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Hockey East: A New Big 4?

Re: Hockey East: A New Big 4?

We can do 11.

Hea can split into "haves" & "runts"

Haves-- BC BU PC NU MC have shown they aren't afraid to schedule ooc games on the road and can get teams to come to their barns.

Runts-- uhn Umass umlol uvm uconn umo already schedule ooc games against each other.

So the haves stay in a group and play everyone 2x (20 league games)
The runts play everyone 2x but add an extra hea game with other runts (25 league games).

Playoff time there can be a play in runt game between r5&r6.

Then we have r1vh5, r2vh4, and so on best of 3.

Then a final five type for the garden finals with highest have seed getting a bye (because really, no runt team outside of umlol would ever be considered a potential top seed).

All set! Bibbity bobbity boo
 
Re: Hockey East: A New Big 4?

UML Puck Hawk said:
I doubt it as well, but in terms of what is more likely to happen to drop a current big 4 (if we must prescribe to the concept) member program out, I would say the addition of Quinnipiac is more likely than one of the bottom 7 teams having sustained success to knock someone out.
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You are probably right. BUT we also may have a few coaching changes. UMass needs one. Seems like a long shot but then again so did PC and UML. And UMass has some scoring, a high quality goal tender and a good coach could surprise teams. Unlikely, but again so was UML and PC. And if I was a betting man and I have to choose UMass being a top 4 team or BOTH UML and PC being top 4's I'd probably actually have bet on Umass.

That said, the top 4 will be the top 4 for the foreseeable future without major changes. Quinny could be that, UMass could hire Jerry York, North Dakota could defect and join HE, and Vermont could build a new state of the art arena and hire Martin St. Louis as coach. For now it's pretty set though.

And FWIW I think the idea of a "top 4" no longer has a place in HE. It's just not the same anymore.
 
Re: Hockey East: A New Big 4?

mookie1995 said:
We can do 11.

Haves-- BC BU PC NU MC have shown they aren't afraid to schedule ooc games on the road and can get teams to come to their barns.
Click to expand...

So schedule 4 away games against ECAC teams is all that's required to get you into the "HAVES." Or was it getting Bentley to come to Agganis that put BU in that category?
 
Re: Hockey East: A New Big 4?

Don't know much about Quinnipiac since they weren't an ECAC member when we played, but does anyone have a Reader's Digest explanation for how they got so good, so fast, and appear poised to maintain it?
 
jcarter7669 said:
So schedule 4 away games against ECAC teams is all that's required to get you into the "HAVES." Or was it getting Bentley to come to Agganis that put BU in that category?
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However you do it.....

As long as BU never stoops to having to schedule umo 6 times in a regular season like the elephant walkers Mookie is good
 
UVM Cat in Texas said:
Don't know much about Quinnipiac since they weren't an ECAC member when we played, but does anyone have a Reader's Digest explanation for how they got so good, so fast, and appear poised to maintain it?
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Intense recruiting, great academic brand, great coach, strong financials
 
Re: Hockey East: A New Big 4?

UVM Cat in Texas said:
Don't know much about Quinnipiac since they weren't an ECAC member when we played, but does anyone have a Reader's Digest explanation for how they got so good, so fast, and appear poised to maintain it?
Click to expand...

They are well coached and play a very disciplined system that players buy into. They recruit kids from all over the country and all parts of Canada. They have players on the roster from TX, MD, FL, CA, MN, MA, NJ, CO, NY, WI, IL, 6 players from British Columbia, 2 from Alberta and one from Ontario. They recruit players that fit into the system. They may not have to tons of NHL draft picks (only 2 on this years team) but they take good players and make them great college players. It helps when they don't have multiple early defections to the pros like other big schools have. Keeping a team in place for a long stretch has been a key. The Quinnipiac name is going to continue to be out there with 2 frozen fours in the last 4 years and 4 straight trips to the NCAA's. They have a pipeline in the BCHL from the late 90's as one of the early schools that started recruiting out there.
 
UVM Cat in Texas said:
Okay, so basically the things we're lacking.... The only one of those that surprises me somewhat, is "great academic brand." Didn't realize they had that going for them.
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Yeah... Most of us know zilch about them but they're actually fairly selective
 
Re: Hockey East: A New Big 4?

mookie1995 said:
Runts-- uhn Umass umlol uvm uconn umo already schedule ooc games against each other.
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Lowell plays a single OOC game against Umass because they have a best 2 of 3 series for a trophy (don't laugh). I think most of us would prefer that be changed to a two game goal diff series a la PC/Brown. That way we just keep the 2 league games.

