Friday, 11/30/07

It's Time

Before I forget, first of all, I want to thank everyone who left a comment on my entry about Kathy Slattery Phillips. I attended the memorial service for Kathy this morning in Hanover, and it's good to be able to share memories.

Now, though, I'm back in Boston, and it's time to go to work.

It's time for BU and BC.

I'll be covering the game live at Power Plays, but here's a few personal thoughts on this one before I get all buttoned-down journalist on you.

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Thursday, 11/29/07

The First Test

Go figure this one.

I'm getting ready to head to Boston again in a little over an hour, and yet I find myself thinking of Wisconsin.

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Tuesday, 11/27/07

Proud Parents

My travels for CSTV.com in the last three years have allowed me to see college hockey from a lot of different angles.

In addition to all the trains, planes, buses, long drives, T rides, and...well, actually, I think that just about covers everything...I've had the opportunity to see how the teams themselves travel, and most recently, how far hardcore fans are willing to go to see their team play.

On Saturday, I saw things from a different perspective.

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Monday, 11/26/07

The Rink Rat Rankings: Season 2, Edition No. 4

Monday is rankings day across the board in college hockey: the USCHO/CSTV Division I Rankings, the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, the INCH Power Rankings, and of course, the Rink Rat Rankings.

Yes, I know, mine come out last, but remember, I do them all by myself, so quit complaining (and click "more.").

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Sunday, 11/25/07

It All Happened

Last night, after I finished up my coverage of the BU-Cornell game at Madison Square Garden, I went to a bar near Grand Central Terminal before heading home. It was karaoke night, and one of the last songs I heard before leaving to catch my train home was "The Cover Of The Rolling Stone" by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Company, which many of you may know from its use in the film Almost Famous.

It really hit home with me, because for the past few hours, one line from that movie kept popping into my head: "It's all happening."

Now, as I sit here, less than 24 hours later, I keep thinking, "It all happened."

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Saturday, 11/24/07

Time To Move On

This is a new one on me.

Under normal circumstances, I'm one of the last to leave the building, sometimes the last among the media. I finish the last thing I have to do, check my directions home if I'm driving, and stroll toward the door, sometimes singing "The Load Out" by Jackson Browne (which was actually playing on the radio last night on WRVE, "The River," early on in my drive home from RPI).

Now, there's 7:30 left in the second period between Princeton and Quinnipiac, and I'm getting ready to pack up my computer.

Why? Traffic.

New York City, Thanksgiving Weekend Traffic.

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Saturday, 11/24/07

Beginning Of A Big Day

This day has been circled on my calendar for months.

College hockey comes back to Madison Square Garden tonight, as Boston University takes on Cornell (8 p.m. ET on CSTV, for those of you who aren't going), and I get to work a game at Madison Square Garden for the first time after spending the vast majority of my 25 years in the greater New York area.

So why am I in Connecticut right now?

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Friday, 11/23/07

Further Reflection

I hope you'll indulge me a bit this morning, because I feel like there's more that I need to write about Kathy Slattery Phillips.

I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one who can say this, but I'm certain that I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing right now if it weren't for Kathy.

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Thursday, 11/22/07

Thank You, Kathy

On this Thanksgiving Day, I find myself in a somber, but still thankful, mood.

I just learned that Kathy Slattery Phillips, the longtime sports information director at my alma mater, Dartmouth College, died on Wednesday at the age of 55.

I'll have more to say later - and I hope you'll indulge me, even if it isn't really hockey-related, per se - but on this Thanksgiving, I want you all to be thankful for the time you have with your friends and family, and cherish these moments.

Personally, I'm thankful for having had the opportunity to know and work with Kathy.

You will be missed.

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Wednesday, 11/21/07

Toon Time

Two things have commanded an inordinate amount of my attention over the last couple of days.

One is trying to identify both times Denver's Tyler Ruegsegger puts the puck between the legs of Minnesota State's Kurt Davis on the unbelievable goal he scored against the Mavericks on Saturday (I've only been able to pick out one). The other is my being amused by Minnesota Wild enforcer Derek Boogaard's reference to the Vancouver Canucks' Daniel and Henrik Sedin as "those Pinky and the Brain twins."

I'm not going to go into the whole deal, but the Vancouver Sun did the best job of running with the whole "Pinky and the Brain" thing, which has to be one of the more amusing insults handed out in the sports world in the last year. One thing that was never addressed, though, was the question of which Sedin was Pinky and which one was the Brain. Now, at this point, I was struck by what I consider to be a pretty good idea. And, since I am the Rink Rat, I feel I'm entitled to ask the following question:

Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

("Yeah, Rink Rat, but if it took until 2007 to make a college hockey video game based on NHL '94, wouldn't that mean that we won't see a college hockey video game that's up to today's standards until 2020?"

