Maine - MIH - 1/27/12 & 1/28/12

BU vs. Maine Men's Ice Hockey, 1/27/12 and 1/28/12 - Agganis Arena, Boston, MA


Bottom Line: Maine beats BU 4-2 / Maine beats BU 3-1

The Memories: The two hottest teams in Hockey East (if not the nation) met after a weekend of sweeps / Officiating might actually have had an impact on the games / All around lots of crazy stuff


First of all, I'm going to go a little bit sports journalist for a second. I have never, will never blame the outcome of a game on the refs. I know that all that matters is what they see and I've learned to let it go. Teams should be able to bounce back from a bad call or two. But on Saturday night, the officiating was just straight up terrible. I'm not saying BU would've won the games otherwise, but I definitely think at the time the calls were messing with momentum, which in turn could have changed the outcome.

But I digress. Time for the stuff I always write about.

Attendance wise, I loved these two games. Sure, maybe not a lot of those "regular" fans showed up, but they don't do anything anyways. Both nights, the 108 and 118 were filled to capacity and on Saturday for the first time in a long time I feel like the sections filled up before the starting line-ups were announced.

But those damn Maine-iacs made noise in our house. I don't care if they were winning. The inbreds made noise in the place where we reside, where we take care of business. For that I am pissed.

So for this week I decided rather than get super game specific, I'd offer general comments on where I think we can improve. Take it for what you will. But here are things that bug me every home game and that are so simple to fix.

Oh, and while I'm on it - just because I offer "improvements" doesn't mean I don't think we're the best fan base in Hockey East. At times I complain about the home atmosphere, but c'mon, we're absolute beauties. We wear jerseys. Expensive jerseys. And lots of us own more than one. Our fans actually understand the game. A big shut up to anyone else who reads this that doesn't go to BU - talk to us about a game and we can admit where BU sucked and where we didn't. And no Parker doesn't pays refs or whatever else stupid crap you come up with night in and night out. We show up to away games. Don't know what I'm talking about? Must not have gone to your own home games this year because I guarantee if you were playing us you saw a lot more Scarlet and White than you were anticipating. We know how to get behind this team. Call us crazy but it doesn't matter if we lost those other guys or if Privitera's gone for a bit or if Clendening has a bad game (bad GAME - not season, anyone who thinks differently feel free to never talk to me ever, ever, ever, ever, ever again), we are behind the boys 2009% (don't read into that percentage, I just wanted a high number).

Okay so back to what I was saying.

First of all, I urge everyone who chants to listen. Guess what, you can watch the game, chant, clap, and listen all at the same time. Everyone speeds up everything and it just sounds like absolute bull. It's not that hard. Everyone simultaneously complains about ole speeding up. So honestly take five seconds to get out of your own head and listen. And a little sound lesson for you all - if you listen behind you, you'll all stay on tempo (big fancy word for "together"). Trust me, the band has the tempo thing down so if you listen to those gems, you're fine. (Seriously, they're so good looking). Even the wheels on your house and the if you can't get into college chants speed up. Just stop thinking you're right and listen around. We all know the words but we sound like crap if we don't pay attention.

Secondly, if the other team scores, don't let them even think about celebrating. Do the post goal "go BU" chant. If we were all doing it, it would change everything. First of all, we'd drown out any other opposing fans who try and sit in our seats. Then, we would remind the other team that it's just one goal, act like you've done it before and get the hell off the ice. Finally, we'd remind our team that, yeah, it's one damn goal. Goals happen in less than a second. Don't mope, take your minus ones, sit down, get revenge next shift. But it only happens if the fans are absolutely making the building rattle. So us, as fans, can't act down and out from one freaking thing. Scream "go BU" or get the hell out of the building and go crochet some doilies (seriously though, I know a guy).

Thirdly, no dead air. I'm not saying fill every little bit of space with a new chant (that just gets annoying). But throw out a single "let's go white" or whatever you want and just keep the crowd into it. Trust me, it happens a lot at basketball games. If one of us spits off an individual cheer, then at least another three people spit out their own right afterwards. It's a simple way to keep up the energy without pissing everyone off saying the same two things over and over again. Speaking of that last tidbit, please pay attention to the cheer we just did. I don't want to cheer "let's go terriers" four times in a row before throwing in a "go BU".

Fourth do not. Under any circumstances. Insult your own team at the game. I do not care how badly we are messing things up. Keep it in your mouth and complain to someone else later. If I see another person throw their arms up when a dman takes a dumb penalty, I will come down and rip your face off. Not kidding. If we're getting on our own team's case we just look pathetic. No crap they make dumb plays. We wouldn't have lost a game yet if we were perfect. But save it for later.

And fifth. I should not even be writing this, but I will. Don't leave the game until it's over. I don't care if there's 4.6 seconds left, we're down by two, and Parker just got tossed. Stay in your seat. Way to waste your own money and your own time by not sticking it out. There are some many instances where games get turned around in the last 5 seconds, NCAA and NHL. How much would you hate yourself if you missed that? Also, don't do that to the team. The boys chose the right route. They chose to play for the love of the game, to get stronger, to try and win for the pride, and for each other. That is way more exciting than those Canadian junior slimeballs who play on a team they use as a catalyst to promote themselves. Not to say that last part doesn't happen in college hockey, but for the most part these people play for the Boston sprawled on the front of their chests. They play for us. Don't insult them by making them think you give up. It makes them give up.

Okay, so good. General ranting done. I know we had a tough weekend but I fully expect in two weeks for us all to go back to Agganis with more heart than ever. I want revenge too, as I'm sure do the players. Can't believe those hillbillies came to our home with their baby blue accent color and their banner. Won't let it happen again with the Minutemen. This is our house.