The puck drops on the 2006-2007 hockey season, albeit unofficially, this evening as the Alaska-We Were Here First Nanooks will face the U-18 Development Team in Anchorage, as eight teams will face exhibition opponents this weekend. In addition, a solid array of Women’s Hockey takes place tonight, if you’re in the area of any of these games, this is a great weekend to check out the sport and whet your appetite for the rest of hockey season.

CHN released their All-American team this year, with commentary from Dave Starman. I have no beef with the selections in general, but I’m hoping Brett will be able to spice it up soon with his All-Cliche team which will hopefully be inspired by about six consecutive viewings of Slap Shot.

The staff also got the New Season Primer up which highlights what has happened over the summer, and what we can expect for the upcoming season both on the ice and on CHN.

It looks like North Dakota might go off and sue the NCAA over the Fighting Sioux name and imagery. Despite that fact that several other college teams have been granted waivers to retain the use of their team names, UND has not received the same waiver. A letter shot off in June to the NCAA appeared to have beat down the NCAA’s argument rom every possible angle, but still no love for UND. I tried really hard not to use any puns this paragraph.

Enjoy the hockey!

Right on the heels of my previous blog posting, the CCHA announced today that they’ll be experimenting with a few of the rule changes that the rules committee has encouraged conferences to try out, plus implementing instant replay in all arenas in the league.

The experimental rules will be used in exhibition games to open the season and include changes that mirror the changes recently made in the NHL, most notably regarding icing. In these exhibitions, icing will prevent the team that iced the puck from changing lines. In addition, icing will be called on the penalty kill on the short-handed team. We should definitely see a bump in scoring and a change in style during these games.

More exciting to me is the two official, two linesman set-up that they will use in these exhibitions. If executed properly we’ll hopefully see games called in a more consistent and accurate fashion.

A big thumbs up to the CCHA for stepping up and giving everyone else in college hockey an opportunity to take a look at the impact of these new changes.

With hockey season just a few days away, it’s apparent that officiating is not just on the minds of bitter fans who felt they were robbed last season, but also on the minds of coaches who must constantly adjust to not only the new rule changes, but also the way that the referees will interpret them.

I spoke with St. Lawrence head coach Joe Marsh last week who is entering his 21st season being the Saints bench about the upcoming season. One of the factors he named regarding how well his team will do this year is how well the coaching staff and his players can adjust to the way the game is called. Anyone that is familiar enough with college hockey, knows if it’s on someone like Coach Marsh’s mind, it’s probably on every coach’s mind.

While the only major rule change this year involves the nullification of icing on a playable pass, Coaches and players are still struggling with the referee’s interpretations of hitting from behind and obstruction-interference rules added over the past season. One game’s obstruction interference is the next game’s great defensive play.

This year, the hitting from behind penalty has been clarified, only allowing a minor to be given if the infraction is in “open ice.” It remains a major penalty along with a DQ or misconduct otherwise. The rules involving obstruction remain the same, meant to get rid of the “clutch and grab” of old, while moving hockey towards a fast and flowing style of game, reminscent of the “New NHL.”

We’ll likely be shaking our heads when our favorite player is sent off when a player turns his back at the last second, or a slight push on the back is embellished, but hopefully this will be less so if the officials call these penalties on a consistent basis.

In many cases last year a prat-fall near the boards or a forward raising his hand around a defenseman with one hand on his stick meant a trip to the box. Calling these penalties has effectively discouraged dangerous actions such as boarding, but has also increased the level of dramatic performances on the ice to an extent that De Niro would be proud.

The Rules Committee took note on this increase in embellishment and is requesting officials to penalize more often for tactics such as diving, and we’re starting to see more being called. But until referees can really get to the bottom of diving and nail people (how many diving penalties have you seen in the past two years?) this will remain a game of cat and mouse with the refs. The problem is, referees must err on the side of caution, and that always means erring on the side of the player that appeared to get hit. Until the refs can get a hold of the diving issue or are provided with stronger tools such as suspensions to deter it after the fact (see the “New NHL”) we’ll be seeing a lot of frustration and a lot of adjusting throughout the season.

How do you think the officials will pan out this season in your conference and how well do you think your team will be able to adjust to way officials call the game?

You know it’s been a slow week when the biggest press release to hit the wire was the announcement of the schedule of this year’s weekly USA Today Hockey Rankings.

But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Captains have been leading practices for a little over a week now and coaches are starting to get into the mix. And it’s only nine days until the University of Alaska-Fairbanks takes the ice against the U-18 Development Team to unofficially open up hockey season.

The blogosphere has been abuzz recently getting ready for the season. Western College Hockey continues to dig through their CCHA previews, as well as some interesting CCHA and WCHA situational comparisons. Hockey East Blog did the same thing early in the month, and our own Brett Gobe is breaking down the ECAC over at the Clarkson Hockey Fans Blog. We even have Atlantic Hockey previews going on with the newly established RIT Corner Crew blog.

For those of you into the Women’s game, the USCHO pre-season poll is out with defendin champion Wisconsin leading the way, taking 13 of 14 first place votes along with the other usual suspects. Last year’s strong Mercyhurst squad comes in at 5th, and surprisingly a Hockey East squad, Boston College comes in at #10. We’ll come back to this in a month to see what kind of impact the Olympians return on the rankings and game in general.

