National Poll

Let's suppose that there was a national poll for all three divisions in the CRHL. Who would be your number one on all three polls? Here's my choices.

Division I - UNC-Charlotte

Division II - Texas - Dallas

Division III - St. Charles Community

Are you saying unc-charlotte is the best team in the nation? They arent even the best team in their league. From what Ive seen and heard East Carolina is by far the best team in their league Have you ever actully seen them play? come on.

Div.1- RIT
Div.2-SUNY-Binghamton
Div.3-St. Charles or OCC

Gotta agree with ya, although I think RIT looks a little more beatable this year than in year's past. Still, they are damn good, and it's just so hard to play against them. Look at the ECRHA's DI stats and standings though. There's alot of teams bunched around that could take a shot at RIT before NCT. Btw, anyone think we really should push for more games somehow next season? 16 (in ECRHA) is looking a little short to get a good idea of who's who. I think there can be some surprises in DII as well.

Who's good in the other conferences thus far?



- john

18 games apiece, technically - though I agree, we need to find a way to fit more games into the season. How many do you guys think would be a good number? (Take cost into consideration - don't tell me 82!)

Mike Burke
Commissioner
Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association
http://www.ecrha.net

I think at least 30 would be a good amount to get a feel for who is the best in the league, because at 18 games it isn't always clear.

Yeah, Burke.. I was thinking the other day, how about sanctioning some games outside of the event weekend format? I mean, there's nothing stopping like UDel from coming up to Philly to play Drexel, or Drexel going down there to play them at Hounds Pound. It could work with other teams too: Maryland, UConn, Northeastern, Boston, Buffalo, RIT.

Maybe we can develop some way that the teams can book a rink, do like a feature game format there. Perhaps get together with MLRH teams, do them before MLRH games? There's a ton of ideas that could be exploited to market the games and stuff, and this can be used to get the total amount of games over like 25 or so.

Thoughts?

- john

MIKIE!!!


bones thinks (im talking in 3rd person again) there should be 82 games, and we play for free, and half way through the season, we have an all star game, with lindenwoods cheerleaders flown to every game, and then at the end of the year, we have a playoff series, where every team in the country gets ranked. then.....its single elimination in the first round going all the way to best of seven like in the nhl and then we crown the one winner. the team that wins it all, gets to take the lindenwood cheerleaders to disney world and gets to walk around with the cup and show it off....ohh not to mention a nickle raise in the annual salary....i dunno what do you think? ohh and i forgot, we definitely need the hottest chick at half time thats wearing no clothes to come out on the rink and take a shot at the little hole through the plywood whos trying to get it into the net for a million bucks, and if she scores, theyll take the million bucks out of mike burkes salary, since we know hes making trillions. ohhh and then i woke up.....but that was kinda funny was it not?

love always,
bone daddy smooth

to whom it may concern,

i was trying to figure out how this years nationals will be ran. for example, with all the premier stuff happening, how will the format be? is nationals for premier going to be held separately? and for the competetive league, is there still d1, d2 and d3 divisions? and if so will all the competetive divisions still be held all at one rink? anyways, here are my predictions:

Premier: lindenwood for sure, theyve been smokin everyone by 10 goals, so theres no reason they shouldnt win, unless for some unseen reason, their coach bus breaks down? lol..

D1~~> um im not too sure about this one, cuz i dont know much about the west coast, but ive heard good things about teams such as penn state altoona, and some other west coast teams like cal poly slo, and pomona.

D2~~> illinois state i think will repeat considering they just picked up some phenominal players.

D3~~> im thinking OCC cuz they have half the tour gretzky predators on the team, who would probably mop up most d1 teams...(unless st charles hasnt lost any players, but how long can brian marchant actually play?)

so theres my $10.00's worth of info for the moment, and if any of you hockey puck jockeys want to add to my $10 bucks, please feel free!

"bone"

>>"D1~~> um im not too sure about this one, cuz i dont know much about the west coast, but ive heard good things about teams such as penn state altoona, and some other west coast teams like cal poly slo, and pomona."<<

Altoona is definitely a good team in the ECRHA, but I don't know if they will have the depth to contend at NCT. I think they will definitely be able to get a bid if they keep up the performance they had in the first half of the season.

They have two true goal scorers in Tony Tekely and Evan Winstead, and I think everyone knows that. But, really, the production out of defensemen like Chris Duffus and Mike Bowman has been a little surprising, and I think that's helped them get to the record they have now. In the first Drexel vs. Altoona game this season at Marple, Duffus scored a very clutch late goal, putting Altoona ahead late in the game. But, we got some good goaltending and were able to fight for a tie. I think Duffus had another big goal the next day against UDel as well.

Like I said before, there's a whole lotta good teams in the ECRHA this year. Competition is unreal.


- john

And, while we're here, we'll ditch the Premier/Competitive format and let the BCS computer handle the team rankings :)

I heard the Southeast actually has a power ranking system for their division! BCS, here we come!

- john

If anyone is interested in playing some out-of-conference games, UConn is more than willing to accomodate. We have a first-rate facility at our disposal and also have two MLRH teams to work with about possibily playing prior to one of their games.
If anyone hasn't seen our home rink (the Z-Rink in Glastonbury, CT) please check it out at www.zrink.com.
We are looking for five teams to play in a Holiday Tournament at the Z-Rink on Dec. 21st. If you are interested in the tournament or about playing us outside of our league schedule, please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].

Seth Lake
Head Coach, UConn Roller Hockey