Senior Week: Jake "The Snake" Moscatel

This is the fourth part in a series of posts about BU's 2013 Senior Class. Be on the lookout for a new post each day, culminating with Wade Megan on Friday. You can read part one on Ryan Ruikka here,  part two on Ryan Santana here, and part three on Sean Escobedo here. 

Not many players successfully transfer from Division 3 sports to Division 1 sports, but then again not many players are Jake Moscatel. A beauty in every sense of the word, Jake's journey from an injured player at the University of New England to a starter and fan favorite at BU was certainly a strange one.

Senior Week: Sean Escobedo

This is the third part in a series of posts about BU's 2013 Senior Class. Be on the lookout for a new post each day, culminating with Wade Megan on Friday. You can read part one on Ryan Ruikka here, and part two on Ryan Santana here.

During a BU hockey behind-the-scenes video from last year, Sean Escobedo jokingly said he was actually filming "E! True Hollywood Story: Rags to Riches." It may have been more accurate, however, to replace Rags to Riches with Jake Moscatel's suggestion: "I'm a Sweet Beauty."

Senior Week: Ryan Santana

This is the second in a series of posts about BU's 2013 Senior Class. Be on the lookout for a new post each day, culminating with Wade Megan on Friday. Read part one on Ryan Ruikka here.

Ryan Santana is exhibit A of the type of guy who always went about his business the right way and worked hard for every second of his ice time. Santana started his freshman year after a season with the Vernon Vipers in the BCHL, where he played with future teammate Sahir Gill. They would win the RBC championship that year. Santana began his career with a 0-1-1 line in 2009-2010, collecting his first collegiate point on a Ross Gaudet goal. Despite the unimpressive point total, Santana had a solid freshman season as he made his living grinding it out and mucking it up along the boards. I remember one of the first things I noticed while watching him play was how hard he skated every single shift he was out on the ice. Ryan's work ethic and commitment to each and every shift never wavered in his time at BU.

Report: BU Set to Announce David Quinn as Next Head Coach

Source: #BU will announce David Quinn as new Boston University Hockey Coach tomorrow. #HockeyEast #FrozenFour #TerrierNation #7News
— Joe Amorosino (@joeamorosino) March 26, 2013

According to a tweet from NBC 7's Sports Director Joe Amorosino, BU will announce David Quinn as Jack Parker's successor at BU in a press conference tomorrow.

Quinn, a defensemen as a player, played under Coach Parker for three seasons at BU, posting 48 points in 94 games.  He was diagnosed with Hemophilia B while trying out for the 1988 US Olympic team, which ended his playing career at BU. After finding medication to treat the blood-thinning disease, Quinn signed a professional contract with the New York Rangers and played one season with the Binghamton Rangers in the AHL before playing a season in the IHL for the Cleveland Lumberjacks. Quinn retired after posting 21 points in 60 games with the Lumberjacks.

He began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Northeastern in 1995 before spending six years as the top assistant and head recruiter at the University of Nebraska Omaha (1996-2002). He then spent two years as the head coach of Team USA's NTDP U-17 squad, leading them to a 16-7-1 mark in international play.  For his efforts, he was named USA Hockey's Developmental Coach of the Year in 2003.

Quinn then joined Coach Parker's staff in 2004 as an assistant coach, staying at his alma mater until after the Championship run in 2009. By the end of his tenure under Parker, David was BU's head recruiter and associate head coach.

David then became head coach of the Lake Eerie Monsters in the AHL, Colorado's AHL affiliate.  In three seasons under Quinn, the Monsters posted a 115-94 record. This past season, Quinn served as an  assistant coach with the Avalanche under fellow Terrier Joe Sacco.

