I'm getting in on this a bit late.  Having attended several Women's
Division 1 Frozen Fours, I suggest the event has sufficient stature to
stand on its own. It would be overshadowed by the men's competition in a
shared venue.   The Women's Frozen Four thrives in cities and arenas that
are too small to host the men's championship.  It is easy to get tickets,
travel, and accommodations, all of which would be scarce in locales shared
by both tournaments. I must respectfully disagree with Bob's proposal.

Last weekend's Women's D1 Frozen Four in Duluth had it all: great teams, a
quality venue, and strong attendance.  ~4,000 fans attended the
championship thriller between Wisconsin and Ohio State.  Women's hockey is
a great game, continuing to grow in participation and attendance.  If you
haven't seen a women's hockey game in recent years, I suggest you give it a
try next season.  It should be easy to find a game, as many schools have
both women's and men's men's varsity teams.  *This offer void in Michigan
and Colorado

I'm hoping to see some of you in Tampa next month, or in St Paul next
year.  Beware the Gopher ears.

Erik


On Mon, Mar 20, 2023 at 10:26 PM Richard Vehlow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I agree with Mike that best of three should be restored to the first two
> rounds of, in this case, ECAC. One and dones put too much upset variance,
> especially in the first level, into the mix. Better yet, go back to the way
> it was 30 years ago when the bottom 4 teams in the standings don't make it
> to the playoffs at all. You gotta EARN your way in. Otherwise the regular
> season loses much of its meaning. Fans watching loss after loss after loss
> only to, in most cases, see another embarrassment. Or in most of the
> upsets, the bottom dweller ruins the efforts of a fairly decent -to- decent
> team due to a few aberrational physics in the deflections of the puck. Or
> in the miracle situation, a #12 conference seed rattles off up to 10 wins
> to become an NCAA champ with like a 15-25 overall record. That would be a
> laughingstock. Remember, in almost every sports movie or story with the
> cinderella team- the rags to riches story if you will- the protagonist team
> still has to turn it around in the regular season and QUALIFY to make it to
> the playoffs and ultimately to the climactic championship.
>
> Richard Vehlow RPI '91 '93 '02
>
>
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>
> On Sun, Mar 19, 2023 at 11:46 PM Mike Machnik <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Carol for waking us all up. :) It’s been an interesting couple of
>> weeks. The single elimination Hockey East tournament resulted in some
>> upsets in the first round and quarterfinals, but the top two seeds
>> ultimately still made the final. I still prefer best of three up until the
>> semifinals, mainly because those are some of the more memorable series
>> historically IMO. But I got to call three straight overtime games for
>> Merrimack, two in double OT, with each having the potential that a loss
>> meant the end of their run. I found myself quoting Killer Carlson on the
>> air as the tension mounted. “One with the universe…one with the
>> universe…nothing matters.” Wound up not trailing for any of the HEA
>> tournament until running out of gas and giving up the GWG in the final in
>> OT, then having to wait to see if they’d get into the NCAA tourney which
>> they did for just the second time in the last 35 years.
>>
>> And that’s one of the great things about this game, that schools that are
>> smaller or don’t have the name recognition nationally as some others can
>> often compete on the same footing.
>>
>> HOCKEY-L has come up in other contexts lately. Jeff Weiss reminded us of
>> the great work Keith Instone did here and which was chronicled by Adam
>> Wodon in this story a couple years ago.
>>
>>
>> https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2021/03/19_Back-to-the-Dark-Ages.php
>>
>> There’s no way to overestimate or overstate the impact Keith and all of
>> that made. We’re so fortunate to have a system that has been in place now
>> for so long and that people understand and can follow.
>>
>> Take a look at how basketball still selects its teams, I ran across this
>> recently. See “I. Selecting At-Large Teams”.
>>
>>
>> https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2023-03-09/how-field-68-di-mens-teams-picked-march-madness-each-season
>>
>> I didn’t know this before. They still take a (subjective) vote on who the
>> committee members think should get in! Imagine if hockey did this.
>>
>> The future of the tournament will be interesting to follow in the coming
>> years.
>>
>>
>> https://frontofficesports.com/ncaa-transformation-committee-recommendations/
>>
>> "The Transformation Committee did suggest that committees consider that
>> in some sports, at least 50% of teams get seeded in a championship bracket.”
>>
>> It’s not clear which sports these would be, but I won’t be surprised if
>> it leads soon to an expansion of the D1 hockey tournament. Maybe not to 32
>> teams, but possibly to 20 or 24 at least at first. There’s a lot of
>> pressure on the NCAA from various fronts, and participation rate in the
>> national tournaments is one of the issues.
>>
>> You could also see the addition of one or more new leagues, such as what
>> Bob DeGregorio (former Merrimack AD/HEA commissioner/AHA and CHA
>> commissioner) has been working on. Or the splitting off of the Power Five
>> schools into a “D-1A” or even an entity completely apart from the NCAA -
>> what would that mean for hockey?
>>
>> I saw some discussion of combining the divisional tournaments and/or
>> men’s/women’s — understandable, but I think there’s a lot to be said for
>> each of those events being the focus of attention at their locations and
>> among their fan bases. I would worry that combining one or more of these
>> would take away from what makes each event great. Along the same lines, I
>> worry that there’s not as much of a “big picture” awareness these days as
>> there used to be — the kind that led for example to the CCHA (1.0) and WCHA
>> (RIP) working together to ensure the survival of UAA & UAF 30 years ago.
>> Many of the coaches we saw as leading that big picture approach have
>> retired or passed away. It’ll be up to the next generation to  find a way
>> to carry that on, it’s one of the things that has made our sport great over
>> the years.
>>
>> Back on the game itself, the evolution of the way it is played has made
>> it faster and more exciting than ever. This is clear in the NHL, but also
>> in college hockey. Look at Lane Hutson from BU — but while he’s one of the
>> best examples, overall the evolution of the game has meant that traditional
>> player roles today are so different than they used to be. Defensemen
>> routinely will go anywhere they need to on the ice. Think about how nervous
>> you used to get when you’d see one of your Ds get caught up ice or venture
>> too deep into the attacking zone. It used to be notable when you’d see a D
>> “step up into the play” — now it happens on nearly every shift. And
>> defenses have to account for that and expect it. I think it’s a lot of fun
>> to watch.
>>
>> All right — good luck to the 16 teams in the bracket this year, hope it
>> is a great tournament, it usually is. :)
>> —
>> Mike Machnik
>> College Hockey News
>> Merrimack Broadcasting Network
>>
>> On Mar 18, 2023, at 1:59 PM, Carol White <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Helloooo out there in cyberspace!!!
>>
>> No emails since the end of 2022?  Blasphemy!!  Don't let Hockey-L die!
>>
>> I know we are older than we'd like to admit, but there are some dang good
>> Hockey Teams out there competing for that GOLD TROPHY!!!
>>
>> Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado College, St Cloud, Northern Michigan,
>> Canisius, Colgate, Harvard, MERRIMACK, Boston Univ, Minnesota State,
>> Denver, Quinnipiac, Penn State, Ohio State, Cornell, Alaska, Northeastern,
>> North Dakota,  RIT, Minnesota Duluth, Mass-Lowell, and a few others!!!
>>
>> Please get talking!!! More Contests!!!
>>
>> Your faithful Cruise Leader for the 2024 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP in St.Paul
>>
>> Carol
>>
>>
>>