Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Previewing ECAC Hockey and big national topics for the 2025-26 NCAA women's hockey season

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Previewing ECAC Hockey and big national topics for the 2025-26 NCAA women's hockey season · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Usccho dot com twenty sixth season is about ready to
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: get going in NCAA Women's hockey, and we are back
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: with another season of the podcast.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Todd Musky and Nicole Hose here with you from us
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: echo dot com. Thanks for joining us for another season. Nicole,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: this is gonna be an interesting one. We're going to
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: preview all five conferences here as we go along in
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: the next week or so. But there are some big,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: kind of overarching issues here that are going to come
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: into play really quickly this season. First off, this is
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: an Olympic year, but it's an Olympic year like no
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: one's ever seen before, when we're talking about no centralization,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: players coming and going, and then the whole month of
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: really the Olympic being a little bit unknown right now
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: of how that's going to turn out for the last
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: couple of weeks of the regular season.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's uh. Everybody keeps asking and the coaches keep
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: saying they don't know you and I definitely don't know we. Uh,
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: it's going to be interesting. I think that's just the
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: key word. And every team has to be adaptable this year.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, tons of teams are going to be affected
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: or are not just talking about North American players though
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: that's the this is the first time that they'll be
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: coming and going, Yeah, we don't we don't know how
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: it's gonna affect the season. I thought it was interesting.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: On one of the conference calls, there was a question
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: as to whether or not players may ask for red
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  Speaker 3: shirts after if they end up missing a lot of time,
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  Speaker 3: and the commissioner said the coach nobody had asked about
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: that yet. But yeah, it's just a it's a great, big,
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  Speaker 3: wide unknown, and I think that makes it for a
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: fun collegiate season because we don't really know what's going
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: to happen.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: That is one of the amazing things here is that
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: like we're getting into okay with the middle of September. Here,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: we're getting into the first week of games and I
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: haven't really heard a lot from the federations about what
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: this your schedule is going to look like. It seems
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  Speaker 2: a little strange, but I understand it too that there's
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: a little you don't want to show your hand too
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: early here.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, nobody Canada put out a roster of
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  Speaker 3: people invited to a meeting, to an orientation meeting, and
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: Team USA hasn't put anything out despite having held the
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: camp and posting pictures of everybody at the camp. And
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: that's just the North American programs. So yeah, it's a
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  Speaker 3: whole wide new world. I think, you know, if you
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: were with you take the Olympics out of the equation
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: and you looked at the rosters, you'd be like, Wow,
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  Speaker 3: Wisconsin's returning a lot. But many of the very great
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: players that are returning that you would think would they'd
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: be relying on to possibly go back to a national
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: championship team are going to miss in quite a bit
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: of time this season. And you're going to see that
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: with you know, Minnesota, Ohio State, You're gonna see it
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: across the board. And so I think that there's lots
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  Speaker 3: of opportunities both within each individual conference for teams to
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: make a big step up, but also on the national
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  Speaker 3: stage going to.
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  Speaker 2: Get into a lot of those, you know, teams that
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: may have a chance to do that over the course
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: of our previous year. Let me just give you a
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: rundown of how we're gonna do this. This episode, we're
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: gonna be talking about some of these bigger picture issues
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: and ECAC hockey. Then we're gonna have an episode where
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: we're talking about Hockey East and Atlantic Hockey, and we're
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: gonna have an episode where we're talking about the w
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: ch A and New HA. Those will all be rolling
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: out over the next week or so. Stay tuned to
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: your podcasting platform of choice or US Echo dot com
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: for all those episodes. But I think when you're looking
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: at this season as a whole, like we've been talking about,
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  Speaker 2: some of those players may be missing, you know. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: so the hockey season NCAA is thirty four games for
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  Speaker 2: regular season. Some teams play a little bit less. If
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: you've got players that are gonna miss, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: last three or four weeks of the regular season possibly
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  Speaker 2: and a couple of games every month possibly, Again we
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  Speaker 2: don't know for sure. You're talking about a third of
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  Speaker 2: the season might be gone for some players, which is
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  Speaker 2: going to affect not only what we're looking at for
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  Speaker 2: team performance, but also individual awards. So when you come
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  Speaker 2: down to the end of the season, we're gonna have
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  Speaker 2: to be doing some creative math for who qualifies for what.
