BOSTON — Dejected. Lost. Soulless. That’s how head coach Jay Pandolfo looked Friday night after the Boston University men’s hockey team defeated Merrimack College, 6-3, at Agganis Arena.
The No. 13 Terriers (6-5-1, 3-2-1 Hockey East) had to claw their way back in the third period to snap a three-game home skid against the Warriors (3-7-1, 2-4-1 HE).
Pandolfo wasn’t pleased with his team — at all.
“Don’t play the right way, do everything you can to try to lose. That’s what it looked like to me,” he said. “I’m searching for answers. Obviously haven’t come up with any yet, because we’ve seen this pretty much every Friday night we’ve played.
Unfortunately, for BU, this isn’t a new problem. Worse, there seems to be no solution, or at least not one within reach.
After nearly every game thus far this season, Pandolfo has either mentioned that the Terriers weren’t ready to play from puck drop, that his team was sloppy, or, as the season has progressed, that he is looking for answers.
“We got a little sloppy at times, but we found a way to finish the job,” he said after BU’s season opening win over Holy Cross on Oct. 5. “I thought in the first period, we didn’t put enough pucks to the net.”
In Oct. 12’s win over Union, Pandolfo said that senior Matheiu Caron was the only player ready to play in the first period after the Terriers gave up 17 shots on goal in the opening frame. “That’s unacceptable from our group,” he said.
“We’re turning pucks over. We’re giving them chances that they should not get if you’re playing the right way, and it’s something we have to get better at,” Pandolfo said of the second game of the season.
He started taking the blame after Oct. 18’s win over UConn — another game in which the Terriers came out of the gates sluggish.
“I don’t know why we’re making it so hard on ourselves,” then “I have to do a better job of getting our guys to buy in, because right now they’re not,” then “I’m not sure, I wish I had the answer. I don’t know what the reason is.”
Pandolfo finally established that slow starts were a “common theme” after Oct. 25’s loss against North Dakota — a game in which BU got outbattled, outcompeted, you name it, from start to finish.
At a certain point, the coaching staff can only take so much of the blame. This team has talent, but after an inspiring performance against North Dakota on Oct. 26, the Terriers fell right back into their bad habits.
“We’re playing losing hockey,” Pandolfo said after Nov. 1’s loss to Michigan. “We got everything we deserved in that game, we deserved to lose, and that’s unacceptable.”
Again, Pandolfo took the blame.
“I’ll take the responsibility, because I’m clearly not doing a good enough job with our group, having them ready to play, having them ready to do things the right way.”
While BU put up a better effort in Nov. 2’s loss to Michigan, according to Pandolfo, the following weekend against UMass Lowell was much the same.
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves because no one else will,” he said after Nov. 8’s loss to the River Hawks. “We’ve got to find a way to battle from the second the puck drops until the final buzzer goes off, and we still haven’t seen that from this group.”
He vocalized that the staff was — still — searching for answers. “We just really haven’t found any consistency in any of our games.”
The following week against Maine, Pandolfo said he was lost and didn’t have an answer for why these struggles have persisted.
But what he did say was that it falls on him again.
“I gotta find a way to get them ready and prepared on Friday nights, and I’m certainly not doing a good enough job.”
Fast forward to Friday’s win against the Warriors; the Terriers, led by their head coach, remain frustrated and lost.
“It’s just disappointing,” Pandolfo said Friday. “Our effort more than anything, and that’s the difficult thing to watch.”
It’s the same story, again, again, and again for the Terriers. Now 12 games into the season, this team has some serious soul searching to do. But how much looking in the mirror can one team do?
Recent Comments