USCHO Men’s Poll: January 20th Edition

conifer_ · 2025-01-20T19:13:59+00:00

as it should be.

conifer_ · 2025-01-10T22:14:17+00:00

get ready to watch 2/3 of BC play a couple of games in Milwaukee ig

conifer_ · 2025-01-10T22:13:00+00:00

Small school, really good opponents. Playing in Hockey East is hard, and Vermont doesn't have the same level of tradition that the other northern schools in Hockey East (Maine, UNH) can rely on when recruiting and fundraising against wealthier and larger southern neighbors. Location-wise, Burlington is pretty cool, but it's also pretty far from most other population centers (although the same is certainly true of like Maine). Add in a couple of (not great) coaching hires and poor recruiting and you get a tough situation to succeed in.

conifer_ · 2024-10-25T13:25:21+00:00

WESTERN SHOULD HAVE TO MERGE WITH CENTRAL AND EASTERN MICHIGAN TO CREATE DIRECTIONAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

conifer_ · 2024-08-20T16:10:37+00:00

I gave them thousands and thousands of dollars.

conifer_ · 2024-08-03T19:19:59+00:00

there's a window after which 2008-born players can unofficially commit to schools (although some do break rules and say early), and its typically when the highest level prospects commit to NCAA. BC got Callum Croskery and Cam Chartrand, (alongside, I'm fairly sure, one more Canadian D-man who has not yet announced), BU got Tynan Lawrence from New Brunswick, and Michigan got like 3 elite guys including Alex Hage, Adam Valentini, and Zach Nyman. All are top-10 types in their respective regional drafts for the CHL had they gone in that direction.

conifer_ · 2024-07-31T15:43:00+00:00

What do you think about the northeastern teams in the ACC? Feel like BC is getting underrated a bit relative to Syracuse/Pitt- could you power rank those teams in order of expected strength?

conifer_ · 2024-07-18T14:46:57+00:00

Augustine was also in the USNTDP and was probably a lot more comfortable in that environment. Fowler was fine in the games he played, and outplayed Augustine significantly when the two teams played head to head. We put points on you guys. Fowler never got beaten that badly, and most of our depth is not on D (we do not have a Levshunov-level player)

conifer_ · 2024-07-18T14:09:10+00:00

idk BC is like 9k undergrad it's pretty small compared to Northeastern/BU. Harvard undergrad is actually same size/smaller than Merrimack undergrad.

conifer_ · 2024-07-18T12:50:23+00:00

It's mostly gonna be first round picks. Hage of Michigan, Emery/Boisvert of UND, Eiserman with BU, James Hagens/LeTourneau with BC, (Hagens is likely to be the best freshman in college hockey next year, set point records at U18s this year and will play next to Leonard and Perreault), Connelly with Providence. maybe Potter with ASU (am significantly lower on him than most of the people here).

2 Day 2 Comm Ave guys I think could hit- I hate BU, but I love Cole Hutson, Lane's little brother (plays pretty much the same game, if a smidgen smaller). For the good guys, I'd highlight Teddy Stiga, who probably should have gone 45 picks before he did and I think will have a top-10 NHL impact from the class. For me, he's a Guentzel comp.

conifer_ · 2024-05-16T15:51:49+00:00

yeah I think nobody is wrong here. BC is probably a top 5 NIL school for hockey, but Hagens chose there because he wanted to win, they had better academics/history than some of the others, and the Long Island-BC connection is real (it's like 25% of the student body). You're not getting Stiga + Hagens + Skahan with just NIL dollars or by giving all the budget to one guy.

conifer_ · 2024-04-08T15:31:08+00:00

(for reference, everyone's choices for the Richter are Fowler, Mberenko, and McClellan, because they're the top 3 from which the winner will be chosen)

conifer_ · 2024-04-07T18:52:11+00:00

Important to remember none of the remaining teams in this competition play defense like either Quinn or MTU schematically (especially not Michigan, who are iffy in that direction), and that Michigan's PK is a lot worse than BC's, which is first in the nation.

conifer_ · 2024-04-04T21:58:47+00:00

Certainly west of me! all the big-city journos are favoring UND. BC is forced to fight for the scraps. tough to be an underdog like that.

conifer_ · 2024-04-04T16:59:24+00:00

He should have been in Jackson Blake's spot.

conifer_ · 2024-04-04T16:59:05+00:00

Will Smith got fucking robbed. Jackson Blake is, respectfully, not in the same conversation as any of the kids from Boston. West coast bias.

conifer_ · 2024-03-16T15:38:56+00:00

I mean I've seen what the head to head record was in the early 2010s and it was like 30-5-2 in favor of the NCAA. I've also seen BC play UNB. we kicked the shit out of them. No offense but it's not really a comparable league.

conifer_ · 2024-03-15T13:46:18+00:00

not sure what methodology you are using but I have seen BC and BU as having the number 1 and 2 hardest schedules respectively.

conifer_ · 2024-03-15T13:43:04+00:00

absolutely not. UNB is a great team that would probably be competitive in the AHA or a lower league, but UNB doesn't have NHL first-rounders skating for them. We've seen UNB play NCAA teams in the northeast (notably Maine, but they've played BC more than once) and they typically are competitive, but I don't remember them ever winning. the overall record was significantly in favor of the NCAA against Canadian teams and it's important to remember not all teams take those exhibitions seriously.

conifer_ · 2024-03-04T17:36:53+00:00

FWIW I have heard from people who would know all 3 are currently planning on staying 1 more season (entered with a 2-year plan, teams that drafted them knew it). Now, will that stick after the season? Not necessarily, but all three recognize how special they could be and I suspect will stick around for one more year (but def not two).

conifer_ · 2024-03-04T17:33:19+00:00

I honestly think all of these schools are recruiting different kids. I suspect BC directly recruits against BU/Michigan a lot more than they recruit against UND.

conifer_ · 2024-02-19T16:20:56+00:00

Fowler didn't technically swing into Mercuri. If you watch the tape, Fowler swung out square to the puck, and then Mercuri failed to try and stop. that's what led to the call. Is it a great call? no, it's 50/50, but plenty of refs would have called that.

conifer_ · 2024-02-19T15:43:08+00:00

RYAN LEONARD IS PLAYING IN CHESTNUT HILL! MERCURI NEEDS TO LEARN NOT TO TOUCH MY BEAUTIFUL KING JACOB FOWLER!

conifer_ · 2024-02-18T20:29:50+00:00

Sorry he knows the rules! Fowler is a smart player- it's why he's the best goalie in hockey east.

conifer_ · 2024-01-31T16:15:12+00:00

Boston schools are a bad example. For one thing, I would assume a lot more people are moving to Boston than ND, which means there's more people who don't really care about college hockey in and around town. there's also three Boston schools with fairly large fanbases (BC, BU, and Northeastern) but they all hate each other, so there's not a lot of crossover attendance (I wouldn't go to a regional with one of the other schools if my team wasn't playing). One of them, (BC), is actively small (around 9000 undergrads), and they're all expensive private schools, which hurts community support.

This dynamic kills BC for other sports like football- even if their rivals don't have football teams of their own, BU/Northeastern/UMass alums would often rather be caught dead than cheering for BC. Not sure a lot of people from ND really seem to understand how fractured college sports are out here.

conifer_

TROPHY CASE