Wednesday 27 March 2024

Trouble Out East

I can't say there are many similarities between the cities of Trois-Rivières, Quebec and St. John's, Newfoundland outside of both being next to bodies of water and both having ECHL teams. The first of those two similarities doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon as both the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean seem to be quite watery. The second similarity, though, could make both of these cities have another fact: both may be former ECHL locations by next season based on the news today.

I'm not sure anyone was expecting this news, but, according to a report from Matthew Vachon and Paule Vermot-Desroches of Le Nouvelliste, both the Newfoundland Growlers and Trois-Rivières Lions may not finish this season and could fold before the season ends. For a league like the ECHL who was patting itself on the back a couple of months ago for announcing two new expansion franchises in Lake Tahoe, Nevada and Bloomington, Indiana, this news tempers any excitement one may have had for teams competing for playoff spots for what looked like a competitive Kelly Cup postseason.

As per Vachon's and Vermot-Desroches's reporting, both the Growlers and Lions have Deacon Sports and Entertainment as the majority owner, and it seems Deacon Sports and Entertainment is nearing insolvency when it comes to paying its bills. Their reporting found that Deacon Sports owed the city of Trois-Rivières $650,000 while the team sits close to $1.1 million in debts. The Growlers seem to be somewhat better off, but they too are nearing the point of no return with their majority owner on the brink of financial disaster.

They reported that the ECHL has set a deadline for DSE to sell the clubs by April 2 - that would be the Tuesday after Easter weekend with Quebec having a stat holiday on Monday! - so it's almost certain that the sale of the majority share held by Deacon Sports won't happen. If there is no sale, there will be a meeting of ECHL governors on April 2 to determine the fate of the two clubs, and it seems very clear that the ECHL will take over the operation of these two franchises at that time. What happens after that is anyone's guess.

The ECHL could find buyers for the majority share of both franchises or sell the two shares individually. With ten or fewer games on the ECHL schedule for the two clubs, the race for the playoffs will remain the day-to-day focus, but I have serious doubts that the ECHL and the other owners will want to fund a playoff run by either team, especially the Growlers where flights into and off Newfoundland are quite costly. Again, they could opt to have the teams in the playoffs, but why would any other team in the North Division want these two teams in the race if it causes other teams to miss the playoffs?

As it stands, the Growlers and Lions are both tied with 64 points along with the Worcester Railers as all three are technically in third-place at the time of writing this article, and Maine sits one point back of the trio with games in-hand. In terms of point percentage, Trois-Rivières sits at .508 with one game in-hand on both Worcester and Newfoundland who have a .500 points percentage. Maine, as stated, has two games in-hand and sit at a .508 points percentage as well. In short, the race for playoff spots is extremely tight, so the ECHL's decision on April 2 will have ripples throughout the division and conference.

In 2008, the Fresno Falcons folded on December 22 in the middle of the season, and head coach and GM Matt Thomas wasn't pleased that his team was essentially shuttered by the ECHL, stating, “I think it's disrespectful to have teams fold mid-season, whether they're in first place or last place. You work so hard as a group to create and develop a winning environment. To have it taken away right in the middle of it all is tough for everyone.”

One has to wonder if the ECHL will the players on both teams to sign with new teams and remain eligible for the playoffs. With the trade deadline having come and gone on March 21, it's not like these teams can deal away their higher-priced talent to other squads. They clearly can't do a dispersal draft because a handful of teams are already out of the playoff race, so that would be unfair to the players selected by those teams. Again, this whole insolvency is a major pickle that hasn't been seen before this late in the season, so it may take some real creativity to solve the immediate problems of folding two teams with a few weeks left in the season.

This is an ugly mess which the ECHL has to solve, so I'll be keeping my ear to the ground next week following the weekend. ECHL commissioner Ryan Crelin's in a sticky situation with this financial problem shared between the teams, and I don't envy him based on what he may decide to do. For all the momentum that the ECHL was building with their expansion plans, this is entirely deflating when two Canadian teams are on the verge of collapse.

I guess we'll find out the fate of the Growlers and Lions on April 2. I have a feeling it's going to be a dark day in the ECHL.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Tuesday 26 March 2024

Players On The Move

With the U SPORTS season officially in the books, there will be a number of players who are seeking new homes at the professional level. We've seen some move already like when Connor Blake jumped at the chance to sign with the Idaho Steelheads, but there certainly will be others as teams look to add dynamic playes prior to the Kelly Cup Playoffs starting. With Kermit the Frog playing the role of ECHL general managers across North America, phone bills would be growing in some cities as those teams get set for deep playoffs runs. Who went where? Let's find out.

