Hockey East set a new schedule for 92-93. Instead of playing your 7 league
opponents 4 times for 28 games, they will be using DIVISIONS to reduce
the league schedule to 24 games.
 
There will be 4 teams per division. You play your 3 opponents in your
division 4 times, plus you play your 4 opponents in the other division
3 times. That 4x3 + 3x4 = 24 for those ex-hockey players out there. (^; (^;
 
THESE DIVISIONS ARE FOR SCHEDULING ONLY. The standings will still be
for the entire league and the playoff format will still be 8 vs 1, 7 vs
2, etc. This is called an unbalanced schedule for those who want
jargon.
 
The two parts will be organized like this:
 
BC, UMLowell, UNH, PC and
BU, Maine, Merrimack, Northeastern.
 
(The coaches/ADs set up these divisions based on past performances of
each team.)
 
Why would HEA want 4 more non-league games? Just speculation, but I'd
say they feel they are a strong league and will be able win the majority of
these extra games, thus improving their chances of getting in the NCAA
tournament.
 
OPINION: This is great for college hockey. With the NCAA cutbacks on
games from 38 to 34, the non-league games were getting squeezed out in
favor of league games. If college hockey wants to improve on its
"national" exposure, it has to overcome its regionalism. The best way
is to play non-league games. I hope the WCHA follows suit (32/34 league
games is ridiculous), but I suspect the CCHA is too busy dealing with
its own growth problems to worry about non-league concerns.  The
non-Ivy ECAC is already in good shape (22/34 league games) but the
Ivies could help out by beefing up their non-league play.
 
Keith [log in to unmask]