The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back tonight with a show strictly devoted to the two major hockey tournaments happening in Canada at the university level as the U SPORTS Men's National Hockey Championship kicks off in Halifax while the U SPORTS Women's National Hockey Championship picks up play in Charlottetown exactly one week from tonight! Having been to a couple of these tournaments as we followed the Bisons women's hockey team across this nation, I can tell you that this is an exciting for the seven confirmed teams on the women's side and the eight confirmed teams on the men's side who will compete for national glory. Tonight, we get an insider's glimpse into each of the conferences' representatives with people who have seen them up-close and in-person!
Tonight, Jason Pchajek and I are joined by three illustrious broadcasters from each of the conferences as we welcome Keegan Bartram, Victor Findlay, and Isabelle Germain to the program to chat about who has the best shot at winning these tournaments! If you're wondering about their credentials, Keegan is the play-by-play voice of the Mount Royal Cougars, Victor is a Ryerson media grad and a devotee to U SPORTS hockey, and Isabelle is a former U SPORTS hockey player who is now a broadcaster of AUS games! We'll talk to these three about their representatives' chances in bringing home a gold medal, who to keep our eyes on if you plan on watching through the CBC Streaming Apps, and any possible surprises expected from their respective representatives at the two tournaments!
As a note, Isabelle has sent through notes where Jason will be her proxy on the air as she'll be calling Game Two of the AUS Final between the St. Francis Xavier X-Women and the Saint Mary's Huskies as we go to air. That being said, if you want to watch the action while listening to our debate containing Isabelle's notes, you can see that game live on AUSTV.ca. StFX holds a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series, and can book the eighth and final spot in Charlottetown with a victory tonight!
It should also be noted that both the men's hockey championship in Halifax (March 12-15) and the women's hockey championships from Charlottetown (March 12-15) can be streamed live for free across CBC Sports platforms, as well as CBC Gem app on your mobile devices, this year. CBC will be using local voices and students for coverage on their broadcasts, so I highly recommend tuning into these broadcasts for these tournaments and other U SPORTS action!
Back to show info, where's the best place can you hear the show if you're outside Winnipeg or not near a radio, you ask? The new UMFM website's online streaming player is pretty awesome if you want to listen online. If you're using an Apple device, the player doesn't seem to like Safari yet, but we highly recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or perhaps another browser. If you do use the TuneIn app, you won't be disappointed. It's a solid app.
If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard!
Tonight, Teebz and Jason welcome Keegan, Victor, and the words of Isabelle to the show as we look at all sixteen teams heading to the U SPORTS National Hockey Championships next week, try to figure out who will win, engage in a spirited debate on why these teams will succeed, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!
In a year where we've already seen the top-seeded team virtually all season be denied an invitation to the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship after failing to make the final in its respective conference, another newly-named top-seeded team is on the verge of missing out on Nationals after dropping Game One in the AUS Final last night. With the victory, the St. Francis Xavier X-Women sit one win away from eliminating the top-seeded team in the nation in the Saint Mary's Huskies after winning last night's Game One match by a 4-2 score.
There probably shouldn't be a surprise about the "upset" that we saw last night, though, as the Huskies and X-Women finished this season with identical 22-5-1 records in the regular season. StFX rattled off 12-straight wins to close out the regular season in a share for first-place in the AUS, but due to their head-to-head record Saint Mary's got the nod as the first-place team in the conference. It should also be noted that the 12-game winning streak included a double-overtime win and a regulation over SMU, so one could argue that StFX might have been the best team going into the playoffs.
With the Huskies and the X-Women earning byes through the opening round of the playoffs, they awaited their semifinal opponents as four teams looked to move on. After some great series in the quarterfinals, the fourth-place UNB Varsity Reds downed the St. Thomas Tommies while the third-place UPEI Panthers ousted the Moncton Aigles Bleues. As it stood, SMU would face UNB while StFX squared off against UPEI. In a couple of short semifinal series, bot SMU and StFX needed just two games to end the playoff runs of their opponents.