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  Speaker 2: And we, like we said, we've never had to do
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  Speaker 2: this before because if in the past for the US
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: and Canada, if you were going to the Olympics, you
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  Speaker 2: weren't playing this season. It's gonna be a really honestly
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  Speaker 2: stressful kind of situation for a lot of teams, a
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  Speaker 2: lot of players, a lot of journalists in terms of
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  Speaker 2: who votes for things when it comes down to that,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of stuff that we just haven't had to
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  Speaker 2: think about before.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm really glad I'm not in the business of
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  Speaker 3: predictions because I was bad at it with U all
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: these extra variables. I think one of the things, too,
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  Speaker 3: is that we have seen in the past players from
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  Speaker 3: European countries go and play with their teams but generally
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  Speaker 3: not miss much of as much of the season. And
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  Speaker 3: I think that may change too, that they may be
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  Speaker 3: able to take a little bit, you know, a page
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  Speaker 3: from the book of the North Americans and ask a
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  Speaker 3: little bit more of their players. Obviously, the travel necessary
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  Speaker 3: to go play at some of those things might impede
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  Speaker 3: some of that, but I just think overall, we're going
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  Speaker 3: to like you said, I mean, I think a third
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  Speaker 3: is probably generous. If you're talking like two games a weekend,
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  Speaker 3: you're talking all four weeks at the Olympics, that's eight games,
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  Speaker 3: and then you know another eight two per month. Maybe
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  Speaker 3: that's that's not quite half.
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  Speaker 2: So that's a big decision for a lot of those
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  Speaker 2: players and do what a red shirt make more sense
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: just to keep take the year off, But I know
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  Speaker 2: those federations don't want to have those players doing nothing
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  Speaker 2: in that interim time.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, it's it's gonna be I just I hate
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  Speaker 3: just saying it's gonna be interesting and we don't know,
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  Speaker 3: but like that's it's just there's just so much. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: I don't think because of centralization. I feel like we
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  Speaker 3: didn't pay or we didn't know as much about what
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  Speaker 3: was going on with European players. And to be frank,
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  Speaker 3: we just have more European players than ever in the
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  Speaker 3: NCAA from more countries that are participating in the Olympics.
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  Speaker 3: So I I think that there there's a big unknown
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  Speaker 3: aside from the non centralization, in terms of how teams
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  Speaker 3: will be impacted by by those players missing and how
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  Speaker 3: much that will play into how it affects their collegiate team.
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  Speaker 3: And again, if they're traveling back to Europe, the recovery
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: time is very different than if you know players from
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: the US are going to a camp in New York
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  Speaker 3: or Minnesota, right.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that has given me something we're gonna be following
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  Speaker 2: a lot obviously as the season goes on, so we
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: wanted to bring it up right away here because it's
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  Speaker 2: going to shape a lot of how this twenty five
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: to twenty six NCAA season goes, so we'll stay on
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: top of that. There are more things to look out
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: for as we get into the season, and again these
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: are just the we're touching on them briefly here. We're
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: going to talk about them a lot more when they
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: maybe come up later in the season. But the first
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: is a little bit of news that maybe you've seen
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: along the way, but maybe not. Maybe you could have
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: predicted this coming a few years ago, maybe not. The
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: pairwise rankings are out. The NCAA Power Index is in.
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  Speaker 2: We saw the NPI over the last couple of seasons
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  Speaker 2: as a replacement for the RPI as a component of
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  Speaker 2: the pair wise but now just stripped it all out.