No, folks, I'm thinking about which cartoon characters some of our favorite college hockey personalities are most like.

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Tuesday, 11/20/07

The Power Of The Pants

I've spent time in Lake Placid the last four summers, attending and covering the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp and/or the USA Hockey National Women's Festival. While I've been there, I've noticed a lot of women's hockey players wearing sweats issued by the Harvard Department of Athletics. They're unmistakeable, with the small capital D and A on either side of a much larger H.

What's most notable is that some of the players I've seen wearing the "DHAs" or "D-Has" - Pam Dreyer, Tiffany Hagge, Jenny Potter, etc. - are not Harvard alumnae. So, when I was in Cambridge this past weekend, I caught up with the Crimson's Caitlin Cahow about the sweats. Click the picture to hear what she had to say.

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Monday, 11/19/07

The Rink Rat Rankings: Season 2, Edition No. 3

We're up over 25 percent of the country in the Rink Rat Rankings this week, as Harvard, Cornell and Colgate bring the total number of teams to 15.

Hey, that's beginning to give some legitimacy, huh?

OK, I'll stop trying to sell that...just click "more."

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Sunday, 11/18/07

The Beasts of Lynah East

I don't think I've made any great secret over the years that I'm not particularly fond of Harvard's Bright Hockey Center. Also, on my quest to see as many of the 59 Division I college hockey teams as I can, I can always count on seeing Harvard at the Beanpot, so trips to the Bright Center aren't usually high on my priority list.

And yet, there I was in Cambridge this past weekend.

But in all fairness, I didn't go to see the Bright Center.

I went to see "Lynah East."

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Saturday, 11/17/07

Hanging (With) Chad

From time to time, youve seen me reference the band Dispatch on this blog, and you'll even see a link to the website of former Dispatch member Pete Francis on the right side of this page.

I don't just do that because I love their music, although I do. The members of Dispatch are big hockey fans, and the band was formed at Division III hockey powerhouse Middlebury. Pete plays recreationally at the Chelsea Piers Sky Rink (right near CSTV's studios), and Chad Stokes played on the club team at NYU when he spent some time studying there.

So, when I noticed that Chad Stokes and his current band, State Radio, were playing at the Orpheum in Boston on the same day that I was coming up to see Harvard and Cornell, I took the opportunity to sit down and talk with Chad for a few minutes about college hockey and independent music. To see and hear our conversation, click on the picture of Chad below.

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Thursday, 11/15/07

Shipping Up To Boston

So, I schedule a trip to Boston for the weekend, and all of a sudden, things get very, very interesting in Beantown...

Coincidence? I think not.

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Wednesday, 11/14/07

History Lessons, Part II

Ever notice how certain times, the planets seem to align in just the right way so that you have the feeling you've seen something before?

Not to make assumptions, but I see a very familiar road laid out in front of Michigan.

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Tuesday, 11/13/07

Oh, Those Crazy Spartans

Just when I thought that Joe Finely's alleged slash on Bucky Badger was the wackiest thing I was going to hear about in college hockey this week, I had the pleasure of moderating today's "Tuesday @ the Rink" chat with Michigan State defenseman Daniel Vukovic, which reminded me that while Will Ferrell may be a USC alum and devoted Trojan football fan, it's appropriate that his Saturday Night Live cheerleader character, Craig Buchanan, cheered for the Spartans.

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Monday, 11/12/07

The Rink Rat Rankings: Season 2, Edition No. 2

You know, it's not that I'm so rarely wrong - believe me, that's not the case - but it's nice to be wrong in a way that pleasantly surprises you.

Like Eric Ehn making the Hobey Hat Trick last year. I wanted it to happen, I believed it should happen, but I didn't believe it would happen...and then it did.

(By the way, he had a goal and two assists Saturday against RIT...could he be starting to break out after a slow start?)

So then, I got a look at the USCHO/CSTV Division I Men's Rankings, and Miami was still on top, despite a loss over the weekend.

Good for them, and good for the poll voters who made it that way. Of course, Miami slipped to second in the USA Today/USA Hockey poll, but what are you going to do?

Of course, I won't see the RedHawks for another month yet, so that keeps them off of this week's Rink Rat Rankings...

Before we get started, though, I read the comments on my post from yesterday, and I feel like I ought to clarify things a bit.

