Cornell @ Yale 01/12/18

[scoop85]

I think Clarkson winning over teams right around us is good..  let them lose to someone down the standings.

Very good thought.  At the start of the ECACH playoffs, the difference between finishing first  or second is not very significant, but the team that finishes third or fourth gets a tougher 2nd round opponents and the fourth place team, if it survives gets the first place team in the semis, and the last line change through the rest of the tournament.

At this point, I see Harvard as a bigger threat than Union, and I think they will surge in the second half after the Olympics.

At the moment there are five teams fighting for the four ECAC first-round byes. Clarkson is the clear frontrunner and barring a second-half collapse will likely finish first. We are in second, though only a few games ahead of Union, Harvard, and Colgate. Of the teams just below us, Harvard is easily the scariest and has rebounded from its bad start. Luckily they will lose Donato, a Hobey Baker candidate, to the Olympics for a few games. Union, which has been weak out of conference, probably isn't as good as its ECAC record suggests. The pivotal stretch run matchup will be the home-and-home against Colgate.

But Union did get a win and tie at North Dakota, which does now seem flukey