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(03-25-2014 06:48 AM)brovol Wrote:  ......there is a better likelihood, on average, based mostly on the relative quality of the programs in each conference, that wmu would be one of the two teams in the wcha than one of the three teams in the ncha?

I guess WMU should of went into the Atlantic Conference then....

NCHC teams performance this year in "non-conference" play cost the league one possible two NCAA spots. Those teams were not better, NCHC teams just didn't show up

(03-25-2014 09:43 AM)BroncoFever Wrote:  NCHC teams performance this year in "non-conference" play cost the league one possible two NCAA spots. Those teams were not better, NCHC teams just didn't show up

Ahem, Colorado College, and your big fat ZERO in non-conference play.

(03-25-2014 09:46 AM)moe24 Wrote:  

(03-25-2014 09:43 AM)BroncoFever Wrote:  NCHC teams performance this year in "non-conference" play cost the league one possible two NCAA spots. Those teams were not better, NCHC teams just didn't show up

Ahem, Colorado College, and your big fat ZERO in non-conference play.

CC sure did have a down year, but they did come on strong in the end.

CC is already off to a bad start for next year, as they lost one of their freshman defenseman:

OLOFSSON ONE AND DONE SIGNS WITH WILD
http://www.uscho.com/2014/03/24/olofsson...with-wild/

(03-25-2014 09:46 AM)moe24 Wrote:  

(03-25-2014 09:43 AM)BroncoFever Wrote:  NCHC teams performance this year in "non-conference" play cost the league one possible two NCAA spots. Those teams were not better, NCHC teams just didn't show up

Ahem, Colorado College, and your big fat ZERO in non-conference play.

and we really needed to take one vs notre dame at the beginning of the season. It's really too bad those were our first 2 games and not somewhere in the middle of the season.

(03-25-2014 06:48 AM)brovol Wrote:  The issue wasn't if the nchc is a good conference, or whether wmu can compete in the nchc. The answer to both of those questions has always need a definite yes. To me the dispositive question is which league would wmu make the NCAA tournament more often. Once you are in the tourney any team can win it.

Honestly, the NCHC wasn't our problem when it comes to making the NCAAs this season. It's the out-of-conference suckage (against ND and Northern, particularly) that killed all hopes of an at-large bid.

Yes, I know we failed miserably at home against UMD, but they were in the Top 20 for much of the year.

Take care of a couple games we should've won early in the season and we're still playing hockey.

All in all, I'm happy with the new league - and I think it'll be a net positive for the program.

(03-25-2014 10:38 AM)stdatwmu Wrote:  

(03-25-2014 06:48 AM)brovol Wrote:  The issue wasn't if the nchc is a good conference, or whether wmu can compete in the nchc. The answer to both of those questions has always need a definite yes. To me the dispositive question is which league would wmu make the NCAA tournament more often. Once you are in the tourney any team can win it.

Honestly, the NCHC wasn't our problem when it comes to making the NCAAs this season. It's the out-of-conference suckage (against ND and Northern, particularly) that killed all hopes of an at-large bid.

Yes, I know we failed miserably at home against UMD, but they were in the Top 20 for much of the year.

Take care of a couple games we should've won early in the season and we're still playing hockey.

Not sure if just a couple of those non conf games flip flops would of gotten us into top #14. The Irish were a tough test right out the gate and early on, but may of had been a different out come if they were played later in the season

Games I thought were we out played teams and should of won:

1-Fairbanks road game
2-NMU home games
1-DU road game
1 possible 2 Sioux home games (only calculated 1)
1 UMD road game
1 CC road game (Fri game we tied)

Games where we won and probably shouldn't have:

1-SCSU road game (Sat game we tied)

Make those changes, were sitting at #10

I also thought we should of won the Denver conference tournament semi final game

Yeah, it's obviously never as simple as we'd like for it to be. There were certainly at least a few badly missed opportunities on our schedule.

I think losing Hafner pre-NCHC tournament was the dagger in the season. He was far more consistent this year. I honestly think we could've made it to (and possibly won) the championship with him in net.

(03-25-2014 10:30 AM)Ubish Wrote:  

(03-25-2014 09:46 AM)moe24 Wrote:  

(03-25-2014 09:43 AM)BroncoFever Wrote:  NCHC teams performance this year in "non-conference" play cost the league one possible two NCAA spots. Those teams were not better, NCHC teams just didn't show up

Ahem, Colorado College, and your big fat ZERO in non-conference play.

and we really needed to take one vs notre dame at the beginning of the season. It's really too bad those were our first 2 games and not somewhere in the middle of the season.

The main reason is the east was better than the west. The NCHC was 23-11-7 against the WCHA and Big Ten, but 9-17-8 against Hockey East and the ECAC.

http://www.uscho.com/stats/interconferen...2013-2014/

(03-24-2014 03:48 PM)BroncoFever Wrote:  Average Pairwise Ranking
1) BIG
2) ECHC
3) HE
4) NCHC
5) WCHA
6) Atlantic

# teams in NCAA-% of league represented
5-HE 46%
3-NCHC 38%
2-BIG 33%
3-ECHC 25%
2-WCHA 20%
1-Atlantic 8%

Hockey East claims dominance over college hockey:

http://www.vermontcynic.com/sports/30-ye...zLgmDK9KSM

Wasn't sure where to post this, figured it ties into our decision

I second this. Hafner in net wins the conference tourney.

