What Effect Will All These Injuries Have on Brown?

Brown had a promising start to the season, beating a Princeton team that has since ascended to fourth in the ECAC in this young season; losing tight contests at Harvard and Dartmouth, historically two places where Brown plays poorly; and earning two hard-faught draws against nationally-ranked St. Lawrence and its travel partner that always gives us fits, Clarkson. 

However, with a young roster, the Bears were expected by many (if not most) to struggle at times this season. That was before the roster was decimated by injuries. 

Already, we've lost promising freshman Nate Widman for the year, and sophomore Kyle Quick, who had looked greatly improved, for a long time, if not the whole season. Nick Lappin was out for a game or two, and was not at 100% this past weekend.

The Achilles' heel for Whittet's team these past three years has been a team-wide lack of depth. It is a great irony that in the year in which the stars have seemingly faded into the background and the strength of the team has become its depth, injuries are already decimating the roster. We could be down to just six natural defensemen for the whole season. 


With that in mind, we could see a Sean McMonagle situation, where a natural forward is converted to defense. We certainly have an abundance of forwards, and many aren't seeing a whole lot of playing time up top. You have to wonder if Whittet would try guys like Hourihan, Hathaway, Draper, Senecal, Goldberg, and Drolet on defense to bolster the bench. Of course, with the encouraging play by Taki Pantziris and Brandon Pfeil, we might not need a forward to drop back on defense, especially if no forward can provide an improvement over any current defenseman. 

There is still a glimmer of hope that Kyle Quick could return before year's end, but it doesn't seem likely. In that case, it is probably best not to expect him back, so as to plan accordingly for the worst. 

Currently, our best defensive pairings appear to be: 
Robertson-Wahl
Crowley-De Concilys
Pantziris-Pfeil





On an unrelated note, I see we have filled the third goaltender roster spot, which was vacated by Derrick Roy when he and his turd of a brother left for perennial Hockey East powerhouse Northeastern (ha!). 

Anyway, congratulations and welcome to junior Joseph Mello, who played for the Brown club team the past two years and I'm sure is thrilled to be playing Division 1 athletics. Though he probably won't have much of an impact, if any at all, it's reassuring to carry three goaltenders, should anything happen to DeFilippo or Borelli. Mello is a local kid from Pawtucket who won a state championship at St. Raphael's, so I'm sure this promotion means a lot to him. Welcome aboard!