Uh Oh...

With the 40th pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, the New York Islanders select Aaron Ness.

Something tells me that Don Lucia will be adding Just For Men to his list of hair care products.

Who's Gone and Who Isn't

Yeah, yeah, the Wings won the Cup. Congratulations to them. The Penguins, of course will be back...I always figured they were more Edmonton '83 than Edmonton '84.

And happy trails to Dominik Hasek and Trevor Linden, who have announced their retirements. Both are great players, and both have much to be proud of in their careers as they move on.

Speaking of moving on...I should do the same.

Well then...

So, it would appear that Don Waddell, if he was ever in danger of losing his job in Atlanta, is off the hook. It may be that the Chicago Wolves' victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for the Calder Cup has gotten him off the hook for now, but it'll be interesting to see how that progresses.

Don is one of college hockey's best friends in the NHL, and I hope he can stay in a position of power somewhere in the league. We need more NHL executives with his attitude toward the college game.

Meanwhile, as Waddell tries to find the Thrashers' next coach, Marc Crawford is now available, having been let go as the Kings' head coach. Not that I'm expecting him to turn up in Atlanta, mind you, but it just seemed like a logical connection.

It'll be interesting to see what the Kings do here, as this is a young team that has potential to make a move. I like a lot of the Kings' young talent, and in the case of some of them, I mean that personally. Brian Boyle is one of my favorite players I had the opportunity to work with at CSTV, and Jack Johnson is one I've always regretted not interviewing (although I mostly consider it his fault for blowing off the Junior Evaluation Camp, twice). I also like the talent they have coming up, although it doesn't look like they have a true franchise player on the way at forward. Remember that if you see the Kings go for Nikita Filatov in the draft.

The problem, of course, is that the Western Conference is brutal right now, especially in the Pacific division with the Stars, Sharks and Ducks very strong, and the Coyotes also on the rise with a young team.

I'd be interested to see what Mark Morris, the head coach of LA's AHL club in Manchester, could do there. Given the success that Michel Therrien has had in Pittsburgh after being promoted from the Baby Pens, and the Capitals' Southeast Division title this year under former Hershey coach Bruce Boudreau, this could definitely be the right move for LA.

I had several conversations with Dean Lombardi and Ron Hextall when I was at CSTV, and I like what I heard from them, and I'm hoping that they make a good decision here and can get that franchise on the right track.

Does anyone else find it odd, by the way, that this has been a very quiet off-season so far on the coaching carousel? Just the one change at Alaska. Personally, I'd been sort of expecting a domino effect starting in the CCHA and extending through Hockey East and ECAC Hockey, but it appears that that won't be happening.

I'm being vague on purpose, because I've met so few people in college hockey that I haven't liked, and having been through unemployment recently myself, I don't speculate on other people's employment situations lightly. That said, I told several people to expect said chain - I may have even told them to write it down - and now, I'm going to have some egg on my face.

Oh well, it's OK...after all, I'm not making a career on my hockey musings anymore.

Finally, there's a lot of talk in the outdoor game department lately. Obviously, the big talk is of the Outdoor Classic at Wrigley, but I'm wondering why the NHL hasn't made an official announcement yet. Could Yankee Stadium still be in the mix? I'm still holding out hope until there's an official announcement, since they're not tearing down Wrigley anytime soon.

In the college ranks, they're talking about Minnesota and Wisconsin playing a pair of outdoor games in the next two years, one at Camp Randall and one at the Gophers' new football stadium. The obligatory joke about Don Lucia's hair has already been made, so I'll just say, "Bring it on." I really liked Camp Randall when I had occasion to cover a football game there in 2006 (it was against Illinois in the middle of the Wisconsin-BC hockey series), and as for Minnesota, well, when you talk about kids growing up playing on ponds and backyard rinks, what state better epitomizes that than Minnesota? And since I don't see the Wild being picked to host an Outdoor Classic in the near future - my guess is that they're going to go for classic venues like Wrigley, Yankee Stadium, Fenway, etc. for the next little while - this is something that ought to be done in Minnesota.

