Mcrhl

[???]

So the season is half over, and what does everyone think?

Is Grand Valley legit?

Will it be MSU, OSU, or Michigan at the end? Is Eastern Michigan going to find a way to do what they did last year?

Best players? Best goalies?

Let's get some conversation going!

[JSchultzEMU41]

to answer all your questions

Yes Grand Valley is legit everyone one else is hot garbage. They can play against anyone, even Neumann. They will probably finish at the top in the MCRHL along with MSU.

The best player in the midwest region it would have to be Nick Boyle aka CAPTAIN DANGLE!

[paddymac]

Grand Valley is decent. They've had the luxury of beating up on the rest of the DII teams the first half of the season. I'd expect them to go 2-6 maybe 3-5 second semester. They definitely have alot left to prove.

I'd expect EMU to turn it around second semester....they're still a dangerous team with the players they have. They can't seem to get them all together at the same tournament. If they pick up a couple of players at the semester and Gene goes back to playing goalie I'd expect them to make a good run.

As far as OSU, MSU, and UofM it's really anyone's call right now. There's alot of games left to play. We beat OSU, OSU beat State, and State beat us. Should be a good run down the stretch with alot of good games. The Regional Tournament is probably going to go to whoever is playing best at the time and not who finishes in first.

Best players....there's alot.

Best goalies....Goldberg UofM, Smith OSU, Wurst MSU, guy from Macomb(don't know his name)

[str8iq]

first of all, grand valley is not legit they've only played weak teams. MSU is going to take the league hands down

[someaction]

Aaron Diez has got to the best player in the league... Throw some Diez on that!

[hotshot1]

Grand Valley is decent. the earlier post is correct though, they have only played DII teams and still have a lot to prove against the better DI teams. They should put up a good fight against just about everyone they play. but we will see how the rest of the season plays out

[str8iq]

now what does everyone have to say?

[hotshot1]

grand valley... they played really well against eastern and decent against ohio state. the eastern game may have been their best game all season. the ohio state game was controlled on the power play by ohio state because grand valley couldn't stay out of the box, as was the case with michigan. they matched up very well with ohio state playing at full strength but couldnt keep up with their PP, 5 of the 6 goals were scored on the powerplay for OSU. also GV couldnt seem to beat Smith who played great, or michigan's goalie for that matter.

I would expect grand valley to win at least 2 of their remaining 4 games with games vs OCC MSU Miami MCC
As for those of you that think that GV isnt legit, I would say that they are a good team for DII. they have proved that they can play with some of the better teams, but arent at the level as some of the D1 teams.

[str8iq]

michigan smoked grand valley......eastern isn't that good this year even with their new players....msu beat michigan by 10 goals and michigan destroyed gvsu so you all know whats gonna happen with msu plays grand valley.....

[one thing 7]

ok noone ever said that GV would beat MSU or even come close... stop being a dic* and trying to bash grand valley every chance you get. apparently you are full of yourself and your team whoever it is that you play for. grand valley isnt on here saying that they are sweet... noone is. the only thing that was said was that they are a good DII team. no need to go out and be a dic*.....

[one thing 7]

the fact of the matter is that eastern is a good team. they compete year in and year out. they played a good game vs GV and GV came out on top. end of story.

[???]

I dunno, according to the box scores GVSU had the same number of shots as Michigan did in their game, but obviously Michigan found the back of the net more. did UM just outplay GVSU completely and the shots dont reflect that, or should we be counting them as a quality DII club?

[hotshot1]

the game should have been a lot closer than 11-2. GV's goalie did not have an outstanding game... letting in shots from the point with noone in front. Grand valley did have chances, michigan's goalie played on top of his head. making near impossible saves. that said , i would not say that GV is at the same level as MSU or UM but they are not far behind.

[William Bourque]

How much better is Grand Valley compared to the next DII team. Is there a noticeable drop off, or is it just the case of one team being slightly better?

[osu_buckeyes]

Grand Valley is easily the best DII team in the league. They gave us a pretty good game and they definitely have some guys that can play. I haven't seen many other DII teams from around the country play but my gut tells me they should match up pretty well.

[paddymac]

Grand Valley was overmatched by UofM. They aren't a bad team. They're easily the best DII team in the MCRHL. They're easily the best DII team the MCRHL has had in the last few years. I wouldn't expect them to make it past the elite 8 though.

[William Bourque]

Grand Valley was overmatched by UofM. They aren't a bad team. They're easily the best DII team in the MCRHL. They're easily the best DII team the MCRHL has had in the last few years. I wouldn't expect them to make it past the elite 8 though.

That answers my question perfectly.

