearly wanted back. BU picked up play in the second period but had trouble getting in the back of the net until Ahti Oksanen made a great pass to spring freshman Kevin Duane who potted his first collegiate goal. That gave the team a big jump heading into the second intermission. An early RPI goal and penalties derailed any BU comeback effort which resulted in the first loss of the David Quinn era.

First half review- Forwards

Now that the first half of the season is over and the Terriers sit at 10-5-0(8-4-0) , it is a good time to look back at individual player's first halves. For reference last season, BU finished the first half at 10-5-1. Obviously, two very different teams but similar results. This year's team is much younger and have more reason to be excited for the second half of the season as the underclassmen develop and execute even better. Here is the review of each forward still on the roster.

1. Cason Hohmann (4-12-16, 15 GP) "Texas Toast" has had a hell of a first half for the Terriers. He has been noted by Coach Parker on numerous occasions as a guy who needed to make a jump this year for the team to succeed. He certainly has met that challenge. He leads the team in points and has doubled his point total from last season(35 games played). He is the top line center and has been producing all season.  He is usually the fastest guy on the ice when he is out there but that might only because Nieto plays on a different line. That is a race I would love to see.

2. Wade Megan(9-6-15, 15 GP)- The Captain from Canton, NY leads the team in goals in the first half and they have come in a variety of ways. He sniped against his hometown St. Lawrence Saints and he had one of the greasiest goals of all time against UNH. The team is 9-2-0 when he records a point and 8-1-0 when he scores a goal. He is obviously a big part of this offense and on pace to do even better than his 20-9-29 line in 39 games last year.

3. Danny O'Regan (5-6-11, 15 GP)- The freshman from Needhman, MA and St. Sebastian's stepped in right away and contributed for BU. He has been the second line center all season and has done it very well. The Sharks' fifth round pick has been responsible on both ends of the ice and has scored some big goals for this team in the first half. Specifically, I am talking about the final goal against UND to finish the game and put it out of reach. He has a great ability to set up in front of the goalie and put pucks away. Very Jason Lawrence-like in that aspect.

Weekend Recap

HS has your interesting Maine recap from Saturday night here. BU knocked off #1 UNH back on Thursday night by a 3-2 score. BU jumped out to a 3-0 lead behind goals from Wade Megan, Sahir Gill and Sam Kurker. Megan's goal was a typical goal for the captain as he kept poking and jabbing at a rebound from a Matt Grzelcyk shot and eventually put it past Casey DeSmith. It remained 1-0 until Sahir Gill scored his 2nd goal of the season off a great pass from Cason Hohmann on a 2 on 1, which was set up by a nice pass by Garrett Noonan.  BU made it 3-0 later in the second when freshman Sam Kurker bounced a shot past DeSmith to give BU a 3-0 lead. This was exactly what they needed as I said in my preview. They needed to get out to a lead because UNH just doesn't allow goals in the 3rd this year.  UNH added 2 goals from Kevin Gouma and John Henrion but could not score over the last 8:06 as BU killed 8 of 9 powerplays including one with 2:07 remaining. The team competed extremely hard and has to be happy to get out of Durham while handing UNH their first home loss of the season.  Matt O'Connor was once again huge for this team and together with Sean Maguire's second consecutive shutout on Saturday, there is alot to like about this goalie tandem. O'Connor has been seeing more time but I would think it is going to become a true rotation for the second half as it has become a healthy rivalry.

University of Toronto Recap

The first game recap of the 2012-13 season comes to you from guest blogger and BSRS correspondent HatTrick Swayze. Enjoy...

Well, that was interesting. In a game that most will remember as an absolute circus that certainly got most of the Dog Pound riled up and chanting, there actually were some important things to take away from the 3 hour party that was held on the Agganis ice Sunday afternoon. Let’s break it down by pros, cons and a few words on the FNGs.