I bet you can already tell where I'm going to start with this one. What the hell happened Friday night Northeastern? Matthews was rocking, it was homecoming, Maine isn't as good as they used to be, we beat Boston University last weekend, we had a chance to get a sweep and make up a lot of ground in the standings, then you go and get spanked.
I mean, great job making up for it on saturday, but friday was not good, at all. I can't think of anything good to say about Friday except that a few of the doghouse faithful got right behind Mountain after Cronin used him to replace Chris Rawlings in net.
Around the rest of Hockey East, BU got surprised too, splitting with Merrimack. That tells one of three things, Merrimack is for real, BU is a bust, or a little bit of both. I'm leaning more towards the BU being a bust side, with a hint of they are hungover from winning everything last year and off to a slow start missing the players that left more than they anticipated.
there are currently four teams tied in second with seven points, one point behind leaders UMass Amherst. Boston College, Vermont, New Hampshire and UMass Lowell (who are now ranked fifth and have recieved a first place vote in the national poll).
My Hockey East Power Rankings:
1. University of Mass. at Lowell Riverhawks
2. University of Mass. at Amherst Minutemen
3. University of New Hampshire Wildcats
4. University of Vermont Catamounts
5. Boston College Eagles
6. Merrimack College Warriors
7. University of Maine Blackbears
8. Northeastern University Huskies
9. Providence College Friars
10. Boston University Terriers
Nationally, #1 Miami was swept by unranked ferris state, technically both games ended in ties, but in the CCHA they do shootouts to determine point allocation in the conference, but for the purpose of voting, as as evidenced by their still dominant #1 stature, they are considered ties.
Also, Michigan was swept by michigan state. Notre Dame split their series with northern michigan, except northern michigan's win was real, notre dame's came in a shootout.
I think the result that surprised me the most this weekend was the way boston college pounded vermont into the ice, 7-1, on saturday night before losing 3-2 on sunday night on the same sheet to the same team. i didn't look at all the other scores, but i bet that is the biggest swing of the weekend, if not the season so far, if not for the whole season when it is over.
Of coures, by this i would have to mean back to back games, vermont beat bc earlier this season, the head to head match up before the 7-1 slaughter, 4-1, making that the biggest swing, 9 goals vs 7 goals.
so one thing can be certain, you can't really predict what will happen when vermont and bc play. unfortunately, their season series against each other is complete, the next time they could play would be the hockey east playoffs, and if they continue on the trends they are on right now, that would likely be a semifinal matchup, potentially a championship.
on to the rankings:
Teams in Freefall:
Michigan down from 6 to 16
Notre Dame down from 8 to 14
BU down from 17 to unranked
Vermont down from 15 to 17
Boston College down from 16 to 17
BC and UVM didn't fall very far, but they lost a lot of votes, not quite as much as Michigan, BU or Notre Dame though
Teams flying high:
Michigan State up from 13 to 6
Colorado College up from 10 to 7
Quinnipiac up from 20 to 13
Wisconsin up from unranked to 15
Ferris State still unranked but after their psuedo sweep of miami, they garnered a lot of attention, one more good weekend and another slip up by a team like vermont, bc or michigan could easily see them get in next week.
Joining the Ranks:
Wisconsin
Stripped of their rank:
Boston University
Teams that got votes this week after not having any last week:
RIT got 3
Union got 9
Colgate got 43
Teams that lost all their votes and now have no points:
Minnesota lost 13
Western Michigan lost 8
ST. Lawrence lost 3
For schedules, the poll, and standings, check out uscho.com or hockeyeastonline.com
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
New York Rangers
This is starting to get frustrating, after such a good start, they have been stinking lately. I don't know what has changed, but it better change back fast. I really wish I could watch them on TV more often than when they play the Bruins.
