Now approximately three months into the college hockey season, all three teams are in the mix, but two surprising additions have made noise in Hockey East: Providence College and UMass Lowell. As of the morning of December 10th, here are your league standings (from the Hockey East official website):

Standings are standings – they lack an ability to rank how quality the wins are against each other. After Lowell defeated Boston College 3-2 Friday night, I woke up insanely early Saturday morning with an idea. Using the spirit of the KRACH and Pairwise rankings, why not evaluate these top five teams by their records against each other? So I created a spreadsheet. (Never mind that I should be finishing holiday shopping or doing holiday cards. I have a whole college hockey free week ahead to do that.)

After I put this together, I realized that the five top Hockey East teams have not played enough games against each other for this to be an entirely useful evaluation. And then my husband pointed out that there is already a head-to-head comparison on the Hockey East website – it’s just at the bottom of the standings page.

Well, duh. I knew that. I was just…cutting the fat and pairing down that chart. Right? Right. (Mind you, I also whacked my head pretty hard Friday, so I blame that for me not remembering that the head-to-head exists.)

So what exactly does this comparison show, if anything? For one, it shows how few in-conference games Merrimack has played so far, and in the three games they have played against the top of the conference, they have a losing record. This also helps give Providence a bigger argument for being considered a bigger threat than UMass Lowell. While Lowell has won a few “loud” games (stand alone games – non weekend series games – against BU and BC), they haven’t faced anyone else among this top five, and have only played ten league games total.

It also shows how many more league games the Beanpot schools play earlier on in the season. In addition to the totals above for BC and BU, Northeastern has played 12 league games as of Saturday morning. The only other Hockey East team to play that many league games? New Hampshire, who also played 12.

And now that we’re a month into the season, I immediately and totally regret this decision. I’ve got too much to say. So here are my pent up college hockey thoughts from this weekend- edited and sanitized of course.

Of course, most of this will be about Boston University, and how much physical pain (from banging my head against the wall out of frustration) the Terriers caused me after Saturday evening’s 7-1 loss to UMass Lowell. The Riverhawks chased around the Terriers around the Tsongas Arena ice like my old lab-retriever mix would chase a poor squirrel facing impending doom.

What’s wrong with BU? Here are two of the issues.

Lines, Lines, Everywhere A Line - There has been little consistency to the forward lines from game to game. Surpising? No. BU head coach Jack Parker line changes with the regularity that I drink coffee. Tinkering with lines is Parker’s cure to any and all that may ail his team.

When is the last time that Parker let forward lines gel for a few games? The Terriers national championship season in 2008-09. His top three lines largely remained unchanged from game to game. Lines were allowed time to grow together as a unit. If a line performed poorly, he demoted the entire line instead of changing up its make-up.

I am not saying a coach should set lines the first week of the long college hockey season and then never touch them again. That would be impractical. But Parker himself has admitted in years past that he’s guilty of changing up lines too much (I am trying to find the exact quote, but I believe he said it in 2007-08), and this year is no exception. No one is playing with the same guys from game to game, let alone day to day. In a home and home again UMass Amherst two weekends ago, the lines changed overnight.

The Terriers saw Charlie Coyle and Alex Chiasson paired together for a while, which is a mistake because both are Colin Wilson-esque – they’re long wingspan guys with a lot of natural talent but who need to give more consistent effort. Sahir Gill gets bounced from line to line, and while he’s a good player, he doesn’t have the consistency to be relied to boost lines in that way. Taking the two strong freshman forwards in Evan Rodrigues and Cason Hohmann and changing their lines every game doesn’t help ease them into play or help them get a rhythm going (and both have shown glimpses of being decent contributors.)

The Past Is Calling - This summer, I interviewed Parker for a feature in the Red Hot Hockey game program (coming soon to Madison Square Garden, so be a dear and pick one up on game day.) We spoke at length about the BU championship teams of 1971 and 1972. During the Terriers’ first ever national championship season, Parker was a coach for the freshman squad (in that time, freshmen were not allowed to play on varsity squads.) In his coaching at the time, he was a fan of using a goaltender rotation. Then BU head coach Jack Kelley was a fan of the opposite – naming a number one goaltender and sticking to it.

