It
was Selection Sunday for men’s hockey; hardly a holiday in Hanover for 38 years
and counting.
The
local Division I program had seen the curtain drop on a 16-17-2 run through the
2017-18 regular season and ECAC tournament one week prior. That meant an
automatic disqualification from the NCAA bracket, which Dartmouth last reached
in 1980.
Yet
when the faithful fans of realistic regional hopefuls took to social media, the
Dartmouth Hockey Twitter account joined. Its associated program’s fate, unlike
every other prominent partygoer’s, was certain from the start. Nonetheless, its
expressed attitude evoked memories of the black knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
With
each regional that failed to find a slot for the Big Green, its knight had a
limb lopped off. By 12:13 p.m. (9:13 a.m. Twitter Time), the unwaveringly
determined warrior was reduced to an immobile stump.
That
was when @Dartmouth_MIH tweeted, “When do they announce the wild card team that
the judges bring back like they do on @AGT?” The account followed that with a
hopeful reference to the nonexistent hockey NIT.
So
at least they were polite enough not to publicly threaten to bite anyone’s legs
off. Meanwhile, the man behind the handle was privately communicating
good-natured Frozen Four dreams to his College Hockey, Inc. counterpart.
The
man in question is the program’s sports information contact, Pat Salvas, who
agreed to doff the Dartmouth Hockey Twitter mask and reveal his secret identity
to Pucks and Recreation.
“It
started as a joke,” Salvas told Pucks and Rec.” “I texted Nate Ewell right
after the conference tournaments were over and said something to the effect of
‘So when are we announcing that I’m taking over the College Hockey, Inc. Twitter
for the Frozen Four?’
“From
there, we went back and forth and talked about the tone and the expectations of
how I would run it if they agreed to it. It was really finalized when we were
both in St. Paul for the games. I met up with him in one of the media
workrooms, we talked about some minor details, I showed him some of my ideas
and whatnot, and we were good to go.”
For
three-and-a-half glorious hours, from 4:15 p.m. to 7:54 p.m. Central, Salvas
went national. Under the @collegehockey handle, he brought the inimitable
@Dartmouth_MIH flavor to the first Frozen Four semifinal.
How
inimitable? Upon posting NHL ’94-inspired graphics and early-elementary artwork
of the starting lineups under the @collegehockey name, Salvas drew accusations
of plagiarism. The Dartmouth defenders, though, were quick to catch their error
upon reading the takeover announcement they had previously missed.
Prior
knowledge was crucial for those following the 49 tweets on Minnesota-Duluth’s
2-1 squeaker past Ohio State. After all, four of the messages alluded to UMD’s
triumph at the Ledyard Bank Classic this past winter.
In
case anyone still doesn’t get that
reference, the Ledyard Bank Classic has been Dartmouth’s on-campus holiday
tournament for the majority of the last 40 seasons. With the win on April 5, UMD
became the first program to win the Classic and reach an NCAA final in the same
season. The Bulldogs would upgrade that milestone by topping Notre Dame in the
championship two nights later.
When
his shift was over, the Big Green ventriloquist thanked Ewell’s brand “for
putting your reputation on the line!” It is the same privilege Salvas has
savored and mastered in the name of a storied Ivy League ice program. Although
he also credits the Los Angeles Kings for a timely coincidence of social-media
daring and on-ice success.
Dartmouth
Hockey Twitter debuted in the summer of 2011, almost five-and-a-half years
after the network launched. By Salvas’ recollection, the @Dartmouth_MIH handle
hovered around 600 followers during its rookie season.
The
niche group implicitly came for information, but got an innocuous helping of
hard-to-find entertainment on the side.
“It’s
just my personality,” Salvas said. “I’m serious when I need to be. But other
than that, I’m a 33-year old man who watches The Simpsons nightly.
“Funny
resonates more with people than serious, direct and bland. I just saw at the
beginning of ‘sports Twitter’ that everyone was so boring. Just giving the
information as upfront as possible. I wanted to add a little life and color.
“I
had a professor in college, the great Bill Schweizer, who told me that sports
were the toy department of life. I don’t think anything from college resonated
with me more than that. That’s the phrase I always come back to when I’m
working. Whether it’s in my office or tweeting from Appleton Arena at St.
Lawrence with a six-hour bus ride in a snowstorm back to Hanover ahead of me
later...I’m having fun.”
The
Big Green’s 2011-12 season ended in an ECAC quarterfinal defeat, just as it did
this past year. But a month later, the first chapter L.A.’s Cinderella story in
the NHL playoffs infused more credence to the snarky side of the sports
Twitterverse.
Many
puck pen-pushers took note of the Kings’ account’s message to every Canadian
province east of British Columbia. Upon watching its represented squadron snuff
the top-seeded Canucks in the first round, it told the anti-Vancouver throngs,
“You’re welcome.”
Per
Salvas, “the account started getting noticed for the tone” after that.
Almost
exactly six years to the day, @Dartmouth_MIH boasts 7,388 followers. That was
the count as of this past Wednesday afternoon, up by at least 44 from the week
prior.
Yes,
a full month into spring (such as it is), Salvas is still snowballing his
organization’s attention. It comes largely from loosening up and voicing an
acknowledgment that there is more to life than hockey.
