Brady’s View from the Press Box: January 2020

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It’s been more than a month since the last edition of Brady’s View from the Press Box, and in this column, I will share my takes on the first four games of the second half. As usual, all opinions are my own.

1 Observation

The “real” season has begun

Perhaps I’m taking a page out of the Patriots’ playbook when I say we are entering the “real” part of the season, the same way that Bill Belichick refers to games after Thanksgiving. The first half may have been important record-wise and in terms of development, but the second half is where the real results begin. With the season’s first BU-BC bout behind us and the Beanpot just a couple weeks away, we have officially entered the season-defining part of the year. Buckle up.

3 Takeaways

Not so easy in ECAC

Kicking off the new year with non-conference matchups against Brown University and Dartmouth College, the Terriers didn’t exactly come flying out of gates in 2020. Sitting third from the bottom of the ECAC, the Brown Bears gave BU a scare with two early goals before the Terriers eventually drew even and won 3-2 in overtime. Three days later, BU coughed up a three-goal lead to fall 5-4 to the Big Green, who were listed below BU in the PairWise rankings ahead of the game. Instead of gaining momentum before diving into Hockey East competition, BU’s venture into the ECAC only revived certain weaknesses that troubled BU in the first half.

New additions start strong

While other Terriers had some rust to shake off after the winter break, midseason acquisitions Wilmer Skoog and Ashton Abel looked right up to speed in the first handful of college hockey games. Jumping straight into BU’s top six, Skoog buried the aforementioned game-winner against Brown and scored a candidate for Goal of the Season by pulling off the increasingly-popular “lacrosse-style” goal against the Big Green. In net, Abel stopped BU’s bleeding at Dartmouth and shut the door in his first 60 minutes at Merrimack the next week, making a case for at least a split of starting job. Four games in, these new Terriers look like just the reinforcements BU was hoping for going into the second semester.

Playing to the competition

The idea that the 2019-20 Terriers play up or down to the level of the competition has been mentioned a lot in the opening weeks of 2020, and for good reason. As I wrote about a few paragraphs ago, BU labored to get by Brown and had to employ the same grinding-it-out style against Merrimack, whose record is marginally better than that of the Bears. At the same time, though, BU stuck with No. 5 Boston College all the way until a bad bounce sank the Terriers late. This team has made a habit of performing well against superior teams and poorly against inferior teams, and I can only imagine that this inconsistency infuriates the coaching staff even more than it does the fanbase.

3 Questions

What can BU get against Lowell?

While sometimes overshadowed by the larger state school to the west, UMass Lowell is the 12th-ranked team in the nation and the current four-seed in Hockey East. The Terriers jumped ahead of UML 3-0 back in October before a Riverhawk comeback forced a 3-3 tie, and this time around, UMass Lowell projects to be the favorite. The Riverhawks have proven to be a tough out all season, so BU will need to be at their best on both nights if they want to take three or four points away from this weekend series.

Who will emerge in goal?

It’s usually around this time of year that teams who split time between goaltenders find one keeper they trust to come through in the biggest games. BU’s situation is unique in that the Terriers didn’t have much of a goaltending battle until Abel’s arrival less than a month ago. The veteran of the goaltending corps Sam Tucker got the nod against BC, but it will be interesting to see who goes for BU this weekend and if either netminder can win (or lose) the job as BU moves forward into a critical stretch.

Can Curry stay hot?

After starting 2020 relatively quiet by his standards, Patrick Curry emerged against BC with two goals, both of which brought BU back from a goal down at the time. Curry has bounced around the BU depth chart recently, flipping between the first and second lines and shifting between the left and right wings. The key for getting the most out of the captain will be to find a spot for him with fellow forwards who can get him the puck in the right spots as they did last Saturday. We’ll see if the Terriers can do that this weekend.

BU will host UMass Lowell on Friday night before the series shift to Lowell on Saturday.