Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Previewing Hockey East, Atlantic Hockey 2025-26 women's hockey seasons

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Previewing Hockey East, Atlantic Hockey 2025-26 women's hockey seasons · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

0:03
Speaker 1: Usccho dot com. Hi, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
0:13
Speaker 1: Todd Maleski here when Nical Hosey from uscho dot com.
0:16
Speaker 1: And in today's episode, we're going to take a look
0:19
Speaker 1: at two more of the NCAA women's hockey conferences, Hockey
0:23
Speaker 1: East and Atlantic Hockey for the twenty twenty five to
0:26
Speaker 1: twenty sixth season. And let's start in Hockey East, where
0:30
Speaker 1: last season was the It was the closest race of
0:33
Speaker 1: any of the five conferences at the end of the season,
0:38
Speaker 1: Yukon beating out B You on the final day of
0:40
Speaker 1: the season by one point. Of course, BU got some revenge,
0:44
Speaker 1: well not necessarily directly, but b You got the playoff
0:48
Speaker 1: championship to become the only Hockey East team to make
0:51
Speaker 1: the NCAA tournament last season. The coaches have predicted Yukon
0:59
Speaker 1: to be be You again this season in the coach's poll,
1:03
Speaker 1: So Nicole has start there is that a looking like
1:08
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a repeat race for what we saw
1:11
Speaker 1: last year between Yukon and BU.
1:14
Speaker 2: Well, the most intriguing thing to me in this conference
1:17
Speaker 2: is that be You managed to pull Michelle Paseechnik back
1:20
Speaker 2: out of retirement. I guess and back into the college
1:24
Speaker 2: net for one more season, and so presuming that she
1:27
Speaker 2: is still the top tier goalie that she was when
1:30
Speaker 2: she finished four years at Clerk said, not this past season,
1:33
Speaker 2: but the season before. That gives them a huge edge
1:36
Speaker 2: because I feel like what had Connecticut had going for
1:39
Speaker 2: them was a great goaltending duo and now obviously still
1:43
Speaker 2: one graduated, but they still have a great goalie in net,
1:46
Speaker 2: and so that's an interesting equalizer, right, So I think
1:50
Speaker 2: that's what's gonna make that race the most interesting. And
1:53
Speaker 2: I think if we assume that Passeechnik is still the
1:57
Speaker 2: top tier goalie, then like I said, I think that
1:59
Speaker 2: puts b ahead. They just, you know, I think they
2:03
Speaker 2: took a lot of momentum, even after, you know, getting
2:06
Speaker 2: knocked out of the UNCA tournament. I think they just
2:08
Speaker 2: took a lot of momentum out of that and really
2:11
Speaker 2: like wanting their program to be where it maybe had
2:14
Speaker 2: been in the past. And so I think there might
2:17
Speaker 2: not be a team hungrier than be you. And then
2:20
Speaker 2: they just added this really important piece.
2:24
Speaker 1: It's a I would really love to know the backstory
2:29
Speaker 1: of how that came about, and maybe Tyra Washhorn will
2:34
Speaker 1: let us in on it at some point over this
2:36
Speaker 1: season or some of the players. But that, I mean
2:40
Speaker 1: just feels like it could be a game changer in
2:44
Speaker 1: terms of how you're I feel.
2:46
Speaker 2: Like every coach is that if I known she was available.
2:50
Speaker 1: Right, if they're players like this that are just out
2:52
Speaker 1: there that you're like, oh, yeah, I've got a season left,
2:56
Speaker 1: bring it in, right.
2:57
Speaker 2: I mean, it was fascinating that she chose, you know,
3:00
Speaker 2: sort of to retire and not continue her college career,
3:03
Speaker 2: knowing that she could have gone pro or she had
3:05
Speaker 2: a year of eligibility left and she chose to walk away.
3:08
Speaker 2: And so you know, she had her reasons and maybe
3:11
Speaker 2: she'll share them and maybe she won't, and that's on her.
3:14
Speaker 2: She gets to she gets to make those decisions. But
3:16
Speaker 2: it is super interesting that she's back and the game
3:20
Speaker 2: is better for it. She's just she's really good, you guys.
3:25
Speaker 1: And adds to a really decorated list of goalies in
3:30
Speaker 1: Hockey East this season. Players coming back from last season
3:33
Speaker 1: you mentioned at Yukontia Chan had a great season again,
3:39
Speaker 1: Lisa Johnson at Northeastern. These are players that have shown
3:44
Speaker 1: they can, over the course of a season, be dependable
3:49
Speaker 1: for their teams and win some big games. And it
3:52
Speaker 1: felt like Hockey East was a defensive league last season.
3:56
Speaker 1: And I looked back at the stats and there was
4:00
Speaker 1: only one twenty goal scorer of all of the Hockey
4:03
Speaker 1: East teams and that was Julia Pellerin from Boston College,
4:07
Speaker 1: who has transferred this season down the road to Yukon.
4:10
Speaker 1: So staying within the league, but a different look there.
4:14
Speaker 1: So do you think we're looking at a league that
4:18
Speaker 1: could be more more offensive this season or are we
4:21
Speaker 1: still looking at a Hockey East that's rooted in defense.
