03-19-2007, 09:34 PM
Quote:OK -- 24 hours is enough time for whining. Let's sit back and enjoy what unfolds.
Agreed.
To make a few comments on the WCHA and college hockey 'out west' in general, even as a ECAC/Hockey East fan out on the East Coast I have a lot of respect for the West teams. The talent out there really is something incredible. Hockey East ends up with a lot of solid, even sometimes great, players who come out East because they'll get a starting position freshmen year here where they wouldn't out West. The most recent example I can think of is Northeastern University's program. They have an absolutely horrid history to their hockey program, going last year with only three wins. Three. One at home.
I'm unfamiliar with the goalies for North Dakota, but a freshman named Brad Theissen almost went to North Dakota before jumping ship to Northeastern for the shot at being a starter. They ended up this year 13-18-5. Even the head coach openly admits the difference was Theissen in goal.
But more important than whose between the pipes, the skaters in the West conferences are absurd. I got to watch Bemidji State two years ago (2004-5) in the first round of the national tourney, and to watch Denver and Colorado College last year at home here at BU. It blew my mind. If I recall correctly the Denver game went into OT, and we barely eaked out a win. But every time, Hockey East teams were outskated and outskilled. It wasn't necessarily that they were putting in more goals, but the speed and passing discipline of those teams created incredible opportunities we couldn't duplicate.
I'm glad that BU's goalie, John Curry, is a top 10 finalist for the Hobey Baker award. This year he has a .192 GAA and a .931% and a team record 7 shutouts. He was a walk on his freshman year and became the full time starter by his sophomore year, despite BU pulling in some big name prospective goalies. He's an absolute machine, and will be sorely missed next year. And as I was saying about 'out west', he comes from Shorewood Minnesota.
Cheers,
Munk
Ps. A funny thing I noticed on the hobeybaker.com website. The only NHL team to support the award is Minnesota's Wild. Weird.