The MCRHL is 0-8 in the past two national championship tournaments.

Northern Illinois last season and Ball State the year before.

How much better is this years Grand Valley team than the NI/BS of the pas two years?

[one thing 7]

Grand valley will definitely not go winless at nationals. with a little bit of work i believe that they could stay in contention to win until the very end. they will put up a fight against anyone they play. they are much better than both ball state and NIU have been in the past years. if you are looking for a number, probably 10 times better.

watching them play over last weekend showed me that they have the ability to skate with almost every team out there, they just don't bury their chances when they need to and they need to stay out of the penalty box. it did seem however, that grand valley was getting called for penalties that were let go if committed by the their opponents. (due to biased referees that travel with the league???? i have heard from many teams that these referees tend to play favorites because they have friends on many of the teams). that aspect of their game could possibly change at nationals with the change of referees.

i watched their last two games of the weekend and the same refs did both games. one of them seemed to be calling all the penalties.. just an observation... also looking at the their box scores. i find it hard to believe that a team can go through the first two games of the weekend and get as few penalties as they did and then the last two just play the whole game shorthanded.... there were more penalties called in the michigan game, however michigan scored 2 or 3 goals before GV could get control of the puck in those situations


This could be a break out season for GV if they continue to play well. We will have to wait and see

[osu_buckeyes]

Grand Valley is much much better than NIU/Ball State in previous years. As far as the penalty situation goes I think in our game at least a lot them were penalties that didn't need to be taken. A guy gets beat so he slashes the puck carrier on the way by, a bad pass leads to a hooking penalty, etc. 4 of our 6 goals were scored on the power play. If they could clean up that part of their game they would be very solid.

[paddymac]

GV is way better then NIU or Ball State has been the last few years. They won't go winless, but they don't have a chance at making a run for the national title. They'll be overmatched by about half of the teams.

There's no offical bias.....they just play hard with a lot of emotion....when you do that you're bound to get called for a ton of penalties.

[ckirk]

I want to make one thing clear and that is the ref's in the MCRHL do not have a bias against any team or player. I watched all the Grand Valley games during that weekend and I thought that all the calls that were made were the right calls. Please don't try and hide behind the refs when you lose.

On Grand Valley as a team they are very good. I look forward to seeing them at national because they will win games.

[GVSU DII]

I just want to say that noone from GV is on here posting about anything... especially the refs. The last thing that we would like to do is piss them off a bit more than we already do when we run our mouths after calls. I apologize for the earlier comment about the refs being "biased", I can assure you it wasn't someone from our team... Thanks

[ckirk]

The way the other post looked was that it was not a player but a fan. I hope that not only the GVSU player but their fans know that the ref's have a hard job to do and in a big game a call they make is not because they dislike one team or the other but because they saw a penalty and they are required to make a call.

Grand Valley plays really hard and some times that leads to penatlies because they are working really hard, saying that I think that they shouldn't change a thing because they are playing great. Just keep up the good work and you'll win many more games.

[GVSU DII]

Thanks Cale, we just dont want to have a bad name for us out there. and what you said is correct we do play hard which does get us into some penalty trouble at times. and every team has complaints now and then about certain calls during games but like i said no one from our team is on here posting about that or anything else for that matter and i just wanted to make that clear so people didnt get upset at us. Thanks for your comments

[mpeavler21]

So whats up with EMU? They barely squeak past Macomb, tie OCC, have a close one with UofM and then beat MSU? Looks as though they gained some momentum as the weekend went on? Did anyone see these games? Now the question lies are they for real? More controvercy come regionals per last year? Did they just drink a bunch of Red Bull before the State game? Seemed like a typical MSU EMU game with all the penalties. Also, seems as though it could have been a tighter game than the score board represented. Feedback?
Also how many bids do you think the MCRHL will get for Nattys since their appears to be much more parity in the league. I think MSU OSU and UofM are locks....doesn't leave to much room for other teams to slip come regionals time. Will the ECRHL weekend success help EMU land one of those spots?

[William Bourque]

Will the ECRHL weekend success help EMU land one of those spots?

ECRHA. ;)

MCRHL Bids by Year:
2007 - 5
2006 - 4
2005 - 4

I think the MCRHL will have no problem getting four bids this year with Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Eastern Michigan. Getting a fifth bid is unlikely, IMO, because Purdue is 8-9-1 and would need a strong regional performance to make it.

[GripperWheels]

The MCRHL is smoking hot. Some teams just start out early in the season.
Uof M and OSU are very strong and fast. MSU has both and a lot of talent.
EMU has won the Regionals the past couple of years so they are peaking at the right time for another playoff run.

