Notre Dame Preview : It's Us Against the World

The first thing all the haters are going to say when they read this title is "blah blah he isn't on the team". Yes I am aware that I am a D-1 hockey player for the soon to be 2012 national champs BU Terriers. I am, however, a finalist for the Blogger All-American team so get off my dick. Yes, I did just make that up. Now back to the game, tomorrow night's game leads off the second half for our BU Terriers (t4 Pairwise) and Notre Dame (t6 pairwise) at Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The game will be the first college hockey game aired nationally on Versus at 7. Those are about the only non-opinionated words I am going to give you this post(read rant). If you want to a read an actual preview, here is a great one including some quotes from Coach Parker and captain Chris Connolly. Parker also gave his always straightforward opinion on former Terrier forward Charlie Coyle leaving the team to focus on only hockey up in Canada with the St. John Sea Dogs of the QJMHL. He also reveals how some of the slimeball recruiters with these teams have been after Clendening and Nieto as well but, that they would be staying put at BU. I'll give my opinion on the whole situation(it differs then my fellow bloggers) as quickly and concisely as possible. Canada sucks(except for Terrace,BC -gotta have Gill's hometown's back) specifically the CHL. Their recruiters are like a bunch of used car salesmen putting a bunch of wanna-be Cindy Crosby's out there most of which end up having middle of the road AHL careers and burning out with nothing to fall back on. Okay, that's over and I think I pulled the knife out of my back fully by now. It's time to move forward and onward with the season. You won't hear a mention of former players for the rest of the season unless it is Eric Gryba beating the living hell out of someone in the AHL or another past player doing something productive.

Now, all of the opposing fans and journalists are ready to write this BU team off after the end of the first half . I will always defend my team and make an argument why they won't miss a step but, I have been letting most(not all ) stuff go unanswered. I have full faith in this team despite everyone else's hating. We're just going to let them hate. Haters gonna hate, skaters gonna skate and bloggers gonna blog. I believe this team will come together even tighter than they already are and create a winning machine that wills themselves to victories that they have no business getting. Everynight that this team hits the ice, there will be 18 skaters and 1 goalie who will follow Herb Brooks' advice and care alot more about the name on the front of the jersey than the one on the back. They will play as a team and not as separate individuals. There is no reason this can't become a reality with the Hero from Canton(Wade Megan) along with others including Sahir Gill and Yasin Cisse following the captain's example for the forwards while sophomore, gritty d-man Garrett Noonan leads the defensemen into battle on a nightly basis to protect goalie Kieran Millan who has the ability to put this team on his back on a regular basis if he needs to anyway.

This team needs to adopt this personality and come together as one, with the strong support of the fan base and become a great team. Hell, they should just pull out a 2001 SuperBowl routine from the Patriots and get introduced as a team in introductions for a game to send a message. It certainly can't hurt. This team has the forward depth, defenseman, goalie, coaches, and fan base to win a national title. None of this one and done in the tournament bullshit. You set the goals high and you don't move from them no matter what. The second half will certainly tell us what the rest of the team is made of and how bad they really want to win and keep going what they had in the first half. If I was on the team, I certainly wouldn't want my season to be defined by two guys leaving the program instead of the 24 that stayed with it. Cue the Utah State chant! Let's go!

Goalies: First half in review

This is the last part of our first half review as we gear up for the second half beginning with the game this coming Saturday at Notre Dame on national TV through Versus(which becomes NBC Sports in the near future). Here are the goalies and our expert breakdown of their first half.

31 Kieran Millan- Millan has been shaky at times for the Terriers but overall, has played quite well sporting a 8-5-1 record with a 2.68 GAA and .917 Save % for the Terriers. Millan will be tested more often as the season progresses, as he will be relied upon by this team to carry them to where they want to go. Millan is going to need to find some gritty performances to win some tough games in the conference playoffs, the Beanpot, and hopefully, the NCAA tournament. Hopefully, he plays as good as he thinks he is because apparently this kid thinks he has all the swag in the world but "he is just ugly" according to teammate Garrett Noonan.

35 Grant Rollheiser- "Rollie" has only seen action in four games this season with 2 starts, which both resulted in wins. Rollie is sporting a solid 2-0, 3.34 GAA, .900 Sv % line for a backup goalie. Rollie has proven to be a capable backup to Millan and will continue to push his classmate for playing time in the second half.

1 Anthony Moccia- The third string goalie is opening the doors fantastically so far in the first half. Hopefully he can continue his strong performance in the second half because those doors aren't going to open themselves. The kid also is rumored to have a girlfriend so he is keeping up with the top 2 goalies off the ice as all three of these fine gentlemen are taken. Sorry, ladies.

Rock Chalk Terriers: Anyone But IRVING!

Yeah I'm fully aware that I have been majorly lacking in giving info on your basketball Terriers this season, but as the new year arrives and AE play approaches I fully intend to rectify that and allow us to once again be a distant second (or third) in quality of coverage to the DFP in yet another sport besides hockey. 