With Concordia having lost to Montreal in the RSEQ semifinal, the Saint Mary's Huskies were moved into the top spot on the national poll as the #1-ranked team in the country on Tuesday as published by U SPORTS. Concordia, who had been the top-ranked team in the nation since October 22, 2019, were out as of last week, and that allowed the Huskies to ascend to the top of the rankings as their season was still alive.
StFX started the season slow, but in the rankings for a few weeks. They were 7th and 9th through the first two weeks of the season before not being ranked for a long time. They finally gained some attention on January 28 where they were voted into the top-ten once again at 10th. Since then, they've moved up the rankings each week as they ripped through the AUS on that 12-game win streak, showing up at 9th, 7th, 7th, 6th, and 5th over that period. If we include the playoffs, they're now on a 15-game win streak with last night's victory over the Huskies, and could be the scariest team heading into Nationals if they can secure the series win on either Thursday or Saturday.
If StFX wins the series, this might be the most unpredictable year in women's hockey in recent memory. For a team such as Concordia to be ranked all season long as the top team in the nation and not go to Nationals is one thing, but to have a Saint Mary's team that has been in the top-ten mix all season with a season-low ranking of 7th on October 22 and not being ranked lower than #2 in the nation since November 19 also possibly not go to Nationals? That's never happened in the history of U SPORTS women's hockey as far as I can tell.
If StFX were to win on Thursday, arguably the second-best team in the nation all season long could join the top-ranked team in the nation all season long on the sidelines as they'll watch the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship from their respective homes. You can make an argument that the best teams won't be playing in Charlottetown and how this championship tournament will be sullied by that, but the unpredictable outcomes have made this year's action entirely more exciting as there potentially will be an Alberta team there with all its weapons healthy and some unfinished business from last year, a McGill team who was last year's silver medalists, a Montreal team who was last year's bronze medalists, a Toronto team who want to rectify not getting off to a good start last year, and potentially a StFX team who would enter the tournament on a 16-game win streak if they close out the series tomorrow.
Factor in a UPEI team who won 20 games this season, a York team who is young and hungry to show what kind of damage they can do, and a Mount Royal team who simply is living for the moment, and you have yourself a heckuva field in Charlottetown this season. There is one spot remaining, though, and it will go to the victors of the AUS Final. As it stands, StFX has a leg up on SMU, but it's a best-of-three series for a reason, and the top-seeded team in the nation likely isn't done yet.
The NHL has been promising player tracking for a long time with a glimpse of it happening in full effect at the NHL All-Star Game this year in St. Louis. I had stated at the time of the All-Star Game this year that less is more with regards to all the stuff that the NHL was putting up on the screen, and it felt as though one were watching the stats boxes and the pop-up information blasts more than one was watching the actual game. I'm a hockey guy, and I felt overwhelmed at times. While I applauded the NHL for not getting in its own way yesterday, I likely was too quick to heap praise upon an institution that seems to find ways of shooting itself in the foot.
Why the about-face, you ask? Well, player tracking technology is coming to the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs whether you like it or not. At the General Managers' Meeting in Boca Raton, Florida, the GMs were informed by Steve McArdle, NHL executive vice president of digital media and strategic planning, that the new puck with the six embedded sensors will hold up to the rigors of NHL playoff hockey based upon the NHL's testing of the new pucks, prompting the NHL to implement the new tracking for the start of the playoffs.
"We haven't been able to break this one yet," Keith Horstman, the NHL's vice-president of information technology, told TSN's Frank Seravelli. "We shot it [at] 170 mph, 20 times, and it didn't beak, it didn't deform. We've been trying to get them to tell us what the break point is and they can’t get the gun [to fire] high enough."
McArdle added, "No cracking, no breaking. The rubber held up. No damage to the puck. We hit the corner of the puck on the crossbar to test various points of potential failure."
Structural problems for pucks wasn't even a topic that was mentioned at the time of the All-Star Game, so this is a new twist on the techno-puck. We all know test situations don't account for all variables, just the most common ones. In saying that, are we going to see pucks shatter if they catch iron at just the right angle?