Guys Who Aren't Well-Liked

Memo to Chris Simon: Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out of the country. Now if only we could find a way to exile Jesse Boulerice and Steve Downie to Siberia as well (and yes, I know that it's actually Avangard Omsk that's in Siberia). I, for one, will still be chanting "Simon sucks" instead of "Potvin sucks" when the whistles start up at the Garden (I've always thought it better to yell about someone who actually did something dirty).

Speaking of the Garden, one of its most controversial denizens - for hockey, anyway - Sean Avery is now in his second week as an intern at Vogue. There have been a few news items about this, although the best comes from a publication that I probably won't ever link to from this blog again - Women's Wear Daily.

Personally, I wonder whether Avery's presence in New York this summer increases his chances of re-signing with the Rangers. Personally, I want him back in blue this fall. I think his presence really helps the Rangers, of course, but you don't have to be a genius to figure that out, just look at the team's record with and without him since the trade.

That said, I think Sean Avery is one of the most fascinating athletes to hit New York in some time. I mean, seriously. He's not just the guy who gets under opponents' skin. He's also the guy who challenges his teammates when they don't hold up their end (see his fight in practice with Marek MaWEAK this season). He's the guy who has significant passions outside sports (like Ricky Williams without the pot). He's the guy who transcends sports into society circles. And yes, he's the guy who takes an internship at Vogue.

In the end, though, Avery is mainly the guy that half the NHL wants to kill, because, by all accounts, he's an ass. Now, I won't deny that, having seen him breeze through a crowd of post-game autograph seekers outside the Garden, when Brendan Shanahan stopped and signed for everyone (I myself have three Shanahan autographs from this season: a ticket, my Rangers hat, and a puck from the '99 All Star Game).

All that said, though, if Sean Avery is an ass, he's like Jennifer Lopez's rear end: always attached to a beautiful woman, usually covered by something from a top designer, impossible to ignore, and a major asset to the complete package.

Ideally, I'd end things there, but I feel as if I'd ought to weigh in on the current issue surrounding Don Lucia. Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune isn't drinking the Kool-Aid when it comes to Mike Guentzel's resignation, and implies that Guentzel is gone because someone had to take the fall for Minnesota's disappointing season.

That may well be true. However, like Sean Avery and Jennifer Lopez's backside, I have to throw in a BIG "but(t)" here.

That the Gophers made the NCAA tournament this season may not impress the spoiled folks in the Twin Cities who are used to such things (I'd be thrilled for Dartmouth to have had Minnesota's season if it meant getting into the tournament, which the Big Green hasn't done since Bob Gaudet was in goal)...BUT, when you take into account that Minnesota lost a second-round pick (Ryan Stoa) in the second game of the season, lost Kyle Okposo to the pros over the Christmas break, and was without Mike Carman until after the World Juniors. making the NCAA tournament and losing to the eventual national champion is pretty darn impressive.

Can you blame Lucia for Okposo's departure? I don't think so. I think that Kyle wanted to turn pro last summer, and when he was told that he wasn't ready, he sulked being back at the U, especially with his good buddy Erik Johnson gone. If you take a look at his production in the AHL and in his late season call up to the Islanders, it suggests that Kyle's attitude was better suited to being a pro, and I'm not really sure how much Don could have done to change that.

Now, I'm not a huge Don Lucia guy. If you go back and look at my CSTV columns, you see a lot more of Red Berenson, Jack Parker, Jeff Jackson and George Gwozdecky, unless I'm specifically writing about Minnesota. All of that said, getting the Gophers to the tournament this year - especially when it involved winning a WCHA playoff series on the road - may have been his most impressive coaching job since winning his second national championship in 2003. After all, with the way Lucia is able to recruit, he usually has more difficulty getting his hair to look like that than he does making the NCAA tournament (come on, you know I hade to make a hair joke).

So yeah, maybe something needed to happen after last season - although, Jeff Frazee turning pro was good enough a "something," in my opinion - but to be honest, I really don't think Lucia and his staff did that bad a job last season.

Catching Up

Yeah, I know, I haven't posted in a while...although I have posted a couple of entries at my blog over at USCHO, so hopefully you haven't missed these entries too much.

In my sort-of-silence, the Rangers have amassed five points in three games, making it 28 points in 18 contests for the Blueshirts. Sadly the one game they didn't win was last night against the Flyers, and as you know, I can't stand the Flyers, particularly in their current form.

