Monday, February 20, 2012

Still Bleeding

Never would I have guessed that I'd be writing a follow up to a blog post I made back in December. Never would I have guessed that history, alarming history, would be repeating itself. Never would I have guessed that the school I take so much pride in would again be subject to...this.

But I was wrong on all accounts.

Regardless of the verdict in any cases involving any of the hockey team, I've got two things to say.


First, learn how to separate the personal from the professional.

Ignore what anybody else is going to say, ignore what they have already said. You continuing to go to the games and showing support for the team is NOT condoning the actions of individual players. Because we are supporting just that - the team. The long line of jerseys and skates cascading out of the locker room.

Last time I checked, all BU jerseys look pretty similar. All the people I see weekend after weekend have "Boston" sprawled across their chests. It doesn't matter if it's home or away, Bauer or Nike, customized or not. The "Boston", the "BU" - that's what's consistent. That is what you cheer for. That is what you take pride in. That is what you never give up faith on, no matter what.


Secondly, this extends far beyond hockey.

You cannot ignore the bigger implications surrounding all of this. Take the kid (who is innocent until proven guilty), take him off the team, and you've still got someone you don't want to support. But in particular, this kid is and always has been in the spotlight of our school. People want to associate our school with that. People want to ignore the amazing accomplishments that lie with this team, this school, the thousands of Terrier Nation and solely focus on the negative. Suddenly everyone around us is interested in knowing exactly what happens at our school.

And what exactly happens at our school?

Oh that's right, a community - a family - is made. Something that USCHO forum trollers will never understand.

This incident, these incidents, are not reflective of BU culture. These are actions that are wrong no matter what platform they are put onto. This stuff, unfortunately, happens. But it happens absolutely every where. And I for one am thankful I go to BU at this time. Yes, we have some serious accusations going on. But I see the administrating doing exactly what I'd want it to and expect it to. Our drama is on display, but at least it isn't currently being covered up or brushed off.


So on Friday night I'll be in StuVi 2 watching the Boston University Terriers take on the Catamounts of the University of Vermont. The Terriers. A group of 20 some odd skaters wearing the colors I hold in the highest regards.

In sports, personnel changes all the time. Good people leave, bad people come. But you never stop loving your team, your program. It's about the color flowing through your veins, not about the name and number you slap on your back.

Today, tomorrow, next year, forever - I still Bleed Scarlet. And I am incredibly honored to call myself a Boston University Terrier.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Why Terriers Rule and Eagles Drool

Up until like 10 minutes ago, I was literally in depression mode, as I'm sure most of us were. You take hockey fans of the winningest team in the most sentimental tournament and you make them suffer an absolutely heartbreaking loss...that ain't fun.

But as I was making my way home, I saw this: @Clenny5: Thanks to BU fans tonight for the support. Best fans in Hockey East.

To which I replied, well god damnit Adam, yes we are.

Okay, okay, I rag on us in a loving way. If I ever complain it's about petty stuff because we're so close to perfection it's killing me.

And not that I think any of you need this blog post to reaffirm your passions, I'm just gonna throw it out there anyways.

We are lunatics. I've sat next to my fair share of crazies at sporting events, but none are more raving than Terrier fans. The past few weeks, sitting around people in zubaz, BU football jerseys, and Kevin Shattenkirk Frozen Fenway jerseys (hey - if you get sick of that, I'll take it), I've learned three really important things: 1) we're loud, creative, and funny as all hell; 2) we know about hockey and we don't ever sit back and become mere spectators; 3) we bleed scarlet. And we bleed it hard.

Every game, we ride this thing out, unlike those Merrimack kids that peace out halfway through the third.  Every game, we keep cheering no matter what the score, unlike those wannabe rivals at Northeastern who find nothing wrong with shutting up if they're losing. We, without a doubt, love our teams and the games they play. And we feel every last emotion - euphoric or gut wrenching - with them.

Tonight was tough. We had to deal with women's Beanpot finals round two. Complete heart and dedication from the kids on the ice and the complete same from those in the stands. Play hard, cheer hard, lose hard. Yes, for the second time this year (these past few weeks) we lose in sudden death.  Yes, for the second time we have to watch someone else celebrate while our players skate doubled over. Yes, for the second time we can't raise a trophy and say we're worth all the beans in Boston.

