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Hockey East is Ruining a Really Good thing

Re: Hockey East is Ruining a Really Good thing

UncleRay said:
I agree. I don't understand the point of the regular season if you don't eliminate a few teams from post-season play. At the end of the regular season this year there will be only four teams eliminated from becoming the national champ: Penn State, Huntsville, and two teams from Hockey East. That's it. In my opinion, a twelve-team league should only take six or eight teams to their tourney, a six-team league should only take four. I get why they do it - it's all about the Benjamins. People say that eliminating teams isn't fair to them. I say not eliminating teams isn't fair to those that have done well enough to deserve to go on.
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How about this for a really radical idea. Just take the champ. You know, the team with the best record in the regular season. Or if you split into 2 divisions, the best team in the East vs the winner of the west. How about that for a radical idea? You actually have to win the league to go on to play for the national title. I know, nobody would ever go for that. they've already ordered the participation ribbons.
 
Re: Hockey East is Ruining a Really Good thing

Jim said:
How about this for a really radical idea. Just take the champ. You know, the team with the best record in the regular season.
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Each league / conference already has that option if they choose to follow it. For the NCAA Division I basketball tournament, for example, that's how the Ivy League determines their representative. There is nothing in the NCAA rules that says you have to have a conference tournament to determine who gets the auto-bid.

You like that idea? Persuade a lot of other people to support it and then y'all band together to advocate to the ADs at the member schools.

I like that idea too. I'd much rather have more regular season games in place of the conference tournaments as well.

That being said, I'm not opposed to people who prefer to have a conference tournament; I do understand their reasons too. The counter-argument is that if you can win two playoff series on the road just to get to the conference final four, you have to be playing at a high level for more than just one game.
 
Re: Hockey East is Ruining a Really Good thing

Brenthoven said:
Nonononononono.

Kick {PROVICED out of HOCKEY RAST!
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Your crystal forklift is on it's way.

Incidentally, when PC was dwelling in the basement for three years under Army, the last thing I wanted was to watch them play more hockey games.
 
Re: Hockey East is Ruining a Really Good thing

8 Teams in the playoffs is perfect... stupid to change.

8 creates a perfect bracket with no byes or play in games or final five or anything.... plus it makes the reg season more important. The race for who is in and who is out and who gets home ice is always super fun to follow in Hockey East.
 
Re: Hockey East is Ruining a Really Good thing

jjmc85 said:
I'm really looking forward to next week. UMass (currently in 7th place in Hockey East) is hosting Northeastern (currently tied for 9th place). There are four points that separate the two teams and whoever wins gets the tie breaker. It's a huge game because only the top 8 make the playoffs. If UMass wins, there's plenty of breathing room. UMass will have the tiebreaker over at least two teams behind them (NU and UVM). If Northeastern wins, it has the tiebreaker and only 2 points separate the two. It might be the biggest game of the year up to this point.

For similar reasons, I've circled the two games Maine comes to Mullins Center at the end of the year. I'm eagerly anticipating them.

In the future, it won't be a huge game. Both teams will be out of home ice contention and every team will make the playoffs anyway, so who really cares if you are the 7th seed or 9th?

With the exception of a year or two, UMass hockey has been mediocre to bad since I've been following them. Each year, people predict UMass will miss the playoffs, and so far, every year since I've been following, they've made it anyway. I'm proud of that. I have lots of good memories of winning the last weekend to get into the tournament. Last year, they beat Merrimack on Senior night to clinch a spot. I believe it was two or three years ago where UMass went up to Maine and Justin Braun put the team on his back and the Minutemen swept the Black Bears to get the last spot. Another year, UMass tied Maine on the last night and that extra point got them into the tournament. The players celebrated like they had accomplished something, cause they had. They got into the post season. They earned that right.

As a fan of a team who is usually in the bottom half of Hockey East, I hate that every team will make the playoffs from now on. It takes away meaning from the regular season. I live in Boston and have season tickets to UMass hockey. I only make about half of the home games, but I have them to support the program. I will be at the NU game this Friday and both those Maine games, cause they are huge this year. Next year? I don't know. Maybe I only go to 1 or 2 of them.
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Things didn't work out how I would have liked them too this year. However, I stand by what I wrote a month ago. Hockey East is ruining a good thing. UMass is not good enough to play in the tournament this year, and they will not be able to. All is as it should be. Congratulations to the teams who earned a spot.
 
Re: Hockey East is Ruining a Really Good thing

UNH09 said:
I agree, lets kick out UVM, UMass, UConn, and Northeastern. It will help out the ECAC become a real conference again.
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This would give more opportunity for the Hockey East teams a better chance to make it the NCAA tourny rather than beating each other up. Probably be an easier road playing against teams in inferior conferences to establish a better win/loss record. Smart move I think
 
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