A night with James van Reimsdyk

Yes, this normally is a Boston pro sports blog. Tonight, though, I'd like to take you to Matthews Arena at Northeastern University, and I'd like to introduce you to University of New Hampshire forward James van Reimsdyk.

First, we'll set the scene. If you've ever been to Matthews Arena, you'll know it's no such thing. It's not an arena. The TD BankNorth Fleet Whatever Other Belly-Up Corporate Sponsor Garden is an arena. The Whittemore Center at UNH is an arena. Even Conte Forum at Boston College is an arena, though it's an arena built with concrete blocks.

Matthews "Arena" is a barn. It's a classic, old-fashioned hockey barn. It looks like it's constructed entirely of wood; the feeling is that you could burn the place down with one well-placed match. (A quick perusal of the building's biography reveals that that has happened twice -- in 1918 and 1948. Who knew?) It's the Cameron Indoor Stadium of college hockey arenas -- the students are loud and all wear red (except for the one in the green Hartford Whalers jersey in the first row), second deck hangs over the ice, and the acoustics are sensational. Even the press box hangs over the ice; if reporters want to see the three feet of ice in front of the penalty boxes and home-team bench, they have to stand up. And so we stood, the entire game, just like the student section at the north end of the barn.

Oh, and the team is good, too. A perennially underwhelming Northeastern team beat New Hampshire by a 3-2 score on Friday night in as entertaining a college hockey game as you'll ever see. That, of course, brings us to the young Mr. van Reimsdyk.

The Northeastern faithful do not like James van Reimsdyk. This they made clear even when warmups began more than a half-hour before the opening faceoff.

"van Reeeeeimsdyk... van Reeeeeimsdyk... YOU SUCK!!"

For the uninitiated: This is a classic college-hockey chant -- but it's almost exclusively reserved for the visiting goaltender. It's almost unheard of for a skater to get the "YOU SUCK!!" treatment except maybe -- maybe -- during player introductions. But all through warmups, there it went.

"van Reeeeeimsdyk... van Reeeeeimsdyk... YOU SUCK!!"

There's some backstory. First of all, van Reimsdyk is a phenom. The Philadelphia Flyers made him the No. 2 overall pick in the NHL draft two years ago, and he chose to come to UNH; he's the highest-drafted player ever to play for the Wildcats, and no one in the last 25 years has really come close. He's a playmaker with a nose for the net -- a week ago against Boston College, on a 2-on-2 break, he took on both defenders by himself, slalomed right through them, and then left a pass for teammate Mike Sislo to bury. To put it simply: He's really, really good.

More backstory: I wasn't at this particular game, but apparently van Reimsdyk felt as though the Huskies had targeted him during a home-and-home series between the two teams on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. After the final whistle of the second game, the half that was played at Northeastern, a scuffle broke out, and van Reimsdyk ended up being assessed a postgame cross-checking penalty.

Anyway, that was the situation when the game began.

"van Reeeeeimsdyk... van Reeeeeimsdyk... YOU SUCK!!"

The student section wasn't content just to heckle van Reimsdyk every once in a while. Nope. They booed him every time he touched the puck. They booed him every time he took a shot. They booed him every time he checked someone in a white jersey. They booed him when he did just about anything. When he took a wild slapshot from the blue line midway through the first period and then took another whack at the rebound, it almost looked like a desperate attempt to shut up the building.

It didn't work. When he absorbed a check from Northeastern's Steve Silva and then wrestled Silva to the ice, the fans booed louder. (To infuriate them even more, only Silva drew a penalty on the play.)

"van Reeeeeimsdyk... van Reeeeeimsdyk... YOU SUCK!!"

But all that was just an appetizer for the second period.

"van Reeeeeimsdyk... van Reeeeeimsdyk... YOU SUCK!!"

The fans booed van Reimsdyk as he weaved toward the net for a shot barely a minute after the opening faceoff. He got possession again behind the net, and the fans booed; when a Northeastern defenseman hit him but he retained possession, half the fans booed and half cheered.

And less than a minute later, he found himself wrapped up at center ice with Northeastern's Alex Tuckerman, who had scored the only goal of the game at that point. Referees had to wrestle the two apart to get them to go to the penalty box. The catcalls only grew louder.

"van Reeeeeimsdyk... van Reeeeeimsdyk... YOU SUCK!!"

