Let's Talk Schedule

I thought a bit of discussion concerning the 09-10 schedule was in order. Most of us obsessed fans have seen it long before now and had some limited discussion in a couple of the off-season posts I made. Those of you that are less obsessed may be just getting around to look at it. Before I get to some of the interesting aspects of the schedule please allow me to once again decry the 28-game mandated WCHA schedule.

With the addition of two teams and pressure from the Big Ten Television folks I'm betting we'll only have to live with it for at most 2 more years. Minnesota and Wisconsin will have a number of financial reasons to want to play Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State more often than they currently do. At the same time, they aren't going to want to limit their opportunities to play traditionally less powerful teams in their 8 non-conference games (don't forget that UAA never gets 8 non-conference games). If they are to cash in on Big Ten TV money they'll want more flexibility in scheduling than being forced into the currently restrictive WCHA mandate. You guys all hate unfunded mandates right?

With the advent of 12 teams it will make a lot of sense to just play every other opponent twice and have a 22-game conference schedule. That would be perfect for the Gophers and Badgers. They could simply fill in the extra six games with 3 series each against the other Big Ten teams. There are rumblings (not big ones ...) in the CCHA for this to happen. Such a reduction would be a major benefit to UAA. They could resume the 4 game series with UAF ... perhaps attend an outside tournament ... and even play an additional series at home. There could be some resistance from other WCHA schools who'll be biting their fingernails trying to figure out how to fill their schedule. A simple solution for them would be to play each other in non-conference tilts. Now onto the real purpose of this post.

UAA opens with one exhibition game in Wasilla versus SAIT on Friday October 2nd. It's nothing more than an opportunity for the coaches to see who can do what against mostly reasonable competition. Then the next weekend (as usual) comes UAA's tournament. This season the Seawolves will face Mercyhurst on Friday and Michigan on Saturday. Mercyhurst finished 3rd in Atlantic Hockey last season. They return 8 of their top 10 scorers from a team that gave UAA a bit of a scare last season in Fairbanks. The Seawolves shouldn't overlook them. The 2nd game of the tournament will be against the ugly helmets with the pretentiously named color "maize". Obviously, they'll be good. It'll be a tough contest for UAA. The advantage the Seawolves have is they'll be at home and they've typically played good hockey early in the season.

The next weekend the boys go up the street to FBX and play RPI and Robert Morris. Both are games I expect UAA to win. RPI finished 11th in the EZAC last year. Robert Morris kinda stunk it up in the CHA. Losing either of these games won't be a good sign for things to come.

The next weekend starts the WCHA schedule. And we've got a DOOZY of a beginning. The four teams I picked to finish higher than UAA are the first four opponents; 1st is UND here in Anchorage, then Da Gophs at "the john", then DU here, then Bucky in MADtown. This will be a very telling opening 8 games over 4 weekends for UAA. VERY telling. .500 won't be a bad result but hopefully the usual early season good form will see the guys end up with better than 8 of those 16 points. Personally, I'll be more anxious about this part of the schedule than any other stretch.

Following those 8 games the Seawolves will face 4 very winnable games. Mankato visits on November 20th and 21st then UAA goes to World Arena in Colorado Springs to face the 3rd best team in Colorado. On December 4th and 5th, UAA finishes it's first half of the season hosting St. Cloud twice on December 4th and 5th. I'd really like to see the Seawolves go into their month long break with at least 15 points. Anything more than that bodes well proportional to the number of points above 15 they can get.

The guys return to the ice on January 8th and 9th against DU in Denver. The next weekend they go to Houghton to face MTU. I'm guessing they'll just stay in the lower 48th after the DU series. If so, then I'd think staying in Denver would be a good idea. An extra week at altitude working out can't be a bad thing. One temporary result of high altitude training (in the short term) is the addition of oxygen carrying red blood cells.

The 3rd and 4th weekend in January see the guys at home. 1st against CC and then against Da Gophs. Two weekends on the road follow (maybe this is when they stay in the lower 48?) with visits to the National Concrete Center in St. Cloud and then Mankato. The Seawolves have never won at the NCC. That will end this year. The Saturday game in St. Cloud has an odd start time. I don't know what that's about.

Friday February 26th sees the 1st game of the Governor's Cup against UAF here in Anchorage. The next night the Seawolves clinch another Cup in Squarebanks and continue their recent domination of the mighty mites.

The regular season ends against the same opponent as they ended with last season against. UMD. Be nice to watch them sweep the drooling dogs live versus that B2 crap we had to watch last year.

The following weekend is the WCHA playoffs. I really really want to see UAA playoff games live this year. Really. Seriously. It's likely going to take damn near 30 points to get that accomplished as the parity in the league might very well be as it was last year. UAA got 23 points last year and finished in 9th ... Minnesota got 6 more points and finished 5th.