Sports writer - Grant writer

Category: Boston University hockey (Page 1 of 17)

College Hockey Ramblings: What’s Wrong With BU, And Why I Doubt Merrimack’s Doubters

I decided I wasn’t going to write a heck of a lot about college hockey this season for a variety of reasons that I won’t delve into here. I gave up my college hockey column for SBNationBoston. So far this season, I have only reported harmless media deals on this site, not delving into any real analysis.

And now that we’re a month into the season, I immediately and totally regret this decision. I’ve got too much to say. So here are my pent up college hockey thoughts from this weekend- edited and sanitized of course. Continue reading

Frozen Fenway 2 Raises A Few Questions

2010's Frozen Fenway with BU and BC.

In 2010, BU and BC took center stage in the first Frozen Fenway. (Photo by Kat)

On Friday afternoon, Fenway Park and Hockey East announced the second edition of Frozen Fenway, to be held on January 7, 2012. The outdoor game will feature a men’s hockey doubleheader, with UMass Amherst facing off against University of Vermont and the University of New Hampshire versus the University of Maine.

The game is being sponsored by Hockey East – who owns the event, and thus can decide its participants – and is being heavily bankrolled by Fenway Sports Group. The hope is that the event will bring out crowds of fans from the schools and their alumni bases in Boston.

Hockey East and it’s commissioner Joe Bertagna were eager to schedule up another outdoor game given the popularity of the 2010 edition, which features Boston University and Boston College. But the league wanted to give other non-Boston based schools a chance. Bertanga made that clear in his Friday press conferernce remarks. As reported by BostoInnovation’s Ryan Durling:

“(Bertanga) also acknowledged how generous a gesture it was for FSM to pick up the cost of the event. ‘It’s a bit of a risk to take up the cost, so we really appreciated that. The support from the mayor helped to push it along, too – the game between BU and BC is kind of old news, but bringing four teams from outside of Boston emphasizes our New England roots,’ the commissioner said.”

I have three quick issues with this statement by Hockey East’s commissioner, and the Frozen Fenway 2 in general:

Last I checked, the last two teams to win national championships from the conference were BU and BC. I don’t think any game between two of the best programs in the last decade of college hockey is ever “old news.” Especially when both teams sold out a freezing cold Fenway nearly two years ago, and when they play each other inthe Beanpot, they sell out the Garden, and when they play in their respective home venues, they sell out their venues no matter how awful either’s season is.

You’re taking a giant risk having this game feature teams from outside of Boston. Sure, their fan bases within Boston are relatively strong. However, you’re playing with fire – or more accurately, ice – here. Weather in January is unpredictable, and could impact the travel of those Maine, UNH, UMass and Vermont diehards who will get to those sellout numbers. At least with BU and BC, they have enough fans that can walk or take public transportation to Fenway to fill it.

Then there is the issue of Fenway Sports Group funding Frozen Fenway 2, and not including BC. Fenway Sports Group and the Eagles are joined at the hip. They’re going to have a college hockey event at Fenway Park and not include their prime collegiate partner?

Finally, by having Frozen Fenway 2 consist of two men’s Hockey East games, you run into marginal problems of inequity. Frozen Fenway’s first edition featured a women’s game pitting Northeastern versus UNH. This edition has no women’s component mentioned. The women’s game might not sell tickets, but it’ll never sell if you don’t give it the opportunity to. Plus, you legitimately have more legitimate women’s hockey stars now within Hockey East, players with a bit more name recognition than the league had pre-2010 Olympics. It’s worth a shot, and will save you some angered complaints from Title IX advocates. (Who knows – a women’s hockey game may be in the works and we just don’t know it.)

On The Lowest of Lows and the Highest of Highs

The student newspaper the day after BU's first Beanpot 4th place finish in 31 years.

I’ve experienced lows as a fan before. I’ve been a fan of teams who Super Bowl wins were denied by field goals, blue collar Canadian teams defeated by oil magnet America’s Teams, a quarterbacks whose career was ended by one hit after one guard missed a block and allowed a hit so hard he was knocked unconscious, and league founding hockey teams struggling to exist in an economically devastated city. I’ve felt the lows, I’ve felt the pits, I’ve felt the loss of identity. I know what it’s like to wonder why you even cheer on a team, geography, tradition and childhood be darned.