On top of that, NHL players have been using pucks since they stepped onto the ice since they were lads, and they know what a puck is supposed to feel like when it's on their sticks without even looking down. The muscle memory of stickhandling the puck and moving with it has given them an innate ability to sense the slightest changes in the equipment they're using. Seravelli points this out in his article, stating,
"The NHL put the pucks in the hands of top players around the league to use in practice. While there were no complaints, sources indicated Sidney Crosby was quick to notice that, for example, the edges of the puck felt different. There have also been comments about the weight and feel (hardness) of the puck from players.
"Today's players will be able to pick up on even a hint of a difference, just in the same way that players in the 1990s were able to correctly identify the pucks used for the old FoxTrax system in a blind test."
That seems problematic in introducing something for the playoffs that NHL players already know feels different on their sticks, but I'm no hockey expert. If the puck feels different to the men making the most money to put it behind goaltenders in an effort to win the Stanley Cup, wouldn't that also mean it would bounce, ricochet, and carom differently? Physics seemingly would suggest so, but I'm no scientist here either.
Of course, the NHL has a different story as McArdle told GMs that during a game with the new puck, which didn't feature a team logo at the time, caused the only problem reported by a player - in this case, a goalie. As per McArdle, "Turns out, he had a superstition of handing the puck back to the official with the team logo side up, and he couldn't figure out where the team logo was. That was really the only incident that we've observed."
Um, ok? This unnamed goalie likely wouldn't notice a slight weight or handling difference if he's just required to stop the puck, but you keep bringing forth the examples, NHL. Those are rock-solid snippets of information to lean on when a guy who is one of your poster children in the NHL says that he "quick to notice that, for example, the edges of the puck felt different". Just saying.
While I made the argument for reducing or having the ability to turn off the overwhelming amount of stats and graphics and pop-ups and other paraphernalia that ended up on my TV screen during the NHL All-Star Game, it seems the NHL is more concerned with their return-on-investment for player-tracking technology than how the new technology might affect how the game is played. You can bet your bottom dollar that the NHLPA will bring up any missteps that this puck may cause, and a team that sees its playoff run affected negatively by a weird carom by a puck that's "almost the same" will certainly be banging on Gary Bettman's and Bill Daly's doors.
I've said on this blog a numbers of times that just because one can doesn't necessarily mean one should. This would be better if it were rolled out over the summer to allow teams, players, and fans to get used to the new technology. While I understand that the investment is significant by the NHL into player-tracking technology, shouldn't that mean getting it right the first time if there's that much invested?
As you may be aware the NHL general managers are getting together this week in Boca Raton, Florida to discuss the game of hockey at the NHL level. One of the major topics of discussion that happened today was about the emergency back-up goalie (EBUG) and whether the NHL should change the protocols surrounding who gets to be the EBUG as seen in games featuring Scott Foster of the Blackhawks to the left and David Ayres of the Carolina Hurricanes more recently. I argued that removing the EBUG from the game was akin to taking the lottery ticket away from all of us where, for whatever reason, we chose a different path than NHL stardom. TOday, the GMs ruled on this matter, and everyone awaited what 31 men who hold a ton of power over the game decided.
When the doors finally opened and the GMs emerged from their first day of meetings, the results were in: no changes to the best thing that happened in hockey in a long time.
"It's an interesting dynamic," Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff said of the emergency goalie. "If you look at where that position evolved from even just a couple years ago where you didn't have someone in the building, it's come a long way. It served its purpose."
And that's the key: the EBUG process is doing exactly what it's supposed to do when teams find themselves in the unfortunate situation of having two netminders injured in the same game. If you recall, the first time it happened was with the Carolina Hurricanes who had equipment manager Jorge Alves take the net for 7.6 seconds on the final day of 2016 to finish their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning after Eddie Lack came down with sickness prior to their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Florida's had a close call twice as former NHL netminder and Panthers goalie coach Robb Tallas was pressed into getting a uniform on twice, but Foster and Ayres are the two goalies who play longer than 7.6 seconds and faced live shots from NHL players.
Since those two episodes, there have been two EBUG situations in five years of NHL hockey, and both have resulted in wins for the teams that have utilized the EBUG. Two games out of five years of hockey does not warrant a major change to a rule, and it seems the GMs used some common sense in this situation.
