Montreal Canadiens: Luke Tuch Set to Begin Postseason Play For Boston University

Montreal Canadiens prospect Luke Tuch has dealt with an odd season. Not that his play was anything other than great, but the pandemic wreaked havoc on his team’s schedule.

Boston University would not play at all until January due to an outbreak of coronavirus on campus in the fall. Another handful of cancellations and rescheduled games would occur after the season began, and the Terriers barely reached the threshold to qualify for the national playoff tournament.

Before they can worry about that tournament, Tuch’s squad will take part in the Hockey East playoffs.

Those playoffs begin today, with Tuch and the Terriers taking on the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Though the Terriers only played 14 games this season, they won ten of them, putting together a 10-3-1 record. Their points percentage was second only to Boston College in the Hockey East conference, so Tuch will be playing for the favourite as they are taking on the 8-8-1 Mass-Lowell in the quarterfinals.

These playoffs are single elimination so anything can happen, but it would be a big upset if Boston University were to lose today.

If they are going to win, it could be because of Tuch playing a big role. He started out as a third line winger but carved out a little bit of a bigger role for himself as the season went along. The freshman left winger would play most games on the team’s second line and finished the regular season with six goals and ten points in 14 games.

Tuch was second on his team in goals, trailing only Jay O’Brien who was a 2018 first round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers. Tuch was third on the team in points behind O’Brien and defenceman David Farrance.

The Canadiens second round pick in 2020, Tuch produced well above expectations in his first year of college hockey.

He scored 15 goals and 30 points in 47 games for the United States Under-18 Development Program last season. While he was a relatively high pick in the NHL Draft, he was billed as a rugged, hard working two-way player and not necessarily an offensive dynamo.

While he has shown he can battle and play a physical game on a nightly basis, his offensive numbers were a nice added surprise. Standing 6’2″ and 203 pounds at 19 years of age, Tuch is starting to show the potential to be a power forward for the Canadiens in the future.

His production as a freshman isn’t quite on the same level as Cole Caufield, but it was better than expected. He will surely play another year or two of college hockey before turning pro, but his stock is way up since the NHL Draft and he has a chance to improve it even more in the Hockey East playoffs.

Tuch’s game will be played at 1:00 PM EST with the winner advancing to the semifinals on Wednesday night. The final will be played next Saturday night. The 16 teams that qualify for the national playdowns will be selected by a committee after the Hockey East tournament is completed.

Thanks to their strong regular season, Boston University is considered a near lock to be selected for the national playoffs, no matter how their playoffs go this week.