Comm. Ave conundrum
BU, BC in jeopardy of missing NCAAs
Singer Romeo Santos was booked for two nights this week at Agganis Arena, which forced the Boston University men’s hockey team to rock it old-school by practicing at Walter Brown Arena.
That’s where countless BU legends, from Shawn McEachern and Chris Drury to Mike Eruzione and Tony Amonte, made names for themselves before making bigger names for themselves.
But while this year’s Terriers have plenty of talented players who’ll go on to professional careers, they face a daunting task during the next two weekends: They likely must win the Hockey East tournament or face not advancing to the NCAA tourney. And if you think the Terriers’ longtime Beanpot rivals up Commonwealth Avenue are gloating about this, guess again. Boston College, too, faces the specter of waking up without an NCAA berth if the Eagles don’t capture the Hockey East tourney.
To put this in historical perspective, it has been exactly 30 years since neither Boston University nor Boston College appeared in the NCAA tournament.
Care to guess which Beanpot schools did make the tourney in 1988? The Northeastern Huskies made it. So did Harvard.
This year? Northeast- ern, which won the Beanpot last month, is ranked seventh nationally and likely is headed to the NCAAs, regardless of how it fares in the Hockey East tourney. Northeastern’s men’s basketball team came up short Tuesday night in the Colonial Athletic Association final, but it’s still been a good year to be a Huskies fan.
And an anxious, waitand-see year for fans of the BC and BU hockey programs. The Eagles, 18-13-3 and ranked No.18, begin a best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series against Merrimack tomorrow night at Conte Forum. The Terriers, 17-13-4 and ranked No. 20, open their quarterfinal against UConn tomorrow night at what by then will be a Romeo Santos-less Agganis Arena.
Part of the problem for BC and BU is they’re highpowered programs that traditionally land the best prospects. But the best prospects are more likely to use college hockey as a one-season finishing school before darting off to the National Hockey League. North Chelmsford’s Jack Eichel, to pick a name everyone knows, played the 2014-15 season at BU, became only the second freshman to win the Hobey Baker Award, and then it was off to the Buffalo Sabres for fame and fortune.
“It’s not just us, and it’s not just BC,” Terriers coach David Quinn said. “The landscape of college hockey has changed so much in the last 10 years with elite players leaving a lot earlier than they ever have.”
Last year’s Terriers were 24-12-3 and qualified for the NCAAs, posting a 4-3 double-overtime victory against North Dakota before being eliminated by Minnesota, 3-2, in overtime.
When it was done, the Terriers lost several underclassmen, notably Bruins bound rookie defenseman Charlie McAvoy.
Two years ago, Boston College rolled to a 28-8-5 season and advanced to the Frozen Four semifinal before losing to Quinnipiac at Tampa’s Amalie Arena.
“As we were flying home from Tampa, I was thinking to myself that we had so many good young players that we’re going to be pretty good for a couple of years or longer,” Eagles coach Jerry York said. “And then within a couple of weeks, we lost seven players.”
Five of the seven players — Alex Tuch, Zach Sanford, Steven Santini, Ian McCoshen and Miles Wood — have played in the NHL. Another, goaltender Thatcher Demko, has suited up for one Vancouver Canucks game to date but has not seen action.
Without those seven players last season, York’s Eagles were 21-15-4 and did not earn a spot in the NCAA tournament.
“I thought Jerry did the best coaching job of his career last year without those players,” Quinn said.
York does not plan to change the manner in which he recruits.
“You always want to recruit the very best players, and we will continue to do that,” he said. “But you also want to have guys who might not get drafted as high and who might stay with you for four years. But we’ve always sought out those players.
“We’re not the only schools who are going through this. It’s the same at Minnesota, at North Dakota, at Michigan.”
Both coaches offered various versions of “nobody’s crying for us.”
Are they feeling the wrath of fans and alums? Quinn says no.
“But then again,” he added, “I don’t check my email very often, or follow any blogs. I don’t want to go all Bill Belichick, but we’re focussed on Friday night.”