2011-12 #ECACHockey Twitter Awards

It's the awards you've all been waiting for... the #ECACHockey Twitter Awards:

Tweeter of the Year

Mark Armstrong (SLU)

Pretty easy one here. Armstrong was the league's top tweeter with 38 Tweets of the Week, which accounted for 38% of SLU's TOTW. He provided us with great chirps, advice, and other great tidbits. Here are some of the highlights:

August 31 - Worst part of taking your roster pic is the fellas heckling from the hallway Best part, you can't look any worse than @TT_status @C_Mart10

September 7 - @C_Mart10 like I said before, C's get degrees but Marsh wants the 4.0

November 10 - Clarkson mus hate road trips. Seeing the hot girls all the other schools have then busing back to their engineers #2ontheroadisa10athome

November 12 - Qpac: great tunes, great rink, great cheerleaders and Brutal atmosphere. #dresslikeaseatnight

March 4 - I guess since that I'm not longer a collegiate athlete I can now accept all forms of gifts.... I prefer cash.

Thank you King Tweeter for bring your "A" game for your senior year. Next year's winner will have big shoes to fill. Also, sorry, but I wasn't able to get the prize you wanted. Who would've thought you couldn't buy a Quinnipiac cheerleader?

Rookie of the Year

Luke Curadi (RPI)

Not only was the biggest player in the league imposing on the ice, he was the same in the #ECACHockey Twitter world this season. He supplied us with some of the best variety of great tweets including chirping teammates, rivals, and even himself. He finished second in the league with 21 TOTW, and at one point it looked like he could challenge Mark Armstrong for the title. He's my early favorite to become #ECACHockey's King Tweeter next season. Here are some of his best tweets:

October 15 - tough weekend for #theboys will make us that much stronger. its about the process not the result

October 19 - Give @jakelaliberte15, the kid who started playing jr hockey during vietnam and committed to RPI before schroeder was born, a get well tweet

November 7 - I wonder if the girls were better at RPI when Oates or Juneau were here. Nevermind, females dressed weird in the 80s.
... I bet the girls they got were top shelf. Us on the other hand, #topramen

November 10 - @jakelaliberte15 is definitly the frenchest kid in the #ecac, he speaks 3 languages: crappy english, quebecois, and his own mix of the 2

December 9 - For me, getting retweeted is like scoring a goal in practice, doesn't happen often, but still is a highlight of the day. #handslikefeetprobz

March 4 - Also a shout out to the RPI pep band. Heard they took some abuse from clarkson but they stayed strong for us. Ill stand by those kids anyday

March 24 - Everyone is rooting for union to win it all, but personally I'm rooting against them. I would never root for my rival. I hate those guys.

Unsung Tweeter of the Year

Troy Grosenick (Union)

Grosenick has received a lot of attention and accolades lately, but no one has really talked about how lethal of a tweeter he is. His eight TOTW honors ranked eighth in the league (the most for third place Union and the most of any goalie in the league), which is pretty good, but he supplied us with some of the best chirps this season (especially towards classmate Kevin Sullivan):

September 27 - @k1nkaid was gonna draft you in Fantasy....decided Trevor Kidd coming out of retirement gave me a better shot to win

October 24 - @DillPikle31 Don't call us #tenders - it makes me feel like a cannibal

October 24 - @KevinSullivan27 @Hatch15M Who wins in a fight, a hurricane or coach bennett? Trick question the hurricane is hurricane bennett#dasuperfans

October 30 - @JJooris19 Like the Cowboys using Dez Bryant to imitate Mike Vick, AIC used their #waterboy to prepare for @KevinSullivan27

November 6 - @ECACHockeyBlog hats off to the #SLU boys, don't know how they tweet so much, I had no signal north of the adirondacks#findingaway

January 5 - Get off the front page of uscho @KevinSullivan27 that prep school style is bad for our rep #combovers #softbackhandtoeys

Team Twitter Award

St. Lawrence "Tweeting" Saints

Another obvious pick here. They led the league with 99 Tweets of the Week, which was 39 more than second place Brown, and twice more than 10 of the teams. Of the 28 Twitter-Athletes on their roster, 13 of them received TOTW honors. While Armstrong received all the publicity, guys like Gunnar Hughes, Greg Carey, Chris Martin, Patrick Raley, and Matt Weninger should also be commended. These guys had 49 Tweets of the Week between the five of them, which is why I predict SLU to be on top again next season. Heck, they would've come in third this year if they were their own team.

