With another D-1 college hockey season in the books, and another ECAC team taking their first-ever D-1 national title, it's time to reflect on that time-honored assumption that gets bandied about on this forum WAY too often for my liking from WAY too many posters associated with the various Hockey East schools. You know ... the one where the fan (or sometimes in a spasm of self-serving CYA-speak, even the coach) of some fill-in-the-blank team usually from inside or within spitting distance of Rte. 495 says something to the effect ...
"Well, all things being considered, it's been a pretty good season for us ... after all, Hockey East is the best conference in the nation."
To that I respectfully say ... utter and total hogwash.
Maybe a decade or so ago, there was some meat on those bones. But for the better part of the last decade-plus, the concept of so-called "HE supremacy" has rested almost entirely upon the shoulders of Boston College, with one outlying season from BU as the only other true example of ANY degree of true "supremacy". A UMaine program that won two* D-1 titles in the '90's has fallen to the level of consistent mediocrity, alongside rivals UNH, which once upon a time made 4 FF (and 2 Finals) appearances in a 6 season stretch towards the end of UMaine's greatest era, and at the ascendancy of the ongoing BC era of dominance. Some teams have tried to step up into that vacuum/void - most notably UMass Lowell in the last two seasons - but at least as of right now, that ascendancy consists of one (1) one-and-out trip to the FF.
Is that the profile of a conference whose members still seem to have the temerity to boast of its so-called supremacy? If there's any doubt as to my answer to that question, let's have a look-see at the list of suspects (excepting the lead dog BC, which pains me beyond words, but facts are facts) and their *accomplishments* over the last decade or so (or longer, if appropriate):
Boston University - yes other than Coach Parker's Last Stand, it's pretty much been a one-and-done for your program before AND since. All despite building the absolute unquestioned state-of-the-art hockey palace that is Agganis Arena to woo top recruits to the other end of Comm Ave. Once upon a time, Coach Parker was the unquestioned leader of the HE pack, but now he is retired, and the program is apparently in a state of suspended animation. A few years ago I'd have classified BU as the "Doc" of HE, but as of now you guys are officially Sleepy.
UMaine - it's been over a decade since Walshy (RIP) made his own valiant last stand, and while Standbrook and Whitehead made it work with Walshy's players for a short time afterwards ... playing in the important games (much less winning those games) has become a lost art for the Black Bears. I honestly do still have much love in my heart for the UMaine-iacs, and I don't think there's a more dedicated bunch of fans in the league. But the downturn of the program, coupled with the harsh day-to-day reality of living in the Downeast, it's hard to blame y'all for being a bit Grumpy.
UNH - kind of a compressed, less-extreme version of the Black Bear experience, which is only because the 'Cats never quite got to the top of the heap, and have receded in a much less pronounced, steadier pattern than some of the really bad seasons up in Orono, which UNH has avoided. But mediocrity is mediocrity, and UNH is basically a .500 team in a conference that's not as strong as it once used to be. UNH's out of conference record to ECAC teams was what kept them out of eking into the D-1 tourney last season, and with the Pampers Brigade on their way to Durham next Fall, it could be a tough year on the horizon. In honor of the program's history of shying away from its biggest moments in the past - arguably repeated in the HE Tourney Finals this March - yup, sad to say that my beloved UNH is Bashful.
UMass Lowell - the new "fair haired boy" and "new kid on the block" at the top of HE the last two seasons, the Riverhawks and their fans are hard to dislike. Extremely well-coached, and with some well-deserved momentum after an eternity of gazing up at their D-2 National Title banners and wondering "when", it seems like UML is on the rise, but at this point they are still newbies on the national scene, having lost in their only FF appearance to date in 2013. Will UML become the next UMaine (coach-driven program wins national hardware - maybe even without an asterisk*?) - will they become the next UNH (in the mix but never quite getting over nationally) - or will they become the next Merrimack (brief burst of hope, suddenly doused in harsh reality)? Regardless, right now the UML program and its fans are Happy.
Providence - right now a step behind UML, beginning to emerge, but with some postseason trends which raise the spectre that your star goalie's lineage may be dragging the program towards a UNH profile on the national stage if/when you ever get back there. I think it's too early to draw long-term conclusions, but as much promise as has come to PC in the aftermath of Coach Leaman's arrival, there is still a LOT of work left to be done to get the program anywhere near a regular HE Tourney top competitor, much less a national one. One also has to at least wonder if PC hired the "wrong" Union coach to lead their program, given last month's outcome. In honor of PC's key role in the founding of the league (thanks Coach Lamoriello, who no doubt learned from Coach Gavitt), that lets me designate the Friars as Doc.
Northeastern - oh, this one is going to be very painful. Has a D-1 hockey program located in a major city ever been more inept and less competitive? You have to go back to the '80's and the founding/pre-founding days of HE to find anything resembling success for the Huntington Hounds. And whenever it does look like things are going the right way, you can bet your bottom dollar that something/someone is going to mess it up. Badly. The campus looks nothing like the urban blight I remember when I worked there on the grounds crew 30+ years ago, and I love (make that LOVE) the fact they still play in Mathews (formerly Boston) Arena, which is still my favorite place in the league. But looking at the schmuck whose coaching your program now, I'm afraid to tell my NU friends your program is definitely Dopey.
