2017 NCAA Hockey - MOD # 135 - The Road to Chicago

[Bruins1233]

Some College Hockey "Bracketology"
http://www.uscho.com/bracketology/2...e-where-does-your-team-stand-in-the-pairwise/
Obviously the intra-Conference matchup prevention is obvious (they try). but he lost me on the attendance concerns. Of course the Conference Championships could shake the game up a bit especially in Atlantic and WCHA where their only bid will likely be an autobid, although Airforce has a chance of being a high 13 seed rather than a 15/16.
Obviously without UND Fargo is a bad place for everyone.
but I didn't understand why he thought BU would draw better in Manchester than Lowell would. Considering Lowell is closer to Manchester and has better home attendance. And as a result he shipped Lowell out to Fargo.
Obviously keeping Providence in Providence despite Brown Hosting makes sense.

 

[riverhawkey91]

Some College Hockey "Bracketology"
http://www.uscho.com/bracketology/2...e-where-does-your-team-stand-in-the-pairwise/
Obviously the intra-Conference matchup prevention is obvious (they try). but he lost me on the attendance concerns. Of course the Conference Championships could shake the game up a bit especially in Atlantic and WCHA where their only bid will likely be an autobid, although Airforce has a chance of being a high 13 seed rather than a 15/16.
Obviously without UND Fargo is a bad place for everyone.
but I didn't understand why he thought BU would draw better in Manchester than Lowell would. Considering Lowell is closer to Manchester and has better home attendance. And as a result he shipped Lowell out to Fargo.
Obviously keeping Providence in Providence despite Brown Hosting makes sense.

Haaaaa just saw that, classic BU/BC bias at work there. UML ends up the highest HEA seed and gets shipped out west so BU can stay close to home. Typical.

What's particularly laughable is he says he's worried about the Northeast Regional because it only has one eastern school at that point so he directly swaps the UML/Penn St. and Cornell/BU matchups to fix it. I'm not exactly sure I'd consider Cornell any more eastern than Penn St...that's obviously just to get BU back into the Northeast. What a joke. And as you said, Lowell would have a much higher attendance in Manchester than BU would, so that's a terrible excuse on his part.

He's normally pretty good with those things, but that part was pretty pathetic.

It's probably a pretty moot point anyways though. Chances are solid that either BU or UML win Hockey East, and probably have to go through eachother and/or Providence + Notre Dame to do it. At that point, the winner probably grabs a #1 seed anyways given the parity in the top-10 this year, so they'll get their pick of regional and the other will be shipped out West.

 

[Bruins1233]

Haaaaa just saw that, classic BU/BC bias at work there. UML ends up the highest HEA seed and gets shipped out west so BU can stay close to home. Typical.

What's particularly laughable is he says he's worried about the Northeast Regional because it only has one eastern school at that point so he directly swaps the UML/Penn St. and Cornell/BU matchups to fix it. I'm not exactly sure I'd consider Cornell any more eastern than Penn St...that's obviously just to get BU back into the Northeast. What a joke. And as you said, Lowell would have a much higher attendance in Manchester than BU would, so that's a terrible excuse on his part.

He's normally pretty good with those things, but that part was pretty pathetic.

It's probably a pretty moot point anyways though. Chances are solid that either BU or UML win Hockey East, and probably have to go through eachother and/or Providence + Notre Dame to do it. At that point, the winner probably grabs a #1 seed anyways given the parity in the top-10 this year, so they'll get their pick of regional and the other will be shipped out West.

By eastern I think he means ECAC/HEA/AHC, as opposed to geographically east.
My guess is it'd be easier if Lowell or BU were #1 seeds and the other #2, then 2 New England teams (Harvard+BU/UML) would be 1 seeds in Providence and Manchester and either BU or UML would be the #2 seed in the group with Harvard.
My guess is the NCAA would like to have Lowell in Manchester and BU in the east somewhere though.

 

[riverhawkey91]

By eastern I think he means ECAC/HEA/AHC, as opposed to geographically east.
My guess is it'd be easier if Lowell or BU were #1 seeds and the other #2, then 2 New England teams (Harvard+BU/UML) would be 1 seeds in Providence and Manchester and either BU or UML would be the #2 seed in the group with Harvard.
My guess is the NCAA would like to have Lowell in Manchester and BU in the east somewhere though.

