First Time for Everything

And for the first time in several years, the Boston College hockey team is out of Pairwise contention. They are still technically ranked (#22) but short of a miracle (read winning the Hockey East championship) the Eagles will be sitting at home come March 27-28 and will neither be staying close to home (Manchester) or getting shipped out west for any tourney.

Coming into this season, the Eagles will full of hope. Pre-season number one, the return of Hobey Baker-hopeful Brock Bradford, defending national champions with much of the same cast. Sure they had lost Gerbe but getting Bradford back along with a talented group of young freshmen was supposed to make up for that. Losing Brennan would hurt but gaining 2nd round draft pick Tommy Cross and Massachusetts player of year Edwin Shea was supposed to make up for that. But the funny part is that it didn't.

Without Gerbe, the offense has sputtered. There have been so many line combinations I don't even know who is on the ice half the time. Bradford has been good but with no stellar talent around him he has not had the opportunity to show his skill. There is no player on the team who is a threat to score every time they step on the ice. From Marty Reasoner to Brian Gionta to Patrick Eaves to Brian Boyle to Nathan Gerbe (not to mention some complements like Ben Eaves, Tony Voce, Chuck Kobasew, and Krys Kolanos), there has always been that guy that other teams feared. Not now. Bradford seems unable to create his own plays. Joe Whitney has taken a significant step backward and Ben Smith has been invisible. Benn Ferriero has skill buy until recently was invisible as well (though he had at least three golden opportunities Saturday night that just did not go his way. The explosiveness of years past is sorely missing this year and it means that no one is playing on their heels against BC. No one is afraid of their offense.

Without Brennan, the defense if lacking direction. I think some of this lays in the constant swapping of defensemen all year long. These are just kids and as such, when they get sat down for a game or two, when they get back in there they are going to play a little tight afraid that the slightest mistake is going to get them yanked out of the lineup. I have mentioned before in this space that Nick Petrecki's over-aggressive style was getting the team into trouble and Saturday night was no exception. Tied 1-1 late in the first, Petrecki levels Danny Dries at center ice but it allows Bobby Butler and Phil DeSimone to break in 2-on-1 with Sneep back and DeSimone makes a fabulous play to wait out John Muse and score to take a 2-1 UNH lead with only 4 seconds left in the period. A major turning point in that game. I appreciate the energy level and the need to be physical but when playing UNH you need to be aware that they are always thinking about the odd man rush. That is their bread and butter. Trying to lay out a guy when it's 3-on-2 late in the period and leaving a clearly struggling Carl Sneep all alone at the end of the period in a tie game was simply poor decision making on Petrecki's part. And not the first time. Nick Petrecki makes this team a better team when he is on the ice; but I will not be upset should he leave for the NHL after the season.

I don't mean to heap the problems on only a couple players. The entire team has just been a disaster this year. The power play doesn't shoot (and gets victimized having forwards playing the point), all the defensemen have had serious turnover issues, the effort has been just play lacking some nights (Feb 13th v. UMass-Lowell comes to mind). Unless something changes starting Friday against Providence, BC needs to start thinking about next year because in a couple weeks, that's all they'll have left.