Here's a Bruce Crowder quote from today's Globe:
"I'm just disappointed for the people who work so hard to build up this
program, for the students and for everyone who could hop on a bus and be in
Albany in three hours.  It just doesn't make sense.
 
"All I know is I don't think people on the committee are going to bat for us.
There are three Hockey East teams in the tournament and two of them are being
shipped out."
 
I couldn't agree more.  ESPECIALLY when Jack Parker (who is on the selection
committee) was quoted *after* the Hockey East playoffs that "it's impossible
for Lowell not to be in Albany next weekend."
 
When all three ECAC teams stay East -- ESPECIALLY two lower ranked ones
than Lowell -- I can only conclude that the ECAC representative has bigger
testicles than Parker.  When the going gets tough, then Parker takes his BU
bye and folds.  Thanks for nothing, Jack.
 
While the attractiveness of avoiding conference matchups is undeniable, didn't
Comley say this past week that conference foes meeting each other in the
second round was going to be a fact of life and we'd just have to deal with
it?  Why the reversal?
 
In years past there wasn't much of a downside to ticking off the UMass-Lowell
fans.  All three of them.  Two years ago I made self-deprecating reference to
the UMass-Lowell Virtual Band.  (They were the only semifinalist school
without a band there.)
 
But times have changed.  In Mike Madden's article in the Globe about the
UML-Maine game he referred to a Maine goal in the following way: "The
deflection beat goalie Martin Fillion, and the Lowell fans in the FleetCenter,
by far the loudest, suddenly were quiet."  By far the loudest?  With BU and
Maine also playing?  Yes, I know BU had the 5 o'clock game and it's a long
Friday drive for Maine fans, but Lowell had *by far the loudest fans.*  Lowell
fans are no longer irrelevant and no longer a joke.  And their team deserves
that fan support.
 
So for the second time in three years UMass-Lowell has gotten shipped West
while lower ranked Eastern teams stay home.   Tim Brule applauded the committee
for "having the guts to send LSSU east and Lowell west."  I'm applauding
the committee too.  With my middle finger.
 
DaveH
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.