That might be true, I also didn't see he originally had Minnesota and Penn St in that regional before swapping the matchups, so switching out Cornell for Penn St was probably necessary. I just still don't get why, if we're going by attendance at that point, it makes more sense to have BU in that NE regional than UML...UML will draw more than BU in Manchester, and BU will draw more than UML out West...seems like an easy call to me. They're back-to-back in PCW and the same seed, no reason they couldn't just swap them for eachother.

I think the only way they get both UML and BU in the east is if either a) Providence misses out on the tourney altogether and/or b) a 5th HEA team makes the tourney. Providence is a virtual lock for the Providence regional regardless of seed, so that really only leaves one spot in the NE regional for either BU or UML. I'm not going to go back and look through them so I could be entirely wrong here, but I don't think I've ever seen a year where they had 2 HEA teams in one regional without there being at least one in each of the other regionals. So if Providence does make the tourney, one of BU/UML is almost guaranteed to get sent out West.

 

[Bruins1233]

That might be true, I also didn't see he originally had Minnesota and Penn St in that regional before swapping the matchups, so switching out Cornell for Penn St was probably necessary. I just still don't get why, if we're going by attendance at that point, it makes more sense to have BU in that NE regional than UML...UML will draw more than BU in Manchester, and BU will draw more than UML out West...seems like an easy call to me. They're back-to-back in PCW and the same seed, no reason they couldn't just swap them for eachother.

I think the only way they get both UML and BU in the east is if either a) Providence misses out on the tourney altogether and/or b) a 5th HEA team makes the tourney. Providence is a virtual lock for the Providence regional regardless of seed, so that really only leaves one spot in the NE regional for either BU or UML. I'm not going to go back and look through them so I could be entirely wrong here, but I don't think I've ever seen a year where they had 2 HEA teams in one regional without there being at least one in each of the other regionals. So if Providence does make the tourney, one of BU/UML is almost guaranteed to get sent out West.

Do you know if it would be legal for Lowell to bid for the Tournament using the Tsongas Center? Its technically off campus (hence it sells alcohol) and its big enough (larger than the Fargo site) but I think I recall 2 years ago a college in Philly (Temple or Nova) had to move a number of its home games from the Wells-Fargo Center to another site to be eligible to play there during the Tournament but I'm sure Hockey has different rules than Basketball because colleges rather than cities host but I can't seem to find it online.

 

[riverhawkey91]

Do you know if it would be legal for Lowell to bid for the Tournament using the Tsongas Center? Its technically off campus (hence it sells alcohol) and its big enough (larger than the Fargo site) but I think I recall 2 years ago a college in Philly (Temple or Nova) had to move a number of its home games from the Wells-Fargo Center to another site to be eligible to play there during the Tournament but I'm sure Hockey has different rules than Basketball because colleges rather than cities host but I can't seem to find it online.

I don't know the actual rule, but I'm sure the answer is no. As far as I know, the NCAA either just doesn't or isn't allowed to use arenas that any potential participating school calls home for the regionals; they typically go for AHL/ECHL/USHL type arenas if for no other reason than size (for all I know the Fargo site is the biggest around). At the very least, the Tsongas would probably be out of the running because UML actually owns it.

Now that you mention it, that does add a bit of an interesting wrinkle to the whole Holy Cross thing though. It looks like they're only planning on renovating their arena (read: not expanding), which is way too small for consideration into Hockey East. I know everyone just figured they'd move to the DCU for games, but I wonder if the NCAA would even let them do that since that's clearly a preferred spot for regionals.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Tomorrow night I'll be going to Matthews Arena to see the dog fight between Northeastern & UCONN. I'd assume that should be an easy ticket. Last time I was there Shattenkirk & Bonino were playing for BU.

 

[PrisonMike]

So NESN decided to not carry any of the Hockey East games this weekend ? Typical.

 

[Fenway]

Tomorrow night I'll be going to Matthews Arena to see the dog fight between Northeastern & UCONN. I'd assume that should be an easy ticket. Last time I was there Shattenkirk & Bonino were playing for BU.

Tickets were not a problem I see

 

[Bruins1233]

All the Hockey East teams that were suppose to win won.
RIT blew a 4-2 lead in the last 4 minutes of the 2nd period and lost 5-4 to Niagara the last seed in Atlantic Hockey, number 60 in the nation.
Also how where the HEA crowds, the GPC was emptier than it was all season by a ton, like 1500 less than usual (average about 3000).
Also not sure of the NCAA rule about possession is different but Niagara had a delayed penalty so they were trying to play keep away from the Tigers and RIT touched the puck several times, but the penalty was not whistled down. Niagara scored their second goal then.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Tickets were not a problem I see

Holy Crap, they should pay me to go in.

