The Terriers will have to edge New Hampshire and others to get to No. 1. Phoebe SextonIt took all David Van der Gulik had to make it onto the ice on March 25. That probably explains why he hasn’t skated since.
It’s been a long summer for the Boston University men’s ice hockey team’s co-captain, who gutted out all 41 games last year despite a bevy of injuries that earned him a reputation as maybe the toughest Terrier in a sport filled with one-toothed freaks of nature.
Since last playing in a 4-0 loss to North Dakota in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Van der Gulik hasn’t skated, let alone approached the game of hockey, thanks to a weird, chronic injury that may force the senior to miss a good chunk of – if not the whole – 2005-06 season.
The injury, from its vague cause to its unknown future, was just one of many surprises at Hockey East Media Day, held Thursday at the TD Banknorth Garden. With the Eaves-less Boston College picked by the league’s coaches to finish first in the conference, the University of New Hampshire and its four first-place votes chosen to place second and BU slated to end up fifth, the news of Van der Gulik’s inflamed pubic bone prompted BU coach Jack Parker to say that the “worst-case scenario” puts the Terriers’ leading scorer last year out until January.
Van der Gulik sounded less optimistic.
“Really, there’s no expectations. I just hope to play this year sometime,” said Van der Gulik, who added he’s been suffering from osteitis pubis since January but couldn’t point to the moment he was injured.
“I haven’t been on the ice since the end of last season, and I’ve been doing rehab since that last game, too.
“Some days I feel better than others, and some days I feel bad again,” he added later. “I hope to start light skating eventually and progress. It’s such a weird injury. It’s not like a broken arm where I could be like, ‘four weeks.’”
With the depth BU has up front, “four weeks” wouldn’t be a problem. Pete MacArthur, John Laliberte and Brad Zancanaro (a combined 80 points a year ago) can certainly produce. And Boomer Ewing, Kenny Roche and a talented freshman class that includes Brandon Yip (69 points in 50 games last season with the Coquitlam Express of the British Columbia Hockey League) are certainly expected to make noise. But four months?
“Van der Gulik has to get back and healthy,” Parker said. “He’s arguably our best player, certainly offensively.”
Boston College will have to come up with some offense of its own after losing four of its top five scorers from last season to graduation or defection. Sophomore goalie Cory Schneider may be the lone reason the Eagles – the three-time defending regular-season Hockey East champs – grabbed the top spot in the coaches’ poll.
Yet, many expected New Hampshire to be in that position, and even BC coach Jerry York seemed surprised Thursday. UNH returns last year’s solid goalie tandem of Kevin Regan and Jeff Pietrasiak, along with a seemingly endless supply of offense.
“I picked them to be No. 1 and 2, either way,” Parker said of BC and UNH. “Six or seven teams can be the top four teams. Anybody in those six can win the league.”
The other four Parker referred to include the University of Maine and UMass-Lowell, who tied for third, BU and conference newcomer the University of Vermont, who Parker said “is not going to be happy just getting their feet wet in our league.
“They’re going to be a very good team, and they could be vying for home-ice advantage,” Parker said. “I don’t think people are giving them the credit they deserve right now.”
After UMass-Amherst at No. 7, the three teams rounding out the poll (No. 8 Providence College, No. 9 Northeastern University and No. 10 Merrimack College) all have new coaches at the helm this season. But as BU’s other co-captain Zancanaro said, that’s not necessarily how they’ll finish.
“If you look at all those polls in the past, no one finishes in these spots,” he said. “Before our sophomore year, we were picked to finish first and we ended up finishing eighth. These don’t really mean anything until you get out there and really play.”
