Boston College and Northeastern kick off their respective Hockey East seasons this weekend and next. In many ways, it will be a season unlike any other.
The schedule is filled exclusively with conference games. There won’t be fans in the stands. And there will be no Beanpot tournament for the Eagles, Huskies, Boston University and Harvard to compete in at TD Garden on the first two Monday nights of February.
Yes, the famed Boston tradition is the latest sporting event being called off due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It is seemingly par for the course in this most unique year as a months-long break on the sports calendar began last March just as the 2019-20 postseason was set to begin in Hockey East and nationally.
The puck is about set to drop on a new season. There is plenty of excitement and thankfulness in that being the case, but this new season certainly has an unusual missing piece.
“The Beanpot is a tournament we’ve all looked forward to for years, but the writing was on the wall,” legendary BC coach Jerry York (Watertown, Mass.) said of a decision made all but official with Harvard and the Ivy League’s season being canceled last week. “We understood that if the Ivies were going to cancel the first half of the year, they could cancel the whole season.
“It’s going to leave a little void in all of us.”
With the cancellation of the tournament that had taken place each winter since 1952, surviving even the wrath of the Blizzard of ’78, Northeastern will get to keep the trophy on Huntington Avenue for another year.
The last few Februarys have been filled with new Beanpot milestones for the Huskies, who broke a 30-year title drought in 2018 and now have won three straight titles for the first time in program history. Monday’s unfortunate news means that captain Zach Solow and his senior classmates won’t have the opportunity to make it a career-long sweep.
“To be the first class to have the chance to go four-for-four in the Beanpot is really special, so the fact that we won’t get that opportunity is heartbreaking,” Solow said. “It’s deflating news for the whole city. We have no control over (the decision), so we’re going to come out with guns blazing in Hockey East so we can get back to the Garden, hopefully, at the end of the season.”
Building up to the start of the season has been a whirlwind. Practices got under way in small groups after the academic year began before progressing toward skating as full teams as the opening games have drawn closer.
For Jordan Harris (Haverhill, Mass.), Solow and the rest of their Northeastern teammates, things got even more real when the Hockey East schedule was released and Nov. 27 became a season-opening date to circle. The Beanpot is one goal on the checklist that won’t come this year, but having a game in the near future is making it easy to keep the mood in the locker room positive.
“Nobody really knew what the season was going to look like or how many games we were going to play, and obviously, the Beanpot getting canceled was a huge bummer,” said Harris, who is one of the Huskies’ assistant captains as a junior. “We’ve been gearing up now, and seeing that schedule come out (last week) was exciting. You just hope that everything works out OK. We’re all excited and just want to play.”
The tournament always was special to Harris, a defenseman whose New England hockey roots included a three-year prep career at Kimball Union. His name is now forever etched into Beanpot lore as he scored the overtime game-winning goal to lift the Huskies past Boston University in last February’s title game.
Getting to relive his goal and the celebration that ensued in the following months allowed Harris to appreciate the Beanpot’s glory that much more, and realize what his teammates new and old will be missing this year.
“You hear all these stories and watch the games on NESN, so to be a part of Northeastern history and Beanpot history, you don’t really expect that,” Harris said. “It doesn’t really hit you until later on, like, ‘Wow, we really accomplished that.’ It really is special to look back on and think about. One of my roommates is a freshman and I have to explain to him that this isn’t always how it is. It’s disappointing for everyone that there won’t be that experience this year, especially our seniors.”
While the pandemic is so much bigger than hockey, there are even bigger on-ice goals than the Beanpot each season.
The Eagles went nine straight games without a loss before last season ended abruptly in advance of a quarterfinal series against Providence and will uncap the new campaign as the No. 2 team in the country. Amidst the uncertainties, the hope still is that all roads will lead to a “trophy season” — as York likes to call it — months down the road.
“It’s definitely tough as a local guy because everyone wants to have a chance to compete in the Beanpot,” BC junior captain Marc McLaughlin (North Billerica, Mass.) said. “I feel badly for our two seniors, Logan Hutsko and Michael Karow, who won’t have the opportunity to play for one again, but we’re just trying to be positive because there are other trophies to chase — hopefully the Hockey East and NCAA championships, so there is even more emphasis on those now.”
But there’s something special about that Beanpot.
“In a year it’ll be back and we’ll be trying to wrestle that trophy away from those Huskies down the street.”
And all will be right in the Boston hockey world again.