4:27
Speaker 2: That's a really good question. I think I want it
4:30
Speaker 2: to be more rooted in offense. I think I don't
4:33
Speaker 2: know if that. This league can frustrate me at times
4:37
Speaker 2: because games you think a team should just handle and win,
4:42
Speaker 2: they often lose. And I love how competitive that is
4:46
Speaker 2: and I love that there is like sort of never
4:49
Speaker 2: a given game for them, but I also feel like
4:51
Speaker 2: when you're the top one or two teams in your conference,
4:53
Speaker 2: you shouldn't be losing those kinds of games. And part
4:55
Speaker 2: of that is because it's not an overly offensive might league.
4:59
Speaker 2: You're just not seeing five so there aren't The games
5:02
Speaker 2: are all close, right, not seeing that many goals and
5:04
Speaker 2: so for me, I hope that we're seeing a bit
5:07
Speaker 2: more offense. But again, as you mentioned, like three of
5:10
Speaker 2: the best goalies you know in the country right off
5:13
Speaker 2: the top of the bat, without even sort of talking
5:15
Speaker 2: about anybody that's not in the conversation for Goalie of
5:17
Speaker 2: the year. So yeah, it's it's gonna be interesting. But
5:21
Speaker 2: you know, Johnson could miss time for the Olympics, and
5:23
Speaker 2: so thats again another could she and that would make
5:27
Speaker 2: a big difference, you know. So Northeastern is bringing in,
5:31
Speaker 2: you know, a very good goalie who off the top
5:34
Speaker 2: of my head, I'm not remembering, but they're just you know,
5:37
Speaker 2: there's gonna be there. There's gonna be a lot of
5:41
Speaker 2: difficult defenses this season, right.
5:44
Speaker 1: It seems like it's going to be the way. And
5:46
Speaker 1: maybe it's just the the style that these coaches, this
5:50
Speaker 1: group of hockey's coaches prefers, and that's the way it
5:55
Speaker 1: turns out, or maybe this is just a blip in
5:57
Speaker 1: these few years of hockey that we're seeing teams that
6:01
Speaker 1: are built from the the goal out first and primarily
6:06
Speaker 1: playing to make sure they keep their goals against low.
6:12
Speaker 1: I I don't know that Hockey East necessarily makes a
6:16
Speaker 1: big jump in the national picture, however, without having a
6:22
Speaker 1: little bit more when you go into some non conference games,
6:25
Speaker 1: being able to get the three or four goals in
6:27
Speaker 1: some of those and having some more you know, elite
6:32
Speaker 1: forwards carrying the load there. And so that is where
6:36
Speaker 1: I do wonder whether Hockey East stays a one bid
6:41
Speaker 1: team in the NCAA tournament because of that that I
6:47
Speaker 1: don't know if reliance is the right word, but that
6:51
Speaker 1: that style that we see of it being defense heavy.
6:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and I think too just like you
6:58
Speaker 2: look at you know, Conference why Yukon was what nineteen
7:02
Speaker 2: and six, and they pull out all of their overtime wins,
7:07
Speaker 2: but like they had a win percentage of seven sixteen,
7:10
Speaker 2: like that is fairly low for a conference topping team,
7:14
Speaker 2: and sore as you mentioned, they're not getting sort of
7:17
Speaker 2: the boost from those non conference wins. And then they're also,
7:20
Speaker 2: you know, as a conference, taking a lot of losses
7:23
Speaker 2: within themselves. And so when you're seeing that happen, it's
7:27
Speaker 2: it's really hard to make make up ground, particularly when
7:32
Speaker 2: the strength of schedule within other conferences it's just higher.
7:37
Speaker 1: Let's take a look around league we had mentioned Yukon
7:40
Speaker 1: and BU and b You I not to stay on
7:44
Speaker 1: the Terriers for too long, but look at their route
7:47
Speaker 1: through the playoffs last season. Had to beat Vermont in overtime,
7:50
Speaker 1: had to beat BC and double overtime, had to beat
7:53
Speaker 1: Northeastern in overtime to win the champions chapar.
7:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were had all the horseshoes, lucky clovers.
8:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, very well said. But Boston College and Providence also
8:05
Speaker 1: in the top four, and then you had Northeastern at fifth,
8:08
Speaker 1: which was a surprising finish just historically for Northeastern, a
8:13
Speaker 1: team that's used to being in the NCAA tournaments and
8:16
Speaker 1: being you know, getting to frozen fours and championship games.
8:20
Speaker 1: Do you feel like Northeastern has a bounce back in
8:23
Speaker 1: the cards this season.
8:25
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a good question. Well, part of the problem
8:29
Speaker 2: is Northeastern is one of those rosters that has quite
8:31
Speaker 2: a few European players that may or may not spend
8:35
Speaker 2: time away. They have a decent number of those, some
8:37
Speaker 2: of their you know, Tuva Candle and some of their
8:40
Speaker 2: interesting incoming roster as well. So I don't know. I mean,
8:46
Speaker 2: I think it's hard to ever want to count them out.
8:50
Speaker 2: You know, they're also bringing in a couple of U
8:55
Speaker 2: eight team players that have been that showed themselves off
8:57
Speaker 2: really well. And so I don't know, but I think
9:01
Speaker 2: they're They've got I think a good four or five
9:04
Speaker 2: players that could be playing, you know, in the Olympics,
9:06
Speaker 2: and that that's just going to make it hard for
9:09
Speaker 2: them to sort of regroup and come back together this season.
9:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, And if you didn't hear our first episode talking
9:17
Speaker 1: about some of the bigger picture items and the ECAC preview,
9:21
Speaker 1: we talked about the the Olympics and the impact that
9:24
Speaker 1: that's going to have on rosters this season, and you
9:27
Speaker 1: know the fact that there's gonna be players coming coming
9:30
Speaker 1: and going from their college teams for and or for
9:33
Speaker 1: Olympic international duties. And so yeah, this, uh, if that
9:39
Speaker 1: you know, impacts Northeastern that I don't know that you know,
9:45
Speaker 1: they're necessarily moving up a ton because coaches picked them
9:49
Speaker 1: for third, which I feel like is a leaning on
9:52
Speaker 1: a little bit of history and leaning on a little
9:54
Speaker 1: bit of Lisa Johnson and goal and and leaning on
9:59
Speaker 1: the fact that you know, Dave Flint teams don't generally
10:03
Speaker 1: stay in fifth place for long and so I would
10:08
Speaker 1: I guess I'd like to give them the benefit of
10:10
Speaker 1: the doubt that there's there may be more coming there.
10:15
Speaker 1: I just don't know that. Like what you're saying with
10:18
Speaker 1: the Olympics, Eh, it feels like there's there's that uncertainty
10:23
Speaker 1: is really really powerful there.
10:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I would like to say too. The one
10:29
Speaker 2: of the reasons I like we're being particularly vague, and
10:31
Speaker 2: we did bring this up a bit in the last episode,
10:33
Speaker 2: is that we don't have rosters. I believe they're allowed
10:37
Speaker 2: to start with thirty in the international teams and have
10:39
Speaker 2: to be down to twenty three by the Olympics. Does
10:41
Speaker 2: that sound correct? And so we have players that have
10:44
Speaker 2: been in camps and have played on national teams at
10:48
Speaker 2: various tournaments, but we don't know whether or not they
10:51
Speaker 2: will make either that group of thirty or the group
10:53
Speaker 2: of twenty three until like on Northeastern, for example, Lisa
10:57
Speaker 2: Johnson may or may not make that group. I expect
11:01
Speaker 2: Eloise Kron will be with France who got moved into
11:05
Speaker 2: the Olympics because of Russia not being allowed and to Macindele,
11:09
Speaker 2: I believe is someone that will regularly be with her
11:12
Speaker 2: Swedish team as well. But so it's not even what
11:16
Speaker 2: the unknown of whether or not of what the non
11:19
Speaker 2: centralization looks like, but also the unknown of whether these
11:21
Speaker 2: players would like make a thirty person roster but then
11:24
Speaker 2: maybe come back and not make a twenty three person roster.
11:27
Speaker 2: Will they get named to the thirty person roster at all?
11:30
Speaker 2: Even those numbers, like we're just we're in this state
11:33
Speaker 2: of like we think they're gonna play with their national team,
11:36
Speaker 2: but we don't know, And so that that leaves a
11:39
Speaker 2: lot of Like I mean, for Northeastern who graduated Skyler Irving,
11:45
Speaker 2: Eloise is their number one returning scorer, so whether or
11:48
Speaker 2: not she's gonna be around a lot is a big difference.
11:50
Speaker 2: And as we keep talking about Lisa right like is
11:53
Speaker 2: she gonna make that larger group we don't know.
11:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's I didn't mean the gloss over Boston College
12:02
Speaker 1: in Providence as the third and fourth place teams last season,
12:06
Speaker 1: but they're picked behind Northeastern this season. So that's why
12:09
Speaker 1: I kind of moved past them first. But those those
12:12
Speaker 1: two teams have some some scoring coming back, and I
12:16
Speaker 1: think that's a potential positive for them. Reckon kirk Mayor
12:22
Speaker 1: at Providence, the leading returning scorer in Hockey East is
12:27
Speaker 1: from Providence. Audrey Napp also right up there. She had
12:30
Speaker 1: thirty five points. Sammy Tabor for Boston College back after
12:35
Speaker 1: scoring thirty six points. And there's some there's some players
12:38
Speaker 1: there that can be top line drivers of offense. It's
12:42
Speaker 1: just is there enough, I guess to sustain the rest
12:46
Speaker 1: of the lineup.
12:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, in Boston College, as you mentioned, Julia Pellerin going
12:51
Speaker 2: to Yukon and Molly Jordan transferred out to Minnesota, and
12:54
Speaker 2: so they do have some really great returning talent, but
12:56
Speaker 2: they also have to do some retooling and some shuffling,
12:59
Speaker 2: and so just how how that comes together and then
13:03
Speaker 2: see it. We were talking about bu but Alex log
13:06
Speaker 2: leaving to Quinnipayak, but they are bringing in Greta Henderson
13:09
Speaker 2: from Saint Claude State. So it'd be interesting to see
13:12
Speaker 2: that wch in to Hockey East. That's not a transfer
13:14
Speaker 2: we see a ton of or haven't seen a ton of,
13:17
Speaker 2: So it could be fun to see how she, you know,
13:20
Speaker 2: handles just the different way the game is called, in
13:23
Speaker 2: the different way the game is played, So that could
13:25
Speaker 2: be fun too.
