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WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

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Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

John J. MacInnes said:
Why not use Yost as an example? They've done it.

Here are all the arenas where a 6-team regional was held:

6-Centrum/DDC, Worcester
4-Pepsi Arena, Albany
2-Joe Louis, Detroit
2-Munn, East Lansing
2-Yost, Ann Arbor
2-Dane Co., Madison
2-Van Andel, Gr. Rapids
1-Civic Ctr., Providence
1-Mariucci, Mpls

Nobody with a "bigger, nicer, newer" arena bid for one. That was just with 6 teams, so now add in 2 more and see who wants to take on the logistics. The handful of buildings that might be capable of pulling it off wouldn't take 5 days out of their schedule to lose money.

Just so we clarify this, here's what an 8 team regional single site would look like if you tried to expand it to play over 4 days:

Wed - 4 teams from Pod A practice, Pod A media availability
Thu - 4 teams from Pod B practice, Pod B media availability, Pod A plays 2 games (no morning skate available to Pod A)
Fri - 2 teams from Pod A practice, Pod A media availability, Pod B plays 2 games (no morning skate available to Pod B)
Sat - 2 teams from Pod B practice, Pod B media availability, Pod A plays 1 game (morning skate available to Pod A)
Sun - Pod B plays 1 game (morning skate available to Pod B)

I don't think you'd find any takers.
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You'd have to have facilities with 2 rinks. Unfortunately, none of the arenas you'd want to host these things have 2 rinks. I mean, Mariucci/Ritter could probably do it, but it would suck that they are 2 different sized ice surfaces, and I don't imagine the locker room logistics (playing a game in Mariucci, locker room at Ritter) are anywhere close to ideal.
 
bigblue_dl said:
You'd have to have facilities with 2 rinks. Unfortunately, none of the arenas you'd want to host these things have 2 rinks. I mean, Mariucci/Ritter could probably do it, but it would suck that they are 2 different sized ice surfaces, and I don't imagine the locker room logistics (playing a game in Mariucci, locker room at Ritter) are anywhere close to ideal.
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Actually the locker room logistics wouldn't be too bad since the arenas are connected and share Zamboni facilities and have a player walkway between them. The Gopher men skate at Ridder when preparing for an NHL sheet. The distance from the locker rooms to the ice would be about the same as it is for the visiting teams in Bemidji.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

huskyfan said:
who will win the tournament and the auto bid? will probably be wrong, but I just don't picture Mankato or Tech winning. I'm thinking Bowling Green or Bemidji.
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I honestly think Tech or Mankato will win the conference tourney as well as the league. Mankato currently has the inside track to win the regular season title, but Tech does still control their own destiny to be co-champs.

Assuming that MSU and MTU will be the #1 and #2 seeds at the conference tourney, I don't see BSU or BGSU winning the conference tourney because they will have to go through both MSU and MTU to do so. If there was some seeding scenario where MSU and MTU could have knocked each other off, or one loses in the first round and BGSU / BSU only had to beat one of them to win the tourney then I could see it happening. The odds of both MTU and MSU falling apart in the tourney are pretty slim.

If we assume that BSU has the best chance of the teams not named MSU/MTU, then consider that in the the 7 games vs those two teams, BSU has given up a total of 23 goals or 3.3 goals per game. BSU was just swept by MTU and still has two more games against MSU. Unless BSU gets a win against MSU the final weekend of the season then I'm going to write off BSU's chances to win the conference tourney and call their stretch mid-season a hot streak but not really a true indication of where their team is at from a competitive level.

I think BSU has played one of the toughest schedules I have seen in a long time. Scheduled for five against MSU, four games against MTU, four against BGSU, four games against NMU, two against UND, and then Minnesota, Duluth and SCSU for non-conference. The only "soft" spot in the schedule is that they got UAA for two series. Other than that... cripes its a top team pretty much every game for the Beavers.

Ryan J
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

huskyfan said:
who will win the tournament and the auto bid? will probably be wrong, but I just don't picture Mankato or Tech winning. I'm thinking Bowling Green or Bemidji.
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I just had this discussion with my dad, I thought it was pretty much BGSU BSU MTU and MSU in the Final 5/4. BSU can obviously beat MSU and pretty convincingly. BGSU is talented and so is MTU. My purple colored glasses want the Mavs but I think whoever gets the hottest wins.



More NCAA placement unluckiness for the Mavs. The closest they will be to home is South Bend for regionals as I don't think the Whioux, will be going anywhere from the top 4 in PWR.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

Chris Clark Fan Club said:
I just had this discussion with my dad, I thought it was pretty much BGSU BSU MTU and MSU in the Final 5/4. BSU can obviously beat MSU and pretty convincingly. BGSU is talented and so is MTU. My purple colored glasses want the Mavs but I think whoever gets the hottest wins.



More NCAA placement unluckiness for the Mavs. The closest they will be to home is South Bend for regionals as I don't think the Whioux, will be going anywhere from the top 4 in PWR.
Click to expand...

