This spring, we all lived a dream come true. We all had the pleasure of watching the men’s hockey team show their muscle around the country and eventually win the national championship this April. You might remember the tough weekend in late January when Maine easily handled the Eagles and dealt them a double loss – the product of an up-and-down month, and their first and only double loss of the season – but the two months that ensued made up for it in a big way.
Straight into the 60th Annual Beanpot, where the BC hockey team dominated for the third year in a row, and into a round of home wins including Jerry York’s 900th, a few sold-out Conte Forums, and a couple of absolutely dictating wins over Vermont and Providence thrown in there for good measure, the tightly bound team of some of BC’s best athletes never looked back. In fact, for those two-plus months, they didn’t have time to look back, or to look forward, or to look to their left or their right. With one goal in mind – a national championship – the players focused their time and energy on each other, on Coach, and on the game.
But that all changed quickly this April. Some of us suffered watching the games on TV, others of us were lucky enough to be the screaming fans that ESPN featured on TV in the stands in Tampa as BC handled the University of Minnesota and Ferris St. University seemingly with ease, and we all had the chance to celebrate with them as they arrived back on the Heights with a new addition to the “Jerry York Hardware Store,” as Senator John Kerry so eloquently put it. But as Senator Kerry and Fr. Leahy were giving speeches about the team and their togetherness and focusing on the great success that they had attained throughout the season, some of the players had already closed that chapter of their hockey careers. As the floor was open to the students and the spectators to get autographs from their favorite BC hockey players, some of those favorites were already on their way out – on a plane or in a car to a new city, a new team, to a career, to a future.
Within 48-hours of winning the men’s ice hockey national championship, five of the key factors in the season signed contracts with professional teams to further their careers in the hockey world, and pursue the dreams they set out for themselves when they were the pee-wee hockey team at a small rink in their hometowns. Paul Carey ’12 has signed with the Colorado Avalanche, and Barry Almeida has done the same with the Washington Capital’s AHL team the Hershey Bears. Team captain Tommy Cross is in the process of commuting back and forth between BC and Providence as a member of the Boston Bruin’s AHL team the Providence Bruins. The bigger but some would say more inevitable news was the signing of Brian Dumoulin to the Carolina Hurricans organization via the Charlotte Checkers, and Chris Kreider’s long-awaited signing into the New York Rangers organization. And since that initial burst of good (however sad for the spectator) news, senior Chris Venti signed a try-out contract with the Florida Everblades, the East Coast Hockey League affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Regardless of the fact that some of the changes to the face of the BC Hockey team were inevitable – seniors do unfortunately have to graduate and move on from BC eventually, however tragic that might sound – though, the absence of these familiar faces already on campus and their presence in things like AHL hockey highlights and the Stanley Cup Playoffs is very bittersweet for those here on the Heights. Watching Barry Almeida score a goal in mere second shift as a professional hockey player, and seeing Chris Kreider be interviewed at the intermission in periods during the Rangers play-off game after the playing time he’s been receiving to contribute to their Stanley Cup run fills the BC Hockey fan with pride.
When a professor, however, wants to turn back the paper Tommy Cross wrote before the national championship victory only to say “Oh, is Tommy playing in a professional hockey game tonight or something?” when he sees his empty desk in the classroom, or seeing a hockey player-filled table in Lower Live during late night with key members missing in action – it’s hard not to notice the absence of these campus celebrities as we go through our day to days.
Of course, though, we wish all of the guys the best of luck in the next chapter of their lives and their hockey careers. We hope they find teams as special as this one has been with teammates that mean as much to them as their BC teammates have and will continue to. We wish them goals on the professional level, Stanley Cups and successful lives, and we wish them happiness wherever they find themselves – whether they’re playing hockey or not. You will always have a home on the Heights, on Kelly Rink, in Conte Forum, in O’Neill Library and in Lower Live, and the national championship you won for us as will always be part of our Boston College memory banks. So thank you, BC Hockey ’11-12 and especially those that have already left, for everything: For the wins, the losses, the celebrations, the CEO 4 Teens hats, the national championship(s), and everything in between. You are staples of Heights life, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
And to any NHL scout or agent or coach that’s reading this – we’re keeping Parker Milner.