You may recall me mentioning a trade involving former Laurier Golden Hawks forward Jimmy Soper that had the winger moving from Rapid City to Florida in a deal for former Bisons forward Brett Davis. Well, it seems that Soper barely had time to get settled in Estero, Florida because the Everblades dealt Soper along with former Carleton Ravens forward Kieran Craig and Luke Santerno to Cincinnati for Cyclones' leading goal scorer Zack Andrusiak and the rights to defensemen Zach Berzolla five days ago. Craig had played all of eight games with Florida before being traded after spending the last two seasons at Carleton where he scored 22 goals and added 27 assists in 49 OUA games. Let's hope he gets a shot in Cincinnati because it appeared that Florida had found a gem in Craig after signing him to a deal.

We're not done with Soper, though, because it was announced today by Cincinnati that they had suspended Soper and removed him from the roster. There was no details given for the suspension, but I suspect that Soper likely wasn't all that excited to be in Cincinnati for the remainder of the season considering this would be his third home in the month of March. Soper did play in three games for the Cyclones, recording one goal and one assist, but it seems he won't be skating for them for the rest of the campaign.

The March 21 trade deadline also saw a former Manitoba Bisons defender moved in the deals five days ago as Reece Harsch was dealt from the Jacksonville Icemen to the Idaho Steelheads in exchange for Lincoln Erne. Harsch played just 15 games in Manitoba brown-and-gold, but he was effeecive with two goals and ten assists on a Bisons team that didn't have much offence. Harsch has been all over the map over the last few seasons, playing with the EIHL's Fife Flyers, the ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones, the ECHL's Toledo Walleye, and the AHL's Abbotsford Canucks, but it seems he'll be skating in Boise for the rest of this season after the Steelheads dealt for him. He's another solid defensive player with big offensive upside on an Idaho blue line that's already stacked!

The Iowa Heartlanders added another former Canadian university player at the deadline when they picked up former UPEI Panthers defenceman Matt Brassard from the Newfoundland Growlers. The former OHL defender spent three seasons with the Panthers, picking most of his points in his final season in Charlottetown where he finished his AUS career with ten goals and 35 assists in 57 games. This is his fourth stop in the ECHL since leaving school, having played with the Savannah Ghost Pirates, Allen Americans, Newfoundland Growlers, and, now, the Iowa Heartlanders. His 104 games in the ECHL has seen him total nine goals and 24 assists thus far, but he has played physical in his four stops as he has 128 PIMs total. Iowa likely wanted that physical presence for a playoff run, and Brassard likely will deliver.

Rapid City opted to upgrade their goaltending on March 21 when they went out and inked Laurier Golden Hawks netminder Christian Propp to a deal. Propp's time in the OHL didn't attract any NHL teams to draft him, but the Golden Hawks were quite happy with his work. In three seasons, Propp posted a 33-39 record in 73 appearances while posting a 2.79 GAA and a .919 save percentage on a team that struggled against some of the better OUA teams. Laurier only finished above .500 once in Propp's time with the program, and that was in the shortened 2021-22 season when they went 8-7-1. Based on his save percentage, though, it seems pretty clear he can make saves to keep his team in games. The Rush liked what they saw, and he'll spend the rest of the season stopping pucks in South Dakota!

The Toledo Walleye decided to get in on the free agent fun as they inked former Guelph Gryphons and TMU Bold defender Cole Cameron to a deal on March 21. Known for being more of a defensive defender through his time in the OHL and with Guelph, Cameron helped TMU reach the U SPORTS National Championship this year, finishing his four seasons in the OUA with eight goals and 18 assists in 89 contests. Cameron was enrolled for his Masters Degree in Business Administration so we'll have to see if he goes back to TMU, but he did receive his Bachelor's Degree in Food and Agricultural Business from Guelph. For the rest of this season, he'll be tasked with stopping opposing forwards in the playoffs as the Walleye seek a Kelly Cup!

On March 22, the Norfolk Admirals made a splash by inking free agent and former Calgary Dinos defender Dakota Krebs to a deal. Krebs is the older brother of Buffalo Sabres forward Payton Krebs, but don't let that fool you in thinking Krebs is an offensive defender. While he does score, Dakota is very responsible in his own end, and has shown a knack for moving the puck without spending a lot of time in the box at both the WHL level and the Canada West level. In 71 games with the Dinos, Krebs recorded five goals and 21 assists, but only had 56 penalty minutes over three seasons. He doesn't get flashy with the puck, but Admirals fans will like Dakota Krebs on their blue line as they hunt for a Kelly Cup due to his responsible play and his reliability in his own zone.