Kelley chose Tim Regan to be his starting goaltender in 1970-71, until a particularly poor outing by Regan. Parker recalls Regan’s tough game being against Cornell at Lynah Rink. That would point towards the Terriers’ 5-1 loss to Cornell on January 23, 1971. After that game, Kelley decided to start Dan Brady in net. Brady would go on to start the rest of the season and be named the NCAA title game MVP.

The exact quote from Parker in my interview notes: “I think Jack Kelley had the opinion that he wanted a starting goaltender, and Timmy was our number one guy for quite a while. Then he faltered, and it might have been at Ithaca, I think, and Danny had the chance to play.”

Mr. Parker, I think Saturday night was the equivalent of that “perhaps in Ithaca” moment for this year’s squad. Kieran Millan has faltered, and you can no longer lay all the blame on the defense. It’s time to give Grant Rollheiser a greater chance as “the guy” in goal.

Gripe of the Week - It amazes me that some of the most talented members of the college hockey media are still acting like Merrimack College’s recent success was completely unpredictable and unexpected. Merrimack is an example of how long it can take for a recruiting strategy and coaching philosophy to take hold. Head coach Mark Dennehy is in his seventh year in Andover, and thus has five or so years of teams made up of primarily his recruits.

Also, don’t underestimate that the last two years brought an administration at the school who have made Division 1 hockey a priority (for better and worse) – that wasn’t a case in prior years. It was not long ago that Merrimack was on the verge of possibly leaving Hockey East because their facilities were not up to par. While their Lawler Arena still isn’t ideal, it’s as renovated and gussied out as it is able to be.

So to say, “if you saw two years ago that Merrimack would be the last unbeaten team in the nation/a top team in the nation/the top team in Hockey East” is a bit disengenous. Sure, it was touch or go for this program for a while from a facility and schedule stand point. But to say you didn’t see this success coming just means more that you weren’t paying attention to who Merrimack was recruiting three years ago than their rise being truly surprising.

Predicting that the Warriors would struggle without Stephane Da Costa was also a mistake many college hockey media members made early this season. While talented, Da Costa was ineffective for several multi-game spells last season, during which Merrimack won games regardless. Goaltender Joe Cannata and big man Kyle Bigos are back and Ryan Flangian (as College Hockey News’ Joe Meloni points out well in his Monday blog post) is currently one of the best players in Hockey East. So is it shocking that Merrimack is currently the hot hand in the league? No. These are all the next steps in Dennehy’s and his program’s building process – one that’s been in action since 2005.

Jerry York, head coach of Boston College (who are ranked tops in the country this week by USCHO), took to 98.5 The Sports Hub to speak with The D.A. Show (I can’t find the link on their site, but I’ll keep searching.) During the interview, the station announced that they will be broadcasting select Boston College hockey games this season starting tonight against Denver. This is a giant get for Hockey East, who already have games on NESN and CBS College Sports this season.

Maine head coach Tim Whitehead, who split their opening weekend, losing to Merrimack but winning against Northeastern, spoke to the good people at the Maine Sports Network on Wednesday. Whitehead may be on thin ice in Orono – losing their season opener to a team who had not beat them at home since the Clinton administration is not the way to start. He has to motivate his team to play big and consistent, or Maine fans may strengthen their call to boot him as head coach.

Vermont’s Kevin Sneddon spoke with the Chris and Rich Show on 101.3 ESPN Burlington late Thursday afternoon. Sneddon has a group not unlike last season’s Boston University team – talented youngster heavy. It could be rocky for the Catamounts, who open their season tonight against the U.S. Under 18 Team, but once their freshmen get their feet under them, they could be dangerous. I am eager to see if they can harness sophomore Connor Brickley’s enthusiasm, which last season tended to manifest in big NHL style hits that aren’t exactly kosher in college hockey.

