Beanpot preview

It is highly unlikely that we will post a UMass recap because we are quite content pretending that Friday's game never happened and moving on from there. The focus now is the Beanpot Tournament also known as the BU invitational. The Terriers have won 29 of the 60 Beanpot tournaments ever held. This is the greatest regular season tournament in college hockey and probably all of sports. The Beanpot is well known throughout the college hockey world and the only fans they don't enjoy are it are just bitter that their team isn't involved in it. All hockey fans in New England know what falls on the first two Mondays in February every year.This year is different than any other year in that no one team is the clear favorite. BC has the best record but their defense is in shambles and beating UVM at home doesn't mean all their problems are solved. Northeastern is just doing their thing which means playing as inconsistent as anyone in the conference. Harvard has been killed by the cheating scandal that rocked their athletic department last spring. The thing about the Beanpot is that any one of these 4 could easily win it despite Harvard and Northeastern's droughts. Northeastern has not won a Beanpot since 1988 and Harvard has not won since 1994. 

Weekend Preview: Time to Take out the Trash

This weekend the BU Terriers play host to two conference foes that are heading in two different directions. Friday night, they will host the 6-10-2 Northeastern Huskies. NU has had an up and down(well mostly down) year thus far. They began the season 2-0 with wins over Merrimack and BC at home. Their only other conference win since opening weekend was a 1-0 victory over UMass. They are coming off a tie of Maine who then lost 6-0 to Merrimack the next night. NU is a  trap game at home for the Terriers but hopefully this team learned its lesson from the Harvard game last week. NU always bring their best for BU because they have decided that BU is their "rival". It is a one way rivalry but we will save that for another day. This game is one that would be easy to overlook but should also give the team a good idea what to expect come Beanpot time in 3 weeks when nothing is easy. NU's MO is to lose to Atlantic Hockey teams at home(Bentley this year) and then knock off a top 10 team. They have already beaten BC and they could do the same on Friday to BU. That being said, I think BU will win a close one.

Northeastern names Madigan as new coach

Northeastern finally ended a 45 day search for their next head coach with the announcement of a press conference for Tuesday to announce alum Jim Madigan(the current director of business at NU/scout for the Pittsburgh Penguins) as the next head coach. Madigan skated for the Huskies from 1981-1985 and even won two Beanpots which is unheard of over there on Huntington Ave. This hire really comes out of nowhere as many expected current assistant Sebastian LaPlante to be named to the job or for a big name from outside the school. I don't believe the director of business development was a top candidate but that's just me. Madigan, spent the last eight years as an university employee and scout for the Penguins so I would guess he knows the school and expectations currently and can also relate to the pro game. It will certainly be interesting to see if he can recover any of the decommitted recruits(Gaudreau and Harr) while rising sophomores Jamie Olesiak leaving for major juniors and Brodie Reid (signed with San Jose) have already left the University with no hope of returning. This NU team will fail to score all season but will find a way to win some games behind the Rawlings/Witt goalie combo along with Vinny Saponari(BU drop-out, BC reject) to party like a puck star and score some goals. I would still love nothing more to kill these idiots all three times for the crap they pulled in the HE Quarters last year. Is it October yet? Or better yet is it the first Monday of February so I can watch the disappointment in the faces of all the NU fans for the 24th straight year with the Beanpot futility. Doesn't matter who your coach is NU we're still gonna stomp your ass. Cue the music!

Cronin cheats then bails to Toronto

Northeastern University's men's hockey head coach, Greg Cronin, has left the school for an assistant coach position with the Toronto Maple Leafs. This move comes timely for a coach who was suspended for the last six games of the regular season for NCAA violations regarding contact with recruits. Sebastian LaPlante will serve as the interim head coach as other assistant coach Albie O'Connell is rumored to be taking a similar position at Harvard University. LaPlante, who must serve a six game suspension to begin the season, is not the ideal guy but really NU's only option as bringing in a new coach and implementing a new system in three months is no easy task. Cronin left the school with very few options as the realistic plan here would be to give LaPlante the season to see what he has got as a coach. This leaves many wondering about the status of recruits and current players especially rising sophomore D-man Jamie Olesiak who is a sure first rounder in the NHL draft later this month. It will be interesting to see if this changes the roster of the Huskies who are due to bring in some heralded recruits including ex-Terrier and puckstar Vinny Saponari. Have fun coaching that little girl Kessel, Cronin. You two idiots should get along great.

