By: Dave Cheng, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer

Try telling the teams playing in the Beanpot tournament that the games really don’t mean anything in the grand scheme of the NCAA hockey season.  Just try and you may end up face down on the ground, or ice, depending on where you choose to do so.

Four local teams will square off in the 58th year of the college hockey tournament known as the Beanpot in order to win bragging rights for another year.  Boston College, Boston University, Harvard and Northeastern will lace up their skates and hit the ice (and probably each other) in a one and done style tournament beginning Monday, February 1.

For the Boston University Terriers, who are not only defending Beanpot champions but also defending national champions, the team has the opportunity to make up for what has been a lost season so far.  With high hopes for a repeat championship at the beginning of the year, the team is now sitting three games under .500 at 6-9-2 and are long shots for another national title this season.  The team will look forward to taking some of their frustrations out on their local rivals as some call the tournament the “Boston University Invitational,” and rightfully so as the Terriers have won 29 of the previous 57 tournaments, more than double of BC who is next in line with 14.  BU has won seven titles in the past decade alone.

For the other teams, it’s about upsetting BU, and claiming best of the bean for themselves. It’s about beating the former National Champions. BC should be the favorite this year. They at least have a winning record of 12-8-2, and the best of the four teams, although, they’ve gone 1-2 against BU this season.The Eagles did defeat both Harvard and Northeastern. Northeastern managed to beat the Terriers, but sits below .500 as well with a 10-11-1 record. Harvard, a horrid 5-10-2, has lost to both BU and BC, but hasn’t faced Northeastern yet.

“Coach Parker (BU’s head coach for 37 years) definitely says, ‘Guys who have played here, this means a lot to them.  They watch the games, and they live and die by the games 20 years later,” said BU’s Nick Bonino through an interview with ESPNboston.com.  ”We’re playing for each other, and we’re playing for guys that care that much.  That’s who we want to win it for, too.”

According to ESPN, Bonino grew up just one town over from Northeastern’s Jimmy Driscoll, who played junior hockey with BC’s Ben Smith, who played youth hockey with Harvard’s Doug Rogers.  Rogers played with BC’s Joe Whitney in the fourth grade.  Bonino played prep hockey with BC’s Cam Atkinson.  The point is that many of these players are connected with each other and somehow, some still compete in a regular game in Hingham, Mass., on Thursday nights over the summer.  They may play for rival teams but many are still friends.

“It’s the bragging rights.  The guys from BU, Northeastern, Harvard, we see them all the time. We’ll see them beyond college hockey, also,” Smith told ESPN.  ”Just to know we were one-up on them — especially senior year, too, when you’re all leaders on your teams — to be one-up on those guys, that’s the experience you want to have.”

Bonino couldn’t agree more.

“I know that years down the road we’re going to be talking about these games.  We’ll be talking about the Fenway game. We’ll be talking about the BC games. It’s definitely something you want to be able to say you won. It’s good to have that over a friend of yours.”
So throw out all the records.  BU may not be having the season they expected but they have 29 Beanpot titles.  Not that any of it matters.  In a tournament, it’s win or go home.  Anybody can beat anybody on any given day.  Nothing else matters.  If a team doesn’t show up to play they might as well pack their bags.  Just watch out because something great might happen.

 Loading ...

Popularity: 5% [?]