Sunday, November 10, 2013

Previewing the Army Black Knights



After a gigantic 5-1 beat down of arch rival Boston University on Friday night, the Eagles will look to pick up their 4th straight win vs the lowly Army Black Knights. So far this season, the Knights are 0-5, and currently rank dead last in the college hockey RPI (ranking percentage index) at 59th. Actually, the Knights fell to former BC assistant coach Mike Cavanaugh and UConn a few weeks back. It was Coach Cav's first ever win as a head coach.

In terms of statistics, the Black Knights rank 57th in goal per game, currently averaging 1.60 goals per contest. On the other hand, they have allowed 4.20 goals per game, good for 56th in the country. On special teams, the Black Knights have the 55th best power play in the country to go along with the 43rd ranked penalty kill in the nation. I think you get the point. If BC were to lose this game, it would be a good old fashion pairwise killer. Right now, BC has some really strong wins over some good clubs but losses like these can kill you come tournament time. For example, last season BU lost two games to a Harvard team that won ten games all season. If BU wins both of those games, they have a great chance to make the NCAA tournament. Basically, a loss today to a team ranked 59th out of 59 teams in college hockey would be flat out embarrassing and it would greatly decrease BC's chances of getting a #1 seed in March.

As for the Eagles, they played fine on Friday but they can do a lot of things better. First of all, this would be a good time to do some fine tuning to the power play. Currently, BC has scored just four goals on the power play this season. That ranks 47th in the country. When was the last time we had a power play that was ranked outside of the top 20 ? As you have probably noticed, this team is stocked with talent up and down the lineup. It's not like they don't have the firepower to have a potent power play. Heck, they probably have the two best distributers of the puck in college hockey. Last weekend vs Northeastern, neither unit had sustained zone time. I thought that changed on Friday as both had a lot of time under the other teams blue line but they did not get enough pucks to the net. There was way too much perimeter passing or looking for the perfect shot. Credit BU, they blocked a good amount of shots and they killed well  but I still think the Eagles' power play should be a lot better than it currently is.

Scouting the Black Knights- 

Record/RPI rank- 0-5-0, 59th.

Leading Scorers- CJ Reuschlein (3 points), Mac Lalor (2 points), Willie Faust (3 points)

All Time Series vs BC- Boston College leads 36-3-1, BC is on a 24 game winning streak vs Army.

Last Meeting- 1994, 9-3 win for the Eagles.

Notes- 

1. Army is one of four college hockey teams without a win this season.

2. If you can't make the game, you can watch it live on the BC athletic website.

3. Johnny G, Kevin Hayes, Ryan Fitzgerald, Mike Matheson, and Bill Arnold are all riding three game point streaks going into today.

Go Eagles !






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