I find some striking parallels between Hockey East this year and in
1993.  In 1993 the NC$$ selected only Maine and BU for the tournament
after those two teams ran away from the Hockey East pack.  (See below for
some personal memories of that year and the NC$$ selection.)  This year BU
is far and away the class of Hockey East (and perhaps the nation) much like
Maine was in '93.  Maine, like BU in '93, is a strong second.
 
Maine in second, you ask?  Yeah.  Although UMass-Lowell is currently sitting
in second, they lead Maine by less than a HE win while Maine has a game in
hand and has just completed two games with BU, while Lowell still has all three
BU games remaining.  Considering that and the non-conference records of the
two teams, I would have to argue that BU and Maine are clearly numbers one and
two in Hockey East.
 
Third, then, is UMass-Lowell.  Their three remaining games with BU (two this
weekend) and one with Maine will determine whether they'll be a distant third
(or lower) or whether they'll be more significant players in the hunt.
Obvious caveat: there's a lot more hockey left to be played.
 
Of course, the one thing that makes this totally *unlike* '93 and could in
fact turn it into a '94 rerun is that Maine is out of the picture for the
NC$$ tourney.  Which means that even a distant third in HE could be good
enough for an invite (unlike '93).  Since each conference gets two bids, then
unless one of the other teams knocks off the top 3 to win the Hockey East
tournament, Lowell stands to get a bid even if they're not in the top 12
in the country.
 
Which would mean that Lowell could get in as the lowest Eastern seed and
(this time deservedly) get bounced out West on the crossover.  So one
deja vu becomes another.  Or in the words of Yogi Berra, it'll be deja vu
all over again.
 
It'll be a very interesting weekend for RiverHawks fans.  Ryan and I will
be going into the Lions' Den on Friday night and will be at Tully on Saturday.
 
A split would be like great sex and, unfortunately, about as likely.  :-)
 
DaveH
 
Irrelevant personal memory of 1993:
 
1993 was not only the Year of Kariya, it was also the year I joined
HOCKEY-L.  I know, I know.  Number 9 probably was a more important milestone.
:-)  Anyways, I joined sometime after the NC$$ selections were made, and I
was OUTRAGED along with many other Chiefs fans that Lowell had been snubbed.
They'd won 20 games, played an overwhelming Maine team into the final minute
of the HE semis, had beaten UNH in OT in the consolations to give them third in
the HE tourney, and had assumed that that win put them in.  I recall
finding out about HOCKEY-L on rec.sport.hockey and barging into HOCKEY-L
with my r.s.h. mentality clamouring that "We wuz robbed!!" only to be
informed about this thing called the Ratings Percentage Index which showed in
totally objective terms that UML hadn't been robbed after all.  And, of
course, I also learned that while r.s.h. was a zoo, HOCKEY-L was more like a
library and different behaviors were expected in the two places.  :-)
 
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