So, I suppose the best way for me to start would be by answering that nagging question…why haven’t I written anything substantial about Chay Genoway of North Dakota?

Clearly, it’s because of my malicious East Coast bias, isn’t it?

In all seriousness, I haven’t had a chance to get a good look at Genoway, but as a defenseman averaging more than a point-per-game on a Fighting [CENSORED] team that’s No. 2 in the country with precious few signs of those previous first-half struggles, he certainly should be on the radar.

That said, it may well be a good thing that I haven’t had a chance to watch Genoway closely. After all, this past weekend, I took the opportunity to take a closer look at Princeton’s Zane Kalemba and Quinnipiac’s Brandon Wong, and what did I get? Kalemba’s backup, Alan Reynolds, backstopping the Tigers to an overtime win over Dartmouth, and Wong going without a point in a 4-2 win over the Big Green.

Translation: a rough weekend for my alma mater, and almost as rough an outing for my Hobey candidate viewing.

I say “almost,” because while I didn’t get to see much from Wong – except for the attention he commanded from the Big Green throughout the game - I got a good look at his Bobcats teammate Eric Lampe, who is shaping up to be as strong a Hobey candidate as Wong, despite not having put up eye-popping numbers before this season.

Of course, the fact is that he had no numbers to speak of against Dartmouth, having a point-free night after burning Harvard for a hat trick and an assist the night before. That said, he was a major presence for the Bobcats, particularly on the penalty kill, where he was relentless in pressuring the point, leading to multiple shorthanded opportunities and more than one early end for a Big Green power play.

That kind of play is huge for the Bobcats, who play the hockey equivalent of what Virginia Tech football fans call “BeamerBall.” The Bobcats are always looking for scoring opportunities, whethere it’s even strength, power play, or penalty kill, and as I saw on Saturday, Lampe has been an even bigger part of that than his 14 points in nine games suggest.

And if you don’t believe me, just ask his coach.

“Brandon’s having a very good year,” Rand Pecknold told me after the game on Saturday, “and his numbers show that, but Eric Lampe’s been excellent. He’s our best player. He’s been absolutely dominant in eight of those nine games, and not just from an offensive standpoint. He’s great on the penalty kill. He’s great defensively. We’ve got a lot of guys playing well right now. He’s been our best player.”

Of course, none of this is to say that Wong may not eventually emerge as the top Hobey candidate on this Bobcats team, even if Lampe is the best player. You can certainly make arguments for Hobey winners who weren’t the best players on their teams, albeit usually when there was another Hobey finalist on the team. We heard it from some quarters last year, arguing that Colin Wilson was more Hobey-worthy than winner Matt Gilroy (I disagreed then, and I disagree now). It was certainly part of the conversation in 2005, vis-a-vis Marty Sertich and Brett Sterling, and while I wasn’t even in college yet in the spring of 2000, looking back, you could have made the argument for Brian Gionta over Mike Mottau.

Also, at some point, it does become a question of numbers, and with a 27-goal season on his resumé, Wong may go on to have the better season for Hobey purposes. As Pecknold points out, he has a lot of players performing well right now (keep an eye on sophomore Scott Zurevinski, while we’re at it, if not for this year than for the future).

“,” Pecknold said.

Of course, all of this said, it begs an important question, and it’s a question that also affects a guy like Matt Read of Bemidji State – whom I was asked about on Hockey on Campus last week – or Nick Schaus of UMass Lowell for that matter (and I was VERY impressed with him when I watched the River Hawks beat UNH on ESPN U weekend before last).

The question is: how much does a school’s brand name mean for winning the Hobey?

Now, obviously, the schools with the biggest names tend to attract a lot of talent, so in that sense, it’s hardly a surprise that the Hobey has gone exclusively to players from big-time hockey programs (I include Bowling Green in that program’s heyday in that statement).

Of course, we don’t have this problem in NCAA tournament selection, as the basketball folks do (and really, I’ll take the KRACH arguments over basketball’s tournament grousing every day of the week and twice on Selection Sunday). However, it is worth noting that no player has won the Hobey while playing at a school that couldn’t be considered a national hockey power at the time, and no matter what Quinnipiac and Lowell do this year, that kind of recognition takes some time to build up. Heck, Notre Dame and Miami are just starting to reach national power status now, and it’s taken consistent NCAA tournament presence and a national championship game berth apiece to get there.

In that light, it’s worth asking whether the fact that Brandon Wong or Nick Schaus could have a harder road to the Hobey than, say, Cornell’s Colin Greening or New Hampshire’s Blake Kessel, even though they play in the same conferences, because Wong and Schaus play at Quinnipiac and Lowell, respectively.

I’m not sure myself. What do you guys think?

It’s hard to believe – especially if you’re a fan of an Ivy League team whose season just began, but an entire month of the 2009-10 college hockey season is in the books. We’re now past the point of using last year to try to project what might happen this year, and that is especially true in the case of the race for the Hobey Baker Award.

The last time I wrote, I was looking at what last season might have to say about this season. Now, we’re starting to see who some of this season’s best players have been. With a month of college hockey gone, not only do we have a decent statistical basis on which to evaluate top players, but we also have Player of the Month awards. So, in this entry, I’m going to look at this month’s honorees from across the country and evaluate their likelihood of being a factor in the Hobey race.

