The weekend probably couldn’t be drawn up any better, as league teams went 5-1-0 against NCHC competition on the weekend. Quinnipiac continues to impress with its early play, which I will talk about below, St. Lawrence picked up the most impressive win of the weekend and Clarkson had an impressive weekend in a weekend sweep. Colgate, whom I will also talk about below, swept RIT in a weekend series, while Union struggled in a winless weekend against traditional powers.

It is early, but the ECAC leads all conferences in inter-conference record at 21-10-3 (.662). This record should only improve in the coming weeks, as ECAC favorites Harvard and Yale begin play.  The Ivies will join the party this week and ECAC league play will also begin this week,with RPI visiting Union for each team’s ECAC opener. Harvard and Dartmouth will also play  a pair this weekend to open their seasons, beginning with a game at Thompson Arena on Saturday.

Quinnipiac Looks as Strong as Ever

I was able to catch Quinnipiac last Tuesday night against Maine, and was able to watch video of them over the weekend. Needless to say the Bobcats impressed me. While others argued that Quinnipiac may be in trouble with the loss of Matt Peca and Dan Federico, I said I see few weaknesses and an offense that seemingly has more firepower than any year in the past few. I can seriously say now that I think I was right. Quinnipiac is a dangerous team offensively and it proved it again over the weekend.

Quinnipiac filled its few holes with talented players. Freshmen Thomas Aldworth and Chase Priskie impressed me the most. It seems like Rand Pecknold again found gems that fill a need and are able to produce. Aldworth has burst on the scene with three goals and three assists in six games. His presence on both ends of the ice is noticeable, as he seemed comfortable and adjusted to the college game. His ability with the puck, as a freshman is something we don’t see often in the ECAC. Priskie was equally impressive as a freshman, he scored a goal against Maine and didn’t look phased by the transition to the college game.

All things being considered, QU is 6-0-0 on the season and looks as strong as ever. The Rand Pecknold corsi machine still works, albeit a hiccup on Saturday against St. Cloud. The weekend sweep of an NCHC team like the Huskies was a good step in proving that they are pretty good this season. There are holes on the defensive side of the puck, but knowing the Quinnipiac system they will be masked with possession like they always are. Look for Quinnipiac to look this good for the rest of the year

There are no Upsets this Time of Year, so stop Calling them that

UNH beating Union is not an upset, but I heard it many times over the weekend. A team that is more talented up front, has more offensive firepower and was in preseason ranked higher in their power conference than was Union in its own power conference is not an upset. The word, upset, is highly overused in today’s college athletics because of the insistence that the so called polls actually matter. Even then the example of Union, who was 18th or whatever in said “popularity contests,” is kind of a weird use of the word because they aren’t among the top teams in the nation right now (18 of 59). Even when the Dutchmen beat Boston University early in the season, I would not consider that an upset because we don’t know for sure what teams in college hockey will turn out to be. Pretty much any win within the power conferences should not be considered an upset, because all are so close.

In the age that any team can beat another, the amount of so called “upsets” is minuscule at best. The difference between the top teams and the middling teams is more consistency than talent, skill and will. I say it all the time, there are teams that are talented that don’t win. Harvard in most years other than last have been a great example of that. What makes a winner is a good system, which Union has, Quinnipiac has, among others. On any given night a lower ranked team can beat a higher ranked one, Princeton beat a great Quinnipiac two years ago and Brown beat Harvard (In February, Bruno beat them), even in Union’s national championship season it was “upset” by RPI in the mayors cup game, in a game that probably was never that bad word at all.

Hockey is a game that is often times a flip of a coin. There are always results that just do not make sense. On a given night there are always teams winning that probably should not, but it is just hockey. A team can play well on one night, while another can have an off game. It can go further, however, in that one player could have a great night, the goalie. It happens a lot, that a team heavily outshoots another but still loses. It is tough to see a low amount of shots, hence you see goalies that see less shots have lower save percentages, it doesn’t make them worse. Bentley earlier this year, got outshot 51-11 and 41-27 in two games against Northeastern. It won both games and scored seven goals. Usually the team with the better goalie on that night wins, it is just hockey.

My end point on this, is that it is demeaning to both winner and loser when the word “upset” is used. Not only are you diminishing a team that won a game, you are also saying that team A is so much better than team B so they should have won and it is disappointing that they did not. Since when have winners been predicted pregame? Hockey is hockey, there will always be results that make no sense but in 2015, games against power conference teams that result in an unexpected winner is probably not an upset at all. I understand that it is what fans probably want to hear but please lets not diminish results because a popularity contest says one team is ranked higher than another, it may not be the case in two weeks…

Colgate’s Early Season Results are all Over the Map

Colgate is 3-2-0 on the season. It split with Mercyhurst, it lost a 2-1 decision to a struggling Northeastern team and last weekend it swept a decent RIT. The Raiders have proven that it can score goals and get decent chances but it has also shown some red flags on the defensive end of the ice and in possession. It has given up 18 goals in five games, but lets be fair nine of those came in one game against Mercyhurst in a wild 9-7 loss.

All in all, I feel as though Colgate is doing a good job adjusting to all its major losses in the offseason and a major lack of depth. I am not sure I am still as comfortable as I was in preseason that Gate will finish in the top five in the league. Ya there are some nice pieces left on the roster but ya it lacks what it did for much of the last two seasons, depth that make it a four line, three d-pair type of team. Those teams often struggle in the second games of weekends and it remains to be seen whether that will indeed be the case.

The Raiders will close Starr rink this season and lets hope they do it in fine fashion. The Mercyhurst duel in the wild west probably was an outlier on how its season will go. Its defense has been average sense and I think it will be fine come ECAC time. The only concerns are with possession, as the Raiders sit at 47.7 percent corsi in its games and have yet to play a team that I would deem a top tier team. Comparing their corsi against SLU and Clarkson’s against RIT also says a little bit because they trailed both nights, while the former two had near 65%. I am not sure what to think, but all of these are so early in the season.

Monday, October 26th, 2015 - 2:44 pm | Blogs, ECAC, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings