Re: ECAC Hockey 2010-2011
Conference play is 2 months away and I'm starting to get a bit impatient so I wanted to know what the rest of the ECAC people think about the upcoming season. Favorites for a top four finish? What about the pre-season all-league team? In terms of teams, will RPI still be as good as projected? Can Union repeat last season's success? What about Yale, will they become a dynasty? Will Clarkson be as bad? Will Brown build up on their trip to Albany? Etc etc... tell me what you think
I think the usual suspects will be up near the top again. Yale will still be a strong opponent...yes they lost some key offensive players but they still return a lot of strong and capable scorers. Goaltending again will be their question mark but I can't imagine it could be worse than last year. Cornell is Nashless and lost who I feel was their best player to graduation in Greening along with Scirvens and a a few other key players. They have no offense returning so I think Schafer will have them play D and nothing else.
Havard losing Leblanc will hurt as they were coming on
As for RPI many predict them to be a top 2-4 team this year although their fortunes took a blow with D'Amigo signing and I'm not sure if I read Pirri left already too?? If so....that will seriously hurt them.
I don't think Clarkson can stay at the bottom that long and teams like Union and Q Pac will I think finish near the top of the standings. Q Pac had a lot of freshman last year and although they lost Wong and some other key players that year of experience will be a big help.
My Saints will have their challenges. Losing Bollig and a stud defenseman incomign recruit to the Caps before he even got to campus will hurt. I think a .500 year for us would be a victory as we also have to replace two goalies who played regularly since they were frosh. Losing Mackenzie and Keller to graduation leaves gaping holes but players like Hughes and Flanagan should be vastly improved.
As to picking the top players that is a crap shoot but I am thinking Little, Kearney and O'Neill from Yale will be near the top offensively with only Polacek from RPI being perhaps the best offensive player in the league. Colgate has a couple of blue chippers in Smith and Day but I think there will be some breakout players that will jump up and surprise. The aforementioned Hughes (D) and Flannagan from SLU....Langlois from Q could all surprise.
Overall I don't want to be a pessimist but I thnk the league lost a ton of talent to graduation and I think it will be a "down" year for the league in general but again....it's the ECAC so parity will prevail.
