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2023-24 Penn State Nittany Lions

ZedLeppelin said:
I know it's not hockey related, or even Penn State related, but I'm back home from my trip to Duluth. It was great to visit with my sister and run around in my hometown after so many years away. There were no Kiara Zanon sightings in Ohio, and no Olivia Wallin sightings in Duluth, so no peace was disturbed.

The driving was easy, since I broke it down into three drives of less than six hours each, there and back. I was surprised how smoothly it went around Chicago - a little cluttered in one spot, but nothing scary. Coming back, traffic got crazy around Madison, where I was stopping for one of the nights. Other than that, though, it was pretty smooth sailing. Someone please remind me not to go cheap on hotels the next time I do a trip like this...that was about the only iffy part of the experience.
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I enjoy these little personal stories and I'm glad you are seemingly doing great in the wake of that. We also know that folks who are doing bad often mask it so have the big picture viewpoint to find a professional to talk to if things are a little sideways. My mother in law passed away unexpectedly about four months ago so it's been hard. The day of the funeral my daughter and I went to a badger hockey game on my wife's encouragement. She had family that was staying with us and she thought it would be a good idea for me to have a little bit of normalcy. The two hours of drivetime was hard. My daughter is a special needs person so it wasn't like I had a lot of conversation to keep my mind in a good place, things were pretty raw yet. We made it safe and sound though I went through a lot of napkins on the way up. Keep your stick on the ice.
 
Timothy A said:
I enjoy these little personal stories and I'm glad you are seemingly doing great in the wake of that. We also know that folks who are doing bad often mask it so have the big picture viewpoint to find a professional to talk to if things are a little sideways. My mother in law passed away unexpectedly about four months ago so it's been hard. The day of the funeral my daughter and I went to a badger hockey game on my wife's encouragement. She had family that was staying with us and she thought it would be a good idea for me to have a little bit of normalcy. The two hours of drivetime was hard. My daughter is a special needs person so it wasn't like I had a lot of conversation to keep my mind in a good place, things were pretty raw yet. We made it safe and sound though I went through a lot of napkins on the way up. Keep your stick on the ice.
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Honestly, things aren't sideways now, as far as losing my twin brother. That was a year ago at the end of April, and passing that one-year milestone was actually healing. Well, so was getting his estate settled, finally, which also happened at almost exactly the one-year mark...that was a huge weight lifted. For sure, it was the most difficult year of my life, and it took a longggggg time to adjust to not being a twin anymore, but time does heal. And in that year I also got to enjoy Penn State having their best season so far, so that helped in its own way, too. As you learned four months ago, hockey can do that, and I hope it did that for you!

This trip to Duluth was like a reward...sure, part of it was about dropping some of my brother's stuff off with my sister, but the trip wasn't about him or about the past year - it was just a long overdue vacation, and a trip home, and hanging out with my sister, and seeing everything that's changed about Duluth in the last 16 years (and there was a lot of it!). I love Lake Superior and the Duluth harbor area, so taking a day to wander around Canal Park was fantastic, and the weather was amazing for Duluth in May - 72 and sunny (on that day, anyway).
 
The CHA will merge with the Atlantic Hockey Association starting in the 2024-25 season. I guess it makes sense, since they share a commissioner.

"Merging our two leagues gives us the opportunity to streamline our operations and build an enhanced brand in men's and women's ice hockey as a unified conference," Atlantic Hockey and College Hockey America Commissioner Michelle Morgan said.

https://chawomenshockey.com/news/20...ckey-america-to-merge-operations-in-2024.aspx
 
It does not make sense from a girl's hockey point of view, but what do I know. Penn State signing up to goto Holy Cross and Sacred Heart is uninspiring at least for me.
 
Reddington said:
It does not make sense from a girl's hockey point of view, but what do I know. Penn State signing up to goto Holy Cross and Sacred Heart is uninspiring at least for me.
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that’s different from my interpretation. I haven’t seen that Holy Cross or Sacred Heart on the women’s side would leave HE and NEWHA respectively, and join this merged conference. Maybe it’s worth the conference clarifying…

Top order of business needs to be addressing the streaming contract. It’s beyond awful.
 
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Reddington said:
It does not make sense from a girl's hockey point of view, but what do I know. Penn State signing up to go to Holy Cross and Sacred Heart is uninspiring at least for me.
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That would be uninspiring, for sure, but I don't think that's what the conference merge will mean.

