Review and Preview: ECAC Hockey

Before the season, we predicted RPI would be a 5th place team in ECAC, one of those clubs that would be playing against hell and high water to prove themselves worthy of a bid to Hockey East.  We figured with all of our mettle and mindlessness that Puckman would motivate the Engineers to a place where they could view this season as their opportunity to prove themselves as a team that could compete in the ultra-competitive HEA, that they could skate with teams like Boston College and Boston University.

Whoops.

RPI has but one conference win and three conference points this season so far, rivaling Sacred Heart for in-conference futility, and their 3-16-1 record all but assures that they’ll finish in the lower four this season.  They’re a full four points behind Brown for 11th place, and even though the Bears have struggled, it’s unlikely the Engineers can catch them without a miracle.  RPI might have played themselves right out of Hockey East consideration.

But at least the Engineers should know, based on first hand experience, that their seed means squat.  Two years ago, 11th-seeded Brown managed to win two three-game series to advance to Albany in the ECAC’s final championship weekend held in New York’s capital city.  Last year, 12th-seeded Colgate won their first round series before beating the top seed to do the same.  Both years, the low seed in went through RPI.

So at least they got that going for them?

A look at where we hit, where we missed, and where we kind of did both:

Doing Some Time in the Line:

A big thumbs up by us for predicting Cornell would be in the top three in the conference; they’re first right now with travel partner Colgate in second.  The downside for the Big Red is their 9-4-2 overall record, compared to the 10-win seasons already turned in by the three teams behind them.  But, no big shocker – we said Cornell would finish third.  We’re standing by that.  Cornell won’t finish first, but they’ll be a factor come playoff time.

Does this make any sense to anybody?

Cornell and Colgate are 1-2 in the conference.  They were swept this year, at home, by Brown.  Brown is in 11th, and they provided the only conference win of the year for RPI.  We’ve given up trying to explain that one, especially since Brown has approximately four wins at Colgate since this country got crazy and elected some actor name Reagan to the White House.

Ten thousand men of Harvard…….got really lucky

We can’t explain how Harvard is in fifth place and just one point out of a first round bye slot held by Union.  They’ve only won three conference games, but their 3-3-4 record is good enough to keep them in the top half.  Downside to all of that is that the Crimson are 4-4-6 overall.  This is a weird season, and come playoff time, they won’t be able to tie people.  We expect them to drop.  Why?  Because they’re not that good.  They should get clobbered in the Beanpot.

Worst.  Prediction.  Ever.

We said at the beginning of the year that Yale was the top slot until someone proved otherwise.  Guess what?  Someone proved otherwise.  Tied for fifth, Yale doesn’t exactly have a ton of marquee wins, and they probably shouldn’t have been ranked last week when they were #19.  Yes, they lit the lamp nine times for a 9-3 win over Bentley, but they’re supposed to.  What really hurts them, regardless of anything that happens, is that Sacred Heart might finish the season with one win…and that was against Yale.  Good work, Elis.

The Rest of Our Fumbleayas

Good news.  We predicted Cornell would be at the top, St. Lawrence would be somewhere in the middle to bottom, and Princeton would fall right in the middle.  We said Brown would be 11th.  Other than that, we’re idiots.  We hit essentially nothing in this conference, which sounds about right because that’s the way ECAC goes.  It’s slightly more turbulent than a tornado, and it proves that the playoffs are looking to be a crapshoot.  That analogy works well because the conference championship weekend is back in Atlantic City for Year #2 at Boardwalk Hall.  We’d probably have better luck down there on the tables than we’d have predicting this season for this conference.