The last move comes with a bit of head scratching because the Jacksonville Icemen released former Manitoba Bisons defender Mackenzie Dwyer from his contract today. Dwyer had played 13 games with the Maine Mariners and six games with the Fort Wayne Komets this season before landing back in Jacksonville where played 32 games in 2022-23. It seemed like the perfect for the 27 year-old Dwyer, but no reason was given for his release. It may be due to numbers, though, as the acquisition of Erne that I mentioned above gave Jacksonville 11 defencemen, including Dwyer, on their roster. Given that he was playing so little, that may have contributed.

In any case, there are a pile of U SPORTS transactions that will have a number of ECHL teams and fans happier after the trade deadline has come and gone. With more U SPORTS players in the ECHL, the chances of seeing one of them raise the Kelly Cup only increases, so it will be interesting to see who stands atop the mountain when the final horn sounds. All of the players who joined new teams, though, can be difference-makers for those teams, so here's hoping these players light it up in the ECHL!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Monday 25 March 2024

Gatekeepers Aren't Needed

With me promising to do less on this blog, I keep finding stories that I feel should have some greater attention. One of those articles came from Wray Morrison who works as the Senior Producer Host and Partnership Coordinator for the HuskieFAN app that broadcasts Saskatchewan Huskies games. I hold Morrison in high regard as he's seen and called a ton of key moments in Canada West dating back to the 1980s, and he certainly knows his stuff when it comes to broadcasting sports. He was one of the people I had hoped we would emulate with his analysis and insights when we were broadcasting Bisons women's hockey games on UMFM.

Wray's excellent article today, though, speaks to exactly what we knew was happening during our broadcasts. With the likes of the PWHL putting its footprints on the North American sports map along with the announcement of an upcoming women's professional soccer league in Canada, there is visible growth in the demand for women's sports at the University of Saskatchewan thanks to the successes seen by the women's hockey team, the women's basketball team, and the women's track-and-field teams who all had very successful runs at their respective national championships.

Making this claim should surprise no one, but what may shock people is the engagement that media saw with fans when it came to broadcasting the 2024 U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship. From Wray's article,
"Hockey fans from across the country heard and watched the championships with intense interest. The spike in listenership and sponsorship on Pattison Media's HuskieFAN app illustrated the excitement of the event. 'Having a team (the Huskies) compete in the national championships added another layer of excitement for us,' said HuskieFAN Project Manager, Tyler Kinash. 'It just shows that we (Pattison Media) were on to something in this partnership with the University of Saskatchewan, years prior. We were ahead of our time!'

CBC and Radio-Canada streaming numbers were up 81% over the previous season and TVA Sports reported that the 2024 event at the U of S campus recorded its highest ratings in the history of the championships."
I offer that segment from Wray's story above because I am still utterly baffled that an organization like Canada West and its member institutions are charging people to watch their broadcasts via a subscription package while virtually no other schools outside the University of Saskatchewan offers a radio broadcast of games. CBC, Radio-Canada, and TVA Sports all showed incredible spikes in viewership numbers while offering those games to the public for free while Pattison Media saw a spike in both listenership and sponsorship through its HuskieFAN offering via radio and streaming services.

You can't tell me that free access to games doesn't have its benefits based on those numbers. And Canada West seems very happy to not take advantage of the potential windfall in monies they could recoup simply by taking down the paywall and getting more schools doing radio broadcasts. Are there any business majors working there?

At some point, you'd have to expect the people running Canada West would wise up and follow the leads of every sports league on the planet by offering their games to fans for less cost and in easier places to find them, but they continue to stand firm with their archaic subscription model that does nothing to promote growth in viewership. Casual fans, interested parties, and general women's hockey fans aren't paying to watch those games, and those numbers lost to another broadcast can't be recovered.

With a potential boost in viewership for all of CBC, TVA Sports, and the HuskieFAN outlets, the opportunity to grow their revenue through advertising on those streams could be exponential to what was seen this year and in the past. And while no one is a fan of commercials, they are a reality in broadcasting to help pay for everything that goes into a broadcast - equipment, personnel, and travel as example.

