Bill writes about the ECAC switch to best-of-three q-final:
>Now that three of the four conferences have gone the
>best-of-three q-final route, I wonder if the NCAA might consider going back
>to their best-of-three playoff structure of two years ago.  I would bet that
>another factor pushing the ECAC into the best-of-three format was the extra
>$$$ that the longer series would generate -- and we all know how interested
>the NCAA is in money.
 
Well, the NC$$ (watch those A's, Bill) won't benefit from this change since
it's an ECAC tourney, right?
 
I like the change, I've always preferred best-of-three to single game q-final
series ever since the exciting 1990 HE q-finals - BU-NU and UNH-PC going to
three games, plus Merrimack pushing regular season champ BC to the brink as
well.  Although I don't think any team can blame a single-game series for
being upset, it still gives more credibility to an upset if the winner can
win 2 of 3 in the other team's rink.  And likewise I really enjoyed the 2-of-3
NC$$ series from 1989-91, it allows for more of the "story-within-a story"
type of situations.
 
As I mentioned to Bill in mail, the next question is likely to be whether HE
will make it unanimous and return to a best-of-three q-final, and without
having any inside info on this matter, I don't expect it to happen.  HE likes
the fact that it can showcase each series by having all four games take place
at different times so that NESN can show them all.  In 1990, because of the
way the games were set up, the Merrimack upset of BC in Game 2 and the
exciting UNH-PC finale were not shown on tv as well as Merr-BC Game 3.  But
the league is also very concerned about attendance, with many teams being
located close together, and for example, in 1990, BU and BC were both hosting
3 game series within a few miles of each other.  The worst possible scenario
in such a series would be if BU, BC, and NU were all hosting series which
would kill attendance.
 
In the other three leagues, teams are located far enough apart and have enough
of a following just for those teams that they can expect to draw well if all
four series are held on three straight nights.  HE teams tend to draw a large
part of their fans from the local people, whether it be Maine, BC, PC, or
whoever.  If you give them a choice among games, you run the risk that one
game won't draw well or that both will be about half-full.  Meanwhile I
think it is safe to say that even if Clarkson and SLU, for example, were
hosting 3-game sets, that both would be at or near capacity despite being
so close to each other.
 
>Ah, well, the rationale doesn't really matter -- the important thing is that
>ECAC teams will have at least one more playoff game next season! :-)
 
8 of them, anyway. :-)
 
Just a thought: I know the ECAC has a lot of trouble putting together a tv
network for its regular season games because of many different problems, but
it would be nice if they could work out an arrangement to have playoff games
televised.  That might be more lucrative to advertisers and is virtually
guaranteed to draw a good tv audience, especially if the ECAC final four does
move to the Knick and such a network could take over broadcasting of those
games from NESN.  BTW, the scheduled opening of the new Garden in 1995 seems
to make it almost a lock that the move to the Knick will happen, since the
tradition element of the current Garden will be gone.  Maybe the ECAC will
decide to stay on through 1995 and the Garden's final year, I don't know.
 
>Couldn't pass this one up...
>"I can't believe the prizes they have.  I mean, how many ceramic dogs and
> velvet bullfighter paintings does one home need?"
>-- Rob Bartlett, about Wheel of Fortune
 
Oh boy, I am just never going to live this one down, am I. :-)  And wait
till you see what is going to be on next year's hockey-l button, if what
Carol says is true....I'll leave that up to her to disclose if she so wishes,
with my (and you-know-who's) permission....
 
 
- mike (grinning)
 
PS interesting trivia I learned from the intermission of Bruins-Pittsburgh
 Game 2 last night: longtime Bruins tv play-by-play man Fred Cusick
 starred as a hockey player for Northeastern in the 1930s.