Compare and contrast - What's the difference?

I know I am going to take some flak from fellow Sioux fans but watch the DU coach and what he says during the press conference. Seriously, say what you want about George Gwozdecky but I believe the man is a class act, to start the press conference he gives credit to his opponent… This seems to be a reoccurring theme. I had a chance to see him speak at two press conferences during the Final Five and in both instances coach Gwozdecky gave credit and kudos to the opposing team that his own team just played, Coach Hakstol did as well in both cases. Check out what Coach Hakstol had to say after Yale beat UND last year in the regional. [click to watch]

Now watch this press conference. Do you hear the coach from Yale give the UMD Bulldogs any credit? When I was in college one of my old football coaches said you win with class and you lose with class, you give your opponent credit as well. Yale didn't lose because of the officiating, they lost because UMD was the better team.

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.

Thursday morning ramblings… Outdoor games and Yale

Wow! There is going to be another college hockey game aka the "Big Chill" that will be played outdoors on Saturday at 3:00 pm Eastern Standard time at the Big House in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Yawn! Boring! I can’t be the only one that is bored with this concept, hockey wasn't made to be played in a football stadium.

I mean seriously folks, I want to watch a game in a massive football stadium, when it’s cold and I can’t see the ice or the puck very well because I am watching the game with 85,000 of my closest friends up in the clouds. I think we have played these outdoor games Ad nauseam. I am actually surprised that no one has suggested the Sioux play a hockey game in Memorial Stadium with its about a bazillion below zero. I wonder if your beer freezes.



If you're interested in watching the game, this farce will be on the Big Ten Network on Saturday at 2:00 pm North Dakota time. Here is the link(s) to the story [click to read]

There is a lot of discussion on the internet about whether Yale is a good team or not and worthy of the number one ranking. Ok, first off Yale has beaten the schedule they have been given, kudos to them; however, let’s look at who the Yale Bulldogs have beaten this season – Brown (24.4990) , Dartmouth (21.9230), Princeton (17.3212), Quinnipiac (12.9341), Colorado College (30.4469), Cornell (11.5612), Colgate (9.4471), Sacred Heart (7.7867), Rensselaer (22.8393), Union (21.3074) and Vermont (28.7114). The Yale Bulldogs lost to a very bad Air Force Academy (13.3756).

So let me get this right the pollsters are impressed with Yale beating up on the weak sisters of the poor and have ranked them number one in all three polls/rankings because of this. Go back and look at the Yale Bulldogs Strength of Schedule of the teams that they have played to date. I would like to see what kind of numbers power house teams like UMD, UND, DU, BU and Boston College could rack up against that line up of cup cakes. I don't know how anyone can say it with a straight face that the aforementioned schedule is a good schedule.

Ken Schott one of the best beat writers in the ECAC; has gone so far to say that he thinks Yale is going to be in the Frozen Four. That's a pretty bold statment to make based on who Yale has played this season.

Yale came close to making the Frozen Four last season. The Bulldogs have an outstanding offense, and they are tough to start. But the one area of the Bulldogs' game that held them back was their defense, and their goaltending, in particular. Yale used four goalies last season, and none of them established themselves as the go-to guy. The lack of a No. 1 goalie hurt the Bulldogs in their Northeast Regional championship game against Boston College. Yale scored seven goals, but three of its goalies couldn't stop the Eagles from getting nine goals and advancing to the Frozen Four, where they won the title.

Yale was a solid pick to win the ECACH regular-season title in the coaches and media polls. But I couldn't help but think if goaltending would be a problem again for the Bulldogs.

Well, after watching Yale's 5-0 dismantling of Union on Sunday at Ingalls Rink, I am not afraid to predict this: The Bulldogs will play in the Frozen Four in April.

Love his work, but I am going to have to respectfully disagree with him. I think Yale will be another ECAC team that will be selected as a number one seed in the NCAA tourney that ends up being a first round one and done bust, like Clarkson was in 2007 NCAA tourney. I really think that until a team from the ECAC "actually" wins an NCAA tourney and starts beating legit big time teams from the WCHA, CCHA and or Hockey East on a regular basis they will never really be looked at as anything but the EZAC. I also think that analogy is fair as well.

I also think that people are basing what happened in last years NCAA tourney as a gauge of what could happen in this years tourney. I don't know if you can do that. It is what it is; when the Sioux played Yale last year in the playoffs, the UND Fighting Sioux had played six games in nine days when they faced the Yale Bulldogs who had lost in their conference homes series and didn't play for two weeks and were well rested. I think if UND has played two less games that game would have had a very different result, the Sioux also started to come back in the third period and just missed on a couple of opportunities to tie the game up. Who knows what happens if that games goes to overtime?

Just for the record here is the Strength of Schedule for the 2010-2011 season so far.

Strength of schedules:
Yale. 31/ 19.7909
UMD 4/ 35.4840
UNH 23/ 23.7116
BC 6/ 32.3048
UND 1/ 50.0000
DU 2/ 40.6433