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  Speaker 2: Everything else is gone. You head to head comparisons, all
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  Speaker 2: that no more. It's just where your rank in the
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  Speaker 2: NPI is where you get seated in the NCAA tournament.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe a little bit easier to understand that than have
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  Speaker 2: explain the pair wise system. But this has its own
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  Speaker 2: is not easy, yeah, right, its own quirks in terms
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  Speaker 2: of how the math goes here. But we'll let the
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  Speaker 2: the the PhDs in the room handle that. Uh, neither
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  Speaker 2: one of which is us. But it is just something
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  Speaker 2: to keep an eye on that we're not gonna be
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  Speaker 2: talking about pair wise where you're talking about NPI as
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  Speaker 2: we get into January February March.
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  Speaker 3: So we will, I mean, we'll still be saying pairwise
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  Speaker 3: because we've been using years, but just know that we're
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  Speaker 3: we're catching up and it is mp I and I
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  Speaker 3: honestly it would be interesting. I'll have to see if,
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  Speaker 3: if you know, some of those smarter math people still
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  Speaker 3: run some of their their models, because I'm not sure
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  Speaker 3: that it's going to change a whole heck of a lot.
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  Speaker 3: The NPI is set up with the way that it
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  Speaker 3: multiplies upon itself to to take into accounts of that
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  Speaker 3: head to head and all that other the things that
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  Speaker 3: like it was, all of the other stuff is superfluous
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  Speaker 3: really to the math that the NPI does, which is
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  Speaker 3: why they were able to do this. So I'm not
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  Speaker 3: sure that like fundamentally we'll see a ton of change,
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  Speaker 3: but it is just different from what we've done before,
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  Speaker 3: and you just kind of got to remember what you're
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  Speaker 3: looking at when you're looking at where teams are sort
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  Speaker 3: of trending. When we get to you know, February in March.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: I remember it right. There was maybe one spot difference
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  Speaker 2: of the eleven that were in the NCAA tournament last year,
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  Speaker 2: maybe eight and a nine were different between the pair
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  Speaker 2: wise and the NPI. So that was part of the
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  Speaker 2: design of going to those changes that it most years
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: would not change much at all, if anything. But it's
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  Speaker 2: a cleaner way of doing the math in theory if
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: you understand the math.
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  Speaker 3: So it used it also it's incredibly confusing and it's
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  Speaker 3: cleaner for somebody.
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  Speaker 2: Correct. Yeah, that's somebody has not me. But I have
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: a very very very vague understanding of it thanks to
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: about an hour as long a discussion about it last season,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: So keep an eye on that as this season goes on.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: This is an item that is only happening in WCHA
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: conference games, an experimental rule being used this season to
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: perhaps give some thought to the people who are creating
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the rules on how this would work if it was
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: applied to everything. And that is that in wha games,
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: there is no whistle and no wave off of a
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: goal if the stick is over for goals, the level
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: of the crossbar for stoppages to play the level of
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: the shoulder. You can play the puck wherever you want
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: above shoulder or crossbar and it will be counted as
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: a goal. There are still, of course, high sticking penalties
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: where if you hit someone with a high stick, you're
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: going to the box, But this is one of those
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: that I honestly don't know how this shakes out, because
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: it seems like a I don't know if anyone uses
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: this as a strategy as much as a whoops, I
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: hit that one a little bit too high.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean what was interesting to me when this
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: was brought up is that apparently this is a discussion
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: that's been ongoing with the greater coaches in those rules
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  Speaker 3: meetings for a while, and it did not pass when
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: it came to that point, and so there are you know,
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: sort of foreign against and most of the coaches say
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: they don't think that it will lead to injuries. Being
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: able to control a puck, a small puck, a small
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: you know, stick, like if you're able to do that,
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: that's a skill move and so taking that away is
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: basically the argument against, like not the argument for having
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: this this rule is that like, they're not swinging their
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: stick wildly right, Like, it's it's a skill play to
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: be able to pull a puck down and deflect it
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: or control it. And so I think that the thought
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: was that there is has been this discussion. It was
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: a close vote, so like, let's get some data and
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: some video and see what happens when it's allowed. And
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: so the w c h A decided to implement it
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: this year. So it's only in w c HA conference games.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: When WHA teams play non conference games, it is not
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: the rule. But yeah, I don't do you have any
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: I guess I don't have any serious thoughts on it,
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: like I before or against. I thought it was interesting
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: that the coaches that have thought about it a lot
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: more talking about it.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: One of the things that was pointed out is they're
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: you know, they're wearing full cages and they're wearing helmets,
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: and again, nobody's taking baseball swings with their their stick,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: and so like there could be occasional contact, but it