"It's been in the news and was again here of late," Vegas Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon said. "But I think everyone's pretty comfortable with the procedures that we have in place. It's such a rare occurrence."
And that last statement about how rare this occurrence is makes changing the rules surrounding who can be an EBUG and how to properly vet EBUGs and all the other talking points moot. It's a winning lottery ticket for a guy who may get the chance to step onto NHL ice as a member of an NHL team during a live NHL game, but the odds of winning the lottery are so infinitesimally small that making a change would legitimately be a change just for change's sake.
Some have expressed that a 42 year-old Zamboni driver and occasional practice netminder shouldn't be the guy standing in the hallway or sitting in the pressbox as the next man up, but there's a key to Ayres' story here that a lot of people either didn't know or hadn't been told in all the hype surrounding Ayres' amazing night.
In Toronto, the emergency backup usually rotates between a goalie from either University of Toronto, Ryerson, or York University. York and UofT season’s are over, Ryerson had playoff game today, alas... David Ayres.
No one is here to take what Ayres did away from him, but this is more of the reality when it comes to EBUG in that university goalies or recently-graduated goalies are often the EBUGs for NHL teams ahead of 37 year-old equipment managers and 42 year-old Zamboni drivers. This is why David Ayres' story is even more incredible - he wasn't even supposed to be holding a lottery ticket that night!
"Every team now has got people that are available to perform and do well, so I don't think there's any need [to change the system]," Florida Panthers GM Dale Tallon stated, continuing shortly with, "I think we've addressed it in the last few years having goaltenders ready in the building, whereas before we had to find somebody or put your goaltending coach in. I think we did a good job fixing it and it turned out for the better."
For those thinking that there might be a spot for them after stonewalling a team in a beer league game, the NHL currently has 136 EBUGs registered, as some teams have more than others. A few teams have held EBUG tryouts before with Los Angeles advertising their tryouts in 2017 and a few other teams inviting goalies down for a shot at the spot in the pressbox.
At the end of the day, these feel-good stories for the NHL go a long way in building some good rapport between the league and fans. The dream to play in the NHL will happen for a select few who have the talent while the vast majority of us will have the door closed on us for a number of reasons. What the EBUG system does is give one person a lottery ticket to win that moment where all of us fans can live vicariously through that guy as he suits up for the biggest game of his life. It's that last bastion of hope in keeping the dream alive that makes the EBUG stories so fun - we are all EBUGs when they get called upon to save the day.
"I know there has been some coverage that we were going to take the fun out, and there was never any discussion of that," NHL executive vice-president of communications Gary Meagher said. "Everyone recognized the coverage and how positive it was. It's also happened just twice."
For once, the NHL has gotten out of their own way and allowed a system to remain intact that really got them some great exposure on a worldwide stage. While I doubt we'll see an EBUG situation again this season, the fact that the NHL GMs saw this opportunity as a great moment for the game brings me hope that there's still some common sense in the game.\
There was one series left in the Canada West season as the Catherwood Cup and the Canada West championship banner needed to be awarded to one team from the two left standing as the fourth-seeded Mount Royal Cougars traveled to Edmonton to meet the top-seeded Alberta Pandas. The three-game series would determine who held the higher seed at the U SPORTS National Championship in Charlottetown, PEI as well as both teams had already qualified for the tournament by way of making it to the Canada West Final. Let's see which team will have a new tapestry hanging in its rink next season on this edition of The Rundown!
Mount Royal found itself in the final after sweeping the fifth-seeded Regina Cougars in the quarterfinals and winning a tight three-game series over second-seeded Calgary Dinos that needed overtime in Game Three. Alberta received a bye in the quarterfinal for finishing as the first-seed in the conference, and dispatched the sixth-seeded UBC Thunderbirds in the semifinal in two games following a pair of overtime wins.
Alberta had Alex Poznikoff back in the lineup after she sat in the press box in Game Two against UBC as Regan Wright was out of the lineup in this game. Mount Royal made no changes from their lineup that got to the final. Kaitlyn Ross got the start for the Cougars while Kirsten Chamberlin was standing in the crease for the Pandas.
