In life, there are exactly three things you should never believe in: Santa Claus, those CD clubs that promise an entire collection of music for a fraction of a penny … and the Northeastern men’s hockey team.
The reason for the last of the three, however, might surprise you. NU, off to its worst start in the 72-year history of the program, isn’t worthy of fan faith not because they’re bad, but because they’re a quality club that manages to lose games more often than people from New Jersey misspell the word ‘cat’ – which is to say, quite often.
There is literally no reason for the current version of the Huntington Hounds to sit in last place in Hockey East with an appalling overall record of 0-9-2. None.
Don’t believe me? Ask Dick Umile and Jerry York, two of the most respected college hockey coaches in the game.
“It’s a good win for us, Bruce has his team playing well,” said New Hampshire coach Dick Umile after his team’s 3-2 win on Nov. 21. “There’s a real fine line between winning and losing in this league. Those guys play as hard as anyone in the league. That’s a good hockey team.”
What about Umile’s Boston College counterpart?
“I’m a bit surprised they haven’t won a game yet, because that was a good club we played,” York said after his team’s 4-2 win over Northeastern on Saturday. “They’re going to be dangerous as the year goes on.”
Surely these coaches are just being diplomatic, though. Right?
The problem is, neither of these bench bosses said anything like that last year, when Northeastern was every bit as bad as the 10-21-3 record they ended the year with – at least not with nearly the conviction as during the current year.
But why, you ask, is the team still winless then?
I have no idea.
Why did they lose twice to UMass-Lowell, a team that plays only one junior and one senior game in and game out?
No clue.
Why can’t they score more than two goals, or keep five pucks out of their own net every time they take the ice?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Why does uber-talent Mike Morris, just a year removed from being selected in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft, have just one goal a third of the way through the season? And how come Jason Guerriero, who entered the year with 48 assists in his first two years at NU, had yet to register a single dish before Saturday’s game with Boston College?
Sorry, I’m still scratching my head on that one too.
The reason I’m so, well, devoid of answers isn’t because I’m a moron (although most would agree with that statement). It’s because there simply aren’t any.
The fact remains, the 28 athletes in Northeastern’s locker room are talented hockey players.
Goaltender Keni Gibson, who struggled earlier in the year, has strung together a month’s worth of quality games, stopping 38 saves against Boston College Saturday – many of them spectacular in fashion.
Freshmen defensemen Bryan Cirullo and Steve Birntstill are both offensively savvy and can skate like a cool summer breeze.
Offensively, NU has worked a good power play thus far, had strong puck movement and set up quality shots, but only has a shooting percentage of .075 to show for it.
With that said, it’s easy to point the finger at coach Bruce Crowder, who, in his eighth year at the helm of NU hockey, has a career record of 193-220-45. But that’s not the answer either, because he’s a good coach and one of the sharpest hockey minds in the nation.
That’s just the thing. There’s nothing Husky fans can do. They’re hopeless. There’s no answer, no magic move that will get NU out of its funk. Basically, they’re sentenced to sit and wait for the stench of losing to wash itself away one day, quietly into the night.
And to think of the poor Northeastern fans, who surely figured things could have never sunk further than last year’s last place Hockey East finish – boy were they wrong.
On Saturday, NU takes on Vermont, a team that somehow has a record worse than the Huskies at 0-10-2. Northeastern should pummel the Catamounts into the ground like a nail in a tent.
But they won’t.
In a year of sure things gone awry, a win over an awful Vermont team just wouldn’t fit with the motif around Huntington Avenue. Nah, a loss seems like a better fit for this tough-luck bunch.
Oh, and by the way, I assume no responsibility for my season preview column, in which I pegged Crowder’s bunch to finish sixth in Hockey East. I still truly believe they’re the sixth best team in the league, despite any standings that indicate otherwise.
Come to think of it, maybe we can add a fourth thing to that list: hockey previews penned by Jack Weiland.
– Jack Weiland may be reached at [email protected] He may be heard every Wednesday from 12-1 p.m. on WRBB 104.9 FM’s “Newstime.”
