The thousands of pucks that found their way into the back of the net during practice last season did little to officially raise the Boston University men’s ice hockey team’s scant 2.7 goals per game average. Nor did it help in 2003-04, when BU’s “snake-bitten” offense struggled to score … 2.7 goals per game.
So with this season upon them, the Terrier coaching staff came up with what can only be called a novel idea: to make those pucks count.
With the Terriers flinging shots on net as usual this year, the coaching staff positioned the team managers at either end of the ice with dry-erase boards in hand to tally every goal scored. At the end of the day, those boards find their way into the locker room where every player can see his respective goal production.
The rationale behind this? A focus on scoring goals in practice may lead to the same when “it really counts.”
“Sometimes the greatest ideas are the simplest ideas,” said BU associate head coach David Quinn. “It just made sense. If we want to become a better goal-scoring team, we should have a better idea of who’s scoring goals in practice and maybe it would make the guys more aware that, ‘Hey, we can actually become a better goal-scoring team.'”
Considering the depth BU has this year at the forward position, it may be the perfect time to do so. The Terriers are without top returning scorer in David Van der Gulik, probably until the next calendar year, but BU head coach Jack Parker said there are at least five players who could top the 15-to-20 goal plateau. Whether it’s John Laliberte, Pete MacArthur, Brad Zancanaro, Kenny Roche or Boomer Ewing, “something like 15 or 20 is not too far of a reach for those guys.”
The Terriers have had just one player reach that level over the last three years, and that was Van der Gulik, who did so with 18 goals last season.
“There’s definitely optimism that there’s a couple guys who can get up to that 15- to 20-goal, maybe even 25-goal plateau,” said MacArthur, who placed second on the team with 13 last year. “The thing with this year’s team is that there’s not going to be pressure on that one guy.”
BU’s depth certainly stretches far beyond that. Though Parker admits there isn’t a freshman among this year’s six-person class who “has the immediate impact flash-wise that Chris Bourque did” – referring to the first-year phenom who left after last season to try his hand at the NHL – there’s a wealth of talent nonetheless.
Jason Lawrence, Chris Higgins and Brandon Yip are three who have gotten the chance to prove themselves early, and according to Parker, are playing like they belong out there. Enough so that he’s tabbed Lawrence and Higgins for the first line Saturday, with Higgins acting as a replacement for Laliberte who is forced to sit after receiving a game disqualification in last weekend’s exhibition.
“I would be surprised if two or three of these guys aren’t real important to us as the season progresses,” Parker said of the rookies. “They all have a different look [Yip with the rocket shot, Higgins with his quickness and Lawrence, control] and they’ll all get different types of ice time, too.”
Playing with MacArthur on the second line are Brian McGuirk and Ryan Weston, two sophomores primed for more responsibility on the offensive end. Though Parker said he isn’t expecting them to score like their high-flying linemate can, each tallied a point in last weekend’s 4-0 exhibition win over Toronto.
After the first day of keeping tallies, Quinn said only one name stood at the top of the list when it eventually made its way to the locker room – that name reading “Brian McGuirk.”