Well, thanks to a boatload of ties, Boston College has secured top spot in the Hockey East standings at the end of the regular season. Meanwhile, my boys at BU edged New Hampshire in the last game of the season to grab the number two spot. That sets up a three game series against the Providence Friars in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs:
BU also faced the Friars in the quarterfinals in 2002 and 2003, both series that BU won. BU swept the Friars in three games this year, including two 3-2 wins and a 4-2 win in which BU scored an empty net goal as time expired.
The odds sound good to me, but Coach Parker (who will soon share his name with the rink on which his teams skates) is always cautious – or at least politically correct:
"I don't see any home-ice team being a shoo-in," said BU coach Jack Parker. "It's a tough league."
Now I need to get me one of the new old school third jerseys (perhaps with Chris Bourque's number)...
The plan is to have the team wear the uniforms on various special occasions. "Once in a while, yeah," Parker said. "Although I think if a lot of people like them, we might use them a little bit more. We might take the negative of them and make the white uniform to use as our home jersey once in a while. But we will not get rid of our traditional 'Detroit' look."
Yeah, that "Detroit look" has almost gotten me into some bother here in Colorado. I've sported my Chris Drury sweater around town a couple times and heard several grumbles along the lines of "That better not be a Red Wings jersey..."