Wednesday Women is back

[Arafel]

Hey gang, our first Wednesday Women of the season was published today. Hope you all got a chance to read it:

https://www.uscho.com/2018/10/10/wed...rly-surprises/

[Lindsay]

Glad to see this weekly column is back. It is always well done. Seems a lot of people have eyes on Maine this year. Maine will be expected to earn two wins vs Sacred Heart this weekend, and if they get those wins I think a lot of people will be paying attention to Maine vs Northeastern next weekend.

Re: post Olympic growth discussion, positives I’ve noticed is The Ice Garden starting to cover college more. There appears to be a fan base that was NWHL focused that is now following college too. As far as the Whitecaps, it’s interesting how a team that’s been around 14 years, gets that pro/ semi-pro label and all of a sudden they can sell out a rink, and I’m sure some of that is post Olympic bump. I hope they can sustain the interest; It looked like a fantastic atmosphere.

With the 4 Nations coming up, a real test of if there’s been a bump in interest in women’s hockey will be the coverage of that event. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but last year I think it was streamed on Hockey TV and the closest thing to mainstream coverage was the Tampa Bay Lightning Twitter handle live tweeting. I really hope we can watch some of it on tv this year.

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

Hey gang, our first Wednesday Women of the season was published today. Hope you all got a chance to read it:

https://www.uscho.com/2018/10/10/wed...rly-surprises/

Yes, and thank you to both you and Nicole for your contributions...

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

Re: post Olympic growth discussion, positives I’ve noticed is The Ice Garden starting to cover college more. There appears to be a fan base that was NWHL focused that is now following college too. As far as the Whitecaps, it’s interesting how a team that’s been around 14 years, gets that pro/ semi-pro label and all of a sudden they can sell out a rink, and I’m sure some of that is post Olympic bump. I hope they can sustain the interest; It looked like a fantastic atmosphere.

It's Minnesota, so the support should remain strong because Minnesota is different from anywhere else for supporting hockey of any kind, not just NWHL.

[wwhyte]

I put in this comment on this week's Wednesday Women but thought it might be interesting to post it here too, in response to Arlan's observations about Clarkson's backup goalies:

"However, a year ago, there weren’t any plans for Sauvé to be in Clarkson’s net this season, so I’d have to imagine that Desrosiers has confidence in his other two goalies." -- bear in mind that Jenna Brenneman was expected to be the Clarkson starting goalie this year, with Coulombe and Castonguay as backups. When Sauve transferred in, Brenneman transferred out to Penn State. This year, Brenneman has a save % of .927 compared to Sauve's .918, and she's seen 331 shots compared to Sauve's 219. All of which is to say that it doesn't follow that Desrosiers had starter-level confidence in Coulombe and Castonguay; he had starter-level confidence in Brenneman, but she didn't want to wait another year for ice time.

[TonyTheTiger20]

^^ That is a hell of an observation ^^

[ARM]

... bear in mind that Jenna Brenneman was expected to be the Clarkson starting goalie this year, with Coulombe and Castonguay as backups.

You could certainly be right. I don't know enough about either Coulombe or Castonguay to say if that is true. It seems that goalies are the place where not only coaches, but also fans, are most likely to have radically different opinions. One goaltender is brought in to be the starter, someone else is her backup, and then it winds up that the backup earns the starting job. As confidence waxes and wanes, performance follows along. My overall point is that if a goalie is stuck behind Sauvé, it is difficult to feel too confident when suddenly thrown into the fire. But once she has a chance to settle into the job, I'd expect either to play better.

[D2D]

Just wanted to give props to the three contributors to the Wednesday Women's columns this season: Candace Horgan, Arlan Martilla and Nicole Haase...great observations and consistently well worth the read in the middle of each week.

[ARM]

Nicole's story is timely:
https://www.uscho.com/2019/02/14/wom...-historic-win/

"There are those who’d say that winning a Beanpot title is better than winning a national championship ..."

Grant? Is that you?

[TonyTheTiger20]

Grant? Is that you?

