americana, exotica

His older brother can be too intense, too single-minded, forever chasing the puck, the stats, the next impossible standard, but around Will, Mack smiles with every gummy tooth and his whole heart on display.

RJ can’t help but love Will because Will is the person who introduced Mack to a softer life, one where long drives with cheesy pop songs blaring from the speakers count as time well spent; where overpriced ice cream, terrible romcoms, sleepovers, and books read lazily over brunch the next morning aren’t distractions from greatness, but part of what makes a life worth being great for.

Will’s the person who made his beloved older brother willingly climb back down the mountain he had been scaling since he was twelve, trading the Grouse summit for fresh grass, dreamy ponds, and the quiet pleasure of leaving the rink’s cold surface behind, as though there were nowhere more important to be.

And RJ thinks that anyone who could persuade Sisyphus to set down his boulder must be extraordinary. So RJ loves Will because he’s watched him teach Mack that devotion doesn’t always have to look like suffering, that there are things worth chasing besides gold, and that sometimes the bravest thing a person can do is stop climbing.

each other's missing half

images 3, 4, 11, 12, 13, & 15 by @dawg4aday [+ inspired this in the first place]

Boston is hands down one of the most passionate hockey cities in the world.

A huge part of that is obviously the Boston Bruins, but the true heartbeat of this city lies in its century old college hockey history specifically, the legendary BU vs. BC rivalry.

Since I live here in Boston, I know a lot of you are curious about how things work around here. I’m not going to lie, college hockey can look like a maze of different brackets and trophies, but their season actually breaks down into three main battlegrounds.

If you want to understand what they are fighting for every week, here is the ultimate breakdown:

1. The Beanpot (The Battle for Boston) 🫘🏆

If you want to understand the pure, unadulterated soul of Boston hockey rivalry, the Beanpot is everything. It doesn’t count toward the national title, but it is worth the ultimate "city bragging rights."

What it is: A high-stakes, mini-tournament that has happened every year since 1952. It only features Boston's "Big Four" hockey schools: BU, BC, Northeastern, and Harvard.

How it works: It takes place on the first two Mondays of February. It’s straight-up single elimination: on the first Monday, the two semifinal games happen. On the second Monday, the losers play for 3rd place (consolation), and the winners face off in the grand final.

The Vibe: It’s played at the TD Garden. The arena gets completely packed to the rafters with college students, alumni, and roaring university pep bands. It's loud, it's chaotic, and it's beautiful.

My take: This is my absolute favorite tournament. Sure, it might not hold the same massive weight as an NCAA national title, but it’s the pride of the city on the line. People in Boston are deeply obsessed with college hockey. You see these arenas completely sold out, people screaming and cheering like crazy, the energy and atmosphere are just unreal.

The storylines are incredible too because you could be facing a friend, a relative, a boyfriend, or a neighbor out there on the ice, which makes the crowd go even wilder.

You’re playing for the title of the city, and that means everything.

I have some photos and videos from the Beanpot that I can share if you guys want, but honestly, you just have to be there to truly understand it.

BU is absolutely dominating this category with 32 titles. However, the 2026 Champion was Boston College! 🦅

2. The Conference (Hockey East) 🧊

Before anyone can even dream about a national trophy, teams have to survive their own regional "leagues," known as Conferences.

What it is: Both BU and BC belong to Hockey East, which is widely considered the toughest, most traditional, and bloodiest conference in US college hockey (alongside other powerhouse schools like Providence, Maine, and Northeastern).

The Regular Season: From October to March, all Hockey East teams play against each other to stack up points in the standings.

The Tournament: In mid-March, the regular season ends and the Hockey East Playoffs begin. All 11 teams enter a single-elimination bracket. The semifinals and finals are also played at the TD Garden. The winner of this tournament gets an automatic ticket to the national tournament.

BC has 12 titles and BU 10.

3. The NCAA National Tournament (The "Frozen Four") 👑

This is the big one. The tournament that decides who is the true, undisputed Champion of the United States. It’s the hockey equivalent of college basketball's March Madness, but on ice.

What it is: The national tournament brings together the top 16 teams from the entire country.

How to get in: 6 spots go automatically to the winners of each conference tournament (like the Hockey East champion). The other 10 spots are filled via at-large bids based on a brutal mathematical ranking of the regular season (called the NPI). Because BU and BC are almost always at the top of the food chain, it’s super common for both to qualify together almost every year.

The Format: Win or go home. Single elimination. The 16 teams are split into 4 regional brackets across the country (4 teams each). The winner of each region advances to the semifinals.

The Frozen Four: This is the sacred name given to the National Semifinals and Finals. It’s a massive event hosted in a different neutral NHL city every year. Whoever survives the Frozen Four lifts the NCAA National Championship trophy.

BU and BC are tied here, both have 5 national titles, But as you can see, there was a time when both universities absolutely dominated the country.

My take: I absolutely love the Frozen Four. It is completely insane! It’s the most prestigious, most important trophy out there.

Every single player dreams of being a part of it, and it's the ultimate stage for athletes to truly stand out. It’s incredibly special.

The Legendary Battle: BU vs. BC (The Smith vs. Celebrini Era)

Now, let’s talk about what everyone is really here for: the infamous BU vs. BC rivalry, especially during the legendary 2023-2024 season, the year Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini went head to head.

We are talking about a rivalry that goes back over 100 years.

People around here take this incredibly seriously, you have to stay fiercely loyal to the college you choose to root for.

In my case, I root for BC. My brother went there, as well as other family members. (I won't deny that I occasionally sneak into a few BU games, but don’t let my family find out lol).

