With the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament a little over a month away, it’s getting to that point of the college hockey season where teams start pouring over the all-important Pairwise Rankings and contemplating their postseason future.
While there is still a month for things to change, the NCAA Tournament picture is starting to look bleak for northeast teams. If the tournament started today, only five teams from New York/New England would make the field of 16.
Why has it been a down year for Hockey East and ECAC Hockey? Let’s start with the fact that eight ECAC Hockey teams didn’t compete in 2020-21, so there was that to overcome. As a result of that, a number of players bolted from those eight programs for greener pastures elsewhere. It impacted recruiting, as well.
