Hockey East Is BACK And Released Their Full Schedule (TV included) Today
College hockey returns THIS WEEKEND with Michigan and Wisconsin kicking off NCAA play on Friday night for the Big Ten. Just about every Division 1 Hockey Conference has announced their return to play plan and that now includes the Hockey East, who announced today they will return to play the 20th of November and released their full schedule and guidelines.
Each of the 11 men’s teams will play 20 league contests while the 10 women’s programs will compete in 18 games that will count toward the final Army ROTC Hockey East Regular Season Standings to determine the 2020-21 Hockey East Regular Season Champion. Both the men’s and women’s schedules feature weekend home-and-home series and day-of-game travel, with the exception of games involving Maine and Vermont, to allow for consistent testing protocols throughout the season while adhering to all state guidelines.
Three of the final five weekends of regular season play in each league are designated as Flex Weekends. These Flex Weekend contests are tentative and opponents may be adjusted in order to maintain a competitively balanced schedule for each team. If games are postponed during the regular season, these Flex Weekend games will be rescheduled with those postponed games. Any games played during Flex Weekends will be designated as “non-conference” games and will not count toward the Army ROTC Hockey East Standings. Additional Flex Dates have been added throughout the schedule where availability allowed to maximize flexibility to play a full regular season schedule and prioritize the student-athlete experience.
Team schedules were created to best ensure a double round robin regular season for each program. Efforts were also made to align men’s and women’s schedules to mitigate instances where multiple campus populations come into close contact in a single weekend
I like how they added the flex weekends but I don't really understand why the games played on the flex weekends won't count towards the standings. What is the point of even playing them really if you aren't even going to count them? Obviously it counts for the NCAA Tournament, but I just don't understand why they wouldn't count for Hockey East.
Hockey East will defer to each campus to determine the status of fan attendance for home games in accordance with state and local health and safety guidance. Schools will make individual announcements about fan attendance.
Boston College is one of the best teams in the country this season. Colorado Avalanche 1st rounder Alex Newhook is my top pick for the Hobey. So if by some chance BC allows fans at any point this season, go, watch, and thank me later.
Fans or no fans this is big news for New Englanders who will now be able to enjoy some hockey on TV once the weather gets cold while they drink their nightly cup of Dunks and Kahlua. You will finally have hockey for the next few months. And if you have NESN, you'll get to watch a ton of it.