Did I Answer Questions About the Beanpot? Did I Ever.

Early this week, Fetch from the College Hockey Blog interviewed me for his week-long preview of Beanpot goodness.  My interview – in its entirety, meaning it is the length of a Bill Simmons mega mailbag – was posted this morning.

I hope I come across as knowledgeable, but I think I probably come across as just insane. Who else would mention her mother’s Jim Kelly shrine and her cousin Adam’s air hockey table into a discussion about the Beanpot?  Leave it to me.

Edited 2/13/2009 – The interview is now down from Fetch’s site, but it’s after the jump for those of you nostalgic types.

1. You have quite the nickname for former BU netminder John Curry. I’m a Penguins fan, so I have no problem calling him my favorite goalie, but how did he become “Everyone’s Favorite Goalie?”

Hmm…I don’t really know how I came up with that nickname. I just referred to Curry as that in a blog post one day and it stuck. (Some of my blog nicknames don’t stick. FWNICM, anyone? Typing that acronym over and over, especially when writing about the infamous Petrecki hit, got old real quick.)

Back to Curry. I’ve been following BU hockey since I moved up to Boston for grad school in 2004, and I’ve been a pretty giant sports fan all my life. And I have never seen an athlete more universally loved than Johnny Curry. (I thought I had seen it all with Jim Kelly growing up in Western NY – I mean, my mom had a full-out shrine to Kelly. I actually think she still might.) Curry has more heart than 100 hockey players put together (although Jeff Lerg might rival it) and he never gives up. Both qualities were always evident in his play.  That he had the hip injury he had his senior year and still go out there everyday and try to carry that team as far as he did is why he will always be loved at BU. I am glad that the folks in Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre are treating him well and find him as endearing as we here at BU all did.

2. Speaking of Curry, when he was the goalie at BU it seemed that if the other team scored even 2 goals the game was over because the Terriers offense was so bad, but this year they’ve scored more goals than any team in Hockey East. They’ve had good goaltending, but it’s clear this is an offensive team. Which style do you think works better for the Terriers?

There were years – 2005-06 – where the team was pretty good all around. You had this year’s senior class as freshmen, particularly Higgins, Yip and Lawrence, and they all had promising years. You had guys like Zancanaro, Van Der Gulik and Spang, who were awesome all over the ice. You couldn’t tell if they all were offense or defense, they were awesome on both. Curry could have a bad night (which didn’t happen often) and that team could, most of the time, win the game for him.

Then you have the past two years, where one part of the team was good, and the other part was lousy, and the part that was great couldn’t carry the team. In 2007, Curry carried the team as far as it could possibly go, but what was in front of him couldn’t help him out. In 2007-08, the defense eventually caught on that they would have to do more to defend the goal in the absence of goaltending. The offense was developing, but couldn’t catch up with the number of goals that were being allowed.

This year, there is a security in offense, defense and goaltending that is much more than the great play of 2005-06. I think it’s not necessarily that this team is an offensive team, but that, for the first time, it’s a cohesive team – everyone is playing like their careers are on the line. Look at Brandon Yip and Zach Cohen, two players who have had a very quiet last two years. Bam – Yip is now a Hobey Baker Semi-Finalist and Cohen is in the lineup every single game. The other key is that the offense is playing great defensively, and the defense is home to Shattenkirk, Gilroy and Warsofsky, who are legitimate scoring threats all of the time. This may be an offensive team because of the variety of scoring threats – as of Saturday’s UNH game, 12 players are in the double digits for scoring this year! – but it’s more well balanced. Their power play has saved them several times this year.

3. We’re big Colin Wilson fans here. How good do you think he will be at the next  level?

Wilson is a great player, no doubt. However, I think despite his staying in college hockey this year, if I were with the Predators organization, I wouldn’t hesitate starting him for a month or two in the AHL whenever he does go pro. I think the very few weaknesses he has in terms of in-game focus would be worked out with a brief stint in the AHL. Also, developmentally – here’s the educator in me speaking, haha – you don’t want a 19 year old to be exposed to too much too soon. The AHL will allow him to get his bearings a bit, and I am sure he will move up quickly and contribute in the NHL not too long after he goes pro.

There has been a few moments this year while watching Wilson where I think we’ve only touched upon his talent. This weekend, for instance, when he skated circles – literally – around the UNH zone with the puck twice and no one could challenge him, I was just in awe.

4. Onto the Beanpot. As a fan of a participating school, how important is winning the Beanpot?

As a BU fan,winning the Beanpot is important.  Here’s a little story about how much BU and the Beanpot go hand in hand: when my little cousin – who is the reason I started following hockey – was roughly 9 or so, my sister and I were sitting around the air hockey table in his den with a few of his hockey teammates. They were talking about playing hockey when they grew up, and one said, “I want to play for Boston University, and I want to play in the Beanpot.” Mind you, we were in Irondequoit, NY.  14 year old me had no idea what the Beanpot was at the time, and had to have a gaggle of 9 year old youth hockey players explain it to me. If the Beanpot is synonymous with BU in frozen tundra that is the suburbs of Rochester, NY, then you know it has to be pretty important.

The Beanpot is typically is very important to the Terriers, but this year, it is not the be-all-end-all it once was. This BU team needs to do more than win the Beanpot. If they lose the Beanpot this year, I’ll be bummed, sure. But what is most important is that they are winning in March. If we have to sacrifice a Beanpot title to the “Hockey Gods” to get to the Frozen Four, then so be it. This year’s team has the most heart, determination and talent Terrier fans of the last decade has ever seen, and I think many fans focus is on this team continuing to prove this on the national stage.

Despite all of that, I think this year’s team will find the Beanpot important because of last year’s disappointment and because of the team has a large number of Boston area players. Many of these student-athletes grew up watching the Beanpot, attending the Beanpot, wanting to play in the Beanpot. You think someone like a Chris Higgins is not going to step up beyond belief for his last Beanpot?

5. BU Takes on Harvard in the semis. How do you think the Terriers and Crimson stack up, and how do you see the game going?

Oh, I have felt for the Crimson since that North Dakota shellacking in December. They have never found their footing this year. What hurts Ted Donato’s team immensely is their lack of offense.  If they are already having difficulty on offense, and can’t convert power plays (they are converting on 15.5% of them), then BU’s penalty kill will only be more frustrating to them.

I expect BU to come out and be determined to not repeat last year’s Beanpot. This senior class wowed at their first Beanpot in 2006, and understand the importance of the event (look at how many members of this senior class are local kids – McCarthy, Higgins, Lawrence.) I think they were disappointed in how last year turned out, and are determined not to repeat last year.

While I am sure Donato will fire up his team to be a spoiler, I think the lack of offense may be Harvard’s demise at the end of Monday evening. I think BU will be fired up to right the wrongs of last year, and as much as Harvard tries, this might not be the Crimson’s year.

6. Last but not least, who do you think wins the Beanpot?

I think we’ll see a Northeastern – BU final, and this is only a start of a two month span where Terrier fans begin to think of Northeastern of BC from 2006 – how many times can we play them?! Northeastern is a serious threat, because when Brad Thiessen is on, he’s scary. But the trick to Northeastern is that they still play angry, they still play like they are underdogs in the bottom of the middle of Hockey East, and they can be easily befallen by the penalty monster because of that mentality.  I think the NU-BU final goes into overtime, and Chris Connolly wins it for BU with a quick shot to the blocker side of Thiessen.