Lets Go DU found some choice YouTube videos over at Boston University which deserves some mentioning. These will likely go to supplement various arguments around hockey forums across the country.

Apparently everyone else is talking about some guy that shares the same name as a musician, but I challenged myself not to address it any further in this posting.

Things are about to get interesting in the stands at Boston University this season, as the school’s Dean of Students, Kenneth Elmore, has announced a new policy to kick out of the rink those who use swear words, racist or sexist comments.

It’s only the latest volley fired in a battle that has raged for years at BU and revolves primarily around fans’ use of the third of George Carlin’s “Seven Words You Can’t Say On Television” to attack rival Boston College, whether the Terriers are playing BC that night or not. Apparently the obscenities launched at BC during the Eagles’ 5-0 trouncing of BU in the NCAA Northeast Regional last March got the attention of everyone including the NCAA itself, and as a result the administration at BU is taking its crackdown to a new level. Several requests over the years even from revered head coach Jack Parker to the fan base have gone largely ignored, so the administration hopes the threat of being booted from the rink will do the trick.

At first glance, this is an issue that just doesn’t seem that important, yet it garnered a segment of its own on a popular afternoon drive time AM radio talk show in the Hub yesterday. Is this a battle the BU administration can even win? Once you start down this road, where do you stop? With students who regularly attend sporting events ranking among the most loyal supporters later on as alumni, is BU shooting itself in the foot with some of its potential future donors? But what about today’s alumni, who already give a lot of money and have a right to expect that when they attend a game at their alma mater — often with their spouse and young children — that they won’t have to deal with things like this? And what about fans like the BU student quoted in the Globe piece, who said “sports won’t be fun anymore” if the crackdown on profanity succeeds — does it have to involve profanity to be fun?

Overall, this has been going on for so many years that it’s probably less of a surprise that BU made this move than that it took them this long. Still, you have to wonder what’s going to happen the first time they make the decision to kick someone out — particularly with BU’s Agganis Arena being one of the few college hockey rinks left where alcohol is served to patrons. Somehow I don’t think this is the last chapter to be written in this story.

Adam tossed this one in front of us a week or two ago and we all kind of shrugged, but several weeks later and still no word on the University of British-Columbia’s pending application to join the NCAA. CSTV’s Rink Rat, Elliot Olshansky breaks it down a bit further, taking a look at some of the conference and recruiting scenarios UBC and other teams might face should their application get approved.

There’s a great article on ESPN.com about RPI captain Kirk MacDonald’s fight to overcome testicular cancer. Many who keep track of the ECACHL have been following this story closely, and Ken Schott does an excellent job of pulling it all together for us as MacDonald gets ready to take the ice for his senior season against York and then Boston University. Definitely something for all fans of college hockey to look forward to.

A quick shout-out to Terrier Hockey covering Boston University and the Hockey East Blog which have both recently joined the blogosphere. It’s good to see more eastern schools getting involved in something that was previously reserved for parts of the country that win NCAA championships. Brutal? Yes sir! Regardless we hope to see more and more schools featuring some of that sweet sweet blogging action.

Mark your calendars and set your TiVo’s for the most intriguing match ups of the first half of the 2006-2007 season.

October 6th – Maine vs. Minnesota – “Hall of Fame Game”
The first game in the post-Kessel era, Minnesota will face a tough test from Ben Bishop and the sting Maine defense.

October 6th – Denver vs. Miami – “Ice Breaker”
Denver looks to get back into the NCAA tournament, Miami looks to repeat a stellar 2005-2006 season. This game will have repercussions come March.

October 13th – North Dakota @ Wisconsin
In the WCHA opener two powerhouses look to recover from off season departures.

October 13th – Nebraska-Omaha vs. Colorado College – “Nye Frontier Classic”
Colorado is looking to prove that they should remain in the class of WCHA elite. UNO is on the cusp of becoming a power in the CCHA a win here for the Mavericks would go a long way come selection time.

October 20th & 21st – RPI @ Denver
Seth Appert comes home and will see where his RPI team stands against the best of the college hockey world.

October 20th – Bentley @ Air Force
No this is not a joke, Air Force begins it’s Atlantic Hockey season at home against a Bentley team that almost spoiled many teams off season last year.

October 27th – Boston College @ Wisconsin
A rematch of last year’s national championship game. This game has been circled on Chestnut Hill for a long time.

November 17th – Clarkson @ St. Cloud State
Both teams are projected to climb out of recent slumps this season and this match up will provide a good barometer to where each team stands heading into the second half of the season.

November 25th – Michigan @ Minnesota – “College Hockey Showcase”
After the turkey and the football, tune into what could be a preview of the Midwest Regional final, and what always is a great match up.

December 1st – Boston University @ Boston College
Last season these teams met an unprecedented six times, this is the first of three scheduled meetings this year.

December 29th – Michigan State vs. Harvard – “Great Lakes Invitational”
Harvard is looking to reach the NCAA for a sixth straight year, Michigan State is looking to rebound in the CCHA. Another match up which will weigh heavy during selection time.

You know it’s a slow time of year when dggoddard over at Lets Go DU, an always enjoyable blog / Colorado College bashing site, takes the time to breakdown the 2006 NCAA Champion Wisconsin Badgers championship ring. Of course he couldn’t help but put up comparison shots of Denver’s 2004 AND 2005 rings as well. Cubic Zirconia has never looked so good!