Twitter Target of the Year

Tyson Fulton (Union)

This award could have gone to a number of guys, but I think this guy is most worthy. Not only did he get chirped by his roommate and fellow Minnesota boy Sam Coatta, but he also received a nice chirp from SLU's Gunnar Hughes... on his birthday. Here are some of the chirps:

September 19 - @ECACHockeyBlog I gave @tysonfulton a set of hands for his birthday today #silkymittens

October 31 - @tysonfultonlookinforawife

November 28 - Ehhh room is looking solid. @tysonfulton interior design major? Hardest part is getting into the room but after that your golden

January 3 - "does de-caff mean there's more or less caffeine, I always get confused." - @tysonfulton #ECACHockey at its finest

January 31 - He might not be able to read but he can definitely crush some note-cards #beautyroomy pic.twitter.com/miIVNVDc

February 19 - "excuse me sir you have broccoli on your forehead" never a dull moment with this character pic.twitter.com/0Uoa3w5E

But, the thing that really put Fulton over the top in my eyes was that he took it all in stride, and was always supporting his boys :

November 24 - Happy thanksgiving very thankful for family friends teammates and my beauty roomate @samcoatta

December 31 - New years resolution: no regrets always be a beauty

February 9 - Big exam for the boys today need to wear our work buckets and battle back after a tough one last time

Hashtag of the Year

#EsHasBrutalHair

This hashtag was the talk of #ECACHockey during late September thanks to SLU's George Hughes. All the boys from Canton would not stop chirping about how brutal Kyle Essery's hair was. While there were other good hashtags this season, none lasted longer and got as much play as this one.

Chirp of the Year

Mark Armstrong (SLU)

While this tweet took place very early in the Tweeting season, it was pure gold. Of course it was by the King himself, who found a way to chirp two teams in one tweet:

September 4 - Those Brown players should have been around last year when the Clarkson guys tried to swim across the river and had to get rescued

Background: Last spring, two Clarkson hockey players had to be rescued while swimming across a river [link], and late this past summer a group of Brown hockey players rescued some kids at the beach [link].

Well, that's all! Congrats to the award winners and the rest of the great #ECACHockey Tweeters on a great season. Let's make this bigger next year!

My Thoughts on Union, Hobey, Tampa, and the Frozen Four

The 2011-12 ECAC Hockey season officially ended on Thursday as the Union College Dutchmen fell to Ferris State 3-1 in the Frozen Four semifinals. The league has yet to have a representative play for the national championship since Colgate in 1990.

I thought the Dutchmen didn't bring their best game to the big stage. They weren't able to get much going and looked sloppy and timid at times. The Bulldogs were excellent defensively and in their transition game, and in the end came up with the big plays. But, I thought Ferris played their best game of the weekend on Saturday in the 4-1 loss to Boston College. If the Dutchmen played with more poise, I think they could haveve definitely won that game. Against Boston College, well, that might have been a different story.

Mat Bodie was called for an elbow on this play

While Union hurt themselves with their play, I also felt they were hurt by the refereeing. The Dutchmen thrive on the power-play and were going up against the 10th most penalized team in the nation, which looked like a good matchup. But, the Dutchmen only received one man advantage (which didn't even last the full two minutes), while the Bulldogs received four PP opportunities, converting once. The one call the really stood out to me was when Josh Jooris was called for high-sticking with about 40 seconds left in Union's only power-play chance. I've watched about 50 college hockey games this year, and I think this call was the one of the worst I saw all season. In the play Ferris goalie Taylor Nelson covered up the puck, and one of the Ferris defenders put up his hands and then so did Jooris. They both hit in to each other, but the Ferris player fell, prompting the ref to call a penalty ONLY on Jooris. There shouldn't have been a penalty to either player anyways. I was shocked, especially since in another instance in the game, Union's Kevin Sullivan was sucker punched in the back of the head while driving the net on a shot and nothing was called. It was infuriating.

But, at the end of the day you have to earn your penalties and goals, and overcome adversity.

It was very depressing to see the Bulldogs score the empty netter, knowing that the season was over. But, I feel the Dutchmen have a good chance of being back next year. They have been building a great program and have been reaching new heights every year. But, as a league we are still... 1989 & Still Waiting.

