Former Terrier commit Tyler Weiss commits to Nebraska

Former future Boston University Terrier Tyler Weiss has committed to the University of Nebraska-Omaha. In April, rumors started to circulate about Weiss potentially playing in the NCAA elsewhere. For those keeping score at home, these rumors started while David Quinn was still the head coach and the announcement to attend UNO came before Albie O’Connell had been named the new head coach.

Weiss is ranked number 90 of the North American Skaters for this year’s upcoming draft.

 

Albie O’Connell named head coach

BU announced Tuesday that David Quinn’s associate head coach Albie O’Connell will take over as the patriarch of the hockey team. Matt is currently working on an article and BU will have a press conference Wednesday to introduce O’Connell.

Here are our thoughts:

Liam: This is a smart hire. The coaches cabinet is familiar with O’Connell and he’s someone the fan base and new recruits can trust.

Eddie: A lot of what Liam said. familiar with winning traditions at BU. He played under Jack Parker and worked alongside Quinn so he has elite knowledge of what it takes to recruit and develop young talent. I am interested to see how much Parker or Quinn rub off on him in terms of coaching style.

Matt: I’m on the same page as Liam and Eddie. I always felt O’Connell was the best person for the job. He’s familiar with the program from both his playing days and coaching. Moreover, reportedly the players liked this news. I am interested to see what his coaching style is like and how it differs from Quinn.

A look at potential head coaches

It’s been a few weeks since the “David Quinn Era” ended on Commonwealth Avenue and the Terriers are still without a head coach.

Obviously, there are some rumors going around about who is in the running and who is not in consideration for the job.

Current Boston Bruins’ assistant coach Joe Sacco had been linked to the job, but according to Mike McMahon of College Hockey News, he is no longer pursuing the gig.

Current Union College coach Rick Bennett had been rumored to be in consideration, but per Jeff Cox, he is staying at Union.  It would have been interesting to see how the BU faithful would have reacted to a coach coming from outside.

 

Cox also outlined Shawn McEachern and current BU associate head coach Albie O’Connell as the front-runners, so let’s take a closer look at them.

We would like to preface this by saying this is an unconfirmed candiates list and that this is just what we have heard on the rumor mill.

Shawn McEachern 

McEachern is currently the head coach at The Rivers School in Weston, a position he has held since the 2010-11 season. Prior to his current position, he was an assistant coach at both Northeastern University and UMass Lowell.

McEachern skated three years for BU and is sixth all-time in points (186), eigth in points (107) and ninth in goals (79). After his time wearing the scarlet and white, he spent 13 years in the NHL and scored 579 points. He won a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburg Penguins in 1992.

Albie O’Connell 

O’Connell is currently an assosicate head coach on BU, a post he has held since since the 2015-2016 season. Prior to joining the Terriers’ coaching staff, he spent time as an assistant coach for Colby College, Niarga University, College of the Holy Cross, Merrimack College, Northeastern University and Harvard University.

O’Connell is also recognized as one of the top recruiters in the county.

In his four years playing for BU, O’Connell won four Beanpots and scored 108 points. He captined the 1998-99 team for BU.

In addition to those names, McMahon has also listed the following as being linked to the position.

Steve Greeley 

Steve Greenely currently is the Buffalo Sabers Assistant General Manager but he is not a stranger to coaching at BU. Greeley left his position as an assitant coach for Quinn’s Terriers after the 2014-25 season to take a job in player personal for the New York Rangers.

Greeley has been linked to NHL GM postions, so it seems unlikely that he will get the position.

Jay Pandolfo 

The former Terrier captian is currently an assitant coach for the Bruins. Pandolfo played for BU from 1992-96, highlighed by a Nationa Championship in 1995. His winning ways followed him the the NHL where he won two championships with the New Jersey Devils.

Pandolfo has only been an asstiant coach for two seasons and has the smallest coaching resume of any of the candiates listed here.

 

David Quinn named head coach of New York Rangers

The Boston University men’s hockey team is currently without a head coach.

Wednesday afternoon, the New York Rangers named David Quinn their 35th head coach thus vacating the Terrier head coaching position. Read what Matt had to say here.

BU now has to find Quinn’s replacement. However, the list of candidates is relatively smaller than the last time they were looking. Quinn, Mike Sullivan and John Hynes already have NHL jobs. But, that does not mean that there aren’t any qualified candidates.

Jeff Cox outlines some of the top candidates for the position. Matt and Liam both think that Albie O’Connell represents one of the best choices for BU.

Needless to say, it’s going to be one interesting summer.

Meet the Boston Hockey Blog’s new writer

By now we are all sure you have heard the news circling around the Boston University men’s hockey team, The Boston Hockey Blog is happy to confirm that Eddie Moran will be joining Matt and Liam for this upcoming season. Below you can find more information about Eddie.

We are working to learn more information about the rumors linking head coach David Quinn to the New York Rangers.

Ed Moran is a rising senior in Boston University’s College of Communication double-majoring in Broadcast Journalism and Advertising. He grew up in the New York City area, but now resides in Windham, a rural town in upstate New York’s Catskill Mountains. Although Windham is far removed from New York’s sports culture, Ed has been entranced by sports since his childhood days of watching Sunday football with his grandfather.

When he began applying for colleges in 2015, Ed focused on out-of-state schools with a strong communications background. He admittedly applied to BU on a whim, not fully aware of its academic, or even hockey, reputation.

