It may be the Black Bears of Maine that will go down in the record books as defeating BU to end their season, but in reality, the only people that the Terriers have to blame for their early exit from the playoffs are themselves. The blame for the 5-2 loss to Maine last night falls squarely on the shoulders of the guys who lost it.
For two full periods last night at the T.D. Garden, the Terriers didn't so much as show up. It felt as if they simply didn't care, or perhaps didn't realize that this was their season hanging in the balance.
As Jack Parker told the media after the game, "The thing that jumps out at me is that we had a team out there playing at the top of their game (Maine), and we had another team that was not nearly what they had to be tonight (BU). I was very impressed with how hard, and fast and quick Maine played tonight, and I was disappointed with our efforts. The difference in the speed in the game, the difference in the focus, we were back on our heels all night. I thought we'd be a real fast game together, I thought both teams would come out flying tonight, and one of them did."
Parker's team simply didn't get the memo. They didn't seem to understand that this is it. And really, that has been their M.O. all season long. Win a few, get comfortable. Lose a few, panic and jump back up. Win a few, get comfortable. Repeat as needed to mail in a season.
Maybe it's the fact that all but 7 of the guys on this roster already wear a big scarlet ring on their fingers, constantly reminding them of their perfect conquest just a year ago. That championship seemed to breed complacency all season long in a group of players who acted like last year's win meant that they had nothing to prove this year. Now the book is closed on the under-achieving, under-performing 2009-2010 Terriers.
Certainly some came to play last night. Eric Gryba laid down his biggest hit of the season in what was, as usual, a solid effort for the big Senior in his final game as a Terrier. Kieran Millan looked better than he had for most of the season, but was hung out to dry by his shoot first, play defense later blueliners. On that subject, David Warsofsky had a solid offensive effort, but it certainly wasn't enough to maintain possession in the Maine zone, a feat that the Terriers couldn't achieve all night long.
After the loss, Gryba said of Maine, "They didn't let off the gas the whole game. They came at us, and we had a few glimpses of hope, but they just kept on coming, and hats off to them."
Eric Gryba's BU Career is Over
The semi-final game was, in many ways, a microcosm of the entire campaign. Beyond playing without much energy at all, the season-ender for BU summed up the main problem this team has battled all season long: a lack of scoring from its forwards.
Without a natural goal scorer like a Colin Wilson, a Chris Higgins, a Brandon Yip or a Jason Lawrence, BU spent much of this season searching for offense, and searching for answers.
As a result, 26 of of their 123 goals came from defenseman this season. That's a full 21% of the BU offense coming from the defense. That's not necessarily a negative, but when the forwards seem to actually lack the ability to put home goals, it's a killer.
BU's forwards were notably absent last night as well. Even if Vinny Saponari did get credit for a score after a nine minute review, the fact is that the Terrier forwards simply had no say in what happened on the ice last night. Their passes were intercepted, their shots were blocked, and they were consistently beaten to loose pucks.
Eric Gryba, Zach Cohen and Luke Popko have all played their final games as Terriers. It sure would have been nice to send them off with a better effort than this.
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