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| Photo by Junhee Chung/DFP Staff |
By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff
The No. 1/ 2 Boston University men’s ice hockey entered this season’s Beanpot tournament looking to prove itself after an embarrassing fourth-place finish in last season’s tournament. The Terriers took care of business in last Monday’s Beanpot semifinal via their 3-1 win over Harvard, but the journey for revenge is not yet complete, as a berth in the Beanpot title game does not win any trophies.
So on Monday night, BU will look to finish the job when it takes the ice against No. 4/5 Boston College at TD Garden in a game that will not only determine this season’s Beanpot champion, but also partly determine the legacy of this season’s BU team.
“You judge a team at the end of the year by what they’ve accomplished and by what they’ve won,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “BU teams aren’t real good teams unless they win some championships. You could be No. 1 in the nation or the No. 1 seed in your league. You can get to the Beanpot final. You can do all those things that make you look like you’re about to win a championship, but if you don’t win something, it’s just an okay year no matter what the record is.
“This team will be judged on what happens from now until March and April. We’ll see who is going to get a chance to win championships in March and April. This is the first one that is available.”
Read more of the preview at dailyfreepress.com.
Projected lines (changes are bolded):
Matt Nieto – Chris Connolly – Alex Chiasson
Wade Megan – Ben Rosen – Sahir Gill
Justin Courtnall – Cason Hohmann – Evan Rodrigues
Ross Gaudet – Ryan Santana – Kevin Gilroy
Garrett Noonan – Patrick MacGregor
Sean Escobedo – Adam Clendening
Max Nicastro – Ryan Ruikka
Kieran Millan
Grant Rollheiser
More on the lineup beyond the jump.
Notes: Yasin Cissé finds himself as the odd man out of the lineup yet again for BU. Cissé has struggled to return to the player he had been before ankle injuries and a concussion kept him off the ice for a little more than two full seasons, but it seems BU is starting to lose patience in Cissé’s long recovery.
His lack of playing time became most pronounced after Parker had Cissé suit up for a Jan. 28 game against Maine, but Parker did not play him. Cissé left the arena after the second period of that game per his own choice. Parker said after speaking with Cissé, the Quebec native would suffer no lasting consequences for his actions that night. Still, Cissé continues to see minimal playing time. On Friday, Cissé returned to the lineup for the first time since the game against Maine, but he apparently did not play well enough to convince the coaches to keep him in the lineup for Monday night’s Beanpot game.
The following is a transcript of Parker’s reasoning for keeping Cissé out of the Beanpot final:
On why Cissé was the odd man out:
I think he played better the other night. I thought he gave us some physical play. I had a hard time deciding between a couple of guys down the lineup. I decided to go with Gilroy. They both played okay the other night. Gilroy’s a senior. It’s his last Beanpot. But Cissé will be back in the lineup next week for sure. There’s a confidence level that he has to get to because he has a lot of skill that we can use. He has to have some good reps of shift after shift of feeling pretty good about himself. Then he’ll be fine. We believe he’s going to be a very good hockey player for us.
On how to get him those reps if he’s not in the lineup:
It’s hard to get him those reps even if he’s in the lineup because if you’re not on the first two lines you don’t get as much ice time and if you’re not on the power play or the penalty kill, you sit a lot. So that interferes with his confidence level and it interferes with his legs. So I think some of that stuff has a lot to do with holding somebody back from getting confident and in a flow. I think he’s still worried about “Where do they want me to play? How do they want me to …” checking in on what we want. He’s got to, within him, figure that out and then go play.
But there’s a lot of guys in that boat. Hohmann is in and out of the lineup. Rodrigues is in and out of the lineup. Kevin Gilroy has been in and out of the lineup. In reality, we have 13 forwards and we want to keep them all alive, too. We don’t want to have somebody go down and all of the sudden, Cissé hasn’t played in a month and a half and he’s not ready to play. Kevin hasn’t played or Hohmann hasn’t played or Rodrigues hasn’t played or Santana hasn’t played. We have a bunch of guys who can fill in a bunch of different roles on those third and fourth lines and we’ll keep rotating them around.
Hohmann has played every game since MSG. Was a heathy scratch for the first time last Friday. Rodrigues has never been scratched, unless it was at the beginning of the season. Both Hohmann and Rodrigues have had pp and pk time. Cisse is truly the odd man out. He missed 6 games at the beginning of the season and now is missing more. If he is to improve he needs to play regularly. Is it reasonable to expect him to gain confidence siting in the stands while the other freshman play? How must he feel once again in the stands after 2 years of not playing?
If Parker plays him with better line-mates, then I’m sure Cisse will be able to improve and develop into the player that he is capable of being. Parker’s excuses in the transcript seem really fishy and his claims are completely unsupported.
What you say would be true if Cisse’s performance had justified “quality” ice time. It hasn’t. Prior to his benching a couple of weeks ago, he’d been wandering aimlessly during his shifts, accomplishing virtually nothing. His contribution on the forecheck, given his size, has been negligible.
2 yrs no play = mistakes and lapses. Was he the only guy making mistakes?
Parker acts as if he weren’t the one controlling the lines.Would it kill him to put Cisse on the power play once and awhile and gasp! let one of the top 6 catch their breath? He is clearly up to something here and he’s not coming clean about it. And Giroy’s been sitting for months(if not years,lol) suddenly he cares about Gilroy’s icetime? Looks like he is looking for excuses to get Cisse out of the lineup. That’s gonna be the next big story.
His team mates must see what’s going on. Is anyone standing up for him? This is very disturbing. Sounds like Parker was just throwing out reasons that didn’t make sense like he put him in a situation not to succeed and now is punishing him for it. He could easily have helped him out and given him more of a chance to prove himself. Why would you recruit someone to then treat them this way?
When we lost two top forwards it was necessary for Cisse’ to step up. Hohman has been very poor of late. He does not look like he belongs in Div. I Hockey. I thought Cisse’ looked pretty good for a while but he did hit a wall which is not inconsistent with someone who has been out of hockey for so long. This is the weakest lineup I have ever seen for a BU Beanpot game. However, Jack Parker can get a team up for these “hat and shirt” games better than anyone. He is a good or great cook but he does not shop for the groceries very well. He has won national championships only when he had good recruiting coaches. This is not true now it would seem. This, tonight, is our Superbowl. Go BU!!!!!!
It is a coach’s job to make decisions, even difficult decisions. Parker’s job. Parker’s decision. He’s done pretty well for 39 years. LIVE WITH IT.
Even if someone has been coaching for as long as Parker has does, it does not mean he is exempt from criticism, and certainly does not mean that he is incapable of making mistakes. Parker has without a doubt accomplished a lot over his years with BU and done a great deal for the hockey program, which is why it is probably so easy for people to overlook his CURRENT faults/miscalculations.
Just because it’s Parker’s decision and players have to live with it does not mean that it is not open to criticism.I would expect a good coach to try to develop his players even for the future. If you don’t do that, you’re not doing your job. I don’t care if you can win games in a weak league like HE this year. And even if you get away with a mistake for 39 yrs it is still a mistake.
You have got to be kidding! Do you know what you are talking about. Review BU’s hockey history, please.
Parker is past him prime. Time to put him out to pasture.