Thank You Coach Parker

March 23, 2013 is a day that will forever be important to the fans, players, alumni and coaches of the BU Hockey program. Coach Jack Parker finished his 40th and final season on Saturday night with a 1-0 loss to UMass-Lowell in the Hockey East Tournament Championship. Parker retired 14,327 days after he was hired on December 10th, 1973, when Leon Abbott was fired for withholding information about Canadian players eligibility due to their ties to the CHL (surprise, surprise the CHL was involved in eligibility issues for NCAA players). We had been waiting to really look back on his career because we were partially in denial that he was retiring and because there were games still to be played.  Now that the season and his career are over, we can take a look back at his accomplishments and explain why he is the best college hockey coach of all-time (this is a completely unbiased statement).

Senior Week: Ryan Ruikka

This is the first in a series of posts about BU's 2013 Senior Class. Be on the lookout for a new post each day, culminating with Wade Megan on Friday.

It's safe to say that not too many BU hockey players had a collegiate career like Ryan Ruikka.

All Aboard the Departure Train - 2013 Edition

Now that BU's season has officially ended, we enter my least favorite time of the year - the early departure season. Like any major program, BU is no stranger to early departures - last season, Alex Chiasson, Adam Clendening and Justin Courtnall all left early to pursue professional careers. 

I'd imagine that I'll be updating this post as the next few weeks unfold, but here's how I say things shaking out as of now...

UPDATE - 4/1/13

BREAKING: Matt Nieto is signing an entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks organization today. He is reporting to Worcester.
— Boston Hockey Blog (@BOShockeyblog) April 1, 2013

Gone, Baby, Gone

Matt Nieto, Jr Forward, 18-19-37. Pro Team: San Jose

Guest Posts- Write a post for BSRS

As we did last season, we are once again asking for our readers and fellow BU hockey fans to write guest posts in the coming days and weeks. You can write about anything you want. We aren't going to sit here and tell you to write about this or that. You can write about a senior on men's hockey or a freshman on women's hockey. You can write about why BU is better than BC or any other team/referee you hate.

NCAA Mens Basketball Brackets

Starting tomorrow ESPN Brackets will take off and so does our private and public lobbies. As a token of our appreciation for reading the best damn blog in 'Murica, we are offering up slots to our readers to join us. Two Rules:

• Make Your Bracket Name Funny
• Have Fun laughing at us for some idiotic picks like Butler losing in the first round COUGH COUGH

Here are the steps to join in if you want:

1. Login to your ESPN account. If you don't have an account you can link your Facebook to it or create one from your email account.
2. Follow this link: http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/groupfind?entryID=6949230
3. Search BSRS Bloggers and Readers
4. Enter password: BCSUCKSDICK
----------UPDATE: NEW PASSWORD IS: FORPARKER
5. Fill out your bracket.

If you somehow beat us and get the number 1 spot we might give you follow or something nice to you on social media.

As Always Aim For Perfection

2012-2013 Hockey LEast Awards

Welcome to the second second annual Hockey LEast awards here at BSRS!  This is one of our favorite posts of the year as we bring you the bad, the ugly, and the possibly Canadian from Hockey East. When putting this list together, we take into account the following: goals, assists, plus/minus, games played, and our personal level of hatred towards each player. We did our Pre-Season Favorites back in September but the final results differed slightly as is always the case. Enjoy!


(Worst) Player of the Year- Vinny Saponari- NorthLeastern, F
The defending champion has repeated! The former Terrier and rap star put up decent numbers this year, posting a 7-22-29 line and finishing his career with 99 career points. However, he was a -10 on the season and led his team to a last place finish with his great god-awful leadership abilities. Plus, he never shook Parker's hand, and everybody knows you can't disrespect a legend and get away with it while Bay State Road Sports is around. Eat shit, Vinny.

(Worst) Coach of the Year- Jim MadAgain - NorthLeastern
Northeastern's 2nd year head coach fended off late pushes from Maine's Tim Whitehead and Amherst's John Micheletto to capture his second consecutive WCOY award.  Madigan's Huskies lost or tied 13 out of their last 15 games, including 5 losses in their last 6, to secure a last place finish in Hockey East for the second year in a row.  For those of you keeping track at home, that makes: 2 last place finishes, 2 missed playoffs, 0 NCAA appearances, and 0 Beanpots for Madigan in two years at Northeastern. While we hesitate to give this award to a coach who repeatedly shows support for BU's own Dog Pound, his record is impossible to ignore.

