One point.
That's exactly what the Rangers' 6-5 overtime loss to the Canadiens meant to them.
Let me repeat: one point.
After the Rangers wins over Buffalo, Florida and Carolina in their last three games - two of those coming on the road - I think it's safe to say that the collapse in Montreal last week won't have any long-term effects.
Fine, the competition hasn't exactly been the stiffest. However, if the Rangers were really going to go in the tank after choking away a 5-0 lead, it wouldn't matter who the opposition was. Instead, the Rangers won their third straight last night, 4-2, with the Attitude ADJustment line delivering two goals.
In collegiate news, my feature on Princeton is up on USCHO. Enjoy. I'll be taking in more collegiate action tomorrow night, when I head up to West Point for Senior Night at Tate Rink, and what could be one hell of a regular season finale.
Just to recap, Army leads Atlantic Hockey with 33 points, up two points on both RIT and Sacred Heart, the latter being the Black Knights' opposition in this weekend's home-and-home series. Tomorrow night could be crazy, and I'll certainly be following what happens tonight while I check out my buddies Hugh Jessiman and Mike Ouellette as they play for the Hartford Wolfpack against the Norfolk Admirals.
---------
Finally, something else that I had a mind to say in my previous employment, but didn't. It involves a pro wrestling reference, which I didn't want to make at CSTV, but this is my blog and mine alone, and I'll make as many wrestling references as I Zach-damn well please.
(Yes, I will make the "Zach Parise is G-d" jokes here, if for no other reason than that there's so much else going on in the world that I doubt The Genuine Article has time to worry about college hockey).
Anyway, this has to do with the subject of strength of schedule. I don't think it's meaningless by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't think it means as much as it's being made out to by those who doubt Michigan, Miami, etc.
In the fall of 1996, with the cash cow known as the nWo having just been introduced, there was going to be a WarGames match between the nWo and a WCW team (WarGames: coolest gimmick match ever). Sting and Lex Luger proposed joining forces with Ric Flair and Arn Anderson, who had been their rivals before the whole nWo business started.
Anderson, who is one of the best promo men who ever worked in wrestling, gave a long response that included a memorable (to me, anyway...sadly, it's not on YouTube) comment in the direction of Luger, who at that point had a real bodybuilder physique (not to mention better hair). He pointed at Luger's muscles and said that they were "show muscles," and no good in WarGames, but if Luger could bring the drive, intensity, and hard work that it took to get those muscles, that would be useful.
This is how I feel about teams that play "soft schedules." The record is like those "show muscles" that Arn Anderson talked about: it may look more impressive than it actually is, but the tools a team uses to win those games and amass that record? The skills, strength, speed, etc? Those are worth something, and just because those attributes have been tested against a less-than-impressive schedule, that doesn't mean that they aren't there.
I've seen Michigan, Miami, Michigan State and Notre Dame. I've seen what they bring to the table. Knock their schedules all you want, because it doesn't mean a thing about what kinds of teams they are.
I will say, however, that Miami will be much better off in the future if they can get out of the Ohio Hockey Classic. With Ohio State in its current condition as a program, that tournament does nothing for the RedHawks, and they should have gotten out of that instead of getting out of the Lefty McFadden.
If Miami is going to always be a road team in a holiday tournament, they'd do much better moving around, and going to the Denver Cup, Dodge Holiday Classic, one of the Florida tournaments, etc. At the very least, Ohio State should try to alternate Miami and Bowling Green as the second Ohio team in the tournament, so that each could move around in alternate years. Dartmouth is doing something like that since Vermont started hosting the Catamount Cup every year, as they host the Ledyard Bank tournament every other year, and are heading elsewhere at the holidays when they don't host.
There, I've said my piece on that.
Showing posts with label Princeton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Princeton. Show all posts
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Western Sieve-alization
(On losses by two teams from western N.Y. and one from Philadelphia)
Quick and Dirty on the Rangers: They beat Buffalo, 4-3, with Sean Avery and Brandon Dubinsky each finishing with a goal and an assist, and Jaromir Jagr scoring a goal as well. If the Avery-Dubinsky-Jagr line is split up for any reason other than an injury to any of those three players (or the trade of Jagr), Tom Renney should be fired immediately. I remember discussing the Rangers' struggles with Barry Melrose about a month ago during an intermission of the Army-Air Force game, and Barry agreed that putting Avery on Jagr's line works because it means that Jagr has to work. Adding the youthful exuberance (and serious talent) of Brandon Dubinsky makes for one awesome line. As much as I loved the Shamrock Line of Shanahan, Avery and Callahan the couple of times it appeared last year, this line is exactly what the Rangers need to go with the rest of the way. I even have a name for it: Attitude
ADJustment (ADJ = Avery, Dubinsky, Jagr).
In other NHL news, the Panthers beat the Flyers, 2-1, in overtime. Tanner played about five minutes. Hopefully, we'll see more of him tonight.