13:28
Speaker 1: I should mention here that Nicole has a really good
13:30
Speaker 1: piece up on us echo dot com taking a look
13:33
Speaker 1: at the comings and goings of players through the transfer
13:36
Speaker 1: portal and through graduation or as well as coaching changes
13:41
Speaker 1: of both head coaches and assistant coaches. So make sure
13:45
Speaker 1: you check that out. We'll get that link in the
13:47
Speaker 1: show notes here as well. Then we're down to the
13:53
Speaker 1: bottom half of hockey switches. I mean, I gotta admit
13:57
Speaker 1: there's a lot of question marks I have there about
14:01
Speaker 1: who can make a jump, who can get into the
14:04
Speaker 1: top half of Hockey's We're talking about Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
14:07
Speaker 1: holy Cross, Merrimac. It it feels like, well, the coaches
14:14
Speaker 1: have picked those teams in some order to be the
14:17
Speaker 1: bottom five again. And I don't know that I have
14:22
Speaker 1: a way of disagreeing with that from what I see
14:25
Speaker 1: on paper.
14:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think there's sent kind of some
14:29
Speaker 2: very clear tiers. If you look at the votes in
14:31
Speaker 2: the Coach's preseason poll, which is that Yukon MPU were
14:34
Speaker 2: both got eighty points, Northeastern got eighty some Northeastern got
14:38
Speaker 2: seventy six BC and Providence we're in the sixties. And
14:41
Speaker 2: then we go down at six to New Hampshire, at
14:43
Speaker 2: forty four, Maine and Vermont with forty one points apiece.
14:47
Speaker 2: So it's like there's these bands and it's the jump
14:49
Speaker 2: the point difference between, Like there appears to be a
14:52
Speaker 2: very clear sort of thought process on like where where
14:55
Speaker 2: these teams fall in the pecking order. But to me
14:58
Speaker 2: that means that like New Hampshire Main and for have
15:00
Speaker 2: a ton to prove. I think there's you know, space
15:03
Speaker 2: for them as we've talked about some of the things
15:05
Speaker 2: that like like BC has a lot to figure out,
15:07
Speaker 2: So I think there's a chance for both Providence to
15:09
Speaker 2: move up and then these three as well. And again
15:12
Speaker 2: it's what it comes down to for me in Hockey
15:14
Speaker 2: East is there is always opportunity, there are always open doors,
15:18
Speaker 2: and there just doesn't always seem to be a team
15:20
Speaker 2: willing to take those opportunities or having the hunger to
15:24
Speaker 2: grasp those opportunities. And that's what I think makes the difference.
15:28
Speaker 2: So which one of those teams is gonna you know,
15:31
Speaker 2: see that there's there's big changes this season, and there's
15:33
Speaker 2: there's games that are winnable and points that can be
15:36
Speaker 2: picked up and make those moves. I guess.
15:41
Speaker 1: I don't know if we were last season at this
15:43
Speaker 1: point talking about bu as a NCAA tournament team. So right, there's.
15:49
Speaker 2: Remember they had that spectacular first weekend or early weekend
15:53
Speaker 2: series at Minnesota, and you went, oh, that's what happened
15:58
Speaker 2: last year, Like nobody was really talking about them, and
16:00
Speaker 2: then yeah, it was sort of like hey, there, uh so.
16:04
Speaker 1: That's the that's the part that's out there. Yeah, that's
16:07
Speaker 1: that's what's out there. Is like, well, okay, that's maybe
16:10
Speaker 1: it's not one of those teams in the bottom half
16:12
Speaker 1: of the league, but there's there's always that chance that
16:16
Speaker 1: there you get the right mix of players together, you
16:19
Speaker 1: get a good goalie, you find some success early, and
16:24
Speaker 1: see where it goes. That's that's to me is what
16:27
Speaker 1: always is entertaining about the start of a season is
16:31
Speaker 1: that you could get someone that gets hot and all
16:34
Speaker 1: of a sudden goes from a Well I wasn't expecting
16:37
Speaker 1: to have them in the discussion of you know, bracketology
16:40
Speaker 1: at the end of the season, but we're going to
16:43
Speaker 1: have them there.
16:44
Speaker 2: And let's be honest, the coaches pulls the USHO poll
16:48
Speaker 2: and the USA Hockey Pole like everybody's just guessing we're
16:51
Speaker 2: using last year's results we any given season, we're doing that.
16:56
Speaker 2: This year, there's so many more question marks, Like some
17:00
Speaker 2: of this can be guidelines, but also every team could
17:02
Speaker 2: blow this out of the water and be like you
17:04
Speaker 2: were wrong. So like we talk about it, you know,
17:08
Speaker 2: and I do think it is a good place to
17:09
Speaker 2: start from. But I also think that any of these
17:12
Speaker 2: teams just have this opportunity to take that personally, to show,
17:16
Speaker 2: you know, the growth that they've had, to show the
17:18
Speaker 2: work they did in the off season, to really buy
17:21
Speaker 2: into what their coaches are trying to do. And you know,
17:24
Speaker 2: I don't. I can't make a lot of noise on
17:26
Speaker 2: my computer. You're all gonna hear it. So I didn't
17:28
Speaker 2: go looking up. But a BU was not ranked at
17:30
Speaker 2: the they were not picked to do well at the
17:32
Speaker 2: beginning of less season. Let's put it that way in
17:34
Speaker 2: their coach's paul. So you know, proof I'm wrong is
17:37
Speaker 2: kind of like I feel like that was a blueprint
17:39
Speaker 2: for like it doesn't have to be, Like just because
17:41
Speaker 2: that's what everybody thinks it's going to be, doesn't mean
17:43
Speaker 2: that's what it has to be.