This revenue-generating idea was something we stressed over and over again with Bisons Sports, but it was never anything they pursued. Time and time again, we offered to run ads for their sponsors and partners with the understanding that they were selling the ad space on our broadcasts for revenue to be split between Bisons Sports and UMFM, and they always opted for doing nothing. When Bisons Sports chose not to renew the contract with UMFM, I guess the benefit was that it relieved them of that annual conversation about generating revenue.

Fast forward to today where Wray's article shows the demand for women's sport at the University of Saskatchewan is growing, and it's easy to see why both the university and its corporate partners are willing to invest more into helping that growth continue. By having those numbers from CBC, TVA Sports, and HuskieFAN, the Huskies athletics department can approach businesses to generate new partnerships and relationships as well, but it's not hard to see the growth in interest and demand for women's sports and the broadcasts of women's sports across all of North America.

I feel like Paul Dano's character in Dumb Money where he tells Congress about his GameStop shorting, "The hedge funds are overlooking the value in the company just like they overlook the people who shop there." In this case, Canada West and its member institutions are the hedge funds, "the company" is women's sports, and "the people who shop there" are women's sports fans.

I'm no Roaring Kitty by any means, but the fact that we had identified this trend of investing in women's sports - specifically hockey - in 2018 before being unceremoniously dumped by Bisons Sports for their precious subscription crumbs tossed their way by Canada West makes it all the more maddening in seeing Wray Morrison's article and the impact that free broadcasts had on their businesses. I'm happy that the University of Saskatchewan and Huskies Athletics are going to milk this trend for all its worth, but it's mindblowing to know that Bisons Sports decided that extra revenue streams were something they simply didn't have the time or effort to pursue.

On a more macro scale, don't be surprised if your Canada West TV subscription rate goes up next year. The pay-to-watch model seems to be the hill they're willing to die on regardless of the costs in seeing their subscription numbers fall despite the data they have from one of their member schools.

"If she can see it, she can be it" is a mantra heard across many industries when it comes to gender. Women's hockey preached it for years, yet the barriers to watching women's sports in western Canada are still in place after decades of seeing and hearing that line. My hope is that the University of Saskatchewan sees a huge investment in women's sport at their institution so they become the example others will want to follow in developing that revenue stream to aid and improve women's sports. They deserve it for having invested in their female athletes.

It might be time for Canada West to pull its head out of the proverbial sand and start getting with times. For an organization that wishes it had one-tenth the revenue that the NCAA does, moving from being a barrier to being an access point for incredible women's university sports would be a good first step. No one likes a gatekeeper, and, frankly, the subscription tolls being charged to watch women's sports aren't helping anyone's cause in any way.

Until next time, keep you're sticks on the ice!

Sunday 24 March 2024

Manitoba: Where Goalies Are Made

The young lady to the left is Ohio State Buckeyes netminder Raygan Kirk following her team's victory today over Wisconsin at the NCAA Women's Frozen Four tournament. Kirk was named as the 2024 Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player as she helped the Buckeyes to their second title in three years which is remarkable considering her commitment to Robert Morris University to watching that program dissolve to landing at Ohio State where she played behind American Amanda Thiele and Swiss netminder Andrea Brändli. Kirk's emergence as the starter and, now, a champion this season should be a surprise, though, as she's always found her way to the top regardless of circumstances. Congratulations, Raygan!

What is remarkable is the list of goalies from Manitoba who are doing incredible things at the U SPORTS and NCAA levels along with the number of professional and Team Canada netminders who have wowed crowds across the world. Make no mistake that there will likely be another goalie or two moving into the PWHL in the next few drafts who calls the province home.

Kirk finishes her NCAA career with a ridiculous 56-10-10 record in 79 NCAA games while posting a 1.71 GAA and a .930 save percentage backed by 18 shutouts. She was part of the Ohio State win two years ago, and she added a second NCAA championship today while being named as 2024 Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player. She can add those accolades to her IIHF U18 Women's World Championship gold medal and Most Valuable Player award she earned in 2019 along with the MFHL Championship to which she backstopped the Eastman Selects in 2018. In short, she's pretty darn good and will certainly have her name called in the PWHL draft this summer.

Logan Angers had an outstanding season with Quinnipiac this year, and her college career has been equally impressive despite not having the same accolades as Kirk. Angers finishes her career with a 65-28-3 record thanks to a 1.80 GAA and a .928 save percentage backed by 19 shutouts in her 99 NCAA appearances. Angers was a star with the St. Mary's Academy Flames team prior to her attending Quinnipac where she backstopped the Flames to a 2018 Female World Sport School Challenge gold medal over Gentry Academy from Minnesota, so we knew she could win the big games. Angers should be on the radar when the PWHL draft happens this summer.

