College Hockey week 3

The wrap ups are here, the games are done and we are a week closer to the end of the season. I guess that's a morbid way to look at this, but so far I'm not impressed with college hockey.

Hockey East - For years it's been BC, BU and everyone else. That's just Hockey East. Now with Lowell coming into the picture, Notre Dame being a possible contender it's just something that most people west of Pennsylvania do not understand. The real problem is that through this entire chaos the B1G caused, the only power conference that remains is Hockey East.

Atlantic Hockey - They didn't see the rip tide effects of the shifting college hockey landscape. They lived through it earlier when major programs dumped their hockey teams to save money. Although they have enough teams to keep the stands full, at some point someone has to say something is not right in AH country.

ECAC - Putting past last year's improbable Frozen Four run, the ECAC has had some good entries over the years. This is not a conference that I would expect to compete at all past the first round. Yet every year that they put a team in the frozen dance, they go pretty far. I don't expect this season to yield anything less than what we've already seen in the past.

WCHA - Rebuilding a team is difficult enough. Rebuilding a conference is even tougher. Most of the teams in this conference lack name recognition which is why I expect to see the Xcel Energy Center lacking in attendance when this league returns the Red Barron Final Five back to the Twin Cities.

B1G - of all the conferences, this one is a joke. To put this into football perspectives, I enjoy watching every team play except Notre Dame. For some reason they get special treatment every year at the BCS table because of their self proclaimed independence from conference play. This is the exact type of mentality that the B1G has taken. They can now pick and choose programs to play, or not to play. I would just like to ask the question, when will Alaska be a destination for ANY B1G team in the next 5 years? Also, contrary to popular belief, I believe that after this season the B1G will have a pretty tough time scheduling non-conference opponents which have any self respect. This league is a joke, and I hope it goes down in flames. Unfortunately money dictates more than anything, so that's not likely to happen.


NCHC - I left this one for last. I am a current DU season ticket holder and I have been pretty upset over the lack of conference play in October. I can remember my days rooting for CC. Always a Canadian team the first week to open up, then a decent team the next week. This was followed by two straight weeks of conference play. This year, I had the benefit of watching three weeks of junk hockey teams coming into Magness. I could care less about the score in these, it wasn't just Denver. Only CC, Duluth, UND and Miami scored conference games in October. This is ridiculous and below the product that I was expecting from the NCHC. This definitely needs to be fixed.

Other news:

DU shows another week of frustration. After a 5-1 win over Niagra, the pioneers fell 4-1 against canisious. Pretty bad considering Niagra beat Canisious 6-4 the previous weekend.

CC splits a series in NY to a team not likely to make the season ending tournament.

Miami nearly get's swept by Providence.

B1G:
The B1G-Hockey East challenge went pretty well. Except for Wisconsin. They allowed 16 goals while scoring 3 in a single weekend. The preseason B1G pick has some work to do.

Minnesota looks good, but their lack of inter squad competition will hurt them come late season. Any team coming from this conference deserves the "over-rated" chant.

Hockey East:

I really like what BC has done over the past 3 years. Win, Win, and Win some more. Time to beef up and win next weekend in the big time.

That's all for now.

New year. New look.

It's that time of year again. New hockey blood, and for me a new team. I guess some explanations along the way too.

Last year I attended the final WCHA final five in it's current format. I watched the Badgers beat the Tigers. I saw fans who hated the idea of the B1G, and I watched an old man cry over the loss of the current WCHA.

I am a life long Badger fan, but I just couldn't bring myself to be a fan of the B1G. I think the league is an atrocity, and will only showcase big money hockey. So I moved back to Denver for other reasons and swept up on an offer for Denver University tickets. This does officially make me switch sides away from CC, but I have always been of the impression to make friends at hockey games.


With that being said, here's my yearly take on the goalie situation for DU and CC.

DU: I read everything about this coming year and found that almost every college hockey writer was against DU. I read a blog which said DU would split the series against Merrimack 1-1 with DU allowing a total of 5 goals. DU actually shut out the series and scored 5 goals.
DU has always had good goalies. It's like a natural pedigree to be a decent goalie and play for DU. Sam Brittain has always been a favorite goalie of mine. He had an awesome freshman year, then snapped his ACL and had two off years. He get's his final chance at redemption this year before graduating and ceding the spot to Evan Cowley. I think Brittain has the chance to be great this year and he could backstop a superb DU team.

CC: I have had a love/hate relationship with CC goalies since Bachman left. Howe did good his first two years coming within one win of a frozen four berth. He lost his touch to Thorimbert his Junior year and competed with him during his senior season. Thorimbert is a very good goalie when he's on target. His somewhat tandem last year landed CC their first losing season in 14 years. However, I think he is a good leader in net. He talks quite a bit, and freshman Tyler Marble can learn something from that. Thorny might not be the best in net, but if he's on target like he was in his sophomore year CC could be a force in net.


Next week I'll target the forwards for both DU and CC. Should be a decent season for both.