End of Beanpot, Not of Season

Relax, Harvard fans. It ain’t over yet.

In fact, the season is—despite Monday night’s heartbreaking 2-1 double-overtime loss to Northeastern in the Beanpot’s opening round—nowhere near over.

That may be hard to see right away. This was, after all, supposed to be the year for the Crimson to shake its Beanpot hex, stake its claim to the title “Best in Boston,” then challenge for a national title, or at least advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

And now? Many are undoubtedly asking, “How can Harvard possibly compete, much less succeed, against college hockey’s crème de la crème when—in a playoff setting, with just three weeks remaining until the post-season—the Crimson couldn’t even dispatch the relatively feeble Huskies?”

But those who would suddenly hop down off the Harvard bandwagon on the basis of just one unfortunate showing are sorely mistaken in exaggerating the importance of Northeastern’s victory, which was, as far as the standings go, nothing more than a non-conference loss. Obviously such results are to be avoided whenever possible, but each is, when viewed individually, by no means a deal-breaker.

That’s not to downplay the importance of a Beanpot title, or the cachet associated with it. But at this stage in the ECAC schedule, with Harvard tied with Colgate and just three points behind Cornell in the standings and jockeying for playoff positioning, a loss to, say, Rensselaer would be far more meaningful in the long run.

“[Losing in the Beanpot] is still something that’s really disappointing,” senior Rob Flynn said. “But, at the same time, we have the chance this weekend to pick up some more points in our league, hopefully, and play a good RPI team. And then we’ve got a crack at the No. 1 team in the country on Monday, so we still have a lot more to play for.”

And, in the past, the Crimson has been particularly successful in overcoming similar setbacks to attain that yet to be played for post-season success. Harvard is, after all, one of just a smattering of programs to qualify for the NCAA tournament each of the past three seasons, despite successive letdowns in the Beanpot each year that might have forecast a different fate.

“We’ve been able to put it behind us in the past when we’ve lost,” Flynn said. “So I guess we actually have experience in that.”

Just remember: A year ago, the Crimson was 8-11-2 following its loss in the Beanpot semifinals and plummeting within the ECAC. Somehow, that group rebounded to advance to the NCAA tournament and was within minutes of upsetting top-seeded Maine.

Now, Harvard is 14-6-2, 11-4-2 in conference play. I suspect they’ll survive.

Is an abundance of such familiarity with heartbreak something you wish for? Of course not. But by all accounts, that experience has already placed the Crimson back on the right foot.

While the first true test will come tomorrow night, when Harvard heads to Troy, N.Y., to faceoff against RPI, yesterday’s solid practices already reflect the metaphorical kick in the ass that the Crimson has ridden to the ECAC tournament finals each year since 2002.

“It’s done,” assistant coach Bobby Jay said. “We had yesterday to feel sorry for ourselves, and today’s a new day. We had an awesome practice. I thought the guys looked great. They were upbeat, they worked hard, and we’re excited about [today].”

They shouldn’t be the only ones.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.