Well I guess we have to say something/second half projections

So this has been quite the week for BU hockey. The program has been in headlines throughout the week. First, senior forward Corey Trivino was removed the team and lost his scholarship after an incident Sunday night here in a BU dorm. Trivino has been charged with numerous charges including intent to commit rape. I am going to lay off commenting on this one as it has already been through the ringer this week through various online fan boards and various other blogs. It seems like the only decision to be made by Coach Jack Parker, was made quickly like it needed to be before the story took off from there in a public forum. That part was unfortunate for both Trivino and the victim. We wish the best to both Trivino and the victim in recovering from this incident.

Since Trivino's removal on Monday, sophomore forward Charlie Coyle has announced that he plans on leaving the BU program. Coyle will be joining a stacked St. Johns Sea Dogs team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The team is loaded and seems to be aiming to win the Memorial Cup up there. Once again, I'm going to lay off going on a rant about this without knowing all the details. It is has been reported that Coyle was struggling academically and he hints at this as he says his decision was made so that he could focus fully on hockey. Myself and GW disagree on whether NCAA or major junior will get him more ready for the NHL/AHL next season. I think playing 18-25 year olds will better prepare him for the big leagues as opposed to playing some 16 year old little prick who thinks he is the next Crosby but clearly isn't. Either way, best of luck to Coyle in the rest of his hockey career. We will let you know if anything else come from this but Boston Hockey Blog has been all over this and the Trivino story from the beginning.

Now for all of the haters out there, just calm down. This team did lose their top two centers but they still have the same defense and goaltenders that have allowed 2 goal over their two wins last weekend. This puts more pressure on guys to step up and play together. It also puts more pressure on the students here to support the team more now than ever. The student body needs to make this a way to come together and get behind the guys that still are here. The season isn't over unless you let it be over. This team may not score as many goals as they did this past semester but they have already found out ways to win. I have faith that this will continue in the second half. This is a NCAA team for sure and if they come together through this then they could be serious contenders in April.

Now here are my power rankings going into the second half of the season and projections

1. Newton University 12-6-0 - I'll leave these fruits here just because despite going 4-5 in their last 9 games they still have a very good team if they can find a consistent goalie

2. BU 10-5-1- Obviously the loss of both Coyle and Trivino hurts but this team still has a team full of guys who can carry the team to the NCAA's including Connolly, Gill, Nieto, Chiasson, Noonan, and Clendening just to name a few.

3. UMass Lowell 10-5-0- This team is for sure the wild card in Hockey East as they will be interesting to see if they can continue to play stellar hockey behind Doug Carr.

4. Merrimack 10-2-2- Injuries are killing them now and I think it will combine with a tougher schedule in the second half of the year to cause them to fade but they still grab home ice and probably grab a NCAA berth

5. Maine 6-7-2- Maine is easily the most inconsistent teams in the league but I still think they are better than PC for this year atleast

6. PC 8-7-1- This team has made leaps from last year and will make the conference playoffs this year. Now can they win a QF series at Lowell or Merrimack? Probably not but they did already take a game at PC this year.

7. Northeastern 7-7-2- The hottest team in HE currently but they will have to do more damage in the conference before I buy in. Also their fans are just fucking annoying and it is going to be too funny to watch them go back to Huntington Ave without a Beanpot again in Feb. That will make how many years? 24? sucks to sucks

8. UNH 6-9-2- The University of No Hardware seems destined for another year of winning zero games of any importance

9. UMASS 5-7-4- UMass is still so inconsistent but they are still in position to steal a playoff spot from either UNH or PC.

10. UVM 3-11-1- They just aren't good this year. I expect to see them back with Sneddon as their coach.

National polls, weekend recap

Both polls came out today and put BU #12 nationally in the USCHO and USA Today polls. BC remains the top team in both receiving a majority of the votes in both polls. Here is the top 5 of each polls and notable others throughout Hockey East.

USCHO:

1. BC(42) 7-1-0

2. Colorado College(5)4-0-0

3. Michigan 6-1-0

4. Western Michigan(1) 5-0-3

5. Minnesota 7-1-0

7. Merrimack 6-0-0

12. Boston University 3-2-1

20. Maine 3-2-1

USA Today

1. BC(30)

2. Colorado College(3)

3. Michigan

4. Notre Dame

5. Minnesota

7. Merrimack

12. Boston University

The INCH power rankings also came out today and place BU up two spots to #14 in the country. For some reason they respect the EZAC and have Colgate, Union, and Yale ranked ahead of BU despite Yale's unproven 1-0-1 record and Union's loss to UNH this weekend. Everyone will find out how weak that conference is once they all fail to make a Frozen Four again. Yes Yale that is directed at you. Also here is a recap of BU players mentioned in the HE performances of the week

Hockey East Weekly Top Performances:

Charlie Coyle So, F- Recorded a goal and three assists in the weekend home and home series with UMass.

