Beanpotters Who Made It Big

For the most part, the ice of the National Hockey League is owned by an otherwise insignificant country just north of the border. The nation in the league name is America, but the hockey is pretty uniformly Canadian. Sure, there are teams in St. Louis, and even semi-tropical Los Angeles, but you're just a little less likely to find a native there with professional caliber talent than you are in Spitzbergen. Bobby Carpenter notwithstanding, the moral of the story is go north young man. Or better yet, get born there.

But the times are a changing at least a bit. The occasional droplet of American talent that made it into the league has expanded to a small trickle. And a number of the players breaking in are Beanpot alums. Harvard, B.U., B.C., and Northeastern haven't produced a Lafleur yet, but they have sent the NHL some players who are now making their marks or show promise of doing so in the not-too-distant future.

Certainly the most famous Beanpot alum now skating in the NHL is Ranger Dave Silk. Silk's achievements are myriad. In his freshman year at B.U., he notched 35 tallies and 30 assists on his way to being named the New England Hockey Writers Association Rookie of the year. He collected another 58 points in 1978, the year the Terriers took the Beanpot and the National Championship. Though he was out of action for part of the 1979 season, Silk still managed to score 28 points for a Terrier team which once again captured the coveted 'Pot.

And then, of course, there were the Olympics. For a few weeks in the winter of 1980, you couldn't escape the name Dave Silk, just like you couldn't get away from the names Eruzione, O'Callahan and Craig. It was a name famous for a good reason: Silk, in the seven games at Lake Placid tallied twice and got three assists, including two against the Russians. That's one way of getting your name in the papers, not to mention the papers in hour hair--at tickertape parades.

It is also a good way to get yourself into the NHL. Within two weeks of winning the gold medal. Silk had signed with the Rangers. He played two games for New York and then finished the '79-'80 season at the Ranger farm club in New Haven. He spent the tail end of last year at New Haven, after scoring 14 goals and 12 assists over 59 games for denizens of Madison Square Garden. Now, though, with Silk running well ahead of last season's pace with 10 goals and 17 assists in 40 games--he has missed about the last ten games due to a shoulder injury--he appears to have found a permanent place on the roster and on a powerful line with Ron Duguay and Mark Pavelich.

"You'd be surprised though," Silk says, "pro hockey is great and its exciting and all, but I think if you aked a lot of the guys in the league who played in college they'd say they miss the fun of college hockey."

And the Beanpot, for Silk, is a case in point. A Scituate native, Silk grew up watching the Beanpot title change hands. When he finally got to play in the tournament, it was no ordinary game. "Well, it was the first time I had ever been out on the Boston Garden ice. As far as I was concerned, that was Bruin ice and that was sacred ice. Getting out there was something."

Silk achieved a little more than just skating on to the hallowed ice. In the six games of his Beanpot career--Silk had to skip his senior year to play on the Olympic team--he connected for 12 points, a total which puts him in the top-15 all-time Beanpot scorers. Of course, playing on two tourney-winning teams isn't a bad dividend either.

"I really do miss it," Silk says. Not playing in the Beanpot in order to play in the Olympics and the pros may not be the ultimate sacrifice, but there were good times in the tournament.

"One of the things I remember is beating Harvard once." Silk recalls. "Afterward, we had a big fight, and it's kind of funny looking back now because me and O'Callahan were fighting George and Jackie Hughes (now with the Colorado Rockies organization), and now we're all pretty good friends."

Another iceman who decided to take his shot at frozen glory is Chris Nilan. After three seasons of action in a Husky uniform, Nilan saw the strategic window to the pros opening when he was offered a contract and promptly bagged his senior year. And, oh, yes it wasn't just any NHL team that Nilan got an offer from. It was those standard bearers of the pious tradition of the puck, the Montreal Canadiens.

His rise, while not exactly meteoric, has been rapid. Three seasons of respectable play at Northeastern for the bruising six-ft, 200-lb. winger brought 20 goals, 24 assists and a list of bonecrunching checks you couldn't fit on a roll of adding machine paper. They didn't bring much Beanpot distinction for Nilan, whose tournament achievements include missing the final game of the 1978 Beanpot while sitting out a suspension for a fight at Colgate, getting four penalties in another Beanpot outing, and going pro in the Huskies' only victorious year in the 'Pot.

"I don't have any Beanpot memories I really cherish," Nilan says, shifting conversation toward some of his other collegiate performances. But when he speaks of the whole tournament, beyond his own record in it, the West Roxbury native voices feelings for it that echo Silk's: "The Beanpot itself is a great tournament. I feel it's the greatest one in the country, with all its tradition and everything." And, like Silk, he says he grew up eagerly awaiting the day he would get to skate out on the Garden ice.

As for life after the Beanpot, the Canadiens sent Nilan to their Nova Scotia farm team in 1979 to hone his skills and then called upon his services in February of that year. He has remained in the NHL ever since. He saw regular action last year, but this year has played sporadically. Yet, when he talks about his stats, you know they are as respectable and by intimidating.

"Yeah, I've played in 14 games so far this year, had four goals and three assists for seven points. Let's see. I've also had 59 penalty minutes and one incredible experience." Incredible is just the word.

Nilan made the record books with what has to be one of the most innovative plays seen this year. After getting a high stick near the eye from Pittsburgh's Paul Baxter. Nilan attacked his assailant, who wisely covered up in a heap on the ice. As he made his way to the penalty box. Nilan heard some remarks from Baxter which he apparently did not care for. Thinking that the moment required some decisive action. Nilan picked up a loose puck and, from the penalty box, winged it across the ice at Baxter, nailing him squarely on the head. The upshot was a three-game suspension and plenty of press.

"I regretted it," says Nilan of the incident. "Well, in a way. I regretted it publicly anyway. You know, guys come after you and you have to do these things sometimes." Nilan adds, however, that he doesn't have a reputation as an enforcer. "I don't know; if I have to help a player out I will. But I'm just going out there to play my game...I've established myself in the league. People know I'm not a goon. But I'm a physical player. I think my playing is opening up some people's eyes," he says speaking figuratively.

Nilan, you might surmise, is tough. Nevertheless, the only people whose eyes he wants to open up right now are in the Montreal management. He hasn't played much since he torpedoed Baxter and is hoping to get back in the lineup. "I've been in and out now for a while. I just want a chance to play regularly and then I think everything will be fine."

There are others, too, who have made the great leap forward. Joe Mullen, for instance, perhaps the greatest player ever to come out of Boston College, recently resurfaced on the St. Louis Blues after a lengthy sojourn in the minors. Only a few weeks ago. Mullen slammed the puck home twice in a mere eight seconds to push the Blues well out in front of Minnesota.

The future looks bright for Mullen, but the rolls are thick with others who have yet to make it. Former Crimson blueliner Jackie Hughes a veteran of three 'Pots is plying his trade in the unlikely locale of Fort Worth for a Colorado Rockies farm club, while one of Mullen's Eagle teammates. 1976 Beanpot MVP Paul Skidmore, is tending net in Salt Lake City for the Blues tranchise there.

And even if they do make it into the limelight, the task is by no means easy. Jim Craig, whose Olympian goaltending needs little introduction, spent much of last year off the ice and in a dispute with his employers, the Boston Bruins. This year, sans dispute. Craig is sidelined with a broken leg. But then, no one ever said pro hockey was a cushy line of business.For JIM CRAIG playing the pros hasn't been pure pleasure.