By Kevin Dillon/DFP Staff
Saturday night at the Bright Landry Hockey Center was just like the beginning of the year for the Boston University men’s hockey team. It had all of its players back, whether they were returning from injury or from the World Junior Championships in Malmö, Sweden, and it was recharged after a three-week holiday break.
Unfortunately for the Terriers, however, Saturday night was like the beginning of the year in another way — they could not stay out of the penalty box. BU took nine penalties in the contest, which helped Harvard University edge the Terriers 7-4.
The nine penalties were the most BU has taken in a single game since the first game of the season against the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Saturday night was a reminder of those old habits, which are ones that BU coach David Quinn does not want to see again.
“We’re going to get out of them fast,” Quinn said. “It’s frustrating because that hadn’t been us. And to do that in a game that finally we have a fuller lineup, a healthy lineup, it’s disappointing.”
The penalty habits stuck around for six games earlier in the season, when BU took at least four penalties in each of those games while averaging a little more than six per game. However, the Terriers looked as if their penalty issues had subsided, as they were called for four or fewer infractions in each of the six games after that streak.
It was clear that BU was going to break that four-penalty mark — the one Quinn had set as a ceiling for as many penalties as he was ok with his team taking in a game — pretty early on Saturday. The team took five penalties in the first frame, including two that Quinn said could have been called for five-minute majors.
The fourth penalty for BU in that frame was a charging penalty to sophomore forward Sam Kurker, which was his first of two trips to the sin bin on the night. Kurker was the only Terrier to be penalized twice on the night, and it is the second time he has taken two penalties in his 10 games played this season.
For Kurker, the layoff between games was even longer than the rest of the team’s because of a six-game absence from the lineup due to an illness. However, a two-penalty performance is not going to help his case for staying in the lineup Wednesday night against Dartmouth University, because Quinn is known to bench players for penalties.
“Nobody can take two penalties. Nobody,” Quinn said. “Especially those types of penalties. Those are just inexcusable. We had a lot of inexcusable penalties tonight.”
The penalties came back to bite BU in the end too, as Harvard capitalized on two of its eight power-play chances. Harvard entered the night having capitalized on 13.5 percent of its power-play opportunities, a percentage that left it ranked 49th in the nation.
With BU defending in its own zone for much of the first half of the game, it did not have a chance to establish its offense very much. However, when it was the Crimson spending time in the penalty box in the third period instead of the Terriers, BU scored twice on the power play and pulled within one. Had the penalty differential been closer to even, perhaps the Terriers would be back at .500 instead of starting the second half with another loss.
“It was definitely, definitely frustrating,” said BU captain Patrick MacGregor. “When you’re on the penalty kill you don’t get many scoring chances because you’re in your own zone the whole time so it’s definitely frustrating for sure.”
In an entire season of disappointing games, this may have been the worse of them all – 8 penalties, 7 goals against, 2 short handed goals against, no discipline, poor power play, louse defense, etc.
Was Rodrigues benched? I didn’t see him in the third period. He hasn’t done much all year but that jumbled the lines.
How about a lack of talent holds Terriers back
i was at the game last night, and i must say that kurker and collier are pathetic. what a waste of valuable scholarship money. i was hoping they would both leave after first semester. i am sure they are nice kids but they stink as college hockey players
Give these two young men more ice time and you will see what a difference that will make Sam Kurker is a real talent just recovering from a 6 game layoff . He will bounce back…I know cos hes a Kurker.
He is not a talent at ALL,35 games last year,& an AMAZING 5 points.And he will NEVER see the NHL.He is a big strong kid, who is afraid to bang in the corners.I hope I am wrong, but this is a complete waste of BU MONEY….DQ has done some great recruiting, things will change as soon as his players get here.Bavis obviously could not recruit, that is why BU HAS WON ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN 5 years, this year will be 6!!
I have to disagree with hes afraid to bang in the corners..every game i watched he did just that…Im sure his point production will improve as the season progresses.And he will see the NHL because hes a driven individual who works his tail off during the season and off season.
I truly hope I am wrong,&you are right. But I go to all home games and am sorry, but I don’t see him hitting the corners. Again, I am sure he is a great kid, but his point production is not that of a 2nd round pick.
I agree, think Kurker is soft in the corners,6’2,215 pounds, surely doesn’t play like a kid that big,& I have had season tix since 84,&have seen a lot of college hockey games.
Another thing to consider is that many hockey players of Kurker’s size and frame tend to take longer to develop as they continue to fill out physically. It’s not often to see a power forward consistently playing that style as a teenager against equal or above competition; the ones that do and are successful at it are fast-tracking it to the NHL and usually via Major Juniors.
Perhaps St. Louis was reaching a bit when they took Kurker in the 2nd round in the draft 2 years ago. I suspect they saw a big, rangy kid who dominated his peers in high school, and thought of him as a “project” who would really develop at BU in 4 years into a NHL-caliber power forward.
After 1.5 seasons that “next step” in Kurker’s development has yet to happen. But he’s still 19 and is younger than numerous recruited players who have yet to even start their college careers.
As I said before, I think the immediately jump from MA high school hockey to Division 1 college hockey is much harder than it used to be. I’m very curious to see what happens the rest of this season with his development.
@ Friend of BU . Thank you for this thoghtfull post .I think its only fair to give it more time .Hes progressing even though it hasnt shown up on the stat sheet..
omg I completely agree. They may have been superstars in Highschool but they are SO out of their league in College, as are a lot of the kids on this team, sadly,
Just basically have to ride this year out and watch this team grow in the next two years!
I think Kurker and Collier are quite good, actually…a lot better than the freshman crew and many upperclassmen as well.
They really do deserve more of a chance. Not all players develop and have breakthroughs in their first two collegiate years. I’m disappointed so far but hold out hope for them … as do the NHL teams that drafted them.
I agree ..Theres a huge jump from High school to division 1 college hockey .These guys will develop as the season moves forward.
I think Kurker would have greatly benefited from playing at least a full year of prep or Junior hockey after high school.. It is much harder nowadays to make the jump immediately from high school to Division 1 college hockey. I think Dan Spang was the last BU player who made such transition — and this was back in 2002.
First person commented on BU’s “poor powerplay.”
I guess 3 goals in 4 powerplay chances isn’t good enough, eh?
How about 0 shots on goal with a 5 min pp and the game on the line and we give up a goal.
@Anonymous 2 Rodrigues was in a knee on knee hit at the end of the second and never came back out of the locker room after the second intermission
As reported on this blog’s Twitter feed:
“Evan Rodrigues missed the third period after hurting his knee at the end of the second. He was limping after the game.”
I suspect we’ll know either tomorrow or Wednesday the extent of the injury and its impact on his availability for Wednesday’s game and beyond.