17:46
Speaker 1: Have that here somewhere in one of my Notebooks's see
17:49
Speaker 1: if I can find it last season, Hockey East bus
17:53
Speaker 1: picked for fifth. So there you have it.
17:57
Speaker 2: The inside baseball on this is that we got some
18:00
Speaker 2: new equipment and we're testing out this time. But it
18:02
Speaker 2: turns out it records every little noise and so I
18:05
Speaker 2: will not be typing up in questions into Google while
18:08
Speaker 2: we're recording it at the moment, and so apologies for
18:11
Speaker 2: not having that.
18:13
Speaker 1: I will just reach over a bunch of things and
18:15
Speaker 1: grab something off of my bookshelf because yeah, for some
18:18
Speaker 1: reason I had that within arms distance. All right, So
18:23
Speaker 1: one last question for Hockey East, same question that we
18:27
Speaker 1: ended with with ECAC in our last episode last season.
18:31
Speaker 1: One NCAA tournament bid can't be less? Is he gonna
18:35
Speaker 1: be the same or is it gonna be more?
18:38
Speaker 2: I can't imagine it's going to be more, both on
18:41
Speaker 2: its own and because if I'm picking five for ECAC,
18:45
Speaker 2: that doesn't leave room. But right, I just think, like
18:50
Speaker 2: what we saw at the end of last season with
18:52
Speaker 2: this right where they were nobody the top team couldn't
18:56
Speaker 2: pull out the win at the end, no one team
18:58
Speaker 2: was taking control, and so dropping those points just is
19:03
Speaker 2: always going to mean that they're not going to be
19:05
Speaker 2: at play in the National Conversation. I think even a
19:09
Speaker 2: number two team in Hockey East that is that like
19:13
Speaker 2: has a very good season, if there's like a clear
19:15
Speaker 2: one in two and they're winning like a good majority
19:17
Speaker 2: of the points available to them, I still think that's
19:20
Speaker 2: a team that is going to struggle to really crack
19:23
Speaker 2: that NPI conversation just because they don't have as many
19:28
Speaker 2: ring teams, They're not getting that same strength of schedule.
19:30
Speaker 2: So if you're going to be a team that's going
19:32
Speaker 2: to make that kind of run, then you also have
19:34
Speaker 2: to be doing those non conference games against ring opponents
19:38
Speaker 2: and pulling points there. So I just think the nature
19:40
Speaker 2: of that league right now makes it really hard to
19:43
Speaker 2: talk about a second team. Do you see it differently?
19:46
Speaker 1: I don't, because I if I'm thinking about it, I'm
19:51
Speaker 1: looking at it the same way that it shook out
19:55
Speaker 1: last year. I'm thinking for or let's say the and
20:00
Speaker 1: WHA split eight teams and then you've got the three
20:04
Speaker 1: auto bids from the other conferences. Now the Olympics could
20:11
Speaker 1: change that. That the the roster juggling or however you
20:16
Speaker 1: want to call it, that's gonna have to go on.
20:18
Speaker 1: There is I will guarantee you gonna cost some teams
20:22
Speaker 1: some games, but sure enough, probably not.
20:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't think we're gonna see a
20:28
Speaker 2: runaway team at all, right, Like we're not going to
20:32
Speaker 2: see a team with only one or two losses all season.
20:34
Speaker 2: It's just not gonna happen in any conference.
20:37
Speaker 1: Yep. But we've been surprised before and I'm sure we'll
20:41
Speaker 1: be surprised again, maybe even this year, and maybe even
20:44
Speaker 1: by Hockey East. That is our look at Hockey East.
20:47
Speaker 1: When we come back, we will take a look at
20:49
Speaker 1: Atlantic Hockey America. Stay with us on the podcast. Welcome
20:59
Speaker 1: back to the podcast. Todd Lawski here with Nicole Hasey.
21:03
Speaker 1: Let's look at Atlantic Hockey America. Nicole, the former CHA
21:08
Speaker 1: as it was once known, and I believe this is
21:13
Speaker 1: the second year. Correct. Yes, the naming of Atlantic Hockey
21:16
Speaker 1: and the name changed, but the dominant team did not.
21:21
Speaker 1: Penn State ran away with the title last season regular season,
21:26
Speaker 1: won the playoffs and made it to the NCAA Tournament.
21:33
Speaker 1: Is there any reason to suspect that twenty five twenty
21:38
Speaker 1: six will be any different at the top of Atlantic Hockey.
