College Hockey made its debut on what was Versus, now NBC Sports, with a pretty good game between Notre Dame and what's now left of BU's team. Notre Dame won 5-2, Eddie Olczyk called Anders Lee a coward for not wanting to get his head imploded like a real hockey player, and a good time was had by all. After the game, NBC Sports aired an interesting documentary on the Notre Dame hockey program and their move to the new Compton Family Ice Arena. There was a lot of inside stuff on Notre Dame's new facility, the preparation that goes into a game, and the fact that Notre Dame's brand new home locker room is numbered room B008, which looks suspiciously like the word 'boob'.
Of course, after roughly three and a half hours of college hockey programming, NBC Sports returned to normal sports programming, which included their bottom line ticker that didn't include college hockey scores.
The January 1st deadline came and went meaning it is no longer appropriate to call the University of North Dakota 'The Fighting Sioux'. It's also probably not kosher to call them the name I refer to them by. Their athletics website, formerly FightingSioux.com is now undsports.com. Let's all share a moment of silence for the thousands of Native Americans expelled and exterminated from that website.
The NCHC will announce their first ever league commissioner on Wednesday. All sources point to the job being filled by a duo of James Franco, who is pure evil, and Anne Hathaway, because that seems like a fun idea people would enjoy. Or, after an exhaustive, expensive national search, they could hire a guy named Jim Scherr who works across the hall from the NCHC offices.
According to Brad Schlossman, the NCHC is also close to announcing a TV deal with CBS College Sports (Channel 4-something-something on your cable guide) that will begin with 16 games per year. When told of the deal possibly limiting his team's exposure on CBS College Sports, BU head coach Jack Parker possibly said, 'What!?' before adding, "That's a real thing?"
Sixteen games per year means 4 games for each team--give or take, depending on how the schedule works--on a channel that you have to pay extra for without even getting to see the occasional gratuitous female breast. Weighed against the history of two of two of college hockey's top conferences, that seems like a great deal.
It's been an incredibly rough year for the WCHA against the rest of college hockey. The holiday tournament season was the last big chance for the league to bolster their out-of-conference record and help their teams out in the RPI. Instead, it looks like the WCHA is getting a head-start on their move towards becoming a one-bid conference. There were tough losses all over the place for the WCHA. Michigan Tech lost two close games at the GLI. Bubble team Colorado College lost to Air Force. St. Cloud split at home with Western Michigan after an overtime winner by Chase Balisy in their second game. Minnesota dropped a game at their holiday tournament. North Dakota blew a two-goal lead at home to tie one of their games against Harvard.
Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth seem the only safe bets to make the NCAA tournament, with likely one of Colorado College, Denver, and North Dakota also making it in.
And finally, desperately seeking a win and any kind of positive momentum, Minnesota State played a game against a team of high-schoolers, and wore uniforms specially designed to make them invisible to opponents. They still only tied. It wasn't a total loss as the jerseys went to a good cause, with one game-worn jersey being handed out to every person in attendance, while the remaining jerseys were donated to a charity that teaches inner-city children how to hunt less dangerous game.