In the CCHA, Alaska goaltender Scott Greenham was a surprise winner of the award, not in the sense that he was undeserving, but in the sense that it was hard to see this kind of a performance coming going into the season. The Nanooks went 5-0-1 in October, and with Greenham posting a .949 save percentage and a 1.14 GAA, it’s not hard to see why. Greenham’s play in October put him solidly in what we here at the Hobey Watch like to call “Ryan Miller territory,” and if he stays there, there’s certainly no reason why he couldn’t be a contender for the Hobey. Of course, he’d need some help from the team in front of him to get there, but the Nanooks produced a Hobey finalist last season in Chad Johnson, and they may well have another where that came from.

Now, playing devil’s advocate, all six of the Nanooks’ games in October were in the state of Alaska, against opponents who traveled from the lower 48. When it’s Alaska’s turn to travel and contend with jet lag and all the other occupational hazards that go with going on the road, we’ll start to get a better sense of how much of a contender Greenham is. That isn’t to say he’s not a contender – Johnson certainly was – but we don’t really know yet.

In Atlantic Hockey, the player of the month is R.I.T. defenseman Dan Ringwald, who had nine points (3g, 6a) in seven games for the Tigers. Nice numbers, certainly, especially from a defenseman, but RIT went 2-5-0 in October. On the one hand, that makes Ringwald’s +1 rating all the more impressive. On the other, it’s hard to get noticed on a sub-.500 team, even more so when that team doesn’t play in one of the Big Four conferences. That said, RIT’s five losses were against ECAC Hockey opponents Clarkson, St. Lawrence and Colgate, plus a pair against reigning Atlantic champ Air Force. Given the way the Tigers decimated UConn, it wouldn’t be too shocking to see them emerge as a force to be reckoned with once again in Atlantic Hockey, and if that happens, Ringwald will get more of a look as a potential Hobey finalist. I have my doubts about him as a potential winner, but we’ll see.

In Hockey East, it’s hardly surprising that UMass forward James Marcou is the Player of the Month. All he did was score 11 points in five games as the Minutemen went 4-1. Last year, I couldn’t help but norice how often Marcou’s name turned up on the Hockey East press releases, and I think that this year, he could easily be a finalist. Is he a contender to win the Hobey? I’ll need to see more goals, because we know Hobey likes his forwards to score goals, but Marcou has definitely put himself on the radar as much as anyone else in the season’s first month.

Now, as of this writing, ECAC Hockey, the CHA and the WCHA have not named monthly award winners, so I’m going to have to pick players who grabbed attention.

In ECAC Hockey, the fact that half the conference’s teams started play last weekend makes it tough to pick a player, but Quinnipiac forward Brandon Wong makes it easy. Wong had three goals and six assists for the Bobcats, who went 4-1-0 in October, including a pair of wins at Ohio State. One of Wong’s goals was the game-winner in one of those road wins over the Buckeyes, and performing well in non-conference action is often a good way to get yourself noticed. Wong has made noise before, and has a history as a goal-scorer (27 as a freshman, in case you’ve forgotten), so it’s going to be well worth watching Wong – all about alliteration! – as the season progresses. Can he win the Hobey at Quinnipiac? My gut feeling is no, but then again, if he keeps putting up the numbers, my guts – like John Cusack’s in High Fidelity – may be proven to have doo-doo for brains (yes, I said doo-doo…this is a family site, people!). And I have no problem invoking Cusack…he’s buddies with former Wisconsin Badger Chris Chelios (gotta love the Malibu Mob).

In the CHA, Bemidji State forward Matt Read has 10 points in six games for the 5-0-1 Beavers. Bemidji is going to be watched a good bit more this season – between the Beavers’ run to the Frozen Four last season and their impending WCHA membership – so if Read can continue to produce, he may give Jacques Lamoureux a  run for his money when it comes to that Hobey finalist spot that seems to go to one small-conference player each year.

Finally, there’s the WCHA, where there are three players well worth a Hobey look based on October numbers. One is Wisconsin defenseman Brendan Smith, who has nine points in seven games. Now, the Badgers’ start this season hasn’t exactly been red hot – they’re 3-2-1 with a couple of tough conference losses to Colorado College and Minnesota State, but when the Badgers win, they win big, and Smith’s +2 rating complements his two goals and seven assists nicely. Plus/minus isn’t that big in the Hobey finalist considerations – see Smith’s former teammate, Jamie McBain – but if Smith continues to produce at this level, don’t be surprised to see Smith – a former first-round NHL draft pick and a rare college pick by the Detroit Red Wings – force his name into serious Hobey consideration.

The other players worth watching out of the WCHA after a strong October are a pair of Bulldogs: Minnesota Duluth’s Jack Connolly and Justin Fontaine. What I like about their Octobers is that they’ve both shown excellent balance on the scoresheet, scoring goals AND handing out assists. The Bulldogs are off to a solid start, and if it continues, these two should have a shot to get into the upper echelon of the Hobey talk.

Speaking of which, let the talk continue.

Yeah, I know, I’m a bit late to the party this year, but better late than never.

Welcome back to the Hobey Watch blog, where I, your humble correspondent, analyze the race for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, and attempt to predict the finalists and winner for college’s top individual honor.

