The Black Bears weren't the only ones seeing old friends in Tampa. In the time between the Lightning-Flyers game on Saturday and the start of the Lightning College Hockey Classic, Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson saw a familiar face from his days at Lake Superior State.

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The Irish, by the way, flew back to South Bend today after staying in town for New Year's Eve and the Outback Bowl (staying an extra couple of days also allowed them to get a direct flight), so they'll have a very short turnaround before they get on the bus for this weekend's series at Northern Michigan...as if going from playing in Tampa to playing in Marquette wasn't going to be drastic enough!

They also practiced at Brandon on Monday, which gave Tim Whitehead an opportunity to pick the brain of former Hockey East colleague Paul Pooley, now an assistant at Notre Dame, for information about RPI, the Black Bears' opponent on Sunday.

Of course, the Black Bears aren't the only Hockey East opponent on RPI's slate this season. The Engineers played Boston College at the Ice Breaker, and while we're on the subject of Boston College - how's that for a transition? - I caught up with BC alum and Philadelphia Flyers assistant coach Joe Mullen on Saturday.

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In other words, I was very busy out on the road, and I'm about to get out there again