It’s just one game — in some cases two — but it’s hardly enough to make any sweeping conclusions about a team’s fate.

The college hockey season has barely begun. Seven of the 12 teams in Hockey East have played just one time this season, and those single samples haven’t offered much in the way of knowledge on these teams. Boston University won’t score eight goals every night. Massachusetts won’t allow eight goals every night — though, it probably won’t score more than one all that often. Boston College’s talented roster won’t struggle to generate offense all year. And Merrimack, well, Merrimack won’t have the benefit of playing mid-table Atlantic Hockey clubs every night.

There are some trends, though, that appear to have continued from last year. Northeastern still never has the puck. Massachusetts-Lowell is still relentless in transition and remarkably disciplined in its system. And Vermont’s Brody Hoffman remains an underappreciated stalwart behind a team that just lacks something compared to the league’s true contenders.

We’ll learn a lot in the coming weeks. A number of marquee non-conference matchups come this weekend with only Connecticut and Merrimack playing a Hockey East game. Little that happens in October is especially indicative of what’s to come, but it’s part of the picture. There are just some things that probably won’t change much from last season, and even a win or a loss doesn’t really suggest a step forward or back in college hockey. The way teams arrive at those wins and losses is all the more important in the season’s earliest portions.

Clay Witt needs to be near perfect or Northeastern won’t go anywhere

Saturday night, Vermont beat Northeastern, 6-2, in both clubs’ season opener at Matthews Arena. The Catamounts were better than NU in every aspect of the game. It didn’t look much different than most Northeastern games from a year ago. The lone exception being that Clay Witt wasn’t near perfect. He played as well as any goaltender can really be expected when his teammates give him very little support.

None of the five goals he allowed — Derick Roy replaced him for the third period — were really on him. There were UVM skaters in his face all night, Northeastern defensemen  couldn’t get the puck out of their own end and the forwards generated nothing in the way of extended zone time.

NU assistant Jerry Keefe, standing in for a suspended Jim Madigan, said he was disappointed after the game, and his frustration was certainly warranted. It’s just hard to see how this was any different from the Northeastern team that rose to prominence on Witt’s back a season ago. When he was the best goaltender in the nation, Northeastern found ways to win. The second he started struggling, the Huskies’ season fell apart. It’s not fair to blame Witt for any of it either. Few goalies to ever play college hockey have successfully sustained the numbers Witt needed to make the Huskies relevant a year ago.

Through 23 games last season, Witt maintained a .946 save percentage. Northeastern was right on the Pairwise bubble and in contention for home ice in the Hockey East quarterfinals. In the following nine games, his save percentage was .891, and the Huskies predictably suffered, falling out of a home-ice spot and losing to New Hampshire in three games to end their season. The regression was inevitable. He just wasn’t quite as good as he was for most of the season and nothing else changed for Northeastern.

Against Vermont on Saturday, the Huskies generated little in the way of puck possession, and the Catamounts constantly peppered Witt. This is a trend — dating back to last season — that has to be alarming for Northeastern. Their best player has been their goaltender, but he can’t do it all by himself.

Despite some departures, Lowell still plays like Lowell

There were some differences evident for UMass-Lowell in its 5-2 win over Boston College on Friday night compared to the River Hawks from a season ago. UMass transfer Kevin Boyle isn’t quite on the level of Connor Hellebuyck — who forwent his final two seasons of eligibility to sign with Winnipeg — and losing Christian Folin, Derek Arnold, Scott Wilson and Joe Pendenza, among others, forced new faces into premium roles. They weren’t particularly sharp, nor were they at the level that produced a second consecutive Hockey East championship in March.

But they didn’t look like it was the first game of the season, either. Boyle played about as well as can be expected of a mid-level Hockey East goaltender seeing his first game action in more than a year. Evan Campbell and Zack Kamrass looked very comfortable in their new roles leading UML’s top line and top defensive pairing respectively. In general, UML was just better than BC was on Friday night. The Eagles’ talent was clear at times, but their inexperience was just as plain.

UML’s success since Norm Bazin took over three years ago is based heavily on a commitment to playing well without the puck, retrieving it and moving it quickly. It’s going to take some time for Bazin to get his club to the standard he’s established, but they seem to have the basics of the system down pretty well so far.

BC’s kids are all right

In terms of age, Boston College is typically among the youngest teams in the country. At the moment, only five teams – BU, Alaska-Anchorage, Harvard, Minnesota and Cornell — are younger in terms of average age than the Eagles. It’s not something that bothers Jerry York much, especially since those very young players, are frequently some of his best. This season, though, those kids must carry a bit more of the load for the Eagles than previous classes have.

Just in the last few years, players like Pat Wey, Pat Mullane, Bill Arnold and Isaac MacLeod gave York an experienced core of players, who were also very talented in their own right, to offset some of the gaffes even the best underclassmen make. There are some very good upperclassmen on the Eagles at the moment, but few are among the Eagles’ most talented players.

If BC is going to play at the level it so often has in the 2000s, the wildly talented freshman and sophomore classes have to be in the middle of it all. Friday night in Lowell, 17-year-old freshman defenseman Noah Hanifin — considered by many a clear top 10 prospect for next summer’s NHL Draft — looked as much the part of the inexperienced collegiate blue liner as he did high-end talent. The same was true of Zach Sanford, Alex Tuch and even some of the Eagles’ equally talented sophomore blue chippers.

It’s a long season, and the skillsets of BC’s young stars will rise to prominence. It’s going to take some time, and the occasional mistake that costs the Eagles a goal will come. If the Eagles have shown anything, however, under York over the years, it’s rumors of their downfall are almost always false.

Tuesday, October 14th, 2014 - 12:53 pm | Commentary