Weekend Recap- BU sweeps, exposes Merrimack

                                               -actual flyer on cars outside of Agganis

The Boston University Terriers swept the Merrimack College Warriors this weekend to end their season and advance to the Hockey East Semifinals next weekend at the TD Garden. The Terriers beat the Warriors by scores of 3-0 and 5-3 and swept all 5 games from the Warriors this season. The Terriers excelled at exposing Merrimack weaknesses defensively to get goals when they needed to. Theye also shut them down throughout the season defensively. Merrimack is a team that will outwork you to score goals and has given teams like BC and UNH fits this year. In order to beat them, you need to work equally as hard/if not harder which is no easy task. These games were the last two home games of coach Jack Parker's career as he announced his retirement this past week.  The Terrier sweep was their first in the Hockey East QF's since the 2005-2006 season against UMass. The Terriers do advance through to the Garden for the 11th time in 12 seasons. The Terriers also hit the 20 win plateau for the second consecutive season and give themselves a chance to make the NCAA tournament by winning one or two games next weekend.


Friday night's win was a result of solid defense and opportunistic offense. After a scoreless first, BU got goals from leading scorers Wade Megan and Matt Nieto. Nieto's line of himself, Danny O'Regan and Evan Rodrigues continues to roll and produce points. The Terriers added a third goal on the powerplay from senior grinder Ryan Santana who battled hard in front of the net for the loose puck.  Freshman tendy Sean Maguire had a great night for the Terriers pitching his 4th shutout of the season along with a gem of a press conference which you can see below. It was just the effort the Terriers needed to bring to a playoff game as they didn't score a ton of goals but did enough and played great defense in front of Maguire to pick up the victory.

Weekly Pick Em

HE QF Series Edition

QQ 104-105(.4976)
MWW 102-103 (.4975)
FM 80-83(.491)
HS 94-98(.490)
GW 61-88 (.412) -Mathematically eliminated



8. Maine @ 1. Lowell

QQ- Game 1 Lowell 3-1- Both of these teams have had much better second halves than firsts. I think Lowell wins in 3 and close to 90% of the time the winner of Game 1 goes on to win the series so the pick is Lowell.
Game 2 Maine 4-3- The urgency will be with Maine on the second night here with less pressure on Lowell, who is an NCAA lock and the Hockey East Regular Season Champ.

MWW- Game 1 Lowell 3-2- Maine is 2-1-0 versus Lowell this year. With all three games finishing by 1 goal each. The thing is you cannot judge the first two games since they were in Nov and both teams sucked in the start of the year. Now both teams are hot now. The true match up that should be looked at is the February match up the one in which Maine won. Issue is Maine only saw Carr this year. Taking LoL for game one based on this.

Game 2- Lowell 3-1  Since LoL should be up 1 game against Maine, I think this game will be up and down hockey. Dreadful for goalies but fun for everyone else. The thing is Hellebuyck is 14-2-0. Yes most of the teams he faced sucked (Harvard, NU) but still  14-2-0 record does speak for itself. Just based on that I am taking LoL for the sweep. Also this pick of a sweep isn't swayed by the fact I hate Joey Diamond.

FM
HS Game 1 Lowell 3-1 Game 2 Lowell 4-2.
GW

Coach Jack Parker set to announce his retirement

Long-time Boston University coach Jack Parker is reported to announce his retirement this afternoon at 3:00 press conference over at Agganis Arena. It is expected that he will announce his intentions to retire at the conclusion of this season whether that be this Saturday, Saturday April 13th at the National Championship game, or somewhere inbetween. ESPN was the first to report the news but it has been confirmed by numerous news outlets since the initial report. Parker has 894 career wins, which is 3rd all-time and the most at one school. Coach  Parker is a living legend no matter what his haters(aka all BC, Northeastern, and Lowell fans). Parker will most likely coach for the remainder of the season and then remain involved with Boston University in some way. He should be a key part of the search for his successor with numerous names already being thrown out there including associate head coach Mike Bavis and former associate head coach/current Colorado Avalanche assistant David Quinn, who figure to be at the top of the list. You will hear arguments for upwards of 10 candidates in the coming months but for now, we are going to focus on the games at hand. It will be interesting to see how the team responds to the news. Should be an inspired bunch to take the ice at 7:30 on Friday night.

