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It is far too easy to pick on Fox Sports analyst Tim McCarver, but it’s hard to feel bad for the guy.
He makes John Madden look like a linguist who graduated from Harvard with a 4.0 GPA.
Readers may wonder what the hell McCarver has to do with college hockey — as well as why I’m being as cruel as to say McCarver’s intelligence is lesser than Madden’s — and the honest answer is he really doesn’t have anything to do with it.
While writing this article and watching Family Guy, I chuckled when the show took a shot at McCarver and his dry on-air commentary. The cartoon provided a McCarverism that perfectly describes this weekend around Hockey East.
As unpredictable and exciting as the Hockey East season has been to this point, this weekend was just as predictable and boring.
I’m not sure that even makes sense, but reading on will provide the materials needed to comprehend the puzzle that is the opening to this article.
For example, on Friday, in a clash of two of the nation’s top five teams, No. 3 Boston College battled No. 4 Notre Dame University.
The Eagles took the Fighting Irish to overtime tied at two before Notre Dame buried the game-winning goal in a clutch manner with 2 seconds remaining in the game.
Fans of Hockey East better get used to these two national powerhouses doing battle on a regular basis, as at the start of the 2013-14 season the Fighting Irish will become a member of the conference and will be one of the tougher outs in the league.
On top of this, the two teams may be developing a bit of a Catholic-school rivalry, as the two teams combine for five NCAA Frozen Four appearances — Notre Dame with two, BC with three — including a matchup against each other in the 2008 National Championship game in which the juggernaut Eagles routed the Irish 4-1.
Expect these two teams to provide entertaining hockey every time they touch the ice.
BC drops to 9-4 (7-2) for the season but remains in first place by one point, as the second-place Merrimack College had the weekend off.
Throughout the rest of Hockey East, the University of Maine traveled to Amherst to take on the Minutemen, and after scoring two quick goals in the first period, the Black Bears were unable to hold off a UMass rally in the second and third periods that tied it up at two.
Both teams were unable to pick up a game-winning goal and the contest ended in a tie, with each team picking up a conference point. UMaine played just one game this weekend and the tie brings their record to 3-6-2 (3-5-1) and puts the Black Bears in the lowly eighth spot in Hockey East.
UMass traveled to the University of Massachusetts Lowell on Saturday, where the Riverhawks dropped the Minutemen by a score of 4-0. UMass sits in ninth place at 4-5-3 (2-5-3).
UMass-Lowell is 6-4 (4-3) and rests in fifth place in the league with the victory on Saturday — a much needed win after getting dropped by the University of New Hampshire on Friday 5-0.
The Wildcats didn’t carry that win over on Saturday night when they traveled to Boston University, where the Terriers laid a solid 4-1 beating on UNH after they barely beat last place University of Vermont on Friday.
UNH sits in the fourth spot in Hockey East with a 5-5-2 (4-4-1) record, while BU jumps to third place as they improved to 6-4-1 (5-3-1).
Considering the inconsistencies BU head coach Jack Parker and the rest of the crew on Commonwealth Avenue exhibited early on, I’m guessing the old coach is pleased with this weekend’s results. The rest of the league is hoping it isn’t a sign of things to come, as BU boasts a highly talented squad capable of beating anyone when they are on their game.
Nearing the holiday break, it will be interesting to see if any space can be created by any of the teams that are jammed into the middle of the pack in Hockey East, as the fourth and eighth seeds are separated by just two points, while the top three teams are separated by just three points.
That being said, it will surely make for some great hockey down the stretch and shows that regardless of how a team starts this season, it will be all about how they finish it if that squad wants to make the playoffs.
Bangor Daily News