I had a thought that has been itching at me for a while, and the most recent
Hockey-l poll really brought it to the fore...
 
Is this one of the weakest years for college hockey in quite a while?
 
The reasons would be obvious due to two olympics in three years and the recent
trend of players rushing off to the pros early.
 
Looking at the East this year, no one seems "loaded" with talent.  This BU team
(#1 in HE, #2 in country)... could it play with the BU team of '91 (#5 in
country going into NCAA's and eventual #2 finish).  If this year's BU team were
to play in HE in 1991 (including against BU in '91), I think they would be
struggling to get home ice for the Hockey East playoffs.  I would also add that
with how good UNH and Providence were that year (#4 and #5 in HE), any present
HE team other than BU would struggle to get #6.
 
For a while, I thought this was due to HE not being as strong.  When I saw how
HE was beating up the ECAC (for the most part, this is not an attempt at "my
league's better'n your league), I thought maybe the East was weak.
 
Then I keep hearing from people about how weak this nationally ranked team is
and how overrated that one is.  Are there any teams out there besides Michigan
who look truly impressive???  Is there anyone who is dominant???  Let me ask
you this, besides Michigan, does any team have a truly impressive line on which
all the players are future pros???
 
The key is that, usually, the voters from the East vote for the eastern teams
more than the western ones while the western voters always plug the western
teams.  Recently, the trend has reversed, which makes me believe that the
eastern voters are saying to themselves, "oh, this team X can't be as good as
what the west has," while the western voters are thinking, "oh, if team Y
doesn't get it together, they won't be able to hang with what the east has."
 
Human nature is to look at the best you see in front of you and have difficulty
imagining a team that is/was better.  This year everyone is comparing the teams
in front of them to the "other" teams in their memory (from '91, '87, etc) and
assuming that the team in front of them is not that great.
 
My belief:  Except for Michigan, there are no "great" teams in college hockey
this year.  I am sure that with no olympics for four years now, in 2-3 years,
we will muse and curse at how the BU or Wisconsin or team Z team of '96 could
have walked away with it in '94, but instead they are struggling in '96.
I think we are seeing a present, temporary (I hope) down trend in college
hockey due mostly to Olympics, and somewhat to pros.
 
 
Just the outlandish opinions of a crazed hockey fan.
 
Tony  BU'92'93
Former Ogre