21:43
Speaker 2: The reason the no I was trying to I mean, uh,
21:48
Speaker 2: Tessa Janiki going to the Olympics changes the dynamic quite
21:52
Speaker 2: a bit, but I still think I mean, they lost
21:56
Speaker 2: one game last year and it was like the second
21:58
Speaker 2: to the last weekend of the seas of the season,
22:00
Speaker 2: and it was to Mercy Hurst, the only the number
22:03
Speaker 2: two team. So I don't think that boades well for
22:07
Speaker 2: the rest of the season for anyone else in ah.
22:10
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, And we over the last few seasons have
22:15
Speaker 1: really seen the the emergence of Testa Janicky as a
22:21
Speaker 1: a high international level player. What we saw her do
22:25
Speaker 1: at the World Championships, you know, scoring an overtime goal
22:28
Speaker 1: to win a gold medal is going to live on
22:30
Speaker 1: forever for her. Now it's it's a matter of can
22:37
Speaker 1: can she get a little bit more exposure for herself
22:40
Speaker 1: and for Penn State when she's playing at Penn State.
22:43
Speaker 1: Obviously she's gonna have fewer chances for that this year
22:45
Speaker 1: with Tyle off to be with the international side of things.
22:49
Speaker 1: But I do wonder whether there's there's more that Penn
22:55
Speaker 1: State can do in terms of you know, scratching out
22:58
Speaker 1: a few more non conference wins or or you know,
23:01
Speaker 1: finding more of a even a higher level to get
23:07
Speaker 1: to in terms of dominating Atlantic hockey.
23:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't know at this point. You know,
23:16
Speaker 2: one of the things Penn State did really well as
23:18
Speaker 2: they were building up the program was those non conference
23:21
Speaker 2: games and just really building up their their resumes so
23:23
Speaker 2: that if they did not get the conference autobed, they
23:26
Speaker 2: were still in conversations at the national level. I don't
23:30
Speaker 2: think that's as much of a concern. I still think,
23:32
Speaker 2: you know, the auto bid is sort of theirs to lose.
23:35
Speaker 2: I think sort of the secondary storyline here for me,
23:39
Speaker 2: for them is I mean, getting Tessagianniky to go there
23:44
Speaker 2: to commit to them was a huge get.
23:47
Speaker 1: And so.
23:49
Speaker 2: I want to say, like this is literally like fully
23:52
Speaker 2: with no offense to the rest of her teammates, but
23:54
Speaker 2: like Tessa's obviously just at another level she was as
23:57
Speaker 2: an incoming freshman, and she has improved significantly sent then,
24:01
Speaker 2: and so I don't think, I hope nobody is offended
24:04
Speaker 2: when I say, like she she's an elite level player
24:06
Speaker 2: and the rest of the roster is not at that level,
24:09
Speaker 2: and so can they leverage her having come there and
24:13
Speaker 2: become the player she is over her time there into
24:16
Speaker 2: getting other big name recruits because while her team has
24:21
Speaker 2: been very good around her, and she's not the only
24:23
Speaker 2: reason that they have been a very good team the
24:25
Speaker 2: past few seasons. A she's gonna graduate, but be like,
24:29
Speaker 2: you can't build a program on a single player. And
24:32
Speaker 2: so for them, I think it's not that winning isn't
24:36
Speaker 2: the goal or the but I think it can't be
24:39
Speaker 2: the only goal anymore, especially when it sort of has
24:41
Speaker 2: been coming so easy to them, And so like, what
24:43
Speaker 2: can they do to keep building the program's prominence to
24:47
Speaker 2: make sure that they're at that level sort of forever, yeah,
24:53
Speaker 2: at infinite right, Like just to make sure that like
24:56
Speaker 2: when Tessa jan and he graduates, that's not sort of
24:58
Speaker 2: the end of state as a program. We talk about
25:02
Speaker 2: sort of at that national level, it means something to
25:05
Speaker 2: have a player of her caliber with their university name
25:09
Speaker 2: beside it, when she's on a roster, when she's introduced,
25:12
Speaker 2: when she's talking about at the Olympics, at World Championships,
25:15
Speaker 2: things like that, And so I think it maybe is
25:18
Speaker 2: like mercenary to talk about it like that, but they,
25:21
Speaker 2: you know, I think they need to leverage that, like
25:23
Speaker 2: this is a player we brought here. Look how good
25:24
Speaker 2: she's been, how much she's grown through her time here.
25:29
Speaker 2: We were a part of that. That's that can happen
25:31
Speaker 2: for you at our program. I mean, she was setting
25:33
Speaker 2: program scoring records like her junior year, right like midway
25:36
Speaker 2: through her junior year. So I think that they're beyond
25:40
Speaker 2: just what they're going to accomplish wins and losses, you know,
25:44
Speaker 2: national tournament first, things like that. This season, I think
25:47
Speaker 2: one of the things that they have to do is
25:50
Speaker 2: really be leveraging the fact that they're going to have
25:54
Speaker 2: one of the best players in the world at the Olympics.
25:57
Speaker 2: You know that there's got to be a big push
26:00
Speaker 2: and using that to their advantage.
26:02
Speaker 1: It's a great point, and it's also reminds me too
26:05
Speaker 1: that they have other things that they can use. It's
26:07
Speaker 1: as leverage that they've got an incredible facility that will
26:12
Speaker 1: host this year the Frozen Four for the second time
26:16
Speaker 1: and get a little bit of exposure that way. I
26:19
Speaker 1: do wonder So that was trying to think of which
26:24
Speaker 1: year it was as a twenty twenty two, the first
26:27
Speaker 1: year that it hosted the Frozen four after the last
26:33
Speaker 1: State one.
26:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was the year after the.
26:37
Speaker 1: After the COVID one, Right, so that twenty twenty two,
26:40
Speaker 1: so basically it's four years later. I would say Penn
26:45
Speaker 1: State is in a much different position as a program
26:49
Speaker 1: that it was then. I don't know if I'm willing
26:53
Speaker 1: to go yet to they have a chance to be
26:58
Speaker 1: one of the four teams playing in the Frozen Four.
27:04
Speaker 1: I would. I know they're in the conversation because they're
27:08
Speaker 1: in you know, last season, they were in the top
27:11
Speaker 1: eight for a lot of the year, right in terms
27:13
Speaker 1: of pair wise, and I think when you're there, you've
27:17
Speaker 1: given yourself a chance. How it turns out, you don't know.
27:23
Speaker 1: But when you get into that game one game to
27:25
Speaker 1: get to the Frozen Four, anything can happen. I just
27:28
Speaker 1: don't know if I necessarily see it happening yet this year.
27:34
Speaker 2: No, But again, I think that's just more sort of
27:36
Speaker 2: the leverage, right, like you want you can bring in
27:38
Speaker 2: recruits as you start putting up you know, NCAA promotion materials.
27:43
Speaker 2: I think that there's just a lot there that they
27:45
Speaker 2: can do. I mean, I do think they do a
27:48
Speaker 2: very good job with their schedule, but I think there's
27:49
Speaker 2: probably just some limitations of being an AHA team and
27:53
Speaker 2: like what how much of a boost that can give
27:56
Speaker 2: them in terms of like be a team prepared for
28:02
Speaker 2: that national tournament, right, Like they've made it, but they
28:04
Speaker 2: also haven't really advanced, and so can they be a
28:07
Speaker 2: frozen four team? It would take a lot. And I
28:10
Speaker 2: think in this funky year where they're going to be
28:12
Speaker 2: missing their top tier talent, I think the door is open.
28:16
Speaker 2: But I also think that their hill is steeper than
28:19
Speaker 2: it has been in other years.
28:20
Speaker 1: Right, that's a good point. Yeah, pen Sate beat Mercy
28:25
Speaker 1: Hears by ten points in the race for the championship
28:29
Speaker 1: last season, and they postseason went chalk in Atlantic Hockey,
28:34
Speaker 1: with pen Sate being Mercieres for the championship to go
28:37
Speaker 1: on to the NCAA tournament. Well, that Pensate, I believe,
28:43
Speaker 1: if I'm rowing right, would have been in regardless. It
28:46
Speaker 1: was just a matter of, yeah, was Mercy Here's going
28:48
Speaker 1: to get an upset and get Atlantic cocky two bids,
28:51
Speaker 1: which is one of those things that keeps teams on
28:56
Speaker 1: edge for that final weekend of the season. One of
29:02
Speaker 1: the bigger pieces of news happening in Atlantic hockey is
29:06
Speaker 1: the expansion to seventh team, with the University of Delaware
29:11
Speaker 1: coming on board this season. Alison Kumi, the former Penn
29:15
Speaker 1: State assistant as head coach, So there's some familiarity there.
29:19
Speaker 1: There's I'm sure gonna be interesting homecoming for that. But
29:29
Speaker 1: we shouldn't be blinded by the fact that this is
29:31
Speaker 1: a first year team with a lot of club players
29:35
Speaker 1: and a team that's you know, going to be focused
29:39
Speaker 1: on getting the building blocks in place this season, not
29:44
Speaker 1: necessarily focused on the number of wins.
29:48
Speaker 2: No, but I do think that there are wins available
29:51
Speaker 2: to them, which maybe in a different conference wouldn't be
29:54
Speaker 2: the case. But I do think that they have a
29:58
Speaker 2: chance to really you know, get key wins, get some
30:01
Speaker 2: conference wins, and sort of build momentum and give them
30:06
Speaker 2: something to keep, you know, working on leading into future seasons.
30:10
Speaker 2: Like I don't see them going on only one win
30:13
Speaker 2: or not winning any of this season, and so I
30:15
Speaker 2: think that just automatically helps because because it's rough, that's
30:19
Speaker 2: rough in the locker room when you when you're not
30:20
Speaker 2: winning many games, and so I think just for them,
30:23
Speaker 2: it will be be helpful that they're in a position
30:26
Speaker 2: in this league to be competitive from the start.
30:31
Speaker 1: Robert Morris finished last last season, as they kind of
30:35
Speaker 1: are still building out of the the hole that I
30:39
Speaker 1: were in from losing the program for a couple of seasons.
30:44
Speaker 1: Do you feel like that that may be accelerating a
30:46
Speaker 1: little bit. They maybe have some momentum for this season.
30:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, the coaches had them fifth in the preseason Poland
30:52
Speaker 2: I feel like that is really not a fair assessment
30:55
Speaker 2: of where I think they're going to be. You know,
30:58
Speaker 2: they did have slightly rough season last year, right, but
31:04
Speaker 2: they're bringing back some some key returners. Ellie Markowski, who
31:07
Speaker 2: went and played at Princeton when the team shuttered, is
31:09
Speaker 2: now coming back. So getting that high level experience and
31:13
Speaker 2: a lot of quality minutes in the ECAC and coming
31:15
Speaker 2: back I think that's really cool. Shell, you know, the
31:19
Speaker 2: leadership and sort of just the passion that like this
31:21
Speaker 2: is a school she went to and the program shuddered,
31:23
Speaker 2: and she's still coming back after having gone to Princeton.
31:27
Speaker 2: I just think that says a lot about what she
31:29
Speaker 2: thinks of the program and what she wants, like what
31:31
Speaker 2: the last lasting impression she wants to have on that program.
31:35
Speaker 2: I just really think there's a lot of potential there
31:38
Speaker 2: and it's yet to be seen if they can convert that. Right,
31:41
Speaker 2: But I think that the ceiling for them is quite high.
31:46
Speaker 1: I'm intrigued by whether there's upward movement potential at SYRACU,
31:55
Speaker 1: said A Ri T. Lynnon Wood. We've been waiting to
31:58
Speaker 1: see some something happen up in there for a few years.
32:02
Speaker 1: I'm not tremendously optimistic. I guess about about just whether
32:12
Speaker 1: there's that, uh, the opportunity for them to take a
32:16
Speaker 1: step those teams specifically, I kind of.
32:21
Speaker 2: I didn't love that there wasn't a lot of movement
32:24
Speaker 2: for them with the portal. I mean, however, fewable about
32:28
Speaker 2: the portal. It does offer opportunities to shake things up
32:31
Speaker 2: and to bring in players. And r I T had
32:35
Speaker 2: a player, you know, go out and go to two
32:37
Speaker 2: D three and Syracuse had no changes through the portal.
32:40
Speaker 2: And so yeah, I mean we've seen how teams have
32:45
Speaker 2: used the portal to you know, maybe booie spots and
32:49
Speaker 2: the roster that ended up weaker than they would have thought,
32:51
Speaker 2: or just like changed the dynamics of like maybe underclassmen,
32:56
Speaker 2: heavy roster things like that, and so yeah, I part
32:59
Speaker 2: of me feels like, why was there no movement? Why
33:03
Speaker 2: was there nothing done there? So I, you know, until
33:07
Speaker 2: you can actually ask them one to talk about it,
33:09
Speaker 2: I don't want to like say that's the only reason,
33:11
Speaker 2: but like to me, those we're just sort of like, huh,
33:14
Speaker 2: there work to be done, and that would have been
33:17
Speaker 2: a way to do some of that. So I don't know.
33:20
Speaker 2: I yeah, it's real hard to look at what's happening
33:25
Speaker 2: in either place and really get a grasp for like
33:27
Speaker 2: sort of like what the vision is, what the long
33:29
Speaker 2: term you know, sort of goals and next steps will be.
33:32
Speaker 2: I think.
33:34
Speaker 1: The UH Atlantic Hockey America has been a one bid
33:38
Speaker 1: team for the NCAA tournament. I don't think either one
33:42
Speaker 1: of us is seeing that change this year. Keeping our
33:46
Speaker 1: our closing thought here consistent, that's been what we've been
33:51
Speaker 1: asking about other leagues. The only way that can happen
33:54
Speaker 1: really is that if there's a team like Penn State
33:56
Speaker 1: that loses in the championship game. And I guess I
34:00
Speaker 1: don't see that happening.
34:02
Speaker 2: I don't either, No, no, But I do think that
34:07
Speaker 2: Mercy Hurst. I mean, we didn't really talk about them
34:09
Speaker 2: because I feel like Mercyhurst is just this like sort
34:11
Speaker 2: of reliable, and Penn State took that top spot, and
34:14
Speaker 2: I think Mercy Hearst's gonna take the second spot and
34:16
Speaker 2: like that's like done and dusted. That's what I think
34:19
Speaker 2: about the A j A. Right, they're just the really
34:22
Speaker 2: I think they're a team that kind of always has
34:24
Speaker 2: an opportunity to make a splash. And they're a team
34:26
Speaker 2: that I think can can beat Penn State and can
34:29
Speaker 2: you know pull you know what would be I guess
34:31
Speaker 2: at upset and maybe get that autobid. But it's really
34:35
Speaker 2: it's rough going for everybody else. And again, kind of
34:39
Speaker 2: like we said with Hockey East, there's just like there's
34:41
Speaker 2: not an opportunity to build up your your strength of
34:44
Speaker 2: schedule and earn you know, some sort of the additional
34:47
Speaker 2: boosts from that sort of thing.
34:49
Speaker 1: Yep, all right, that is our look at Atlantic Hockey.
34:54
Speaker 1: Thanks for following along with us. We've got three of
34:58
Speaker 1: the leagues down. We still will be talking about the
35:00
Speaker 1: WCHA and the new HA in our next episode, so
35:04
Speaker 1: we hope you'll come back for that. Until then, we
35:08
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed the first week of games, the limited
35:11
Speaker 1: schedule that there is, and we will be back with
35:15
Speaker 1: you next week for Nicle Hassey. I'm Todd Leuski. Thanks
35:18
Speaker 1: for listening to the podcast.