It'll be interesting now to see whether Prince Vali-ant, previously thought to be a Flyer-killer, will get the start for the return engagement on Tuesday at the Garden. Of course, the more pressing concern will be the center position, with both Scott Gomez and Blair Betts out of the lineup. Greg Moore, Artem Anisimov, come on down...

Meanwhile, in the college ranks, there's an interesting day of action on tap in conference championships. Miami gets one more shot at Michigan, the top national contenders out of the WCHA will meet in the consolation game at the Final Five, Princeton has a chance to make the NCAA tournament by beating Harvard for the ECAC Hockey title, and Vermont gets to play for the Hockey East title against a Boston College team that played into triple overtime against New Hampshire before pulling out a 5-4 win in a game they trailed 4-1.

Of course, that means Boston University is done for the year, which is quite a shame given their admirable second half run. Speaking of admirable runs, Minnesota has a shot at the WCHA title, and if the Gophers pull it out against Denver tonight, someone should look into getting Don Lucia an at-large berth as a Spencer Penrose finalist (only conference Coach of the Year winners and Frozen Four coaches are nominated). Given how the Gophers had been left for dead after everything that happened in the first half of the season, this is really an impressive accomplishment.

That doesn't mean I'm rooting for them tonight, though. I really have no preference in that WCHA game, although I do have a soft spot for Denver and George Gwozdecky. I like both Michigan and Miami, too, although Miami has much more to lose in that game, since the RedHawks' ability to beat the Wolverines and Jeff Zatkoff's ability to "win the big one" are both in question.

In the east, I'm for Princeton and Vermont. Besides my not-so-warm feelings toward Harvard, it'd be great to see this Princeton team that came from out of nowhere win the ECAC and make it to the NCAA tournament. As for Vermont, my dislike for Harvard seems kind of odd in light of the fact that Crimson alum Kevin Sneddon has long been one of my favorite coaches to work with, and I think he runs a great program. It'd be good to see this team get into the NCAA tournament.

Like this blog entry, it's been a long time coming.

Roger That

As mentioned last night, it turns out that there never was a rule about needing to have a .500 record to be considered for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

I'm very sorry to hear that.

Now, in one sense, I suppose there are some benefits to not having such a rule. I can see some teams, being concerned about a .500 record, taking it easy in the non-conference schedule to compensate for a tough conference slate, and one thing I think we always want to see is non-conference games between top teams.

On the other hand, a team with a sub-.500 record making the NCAA tournament as an at-large selection doesn't sit right with me, and here's why:

You may or may not remember a former president of Union College by the name of Roger Hull. Dr. Hull - who happens to be a Dartmouth alum, class of 1964 - was president at Union College from 1990 to 2005, a period that included the 2004 vote on Prop 65. Prop 65, as you may recall, would have forced RPI, St. Lawrence, Clarkson and Colorado College to stop offering scholarships (along with other D-III schools that play up in a single sport, like Johns Hopkins and Hobart lacrosse).

Anyway, an amendment passed that would allow the D-III schools in question to keep their scholarships for the Division I teams, but ol' Roger voted against it, and afterwards, offered this comment, which Adam Wodon quoted in a column for USCHO (Hey, remember when Adam and the USCHO folks got along?):

“Let me tell you of my idea of being competitive: fielding a team that has a reasonable chance of winning every time it steps on the ice,” Hull said. “And when they got to 40 percent [winning percentage] , I was proud, and when they reached nearly 50 percent a few years ago, I was tremendously proud of them.”

Now, Dr. Hull does some excellent work, and is the founder of the Help Yourself Foundation, which helps underprivileged children prepare themselves for college. Dr. Hull deserves a world of commendations for that important work. However, he was roundly mocked for his comments on Prop 65, and rightly so. I think a Union fan on the USCHO board still uses the quote in his signature.

A sub-.500 record is nothing to be "tremendously proud" of. You can be proud improvement to get to that point - as Minnesota Duluth should certainly be, in light of losing Mason Raymond and Matt Niskanen - but I doubt you could get Scott Sandelin to say, "We are tremendously proud of our 12-14-6 record."