Saponari commits to Northeastern, Cronin on his way out?

The Hockey East coaching carousel continues as sources are telling the Sieves the Day blog that Northeastern head coach Greg Cronin is leaving the school to pursue a professional coaching job. This is a surprise move for the coach who just finished his sixth season on Huntington Ave. He was suspended from mid February to the end of the regular season due to NCAA violations about illegal contact with recruits. Don't have to worry about those in the pro's now do we? The NCAA still never announced a final ruling on Cronin which makes this even more interesting. If it is a high profile job, I will say it is the right move but if its an assistant to an AHL team then he straight-up ran away from the issue. Atleast he can take his idea of grabbing opposing players to the professional ranks and a goon in the AHL will beat him to a pulp which always makes a good Youtube video.

Northeastern will now be the third team in the conference to replace a head coach this off-season as PC and UMASS-Lowell named their new coaches(Nate Leaman and Norm Bazin) this past Thursday and Friday respectively.

This news comes on the same night as forward BU forward Vinny Saponari committed to the school for next season. This news come as no surprise as Saponari made it obvious he wanted to return to Hockey East to get back at BU,preferably at another school in Boston. Once the holy ones down the road in Newton rejected his stellar academic history, Northeastern was the obvious choice. This should certainly spice up the NU-BU games next year if they needed any spicing up considering how the season ended this year. Saponari is an arrogant prick who disrespected his school,coach, and teemates. He is going to make the NU-BU games that much sweeter when BU wins and ...well that is the only option the next two seasons with Saponari on the other side. He may have all of his fans in Dubuque(home of his USHL team) feeling bad for him but BU fans surely do not feel bad for the opportunity he squandered away here with a series of poor decisions. All I have left to say is cue Exhibit A of his stupidity.





P.S. He is going to have to change some of the lyrics in there.

BSRS ON THE ROAD AGAIN TO NU

We the BSRS are on the road tonight to NORTHEASTERN where coaches text and call on the unlimited plan. We will have a full report on the series this weekend and the final Hockey East standings as well as player of the year, rookie of the year and coach of the year. As always GO BU!

PS- NU SUCKS

Rock Chalk Terrier: Basketball Beanpot?

In the immortal words of Indians Red Sox Dodgers Rays Outfielder Manny Ramirez, I'm happy to be back, I'm here to play. After a semester student teaching I'm ready to jump back into the fray of blogging BU and Boston sports by introducing what I hope to keep a regular feature on the blog: Rock Chalk Terrier, featuring discussion of our dearly beloved BU men's basketball team, which I eventually plan to spin off into game previews and recaps.

Imagine my surprise Monday when I read a piece in the Boston Herald online that I actually did not think was stupid. (Unsurprisingly it was not the product of Dennis or Callahan or whichever one of WEEI's morning monkeys writes there) This article posited the idea of a Basketball Beanpot tournament similar to the one played among the Boston hockey schools every February. In addition to BU, BC, Harvard and Northeastern, the tournament could potentially include other Massachusetts D1 programs UMass and Holy Cross, both schools with substantial tradition in the sport.

The coaches at the schools all seem to think this is a great idea, but simply a logistical issue that needs to be solved as far as how to pull it off. At least initially I feel that the best approach the schools should take toward this tournament would be to take a similar approach to how the Philadelphia Big 5 is run. those 5 schools (La Salle, Penn, 'Nova, St. Joe's and Temple) All play one another each year on their home courts and the team with the best record in those games against each other is declared champion. I think this would be fine in the case of this tournament as well since these teams typically play 3 or so games a year against other Beanpot schools in their non-conference schedule. Playing everyone every year would build rivalries at all of these schools, which can in the long run give fans a compelling reason to come out to the games. Plus the teams haven't been as unbalanced against each other recently as you might think given their vast differences in conference prestige (ACC vs. A-10 vs. CAA vs. Ivy League vs. AEast); BU is 3-5 against Beanpot schools since the 2008-09 season, Northeastern is 3-3, Holy Cross is 1-8 (but 9-3 in the 4 years before), UMass and BC are 4-3 and surprisingly enough, Harvard is 7-2 (they'd have been this and least year's champs, BU and NU would've tied for 2008-09). Given this kind of parity I think it'd make sense to pull the trigger on making it happen. ARE YOU LISTENING, COACHES?