Now, I’m pleased to report that due to a couple of developments since I came back to USCHO last year, I’ll be able to see more college hockey this season, both on TV and in person, which should give me additional perspective for my projections and analysis this season. However, as is my custom, I’ll start with the Casting Call, wherein I look at last year’s group of Hobey finalists, and look to fill those players’ roles for this season.

This part of my job is about as easy as it’s been, as four of last year’s Hobey finalists have returned: Air Force forward Jacques Lamoureux, Colgate forward David McIntyre, Princeton goaltender Zane Kalemba, and Michigan forward Louie Caporusso.
  
Now, never mind that we haven’t had a repeat Hobey finalist since I’ve been doing these “Casting Calls.” Big things are expected from all of those players, and I’ll join in those expectations. I’m not re-casting their roles just yet.

Jamie McBain is one of the three Hobey finalists I didn’t pick last season, mostly because of the issue with his plus/minus rating, but the fact remains that he was one of the nation’s most potent offensive defensemen last season, albeit for a team that missed the NCAA tournament.

I wouldn’t expect Denver to be sitting home in March – although it has happened to a team with high preseason expectations before (2004-05 Minnesota Duluth, anyone?) – but that’s really not the concern here. What I’m looking at is the fact that Patrick Wiercioch stepped in at Denver and became one of the nation’s top offensive defensemen. If he can replicate that performance as a sophomore, and if the Pioneers can live up to their high expectations, I’d look for Wiercioch to be a big part of the Hobey conversation.

Wisconsin’s top rival Minnesota also missed the NCAA tournament last year, and as the Gophers look to change that, I’ve got my eye on Cade Fairchild. He and Wiercioch are the top two offensive defensemen returning to college hockey, and both actually put up more points than did Jamie McBain. However, the Badgers came closer to the NCAA tournament than did the Gophers, and we know Hobey doesn’t especially like freshmen

When I think of Alaska’s Chad Johnson and Northeastern’s Brad Thiessen, I think of two goalies who took a traditional non-factor and put them in the mix come March. Obviously, Thiessen’s Huskies got into the NCAA tournament, while Johnson’s Nanooks did not, but the profile is still largely the same. I’m going to pick two players here for this role.

As a sophomore. Dartmouth’s Jody O’Neill may be a bit young for the role, but he was a major factor in Dartmouth’s quick turnaround his freshman year. Evan Stephens and Joe Stejskal should lead a strong blueline corps in front of him, so O’Neill will have a chance to put the Big Green in the NCAA tournament after spending the majority of Bob Gaudet’s tenure on the wrong side of the bubble. If that happens, look for him to get some Hobey buzz.

Certainly, the perennial also-ran with the highest expectations this season is UMass-Lowell, and the River Hawks have gotten strong goaltending in the past from both Carter Hutton and Nevin Hamilton. If one of those two netminders can grab the reins and drive the River Hawks into the NCAA tournament, that’s a good place to look for a Hobey finalist.

Viktor Stalberg was one of three Hobey finalists I didn’t see coming last season, so it’s going to be a little bit difficult for me to figure out who fills the role. It’s tempting to pick his younger brother, Vermont freshman Sebastian Stalberg, but let’s let the kid adjust to college hockey a bit, huh?

I think the things that stood out to me about Stalberg when I had the chance to watch him are his skill level and the balance he was able to strike between goals and assists. It’s a combination that Louie Caporusso has at Michigan, obviously, but he’s already on the list.

Boston University junior Nick Bonino is the top returning scorer for the reigning national champions, and the top returning goal-scorer as well. He was a bit more of an assist man last season, but with two finishers like Brandon Yip and Jason Lawrence graduating, Bonino will be called on to keep putting the puck in the net, and if you’re looking for potential Hobey contenders, a guy who had 50 points a year ago is a good place to start.

Army’s Owen Meyer fits more in the roll of “Small Conference Superstar” currently held by Jacques Lamoureux, but he’s worth keeping an eye on if Lamoureux’s numbers drop this season. He was part of a really nice line two seasons ago with Luke Flicek and Bryce Hollweg, and had 21 goals and 18 assists. His numbers fell off a bit last season, but if he can come back strong as a senior, I’d look at him for a potential Hobey finalist spot.

Colin Wilson’s low goal total last season made it hard to take him seriously as a true contender for the Hobey, but there was no denying that he was one of college hockey’s top players last season, and a major factor in Boston University’s run to the NCAA title. A player who hands out the helpers with the skill and frequency that Wilson showed last season will be part of the mix.

In some ways, Jordan Schroeder is almost the opposite of Wilson: he certainly doesn’t have have Wilson’s stacked physique, and while Wilson’s stock skyrocketed heading into the draft (largely due to said physique), Schroeder fell from a projected Top-5 pick to a late first-round grab by the Canucks. Still, Schroeder is a top assist man, and like Wilson, he impressed at the World Junior Championship. What’s more, like Wilson last year, Schroeder is part of a proud program looking to restore itself to glory after missing the NCAA tournament.

The other assist man I’d keep an eye on is Aaron Palushaj of Michigan. Some people had him pegged for a finalist spot last year, but that spot went to Caporusso because Hobey prefers goals. That said, Palushaj showed himself to be an elite setup man, and there is an opening for one of those this season.

