BU Announces 2011-12 Schedule

Boston University, which brings back the greatest percentage of its total offense from 2010-11, has released its 2011-12 men's hockey schedule. The schedule features an early-season tilt with rival UNH, and also sees Denver come to town two weeks before Halloween.

The Terriers renew acquaintances with Cornell at Madison Square Garden the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the third edition of Red Hot Hockey, and BU plays at Notre Dame on New Year's Eve day. The entire schedule can be viewed below.

Date	Opponent / Event	Location	Time / Result
10/01/11	vs. St. Francis Xavier ^	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
10/08/11	vs. New Hampshire *	Agganis Arena	8:00 p.m. ET
10/14/11	at Providence *	Providence, R.I.	7:00 p.m. ET
10/15/11	vs. Denver	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
10/22/11	vs. Holy Cross	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
10/28/11	at Massachusetts *	Amherst, Mass.	7:00 p.m. ET
10/29/11	vs. Massachusetts *	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
11/05/11	at UMass-Lowell *	Lowell, Mass.	7:00 p.m. ET
11/11/11	vs. Merrimack *	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
11/13/11	at Boston College *	Chestnut Hill, Mass.	TBA
11/18/11	vs. Vermont *	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
11/19/11	vs. New Hampshire *	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
11/26/11	vs. Cornell	Madison Square Garden (New York, N.Y.)	8:00 p.m. ET
12/02/11	at Boston College *	Chestnut Hill, Mass.	7:00 p.m. ET
12/03/11	vs. Boston College *	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
12/08/11	at New Hampshire *	Durham, N.H.	7:00 p.m. ET
12/10/11	at Maine *	Orono, Maine	7:00 p.m. ET
12/31/11	at Notre Dame	South Bend, Ind.	TBA
01/04/12	at Harvard	Allston, Mass.	7:00 p.m. ET
01/07/12	vs. Merrimack *	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
01/08/12	vs. U.S. National U18 Team ^	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
01/13/12	at Northeastern *	Boston, Mass.	7:00 p.m. ET
01/20/12	vs. Providence *	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
01/21/12	at Providence *	Providence, R.I.	7:00 p.m. ET
01/27/12	vs. Maine *	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
01/28/12	vs. Maine *	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
02/03/12	at Merrimack *	North Andover, Mass.	7:00 p.m. ET
02/06/12	vs. Harvard - Beanpot First Round	T.D. Garden (Boston, Mass.)	TBA
02/10/12	vs. Massachusetts *	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
02/13/12	Boston College/Northeastern - Beanpot	T.D. Garden (Boston, Mass.)	4:30/7:30 p.m. ET
02/17/12	at UMass-Lowell *	Lowell, Mass.	7:00 p.m. ET
02/18/12	vs. UMass-Lowell *	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
02/24/12	at Vermont *	Burlington, Vt.	7:00 p.m. ET
02/25/12	at Vermont *	Burlington, Vt.	7:00 p.m. ET
03/02/12	vs. Northeastern *	Agganis Arena	7:00 p.m. ET
03/03/12	at Northeastern *	Boston, Mass.	7:00 p.m. ET

Hockey East: Where Do They Go From Here?

Of Hockey East’s top 15 scorers in 2010-11, only two - Maine’s Brian Flynn and Spencer Abbott - will be returning to school in the fall of 2011. With a large crop of offensive talent having graduated and the cornerstones of a strong junior class - BC’s Cam Atkinson and Jimmy Hayes and Maine’s Gustav Nyquist among them - cashing in their NHL paychecks (and let’s not forget all-world sophomore Stephane Da Costa from Merrimack, either), the teams that succeed in the conference next year are going to be those who get a lot of production from their youngsters.

