Boston University men’s hockey coach Jack Parker ran through the short list of Terriers who have not let him down in 2009-10. The role call only included senior Eric Gryba, junior Joe Pereira, sophomore Ross Gaudet and the entire freshman class.
Friday night, when BU plays host to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Terriers will be without the services of Pereira, who is expected to be out a month after undergoing hernia surgery Wednesday, Parker said.
Pereira is aiming to return to the Terriers’ (4-8-3) lineup for their Jan. 8 matchup with Boston College at Fenway Park, Parker said.
The junior has needed the operation for some time, but chose to put off the procedure until this week in hopes that he’ll only miss two games ‘-‘- Friday’s game with RPI (8-8-1) and BU’s Jan. 2 contest against the No. 15 University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
The Pereira-less Terriers will be looking to bounce back from a 4-1 defeat at the hands of their archrivals, No. 10 Boston College, last Saturday night. The Terriers led that game, 1-0, with less than five minutes left in the second period before surrendering four unanswered tallies to the Eagles.
The loss came one night after the Terriers tied the University of Vermont in an effort that led Parker to say his team ‘does not know how to get ready for a game.’ Parker ripped his team in his postgame press conference, proclaiming BU ‘might as well have been in a pickup game at the Boston Skating Club.’
‘I don’t know if they’re yet to realize why they’re in the boat they’re in,’ Parker said Wednesday. ‘It remains to be seen ‘-‘- we’ll see if they come out of it this weekend. We had a team meeting before practice on Tuesday to take an inventory of where we’re at and why we’re at there and see if we can change that. In general, this team is not hungry enough. This team is not determined enough. This team has not got themselves ready to play games.’
The result of BU’s poor preparation has been an overwhelming list of underwhelming performances.
‘Before the season, I thought we’d have as good of goaltending as there was in college hockey ‘-‘- we haven’t gotten near that,’ Parker said. ‘Before the season started, I thought we’d have a real good power play ‘-‘- we haven’t gotten near that. Before the season started, I thought we’d be solid killing penalties because of our overall defensive capabilities and our goaltending ‘-‘- we haven’t gotten that.’
Parker said he thought practice had gone well through Wednesday, and expected more of the same as the week went on. The team is now meeting regularly before it practices, and Parker said he has left less control in his players’ hands, regimenting his squad’s pre- and post-practice activities more strictly to help aide its preparation.
‘I told them [Tuesday], ‘We’re having tryouts this week for who’s playing on Friday,” Parker said. ‘We’ll make our decisions after tomorrow’s practice on who’s going to be our six defenseman dressed and who’s going to be our 12 forwards dressed.’
The situation is the same in net, where both sophomores Kieran Millan and Grant Rollheiser have failed to meet Parker’s expectations. Each has posted sub-par save percentages ‘-‘- .865 and .870, respectively ‘-‘- while registering goals-against averages of 3.4777 and 3.0733, respectively.
Their lackluster play has left the goaltending competition wide open, with junior Adam Kraus as likely as anybody to play this weekend, according to Parker.
Among some of the more drastic changes Parker is considering is with BU’s 5-on-3 power-play strategy. In practice Wednesday, he posted 6-foot-4 defenseman Eric Gryba as BU’s big man in front of the cage and moving to an umbrella formation with three defenseman working along the point.
More than changes in strategy and personnel, though, Parker said he needed to see a change in his squad’s mind-set.
‘All we’ve gotta do is get guys to work harder,’ he said. ‘In order to work harder, you have to be willing to focus and start getting ready for a game [on Wednesday], not at seven o’clock at night on Friday night. We’ve been inept in that area so far.’
To find a solution, Parker plans to go to one of his favorite motivational tactics.
‘I know one thing that can change, and that’s the lineup. I don’t know if the attitude changes.’
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