BU banned from AE conference tournaments, NiCastro signs with Detroit

We typically only blog about hockey here at BSRS but, there was some major athletic news this past week affecting the majority of the remaining athletic teams at BU. America East has decided to ban BU teams from post-season conference tournaments this coming year as a result of BU choosing to leave the conference for the 2013-2014 season. BU has belonged to the conference since it was founded in 1979 so this coming season will be BU's 33rd in the conference and yet, the conference members have enacted some by-law that allows to ban BU from conference tournaments which destroys many teams chance of making the NCAA tournament. This is the same school that has won 12(or some other large number) straight Commissioner's Cups, which is awarded to the best athletic program in the conference based on a points system in each sport. This is also the first time in America East history that a school leaving the conference has been banned from conference tournament play due to the school's departure. This seems to be a reaction to the CAA putting similar bans on Georgia State and Old Dominion for leaving their conference. 12 other programs have  left America East since its founding in 1979. More than half of those were after less than 15 years in the conference. None of those schools were banned from conference tournaments. Northeastern left for the CAA as recent as 2005 and were not dealt with in such a manner. BU will be leaving for a league , in the Patriot League, where they belong and are an overall better fit. BU will be with other private schools with similar academic programs and standards. What was BU athletics gaining by dominating America East in most sports year after year? If anything, this gives other schools a chance to gain NCAA tournament bids and allows BU to continue to develop as an athletic program. Banning BU for this season benefits no one. America East just gets to feel good about itself. The ruling to ban BU and punish the athletes for an administrative decision is ridiculous and just flat out wrong. It seems like other schools are just bitter that BU beat up on them for the past 33 years. Get over yourselves and let the kids play.  You can support the group started by BU fans on facebook by liking this page or just continually tweet at America East like we are.

In other news, former BU Terrier hockey player Max NiCastro has signed with the Detroit Red Wings, who drafted him in the 3rd round of the 2008 draft. NiCastro had sexual assault charges dropped against him earlier this month and seems to be getting his life back in order. He will be assigned to their AHL Grand Rapids team and I would expect him to see regular ice time there as he certainly has the physical tools to play in the NHL someday if he can continue to develop and stay healthy. We wish Max all the best in his professional career and hope to see big things out of him.

8 Future Terriers drafted in 2012 NHL Draft

Last night's first round of the 2012 NHL draft was quiet on the college hockey front as a whole and that held true with BU as no current or future Terriers were drafted in the first round. Rounds 2-7 today were a different story as 8 future Terriers were drafted. That was 40% of the players taken from Hockey East schools and 12% of overall collegians or recruits drafted. That isn't a bad indicator for the quality of the classes that Coach Parker has coming in the next few years. Another cool fact is 6 of the 8 are Massholes which is always nice to have a local touch to the recruiting classes. Here are the recruits that were drafted.

Round- (Overall)
2- 56- Sam Kurker- Stl- Kurker will be arriving here this coming fall and figures to make an impact right away with his size and skill.  Kurker will be joining the Blues, who currently have former Terrier Kevin Shattenkirk on their roster and will for years to come with the production he has put up thus far.

3-85-Matt Grzelcyk -Bos- The Charlestown,MA native d-man  was drafted by the Bruins in the third round and called it "a dream come true".  He will also be arriving at BU this fall and has drawn comparisons to David Warsofsky, who is a former Terrier in the Bruins system. Grzelcyk is now the third Bruin prospect with ties to BU as the Bruins also have former Terrier Colby Cohen in their system.

4- 113- Sean MacGuire-Pitt- The incoming goalie, who will compete with the undrafted Matt O'Connor,  was drafted by Penguins. They obviously drafted MacGuire because they have deemed former Northeastern goalie Brad Thiessen as incompetent, which he is.

5-125- Doyle Somerby- NYI- Somerby is a 2013 recruit but seems to be a Gryba-like big defenseman who will hopefully start laying guys out as soon as he arrives on campus next fall. Here is a video from him after he was drafted.



5-136- Robbie Baillargeon-Ott- Another 2013 recruit here who was ranked higher than where he was drafted.  Former Terriers with the Sens now are Eric Gryba and Matt Gilroy. Gilroy is a UFA as of July 1st and I believe Gryba is entering the last year of his deal with the franchise.

5-138- Danny O'Regan- SJ- O'Regan joins current Terrier Matt Nieto as a Sharks prospect and former Terrier and captain John McCarthy who is playing with their AHL affiliate in Worcester,MA.

6-177 -Wesley Myron- Van - Tough luck for Myron getting drafted by the 2nd worse franchise in the NHL besides Montreal but I guess it is still nice to get drafted. He should stay at BU for all 4 years and then not sign so he can be a free agent and never play those losers up in Vancouver.

7-189- Brendan Collier-Car- The 2013 recruit was drafted late in the draft but that seems to be the MO on this kid as people continue to doubt him because of his smaller size but he has continued to produce. Let's hope that continues at BU and he continues his hard work ethic.

New Teams In Hockey East: Time for Divisions

So as many of have read UCONN Mens Hockey will joining the Hockey East in two years. Now I was thinking and writing on Twitter the other day and talking to the BSRS crew that runs the blogs twitter account about what this means. Personally, I think that this is great news and gives us the ability to create two divisions within Hockey East. Call it as you may North vs. South, Private vs. Public but I broke down the divisions into possible mouth watering playoff hockey.

