Someone told me the other day that this would be a great sports book if
someone decided to write it - sports superstitions.  Nice that people brought
it up.  Great job by Melanie to type in Doyle's article.  This is a fun topic.
 
Bruce Racine, former All-America goalie (twice) at Northeastern, had a
pregame routine.  He'd walk down to the John Hancock Tower, take the elevator
to the top and look at the city for a few minutes, then ride back down to the
floor where all the flags of different nations are hanging, get off and salute
the Canadian flag, then come back down and meet his girlfriend at an ice cream
shop and have an ice cream soda with her - three straws, not two.
 
Another former Huskie, Dave Buda, stopped by our apartment one day at 4:00
to get a book on the way to the rink.  He had two goals and three assists that
night.  For the next couple of weeks, Dave would suddenly show up at 4:00
and just sit around for a while, then go to the rink.  That stopped when he
began to cool off (had something like 17 points in his first six games that
year).  Good thing or else we'd have had to make him a key.
 
In 1988, former NU center Tommy Bivona forgot his skates on the way to the
Garden for the Beanpot championship game against BU.  The other manager had to
take the T back to NU, pick up the skates, and bring them to the Garden.  Tommy
had a great game and NU won the Beanpot.  Tommy tried to get the guy to take
his skates to the Garden and back before the next game, but he wouldn't
do it. :-)
 
Another great Huskie goalie, Rich Burchill, would *always* suddenly leave the
ice and return to the locker room with exactly 1:30 left in warmups.
 
It's not restricted to players, either.  I used to have lucky ties when I
was managing Northeastern.  That carried over to when I came to Merrimack,
but we lost 24 games our first year and it was getting too expensive to keep
buying ties.  Although, I have had lucky turtlenecks this year.  Some of
them seem to work, but there's a weird pattern in there (like only on Fridays)
that I haven't been able to figure out yet...I do still pick up two roast
beef sandwiches on my way to home games, one for me and one for SID Jim
Seavey.  I used to call and see if he wanted one, then when we were winning
I didn't even bother to ask him.
 
Before games, I used to sit in the same seat of every rink we went to - my
lucky number is 3, so section 3/C, row 3/C, seat 3.  Even in the Garden.  I
think I am one of the few people who can say I've sat in 3/3/3 of every rink
in the East (except, now, Cheel).  Oh, before you try it - it doesn't work. :-)
 
Dan Roche (play-by-play) has been going to the Loft (local restaurant) before
announcing Merrimack games.  When MC had a decent streak going a few weeks
ago, he even had it down to getting the same coffee and Reese's bar for
pregame from the same concession stand window.  Two weeks ago, Merrimack was
crushed at home by Maine - Dan said it was because he found out later that
Maine had eaten at the Loft that day too, so it negated his eating there.
Unfortunately there was no Loft in Orono two days later. :-)
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Mike Machnik    [log in to unmask]   mikem@{beanpot,bubba}.ma30.bull.com