I know it's far, but it's a good deal for you otherwise. You'll probably get Miami with you.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

I am just thinking Bemidji or Bowling Green could hit a hot streak and ride it through the tournament. or even Northern.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

Chris Clark Fan Club said:
My guess is they will throw BGSU or MTU in with us.
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We were just discussing this in the Tech thread. The way the PWR are lining up, it looks like there is a decent chance that there will be 4 western teams as 2 seeds, in which case there wouldn't be an attendance reason to put a specific team in South Bend. Whoever lands there stays there, unless there is an interconference matchup, which depends on the 3 seed and not the 1.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

huskyfan said:
I am just thinking Bemidji or Bowling Green could hit a hot streak and ride it through the tournament. or even Northern.
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I'm counting on BG hitting a hot streak in the playoffs. We usually get hot in March with Bergeron coaching, and almost always won our first round game as the bottom seed in the CCHA. We even beat Ferris in Big Rapids the year they were national runners-up. I don't think we'll beat Mankato and win the WCHA tourney, but making a Frozen Four appearance isn't too far-fetched.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

Lets get 4 teams into the NCAAs. Bowling Green, Mankato, and Tech all make the Final Five. Then, as I would like to see, Bemidji is the fourth team there. The other three teams lay down and BSU wins the autobid!

A fan can dream :)
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

Chris Clark Fan Club said:
More NCAA placement unluckiness for the Mavs. The closest they will be to home is South Bend for regionals as I don't think the Whioux, will be going anywhere from the top 4 in PWR.
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The plus in this is they don't play the Whioux in their backyard. If we have to play them, and we will, rather it be in Boston.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

huskyfan said:
I am just thinking Bemidji or Bowling Green could hit a hot streak and ride it through the tournament. or even Northern.
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If Dahlstrom gets back to his pre-injury form before the conference playoffs, Northern's got a very good chance to catch fire again (and I don't mean below the belt :D).
 
huskyfan said:
I am just thinking Bemidji or Bowling Green could hit a hot streak and ride it through the tournament. or even Northern.
Click to expand...

NMU is ravaged by injuries right now including their leading scorer and #1 goaltender. But if they get healthy by playoff time, they could make a run.
 
Chris Clark Fan Club said:
I just had this discussion with my dad, I thought it was pretty much BGSU BSU MTU and MSU in the Final 5/4. BSU can obviously beat MSU and pretty convincingly. BGSU is talented and so is MTU. My purple colored glasses want the Mavs but I think whoever gets the hottest wins.



More NCAA placement unluckiness for the Mavs. The closest they will be to home is South Bend for regionals as I don't think the Whioux, will be going anywhere from the top 4 in PWR.
Click to expand...

The Mavericks want to be in South Bend. Trust me.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

ok, so BGSU dropped from #6 to #8 in the PWR this week.
in the Bracketology Blog, that moves the Falcons from Providence (facing Providence, ouch) last week, to South Bend (facing Denver) this week.

Falcons to South Bend, sign us up!
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

blackswampboy said:
ok, so BGSU dropped from #6 to #8 in the PWR this week.
in the Bracketology Blog, that moves the Falcons from Providence (facing Providence, ouch) last week, to South Bend (facing Denver) this week.

Falcons to South Bend, sign us up!
Click to expand...

I really hate the idea of improving attendance by having move the 3 seeds around. Is it really fair to Minnesota-Duluth and Michigan Tech to have to play Boston College in Manchester and Providence in Providence when they are the higher seeds and the unedited bracket doesn't have those matchups and those changes aren't required to breakup interconference matchups.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

Shirtless Guy said:
I really hate the idea of improving attendance by having move the 3 seeds around. Is it really fair to Minnesota-Duluth and Michigan Tech to have to play Boston College in Manchester and Providence in Providence when they are the higher seeds and the unedited bracket doesn't have those matchups and those changes aren't required to breakup interconference matchups.
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Its been that way for several years now. The way I figure, I can't start complaining about it being the way its done, just because its my team that may suffer. Its an established process, and as long as they stick to that, it is what it is. It may suck, but it is still too early to know.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

bigblue_dl said:
Its been that way for several years now. The way I figure, I can't start complaining about it being the way its done, just because its my team that may suffer. Its an established process, and as long as they stick to that, it is what it is. It may suck, but it is still too early to know.
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Its obvious that the issue is that currently all the #2 band is made up of western teams, otherwise they'd potentially contemplate moving teams on that band to make things better. I also don't know why any consideration would be given to moving teams to fargo on purpose? Michigan to Fargo doesn't mean anything, especially when the regional is already sold out.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

Shirtless Guy said:
Its obvious that the issue is that currently all the #2 band is made up of western teams, otherwise they'd potentially contemplate moving teams on that band to make things better. I also don't know why any consideration would be given to moving teams to fargo on purpose? Michigan to Fargo doesn't mean anything, especially when the regional is already sold out.
Click to expand...

Agreed, the only reason to move teams to Fargo is to avoid a flight.
 
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