Jim Connelly

Connor Hellebuyck was a brick wall. That’s all you need to know about this past weekend in Hockey East. 1. Double shutout leads River Hawks to back-to-back title You can’t win if you can’t score. That was the simple lesson learned by both Notre Dame and New Hampshire at the Hockey East Championship this weekend. … Read more

Since the beginning of the New Year, I’ve been talking about a seemingly unlikely scenario that six Hockey East teams could reach the NCAA tournament. Well, in the sense of being greedy, it’s not out of the questions that seven – yes, seven - Hockey East teams could punch their NCAA tickets. For a couple of teams – namely Northeastern and, … Read more

Surprisingly, I had a half-decent record in the crazy quarterfinal round of games, thanks in large part to picking the entire New Hampshire-Northeastern series correctly. And with a .670 winning percentage entering the final weekend of games, I can now officially claim domination over Dave. I had him beat when he went on injured reserve … Read more

After Notre Dame beat Boston College on the final day of the regular season, there was a reason to believe that the Irish could beat the Eagles in a best-of-three series. Still, it was difficult to pick Notre Dame. That leads the three things I learned this week: 1) Notre Dame proves postseason proficiency I … Read more

Time to pick the quarterfinals. I may have been perfect in the opening round, but it’s difficult to pick a best-of-three. So often, if a team wins game one, they sweep. But this year’s Hockey East field is about a tightly stacked as possible. Thus, sweeps will be difficult. That said, even if I pick … Read more

The biggest surprise in the opening weekend of the Hockey East playoffs was that there were not any surprises at all. That leads the list of things I learned this weekend in Hockey East: 1. Favorite survive single elimination Plenty was made about the first-round single elimination series in Hockey East, mostly that some very … Read more

Just when I began getting cocky, karma put me back in my place last week. Jim last week: 4-4-1 Jim to-date: 147-66-28 (.668) Dave to-date: 123-65-24 (.637) Friday, March 7 #10 Massachusetts at #7 Vermont Jim’s pick: I think that Vermont has enough of the depth at each position to win this game and advance. … Read more