Tag: Hockey East (Page 1 of 2)

Look, Mom! I Rhymed!

12 February, 2010 / Kat

I’ve been seriously slacking on my duties for Beantown Athletic Supporters, and I feel awful about it. But I finally had time today to post a a Hockey East weekend preview, done personal ad style due to the Valentine’s Day holiday. The reason why I’m linking to it here is because I think it’s pretty funny, and because in one of the faux ads, I rhymed. Yes, rhymed. When I studied creative writing in high school, rhyming was a struggle for me. Allteriation? Can do it. Sing-song? I can do it. Rhyming? Failed miserably.

Despite my past failure, in my Northeastern-Providence personal ad preview, I rhymed quite effectively. My creative writing teachers would be so proud of me…if only they knew what I was talking about college hockey wise (although Mr. Painting would demonstrate his brain full of football knowledge if you egged him on.)

Good Dogs Gone Bad

6 December, 2009 / Kat

Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer.

This weekend, Agganis Arena kept running promotions for an event next weekend with Cesar Millan, the “Dog Whisperer.” (Aka, a dog behavior expert that dog owners turn to once they realize that raising a dog may, in fact, take actual work.)

My immediate thought during the first ad Friday night was, “Gosh, Jack Parker could use a Dog Whisperer. He’s got a whole roster of Terriers that keep giving him trouble.”

What would happen if during his Agganis visit next weekend, Millan spent some time analyzing the problems of this year’s Terrier team? I think it might go something like this:

Parker: I can’t believe I’m turning to you.

Millan: Oprah does.

Parker: Fine. I guess I’m desperate. As I mentioned in my post-game comments after Friday’s tie to Vermont, “my team does not know how to get ready for a hockey game.” They then went on to emphasize that point with a 4-1 loss against BC on Saturday. What changed between my 2009 national champions and this team?

Millan: If you watch my television show, you’ll know I am all about owners quitting babying their dogs. If you baby your pets, they’ll walk all over you and develop behavior problems that you’ll end up paying me thousands to fix. I see you with somewhat of the same problem – this team is walking all over you.

As hard nosed as you are, you lost a huge part of your bite when a coach’s dream of a captain, Matt Gilroy, graduated. His age and superhuman-esque determination gave you an extra coach in the locker room. And let’s not forget about John McCarthy, a quiet, but impactful leader, especially among his classmates. Then you had that whole senior class – essentially, you had five or six captains.

According to many accounts (including a close reading of Burn the Boats), Gilroy and McCarthy did a lot of your coaching for you last season. They called out guys when they got lazy. They set the tone at practices. They instilled the goal-setting mindset of the team as a whole. You also allowed them much more reign than other captains had. And with this age group, acceptance by peers can be much more powerful than by authority figures, giving your captains that much more clout. Continue reading

Everyone Say, “Awww…”

22 March, 2009 / Kat

In reading the coverage this evening from Boston University winning the Hockey East Championship, I came across this photo in the Boston Herald:

Brandon Yip, Chris Higgins and Jason Lawrence celebrate BU's Hockey East Championship (Photo: Boston Herald)

I immediately thought of the following photo that I had featured in my blog last month. Wow, isn’t the above picture strangely familiar to this picture from their freshman year, isn’t it?

Lawrence, Higgins and Yip celebrate their first Beanpot win as freshmen in 2006. (Photo: Jamd.com)

Let’s all feel nostalgic and old now, shall we? Sniffle, sniffle.

Hanging Out in the Cheap Seats – The Hockey East Semifinal Liveblog

20 March, 2009 / Kat

I hate Duke. Darn dominant college basketball power…you know, Duke, you’ve had enough wins and titles and all of that. Why not just share the wealth? Let a team like Binghamton win once. Really, Coach K, don’t you want to like, take a vacation or something?

Now that I’ve gotten that bitterness out of my system, let me introduce you to the …On Being a Sports Girl Hockey East Semifinal Live Blog. I’m going to be there from the very beginning of the UMass Lowell Red & Blue Pigeons versus Northeastern Stick-Throwers game till the very end of the Boston University versus Boston College game. I honestly enjoy being in an arena for hours and hours on end, especially during early tournament games where I have like an entire section of the Garden to myself.

So to help out those of you unable to join me at the TDBanknorth Garden tonight, I’ll be sharing my witty observations (like if BC’s band breaks out any new pep band renditions of hip-hop songs) here through CoverItLive. I may not be delivering hard-hitting hockey analysis – I mean, I could if I wanted to, but what’s the fun in that? – but who needs that when I can muse about the fact that a riverhawk is really a pigeon?

Oh, but I will provide play-by-play at one point tonight – my favorite event of the Hockey East season, the Annual Mascot Game. My money is on the Skating Monk of Providence College – he had a rough year, and he may be out for revenge. I was hoping that Bananas the Bear might not be as depressed as he was last year, but I think he might be even more. Bummer Bananas – you really could be a contender in this game, especially if you pick up the patented Simon Danis-Pepin defense of literally sitting on the forward closest to you. Oh, and the Merrimack Warrior will inexplicably show up. Who invited him?

Oh wait, they’re still in our league? Oops.

Well, friends, join me at 4:30pm for what looks to be quite the evening of hockey.

<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=a6d29e7e7e" >Hockey East Semifinals – The View from the Cheap Seats</a>

And Your Leading Goal Scorer for the Terriers As Of Tonight Is…

24 January, 2009 / Kat

Bad cell phone photo, but it'll do.

A-Number-Twenty-One, on your left.

BU decimated the University of New Hampshire Wildcats tonight, 5-0. This is not always a good thing, for the two teams meet again Saturday evening, and when UNH gets angry, they get…angry. Like, I may be assaulted by a smelly, slimy, dead trout when I walk into the Whittamore Center Saturday evening with my BU hockey jersey on. At least my cat will want to cuddle with me afterward.

Have I mentioned that I love this hockey team? Holy heck – they’re fast, they’re great penalty killers and they try so hard most of the time. This team is amazing. There’s nothing else you can say. In the mobs of people exiting the arena after the games, you just hear people in awe talking about what they’ve just watched. Tonight I heard about six people as I left the arena use the word dominance. That might be what this is. I prefer the word fun. This is fun.

I’ll report back from New Hampshire. Check the Twitter feed to your right for in game updates Saturday night.