New Season, New Expectations for New Era of BC Hockey

The Boston College hockey program skating out of its tunnel on Friday night will look remarkably similar to any other game in Conte Forum. An arena known for its home ice advantage will likely wash itself in maroon and gold for the players wearing white uniforms, and the video board and light show heralding their arrival will unquestionably lather the crowd for the upcoming battle against Quinnipiac. Tension - ever a part of any game - will mount, and the hope is that those opening shifts will bring both the Eagles and Bobcats back to earth in a way that creates 60 minutes of hard-fought drama.

It will look like any other hockey night at BC, but the Eagles aren't any other team. The players are different, but that first game against the Bobcats brings an optimism and anticipation that's unmatched in college hockey. For a new team, a new year is the start of something fresh, but for BC, Friday's first game of the season will unwrap and lift the lid on a team that's heading into a new era that many hope will provide the next step in the team's championship legacy.

"It's a challenge, especially without an exhibition game," said head coach Greg Brown. "You know that the first 10 minutes against Quinnipiac will be a real eye opener, [and] I'm sure for those guys, the best we can do is try to practice at game pace, have game intensity, and hopefully when they jump out there in real jerseys, they'll be comfortable with the pace that we've been at for the last month."

Friday's opener offers a very different perspective to a team that routinely produced eye-popping numbers during last year's run to the NCAA Tournament's Manchester Regional. The majority of the names from that roster were players who received the leadership mantle from the core that led BC to the national championship game, but the torch passed from Cutter Gauthier and Will Smith to Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault now finds itself bridging to James Hagens and Teddy Stiga after the majority of those professional-grade players departed for their rookie laps in the National Hockey League.

Yet the hope - and maybe even the expectation - is that the staggering level of overall talent within the Boston College program positions the Eagles to uniquely answer whatever questions are created by those departures. There is no way to replace a player like Leonard, just as there was no way to replace Gauthier, so the evolution within the BC program is more about figuring out how the next stage appears and not necessarily how it compares to the previous era.

"Everything's been very positive," said Brown. "Everyone understands what we lost from last year and the opportunities and responsibilities that they may have in new positions. So the energy, the captains, have been great, the older guys have been great in setting a tone for the level of play that we're going to need to be at. It has looked good, but again, you have to figure it out after a few games."

That message is no different from previous seasons. Last year, the team that faced questions about how it intended to move beyond its losses to the NHL split with Michigan State before beating Western Michigan, and sweeps over St. Cloud State and Maine essentially set the pace for the rest of the nation before November ever swung into full gear. Forged by fire, BC defeated an older team like American International before seeing some of its own future players in an exhibition against USA Hockey's National Team Development Program - two very different styles of play designed to challenge the Eagles into their new era.

Beneath the highlights or late game heroics, a defensive style emerged in front of Jacob Fowler, and BC prevented opposing teams from scoring a power play goal until the Christmas season swung into high gear. What looked similar to the previous season in its dramatic wins instead fomented something altogether different ahead of the second half of the year, and the season ended with the team allowing 20 less goals than 2023-2024 - a number that nearly slashed the 104 goals allowed during the 2022-2023 season by half.

"When you have a player like Jacob in the back, it's like a security blanket," admitted Brown, "[and] when you lose an All-American goalie, there will be some questions, but so far in our preseason, things have looked good."

Those numbers aren't connected to any one player, so the result can't cause BC to overreact to freshmen who are taking their first strides on college ice. For the large bulk of the class, the transition from the United States junior hockey circuit to the college game is going to change how they approach the game, but the first shifts for players like Luka Radivojevic or Kristian Kostadinski or even goalie Louka Cloutier are as much a part of the process as the sophomores or juniors or seniors.

"We'll figure it out as the first few weeks of the season unfold," said Brown. "We're trying to stay true to our identity. You know that with freshmen, you're always cautious and not trying to give them too much, but so far, they've looked very comfortable, at least in practice. It'll be a new experience when the lights go on, but so far, it's been very promising."

No. 6 Boston College hosts No. 13 Quinnipiac at 7 p.m. on Friday night from Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Television coverage is available through the ESPN Plus direct-to-consumer subscription service that's part of the network's family of Internet and mobile device apps.

New Season, New Expectations for New Era of BC Hockey

Players Mentioned

Louka Cloutier

Jacob Fowler

James Hagens

Kristian Kostadinski

Ryan Leonard

Gabe Perreault

Luka Radivojevic

Teddy Stiga

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