Sahir Gil So,F-Scored three points against UMass including the tying goal Friday night

Matt Nieto So, F- Recorded two goals, including the game winner Saturday, and two assists in the series with UMass

Career Milestones/Who is Hot/ Trends

Sahir Gil - Has a point in all six games this season

Matt Nieto- Has scored a goal in all six games this season

"Boston University: Dating back to last season, sophomore Matt Nieto has scored a goal in eight straight games, the longest streak by a Terrier since Chris Drury scored in nine straight games from Nov. 1-26, 1996…The Terriers have outscored their opponents 10-2 in the second period this season but have been outscored 10-3 in the first period…BU went to overtime with UMass in both ends of this past weekend's home-and-home series and came away with three points. The Terriers have not lost a conference game in overtime since Feb. 21, 2003, at Providence…BU erased a 2-0 deficit on Friday before coming all the way back from a 3-0 deficit in Saturday's overtime triumph…Sophomore Charlie Coyle currently sports a league-best plus-9 rating and has recorded two points in each of the last three contests…BU leads the nation in shorthanded goals this season with four…Senior goaltender Grant Rollheiser (Chilliwack, B.C.) earned his first start since last December on Saturday and overcame a three-goal first period to record 29 saves in the victory. He is now 12-7-4 in his career with a 2.91 GAA…Travis Roy was the recipient of Boston University's prestigious Young Alumni Award on Saturday as part of this year's Alumni Weekend."

BU loses to Holy Cross,chaos ensues

The #7 BU Terriers mens ice hockey team lost in a classic trap game 5-4 to the College of Holy Cross at Agganis Arena Saturday night. It marked the Terriers first ever loss to an Atlantic Hockey team and has caused alot of backlash from fans. I have read fans on various websites blaming Coach Parker, Kieran Millan, Charlie Coyle to the band. Now let's not go turn into the Red Sox here. Was the game ugly? Of course. I was beyond angry walking out of the rink Saturday night. There is a reason I waited over 24 hours to post something. It is because it is just ticking me off and it is tough to put a positive spin on anything that happened. The Terriers got outworked and simply didn't execute hard enough to win the game in front of a fairly full Agganis Arena due to parents' weekend.

Wade Megan was thrown out of the game in the third for a hit from behind which was a penalty but I can't blame Megan for playing hard. He was skating around hitting guys trying to wake up his team the whole third period. I won't get into how the call was changed based on the injury to the opposing player. It is always scary when a guy gets hurt but don't make it a major penalty because of it or guys will be milking injuries all over the country to get a call.

Now to begin, there is plenty of blame to go around here but it doesn't all fall on Coach Parker. He does need to find a way to motivate better and mentally prepare the team for games against lower ranked opponents such as PC and Holy Cross. We will see first hand if he can do it this week against UMASS who has one win this year, against Bentley. Some of the blame falls on the coaching staff's shoulders but certainly not all of it.

Next, sophomore first round pick Charlie Coyle has been singled out along with other forwards for not producing. Let's take a look at the top two lines this year shall we?(through 4 game splayed)

Alex Chiasson- 4g,3a,+7- 7 points

Charlie Coyle- 0g, 5a +6, 5 points

Matt Nieto- 4g, 1a, +5, 5 points

Chris Connolly- 0g, 3a, +0, 3 points

Sahir Gil, 1g, 4a, +0, 5 points

Corey Trivino 3g, 2a, 5 points +1

These top two lines of forwards are dominating when they are on the ice. The 3rd and 4th lines are struggling but the third line is two freshman with Cason Hohmann and Evan Rodrigues(both who have showed signs of catching up with the college game so far). The defensmen are struggling at times and leaving Kieran Millan out to dry. These problems will get less apparent with hard work and the return of injured players Ryan Ruikka and Yasin Cisse. Cisse can bring another scoring touch to the 3rd or 4th line while Ruikka will create competition among defenseman as one of the four lower defenseman: Escobedo, Nicastro Clendening, or Privaterra will need to sit every game once Ruikka returns and is 100%.

