It's really never hard to get amped up for this week. You don't need to read this or any other blog to tell you how important this weekend will be. It's pointless to try and coerce you to show up to Agganis on Friday or head to Conte on Saturday - I know you will. It's pointless to try and tell you to scream louder than ever, be more proud than ever, and act like a Terrier more than ever - I know you will. It's pointless for me to even be writing a post about this week at all.
We spend so much time saying how much better we are than BC. Our fans are better, our rink is better, our team is better, our coach is better, our program is better.
It goes without saying that our fans are better. That's something no BC Superfraud can try and beat us on. Their rink is perpetually empty. Their fans only show up when they're playing us. Their fans only travel once a year, to the Beanpot, which they think deserves some sort of pat on the back. They've got nothing creative to throw at us chant wise. They leave before the game is over. And worst of all, the only brave souls that dare to wear a BC hockey jersey have to deal with looking like a bottle of Grey Poupon.
Then just take a look at us. We've packed Agganis every game this season thus far (save for last night) and we haven't done so quietly. Even people (cough cough myself) who can be highly skeptical of us at times has been in for a serious treat. The atmosphere in that place has been untouchable and any fans, even the UNH fans, that have made the trip have been able to see that. We've started traveling better than ever. North Dakota was only the beginning. People are going to Vermont and UNH. Masses of people have gone to Merrimack and UMass. And that is not letting up anytime soon.
Case pretty much closed on that topic.
Then there's Jerry York and Jack Parker. Two of the greatest hockey coaches of all time and they've spent the majority of their careers fronting these two teams. Jerry York is just about ready to break through to number one with the most wins of any collegiate coach and despite the fact that Parker is currently in third, he does have a ways to go. Jerry York is considered by, almost all, as some sort of saint. A saint in his coaching, yes, but as a person as well. It's rare to see him get flustered. He probably really does drink only decaf. But most of all, he has made that program what it is. Jerry York will forever be synonymous with Boston College Hockey and no BC fan will ever consider that a negative.
Jack Parker will always be synonymous with Boston University Hockey. No, he's not the only coach we have to thank for building this program, but to say that the naming of the rink in Agganis Arena is well deserved is an understatement. Jack Parker is not Jerry York. Most Terrier fans have seen him come close to bursting a vein or two. We've seen him get kicked out of games and we've seen him talk down about his team. We all have made a Parker joke, whether about alcohol or his yacht, and we've all got an opinion about him. Some of those opinions, even from the most diehard Terrier, are not even remotely close to positive.
Then take a look at our teams. Sure, we're starting out the year with a pretty stacked goaltending tandem and Parker Milner is looking less and less stellar every game. But they've got the second coming of Gretzky over there in Gaudreau (that's cute) while we've got to depend on a total team effort to even think about pulling out a W. The Eagles are sitting on seven NHL draft picks. We've got nine. Year after year we pull in some of the nation's top recruits, but BC snatches all the rest. They've got two Hobey Bakers, as do we. We have five National Championships and god damnit so do they.
And lest we forget, we both have a knack for getting ourselves into deep water at times. We don't need to once again mention arrests for beatings or drunken T crashes or rehash serious sexual allegations and tons of team dismissals. It's happened, but it's happened to both of us. As severely skilled as each of our teams our, they can all make some grave mistakes.
Maybe BU and BC are a lot more similar than we all thought.
But then again...not. Even. Remotely.
See, the first thing I learned at this school of importance was that anyone who told you they went to Boston College has already told you two lies as they're not from Boston and they're not a college. That is something that will always remain true.
It seems trivial, but it's not. We are the only team that has earned the right to wear Boston across our chests and I'll be damned if I ever let BC forget that. It doesn't matter if you are from Southern California, Toronto, or Charlestown, once you step into this city it is YOUR city. Those six letters mean more to us than absolutely anything else.
At BU, yeah, we are a little rough around the edges. BC can call us out on that all they want. We'll take our outrageous and joke cracking coach over your stick in the mud. We'd rather fight for our wins game in and game out than have it all handed to us on a silver platter. We'd rather have everyone in this entire country underestimate us because we know nothing is sweeter than proving all the haters wrong. Because guess what, I have never met a single Terrier that ever wishes they had chose differently. You're right, half of us did apply to Boston College. Yet contrary to popular belief, weren't rejected. We just decided that we'd rather go to a place that feels like home than a place that feels like Prep School.
Look BC, you can go on and defend your team all you want. But you will never have the heart, the passion, the work ethic, and the overwhelming desire to be a part of this like we do. Players, fans, coaches, alumni - this place all runs via the same heartbeat. You find in convenient to jump on and off the BC band wagon all you please. No matter the sport, you only decide to show up to see your team when it's the "big game." You have actually lead me to, at times, feel bad for the BC Hockey team. I'm sure when you show up to their championship parades, that's the first time 50% of you have ever even see the team.
A few years ago, Mike Pereira, Joe's younger brother who plays for UMass, decided to call us out in a radio interview. He said he didn't want to attend to BU because we were snobby. You know what, I'll take that. We are snobby. But not snobby in the same way as the Boston College Eagles. Oh no. We are snobby because we take more pride in our Terriers than we do in the papers we have due next week. We care more about planning our class schedules around road trips than the other opportunities we may have to turn down in the process. We love this university and this city more than any outsider could ever comprehend. Wearing Scarlet and White is like a second skin here, you feel naked if you don't.
When it comes to the hockey teams, we don't have to be on that ice or have any personal feud with those BC players to be reminded that Newton University sucks and always will. We don't have to have played our hearts out at the Beanpot last year only to have the Eagles tear away our title at the last possible moment. It doesn't matter that we haven't been a part of this rivalry for as long as it's existed. Because as BU fans, we don't have to. No, the team does that for us. Every player that has come through this blood line has dealt with the agony and heartaches for us. We only have a tiny margin of that anger boiling up inside of us. But that tiny bit of anger multiples not only every time we play BC, but every time someone mentions that school. It doesn't matter if there isn't one single Eagle personally making that anger grow, the whole institution serves as a reason to stew. And there is no greater feeling than being able to support our team, turning all that inner BC turmoil into the loudest, blood curdling cheering we can muster.
In reality I had nothing new to tell the Terriers reading this. Everyone already knows and already feels what I've written. But that does not mean it didn't need to be repeated. Every once in a while it's just nice to remember all the reasons you hate the school down the street. Just a few short days until we get to prove it.
As always, Boston College fucking sucks.
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