I know the WCHA is great. It's far and away, top to bottom, the best conference in college hockey right now. However, I don't think that means that you can justify an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament based on a sub-.500 overall record without getting very close to Dr. Hull's theory of competitiveness.

Now, the truth is this: Minnesota Duluth won't make the NCAA tournament with a sub-.500 record. Either they'll get it over .500 between the Minnesota series and the NCAA tournament, or their bubble will burst. Ditto anyone else who's hanging around the .500 mark, whether it's eastern teams like Providence and BU (who meet this weekend) or western teams like Minnesota and Wisconsin.

However, I like the idea of writing it into the rules: a winning record, or no at-large bid for you.

In other news, I got my Tanner Glass replica jersey delivered today. I tried it on briefly, but the only NHL attire I'm wearing right now is my Rangers Bluephoria t-shirt, although I may go to the hat as well when the puck drops on the Island tonight.

Upon Further Review...

You know, I was wondering where the reaction was when I suggested that teams that finished below .500 in conference play - including teams from the mighty WCHA - but I suppose all it took was Chris Dilks posting about it over at Western College Hockey to bring out the hate.

First, let me say it's amusing that one of those people called me "little." I suppose I should take it as a compliment, since one of the things I'm trying to do while I'm unemployed is lose some weight (having more time to go to the gym and fewer press meals to eat are two excellent conditions for trying to get back under 200 pounds). As for the post about my personal life...well, that's one of the other things I'm trying to improve on. And as for a girl who goes to a Western Conference school changing my mind, I'd be happy to arrange a trip to Oxford for myself (Oh, come on, that's funny).

However, all (half-)kidding aside, the overriding theme I sense here is one of my supposed East Coast Bias. I suppose I'll be hearing more of that now, since my travel will no longer be nearly as extensive. However, just because the comments will be more frequent doesn't mean that they're any more true.

I would hope that my commitment to college hockey - regardless of geographical location - would be beyond question at this point. I've traveled as much as budgetary factors would allow to cover college hockey on a national level. If, after three and a half years, you think I favor college hockey in the east over the west, then I suppose there's not much else that I can say, other than "You should take off the tinfoil hat...it looks kind of uncomfortable."

But this isn't about me, or at least, it shouldn't be.

I am more than happy to acknowledge that the WCHA is the best conference in college hockey, and has been for some time. Former Hobey Baker winner Tom Kurvers, now the director of player personnel for the Phoenix Coyotes, went so far as to call the conference the second best league in the country after the NHL, and he just may be right.

The thinking behind my comment is this: as nice as it is to have a perfectly transparent system to determine who gets into the NCAA tournament and who doesn't - with no talk about "who got screwed by the committee" - part of me likes the idea of achievement being rewarded at tournament time. If there's an argument that Minnesota's achievements this season deserve to be rewarded with an NCAA tournament berth - other than the PairWise itself, of course - I'd love to hear it. I would submit that Princeton and Providence (if not Notre Dame) have done more this season to deserve an NCAA tournament bid. Of course, no one sits around and decides who deserves to be in the tournament, and that's generally regarded as a good thing, by me and by just about everyone else. Still, I think that finishing .500 in conference play is a fair enough measure of achievement that making it a condition for at-large consideration shouldn't be all that mind-boggling.

All of that said, I have taken some time to think further on my controversial assertion, and I have a couple of additional thoughts.

Since this isn't actually a rule, and just my opinion, I'm making an exception in the case of Wisconsin. I will have no problem with the Badgers making the tournament if the PairWise puts them in. Yes, the Badgers' WCHA record is 11-12-5 with their regular season over. However, it is worth noting that Wisconsin has been screwed by WCHA officiating not once...



but twice...



If not for the crack officiating in the WCHA this season, Wisconsin would probably be at least .500, and also, the fact they're hosting this year makes their participation a little bit easier for me to handle.

However, on the subject of Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota, there's one little nugget in the NCAA manual that hasn't been talked about much until the other day, when it popped up on the USCHO board:

"To be considered during the at-large selection process, a team must have an overall won-lost record of .500 or better."

