Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

[The Zlax45]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

This season BC scheduled 2 mid-week games, one non-league game vs Yale and the upcoming game vs Merrimack. UConn had one at the XL vs Merrimack and a second vs Maine at Bridgeport. UMass had only one, the upcoming game vs UVM to end their home schedule. Last season BC had 3 mid-week games, UConn had 6 at the XL and UMass had 3. In 2017-18 BC had 2, UConn had 5 at the XL and UMass had 3.

Sean

Seemed like more ;-)

[DavidNardolillo]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

One thing I have always kinda liked in the ECAC is the whole travel partner thing. If Sacred Heart is currently the most logical choice to be 12th team, you could have:

Maine-UNH
UVM-UMass
UML-MC
UConn-SH
PC-BC
BU-NU

Longest trip would be roughly 3h 10m for both the Maine/UNH and UVM/UMass combos. Longest trip between travel partners in ECAC is 2h 25m between Quinnipiac and Princeton.

Would probably never happen when you factor in arena availability but if 2:25 is doable in ECAC, 3:10 wouldn't seem impossible.

There are pros and cons to each format. In the ECAC travel partner format,you have the league standings based on playing each team an equal number of times home and away, which is the only fair way to do it. But when I was at UMN I loved the two game sets against the big rivals like UMD, Wisconsin, and North Dakota as it seemed the intensity from a physical contest on Friday would regularly carry over to Saturday.

[Darius]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

UNH's Metcalf discusses top priorities as new Hockey East commissioner:
https://www.unionleader.com/sports/c...3c768c9c4.html

[RENCEB]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

Furthermore, the article I read also quoted Bobby Valentine......Sean

I wonder if Bobby did the interview wearing glasses and a fake mustache!

[J.D.]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

UNH's Metcalf discusses top priorities as new Hockey East commissioner:
https://www.unionleader.com/sports/c...3c768c9c4.html

“We need to look at the unbalanced schedule that we currently have and there’s more than one way to solve the unbalance that we currently have,” Metcalf said. “Obviously, one of them is adding a 12th team but there are other solutions. As a league, those are the things we’ll be talking about over the next couple months because I do think we need to address that unbalance that we have.”

Other solutions? I don't see it unless you go back to the old 9 team league format where you played each team three times. Even then, is that balanced when you're playing some teams once at home and other teams twice at home?

The other major point is trying to reduce ties. I honestly don't understand the obsession with that. Is that an American thing? Over the course of a long regular season, what is the problem with having ties? If this is something that does in fact change, please please please do not go to the shootout across the board. I'd be ok with a 5 or 10 minute 4v4 OT period. Start there. But even then I just don't understand why ties are deemed to be a problem. You have the oddity of BU this year with a ton of ties but is it really a problem across the country?

[J.D.]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

I suppose there is one other option. If you just went to a 20 game league schedule. The ECAC has a 22 game schedule and not all those teams are Ivies and are able to fill their schedule. So that could be a possibility. HE teams could always still schedule each other outside of that as non-league games.

[NCAA watcher]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

The other major point is trying to reduce ties. I honestly don't understand the obsession with that. Is that an American thing? Over the course of a long regular season, what is the problem with having ties? If this is something that does in fact change, please please please do not go to the shootout across the board. I'd be ok with a 5 or 10 minute 4v4 OT period. Start there.

If they go to that stupid shootout, I'm with you. I can't stand those mini one-on-one tick shot gimmicks.
Sign my up for a 4 on 4. Suddenly you'll see how exicting skill can be. It seems to have pretty near universal approval among fans, and maybe it even becomes a solution for several of the other "attendance" problems.

[Dan]

If they go to that stupid shootout, I'm with you. I can't stand those mini one-on-one tick shot gimmicks.
Sign my up for a 4 on 4. Suddenly you'll see how exicting skill can be. It seems to have pretty near universal approval among fans, and maybe it even becomes a solution for several of the other "attendance" problems.

As an impartial observer attending a number of NCHC games a year - all I do is root for 3x3 overtime. It is electric and a whole lot of fun. I have zero issue with the NCHC format which does eventually end in a shootout, if necessary, in search of just one extra point...

Would that change with a rooting interest? Perhaps. But if HE added a second five minute OT period at 3x3 to determine an extra point in the standings I would be ecstatic initially. It’s that much fun...

[NCAA watcher]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

When the players become too good and too big for the space, so the games bog down into coaches positioning players in hopes of maximizing the random puck deflections, this becomes the natural solution. Create more space by actually taking one player off the ice. Suddenly hockey becomes fun again and you can marvel at puck skills.

It also removes a lot of injury risk, because players can't overcommit to the hit.

