Welp. If you asked me to describe my nightmare end to this season for the Boston College men’s hockey team, this is probably what I would’ve told you. The team was #1 nationally in Pairwise by a WIDE margin over anybody else and favored to make a Frozen Four run. But they failed to claim a Beanpot trophy, crashed out of the Hockey East tournament at home against a lousy Northeastern team, and then choked once again in the NCAA tournament against Denver and their evil goaltender Matt Davis. This is everything I feared.
Now, with the top stars leaving BC this week, I am just sitting here wondering: what went wrong? BC had one of the best recruiting classes in the history of the sport when Will Smith, Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perreault, and Jacob Fowler came in together as freshmen last season. Those forwards contributed as second-liners to Cutter Gauthier’s lethal top line alongside Andre Gasseau and Oskar Jellvik, as Boston College dominated their way to one of the greatest statistical seasons in college hockey history.
Then in 2024-25, Leonard, Perreault, and Fowler returned alongside most of the rest of the roster (including senior captain Eamon Powell) and the team added James Hagens, a projected #1 NHL Draft prospect. BC boasted the #2 penalty kill in the nation and one of its best defenses in both years. But even after all of that good fortune, the Eagles only have one trophy to show for it, the 2024 Hockey East championship. What especially hurt was that they lost twice to BU in the Beanpot, and then twice to Denver in the NCAA tournament, including in the 2024 national title game.
Mental Toughness and Underperformance in Big Moments
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Over these past two seasons, Boston College has had a consistent issue with their performance in important games. Last year, those performances ebbed and flowed. They stumbled early in their Beanpot game against BU, but rallied late and almost brought it back. The Hockey East tournament was no issue for them as they absolutely blasted the doors off of UMass and BU at TD Garden. And then their NCAA tournament run featured a close call against Quinnipiac, followed by a great performance against Michigan, and then an epic choke job against Denver in the title game.
These issues took an even bigger toll this year. BC barely showed up to play against BU in the Beanpot final. They couldn’t even make it to the Garden in the Hockey East tournament. And then they barely scraped by Bentley before falling once again to Denver in the NCAAs. In all of these games, the team utterly lacked playoff energy. Their effort level was truly disappointing against Denver on Sunday, when BC was consistently late in getting to the puck and let the Pioneers completely take over the game in the second period without much of a fight. The rock solid defense they had for much of the season washed away when the Denver players actually started fighting hard for pucks behind the net. Who would’ve thought?!
BC’s players looked like deer caught in headlights or like that they just didn’t want to be there, just a completely unacceptable effort for a team with national championship aspirations. The team leaders especially dropped the ball this season and failed to take over in big moments. At least Will Smith and Cutter Gauthier would show up big time on occasion last season, but we saw none of that from this new group. Even Jacob Fowler, who has been a steady presence in net for BC even as a freshman, gave up some sieve-y goals against BU in the Beanpot final.
In general, these BC teams did an extremely poor job of coming out of the gates with energy. This season they were completely a third period team, often needing to mount comebacks or pull themselves together after the other team would punch them in the mouth. With a hothead like Ryan Leonard leading the charge, it would’ve been nice to see BC actually get under their opponents’ skin for once, instead of the other way around.
Disappointing Offense, Especially the Powerplay
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Smith and Gauthier leaving for the NHL was obviously a big loss for a historically great offense. But BC did manage to keep two Hobey Baker contenders in Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault, while also adding James Hagens who was projected to be the #1 overall pick in the NHL Draft when he arrived on the Heights. The ingredients were there for another fantastic offensive performance, but things fell apart at the end of the season. They scored 1 goal against BU in the Beanpot final, 1 goal against Northeastern in the Hockey East quarterfinals, and then 1 goal against Denver in the NCAA regional final.
