Dave Hendrickson writes:
>[Those not in the Boston area should be aware that Eddie is a sports talk show
>"personality" (the popularity of whom utterly escapes me) who at least pretends
>to have total disdain for hockey.]
 
Not total disdain!  Eddie has said that he does enjoy and support college
hockey and international hockey.
 
>I'm not sure that I agree about UMA having only one shot and that being
>Merrimack.  I don't want to get into specific teams, but there are several
>that could have very bad years if a lot of things went wrong.  Well, I will
>mention one team and that is Providence.
 
It should make for an interesting matchup this weekend, then :-) (MC
vs PC).
 
>> MC the last few years was the best overtime team in the league. If things
>> were close... they could pull it out. Teams will know now they don't have
>> to win an overtime game against Merrimack... they only have to survive
>> until the shootout.
>
>First, was there a reason for being one of the best OT teams, or was that
>possibly a statistical anomaly.  Maybe too few instances for the stats to mean
>anything.
 
Merrimack was 4-0-2 in overtime games (overall) each of the last two
seasons, or 8-0-4 total over the last two.  So about 1/6 of their
games went into OT, and they didn't lose any of them.
 
In HE, the records were 4-0-0 (92-93) and 3-0-2 (93-94), or 7-0-2 the
last two years.  That's about 19% of their HE games.  They are 9-1-2
since joining HE.  Only Northeastern has ever beaten MC in OT, while
MC has posted OT wins over BC, Lowell, UNH, NU, and PC.
 
Of course, they never went into OT against BU or Maine.  It can be
argued that the reason this stat, though impressive, doesn't mean
too much is that they only went into OT in games where the opponent
was someone who MC could play with.  But still, most of those HE
opponents were about the same level, so to not lose any of 12 OT games
over the last two years is a worthwhile accomplishment.
 
The reason I can't see teams trying to survive until the shootout
against MC (or anyone else) is that as Dave said, you can still lose
the SO.  If you want those two points, you're better off trying to get
them before the SO, especially if you have NC$$ aspirations.
 
On the other hand, I almost thought Maine was playing for the tie on
the road last night at BU and would have been happy to go home with
two points on a tough weekend.  But this could have been the case
whether there was a shootout or not.  Road teams will still play for a
tie in OT in a tough rink, IMO.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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