Hockey East
College Hockey Shamed, Scorned By National Collegiate Hockey Conference
by Ryan Durling on Jul 23, 2011 11:00 AM EDT
in Hockey East
The powers that be at the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference stepped up to their makeshift podium, ripped a few layers of Scotch tape off of a banner, and that was that. The birth of a new college hockey league.
I don’t need to get into the rest of the details – Chris Dilks at SB Nation's Western College Hockey Blog handles that marvelously on his own. And I’d be wasting my time to do it, anyway, because the real issue isn’t that the National Collegiate Hockey Conference announced its already underwhelming existence earlier this week.
The real issue is how they made a mockery of college hockey in the process.
9 commentsNortheastern's Greg Cronin To Join Maple Leafs' Coaching Staff
by Ryan Durling on Jun 20, 2011 8:48 PM EDT
in Hockey East
After reports surfaced earlier in the spring that Northeastern head coach Greg Cronin was leaving the school for an AHL position were shot down, today the news broke - courtesy of the Boston Herald - that Cronin is actually leaving, this time to join Ron Wilson's coaching staff in Toronto.
Cronin compiled a record of 84-104-29 in six seasons at Northeastern, but failed to ever win an Hockey East or Beanpot title and led the Huskies to just one NCAA tournament appearance, in 2009 when Brad Thiessen was manning the pipes for the Huskies.
Cronin becomes the third coach in the conference to depart his team this spring, following Blaise MacDonald at Lowell and Tim Army at Providence.
The news is devastating for Northeastern, which had received good news in the form of Vinny Saponari, John Gaudreau and a promise from star blueliner and proposed top-ten draft pick Jamie Oleksiak that he'd be returning for next season, all after prized goaltender Chris Rawlings didn't leave the school as many had anticipated he would.
Cronin's recruiting was starting to make a dent in the classes of city rivals Boston University and Boston College, and his ability to bring talent in will be missed dearly by the team.
Former Assistant Coach Sebastien Laplante will assume interim head coaching duties, and is presumably the lead candidate for the permanent role, when it's filled. Laplante coached the Huskies for six games last season after Cronin was suspended by Northeastern for compliance reasons. In those games, the Huskies went 2-2-2, including an upset of then-number one Boston College and a big win over arch-rival BU at Agganis Arena.
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