Hockey East 24-25

[Hockeyfan1979]

Early returns from non conference play were not good and tells us HE is once again headed towards a 1 team in the tournament season. 2-13 vs WHCA & ECAC. Holy Cross with a nice come from behind win at RPI and Northeastern gets the other W vs Quinnipiac. BC got run out of their own building twice not even looking remotely competitive. BU played Minny tough in game 1. Game was scoreless with 2 mins to go before they took a penalty and gave up the game winner. BU just might be the team to beat this year. UConn will be there at the end thanks to the goaltending. They were competitive in both games vs the Gophers and won't see any teams in HE with the offense Minnesota has. Little surprised to see them drop one to Penn State but offense won't win many games for them so giving up 3 or more will always be a challenge. NU looks to be very similar offensively to what they were last year, goals will be hard to come by at even strength and their step back at goalie will likely land them lower in the standings this year. Holy Cross got off to a good start and could be ready to move up to middle of the pack in the conference. BC will find HE play a lot more to their liking and will probably be a top 5 team. Scheduling Wisconsin and Clarkson same year shows they're up for challenges and those games will help them long term. UNH will be top 5 with their goaltender keeping them in games all year. Vermont and Providence look like middle of the pack teams early but either could surprise in a conference that should be wide open. Maine and Merrimack look like the the two bottom teams this year. UConn, BU, BC, NU, UNH top 5 teams?

[TonyTheTiger20]

Really tough to judge where BC is going to end up based on the Wisconsin games. I thought they looked largely the same as last season against Stonehill (compared to last year's St. A's game) and UW. I suspect the Badgers are in their own world this year even relative to the WCHA but I don't have enough evidence to really say for sure yet.

BC was top of Hockey East at the break last year before falling apart a bit in the second half. Will be nice if we are closer to last season's first half form than second half.

The league is a disaster and One Team In The Tournament is a foregone conclusion just based on the non-conference records blowing up everyone's collective NPI before the season even really gets started.

[Hockeyfan1979]

Great weekend for HE thanks to BC taking down Clarkson twice! Nice job Eagles who hopefully righted their ship. While they are behind ECAC and way behind WCHA the conference should continue to provide entertaining games all year because the divide between haves and have nots has closed significantly. HC already beat BC, should have beat NU. BU and NU looked even over their 2 games. MC was close to taking out BC and did take UVM out twice. Maine/Providence split a series. PC takes out NU. Great parity.