2019 Men’s Frozen Four Rooting Guide: Providence

Remember what it was like to have Boston College in the Frozen Four? Those were the days. But since that hasn’t happened since I was a wee lad, here we are. Our ongoing “Who Should You Root For In The Men’s Frozen Four?” series continues today with the Providence College Friars. The Friars are the obvious team you should be rooting for, and you can take your pick of whichever reason strikes your fancy.

First off, everyone loves an underdog. The Friars came out of the Providence regional as the only #4 seed to make it to the Frozen Four, which is always exciting. The 4 seeds have done better than you might expect in the men’s hockey tournament, and even won a couple titles back and 2013 (Yale) and 2015 (Providence). And while the Friars do come in as one of the bottom seeded teams in the Pairwise, they’re actually pretty highly ranked in BCI’s GRaNT rankings at 7th and above fellow Frozen Four-er Denver. So your underdog pick actually has a pretty reasonable shot of winning the whole thing.

Second, we here at BC Interruption love the Finns, and Providence’s Kasper Björkqvist is as good as they come. He’s posted a 17-13—30 line this year and leads the team in shots, so he’s likely to be on the scoresheet this weekend. BC’s Finns have a countryman to support in the Frozen Four — so shouldn’t you want them to be happy?

Third, perhaps you’re the type who likes to support your league in the national tournament, but you also don’t want to feel like drowning yourself in bleach for rooting for UMass. Fear not! Providence is here to save the day, allowing you to root for Hockey East to win the title, but also not make you feel like you need to take a shower for doing so. It’s a win-win!

And finally, if you had any doubts as to who you should be rooting for this weekend, let me put those to rest for you here and now:

Ah yes, the 2015 Frozen Four. Providence College gave us the single greatest moment in sports history — nay, in the history of humankind — with the “O’Connor Drop” goal to lead the #4 seeded Friars over Jack Eichel’s Boston University Terriers to keep BU from passing us in national titles and just generally make everyone down the street very sad. We owe the Friars our unending gratitude for such a moment. And I for one intend to root for them in thanks for what they’d done for us.

We’ve got one more team left in our Who To Root For? series, but really, is it even necessary?