What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

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

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

J.D. said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
NCAA watcher said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

J.D. said:
“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?
Click to expand...

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

Middle Street said:
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.
Click to expand...

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!

NCAA watcher said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

J.D. said:
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?
Click to expand...
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
 
Middle Street said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

I will wait for Sean to tell us if game times have increased in recent years but 2:45 is a stretch. I don't think any of these Hockey East games have been going that long. Most seem to finish between 2:10-2:30. Of course, we are also using replay more than ever before so that adds time on as well.
 
Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

And what is this about TV timeouts when a game isn't on TV? That doesn't make sense. Are you sure you're not talking about the midway point in the period when they come out and clean the ice?
 
Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

Middle Street said:
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.
Click to expand...
One of the things I'm researching this season is the length of games since I noticed that BU's women's home games have gotten longer since are all now streamed with three media timeouts. For men's games this season to date the average game length is 2:22 and the median game length is 2:20. Here are the numbers for each league, as well as non-league, for all games:
league - games - average - median
NC - 279 - 2:22, 2:21
AHA - 154 - 2:18, 2:15
B1G - 84 - 2:24, 2:24
ECAC - 132 - 2:19, 2:19
HEA - 132 - 2:24, 2:24
NCHC - 96 - 2:24, 2:23
WCHA - 140 - 2:21, 2:20
all - 891 - 2:22, 2:20
Here are the times for overtime games only:
league - games - average - median
NC - 57 - 2:30, 2:29
AHA - 25 - 2:31, 2:33
B1G - 15 - 2:37, 2:36
ECAC - 21 - 2:26, 2:28
HEA - 23 - 2:31, 2:31
NCHC - 14 - 2:35, 2:34
WCHA - 23 - 2:34, 2:36
all - 178 - 2:31, 2:30
Here are the times for games still tied at the end of the standard 5 minute overtime:
league - games - average - median
NC - 32 - 2:37, 2:34
AHA - 17 - 2:35, 2:35
B1G - 10 - 2:41, 2:40
ECAC - 12 - 2:31, 2:31
HEA - 13 - 2:32, 2:31
NCHC - 10 - 2:39, 2:36
WCHA - 16 - 2:36, 2:39
all - 117 - 2:36, 2:35

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

Drew S. said:
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.
Click to expand...

Maybe this is another one Sean Pickett can help with. I just looked at a handful of UML box scores, and I am seeing 2:10-2:30 for all of them. Then I looked at some Maine box scores and most of your games are in the 2:40 range, one even 2:50. What's going on up there? More ads during the "tv" timeouts?

Edit - Sean posted as I was typing...
 
Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

J.D. said:
And what is this about TV timeouts when a game isn't on TV? That doesn't make sense. Are you sure you're not talking about the midway point in the period when they come out and clean the ice?
Click to expand...
I believe that since most (all?) games are streamed they all use the three allowed media timeouts each period.

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

Middle Street said:
Maybe this is another one Sean Pickett can help with. I just looked at a handful of UML box scores, and I am seeing 2:10-2:30 for all of them. Then I looked at some Maine box scores and most of your games are in the 2:40 range, one even 2:50. What's going on up there? More ads during the "tv" timeouts?
Click to expand...
Here are the lengths of all UML games at Tsongas this season:
2:20
2:15
2:20
2:20
2:35
2:20
2:27
2:10
2:07
2:25
2:25
2:02
2:20
2:20
2:30
2:15
average 2:19
median 2:20
Here are the lengths of all Maine games at Alfond this season:
2:22
2:33
2:44
2:50
2:45
2:35
2:40
2:30
2:50
2:31
2:14
2:35
2:35
2:30
2:40
2:40
average 2:35
median 2:35

I have no data on why Maine's home games are running 15 minutes longer than UML's home games, sorry.

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

Darius said:
UNH's Metcalf discusses top priorities as new Hockey East commissioner:
https://www.unionleader.com/sports/...cle_95716a2f-f36a-5628-b632-d333c768c9c4.html
Click to expand...

It's encouraging that Metcalf wants a balanced schedule, but the only real way to do that is by adding in another school to the league. As many have noted, there are no sure candidates. During Bertagna's tenure the added UVM, UConn and (ill advised) Notre Dame. I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to what school he would be thinking of. As for reducing the number of ties, please, please, please, don't choose the alternative of a shoot out. Many have discussed an extended overtime, perhaps seven minutes where you start five on five for three minutes, go to four on four for two, then three on three for another two. I think studies have shown that just adding a couple of minutes reduces the number of ties significantly. Whether Metcalf has enough juice to get a proposal through is another story. His tenure as the chair of the national committee will help, but these different leagues can operate has little fiefdoms and really not take into consideration how what they do impacts other leagues.
 
Middle Street said:
Maybe this is another one Sean Pickett can help with. I just looked at a handful of UML box scores, and I am seeing 2:10-2:30 for all of them. Then I looked at some Maine box scores and most of your games are in the 2:40 range, one even 2:50. What's going on up there? More ads during the "tv" timeouts?

Edit - Sean posted as I was typing...
Click to expand...

The number of tv time outs at Maine games is rediculous. I used to avoid going to games televised locally but now even those not televised locally have too many tv outs and the games are too long.

The number of penalties Maine serves may not help length either.😄
 
Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

J.D. said:
And what is this about TV timeouts when a game isn't on TV? That doesn't make sense. Are you sure you're not talking about the midway point in the period when they come out and clean the ice?
Click to expand...

Every game is streamed now, providing opportunities for advertising. Consequently every game has media timeouts. Back twenty years ago I would go to a game at UNH where the puck would drop at 7:05 and be over by 9:05 without fail. Now the games end somewhere between 9:20 and 9:30. And it's not only because of the media timeouts. Every game seems too have at least two or three replay reviews which can take up to five minutes. All this is the price you pay for the technology that provides universal access to just about every game.
 
Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

I guess I was considering a streamed game a "TV" game anyway
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top