Well screw that.

Ask anyone, senior, freshman, alumni, and this is a banner year in terms of our student section. Even I've only been sitting atop the 118 for two years and I notice a huge difference from last year. We have stepped up our game big time. We all want to go to the away games and we're all willing to fill 118 and 108 weekend after weekend.

We lost our first game of the season to St. Francis Xavier - nobody gave up. We lost to Holy Cross - but nobody gave up. UMass Lowell absolutely handed our asses to us - again, nobody gave up. Merrimack broke our hearts in over time - guess what, nobody gave up. We lost two centers, two top guys - still, nobody gave up. We went down in South Bend - and nobody freakin gave up.

We have been representing our team, our school, and ourselves like absolute ballers this entire year. What started out as mere BC away games turned into far distance travel games, fan buses, commuter rails, and any other form of transportation you could think off. Road wins, home wins, all loud wins. The Dog Pound has been rocking the hell out of any house we've been to - including the Garden tonight.

By the way, BC fans still suck. There wasn't a single time tonight their team was down but they just sat quiet all night. Didn't even try to mess with us. Most creative chant was BU sucks. Superfans at their finest.

Seriously Dog Pound - we are so much better than that it's hysterical. Bordering on sad for the little Eagles.

So anyways, while I'm in some weird emotional state between depression and optimism, just thought I'd throw it out there that BU students are the best fans in Hockey East right now and have been all year. And it's seriously noted.

BC Sucks. Once a Terrier, always a Terrier. Bleed Scarlet.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Why you should be disowned if you don't take the trip to Lowell on Friday night

Now, first of all, let me say that you should also be going to the Beanpot on Monday night. It's the late game (don't give me that class/work excuse), vs. BC (you know you love it), we're looking to rebound after a funk on Friday, and BC is looking to try and prove that the mass amount of goals they've scored lately has nothing to do with playing crap ass teams, but their supposedly good offense.

If you aren't going to the Beanpot, literally you have no life. And I don't even understand why you're reading my blog, go away.

Alright, well, that's that.


For real though, I'm looking ahead to next weekend NOT because the Beanpot doesn't mean anything (playing for pride is beyond important to me anyways, so this is never a game I'd overlook) but because I'm going to attempt to get it through everyone's heads that they need to spend a couple of bucks and make it to Lowell on Friday night.

For those of you who are little bit less hockey oriented, there's something you need to know: Lowell is like the underdog right now. You know the UVM team you've been ragging on all season?  Yeah, last year that was Lowell. But at the end of the weekend, they're up on us in Hockey East standings. So, yeah, they're doing pretty well for themselves amongst the conference. But it doesn't stop there.

Lowell is currently in a three way tie for 4th place in the PairWise rankings. For anyone with a brain, you know that's the only ranking/stat/whatever that actually matters nationally. Sure BU is still in second, but the PairWise is a fickle SOB. One game, played by anyone, and the whole thing shifts up and down like crazy. That being said, every single game is important.

This is where you come in. This is where you, if you don't already have a ticket, reach into your pocket, get out a couple bucks, get your ass a ticket, and then commit yourself to the commuter rail group heading down on Friday.

This weekend series is going to be huge for both teams. I fully expect a showing at home on Saturday night, but we have to show up in flocks to Tsongas on Friday. The away games is where our team has really been making a killing lately and there's a lot of that that can be contributed to fan support.

Let's take a look at this season in fan support at away games.

First, BU vs. BC on November 13th. There was a lot of people there. I'm sorry, a lot is an understatement. For the away team, we had an entire following. We could be heard throughout the entirety of Conte and we didn't let up, not once. Our team won 5-0 that night (yeah, we shut out the Eagles in their own domain). For those of you that weren't there, our team even came over and stick saluted us, something that Jerry York would later have a little hissy fit over.

