Week one for Boston College Women’s Hockey was a pretty solid success. It was two Hockey East games on the road to start things off for the Eagles, they came away with two pretty nice wins.
BC changes things up just a little bit for week two with two road games against two different opponents. That makes it a much tougher weekend, as BC will need to make the long trek up to Syracuse for a game two days after Thursday’s game in Worcester.
Holy Cross was... well, pretty dreadful last year, picking up only one win all season (against the #3 team in the country, because #hockey), and Syracuse wasn’t much better at 13-21-3 in a bad conference. But despite that, with the tough travel arrangements and the fact that Syracuse returned the bulk of their roster, this weekend’s definitely no gimme. Anytime you have a pair of games on the road, you’ll consider yourself fortunate to come away with four points.
WHO
No. 7 Boston College Eagles (2-0-0, 2-0-0 WHEA)
vs. Holy Cross Crusaders (0-1-2, 0-0-0 WHEA)
No. 7 Boston College Eagles (2-0-0, 2-0-0 WHEA)
vs. Syracuse Orange (0-2-0, 0-0-0 CHA)
WHAT
Two more games that are not at Conte Forum which I won’t lie is A LITTLE BIT FRUSTRATING.
WHERE
Thursday:
Hart Center
Worcester, MA
Saturday:
Tennity Ice Pavilion
Syracuse, NY
WHEN
Thursday, October 3rd, 2019
7:05pm EDT
Satuday, October 5th, 2019
3:00pm EDT
HOW TO WATCH
As of this writing, Hockey East hasn’t yet announced its league-wide streaming package with CBS College Sports Live. But the link to the Thursday game is already up on the website. Here’s a direct link to that game.
So far, the game is listed as being for free. We’re expecting the CBS College Sports Live games to change to being subscription based ($9.99 a month), but if it stays un-paywalled, well, you’ve lucked into a free game, my friend.
As for the Syracuse game... they don’t have a streaming link up yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I assume there will be a stream at some point. I’ll update here if they put one up. The link is up! Huzzah! Here’s a direct link to watch Saturday’s matchup.
PROJECTIONS
As it’s only week two of the season, we don’t have any KRACH or GRaNT projections for you just yet. Once all the teams in the country have played at least two opponents, this section will be populated with odds and score projections using MATH!
LAST TIME OUT
Holy Cross had a pretty good weekend by their standards, considering they only won one game all year last season. They took a 0-0-2 split against Penn State — who was actually an almost-.500 team last year, so that’s not too bad. Those games were in Worcester, so that suggests the Crusaders might be a somewhat tougher out at home.
Syracuse went 0-2-0 last weekend, but it wasn’t quite as bad as it looks. They lost both games in a home-and-home with #3 Clarkson, and had a 3-2 lead strongly outshooting the Golden Knights after two periods in game 1. They fell 4-3 (and 5-1 in game 2), but that first game should definitely give the Eagles pause — especially with the game in upstate New York.
As mentioned, Boston College opened up the year on the right foot, going 2-0-0 on the road against Hockey East opponent Merrimack.
THIS WEEK’S STORYLINE
The season has kind of a weird setup to start things off. The Eagles don’t play a team that had a winning record last year until November, and yet it feels like BC would be very, very fortunate to come away with wins in all these games: The first four games of the year are on the road (and 5 of the first 6), and two of those five road games are a long road trips after playing a game two days before. It’s always a struggle to get over those bus legs, so while these are teams that the Eagles should beat, in theory, these first few weekends are no walk in the park.
BIG QUESTIONS
Can the Eagles avoid a letdown against a Holy Cross team that has a full Hockey East season under its belt, on the road? Can BC shake off the bus legs for their trip up to Syracuse on short rest to come away with a win over a team that gave #3 Clarkson a scare in their home rink? How many goals will Hannah Bilka score this weekend after manufacturing eight or nine dozen chances last week but coming up a little snake-bitten? Will the young but talented defense continue its strong start? Are we going to get the Super Maddy-O in net that we had last week for the rest of the year? Because that would sure be nice.
RANDOM, POSSIBLY INCORRECT FACT FROM OUR OPPONENTS’ WIKIPEDIA PAGES
Holy Cross’ campus is “a registered arboretum,” which the best I gather just means it has trees. Good for you guys. Enjoy those trees.
Syracuse University wasn’t even the first choice school for the city of Syracuse — the city originally tried to get Cornell to relocate there, Cornell said “nah,” and then they went to their backup plan: The school that eventually became Cuse.
GAME TIME MEAL OF THE WEEK
I will be in Scotland during the Syracuse game this weekend, so one of our other writers will have the recap for the game against the Orange. So, let’s do something Scottish this week!
Haggis
A Scottish dish consisting of a sheep’s or calf’s offal mixed with suet, oatmeal, and seasoning and boiled in a bag, traditionally one made from the animal’s stomach.
I’m kidding. Do not have haggis.
Scotch Broth
Scotch broth is a filling soup, originating in Scotland but now obtainable worldwide. The principal ingredients are usually barley, stewing or braising cuts of lamb, mutton or beef, root vegetables (such as carrots, swedes, or sometimes turnips), and dried pulses (most often split peas and red lentils).
Holy crap, that’s way better. Yes, have this. I will make sure to have this over the weekend. Well done, Scotland.
GAME TIME SONG OF THE WEEK
Outkast — Hey Ya!
Alright now, fellas! [Yea?]
Now, what cooler than being cool? [Ice cold!]
I can’t hear ya!
I say what’s, what’s cooler than being cool? [Ice cold!]
Alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright!
Taking it back to 2003 for one of the best songs — and maybe the best video — of its decade. You can’t listen to this song and not have some part of you bouncing to the music. André 3000 just oozes cool eight times over.
A modern classic.
PREDICTIONS
You’re always happy to come away with two wins on the road in one weekend. That’s what the Eagles got last week. Is it too much to ask to get that two weeks in a row?
...Maybe. That long trip up to Syracuse for Saturday afternoon after just playing Holy Cross on Thursday night just screams “STUMBLE.” Merrimack, who the Eagles swept last weekend, was much better than Syracuse last year, but I think that’s going to flip this season. Syracuse’s near-upset of Clarkson last week gives me even more worries.
I think BC will be okay against Holy Cross. BC shouldn’t be dropping points to the Crusaders (their insane upset of #3 Northeastern being their only win of last season notwithstanding). But I think we drop a point to Syracuse. BC’s okay offense and good defense suggests a year that will have an above-average number of ties on the record, and the long road trip after a game at Holy Cross is the exact scenario where this sort of thing will happen. I think BC comes away with a 3-0, 1-1 weekend to enter the off week at 3-0-1.