We all take this rivalry to heart. It’s intense like the NHL, but honestly, I think it’s even cooler because these are people you might actually know in real life. I can’t quite put it into words, but it’s magical.

Let's take a look at the summary of the head-to-head numbers below.

During that specific season, those two spearheaded one of the most unforgettable years in college hockey history. They literally wrote themselves into the Hockey East history books.

Back in 2024, BC won the Hockey East Championship after defeating Macklin's BU in that iconic 6-2 game.

Will absolutely went off, scoring 4 goals and earning the tournament MVP title.

As for the Beanpot, neither of them won it that year, though BU did make it to the finals (Mack ended up losing to Northeastern 🙁).

However, even though Mack didn't win a team trophy that season, he took home the prestigious Hobey Baker Award as the top NCAA player in the country, making history as the youngest player ever to win it.

When it came to the NCAA tournament, Mack’s BU and BC were the top two teams in the entire nation.

Both made it to the Frozen Four, and absolutely everyone in Boston was anticipating a historic, city stopping national final between BU and BC.

It would have been inexplicable. Sadly, the University of Denver ruined the dream by eliminating BU in the semifinals, and in the grand final, Will and BC ended up losing to Denver as well :(

(Fun fact: Denver is actually the all-time leader in NCAA national championships.)

‎‎Rivers and Road ‎by The Head and the Heart

instead, he gets on a plane with no medal at all. flies to van to turn twenty - sticky, hazy, gorgeous van - and that's it. no longer the league's favorite teenager, no longer hockey's favorite boy. he's a man now - it really does happen overnight - and it doesn't matter what records he broke last year, because he's got nothing to show for it now that he's twenty. no gold medal and no cup and no girlfriend and no playoff-ready team. his best approximation of a friend sits in a brother who resents him and like, connor bedard? who does not have time for mack's shit, too deep in his own 1oa tragedy, burning himself out in chicago or maybe he's being burnt out in chicago? either way, mack can't win and connor's got no one to play with, and they run mountains together and don't talk about it and skate marathons together and don't talk about it and get drunk on gross, cheap beer together and don't talk about it. they aren't really friends, but misery loves company and it's something to do, someone else to lean against who is hockey to his bones. mack watches will's private stories over and over and over - sun-kissed, happy, rosy, loved - and wonders if that untagged hand in that one photo is leonard's. navigates to their messages: hbd mack. read at midnight. no reply, because mack couldn't bring himself to write anything other than i want you to be here. which is cringe, and he's a man now, so instead, he wrote nothing at all.

and it's like this - will's never been to van, and mack thought that might be a good thing, to be in a place that's just for him. a place he can map in his head without every touchstone equating to a sense memory of will. that's all boston is anymore - a city that used to feel like maybe something that could be mack's, which has become a minefield of will: this is what will smelled like when we tried blank street for the first time, and this is where we got brunch with gabe and will laughed at my joke about french fries, and this is the bar where will said my name in a way he's never said it before and this is the esplanade where i swear i could've kissed him and he would've let me. san jose is even worse. was never mack's to begin with, not in a way that mattered, not in a way that could compete with the san jose that is ours. our favorite tequila bar and our favorite jewish deli and our favorite to-order sushi and our favorite early-morning run and our favorite drive down the highway, ourourourourourourourour, an unending tangle of it, from the ocean to the hills to the bay to the rink. the center of mack's universe: hockey, and will, and these days it feels like they are one and the same. where hockey is, is where mack's home is, and where will is, is mack's hockey.

but van is just mack's. and it seemed like such a good idea at the time. mack, middle child, is not good at sharing. mack, a burgeoning star from the very beginning, has been raised selfish, and he's learned to live with that. never been good at blurry lines: not mine, but not yours, either. never been good at ambiguity or doubt. clear, defined boundaries. clear, defined rules: yours; mine. but mack - twenty, loser, tired - sits on the back porch of his parent's new house and watches the sun paint pink over blue, nice breeze and the evening birds calling, and he has never wanted a place to belong to him less. has never wanted to share a thing more than he wants to share this sunset with will. feels will's absence like a presence, like a second person inside of him, slightly smaller and made up mostly of the bruised, gooey, awful-good hurt that he feels every time he's ever rolled over in a hotel bed and found will still asleep: mouth open like a loser, delicate blond hair, skin sticky because mack runs too hot. mack's winger, his partner, his best friend.

he'd share anything with will, he thinks. gladly and without thought. every memory he's ever made, every win and every loss, every night and every morning and every greasy breakfast and every terrible hangover and every time he's ever thrown a punch and every home he's ever had and every hotel bed and ice rink and game-winning goal. he'd give it all to will, would lay it all out at will's feet, if that would make will his. for good this time; not just the season. thinks maybe it all belongs to will already, anyway.

takes out his phone. hbd mack.

i want you to be here, he writes. deletes. writes. deletes. takes a picture of the sunset. doesn't capture it right because he's a twenty-year-old hockey prodigy with no gold medal and the closest thing to a soulmate that anyone has ever had, so what would he know about art?

his thumb hovers. he hits send. waits. thinks about the apartment waiting for them in san jose. waits. thinks about ours. waits. thinks about how everything in his life is so saturated in will that it probably makes sense that his first big win won't happen until it's something they share, too. something that he can lay out at will's feet. i won this for you, i won this with you.

his phone buzzes.

will [photo attached]: northeast haze with a yellow circle hovering above the horizon line in scorching orange-amber.