Last year, she was the best player on the team. This year, she’s an afterthought.

She was nominated as one of the top collegiate players in all of Division I women’s ice hockey. She led Syracuse in goals, assists and points, accounting for about 18 percent of the team’s offense last season.

She would have returned to play for Syracuse this season but decided to transfer away. And now she’s nothing more to the Orange than a distant memory.

‘I just feel like she’s so insignificant it’s kind of a waste of time to talk about her,’ Syracuse senior defender Taylor Metcalfe said.

‘That girl doesn’t cross any of our minds,’ she added.

That ‘girl’ is Isabel Menard. After the 2010-11 season, during which SU went 14-16-6, Isabel transferred to Boston University. Her departure from SU in favor of the Terriers left a gaping scoring hole in a Syracuse team that is still in the infant stages of existence.

Isabel wasn’t the only SU player to depart and find another hockey program following last season. Three others, including her twin sister Talia, also left the Orange. Kelly Dimmen, who was on the team last season as a junior, is no longer listed on the roster, though she is still enrolled at the university. But Isabel was certainly the most valuable.

Still, SU looks to move on without its best player from last season, Isabel, and focus on the players it does have this year. Whether anyone can step up and fill the void left by Isabel remains to be seen for this 2011-12 season.

No matter how insignificant Metcalfe and others think Isabel is at this point, there’s no denying how valuable she was to the program during her time at SU. In her first two seasons, she was as dominant as anyone on the ice, registering 81 total points as a freshman and sophomore.

What made Isabel so effective was her speed, said former SU player Julie Rising, even though it was a little deceptive. By being a second or two faster, it gave her an edge over other players. When it came to playing hockey, she was simply gifted.

‘I think as a female college player, she’s one of the top ones I’ve played with before,’ said Rising, who graduated in May.

And that talent led to widespread recognition. She was nominated for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award last season, given annually to the top Division I women’s player and was also named to the All-College Hockey America First Team.

But despite all the accolades she stockpiled, Isabel didn’t want to stick around following her sophomore year.

SU head coach Paul Flanagan said Isabel is the only one who knows why she left for another school, but he did say that the twins’ father, Carl, wasn’t happy that his daughters weren’t playing on the same offensive line.

And if Isabel was going to stay, that would have to change.

Flanagan responded by saying if that was the case, then it was time for Isabel and Talia to move on. Flanagan stood his ground, and Rising said the two were never on the ice at the same time last year.

‘I guess he’s the expert,’ Flanagan said. ‘He thought the girls should be on the same line together. Isn’t it funny? Now they’re at separate schools.’

Rising described Carl as a ‘yeller’ who persistently gave Flanagan a hard time because he believed the twins were equally talented.

But while Isabel starred, Talia failed to record a single point in 69 career games for SU and played on the fourth line.

Talia was not made available for comment by the Union sports information department. She also declined to comment when contacted multiple times on her cellphone.

BU’s athletic communications department declined to make Isabel available for comment, and she too declined to comment when contacted on her cellphone.

Carl could also not be reached for comment.

Rising said what made the transfer so disappointing for the Syracuse team was how much the program invested in the Menards after two full years on campus. In addition to big production from Isabel, she was also an assistant captain.

‘When you work with an athlete for two years and you give them all your resources and teach them all this stuff,’ Rising said. ‘Give them ice time and give them opportunity that someone else could be playing in their spot and then they leave, it’s tough.’

In The Ottawa Citizen, a Canadian-based newspaper, Isabel said she made her decision to leave the program as the 2010-11 season went along.

‘I wasn’t happy at the end,’ Isabel said in the Aug. 10 article. ‘I found out I wasn’t getting any better. I had to go do a lot of things on my own.’

She went on to say that although she thought the schooling was great, the hockey development was not.

In a story in BU’s student newspaper, The Daily Free Press, Isabel was again critical about how Syracuse developed hockey players. She seems more content, though, with the Terriers.

‘I want to develop as a player and not just be a hockey player and play hockey,’ Isabel said in the Oct. 2 article. ‘Coming from a program that wasn’t really too keen on hockey-specific training, but here it’s really good, it’s where everything is on the ball.’

When asked about Isabel’s comments, Flanagan said he hadn’t read them and that the players have their own individual assessments of what type of training they need.

Metcalfe also said Isabel was never satisfied at Syracuse, both on the ice and with other facets of the program. She said it was pretty obvious the twins were ready to get out of Syracuse by the last couple of weeks of the spring semester.

Isabel and Talia weren’t the only players to transfer away after the end of the last season. Kelsey Welch and Erin Burns are now playing at Niagara, a team within SU’s conference.

Niagara’s athletic communications department declined to make either of the two players available for comment.

Overall, Flanagan estimates that about five or six players have transferred out since the program’s inception in 2008.

Currently in his fourth season with the Orange, Flanagan thinks the transfers are a result of a program that is still getting off the ground. It’s part of the growing pains.

‘So I don’t think it’s a big issue,’ Flanagan said. ‘The numbers are skewed a little bit because we’re an upstart program. And I would like to think that, that would diminish, but you had a couple unique situations last spring.’

And those unique situations, including the defection of the team’s best player in Isabel, have forced the Orange to search for a new identity on the ice this year.

Through the first 12 games, SU is 5-7, and Flanagan doesn’t see his squad as a high-scoring group. Rather, this year’s Orange is a hard-working, defensive-minded team that will have to win close, low-scoring games.

When the Orange does get on the scoreboard, it will have to come from multiple places. Last season, three players tallied 20 or more points. But Isabel’s total of 44 was 16 points higher than the next closest player.

Looking back, senior forward Megan Skelly said the team was too reliant on just a few scorers.

‘Any time you have a very strong player, it’s easier to get away from moving the puck,’ Skelly said. ‘Not even Isabel. Any player that’s really strong offensively, so we have to rely on our teammates more.’

Rising said Isabel was so much better than anyone else out there that it was hard to please her. That she almost didn’t belong.

But this year’s group has a more team-oriented focus. The players want to be better than the sub-.500 record from a season ago.

And whether Isabel belonged, Syracuse has no other option but to move on without one of its greatest players in program history. The Orange refuses to look back on the jagged departure.

‘We don’t even think about it,’ Flanagan said. ‘She left last spring. She’s gone.’

dgproppe@syr.edu

Published on November 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm