My report card of Hockey East teams.
The "A" class ... New Hampshire A, Boston Univ. A-
UNH - A
After a ?shaky? start, UNH has responded in such a convincing manner
that I can just about give them the coveted A. Now, the early season
losses to Vermont and Colgate don't look all that bad. Ten straight
victories over some good competition is truly commendable. The
performance so far is greatly higher than I had expected. Some surprise
strength in goal has helped as well as a successful offensive attack.
Unrelentless looks like a good adjective for this squad. Although I haven't
seen them yet, from what I can learn ... they're not going to be the
"poor-finishers" I had envisioned. In fact, this squad seems to play like
its 0-0 throughout the whole game. Their schedule stays equally tough
over the next 10 games. If they survive that stretch alright, they'll be
strong representatives for HockeyEast in the NCAA's.
B.U. - A minus
Let's not be too dissapointed in B.U. This team suffered big losses and
has still been able to remain one of the nation's top five teams. As UNH
barely got an A from me, I could have given one to B.U. a lot easier had
it not had such a dissappointing weekend. I realize that its always a
tough trip up there against quality opponents, but this squad seems to be
unable to get around real good goal-tending. The loss to St. Lawrence
and tie to Merrimack seemed unfortunate. The Clarkson loss was much
more and it appears a December rest will be much appreciated for this
team. They were rolling along quite nicely up until ten days ago with
nearly a 4-goal margin of victory over Hockey East teams. They just
barely missed the A grade in my book ... there's hardly any difference
between them and UNH except for recent happenings. "What have you
done for me lately?" Also, UNH has had a slightly tougher schedule. B.U.
will have their NCAA tourney bid in Worcester.
The "B" class ... Maine B, Providence B, Boston College B-, Lowell B-
Maine - B
After all is said and done, this team deserves credit. Although, this is
really a 4-6-1 team and its hard to give a team under .500 a B grade.
But 4 out of their 6 losses were against the top 2 teams in
the nation. I think this team has responded well in light of the recent
happenings and I wanted to give them a B on guts alone. Northeastern
showed us all they're just an image of teams gone by. But, they proved
themselves worthy in three tough games against a surprising Lowell. I
think they'll prove the role of spoiler on occasion throughout the
remainder of the season but I don't see them playing all that well
consistently. No chance at NCAA's of course.
Providence - B
I didn't expect this squad to do this well, in spite of their losses. But,
they have persevered. A real good showing out west this weekend
nearly gave this squad a B and it probably should have. But, they lost a
couple of non-conference games last month and barely managed a point
against B.C. No challenge to B.U. Major points for sweeping
Northeastern and Merrimack. No other HockeyEast team has a sweep
besides UNH and BU. I don't see much potential however and I think their
only shot at the NCAA's is through a HockeyEast tourney victory. Which
I would never put past them! This teams chemistry and make-up are
mysterious. They nearly took down Vermont last night.
B.C. - B minus
This is a B+ team not playing up to potential. They've played one of the
stronger schedules however and have shown some great potential.
They got into the B class barely because of a good showing against St.
Lawrence, a decisive win over Lowell and the Mich. State win. The UNH
series shows that this team just doesn't have it together yet to challenge
the class teams. I've seen this squad twice and I'm hoping they can
make a NCAA tourney bid. Like UNH, they have another strong 10
games ahead of them so that will tell us more. This is one team who can
make a big impression with some polish and experience. Whether York
will create that by season's end is the mystery. Creating "character" at
B.C. these days could be a heady task.
Lowell - B minus
Well, B.C. got a stronger B- grade than Lowell, but I really like what I've
seen from them so far. Four Hockey East series-splits and a fairly good
weekend showing despite two losses lends me to extend a lot more
respect than this team gets otherwise. The young squad showed their
inexperience recently by twice losing good leads to Maine and
eventually falling by one goal. But, they showed promise with an
overtime win in Maine and a closely combatted game against Vermont in
Burlington. This squad is showing strong defensive potential at times as
well as really strong freshman scoring. The relatively easy next 5
games ought to build confidence for a pretty difficult finishing schedule
through January and February. Strong special teams indicates this
squad could have a longshot chance at beating the Hockey East
elite as well as an NCAA bid. This is my favorite! I wouldn't be the least
surprised to see this "working-class" squad make the tourney again.
Not that this team will ever get the respect they deserve so keep voting
them out of it and we'll see who goes to Worcester when the time
comes.
The "C" class ... Amherst C, Merrimack C-
Amherst - C
Another year for this squad to become competitive on a game-to-game
basis. Three of their 5 wins are against military schools and they've
taken some HockeyEast lick'ns. Although, they've shown some potential
in kicking the butts of weaker military squads. But, take away those
blow-outs and a 6-5 victory over Merrimack ... and this squad is
outscored 18-36 going 1-7 over eight games. Four games against UNH
and BU gives significant help to an otherwise weak schedule ... but they
were 0-4 in those games and outscored 19-9. Not a chance at the
NCAA's. They did play UNH close and that saves them from C-.
Merrimack - C minus
I was dying to give this team a better grade. But .... 3-8-1 ... outscored
38-54 You can't even point to one-goal losses any more.
What's wrong with this squad? Do they only get up for big games? This
is a real good team who could clearly contend if they had it all together.
They have good-to-great talent at all positions. But, it seems to be easy
enough to take them out of a game completely. What was once a
promising NCAA's-potential season is now all but history. However,
they will show up some nights and I can easily see this team above all
others in the C-class as having the killer-potential to knock off the big
guys. I'd give them a greater shot at a HockeyEast tourney championship
if they could prove strong enough to put together a streak of more than
two games. I'd look long and hard at the coach of this squad. This
weekends losses clearly indicates inconsistency. I saw the 6-2 Lowell
win and the 3-3 BU tie and this team can skate. We'll see who shows
up against UNH this weekend. This is my second favorite team and I'm
bumming!
The "D" class ... Northeastern D+
Northeastern - D plus
I thought this team would be a contender once they got rid of that poor
goaltending pair ... but even Harvard gets 4 past this keeper.
Hey they beat Michigan State and Maine! But, they've shown very little
elsewhere. They were blown out of both UNH games. They surely made
Maine stumble, but then BU shell-lacked them. Providence swept them -
handily! Give Crowder another year to work his magic.
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