Kieran Millan needs to get a game off this weekend to give Grant "Rollie" Rollheiser a chance to play well and push Millan to raise his level of play as well. Then again, we are only four games into the season. Last year this team began 6-0-4 and rose to be #1 in the country and then fell from there. The positive spin to this year is that problems are being diagnosed earlier in the year with more time for them to be addressed by the coaching staff and veteran leaders on the club. They could go unanswered and BU could miss the tournament for the 3rd year in a row or the questions will be answered and this team will be stronger because of it. So don't jump off that bridge yet and leave the fucking band alone.

Bye bye Glassy! Andrew Glass dismissed by Parker

The Boston Hockey Blog is reporting that junior forward Andrew Glass has been kicked off the Boston University hockey team for a "whole bunch of things" according to coach Jack Parker. At the time of the quote, Glass was still suspended indefinitely but has been dismissed from the team in the hours since. Glass was suspended for the season opener of the last season for breaking team rules and apparently has again started acting up. This leaves the team shorthanded off the bench as it only leaves two forwards inactive for each game and one defenseman. Glass must have really pissed Parker off to make this move mid-season and when he was the tenth highest scoring player on the team. The Wrentham,MA native is a seventh round draft pick of the Washington Capitals but his shot at the NHL now looks slim to none with nowhere to play for this coming semester. Look for him to try to hook on with a junior team for the remainder of this season and maybe transfer for next season...or maybe just make a fuckface club with the Saponari brothers and talk about how much of hardass Parker is for not encouraging all this shit and distractions that this young team does not need to see or hear about.

-Boston Hockey Blog also has a preview on the UVM-BU game Sunday up in Burlington.

-Freshman forward Charlie Coyle is back on campus from the world juniors and will have his first practice Saturday after being given a few days off by Coach Parker

- Sophomore forward Alex Chiasson is "100%" according to coach Parker and dropped the no contact jersey for Friday's practice.

BU Opens Season with 4-3 Win Over No. 13 Wisconsin

Going down 2-0 quickly in the first period wasn't the way this BU team wanted to start their season. And as Captain Joe Pereira pointed out, if this had been last year the game would have been over right then. But as the No. 14 Terriers proved last night, this year looks to be nothing like last year. Pereira himself poured in the first and fourth goals, with freshman Charlie Coyle and junior Dave Warsofsky adding goals 2 and 3 to propel BU to victory. Junior netminder Kieran Millan looked shaky in the first period, allowing those two quick goals and one more before the period expired. But that's all the Badgers would get out of Millan, as he shut them down in periods 2 and 3. A large part of this turnaround for BU is centered on power plays - ours and theirs. Our power play gave us 3 of our 4 goals, and their power play gave them 2 of their 3 goals. Parker explained that BU's early problems on the penalty kill resulted from improper spacing due to an NHL sized rink, opening more passing lanes for the Badgers to thread the puck through.

BU now takes on No. 17 Notre Dame in the finals of the Ice Breaker Tournament, Sunday afternoon at 4. Notre Dame beat Holy Cross 6-3 in their opener. Check back in with us then for another recap of hopefully another BU victory and our first title of the year...

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

BU won its regular season opener tonight over #13 Wisconsin. Captain Joe Pereira scored the first and fourth goals in a 4-3 win. Kieran Millan looked shaky in goal in a three goal first for Wisconsin but settled down to make some great saves in the third to preserve the 4-3 win for the Terriers. Charlie Coyle and David Wasorfsky also contributed goals. The team played scared at the end of the third but held on thanks to a goal disallowed and some great play by Kieran. All four of the Terrier goals came from the top line as they move on to play Sunday for the Ice Breaker Invitational Championship against Notre Dame who beat Holy Cross 6-2 earlier in the evening. Look for more details to come as the post game media festivities start now.

Look Out Hockey East

Because the BU Terriers are back. I don't care if tonight was a pre-season game. I don't care if University of Toronto isn't even a great hockey school. A 9-3 win is a 9-3 win. We might have the best freshman class since Colin Wilson, Nick Bonino, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Colby Cohen first graced Comm Ave. Our young guys from last year have gotten better. Charlie Coyle is a MONSTER. Oh and we didn't have our best defensive forward (Corey Trivino), one of our best scoring forwards from last year (Alex Chiasson), and our starting goalie (Kieran Millan).  I originally predicted we would finish 3rd. I might have UNDER estimated our season. Look out Hockey East. It's on.