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: is unlikely that that would result in like serious injury
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: and obviously, if injuries go up, then that's that's the
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: information they needed and wanted to gather on this, and
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: that that ends the discussion. So I don't know. I
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: don't know that it will change a ton of what
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: players were already doing, do you.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: I don't think so, But I'm interested in finding out
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: and seeing if if there's first person I thought of
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: was Leila Edwards at Wisconsin, who's six ft six foot one.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Her stick is probably able to be higher than anyone
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: else's if she can get to a popped up puck first.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: I guess that's an advantage, but again it's a it
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: would have to be a insane amount of skill or
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: a pretty good amount of luck.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I was thinking it was like catnet for
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: Abby Murphy, like, oh yeah, someone someone that really is,
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: you know, good with puck control and their stick and
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: or you know, we watched like Lacy or Lacy Eden
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: and she can you juggle the puck utter stick. I
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: feel as like the kind of like a little bit
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: of a challenge for some of those players that might
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: take it as a like a way to hone in
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: some of those skills and things like that, But not again,
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: I don't know that it like, well, Abby tried a
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: few more times than she might have. Maybe again that's
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: exactly like that's that's her cat neb right Like. But
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: I just yeah, I'm with you. I just I think
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: that maybe it'll become an advantage. I mean, we see
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: players if you watch, uh, like on ice war ups,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: you'll see practicing deflections sort of in front of their
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: bodies and from from you know, their chest down and
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: so you may see some more of that where they
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: just put a little more practice time into corraling some
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: of those bucks and really honestly spotting it because if
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: it's up that high, then you're you're no longer dealing
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: with dasherboards and ice that helps you see the little
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: black book. Now you've got you know, fans in the
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: background and a lot more things. So honestly, it might
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: just be about better spotting the puck as you're doing
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: that sort of thing.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: Yep. The the thing that stood out to me when
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: I had heard about this originally one was that the
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: last last season the rules change here, they were two
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: votes away from getting this put into the rules as
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: as a full rule for everyone, that there would be
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: unlimited height for high stick and then that Minnesota coach
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Brad Frost was really the one that was pushing for
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: this as an option, and he said that it is
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: really Saint Lawrence's coach, Chris Wells, who had been talking
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: this up for years and years, and he was able
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: and Brad Frost was able to just get this in
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: as a experiment for the WHA this year to see
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: what will happen, and that's really the data they need.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: There's the WCAH says they're keeping data on high second penalties,
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: on on goals that may have been waved off in
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: the past to kind of inform the decision that's going
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: to have to be made here. In the end, Frost
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: said it it kind of came down to, you know,
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: we want more goals in hockey, and this is a
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: way to stop goals from getting waved off, especially in
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: that really gray area of you know, if you're going
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: to review to determine whether you know it was hit
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: an inch above or an inch below the crossbar, those
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: reviews aren't going to be good enough to to tell
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: you that answer most of the time.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: So yeah, on that was really helpful because, as he
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: pointed out that the refs are required to make a
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: split sect second decision there and honestly not necessarily like
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: as a ref you're mostly looking now and I mean
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: not that they're not tracked, but they're they're that's not
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: putting them in the best position to make a call.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: And then it's incredibly overturned. Hard to overturn a call,
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: no matter which direction it is, whether it's called good
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: or no good, like, whatever the call was on the
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: ice is most likely to stand. And so you're putting
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: the refs, you know, like so the it's let it,
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: let them play, let it be a skill play, and
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: let the the goals just count or rely on refs
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: in a really difficult situation, and then rely on a
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: turnover scenario that is, you know, to turn over the
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: call that probably isn't going to turn over a call,
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: like it's just that how that system is set up.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: And in women's arenas we have poor quality video generally,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: So yeah, just all of those things are set up
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: to mean that it's not an ideal situation and so
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: let's at least try this, which I thought was a
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: really good explanation and helped me understand like the thought process.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: Yep, absolutely a little bit of intrigue. They are going
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: into the season a lot of intrigue, as you mentioned,
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: for the season as a whole, which is beginning in
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: the next few days as we're recording this here in
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: the middle of September, we've got the first few games