From my fantasy perspective, my team sucks. My two best players going into the season are dealing with injuries right now, Ovechkin and Luongo. And to add insult to injury, or rather injury to injury, I made a trade last night to make space on my roster for Luongo to come of the IR, then one of the players I traded for goes and hurts his knee, and he was still on the other kids team for that game b/c the trade happened so late.
Hopefully both the New York Rangers and the Brighton Rat Pack can turn things around b/c I don't want to see either as close to the bottom of the standings as they currently are.
From my fantasy perspective, my team sucks. My two best players going into the season are dealing with injuries right now, Ovechkin and Luongo. And to add insult to injury, or rather injury to injury, I made a trade last night to make space on my roster for Luongo to come of the IR, then one of the players I traded for goes and hurts his knee, and he was still on the other kids team for that game b/c the trade happened so late.
Hopefully both the New York Rangers and the Brighton Rat Pack can turn things around b/c I don't want to see either as close to the bottom of the standings as they currently are.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
I Love College Hockey
The College Hockey season is underway and just as anticipated there is a lot of early shaking up going on. Boston University was ranked second in the preseason poll and got beat by two unranked opponents this year.
One of which was the Northeastern University Huskies. The result was what I expected, just not the score. NU won 1-0 in front of a 42 save performance by freshman goalie Chris Rawlings. However, the next night, the Huskies went and got lit up by Boston College 5-1 after scoring the first goal.
The other team BU lost to this weekend was the Maine Blackbears. They were picked seventh in the preseason Hockey East coaches poll and now sit in a tie for last place with BU and Northeastern.
The University of Massachusetts schools, Amherst and Lowell, are sitting in first and second place, both teams have beaten Boston University as well.
This weekend Northeastern and BU both have a chance to climb out of the basement as they are playing Maine and Merrimack respectively. Merrimack was picked last but has a couple impressive wins, Boston College and University of Vermont, on their early season resume.
Also, Boston College will look for some early revenge against UVM, these two teams met a couple weeks ago and UVM won 4-1 in Vermont. They play two games at BC this Saturday and Sunday.
My Hockey East Power Rankings:
University of Massachusetts at Lowell Riverhawks
University of Massachusetts at Amherst Minutemen
University of Vermont Catamounts
Boston College Eagles
Univeristy of New Hampshire Wildcats
Northeastern University Huskies
Merrimack College Warriors
Boston Univeristy Terriers
Providence College Friars
Univeristy of Maine Blackbears
On the national stage, Miami(Ohio) keeps rolling, sweeping Michigan over the weekend, at Michigan. They are now 8-1-1 and almost the unanimous #1 team in the nation garnering 49 of the 50 first place votes, and 999 out of possible maximum 1000 points, in the USCHO.com poll.
North Dakota is currently second and the only other team to get a first place vote.
The big movers:
BU down from 7 to 17
Yale down from 6 to 12
Bemidji State up from 11 to 7
UMass Lowell up from 8 to 5
Alaska up from 13 to 9
New Teams:
Quinnipiac #20
Saying Goodbye to:
Wisconsin from #18 to unranked
Getting votes back (had no points last week, got points this week):
RPI got 18 points
Western Michigan and Ferris State got 8 points
St. Lawrence got 3 points
No more votes (had points last week, no points this week):
Harvard lost 22 points
Minnesota State lost 6 points
Ohio State lost 1 point
For schedules, the poll, and standings, check out uscho.com or hockeyeastonline.com
One of which was the Northeastern University Huskies. The result was what I expected, just not the score. NU won 1-0 in front of a 42 save performance by freshman goalie Chris Rawlings. However, the next night, the Huskies went and got lit up by Boston College 5-1 after scoring the first goal.
The other team BU lost to this weekend was the Maine Blackbears. They were picked seventh in the preseason Hockey East coaches poll and now sit in a tie for last place with BU and Northeastern.
The University of Massachusetts schools, Amherst and Lowell, are sitting in first and second place, both teams have beaten Boston University as well.
