Chris writes:
>About Merrimack's win over UNH last night:  I guess it is correct to call it an
>upset, since Merrimack hadn't beaten UNH in 11 straight games.  However, I was
>not surprised.  UNH, although 5-0-0, was playing its Hockey East opener after 5
>non-conference games, none of which was against stellar competition.  Merrimack
>clearly is a better team than last year, and they were playing at home.  I'm
>not surprised they pulled off the win.
 
    I agree with you; I tend to think the label "upset" also came from the
    fact that UNH was ranked 14th by one poll (clearly premature, as you
    say, since they had not faced top competition yet).  This is one of
    the reasons I don't care for the polls as a supposed indicator of the
    top teams.  I thought Keith's TCHCR gave a better and more objective
    ranking of all Division I teams.
 
    Also, one paper around here which shall remain nameless (not a Boston
    paper) hasn't covered Merrimack well this year (despite the fact that
    they publish less than half a mile from the school), then suddenly
    on Wednesday they plastered this huge headline on the sports page:
    "MERRIMACK UPSETS UNH".  All three wins this year by the Warriors
    have been called upsets.  Now, if they had beaten Providence last
    night, THAT would have been an upset.  But I wonder how long it will
    take for some teams to get some credit.  It seems as if this unnamed
    publication has yet to admit that Merrimack even belongs in Division I.
    Oh, well.
 
 
    - mike