By: Alex Faust, News Staff

Sometimes, I really hate January.

The weather is disgusting, there’s no baseball, the NBA and NHL are mired in regular season dullness (though you wouldn’t have known it with some exciting wins for the B’s and C’s over the long weekend), and the Super Bowl is still weeks away. Luckily, on the college sports side of things, January is usually when hockey season picks up the pace and the basketball conference schedule ramps up.

Unfortunately, the men’s basketball team (which fellow columnist Jared Shafran tasked with saving an otherwise miserable Northeastern sports season) has fallen flat, men’s hockey is below .500, women’s basketball remains irrelevant, and women’s hockey can’t quite put together the “big” win, this January.

So, January means the approach of something else altogether. That rumble in the distance you hear is the Beanpot. Believe it or not, we’re less than three weeks away from the first Monday in February. Student tickets for the tournament go on sale this Saturday, and last night we got a preview of the opening round game against Harvard.

Already I’m hearing the ubiquitous question: “So, do you think we’ve got a shot at the Beanpot this year?”

My answer: I don’t want to think about it.

Listen, there are more important things to worry about right now.

Quietly, the Huskies’ conference record (6-7-3) is better than it was this time last year (6-10-1). Despite the abysmal, embarrassing, undignified losses to three Atlantic Hockey teams, all of that is well behind us. The Huskies sit in sixth place in the league and are on track to return to the Hockey East playoffs.

Besides, Northeastern’s record in this tournament isn’t exactly what you’d call stellar: Since 1988, the Huskies have made the tournament final a grand total of five times. Four of those five times, the path to the title game has gone through the Harvard Crimson. On top of that, not since 1988 have the Huskies beaten Boston University. Not once. Not even in a consolation game.

Then again, despite all this, there’s half of me that secretly can’t wait for the Beanpot to arrive. Despite the obvious reasons why I should loathe the tournament, the thought of “What if?” creeps into my head.

Every year, the same wistful proclamations are made: “If we win, campus is going to be nuts.” I’m sure many of us will be daydreaming of riots along Huntington Avenue in the coming weeks.

The self-restraint involved with ignoring the building hype will get tougher as the month rolls on.
Ticket sales will be brisk on Saturday – they always are. But I’ll find a way to ignore it all: There is work to be done. Yes, back to the bone-chilling cold of January, to the half-empty Barn on St. Botolph Street for another conference game. It’s a Saturday night home game against Maine. Two points are on the line, the stage is set for a potential upset…
Is it February yet?