Without prying too much into Providence coach Nate Leaman’s personal life, by all appearances he’s a man of good habits.
That might change, however, given how competitive Hockey East has been this year.
“I don’t smoke cigarettes, but I might start,” Leaman said recently, with a chuckle.
Just how competitive is Hockey East this year? Start with the league standings, where the top five schools are separated by just five points — league leaders Merrimack and Connecticut with 27 points each, followed by Boston University (23), Providence (23) and Northeastern (22).
Six schools — more than half the league — are featured in the latest DCU/USCHO.com D-I men’s poll: Merrimack (sixth), BU (eighth), UConn (10th), Providence (12th), UMass Lowell (13th) and Massachusetts (15th). Of the unranked teams, all except Vermont have at least one win against a team that was ranked at the time.
While it’s possible there could be some separation in the second half, or teams could cannibalize each other and cancel each other out in a way, such a scenario is unlikely, given Hockey East’s history of competitiveness.
Leaman noted that this year hasn’t unfolded much differently than the 2021-22 season, where the league’s top six were separated by just six points. Northeastern clinched the regular-season title in the final seconds of its season finale, a 1-0 win at Merrimack.
“If you finish seventh in our league right now — and I don’t want to finish seventh, first of all — but you can’t hang your head,” Leaman said. “The depth of our league is outstanding. You’re going to scrape and claw for every point in this league.”
With his struggling Wildcats yet to notch a league win this season, New Hampshire coach Mike Souza’s had a front-row seat to the league’s brutality. But given the league’s “any given weekend” nature, Souza sees reason to believe his Wildcats can be competitive in the second half of the season.
“Our effort and our attitude and our competitiveness has been really strong,” Souza said. “Our league’s so competitive, you can close the gap on a team that may have more talent than you if you’re willing to compete at an optimum level. (That’s) why we’re optimistic here — we know it can turn on you that quick in a positive way. That’s all we’ve talked about.”
Of UConn’s 19 games so far, 12 have been against opponents ranked at the time.
“You’re talking about five teams separated by (five) points, which is essentially two games,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “It seems like every year, that seems to be the case in Hockey East. It’s a very, very competitive league night in and night out.”
Though he’s new to Hockey East this year as a head coach, BU’s Jay Pandolfo knows a thing or two about how competitive the league is historically. As a player, his 1995-96 Terriers team (which he captained) eked out the regular-season title following a close, three-team race featuring BU, Lowell and Maine.
“It’s a hard league,” Pandolfo said. “It’s hard to win on back-to-back nights in this league. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. Every team presents different challenges, but (any) time you do win back-to-back games in this league (you’ve) had a pretty good weekend.”
