Just seven games into the college hockey season, the No. 16 Boston University men’s ice hockey team has been repeating certain themes that those around the program have been seeing for a few years now.
One of the most obvious areas of repetition is of course the inability to get themselves motivated for games against “lesser” opponents, but another alarming trend has been a sputtering power play.
This season, the Terriers have converted on the power play at a paltry 11.1 percent rate, and they are 1-for-18 on the power play after scoring a power-play goal in each of their first three games.
BU coach Jack Parker said he is troubled by the team’s continuing struggles with a man-advantage and was the first to take the blame for the lack of production.
“If we’re not better on the power play, it will be my fault because we have enough talent to make that work,” Parker said. “I think in some ways, [I have to] give them the blue print, let them practice it and not worry about making mistakes in practice, and don’t let them get frustrated if somebody is doing a good job at killing a penalty against them.”
In Saturday’s 7-1 loss to the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, the Terriers were 0-for-6 on the power play. UML, on the other hand, went 2-for-10.
Truculent Terriers
In addition to struggling on the power play, the Terriers have continued a trend from last season where they spend way too much time in the penalty box.
BU is the most penalized team in Hockey East, averaging 21.9 penalty minutes a game. The second-worst offender in Hockey East, Northeastern University, averages almost four less penalty minutes with 17.6 penalty minutes per game.
“There has to be consequences if we cannot keep that stuff out of our game,” Parker said last Thursday. “I don’t mean consequences where the other team scores a goal. If you cannot be trusted not to put us down when there’s already another man down, then you can’t be trusted to play.”
However, if Parker wants to bench players who took unwarranted penalties this week, he will have a tough time fielding a team for this weekend’s games against Merrimack College and Boston College.
BU took a whopping 50 minutes of penalties Saturday at UML, 28 of which came in the third period alone. The Terriers were charged with two separate 10-minute misconducts courtesy of sophomore defensemen Adam Clendening and Garrett Noonan. Junior assistant captain Alex Chiasson, who returned to the lineup Saturday after getting benched for the previous Saturday’s game against UMass-Amherst, was whistled for an unsportsmanlike conduct call in the third period.
“I thought it was a total breakdown from everybody on our team,” Parker said of Saturday’s performance. “From a discipline point of view, we were taking stupid penalties again and mouthing off to referees.”
New TV deal for Hockey East
Last Tuesday, the Hockey East Association and NBC Sports Network announced a new multi-year deal in which the network will broadcast live Hockey East games, including the 2012 Hockey East Tournament at the TD Garden.
The Terriers will play in the first-ever college hockey game broadcast on Versus, which will be known as the NBC Sports Network starting Jan. 2, when they take on the Fighting Irish at Notre Dame on Dec. 31. The Terriers will make a second appearance on the Network in late February, when they faceoff against the University of Vermont on Feb. 24.
Those two broadcasts increase the total number of regular season national broadcasts for BU to six, as the Terriers are slated to play four games on the CBS Sports Network.
“Any time you get on national TV, that’s the way of the world this time around in athletics, is the big TV deals and getting exposure for recruiting purposes,” Parker said. “I haven’t seen the specifics of [the package] yet. I just knew it was in the works. The more exposure we can get, all of the college teams on TV, the better off we’ll be.”
Super sophomores
The Terriers sophomore class has been leading the way on offense through the early part of the season. Sophomore forward Matt Nieto is second in Hockey East with an average of 1.43 points per game. Through seven games, he racked up six goals and four assists for a total of ten points. Sophomore forward Charlie Coyle has also been a top performer, ranking 13th in the nation in assists with eight through seven games.
Alarming statistics
The Terriers are eighth in the league in scoring defense, allowing an average of 3.71 goals per game. They also rank in the bottom half of the league in the penalty kill (sixth), special teams net (sixth) and power play (ninth). The only category in which the Terriers rank in the top half of the league is scoring offense (fourth).
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