But, that was the least of it. We played BC at Conte again less than a month later on December 2nd. That time, there was probably double the fans, double the ticket switching, and double the volume. We had a combination of the DOS/Parker getting us fan buses to drive us down the street. Do you understand what that means? We could've gotten there by T, by taxi, even by walking, but because we were so god damn huge they got us buses. That night, we won again 5-3. The team couldn't stick salute us (wah someone get Jerry York a decaf) but walking through that campus singing oh when BU while cops escorted us and little Eagle children yelled from their windows is a memory none of us will forget.

Now, I'm going to skip a couple games. There were a lot of people up in Maine and UNH and a ton of people watching back home. We got two wins in those games as well. But then there was Notre Dame, a task we're going to have to start dealing with in a few short years. Because of the distance, I don't recall seeing or hearing of any of the Scarlet and White heading down. That was our first test since, well, everything went down, and we lost that game. That was an absolute heartbreaker for everyone in Terrier Nation and everyone started to write us off.

But then the New Year came and how sweet it has been.

We started off with a little Northeastern road trip where we had a great group of people travel back to school before break was up. We took the fricken BUS there and had the time of our lives. We saw Vinny again, some kids tried to bring up the other Puckstar, and we made NESN and their viewers either really happy or afraid of the consequences for not showing us on TV so many times. Our team had a come from behind win that night and despite the fact that the team still wasn't allowed to stick salute, I remember a lot of the boys casually lifting up their sticks and dropping them in our general direction.

The next night we didn't stop. The same kids, plus even more, made a trip across the river to go Harvard. We sat right behind the BU bench and showed the team what was up. With our chanting and cheering ChrisCo got his first two beauties of the season and we eventually were able to tie that thing up. That night the Garrett Noonan fan club was founded (what's up) and in OT he was able to get the GWG and all was right with the world. We all blew up that night and so did the boys. Seriously, picture the 50 or so fans jumping on the seats and screaming our heads off right above the team who was screaming right back. It was one of the most gratifying games we had been to. Those two wins, coupled with the home win against Merrimack, proved to all the haters that we were for real.

That was the weekend Parker wrote that note, and that was the weekend I think we proved to the team that we're in this for the long haul.

Of course, there's been Providence away and Merrimack away since then (where we absolutely dominated in attendance, too). We got two wins in those games. And I'm not even going to talk about how absolutely ridiculous that Northeastern away game will be (Dog Pound, I love you). But we've got one other away game in there, and it's the biggest one yet.

If you could read all that crap about how amazing away games have been and how much the boys (yeah I call the team the boys, don't care) have appreciated it, I think you might be pretty screwed up. If you're not itching to go face our biggest competition currently, you seriously must not be a Terrier. If you aren't willing to spend $9 on a ticket and another $10 on a commuter rail ticket, find a friend who will do it for you. Missing out on this would be one of the biggest mistakes you could make as a hockey fan, no, as a BU student.

It's a Friday night. Give up one night of getting shwasted (do it at midnight when we get back) or studying (who does that) to go hang out with 100 of the most ballistic kids on campus and cheer for a team that needs that atmosphere. I really don't know if you people understand this, but we're making a playoff run right now. And it's not just a Hockey East playoff run.

If Lowell is the underdogs, we're the comeback kids. We don't have new coach who turned the program around, but we've got one who's been the backbone of this program for longer than you think. No we don't have any crazy superstars anymore, but in the goaltending situation that is Hockey East, you gotta give huge recognition to the things Kieran has done. We lost two centers but have you seen Rosen grind it out, shift after shift, doing whatever he's asked? Have you seen the 5 (with Nicastro back in and not 100%, 5 and a half) defenseman working their asses off? Have you seen how every last skater on that ice is contributing to this team, in multiple ways?

Parker said it best when he said that the team knows they aren't a number one team. But the team part is more important than number one. If you can't see the emotion seeping out of the boys every game, you're blind. Better yet, if you can't see how the fans are contributing to that emotion, you're blind AND stupid.

We, as students, have a chance to be a part of a huge series right now. We can make another house our house and we can prove it to this team that they're good enough. That we aren't like some of the other haters and fair weather fans that leave after one loss. We're behind them a million percent, from Lowell to Agganis to the Garden and beyond. We can show them that this is our team, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

So seriously, if you don't already have a ticket for Lowell on Friday, what the hell are you waiting for?