Part of the problems with all of the college hockey realignment talk is that whenever somebody with access to a computer thinks something, 10 other people with similar access run with it, and before you know it, there are suddenly sources everywhere who can confirm this, that, and everything else.
Just for kicks, lets assume Notre Dame joins Hockey East and RPI follows along and we have a 12 team league. In one of the envisioned scenarios this league will play a 22 game schedule, in true round-robin fashion, with home-and-home series against each of their conference-mates. How difficult would a schedule like this be as far as travel? Sure, we could double up on each road weekend fairly easily I guess, playing one night at BC, the next at BU. But what of the rest of the league. Can anyone see each of the other 11 teams taking on the kind of arduous travel schedule that playing us would require? No bus trips. No returning to campus a couple of hours after the game was over. Plane trips and hotel stays every time you play Notre Dame. Isn't Notre Dame nearly a thousand miles away from nearly all of these schools? If I'm a Hockey Eat fan, I'm asking why I'm giving up 2 or 3 home games against a teams I've built up rivalries with, that are all most likely easy enough to drive to, to play a game in South Bend that I cannot drive to.
While flying to away games is something many western teams have gotten used to, it would be a huge sea change for most of Hockey East. I think there are better options for Notre Dame to begin with. I can't see how any team in Hockey East would think there are more positives than negatives in an arrangement such as this.
While I also picked Riley Sheahan to wear a letter, I'm pleased with the trio.