[someaction]

Can't the NCRHA change the eligibility rules? Eastern Michigan adds several players 1 week ago, and since they traveled to the ECRHA and played in 1 MCRHL event, they are now eligible to play regionals and nationals.

1 week, 1 exhibition event and 1 real one, and they are considered eligible. If you want to see how it completely changes a team, look at their results versus MSU and UM before adding these players and after.

[William Bourque]

Can't the NCRHA change the eligibility rules? Eastern Michigan adds several players 1 week ago, and since they traveled to the ECRHA and played in 1 MCRHL event, they are now eligible to play regionals and nationals.

1 week, 1 exhibition event and 1 real one, and they are considered eligible. If you want to see how it completely changes a team, look at their results versus MSU and UM before adding these players and after.

Well let me pose this to you then. To be eligible to play regionals you need to play at least 6 games. Imagine this scenario, Player X graduates from school in the Fall of 2007. He has no plans of returning. After a summer in which he can't quite find a job he like, he decides he will be returning to school. He goes through the process and applies to School Y and get accepted for the spring semester as a grad student. He joins the team, who only has 6 games remaining in the season and makes the extremely more talented than before. Should he be punished because he was ineligible before the semester started to play games, even though he had plans in place to return in the spring? In my opinion that's unfair to teams, sure the rule leaves room for abuse, but you can't accept one and not accept the other. And finally, an education is important, should players who enroll just to play hockey be punished because they are still working towards a degree even if you like it or not.

[GripperWheels]

While your out there changing the rules. Based on not having your facts right. Why don't you have Lindenwood only skate with two wheels and and they have to play the game with there sticks upside down. Checking the web site two students came from community colleges and played a game with the D3 school. The others are current EMU students, two from the EMU ice team.

[???]

so who does everyone think will win regionals? The standings are already pretty much set:
1 MSU
2 OSU
3 UM
4 EMU
5 OCC
6 Purdue
7 Western Michigan
8 MCC

Looks like some good semi-final matchups potentially...

[rollerRocket]

Where is Grand Valley at?

[osu_buckeyes]

Hey, don't count us out of the number 1 spot yet. If we manage to get 4 straight shut-outs or score 72 goals while giving up 1 we can still take 1st!!!! Haha, we'll see what happens though.

Anyways I think grand valley will actually take the number 4 spot. They have played all of their games but for some reason 2 of their games are listed as exhibitions. Both of those were wins though, so they should be ahead of EMU. Other than that the list looks good, should be a great weekend.

[GVSU DII]

I think that the regional tournament is being run differently this year since there are 4 teams (enough to have a mini tournament i guess). I think that we will only play the other DII teams. To my understanding we wont play DI teams in the regional, but this could be wrong.

[ckirk]

That is correct The D1and D3 teams will play each other and it will only be the top 7 teams giving the #1 seed a bye. The D2 teams will play each other and the top 4 B teams will play each other.

[ThatJusHappened]

Whoever made the playoff brackets is a complete moron. Who thought it would be a good idea to have 7 teams, instead of the normal 8, in D1? Also, having a seperate final just so 2 D2 teams can play a best of 3 series is just mind boggling. Watching those two teams looks like a bunch of one-armed children playing in traffic. If the playoffs are going to be that dumb, why don't we just set-up the weekend like this:

1. Let the retards who call themselves Grand Valley take their useless D2 trophy home.
2. Let the B division decide their championship by shoot-outs.
3. Let Eastern, OSU, Uof M, and MSU play each other all at the same time.

That way no one has to watch kids with less talent than my little sister who likes to eat clay. Also, the only teams with talent in this league can just get the weekend over and beat the hell out of each other all in one game.

Yup!

[paddymac]

I have to agree somewhat with the previous post. I'm not sure why we're only having 7 DI/DIII teams, because I'm almost certain the league manual calls for 8.

The schedule could have been better...whatever team comes out of the DI/DIII losers bracket will have a half hour off between the loser's bracket final and the finals.

The league manual needs to be updated. The DII and DIII teams should have their own tournament. There's no reason to have any cross divisional play at regionals while everyone is fighting for a bid to nationals.

[GripperWheels]

Why have different Divisions if its going to be one big pile of _ _ _ _ at the end of the year.

This does not help the strength of the MCRHL.

