By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff
This is the second installment of our end-of-season grades for the team. Today, we’re featuring the third and fourth lines. Our next installment will analyze the defense.
Wade Megan: C-
Megan finished last season with 12 points, and he did not show much growth in his sophomore campaign, tallying 13 points on eight goals and five assists. He did have a presence in the offensive zone at times and was fifth on the team in total shots (100), but he struggled to find a way to turn those shots into points. Megan also finished the season with a minus-3 and needs to become a better two-way player for the Terriers next season if he expects to play an important role on the team.
Ross Gaudet: D
Gaudet’s sophomore season was one he would probably like to forget. Although he dressed for every game, he scored only two goals all season and had a team-worst .036 shot percentage. Gaudet seemed to struggle a lot with puck luck. He would forecheck hard, but fail to beat the goaltender. The 22-year-old did show some signs of leadership this season off the ice and was always the first to give his teammates a high-five or a pat on the back, but leadership off the ice doesn’t mean as much if you cannot produce on the ice. If that streak continues next season, Gaudet could easily find himself out of the line-up.
Joe Pereira: B+
Pereira had an outstanding senior season. He tripled his goal total from last season and brought energy to every line he skated on. Pereira was one of the team’s best penalty killers, had a shorthanded goal and was second on the team with four power-play goals. The only negative of Pereira’s season was that he totaled only six assists, but he was clearly the heart and soul of the team all year long.
Justin Courtnall: B
Courtnall was one of the most improved players this season. Once Glass was kicked off the team, Courtnall found a regular role in the line-up, and he made the most of it. Courtnall dressed in 21 games in his freshman year and never registered a point. This season, he dressed for 32 games and registered six points (five of which came in the second half). Courtnall also established himself as a physical presence without drawing too many penalties (10 penalties for 23 minutes). If Courtnall can increase his offensive production, he could become a pivotal player next season.
Ben Rosen: B
Rosen started this season as a defenseman, but since the team had more room for him at forward. The sophomore did not play in the first eight games of the season, but he stepped in as a fourth-line center on Nov. 12 and stayed in that spot for the rest of the year. The 22-year-old was not stellar on face-offs, but his 80-100 record was right around the team average and was not too shabby for a guy who was not expected to ever be a center for the Terriers. Rosen played well enough this year to earn himself playing time to start the season next year.
Kevin Gilroy: C+
As a junior, Gilroy continued to struggle to find a way to earn regular playing time. He dressed in less games this season (18) than he did last season (25) and only played in two games from Nov. 12 through Feb. 7. Since then, Gilroy only missed two games, and Gilroy rode a four-game point streak through his final four appearances. Gilroy needs to figure out how to play well consistently, but he showed a lot of potential at the very end of the year.
Ryan Santana: D-
Santana skates hard, and that’s about it. The sophomore played himself out of the line-up this season by scoring only three points in 31 appearances. His one goal was the lowest total by a forward, and he was not solid in his own end, finishing with a minus-2. Hustle certainly is not a bad trait to have, but if it is a player’s only asset, then he needs to do some serious soul-searching.
Matt Ronan and Yasin Cisse: Incomplete
Ronan and Cisse both appeared in one game for the Terriers. If Cisse can get healthy and stay healthy next season, he could be a major contributor on offense, but with his injury, that is a big question mark. Do not expect much from Ronan next season.
Gaudet’s grade is warranted for his lack of production, but he was an effective penalty killer and should have gotten some credit for that.
Courtnall is vastly improved. His presence on the ice is so much stronger than the empty Glass ever was.
Gilroy scored a few late season goals, but otherwise was a nonfactor.
Santana hustles and hustles and hustles, and will hit, and produced nothing.
Nice work here…Some thoughts of my own in MHO.
Megan: I think he was a good hustling kind of player and the kind of digger every team needs. He got sufficent ice time to have put up more points, which he will need to do next year. Accurate grade.
Gaudet: He worked hard and I was impressed by his two way effort. I think the D grade is bit harsh, I would give him a C to C+.
Pereira: Agreed, def heart of the team this year. I would build a squad around guys like him. Managed to score clutch goals often when needed. I would give him an A to A-…
Courtnall: Guy is like a run away freight train! He makes other teams keep their heads up or pay for it. He was a little too focused on his “space” and often overlooked the fact he had teammates on the ice as well as sometimes letting his temper get the better of him. He also needs to work on his skating and passing, pretty weak part of his game, but can get better. Found his niche on that crazy good forth line. I would give him a B-
Rosen: Perhaps the best story of this season. Not playing d at all to doing a great job as fourth line gritty center. He was always back as third d to cover, dished passes to his wingers often, got some good shots, physical player and when you consider the fact that until he switch to center he had never taken a face off before. He even ranked higher than some other centers in F/O win percentages. Overall I would give him a B+ to an A- considering all of the above. Can only imagine him getting better with more time and experience up front.
