2013 Boston College State of the Program: Men’s Hockey
By Joe Micik
Douglas Jones-USA TODAY Sports
There are few major-conference programs in college sports that have as wide a gulf between its most popular sports as Boston College does right now. Football and basketball are historically down, while a defending national champion skates on the school’s ice. With those other two sports, the mood varies from despair to quiet uncertainty to guarded confidence, but when it comes to the men’s hockey program, Boston College has dealt in nothing but complete optimism.
Compared to the dozens of other Division I hockey programs throughout the United States, few have the resources that Boston College does. That includes access to talent, access to a major conference and a great hockey city, and an elite coaching staff. BC is to hockey what a school like Kentucky or North Carolina is to college basketball: the college that gets the top targets via recruiting and reloads the roster, rarely ever rebuilding it. That has been the case since long before 2012 and will continue to be the case entering 2013, as the Eagles seek their sixth national championship overall and their fifth under Jerry York.
If York does not become the all-time wins leader in the two games before 2013, he will certainly take that mantle in the new year. Boston College hockey has the privilege and honor of having the best coach in the country, and one of the best of all-time on its bench. So long as Jerry York is running this program, there is not and never will be any reason to doubt its stability.
Realistically, how much more can be achieved when your team is already the best? When you win a national championship, your next goal is to win another, and the Eagles have done an exceptional job of that in recent years, taking three of the last five titles. Winning the whole thing becomes the standard, and that is where the hockey program sits at present. Things have evolved to a level where it is a disappointment when they do not take home the trophy, and failing to qualify for the Frozen Four is almost shameful.
Boston College hockey, in many ways, has an embarrassment of riches. It is nothing for which we or anyone affiliated with the program should be sorry, and when this team enters 2013, their objective will be the same as it always has been: bring another national championship to zip code 02467.