*********

Austin Smith sitting on the far right

I was hoping the weekend could be salvaged on Friday with the announcement of the Hobey Baker Award. While all the candidates were definitely deserving of this great honor, Colgate's Austin Smith was definitely the most deserving candidate THIS SEASON. Just read my analysis of the candidates, and it's pretty obvious who should have won... SHOULD HAVE WON. Instead of Smith, Minnesota-Duluth's Jack Connolly won the award. Don't get me wrong, Connolly had a tremendous career (one that was better than Smith's), won a national championship, and was one of the best players during the past four seasons, but he was not better than Smith this season. I feel that Connolly was given the award based on his career achievements. But, this is not a CAREER award, it's an SINGLE SEASON award. Some voters might have discounted Smith's numbers because he played in the ECAC, which they might feel is "lesser" competition. To some extent I understand that, but this season was one of the tougher seasons in league history in a long time. I mean, seven of the 12 All-America East selections were from the ECAC. Austin Smith was robbed of this award, and the league is, once again, 1989 & Still Waiting. 

*********

Plaza in front of the Tampa Bay Times Forum

On a more positive note, I thought the city of Tampa did a great job hosting this great event. You could really tell that the people involved and the the city really cared about the event. There was great signage around the city and the events were well put together. I also thought the Tampa Bay Times Forum was a great venue. It's a very nice arena with good food, short lines, and other nice pieces to it. I liked the plaza where the Frozen Fest was held. But, I do have one big knock on the event... it didn't sell out. That's a HUGE for the event and college hockey as a whole. You have to sell out the Frozen Four. So, while maybe the event was great, maybe it wasn't good for the game as a whole. I do think the Frozen Four will be back in Tampa, but hopefully by that time the event will easily sell out.

*********

Overall, this was a very exciting but disappointing weekend for ECAC Hockey. But, the league and its members have a lot to be proud of. I think this season was a statement to the changing college hockey world saying that we're here to compete with the big boys and we can succeed doing it. Not only do we have great academics, but we have great teams and players. WATCH OUT AND RESPECT US! But, there is still more respect to be gained. I think many feel that until an ECAC team wins a national championship, that the league is a "lesser" league. Hopefully we don't have too much longer to wait for that moment. 

We will have to earn this moment:

ECAC Hockey in the National Polls (Final 2011-12)

Union fans packed Messa Rink on Thursday and watched the Dutchmen play Ferris on projection screens

USCHO

Union: #3 

Cornell: #10
Harvard: #18
Colgate: 9 votes
Quinnipiac: 8 votes

USA Today/ USA Hockey Magazine

Union: #3

Cornell: #13

Inside College Hockey Power Rankings
Union: #4
Cornell: #11
Harvard: #16
Colgate: #18

PairWise Rankings
*** SAME RANKINGS***
Union: 3rd
Cornell: tied for 12th with UMass - Lowell
Harvard: tied for 20th with Colorado College
Colgate: 26th
Quinnipiac: tied for 27th with Northeastern

RPI
Union: 2nd
Cornell: 14th
Harvard: 19th
Quinnipiac: 26th
Colgate: 28th

KRACH
Union: 13th
Cornell: 19th
Harvard: 28th
Colgate: 33rd
Quinnipiac: 34th

Scouting Ferris State

Ferris State
Record
25-11-5 (16-7-5-1, CCHA)

Last Frozen Four Appearance
First Appearance

How They Got Here
Finished 1st in CCHA with 54 points... Lost two out of three to Bowling Green in the CCHA Quarterfinals... Earned victories over Miami (twice) and Michigan State (twice) in the regular season... Finished 6th in the PWR... Beat Denver 2-1 and Cornell 2-1 in the Midwest Regional

Top Scorers
Jordie Johnston, Sr., Forward ---- 41GP, 20G, 16A, 36PTS
Matthew Kirzinger, Jr., Forward ---- 40GP, 10G, 24A, 34PTS
Kyle Bonis, Jr., Forward ---- 41GP, 18G, 11A, 29PTS
Chad Billins, Sr., Defense ---- 41GP, 7G, 22A, 29PTS
Travis Oulette, Jr., Forward --- 40GP, 9G, 14A, 23PTS
[Complete Team Statistics]