The top 25 returning scorers are as follows:

Spencer Abbott, Maine 17-23=40
Brian Flynn, Maine 20-16=36
Alex Chiasson, BU 14-20=34
Ryan Flanigan, Merrimack 16-18=34
Brian Dumoulin, BC 3-30=33
David Vallorani, Lowell 12-19=31
Jesse Todd, Merrimack 17-14=31
Riley Wetmore, Lowell 14-16=30
Mike Collins, Merrimack 14-16=30
Pat Mullane, BC 8-21=29
Daniel Hobbs, UMass 12-16=28
Chris Connolly, BU 10-18=28
Sebastian Stalberg, Vermont 9-19=28
Brodie Reid, Northeastern 11-17=28
Corey Trivino, BU 8-20=28
T.J. Syner, UMass 9-18=27
Karl Stollery, Merrimack 6-21=27
Blake Kessel, UNH 5-22=27
Charlie Coyle, BU 7-19=26
Paul Carey, BC 13-13=26
Stevie Moses, UNH 14-12=26
Adam Clendening, BU, 5-21=26
Michael Pereira, UMass 12-13=25
Sahir Gill, BU 6-19=25
Chris Kreider, BC 11-13=24

By school:
BU (6) 50-117=167
Merrimack (4) 53-69=122
BC (4) 35-77=112
UMass (3) 33-47=80
Maine (2) 37-49=76
Lowell (2) 26-35=61
UNH (2) 19-34=53
Vermont (1) 9-19=28
Northeastern (1) 11-17=28
Providence (0)

Strangely, Northeastern - despite returning only one top-25 scorer - is in some of the best shape of all the schools. Merrimack will be a different team without Da Costa, BC will be a much younger team that will have to work harder to open the ice for guys like Kreider and Mullane, and while BU could be a threat, the way they mailed it in a few weeks ago leaves a lot of question marks.

A look at the total offense each team has lost:

BC (5) 75-93=168
UNH (6) 55-105 = 160
Maine (6) 51-87=138
Merrimack (8) 36-94=130
Northeastern (5) 48-74=122
Providence (7) 34-57=91
Vermont (7) 29-43=72
Lowell (5) 16-24=40
BU (2) 22-21=41
UMass (7) 16-16=32

The picture becomes clearer. Is there any reason why BU shouldn’t walk to a Beanpot and Hockey East title? If there is, it’s either UMass or UNH, two schools which proved that they can get offense from underclassmen without any problem. But the effect of losing players isn’t just felt in points. UNH’s Sislo-DeSimone-Thomspon line was the best the league had last year; Northeastern’s line of Wade MacLeod, Steve Silva and Tyler McNeely was one of the reasons the Huskies had such a strong second half. While BC announced the promotion of Tommy Cross from Assistant Captain to full-fledged team leader earlier this week, both of those teams are losing their captains (UNH, it seems, will name Kessel its captain for 2011-12 sooner than later).

Of course, there’s still time for underclassmen to sign with agents and depart. There are very strong and very talented recruiting classes coming to Vermont, Boston College and UNH - more on those at a later date. There’s the chance that coaching staffs may recognize their offensive deficiencies and change their game to stymie opponents and try to win a bevy of 2-1 games. But that’s hardly par for the course in Hockey East.

BC will still be good. UNH will still be good. Providence will again be awful, as they rebuild from the loss of nearly 50% of their offense and their coach. Lowell should improve under new leadership. UMass, Northeastern and Vermont are the wild cards. BU should be great. Maine will likely slip a bit.

But this is all on paper. The same paper on which Boston College should have thumped Colorado College. The same paper where UNH had no chance against Miami. The same paper where Merrimack couldn’t be ranked in the top-five nationally if everyone else let them six months ago.

That’s the problem with an extended offseason. There’s always too much time to think.

Let's Take The Internet Connections Away From the BU Kids

I don't flame much. I don't enjoy it - well, maybe a little - and I don't think that it's right to step on another writer's creative works. However, I don't consider myself to be above a few good potshots when they're deserved.

That said, when I do flame, it's usually in the direction of one of the two schools located on Comm Ave. It's always good-natured and never ill-meaning - the spirit of competition is, after all, just that. But when something like this piece from Boston University's Shep Hayes - clearly, the red-headed stepchild of the lineage that produced Jimmy and Kevin and Rutherford B. - hits my timeline (which is definitely the new "lands on my desk"), I really can't resist.

