In addition to winning Hockey East POTW, Justin Braun has been named national player of the week by INCH.

The Collegian recaps the weekend that was.

Unfortunately, BC sent a message to UNH and the rest of Hockey East.

The Metrowest Daily News has a great read on the long road for Will Ortiz.

College Hockey News’ Adam Wodon has a look at the current state of the pairwise rankings.  He mentions that UMass’ position is particularly precarious.

I made a small update to the Road Trip page in anticipation of this weekend’s return to Newton.  Buff’s Pub is worth a visit, if you can find a table.

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Let’s take a quick look to see how I did in my preseason Hockey East predictions made back on September 30th:

1) Lowell – Yeah, I missed by quite a bit on this one as the River Hawks didn’t even win home ice much less the regular season title.  Luckily I wasn’t the only one who overrated Lowell as they were picked 2nd on the coaches’ poll as well.

2) Boston College – Nailed this one.  With BC’s talented freshman class it just seemed logical that once they got a few games under their belt they’d be flying by the end of the season.

3) Boston University – Got this one right as well, though never did I expect to see them get off to such a poor start.

4)  Vermont – I knew Vermont would tumble from last year with the loss of Viktor Stalberg, but I didn’t think they’d fall as far as they did.  Kicking your second leading scorer off the team doesn’t help either.

5)  New Hampshire – Dick Umile did an amazing job this season leading UNH to the regular season title.  I just did not think the talent was there.  Bobby Butler and Blake Kessel really elevated their game to get the Wildcats the #1 seed.

6)  Massachusetts – That’s right, exactly where I picked them.  I’m not sure I was anticipating of an 0-for-February when I did though.

7)  Northeastern – The Huskies only finished a point or two out of 7th, pretty close.

8)  Maine – Never did I expect Maine to get home ice with this team.  No wonder there are rumors that Tim Whitehead was given an extension, much to the chagrin of those crazy Maine fans.

9)  Merrimack – I missed on this one.  Congrats to Merrimack for their return to the playoffs.  I had heard that Stephane Da Costa was good, but I never thought he’d be a superstar from the minute he first took the ice.

10)  Providence – This one was easy.

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Check back tomorrow as I’ll have a lengthy update on some UMass recruits.