“Unbelievable.” “When is this going to end?” “Pathetic.” “Embarrassing.” “This team is garbage.” “This is not BU hockey.”
These are just some of the comments concerning the Boston University men’s hockey team I have heard over the past three months — from the radio guys, current students and fans sitting around me in Agganis Arena. With a .500 record in Hockey East and 7-11-4 record overall, these assessments aren’t far off.
Over the course of the last 10 seasons, the men masquerading on the ice claiming to be the BU hockey team have been anything but. I’m sure you’ve heard it all before: No Frozen Fours, few appearances beyond the first round of the NCAA Tournament, just two regular season Hockey East crowns and one tournament title and very few NHL success stories. In other words, not much — except for a whole lot of losses: 136 to be exact, with many more to come if this season keeps up.
From 1969-1979, the Terriers had 68 losses. That decade of hockey — which many consider to be the defining time of BU hockey — represents what the fans of the program have come to expect and demand out of their Terriers. What we are seeing now is a team losing twice as often as it used to, and this is taking into account a 1972-73 season coached by Leon Abbott — who was replaced by Jack Parker — in which the team had 17 losses. Take half those losses away, and we’re looking at a team that lost less than 60 games over nine seasons and won three national championships, four regular season conference titles and five tournament championships. More astoundingly, BU made the Frozen Four seven times.
The Terriers lost 55 games from 1991-1998, a period which featured a national championship, five regular season Hockey East titles and three conference tournaments, while making the NCAA Tournament each year and advancing to the Frozen Four in five of those seven years. These are just a few examples of what this program is supposed to be — what Parker helped build.
Unfortunately, this history lesson serves no other purpose than to illustrate the momentous failure of the program over the course of the last decade.
Some might say, “But what about 2005-06?” Yes, that was a great team. It won a Hockey East regular season and tournament championship and earned a No. 1 national ranking going into the NCAA Tournament, where BU met its untimely demise at the hands of Newton University. But the standard for the BU hockey program isn’t to be good one year out of every 10; it’s being a national title contender each and every season. The only thing that should keep BU out of the Frozen Four is global warming.
Unfortunately, what seems to be keeping BU from living up to its No. 3 ranking in all-time wins and winning percentage is the man who helped get them there in the first place: Parker. The Terriers continue to bring in some of the best recruits in the country each season — high-powered, goal-scoring forwards, big, strong, solid defensemen and extremely talented goalies, only to see consistently disappointing results.
There is a complete lack of development by the players upon their arrival at BU, and in some cases, players have left worse than when they came in. Over the past 10 years, there have been far too many occurrences where a player isn’t giving his best on the ice. How many times has Parker had to bench a player to give him a wakeup call? How many losses have there been where Parker is quoted as saying he is disappointed in his team’s effort? It seems to have reached the bottom of the barrel this season, as Parker can’t even get his captain, two other senior leaders and a junior to follow his rules. There is nothing more embarrassing to a hockey program than to have its captain get suspended for breaking the rules — or to see a talented team consistently fail to give it their all.
When is it going to stop? That’s a great question, and the answer may be when Parker steps down. No one knows what it takes to coach a good hockey team more than Parker, but the results speak for themselves. His products these days are not what they once were, and if there isn’t a change soon, the Terrier faithful may have had enough of the man they love so dearly. The one thing we love more than Parker is winning, and there has been precious little of it recently. Sure, he is on his way to 800 career victories, but in a world of “What have you done for me lately?” Parker hasn’t done much.
Of course, the Terrier faithful could be overreacting. After all, the program went through a similar decade-long stretch of futility in the ’80s, and Parker came out of that looking like a god (deservedly so) when the Terriers were downright filthy in the ’90s. There’s no reason not to think the next Frozen Four might be right around the corner. The ultimate question is: How long are we willing to wait? We’ve gone 10 years. Will we have to wait another 10? If the program doesn’t return to prominence very, very soon, I fear it may be too late.
The team needs to win pretty much every game remaining, but they’ve done it before and with the ridiculous talent on this team, there’s no reason it can’t happen again.
The boys already have the talent. All it takes from there is wearing the BU hockey sweater with pride and literally giving it everything you’ve got for a full 60 minutes. If you won’t do it for us, and you won’t do it for Parker, at least do it for Pete MacArthur. No one wants to be the guy who guarantees a national championship and fails to deliver.
Chris Pasquale, a 2007 graduate from BU, is former columnist for The Daily Free Press. He can be reached at [email protected].