 

[304]

Tickets were not a problem I see

NU is heavily dependent on student attendance to fill the building. Of course, HEA playoffs always align with Spring Break. The AD/Administration has always done a poor job marketing to those outside the NU community (or even alumni).

 

[Bruins1233]

NU is heavily dependent on student attendance to fill the building. Of course, HEA playoffs always align with Spring Break. The AD/Administration has always done a poor job marketing to those outside the NU community (or even alumni).

Northeastern has the most overrated fanbase in Hockey East. They ranked dead last in attendance this year both in raw numbers and % full.
Merrimack outdrew Northeastern despite being hamstrung by a very small venue.
They were 16th in New England behind HEA, Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale and Quinnipiac.

 

[Bruins1233]

UNH flipped the script on Merrimack, beating them 4-0 tonight, MC/UNH is the only HEA first round to go into the 3rd game.
In perhaps the least surprising result of the night, UMess-Amherst fell to Providence without scoring a goal, what a waste of a series.

 

[Glove Malfunction]

Tickets were not a problem I see

I think there were more people in the stands when I refereed a Boston Latin JV game there.

 

[304]

Northeastern has the most overrated fanbase in Hockey East.

You just can't help yourself huh? All you've done in this thread is bash NU, UMass, BC, BU, etc.

I don't think anyone has ever said NU has a bountiful fanbase. We are what we are. As I said earlier, we are largely dependent on student attendance and the Department does a garbage job of marketing the programs to non-students. Doesn't sound like overrating to me.

Also, I know you'll want to hear this, but over on the NU boards they are hoping to get matched up with Lowell next weekend (dependent on the UNH/'Mack game). I hope we do as well.

 

[Bruins1233]

You just can't help yourself huh? All you've done in this thread is bash NU, UMass, BC, BU, etc.

I don't think anyone has ever said NU has a bountiful fanbase. We are what we are. As I said earlier, we are largely dependent on student attendance and the Department does a garbage job of marketing the programs to non-students. Doesn't sound like overrating to me.

Also, I know you'll want to hear this, but over on the NU boards they are hoping to get matched up with Lowell next weekend (dependent on the UNH/'Mack game). I hope we do as well.

Its more so during the Beanpot for example, Northeastern fans would jab Harvard for having no fans despite the fact they have higher average home attendance than Northeastern. BU and BC have room to speak because they outdraw those teams 2:1 but its a bit annoying when NU does it.
While Northeastern is at a disadvantage in terms of community involvement for being in Boston where there is a lot of distractions, as they compete with BC, BU the Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics etc.
I will give Northeastern credit, they do have a decent Basketball fanbase (good by New England standards).
I haven't been mean to BU, I rather like them, and I don't think anyone likes BC.
Anyhow, I'm looking forward to RIT/Niagara Rd. 3 tonight. Last night was a dominate performance by the Tigers, Even Friday the Tigers outplayed them then fell to pieces down the stretch. blowing a 4-2

 

[Fenway]

Lowell's attendance is quite good and while I personally resent what they did in killing off the AHL in Lowell the school was proven correct in its strategy.

http://www.uscho.com/stats/attendance/division-i-men/2016-2017/

Northeastern draws against BC and BU period. Harvard numbers are inflated.

 

[riverhawkey91]

Its more so during the Beanpot for example, Northeastern fans would jab Harvard for having no fans despite the fact they have higher average home attendance than Northeastern. BU and BC have room to speak because they outdraw those teams 2:1 but its a bit annoying when NU does it.
While Northeastern is at a disadvantage in terms of community involvement for being in Boston where there is a lot of distractions, as they compete with BC, BU the Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics etc.
I will give Northeastern credit, they do have a decent Basketball fanbase (good by New England standards).
I haven't been mean to BU, I rather like them, and I don't think anyone likes BC.
Anyhow, I'm looking forward to RIT/Niagara Rd. 3 tonight. Last night was a dominate performance by the Tigers, Even Friday the Tigers outplayed them then fell to pieces down the stretch. blowing a 4-2

Over time when you go to enough tournament games, you'll find all fans jab eachother like that regardless of whether it's true. Can't even tell you how many times I've heard the "we can't hear you!" chant when the opposing fanbase is twice as large and loud as the one chanting it. Fans will be fans, and I don't mean that as a compliment.

Lowell's attendance is quite good and while I personally resent what they did in killing off the AHL in Lowell the school was proven correct in its strategy.

http://www.uscho.com/stats/attendance/division-i-men/2016-2017/

Northeastern draws against BC and BU period. Harvard numbers are inflated.

