The college hockey season started a few weeks ago. Only now, though, comes a full slate of games. All 12 Hockey East teams are in action twice this weekend with four two-game series in the league and four teams playing a pair of non-conference games.

The first few weeks of the season are always a bit disjointed. Teams play one or no games in a weekend, and it’s not easy to assess their efforts in single games when their league foes have played as many as three more games than they have.

At this point, teams are still more focused on the process than results. Wins are important, of course, but no team with a poor start can afford to panic just yet. The same is true of clubs off to hot starts.

Come Monday morning, the Hockey East picture will, of course, still be very incomplete, but we’ll have a better idea. This piece will be a new weekly feature designed to highlight a few things I’m keeping an eye on this weekend. I’m not going to make game predictions because I’ve never been a fan. I’m not going to preview every game. I, like you, just have a few thoughts on the games and what teams hope and need to see from their players.

Without Mark Jankowski, it’s impossible to gauge Providence

It’s not clear if Mark Jankowski will play for Providence this weekend during its home-and-home pair with Boston University. The junior center hasn’t played since PC’s season-opener against Ohio State on Oct. 10. Reports from the Providence Journal say it’s a shoulder injury, and his latest status is “possible to play,” according to the ProJo’s Mark Diver.

Losing a top-line center is bad news for any team. For Providence, it came at an especially bad time with road series at North Dakota and this weekend’s pair with BU. A loss and a tie in Grand Forks last weekend was bad enough. Poor performances this weekend are especially dangerous for PC. Not only would losses put them at a disadvantage in the Hockey East standings, they would be more wasted opportunities to assemble a favorable resume for the Pairwise.

However, another weekend without Jankowski makes it impossible to get an understanding of this team’s true capability. Along with senior Ross Mauermann, Jankowski is half of one of the nation’s best center duos. He’s a player that finally looked the part of a first-round draft pick in the latter stages of last season.

There’s plenty more for PC to worry about with BU than just Jankowski’s health. Still, the Friars have lofty expectations for this season. Until Jankowski is back — and in form — nothing Providence does on the ice is truly indicative of this team’s ceiling. As a junior, Jankowski should be able to provide the type of 35-40-point season contending teams need from their high-skill players. With him out of the lineup, PC is an incomplete team just trying to get by. There are others who haven’t started scoring just yet for the Friars — Noel Acciari, Stefan Demopoulos and Shane Luke are all without points — and that will change. Until it all does, no one can really make an informed statement about PC.

Should be lots of goals in Orono this weekend

Neither Massachusetts nor Maine is especially adept at defending. The clubs meet this weekend in Orono, and I’d expect a good number of goals to be scored throughout.

Through six games, Maine has played a bit better than its record (1-4-1) would suggest. They’ve been a positive possession team, and they’ve been pretty unlucky to this point. A 5.76 shooting percentage is going to improve at some point. Welcoming UMass to town is always a good idea for teams looking to get their offense going.

The Minutemen have allowed 22 goals in five goals, and that trend should continue through the season. However, Maine allows more than three goals per game, and their .890 team save percentage is difficult to assess since its a freshman (Sean Romeo) and a junior seeing his first real taste of No. 1 responsibilities (Matt Morris) sharing the duty for the Black Bears. Morris’ .918 in five appearances is quite good actually, but the consistency of defensive lapses have been a problem. Maine isn’t as bad as its record shows. Their team defense, though, is bad enough to let a beatable UMass team leave Orono with a share of the points.

Northeastern is in a lot of trouble this weekend

Northeastern’s problems in possession and inability to sustain offensive pressure are well documented. This weekend’s trip down to Hamden, Conn., for a Saturday-Sunday pair with Quinnipiac just may highlight that a great deal.

Quinnipiac’s 1-2-1 record isn’t very good, and Rand Pecknold’s been quite vocal in his team’s incomplete efforts through four games. Still, the Bobcats are one of the best possession teams in the nation, and NU’s goaltending may very well be under siege from puck drop Saturday night. Whether it’s Clay Witt or Derick Roy, the Huskies need supreme goaltending to win if they continue to get dominated territorially the way they have in almost every game this season.

Last Friday’s 3-2 loss to UMass was the lone exception to this point in the season, the Huskies put 42 shots on Dill.

Through four games, QU accounts for more than 62 percent of all shots on goal in its games. A saving grace for Northeastern may be the Bobcats goaltending, which has been objectively terrible. Michael Garteig and Sean Lawrence have combined to post an .810 save percentage, by far the worst in the country. It’ll come up at some point, but it’s clear neither is particularly strong. A year ago, Garteig finished with a .910 save percentage, just above the national average.

Friday, October 31st, 2014 - 10:30 am | Hockey East, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings