In college hockey, toughness trumps talent when talent fails to play tough. A nightmarish weekend taught the No. 1 Boston University men’s hockey team that lesson the hard way.
The Terriers played like a deer in the headlights Friday night against the pounding forecheck of the University of New Hampshire, a perennial Hockey East bottom-feeder that hadn’t defeated BU since 2015. Somehow, the team looked even worse the following night in an 8-2 loss to the U.S. Under-18 team in front of 4,800 fans at Agganis Arena, albeit in an exhibition game.
Against UNH, the issues had little to do with the young talent’s offensive production. If anything, the offensive firepower of freshmen Macklin Celebrini and Tom Willander kept BU competitive in a game that could have been a blowout. Those two, along with Aiden Celebrini, have combined for eight of BU’s 20 points through two games.
Instead, lackadaisical defensive play has been at the heart of the disappointing start.
With Friday’s game against UNH tied at three early in the second period, junior defenseman Ty Gallagher found himself under pressure behind the BU net. Gallagher had a teammate, Cade Webber, open to his left. Instead, Gallagher floated the puck to the near-side boards, where UNH forward Robert Cronin stood all alone. Cronin deked Gallagher and flicked a backhand pass to a cutting Morgan Winters, who rifled the puck past BU netminder Mathieu Caron to earn the Wildcats a 4-3 advantage. It was an uncharacteristic mistake from Gallagher, one of BU’s most experienced defensemen, but against UNH, even the Terriers’ most reliable skaters struggled.
Less than five minutes later, the turnover bug struck again. On the power play, Lane Hutson dropped a pass for a trailing Macklin Celebrini as the Terriers carried the puck through the neutral zone. Celebrini made the wrong read, opting for a cross-ice pass to Devin Kaplan through traffic. Winters stepped through the passing lane and found himself all alone on a breakaway, where he scored to double the UNH advantage. It was another baffling mishap for a team that looked shell-shocked by an aggressive forecheck. Celebrini, at least, made up for the lapse by scoring twice in the contest, but his mistake followed a trend that lasted all night long.
“We were giving the puck to them a lot,” Pandolfo said. “I don’t know the reason behind that.”
The turnovers have come from up and down the lineup. But the Terriers’ veteran core, especially, has struggled.
Of BU’s leadership group — Case McCarthy, Luke Tuch, Sam Stevens, Lane Hutson and Cade Webber — only Tuch (+1) has earned a positive plus-minus. The team’s leaders in plus-minus include three freshmen, both Celebrinis and Willander, and a sophomore, Jeremy Wilmer — all of whom are +2.
“We have a plan with our breakouts, and for whatever reason we’re not sticking to that plan,” Pandolfo said after the UNH game. “And it’s veteran guys that know what we’re supposed to do.”
High draft picks and top-ranked prospects like Macklin Celebrini and Willander will sell tickets, draw preseason hype and win BU plenty of games.
But just having those players on the roster doesn’t mean the Terriers can line up against New Hampshire, or Bentley, or even the U.S. U-18 team, and crush opponents on talent alone. BU’s upperclassmen need to step up, too. Last Saturday’s scare at Bentley should have served as fair warning. Evidently, the message was not received.
Last season’s national champions, Quinnipiac, had no player with the projected NHL upside of Macklin Celebrini, or Lane Hutson, or Willander. Of the Bobcats’ five point leaders, only one was selected in the NHL Draft: Sam Lipkin, a seventh-round pick.
For contrast, the BU lineup against New Hampshire included 13 NHL selections. All seven of the defensemen the Terriers played in the game were NHL Draft picks. Between the matchups against Bentley, UNH, and the U.S. U-18 team, BU has conceded 16 goals. Just one of those tallies was scored by an NHL draftee: UNH defenseman Luke Reid (166th overall to Nashville).
BU has the full season left to fix the ship, but a change in mentality is necessary — especially from BU’s veteran stalwarts.
No Hockey East game will be an easy one this year, and New Hampshire gleefully proved that to the college hockey world Friday night.
Something about the seniors and 5th years at BU lately (excluding Matt Brown)…it’s like they’ve realized they’re not likely to sign a contract anymore so they have the mindset of “well might as well keep playing hockey” so continuing to put on a Terrier jersey is plan B or some underwhelming outcome for their original career potential. IDK..just a hypothesis. But we have witnessed a number of players move into the leadership group while simultaneously moving down the depth chart. This terrible opening frame seems to support this trend.
Mitch, I couldn’t have written it better myself. Spot on.
We really miss Fensore.