In other words, Minnesota can't lose any more than one more game than it wins between the series against Minnesota Duluth this weekend and the WCHA tournament, or else the Gophers are out of the NCAA tournament picture. Meanwhile, Minnesota Duluth needs to win two more games than it loses between the Minnesota series and the WCHA tournament, or it's bye-bye Bulldogs. Wisconsin can't get swept in the WCHA tournament, or else the Badgers are out. St. Cloud needs at least one point against North Dakota, or a sweep in the WCHA tournament knocks them out.

The eyes are growing wider at Notre Dame, Princeton, Providence, BU and Harvard. Now, in all fairness, BU has had a disappointing year by many measures - and is also in danger of falling victim to the .500 record rule, but the Terriers have taken care of business in conference.

I'm not sure exactly how any of this is going to play out this weekend, but I will take a stab at it later in the week, when I make a guest appearance in Theresa Spisak's weekly WCHA column on USCHO to make my predictions for the weekend. However, I will always say that I'd rather see teams that overachieve make the NCAA tournament as opposed to teams that underachieve.

Wow, that was more time than I expected to spend on this issue tonight. Brief NHL observations from yesterday.

- The Rangers beat the goon squad known as the Philadelphia Flyers yesterday, 5-4, in a shootout. Henrik Lundqvist allowed three goals in the first period before being pulled in favor of Stephen Valiquette, while Antero Niittymaki allowed four goals before giving way to Martin Biron early in the second. While Valiquette - or as I call him, "Prince Vali-ant" (since he backs up "King Henrik") - did give up the tying goal late in the third period, it was the one goal he allowed in his last eight periods of play against Philadelphia. It was kind of funny tonight, watching the Capitals destroy the Bruins and seeing Lundqvist talking about the rivalry tonight in an ad for the next Rangers-Flyers game (which, like the Caps-Bruins game, will air on Versus), knowing that the likelihood of Lundqvist starting that game is pretty low right about now. Of note: the Attitude ADJustment line did not score.

- While I watched the first two periods of the Rangers game on NBC - as called by DOC~! and Eddie Olczyk - I listened to the third, overtime, and the shootout on the radio as I headed for Long Island, where I saw the Islanders lose to Tanner Glass and the Panthers, 1-0. Tanner had seven shifts and 4:54 total ice time in the win, but the big story was Panthers backup netminder Craig Anderson, who outdueled Denver alumnus and fellow backup Wade Dubielewicz. Former Michgian State Spartan David Booth supplied the lone goal for the Panthers, who have a tough uphill climb to get a playoff spot.

I was also none too impressed by Wade Belak. His mobility is definitely an issue, and to be honest, I think Florida will need more than one of its five injured forwards back before Tanner can be sent back to Rochester. Just as the Wild cannot afford to have Derek Boogaard in the lineup every night, so too is Belak going to be a liability for the Panthers. There will be nights when a smaller, more mobile player (who can still drop the gloves when it's called for) will be necessary, and I think it's pretty obvious who that guy is.

Hopefully, he will still be up when the Panthers close the regular season against the Capitals, because I'm thinking of visiting some friends in DC that weekend. By the way, I got my New Era caps (Blues and Panthers) today (ordered during NHL.com's trade deadline sale), and they are really pretty nice (especially for the four bucks each I paid).

OK, that's it for now. Time for me to go and figure out which direction my bed points and which way I'd need to lay in it to...oh, never mind!

Tanner, Gold and Green...Tanner, Gold and GREEN!

For Anyone Who Cares: the aforementioned interview went well...thanks again to Tanner for "getting involved" and making it happen!

For Anyone Who Cares II: The title of this post is a play on "Karma Chameleon." Feel free to insult my taste in music.

Speaking of Tanner, he had his first NHL assist last night in the Panthers' 4-3 shootout loss to the Maple Leafs...good to see him still playing for the Panthers despite their trade deadline acquisitions. He also survived the first post-deadline round of AHL demotions - Rob Globke is headed up/down to Rochester - which is a good sign. Of course, with my luck, he'll get sent down after the game against the Isles on Sunday, which I plan on attending if he's playing.

