I know many teams are already in action, but we still have a week to wait
in the North Country.  So there's still time to ponder the schedule and
see what might lie ahead including:
 
1. Starting the season with three home games against Hockey East teams.
Better to be at home than on the road - but I remember all too well BC
coming up here for our opener last year (after they had already played
a couple of games) and giving SLU its only home loss for the year 3-2.
Certainly a game SLU would have loved to replay later in the season.
This year it's UNH's turn - haven't they already seen some action?
 
2. Six of the eight ECAC league games during the fall semester
are on the road - a tough way to start.  In fact the first home league
contest scheduled when classes are in session is not until February 5th!
Cornell and Colgate are here after the dorms close at the start of
Thanksgiving break. Harvard, Brown, and Clarkson all visit between
semesters.  The interesting one here is Clarkson since the league matches
are scheduled on consective Saturdays - at SLU on Jan 23 and at Clarkson
Jan 30. I believe that Clarkson's classes start the week before SLU's
so that their students will be in town on both weekends, while SLU's
dorms are still closed on the 23rd.  Will this produce a pro-Clarkson
student crowd for the game at SLU's Appleton Arena?  I doubt it, but wouldn't
it have made sense to just reverse the order of these two games?
 
3. SLU's nonleague schedule is almost entirely Hockey East (UNH, UMass Lowell,
Northeastern, BC, and Providence twice) except for a New Year's tourney at
Minnesota.
 
Just one more week and we can start to see how it will go...
Robin Lock
St. Lawrence University