Eeyore wrote:
 
> I think just the opposite.  I see an increasing trend (not just in college
> hockey, but all over) to make the regular season less and less important; I
> find it rather distressing.  We have roughly five months of regular season,
> and one month of playoffs.  Shouldn't the five months be more important?  All
> in all, I'm more impressed by the team that can show up and perform night in
> and night out over a long grind rather than one that can reel off five
> stellar games in a row.  Where were they back in December.  I certainly think
> that the regular season champ is more worthy of a tournament selection than a
> playoff champion.
>
> J. Michael Neal
>
 
 Be more important for what? If you are picking teams for a NCAA championship
tournament, then NOTHING is more important than how the teams are playing BEFORE
they enter that tournament. People praise the PWR rankings, but they have a
major flaw (someone's sentimentality) in giving a(ny) weight to the past 20
games and no weight whatsoever to playoff wins. A win in December is just as
good as a win in March under the current mathematical formula, and that is bull.
I do not necessarily see why the regular season champ should be allowed in. Take
the top 12 teams from the four leagues' playoffs and then drop the puck. If a
hot goalie beat you in the first round of the league playoffs, then you are
cannon fodder anyway for the next hot goalie. Why should a hot October,
Novermber, December count as much as a single, solitary, hot March??? I'd rather
give the last spot to a coach who could get his team going when it counted
(playoff time) then when the season began. (And this is from a St. Cloud State
supporter whoes team was the opposite of that -- hot early, cold when it
counted).
 
Nathan Eric Hampton
 
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