I know that sounds good, in that I'd get to see Tanner play, but his first stint with the Panthers ended after I first dared him to fight Sean Avery, and his second ended after I went to see him in New Jersey on Jan. 2. He survived the game in Boston where the above photo was taken, despite the fact that he got burned by Glen Murray in that game, but if he gets sent down after I see his game against the Isles, then I may never go to see him again. Would it be my fault? Of course not, but we all know hockey players and their superstitions, right?

Actually, Dartmouth lost the first five men's hockey games I covered of theirs for CSTV.com, including the stunning 2-1 loss to Quinnipiac in October 2004, which saw the Big Green outshoot the Bobcats something like 44-13 (actually, it was 43-11, I just looked it up). Former Valley News beat writer Greg Fennel nearly convinced me that it was my fault, but then I was in Hanover when Bob Norton helped call a 5-1 win over Harvard in December 2005 (Billy Jaffe's flight was delayed, so Bob was called in on short notice). Once it became clear that Dartmouth was going to win, I wrote down "IT IS NO LONGER MY FAULT" on a sheet of paper, and shoved it in Greg's face about a second after the buzzer.

In other Ivy League news, I finished writing my feature on Princeton today. It's significantly longer than the 1,000 words I was asked for, but you don't get involved in this business if you don't have some affection for the sound of your own voice (in the literary sense), anyhow. I will say this. You know that line attributed to Chris Rock that goes on about all the ways in which the world has gone crazy? You know, "The best golfer is black, the best rapper is white, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss have the Americas Cup, etc.?" Let's add "Princeton is the Ivy League hockey champion and Cornell is going to be the Ivy League basketball champion" to the list.

Finally, a thought on the subject of the NCAA tournament. One of the suggestions I made at CSTV.com that was not taken was to show what the NCAA tournament would look like if KRACH was used instead of the Pairwise (I'm stunned that noted champion of KRACH Adam Wodon has never thought of this).

Well, I don't work for them anymore, and I can do whatever I damn well please here.

So, let's compare a KRACH-based bracket, using all the other rules employed by the NCAA, to the bracket from this week's Bracketology column by Jason Moy at USCHO.

PAIRWISE BRACKET

Albany
No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 16 Army
No. 8 Boston College vs. No. 9 Minnesota State

Madison
No. 4 North Dakota vs. No. 13 Wisconsin
No. 5 Miami vs. No. 12 Minnesota Duluth

Colorado Springs
No. 3 Colorado College vs. No. 14 Notre Dame
No. 6 Denver vs. No. 11 Clarkson

Worcester
No. 2 New Hampshire vs. No. 15 Bemidji State
No. 7. Michigan State vs. No. 10 St. Cloud State

KRACH Bracket

Albany
No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 16 Army
No. 8 St. Cloud State vs. No. 10 Minnesota State

Worcester
No. 4 Miami vs. No. 13 Minnesota Duluth
No. 5 New Hampshire vs. No. 12 Notre Dame

Colorado Springs
No. 3 Colorado College vs. No. 14 Minnesota
No. 6 Denver vs. No. 11 Boston College

Madison
No. 2 North Dakota vs. No. 15 Bemidji State
No. 7 Michigan State vs. No. 9 Wisconsin

The quick impressions from me:

- I love how the supposedly more fair KRACH system rates Miami higher than the PairWise does, given all the flak they've taken from certain WCHA folks.

- It's also kind of funny how New Hampshire goes from second to fifth when you switch to KRACH, but still winds up it Worcester when you bracket the tournament. It's also kind of cool that Denver and CC both wind up in the Springs under either system. I'd love that to be a regional final.

- Of course, no matter how you slice it, eight WCHA teams wind up in the tournament going by the current records. This is, of course, likely to change, especially once they start beating up on each other in the WCHA playoffs. However, I finally identified my discomfort with the concept of Minnesota making the NCAA tournament this season, which also applies to Minnesota Duluth.

The Gophers are currently 7-11-6 in WCHA play, and the Bulldogs are 8-11-5. Given that they play on the last weekend of the regular season, at least one of those teams will wind up with a sub-.500 conference record.

Some time ago, my former colleague Eric Mirlis - who edited a fantastic book called
Being There: 100 Sports Pros Talk About the Best Sporting Events They Ever Witnessed Firsthand - wrote a column for CSTV.com on the subject of the NCAA basketball tournament, and suggested a rule that no team with a conference record below .500 should be allowed to receive an at-large bid.