(Added 10/21: My bad on the Palushaj pick…insert grumbling about early signings here…let’s give it another go…Ryan Lasch and Garrett Roe of St. Cloud have been on my radar for a while, and they’re both upperclassmen now. Lasch has filled this role before, when he was a Hobey finalist two seasons ago, and Roe was one of my picks as a Hobey finalist last season, although the real voters disagreed. I feel like one or both of these guys could easily get back to that level one more time.)

Let’s be perfectly honest. There’s no one in college hockey this season whose overall package of on- and off-ice can be compared to Matt Gilroy. This isn’t fawning or putting Gilroy up on a pedestal: it’s just a matter of fact. Really, how often do you find a walk-on who switches positions as a freshman, develops into an all-American as a sophomore, turns down more than 20 pro offers after his junior year, then winds up captaining the best team in the country to a national championship as a senior? It just doesn’t happen, and that it did with Matt Gilroy will long remain one of the best stories that college hockey has ever produced. I would say the same for Jeff Lerg and Jacques Lamoureux as well, but we’re not talking about those guys right now.

As good as Gilroy’s story is, it doesn’t make him last year’s Hobey winner without the on-ice component, so let’s start with that. I’m looking for a defenseman in a leadership position on an elite team that missed the NCAA tournament last season (as BU did in 2008).

I just talked to Wisconsin’s Ryan McDonagh for a New York Daily News feature, and the Badgers certainly fit the profile as a traditional power that watched from home back in March. As a first-round NHL draft pick and former Mr. Hockey in his home state of Minnesota, McDonagh doesn’t have Gilroy’s underdog story, and he also doesn’t have the track record that Gilroy had built at BU before last season. Still, he’s likely to eventually be Gilroy’s teammate with the New York Rangers after Montreal traded his draft rights this past summer, and McBain’s departure will leave some bigtime minutes to fill, and McDonagh, one of the Badgers’ tri-captains this season, is a likely candidate to do some of the filling.

The other guy I’d keep an eye on is Chris Summers of Michigan. Sure, Michigan didn’t miss the NCAA tournament last season, but the Wolverines did take a kick in the collective gut with their first-round loss to Air Force, so there’s a certain amount of pride to be reclaimed. As for Summers himself, he’s Michigan’s captain, and he’s a first-round draft pick who opted to play all four years of college hockey (although, when your NHL draft rights are held by the ugly mess of an organization that is the Phoenix Coyotes, that probably makes the decision easier). Summers has seen time both at forward and on defense in his time at Michigan, and he’ll need a big breakout season to get into the Hobey conversation, but he’s certainly the kind of guy I’d keep my eye on.

Of course, as we’ve seen, my preseason casting call isn’t a particularly reliable indicator as to who’s going to be a Hobey finalist at the end of the year, but then, picking teams at the beginning of the season is dicey enough, let alone picking players. As such, this is as good a place to start as any, and we’ll see where it goes from here.

Stay tuned.

Matt Gilroy, welcome to the club.

No, not the Hobey Baker winners. This group is even more elusive than that one.

In the first 28 years of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, only four players have won the Hobey and the NCAA title in the same season: Tony Hrkac at North Dakota in 1987, Lane MacDonald at Harvard in 1989, Paul Kariya at Maine in 1993, and, most recently, Jordan Leopold at Minnesota in 2002.

Saturday night, Gilroy became the fifth member of that elite group, although to hear him after BU’s national championship win over Miami, that was – as it should be for any hockey player worth his salt – the furthest thing from his mind.

“I wouldn’t have won anything this year if it wasn’t for the team I was on,” Gilroy said. “My co-captains John McCarthy and Brian Strait did an unbelievable job, and what we did as a team was why I won the Hobey Baker.”

Now, the fact of the matter is this: the story of this night is not about Matt Gilroy. What happened on Saturday night at the Verizon Center was never going to make Gilroy any more or less worthy a Hobey Baker winner. There are certainly players that we have come back to and questioned over the years as to whether they deserved to win the Hobey. Matt Gilroy will not be one of them.

However, to see Gilroy reach even more rarified air raises the question: why are there so few? Why have only five players in nearly 30 years accomplished this feat?

Part of it, of course, is the simple fact that, as Brendan Morrison so infamously said, “The best team doesn’t always win.” Now, he’s taken a lot of flak for saying that – there is such a thing as timing, after all - but it’s absolutely true. Just ask Notre Dame: you can make a great argument that the team that lost to Michigan State at the Midwest Regional in 2007 and the team that lost to Bemidji State this year were better teams than the team that made it to last year’s national championship game.

Jack Parker touched on it when he said, “The teams that are supposed to win this tournament, most of the time, don’t. They think they had a great year, and they come in as the No. 1 seed, but the team that plays great in March and April is the team that wins the tournament.”

Having a player like a Matt Carle, or a Ryan Miller, or a Brendan Morrison can certainly contribute to the feeling that you’re going to win a national title…although great coaches like George Gwozdecky, Ron Mason and Red Berenson know perfectly well that it takes more than that.

Another element is the way that the Hobey is awarded. I’ve written about it at length this season in regards to Colin Wilson: he didn’t score the number of goals necessary to win the Hobey as a forward. That may not be fair – in fact, it probably isn’t – but the Hobey Baker voters have a history of liking forwards who score lots of goals. Forwards who score lots of goals don’t necessarily play on teams that have the balance to go far in the NCAA tournament.

