2011 Season Preview

With a little less than a month before the Terriers pack their bags and head to St. Louis to play Wisconsin in the  Ice Breaker Invitational, I thought that it would be good to give you the season preview.

In the middle of last season it was clear that the team was not going to repeat as national champs so I started looked toward this season. On paper the Terriers were really not going to lose that many key parts of the team. There were only three seniors on the squad, Eric Gryba, Luke Popko, and Zach Cohen. Captain, Kevin Shattenkirk was likely going to leave for Colorado even though he was only a junior, and he did.

Days after the season ended fellow junior, Nick Bonino left for the Anaheim Ducks. Following in the foot steps of Shattenkirk, Colby Cohen left for the Aves too. Then the Saponari brothers were dismissed from the team for several reasons.

Before all the offseason departures took place, I was thinking that BU would have a top five or better team this year. Now expectation's have dropped a little but with the third best recruit class in the nation I still see the team in the top ten in most national poles. The national rankings have yet to come out, but when they do I see the Terriers around 15. In Hockey East I think think they finish 2 or 3 and could have a good shot at the tournament championship.

Getting to the NCAA tournament is something that the Terriers were almost a lock to do last season. Everyone knows what happened. This year i think that will make the tournament and end up in the North East Regional in Manchester New Hampshire as maybe a 2 or 3 seed. BC will be the 1seed and the two will duke it out to see who will go to St. Paul for the Frozen Four.

Captains this year were picked by head coach Jack Parker and not the team. This is first time ever that parker pick them. Chris Connolly and Joe Pereira wear the "C" and David Warsofsky will be the assistant captain.

Alex Chiasson will be looked on to lead the young Terrier offense and Goalies Kieran Millan and Grant Rollheiser will likely rotate games for the start of the season.