Here is my assessment:
As was mentioned before, Merrimack and BC are both in Hockey East. BC won the regular season (14-3-7 record) and Hockey East tournament last year. Merrimack came in 9th in the league (dead last) with a 1-22-1 record.
Merrimack has had its problems the last year, but there's a new coach and there is talent on the team. They had a winning out of conference record, including a 6-4 win over Harvard (who was an NCAA Tournament team). I certainly hope the Falcons don't take Merrimack for granted, otherwise the Warriors will bite them in the ass.
The goaltending usually keeps them in games, but is not as consistent as it probably should be. Their best player is a defenseman, Bryan Schmidt (good Minnesota boy!). He led the team in scoring and was Second Team All-Hockey East last year. Obviously the kid's got some offensive prowess; his biggest weakness (although Conrad Hache was the ref, so this may not apply in a normal game) is that you can get under his skin and he'll take dumb penalties. Their best offensive player, Brent Gough, was hurt half the season, so I never actually saw him play and can't tell you anything about him.
Boston College, on the other hand, will be tougher to beat. They've got a sophomore goaltender, Cory Schneider, who was on the All-Rookie team and would most likely have won Rookie of the Year had he played more games. Schneider platooned with Matti Kaltiainen* last season, but Kaltiainen graduated in May and Schneider will carry the load this year. Schneider's career record at BC is 13-1-4, with the lone loss coming against North Dakota in the NCAA Regionals.
BC has suffered some heavy off-season losses in All-American defenseman Andrew Alberts (graduated and is now in the Bruins system) and Patrick Eaves, who left early to sign with Ottawa. Both were All-Hockey East First Team. But of course BC, like Michigan, always recruits well and will rebound with little trouble.
But the Eagles can be beat. Last season they had a 14-game unbeaten streak (which ended I think at the Beanpot) and were ranked #1 in the country in mid-February, but got swept 3-1 and 4-1 in a home-home with UMass Lowell. True, Alberts was hurt (so was Schneider, but since he platooned anyway, it's not like there wasn't a capable backup with better numbers in Kaltiainen), but they were still big wins for UML and equally big losses for BC.
So that's my unofficial scouting report. If you want more info on either team, just ask! I'm always more than willing to share my opinion. Even if you don't want to hear it
*Let me just tell you about Matti Kaltiainen for a moment. Matti was a Bruins draft pick. He had sub-2.00 gaa's last season and the year before. Lots of people out this way thought he was great. And don't get me wrong, the kid is a decent goaltender, but I told everyone who would listen (and even a few people who didn't care to) that Jordan Sigalet was better than Kaltiainen and that his numbers would have been significantly better than Matti's had he played with BC's defense in front of him.
Everyone thought I was on crack.
Well, answer me this: which of the two goaltenders did Boston sign?
YEAH! THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT!
I am so totally not on crack.
All the people out here seem so surprised that Jordan is good (and that the Bruins didn't sign Kaltiainen), but they never bothered to listen to me. I've been trying to show them the light ever since I got here.