In that sense, it makes sense that Matt Gilroy is joining Leopold, Kariya, MacDonald and Hrkac in that elite group, because he didn’t win as a numbers guy. He won as a two-way defenseman who had an outstanding four-year career, turned down more than 20 pro contract offers last summer, and came back to lead his team to the Frozen Four as one of the best captains in BU history. Players like that are key members of championship teams, so it’s only fitting that this man is one of those.

In the end, though, the answer to why there aren’t more of these guys, is much simpler than that.

“I think it’s hard to do either one of those things, period,” Parker said. “And, therefore, to double up in the same season is a real difficult task. I say this all the time. People don’t understand unless you’re in the trenches how difficult it is to win the national championship.

“And then, people don’t understand how difficult it is for people’s opinions – a lot of sports writers, a lot of different coaches and a lot of different people to vote get in the Hobey Baker. How they come up with who is the best player in the nation is a hard thing to do. It’s a hard thing to win. You’ve got two very, very difficult things to do. To place them both in the year doubles up the odds.”

Really, in the end, it makes all the sense in the world: winning the biggest thing you can as an individual and as a team in college hockey is about as difficult as it gets in college hockey for any one player.

Whether Matt Gilroy turns out to be one of the greatest players ever to play college hockey remains to be seen; he’ll certainly be well-paid in the near future, and what happens after that…well, we’ll see. However, after this season, there’s no doubt that he deserves to be remembered as one of college hockey’s all-time greats.

Goodnight from the Verizon Center.

Matt Gilroy.

You’ll note by the way, that I didn’t say, “And the winner is…” Brad Thiessen and Colin Wilson are certainly winners, too, in their own right – thanks, Oscar - but this is certainly one of the special stories I’ve had the privlege of covering in my time as part of the college hockey community, and listening to Matt give the Hobey Baker speech helped drive that home.

With apologies to Matt Carle and Ryan Duncan, I don’t remember much about their Hobey Baker speeches, and sadly, I wasn’t in Denver last year to hear Kevin Porter give his speech. However, it certainly struck me the way that he thanked his teammates, not just in the obligatory way, but to single out his co-captain John McCarthy for helping him lead the team, his brother Kevin Gilroy for joining him on at BU this season, and his defensive partner Brian Strait for “cleaning up” after him.

The individual thank-yous to the coaching staff are also something I don’t necessarily remember hearing in the past, and it reminds me of the role coaches have in stories like this: finding the diamond in the rough who might turn into something. Former Hobey Baker finalist John Curry often credited the BU coaching staff, particularly goalie coach Mike Geragosian, for helping him adjust his technique and become the goalie that we spent so much time talking about in recent years, and Gilroy certainly isn’t shy about mentioning the similar role that Mike Bavis and David Quinn had in helping him adjust to playing on the blueline. The trophy went to Gilroy, but this was certainly a win for the entire BU program, and Gilroy wasn’t afraid to say so.

It was also a win for the Gilroy family. Hearing him thank his parents and remind them how much of their money he spent as a walk-on was amusing, and a reminder of one of the important parts of this story: that Gilroy’s journey had humble beginnings. Of course, there’s also the matter of Jack Parker having given away Gilroy’s scholarship before this season, costing the family a bit more money – “My first reaction was that I was not too happy,” Gilroy said - but since the 2009 Hobey winner is now too old to be bound by the NHL’s entry-level contract system, he should be able to settle up with his parents when the ink dries on that pro contract in the near future.

Also, there’s the spirit of Matt’s brother Tim, whom Matt has honored throughout his hockey career, and it was clear as Matt spoke about the highlights of his BU career in the post-ceremony press conference, just how important that’s been, right up to this moment. 

“I think one of the best things that I’ll always remember is my first game,” Gilroy said. “I walked into the locker room, and if you’re playing that night, your jersey’s hanging in your stall, and that’s the first thing I did that night and every night I walk into the locker room, is I look at my stall, because I remember that feeling, seeing that jersey, and seeing that number that I wear in honor of my brother. I get goosebumps every time I walk in the locker room, and I think that’s something I’ll always remember.”

Of course, as time goes on, I’m sure this is a night that Gilroy will always remember as well, and I’m pretty sure I’ll remember being here in Washington to see it.

Meanwhile, kudos go to ESPN and the Hobey committee for doing a great job on the ceremony this year. The video tribute to Hobey Baker was very well done, and I thought bringing in former winners George McPhee (the Capitals’ GM and vice president) and Tom Kurvers (assistant GM with the Lightning) was a great touch. Also, the BU band sounded great during the commercial breaks. I never covered a Frozen Four before they started having this Friday night event that included the Hobey presentation, but I think it’s really a fun evening, and this year’s, with this Hobey ceremony, was particularly memorable.

Oh, and just one last thought:

Do you think that somewhere, in the back of his mind, it tweaks Jack Parker just a little bit that both players who have won the Hobey at BU are Yankees fans?

Goodnight from the Verizon Center!

Well, Colin Wilson finally got a couple of those goals I kept saying he needed.

Too bad the Hobey vote was last week.