DIV 1 should be showcased for the fans.
Four seperate divisions. D1, D2, D3 and B.
Change it today before the weekend. How does having a community college play DIV 1 schools help anyone.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::ma d::mad:

[ckirk]

I want to explain something to you all. The D2 has only 2 teams playing in it because Ball State and Northern Illinois have chosen not to attend the event putting only 2 teams in that bracket. As far as the D3 school playing with the D1 schools it has been that way for many years and in fact the D2 teams have played in that same bracket as well and now they have there own. The D3 schools play the same schedule as the D1 teams. As far as having 7 teams and not 8 teams Miami of Ohio did not want to attend the event and they would have been the 9th team anyway, and we are having money problems with Macomb CC and that was a major reason for not having them attend the event and they would have been the 8 seed. I also think that it is good to have a bye for the #1 seed, it gives them a benifit for being the best team in the regular season. So I hope this answers those questions that everyone had.

[str8iq]

Whoever made the playoff brackets is a complete moron. Who thought it would be a good idea to have 7 teams, instead of the normal 8, in D1? Also, having a seperate final just so 2 D2 teams can play a best of 3 series is just mind boggling. Watching those two teams looks like a bunch of one-armed children playing in traffic. If the playoffs are going to be that dumb, why don't we just set-up the weekend like this:

1. Let the retards who call themselves Grand Valley take their useless D2 trophy home.
2. Let the B division decide their championship by shoot-outs.
3. Let Eastern, OSU, Uof M, and MSU play each other all at the same time.

That way no one has to watch kids with less talent than my little sister who likes to eat clay. Also, the only teams with talent in this league can just get the weekend over and beat the hell out of each other all in one game.

Yup!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA....SO TRUE


P.S. LUBANSKI <3's CAROLYN

[DGlass]

Limited cross-divisional play (DI v. DIII, DI v. DII, DII v. DIII) can be quite beneficial during the regular season. Because the ECRHA has never had more than two DIII clubs in a single season, their regular season games have always been comprised of games against DI (as is currently the case) or DII (as was the case years ago, I believe).

I am not sure how the MCRHL distributes their auto-bids for each division, but if they are handed out at the regional championships, I find cross-divisional play to be a terrible mistake. Why schedule a DI team against a DII team during a tournament which could very well determine their advancement to the National tournament when those two teams offer false comparisons. As the official policy of the NCRHA regarding divisional structure does not rely on talent but rather the size of the school (the 18,000 student limit), why have two teams that can only harm each others' chances play one another?

Why not just give the two DII clubs a best-of 3 (or 5) series to determine the regional champion? Why not simply award the DIII title to the lone DIII school and save the time and money that regional championships cost?

Just some food for thought.

[mpeavler21]

If I'm not mistaken didn't we run into a similar issue last year at regionals. I believe OCC and UofM were to play for the B championship and UofM simply said no and forefitted the game. What reprocussion did that have, UofM still went to Natty's on their autobid. So my question is what is stopping this from happening again this year if OCC reaches the finals. I mean honestly this makes no sense at all....Another hypothetical is that MSU having the bye could win regionals in 3 games, when the loser bracket could play up to 7 games to get there..................I think this all should have been brought up with the teams to see what they thought....
Also, the game times! WOW going to get a lot of seats and exposure for the league with those 7am games! This regional is more of a punishment!

[someaction]

Schedule games for Friday night. No games should start before 8 or 9 AM for regionals, especially if it can be prevented by schedule a few preliminary games the night before.

It's time to take SOMEACTION!

[ckirk]

The same thing will not happen this year that happened with OCC and U of M because last year OCC could not do anything after that weekend and U of M had already won the auto bid and money because they were the top B team. Michigan was fined for not playing the game but that situation has been changed and you can see that there are now no developmental team playing this year. The reason why this will not happen now with OCC as an active team is because if a team just stops playing they will not be able to win the auto bid money and they also will not get the auto bid to nationals so they have to play to get all of these things.

[ckirk]

As far as games on Friday go it is very hard for some teams/players to make an event on a Friday because some students have class on Friday and then they would have to drive to the event. Last season we had a problem with a team making a Friday night game and I don't see why we should have a limited team when we can play games on Saturday a little earlier. As far as having games early we have done that all year long and it is not that early. I understand that everyone would like there games between 12 and 8 but that just can't happen.

[ThatJusHappened]

QUOTE]Schedule games for Friday night. No games should start before 8 or 9 AM for regionals, especially if it can be prevented by schedule a few preliminary games the night before.
[/QUOTE]

Didn't you know that this league likes to showcase no talent hacks that barely know how to hold their sticks? The fans love seeing Grand Valley bending their ankles and running into boards while playing Michigan Tech, who might have a chance if they didn't play on skates and used shovels for sticks. D2 is a huge joke in the MCRHL and basically shouldn't even play in regionals.