But Boston University’s loss Monday night in the Beanpot consolation game, giving them their first last place finish in the event snarkily referred to as the BU Invitational in 31 years, felt like something different. While I didn’t have the sucker-punch pit I did when Scott Norwood’s kick went too far right, or when Jeremy Newbury missed the tackle to let Aeneas Williams take Steve Young down that last time, I felt more like I was watching an oddity. A bad dream. Something so unreal that I would undoubtedly wake up and text Laurel like I do after any weird hockey related dream, saying despite the now three hour time difference between us, “I had this crazy dream that we lost the Beanpot to Harvard.”

This dream-like sequence was further assisted by the fact that I was watching this once in a lifetime (because literally, it has only happened once in my lifetime – I’m only 29) loss from a perch on the ninth floor of the TD Garden, bright green laminated press pass around my neck, sitting at an assigned seat, laptop computer open and frantically typing away. Those I only had ever seen on NESN were walking behind me, getting ready for the main event, the Northeastern – Boston College championship game. People I recognized from Twitter, from local news sites, people who have no idea who short little me was but who I knew immediately. And I was one of them, if only for two nights in February.

I watched the Terriers defense seemingly fade to invisibility as goaltender Kieran Millan was left in the cold as a Harvard team who literally only had this game to play for from my perch. I watched as Harvard outskated BU, scoring three goals in two minutes. I watched as BU pulled Millan but never got close to converting their man advantage. I watched them lose a Beanpot with the lowest point of effort I may have ever seen from a hockey team. Even the lowly Merrimack teams of five years ago would bite, even the UMass Lowell’s seemed to have a sort of pride to play for. And now, it was one of the nation’s historically best hockey teams looking like they checked their motivation in 2009. But I was watching this all from a seat that represented the pinnacle of what I’ve been working towards since I was 12 years old.

The arena was empty, the press box was barren, and BU had just lost a game against a team that had had only four wins prior to that night. But I was in a press box, and people wanted my take on the game immediately.

“This is the lowest of lows,” I said to the first person who asked.

But still, part of me inside was jumping on a metaphorical mattress. I was in the press box, in a major venue, for a major event. And because of that, it was the best night of my entire life. The best night gift wrapped as one of my lowest nights as a sports fan.

The previous Monday night during the BC-BU first round.

Terriers in Pro Hockey Update – December 28, 2010

It’s winter break – thus I have nothing else to do but write and catch up on my Google Reader and follow Twitter all day. Your benefit? Tons of updates about former Terriers around professional hockey.

Gilroy celebrates a two goal game on Monday night.

Gilroy celebrates his two goal game on Monday night. (Photo: NHL.com)

– By now you’re read up on Matt Gilroy’s two goal game for the New York Rangers against the New York Islanders on Monday night. NHL.com has a well-written write-up of the 7-2 Rangers win. Gilroy had been very quiet this season, having only played 22 games and spending a tad too much time as a healthy scratch.

Time in the press box seemingly has motivated Gilroy, who is making the most of his recent ice time. Says Kukla’s Korner’s Patrick Hoffman:

“In the last week or so, there has been a noticeable difference in New York Rangers’ defenseman Matt Gilroy’s game.

Gilroy has appeared to be more confident, poised, willing to jump into the play, make smart plays in the defensive zone and more importantly, a steady presence on the club’s blue line.”

As much as we would all love to see Gilroy repeat his two-goal game, the odds are against him. Reported the Elias Sports Bureau in its daily ESPN.com “Elias Says” piece:

“It was the first multiple-goal game of the season by a Rangers D-man, and if recent history is any indication it could be the last. The Rangers had exactly one multi-goal game by a defenseman in each of the past three seasons: by Michal Rozsival in both 2007-08 and 2008-09, and Daniel Girardi in 2009-10.”

– One of Gilroy’s 2009 teammates, Chris Higgins, started the season with Ritten of the Italian Series A pro hockey league, but is no longer on the active roster. He last played on December 11th in a 6-2 loss against Val Pusteria, and had two shots and no points on the night. On December 7th, Higgins had his own 2 goal game in a 6-5 win over Asiago (yes, like the cheese.)

