Worst Seasons in the Past 25 Years Part 11: Boston University

Welcome to the Worst Season in the Past 25 Years, a series in which r/CollegeHockey reviews the worst season for all 60 Division I teams over the summer to alleviate the crushing boredom known as the off-season and take a horrific tour down memory lane.

If you are interested in writing an entry for your team, please let me know via PM. I’ll be posting entries on weekdays at approximately at 6 pm Eastern time and will be going in alphabetical order. If an entry is not posted at that time, assume that “real life” has gotten in the way and that I am not able to post. If I am aware in advance that I will not post at 6 pm on a particular day, I will announce it in prior posts as a heads up.

And now.../r/CollegeHockey presents the Boston University Terriers! Much like their soulmates eternal rivals BC, BU has had a storied history: various ECACHL and Hockey East titles, several Ice Dance appearances and multiple Natties. Additionally, the Terriers have fought for Eastern dominance against Cornell (CORNELL!!) until the Divorce (more info here, many thanks to u/LocksTheFox). For the second half of their time in the ECAC and until rather recently, the Terriers were coached by Jack Parker. Because of Parker’s success, BU is considered to be a college hockey blue blood.

Once again: just because a team can be considered to be elite, they are not immune to having an off season. For the Terriers, that season is…

2013-2014 Record: 10-4-21 (W-D-L); Hockey East: 5-3-12 (W-D-L; 9th/11th)

Wins: Amworst, Holy Cross, Wisconsin, Providence, UConn, North Dakota, Cornell (I want an explanation!)*, Vermont, Northeastern, @Northeastern

Ties: North Dakota, Merrimack, @Amworst, Lowell

Losses: RPI (cómo?), @Michigan, @Michigan State, @Providence, Boston College, @Maine, @Merrimack, @Bentley, @Harvard, Dartmouth, Maine^, @Boston College, @Lowell, Vermont, Boston College-, Harvard-, @New Hampshire, New Hampshire, @Noter Dame (x3)$

*Game at Madison Square

^ Game at Fenway Park

-Beanpot

$ The (x3) designation is for simplicity. Two of these losses to the Fighting Irish were in the regular season while the final loss was in the Hockey East First Round

Biggest Beatdown: Maine 7 - Boston Univ. 0

Head Coach: David Quinn

It was Quinn’s first year on the job as the (current) head coach for the Boston Univ. Terriers. He was taking over from long time coach Jack Parker. You can say that this was expected. Anyway, Robert Baillargeon and Danny O’Regan led in scoring, with ten a piece. Baillargeon had the most assists, with 17. In goal, Matt O’Connor had a save percentage of .920 and a GAA of 2.89.

The Terriers started their season with an exhibition game (as you do) with St. Francis Xavier, winning by a score of 2-1. The following weekend, Amworst and Holy Cross were defeated. So far, so good. Then, BU lost to RPI (cómo?), but this was seen as a blip as the Badgers of Wisconsin were defeated the following evening. A trip to Michigan saw two losses, one a piece in Ann Arbor and East Lansing.

November began with a split series with Providence. A loss to Boston College was followed by a thumping by Maine. Afterwards, BU managed to defeat UConn on a Sunday. A home series with North Dakota ended in a win and a draw for the Terriers. A win against Cornell in the World’s Most Famous Arena would end the month.

(As you may know/can tell by my flair, I’m a Cornell student and hockey fan. I will shed my cut-and-dry style of writing these entries for a moment here. I was not a student during this time [2015-16 was my first season as a student] but I am disappointed in my team in this instance. Allow me to make an analogy: this result is like Manchester United having a very poor season, but still managed to defeat Liverpool [I’m a supporter of Liverpool outside of college hockey]. I’m not mad, just upset. For comparison’s sake, Cornell went 17-5-10 [W-D-L] in this season.)

(If you look at BU’s schedule before the MSG game, they had a victory over UConn and a win and a tie vs. North Dakota. Why is this relevant? Momentum is a key factor in sports. If BU did not have a favorable stretch of results before the MSG game, things could have gone differently. Was BU the better team on the ice? Probably, yeah. Is it possible Cornell could have won the game if things went as I outlined? Possibly, but we’ll never know.)

December was not a busy month, with only a home-and-home with Merrimack and a non-con game with Bentley. However, the Terriers only got one draw in these three contests. January kicked off with two non-con games with ECAC teams Harvard and Dartmouth. After this, a marquee match at Fenway Park with Maine ended in a 7-3 defeat. Away games to BC and Lowell ended in defeat. Vermont would provide the Terriers with the first win in the calendar year for B; the next day, the Catamounts would win by a scoreline of 6-2. A tie against Amworst would round out the month.

February started with a game against the eternal enemy in the Beanpot, losing 1-3. A tie against Lowell did garner enough momentum for the Beanpot consolation game; Harvard would win that one 6-2. A home-and-home series with New Hampshire would end up in the Terriers in being swept, as an away series to Noter Dame. Two wins against Northeastern would finish the regular season, before being defeated away to Noter Dame in the first round of the Hockey East tournament.

After this season, Boston Univ. would jump to a 28 win season in 2014-15, becoming runners-up in the Ice Dance in the process. Since 2015, BU has made the tournament every time. Of course, this season can be seen as a blip in the eyes of many fans. Time and time again, BU has a strong incoming class who could strengthen the Terriers’ claim as an elite program. We’ll see.

For Week 3 of this series, we will look at the worst seasons in recent memory for the following schools: Bowling Green, Brown, Canisius and Clarkson. Once again, if you are interested in doing the entry for your favorite school, shoot me a PM. Your school, name, and date will be added at the end of each post to serve as a reminder. So far, the following people have inquired about a spot:

School	Username	Tentative Date
Brown	u/kdb77	6/21
Cornell	u/ABigRedWallaby	6/29
LSSU	u/binkelman	7/10
UML	u/LantisEscudo	7/13
Northeastern	u/therevengeance	8/2
Penn State	u/saucysalesman	8/8
RPI	u/Nicholas1227	8/16
Union	u/azureamor	8/22
Vermont	u/LocksTheFox	8/23

Finally, a shoutout to u/saucysalesman who inspired the idea of this series for doing one for football over at r/cfb. Additionally, thanks to r/CollegeBasketball for the idea of the sub-par MS Paint logos for each school.

Previous Entries in the Worst Seasons Series:

AHA	Hockey East	WCHA	Independent
Air Force	Boston College	Alabama Huntsville	Arizona State
American International		Alaska Anchorage
Army West Point		Alaska Fairbanks
Bentley		Bemidji State