Lindsay said:
That’s different from my interpretation. I haven’t seen that Holy Cross or Sacred Heart on the women’s side would leave HE and NEWHA respectively, and join this merged conference. Maybe it’s worth the conference clarifying…

Top order of business needs to be addressing the streaming contract. It’s beyond awful.
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The way I read it, nothing really changes for the CHA teams except the conference patch on the jerseys. It looks like just an administrative change to get everyone under the same banner.
 
Lindsay is astute as always. Of course Franklin Pierce and LIU were on the schedule this year so in retrospect it would not be the end of the world.
 
Reddington said:
Lindsay is astute as always. Of course Franklin Pierce and LIU were on the schedule this year so in retrospect it would not be the end of the world.
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I love how people on this board always put down teams they think are below them. Penn State has had a winning record for 3 years. That's it. Penn State had to start somewhere, right?

Why put these teams down? What happened to grow the game? Teams have to start somewhere - so why do people have to think they are too good to play the newer D1 teams?

If you want to grow the game, we need more D1 teams. Another constant complaint is why aren't there more D1 teams. But when these teams start up, the established teams are too good for the new teams?

Sacred Heart beat Harvard and took a #15 UConn team to OT. Long Island beat Maine, and only lost to Penn State last year 3-4. Union beat BU 3-1. Obviously, these teams aren't in the top tier, but neither was Penn State 4 years ago.
 
Lindsay said:
that’s different from my interpretation. I haven’t seen that Holy Cross or Sacred Heart on the women’s side would leave HE and NEWHA respectively, and join this merged conference. Maybe it’s worth the conference clarifying…

Top order of business needs to be addressing the streaming contract. It’s beyond awful.
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It's obviously speculation on my part, but don't really see any conference affiliation reorg happening immediately. On the men's side, does anyone really think PSU would leave B1G for AHA?
I think it makes sense and will just make things easier on the home office - the overhead of the same staff running two leagues must be crazy - two paychecks per person, two sets of business tax filings, two sets of copyrights and logos and whatnot to maintain, two different streaming contracts, etc. It just consolidates and makes things more efficient. (Both leagues are 501c3 non-profits and according to their tax filings, Bob DeGregorio received a salary from both organizations for different amounts, which is why I assume 2 paychecks per person...)
 
Puckluck89 said:
I love how people on this board always put down teams they think are below them. Penn State has had a winning record for 3 years. That's it. Penn State had to start somewhere, right?

Why put these teams down? What happened to grow the game? Teams have to start somewhere - so why do people have to think they are too good to play the newer D1 teams?

If you want to grow the game, we need more D1 teams. Another constant complaint is why aren't there more D1 teams. But when these teams start up, the established teams are too good for the new teams?

Sacred Heart beat Harvard and took a #15 UConn team to OT. Long Island beat Maine, and only lost to Penn State last year 3-4. Union beat BU 3-1. Obviously, these teams aren't in the top tier, but neither was Penn State 4 years ago.
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I think there is room for respectful discussion on the topic. HE is weak right now for example and has 27 games locked up in league games and I think it hurts the best program in the league at any given time.

Part of the appeal of the CHA has been at 6 teams and being in the middle of the NCAA teams geographically they can have fun non conf schedules. Goes extra for Penn State cause they have a rink and brand recognition the rest of the teams in the league don’t have so I think teams want them on their schedule. So Penn State more than others may not want to add teams? Just thinking out loud,

Cuse and Penn State are probably both flight risks for the CHA if certain other things fell in place for them, and lord knows when the next AD will wake up and decide to cut a program that day. So…. Would it make sense for the Atlantic CHA league to try to woo Sacred Heart and or Holy Cross on the Women’s side to protect its auto bid? I honestly don’t know and budget wise maybe it makes zero sense, but there’s a thought.
 
The knock on PSU until this year was that they did better out of conference than in conference and that dates back awhile.
 
ARM said:
It will be interesting to see how many programs employ a fourth full-time coach immediately. Maybe some will phase it in, where it will start as a part-time, paid position. It wasn't that long ago that BC only had two coaches on staff and was still contending.
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I was also wondering how many essentially already have a 4th coach volunteering who may now get paid….so not too many posted positions. Wild that BC contended with only two paid coaches, didn’t know that!
 
Finally a couple more players to throw into the pot. Brooks jumped ship as a junior. That's a first for Penn State. And another big Swede for PSU.
 
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