Friday, June 28, 2013

Guest Post #2 from tAnonymous

Editor's note- Another solid post from our boy tAnonymous. You can read my recap of road venues here but to be honest, tAnonymous' is much more entertaining.

Top 5 “Arenas Away From Home”
Last season, I made sure to complete my very ambitious goal of visiting all of the hockey arenas in Hockey East, and there were a few other trips out of conference as well. I would challenge everyone to do the same if they really want to understand why college hockey is so great and why fans around the country are really into the game as well. Jack Parker Rink at the Agganis Arena is my one true home. Obviously.  I figured I’d put that out there in case anyone had some doubts.  In order to avoid the dreaded BIAS (brought to you by Scott McLaughlin) I decided that it would be better to let you guys know about some of these other places where they play college hockey.  Honestly, road trips are one of the best parts about being a sports fan anyway.  Win or lose, you get to see the crazy support (or lack of support) that some schools get, and you are going to make some great friends in the process.  A huge win on the road is always a fun experience to have under your belt though. As a fan in enemy territory, you basically are forced to make friends pretty quickly, and you will hear some pretty ridiculous things thrown back and forth between fans. BU games are just about always premium games as well, so you’ll at the very least get to participate in a “chuck-a-puck” contest as a reward for your dedication.

My sophisticated system of ranking took a lot of factors into account.  Some of the major things I kept in mind were atmosphere, history, location, seating, sight lines, availability of alcohol, Zamboni performance, degree of high school vibes one gets from the rink, and price of tickets.    

5. Matthews Arena (capacity 4,666), Boston MA: So Northeastern is lucky enough to play in an arena that opened before the sinking of the Titanic, and it really shows at times. The sight lines from the upper deck of the arena are atrocious, and I feel bad for both the Dog House and the House Formerly Known as the Dong House.  Still, if you are a fan of any local Boston team, you should know that your team probably spent some time here at one point or another.  So that’s pretty cool. It’s honestly kind of watching a hockey game at Fenway (who would do something ridiculous like that…oh wait), but there is also the added benefit of getting hit with a puck or empty water bottle from the upper balcony on almost every play of the game. The concourse has probably the best acoustics I’ve witnessed in a hockey arena so make sure to get some chants going and piss some people off.  I give Northeastern fans some credit too for standing behind their irrelevant team with bags over their heads and pride in their hearts, but it’s too bad that there always seems to be a game here when students are home for spring break. Every BU student should find their way down Mass Ave to this arena, making sure to buy some beekeepers from the Mass Ave Tavern on the way(Editor's note: I endorse this message).  I’m fairly certain that tickets barely make it into the double digits, just like their team in the points column. To any Northeastern fans that might be reading this, I have one thing to say to you:  The “Hey Song” (Rock and Roll, Part 2) is dumb, unoriginal (See UMass, UMass Lowell, UNH who do the same exact thing), annoying, and you are better than that. According to a reliable source, Gary Glitter, the creator of the song, was arrested for kiddie porn. Come on. Get a new goal song/cheer (See Zombie Nation or any other song affiliated with the city of Boston).   

4. Ralph Engelstad Arena (capacity 11,643), Grand Forks ND: Going to North Dakota any time soon? No? Well you should really make sure to stop by this arena at least one time in your lifetime.  Then you should make sure to never go back to the state of North Dakota again.  There are some pretty amazing college hockey rinks out west, and it’s amazing the kind of atmosphere you can get at a college hockey game when there is nothing else to do for the next 300 miles in all directions.  In all serious though, going out to the middle of nowhere for 2 hockey games is a lot more fun than it might sound.  At “the Ralph”, you’ll get to sit in premium quality seats no matter where you are in the arena.  Just make sure to watch out for the fireworks that go off after every goal for the (team name removed because it is racist).  I can basically guarantee that all of the 11,000+ seats will be filled(Editor's note: unless it's the first day of hunting season) with fans who occasionally clap/silent-chant in unison. The student section is basically a huge party from what I could tell, and I’m still not sure if they actually watch the game at all.  At the end of the day, the alumni are what really make this experience worthwhile. There are some of the most knowledgeable fans around when it comes to knowing the college game and its intricacies, but you should probably stay away from conversations about religion, politics, and the fact that Ralph Engelstad was a Nazi supporter.  If you get a kick out of intolerance and ignorant rants, then you can just ignore that last part and go for it. “Chelsea Dagger” is a gem of a goal song, and it must be appreciated likewise. Anyway, the price of travel and $40 tickets might steer you away from the (team name removed because it’s still racist), but definitely go if you can afford it.      