It was van Reimsdyk's way of striking back. If the fans perceived his overtime cross-check as a cheap shot, so too did the Huskies, and they let him know it throughout. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound forward wasn't about to back down, which is why he ended up in a scuffle as often as he launched a shot on goal. And when he and Tuckerman found themselves in a penalty box with a gap in the wall in the back, a gap through which more verbal abuse easily could fly, they let each other have it.

Van Reimsdyk wasn't involved in the next little scuffle, one that was sparked when Drew Muench crushed UNH's Greg Collins from behind, a cross-check that drove the chin of the Wildcats' captain into the ice. By this time, the game felt a little bit like "West Side Story" -- it was only a matter of time before someone got seriously hurt, and there was no way to stop it.

But the matching minor penalties expired just 20 seconds later, and van Reimsdyk came out of the penalty box. Immediately, they let him have it again.

The climactic fight came a few minutes later. Northeastern's Randy Guzior crushed Sislo into the boards, and van Reimsdyk immediately entangled himself with Guzior. He even lost his helmet in the skirmish, which made it easier to see him yelling at his enemies in white.

"It's tough when things start getting out of hand and guys start taking cheap shots at us and we want to stick up for ourselves," he said after the game. "We've got to keep our composure and stay out of the box a little more, but, I mean, it's tough when they're taking runs at you. It's part of the game, and it's part of hockey, and that's what makes it so fun."

The crowd, of course, went nuts.

"van Reeeeeimsdyk... van Reeeeeimsdyk... YOU SUCK!!"

While referees sorted out the penalties -- and while van Reimsdyk stood at the UNH bench, his helmet still off -- fans even unleashed another chant at that that's too profane to put in a family-friendly blog. Let's just say it involved a part of human anatomy that van Reimsdyk does not, by definition, possess.

When all was sorted out, van Reimsdyk had himself a two-minute minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct. Funny thing: During the entire 10 minutes, which lasted almost until the end of the second period, he stood along the front wall of the penalty box. Not once did he sit down. Guzior, who picked up a matching 10-minute misconduct, sat sprawled on the bench, his legs apart, totally relaxed. Even with teammates coming and going during an increasingly chippy period, van Reimsdyk never sat down. The kid in the red hoodie and white "NU" hat sitting right in that corner, right behind van Reimsdyk, would have been within his rights to ask for a partial refund because a blue jersey with No. 21 on it blocked his view of the game for a full 10 minutes.

Van Reimsdyk's desperation to get back out on the ice couldn't have been more obvious. He didn't get out of the box until there were less than two minutes left in the period, and as soon as he got out, the chant started up again.

"van Reeeeeimsdyk... van Reeeeeimsdyk... YOU SUCK!!"

He got his revenge in the third period. Defenseman Joe Charlebois slid a soft shot in front of the net, and van Reimsdyk curled the rebound around the pads of the goaltender to tie the game at 1. The crowd didn't even have time to boo when he got possession of the puck; all they could do was gasp -- and then unleash another torrent of insults.

"van Reeeeeimsdyk... van Reeeeeimsdyk... YOU SUCK!!"

Four minutes later, van Reimsdyk unleashed another shot at the net and immediately exchanged shoves with a Northeastern defenseman who had given him a nudge after the pla.

"van Reeeeeimsdyk... van Reeeeeimsdyk... YOU SUCK!!"

He would end up scoring once more, poking home the rebound of a Peter LeBlanc shot to cut the Wildcats' deficit from 3-1 to 3-2 in the game's final minute. It wouldn't be enough; despite a gritty effort, UNH would lose its fourth straight and fall seven points behind first-place Northeastern.

"There would have been nothing better than to get a win, especially with (goaltender Brian) Foster hearing it from the fans and me hearing it from the fans," he said. "We need the points in the standings here to get back into the thick of things, so it definitely hurts to lose a game like that."

When the two teams gathered at center ice for the traditional postgame handshake, van Reimsdyk was right at the front of the line. And when the public-address announcer read off the game's "Three Stars," van Reimsdyk was Star No. 2. The crowd, filing en masse out of the building, booed.

And it wasn't even an exceptional night. For a well-known prospect, after all, a night like that is business as usual.

"I felt a couple of extra sticks, but I expect that game in and game out," he said. "It's nothing too different than what I'm used to."

Here, apparently, is what he's used to: "van Reeeeeimsdyk... van Reeeeeimsdyk... YOU SUCK!!"