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Sunday, 11/11/07

History Lessons

You know what they say: nobody's perfect.

Miami and Princeton went down on Friday, and we are officially fresh out of undefeated Division I men's hockey teams. And in theory, that means that the folks who vote in all those polls can get back to voting the teams they think are the best as No. 1, instead of the best team that hasn't lost yet.

I don't say that as any slight to Miami, which could certainly still be No. 1 when the polls come out tomorrow. When you look at things like experience and goaltending, I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that one-loss Miami has a leg up on one-loss Michigan, even if the Wolverines are better stocked in high-end talent up front.

However, these are the sorts of questions that the poll voters should be asking...but I'm not going to go into this subject at any kind of great length.

Rather, I'm more interested in a team that won't be No. 1 when the polls come out tomorrow: North Dakota.

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Thursday, 11/08/07

Hold On Now, Folks...

There have probably been a lot of years when the CCHA hasn't gotten the credit it deserves, based largely, on the conference's absence from the Frozen Four.

I'll be among the first to say that the people who snickered about the "Can't Compete Hockey Association" were going more than a bit too far.

So, given Michigan State's NCAA Championship in April - with a group of guys who were just about impossible not to like, I might add - and the fact that the Spartans and two other teams are among the top four in both polls this week, led by No. 1 Miami, it's natural to want to praise the CCHA to the heavens.

However, I'd just like to offer a little reality check here...

The fifth-place team in the CCHA got swept by Union.

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Wednesday, 11/07/07

Lester's Luncheon

One of the drawbacks of covering college hockey in New York City is that you almost always have to travel to get your story (which has its bumps in the road every now and then).

Sometimes, though, the story comes to you.

The NHL's Lester Patrick Award was presented Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan, and former Boston College defenseman and Hobey Baker finalist Brian Leetch and Providence and US Women's Team legend Cammi Granato were among the honorees along with author/historian/PR executive John Halligan and writer/broadcaster/historian Stan Fischler.

So, I headed uptown to check it out.

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Tuesday, 11/06/07

'Gold, Polls, And Whatever Else Remotely Rhymes

Minnesota's hockey team may have been less than stellar over the weekend, but the band was certainly in fine form.

(Click to view video)

You know, there are a couple of things that tend to be overlooked when analyzing Minnesota's struggles thus far this season...

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Monday, 11/05/07

The Rink Rat Rankings: Season 2, Edition No. 1

I saw my ninth and 10th teams of the season on Saturday night in St. Cloud, so it's time, at last, for the first Rink Rat Rankings of the 2007-08 season.

Feel the excitement!

(and click "more.")

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Sunday, 11/04/07

Head In The Cloud

So, while the Gopher fans were "enjoying" their homecoming football game last night, and George Gwozdecky and the Denver staff were off scouting the Minnesota Elite League - a rare in-person, in-season scouting appearance for the Wizard of Gwoz, as I understand it (for obvious reasons) - your humble correspondent headed up to St. Cloud to take in a pair of games at the National Hockey Center.

With the shift of CSTV.com's live game coverage to Power Plays - where, by the way, you can get updates from this afternoon's Minnesota-Denver contest starting at 3 p.m. ET - I haven't really done a whole lot of commenting on the arenas themselves. Also, at this point, it's not that often that I go into a building I haven't been in before. In fact, this is the first time this season that it's happened.

So, a few observations on the game experience at St. Cloud State before I get ready to head over to Mariucci Arena...

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Friday, 11/02/07

Kind Of Blue

We're a few hours away from face-off in Minneapolis, with No. 7 Denver in town to take on No. 8 Minnesota, but I had the opportunity to start my hockey weekend a bit earlier, as I was at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul last night to see the St. Louis Blues take on the Minnesota Wild.

While I was there, I had a chance to see a couple of NHL rookies who were in the college ranks at this time 12 months ago, including one whose visit to the Twin Cities coincided nicely with Homecoming at "the U."

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Thursday, 11/01/07

Assorted College/NHL Observations

So I'm in Minnesota for the weekend, set to check out the Minnesota-Denver series on Friday and Sunday and make my first-ever trip to St. Cloud on Saturday, but I got into the Twin Cities in time to check out the Blues-Wild game at the Xcel Energy Center. I caught up with a pair of Blues rookies who were in the college ranks last season: former Minnesota State defenseman Steve Wagner and former Gopher blueliner Erik Johnson.

You'll have a chance to see those interviews on Friday, but in the meantime, here are a few observations on college and the NHL, some of which have been kicking around my head for a day or two.

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