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Guest Post by Anonymous 2013 BU Graduate- tAnonymous

Editor's note- Guest post that we just got today. If you send us a post at any point during the year, we will post it 99% of the time. Enjoy.

Class of 2013:  “One for the History Books”

I wish I could convince every BU student, faculty member, alumnus, and friend to go to hockey games.  I really do.  To me, college hockey was college.  It’s where I was home, and people didn’t look twice when I told them I booked tickets to Minnesota (a trip that involved a 9 hour layover period and an overnight Megabus ride from Chicago to Minneapolis both ways) on less than a week’s notice for a sporting event. My loud and awkward nature was generally praised in a sports environment, and I had a pretty cool place to bring my parents when they came to visit me that wasn’t my mound of empty bottles that I somehow called a dorm. I know that I’m never going to be able to convince a lot of people to go to games (and if you are already reading this blog you probably don’t need any convincing anyway), but the guys at BSRS are nice enough to let me try anyway.  So here goes nothing.

Instead of working my way through all of my favorite memories from this hockey season, I decided to narrow the work down a bit with a few Top Moments Lists.  I know, it’s kind of corny and Letterman-esque, but I found that it nearly impossible to sum up an entire year of hockey without sounding long winded, ridiculous, and rather cliché at times anyway. So stay with me here.

At the end of the day, I knew I had to write some sort of reflection on my last year in 118!  Maybe this is a justification for my unhealthy obsession with sports.  I’m sure some of you can relate to me there. Even more, people need to know why I tweeted about an unrequited love for Catamounts, why I wear the same BU hat proudly on days that end in “y”, and why my eyes may or may not have teared up a bit during the last minutes of the Merrimack playoff game at Agganis that sent BU to the Garden again.  If you missed any of the classic moments for BU hockey this year, you should really like this.  If you were there for everything I’m about to talk about, then you should show your friends! Show your dog! Show random kids wearing their orientation lanyards! Or not:

Top 5 Most Exhilarating Moments
5. First Things First: After months of waiting around and getting hyped for my senior year, college hockey was finally back with an exhibition game against the University of Toronto.  I can’t lie that I was really impressed with the turn out, and it’s always fun to laugh at all of the freshman who don’t know a hockey stick from a pencil.  The anticipation of starting my first chant of the year was unbearable, and who wasn’t jumping around well before Jim said my 3 favorite words:  “Let’s play hockey!” I’m not sure if throat calluses are a thing, but I remember losing my voice really early in this one. Fun times. The game was a blowout in favor of the Terriers, but I really just remember the thrill of being back and once again seeing faces, old and new, in a sea of scarlet and white.

4. Hardware On Reserve: After losing two games to UNH already, things were getting tense as BU tried to fend off the season sweep in Durham on a Thursday night in early December.  Really tense.  BU had a 3-2 lead going into the last minutes of regulation, and the Dog Pound had already been hearing quite a bit from the locals.  At least the lights were still working at the Whitt.  Luckily, BU found a way to get on the PK for the last minute with a call on Captain Megan.  It was already bad enough, so why not make it more stressful? Keeping the Ole chant to a reasonable tempo was just not an option. Everyone in the entire arena was on their feet, and even the people in that one row of red seats were going crazy.  The UNH student section didn’t even need their signs and cowbells to coordinate cheers.  But somehow Matt O’Connor was able to keep the puck out of the net, and BU sent a frustrated home crowd back to the woods from where they came.  Did I mention that UNH was the number 1 team in the nation for all of 3 days that week?  So much for that run.

