It’s the same old story around Northeastern. Although, this time, there’s a bit of a different twist.

With the Beanpot just days away, and the Huskies’ tourney title drought just that much older, the questions have again surfaced around Huntington Avenue. Will this finally, quite possibly, just maybe be the year Northeastern wins its first Beanpot since 1988?

There was some genuine optimism at Northeastern in 2008 and 2009, when the Huskies had two of their best teams of the last two decades, but those high hopes have again faded. To some extent, it’s just another year when the Hounds are underdogs, and the Huskies might be able to use that to their advantage in Monday night’s tournament opener against Boston University.

Northeastern captain Tyler McNeely ranks third on the team in goals (7) and points (15).

“Hopefully, BU thinks that way, but I think BU knows who we are and we know who they are,” Northeastern junior captain Tyler McNeely said. “Either way, you’re going to get an unbelievable game. It doesn’t really matter what you’ve done prior to this game. Anything can happen. We’ve been playing well of late, and we hope that teams take us for granted a little bit, but I don’t think that will be the case.”

The Huskies are 5-4-0 since their 5-7-1 start, and they’ve been the poster children of an up-and-down team - they haven’t won or lost more than two consecutive games all season. Northeastern is 6-10-1 in Hockey East and sits in eighth place in the conference, although it is just two points shy from being all alone in sixth place.

It’s a far cry from where NU stood prior to the last two Beanpots. Northeastern had a 12-8-3 record heading into the 2008 tournament, when it was the people’s choice to win the ‘Pot. However, the Huskies surrendered three goals in the first 7:02 of their first-round game against Harvard before falling, 3-1. Coach Greg Cronin said his team was overly excited before the game, perhaps too wrapped up in its own potential. Then, in the consolation game, BU rallied from a 4-2 deficit to claim a 5-4 victory against Northeastern.

Last year, the Huskies smoked Boston College, 6-1, in the first round and carried a 19-6-2 record into the title game against the Terriers. McNeely’s second-period goal tied the game, 2-2, but BU skated away with a 5-2 victory. McNeely said they were much more composed during last year’s tournament, but they got burnt by a bad bounce and it snowballed from there.

“We had a little bit of pressure [in 2008] with having a better team and a chance to win,” McNeely said. “Last year, we just had a good team, and we went through it game by game. Guys knew we had a good team last year. We went in there prepared and knowing that we had a chance to win. There was a lot of excitement.”

The excitement hasn’t tempered around campus, but the Huskies are still fighting a serious battle to end that dry spell. Northeastern is 12-30 in Beanpot games since winning the 1988 title - 5-16 in the first round, 0-5 in championship games and 7-9 in consolation games - and every team in the tournament has won the championship at least twice (BU has 15 in that span, but who’s counting?).

Since Northeastern beat BU in the 1988 championship game, the Huskies are 0-14 against the Terriers in the Beanpot. Ten of NU’s 12 victories in that span have come against Harvard.

So, the Huskies enter Monday night in a familiar position as the tournament’s underdogs, which might make things a little less nerve-wracking along Huntington. But that’s not to say the Huskies aren’t ready to head to the Garden and give the school something it’s been desperately missing for 22 years.

“Oh, absolutely, you feel [the excitement] around campus,” McNeely said. “Around this time, everyone is looking at the Beanpot. You hear about it all over the place, so it’s surrounding you and you know it’s a huge part of the Boston culture. To bring a Beanpot home to this school would mean the world to us.”