It’s been four games since our last check in with the Boston College men’s hockey team, and the Eagles’ hot stretch to start the season has hit a bit of a bump in the road. The Eagles have gone 2-2-0 in their past four games, sandwiching wins against Providence and Northeastern between losses to UConn and Northeastern over the past few weeks. And while a lot of things have still been working for BC as they now sit at 9-3-0 on the season, there are a few areas where they badly need to see some improvement as the season goes on. Let’s take a look at some of what has stood out on both sides recently.
RYAN LEONARD IS ON A HEATER
It’s so easy to just use this space to constantly talk about how good BC’s stars look every night but come on, where else can we possibly start? Ryan Leonard has been flat out ridiculous recently, scoring eight goals over his past six games, including a late third period game winner against Maine and a late third period game tying goal against Providence to go along with his overtime winner. He’s already at five game winners on the season and it seems like every single time BC needs a big play, he is the one rising to the occasion.
Leonard is at 11 goals for the season so far, good enough to be tied for the most in the country with Sam Harris of Denver. That’s the exact same pace that Cutter Gauthier was on through 12 games last season, when he scored 38 goals to lead the nation and tied the Boston College single season scoring record. Obviously there’s still a long way to go, but if Leonard keeps playing the way that he has over the past month or so, that’s going to be something that’s worth keeping an eye on.
If he keeps shooting the puck like this, he might be shattering BC’s record by Christmas
Leonard makes it 3-0 in favor of the Eagles!
Watch on @ESPNPlus | https://t.co/0ozrsHen71 pic.twitter.com/1uw6KBXfse
— BC Men’s Hockey (@BC_MHockey) November 23, 2024
Poor goalie never had a chance
POWER PLAY STRUGGLES NOT GOING AWAY
As great as Leonard and some of the other big name Eagles have been at even strength this season, the team has had some real issues with getting the power play going. After flirting with the 30 percent mark for most of last season, this year’s BC team is only converting on about 13 percent of their power play chances, which has them in the bottom ten in the country.
On the one hand, there are some reasons that a drop off this season makes some sense. I mentioned this just before the season started, but last year’s power play really did run a lot of what they did through two players in Cutter Gauthier and Will Smith, and neither of them are playing at BC anymore. It was never going to be easy to replace two extremely talented players and it makes some sense that the power play is still trying to figure out how to make things work now that they’re gone.
But it shouldn’t be anywhere near this bad. Ryan Leonard had 13 power play goals last year, Gabe Perreault added another nine. They’ve combined for just two so far this year, both from Perreault. James Hagens, Eamon Powell, Oskar Jellvik, and Teddy Stiga, all players who get a lot of power play time, are all still looking for their first of the season on the man advantage. It just hasn’t been close to being good enough recently.
The good news is that BC is clearly good enough to win games even without a powerplay that’s working the way that we’re used to, and there’s enough talent on this roster that it should get better. The bad news? The struggles are already costing them games. The Eagles went 0-3 against Northeastern on Saturday night, including coming up empty on a five-minute major in the second period and being held without a shot on their final power play late in the third period with a chance to tie the game. Even if the team isn’t going to recreate the brilliance that we saw last year on the power play, that 13 percent number needs to come up as the season goes on, there’s too many talented offensive players for it to stay so low.
THIRD LINE BECOMING A CONCERN
The Eagles’ third line just hasn’t been producing at all recently and it’s getting to the point where it’s hard to ignore.
Greg Brown seems to have settled on his top two lines over the past few weeks, with Leonard, Perreault, and Hagens skating as the top line with Jellvik, Stiga, and Andre Gasseau on the second. And that feels pretty much right, at least to me. And both of those lines have been playing well and scoring enough to make you think that they should stick with those combinations going forward.
The third line though, that’s been a problem. Brown has been rolling with a third line of Will Vote, Dean Letourneau, and Jake Sondreal, two true freshmen and a sophomore in Vote. And without trying to seem too harsh, they just haven’t given the team much of anything, especially recently. Vote had himself a great start to the season, scoring four goals in the first five games, but he doesn’t have a point in the seven games since he last scored. Letourneau and Sondreal have struggled as well, with just three total assists between them on the season.
That’s not to say that the line has been entirely without its chances, but they’ve got to start getting on the board more than they have been. Letourneau has two assists in 11 games, Sondreal has just one in the same time, it’s going to become hard to justify keeping this line together if they don’t start scoring more. There’s plenty of time for that and it could absolutely be the case that Sondreal and Letourneau are still adjusting to the college game at this point, but BC badly needs more than it is getting from its third line right now.