Why Higgins is off the roster is a tad unclear. From my bad translation of German, here’s what Ritten’s website had to say about Higgins’ departure:

“Where’s Chris Higgins will end the season is still unclear. This player clearly has a great technique and great talent: though in the eyes of Rittner he is not yet mature enough to play in the Italian hockey league.”

Ritten only has 13 wins on the season, and they seemed to take their December 11th loss hard. Higgins finished his time in Ritten with 20 points (9 goals, 11 assists.)

– The Netherlands has a goal of fielding a men’s ice hockey team in the 2018 Winter Olympics. To achieve that goal, the Dutch Olympic Committee has created an elite hockey training center in Eindhoven, modeled after the US National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The newly opened Ice Hockey Field Lab and High Tech Center at Eindhoven Ice Arena includes several cameras and video rooms to better break down plays and technique with the Netherlands’ top youth hockey players.

The IIHF was on hand for the opening of the center, which featured remarks from Gilroy and Higgins’ fellow 2009 graduate, Jason Lawrence. The alum of the USA NTDP was chosen to talk about his experiences in an elite U-18 program.

Lawrence is still raking up the points for Eindhoven Kemphanen of the Dutch Elite League, where he has 16 goals and 20 assists in 28 games played. He had a goal and an assist Tuesday night against Herentals HYC.

If Saponari’s Rejection is News, Who Should Have Been the Source?

Vinny Saponari in a March 2010 game against Merrimack College. Photo: Flickr user seriouslysilly

Vinny Saponari in a March 2010 game against Merrimack College. Photo: Flickr user seriouslysilly (Some Rights Reserved)

The story of the day amongst BU hockey fans was the reported Boston College transfer application rejection by dismissed Terrier forward Vinny Saponari. The rumor had been lurking amongst those close to Boston area college hockey for a few weeks, and the story broke for good when US Hockey Report (aka, USHR, a subscription site that reports on junior, youth and college hockey) posted a piece this morning quoting Saponari’s USHL head coach.

Saponari’s current coach with the USHL Dubuque Fighting Saints, Jim Montgomery, is the only interview in USHR’s brief report, which then spurred on reports by the Eagle Tribune’s Mike McMahon, BostonSportsU18 and the Daily Free Press’s Boston Hockey Blog. The Boston Hockey Blog tried to get a quote with Saponari, but “a call and text were not returned.” Word had spread outside of the USHR report – two individuals mentioned to me that area coaches had just started being open about the news last evening, and the news spread like wild fire through the expanding, but still very small, world of hockey.

As the news was circulating on Twitter, a few folks asked within social media, “Well, who are we all to be talking about a pretty embarrassing and private matter for this hockey player? Why is Saponari’s rejection news?”

There is no question to me that this is news – Saponari’s initial dismissal from BU was very public, as the Terrier program had to give reason for his absence in the then upcoming season, and he decided to engage on interviews on the subject. His decision to subsequently transfer to BC, BU’s biggest hockey rival, was made public on his own Facebook page and a few media sources.

So Saponari’s rejection by BC was going to become public whether he liked it or not. For better or worse, his own statements on the matter earlier this fall made us all expect to see him on the Conte Forum ice come next September. Because of the level of expectation already prepared, the college hockey watching public would find out about the rejection eventually. In hindsight, Saponari, his family and his “family advisors” should have kept word of his desire to transfer down Comm Ave quiet until all the i’s were dotted, t’s were crossed, and transcripts approved.

But where the critics of the publicity of Saponari’s denial may have a legitimate point is that the only on-the-record source through this entire story has been the player’s own USHL coach. Was it really appropriate for Montgomery to be so forthcoming with this news with USHR in the first place? Was it his place to do so? Was he representing the family, and if so, should he or the USHR author been more explicit in saying so?

On a much larger level, if a coach is part educator, part advisor, part mentor, and part counselor, shouldn’t he uphold a certain level of confidentiality?

I’m not defending Saponari in any way (if I don’t have anything nice to say, I’m not going to say anything at all), but didn’t he deserve a tad more from Montgomery? Should USHR have looked for a quote from Saponari or his family? If Montgomery was acting on their behalf, shouldn’t that have been more explicit?

What do you think?

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