By Sam Dykstra/DFP Staff
Jack Parker never talks about the referees. Bring the men in the zebra stripes up during a press conference, and the Boston University men’s hockey coach politely declines.
But following his No. 7 BU team’s 4-1 loss to No. 15 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Houston Fieldhouse in which the game ended with three ejections – all Terriers – and a bench minor on Parker for arguing, the 38-year coach finally felt the need to say a thing or two about the referees.
“It’s hard to play when you get jobbed like we did tonight, and we got jobbed tonight,” Parker said. “But other than that, I like how we played. But it was not an even match.”
“It was just a lot of frustrations,” said senior captain Joe Pereira. “Game got away from the referees, game got away from us a little bit.”
Sophomore forward Alex Chiasson and freshman defenseman Garrett Noonan were sent off for separate fighting instances while junior assistant captain and defenseman David Warsofsky hit the showers early directly after RPI’s (9-4-3) fourth goal. Chiasson’s melee came after sophomore defenseman Sean Escobedo was tripped without a call. Escobedo answered with a cross-check to RPI forward CJ Lee, and the resulting scrum led to Chiasson getting involved.
“I was glad to see our guys stick up for everybody,” Parker said. “They realized what was happening to them, and you couldn’t not get frustrated. It’s hard to not get frustrated when you’re getting a bad deal.”
However to simply say that the game was ultimately decided by a couple of ejections late in the third period would be incorrect. The Terriers (8-4-5) fell behind 2-0 for the fourth time in their last seven games thanks to shoddy special teams play early.
With the Terriers on their third power play of the afternoon, RPI forwards Joel Malchuck and Lee walked into the BU zone on a two-on-two shorthanded chance. With Warsofsky and sophomore defenseman Ryan Ruikka backing off for BU, Lee dropped off a short pass for Malchuk, who took advantage of the lackadaisical defense and shot a blast past junior netminder Grant Rollheiser (10 saves).
Eight minutes later, with just 10 seconds remaining on the first-period clock, the Engineers struck again, this time on their own man advantage. Forward Tyler Helfrich camped out to Rollheiser’s right before he one-timed a shot of his own that beat the Terrier goalie to the open space to put the Terriers down by two.
Another power-play tally by RPI center Chase Polacek in the second period spelled the end of Rollheiser’s day as Parker put in fellow junior Kieran Millan for the game’s remainder. Sophomore Wade Megan brought the Terriers back to within two on his third goal of the season, but that did little to prepare BU for what was to come.
The special teams for both sides got plenty in the third as the teams combined for 14 penalties – 10 for BU and four for RPI – in the frame. Eventually on a five-on-three brought on by Parker’s bench minor and an interference penalty by Megan, the Engineers struck for their third power-play goal in eight chances to bring the game to its final at 4-1.
The Terriers finished their night 0-for-5 with the man advantage but had eight fewer shots in those situations than the Engineers did. In fact, BU didn’t record a single shot on net on the power play in the final two periods.
When asked what his team needs to improve on going into the second half of the hockey season, Parker said six words, but they all meant the same thing.
“Power play, power play, power play.”
That being said, the Terriers find themselves with a record of 8-4-5 overall and 6-3-4 in Hockey East heading into the holiday break, marks that are much better than where they stood just one year ago when they finished first semester 4-9-3 and 2-7-2 following another loss to RPI. The fact that BU’s out to a better start this season than a year ago, when it turned it on in the second half to come just two games away from an NCAA berth, is a source of optimism for its captain.
“Comparing it to where we were last year, it’s still a great turnaround,” Pereira said. “We’re still young. We’re still learning about how to play.”
“The Terriers finished their night 0-for-5 with the man advantage but had eight fewer shots in those situations than the Engineers did. In fact, BU didn’t attempt a single shot on net on the power play in the final two periods.”
This has become ridiculous. Even worse than that.
We get a powerplay and we don’t shoot. Not at all.
YOU CAN’T SCORE IF YOU DON’T SHOOT.
Let the points shoot. You get rebounds, you get deflections, the initial shots sometimes even go in.
BUT SHOOT THE DAMN PUCK!
Our powerplay – or powerless play – amounts to passing the puck around the perimeter, a little cycling down low, looking for the perfect play.
Screw that.
We have a better chance of scoring 5-on-5.
SHOOT THE DAMN PUCK!
The opposition knows that with the exception of David Warsofsky, everyone else at the point is going to look to pass first, second and maybe third.
Go to a diamond. Put a forward at one of the points. Whatever.
BUT SHOOT THE DAMN PUCK!
In case I haven’t made myself clear …
SHOOT THE DAMN PUCK!
With all due respect to Coach Parker, the referees were absolutely no factor in the outcome. Once again BU started slowly against a team that seemed to feel a far greater sense of urgency than we did. The coaching staff and players all have to take responsbility for these slow starts. It seems as if we’re not winning enough of the one-on-one battles, we’re not working hard enough often enough to get position down low, and too often we are tentative at both ends of the ice.
As for the power play, I’d make the following change: Put Ben Rosen at one of the points on one of the power play combinations. When he played defnese he showed a real penchant for finding his teammates in traffic with pinpoint passes. I’d continue to play him upfront on a regular shift but I’d get him on the point for the power play. I think between that and the anticpated return of Chris Connolly, the power play could perk up significantly.
