Monday, September 16, 2013

The Last Year


It started one day in the summer of 2009, the summer after the team won the National Championship. I was bored one afternoon in August, and I was looking to make a comment on the Terrier Hockey Fan Blog about the schedule for the upcoming year. Little did I know (at the time) you needed a Blogger account to make a comment. So I made an account and shortly after, I hit this button that said "Start your own blog" completely by accident. I kept going with it and after what must have been a good two hours, I had a blog that completely copied the THFB. 

In the coming weeks I actually started writing posts. The main thing that fueled my blog at the start was the pictures. I starting bring my camera to games in '09 and had all these picture of BU hockey games, but nothing to really do with them. Then I said to myself that I would do some research on games that were coming up and news surrounding the team, and maybe throw in a few pictures while I was at it. That turned into every Friday morning of eighth grade waking up (way too excitedly) at 5:30am and writing game previews during the season. 

Ill be the first one to admit that the first year/year and a half of the whole thing, I had no clue what I was doing. 

That all slowly changed in 2011 when I got to high school and actually understood the English language a little more. Also, that was the year I decided copying the THFB's design was incredibly unoriginal and so, I adopted the grey background with the three columns still used today.

In 2012, I started the Twitter account that is tied in with the website. Like the blog itself, I had no clue what I was doing when I first got on Twitter. With time, I figured out it was the best thing I ever did to "advertise" the blog. I also met a ton of people in and around the College Hockey circle.

Last year, for whatever reason, was a struggle for me to write articles (I think I can call them articles now). I also missed a lot more games last year due to hockey games of my own. It is always easy to write when the team is doing well, but nothing was harder than trying to cover the team in January and early February , last winter.

The 4th place finish in the Beanpot final was the absolute low point and I even considered stoping the blog at that point. I was so disinterested in things that the next week's games up in Maine felt like a chore to watch. Thankfully the team pulled out three points in Orono so it was not so unbearable to watch.

The next weekend, Vermont came to Agganis and I couldn't tell you a thing that happened that weekend. Friday night I had my playoff game for Medfield High. We were the one seed in South Regional with an 18-1-1 record. We lost in the first round of the playoffs to Pembroke 4-3 in a shootout after coming back from 0-3 down with less than 6 minutes to play. The loss was crippling to me and I took it pretty hard. I still went to the BU-UVM game that Saturday night, but I didn't even really watch the game. 

At that point, I was really just looking forward to the summer and for the first time maybe ever in my life, I just wanted hockey to be over.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Roster Announced Yesterday

Yesterday, BU announced their 2014 Men's Hockey Roster. The roster contains 10 new members and a few number changes from last year.

The New Guys
#3. TJ Ryan, defenseman,  South Shore Kings (EJHL). TJ is a walk-on freshman and is actually the son of radio color man Tom Ryan.

#8. Brendan Collier, forward, Valley Junior Warriors (EJHL). As a senior at Malden Catholic, Collier won the Super Eight Championship game in overtime vs St. John's Prep. It was MC's first of three straight Super Eight titles and also their first ever Super Eight. Collier was taken 189th overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 7th round.

#12. Dillon Lawrence, forward, Toronto Young Nationals (GTHL). Lawrence is the one player on the roster I had never heard of. I don't know if he is a walk-on or not. More to come on him in the next few days.

#15. Nick Roberto, forward, Kimball Union. Roberto was a late commit, but will be a good addition up front. He and fellow recruit Doyle Somerby both played at KUA last season. Roberto decomitted from Maine this past spring.

#18. Kevin Duane, forward, Boston Junior Bruins (EJHL). Duane played some time in the USHL last season, before coming back east to the Jr. Bruins. The 6-5 right wing should add some much needed size up front.

#19. Robbie Baillargeon, forward, Omaha Lancers (USHL). Baillargeon is maybe the top recruit in the class. He was the third leading scorer on the Indiana Ice (USHL) in 2012 with a 14-34-48 line in 54 games. He was a fifth round draft pick (136 overall) by the Ottawa Senators in 2012.  

#22. Tommy Kelley, forward, St. Sebastian's. Kelley played on current Terrier Danny O'Reagn's line at St. Sebs in 2012. I honestly don't know much about him, though.

#23. Dalton MacAfee, defenseman, St. Sebastian's. MacAfee was originally committed to Notre Dame to play lacrosse, but decomitted last summer to play hockey at BU instead. MacAfee is also the first player in the history of Medfield Youth Hockey to play Division I. For those who don't know, I played in the Medfield youth system, although never with him.

#27. Doyle Somerby, defenseman, Kimball Union Academy. Somerby, a 6-5 standout defenseman at KUA, was the 125th overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft by the Islanders.
Sam Kurker last year vs Northeastern
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

Switching It Up
Sophomore Matt Lane will wear #21 this winter, instead of #23 from last year. Sam Kurker will trade in his #16 for #9. Ahti Oksanen will dawn #2 in place of #3.