I think that one of the problems with the ECAC this year is that,
unlike previous years, many of its top teams (Brown and Harvard) have
poor out of conference records. Usually, the better teams in the ECAC
seem to have good, if not great, out of conference records while the
league itself doesn't perform very well during non-conference games.
The ECAC teams and their non-conference results (as of 2/7/95):
ECAC
Rank Team N-C record*
---- ---------------- ------------
1 Clarkson 6-3-1
2 Harvard 2-3-0
3 Brown 1-3-2
4 RPI 6-4-0
4 Colgate 6-4-0
6 Princeton 5-1-1
7 Vermont 7-3-0
8 Cornell 2-3-0
8 Yale 2-4-0
10 Union 3-3-0
11 SLU 5-4-1
12 Dartmouth 2-3-0
The best non-conference records are Clarkson, Princeton, and
Vermont, with both RPI and Colgate having good non-conference records.
It seems as though every team in the ECAC (except for Brown) is
holding their own in non-conference play. This is the reason for
their upswing in the non-conference record of the league as a whole.
To contrast, the hockey east has their top teams having very
impressive non-conference records, and the league as a whole has
performed very well, except for BC and UMA.
The HE teams and their non-conference results (as of 2/7/95):
HE
Rank Team N-C record*
---- ---------------- ------------
1 Maine 12-1-0
2 BU 8-1-0
3 UNH 8-1-0
4 Northeastern 4-5-0
5 Boston College 3-6-0
6 UMass-Lowell 5-5-3
6? Merrimack 7-5-0
8 Providence 5-5-0
9 UMass-Amherst 2-6-2
What will also matter in the non-conference records are the quality of
the teams that they have played. It would be interesting, maybe, to
compile the same listings for each of the other leagues (gotta run now
myself. :), and to figure the strength of schedule. But, isn't that
already done with the RPICH? I think we should just take a look at
that to see how many NC$$ playoff teams each league "deserves" or
doesn't deserve.
As has been mentioned before, a very key matchup will be the
consolation game of the Beanpot, with both NU and Harvard being on the
bubble for NC$$ consideration. Both teams can raise their
non-conference records to 0.500 if they win, and they would be doing
so against a strong non-conference opponent. But, the consolation
game of the Beanpot has rarely been hard-fought, so the coaches of
both teams will have probably have to work to try to convince their
players just how important it is.
adam
*= I obtained these "non-conference" records by subtracting the
league records from the overall records. This IS NOT exact, since
there are games against league opponents (such as the BU-NU, BC-BU
beanpot games) that do not count in the standings. In fact, the one
BU non-conference loss was to Maine (Great Western), as was the one
UNH non-conference loss (scheduled non-conference game).
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