PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Yeah, that makes sense.

While helping good buddy Chris Stango on the radio last Saturday night, I saw something that just made me shrug my shoulders.

Providence, trailing 2-0, scores a goal to climb back within one and two dead fish come flying on the ice.

Dead fish? You have got to be joking.

“What the hell do dead fish have to do with the Friars?” I asked Stango, who informed me that fish is a message to the goalie to literally fish the puck out of the net. It started in New Hampshire he tells me.

Now, I know there are certain sports fan rules to abide by. In fact, there’s one in mind right now. In order to be a sports fan, mainly football or hockey, you just root for your team by any means necessary.

But here’s an idea … HAVE A POINT. C’mon Providence, you can do better than that. You’re at a solid school where academics are merely shadowed by the school’s willingness to provide the public with good sports teams, but you should still be able to come up with something better than that.

I’m not saying that, as Friars, you should all take a moment to sing a hymn, but for goodness sakes, give us, the Northeastern fans, something to remember. Take some pointers from the Dog House, which still ranks as THE best road and home crowd in Hockey East.

I will say this. They did throw a half container of iced tea onto the Matthews Arena surface before Scott Selig fired what was, by far, the best slap shot of the night sending the container up against the boards in disgust.

The bottom line? Compared to the Dog House, Providence, your fans are a joke. I can’t stand teams whose fans try so hard to gain an identity only to fall short and look stupid doing so.

I don’t like Boston University fans, but they are some of the toughest in the land. They are on you from warm-ups to the final bell and they know everything about your immediate family. I love BC fans because of their Super Fans shirts and the fact that they go to every sporting event on the campus. Maine fans? C’mon! Anyone who drives five hours down to Boston to see their team play deserves respect.

Even the Lowell fans show some fire, especially that annoying dude with the rotating red-lighted scepter. Even he has some credibility in my mind.

But Providence, you’re killing me. You’re always a solid hockey team and have been for the last decade-plus. You’re known as “Sin-city.” Hell, half the rappers and singers in this world mention you in their lyrics. You gotta do better than that. Merrimack has an excuse because they have a shoddy team and Amherst will get better once people realize the resources they have, a.k.a., the Mullins Center. UNH is just nuts and, by the way, don’t think I’d go without saying the Whittamore Center is the toughest place to play in Hockey East.

But Providence, you’re just…there. You throw dead fish on the ice, fill half of your 3,000 seat “arena” and probably don’t gain a lot of respect when you come to play our teams.

Maybe if you all decided on a slogan after scoring goals. Maybe if you got a group of student fans, sat them down, preferably in the same part of the arena, and came up with something, then maybe you could scare some people.

Now I know why the Huskies don’t play well in there. It’s too quiet.

Hey Providence, can you feel that? YES, YES, YES!

In the Locker room:

Speaking of rituals, you gotta love this one. The University of Pennsylvania throws burnt toast on the field at football games. No butter … On my way to cover a soccer game for the Globe when Art Smith took the opening kickoff 104 yards to put NU ahead 6-0 against Villanova on Saturday. I was screaming so hard, I almost didn’t have enough of a voice to conduct interviews for the soccer game.