Brady’s View from the Press Box: Feb. 27 – March 4

BU fell to Boston College 4-1 last Saturday in the only game of the weekend, now moving on to play a massive series against Northeastern to conclude the regular season. Here’s my weekly analysis of BU hockey – all opinions are my own.

One Observation

Seeing “the BU Four” back was special

This past Saturday, all four former Terriers who participated in the “Miracle On Ice” were back at BU, apparently for the first time together since their return from Lake Placid, and Agganis Arena unveiled a new banner in their honor. This ceremony was really cool to me as a young hockey fan, so I can only imagine how people who witnessed the Miracle felt about the ceremony.

Three Takeaways

BU and BC just aren’t equal this year

The season series may have been split going into Saturday’s game, but to me, there was no doubt about who was the better team in the third edition of the Battle of Comm. Ave. Between their electric offense, disciplined defense and lock-down goaltending, the Eagles are about as well-rounded a team as there is anywhere in the country. It’s tough to admit, but they’re on a different level than BU this season.

Again, Curry is trying to carry this team

I said this last week, and it only became more accurate on Saturday. From my point of view, it sure looks like Patrick Curry is doing everything he can to get the Terriers going, and he isn’t getting a ton of help. His point streak is up to five games now, and you could see how much he was trying to get his team going after scoring his team-leading 18th goal of the season on Saturday. The captain is finishing strong – can BU?

Despite slide, BU is still in the mix

Even just two weeks ago, BU was still challenging for a Hockey East regular-season title. Three straight losses have squashed any hopes of the Terriers finishing atop the conference or even in the top two, but this difficult stretch hasn’t derailed their season – not by a long shot. BU will still make the playoffs barring a major catastrophe, and there’s still an opportunity to finish in the top half of the playoff picture.

Three Questions

Can BU capitalize on slumping Huskies?

BU may be on its longest losing streak of the season (three games), but so is Northeastern, entering this weekend’s regular season-ending series off of four straight defeats. The Huskies were most recently swept by UVM, who had previously been on the longest winless streak in Hockey East history. NU will be hungry to end the skid, but so will the Terriers, so we’ll see which team can start trending upwards this weekend.

Can BU get some help around the league?

Here are the ideal results around the league to help BU this weekend: BC beats UNH at least once and Providence beats Maine. If the Terriers get two wins out of their two games, which they will need to if they want to host a quarterfinal series, the result of UMass Lowell and UConn won’t matter because BU would have more points than UConn and hold the tiebreaker over UML. It’s a lot to ask, but it could happen.

How will the playoff picture end up?

Ah yes, the million-dollar question. There’s still so much potential for movement in the conference standings, and the only certainties are BC finishing on top, Merrimack going second-to-last, and Vermont ending at the bottom. Everyone else could still slide up or down, and one team will be the odd one out and miss the playoffs. There’s no telling how it will end up, but it will certainly be an exciting sprint to the finish.

BU will visit Northeastern at 7 p.m. on Friday before hosting the Huskies at 4 p.m. on Saturday.