Weekend Recap - Bye Bye Vinny

The BU Terriers finished off the regular season in style with a sweep over the last place Northeastern Huskies. The Terriers took home a 4-2 win Friday night at Matthews Arena and followed that effort with a convincing 5-0 victory on Saturday night at Senior night at Agganis Arena. The two wins give the Terriers a 18-15-2 record to finish the regular season and earned them the third seed Hockey East for the fourth straight year. They will host the Merrimack Warriors in the Quarter Finals of the Hockey East Tournament next Friday-Sunday.  The Terriers have more work to do to earn an at-large berth to NCAA tournament and need to focus on the QF series first.

Friday night, the Terriers got scoring from all 4 lines including senior Jake Moscatel's first D-1 collegiate goal. Moscatel joined the team halfway through last year due to some departures and has worked his way up the depth chart ever since. The reaction was great from the team, who were all happy for Moscatel and the great story he has. Coach Parker announced that they are trying to gain him another year of eligibility for next year because they have been so impressed with his play this season.  The Terriers added another goal on a wrister from captain Wade Megan. Despite giving up a goal late in the first, the Terriers settled in defensively and held Northeastern until they could add two more goals from Danny O'Regan and Matt Lane early in the third. They held on for a 4-2 win. What made the win even more impressive was that they did it with 5 dmen due to Garrett Noonan going out with a separated shoulder that will likely end his year.  It was a big two points for this team and key to play well in front of goalie Sean Maguire who is the goalie for the rest of the season after Matt O'Connor went down with a collapsed lung suffered last weekend.

Weekly Pick' Em

All below .500 which is embarrassing and what you get when certain bloggers claim that all ties are losses. I won't name names but take a look at the bottom of the standings.

QQ 99-100(.497)
FM 80-83(.491)
MWW 96-99 (.492)
HS 88-94 (.483)
GW 61-88(.412)


Friday March 8

BU @ NU

QQ- BU 4-1- Sorry to ruin your senior night Vinny! Have fun hanging out in the AHL and ECHL for years!
FM
MWW- BU 3-2- The rumor on the interweb is that there will be more BU students at the away game than NU students at their home game. Well, when you advertise tickets on Living Social, you should know things are bleak for you. I feel like I can go off and say horrible things right now but I am requesting that all BU students that go to the game do this: when they announce his name during senior night ceremonies Please do the 'name, name, name... you SUCK" but instead of Vinny use this name "Stephanie." Don't ask me why just do it. Then repeat with the name 'Gus"
HS - BU 4-2 - Vinny's career circles the drain at Matthews.
GW

BC @ UVM

QQ- BC 3-2- UVM is going to split this series just not this night.
FM
MWW- UVM 3-2- Taking UVM cause they get high and dont poop their pants
HS - NCC 3-2 - The Cats are outmatched, even against this depleted, "shitty" Eaglet team.
GW

Maine @ UNH

QQ- UNH 4-3- UNH has plenty to play for and won't choke until Saturday night
FM
MWW- Maine 3-2- the Battle of Hicks
HS - Maine 2-1 - Bears should play the Kittens tough this weekend.
GW

Weekend Recap- The tale of two nights

The Terriers of Boston University and Catamounts of Vermont split a weekend series at Agganis Arena. BU took the opener Friday night behind a Matt Nieto  natural hat trick and 49 saves from freshman goalie Sean Maguire. Nieto scored 3 goals in a row after Vermont opened the scoring with 1:33 left in the first. Nieto matched it 68 seconds later and then went on to score a goal in the second and finished off the hat trick early in the third. The Terriers were solid defensively despite giving up 50 shots. A majority of the chances were from the perimeter and Maguire made numerous easy stick saves. This was the type of effort the team needed as they won their second in a row after beating Merrimack on Tuesday night. I thought particularly, Ryan Ruikka and Pat MacGregor stepped up defensively for the Terriers and supported Maguire well. To watch the magic that was Nieto's hat trick, enjoy the highlights below.

