Season previews for leagues
Can Hockey East go 4-for-4? The league has earned three straight national championships, starting with Boston College in 2008, followed by Boston University and then the Eagles again. Hobey Baker Award finalist Gustav Nyquist’s return makes Maine a more formidable foe this season (photo: Melissa Wade). It wouldn’t be a shock to see Hockey … Read more
“It’s one louder, isn’t it?” asks Nigel Tufnel in “This Is Spinal Tap.” “It’s not 10.” Perhaps it’s just a personal perversion, but every time I think of the CCHA as an 11-team entity, I think of Nigel Tufnel’s magic amp, the one that is one louder. Michigan’s Louie Caporusso scored 10 of his 21 … Read more
“Bigger and Better” would be the way to describe the 2010-11 Atlantic Hockey season. The league has expanded from 10 teams to 12, welcoming Niagara and Robert Morris. Senior forward Chris Kushneriuk and Robert Morris hope to make a big splash in the program’s first season in Atlantic Hockey (photo: Robert Morris Athletics). The last … Read more
The whole point of a playoff series, as opposed to individual games, is to insure — to a certain extent — that the better team actually wins, right? It’s a solid attempt to diminish the number of “fluke” advancements by teams that simply got lucky. So how does one explain Team A, at 8-17-4, upending … Read more
In years past, this space has been used to recap the previous year a bit. In other words, mention how Denver won the MacNaughton Cup, how North Dakota captured the Broadmoor Trophy, how the league got back to the Frozen Four thanks to Wisconsin, etc. Justin Fontaine and Minnesota-Duluth have a lot of expectations to … Read more
Hockey East has officially returned to its glory days. Back-to-back national championships by Boston College in 2008 and Boston University in 2009 coupled with all three of last season’s Hobey Baker “Hat Trick” finalists hailing from Hockey East certainly give the conference a reason to pound its collective chest. Not since the mid-to-late 1990s and … Read more
What do we say about last year’s WCHA season to try to recap it? Do we talk about the ridiculous parity, and how it came down to the final night of play to determine the standings, only narrowly avoiding using a plethora of tiebreaking procedures that would be enough to make anyone cry? Do we … Read more
Most leagues have one or two clear-cut frontrunners and some well-defined strata before anyone even dons a sweater. Yale’s Sean Backman is back after a 20-goal campaign (photo: Melissa Wade). Not in ECAC Hockey. Four teams seem to have legitimate claims to the title of Fall Favorite, but only one squad can be tagged as … Read more
Have you caught your breath yet? Ready for more? It’s certainly going to be difficult to top the 2008-09 college hockey season, which included the most intense, exciting postseason in history. Atlantic Hockey contributed to the madness, with Air Force claiming its third consecutive league title and then knocking off Michigan in the first round … Read more