Goaltending
Taylor Nelson, Sr. ---- 29GP, 20-6-3, 2.10GAA, .923SV%
C.J. Motte, Fr. ---- 12GP, 5-5-2, 1.98GAA, .925SV%

Team Stats
2.93 Goals per Game (21st nationally)
2.17 Goals Allowed per Game (t-5th)
19.17% Power-Play Conversion Rate (25th)
85.8% Penalty Kill Rate (6th)

Why Union will win
This game will be a very defense-heavy matchup with both teams featuring two of the best shutdown defenses in the country. So, both teams will have to rely heavily on special teams. While the Bulldogs have a great penalty kill, I think the amount of penalties they take will hurt them. They  are the 10th most penalized team in the nation, averaging 15.46 penalty minutes per game, which is about seven to eight penalties per game. If this is the case, I can see the Bulldogs shutting down the Union PP three or four times, but not more than that. The Dutchmen's power-play is too lethal to be shutdown that many times this season. People might point back to how Union's PP got shutdown by Minnesota-Duluth in the regional last year, but this year's team is a different team. On the other hand, Union takes very few penalties (not even in the Top 40), and have a great penalty kill of their own. Don't be surprised if the Bulldogs get one or two power-play chances and get shutdown each time. Ferris will have to score the goals at even strength, but that will be a tough task against Union's top ranked defense. They're ready to get down to business and advance to the final. I love the mindset they've had during their playoff run, and I expect it to continue on a bigger stage.

Other notes
Head Coach Bob Daniels has been coaching the Bulldogs since the 1989-90 season, but has been the bench boss since the 1992-93 season. Prior to that, he was an assistant coach in the CCHA for two seasons with University of Illinois-Chicago.

Leading scorer Jordie Johnston accumulated 10 goals, 11 assists, and 21 points in his first three seasons at Ferris, but has surpassed all those totals in his senior season. He scored two goals in the Midwest Regional.

In the beginning of the season, Nelson and Motte were splitting time in between the pipes, but Nelson has taken over the reigns. Motte has only played three times in 2012. Like Union's Troy Grosenick, Nelson was a backup last season.

The Bulldogs have played four ECAC teams this year, and have won all seven games against those opponents. They swept St. Lawrence to open the season in Canton by the scores of 4-2 and 5-1, and then beat RPI 4-0 and 2-0 the following weekend back home. Colgate also visited Ferris, but dropped both games in early January. In those two games, Austin Smith collected a goal and an assist. In the Midwest Regional final, the Bulldogs snuck by Cornell by the score of 2-1.

ECAC Hockey Video of the Week: History Will Be Made - Union College Hockey

Why Austin Smith Will Win The Hobey Baker Award

This past Thursday, the Hobey Hat Trick finalists were announced. While Union's Troy Grosenick did not make the cut, we are fortunate to have Colgate's Austin Smith (36G - 21A - 57PTS) make the Top 3. He is the first ECAC player to make the final round since Cornell goaltender David McKee (who is also a Texas native, like Smith) in 2005. And as you probably know by now, the last league player to win the award was Harvard's Lane McDonald in 1989.

The other two finalists are Minnestoa-Duluth's Jack Connolly (20G - 40A - 60PTS) and Maine's Spencer Abbott (21G - 41A - 62PTS. Like Smith, these two candidates are seniors, were named their respective league's MVP, and led their team in scoring. Abbott is second in the nation with 62 points, and Connolly is right behind him.

While Connolly and Abbott are tremendous players, I feel Smith is the logical choice to win the most coveted individual award in college hockey. Here's why:

Goals > Assists
While playmakers are extremely valuable, they can't pick up the assist totals without a good finisher. I'd much rather have a guy with 30 goals than 30 assists. There's also the fact that there's no such thing as a secondary goal, but you can pick up an assist on a secondary assist. Smith not only led the nation with 36 goals, he did so by a healthy margin. The only other player in the country with 30 goals was Miami's Reilly Smith (no relation). Abbott's 21 goals is tied for 18th most in the nation, while Connolly's 20 are tied for 21st. In other words, "Hobey Like Goals."

