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MICHELE MILLERIf it's good enough for the players, it's good enough for Bob Niemiec, who is letting his beard grow for the duration of the Stanley Cup finals.
TRINITY - Tuesday night's game was a nail-biter for sure, but as far as Bob Niemiec is concerned, the Tampa Bay Lightning's 1-0 victory over the Calgary Flames pretty much sealed the deal.
"I think Tampa Bay's a team of destiny," said Niemiec, 65. "I think especially after winning that game, one to nothing, they're destined to win the Stanley Cup."
Even with all that confidence, Niemiec's still not going to shave the beard he started growing back in April when he decided to join a longtime player tradition/superstition of letting the stubble sprout freely once your team makes the playoffs.
Niemiec's salt-and-pepper growth is feeling a little itchy these days and the mustache gets in the way when he's eating, but when it comes down to it, Niemiec says, you just can't mess with superstition.
Not when you've come this far.
The beard, he said, will be there until the end of the Stanley Cup finals.
That's not a problem at all, said Niemiec's wife of 36 years, Allie.
"I like the beard," she said. "Though I am surprised it's lasted this long."
She isn't at all surprised, however, at his fervent support for a team he has only been watching for a couple of years since the two moved to Trinity from Walpole, Mass.
Although it wasn't love at first sight, it was pretty darn close.
The Lightning, and players like Martin St. Louis, whom Niemiec remembers watching when the right winger played for the University of Vermont, caught and held Niemiec's attention early on.
"I love watching them because they play every game like it's a playoff game," Niemiec said.
Sure, there had been other teams. After all, the Niemiecs and their two children moved around a bit. They followed teams like the Boston Bruins, the New Jersey Devils, and especially the games at Niemiec's alma mater, Boston College. He was a star pitcher there, leading the Eagles to a third-place finish in the College World Series in 1960, and is a member of the school's sports hall of fame. He even played pro ball a while for the minor league Durham Bulls.
"I played baseball but it's hockey all the way," Niemiec said. "What I really miss now is going to the college games. . . . When B.C. wasn't playing I'd go to games at Harvard, B.U. (Boston University) or Northeastern."
Still, when he drove back to Boston in April to catch the Frozen Four - the NCAA Men's Division I hockey championships - at the Fleet Center, he wore a a semicustom Lightning stadium jacket. Semicustom because Niemiec, who couldn't find a heavy Lightning jacket anywhere, ended up ordering a blue Toronto Maple Leafs jacket for $130 from a sports apparel company in Winnipeg. It took him two days to get the Maple Leafs emblem off with a seam ripper. He then paid $90 to have a Lightning emblem embroidered on locally.
"I couldn't believe they didn't have anything from the Lightning," Niemiec said of the sports apparel company. "I called and told them they better get on the ball - people were going to be wanting this stuff."
Niemiec used to work in finance but is now retired. He played in adult leagues until he was 53 and coached youth hockey in Norwood, Mass., and has been to many games at the St. Pete Times Forum. His most memorable game was against his former favorite NHL team, the New Jersey Devils.
"They (Lightning) were down 3-0 in the first period and they went on to win. It was amazing," he said, adding, "I've been lucky - I've never seen them lose when I've gone to a game."
As superstition would have it, the Lightning might be better off if Niemiec and his beard were going to be in the house tonight.
"Boy, I'd love to go to that game," Niemiec said. "This is an exciting team to watch and they're playing against a great team that's hungry to win. It doesn't get any better than this."
- Michele Miller can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6229, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6251. Her e-mail address is miller@sptimes.com