GRYBA SMASH!

Even His Teammates Aren't Safe
From The Daily Free Press

"A half hour into the Terriers’ hour-and-a-half session, senior defenseman and assistant captain Eric Gryba responded to Victor Saponari slashing his stick in half by ripping the junior forward’s helmet off and throwing him to the ice.

Junior defenseman and captain Kevin Shattenkirk jumped on Gryba before the 6-foot-4 bruiser could do any more damage. As Shattenkirk held him back, Gryba continued to yap at Saponari. BU coach Jack Parker put an end to it by kicking Gryba off the ice.

After a half hour in timeout, Gryba returned to the ice. He continued to hit anything that moved, which isn’t unusual –– Gryba always brings the same aggressiveness to practices that he brings to games.

On one particular drill, he knocked senior forward and roommate Zach Cohen to the ice with a forearm shiver. Cohen responded by taking a run at the already irritated Gryba at the opposite blue line. After a couple shoves and some jawing, the longtime friends dropped their gloves, discarded their helmets and began exchanging punches. Each landed a couple blows before associate head coach Mike Bavis broke them up."

I absolutely love it.  When this team has been disappointing, as they were against Providence last weekend, it's been because of a complete and utter lack of fight.  They played sloppy, lazy, uninspired hockey and it killed them.  They didn't seem like they cared about being on the ice, or the fact that their season was slipping away.

But even when things were at their worst for the Terriers, the one guy who you knew had it in him was Eric Gryba.  We've teased him a bit on this site for his propensity to take penalties, but at the end of the day I will take Gryba's intensity and willingness to lay it all on the line over almost anything else.

That's what makes Gryba such a huge fan favorite.  Every game he goes out there and leaves it all on the ice.  Sometimes it lands him in the box, sometimes it knocks a guy on his ass, and once in a while it ends up with Gryba tussling with teammates in practice.  But all it really means is that Gryba is bringing another level of intensity to the ice all the time.

This fire is important for the Terriers team that needs to win this week, and the players understand that the roughness is all part of the game.

Also from the FreeP:

"Senior forward Luke Popko, who also rooms with Gryba and Cohen, made light of the fights.

'I thought we had a good ballroom dancing class before practice,' he said. 'I’ll have to beat them both up tonight, I guess. I’m sure they’ll be sitting around playing video games like they always are. What happens out there usually doesn’t translate to off the ice.'"

Hopefully it will translate to the ice tonight against BC.  Gryba may have lit a fire under this team that could use a bit of fight.  Gryba is a complete baller.

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