Re: Wednesday Women is back
So you're saying there's not a chance?
Ha no there is not.
It's all a matter of perspective really. When I was a student (I graduated in 2010), even though we made the Frozen Four in 2007, the idea of winning a national championship just wasn't on the radar. Like, yeah, we made the Frozen Four, and yeah, as the Frozen Four was happening, you think hey just gotta win two and we're champions! But the actual idea of winning a national title was pretty much unfathomable.
Back in those days, winning the Beanpot was a massive deal to us, because it represented the biggest accomplishment that we as a program had ever achieved. I wasn't a student when we won our first, but when we won in 2007 after beating Harvard in 3OT... I mean, that was really the peak of glory for BC's program at the time. It was only then topped that same season by making our first Frozen Four.
I remember that until we actually won Hockey East, winning the league was "The Dream." It was the highest possible, attainable goal that I could see us reaching. Every single year it was "we just have to beat UNH once to win" (except WHEAs were always held at Lake Whitt, where UNH for a long time had never lost a league home game, literally ever, so it looked even harder to do than it should have).
It's crazy how if you shoot for the moon and you actually reach the moon, you won't be happy until you hit the starts (at least for me). Winning the Beanpot RULED... but then it was just sort of an everyday goal from there. Winning the league was all I wanted to see when I was a student. Then we won the league in 2011, and since then, especially since we make the Frozen Four most years, it's so much less of a big deal to win the league -- like the Beanpot, it's just sort of... not expected, but just the a regular goal. Now it's "National Title Or I Can't Be Happy." Again, this is me, personally.
This is why I always say I would be able to enjoy this season (and future less-than-great seasons, like next year when we probably won't be Elite Tier) if we had just won that national title the year we were undefeated. There's no "stars" past a national title. There's always that to fall back on. And yeah, once you want one, you want more, but looking at it from my perspective with the men's team, when we won the national title my senior year, I can pretty much "oh well" my way through any bad season, because I always have that Top Of The Top feeling to think about.
So in the context of the Women's Beanpot -- I know BU's won the league (way too many times, IMO), but I can see them feeling like this Beanpot is worth as much as another league title would be. When you never, ever, ever, ever can get something... boy, you really want it.
And not to be disrespectful here, but "winning a national title" is probably not "on the radar" for them. Yeah, they will say that, and they could, in theory, you just have to make it and win three games, but I could see BU feeling like finally, finally, finally winning the Beanpot feels like winning a national title, given that a national title is realistically out of reach for a mid-tier program until there's a little more parity. If we had broken through and won a league title while I was a student, yeah, I would have felt like we won the national championship, because being a league champion was the highest level I ever expected the program to take me.
--------By the way, as a semi-related aside.... our senior year, 2010, we were pretty bad (easily the worst season since I'd started watching and easily the worst season we've had since). And to that point we
still!!!!!! had never beaten UNH at Lake Whitt. Ever! As a program! Ever! How ridiculous is that?!
2009-2010 UNH marked the beginning of the decline of the Wildcats, but mid-season 2010 they were still really good, they'd won every league title in my memory of the program (4 straight at that point), and they were still defending champions. Let me tell you, going up to UNH in that 2nd to last weekend of the year... scoreless into the 3rd... Allie scores one and then Danielle Welch crushes a slapshot off the iron and in to make it 2-0 late... God, winning that game was almost as big a deal to me and Joe as winning a trophy.