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: of the season coming up on the nineteenth and twentieth,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: into the twenty first, I believe it was also a game.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: So we'll see how these all all these things happen
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: and what develops out of them over the next couple
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: of weeks here. But we're going to take a quick
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: break when we come back a look at ECAC Hockey.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Stay with us on the podcast. We're back with the
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: podcast Todd Luski and Nicole from us Echo dot Com.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: Let's take a look at ECAC Hockey. Nicole, and this
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: is a league that Cornell won by two points last
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: season over Colegate, really tight battle for that one. Then
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Cornell won the playoff championship also by beating Colegate. So
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: those are the two teams that were going right down
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: the wire in both of those. Cornell also made it
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: to the Frozen Four last season, lost to Ohio State
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: in the semi finals. Are we looking at a repeat
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: in any way? Or do you feel like there's some
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: teams here that might be able to make a run
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: at getting a top four spot, maybe dispatching a Saint
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Lawrence or Clarkson to move into one of those spots.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: So I'm really high on Princeton and they only were
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: rinked sixth in the coaches preseason poll. I just think
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: they're a team that, you know, defensively, offensively, there's there's
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: a lot that they have here in despite starting late
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: with that Ivy League calendar, I think they have a
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: really high ceiling and players like Wonder, who you know,
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: more than tripled her output from last season and goals,
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: are just kind of primed to continue to fill in
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: those roles and do even more than she did last year.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: It is a change year for Princeton though, in that
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Karen Morey is gone as head coach, she left to
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: become GM of the p WHL Vancouver expansion franchise, and
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Courtney Kessel comes in as head coach. How much do
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: you think that maybe puts a little uncertainty into what
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: the Tigers have this season?
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: Well, but Kessel was an assistant with Princeton up until
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: two years ago, Like she coached I is you wonder
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: in her I think freshman year and she coached Kensey
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: Alexander with the U eighteen Canada team, so obviously the
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: just two of the players, which she's got a lot
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: of familiarity with the program with the players obviously there
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: it was like a two year d tour. But I
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: mean she's only going to have grown from that experience
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: and from being a head coach and you know, getting
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: that more attention, And I just think it's kind of
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: an ideal. So if you're going to make that transfer
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: back and pick up a program that you know has
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: is in a really good spot in terms of returning,
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: there shouldn't be a ton of transition like that. It
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: should be that these players are pretty familiar with her,
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: and she's pretty familiar with what was happening here beforehand.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: So obviously she will put her own stamp on it.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: But I think in terms of sort of isolating Princeton
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: saying like they got a new coach and they were
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: in a really good position, like is could that be
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: a problem. No, I just don't think it's going to be.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: With Castle.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Cornell coming back as a defending league champion two times over,
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: it's rail season and playoff champion really have to starting
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: goal there. Anlis bergmann is is coming back off a
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: ninety three save for stay season and just foundationally, you know,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Cornell doesn't change. So it feels like there's a opportunity
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: there again for Cornell to even build on what they
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: did last season and you know, maybe overcome some some
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: personnel losses with even stronger goaltending in defense.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's always going to be the focus with Doug
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: darra right. One of the interesting things with Cornell is,
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: particularly in recent years, you know, they sort of haven't
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: had one standout offensive talent. It's been a lot more
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: balanced up and down the roster, and so they really
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: rely on one person, which is really helpful in terms
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: of like replacing through graduate you know, players that leave
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: and graduate. One thing that I think they're really going
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: to need to focus on or have someone step into
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: that role is sort of that clutch player. They played
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: a lot of close games. That's just the nature of
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: the ECAC. As we said, it's probably going to be
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: even more volatile and sort of like up for grads
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: this year and down to the wire, and in that case,
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: they need the player that's going to score you know,
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: late in the third period or win the game in overtime,
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: and Lily Delianidis and Rory Yilde were two of those
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: players for them, and they both graduated, and so I
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: think they, you know, they really eat out some close wins,
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: and I think they need players that can make that
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: things happen in those big moments. And that's not to
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: say that someone else and the roster can't do that,
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: but I just think we don't know yet if someone
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: will step up and fill that role. Avi Adam and
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: Lindsay Avar were both very good on offense last season.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: I expect that they will continue to improve and be
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: sort of leaders on the team. But yeah, I think
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: until we see if there's sort of another player that
