Blame the NCAA rules committee, a new arena or (if you dare) Boston University men’s ice hockey coach Jack Parker, if you have to. But midnight is no longer about madness for the Icedogs.
For the first time in 16 years, BU hockey won’t ring in the new season at the stroke of midnight. Instead – due to a combination of an NCAA rule change and decisions made by the BU athletic department – the Terriers will hit the ice at Agganis Arena for Hockey Mania Saturday at 6 p.m. to kick off the 2005-06 season, replacing what has been Midnight Mania since 1989.
The event will still feature many of the promotions fans have come to expect, including free T-shirts for the first 2,000 fans, a skills competition featuring BU players and an intrasquad scrimmage. Yet, in an attempt to draw even more fans than the usual 1,000 or so that showed up for Midnight Mania at Walter Brown Arena, the athletic department has also included free food at arena concession stands and an opportunity for students to skate with BU players following the scrimmage.
In past years, the NCAA allowed hockey teams to begin their seasons at 12:01 a.m. on the specified start date each year (hence Midnight Mania), but prior to the start of this season, it ruled teams can only officially begin at 7:01 p.m., according to BU’s assistant director of athletic communications, Christy Jeffries.
Concerned the event would not attract enough fans at Agganis Arena (6,300 seats compared to the 3,800 Walter Brown held), the athletics department took the opportunity to move the start time back a few hours to hopefully pull in a larger crowd. Though Parker said he wasn’t aware of the rule change, he said Hockey Mania was created for more than one reason.
“We open up the season so quickly and so soon after that practice that we needed to get a better deal out of our real practices the next couple days,” said Parker, who is entering his 33rd season as the Terriers’ head coach. “The next couple practices [after Midnight Mania], we didn’t get much out of the guys because they were up until 1:30 in the morning. It’s one thing being up ’til 1:30 watching TV, but it’s another to be jacked up after a practice with a big crowd and all that stuff.
“I thought another factor was that the new rink presented a different set of circumstances for us,” he added. “We could entertain the fans – the students – differently.”
Parker described Midnight Mania as a “Walter Brown tradition,” and that the move to Agganis and Hockey Mania is simply a new one. Though there is no guarantee more fans will come to the earlier time slot, he said that really isn’t the most important aspect of the event.
“If you put 1,200 people in a 6,300-seat arena, it doesn’t look that good and it doesn’t sound that good,” Parker said. “But if we only have [that many] here, it’s an intimate gathering to say ‘Thank You’ to those fans. In order to have the same feel at Walter Brown, we would have to guarantee ourselves almost 3,500 to show up for Midnight Mania and we know we’re not going to get that.”
Originally, BU players were informed that Midnight Mania was going to be done away with altogether, said goalie John Curry, but after learning of its replacement, “no one’s too upset about it anymore.”
“It will be different this year, but I think it’s for the better because in previous years it’s been at Walter Brown and you can have less people in there and it still would be pretty loud,” Curry said. “As long as we have something for the fans, it’s always a great time. The fact that it’s not at midnight the night before, it’s not the biggest deal in the world.”
The Terriers finished last season second in Hockey East with a 23-14-4 record (15-5-4 in league action) and reached the NCAA Tournament before being eliminated by North Dakota, 4-0, in the first round.
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