2013 Hatredmeter

This is the 2013 version of the Hatredmeter for each team in the conference. I would do non-conference teams as well but that would take all day thanks to certain schools(looking at you NoDak)

This post is going to focus on which teams I hate most in the conference and why. To clarify, I hate them all but it's fun to rank them accordingly. This may differ for other BU fans and probably will even with my fellow bloggers(Feliz Miguel loves UNH which is quite unfortunate, Hatrick Swayze loves Notre Dame football for some unknown reason) but that's why we have the comment function. However, my guess is that all BU hockey  fans will agree on who is going to come out of this list at #1.

*Notre Dame is being added to conference this season so there are now 10 teams to hate instead of just 9.

10th most hated team(or least hated team in the conference)- UMass- This was a fairly easy decision for me. Their fans may flip me off and yell at me when I'm in Mullins but I fully expect that and respect that from opposing fans. Former coach Toot Cahoon was a BU guy who coached and played for the Terriers. Also former Terrier captain Joe Pereira's younger brother Mike plays for the Minutemen.  Please don't mistake this for me being a fan of their program. Their program is a joke and all their fans leave as soon as the team goes down a goal. They will celebrate like they won the national championship when they beat BU in the regular season because quite frankly, that is as close as they will get. UMass being ranked least hated is basically just admitting that someone has to come in 2nd to BU in the conference this year and if I had to pick, it would be UMass. The really only negative are those jokes from Fight Mass. Last year's ranking- 9

Thursday, June 13, 2013

MWWs Food Reviews: Restaurants

Todays topic is restaurants. You are probably saying to yourself "College kids don't really go out to eat unless it is for a special occasion." Well, yes and no. I'd suggest these places for either a special occasion or just for fun. I am looking at my favorite 3 restaurants in Boston. I judge them by taste, price, and of course location.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Alexx and Jarrid Privitera part ways with BU Hockey Program

                                             Photo Credit to Matt Dresens of the BU Hockey Blog

News broke today that rising junior defenseman Alexx Privitera and incoming recruit Jarrid Privitera would be parting with the BU hockey program. While the reasons still remain unclear, Alexx will certainly be missed on the blueline and the loss of Jarrid will hurt the depth of the forwards.  These losses certainly hurt but thankfully come early enough in the summer for the new coaching staff to cover for.  Alexx posted a 2-10-12 line last year in 23 games before being suspended by now former Coach Parker. He did lead the team in blocked shots for a majority of the season and he will be missed offensively and defensively. The defense will still be the strength of this team next season as they return 4 dmen who saw regular ice time(Noonan, Grzelcyk, MacGregor, and Oksanen) along with their 2 goalies who split starts last season .

2013-2014 BU Hockey Schedule Released

The BU Hockey schedule for the 2013-2014 season was released today by the team. The  regular season begins with an exhibition game on Saturday October 5th against St. Francis Xavier and concludes with a game at Northeastern on March 1st. The highlights of the schedule include matchups with conferences rivals such as BC , UNH and  Maine along with non-league programs such as North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State and Cornell. The Terriers also make their second trip to South Bend, Indiana in three season as Notre Dame joins Hockey East in this coming season.  Here are some games we have circled on our schedules already.

1. Season opener vs UMass 10/11
2. 10/19 vs Wisconsin
3. 10/25 @ Michigan,  10/26 @ Michigan State
4. 11/8 vs BC
5. 11/22, 11/23 vs North Dakota
6. 11/30 Red Hot Hockey vs Cornell at Madison Square Garden
7. 1/17 @ BC
8. Beanpot 2/3, 2/10 First round vs BC
9. 2/21,2/22 @ Notre Dame