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: can just be that that sees that spotlight it somehow
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: makes them even better than they were and can really
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: step up and take that challenge on. I'm not I'm
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: not that I don't think they're still the top team,
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: but I will feel better about their chances of repeating
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: at the top of the league when we see, you
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: know who, who's the player that can count on in
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: the clutch.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Gate after the season, had they finished fifth in the
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: pair wise, which accurately fifth. Last season, we're still talking
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: about pair wise. This year we'll be talking about NBI.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: But fifth to get put into the four or five
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: game at Minnesota and they lost that by a goal,
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: to just miss out on a frozen four spot. I
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: think when you're talking about a team that returns a
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: fifty one point scorer like Alyssa Biederman, you've got something
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: to build out. Yeah.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: I mean the biggest thing for them is that they're
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: they lost you know, their their scorer in kelton Kova,
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: but also goalie Hannah Murphy, and they they're goalie truo
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: is two sophomores, one who hasn't played at all and
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: a freshman. So I think they've got like a total
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: of eight games of experience in net and so that
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: is going to be the big question mark. Alista Biederman
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: is one of my favorite players. You know, she's like
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: five to one, She's super you know, small and quick
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: and still gets in the dirty areas and does all
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: that stuff. I think a big key for Colgate will
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: be whether Emma Pies I'm sorry if I'm saying that wrong.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure that's correct. If she can maybe take
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: on I don't think anybody needs or expects her to
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: become culty, but Emma is a bigger player, and I
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: think as a contrast to Alissa, they do need a
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: player that's going to go, you know, stake some ground
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: in front of the goal and be able to really
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: control some ice and be a bit more physical. And
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: so I think I think they need that anyway, but
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: especially when you can trast her to to how small
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: Beiederman is and just the fact that Peter will get
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: pushed around a little bit more. But I do think
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: that Emma is somebody that can do that, and I
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: think that Colegate really needs to be even more offensive
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: while their defense figures and stuff out their defense, their
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: goaltending figure some stuff out, just to give them the cushion,
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: because I do think there's just going to be you know,
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: a learning curve there.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: Hey, Lawrence and Clarkson were the third and fourth place
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: teams last season and both made n s A Rman
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: appearances as well. I Saint Lawrence is a team that
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: I think fits in what you're just saying there too,
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: of like a lot of pieces missing, but if you
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: can get goaltending, you have a chance. And with Amma
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Sophie Nordstrom, You've got a chance.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they she had gone into the portal and then
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: withdrew herself, And I feel like every Saint Lawrence fan
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: has to be silently thinking whatever whatever they want to
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: think for that positive because they just they had a
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: lot of graduation, They had some of their best players
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: maybe in program history moving on, and so there's just
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: I think this might have been a generous placement of
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: them in the coach's preseason poll. I just I think
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: they have a lot of question marks that they're going
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: to have to figure out and again just have there's
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: nothing but opportunity, and it's whether or not they're younger
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: players or players that hadn't gotten as much ice time
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: before can can step into those roles and really blossom
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: with more ice time in the opportuit be presented to them.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I think as long as you have them
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: and the Sophie Nordstrom in your net, you are in
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: a really good position. And I think she's just going
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: to give that that the opportunity. Sort of the other direction,
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: right with Colgate, you want the offense to give your
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: defense a chance to to settle it, and then on
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: the other side, I think Nordstrom is just going to
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: give Saint Lawrence's offense a chance to to find their legs,
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: and they won't. They won't hopefully need four or five
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: goals to win a game because she is going to
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: keep both that's more in control for them. But yeah,
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: I very much want Saint Lawrence to keep on the
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: path that they've been on. Right, they're two frozen four
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: appearances in the past in the past two years. I'm
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: sorry to and see a tournament appearances in the last
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: two years. But there's a lot of question marks for
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: them that they have to answer before I will be convinced.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: Clarkson's just gonna say and Clarkson, yeah, but Clarkson has
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: it's the turnover, right, Like they they are consistantly moving
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: in and out, five six, seven players on each side.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: And so that being said, they managed, they've done it
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: for the last couple of years and they still keep
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: getting to where they're getting. So I think in terms
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: of finding getting their team to gel on that sort
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: of stuff, they're they're very good at it. But yeah,
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: the you went to six new players in and eight out,