Little did Ed know when visiting BU on April 11, 2015, for COM’s Admitted Students Day, that he was there the day of the 2015 National Championship game between BU and Providence. Seeing the BU students all along Commonwealth Avenue repping those scarlet and white colors exposed him to a sport he was previously unfamiliar with: hockey.

Watching the mayhem that day convinced Ed all along, BU was the school for him. During freshman year, he joined FreeP as a writer for women’s soccer, basketball and lacrosse. Since then, he has served as an Associate Sports Editor, and is grateful to spend his senior year on the Hockey beat.

 

2018 NHL Draft Order

First off, we’d like to apologize for the lull in content. Both Matt and Liam are finishing up assignments as classes end Wednesday. However, Saturday during the second intermission in Game Two between the Las Vegas Knights and the San Jose Sharks picks 1-15 of this years NHL draft has been finalized. This post will be updated as the rest of the order becomes finalized. The draft will take place June 22-23 in Dallas. 

  1. Buffalo Sabers
  2. Carolina Hurricanes
  3. Montreal Canadiens
  4. Ottawa Senators
  5. Arizona Coyotes
  6. Detroit Red Wings
  7. Vancouver Canucks
  8. Chicago Blackhawks
  9. New York Rangers
  10. Edmonton Oilers
  11. New York Islanders
  12. New York Islanders (via Calgary)
  13. Dallas Stars
  14. Philadelphia Flyers
  15. Florida Panthers

BU is projected to have two first-round picks in freshman forward Brady Tkachuk and future-forward Joel Farabee who are both projected to be Top-15 picks. We will be providing a draft preview for BU players as the draft gets closer.

We will be announcing our new writer within the next few weeks so be on the lookout for that.

 

David Quinn named head coach of Team USA for 2019 World Junior Championship

In the midst of the rumors linking BU head coach David Quinn to the vacant coaching position of Matt’s New York Rangers, Quinn has been named the head coach of Team USA for the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship which will begin Dec. 26.

University of Minnesota’s Bob Motzko coached the team the past two seasons and brought home a gold medal in 2017 and bronze earlier this year.

Quinn is no stranger to coaching this tournament. He was an assistant coach in 2007 (bronze), 2012 and 2016 (bronze).

He played on the 1986 team that won USA’s first-ever medal which was bronze. Quinn previously served as an assistant coach for the 2005 U.S. National Junior Team. He was an assistant two silver medal-winning U.S. Women’s National Teams (1999, 2000) and the U.S. Under-18 Men’s National Team in 2003.

He will be joined Minnesota State head coach Mike Hastings, Dartmouth assistant coach David Lassonde and Ohio State assistant coach Steve Miller.

 

Best of 2017-2018 seaon: Writers’ favorite articles

We are finally dropping the puck on “The best of 2017-2018 men’s hockey season” lists. First up are the writers favorite articles. Matt, Nikki and Liam all wrote a lot so picking our favorite was not easy. But these are the ones that we each writer stood out the most.

If you haven’t checked the out, we encourage you do so.

Nikki’s favorite article is her article onsophomore defensemen Chad Krys and Dante Fabbro.

 

Liam’s favorite article is his on freshman defenseman Kasper Kotkansalo.

 

Matt felt that his favorite article was his on junior forward and assistant captain Bobo Carpenter.

 

The article that the writers felt was the most interesting was Matt’s article on how college hockey changed over the years.

However, the article that stood out the most to all three of them was senior defenseman and captain Brandon Hickey’s “Letter to BU.”

We ask you, which article did you enjoy reading the most?

 

Men’s hockey announces captains for 2018-2019 season

Sunday at the End-of-the-Year Banquet, BU head coach David Quinn named the captains and the assistant captains for the upcoming season.

Junior forward Bobo Carpenter and sophomore defenseman Dante Fabbro with both wear the “C” next season as co-captains.

Carpenter spent this past season as one of three assistant captains and led the team in goals and scoring with 20 and 35 respectively. He was named to the Hockey East Second Team and a member of the All New England Team.

Fabbro finished second amongst defensemen with 29 points and first in goals with nine. He joined Carpenter on the Hockey East Second Team and the All New England Team.

The leadership will be rounded out with two assistant captains in sophomore defenseman Chad Krys and sophomore goaltender Jake Oettinger.

Krys finished his sophomore campaign with 27 points while Oettinger rebounded from a rough start to the season and from 2.10 goals against average and a .925 save percentage. Both players were named to the All Hockey East Tournament Team with Oettinger taking home Tournament MVP honors.

BU will host Acadia University for an exhibition game Oct. 6 and then open their season the following weekend in Mankato for a two-game series against Minnesota State.

The rest of the schedule will be released soon but the rest of the non-conference slate will be against Quinnipiac University, Dartmouth College, two games against Arizona State University. They will also play in the Friendship Four in November in Ireland.

The first round of the Friendship Four will be against the University of Connecutict, and will be a league game

As for the blog, both Liam and Matt will be returning for the Fall semester. Within a few weeks they will announce the newest men’s hockey beat writer.

From the FreeP: Hickey’s letter to BU

Senior defenseman and captain Brandon Hickey wrote a letter to BU, in which he reflects on his four years at Boston University, you can check it out here.

As someone who has talked with Hickey a number of times, Matt can tell you that he is a very nice guy and that Matt was moved watching Hickey’s post-game press conference after the loss to the University of Michigan.