Some interesting numbers there. It's nice to see that UML is managing to grow their average numbers despite being near capacity year after year, especially when this is probably a down year for the team by our new standards. Also, I know it's only a few years old, but Penn St. might actually already need a bigger arena...they've been over capacity literally since it was opened.

I know they're not really comparable, but it's still a bit sad/weird to think that an average D1 football game draws a higher attendance than a full year's worth of games for most D1 hockey teams.

 

[Fenway]

UNH eliminates Merrimack and will play Lowell.

Northeastern will play BU

 

[northeastern]

I was at the nu game. Second game at Mathews of the year for me. Spring break leads to empty arenas this time every year...

 

[Bruins1233]

Niagara (60, 11 AHA) just beat RIT 4-1. Although if you look at the box score and see RIT outshot Niagara 44-18, don't let that fool you, RIT only had a few legit scoring chances. There were a few shots from the Red Line mixed in there to give you an idea of the quality of the shots. The Purple Eagles were outfighting the Tigers at every turn, they won most 50-50 pucks, and turned a lot of tiger pucks into battles.
They now go on to play Canisius at Harbor Center, against one of the top goalies this year.
Incredibly disappointing ending for a pre season #1.
Also attendance was about as bad as its been all season, 1381.
and its looking like UML/UNH and NU/BU, BC/UVM and PC/ND
hoping PC can knock of Notre Dame, UML beat UNH and UVM beat BC. Don't really have a preference for BU/NU but hey if BU loses McAvoy will be sent to the Bs.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Niagara (60, 11 AHA) just beat RIT 4-1. Although if you look at the box score and see RIT outshot Niagara 44-18, don't let that fool you, RIT only had a few legit scoring chances. There were a few shots from the Red Line mixed in there to give you an idea of the quality of the shots. The Purple Eagles were outfighting the Tigers at every turn, they won most 50-50 pucks, and turned a lot of tiger pucks into battles.
They now go on to play Canisius at Harbor Center, against one of the top goalies this year.
Incredibly disappointing ending for a pre season #1.
Also attendance was about as bad as its been all season, 1381.
and its looking like UML/UNH and NU/BU, BC/UVM and PC/ND
hoping PC can knock of Notre Dame, UML beat UNH and UVM beat BC. Don't really have a preference for BU/NU but hey if BU loses McAvoy will be sent to the Bs.

Providence, not Boston, if BU loses, McAvoy isn't signed but can be to an ATO.

 

[Bruins1233]

Lowell's attendance is quite good and while I personally resent what they did in killing off the AHL in Lowell the school was proven correct in its strategy.

http://www.uscho.com/stats/attendance/division-i-men/2016-2017/

Northeastern draws against BC and BU period. Harvard numbers are inflated.

Looking back, I think the University was probably already decided they were going full DI at some point in 2010 the announcement was in 2012. So while working out 17-20 dates with the AHL working out the MBB (full time at Tsongas next year) , MIH, and maybe select WBB (I would assume) games out with the AHL probably about 40 dates would be troublesome for the University.

 

[GloryDaze4877]

UNH flipped the script on Merrimack, beating them 4-0 tonight, MC/UNH is the only HEA first round to go into the 3rd game.
In perhaps the least surprising result of the night, UMess-Amherst fell to Providence without scoring a goal, what a waste of a series.

All the Hockey East teams that were suppose to win won.
RIT blew a 4-2 lead in the last 4 minutes of the 2nd period and lost 5-4 to Niagara the last seed in Atlantic Hockey, number 60 in the nation.
Also how where the HEA crowds, the GPC was emptier than it was all season by a ton, like 1500 less than usual (average about 3000).
Also not sure of the NCAA rule about possession is different but Niagara had a delayed penalty so they were trying to play keep away from the Tigers and RIT touched the puck several times, but the penalty was not whistled down. Niagara scored their second goal then.

As far as I know, the rule on delayed penalties is the same in the NCAA. The offending team has to have possession AND control for the play to be stopped. Simply touching the puck is not enough. The rule difference between the NCAA and NHL is that if a goal is scored on a delayed penalty in the NCAA, the penalty it still enforced.

I am a UMass Alum and typically root for UML against some of the superpowers in the HE Tournament because I like to go for the underdog or less established teams. You make it difficult to do that with some of your BS.

UMess? Really? Should I call the Riverhawks UMass Blowell going forward?

Grow up.