The opening period at Clare Drake Arena started off a little odd considering it was Mount Royal who came out shooting when it's normally Alberta who overwhelms their opposition. Despite the early shots, Chamberlin kept everything out as the game began to settle down in the Pandas' defensive zone. As we approached the midway point, the shots had began to even out. The Pandas would strike first as they got their legs under them as Madison Willan found room past Ross at 14:14 to make it a 1-0 game in favour of Alberta! The Cougars would get a power-play seconds after the goal was scored, but they would come up empty as they game went into the intermission with Alberta up 1-0 on the scoreboard and leading 7-6 in shots.
The second period felt more like a Pandas-at-home game as their offensive game really started to roll. An early power-play from a late penalty in the first period allowed Alberta to get their offence going, but they wouldn't score. A second advantage went unsuccessful as well, but a third opportunity seven minutes into the period saw the Pandas' lethal power-play solve the Cougars. Off a goalmouth scramble, Kennedy Ganser poked a puck under Ross from the left post back into the slot area, and Autumn MacDougall cleaned up the front of the net as she buried the puck at 8:07 to put the Pandas up 2-0! With the remainder of the period played at 5-on-5, there were no additional goals scored, but it was clear the ice had been tilted towards the MRU end. At the end of 40 minutes, Alberta held a 2-0 lead and was up 15-7 in shots.
Everything came unraveled for the Cougars in the early portion of the third period as Kelsey Tangjerd's shot from the slot over Ross' glove at 2:49 made it 3-0. Seconds after an Alberta power-play expired, Cayle Dillon's point shot was tipped in front by Kennedy Ganser as it got past Ross at 5:47, and Alberta was out in front by a 4-0 lead. That goal prompted Mount Royal head coach to make a goaltending change as Zoe de Beauville replaced Ross in the MRU net, but it didn't seem to slow Alberta's momentum as they went back to the power-play minutes later and found twine again. Alex Gowie's shot from the left face-off dot was stopped by de Beauville, but the rebound landed in the traffic in front where Abby Benning found the it and fired it past de Beauville at 9:32 for the power-play goal to make it 5-0 Alberta.
15 seconds after surrendering the fifth goal, the Cougars may have caught the Pandas taking their foot off the gas pedal. Jayden Thorpe curled off the half-boards to the top of the right circle, and her wrist shot found its way through traffic and past Chamberlin on the glove side to snap the shutout in making this a 5-1 game. That goal seemed to perk up the defensive game for the Pandas as they wanted to see zero semblance of a comeback, and they would shut down this game for the remainder of the period. When the final horn sounded, Alberta had earned the 5-1 victory over the Cougars. Kirsten Chamberlin won her third game of the playoffs with a 13-save effort while Kaitlyn Ross took the loss after making 15 saves in 45:47 of action. For the record, Zoe de Beauville made five stops in her 14:13 of action.
Alberta leads the best-of-three series 1-0!
Highlights of this game are below!
After falling behind in their semifinal series against Calgary, the Mount Royal Cougars has their backs against the wall once again as they needed a win to force Game Three. The Pandas were looking to close out the series and capture their 14th Canada West championship. With the storylines clearly established, Kaitlyn Ross and Kirsten Chamberlin took to their respective nets in Game Two.
Mount Royal looked a lot tighter defensively as they looked to slow down the potent Alberta offence in the early goings of this period by clearing rebounds and tying up sticks. The Pandas were looking to score early and put the pressure on the Cougars as they had early chances, and they'd find their pay day eight minutes in on the power-play. Lindsay Weech's low shot from the point was tipped in front by Alex Poznikoff, and the puck got by Ross with the deflection at 9:59 for the power-play goal as Alberta took the 1-0 lead! Alberta would get a second power-play chance in the frame, but the Cougars were able to kill that opportunity. The few shots that Mount Royal put on Chamberlin were turned aside by the netminder, and we'd go into the intermission with Alberta up a goal and leading 9-5 in shots.
The second period saw Alberta run into some penalty trouble in the top half of the second period, but their penalty-killing units were sharp in killing off both MRU advantages. The bottom half of the period saw Mount Royal return the favour of a couple of power-plays, but they too were efficient in killing off the pair of Alberta advantages. With no goals in the frame, Alberta took the one-goal lead into the third period with a 15-10 lead in shots.
