Running NCAA hockey thread

[da man]

One of my (several, abandoned) alma maters won the women's title last week.

Never discount Minnesota - or North Dakota - in the big tournaments.

But agree that BC and BU look semi-insurmountable.

Will hold Cornell in my heart throughout.

Far above Cayuga's waters
There's an awful smell...

 

[The Big Ragu]

BC has just been ridiculous with those US National Developmental team kids that all went there as a package. I have followed them all season, because the Rangers drafted Gabe Perrault and I wanted to get a sense of whether he's for real. He broke Auston Matthew's season scoring record as part of the Developmental team, but he dropped like a rock in the draft to the end of the first round -- he's too small, too slow, etc. After watching some of BC's games this season. ... he's one of those players where the eye test is inconclusive, but the results are the results. You can tell he has innate hockey sense and his passing ability is elite. It still may be deceptive, because he's playing on a line at BC with Ryan Leonard and Will Smith, who are both going to be NHL players, so you can't entirely rule out that they are lifting him rather than him lifting them. But they all were dynamic this season.

I found that BC team really impressive this year. ... they got a ridiculous freshman class of near NHL-ready players, but how many times have NCAA teams in the last few years gotten a class like that -- all the good players picking a program and deciding to commit together -- and underperformed?

 

[ChrisLong]

The Ducks can't wait for BC to lose so they can bring in Cutter. If BC makes it to the final, he can get one game for Anaheim ... at Vegas.

 

[micropolitan guy]

One of my (several, abandoned) alma maters won the women's title last week.

Never discount Minnesota - or North Dakota - in the big tournaments.

But agree that BC and BU look semi-insurmountable.

Will hold Cornell in my heart throughout.

UND has actually underachieved of late. No Frozen Fours since 2016, when it won its most recent title.

 

[Cosmo]

Why are they hosting an NCAA regional in suburban St. Louis?

 

[Starman]

At an NHL practice rink. With a capacity of 3,500. Which at this moment appears maybe a little more than half full.

 

[Cosmo]

Mike Knuble's kid plays for WMU. Cool.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

Every time I think of college hockey, I think "Why'd you wanna play college hockey?" in a Masshole accent.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

Planning to watch Michigan later. Love Frank Nazar.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Why are they hosting an NCAA regional in suburban St. Louis?

Because it's all about how much money the city making the bid offers, not about taking less money and putting it in a hockey-friendly environment. I'm not sure there's even a college program in Missouri or neighboring Illinois.

 

[Cosmo]

For someone who has zero stakes in this tournament, that Western Michigan-Michigan State game was super compelling.

 

[UPChip]

Because it's all about how much money the city making the bid offers, not about taking less money and putting it in a hockey-friendly environment. I'm not sure there's even a college program in Missouri or neighboring Illinois.

Lindenwood, also in the suburbs, is in maybe its second year of D-I hockey but has had women's for about a decade now.

The state of the regional tournaments has been a lengthy and ongoing debate, particularly in the western half of the game. The main problem is that the NCAA will not allow campus sites to host, and many of the 5-10,000 capacity buildings west of Detroit don't want to take a bath when they get a regional full of small or geographically-dispersed fanbases that won't fly on five days notice to a meh location with expensive tickets. This small arena was something of a hedge against that (and probably a dry run for administrators, as the 2025 Frozen Four is in the Blues' arena). There is another regional in Sioux Falls, but unfortunately for all involved, North Dakota blew it in the semifinals of its conference tournament and fell off the 1 seed line. The NCAA hockey tournament is selected and seeded much more objectively than basketball, and they weren't going to warp their bracket to give easy travel to the 2 seed, and so the way the cookie crumbled is that the small arena ended up with college hockey's most rabid (and another word that starts with 'ra') fanbase, plus two rival Big 10 schools.

Someone else mentioned Denver basically having to play a road game yesterday, and that's because of another NCAA wrinkle. You may know that in men's basketball, a host school can't host their team's own regional, but in men's hockey, the host school MUST play in its regional if it makes it (to goose attendance numbers), no matter what its seed. UMass, the Springfield Regional host, got the last spot in the objectively-determined 16-team field, and only because Denver won the NCHC tournament and by doing so, mathematically knocked out their biggest rival, Colorado College.