The Sneddon interview is also significant for another reason. I happened to mention to my friend Chris that my fantasy hockey team was once named, “Kevin Sneddon’s Playoff Beard.” I find Sneddon’s post season choice of a playoff goatee as opposed as a full out beard fascinating. It’s meticulously kept, unlike most unruly and grizzly hockey beards. I once wrote that I wanted to name my imaginary garage band after it. But since I’m tone deaf, I named my fantasy hockey team after it instead.

Like a good friend, Chris then mentioned my fantasy hockey team name when introducing Sneddon. The response by the coach is priceless.

Merrimack vs. UNH in March 2011. Photo by Walter Rossini.

I’m a college hockey writer without an online home this season (time is my enemy – I couldn’t commit enough time to any one website, so I bowed out for the season), so more of my random college hockey thoughts will get featured on this blog.

In the Straight Out of Andover department, Merrimack College announced their first ever hockey television coverage deal on Friday. WBIN-TV Channel 18 (formerly MY TV 18 Boston/Manchester, NH) will air three of the Warriors’ home games in December and January. The program’s strong 2010-11 season spurred on this new deal, said WBIN’s general manager Gerry McGavick in a statement:

“Coming off a 25 win season, an NCAA berth last year and entering this season with a top 15 national ranking, the Warriors will be a strong addition to the WBIN team.”

Merrimack will not be the only team WBIN gives college hockey love to this season. University of New Hampshire announced a 12 game deal with the station this week, spanning four of the school’s winter sports. WBIN will air six men’s hockey games, and two games each for the women’s hockey, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams. UNH men’s hockey had been without a television deal since New Hampshire Public TV (WENH) stopped covering their home games in 2008. The deal also gives the America East conference additional television exposure for basketball, which is always coveted.

Here is WBIN’s men’s college hockey schedule thus far:

Fri. Nov. 18 Mass.-Lowell at UNH 7 p.m.
Thu. Dec. 8 Boston U. at UNH 7 p.m.
Sat. Dec. 17 Union at Merrimack 7p.m.
Sat. Jan. 14 Merrimack vs. Maine 7 p.m.
Sat. Jan. 21 Merrimack at UNH 7 p.m.
Sat. Jan. 28 Boston College at UNH 7 p.m.
Sun. Jan. 29 Merrimack vs. Providence 4 p.m.
Fri. Feb. 10 Northeastern at UNH 7 p.m.
Fri. Feb. 17 Vermont at UNH 7 p.m.

But in a sad piece of news, WBIN’s rebranding has seemingly signaled the end for my favorite cable TV show, Dollar Bill’s Discount World. Dollar Bill announced himself in September that his show would be ending its over decade long run on the channel and be going web-only. For those of you who never had a chance to watch, Dollar Bill is an overly hyper and occasionally inappropriate salesman who sells closeout and discount wares in his Derry, NH warehouse. I salute you, Dollar Bill, and wish you all the best as you enter the world of online video.

In 2010, BU and BC took center stage in the first Frozen Fenway. (Photo by Kat)

On Friday afternoon, Fenway Park and Hockey East announced the second edition of Frozen Fenway, to be held on January 7, 2012. The outdoor game will feature a men’s hockey doubleheader, with UMass Amherst facing off against University of Vermont and the University of New Hampshire versus the University of Maine.

The game is being sponsored by Hockey East – who owns the event, and thus can decide its participants – and is being heavily bankrolled by Fenway Sports Group. The hope is that the event will bring out crowds of fans from the schools and their alumni bases in Boston.