With 20 minutes left on their championship dreams, you knew Mount Royal was going to bring every ounce of effort they had in the third period. Comparably, Alberta was likely going to play full shutdown mode for the final 20 minutes as they looked to celebrate another championship. Mount Royal did bring the heat, but it was Chamberlin and the Alberta defence who withstood the early storm. MRU was whistled for a penalty with nine minutes to play, and Willan found room between the post and Ross at 12:42 for the power-play goal and a 2-0 lead for the Pandas. The final seven minutes were desperation hockey for the Cougars, but the Pandas' defensive play was suffocating on all attempts. When the final horn sounded, the Pandas earned their 14th Canada West with the 2-0 victory over the Mount Royal Cougars. Kirsten Chamberlin was perfect on the 17 shots she faced for her fourth win and third shutout of these playoffs while Kaitlyn Ross was on the losing end of a 15-save effort.
Alberta wins the series 2-0 and wins their 14th Canada West Championship!
Highlights of this game are below!
There are no more games in Canada West, but there will be more games for both Alberta and Mount Royal as they'll head to Charlottetown, PEI as the Canada West representatives at the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship that can be seen on the CBC Streaming Apps. As it stands, six teams have already qualified, so here's how the field looks at this moment.
We'll know who the second OUA team will be after today as Ryerson and Toronto play tonight with Toronto looking for a second-straight trip to Charlottetown while Ryerson is looking to book first date at Nationals in the program's history. In the AUS, the SMU-StFX series starts on Tuesday, and we could know who the eighth and final team is by Thursday in terms of who will round out the field. If a third game is needed in the AUS Final, we would know by next Saturday who the final team is.
The Last Word
Based on the rankings that were published by U SPORTS on February 25, there seems to be a few configurations available depending on who wins the OUA and who wins the AUS. What is certain is that it seems like Alberta will either be the second-seed or third-seed depending on how Toronto finishes their season. If they win, Alberta is third; if Toronto loses, Alberta is likely second.
If Saint Mary's beats StFX in the AUS Final, it's likely they will be the top-seeded team in the tournament after they were ranked as the top team in U SPORTS women's hockey on Tuesday. There's a cautionary tale to be told here, though, as the AUS has struggled at the National Championship with St. Thomas, UPEI, Saint Mary's, and StFX going a combined 2-8 in quarterfinal games since the format changed to eight teams in 2015, so having the top-ranked team at the tournament could be a double-edged sword in that they come in as the best team, but still need to play like they are the best team. At the last three nationals, AUS teams are 0-for-6 in quarterfinal games, so they've been out of medal contention before the weekend even starts.
As for everything else, McGill will likely end up as the third- or fourth-seeded team after sweeping Montreal to win the RSEQ championship. The OUA champion outside of Toronto - either York or Ryerson - would be slotted in as the fourth-seeded team if the Varsity Blues lose tonight, or possibly as the third-seeded team depending on how the AUS Final ends. However, I see the two AUS teams ranked higher than both York and Ryerson regardless of who wins, so the OUA winner that isn't named Toronto would almost assuredly be the fourth-ranked team.
What matters here is that four teams will head back to Charlottetown after playing there last season as Alberta, McGill, and Montreal all competed there with the host team from UPEI. If Toronto wins tonight, they'd be the fifth team to return to Charlottetown in back-to-back years. Having York replace Guelph, Mount Royal replace Manitoba, and one of StFX or Saint Mary's replace St. Thomas means that there will be an element of unknown heading into this tournament with none of the six confirmed teams nor any of the four teams still in the hunt being an obvious powerhouse.
Congratulations to the six teams who have already qualified, and a big congrats to the Alberta Pandas on their 14th Catherwood Cup! To the Mount Royal Cougars, your journey on this magical season doesn't end here, so make sure you regroup, get yourself set for what will be a whirlwind tournament, and get out to PEI and break some hearts! The Rundown will be back next weekend with a full U SPORTS National Championship preview and predictions, so make sure you tune in for that!
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