New Haven Register: ‘EZ-AC’ Hockey a thing of the past

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Here's a good article about ECAC Hockey and how they have gone from being a league that many college hockey fans scoffed at, to a league that's now looked at as being "the" power conference in college hockey. The ECAC has won the last two Frozen Four and that's an accomplishment that nothing to sneeze at. Seriously. Especially, with the academic standards that they must uphold.

Chip Malafronte, New Haven Register “I think our league is as good as any, if not the best,” said Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold, whose team finished as national runner-up to Yale in 2013. “We’re showing that we’ve got the high-end teams that can win national championships. Even more than that, the depth of our league; our bottom teams are always really good and you see every year our 11th- or 12th-place teams beating the No. 1 team in the nation. It’s a deep league and that’s a credit to our coaches and our universities and the commitment we have to our programs.”

Indeed, these are exciting times for the ECAC, once so callously referred to as the “EZ-AC” by fans of more prosperous conferences from Maine to Alaska. Yale’s title in 2013 snapped a 23-year championship drought dating back to Harvard’s run in 1989. When Union won it all in April, it marked the first time the league took consecutive crowns since Boston University went back-to-back in 1971 and 1972.

It’s clear the ECAC hasn’t been this strong since a chunk of members split off in 1984 to form Hockey East. Given the restructuring of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and demise of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association last year, the league is as competitive as ever against the rest of the nation.

“Real strong,” Yale coach Keith Allain said. “You’re talking about the last two years because the league won national championships. But four years ago we had a team that could have won, but lost to Minnesota-Duluth, who did win the national championship that year. The league has gotten stronger; the programs within the league are stronger in terms of feeding off each other. A rising tide lifts the other ships.”

A look further at the Strength of Schedule

Here is an interesting conversation that I found on Twitter between Ryan Durling of the Somethings Bruin hockey blog and USCHO Hockey ECAC Blogger Brian Sullivan, the discussion is worth taking a look at, there is some legitimate points brought up by Durling.

@SullivanHockey it's tough to credit a team that's played 3/4 the schedule of UNH/BC and almost half as many games as NoDak, Minny, etc.
@SullivanHockey I'd love to, honest. Sadly, they don't dance with Hockey East too much and it's tough to get that far away to see them
@SullivanHockey i'm not an ECAC hater nor a HE homer, lol. Just find it tough to compare the schedules.
@Ryan_Durling And RPI is probably the LEAST impressive of that bunch right now. Really... Yale. Check 'em out, they're crazy fun to watch.
@Ryan_Durling Seriously though, you really ought to watch Yale, Union, Dartmouth & RPI before passing stereotypical judgment on #ECACHockey.
@SullivanHockey I don't deny that they're good teams. RPI looked solid earlier this year and I'm sure they've improved, BUT...
@Ryan_Durling The poll isn't necessarily about who'd beat whom, but who is doing the best they can...which Yale certainly is.
@Ryan_Durling Everyone has his own ballot philosophy, but there's no doubt that Yale's season is the most successful in D-I to date.

First off, I am glad that someone else is saying these things. This is also one of the reason I am so glad that there isn't a BCS of college hockey, this is not a beauty contest folks where your team loads up on cupcakes and over inflate their stats racking up wins against unimpressive opponents. I am not personally impressed if your team schedules a Sacred Heart and then beats them 8-1. I am more impressed with a game between two teams that play in a tough contested match with the outcome is in doubt till the end of the game.

The being said, the NCAA Division I Hockey tournament is a tourney that is based on merit you have to be one of the final 16 to make the tourney and your team has to win 4 games to get to the top.

Yeah first let’s compare Strength of Schedule, eight of the ten teams with the toughest Strength of Schedule are in the WCHA and the other two teams are from the Hockey East and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Let’s take a look at the ECAC strength in scheduling or should we say a lack of strength.

The Top Ten Strength of Schedule

North Dakota 1
Bemidji State 2
Denver 3
Michigan Tech 4
Alaska-Anchorage 5
Minnesota-Duluth 6
Boston College 7
Notre Dame 8
Wisconsin 9
St. Cloud State 10

EZAC Strength of Schedule

Rensselaer 21
Brown 22
Yale 29
Dartmouth 33
Union 34
Harvard 35
St. Lawrence 40
Princeton 43
Quinnipiac 44
Cornell 45
Clarkson 46
Colgate 49

In conclusion; I am not saying that the ECAC or the Atlantic Hockey Associations aren’t good hockey leagues, they are the mid majors conferences of college hockey and “a few” of their teams can beat any team from the big three on any given night, but let’s be honest with ourselves, they are not in the same class as the Hockey East, WCHA or CCHA... Let the debate begin.