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The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

Re: The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

bcfan131 said:
Backman shouldn't be the difference between the #1 seed and the #11 seed in the ECAC, no matter how good he is. A team with Yale's capabilities, even without Backman, should be able to handle a team like Brown in a 3 game series at home.
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Completely disagree with you. Backman has been a huge player for Yale for the last four years. Any time a team loses a central figure, the mental impact can be hard to overcome five days later. Imagine if BC lost Cam Atkinson next Sunday and had to play in the Frozen Four on Thursday! How would BC have done without Cam Atkinson or Joe Whitney yesterday?

Against Cornell, Brown played two lines about 50 minutes. Backman often played on the 4th line to balance out the lines. Yale already outshot Brown substantially, and a player that got 21 goals in 29 games could easily make a difference in two one-goal losses.

You could be right, but he is a **** good college player that easily could have made the difference in some of these close playoff games. We'll never know, but Yale did beat Brown 2-0 in the RS with Backman. After watching him chuck in a hat trick against Cornell in last years ECAC Championship where he was literally all over the ice, I have confidence he would be a difference maker in close games to end the season. However, I DON"T have much sympathy for him or Yale given the circumstances of his injury.
 
Re: The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

Bob McKenzie said:
My guy graduates this year but I know SLU would love for any teams from the WCHA, CCHA or HE come to Appleton for a visit any time and experience some North Country hospitality and an EZAC night.
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Best of luck to Mike with the River Rats as well.
 
Re: The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

I disagree. Yale huge win over UND. Cornell just broke down in the 3rd. They looked tired for whatever reason. Scrivens had 13 periods almost without a goal allowed. Union just missed the tourney. ECAC had a decent year i thought.
 
Re: The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

rvd5star69 said:
I disagree. Yale huge win over UND. Cornell just broke down in the 3rd. They looked tired for whatever reason. Scrivens had 13 periods almost without a goal allowed. Union just missed the tourney. ECAC had a decent year i thought.
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Who is this and what did you do with the real rvd5star69?!?!?!

Your post has punctuation:eek:
 
Re: The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

Samluvsthebears,

I still disagree with most of your argument, especially the fact that Yale did not deserve a bid or that the ECAC should be limited to one bid. One notable exception is that I agree with you that a team's entire season of work should count, not just who's hot at the end (that's what the conf. tourney auto-bid is for).

I don't really have an opinion on whether Maine or Vermont was more deserving of an NCAA bid, to be honest.

Either way, thank you for taking the time to further clarify your thoughts.
 
Re: The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

Ok...I know the NCAA Hockey Selection Cmte goes purely by Pairwise, but let's pretend for a minute that they did it like the NCAA Hoops Cmte. I'd say the 16 teams would have been:

1. Miami
2. Denver
3. Wisconsin
4. BC
5. North Dakota
6. St. Cloud
7. Cornell
8. Northern Michigan
9. Bemidji State
10. Yale
11. Michigan
12. UNH
13. Maine
14. Duluth/Fairbanks/Ferris
15. RIT
16. Huntsville

The hoops cmte usually looks at body of work, impressive victories against RPI top 50 (similar to wins over TUC's in hockey), and the way you finish to an extent.

Problem is, out of the teams in consideration, a lot of teams faltered down the stretch. CC, UVM, Duluth, Ferris, Maine (before making the HE Tourney run), and Union.

Auto-bids are here to stay. It's what makes March fun in hoops and hockey. I hate basketball (especially NBA), but college hoops in March is a ton of fun, even for a hockey fan with a bias against hoops.
 
Re: The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

Got 6 said:
Completely disagree with you. Backman has been a huge player for Yale for the last four years. Any time a team loses a central figure, the mental impact can be hard to overcome five days later. Imagine if BC lost Cam Atkinson next Sunday and had to play in the Frozen Four on Thursday! How would BC have done without Cam Atkinson or Joe Whitney yesterday?

Against Cornell, Brown played two lines about 50 minutes. Backman often played on the 4th line to balance out the lines. Yale already outshot Brown substantially, and a player that got 21 goals in 29 games could easily make a difference in two one-goal losses.

You could be right, but he is a **** good college player that easily could have made the difference in some of these close playoff games. We'll never know, but Yale did beat Brown 2-0 in the RS with Backman. After watching him chuck in a hat trick against Cornell in last years ECAC Championship where he was literally all over the ice, I have confidence he would be a difference maker in close games to end the season. However, I DON"T have much sympathy for him or Yale given the circumstances of his injury.
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Playing against Brown, the 2nd worst team in the ECAC, in a best of 3 series at home is COMPLETELY different than playing against the number 1 team in the country in a one-game scenario on a neutral site. Even without Atkinson or Whitney, I would expect BC to beat Hockey East bottom feeder Providence (a team comparable to Brown). I understand your point about Backman being a difference in a game against North Dakota or Boston College, but you can't tell me he's the difference between Yale beating or losing to Brown. Maybe if he played Yale would've won, but the problem is he SHOULDN'T be the difference between teams that finished that far apart from each other in the standings. That's insulting to the rest of the Yale team if you're saying that Backman is the difference between Yale being the ECAC regular season champion and an ECAC bottom feeder, which he clearly isn't if Yale was able to beat North Dakota on Saturday. There's no excuse for Yale losing to Brown in the ECAC Quarters, and I would hope most Yale fans would agree with that.
 