In all seriousness, Colin Wilson certainly had the look of a Hobey Baker winner on Thursday night, scoring two goals and adding an assist in BU’s 5-4 win over Vermont to advance to the NCAA title game. Those three points give him 55 for the season, the most  by a BU player since Chris Drury scored 57 in 1997-98.

You know what else Chris Drury did that year? Yes, you do know…

Of course, Drury also had 28 goals that year, compared to 17 for Wilson this year. But certainly, any time you watch BU, it’s not hard to see how this guy is the focal point of the Terrier offense, even if he doesn’t have the goals to show for it.

“I think Colin Wilson’s best hockey is still ahead of him,” BU head coach Jack Parker said. ”And, unfortunately, it probably won’t be here.  But he’s had a great two years here.  He’s certainly capping it off with a great run in the playoffs.”

Seeing him score a couple of those goals for the Terriers got me thinking a bit more about the Hobey, and whether I might havex called it wrong. Part of my reasoning behind the Gilroy pick was that he has the better narrative, being the senior captain, three-year All-American, former walk-on , etc. But then again, if narrative were worth as much as I thought, Jacques Lamoureux would he in this Hat Trick.

We’ll find out soon enough, of course….in the meantime, I have a feeling I could have been wrong.

Other thoughts:

- Keep an eye on Miami’s Carter Camper for next season in the Hobey race. His scoring on Thursday was limited to a second assist, but he was another one of those guys who has a presence you can’t help but feel when he’s on the ice.

- Viktor Stålberg was also a figure to watch on Thursday, leading to the question of how he didn’t quite make it into the Hat Trick. He may have another shot at both next year, if he decides to return.

See you tomorrow for the ceremony.

So, we have our Hobey Hat Trick, and I successfully named two out of three members of the 2009 group.

But come on…I got all three last year. This is a step backwards for your humble correspondent.

In my defense, I will say that I didn’t see nearly as much college hockey this season as I did in the past four, which I look forward to changing next season (the adjustment to the post-CSTV era was a little rough in that department).  However, I am pretty well surprised by my failure to get that third member of the Hat Trick.

To be fair, though, who really saw Brad Thiessen coming?

Really, writing him off after the Huskies fell short of the Dodge Holiday Classic Title, the Beanpot, the Hockey East regular-season title, the Hockey East tournament final, and the second reound of the NCAA Tournament…well, it kind of made sense. I mean, I know people were goofing on my Northwestern-Northeastern typo in the last blog entry (insert Big Ten Hockey Conference joke here), but when the chips were down this season, Thiessen may as well have been playing for Northwestern as for Northeastern for all the good it did.

However, at the same time, the simple fact remains that without Brad Thiessen, the Huskies don’t sniff any of those titles, and the fact that Thiessen was able to get Northeastern as far as he did is testament to his performance this season.

If I still think Jacques Lamoureux is a better candidate for the Hobey – arguably one of the best candidates for the award, as defined by the official criteria, that there’s been in quite some time - well, that’s something to think about for the next two years, since we all know that he’s not going to be leaving school early. In the meantime, Thiessen’s in the Hobey Hat Trick, and Hockey East has a lock on the top three spots.

(Can I get an “EAST COAST BIAS!!” from the WCHA congregation?)

I’ve got to be honest; I never thought I’d see that happen. I didn’t think it would happen three years ago, when the CSTV panel (incorrectly) picked Ryan Potulny, Brian Elliott and Matt Carle for the Hat Trick. I really don’t know what to make of this, except that with a 2-0 advantage on teams in the Frozen Four, a 4-3 advantage on NCAA tournament teams, a 4-1 advantage on Hobey Baker finalists, and a 3-0 advantage in the Hobey Hat Trick, Hockey East has certainly, in its 25th Anniversary Season, given the WCHA fans something to think about for the next six months until the 2009-10 season starts.

But enough of that. Now that we have three players in the Hat Trick, it’s time to figure out who’s going to win.

Well, that’s easy.

Congratulations, Matt Gilroy.

As I’ve already written, the fact that Gilroy got the Walter Brown Award over Colin Wilson is a pretty solid indication that the Hobey voting would go the same way. And then there’s Thiessen, and I think that while Northeastern’s aforementioned futility in championship situations this season wasn’t enough to keep Thiessen out of the Hat Trick, he won’t stand up next to Gilroy, a (soon-to-be) three-time All-American defenseman and captain of the Hockey East regular-season and tournament champions, not to mention the favorite for next week’s Frozen Four. Oh, and then there’s that whole “turned down 23 NHL contract offers to come back for his senior year” thing, which makes a big impact in the current climate in college hockey.

Of course, I haven’t been right about everything this season, so I could still be wrong about this.

However, to sum it up, I will say, as the kids do these days…

Gilroy FTW.

OK, folks, this is it.

We’re two days away from finding out which three players will be at the Verizon Center on Friday night for the presentation of the 2009 Hobey Baker Award. This would roughly be the part where I take my shot at who those three players will be.

Where we last left our Hobey hopefuls, there were five players remaining for three slots in the Hobey Hat Trick: Jacques Lamoureux of Air Force, Viktor Stålberg of Vermont, Brad Thiessen of Northeastern, and the Boston University duo of Matt Gilroy and Colin Wilson.