Hockey East and it’s commissioner Joe Bertagna were eager to schedule up another outdoor game given the popularity of the 2010 edition, which features Boston University and Boston College. But the league wanted to give other non-Boston based schools a chance. Bertanga made that clear in his Friday press conferernce remarks. As reported by BostoInnovation’s Ryan Durling:

“(Bertanga) also acknowledged how generous a gesture it was for FSM to pick up the cost of the event. ‘It’s a bit of a risk to take up the cost, so we really appreciated that. The support from the mayor helped to push it along, too – the game between BU and BC is kind of old news, but bringing four teams from outside of Boston emphasizes our New England roots,’ the commissioner said.”

I have three quick issues with this statement by Hockey East’s commissioner, and the Frozen Fenway 2 in general:

Last I checked, the last two teams to win national championships from the conference were BU and BC. I don’t think any game between two of the best programs in the last decade of college hockey is ever “old news.” Especially when both teams sold out a freezing cold Fenway nearly two years ago, and when they play each other inthe Beanpot, they sell out the Garden, and when they play in their respective home venues, they sell out their venues no matter how awful either’s season is.

You’re taking a giant risk having this game feature teams from outside of Boston. Sure, their fan bases within Boston are relatively strong. However, you’re playing with fire – or more accurately, ice – here. Weather in January is unpredictable, and could impact the travel of those Maine, UNH, UMass and Vermont diehards who will get to those sellout numbers. At least with BU and BC, they have enough fans that can walk or take public transportation to Fenway to fill it.

Then there is the issue of Fenway Sports Group funding Frozen Fenway 2, and not including BC. Fenway Sports Group and the Eagles are joined at the hip. They’re going to have a college hockey event at Fenway Park and not include their prime collegiate partner?

Finally, by having Frozen Fenway 2 consist of two men’s Hockey East games, you run into marginal problems of inequity. Frozen Fenway’s first edition featured a women’s game pitting Northeastern versus UNH. This edition has no women’s component mentioned. The women’s game might not sell tickets, but it’ll never sell if you don’t give it the opportunity to. Plus, you legitimately have more legitimate women’s hockey stars now within Hockey East, players with a bit more name recognition than the league had pre-2010 Olympics. It’s worth a shot, and will save you some angered complaints from Title IX advocates. (Who knows – a women’s hockey game may be in the works and we just don’t know it.)

Vinny Saponari in a March 2010 game against Merrimack College. Photo: Flickr user seriouslysilly (Some Rights Reserved)

The story of the day amongst BU hockey fans was the reported Boston College transfer application rejection by dismissed Terrier forward Vinny Saponari. The rumor had been lurking amongst those close to Boston area college hockey for a few weeks, and the story broke for good when US Hockey Report (aka, USHR, a subscription site that reports on junior, youth and college hockey) posted a piece this morning quoting Saponari’s USHL head coach.

Saponari’s current coach with the USHL Dubuque Fighting Saints, Jim Montgomery, is the only interview in USHR’s brief report, which then spurred on reports by the Eagle Tribune’s Mike McMahon, BostonSportsU18 and the Daily Free Press’s Boston Hockey Blog. The Boston Hockey Blog tried to get a quote with Saponari, but “a call and text were not returned.” Word had spread outside of the USHR report – two individuals mentioned to me that area coaches had just started being open about the news last evening, and the news spread like wild fire through the expanding, but still very small, world of hockey.

As the news was circulating on Twitter, a few folks asked within social media, “Well, who are we all to be talking about a pretty embarrassing and private matter for this hockey player? Why is Saponari’s rejection news?”

There is no question to me that this is news – Saponari’s initial dismissal from BU was very public, as the Terrier program had to give reason for his absence in the then upcoming season, and he decided to engage on interviews on the subject. His decision to subsequently transfer to BC, BU’s biggest hockey rival, was made public on his own Facebook page and a few media sources.

So Saponari’s rejection by BC was going to become public whether he liked it or not. For better or worse, his own statements on the matter earlier this fall made us all expect to see him on the Conte Forum ice come next September. Because of the level of expectation already prepared, the college hockey watching public would find out about the rejection eventually. In hindsight, Saponari, his family and his “family advisors” should have kept word of his desire to transfer down Comm Ave quiet until all the i’s were dotted, t’s were crossed, and transcripts approved.