Alberta Pandas netminder Halle Oswald is no stranger around these parts when it comes to her play on the ice, and she leaves the Pandas with a 55-16-7 record in the 80 appearances she made in Canada West play. She earned that record by turning in a 1.14 GAA and a .943 save percentage that saw her pitch 22 shutouts. She was named as the Most Valuable Player at the 2017 Esso Cup with the Pembina Valley Hawks after helping them win the MFHL championship, and she was the 2023 Canada West Goaltender of the Year after being named a Canada West all-star multiple times. Oswald is one of the best netminders eligible for the draft this summer.

These three goalies will likely follow the path forged by both Kristen Campbell of PWHL Toronto and Corrine Schroeder of PWHL New York who have shown that they can play with the world's best in the professional women's league. As you may have heard, Campbell and her teammates just set the PWHL record and the record for professional hockey teams in Toronto for the longest win streak (eat it, Maple Leafs!) while Schroeder is doing all she can to keep the offensively-anemic New York team in games. Both have played well this season.

Of course, Sami Jo Small's name is well-known throughout the hockey world, but it seems more and more likely that names like Campbell, Schroeder, Kirk, Angers, and Oswald could follow her lead in stopping pucks at the Olympics in Italy. We'll have to wait and see if that happens in 2026, but it seems almost like a lock that a Manitoban will be on the goaltending roster in Milano-Cortina just as Sami Jo Small's was when Canada won the gold medal in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

One name that you likely don't know who seemingly has a golden touch is Julianna Thomson who played for both the St. Mary's Academy Flames and the York Lions in the OUA. Thomson didn't stand out in her time with the Lions as they were rebuilding, but she has found another place where she can use her impressive goaltending skills - ball hockey! Thomson was the backup netminder on the 2019 ISBHF World Championship Canadian team that captured gold before she took over the starter's role in helping Canada win the 2022 ISBHF World Championship gold medal. Julianna will be back between the pipes for Canada this year as they seek the three-peat in Valais, Switzerland from June 21-29!

Will there be more goalies from Manitoba who could have an impact in the future? I'd say yes based on a few early showings. Grace Glover should be another gem for the Alberta Pandas as they recruited the former Westman Wildcats netminder. Jordan Nepinak-Sargent has yet to suit up with the York Lions, but her work with the MFHL's Winnipeg Ice was impressive and she has the opportunity to learn from Emma Wedgewood as she looks to conquer the OUA. Hanna Pagdato may not be familiar to fans in U SPORTS, but the Mount Allison Mounties netminder is a Filipino goalie who has suited up for her team at the Union Women Ice Hockey Tournament! Each of these goalies has a unique story, but they all look to have bright futures!

It's pretty impressive to see all these women succeeding and excelling at various levels of hockey while calling Manitoba their home. Clearly, the province isn't as populous as the likes of Quebec, Ontario, BC, or Alberta, but these women are raising the bar when it comes to stopping pucks for the rest of the country. Raygan Kirk's latest achievements is just move proof that there is no stopping the stoppers that come out of Manitoba.

Congratulations to Raygan Kirk on becoming an NCAA champion for a second time and for being named as the tournament's brightest star. Both are deservedly earned and won, and there's an entire province who will be cheering for you in your next steps in life.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Saturday 23 March 2024

That U SPORTS Play-In Thing

You may have heard me yapping about the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Tournament this past week on The Hockey Show that went down most recently in Saskatoon. There was nothing wrong with the tournament itself, but I feel like we're not really putting the best teams in the country against one another when only two of the top-five teams ranked by U SPORTS played at the tournament. In my view, U SPORTS saw a solid field show up and compete for the national championship that was eventually won by Concordia, and I'm taking nothing away from their efforts or any of the effort put forth by any of the other teams. All earned their way there following the rules as they are currently setup. That doesn't mean things can't be improved, though.

I had proposed that the tournament move to a week-long format where there would be two days of play-in games to determine the best opponents in the tournament for the champions who won their way into the dance. In short, if a team wins its conference, it's guaranteed a top-four spot at Nationals, and they would play on the normal Thursday-to-Sunday schedule that we currently see. It's the other days that I'm proposing we change, and there's a way we can make this tournament a better version of best-on-best.

