The New England Hockey Journal assesses the performance of the five freshmen skating regularly in the Terrier lineup. Wich include former Vernon Vipers forward Sahir Gill & Vipers defenceman, Garrett Noonan. Gill played two season's in Vernon (2008-2010) while Noonan played just one season in Vernon (2009-10)
This was in the New England Hockey Journal:
January 24, 2011
From NEHJ: Future is now for BU's fab frosh
by Andrew Merritt
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the January 2011 issue of New England Hockey Journal.
There aren’t many superlatives left in Jack Parker’s illustrious coaching career. Over his 37-plus years behind the Boston University bench, he’s become one of the most successful coaches in college hockey history, and he’s had ample time to collect the best, worst, most talented, least talented, quickest, slowest and just about every other -est teams on his long resume.
So when he mentions that this season’s edition of the BU Terriers is the youngest team he’s ever coached, even in his understated manner, it’s hard not to be a little taken aback.
With 17 freshmen and sophomores out of 26 players, and an average age at the start of the season of just a shade over 20 years old, the Terriers are indeed a very young bunch. And at the very center of that group is a cadre of freshmen who have shown through the first three months of the season that for BU, the future is now.
Up front, Charlie Coyle (Weymouth, Mass.), Sahir Gill and Matt Nieto entered the winter break having played all 17 of BU’s games. Gill had 4-12-16 totals at the break, putting him atop the Hockey East freshman scorers’ list. Coyle was right behind him, and although Nieto hasn’t produced points like his offensive classmates, he’s seen regular time on BU’s top line with Coyle and sophomore Alex Chiasson.
On defense, Garrett Noonan (Norfolk, Mass.) and Adam Clendening have been paired up for most of the season, and while an all-freshman defensive pair might have most coaches wadding their line charts into fine pulp on the bench, Parker (Somerville, Mass.) has been able to trust the two 18-year-olds all season long. In fact, all five of the freshmen who’ve seen regular ice time have shown themselves to be more than ready for prime time.
“They were thrown in the fire pretty quickly,” Parker said. “We’ve had almost a complete turnaround from our team that won the national championship two years ago. Between graduation and defections, guys signing early, it’s almost a whole new everything, and the returning guys weren’t playing those roles of power play and penalty killer, they were playing on the third and fourth lines.
“The guys we brought in, we brought in to be the power-play guys and the key guys on the first two lines. That’s why they’re getting the ice time they’re getting.”
So it was part of the plan that the freshmen would factor into whatever the Terriers did this season. But at the midway point, BU just happens to be one of the better teams in the nation, having entered the Christmas break ranked 11th in the country and third in Hockey East. So those freshmen whom Parker had to gamble on this year have already paid dividends.
Coyle grew up watching BU hockey and hoping to emulate his cousin, former NHL and BU star Tony Amonte (Hingham, Mass.). His abilities were an obvious giveaway that he was ready for the big time, but he’s also had a certain “it” factor, a sense for the game that few possess even as grizzled seniors, let alone as fresh-faced rookies.
“I don’t think there’s any question we thought he would step in and be a top-two line center for us, play power play, get as much ice time as anybody else on the team,” Parker said. “We thought that was what his role would be when we got him, and he hasn’t disappointed; he’s even more durable and gets more ice time than we (expected).
“I wouldn’t say he’s overachieved; he’s had a great first half to his freshman year, and we thought he would.”
“I’ve kind of grown up wanting to come here, worked my whole life to get here,” Coyle says. “I think we adjusted well to it, and we’ve been doing our fair share on ice and off the ice.”
One of the Terriers’ two captains says the freshmen were embraced early by a team that knew it needed them.
“The one thing we didn’t want them to do is feel intimidated or pressure to do or act a certain way, because we knew they were going to be such a big part of this team,” said Chris Connolly, a junior who learned by watching the captains his freshman year — Matt Gilroy, Brian Strait (Waltham, Mass.) and John McCarthy (Andover, Mass.). “We wanted them to feel comfortable, speak up, work hard to do everything the upperclassmen did, because we count on them as much as the upperclassmen this year.”
Gill comes from Terrace, British Columbia, a river city buried high in British Columbia that’s so small he’ll play in front of more people at TD Garden in the Beanpot in February. Yet he’s got a dose of the familiar in one of his classmates, Norfolk, Mass., native Noonan, who played in juniors with Gill for the Vernon Vipers of the British Columbia Hockey League last season.
Their skill sets are the reasons they’re good hockey players, but it’s not unreasonable to believe their familiarity with each other is part of the reason they’ve adapted to life at BU so well.
“Garrett and his family have been great; they’ve been really good to me,” said Gill, who had his Thanksgiving dinner with the Noonans. “It’s kind of nice for my mom to know that someone’s looking after me here.”
Noonan wasn’t originally part of the Terriers’ plans. While Gill was drawing the program’s attention early on, Parker and his staff didn’t start to look at Noonan until last January, when it became clear that the Colorado Avalanche were going to be able to entice not just either Kevin Shattenkirk or Colby Cohen to leave school early, but both defensemen. Suddenly, BU needed an impact blueliner, and Noonan was their man.
“I think when you choose BU, you come here to win,” Noonan said. “There’s a standard here, and that’s to win, and all of us have done that in the past.”
Noonan’s blue line partner says the formula for the freshmen’s success has been simple.
“You take care of your body off the ice, work out, stretch after practice and before practice, eat well and get to bed at a reasonable hour every night,” Clendening said. “Just the normal stuff a hockey player does.”
But normal isn’t really a word that fits the situation in which the BU rookies find themselves. Still, they’ve acclimated about as smoothly as one could hope, and it helps that there’s a pretty talented roster around them.
“You’re playing with good players,” Nieto says. “They make you better, you help them look better, so it’s been a good adjustment.”
As a result, the youngest team Parker has ever coached might have its eye on a few other superlatives, too.
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