College Hockey:

This Week in Hockey East: Nov. 1, 2007

Dave Hendrickson is not available to write the Hockey East column this week. To raise awareness regarding world hunger, Dave is attempting to eat enough to sustain one human being for a whole year in the two weeks between his last column and his next column.

The Spirit of ’76

You’d have to go back a long way to find a Boston University team that began the year winless in its first five games. All the way the back to the Bicentennial, in fact. For those of you old enough to remember, that was the era of disco, mood rings, beanbag chairs, and Charlie’s Angels. For Dave Hendrickson, it was the year of trying to imitate John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever while simultaneously coming to terms with turning 40.

“It was the 1976-77 season, Mike Eruzione’s senior year,” Jack Parker said. “So you know what the good part of that is?” Parker asked me.

“Yes, I do,” I replied, and Parker laughed heartily. “That team won the ECAC Tournament and went to the Final Four,” he reminded me.

So could a similar fate be in store for this year’s edition of the Terriers, currently 0-4-1?

“That’s a long way off,” Parker said. “I couldn’t have told you that that team was going to wind up like that either. I do know that it was nice to get our first win [in the '76-77 season]; it was against Harvard over at Harvard in overtime, and Tony Meagher got the winning goal.”

That said, Parker — whose memory for hockey details never fails to impress me — saw some parallels between the woes of yesteryear and today. “I think it was a lot of the same stuff,” Parker said. “We were sloppy in our own zone — playing pretty well and then giving up a big break. We didn’t get great goaltending early on — it wasn’t horrible goaltending — and all of a sudden it just took off.”

Regardless of whether the current team does serious damage in the months to come, Parker is bullish on the Terriers. “Sooner or later we’re going to get a win, and we’re a good team. I’ve maintained that all along. I like my team; I like all the ingredients we have. I think we’re going to score goals, and I think we’re going to get better defensively. We’re not doing either one of those things right now, but we’ve got enough to be a very good team.”

Between CSTV and CN8, I watched the better part of the Terriers’ pair of games in Ann Arbor last weekend — when I wasn’t channel surfing to catch UNH on NHPTV or the Red Sox. On Friday, I actually was wowed by BU’s skating and tenacity regardless of the score. They appeared to play a terrific game; they just couldn’t score and gave up a few fateful rushes. But Saturday they did not match that effort.

“I would say you’re correct on both counts,” Parker said. “I thought Friday night we played very well. I think what happened was we played really well and didn’t get a W, and guys came out down and flat the next night because they put in a real good effort and can’t win a game. So psychologically that had something to do with it; we were flat as hell.

“But to their credit, after getting blown out in the first two minutes and not touching the puck the first four or five minutes, we settled down and played hard for a while. But then we’re playing okay, putting in a good effort in a 2-1 game … and we give them a goal.”

Much has been said about whether Karson Gillespie or Brett Bennett would be the heir to the throne in goal following the graduation of John Curry. So far both have been good but not outstanding — not great enough to steal a close game, obviously. Are we any closer to determining the primary netminder?

“Not yet. I think it’s too early to make that decision. Neither one of these guys has played a lot of hockey in the last couple of years. Gillespie’s been sitting behind Curry for his entire career, so he’s only played one or two games each year. Bennett only played one game last year sitting behind Curry, and the year before that he missed two-thirds of the year at Ann Arbor [with the U.S. Under-18 team] because of an injury. So we need to get the cobwebs out and get in game shape and in a game frame of mind and we’ll see what happens. If somebody separates themselves fairly quickly, we’ll make a move, but it’s every other game for a while.”

Besides, goaltending has not been the Terriers’ biggest negative to date. They have ample talent, and freshmen Colin Wilson, Kevin Shattenkirk, Nick Bonino, and Colby Cohen obviously are big additions in terms of skill and poise. Wilson and Shattenkirk are already two of the team’s better power-play personnel. But the collective talent has only translated to 11 goals in five games thus far.

“We’re trying a few things differently on power plays; we’re trying a few things different in our zone, but in general we have stop squeezing sticks so tight,” Parker said. “One of the things I told them that I wanted them to do was that early on I thought we were trying to be too fine and overpassing the puck, so we were urging them to take some more shots. At the end of two periods on Friday at Michigan, we had attempted 57 shots to their 27, so we were trying to put pucks on the net and get things accomplished.”

With league games against Providence and Mass.-Lowell this week, BU has an opportunity to feel considerably better about themselves by beating two teams that are beatable without being pushovers by any means.

“I’m worried about their attitude more than ours,” Parker said, speaking of his team’s self-image in comparison to the perception of the Terrier coaching staff. “We had a meeting the other day and said, Boys, the good news is that as far as I’m concerned we know you’re a better team than you do right now. It’ll come; don’t worry about it.’ So we’ll see what happens against Providence.”

U!N!H!

When I called Wildcat coach Dick Umile on Monday and asked him how he was doing, his answer was jovial. “It’s all based on the weekend. If you win, then Sunday and Monday are good days.”

During my channel surfing on Friday night, BU was all over Michigan in the first period. Meanwhile, Colorado College burst out of the gate to take a 3-1 lead against their all-too-hospitable hosts. I told Umile that by the end of the night I was wondering what the hell happened in both games.

“It’s a crazy game, isn’t it?” Umile said. “It was pretty wide open. They were pretty opportunistic, Colorado, in that first period. It was very wide open, and obviously it settled down after that. We did a better job of slowing them down, doing a little more forechecking. So it was a good weekend, good hockey. Both teams played well: good atmosphere.”

By the end of the weekend, the Wildcats were the owners of a sweep against a top ten team, making them 3-0-0 to start the season despite playing ranked teams in all three games.

“The most important thing is that defensively we’re competing hard,” Umile said. “That’s one thing we want to do is play harder off the puck. From the end of last season, I think it’s something we’re going to need to improve in. You try to get better at it every week, so that at the end of the season — the playoffs, the championships — you’re sound defensively and able to keep them out of the scoring area. I like the way that the team competed; I think we’re making progress in that area but we’ve got a ways to go, and I like the balance of the team.

“I think we have a little of everything: some physical presence, speed, transition, and we’ve got five freshmen playing up front for us. I thought our freshman line [of Phil DeSimone, Paul Thompson, and Danny Dries] did a good job. So there’s balance in our team, and goaltending and defense are our strength.”

The upshot is that UNH is now No. 4 in the nation, the highest ranking of any Hockey East team. “That’s okay — wherever,” Umile said. “You know how I feel about that. You want to be up there. It says a lot for the program and what you’ve accomplished. Especially after three games against BU and Colorado, we’ll take three wins any day. But there’s a long, long way to go.”

The next challenge will be a Northeastern team that i