Welcome to The Terrier Hockey Fan Blog where BU hockey fans have a digital finger on the pulse of Terrier hockey present, past and future. Along with links to game accounts, stats, video highlights, interviews, feature articles and recruiting news, we also provide original articles on memorable events in BU hockey history.
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With the 2015-16 season
about two months away, there’s some news and some rumors about players,
reported by The Boston Hockey Blog.A few weeks after 2015 recruit class member
Sean MacTavish told The Pipeline Show that the BU coaches were helping him find
another situation, the former AJHL standout has now committed to
Alaska-Anchorage. The other news is less definite. JJ Piccinich had been
rumored to be returning to the USHL for next season and then heading back to
BU. Now, other reports indicates he will—or has—signed with OHL London. Ryan
Cloonan, a speedy, high-scoring wing for the Boston Junior Bruins, who had been
tabbed for BU’s 2016 class, now may move up to the 2015 class, replacing
MacTavish.We’ll update this story when
more is known. ● THFB report on Cloonan commitment (2-27-15) ●Elite Prospects card
A pair of former Terrier
teammates, who spent last season with Vancouver, Nick Bonino and Adam
Clendening, were traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The pair joins David
Warsofsky, a recent free-agent signee, on the Pittsburgh roster. Bonino, a 50-point scorer on BU's 2009 national championship team, spent the first five years of his NHL career with Anaheim before being traded to Vancouver last summer. (Bonino stats).
A two-year standout defenseman at BU, Clendening reached the NHL last season with Chicago, but was traded at mid-season to the Canucks splitting time with Vancouver and AHL Utica. (Clendening stats)
The Penguins
also have a BU presence in the front office. Former Terrier captain Mike
Sullivan was named this summer as head coach of AHL affiliate Wilkes Barre/Scranton,
succeeding John Hynes who took over the top job with the New Jersey Devils. In
addition, Clark Donatelli will begin his fifth season with ECHL affiliate
Wheeling. Terrier goalie Sean Maguire is a Penguins draft pick and participated
in the team’s recent developmentcamp.
New contracts were
announced for two BU standouts now in the NHL. Following a season that saw
Colin Wilson rack up career highs in goals (20), points (42) and plus/minus
(+19), Nashville rewarded
the former Terrier All-American and Hobey Baker Award finalist with a
four-year, $15.75 million contract. Wilson scored 90 points in two seasons as a
Terrier, including 55 as a member of the 2009 national championship team.
Former BU MVP Alex
Chiasson was awarded
a one-year, $1.2 milllion contract with Ottawa by the NHL Arbitrators. Chiasson, who
had been acquired last summer from the Dallas Stars, scored 26 points last
season for the Senators. He’ll be joined in training camp by BU goalie Matt O’Connor,
who signed a multi-season, free agent deal with Ottawa, shortly after the end
of last season.
Ryan Ruikka, an
assistant captain for BU’s 2012-13
squad, has signed a free-agent contract with the ECHL Wichita Thunder. He spent
the past two seasons playing overseas.
When a Bayonne, NJ, high
school goalie lost all his equipment during a fire at his family’s home, the NJ
Devils and new head coach John Hynes stepped up to keep the young netminder’s
ice dreams alive.
BU
Hockey has a new Strength and Conditioning coach, succeeding Anthony Morando. Sean
Skahan is a Mike Boyle disciple (as is Morando) and spent the past 13
seasons as S&C coach for the Anaheim Ducks. While an undergrad at
UMass-Boston, he interned at BU (under Glenn Harris) and at the Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning facility (MBSC). He went on to become an assistant S&C coach at BC and at North Dakota. During his
years with the Ducks, Sean worked with former BU standout Nick Bonino.
Mike
Boyle:
“Sean
Skahan is not just one of the smartest guys in the hockey strength and
conditioning field – he’s one of the smartest people in the industry period. A
class act, who never hesitates to help, advise or teach when needed, Sean is
what I consider to be a true pro, and above all a gentleman. I’m proud to be
part of a profession that includes people like Sean Skahan”
Congratulations to @SeanSkahan on his new gig at Boston University! Glad he finally realized which Boston school is the best! #GoBU
2018
recruit Jake Wise followed up Monday's five-point effort with two goals and two assists today to finish atop the scoring chart at the USA Hockey Select 15 development camp with 15 (6G, 9A) points. On Monday, he led Team Royal to a 7-5
win over Team Forest and today's 4-point performance spurred Royal past Navy, by an 11-2 count. The left-shot forward from North Andover, Mass., led Royal to a first-place finish in the tournament. He has points
in all four games he’s played and his total is five more than any other skater.
A left-shot center, Wise is expected to spend another season at Central Catholic High School where he scored 42 points (16G, 26A) in 25 games as a freshman. There have been reports that he's already been invited to join the NTDP U17s in 2016.
Jake Wise (BU) is good role model for how other top young prospects should play. While some coast through shifts, he brings it each shift.