On Saturday, Thiessen took himself out of the running when Northeastern was eliminated from the NCAA tournament by Cornell. It’s hard to pin the entire blame on Thiessen – after all, Northwestern wouldn’t be in the NCAA tournament without him – but Northeastern’s woeful record in tournament situations (Beanpot, Dodge Holiday Classic, Hockey East, NCAA) makes it very hard to vote for him. So, Thiessen will get one more shot as a senior (should he choose to return), but you won’t be seeing him at the Verizon Center on Friday the 10th.

With Thiessen gone, that leaves four players: Stålberg, Wilson, Gilroy and Lamoureux.

At this point, I’d have to say Lamoureux is a lock for one of those three spots, if for no other reason than that I can’t see any one conference monopolizing the Hat Trick. Beyond that, though, with an All-Regional performance in Bridgeport – which included a goal in the upset of Michigan – Lamoureux added an extra degree of credibility to his NCAA-best goals total. Add that to the intangibles that come with playing at the Air Force Academy (both the demanding lifestyle and the connection to Hobey Baker, World War I fighter pilot), and you have a surefire Hat Trick spot, and maybe even the Hobey itself.

Obviously, there’s going to be at least one BU player in the Hat Trick, and in my opinion, Matt Gilroy is the sure thing in that competition. Winning the Walter Brown Award gives us a bit of insight into how the two players are evaluated in the region where observers are most familiar with them, and if they say Gilroy’s the guy, it’s safe to say the national panel will share that opinion. Also, Gilroy had the better weekend in Manchester.

So, that’s two spots filled, and Colin Wilson and Viktor Stålberg for the third spot. Stålberg leapt over Thiessen this weekend as Vermont advanced to the Frozen Four, and I started to see the “Hobey aura” I’ve been talking about as I observed the attention he commanded on the ice. Still, I’m not sure that it’ll be enough to get him past Wilson, who has been a more constant presence in the Hobey conversation this year.

I’ve been adamant that Wilson’s chances of winning are hampered by his meager goal total, so it certainly wouldn’t be surprising to see Stålberg – who has nine more goals – get the last spot. Still, Wilson is the focal point of the offense for BU, and my gut feeling is that he will join Gilroy and Lamoureux in the Hat Trick.

So, while I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stålberg in the Hat Trick, for now, my call is going to be Matt Gilroy, Colin Wilson, and Jacques Lamoureux.

Am I right? Time will tell.

The “Jacques Lamoureux for Hobey” campaign took another step forward on Friday in Bridgeport.

For starters, as I expected, Air Force’s promotional flyers had made their way onto the media tables on Friday, joining the flyers and DVDs for Vermont’s Viktor Stålberg. I mention that because the flyer for Lamoureux is about as effective as you’ll find in terms of truly promoting a candidate. When you look at Lamoureux’s typical day, it gives you all the more respect for the performance he’s been able to put together this season for the Falcons. Also, the reminder at the bottom of the flyer about the criteria for the Hobey – remember, it’s not just an MVP or Player of the Year award - and the short blurb about who Hobey Baker was both help illustrate part of what makes Lamoureux special as a candidate.

Of course, the bigger impact on the Hobey race for Lamoureux on Friday was his second-period insurance goal in the Falcons’ 2-0 win. For anyone who doubts Lamoureux’s numbers because he plays in Atlantic Hockey, an NCAA tournament goal against Michigan adds a certain degree of credibility.

“He scored a big goal here tonight,” Air Force head coach Frank Serratore said, “and actually could have had another one. If you can score against the Michigan Wolverines in the NCAA Tournament, I think that should legitimize him in a lot of people’s eyes. He possesses a great gift, and that gift is his ability to score goals.”

The other goal-scorer among Friday’s Hobey finalists was Stålberg, who made me look a little bit silly in the postgame press conference – from my vantage point, I thought his goal had gone in five-hole, and he had to correct me – but made the Bulldogs look worse with his goal to put the Catamounts up 2-0 en route to a 4-1 win.

“I was trying to make a play to Brian [Roloff] on left wing,” Stålberg said. “I kind of fanned on the puck a little bit, and it hit the D’s skate and it came back to me. I took a whack at it, and it ended up being a pretty good shot.”

I don’t know why I didn’t give Stålberg a closer look when I was at Gutterson Field House back in October – looking back at the box score, he didn’t do much to make himself noticeable in the 3-3 tie with Miami – but he was certainly a player to watch on Friday in Bridgeport. The goal helped, of course, but you could tell from the way he moved with the puck that his blend of size, speed, and puck-handling sets him apart from other players out there. I don’t know that he’s got much of a chance at the Hobey this year – I think the Hockey East contingent is pretty solidly behind the other three candidates – but if the Maple Leafs let him stay at UVM for his senior year, he’ll be an excellent candidate for the 2010 Hobey. The “aura” is building.

Michigan’s Louie Caporusso, meanwhile, was shut down along with everyone else in Maize and Blue on Friday, and to be fair, it’s not like he had much of a chance anyway. There’s a certain “aura,” so to speak that true Hobey contenders have, and Caporusso just doesn’t have it yet. The fact that he had to follow Kevin Porter – who had the strongest Hobey aura I’ve ever seen – as Michigan’s next Hobey candidate didn’t help matters. Still, Caporusso didn’t do himself any favors on Friday, and while I do expect to see some sort of western representation in the Hobey Hat Trick, I don’t think it will be Caporusso.

