As we return from break, the days are longer, the sun is out, and seniors are hitting The Beach with their “sack” games. This change in the weather marks the true close to the winter sports season. In reflecting on the success of our winter teams, The Nobleman has taken it upon ourselves to help all of you who felt lost with the lingo of countless hockey-related DawgPound assembly announcements and game day emails. We sat down with some boys’ and girls’ hockey team members to help define some hockey slang.
One of the most memorable moments of this winter was Ethan Train’s (Class I) assembly announcement for the Boys Varsity Hockey game against Belmont Hill. Train stood up in the senior section of Lawrence Auditorium to promote the game, imploring the entire community to show up for the “lit Stewie in the barn.” While some members of the Nobles community are well versed in similar language, to many, Train’s words were baffling.
“So the term ‘barn,’ I think it’s just another term for what people call a hockey rink. I think sometimes you’ll look at the Omni (or other rinks) from the outside, and it could look like a barn. I think that’s probably where it comes from,” Train said. “Stewie,” he informed us, is an abbreviation of the term “student section.”
“Stewie in the barn” is just one term on a long list of slang used by the Nobles hockey teams. Billy MacAusland (Class II) enlightened us on the definitions of many of the most common words or phrases. “I think [the] most common hockey slang is probably beauty, like a good guy or someone that does the right thing. When you score, you celly—celebrate. If someone’s like, bad at hockey, you can call them dust or something, you know, let them know they’re not good. When you score, it’s called a Gino. And then, if you pass it to someone, and then they score, that’s called an apple. That’s an assist,” MacAusland said. Train also added a few more definitions to this list. “When you dish the puck, you know, you pass it to someone else,” Train said.
However, hockey slang is not restricted to the games. Players and spectators use this lingo on and off the ice. Words like “bird” have roots in hockey culture but are used in contexts beyond the sport. “A bird? It’s like a good-looking woman,” MacAusland said. This word has evolved to mean any romantic prospect, demonstrating the ways in which hockey culture has ingrained itself in the Nobles community.
This culture of slang usage is not exclusive to Nobles’ varsity hockey teams. Despite its ubiquity, the Girls’ JV team views slang differently than other teams. “I feel like when we say [hockey slang words], it makes us seem like we’re better than we are,” Hanna Teeson (Class IV) said. The JV girls recalled a few instances of imposter syndrome. Teeson even cited one specific moment when a player on an opposing team was overusing slang to a degree that felt ingenuine.
At the end of the day, hockey slang may just be a dialect of modern English, but it holds much more value to the players. “It kind of brings the hockey community together. Everyone talks the same way, and as a hockey player, you don’t really notice it. But, if you talk to someone else who doesn’t play hockey, they’ll be like, ‘What are you saying? This makes no sense.’ So, it unites the whole hockey community. It’s kind of cool in that way,” MacAusland said. This community-driven language also helps to inspire everyone to be involved with the sport, players and spectators alike. Train recalled some of his most memorable community moments on the sidelines with other supporters. “I remember one time we had Will Chiasson (Class I) crowd surfing last year. That was a fun moment,” Train said. Train also recalled another exciting game. “I think it was our sophomore year against Brunswick. I wasn’t at the game, but I saw videos of where we had the white-out and baby powder. People took off their shirts which is not allowed anymore, but we’ve had those moments throughout the years where it just gets so rowdy that people are just jumping around and having so much fun. That’s what’s so fun about hockey culture,” Train said. Now that everyone is duly informed about hockey slang, The Nobleman is very excited to see the entire community show up and show out in the Barn next season!