Former Terrier forward and Associate Head Coach Mike Bavis has accepted a position as an assistant coach with the AHL Springfield Falcons under Ron Rolston. As a Terrier, Bavis played on four NCAA Tournament teams and three Beanpot Championship teams. His BU coaching career spanned 15 seasons, including four as Associate Head Coach. ● AHL report
Women's Team
BU Today profiles "the unstoppable Marie-Philip Poulin, who led the Terriers to three Hockey East championships and powered Canada to the gold medal in the last two Winter Olympics. In her senior season, Poulin earned first team All-American honors and was a finalist for the Patty Kazamaier Award as the top college player. The Beauceville, Quebec, native, is considering coaching in the future, but first is taking aim on a third Olympic gold.
Goalie
Sean Maguire, returning to the BU roster after a medical red-shirt year, is at
Pittsburgh Penguins development camp sharpening his game for the upcoming
season. The
6-2 Maguire, drafted in the fourth round by the Penguins in the 2012 NHL entry
draft, told TribuneLive’s Chipped Ice blog that pushing laterally was the
hardest thing to do, followed closely by reading the releases on pucks.
However,
“That
came back a lot quicker than I thought it would,” Maguire said. “I think in the next two months everyone is
going to forget about this past year. We’re just going to focus on next year.
That’s my plan. I want to be the best I can for next year.”
The
Penguins’ camp is being led by former BU captain, Bruins head coach, NY Rangers assistant coach, and newly
named coach of AHL Wilkes Barre Scranton Mike Sullivan.
He’s being assisted by former BU standout and U.S. Olympian Clark Donatelli,
now in his fifth year at the helm of the ECHL Wheeling Nailers.
At
Bruins’
camp in Wilmington, Mass., former BU
All-American and now Boston Bruins Development Coach Jay Pandolfo is putting the
players, including Terrier sophomore Brien Diffley and freshman Jakob
Forsbacka-Karlsson, through their paces.
Diffley,
from nearby Burlington, talked with the Lowell Sun about his first experience
in an NHL uniform. “"I thought I was pretty good last year, but if
I can get that little more confidence rushing the puck up more, joining the
play more when I can, it will be good, but that comes with experience,
too," he said. (Full
story)
CSNE’s
Joe Haggarty commenting on Bruins’ development camp:
Saw
some of the athleticism, skill, hands and coordination of Jakob
Forsbacka-Karlsson on display during the tip drills in the forward session. He
seemed to have the most ease redirecting point shots into the net with textbook
tips while so many of his fellow forwards seemed to really have trouble with
the very fundamental skill. Some of it may have just been fatigue, but some of
the B’s prospects need to work on standing in front of the net and tipping
pucks. It’s easy for me to say, of course, but still very true all the same.
Sophomore
goalie Connor LaCouvee completed his second NHL development camp today having
skated with the Blackhawks after previously attending Rangers camp.
A
College Hockey Inc. article
on college sophomores at NHL development camps features defenseman Brandon
Hickey, who attended his second Flames camp. Calgary GM Brad Treliving
discussed the Alberta native’s progress:
"It
was an interesting situation for him, last season, having three freshman
defenceman there,’’ Flames general manager Brad Treliving told the Calgary
Herald. “So he just kept getting more and more responsibility. The impressive
thing is that the opportunity was there and Brandon didn’t sit back; he grabbed
hold of it.
“Now
he’s going to become a leader on that team, develop in that area. What sticks
out with him, obviously, is his skating. He’s an elite skater. It comes easy to
him. For me, now, it’s just being a little more on the puck, working on his
decision-making in that regard. ... We think the sky's the limit for this
guy."
►One
drafted Terrier not attending a development camp is Robbie Baillargeon. A 2012 Ottawa
draft pick, he is attending the second summer session at BU and the NCAA prohibits
a player from missing class to attend development camp. Baillargeon had participated in Senators' camp the previous three summers.
Laser-focused
on rebounding from a 2014-15 season that began with a bout of mono and never really got
into gear, the right-shot center has been working out every weekday at BU as
well as spending three days a week working on his shot with Glen Tucker (AKA
Dr. Shot) at his Shoot to Score Academy.
Alumni of the Waltham,
Mass.-based program include Jack Eichel, Charlie Coyle, Noah Hanifin, Zdeno
Chara, Jerome Iginla and John Taveres.
When
Baillargeon played in the Frozen Four this past April, he became the second
family member to skate in the NCAA tournament. His grandfather, Gil Baillargeon (middle row, third from the right),
played three seasons for St. Lawrence, including the Saints’ 1951-52 squad that
played in the NCAA finals in Colorado Springs, losing to eventual champion Michigan
in the semifinal.
►More
video from last weekend’s Comm Ave Charity Classic featuring sharp goaltending
by former Terrier Anthony Moccia.
Looking
back
Former
Terrier Corey
Trivino is headed across the pond to play with Admiral Vladivostock in the
KHL. He skated for AHL Portland and ECHL Florida last season.
Women’s
Team
Senior
Sarah Lefort and sophomores Victoria Bach and Rebecca Leslie received
invitations to Canada’s National Women’s Development Team selection camp in
Calgary beginning August 6.