I thought it was a great idea for the 65-team basketball tournament. It's an even better idea for the 16-team hockey tournament.

Look, I know the WCHA is great. Yes, it is the best conference, top to bottom in the entire country. I don't doubt that. Alaska-Anchorage is the best last-place team you'll find in the country, and while CC may not be the best firs-place team - remember, Hockey East leader UNH swept them - they're close enough. There's no denying the strength of the conference.

However, if you finish under .500 in your conference, you don't deserve to play in the NCAA tournament...unless, of course, you can win the conference tournament (love that 2006-07 Alabama-Huntsville team).

Leaving aside the question of Minnesota Duluth - which improbably lost its two best players over the summer and got better this season - Minnesota has underachieved this season, and underachievement should not be rewarded with an NCAA tournament berth.

There. Rant over.

Enter Tan-Man (Or Hooray For Holly-wood)

It'd be hard to get more of what I wanted out of tonight's Rangers-Panthers game than I did. On the way in, I spoke to my friend about hoping for overtime, even a shootout, so that the Panthers could get a point out of the affair (being in a tight Southeast Division race) but the Rangers would still win. That might have been a bit much.

But how about this?

Rangers win: Check. 5-0 over the Panthers. The win keeps the Rangers solidly in sixth in the Eastern Conference, which really isn't a bad spot to be in, since it means drawing the Southeast champion in the first round.

Rangers play well: Check. The Attitude ADJustment line continues to impress, even with Dubie in the box (see below), as Sean Avery assisted on Jaromir Jagr's second-period goal. The power play remains putrid (27th in the NHL), but the penalty kill was solid, and Henrik Lundqvist got the shutout, his eighth of the season. The real surprise of the evening, though, was Marek Malik. I actually questioned a fellow Rangers fan for wearing (or even owning) a Marek Malik jersey, but I guess he had the last laugh on that one, as Malik had a goal and an assist, and was the second star of the game.

Tanner Glass ice time: Check. 5:36 total, not including five minutes spent in the penalty box (more on that below), and the first time that I've gone to see Tanner play where he's taken shifts in the third period. There was no particular infraction that kept him out of the third in New Jersey on January 2, but he sat the rest of the game on February 9 after getting burned by Glen Murray for a Bruins goal. Tanner was solid throughout.

Tanner Glass fight: Check. Of course, I'd been suggesting he take on Sean Avery, but instead, it was Ryan Hollweg who was Tanner's dance partner with 2:38 gone in the third period. Normally, I'd be all for Hollywood to kick some ass, but I stood up and cheered for the visitor to let him have it. I believe that the folks over at Hockeyfights.com will rule this one a win for Tanner. I'm watching the replay as I type this, and Sam makes mention of Tanner as a Dartmouth grad, and Micheletti even asked, "They don't do that at Dartmouth, do they?" Fun stuff.

Of course, it wasn't the first fight of the evening. That distiction went to Brandon Dubinsky and Greg Campbell. I have it on good authority that the scrap started when Dubinsky asked Campbell if he'd "run to daddy" if he were to slash the Panthers center. "Daddy," of course, would be league Senior Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell. Funny stuff.

Hangout Time With Tanner Postgame: As one might expect, Tanner had a pretty nice group of Dartmouth folk - led by former teammate and Derek Hines Unsung Hero Award Winner Dan Shribman - to see him after the game. The cool thing, though, was walking out the way the visitors exit. Interesting thing I never knew about NHL travel, although I probably should have guessed: they players are checked in and screened for security at the arena, so they don't have to do it at the airport. Kinda cool.

I don't have much to contribute on today's college hockey action - Colgate's win over Quinnipiac is probably the biggest surprise, except that Colgate should be much better than it has been this season - but I think it's kind of interesting that both Minnesota and BU are within striking distance of the NCAA tournament, given the way both teams have underachieved for so much of the season. I almost wonder whether it's good for the college game to have teams underachieve so dramatically and still make the tournament. I don't have anything against Minnesota, but if the Gophers make the tournament this season, it basically means that it is impossible for them to miss it. I don't like the sound of that, no matter which team it is.