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Hockey East - The Off Season

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Yuppie Scum said:
It's understandable that people outside the MC community would think that the turnaround at MC was 100% due to the gravitas of DaCosta and the bandwagon effect and so forth.
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When a school thats not known for having great teams loses its stars most other fans will have a "Well the runs over" mindset.

When Vermont lost Thomas/St Louis/Perrin they took a step back.

Unless you are a school that continues to get the NHL draftees and top prospects(BC,BU etc) people will look at only what you lose
because they dont have much fear of what you have coming in.
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Cat lover said:
When a school thats not known for having great teams loses its stars most other fans will have a "Well the runs over" mindset.

When Vermont lost Thomas/St Louis/Perrin they took a step back.

Unless you are a school that continues to get the NHL draftees and top prospects(BC,BU etc) people will look at only what you lose
because they dont have much fear of what you have coming in.
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I agree with what you said. As a Merrimack fan, I think Merrimack's offense will certainly take a step back next year. That is obvious. Da Costa, Barton and Cucci are all gone. I think Todd, Collins, Velleca, Flanigan, Madsen and Sheen will provide enough of an offense. I think there is more depth than MC has ever had before. I think the big difference is I believe there are two factors that will offset the departure of the top three forwards. The defense returns Stollery, Heywood, Ellis and Bigos and Cannata (as of now) is returning. He is a very good goalie and I believe will keep them in a lot of games. That, as well as Hockey East on paper appears to be in for a down year. BC will obviously be really good like they always are even with the loss of a lot of players. I'm not sold on BU, but the Terriers and UNH should be good. Besides those three teams, nothing scares me. PC, UML, and NU will be rebuilding with new coaches. NU lost a lot of their offense. PC lost a few of their top players off a bad team. UMass and UVM - I just don't see it. Maine has three good forwards and one good defenseman. Other than that, what do they have?
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Nick Papagiorgio said:
It's nice to see expectations are high in Amherst, though.
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Not for this year. I do expect to have high expectations for 2012-2013, when a bulk of the roster will be juniors and the goaltending will be a bit more experienced. But now we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's see how the team plays this year first.
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

I've taken a break from my now annual summer "vacation" from the boards in order to piece together everything that's gone on with the realignment of western college hockey. After slogging through a bunch of really "enlightening" threads, I just wanted to swing by the Hockey East thread and tell you guys something:

I love you guys... Don't ever change... Even you BC guys...
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Feels good to be in a stable and dominant league. If the mess out west should teach the powers that be at HE anything it's that they have a good solidified product that does not need to be messed with.
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

NUMcNeely said:
Feels good to be in a stable and dominant league. If the mess out west should teach the powers that be at HE anything it's that they have a good solidified product that does not need to be messed with.
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Good point. Well said.
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Rhett said:
I've taken a break from my now annual summer "vacation" from the boards in order to piece together everything that's gone on with the realignment of western college hockey. After slogging through a bunch of really "enlightening" threads, I just wanted to swing by the Hockey East thread and tell you guys something:

I love you guys... Don't ever change... Even you BC guys...
Click to expand...

thanks................i think:confused::)
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

NUMcNeely said:
Feels good to be in a stable and dominant league. If the mess out west should teach the powers that be at HE anything it's that they have a good solidified product that does not need to be messed with.
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YES, although a PC fan and a NU fan exchanging this sentiment is fairly amusing.
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Who else thinks Notre Dame is a bad idea? Honestly, small schools, small athletic budgets dot Hockey East. Who's going to pay for the plane ride to Indiana? Last thing HOckey East needs is money becoming a factor in the league. Hate to see a program have to trade an inseason tournament for a plane ride to Notre Dame. Don't see how it helps anybody besides BC.
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

BoSox3066 said:
Who else thinks Notre Dame is a bad idea? Honestly, small schools, small athletic budgets dot Hockey East. Who's going to pay for the plane ride to Indiana? Last thing HOckey East needs is money becoming a factor in the league. Hate to see a program have to trade an inseason tournament for a plane ride to Notre Dame. Don't see how it helps anybody besides BC.
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I'm not sure how it even helps them... nobody has ever sold the world on the value of Notre Dame basketball... so now we're going to do the same for hockey? I know, people view the football aspect... but the point stands... Notre Dame football is a national brand. At best, you hope that the New England Catholic subway alumni show up... but even that's diminished. I really don't see what this does for Hockey East and it could serve to strain things within the league. Further, you are also adapting your brand... it leads some confusion... the premier east coast league plus the other guy?
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Patman said:
I'm not sure how it even helps them... nobody has ever sold the world on the value of Notre Dame basketball... so now we're going to do the same for hockey? I know, people view the football aspect... but the point stands... Notre Dame football is a national brand. At best, you hope that the New England Catholic subway alumni show up... but even that's diminished. I really don't see what this does for Hockey East and it could serve to strain things within the league. Further, you are also adapting your brand... it leads some confusion... the premier east coast league plus the other guy?
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The idea is that Notre Dame is a team Versus, ESPN-U, CBS College, etc. would put on TV. So if they're in your conference, your conference gets on TV more often and you get more exposure and money. Whether or not one school can actually make that much of a difference... who knows. And, of course, none of those stations are putting ND-UML or whatever on TV, so it doesn't really help the smaller schools in the exposure aspect anyway. As for the travel, I don't think that's a big deal at all. Most HE teams, even the smaller schools, usually make 1 or 2 trips out west each year anyway.
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Federal League said:
The idea is that Notre Dame is a team Versus, ESPN-U, CBS College, etc. would put on TV. So if they're in your conference, your conference gets on TV more often and you get more exposure and money. Whether or not one school can actually make that much of a difference... who knows. And, of course, none of those stations are putting ND-UML or whatever on TV, so it doesn't really help the smaller schools in the exposure aspect anyway. As for the travel, I don't think that's a big deal at all. Most HE teams, even the smaller schools, usually make 1 or 2 trips out west each year anyway.
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I'm well aware of the idea... the only one that doesn't have college hockey is Versus. I'm saying that I believe any gains are marginal compared to the costs. I could be wrong.
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

BoSox3066 said:
Who else thinks Notre Dame is a bad idea? Honestly, small schools, small athletic budgets dot Hockey East. Who's going to pay for the plane ride to Indiana? Last thing HOckey East needs is money becoming a factor in the league. Hate to see a program have to trade an inseason tournament for a plane ride to Notre Dame. Don't see how it helps anybody besides BC.
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I don't think that anyone thinks its a great idea. Though it would be amusing as an eff you to the NCHC.
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

I'm not against expansion, responsibly expanding the borders of the conference, or poaching attractive programs... but I really want HEA to stay out of this current mess. I think with patience, either a better expansion fit for HEA will come about or it will be the largest conference left standing and realize that it has already expanded to its limit at 10.
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

BoSox3066 said:
Who else thinks Notre Dame is a bad idea? Honestly, small schools, small athletic budgets dot Hockey East. Who's going to pay for the plane ride to Indiana? Last thing HOckey East needs is money becoming a factor in the league. Hate to see a program have to trade an inseason tournament for a plane ride to Notre Dame. Don't see how it helps anybody besides BC.
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i agree with the posters above, it doesnt help us. We already have what we want and need from them, the football relationship and who cares about anything else Notre Dame other than football? HE doesn't need them IMO, i think we are just fine the way the league is now
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

At first I was intrigued by the idea of ND joining Hockey East but as time goes on I have come to the conclusion that if Hockey East were to go to 12 it should stay in New England or Eastern NY(i.e. RPI). It would be great for BC to play Notre Dame annually but it would be fine as a non conference game. I have reservations about expanding when compression is happening elsewhere for autobids would be going to leagues with only 6 teams and getting only one for 12 puts you at a disadvantage. Maybe Hockey East should split into two 6 team leagues by adding a state and private school and then play an interlocking schedule and getting two autobids. BC, BU, PC, NU, Merrimack, (RPI, Quinnipiac or Holy Cross?) and Maine, UNH, UVM,UML, UMA, (UConn or URI?).
 
Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

The main advantage to expansion was that it could open up more NC games. So if it was ND and say UCONN each HE team could play the other one 2 times and there would be only 22 Conference games instead of 27. Those 5 extra NC games could be used to schedule games against western opponents or even for scheduling home games against Atlantic Hockey teams.

The main advantage bringing in ND would have been was it would have helped to expand the league without adding another bottom feeder. A brand new arena and a school that is willing to spend on its team is what HE would ideally want in a new member. Another idea that would be nice but probably unlikely would be for URI and UCONN to step it up and go all in for mens hockey. That way HE would have each NE states flagship school in the conference. I doubt that will happen in the near future unless they both have some alumni donate a ton of money.
 
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