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Hobey Watch

My Vote
1. Kevin Porter
2. Peter Mannino
3. Ryan Jones

The award is still Porter's to lose, in my mind. His schedule gets considerably tougher over the next couple weeks, so everyone will be watching him closely, but I can't imagine much of a drop. Mannino had a rough weekend against Wisconsin, but I'd still take him over any other goalie, and nobody else really stood out in second place. Jones is still a little streaky for my tastes, but deserves to be up there for helping lead Miami to the season they're having.

CSTV Hobey Watch

Is here. Porter is the unanimous #1 choice. Two of his teammates also make the list. The first is Chad Kolarik, no surprise there, and the second is...wait for it...Billy Sauer, who received a third place vote from Comcast Local's Ben Holden. Holden goes mathematical on our collective asses with this quote, ""Sauer has allowed just two goals in his last four games and two of those games were shutouts." Meaning we know three of them weren't shutouts, and Sauer isn't giving up any pesky half-goals.

You could make a decent argument for everyone on the list, though none, besides Porter, really stand out. Eight of the ten candidates play in the CCHA or WCHA.

INCH Hobey Tracker

Is here.

INCH goes off the beaten path by putting Nathan Gerbe atop their list. It's a nice idea given Gerbe's hot play recently, but really, who are we kidding here? Gerbe has no business being a Hobey Baker candidate. There is other criteria to the Hobey Baker besides just scoring a lot of points and Gerbe comes up way short in those areas.

Gerbe was suspended for one game earlier this year after a game against Merrimack, where he was rumored to butt-end a Merrimack player. Here is what Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna said of the incident:
"While a suspension might not have been forthcoming on [Friday] night's actions alone, this is not the first time this season that I have been made aware of inappropriate behavior from Nathan," Bertagna said in the statement. "Given the fact that he had already been put on notice, I felt that supplemental discipline was in order in this instance."
So Gerbe earned Hockey East Double-Secret Probation and then promptly violated it. And how many players are actually suspended by their own league in a given year? I can't think of more than a handful.

Not to mention that academics come into play with the people deciding the award. Every offseason since Gerbe enrolled at BC, there have been rumors of him signing with the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL because he was struggling academically at BC. Obviously that is all hearsay, but I doubt Gerbe started taking rocket science classes this year.