I'll be off-line for the weekend (travelling to the Boston area so I
can only watch Lowell (:>)) so I wanted to get at least one non-seeding
comment in before the games begin.
 
The saying goes that it's defense that wins championships - how does that
apply to this year's tourney field?  Using CHODR's ranking of offensive
and defensive preformance (and accounting for Maine) we see that
 
Only 2 of the tourney teams are not in the top 13 for CHODR defensive
ratings:  Cornell (#16) and Lowell (#28).
 
Five of the twelve teams are outside the top 13 in CHODR offense:
Clarkson (#14), Cornell (#16), Michigan State (#19), Providence (#20), and
Vermont (#23).
 
The biggest offensive/defensive rank discrepancies are found with
   Lowell (#5 Offense - #28 Defense) and Vermont (#23 Offense - #4 Defense)
 
which leads to two comments:
 
   Michigan State (#19 Offense - #8 Defense) should be pitting strength
against strength with Lowell (and weakness vs. weakness).
 
   Vermont's Perrin & St. Louis have garnered a lot of attention for their
offensive flair (justifiably - I'd love to see Vermont move on just so
that all of you in Cincy could get to watch those two - they command
attention more than any pair of players I've seen).  Tim Thomas is a great
goalie, but I don't think you can have a #4 ranked defense based solely on
the goalie - there must be something else going on there.
 
Robin Lock
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