(The comment which I submitted for moderation, which I'm pretty sure covers everything that went wrong in those 1,000 words and even more sure won't be approved:

Except for the part where NU and BC tied at Conte, 7-7 and the part where Northeastern won 2-1 the next night at Matthews and the part where BC was the number one team in the country.And the part where BU didn’t deserve two points from their embarrassing 5-4 win in December. And the part where Northeastern beat Merrimack at Lawler – a feat only accomplished by Lowell this season.And definitely the part where an ECAC team is regarded as less of a weak link than the Huskies. And the part where Cronin has done a magical job recruiting top-flight talent while standing in the shadows of Parker and York.And the part where, while BU was on a 4-7-2 slide after being unjustly anointed national Number One, Northeastern went 6-3-3, and didn’t lose to any teams that currently sit in the bottom-third of the most embarrassing conference in college hockey. And they certainly didn’t lose to them by five goals.And the part where NU had the third-most freshman applicants of any school in the nation this year. And the part where they’ve worked in unison with the Colleges of the Fenway to improve the Roxbury and Fenway area.Maybe you should take a note from your own writing and – you know – do some research.

But other than that, quality journalism. 

/end rant)

In full disclosure, I am - nearly - a Northeastern product. I'll graduate from NU with my Master's in just over four weeks, which will likely open up a world of opportunities for me in the unemployed-or-at-least-grossly-underpaid sector. But I am not a homer - even if I do consider Punters to be the greatest bar in the world.

If you're going to write about hockey, write about hockey. If you're going to write about a school's social position, write about that. If you're going to write about a weekend series, do that. But don't lump it all together in some half-hearted defense of your own institution's struggling numbers, urban sprawl and nearness to all the most wonderful neighborhoods in Boston, especially when the dark cloud of Allston hovers over your campus - Allston and the Fens, by the way, are basically 1 and 1a in the Boston crime scene, thanks in no small part I'm sure to some combination of watering holes, college students and terrible decisions.

And, if you're going to write about hockey, at least check the box scores before you reflect on games that only happened two weeks ago. I get that final scores are mundane details in the grand scheme of things and that rankings mean next to nothing - otherwise Yale wouldn't be ranked - but they might be relevant in a piece that talks about hockey. Maybe.

BU, last I checked, was a big journalism school. I know lots of people who graduated with degrees in Journalism from BU, and some of them are even doing pretty well for themselves. They are, as Shep intimates, an "academic research" school. They also seem to wonder why Northeastern hates them so much.

Maybe that's why it was written - to spread the flames and re-ignite the rivalry. But I doubt it. BU fans don't really care about Northeastern. They care about BC, UBurger, themselves and nobody else - that's evidenced when they chant things like "BC sucks" even though they're playing Lowell.

Like I said, I never wish ill will towards anyone. That said, Shep, I'm sure that you're a great guy. I really like your name, and I'm always beyond happy to see that I'm not the only white kid who can grow a curl-fro. I hope that your (ridiculously overpriced) BU education takes you far in life.

And I also hope that this travesty of a piece of journalism winds up being nothing more than a blemish on your record when all is said and done.

Hockey East Week 6 Preview

Now that the Hockey East season has hit its first of two full strides (the other coming, of course, in the next calendar year), it’s finally time to figure out just who’s who in what so far seems to be a most lopsided of conferences. 

With UMass Lowell taking the weekend off following a strong come-from behind win against Vermont and Providencevisiting sunny Huntsville, Alabama for a two-game set with UAH, that leaves eight teams scrapping for points in Hockey East. And scrap is what most of them will have to do, as each of the conference’s four top ten teams has a two-game series on tap with an unranked - and, for all practical conversation, unremarkable - opponent. 

Perhaps the biggest of these discrepancies will start on Commonwealth Avenue Friday night and finish in North Andover on Saturday, as newly-ranked number one Boston University plays a home-and-home with Merrimack. 

After the jump, a preview of this weekend's four Hockey East series...