Besides, Lowell was the first Hockey East team to play a road game at AIC this season. :eek:

That's going "out west" isn't it? :D
 
Re: Hockey East: A New Big 4?

walrus said:
+1, Quinn hasn't done anything, he got a gold mine, PC and Lowell were bottom dwellers
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Coach Quinn most definitely did not get a gold mine and a close look at the BU rosters will show that. As for UMass Lowell, yes they had a bad season immediately preceding his being hired, but the three seasons before that were 2 winning and one .500 season, far from a bottom dweller.

Sean
 
Re: Hockey East: A New Big 4?

It's going to be interesting to see if QPac jumps to HEA. Would it really be in its long-term best interests to trade a sustainable dominant position in the ECAC in return for slugging it out in a league with several perennial national powers and where any team can beat any other on any given night?

On one hand, HEA offers better media coverage (especially TV) ergo better exposure and possibly more $$$. On the other, the ECAC, as currently structured, gives them an arguably easier path to the FF and the national exposure that comes with it. Plus there's the budding in-league neighborhood rivalry with Yale.

If it were my decision to make, I'd probably stay put.
 
Re: Hockey East: A New Big 4?

When your predecessor recruited Jack Eichel for you, yes, "Coach Quinn" got a gold mine. BU took their lumps in year one waiting for Eichel to show up. Those other programs didn't have a generational talent already on board.
 
Re: Hockey East: A New Big 4?

Split-N said:
It's going to be interesting to see if QPac jumps to HEA. Would it really be in its long-term best interests to trade a sustainable dominant position in the ECAC in return for slugging it out in a league with several perennial national powers and where any team can beat any other on any given night?

On one hand, HEA offers better media coverage (especially TV) ergo better exposure and possibly more $$$. On the other, the ECAC, as currently structured, gives them an arguably easier path to the FF and the national exposure that comes with it. Plus there's the budding in-league neighborhood rivalry with Yale.

If it were my decision to make, I'd probably stay put.
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Ultimately I think QU will in fact stay put in the ECAC. I don't see a slam dunk program to add after that so I think Hockey East will be at 11 for a while.
 
Re: Hockey East: A New Big 4?

jcarter7669 said:
And FWIW I think the idea of a "top 4" no longer has a place in HE. It's just not the same anymore.
Click to expand...

brassbonanza said:
Not sure "Big 4" is the right way to think about it, as there's more than four quality programs in the league and not an enormous disparity between number 4 and 5
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Bonin21 said:
Ya I'd say the response is why pick 4? And parity.
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Drew S. said:
I don't think there is a big four anymore, league is wide open.
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Snively65 said:
Wow, what a stupid thread. The whole premise of a HEA "big four" is a straw man, if there ever was one.
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Not including Notre Dame only four teams have winning overall and league records since the start of, or joining, Hockey East: BU, BC, UNH and Maine. In the past ten seasons only four teams have winning overall and league records: BU, BC, UML and UNH, with NU one game over .500 overall. In the past five seasons only four teams have winning overall and league records: BU, BC, UML and PC.

Sean
 
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Re: Hockey East: A New Big 4?

QUAlum2004 said:
They are well coached and play a very disciplined system that players buy into. They recruit kids from all over the country and all parts of Canada. They have players on the roster from TX, MD, FL, CA, MN, MA, NJ, CO, NY, WI, IL, 6 players from British Columbia, 2 from Alberta and one from Ontario. They recruit players that fit into the system. They may not have to tons of NHL draft picks (only 2 on this years team) but they take good players and make them great college players. It helps when they don't have multiple early defections to the pros like other big schools have. Keeping a team in place for a long stretch has been a key. The Quinnipiac name is going to continue to be out there with 2 frozen fours in the last 4 years and 4 straight trips to the NCAA's. They have a pipeline in the BCHL from the late 90's as one of the early schools that started recruiting out there.
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Well coached, pipeline to British Columbia, develop good players into great ones, multiple Frozen Four trips...sounds like a certain Hockey East team in the early 2000s...
 
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