[ckirk]

I am not sure who you are but I think that you are going way to far as far as saying the things about the D2 teams. Grand Valley is a very good team. As far as the schedule goes it is not that we are trying to showcase the D2 teams it is to give the D1/D3 teams the right amount of rest between games. So I think that you should just stop trash talking these teams because it looks poor upon yourself. If you play in the MCRHL please focus on your own team and you will be better off.

[str8iq]

your trying to give teams rest in between games eh??? then what happens if your in the loser bracket and play your semi and final game back to back....good choice on that one

[ckirk]

I understand what you are talking about and there was a typo and I have fixed that. I had two games at 12:15 and no games at 11:15 the D1/D3 game will be at 11:15 and not 12:15. The 12:15 game will be the D2 game if needed. Sorry for the mistake but I have fixed it on the site.

[str8iq]

ok sounds good

[JLambertUMSL]

If I'm not mistaken didn't we run into a similar issue last year at regionals. I believe OCC and UofM were to play for the B championship and UofM simply said no and forefitted the game.

A B team is a B team, regardless of what division the A team plays in. Why would they do that?

[ckirk]

If you don't play in the MCRHL, every new team has to play atleast one season as what we call developmental. The reason for this is so that we can make sure that the team shows up to their events, they pay their bills, and they are ready to move up to active status and that was the case last season with OCC. As a developmental team they can not go to nationals and because of that U of M didn't feel like they wanted to play OCC because they had already won the auto bid and the paid fee for nationals. The MCRHL has changed the bracket this year to just have B teams in it and no Developmental teams so that we don't have a thing like that happen again.

[William Bourque]

My question is as follows:

Why did Grand Valley State petition to move down to DII when they joined the league? I would think they would just stay in Division I because 90% of the teams in the MCRHL are Division I and it just seems to make sense.

Anyone care to touch on this?

[ThatJusHappened]

I can tell you why. They know they would be just wasting their money getting killed every weekend and never go to nationals, or even regionals. They could be beaten by half the B teams in the division. They want to play lower so they might have a chance.

[dan sangiorgio]

I can tell you why. They know they would be just wasting their money getting killed every weekend and never go to nationals, or even regionals. They could be beaten by half the B teams in the division. They want to play lower so they might have a chance.
they went 4-5-1 vs d1/d3 teams with an 0-3 record vs your top 3. not to bad seems like they can "compete" in d1 prolly would have had a record around purdue if they played a touger schedule is my guess

[osu_buckeyes]

I can tell you why. They know they would be just wasting their money getting killed every weekend and never go to nationals, or even regionals. They could be beaten by half the B teams in the division. They want to play lower so they might have a chance.

They would not have a problem with any of the B teams. Maybe this wasn't true of GV teams in the past but this year's team is definitely solid. They had wins over Purdue (D1), Macomb (D3), and Eastern Michigan (ranked, national-bound D1). Not sure what your bias is against them, maybe they aren't quite as talented as some of the ECRHA's top DII teams, but they are no slouches either.

[GVSU DII]

The reason we petitioned to stay division DII is because all of our school sports (varsity and club) are NCAA DII. We are a decent team this year but we dont have enough recognition at our school yet to draw enough talent to compete day in and day out against the DI schools. It is very hard because over half of our students are commuters. even though we may have 20000 students, not all of them are full time, and most are commuters.
on another note, mich tech decided not to come to regionals this weekend so we are not even able to play. Bummer, we cant showcase our ankle bending skills. Thanks

[William Bourque]

The reason we petitioned to stay division DII is because all of our school sports (varsity and club) are NCAA DII. We are a decent team this year but we dont have enough recognition at our school yet to draw enough talent to compete day in and day out against the DI schools. It is very hard because over half of our students are commuters. even though we may have 20000 students, not all of them are full time, and most are commuters.

The only reason i asked is because i tend to follow Division II football and Grand Valley has been the target of people saying they should be forced to move into Division IAA or whatever its called now.

Just a little side note though, having part time students could be a benefit to you guys, you only need 9 credits, about what a commuter has to play hockey.

Anyways, thanks for the explanation.

[GripperWheels]

After four years MSU wins the Regional championship and takes the trophy from EMU.
Michigan State came out flying and took an early lead against Eastern Michigan University and won the MCRHL Cup.
Congratulations to Michigan State University on winning the regional championship.
The lucky number 7 did not prove lucky for EMU after winning games with 7 goals in each game to reach the finals. OCC 7-4, WMU 7-2 Oakland 7-4 and Michigan 7-4 on the way to the finals vs MSU. MSU leads the region with 42 points so far this season and EMU is 2nd with 41 points

[str8iq]

yeah eastern is weak....msu should of killed them every game they played against them. All their big guys are horrible and all they do is try to fight everyone. Msu is going to make big moves at nationals this year be on the look out