One month ago Tuesday, Northeastern Men’s Hockey played their first regular season game against Stonehill College, winning 5-1 over the Skyhawks. They’ve played six games since then, and head into this weekend’s matchup against New Hampshire with a record of 1-4-2, notching ties against Maine and Providence but have yet to get back in the win column.
Now let’s be frank: the competition has been intense. Two games at defending national champion and #1 ranked Denver, who might be even better this year than they were last year; two games against Maine, who have roared back to prominence and sat at #6 when they played the Huskies; and two games against Providence, who have always given the Huskies fits, and the Friars were at #11 when playing the Huskies and have since entered the top 10. In every single one of those six games, Northeastern was the betting underdog. However in each last three games, they had plenty of chances to close out and win, only to see it slip away. Salvaging three points against Providence is great for the standings, but the frustration is palpable amongst fans and the program alike who are eager to see the team get back in the win column. Let’s look back on the seven games played so far and see where the Huskies have done well, and where they need to improve to get the ship turned around. All stats are either via College Hockey News or the Northeastern website.
The Good
- Cam Lund, Superstar: We heard it all offseason as we looked ahead to this year- this is the year Northeastern needs junior forward Cam Lund to take a step forward, to break out, and be the dominant player he has shown flashes of for two seasons. Well, broken out Cam Lund certainly has. In seven games, Lund has 9 points (5 goals, 7 primary points), had a four-game goal streak including one of the greatest individual skill goals I’ve ever seen at Northeastern (linked above), and has demonstrated both playmaking ability and an improved ability to use his combination of size, speed, and hands to create space for himself and get the puck to the net. Interestingly, all his production came against these top 10 opponents- he went scoreless against Stonehill. He even had a game at center for the first time as a Husky, and won 7 of 11 faceoffs he took. He leads the team in shot attempts (53) and shots on goal (38) through 7 games, and is on pace to break his personal bests in points, goals, and shots. Lund has showcased this season why he is a centerpiece option for the Huskies’ offense, and expect that to continue.
- Jack Williams Keeps Humming: Last year’s breakout player, junior forward Jack Williams leads the team in points (10), sits second in goals (4), second in shot attempts (47) and shots on goal (27) and has continued his elite ways in the faceoff dot (58.9% win rate). The captain of the Huskies plays in all situations, averaging 22:25 time on ice per game, tops among Northeastern forwards and one of the top marks among forwards nationally. He currently is riding a four game points streak as Hockey East play has started.
- New Faces Show They Belong: Northeastern brought in 15 new players this season, so it would have been reasonable to expect a period where the new players take time to gel acclimated to the new system. Multiple players have hit the ground running, however, led by freshman forward Joe Connor. The Tampa Bay draft selection may only have 3 points in 7 games, but he notched his first two collegiate goals against Providence and has every bit passed the “eye test”. He sits third on the team in shot attempts (40) and fourth in shots on goal (22) despite being on the second line and second powerplay unit. Senior transfer forward Cristophe Tellier has contributed 5 points in 7 games, on pace to produce similar to his career-high last season with Quinnipiac (but more on him later), and senior transfer forward Ryan McGuire, despite only a single goal and no assists yet this year, has shown to be as advertised in the faceoff dot and defensively with a 57.8% faceoff win rate. On the blue line, transfer junior Joaquim Lemay has two points (1 goal) and 8 shots on goal in his two games back from injury while playing heavy minutes, and freshman Jack Henry was forced into top-pair minutes with Lemay out with injury, and played five games of 20 minutes or more before going down with injury, showcasing good puck movement skills and shutdown ability despite playing on his off-hand.
The Bad
- The Powerplay: The only thing that saves the powerplay from being in the Ugly section is the success of the last two games, where it scored at a 33% clip against a very good Providence team. However before that Friday night game, the powerplay was 0 for its first 16 attempts, putting up only 14 shots on net in over 21 minutes of powerplay time, largely bolstered by 7 SOG in 5+ minutes in the second Maine game. However with the addition of Jo Lemay on the first powerplay unit and a week between Maine and Providence to practice and revamp it, the powerplay generated 15 shots on net in over 13 minutes of powerplay time across two games against the Friars, ultimately scoring 3 goals with noticeably more puck and player movement. Let’s hope that the trend continues and that an improved powerplay can buoy this team back to the surface with regular offense and reliable scoring.