The
team’s Twitter bio proudly proclaims that “Our top-two tweets are about dogs
and not hockey.” Its current pinned tweet testifies to that effect. On other
days that would otherwise be lamented as “slow news days,” the account may
strike up a Simpsons thread.
And
of course, there are periodic, opportunistic references to Joe Sakic.
Wait,
Joe Sakic? The same Joe Sakic who grew up in British Columbia and squandered
his NCAA eligibility by joining the major-junior Western League at age 16?
Whose teenage and twentysomething offspring could theoretically, but will not
likely pursue U.S. college hockey?
Salvas
can explain. Born in the mid-’80s, he rooted for the Quebec Nordiques early in
his upbringing. He maintained his allegiance to the personnel even after they
moved and morphed into the Colorado Avalanche in 1995.
Since
assuming his post at Dartmouth, he has combined his appreciation for the
two-time Stanley Cup-winning captain with an homage to Talladega Nights.
“The
scene in Ricky Bobby where he leaves tickets for his dad every race, only to
see his dad sell them, always made me laugh,” said Salvas. “This year, I
started making (Sakic) a name placard for the press box and putting it next to
my seat with a different fact or note each game and then tweeting it out and
tagging the @Avalanche.”
Hardly
one to go unduly offside, Salvas later contemplated lobbying to extend Sakic’s
invitations to ECAC barns besides Thompson Arena. At least three league rivals
have happily played along.
“I
started including him on my email lists to other schools’ SIDs for our travel
party/press box seating needs,” he said. “Usually I’d list all our real staff members
and then put him at the end with some note like, ‘I don’t know if he’ll be
making it to the game this weekend, but just in case can you leave him a spot?’
“RPI
left him a press pass. Union left him a spot for both he and his wife in the
seats next to me in their press box. And St. Lawrence told me that, if he
showed up, he could stand outside the press box since there was no room.”
Whenever
there is any room for creativity, Salvas will seize it. Like a well-trained
playmaker, he habitually and deftly capitalizes on combinations of time and
space. He is ready whether those openings manifest themselves expectedly or
not, by force or by happenstance.
And
like a flashy, flair-laden forward, he will occasionally draw a little
irritation from the other team. A late-season visit to Harvard in 2013-14
exemplified that fact.
Due
to illness, Salvas was nearly a scratch from the Bright-Landry Hockey Center
press box that night. But he gutted it out, gorging on cough drops all the way,
and watched a maintenance malfunction unfold.
“Harvard’s
Zamboni died after our pre-game warmups,” he recalled. As a result, the 7 p.m.
faceoff would not happen until 8:36.
“The
Zamboni got stuck on the ice, so they dumped the snow and had a couple of
players come out to push it. I couldn’t believe my eyes watching future Hobey
Baker winner Jimmy Vesey and some of these other young guys out there in full
uniform pushing it toward the door to get it off the ice.
“Some
people would’ve tweeted out that we were in a delay and just waited it out. I
did not. I went in on them. Live tweeting everything that was happening,
posting pics of Tim Allen from Home Improvement and Bob the Builder. I was
honestly just trying to fill the time and ignore the fact that my throat was on
fire."
With
his choice of distraction, Salvas sparked his own blaze online. The
odds-and-ends turn of events alone would have been enough to turn the heads of
mainstream news outlets. Case in point, everyone from the New England Sports
Network to TSN was catching wind of the updates.
When
The Sporting News jumped in, the colorful Big Green handle had usurped the
story. A short post by Sean Gentile ran under the headline, “Harvard Zamboni
breaks down; Dartmouth Twitter takes control.”
Gentile
went on to highlight six of Salvas’ posts. Among the playful jabs at the host
party was “Having the Zamboni break down and drop snow in the area of the net
we have to defend twice? Bold strategy, Harvard.” Another: “Great. It’s off the
ice. I hate to be that guy, though, but you missed a spot.” (The accompanying
image confirmed as much.)
According
to the time stamps, at least two more tweets on the topic came after the
belated opening faceoff. And after a Harvard representative approached with a
simple cease-and-desist request.
“I
didn’t, because I was power tripping,” Salvas said. “But I was at least polite
in saying no. Credit my parents for my politeness.”
But
in due time, just like the ice-level personnel, the Dartmouth Hockey Twitter
account got back to the serious fun at hand. It never fails to do so when it
must, because Salvas is learned enough to sustain that equilibrium. As long as
he has his way, no one will go astray toward detrimental distraction nor
cantankerous competitiveness.
“I
just want people to love hockey as much as I do,” he said. “Or at least half as
much as I do. It’s such a great game, and the people who make it up on every
level are incredible. If the way you get more eyes on the game is by cracking a
few jokes and not taking yourself so seriously, then it’s a good thing.”
And
there is your method to the mirthfulness. The humor is still a means to an end
of hooking people on hockey. That, and maybe also breaking up the stuffy
stereotypes of the Ivy League.
“If
I’m just cracking jokes for the sake of cracking jokes, I should be standing in
front of a brick wall asking ‘what’s the deal with airline peanuts?’” Salvas
said.
“People
want to know about the team, the young men who play and the games against our
ECAC Hockey and Ivy League rivals. Keeping it light is the tone of it, but the
core message still is about the hockey team it represents.
“I
also gotta believe that Joe Sakic likes to laugh.”