Merrimack - a year or two, I would have had you right there with UMass Lowell as Happy. Last year wasn't so good, and despite all of the positive tweaks to the hockey facility, the program still plays in a souped up HS arena, only marginally nicer than UNH's similarly-deplorable HS football field. But the program is still further up the food chain in the past, and you are allowed a "slippage" year here and there. That makes you Happy Jr. and still a non-entity nationally, not helping the argument that HE remains the best D-1 league in the land.
Vermont - still paddling around directionless out on Lake Champlain, yearning for the sustained mediocrity of your neighbors to the east (and Downeast). Burlington may be one of my favorite places on the planet, and some amazing NHL level talent has come through the program in the past (i.e. LeClair, St. Louis, Thomas, and Sharp) without really ever having put the program on the map nationally, except for a rare FF appearance (and zero wins). Most of the "glory days" of the program happened when you were in the ECAC. Throw in the "hippie" reputation that gets tossed around regarding your school and your state, I suddenly have this urge to become Sneezy.
UMass Amherst - it's been more than 20 years since UMA entered the league, and much of the talk (although increasingly less in recent years) has been about how the Minutemen could be the "sleeping giant" of HE. The concept of sleep involves waking up 2/3's of the time to live life. So despite the fact one of the best NHL goalies currently playing is an alum AND has a Stanley Cup ring, the program in Amherst must be called Narcolepsy.
UConn - so many possibilities, but this is a program that can't even manage to be a factor in their last league(s), so we'll just designate the Huskies as Newbie and leave it at that.
Northern Indiana State - why are you guys even here? Does your school president have dyslexia or is he/she just plain illiterate? This is Hockey East, not Hockey Midwest. It was bad enough on the "blowhard subway alums" for the rest of us with BC ... so now the league has doubled-down to get an even more annoying fanbase?? I'll give you guys this much ... your team somehow sucked all of the potential joy out of watching BC lose to a #8 seed in the HE Tourney. I've given them loads of crap in the past about being a wanna-be football school, and likewise you are a wanna-be hockey school. Go back where you came from. You guys are just Incredibly Frickin' Annoying.
So having vented my spleen on this ... someone, convince me how/why HE retains ANY shred of current day supremacy. Besides BC and a potentially emerging UML program, I just see endless mediocrity, and I'm not sure I see any of that changing any time soon. If you're selling, consider me a very cynical "buyer" at this point ... and in the meantime, just remember it's *only* another 5 months left to kill before the season starts up again.
"Well, all things being considered, it's been a pretty good season for us ... after all, Hockey East is the best conference in the nation."
To that I respectfully say ... utter and total hogwash.
Maybe a decade or so ago, there was some meat on those bones. But for the better part of the last decade-plus, the concept of so-called "HE supremacy" has rested almost entirely upon the shoulders of Boston College, with one outlying season from BU as the only other true example of ANY degree of true "supremacy". A UMaine program that won two* D-1 titles in the '90's has fallen to the level of consistent mediocrity, alongside rivals UNH, which once upon a time made 4 FF (and 2 Finals) appearances in a 6 season stretch towards the end of UMaine's greatest era, and at the ascendancy of the ongoing BC era of dominance. Some teams have tried to step up into that vacuum/void - most notably UMass Lowell in the last two seasons - but at least as of right now, that ascendancy consists of one (1) one-and-out trip to the FF.
Is that the profile of a conference whose members still seem to have the temerity to boast of its so-called supremacy? If there's any doubt as to my answer to that question, let's have a look-see at the list of suspects (excepting the lead dog BC, which pains me beyond words, but facts are facts) and their *accomplishments* over the last decade or so (or longer, if appropriate):
Boston University - yes other than Coach Parker's Last Stand, it's pretty much been a one-and-done for your program before AND since. All despite building the absolute unquestioned state-of-the-art hockey palace that is Agganis Arena to woo top recruits to the other end of Comm Ave. Once upon a time, Coach Parker was the unquestioned leader of the HE pack, but now he is retired, and the program is apparently in a state of suspended animation. A few years ago I'd have classified BU as the "Doc" of HE, but as of now you guys are officially Sleepy.
UMaine - it's been over a decade since Walshy (RIP) made his own valiant last stand, and while Standbrook and Whitehead made it work with Walshy's players for a short time afterwards ... playing in the important games (much less winning those games) has become a lost art for the Black Bears. I honestly do still have much love in my heart for the UMaine-iacs, and I don't think there's a more dedicated bunch of fans in the league. But the downturn of the program, coupled with the harsh day-to-day reality of living in the Downeast, it's hard to blame y'all for being a bit Grumpy.