Finally, you have to think winning the Ice Breaker and beating up on a number of weak teams early in the season set some unrealistic expectations. Certainly the #1 rating was more of a curse than a blessing. This is a very young team with some very talented players. I think patience is warranted. The hope here is that with a semester’s worth of lessons learned, the Terriers will start stronger, play more intuitively and less hesitantly, and ultimately make one of their patented second half runs.
team has a lot of talent but not much on ice leadership. Parker always gets them better. Loss of Connolly big factor becaue of lack of upper classmen.
Can’t believe what I’m hearing from Coach Parker. If he wants to get angry then he should look in the mirror. I know the team is young, but the whole scheme this year looks off. The special teams and the defensive strategy stink. Just how far would have Warsofsky backed off on RPI’s SH goal if the RPI player didn’t shoot? What resulted was a nice screen for RPI. If RPI didn’t shoot, I think he would have skated backwards into the net with Rollheiser. How about this team try not to concede all the ice all the time? I’d rant about the PP but that has been covered very nicely. It’s a pass-a-thon out there.
Parker is whining about referees?
LOL, LOL, LOL…
It must be tough to get non-Hockey East refs who don’t report to his former BU linemate.
Great idea here..I would also use Rosen on the power play. Looking back he was the leading scorer on his team and for all d men in juniors (50 something points) and that was probably one of the reasons he was brought to BU in the first place. he has great hands, passing and game sense as well as a solid heavy shot. The way he has been playing center Parker should use him much more. This was a really good idea and move by the staff. Perhaps this is the reverse of Matt Gilroy’s move to d? That worked out pretty well.
Does anyone know when Connelly will be back? I hope he is skating already, the team def needs him. also last thought. Why does’t the defense want to shoot the puck from the point? It is like their last thought or option. So many goals are scored by the d or chances created by shooting on net… that is getting tired and frustrating very fast…
Love how someone broke Connelly’s finger after he took a dive. Next time, break is arm or leg instead.
Connolly is expected to be back Jan. 1 for the Shillelagh Tournament. And to the commenter above me, he broke his finger when he got it caught in the net. There was no “someone” and no “dive” involved.
Something has to be changed up on the PP. It’s broken and shows no signs of improving. The prior poster’s idea of using Ben Rosen on the PP at point is a really good one IMO. He has shown strong passing and shooting skills plus his obvious aggressive playing style would certainly perk things up. Someone in the know or connected to the team should float this to one of the coaches and try it out. He doesn’t stike me as the kind of player to mess around with the puck on a PP too much as the rest of BU’s PP unit seems to be doing.
Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all in the hockey world…
I would just like to personally thank the imbecile(s) who decided it would be funny to post disgusting Travis Roy remarks on every post and thus ruin commenting for everyone.
All comments will now be moderated, so if you’re in the 99% of our readership that has a maturity level higher than that of a 4-year-old and posts intelligently, I apologize. Your comments will not show up right away, and you have these morons to thank for it.
-Scott
Scott, I’m sure the readership understands and agrees with your new process due to highly insensitive remarks made about Travis Roy. Roy is a story of courage and dedication. More than most of us will ever need or be able to do…
You do what you feel is necessary… we support you and your work…
Guys, forget Rosen on the point. We have one of the best offensive defensemen in the country in warsofsky and a player in clendening who nhl scouts had rated as a potential top 10 pick as a skilled offensive defenseman. I think the bigger question to ask is are they being taught well on the pp?
I couldn’t agree more with your comments about Warsofsky but couldn’t disagree more as Clendening is one of the issues, not the solution. He is very indecisive on the PP at the point. He looks to throw the puck away like a hot potato. Rarely, if ever, shoots. Forget what NHL scouts may or may not have him rated at (overated in my opinion). He appears inexperience and makes poor choices far too often. He’s been on the PP since the start of the season and see what it’s gotten us (not a lot). Anyway, there are usually two PP units per opportunity, so there is aample room for trial of several other players to succeed for the team.
The problem with the power play starts at the points, who simply won’t shoot (Warsofsky excepted). The second problem is we rarely have a forward in front of the net. We often have two forwards behind the net and one high in the circle.
So if the points don’t shoot, and two forwards are behind the net, who is going to score?
Well, no one, since we don’t shoot on the power play.
Warsofsky has a great shot. Wished he shot it even more.
Nicastro can shoot, but doesn’t.
Ruikka has that heavy wrist shot, but would rather dump it in the corner.
Clendening doesn’t tee it up, either. Even though I think he could.
Noonan is more of a defensive defenseman and Escobedo has no business on the power play the the way he has been playing lately.
Connolly and Rosen could add something at the points.
With power guys like Chiasson and Coyle together with Nieto, that should be a pretty effective first trio up front. Trivino, with Connolly and perhaps gives a different look, with speed instead of power.
But the problem is at the points. Are they coached not to shoot? Are the encouraged to shoot? (Not by the current standards.)
We must have the only hockey players in the world that don’t want to score manning the points. They have gone well beyond unselfish.
Jack should be ashamed of himself for his words and actions at the end of the game Saturday, I brought my son to see a hockey legend and he got to see an absolute disgrace of a person..