Had a lot on my mind today.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
o The World Championships in Finland start on Friday, and I was wondering
if anyone who has details could perhaps post scores and how the US team is
doing (who's on it, scorers, etc.). I mention the US team because I know
several college players are on Team USA, Emma & McEachern among them, but
if there are any collegians playing for other nations' teams, I'm sure
most of us would like to know how they are faring as well.
SIDS ON LIST
o DU AD Jack McDonald's idea of getting the WCHA SIDs on the list is a
great one and would go a long way towards helping people learn more about
the programs at those schools. I suggest that people with access to their
schools' SIDs contact them with the idea and see if they are interested.
Ted makes a good point about the amount of mail, but the best part about
the list is that you can quickly pick out the mailings that interest you
the most right now, and you can always come back at a later time and read
the ones you don't have time for at the moment. To this end, we can all
make things easier for everyone by doing things like changing the subject
line when it's no longer descriptive of the posting.
Now that we're in the off-season, it's time to see what we can do about
improving the list, and one of the best ways I can see that happening is
by bringing it to more people who are directly involved with a school's
program, be it players, coaches, SIDs, etc.
STATS
o Ted's comments about standardizing stats is something else that I think
would be great for all of the schools involved, but there are so many
problems with doing it. Everyone has their own package/method that they
use to do stats, and somehow you have to convince everyone to spend the
money to acquire whatever package you decide should be the standard.
Someone has to run the whole thing and make sure everybody sends in their
info; it's hard enough doing it for one conference let alone all of DivI.
But the benefits would be tremendous if someone could put this thing
together. OK folks, get to work. :-)
FIGHTING
o I don't have a chronology of rules changes in college hockey, but I would
be very interested to see one. I don't know if fighting was ever allowed
(i.e., combatants were not tossed from the game). And, I don't know that
fighting will ever be eliminated from pro hockey. It's undeniable that
many people do go to/watch hockey at any level from high school up for the
violent aspect. I was watching Hartford-Boston Game 6 Saturday night at
home and a bunch of my brother's friends came over to watch the game, and
all they were looking for were fights in the game. They paid little
attention to the tv except when there were some tussles. I don't think
that all pro fans are this way, of course, but they do make up a large part
of the audience and as long as the fans seem to want the violence, the NHL
will not get rid of it. Bench-clearing brawls gave the sport a bad name
and that's why they were eliminated, but people seem to like the one-on-one
battles.
I mention all this because it is clear that college hockey is flourishing
without the need for this silliness. Mike Zak mentioned the BU-Michigan
series, one which could have gotten out of hand but didn't because the
officials stepped in and refused to let it happen. On the contrary, NHL
officiating seems to be at least partially controlled by the league's
perception of what it believes the fans want to see, and that's sad. NCAA
hockey gets more and more exciting every year, and at the same time the
NCAA and the conferences have cracked down on certain aberrations and made
the game better.
There was such an incredible drop in hitting from behind and hitting after
the whistle this season when it was made clear that the referees were going
to call it. (I saw mostly HE games, so maybe your experience in your
league is different.) The fans are enjoying the game, too - most don't
miss the fights at all. I've only seen two bench-clearing brawls in my 6+
years of watching DivI hockey: Lowell-Northeastern in 1988 and
Northeastern-Merrimack in 1989. Both were such tremendous black marks on
the sport that HE stepped in and really dropped the hammer on nearly
everyone involved, maintaining the integrity of the league and sending a
clear message to others that this wouldn't be tolerated. Of course, in
an emotional game like college hockey, nothing is predictable and brawls
will probably occur again, but knowing what the strict punishment is
going to be will derail many of these incidents before they explode. I
have heard many a player say that he really wanted to drop the gloves and
go at it with an opponent, but that he knew he'd get tossed for at least
a game (automatic two in HE). That shows that the deterrents do work.
The NHL should take notice.
I also believe that the linesmen in the college game are far, far better
than those in the pros. I am amazed at the number of obvious offsides that
are let go in the NHL.
NO GOONS
o To follow up the last point, another major difference between the pro
and college game is in personnel. Every pro team has a goon or two they
dress for almost every game, but there are no real goons in college. Every
guy out there is there because he can play hockey with the rest of them.
Some players are more physical than others and get called goons by the
opponents' fans, but they aren't really. I would say that when I started
watching college hockey there were goons at the time (I began watching the
ECAC), but they've gone the way of the dinosaur.
- mike
p.s. Boston - 12 wins to go. This *is* the year. Mike, you can make that
5-21 in a couple of weeks. The curse is long gone.
p.p.s. Note that what hurt Boston last year was averaging only three goals
a game in the playoffs (when was the last time a team made it to the
finals doing that?). This year they're up a whole goal to 4; it's
still early, but if they can keep that up, they can win it all.
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