Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!
I really enjoyed the Beanpot regardless of the results. I left my office at 3pm and had no traffic on the Pike or Storrow drive and made it to the pre-game festivities at Johnnies West End Grill (owned by an NU alum) in time for 3 hours of free food and free trinkets courtesy of the NU Alumni Association who put on a great event, I would bet there were a few hundred in attendance. I met Clay Witts mom and drank beers with Soucerman’s Dad and wished every one the best of luck. Also note worthy, a group of the players form the early 1960’s were in the bar celebrating the 50 years from their MSG win in the NCAA holiday tournament that surprised the entire hockey world and ranked NU #1 in the nation for the 1st time ever 12/28/64 a feat that would not be repeated until 1980, when the team came out of the blocks 12 -0 before finishing 13-13-1. Also that 1963 to 1965 team is the only team in NU hockey history to post three >.500 seasons in a row, and that my fact my fellow hockey faithful is part of the problem with our program.
My seats were near the NU band and far from the ice between kids who I realized they were not even born in 1988 the last time the last time we won. LOL! I would have liked a win but we battled and won 2 periods of that hockey game but lost the war, that happens a lot in NU hockey. Overall, I thought our Huskies played fairly well. Clay made some great saves, and while I can’t fault him for any of the goals, he didn’t have his best night. In order to beat BU, he would need to play nearly perfect between the posts. BU rolls lines of NHL caliber players and some of the best blue chip college players in the nation and we don’t have that luxury. We have some great talent and tremendous heart and could do some damage in the HE or even the NCAA tournament.
Given where we were on two months into the season, you would have to call this a fairly successful season in terms of NU seasons. I mean when you have only had 4 or 5 20 win seasons in 85 years, a 15 or 16 win season is respectable. I have come to accept that it will be unlikely that we will ever be able to compile wins and NCAA tournament bids the likes of the way, BU and BC do. The reasons are varied and can't be extrapolated in the context of this forum. That subject would require its own blog topic. LOL!
However, we will compete, play hard and continue to be respected, a team that nobody wants to play who can steal 2 points on any given weekend night and that is going to have to be good enough. We will eventually steal a beanpot! Hopefully it will happen in my lifetime but lets face it we aren’t going to win 4 or 5 a decade like BU and BC do. That’s ok!
As far as the call, I was too far away to complain at the time, but will admit that after I saw it later on TV in slow motion, I believe it a marginal call at that point of the game. At that point of the game, a good referee has to put his whistle away on that play. I hate to say that a penalty is a penalty, but it's not! In the 1st period when nothing is yet on the line you might call it. You can call that any other time and it would still be a marginal call in the mind of may old school referees, but it may be valid call. However in my view it was not a severe enough infraction to allow for a call at that point of the game. I have refereed hundreds of games in the 1990’s and anyone who is a referee knows what I mean. That call changed the outcome of the game and the game should have been given the opportunity to be decided in 5 on 5 OT.
In a brighter note I am now hoping for my son‘s Wellesley team, who just missed a Super 8 bid, to win a home game this week as they got a #2 seed in the MIA South against Bridgewater-Raynham, in what could be his last bid before he is off for his PG year to play better hockey in the NEPSHIA.
As for this weekend, any points against BU would be welcome but it's going to be difficult. Although, I expect we could win a few games or more in the HE tournament, but would need to go deep for any NCAA bid potential. Looking back with all the early losses, it was the loss at UMASS and the game they dropped to Maine this past weekend that will likely do them in for the Pairwise. Also, I wanted to mention the organizers of the Beanpot in conjunction with TD Garden flew the Huskies back from Orono on Saturday night and also did the same for Harvard who were up in Potsdam to remove 6 hours bus trips and help level the playing field. In the end, their kind gesture didn't matter for either team.
