Ah, happily writing this from my hotel overlooking the beach in anticipation for Thursday’s Florida Everblades College Classic. Wait a second. No I’m not. I’m sitting at home on the South Shore while a cold rain falls outside. When news came out last year that UMass would be participating in this year’s tournament in Estero I immediately planned to go. I thought it would be an excellent chance to see family down that way during Christmastime while taking advantage of an opportunity to watch hockey while wearing shorts. So I watched the airfare and watched and watched as it slowly got within semi-reasonable range, but suddenly the prices skyrocketed by a hundred dollars and my plans to watch UMass in Florida went out like the Gulf Coast tide.

Speaking of the tournament the Naples Daily News goes into the history of how the tourney came about.

∆

Here are a few mid-season reviews from the three major college hockey websites.

USCHO gives UMass a C- for their results so far.

College Hockey News has T.J. Syner as 1st Team All-Conference and Kevin Boyle on the All-Rookie Team thus far.

Inside College Hockey picks UMass as having the biggest upset in Hockey East so far. Not for their win over #1 Boston College, but for knocking off #17 Yale going into break.