Weekly Pick'Em

This contest is coming down to the final two weekends and conference playoffs between FM and myself. Both HS and MWW are still in the running while GW is awaiting for the NCAA tournament brackets to come out.

QQ 95-94(.503)
FM 77-76(.503)
MWW 92-93(.497)
HS 84-89(.486)
GW 61-88(.412)


Friday 3/1

BC @ PC

QQ- PC 3-2- BC continues to fall and the loss of Kevin Hayes for them makes me think they are really going to shit the bed the rest of the way.
FM--BC 2-1
MWW-PC 3-1- Gillies all day everyday
HS - PC 4-2 -BC's downward spiral continues.
GW

Merrimack @ Lowell

QQ- Lowell 4-1 - They are the hottest team in the conference if not the country right now. I just don't see Merrimack getting more than a goal.
FM--Lowell 4-3
MWW- Lol 3-2- LoL hottest team in country? Maybe? Ehh
HS - Lol 3-1 - Lowell is pretty good at hockey this semester.
GW

NU @ Maine

QQ- Maine 3-2- Night night Vinny you asshole. Maine is beat up but they are playing for their playoff lives and are better than Northeastern.
FM--NU 3-1
MWW- Maine 3-2- GUARANTEE Maine sells more tickets than NU for the rest of the yr. (Editor's note: Bold prediction there Cotton)
HS - Maine 5-2 - Fuck NU
GW


 UMass @ UNH

QQ- UNH 3-2- UMass could very easily steal one of these. Just don't think it is this one.
FM--UNH 4-1
MWW- UNH 3-2- Umile will want the W at home and UNH is the pick(Editor's note: Worst logic ever)
HS - UMass 4-3 - Backward splits
GW

UVM @ BU

QQ- BU 4-2- Huge game for the Terriers. Need to bring the same intensity out of the gate as they did against Merrimack and similar results will follow.
FM--BU 4-1
MWW- BU 2-0- Go BU
HS - BU 2-0 - MOAR POINTS
GW

Saturday 3/2 

PC @ BC

QQ- tie 3-3- Hard to see BC getting swept but I got PC taking 3 of 4 putting them in a great shot to take the regular season title next weekend versus Lowell.
FM--BC 2-0
MWW PC- Friars with the sweep b/c BC players shat their pants and smeared over their bodied praying for a new Pope (Editor's note: I just don't know how he comes up with this)

HS - I just wanted to share this video with all of you... BC probably hasn't checked their shitters in a while.

GW

NU @Maine

QQ- Maine 3-1- I just don't see Northeastern winning a game up in Orono with this much on the line
FM--Maine 2-0
MWW- Maine- Maine doesnt need Living Social for their games. They sell. NU doesnt, they need Living Social
HS - Maine 2-0 - Because fuck NU
GW

UMass @ UNH

QQ- UMass 3-2- The Minutemen already won 2 games up in New Hampshire this year during their new year's tournament. I think they find a way to take this one.
FM--UMass 3-1
MWW UMass 3-2- split down the middle and call me.
HS - UNH 4-2 - Banana splits
GW

UVM @ BU

QQ- BU 4-3- The Terriers squeak this one out and keep the good times rolling towards an NCAA berth and possible Hockey East title
FM--BU 4-0
MWW- BU 2-0- UVM doesnt get high but still loses
HS - BU 3-2 - Terriers' comeback to playing at top form isn't quite complete but they will their way to a victory at home.
GW

 Sunday 3/3

Lowell @ Merrimack

QQ- Lowell 4-3- I won't pick against Lowell until they lose. I have a championship to win here.
FM--Mack 5-4
MWW- Merrimack 3-2- Split city
HS - Hack 3-2 (OT) - Splits
GW