UNH - kind of a compressed, less-extreme version of the Black Bear experience, which is only because the 'Cats never quite got to the top of the heap, and have receded in a much less pronounced, steadier pattern than some of the really bad seasons up in Orono, which UNH has avoided. But mediocrity is mediocrity, and UNH is basically a .500 team in a conference that's not as strong as it once used to be. UNH's out of conference record to ECAC teams was what kept them out of eking into the D-1 tourney last season, and with the Pampers Brigade on their way to Durham next Fall, it could be a tough year on the horizon. In honor of the program's history of shying away from its biggest moments in the past - arguably repeated in the HE Tourney Finals this March - yup, sad to say that my beloved UNH is Bashful.
UMass Lowell - the new "fair haired boy" and "new kid on the block" at the top of HE the last two seasons, the Riverhawks and their fans are hard to dislike. Extremely well-coached, and with some well-deserved momentum after an eternity of gazing up at their D-2 National Title banners and wondering "when", it seems like UML is on the rise, but at this point they are still newbies on the national scene, having lost in their only FF appearance to date in 2013. Will UML become the next UMaine (coach-driven program wins national hardware - maybe even without an asterisk*?) - will they become the next UNH (in the mix but never quite getting over nationally) - or will they become the next Merrimack (brief burst of hope, suddenly doused in harsh reality)? Regardless, right now the UML program and its fans are Happy.
Providence - right now a step behind UML, beginning to emerge, but with some postseason trends which raise the spectre that your star goalie's lineage may be dragging the program towards a UNH profile on the national stage if/when you ever get back there. I think it's too early to draw long-term conclusions, but as much promise as has come to PC in the aftermath of Coach Leaman's arrival, there is still a LOT of work left to be done to get the program anywhere near a regular HE Tourney top competitor, much less a national one. One also has to at least wonder if PC hired the "wrong" Union coach to lead their program, given last month's outcome. In honor of PC's key role in the founding of the league (thanks Coach Lamoriello, who no doubt learned from Coach Gavitt), that lets me designate the Friars as Doc.
Northeastern - oh, this one is going to be very painful. Has a D-1 hockey program located in a major city ever been more inept and less competitive? You have to go back to the '80's and the founding/pre-founding days of HE to find anything resembling success for the Huntington Hounds. And whenever it does look like things are going the right way, you can bet your bottom dollar that something/someone is going to mess it up. Badly. The campus looks nothing like the urban blight I remember when I worked there on the grounds crew 30+ years ago, and I love (make that LOVE) the fact they still play in Mathews (formerly Boston) Arena, which is still my favorite place in the league. But looking at the schmuck whose coaching your program now, I'm afraid to tell my NU friends your program is definitely Dopey.
Merrimack - a year or two, I would have had you right there with UMass Lowell as Happy. Last year wasn't so good, and despite all of the positive tweaks to the hockey facility, the program still plays in a souped up HS arena, only marginally nicer than UNH's similarly-deplorable HS football field. But the program is still further up the food chain in the past, and you are allowed a "slippage" year here and there. That makes you Happy Jr. and still a non-entity nationally, not helping the argument that HE remains the best D-1 league in the land.
Vermont - still paddling around directionless out on Lake Champlain, yearning for the sustained mediocrity of your neighbors to the east (and Downeast). Burlington may be one of my favorite places on the planet, and some amazing NHL level talent has come through the program in the past (i.e. LeClair, St. Louis, Thomas, and Sharp) without really ever having put the program on the map nationally, except for a rare FF appearance (and zero wins). Most of the "glory days" of the program happened when you were in the ECAC. Throw in the "hippie" reputation that gets tossed around regarding your school and your state, I suddenly have this urge to become Sneezy.
UMass Amherst - it's been more than 20 years since UMA entered the league, and much of the talk (although increasingly less in recent years) has been about how the Minutemen could be the "sleeping giant" of HE. The concept of sleep involves waking up 2/3's of the time to live life. So despite the fact one of the best NHL goalies currently playing is an alum AND has a Stanley Cup ring, the program in Amherst must be called Narcolepsy.
UConn - so many possibilities, but this is a program that can't even manage to be a factor in their last league(s), so we'll just designate the Huskies as Newbie and leave it at that.
Northern Indiana State - why are you guys even here? Does your school president have dyslexia or is he/she just plain illiterate? This is Hockey East, not Hockey Midwest. It was bad enough on the "blowhard subway alums" for the rest of us with BC ... so now the league has doubled-down to get an even more annoying fanbase?? I'll give you guys this much ... your team somehow sucked all of the potential joy out of watching BC lose to a #8 seed in the HE Tourney. I've given them loads of crap in the past about being a wanna-be football school, and likewise you are a wanna-be hockey school. Go back where you came from. You guys are just Incredibly Frickin' Annoying.
So having vented my spleen on this ... someone, convince me how/why HE retains ANY shred of current day supremacy. Besides BC and a potentially emerging UML program, I just see endless mediocrity, and I'm not sure I see any of that changing any time soon. If you're selling, consider me a very cynical "buyer" at this point ... and in the meantime, just remember it's *only* another 5 months left to kill before the season starts up again.
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