So, the other day, I got into this little back-and-forth with my cousin. You know how family things go. He was talking up his old college, acting like they were hockey legends back then. I was pretty sure my old school, a solid Hockey East team, had a better showing around the time we were discussing. I just had to set the record straight, or at least try.
Pulled out the tablet, thought I’d just yank up the NCAA Hockey East rankings for that specific season. Should be simple, right? Well, hold on a sec. First, you gotta wade through a ton of different sites, everyone’s got their own way of showing things now. Took me a solid few minutes just to find a decent spot for older stats. It’s not like just grabbing the sports section from the diner counter anymore, let me tell ya.
Anyway, I finally dug up what I was after. And guess what?
- My team did alright, but maybe not the powerhouse I was painting them as in my head.
- His team, which wasn’t even in Hockey East as it turned out – a key part of my argument – was, well, let’s just say he was remembering things very fondly.
- But the thing that really got me was seeing all those familiar names, those classic rivalries laid out.
It wasn’t really about being right in our little squabble anymore. Seeing those rankings, team names like Boston University, Providence, Northeastern… it just teleported me back. I clearly remembered one particular game; we’d driven a couple of hours through some nasty sleet. The arena was absolutely jammed, people yelling their heads off. We got beat, and not by a little. But the vibe, man. The sheer intensity around those college teams and their spot in the standings. That was something special.
My cousin was still rambling on, but I was lost in thought, thinking about how much those games, those rankings, meant to us when we were younger. It’s wild how a straightforward list of team standings can flood you with all those memories. We didn’t have all the slick websites and instant updates back then, mostly just box scores in the paper or catching a late-night highlight if you were lucky. Different era, I guess. Or maybe I’m just showing my age. Either way, I ended up spending another half hour just browsing through old season stats after he left. Was it useful? Not really. Was it a nice trip down memory lane? You bet.