The South Division would contain: Boston University, Boston College, Providence College, University of Notre Dame, UCONN, & Northeastern University. The reasoning is that you can't break-up BU, NU, & BC. They play in the Beanpot & obviously need to keep those teams together. PC, UND, & BC just make the Catholic schools perfectly happy. UCONN is the hard one to work in there. Historically, UCONN has a rivalry with fellow past & present Big East teams in Providence, Boston College, & UND. So I guess you can place them in there and place Merrimack in the North Division.

The North Division would contain: UVM, UNH, Maine, UMass-Amherst, UMass-Lowell, & Merrimack. So right off the bat you need to have Maine & UNH together. They hate each other. UVM is far enough north to contend with UNH & Maine. The UMass teams stick together based on how they are both state schools from Massachusetts. Merrimack is again the odd choice and since they don't fit in the South, you have to place them in the North.

You can keep the regular season the same as it has been. If it works, keep it. The playoffs will have 4 teams from each division. Rank them 1-4 in each division. Take the 1s in each division and play the respective 4s. Take the 2s in each division and play the respective 3s. The division finals will happen in the Garden and the Hockey East Finals will happen in the Garden as well. In each division, the odds for having a rivalry game INCREASE for Hockey East Quaterfinals/ Division Semifinals and make the hockey just so much better. 


Probably just a pipe dream...


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Catching up with the rest of Hockey East

This week has been an eventful one for Hockey East. On Tuesday, UMass' coach Toot Cahoon stepped down with one year remaining on his contract. The decision has a weird timing to it for sure which has lead many to suspect that there were some issues between the AD John McCutcheon and Cahoon. McCutcheon was the former assistant AD at BC and has followed BC's strategy of putting more emphasis and effort into improving basketball and football than hockey. UMass is now searching for its next coach and the rumors are all over the place from Merrimack's Dennehy to former BU assistant David Quinn, who is currently an assistant with the Colorado Avalanche and will be in the discussion to replace Coach Parker when he decides to retire. UMass has only one assistant on the staff as top assistant Blaise MacDonald had left the staff last week to take over the head job at Colby College up in Maine. It will certainly be interesting to watch as the timing is awful for the school, especially to replace 2 top coaches but it is good enough of a job to pry a good coach like Quinn away from the pros or an assistant from another school.


Today Hockey East announced the worst kept secret ever that UCONN will be added to the conference as the 12th team for the 2014-2015 season. The team will play in the XL Center in Hartford until an improved rink can be built on campus. Apparently, their current campus rink sucks worse than Merrimack's did before the renovations up there. It will be nice to have another state school in the league and another place to travel to. The XL center is pretty nice to watch hockey as I have seen a few AHL games there. Feliz Miguel probably loves this move more than anyone else out there being the UCONN diehard that he is.


Lastly, the NHL draft begins tomorrow night in Pittsburgh, which happens to be where the Frozen Four is this year. I would expect to hear a few BU recruits have their names called on Saturday during the 2nd to the 7th rounds. 2012 recruits Matt Lane, Matt Grzelcyk, Sam Kurker, and Danny O'Regan all figured to be drafted at some point along with 2013 recruits Brendan Collier, Robbie Baillargeon, and Kevin Duane. Current Terriers Sahir Gill and Alexx Privitera also have a chance of being drafted over the weekend. We wish all the guys on the team and future Terriers the best of luck in the draft.

Big 24 hours: Clendening signs, NiCastro is free

I am coming out of my summer hiatus to write this post because we all know GW won't get off the couch nevermind write a whole post. This has been a very busy 24 hours for BU hockey especially for early June when usually the only business is off-season training. First, last night rising junior defenseman Adam Clendening announced he was signing with the Chicago Blackhawks who drafted him in the 2nd round in last year's draft. Clendening had nothing but good things to say about his time at BU and deemed himself ready for the next step by signing a 3 year deal worth $650,000 per. Clendening came to BU as a highly touted recruit and he showed that skill and talent on the powerplay, specifically this past season. He still has work to improve his defensive game and could have benefited from another year in college hockey. In the end, it was his choice and he moves on leaving an open scholarship for the BU coaching staff to use for the coming season. This seems to be left for another d-man as BU only is carrying 6/7 on the roster defending on your definition of the bod Matt Ronan. One rumor would be that 2013 recruit Marc Hetnik could come next year to fill the defensive void on the blue line and the scholarship would be used on a forward like USHL player of the year Kevin Roy, who is looking into backing out of his committment to Brown. Other rumors are that BU was prepared for this and have a d-man recruit lined up to fill the void. Best of luck to Clenny with the Blackhawks and hopefully he doesn't emulate Patrick Kane too much.

Next, this morning both charges of rape were dropped against Max NiCastro, who was accused of the crime in late February and later suspended from the team and the school. The dropping of the charges saves NiCastro a long trial and posssibly 20 years in prison, if he had been convicted. Good luck to Max wherever he goes next, whether that be back to BU or signing with Detroit, who have his rights after drafting him in 2008. Now all the haters and pro-task force advocates can go climb back into their holes and shutup. I bet there aren't any news trucks outside of Agganis today looking for students opinions on the charges being dropped because that doesn't make good news at 6.

In other minor news, former BU commit Robert Polsello has committed to UVM for next year. Polsello and BU parted ways after an off-ice incident this past year. BU replaced him in their 2012 class with forward Sam Kurker. Seems like an upgrade to me. That's all I got for now. If anyone else goes pro, I am going to be heated so hopefully I won't have to post again anytime soon. Let' s see if you can guess the theme of the videos below