Clarkson Notes

This week's Clarkson notes:

Here's one bonus item (statistical)..

I was curious what Clarkson's 1-3 start might mean to its chances of repeating as ECAC Hockey regular-season champion. Clarkson would need to go 14-1-3 the rest of the year to match last year's 15-4-3 record which won the title.

Looking over the last 10 ECAC Hockey champions, I discovered the average point total needed to win the league was 34 points. For Clarkson to achieve that they'd have to go 16-2 the rest of the way.

The last two years 33 points has been enough to win the league title. Two times, in 2005-06 and 2003-04, it only took 30 points to win the league. Clarkson would have to go 14-4 the rest of the way to finish with 30 points.

The big question for Clarkson will be if the league has a dominant team that blows away the competition this year. Four times in the last decade a conference team has finished with 36 points or more, led by Cornell's 39 (19-2-1) in 2002-03. If 36 points is needed to win the title, Clarkson has to go 17-1. The most points Clarkson can earn if it goes undefeated is 38.

Here's the conference records of the last 10 champions
2008 - Clarkson 15-4-3 33
2007 - St. Lawrence 16-5-1 33
2006 - Dartmouth/Colgate 14-6-2 30
2005 - Cornell 18-2-2 38
2004 - Colgate 14-6-2 30
2003 - Cornell 19-2-1 39
2002 - Cornell 17-3-2 36
2001 Clarkson 15-5-2 32
*2000 St. Lawrence 16-3-1 33
1999 Clarkson 18-4 36

*there were two less games played in 2000 because Vermont stopped play early in the season after a hazing scandal*

One stat that caught my attention, besides the point totals, was despite all the turmoil Clarkson has been through in the last decade, including a complete rebuilding of the program, it still is tied with Cornell for the most regular-season titles in the last decade, with three.