Hagens, first of all, did not live up to expectations. Full stop. He was often outplayed by fellow freshman Teddy Stiga, who is great in his own right, but not the level of prospect that Hagens is supposed to be. Hagens was supposed to be BC’s “Will Smith replacement” or something of that sort, but his chemistry with Leonard and Perreault simply was not on the same level. Even disregarding those lofty expectations, Hagens was consistently much too tentative to shoot the puck, often pulling back towards the blue line to look for the perfect pass instead of driving ahead and getting a chance in the dirty areas. His passing ability was certainly fun to watch and he didn’t have “bad” season, but Hagens clearly did not develop to compete at the highest of levels by the time the postseason came around. It didn’t help either that BU freshman (and 2nd round NHL Draft pick) Cole Hutson had a much better season than Hagens and came away with the Hockey East Rookie of the Year award.
Those issues Hagens was facing with trying to find the “perfect pass” were not limited to just him, though. All too often this team was not grinding for messy goals and instead was only trying to set up passes in space, which often resulted in broken plays and missed offensive opportunities. When you lose a player like Cutter Gauthier, who had an insane gravitational pull and created a lot of space just by being on the ice, those perfect passes are much harder to find. The BC offense needs to do a better job of adjusting how they play based on how their opponent is defending them, and not be afraid to get down and dirty or use their superior speed and skill when the match-up calls for it.
Despite the star-studded top line (Leonard, Perreault, Hagens) sometimes struggling to generate chances late in the season, and the bottom lines giving BC basically no offense at times, head coach Greg Brown still did not mix up his line-ups in their final games of the season. It was clear that the top lines needed some changes, like mixing up the chemistry with Stiga or injecting some energy by bringing up someone like Brady Berard or Mike Posma to play with the top guys. And the 2nd & 3rd lines needed some more goal-scoring ability especially after Oskar Jellvik went out for the year. But those changes never really came. Brown and the coaching staff weren’t afraid last season to make changes to the lines when things weren’t going well, which is why it was so baffling when Leonard, Perreault, and Hagens skated out there together in the most important games of the season.
Finally, it’s completely absurd that a powerplay unit featuring three extremely talented players finished 42nd in the nation in efficiency, behind the likes of UVM, Merrimack, UMass Lowell, UNH, and more. If a coaching change needs to be made immediately, it’s there. There is no excuse for that level of underperformance when you consider the amount of goal-scoring talent this team had.
Final Thoughts and Looking Ahead
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I have to say it again. Two full seasons finishing #1 in the nation, but only one trophy to show for it. It’s a clear disappointment. But the story is not over for this program, and the leadership guided by head coach Greg Brown can learn from these experiences.
I don’t necessarily think it’s a recruiting issue. People will often point to these “one-and-done” top NHL prospects and say that they will always lose to the older, bigger teams like Quinnipiac or Maine. But the benefit of having a program like Boston College’s is that you can have the best of both worlds. BC can utilize the top talent like Gauthier, Smith, Leonard, and Perreault to facilitate a great offense, while falling back on stalwarts like BC-bred Eamon Powell or transfers like Jack Malone to give the team some veteran leadership. BC finished this season with the #2 defense in the nation while playing in the country’s best conference. They are a hard-nosed team that can take on anybody, big or small, if they are coached the right way.
Their issue seems to be centered around coaching and leadership in those top forward groups. Acquiring big ticket NHL talent does you no good if the players are not being developed to be team leaders, to come up big in important games, and to find goal opportunities in the face of adversity. It’s been done before! You only have to look back about a decade to find the heyday of those Jerry York teams, with assistant coach Greg Brown, that were able to capitalize on their top talent in a way that resulted in three national titles in five years.
Maybe we’ll learn some new things next year, too. With Leonard, Perreault, and probably Hagens, Gasseau, and Fowler departing for the NHL, new players will have to step up. BC should still have a great defense and penalty kill and should still be in the mix for a spot in the NCAA tournament, even if they don’t hold their commanding #1 spot nationally. This men’s hockey program is in a much better place than it was even just a few years ago, when they went seven straight years (2017-2023) without winning an NCAA tournament game. I, for one, hope to see them in Las Vegas for the 2026 Frozen Four!