Forget about getting their feet wet.
The Jumbos open the season tomorrow with a game against Middlebury - a team that won both the NESCAC and the NCAA Tournament last season, completing a championship run for the third straight year.
And it doesn't get any easier from there. The team will have less than 24 hours to recuperate from the match-up with the Panthers, traveling to Williamstown to take on the Ephs, a squad that finished right behind Middlebury in the standings last year, on Saturday afternoon.
"We're more worried about Middlebury than any other team," coach Brian Murphy said. "But everyone's good in this league. If you don't play well in the NESCAC you're not going to succeed."
And with 10 new freshmen on the 26-man roster, the team will be full of questions heading into arguably the hardest part of its schedule. Still, the team hopes to out-do last year's mediocre finish, in which the team concluded the year at second-to-last in the conference with a 9-12-3 overall record despite a 7-1-1 streak from mid-December to mid-January.
"This is probably the most talented team we've ever had," senior co-captain John Murphy said. "If we finish any lower than fourth in the league, that will be disappointing. We have very high expectations."
With the departure of former stars Matt McCarthy and Jack Thompson, the team will rely on this year's co-captains: senior forward John Murphy and senior defenseman Peter Corbett. Both were both plagued by injuries last season, as Murphy was sidelined 17 games with a wrist injury, and Corbett sat out the entire season with knee problems.
"From Corbett and Murphy we are looking for straight-up leadership," sophomore Joe Milo said. "This season we have the potential for a better team than ever, if the captains do their job right."
In addition to the two co-captains, the team has two seniors and seven juniors, making for a strong presence of upperclassmen to complement the less experienced players. As such, Murphy sees no problem with the many first-year skaters.
"I don't think the number of freshmen will hurt us," he said. "We have a lot of returners and a great group of senior leadership. The experience will definitely help guide the freshmen."
"We're not going to win only through the freshmen," coach Brian Murphy added. "But they're definitely going to be expected to contribute."
Junior Greg O'Connell, who placed second on the team in scoring last season with nine goals and 23 assists (32 points), and sophomore Greg McCarthy, who ranked second in goals with 14 will lead the squad behind Murphey and Corbett.
They have big shoes to fill, as the team lost last year's leading scorer Matt McCarthy, the older brother of current sophomore McCarthy. He had 17 assists (35 points) and was the runner-up for the Joe Concannon award which recognizes New England's best American-born Div. III hockey player. Additionally, the Jumbo defense will feel the departure of Thompson, one of the best defensemen to wear the brown and blue.
For the Jumbos to be competitive, their special teams will have to repeat last season's success. Tufts had a 23 percent scoring rate last year on the power-play - seven percent higher than its opponents. On the penalty kill, the Jumbos averaged an 83 percent kill rate, which was also relatively high by NESCAC standards. This year, the Jumbos will look to their veteran players to continue this dominance.
"We have solid power-play and penalty kill units," coach Murphy said. "We have some experience there. Many of those guys were on those units last season."
The position of goalkeeper is still up in the air, as junior James Kalec, who currently owns the Tufts single-game save record (he stopped 60 shots in a game against Colby during his freshman season), will compete for the starting job with classmate Issa Azat. With just one day until the team's opening game at Middlebury, Murphy has yet to name an official starter.
