Morning doings, college considerations

Friday 4/5/24

Second op-ed written, both have been sent to a couple people. Separately. Worked on yesterday's story. Ran 3000 stairs. Did 100 push-ups. There was that entry from earlier. All by eight in the morning.

Thought the weather was less than ideal for stair running yesterday, but apparently I was running in a nor'easter with gale-force winds. That makes sense, now that I think about it again.

I've been looking at the season had--going game by game--of Maine's 1992-93 men's hockey team, which is often touted as the best college hockey team of all-time. Paul Kariya went on to have the Hall of Fame NHL career--just barely, I'd say--and he reached 100 points that year, but what most people do not know is that current Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery was right behind him with 95. These are outrageous point totals, given the number of games played in a college hockey season.

Maine went 42-1-2 that season, which is crazier still, but what's surprising is that the two ties and the loss came at home. Alfond Arena is perhaps the most difficult place to play in the country for a visitor.

Why was I looking at this? Because I think these Boston College Eagles have an opportunity to go down as an even better team. They need to win against Michigan next Thursday, and I think it would behoove their historical case if they were to meet BU in the Final and prevail, because BU is themselves stacked with future NHL players and very possibly players who will become NHL stars.

Outside of Kariya, that didn't happen with the Maine team. A college squad is a team we look back on, after the fact, in a way, in judging its roster, so I'm sort of factoring that in now; that is, my expectation is that a number of BC kids are going to fare really well at the next level. They have a Hobey Baker award finalist, as they should, and the guy I think is going to win it comfortably. I think the Flyers messed up in not signing that player--Cutter Gauthier--when they could have.