I'd be all for a 4x4, then a 3x3. The more fans that are exposed to it, the more the game will change for the better.

[Middle Street]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

“We need to look at the unbalanced schedule that we currently have and there’s more than one way to solve the unbalance that we currently have,” Metcalf said. “Obviously, one of them is adding a 12th team but there are other solutions. As a league, those are the things we’ll be talking about over the next couple months because I do think we need to address that unbalance that we have.”

Other solutions? I don't see it unless you go back to the old 9 team league format where you played each team three times. Even then, is that balanced when you're playing some teams once at home and other teams twice at home?

The other major point is trying to reduce ties. I honestly don't understand the obsession with that. Is that an American thing? Over the course of a long regular season, what is the problem with having ties? If this is something that does in fact change, please please please do not go to the shootout across the board. I'd be ok with a 5 or 10 minute 4v4 OT period. Start there. But even then I just don't understand why ties are deemed to be a problem. You have the oddity of BU this year with a ton of ties but is it really a problem across the country?

I'm with you. I don't get the "well the NHL does it, so college must". Football, basketball, baseball all have significant rule differences when compared to the pro game. While I enjoy NHL 3x3, it only exists to avoid shootouts!

One of the things I love about college hockey is the pace of the game and that they usually end in under 2-1/2 hrs. Adding additional OT and shootouts will add to the length of these games. Hard pass for me.

[J.D.]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

One of the things I love about college hockey is the pace of the game and that they usually end in under 2-1/2 hrs. Adding additional OT and shootouts will add to the length of these games. Hard pass for me.

Agree. Maybe they should start with a standard 4v4 five minute OT and see if the reduction in ties meets what they were looking for. If nobody scores, guess what, a tie is ok. Then in a couple years if you're still not getting the desired results, go to a standard 3v3 five minute OT where if nobody scores a tie is still ok!

When the players become too good and too big for the space, so the games bog down into coaches positioning players in hopes of maximizing the random puck deflections, this becomes the natural solution. Create more space by actually taking one player off the ice. Suddenly hockey becomes fun again and you can marvel at puck skills.

It also removes a lot of injury risk, because players can't overcommit to the hit.

I'd be all for a 4x4, then a 3x3. The more fans that are exposed to it, the more the game will change for the better.

Totally agree

[J.D.]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

Only good thing a shootout would do is allow me to exit early and get out of the garage...

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

The other major point is trying to reduce ties. I honestly don't understand the obsession with that. Is that an American thing? Over the course of a long regular season, what is the problem with having ties? If this is something that does in fact change, please please please do not go to the shootout across the board. I'd be ok with a 5 or 10 minute 4v4 OT period. Start there. But even then I just don't understand why ties are deemed to be a problem. You have the oddity of BU this year with a ton of ties but is it really a problem across the country?

The number of ties almost tripled from 1975-76's 3.3% to 1998-99's 9.0% and more than tripled by 2008-09' 11.9%. Since 2014-15 it has fluctuated between last season's low of 9.6% and 2015-16's high of 12.6%. This season is on the high end to-date at 12.3%:

Season - Games - Ties - % Tied
1975-76 - 582 -19 – 3.3%
1984-85 – 921 – 37 – 4.0%
1998-99 – 996 – 90 – 9.0%
2008-09 – 1099 – 131 – 11.9%
2014-15 – 1110 – 112 – 10.1%
2015-16 – 1127 – 142 – 12.6%
2016-17 – 1129 – 129 – 11.4%
2017-18 – 1132 – 117 – 10.3%
2018-19 - 1121 – 108 – 9.6%
2019-20 – 891 – 110 – 12.3%

Sean

[Drew S.]

I'm with you. I don't get the "well the NHL does it, so college must". Football, basketball, baseball all have significant rule differences when compared to the pro game. While I enjoy NHL 3x3, it only exists to avoid shootouts!

One of the things I love about college hockey is the pace of the game and that they usually end in under 2-1/2 hrs. Adding additional OT and shootouts will add to the length of these games. Hard pass for me.

Not anymore. A lot of teams have tv timeouts even for games that aren’t on tv. In the last couple of years I bet the average game is closer to 2:45.

His ideas all sound awful to me. You need to make it enjoyable and affordable. If you did that you would see somewhat of a return to the glory days.

[amkirby10]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

I don't mind ties, but I hate shootouts. Under no circumstances would I like to see a shootout added into Hockey East. Since you can't be having 4OT games during the regular season, it therefore stands to me that ties should stay as the end result after overtime. You can play around with 4x4 or 3x3, that's fine, but for the love of God don't go to shootouts. Keep ties.