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Re: The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

As a Hockey East fan, it is clear to me that besides the WCHA, Hockey East is the best conference in the country. However, I do appreciate what the ECAC is. It has some good teams, and once in a while some teams good enough for the Frozen Four (St. Lawrence, Cornell this past decade). I enjoy watching St. Lawrence, Colgate, Clarkson, Yale, Dartmouth, Harvard, Cornell, Princeton, RPI and Union when I have seen them play during their up years.

The ECAC has more Division II and III schools than Hockey East where UML and MC are the only DII schools. Less scholarship money is given out in the ECAC and admissions standards are higher than many of the HEA schools.

In Albany in 2000, I saw two very good ECAC teams in Colgate and St. Lawrence. Some guys from those teams made it to the NHL. I've seen some very good Clarkson, Cornell, and Harvard teams during the 2000s.

The level of talent and play in the ECAC does not equal Hockey East, but it is fun to see some of the ECAC teams.

This Yale team this year would have finished third in Hockey East if it had any of the starting goalies from any of the Hockey East teams. I know how important the goaltending position is and that is a big if, but there skaters were fast and talented and deep.
 
Re: The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

bcfan131 said:
Playing against Brown, the 2nd worst team in the ECAC, in a best of 3 series at home is COMPLETELY different than playing against the number 1 team in the country in a one-game scenario on a neutral site. Even without Atkinson or Whitney, I would expect BC to beat Hockey East bottom feeder Providence (a team comparable to Brown). I understand your point about Backman being a difference in a game against North Dakota or Boston College, but you can't tell me he's the difference between Yale beating or losing to Brown. Maybe if he played Yale would've won, but the problem is he SHOULDN'T be the difference between teams that finished that far apart from each other in the standings. That's insulting to the rest of the Yale team if you're saying that Backman is the difference between Yale being the ECAC regular season champion and an ECAC bottom feeder, which he clearly isn't if Yale was able to beat North Dakota on Saturday. There's no excuse for Yale losing to Brown in the ECAC Quarters, and I would hope most Yale fans would agree with that.
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I think you missed my point. For one thing, I think it was the "what the **** do we do now" factor that may have been the biggest issue with Yale playing Brown in the quarterfinals. For another, Brown is a trapping, purely defensive team. They can strangle teams with a one goal lead. Yale threw enough pucks at the net that they should have scored, credit Clemente and the Brown players for the shut-out. However, another key fact is that with Backman Yale had one more very dangerours line to defend against which they would have struggled to do.

Bottomline, Brown beating Yale was shocking and never should have happened. But, it is not much different than UVM beating UNH. Finally, I would add that Brown was an improved team over the season and clearly peaked at the right time. What they do they do very well, and I have the 'bed head' from watching them to prove it.:p
 
Re: The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

Got 6 said:
Now THAT was funny!:D Those guys should take valium!

Sad part is, that if they were ECAC refs, they were probably right!:eek:
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Or even Hockey East refs (the same boneheads who called the Miami-Michigan game last night). So yeah, they probably were right. :D
 
Re: The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

Kenny L Parker said:
Samluvsthebears,

I still disagree with most of your argument, especially the fact that Yale did not deserve a bid or that the ECAC should be limited to one bid. One notable exception is that I agree with you that a team's entire season of work should count, not just who's hot at the end (that's what the conf. tourney auto-bid is for).

I don't really have an opinion on whether Maine or Vermont was more deserving of an NCAA bid, to be honest.

Either way, thank you for taking the time to further clarify your thoughts.
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Kenny, I will say that I was very impressed with Yale this weekend, and they certainly don't play like your typical ECAC team. They have a lot of players returning and if they can find a goaltender they could be the first ECAC team to advance to the FF since Cornell did in 2003. I happen to think Maine was a better overall team then either Yale or Cornell, but the PWR's didn't help Maine's cause. Nor did Michigan State or Colorado College help Maine. Normally when you beat MSU or CC and then beat teams like UNH and UVM twice you get into the tournament (especially when you advance to HE title game and lose in OT to BC).

Please forgive this Maine fan for having such an empty feeling especially knowing the Black-Bears were a lot better then both UVM and UNH who made the NCAA tourney. Heck UVM nearly beat Wisconsin and I believe that if Maine had found a way to beat BC in the HE title game, they would have likely played Wisconsin in St. Paul and I can assure you that the Badgers were much happier to see UVM then Maine in that #4 spot in the West Regional. Unfortunately it's wait until next year, but like Yale, Maine has a majority of their roster returning and perhaps the top line in college hockey back in place, (Nyquist, House and Flynn).
 
Re: The EC-Easy Conference strikes again...

SamluvstheBears said:
Please forgive this Maine fan for having such an empty feeling especially knowing the Black-Bears were a lot better then both UVM and UNH who made the NCAA tourney. Heck UVM nearly beat Wisconsin and I believe that if Maine had found a way to beat BC in the HE title game, they would have likely played Wisconsin in St. Paul and I can assure you that the Badgers were much happier to see UVM then Maine in that #4 spot in the West Regional. Unfortunately it's wait until next year, but like Yale, Maine has a majority of their roster returning and perhaps the top line in college hockey back in place, (Nyquist, House and Flynn).
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I can arguably give you the point that Maine was better than Vermont, however I'm not sure how you can justify the point that Maine was better than UNH. At the end of the season, UNH beat more common opponents than Maine did, although Maine went 2-1-0 against UNH.

I'm not saying Maine isn't good or didn't deserve a bid, but I'm just not seeing how you can justify them being better than UNH other than strictly head to head, which shouldn't be the ultimate deciding factor. If it was, than SLU deserves to be in Detroit in 2 weeks for going 2-0-0 against the participants, right?;)
 
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