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?
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