Yesterday the Terriers stayed home at Case Gym to take on another defending conference champ, the Bucknell Bison.  Unfortunately this would not turn out to be the biggest story of the night for the Terriers, as it was reveled prior to the game that standout G D.J. Irving would miss the game with a concussion and that his status going forward is day-to-day.  Apparently he was hit in the head during the Villanova game and began to show concussion symptoms starting Thursday.  According to Coach Jones he might be back for Thursday's game against La Salle in Philly but it's not a sure thing yet.  Best wishes to him on his recovery! 

Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon because the remaining Terriers got pretty badly abused on Thursday night, dropping a 14-point game to a Bucknell squad that's ranked a respectable 114th in the KenPom standings as of Friday morning.  They made a valiant effort to play it close in the early stages of the game, leading by one about halfway through the first, but Bucknell pulled away after that, taking a 46-29 lead into the locker room and never really looking back.  The Terriers got decent games from Darryl Partin (17 pts.) and Travis Robinson (15) and a good spark off the bench from Malik Thomas (8 pts, 2-2 FG and 2-2 FT), but defensive problems partly stemming from Pat Hazel only being on the floor for 17 mins. and a lack of depth without DJ really sunk the team.  It's tough to win a game when you get out-rebounded by a 2-1 margin.

The hopefully Irving-ful Terriers will get back in action on 12/29 at La Salle. 

First half review: Forwards part 2

This is the second half of the two part review on BU's 14 forwards. You can find the first 7 here and my expert opinion on the second seven is below. So..picking up right where I left off...

19 Justin Courtnall- The junior assistant captain has been a staple on the 3rd and 4th lines all season where he has done his job as a big, physical forward. Even though he has only posted a 1-1-2 line thus far, he has done a great job of being physical and jacking people up without taking many penalties. Some of the burden will fall on the junior to improve in the second half to make up for the departures but Courtnall has been doing very well at filling his role so far this season. This kid needs a good nickname for all the hits he has been laying out this year.

20 Matt Ronan- Yes, the bod(best offensive defenseman) is also in the forwards category. You know why? It is because he is the fuckin "bod" and he is awesome so he gets to get mentioned twice. He started the season at forward and came to BU as a walk-on forward before being switched to defense. Sounds like a familiar story right? Kid is going to be the next Matty Gilroy. Start the "Let the BOD Play" campaign!'

22 Ross Gaudet- The redshirt junior Ross Gaudet only has one point on the season but it just happened to be in OT at Red Hot Hockey to win BU a huge game. That is a pretty awesome spot to score your one goal of the year. He is also one of the leaders of this Terriers team even though he isn't wearing a letter. That's what winning teams need. The leadership can't end with the captains. It has to throughout the upperclassmen. Plus, the kid Tebowed when he scored his only goal. That is fucking awesome!

23 Cason Hohmann- The freshman has grown throughout the first half posting a 1-3-4 line on the third line. His lone goal did come at BC ,so that's pretty awesome. He had a pretty good celly too as his goal sealed the game for the Terriers. Now on to where Hohmann has struggled in the first half,...the kid has no game with the ladies(according to some of the upperclassmen). Teammate Garrett Noonan said in our interview with him that "He's pretty dusty with the ladies". C'mon buddy. You should be spitting game like a player aka like NiCastro. The kid needs some help from the upperclassmen on how to impress the ladies or maybe from us here at BSRS. We all know that me and GW can spit game like crazy. The great looks certainly make it a little easier for us than others but, hey not our fault.(Wish we could say the same for the rest of the blog- Sorry guys but you just don't have the swag like us). Back to hockey though, Hohmann seems to be gaining confidence game by game and should see the ice throughout the second half and hopefully will see increased production as well.

26 Evan Rodrigues - The other freshman forward for the Terriers has also grown through the semester. He has yet to net the first collegiate goal but has shown some nifty moves and has 4 assists as well. We hope those nifty moves will result in some goals in the second half. Rodrigues also appears to have some issues off the ice. Teammate Sahir Gill described Rodrigues for us " I think Rodrigues has a pretty terrible style, too. He is always wearing Hollister and stuff, he's stuck in middle school." Not a good look bud. You gotta drop the Hollister and Old Navy tees and dress with more swag. This freshman class seems like it still has plenty to learn.

27 Yasin Cisse- The redshirt freshman looked like a guy who hadn't played in a game in close to two years when he first returned to the ice in early November. He has improved each game since then and is now becoming a force for the Terriers. The rumors are that he will move up to play on the top line in the second half at right wing. That certainly will give him the potential to put up big numbers and help contribute on the stat sheet more often in the second half.

28 Sahir Gill- The sophomore from Terrace, British Columbia has been moving around through the lineup so far for the Terriers. He has been producing wherever he has been put sporting a 5-9-14 line. He is another forward that will be leaned up more heavily in the second half and I fully expect to answer the call. This guy also has been awesome off the ice. He sat down with us for an interview, beat GW handily in NHL12(4-1 I believe), and had a lady friend(though not official so calm down MacGregor). To top it all off, he is from the home of the albino black bear...that's pretty fucking cool if you ask me. The bear in the video kinda reminds me of Millan the way he walks around...