Here's who would've won the last few years (Based on best record, which admittedly is skewed since BC often doesn't play the lower level schools like BU, Northeastern and Holy Cross)

2010-11: Harvard (2-0)-2

2009-10: Harvard (3-0)-1

2008-09: BU-1 & Northeastern-1 (2-1)

2007-08: Holy Cross (2-0)-2

2006-07: BC (2-0)-5

2005-06: BC (3-0)-4

2004-05: BC (3-0)-3

2003-04: BC (4-0)-2

2002-03: Holy Cross (2-0)-1

2001-02: BC (3-0)-1

Just another crazy night in Hockey East...

So I just logged onto the Hockey East website to check some scores from the games tonight and my jaw(bill) dropped as I looked through the scores. Here is what I saw:
Providence 2 -Merrimack 0 - This score just makes me giggle. Merrimack comes into the season with all these expectations. You have their punk ass blogger claiming they are "as good if not better than BU" and should get home ice for the HE conference tournament. Then they split with BC last weekend after an opening tie at UVM. So coming into this weekend, I almost have to give them some respect despite how much I hate Merrimack, their blog and leader Da Costa the fucking Frenchman. After tonight, I am just laughing. I know it is early still but come on. You go into Providence and fail to score nevermind win the game. You can't score a goal on Providence...thats pathetic. Beaudry sucks if you just chant his name a couple times and say his mom is hot. No offense to Providence but you traditionally are not very good yet somehow find themselves in second place of HE standings currently. This is misleading as they have played more games than everyone behind them besides Lowell. But this game is a wake-up call to those losers up at the Mack. Beating BC at home gets you nowhere in this league if you come out and lose to Providence your next game. They played like they just won the SuperBowl kinda like the Jets do everytime they beat the Pats and then wonder why it has been so long between titles.

New Hampshire 2 - BC 1- This game really was a toss-up going in. Both of these teams are extremely skilled and it seems like UNH won this game with its goaltending. Not a huge surprise but always good to see those choir boys lose down in their rich suburb of Newton. BSRS and friend bought 14 tickets for the BU@BC game on Dec 4th so its officially a party now.

UMASS Lowell 3 - UVM 1- Really UVM? Ok this team must really suck for 1. Giving up three goals to Lowell. They have four goals in their last three games combined. 2. Only scoring once on them. They have given up 12 goals in their last three games. UVM's offensive woes might be even worse than we all thought. Or maybe Lowell did some really good crack before the game. Who knows?

Army 5 - UMASS 2 - This game is no surprise I guess. I thought UMASS would find ways to win games this year but it has been just the opposite. I don't know much about Army Hockey besides they went 11-18-7 last year in Atlantic Hockey and has already lost to UCONN and Holy Cross this year. The bottom of HE is really struggling against Atlantic Hockey teams this fall.

Niagra 4 - Northeastern 1- The bad news: NU loses to another Atlantic hockey school at home despite putting 43 shots on net. The good news: NU has only played four conference games which are the ones that count. They need to get their shit together soon though if they want to contend at all this year.

In other news, BU forward Yassin Cisse underwent season-ending ankle surgery on Thursday and will red-shirt this season. It is the same ankle he cut with a skate last year. He re-injured the ankle in the season opening win against Wisconsin.

I like what I hear from Jack Parker leading up to tonight's matchup with #7 Maine. He is not overhyping the game but stressing its importance to play better at home and even quoted the great Bill Belichick saying " As Bill Belichick would say:' 6 wins gets you nothing in this league'". That quote is like a combination of the two greatest things in the world: BU hockey and Patriots football.

Ok thats all I got. I am sure Redd10 will throw up some crap about how the Bruins sucked tonight and Thomas' hot streak ended later today. The Celtics won in OT though which is legit except no one cares because it is still November.