NCAA Hockey Championship

[ultrawhiteness]

love that TSN is carrying these games. generally good hockey. I've only caught two games so far, and have another on the PVR to watch. Here are my thoughts, please add your own.

BU vs Yale

Jack Eichel... sorta meh. My expectations were too high. He had one crazy breakaway where he effortlessly left the defenders in his dust... honestly his skating looks weird (to me) but it is so incredibly efficient, it's nuts. Otherwise made smart plays, but didn't *dominate* and didn't look like he was working his ass off the way one might expect in an elimination game.

Matt O'Connor - Hey, I don't know how to evaluate goalies. But he looks legit. Big, calm saves, made lots of them. Bit of an attitude... I'm not sure that's great for a goalie or not. I prefer my goalies to be Kiprusoff/Price cool, but honestly not sure it makes a difference.

Best player for BU by my eye was probably O'Regan. Really liked the looks of Brandon Hickey, but then I'm a Flames fan so I had my eye on him.. so take that with a grain of salt. He looks like a really nice mid-draft pick though.

Three days later and I can't recall any Yale players other than the goalie.

Also, big ice surface = not as good.

UND vs Quinnipiac

Small ice, much faster (seeming) game. Q (i'm not spelling that more than once) was over-matched but tried to compensate with good ol fashioned effort and grit. Fun.

UND is a really deep team. So the guys I was watching for, the Schmaltz bros, didn't seem to get a lot of ice time... it seemed like the coach spread the shifts out. Their defense in general was really solid. Big takeaway for me was that Zane McIntyre (prev Gothberg) also looks legit to me... we're talking single games here, but I liked him a tiny bit better than O'Connor. Pity he's stuck behind Tuukka.


Minn vs Minn-Duluth

I didn't pay as much attention to this one, but it was also a fun game. I tried to watch for Brady Skjei... he was OK, odd hunched posture that I can only compare to Lucic, decent skater, decent puck-handler, but honestly kind of puzzling how excited Ranger fans are for him. I picked him up in my dynasty league and I'll have a tough decision to make this summer about whether to keep him.

Mike Rielly is legit. He moves really well, is big enough, and anticipates the play the way you want. As Minn fell behind you could see him get more intense and maybe try to do too much himself, but it looked good. I was skeptical of scouting reports you read on him but he looks like he could be an NHLer soon.

Hudson Fasching looks like he'll be a pretty safe projection for a middle-of-the-lineup kind of guy, Dustin Brown style.

I didn't watch the Duluth side much so nothing really to add there.

[Jouko-Pouko]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. REP given. Some interesting names there for my team and in general.

With O'Connor, do you mean Tuukka Rask type of attitude or what? Just curious because I haven't seen him play.

[ultrawhiteness]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. REP given. Some interesting names there for my team and in general.

With O'Connor, do you mean Tuukka Rask type of attitude or what? Just curious because I haven't seen him play.

Yes, a little bit. It is competitive attitude. A skater bumps him and he replies with a slash, then stares at the guy during the ensuing stoppage. One play, he.. and I don't know how else to say this... he "got up in a guy's grill", just stared him down. Little things. He has an intensity rather than the calmness that some other guys work with.

[Jouko-Pouko]

Yes, a little bit. It is competitive attitude. A skater bumps him and he replies with a slash, then stares at the guy during the ensuing stoppage. One play, he.. and I don't know how else to say this... he "got up in a guy's grill", just stared him down. Little things. He has an intensity rather than the calmness that some other guys work with.

Thanks for the info. Yeah, it can be a positive thing or a negative thing, depends on the person. Some coaches also love seeing that intensity but others don't like it as much. So it can go either way, really.

Anyway, it's usually better to be yourself instead of trying to change your personality. Some goalies are calm by nature, some are intense. They wouldn't be successful if they tried changing what they are. Hopefully the team that signs him is prepared to take him the way he is.

[ultrawhiteness]

watched the Hanifin game from Saturday last night, so I'll add that as well:

BC vs Denver

Santini, Matheson, McCoshen, Hanifin, with Demko in net... you'd think this game would end up differently. But Boston had all sorts of problems dealing with the Denver breakouts and forecheck, and couldn't generate the same team speed on their own rushes, too often ending up with a lone player ahead of all the rest who resorted to sending the puck harmlessly towards goal.

Ian McCoshen and Steven Santini looked suitably mean, if not exciting. Mike Matheson should play for the Panthers very soon, I'd bet. He's got great mobility and a big shot, which he scored with.

Noah Hanifin... on one hand, he wouldn't knock you out of your seat with his performance, (no end to end rushes, no great dekes, no points I don't think), but on the other... this is an 18 year old freshman that seemed to get piles of icetime on a team with lots of fine other options. His poise with the puck is outstanding. I also noticed a lot of plays where he started to jump up, but his teammates didn't recognize fast enough to take advantage or went another way, leaving Hanifin to return back to defense. Players at the highest level will be able to capitalize on those plays.

Last BC player I'll talk about, Alex Tuch. He looks like a good complementary winger. Big and skilled, he'll look great playing with a good NHL center. Still needs some strength and some prodding to more confidently assert himself.