Another weekend in conference action, again there were surprises. Brown left the weekend with three points, and almost four as it had an overtime goal disallowed that probably shouldn’t have been. RPI picked up three points and picked up a win against Yale on Friday, in arguably the biggest upset of the weekend. Quinnipiac continued to roll with wins over Harvard, Dartmouth and UConn. They have looked good and this Quinnipiac team is scary offensively, which I will talk about below. It is still much too early to look at the league standings but RPI is the surprise early leader by two points over QU, which has two games in hand.

The CHN pairwise is up, but I will caution against looking too deeply at it as the sample size is much to small. But the good trend is the number of ECAC teams that are in the top 20 and in the tournament spots today. QU sits at the top with their undefeated record, Cornell, Harvard, St. Lawrence ,Yale and Clarkson join it in the top 15. Rensselaer also sits on the outside looking in at number 23. But again it is much too early, what the league needs to do is continue its dominance in non-conference play that is has shown early in the season. Also be sure to check out my feature on Rensselaer’s Cam Hackett, who is a former Cornell commit and excelling in the absence of Jason Kasdorf

Video Replay Issues Should be Non-existent in 2015

In Saturday’s RPI and Brown game, the Bears looked to have scored the game winner. It was disallowed on the ice as the official felt it was hit by a Brown hand in the crease and went in. It was a good goal if it would have been able to have been reviewed, but a problem with the video replay system meant the play could not be reviewed. I really hope the extra point does not keep Brown from a certain spot in the ECAC tournament, or home ice for that matter because in all senses of the imagination the goal probably should have counted.

The question shouldn’t be whether the goal should have counted, but why these problems are happening in 2015. It is not like it is new technology we are dealing with, and often times the replay equipment isn’t in HD. IN the NHL now, referees are allowed to use a Tablet to review coaches challenges they have used a replay official away from ice for many years. I don’t suggest that we have off ice officials away from the rink reviewing plays in college hockey, because well that is impractical to say the least. But a Tablet seems to be a cheap and efficient way to have a backup system, in the case of the less than one percent failure rate to the main system. Every school and most buildings in the country have live video feeds and internet, so having some sort of cheap backup system wouldn’t be difficult or uneconomical in any regard. Hell even if it was a tablet, they cost at most $1000 for one.

I am in no way questioning how league’s do reviews, because in all honesty the systems work 99 percent of the time but it should be 100 percent and no team should lose a point, or two points because a video system didn’t work. But I guess that is what happened, and it is over now. There was also a player that tweeted at the league questioning it, which I dont condone, but good for him to stick up for his team. I am interested to see whether that player is reprimanded by the league for his actions because it may in fact be a groundbreaking one because the questioning occurred on social media.

Brown Has Rebounded

After a rough start to the season, giving up 19 goals in three games to start the season, Brown rebounded over the weekend to take three points in the Capital region. It allowed just five goals on the weekend and it was able to use strong finishes to preserve the results. The trajectory of Brown, like I mentioned before, should be higher this season and to me a road three points (should have been four) should prove that. The Capital region is hardly an easy place to play, just ask Yale who was able to pick up a lone win on the weekend, after dropping a game at RPI.

Brown has rebounded with offense first, but then its defense has stepped up. In the third period and overtime periods over the weekend, the Bears outshot its two opponents 31-9 and just outplayed both. Its offense is deep and that could be the effect of that but just playing better was what Brown needed to do. Nick Lappin, now a senior, stepped up for Bruno and he was named ECAC player of the week. He had three goals and assist over the weekend, and has four goals, three assists and seven points on the season. He is one of the many talented players that needed to step up this season from Brown, which it seems as though it has.

The Bears have been heavily outshot for much of the last two years, but the late stages of both the Union game and RPI game goes to show that maybe the time is turning and Bruno is improving, I think so. Like I said last week, Brown is much too talented to be near the bottom of the league . I am not expecting them to be competing with Quinnipiac, Harvard and Yale but they could certainly be in that next tier of teams fighting for a home ice spot at the end of year. Just one week doesn’t say much, but it is much better than where they were last season at this point.

Quinnipiac’s Offense Has Been Scary, and it is More Than Sustainable

On Tuesday night, I sat in the press box at Uconn’s XL, with the Bobcats trailing 2-0 early in the contest and 2-1 after a period of play. That didn’t last long as Qunnipiac stormed out of the dressing room to score four goals in three minutes, 35 seconds or the first 4:26 of the period. The offensive outburst is everything that this QU team is capable of, just ask Harvard who Quinnipiac outscored 3-0 in the second period last Friday night. It also has a power play that went 4/9 against Uconn and one that is firing at a national best, 34.5 percent.

The Bobcats have averaged 4.64 goals per game, which leads the nation,and have only continued it against good opponents. It scored nine in two games against St. Cloud and it scored five against Cornell, who is normally rockstar in terms of defense. The offense just continues to chug along at a pace that one might wonder if it is sustainable, it sure seems that it is. Quinnipiac is averaging 35 shots on goal per game and has a corsi north of 60%, which will only go up after the UConn game. It sure as heck seems more than sustainable, I must say.

Both Sam Anas and Travis St. Denis have eight goals on the season, while Anas has 15 points and St. Denis 14. Freshman defenseman, Chase Priskie has led the offense from the back and he has 12 points and 11 assists. But in all regards, the offense is deep and balanced. 12 players have more than six points on the season, 15 skaters have registered goals and seven have three or more on the year. I will remind you that we are just 11 games into the season. Quinnipiac leads the country in goals scored with 51, in just 11 games.

Quinnipiac is already off to its best start ever, and one should think that this season it could eclipse its win total from a few years ago when it lost to Yale in the national title game. That season it registered a 20 something game unbeaten streak, and now they are halfway there with 11 wins. I will tell you know, its offense is scarier than that season and it isn’t stopping. What’s funny is the league as a whole is as good as it has been in recent memory. It is earlier and we all know the true mark of QU teams, so lets see if this new found offense leads it anywhere.

Tuesday, November 17th, 2015 - 11:25 pm | Blogs, ECAC, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings