For the first time in who knows how long, certainly since Tara Watchorn’s regime took over on Comm. Ave., there is a weight of expectation this season for the Boston University women’s hockey team. It’s one of the most intangible challenges facing these Terriers. Their head coach implied on Tuesday her players haven’t even talked with her about it much. But it’s there, because of course it is — the pressure to pick up where they left off, to keep the program’s momentum moving, it all comes with the territory of defending a Hockey East title.
And no one at Walter Brown Arena has dealt with that before.
“I haven’t fully gotten verbal confirmation from the group on that,” Watchorn said Tuesday in her midweek media call, when asked if her team is under a weight of expectation this season. “But obviously, I think so.”
And it is not, Watchorn added, because of what BU won last season. The real source of pressure, the real thing these Terriers are inclined to compare themselves to, is how BU won last season. That team created about as impressive a culture as you’ll find in college athletics, one that was almost entirely player-driven and constantly praised for its professionalism, curiosity, competitiveness and plenty more Watchorn buzzwords we don’t have time to print.
That’s what this group is trying to live up to.
“And that’s good and a tough thing,” Watchorn said.
It’s all worth bringing up this week, as BU prepares for a home-and-home series with arch-rival Boston College on Thursday and Friday night. BC’s Conte Forum was the site of the 2024-25 team’s masterpiece, when, last November, BU played about as good a hockey game as a team can play, holding the high-flying Eagles to just nine shots on goal in a statement 3-1 victory. It was everything that made those Terriers as good as they were, coming together for what former coach Brian Durocher later called arguably the program’s best performance in five years.
Never say never, of course, but there seems to be little danger of that happening to the Eagles again. BU enters the series with BC at 2-8, and perhaps the biggest lesson from those first 10 games is how far away these Terriers are from those Terriers. Unfair as they may be, the comparisons between this team and last are inevitable, and they certainly don’t make Watchorn’s current group look great.
BU’s head coach said last week, when the Terriers were 1-7 heading into a weekend series at Maine, that she didn’t want to lower the bar for this group. The expectations for BU’s practice habits and off-ice environment remain the same. The on-ice identity the Terriers are striving for is the same, too — Watchorn said again Tuesday that BU is still looking to control the pace of games and sustain possession in the offensive zone, which it did so well last year, no example more obvious than the win at Conte. We don’t know what’s happening behind closed doors, but if the on-ice play is any indication, these Terriers haven’t reached that standard. Not yet.
Yet therein lies a paradox for BU. Watchorn has also made an effort this season to distance her current group from the one that came before it. She’s said it’s not realistic to expect this team to pick up where last season’s team left off; she instead wants to meet the 2025-26 team where they are. Sure, the standard BU is striving for might remain where the 2024-25 group left it. The timeline for reaching it, however, is different. And that’s a delicate line to walk — Watchorn wants her players to have high expectations while avoiding the all-consuming pressure to live up to them right away.
That aligns with the folksy and wholesome image Watchorn has given of how BU spent this past Friday night in Maine. The Terriers had just hit a low point of a season full of them, a 3-1 loss to the mediocre Black Bears in which BU fell to 1-8 with its third defeat in a row. You would think, given that context, that BU would operate with quite a bit of urgency heading into Saturday’s series finale. It’d be time for brutal honesty and collective acknowledgement that the Terriers had to start turning this thing around.
Per Watchorn, there wasn’t any of that at all.
“I think, funny enough, a little bit of the opposite,” she said. “That’s one of the benefits of being on the road. We all just needed to take a deep breath, have fun, enjoy each other’s company, and take the pressure off and just go out and play.”
BU still didn’t play well on Saturday — it was outshot 28-21, again blanked on the power play (it’s now 1 of 38 on the advantage this season) and again fell behind by a goal in the first period. But the Terriers did win, courtesy of excellent play from three of their best players, and Watchorn was able to find glimmers of hope in BU’s play, especially in the second half of the game. Her team was better in the defensive zone, more effective on the forecheck and finally able to generate at least some sustained zone time and momentum. Baby steps, of course, but that’s life for a team with two wins in its first 10 games.
“I was proud of the group and their willingness to look inwards and have conversations, and not just retreat to have those ‘sidebar’ conversations, if that makes any sense,” Watchorn said postgame on Saturday. “They stayed united as a group and dove in and were curious about how we can be better. And I think if all of us are constantly doing that after every game, win or lose, we’re going to be in a better spot.”
Look. BU is not about to hold BC to nine shots at Conte Forum on Thursday. That feels safe to assume. Watchorn said the Eagles, despite also rostering a young, different team, still present the same challenges to BU as they did last year with their 200-foot speed and ability on the rush. The Terriers, in all likelihood, won’t handle that as well as they did 12 months ago. They’d like to be able to eventually — conveniently enough, BU’s final game of the regular season is at Conte Forum in February — but they aren’t there yet.
And, like it or not, they aren’t in a rush.
“Just continuing to hold the standard and enjoying and celebrating the little things every day and every week. With every group, you’re gonna keep growing every week, and just making sure we’re taking pride in learning those lessons,” Watchorn said. “Obviously the win column doesn’t necessarily show it, but we enjoy each other’s company…and I have no doubt that it’s going to come for this group with time, and it’s just chipping away every day.”