But on to where I was last night: Princeton. I saw the Tigers put an emphatic stamp on their Ivy League championship by beating Cornell, 2-1...although it should really be 3-1. Cam MacIntyre clearly scored a goal - everyone in the press box agreed, but the puck bounced out off the spine of the cage, and the goal judge never turned the light on. Remember the other night, when I was commenting on how TV bailed out Union on the disallowed Clarkson goal? No TV Saturday at Princeton, so no video reiew.
This needs to stop, and it needs to stop right now. I don't know what the price tag is on the video review system the CCHA installed before the 2006-07 season, but it's a pretty basic system, and I'd have to imagine it's within the means of the ECAC Hockey schools, and the last two nights have shown they need it. I can understand not being able to mandate it league-wide when Quinnipiac was still playing in Northford, but now that every school in the league has an on-campus arena, it's time for the league to get replay in every game. Heck, unlike the CCHA, ECAC Hockey has a women's league that the system could be available for as well.
All of that said, Princeton did a great job of hanging together and showing mental toughness, not letting the BS call get them down. I like the way Princeton plays. They seem to always get to the puck, and break up a lot of plays. The Tigers are also one of the least penalized teams in the country, which shows how smart they are about what they're doing out there. Of course, it is Princeton, and there is a Rhodes Scholar on the team.
It should also be noted that two of the greatest goalie helmets in college hockey were in use at Baker Rink last night. Ben Scrivens gets high marks from me for incorporating that Lynah Faithful and the always-awesome Big Red Band into his helmet design, and Princeton's Zane Kalemba has the sort of helmet you'd only see in the Ivy League. The main element is a Tiger design, but the right side of the helmet features a photo of Hobey Baker, while the left has a picture of Albert Einstein. Gotta love it.
Having mentioned the Big Red band, they were in fine form last night, as always. I don't think there's a band that mixes the spirit of college hockey with a respectable level of musicality the way Cornell's does. I've heard bands that sound better, but they don't have the attitude.
Tonight, it's Rangers and Panthers at the Garden...will Tanner live up to the dare to fight Avery? Time will tell.
Quick and Dirty on the Rangers: They beat Buffalo, 4-3, with Sean Avery and Brandon Dubinsky each finishing with a goal and an assist, and Jaromir Jagr scoring a goal as well. If the Avery-Dubinsky-Jagr line is split up for any reason other than an injury to any of those three players (or the trade of Jagr), Tom Renney should be fired immediately. I remember discussing the Rangers' struggles with Barry Melrose about a month ago during an intermission of the Army-Air Force game, and Barry agreed that putting Avery on Jagr's line works because it means that Jagr has to work. Adding the youthful exuberance (and serious talent) of Brandon Dubinsky makes for one awesome line. As much as I loved the Shamrock Line of Shanahan, Avery and Callahan the couple of times it appeared last year, this line is exactly what the Rangers need to go with the rest of the way. I even have a name for it: Attitude
ADJustment (ADJ = Avery, Dubinsky, Jagr).
In other NHL news, the Panthers beat the Flyers, 2-1, in overtime. Tanner played about five minutes. Hopefully, we'll see more of him tonight.
But on to where I was last night: Princeton. I saw the Tigers put an emphatic stamp on their Ivy League championship by beating Cornell, 2-1...although it should really be 3-1. Cam MacIntyre clearly scored a goal - everyone in the press box agreed, but the puck bounced out off the spine of the cage, and the goal judge never turned the light on. Remember the other night, when I was commenting on how TV bailed out Union on the disallowed Clarkson goal? No TV Saturday at Princeton, so no video reiew.
This needs to stop, and it needs to stop right now. I don't know what the price tag is on the video review system the CCHA installed before the 2006-07 season, but it's a pretty basic system, and I'd have to imagine it's within the means of the ECAC Hockey schools, and the last two nights have shown they need it. I can understand not being able to mandate it league-wide when Quinnipiac was still playing in Northford, but now that every school in the league has an on-campus arena, it's time for the league to get replay in every game. Heck, unlike the CCHA, ECAC Hockey has a women's league that the system could be available for as well.
All of that said, Princeton did a great job of hanging together and showing mental toughness, not letting the BS call get them down. I like the way Princeton plays. They seem to always get to the puck, and break up a lot of plays. The Tigers are also one of the least penalized teams in the country, which shows how smart they are about what they're doing out there. Of course, it is Princeton, and there is a Rhodes Scholar on the team.
It should also be noted that two of the greatest goalie helmets in college hockey were in use at Baker Rink last night. Ben Scrivens gets high marks from me for incorporating that Lynah Faithful and the always-awesome Big Red Band into his helmet design, and Princeton's Zane Kalemba has the sort of helmet you'd only see in the Ivy League. The main element is a Tiger design, but the right side of the helmet features a photo of Hobey Baker, while the left has a picture of Albert Einstein. Gotta love it.
Having mentioned the Big Red band, they were in fine form last night, as always. I don't think there's a band that mixes the spirit of college hockey with a respectable level of musicality the way Cornell's does. I've heard bands that sound better, but they don't have the attitude.
Tonight, it's Rangers and Panthers at the Garden...will Tanner live up to the dare to fight Avery? Time will tell.
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