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: so it's a lot of turnover. It's a lot of change.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: That's not even counting their graduation. They're graduated players, like
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: they graduated their two top scorers.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: In the middle of VCAC hockey last season, the middle
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: four was Yah, Quinnipiac, Yale, Princeton, Brown and And I
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: know you have some thoughts about Brown as a where
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: where does Brown go from here?
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: I don't think it's I don't want to say do
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: word to die, but I do feel like all the
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: glimmers of possibility and like what they're capable of the
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: last few seasons, I think they got to come together
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: this season if they're gonna sort of make all that payoff,
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: you know it Jadagan lizz a senior some of that stuff,
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: and it's obviously not all on her, but I think
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: they you know, they sort of have had a moment
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: where they built a really strong roster and then they've
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: just not always been able to be consistent with it.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: And so they got some big wins last year and
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: really showed I think what they're capable of, but they
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: also left a lot of points on the table, and
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: so I think they just need to be able to
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: close out those close games, win those overtime games, win
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: those one goal games, not give up, late goals, all
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: the sort of this little stuff that takes you from
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: a middle team to a top of the table. I
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: still don't think they're probably not pushing, you know, for
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: a one, two three spot, but I do think that
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: they could finish and probably should finish top of the standings,
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: a top half of the standings in the ECAC. I
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: really want it for them. I just They've been fun
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: to watch, It's been cool. It's always nice to see
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: a program that has struggled in the recent pass sort
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: of start to put the things together and you see
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: the culture grow and you see, you know, the talent
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: come in, and so I just for for them. I
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: would like to see it all come to fruition ye.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Autumn four. Last season was Union renst layer Dartmouth and Harvard,
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: and Union is moving into a new arena this season,
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: the twenty two hundred seat and T Bank Center. I
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: always think that there's a little bit of a boost
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: for a program when there's something new, like an arena
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: coming on board, because you start talking about, well, we've
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: got something new to show recruits, We've got really cool
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: you know, team spaces, those kinds of things that can
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: start making a difference. I don't know if you see
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: that right away necessarily, but it does feel like Union
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: has something they can they can build on here. You know,
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: no pun intended with a new building to try and
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: you know, kind of reverse a little bit of a slide.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: It's hard with Union for me and you know, my
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: tenancy to be crouchy about these sorts of things. But
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: the men's program there, you know, has had their sort
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: of their big they had their they won the title
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: right a couple I mean, probably more than a couple
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: of years at this point. I always think thirteen, I
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: caught myself, but just it's I mean, you know, the
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: one when the title and the woman the women around
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: that same time had a you know, a winless season
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: and so it's like, ugh, so I I mean, I
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: feel like, I I'm glad that the women are getting
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: you know, getting something out of this as well, and
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: I hope that it's a boost.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: I like the improvement.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: They're in that situation where we talked about like sort
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: of with like the Minnesota States and Saint Cloud's in
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: w h right where they're like they have shown some improvement,
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: but the jump needed to really like see that in
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: the standings and see that in more wins is just
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: really hard to do in their conference. And so one
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: of the things that I like from them is that,
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: like their best players last year were youngins. They were
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: all underclassmen, and so they're returning, you know, players that
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: I think can just help their their offense grow. I
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: think they've done a really good job on defense and
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: not giving up as much, and so now they've got
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: to find that next step of putting a few more
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: goals in the net, and you know, that's what leads
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: to wins. I know it's obviously overly over simplification, but
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: when you're trying to build from the ground up, I think,
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: you know, first you got to shore up your defense
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: and not be giving up as much, and then you
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: got to start, you know, finding a way to like
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: have a purposeful offense and not an offense that just
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: like sometimes takes the puck up the ice. And so
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: I think that's where they're at, and I think they
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: just need one or two more players that can step
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: up and so it's not so one dimensional and so
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: that they are really like possessing the puck and moving
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: the puck and like having an offense that is going
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: to give their opponents difficulties defending.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: So you said before ECAC Hockey had four teams in
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: the NCAA Tournament last season. Cornell colegate Saint Lawrence Clarkson,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Do you foresee the same number fewer more this season?
