http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/sports/hockey/boston-university-college-hockey.html 2016-10-13 21:21:56 Boston University Won’t Celebrate Yet (the Season Just Started) The men’s hockey team has 11 players drafted by the N.H.L., but Coach David Quinn knows how easily a sure thing can be derailed. === BOSTON — As the college hockey season rolls into its second weekend, David Quinn, the coach at The Terriers are considered leading contenders to win the national championship on the strength of a remarkable collection of talent assembled by Quinn’s assistants. Four B.U. players were selected in the first round of the N.H.L. draft in June. Only two other colleges — North Dakota and Wisconsin — have two first-rounders suiting up this year. Two other B.U. freshmen were selected later in the draft, in the second and fifth rounds. The roster also has five players chosen in previous drafts, giving the Terriers a total of 11 drafted players, or about half the roster. While this year’s draft, then, was a triumph for Quinn and his staff, it also left him worried. Articles soon labeled the Terriers a juggernaut, a sure bet for the Frozen Four. On social media, some users called Boston University the N.H.L.’s 31st franchise. Quinn, 50, a former first-round draft choice, knows how easily a sure thing can be derailed. A star at B.U. under his mentor, Jack Parker, Quinn saw his promising career derailed by a form of hemophilia. “We’re talking about guys 18 to 21 years old — kids, really,” Quinn said. “When you’re on TV and everybody’s talking about you, it’s easy get ahead of yourself.” Quinn’s first-rounders all were chosen in the top 20 of Yet while B.U. has a collection of talent, it remains short on experience. Its most highly regarded players are underclassmen, and its top scorer, the sophomore Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, had 30 points last season, far fewer than the N.C.A.A. leaders. North Dakota’s returning all-American, Brock Boeser, for example, piled up 60 last season. And plenty of teams also have the horses to take a run at the N.C.A.A. title. North Dakota, the defending champion, is returning Boeser and its star goalie, Cam Johnson. Last year’s runner-up, Quinnipiac, has another strong team. Michigan has a freshman class second perhaps only to the one at B.U., and Denver, Boston College and Minnesota-Duluth are also seen as contenders. “People think we’re good?” Quinn said. “There’s a lot of questions. Can they mature? Are we mentally tough? You need a lot more than talent to win.” That was why, when the Terriers gathered for their first meeting on Sept. 6, Quinn delivered a stern message. “You know what everybody is sick and tired of hearing about?” he recalled telling his players. “You guys. And, frankly, I’m tired of hearing about how good you are, too.” Following Quinn’s lead, B.U.’s captain, the senior defenseman Doyle Somerby, said he is trying to set a tone of “squashing egos” that emphasizes team play and team success, not individual statistics. “Everyone, drafted or not, will be unloading equipment from the bus” when B.U. is on the road, said Somerby, a fifth-round pick of the Islanders. In practice, Quinn said, he wants his players to feel pressure to force them to concentrate intensely. Small mistakes are called out. “We want the players to focus on every little detail,” said the assistant coach Scott Young, a two-time Stanley Cup winner. “That’s how it will be in the N.H.L.” First-rounders are not spared. In the first skates of the season, Keller, the Arizona draftee, went offside — a mental mistake. Quinn blew the whistle, told him his mistake was not acceptable and ordered him to repeat the drill. “He’s got a unique style, and it definitely gets you out of your comfort zone,” Keller said. “But I like it.” Sometimes Quinn sits down players to watch video of practices to see their mistakes. Last week, the alternate captain Nik Olsson got the treatment; Quinn thought Olsson had pursued a puck carrier at less than top speed. “Don’t glide, skate! Would you do that in a game?” Quinn told him. B.U. won its opening game last weekend at Colgate, 6-1. Keller had a goal and an assist. But bigger tests arrive this weekend, when the Terriers will travel to Denver for two games, and the next weekend, when Quinnipiac visits Agganis Arena in Boston. Quinn, a trim 6 feet with a shock of dark hair and piercing blue eyes, knows all too well the disappointment that hockey can dish out. “I thought I was going to have a 12-year career in the N.H.L., and then. …,” he said, not finishing the thought. “It was tough.” Quinn said he struggled after his playing days ended, drinking beer and gaining weight. He snapped out of his funk, he said, the day he saw fear and sadness in his mother’s eyes as she spoke to him. “It was like that,” he said, snapping his fingers. “You can have your pity party, but then dust yourself off.” He soon realized he could live out a different hockey dream behind the bench. After moving to other programs and coaching jobs, he returned to Boston in 2004 to work as Parker’s assistant. When Parker retired in 2013, Quinn returned again, as head coach. His second season brought another dark moment. The Terriers were leading Providence College by a goal in the national championship game when goalie Matt O’Connor, fielding a harmless shot, tried to shake the puck out of his glove and instead allowed it to Quinn acknowledges that game and his own career influence how he coaches his players today. “There is going to be adversity,” he said. “Never take anything for granted. You don’t want to be 50 wondering what would have happened if you had maximized your potential.”