“It’s gonna be intense.”

That’s Head Coach Chris Cosentino’s motto as his team heads into another season of NYU hockey.

The NYU hockey squad has been hard at work in training camp gearing up for this opening weekend. The team enters the 2016-2017 season with immense energy, a brand-new training regimen and an ever-more-refined drive towards their next national championship, after a heartbreaking finish last season. We got in a word with head coach Chris Cosentino, who enters his seventh season at the helm of the team and is more passionate than ever about the possibilities ahead this year.

One thing he made crystal clear is that when it comes to the new season, it’s just that — a new season.

“It’s a clean slate,” Cosentino said. “There are guys trying out here to make the team, there are guys in here that are trying to secure their spot.” Nothing is guaranteed, for newcomers or returning players, and the expectations are high.

“As a program, we’ve set the bar as far as the way a student-athlete should represent a program at the [American Collegiate Hockey Association] level,” Cosentino said. “For 16 years in a row, we’ve led our league in All-Academic Honorees. Back-to-back years of Presidents’ Service awards for community service. Been to the National tournament three years in a row. Needless to say, your expectations are high.”

There are big skates to fill for any newcomer to the program, and Cosentino’s emphasis on the service and academics show that this is about far more than athletic performance.

The team is ripe with newcomers. After the loss of five seniors, including the ever-resilient Sam Daley, the National Championship-winning squad from 2015 is now only loosely represented. Meanwhile, in the crease, out of the four netminders on the team, junior Jack Nebe is the only familiar face. After a 2015-2016 season that saw high expectations followed by an early exit at the National tournament, finding an identity will be crucial for the team as it hopes to make it back to Nationals this spring.

“Here with this program, being a part of the hockey team — you’re gonna learn stuff here that’s gonna stick with you for the rest of your life. Stuff that you’re not gonna learn in any of your classes,” Cosentino said. “That’s stuff we pride ourselves on. On making sure that guys learn something here that sticks with you in your personal and professional lives as you move on.”

The program has had great success over the years, and former players coming back to watch and carving their own successes in life is testament to that.

“We’ve got such a strong alumni group,” Cosentino said. “They’re all in. They love what we’re doing,” Cosentino said. “Obviously, you know, winning games is good, but it’s more than that. It’s what we’re doing in the classroom, it’s what we’re doing in the community — guys are moving on, getting great jobs. And they’ll reach out to us and say ‘Hey, we’re looking for interns’ and things like that.”

Alumni support is huge, the best showcase of which occurs opening weekend with the annual Alumni Game that takes place directly before the first game of the new NYU Hockey season. Former players come in from around the country (sometimes around the world) for a night of hockey and nostalgia, electrifying atmosphere.

In fact, that atmosphere is expected to be livelier than ever this weekend. NYU takes on Siena College tonight at 8:30 p.m. at Chelsea Piers, preceded by the Alumni Game at 7 p.m. A live band all the way from Detroit, Michigan will be performing as well, bringing in some music to further rile up the famously rowdy crowd.

The Sky Rink will be packed with hundreds of fans eager to commence the new NYU hockey season — we can trust that the team’s constant preparation during training camp this past month has them ready for the night.
“It’s full steam ahead.”

Email Brendan Gutenschwager at [email protected].