Gilroy: Really came on last games where he replaced Santana on fourth line. He has skill, physical player, can shoot and made the most of his opportunity when given. I really like this fourth line combo of him, rosen and courtnall. C+ for most of season, B- for end of year performance.
Santana: You are right, skates like hell, but didn’t seem to do anything with it. Most nights he seemed like he was playing tag on the ice, not hockey. I think he has played himself out of lineup moving forward for next year barring injuries. D- seems about right.
Looking for the d men next up. Thanks for your hard work in the player recaps.
Anonymous 2 – Thanks for your thoughts and analysis. I personally like Gaudet as a player, but I think he’s capable of more than he accomplished this season. His effort and desire is there; he just needs to put everything together. He’s a good guy off the ice and is going to have to play a leadership role next season, which means he’s going to need to produce more on the ice.
As far as Pereira, I agree completely but I was the only one out of the three of us who wanted to give him an A/A-, so I was outvoted. I don’t think he’s even close to as talented of a player as Chiasson or Coyle, but he makes up for it in effort and played way past what I thought his capabilities were this season.
Well done piece you’ve written with the others. Based upon the effort from this year, I would love to see the fourth line become the third line and third the fourth. While hockey is a game of talent, much of it is hustle and, hmm, let’s see, oh yeah, hustle. The end of year fourth line combo of Gilroy-Rosen-Courtnall wreaked havoc with other teams. They kind of reminded me of the Hansons from Slapshot, except they had more talent and didn’t fight. I really liked watching them work, no prima donnas there, just hard nose hockey players grinding it out.
Someone floated the idea of putting them out on BU’s Power plays, this actually has some merit, they crash, drive and hustle. As our PP was SOOOOOOO bad, maybe coach Parker should give these guys a try.
Anyway all of you guys did a great job during the season. Keep the articles coming so we have something to read during the offseason.
my issue is that except for Pereira who is a senior these are all fourth line players or worse
Championship teams all have third lines that can score. Santana was actually playing on the second line early in the season. We lack depth of talent at forward
Anonymous #4: Agree 110% with you. Too much depth amongst 4th line-type, role-playing forwards and not enough depth amongst 1st/2nd-line forwards. What a difference 2 years makes (when you have a 4th liner like Zach Cohen scoring 13 goals that year).
Anonymous # 4 & 6; As both Rosen and Courtnall have obviously been more than pleasant surprises as a fourth line and Gilroy has done ok too (at times), maybe they should be split up and the lines of all four BU sets be rearranged? First and second lines are missing the hard hitting balls to the wall (can I say that here?) players like those two and certainly lack the defensively responsible center roll that Rosen has taken on and done very well with. As another poster said, why not? Things didn’t work out well this past year, so change ’em up and see what happens.
guys, great recap. Looking forward to seeing the defense grades. Thanks for all your great insight throughout the year. And I think you are spot on with Santana. Seems like a nice kid who hustles, but that won’t get you playing time next year on a team that could contend for a hockey east title since I heard a ton of people are leaving BC early.
I would agree with the grades of Joey, Santana and Guadet. There was one thing that really stood out to me about Ross this year. He was no afrade to block shots. The best example of this comes from the first game of the year when he bloked four or five Wisconsin shots on the same Badger power play.
For Megan it was clearly a step up from last year for him.
Kevin Gilroy should dress for three games next year. The ones against Northeastern. The guy kills the Huskies. In two years he has two game winning goals against them. Last year he put the Terriers in the HE playoffs and this year he kept the team alive in Fridays game.
Courtnal could be a major factor next year. Parker put him out as the 6th man in the last min of the NU game. The conectctions between him and Zach Cohen are earally similar.
Just my thoughts, thanks.
I couldnt disagree with your assessment of Guadet more with the exception of his point production being down. His energy and his tenacity made Kevin Gilroy seem exponentially better than he was, and Gaudet took few dumb penalties and was absolutely crucial to our special teams, often with his one man forecheck helping the rest of the PKers to get a change and taking thirty seconds off the Clock. I would honestly say that Gaudet has continued to improve, if he had played with a more skilled line he would have probably quintupled his scoring outlet from what it was, and he will undoubtedly skate on both special teams as well as AT WORST a 2nd line or a seventh forward who will push for that 2nd line spot all of 2011-12. I would give him a B closer to a B*!
Does anyone have any news on Cisse?