Smith Earned His Points 
This isn't saying that Abbott and Connolly didn't earn their points, but their stat totals are slightly padded. The first thing to note is the amount of points each player picked up while on the power-play. While Smith only notched about 25% of points while on the man advantage, Abbott and Connolly picked up about half of their points on the PP. Also note that Smith had six shorthanded goals (8PTS overall), while the other two candidates only have on shorthanded point this season.

The next point is on the topic of assists. Not only were Abbott and Connolly the top two in points in the country, they were also the top two in assists. Smith is not even in the Top 30 with just 21 points. But, take a look at primary assists, which I think are more valuable and harder to come by than secondary assists. While Abbott and Connolly each had 16 secondary assists, Smith only had six. So, while the other candidates picked up 42% of their assists on secondary assists, Smith accumulated only 32% of his assists as the secondary assistman. What this means is that while Abbott and Connolly are great playmakers, they did not have a "direct" impact on goals as much as Smith did. While I'm sure a lot of Abbott and Connolly's secondary assists were vital to goals, I'm also confident saying that a good portion of them were picked up on lesser plays.

The Others Had Help
This is definitely not a knock on Smith's linemate Chris Wagner. The sophomore centerman was absolutely vital to Smith's success this year, picking up 34 assists this season and adding 17 goals of his own. But after that, the Raiders didn't have too many guns this year. While Smith and Wagner each had 50+ points, no Raider had more than 23 points or 12 goals.

Abbott and Connolly definitely had more help than Smith. Abbott played on a line with Brian Flynn (18G - 30A - 48PTS) and Joey Diamond (25G - 22A - 47PTS). Over half of Abbott's assists came on goals by Flynn and Diamond. He also received support from Matt Mangene (16G - 18A - 34PTS) and Will O'Neill (3G - 30A - 33PTS) on the power-play.

Connolly's story is a bit different. He played  the majority of the season with Mike Seidel (17G - 13A - 30PTS) and Joe Basarba (7G - 9A - 16PTS). This line was definitely the secondary offensive threat for the Bulldogs with the Caleb Herbert (14G - 19A - 33PTS) - Travis Oleksuk (21G -32A - 53PTS) - J.T. Brown (24G - 23A - 47PTS) combination putting up some monster numbers. This would make it seem like Connolly did not have the help to put up big numbers. But, if you look a little closer, Connolly saw a ton of time with Brown and Oleksuk on the power-play. About 40% of Connolly's assists were on goals by Brown and Oleksuk, the majority of which were on the power-play. So, while Connolly didn't play on a line with these guys, he still relied on them heavily to accumulate points.

The "EZAC" Does Not Exist
The ECAC gets a bad reputation around the country for being a weak league and not a part of the "Big 4." To be honest with you, before this season I agreed with those people in the WCHA, CCHA, and Hockey East. But, I think this season has proved that the ECAC is the real deal and a tough conference. Smith has Union and Cornell to thank for that. I think Union's run to the Frozen Four, and Cornell's win over Michigan and close game with Ferris gave the league a lot of legitimacy. This is the first time in a while that a representative from each of the "Big 4" conferences are in the Frozen Four. In years prior some people might have discounted Smith's numbers, but this year I think they solidify them. He had to go up against Union's Troy Grosenick and Cornell's Andy Iles a combined six times this season. In those six games, Smith tallied six points on three goals and three assists.

Smith Meant More To His Team
Once again, this does not mean that Abbott and Connolly were not valuable to their respective teams. They were both probably the MVP of their team, as was Smith. But, I believe Smith is the most valuable player to his team in the country. Without Smith, not only do I doubt that the Raiders would have finished in the Top 4 of the ECAC, but I think they would have finished in the bottom half. I really can't see Colgate being better than Quinnipiac and Yale, or even Clarkson this year without Smith. While Maine and Minnesota-Duluth would definitely be weaker teams without Abbott and Connolly, respectively, they would still be very competitive teams in their respective leagues and at least UMD would've probably made the NCAA Tournament. I can also mention Smith's five game-winning goals. Abbott and Connolly had five GWG's between them.

* Note: The percentages used in the analysis are approximate numbers

So, after looking at each candidate and analyzing everything involved in selecting the winner, I think Austin Smith of Colgate and ECAC Hockey is the clear-cut choice to win the Hobey Baker Award. Spencer Abbott and Jack Connolly are definitely worthy candidates, but Smith just had an incredible season.