As we know, the finalists from each conference plus the hosting team get a free berth into the U SPORTS National Championship. Being the second-best team in your conference shouldn't get you a free pass into potentially winning a U SPORTS gold medal, in my view, so I want to see a win-and-you're-in idea take hold. You can't back into a championship, so let's make each team earn their way there.

What would happen is that the four finalists would advance to the play-in tournament on Monday and would square off against the next three best teams in terms of win percentage plus the host team assuming that the host team isn't the champion or finalist for one of the conferences. The finalist with the highest win percentage from its total regular-season and playoff games would be the top-ranked play-in team with the remainder of the finalists taking their spots as the second-ranked, third-ranked, and fourth-ranked play-in teams.

Pretty simple so far, right? Let's press on to the other teams.

The remaining four teams would consist of the next three teams with the highest winning percentage from across each of the conferences plus the host team. For example, the Guelph Gryphons would have advanced to the play-in stage in Saskatoon with their 23-4-3-3 as the fifth-ranked play-in team. Alberta would have qualified as the finalist from Canada West, so Saskatchewan would fall into the play-in lower rankings as the host team with a 20-9-2 record as the sixth-ranked team. Bishop's 17-11-0 record would see them ranked as the eight-seeded play-in team, and Saint Mary's would qualify as the seventh-ranked team with their 20-10-4 record in the AUS.

Played on Monday and Tueday of the week of Nationals, the eight play-in teams would play a single-game elimination game to advance to the National Championship in order to have every single team at Nationals win their way into a championship berth. If we used the above system to come up with the play-in round this season, it would have looked as follows:
  • PLAY-IN 1: #1 Alberta Pandas vs. #5 Guelph Gryphons
  • PLAY-IN 2: #2 Toronto Vars. Blues vs. #6 Saskatchewan Huskies
  • PLAY-IN 3: #3 Montreal Carabins vs. #7 Saint Mary's Huskies
  • PLAY-IN 4: #4 StFX X-Women vs. #8 Bishop's Gaiters
Just for the record, I had to move the finalists around in order to prevent teams from the same conference meeting one another in the play-in games. With Alberta joining the fray as the Canada West finalist, these seedings would only matter for the play-in games, and those teams that won their play-in game would be reseeded on the Wednesday prior to the National Championship officially getting underway. Championship teams will set those rankings and matchups.

What should be noted is that the play-in matchups would change annually. If a Canada West finalist played an OUA qualifier as Alberta and Guelph do, the following season would see the Canada West finalist play someone from either the RSEQ or AUS. The purpose for this switching of conference meetings in the play-in round is to see a greater number of interconference games played among a larger number of teams, thereby giving us a more accurate representation based on how the teams are currently ranked. With more games, national rankings start to mean something.

"Yeah, but Teebz," I can hear some of you saying, "doesn't this put the host team at risk of not playing in the championship they're hosting?"

To that question, you're right, but also missing the point. Only twice has the host team ever won the gold medal - 1998 and 2003. The host team has medalled only once since 2015 when the tournament expanded to eight teams. While I get that some schools want to host the tournament for the potential economic windfall that comes from the National Championship, history has shown that the hosts have no advantage in playing in their own barn when it comes to the National Championship. In short, hosts are just hosting seven other teams.

What may change that is if the hosts are forced to win their way into the tournament either through winning their conference or by winning the play-in game they're forced to play. Don't get me wrong in that the cards would have been stacked against recents hosts like UPEI, Queen's, and Calgary, but the purpose of the National Championship is to have the best playing the best to determine which team is tops in Canadian university hockey. If one doesn't have a strong program, no one is saying that program can't host, but this is a National Championship. Only the best teams should be playing in it.

Is this play-in idea perfect? No, not by any means, but it serves a purpose in keeping the best teams in Canada in the game assuming that they may have had one bad weekend or ran into a hot goalie. When the third-, fourth-, and fifth-ranked teams in Canada this season were all excluded from the National Championship, it's hard to pronounce that the best team in Canada won. Again, I take nothing away from Concordia in their victory as they certainly earned it, but I feel like all of Guelph, Alberta, Mount Royal, and Nipissing may have wanted a crack at the Stingers before the season ended.

Making Canadian university hockey better shouldn't require anyone to move mountains, so I'm always confused that U SPORTS doesn't listen to anyone not wearing a big "U" on their shirt. Having eight teams play in the National Championship who won their way there either by being a top team all season long or by qualifying via the playoffs will only make the team that stands atop the mountain a more undisputed champion of Canadian university hockey.

That's how a champion should be defined.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!