But where the critics of the publicity of Saponari’s denial may have a legitimate point is that the only on-the-record source through this entire story has been the player’s own USHL coach. Was it really appropriate for Montgomery to be so forthcoming with this news with USHR in the first place? Was it his place to do so? Was he representing the family, and if so, should he or the USHR author been more explicit in saying so?

On a much larger level, if a coach is part educator, part advisor, part mentor, and part counselor, shouldn’t he uphold a certain level of confidentiality?

I’m not defending Saponari in any way (if I don’t have anything nice to say, I’m not going to say anything at all), but didn’t he deserve a tad more from Montgomery? Should USHR have looked for a quote from Saponari or his family? If Montgomery was acting on their behalf, shouldn’t that have been more explicit?

What do you think?

We had penalty shots, penalties that made no sense, goals scored mere seconds apart from each other, a change in goaltender for BU, BU players diving, BC players elbowing, shorthanded goals, power play goals – at one point, my husband said, “I think CBS College Sports ordered a smorgasbord of hockey activity for tonight’s game.”

And yes, BC’s Patch Alber has an old-timey physician’s name, BU needs to shoot the puck and realize that goals aren’t scored unless the puck physically enters the net, and BC’s goalie John Muse resembles a penguin attempting to launch off the ground when he’s making a save or counting off the last seconds of a penalty.

So if you’re BU, what do you do for Saturday night’s game at BC? What do you do for next week’s games against Northeastern and RPI? Who do you start at goaltender? Who is your first line? There is bound to be shake ups – and if there were not, fans would have the right to be livid – but how exactly does one reassemble this Terrier team?

Since I don’t even know where to begin, I leave it to you – if you were Jack Parker and Mike Bavis, what would you do?

Da Costa is busy reppin' France. (Photo: Merrimack Athletics)

With that out of the way, here’s my newest idea to keep me blogging every single day: This Week in College Hockey Withdrawal. Because the Pittsburgh Penguins may have a whopping 14 ex-college guys on their active playoff roster, but that only makes me miss college hockey more.

- The University of Maine officially released their 2010-11 schedule on Wednesday. One of the surprises for me is that the Black Bears and BU will not face each other Valentine’s Day weekend, which is unusual. 2010-11 is Maine’s year to host two games in that matchup, and they will do so on January 28th and 29th.

- Merrimack’s Stephane Da Costa is a part of the France squad at the IIHF World Championships that start up this weekend. Da Costa’s brother, Teddy, who usually plays in Poland, will also play on the team. Da Costa and his fellow Frenchmen skated an exhibition against the USA (a team which has only two players that didn’t participate in college hockey according to the sharp fact finding of Joe Yerdon) on Tuesday. Those two non-college guys on team USA (Brandon Dubinsky and Nick Foligno) each had two assists in the 3-1 win.

- The guys over at BC Interruption find themselves talking college hockey when discussing the “Boston College to the Big Ten” rumors. Would an Eagles move to the Big Ten force the conference to add college hockey? My question: Would a big money conference like the Big Ten even want to do so in the age of Title IX? Also, who says it would be worth the conference’s while, given that the popularity of college hockey dropped off after its 2009 surge?

So it is in his honor that I would like to announce today, April 1st, that I am now in a band. A few of my friends and I have formed a folk band entitled, “Kevin Sneddon’s Playoff Beard.” Tone Deaf Me will be playing cowbell and Coke bottle.

Sneddon, UVM’s always interesting coach, inspired us with his goatee all season, and he really amped up the growth during the Catamounts playoff run. Last weekend, during his team’s first round Regional loss to eventual Frozen Four team Wisconsin, Sneddon sported quite a thick, substantial, and highly groomed patch of facial hair.