I don't post on here often (I favor USCHO) so please don't form your opinions on my one post... but I have a question that stems from what I've been reading on USCHO.

Does Murray tone down his outrage at the officiating next year? Or does he continue to harp on the refs, possibly costing WMU future debatable calls? I can't imagine many referees like Murray, obviously most disagree with him. I don't think any of us want to be known as the "whiney Western Broncos" but I'm worried thats how it will be perceived when our coach is blowing a gasket at the end of every game. I've seen the cameras focus in on Murray SCREAMING from the bench several times during widely broadcast games... right or wrong I don't know how much his outrage helps WMU.

Your thoughts? I'll admit I have not attended many bronco games this year, so I don't know for a fact that Murray is losing his head all the time. Perhaps I just got lucky and all his freak-outs were during games that I attended. Maybe he doesn't like me?

Recently, he let it get out of hand. Probably should have gotten a penalty when he was playing with lines on an icing vs. UMD and did get a penalty against North Dakota.

Lawson Lunatic Suggest you look at the thread "NCHC Semi-finals". You will find lots of back and forth on this is.....no consensus....But some of us have different opinions with the majority re: AM. In my case not his ability but his effect on refs. In any case, it is really not OK with the majority to criticise him in ANY way!

(03-26-2014 02:34 PM)bronconick Wrote:  Recently, he let it get out of hand. Probably should have gotten a penalty when he was playing with lines on an icing vs. UMD and did get a penalty against North Dakota.

It just happens to be the same ref from the UMD series. That same ref I heard about an interesting storey from a WMU player from those games also.

Laports penality was a joke and Murrays bench minor that followed was even worse. What little chance the Broncos had after just going down 0-2 in the third just became that much harder going down a man and then even worse going down two men, which was just throwing salt into our open wound.

If I was Murray, I'd blow my gasket with this ref too

Money says he won't be refing in the NCHC next year.....

Well, don't just stir, spill the beans! I live 3 hours away.

Daniels said the Raiders are as good as the two best teams the Bulldogs faced all year in Alaska and Minnesota State. Ferris went 2-5 this season against the third-place Nanooks and Mavericks, with the latter beating the Bulldogs 4-1 in the WCHA Final Five championship last Saturday.

I like being in the NCHC becasue over the LONG term, it will serves our program the best. I think it helps our recruiting more than being anywhere else would. At the end of the day, the better players you have, the more you win. The more you win, the more often you make the NCAA's. The more you make the NCAA's the more your recruiting ratchets up even more. Rinse and repeat. It's a longer term thinking process for me.

(03-27-2014 11:20 AM)texasbronco1 Wrote:  I like being in the NCHC becasue over the LONG term, it will serves our program the best. I think it helps our recruiting more than being anywhere else would. At the end of the day, the better players you have, the more you win. The more you win, the more often you make the NCAA's. The more you make the NCAA's the more your recruiting ratchets up even more. Rinse and repeat. It's a longer term thinking process for me.

(03-27-2014 11:20 AM)texasbronco1 Wrote:  I like being in the NCHC becasue over the LONG term, it will serves our program the best. I think it helps our recruiting more than being anywhere else would. At the end of the day, the better players you have, the more you win. The more you win, the more often you make the NCAA's. The more you make the NCAA's the more your recruiting ratchets up even more. Rinse and repeat. It's a longer term thinking process for me.

Agree 100%.

We (as in the general population of our country - hell, the world - these days) tend to suck at long-term thinking/planning anymore. Everything's about the now. I'm all for returning to the stability and sanity of planning beyond the next quarter's results.

(03-25-2014 09:43 AM)BroncoFever Wrote:  

(03-25-2014 06:48 AM)brovol Wrote:  ......there is a better likelihood, on average, based mostly on the relative quality of the programs in each conference, that wmu would be one of the two teams in the wcha than one of the three teams in the ncha?

I guess WMU should of went into the Atlantic Conference then....

NCHC teams performance this year in "non-conference" play cost the league one possible two NCAA spots. Those teams were not better, NCHC teams just didn't show up

Well, unfortunately, they don’t base these things on style points. And to me there is no shame for the schools playing in either the WCHA or the Atlantic Conference. As a WMU alum, and after watching alumni from BCS schools look down upon the MAC and it’s schools for so many years, I must admit Fever, Listening to "Big League" self-righteousness from a fellow Bronco bothers me.

(03-28-2014 01:45 PM)brovol Wrote:  

(03-25-2014 09:43 AM)BroncoFever Wrote:  

(03-25-2014 06:48 AM)brovol Wrote:  ......there is a better likelihood, on average, based mostly on the relative quality of the programs in each conference, that wmu would be one of the two teams in the wcha than one of the three teams in the ncha?

I guess WMU should of went into the Atlantic Conference then....

NCHC teams performance this year in "non-conference" play cost the league one possible two NCAA spots. Those teams were not better, NCHC teams just didn't show up

Well, unfortunately, they don’t base these things on style points. And to me there is no shame for the schools playing in either the WCHA or the Atlantic Conference. As a WMU alum, and after watching alumni from BCS schools look down upon the MAC and it’s schools for so many years, I must admit Fever, Listening to "Big League" self-righteousness from a fellow Bronco bothers me.

I understand that point of view however hockey is different. WMU's hockey team has always been in a "big league". A step down would not be a move forward in my opinion.