- Goal Scoring: Similarly, this had a chance to be in the Ugly before Saturday’s five goal outburst. In the five games between Stonehill and the second Providence game, the Huskies scored only nine goals. In seven games, only nine players have scored a goal, and three of them (Vinny Borgesi, Cristophe Tellier, Ryan McGuire) have not scored since the Stonehill game. This is eerily similar to last season when the lack of scoring depth for the Huskies was much discussed, and this season there was hope that a deeper lineup would yield more scoring outside the top line players. Unfortunately that has yet to manifest, with only one player with majority bottom six minutes (Nick Rhéaume) scoring a goal so far. In fact, Rhéaume’s 2 points make up 2/3 of the points produced by bottom six players; Griffin Erdman‘s lone assist is the other one. I’m not saying NU needs to have multiple 20 point scorers, or even a single 20 point scorer in the bottom six, but having more offensive contributions from further down the lineup would take a heap of pressure off the top line players and defensemen from an offensive production point of view.
- Injuries: This one is more unfortunate circumstances but after the experiences of the last two seasons, it’s understandable how people can have a feeling of déjà vu. Joaquim Lemay was injured in the exhibition game against Quinnipiac and missed five games before returning and making an immediate impact against Providence. Transfer defenseman and assistant captain Jake Boltmann missed some time after the Denver series, returning also against Providence. And Jack Henry was hurt by an borderline-legal check in the Friday Providence game and missed the game on Saturday. Fortunately most of the forwards have been healthy all year, but Northeastern has only had one game in the regular season with their expected started 18 skaters. There’s no real analysis or comments for that one other than you hope Henry recovers quickly from whatever his ailment is and the team can have a sustained run of health going forward.
The Ugly
- Penalties: It should come as no surprise what leads off this section. Northeastern as a team is averaging 13.9 PIM per game, fifth-worst in the nation. Now those numbers are a little skewed by the fact that Northeastern has taken three major penalties, one in each of the last three games, including a rare seven minute penalty by Nick Rhéaume last game against Providence and two face masking penalties by freshman Ben Poitras in back-to-back games. Joe Connor, for as electric as he can be, has been called for six minor penalties in seven games. These are players Northeastern was and is banking on to be critical scoring and depth for this team, and they simply cannot fulfill that role if they are in the box or tossed from the games. In a not-so-fun-fact, Poitras has as many major penalties (2) as he does shots on goal (2) in seven games played. Coach Keefe is as frustrated as anyone, stating postgame to WRBB Saturday night: “We’ve taken three major penalties this year. A team that’s desperate to win hockey games, that’s putting themselves in situations to win hockey games, and then to do that to yourselves is really, really disappointing.”
- Penalty Kill: And when you take a lot of penalties, you’d better have a good penalty kill to overcome it. Unfortunately for Northeastern this has been arguably their biggest Achilles heel this season, sitting at a paltry 65.5% success rate at killing penalties, the second-worst mark in the nation. On the heels of PK success rates of 84%, 85%, and 89.7% in the last three years, this is a stark change in the Huskies’ performance. Northeastern has gone five straight games allowing a goal on the penalty kill, including allowing a catastrophic 5 powerplay goals to Providence last time out, including the game-winner in overtime. As fans, we will gripe and complain about referee calls when they are made, and be vocal in our disagreements, but we have yet to be the reason a referee reverses their call and the penalties still need to be killed. And those aforementioned major penalties? Maine scored one goal on their major powerplay, and across two games with majors, Providence scored thrice. Coach Keefe acknowledged the struggles on the PK in his postgame comments to WRBB Sports, saying “the penalty kill is not doing its job at all, not even close…I don’t care how long you’re on the kill. You’ve got to kill penalties and we’re not doing our job.”
Folks, the season is far from over. Despite sitting at 1-4-2, Northeastern also sits right at 30 in the current iteration of the Pairwise rankings and has 20 conference games ahead of it, not to mention the Beanpot and other nonconference games. There is still plenty of time to get the season headed to where fans, players, and coaches alike all want it to go- but it can get late early if things do not change. It is certainly frustrating to have victory snatched from the Huskies as has happened against Maine and Providence- opportunities to bank wins against top 10 teams don’t come around often. But the product on the ice has been encouraging and most importantly, improving. The team has four conference games in a row now against New Hampshire and a very good Boston College team- leaving this stretch with at least 2 wins would put them in a solid position for the conference and the national picture.
See you all at Matthews Arena on Saturday.
As always, go Huskies!