Thus, to honor the best facial hair of any current college hockey coach, our band decided to name ourselves after Sneddon and his goatee. We are well on a song-writing kick, having pulled all-nighters to jump start the band. Our current songbook includes such original ditties as:

“Ode to Parker”
“The Tragedy of the University of No Hardware”
“Short Forwards, Tall D-Men: They All Like Flannel”
“The Little Tech School That Could”
“Two and Out: The Ballad of Denver”
“Oh Little Rink in Andover”

“Kevin Sneddon’s Playoff Beard” hopes to release our first EP on iTunes around May 1, just in time to feed college hockey fans’ season withdrawal. Our manager, Mike LaFontaine, is working to get our first round of live shows set: looks like they’ll be at T’s Pub, Mary Ann’s, with our first big show at Matthews Arena. The arena has been so empty lately that they were eager to fill it with anything, including our lowly band.

April Fools! I’m tone deaf, thus I would never be in a band, despite my father’s musical talents and encouragement. Sneddon’s playoff goatee was pretty epic, however. There better be a student band at UVM with this name sometime soon…

Your typical Chuck-a-Puck. But if a Chuck-a-Puck takes place and no one chucks a puck... (Photo: Flickr user Travis S.)

After weeks of missing live hockey because of my upcoming wedding, I am finally in the midst of a multi-game weekend. Thank goodness, because this multi-game weekend allowed me to see two of the oddest intermission events I’ve witnessed in years of attending hockey games.

Friday night, the Boston University men’s ice hockey team hosted Northeastern University in their last regular season home game. BU beat Northeastern 4-2, which would go miles towards improving their status for the Hockey East playoffs. It was a double mites team game, with both intermissions host to a youth hockey team scrimmage. The teams usually have around five minutes to show their stuff, with the announcer and music timing their scrimmage, before the waiting Zambonis rev their engines and warn them off.

During the second intermission, I was chatting with a friend and not paying attention to the mites. Around me, I vaguely heard the announcement thanking the mites for their time and congratulating them on a scrimmage well done. Briefly after, my fiance nudged me.

“They won’t leave the ice.”

Sure enough, the entire team of mites were still down on one end of the ice, skating as if this was their home rink. The Zamboni was in limbo, resting on the lip of the rink, nearly seesaw-like. The opposite side ice door was open, with the security guard awaiting the mites coming off the ice. And the mites were still playing. On the ice, Rhett the mascot looked mighty perplexed.

It took the announcer getting back on the microphone. “Can our mites team please make their way to the exit?”

The kids still skated around the goal, oblivious. The maintenance man off to drag off the net stood, stagger stepped and with a drill in his hand a few feet away.

Finally, the coach realized that yes, his team actually might have to leave the ice. He zipped the mites off the ice, the Zamboni impatiently inching out during the mad dash.

Saturday, while at the Women’s Hockey East Semifinal game between Boston University and the University of New Hampshire in Providence, the announcer kept announcing a Chuck-a-Puck contest being held during the second intermission. A few of us played around with the idea of actually taking part in it for sheer novelty purposes, but vetoed against it. We’d never win – we’re in our late twenties. Our aim is shot.

The second intermission begins, the BU women up 1-0 (they would eventually win 4-0). The announcer proudly announces that it is time for the Chuck-a-Puck competition. “Get your pucks ready….and fire!”

Nothing is thrown on the ice.

“Time for the Chuck-a-Puck!” he exclaims again, trying to will us all to throw something, anything, on the ice.

A little girl next to the glass starts throwing pucks. With aim unbefitting of her age, she throws her three pucks right near center ice. Two more join from the other side of the rink, not getting anywhere near center.

The announcer eggs us all on, “Last chance to chuck those pucks. Five! Four…”

He pauses, realizing that those five pucks on the ice are all there will be. A rink employee begins to stroll onto the ice to pick all five pucks up.

“Threetwoone,” the announcer rushes through, purely to make things official.

My fiance turns to our group of fans. “Why didn’t I enter Chuck-a-Puck again?”