1st Half Review: Defensemen

While QuackQuack reviews the forwards, I'll be taking a look at what I consider to be the backbone of this year's Terrier squad - the defensive corps.

The Freshman

Alexx Privitera 
The lone freshman on the blue line for the Terriers this season, Privitera saw limited time in the first half - appearing in only 9 of 16 games.  His lack of ice time can be attributed to his often shaky play - whether it be handling the puck or just knowing when and when not to pinch.  His play improved somewhat as the semester went along, and Coach Parker has expressed faith in the young d-man.  As Parker has pointed out, it takes a little bit longer for defenseman to adjust to the college game, and you often notice their mistakes more than the mistakes of a young forward.  Expect to see Privitera stake a claim for a permanent spot in the defensive rotation early on in the second semester.

The Sophomores


Patrick MacGregor
MacGregor has been nicknamed "Truck" by his teammates, and after watching him play it is easy to see why the name is so fitting. Pat Mac is a big kid - and he isn't afraid to put that on display.  Whether battling for pucks along the boards or delivering an open ice check, MacGruber uses his size to his advantage every shift.  That being said, he is prone to taking a few penalties.  This is partly attributed to his size advantage (it's easy for a big guy to make a clean play seem dirty simply because of a size advantage. Just ask Bigos), but is certainly also because MacGregor lacks quickness on his skates and sometimes gets caught out of position.  We think he has the potential to be the top stay at home d-man for this squad, but time will tell on that one.

Adam Clendening
Currently the sole BU player up at the WJC's (that's right Coyle, we've excommunicated you from the Terrier family. No soup for you!), Clendening was one of the best d-men on the roster this past semester.  One of only two of the corps to appear in all 16 games, Clendening posted a 1-11-12 line in the first half.    The only real bad thing we can say about Adam is his tendency to take penalties - he accumulated 14 penalties for 36 penalty minutes, averaging almost a penalty a game.  If he can stay out the box a little more and can keep producing assists for this BU squad, he'll definitely be recognized as one of the top d-men in Hockey East come the end of the season.  That is, of course, assuming he won't jump to the OHL before then (Jokes. Sort of).


Garrett Noonan
Certainly no stranger to our readers here, Noonan has been a fan favorite at BU all semester.  Arguably the best of the group in the first half, Noons tallied 5 goals and 2 assists in 15 games (only missing one game due to injury).  What's nice about Garrett is that he doesn't exactly fit a particular mold for d-men.  He can jump up on the rush, he can stay at home, he can use his body or he can use his stick skills.  One thing is for sure about Noonan though - when he steps on the ice, you can be sure you're going to get 110% effort from him.  However, the same observation about Clendening regarding penalties can be made about Noonan as well - he tallied 14 for 36 minutes, just like Adam did.  While we maintain that some of those penalties were complete crap, you certainly want one of your best defensemen to be on the ice and not in the box.  Look for more of the same from Noonsy in this upcoming semester, but hopefully with a few less penalty minutes.

The Juniors


Ryan Ruikka
While technically a "junior", Ruikka was redshirted due to injury so he will have enough academic credits to graduate after this semester if he so chooses.  But whatever, I'm including him with the juniors. Deal with it. Generally splitting time with freshman Alexx Privitera, Ryan has been only decent thus far this year.  While he showed some upside when he was healthy last season, he seems rather lost out there this season.  In 11 games, he's talled 1 assist and 3 penalties for 6 minutes - definitely what one would consider underwhelming.  On the bright side, we hear he's recently had some success with the ladies after helping them study for exams (not kidding).  Looks like he's been getting some brain...er...I mean using his brain...


Sean Escobedo
The one they call "Scooby" has had an up and down career thus far at BU.  Some games he's cutting down angles and making smart plays with the puck, and others he's making bad pinches and taking dumb penalties.  This past semester, while definitely a step forward for Escobedo, was more of the same.    Appearing in all 16 games, he tallied 3 assists to go along with 26 penalties (on 13 penalties).  He also was tied for the team worst in +/- at -5.  While we were encouraged at times, we hope he can cut down on some of those penalties in the second half.

Max Nicastro
After being called out early on in the year by Coach Parker for his subpar play, Nicastro has really stepped it up to another level in the past month or two.  He no longer jumps at every opportunity to join the rush and instead has been making smart decisions at the blue line.  He's also put up a respectable 1-3-4 line in 15 games (missing one game for cutting class), which is not too shabby for a quasi-stay at home defenseman.  If ole Maxy can be as good on the ice as he reportedly is with the ladies, we have high hopes for his second half.

Other...


Matt Ronan
While he hasn't appeared in a regular season game with the Terriers, we'd be remiss if we did not include "the BOD" in our first half review.  Whether he is snapping twigs on slappers in practice, dominating on the dance floor or trolling for followers on twitter (@rice_a_ronan), Ronan does it all with the blue collar determination of a walk-on.  Probably because he is one #walkonproblems.  And for those of you wondering why we are including him in our review of defensemen, then you obviously didn't read our interview with Sahir Gill. So do it. Now. Seriously, just click here.