This weekend Northeastern and BU both have a chance to climb out of the basement as they are playing Maine and Merrimack respectively. Merrimack was picked last but has a couple impressive wins, Boston College and University of Vermont, on their early season resume.
Also, Boston College will look for some early revenge against UVM, these two teams met a couple weeks ago and UVM won 4-1 in Vermont. They play two games at BC this Saturday and Sunday.
My Hockey East Power Rankings:
University of Massachusetts at Lowell Riverhawks
University of Massachusetts at Amherst Minutemen
University of Vermont Catamounts
Boston College Eagles
Univeristy of New Hampshire Wildcats
Northeastern University Huskies
Merrimack College Warriors
Boston Univeristy Terriers
Providence College Friars
Univeristy of Maine Blackbears
On the national stage, Miami(Ohio) keeps rolling, sweeping Michigan over the weekend, at Michigan. They are now 8-1-1 and almost the unanimous #1 team in the nation garnering 49 of the 50 first place votes, and 999 out of possible maximum 1000 points, in the USCHO.com poll.
North Dakota is currently second and the only other team to get a first place vote.
The big movers:
BU down from 7 to 17
Yale down from 6 to 12
Bemidji State up from 11 to 7
UMass Lowell up from 8 to 5
Alaska up from 13 to 9
New Teams:
Quinnipiac #20
Saying Goodbye to:
Wisconsin from #18 to unranked
Getting votes back (had no points last week, got points this week):
RPI got 18 points
Western Michigan and Ferris State got 8 points
St. Lawrence got 3 points
No more votes (had points last week, no points this week):
Harvard lost 22 points
Minnesota State lost 6 points
Ohio State lost 1 point
For schedules, the poll, and standings, check out uscho.com or hockeyeastonline.com
FA Premiership Football
So I am pretty disappointed by Manchester United after their 1-0 loss to Chelsea this weekend. Sure the goal should have been waived b/c Drogba was offsides and interfered with the play, but that is no excuse. The refs can't be blamed everytime we don't take home maximum points.
Sir Alex, Evans and Fletcher need to be straightened out, they both got lucky they weren't sent off.
Wayne Rooney doesn't need to be criticized for the 12th man remark he made towards a camera, but he also probably doesn't need to say it. While he is arguably right and wrong, both sides were on the positive end of questionable calls, that is part of the game. Whether you are on the wrong side or the right side of the referee, as long as he isn't blatantly favoring one side to the other, you need to figure out how to win games even on the home pitch of the great teams.
United are now five points back from Chelsea in the table and while they haven't been playing with their full squad lately, there have been some lackluster performances.
Speaking on the Champions League, while the result was disappointing, the way they got it showed that this team is still great without Cristiano Ronaldo. It is difficult to come back from being 3-1 down to get a draw no matter who you are playing against. But I went into the game expecting a victory.
Either way, Man U have qualified for a spot in the Round of 16 with two matches remainging, so I can look back on the last week and be happy about that I guess.
Sir Alex, Evans and Fletcher need to be straightened out, they both got lucky they weren't sent off.
Wayne Rooney doesn't need to be criticized for the 12th man remark he made towards a camera, but he also probably doesn't need to say it. While he is arguably right and wrong, both sides were on the positive end of questionable calls, that is part of the game. Whether you are on the wrong side or the right side of the referee, as long as he isn't blatantly favoring one side to the other, you need to figure out how to win games even on the home pitch of the great teams.
United are now five points back from Chelsea in the table and while they haven't been playing with their full squad lately, there have been some lackluster performances.
Speaking on the Champions League, while the result was disappointing, the way they got it showed that this team is still great without Cristiano Ronaldo. It is difficult to come back from being 3-1 down to get a draw no matter who you are playing against. But I went into the game expecting a victory.
Either way, Man U have qualified for a spot in the Round of 16 with two matches remainging, so I can look back on the last week and be happy about that I guess.
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