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: What if you had to guess what, what would you
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: say is being the forecast for how many teams ECC
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: gets in the NCAA's this year.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: I think the safe bed is four, in the outside
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: is five. Again. Like I said, I'm high and Princeton
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: and I think that, you know, things have to go
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: right for them, But I do think that they're a
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: team that could be pushing towards that this season and
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: get just sort of all those bits coming together. So
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: I could see them being five, particularly because I think
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: the Hockey East is going to beat up on each
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: other a little bit, and I think we're going to
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: see a single Hockey East team. There's just always chaos
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: there and unfortunately no one seems to like really rack
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: up the points needed to be to be higher than that.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: And so yeah, I don't I don't know. I mean,
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: I said at the beginning, I don't like predicting things,
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: and we've got so many question marks this year. But
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: I think just looking at knowing that those top fourteens
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: are probably the same and are going to keep doing
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: what they do because they've been doing it for several years,
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: and then me thinking that Princeton can do what they do.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: I think we're at five.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: I don't know, and that would be pretty remarkable for
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Princeton to make that jump from a they would yeah,
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: seventh place finished to a the NCAA Tournament, but yeah,
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: that would be an impressive movement year over years.
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: I'm willing things into I think that I really well,
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: I've always said I love chaos, and I think that
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: I have been looking at this season is just like
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: a lot more doors open. I think that any no
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: team is going to have the opportunity to dominate in
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: any sort of way. I think it's just going to
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: be even more wide open because I think it's not
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: just missing one or two key players. It's about having
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: to put second or third liners in your in your
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: power play or your penalty kill. It's about players that
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: haven't had a lot of minutes having to play different roles,
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: and so it's not just the adjustment of one person
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: being out or not having sort of their talent, but
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: also the adjustment of putting somebody else or like do
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: you completely reshuffle your lines or do you just go
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: one for one? Like all of that chemistry stuff is
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: the bit that I think is going to make this
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: season fun to watch in what's going to be fun
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: to watch as it unfolds, because I just I think
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: the way that a team adapts is going to be
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: the biggest key to this season. And so I think
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: the team that is returning a lot of their players
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: isn't going to spend a bunch of their season trying
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: to figure out that bit, the like brand new roster,
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: taking out, the taking out the people are going to leave.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: Just any team that doesn't have to spend a lot
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: of time getting their roster together, it is going to
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: be in a really good position.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: Okay, Well that's our look at ECAC Hockey and that
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: is our first episode of the twenty twenty five twenty
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: sixth season here on the podcast. We hope you will
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: stop back with us for the next episode, which will
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: be priving two more of the NCAA conferences, and we'll
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: be starting a more regular weekly look at what happened
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: and what is going to happen possibly around the league
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: in the coming weeks. For Nicole hose On Todd Lusky,
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: thanks for listening to the podcast.