Finally, out in Minneapolis, it’s safe to say that it’s the end of the line for the Hobey chances of Princeton goalie Zane Kalemba. To be fair, the chances weren’t that good to begin with – Hobey doesn’t like goalies, even when they play for his alma mater – but a Princeton upset of Minnesota Duluth could definitely have given the voters something else to think about. As it is, though, he’s officially out of the running, leaving five guys for three spots in the Hat Trick…and of course, one award.

What will happen Saturday? Stay tuned…

Hello from Bridgeport, where I’ll be covering my seventh NCAA regional this weekend, and I certainly feel like seven is a lucky number for me in my capacity as your Hobey Watch blogger. Of the four regionals, the one with the most Hobey Baker finalists happens to be the one I’m at, as Air Force’s Jacques Lamoureux, Michigan’s Louie Caporusso and Vermont’s Viktor Stålberg will be in action this weekend at the sold-out Arena at Harbor Yard. While I certainly wouldn’t have minded watching BU’s Matt Gilroy and Colin Wilson this weekend in Manchester, Princeton’s Zane Kalemba in Minneapolis or Northeastern’s Brad Thiessen in Grand Rapids, Harbor Yard is certainly the place to be for Hobey Intrigue.

By the way, it took me about three minutes to get the right ASCII code for the “å” in “Stålberg,” so if I type his name more than I otherwise might, that’s the reason.

Anyway, of the three Hobey finalists here, Stålberg is the only one with promotional material in the media area today, as the media guide table has a stack of flyers and DVDs, the latter containing the video from PickVik.com. That could change tomorrow, of course – I know Air Force has made up flyers for Lamoureux – but the real place an impression is made is on the ice, and Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon is confident that Stålberg will do just that.

“I think Viktor’s ready,” Sneddon said. “He’s very excited about this opportunity on the national scene. His consistency’s been very impressive, and I think that’s why he’s a finalist. He hasn’t had scoring tears and then quiet games; he’s been a factor every game. Even if he’s not on the scoresheet, I think everyone in attendance sees a future NHLer skating out there, who’s 6′3″ and can fly.”

For his part, though, Stålberg is avoiding the Hobey conversation. “I don’t think you focus on that,” Stålberg said. “You focus on the team right now, and if the team does well and you perform the way you should, I think you put yourself in the best position to be in the top three. For us right now, it’s just about getting to the Frozen Four.”

Caporusso, meanwhile, acknowledged that having a shot at the award is in the back of his mind while still downplaying the significance of the Hobey race. “You’re always trying to make an impression as an individual player,” Caporusso said, “but at the same time, I’m just concerned about beating Air Force right now. It’s pretty cool to have two more Hobey Baker [finalists] here at the regional, and definitely, you want to outperform your opponents, and if that means outperforming the other Hobey Baker finalists, then so be it.”

Michigan coach Red Berenson knows what that entails for his sophomore forward.

“Louie has to have a good two-way game,” Berenson said. “He’s a two-way player. He’s a lot like a lot of thes guy who score. He is opportunistic, but you don’t always get your scoring chances in these games. They are hard-fought, close battles and each team is going all-out every shift, so there’s not much time and space to handle the puck. So, he might have scored goals during the year that he might not be able to score now, but if Louie does, that is good because our team is more successful when he scores.”

At the other end of the ice for that game is Lamoureux, who also makes Air Force more successful when he scores: he has nine game-winning goals this season. He’s also clearly gotten the Wolverines’ attention.

“He’s definitely one of the top players in the nation this year,” Michigan defenseman Mark Mitera said. “I think we’ve faced players like him in the past this season, and our team’s done a good job. We just need to focus on defense. If we’re shutting down their front line it will trickle down through the rest of the team, I think, so definitely, when he is on the ice, we need to be aware of that.”

That means interfering as much as possible with Air Force head coach Frank Serratore’s plan for the game 

“The strength of Jacques’ game is his goal-scoring ability,” Serratore said, “so hopefully we get Jacques the puck in that area from the top of the cirle in, and let Jacques do what Jacques does best, and that’s score goals.”

For his part, Lamoureux is taking a cue from his brother, 2007 Hobey finalist Jean-Philippe Lamoureux, in putting the Hobey out of his mind when game time rolls around.

“It helps that my brother was a finalist last year,” Lamoureux said. “You can’t worry about that stuff, and I really don’t. To be named a top 10 finalist is an honor, and it’s pretty humbling, but we came here to win some hockey games, and the biggest thing is ‘What can I do to help the team win?’ If that’s blocking shots and finishing checks and not scoring goals, that’s what it takes. It’s about winning games at this time of year, and those individual things – if you take care of business on the ice with wins – those things kind of take care of themselves, so that’s how I see it right now.”

The players here in Bridgeport – like the ones in Manchester, Grand Rapids and Minneapolis – may be doing their best to put the Hobey race out of their minds, but the fact is that it is far from over, and that’s going to lend an extra intrigue to this weekend’s games, especially here in Bridgeport, where I’ll be following all the action here on USCHO.

Talk about lucky number seven.