That is a HARD hard no. Very hard no. Diamond-like no.

[D2D]

That is a HARD hard no. Very hard no. Diamond-like no.

So you're saying there's not a chance?

[TonyTheTiger20]

So you're saying there's not a chance?

Ha no there is not.

It's all a matter of perspective really. When I was a student (I graduated in 2010), even though we made the Frozen Four in 2007, the idea of winning a national championship just wasn't on the radar. Like, yeah, we made the Frozen Four, and yeah, as the Frozen Four was happening, you think hey just gotta win two and we're champions! But the actual idea of winning a national title was pretty much unfathomable.

Back in those days, winning the Beanpot was a massive deal to us, because it represented the biggest accomplishment that we as a program had ever achieved. I wasn't a student when we won our first, but when we won in 2007 after beating Harvard in 3OT... I mean, that was really the peak of glory for BC's program at the time. It was only then topped that same season by making our first Frozen Four.

I remember that until we actually won Hockey East, winning the league was "The Dream." It was the highest possible, attainable goal that I could see us reaching. Every single year it was "we just have to beat UNH once to win" (except WHEAs were always held at Lake Whitt, where UNH for a long time had never lost a league home game, literally ever, so it looked even harder to do than it should have).

It's crazy how if you shoot for the moon and you actually reach the moon, you won't be happy until you hit the starts (at least for me). Winning the Beanpot RULED... but then it was just sort of an everyday goal from there. Winning the league was all I wanted to see when I was a student. Then we won the league in 2011, and since then, especially since we make the Frozen Four most years, it's so much less of a big deal to win the league -- like the Beanpot, it's just sort of... not expected, but just the a regular goal. Now it's "National Title Or I Can't Be Happy." Again, this is me, personally.

This is why I always say I would be able to enjoy this season (and future less-than-great seasons, like next year when we probably won't be Elite Tier) if we had just won that national title the year we were undefeated. There's no "stars" past a national title. There's always that to fall back on. And yeah, once you want one, you want more, but looking at it from my perspective with the men's team, when we won the national title my senior year, I can pretty much "oh well" my way through any bad season, because I always have that Top Of The Top feeling to think about.

So in the context of the Women's Beanpot -- I know BU's won the league (way too many times, IMO), but I can see them feeling like this Beanpot is worth as much as another league title would be. When you never, ever, ever, ever can get something... boy, you really want it.

And not to be disrespectful here, but "winning a national title" is probably not "on the radar" for them. Yeah, they will say that, and they could, in theory, you just have to make it and win three games, but I could see BU feeling like finally, finally, finally winning the Beanpot feels like winning a national title, given that a national title is realistically out of reach for a mid-tier program until there's a little more parity. If we had broken through and won a league title while I was a student, yeah, I would have felt like we won the national championship, because being a league champion was the highest level I ever expected the program to take me.

--------By the way, as a semi-related aside.... our senior year, 2010, we were pretty bad (easily the worst season since I'd started watching and easily the worst season we've had since). And to that point we still!!!!!! had never beaten UNH at Lake Whitt. Ever! As a program! Ever! How ridiculous is that?!

2009-2010 UNH marked the beginning of the decline of the Wildcats, but mid-season 2010 they were still really good, they'd won every league title in my memory of the program (4 straight at that point), and they were still defending champions. Let me tell you, going up to UNH in that 2nd to last weekend of the year... scoreless into the 3rd... Allie scores one and then Danielle Welch crushes a slapshot off the iron and in to make it 2-0 late... God, winning that game was almost as big a deal to me and Joe as winning a trophy.

[TonyTheTiger20]

Holy crap that was a tome sorry

[ARM]

Holy crap that was a tome sorry

Not at all; it was a good read. And for anyone who didn't wish to read it, it was obvious early on that they could just click to something else. Thanks for sharing.

[TonyTheTiger20]

Not at all; it was a good read. And for anyone who didn't wish to read it, it was obvious early on that they could just click to something else. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks!