(courtesy of UMass Athletics)

It has been a damn fine year to be a Minuteman.  And I say that even though Victor Cruz’ big win came at the expense of my Patriots.  And not only did they both enjoy the pinnacle of success, they’ve represented the University of Massachusetts well in doing so.  Congratulations again to both.

Matt Vautour takes a look at how Jon Quick’s big win stacks up against Cruz and other successful Minutemen from recent times and long ago.  Mike Kostka’s Calder Cup win over the weekend is also mentioned.

Quick’s win means validation for the UMass hockey program says Dick Baker at the Republican.

Quick sat down with the NHL Network’s Darren Pang after the game and credited UMass, Coach Toot Cahoon, and former UMass goaltending coach Jim Stewart, as well as others like John Gardner down at Avon Old Farms, with helping him along the road to his Stanley Cup destiny.

Minutes before that interview it wasn’t Quick, but his daughter Madison, who was the star of the post-game press conference.

Lord Stanley’s Cup and Quick’s Conn Smythe trophy made the North End Bar and Grill in Hermosa Beach their first stop on what will be a lengthy and eventful tour of North America and Europe.  Will that include a visit to Amherst?  Let the speculation begin.  UMass fans certainly hope so and the school’s coaches and staff would be more than happy to accommodate the world’s greatest trophy.

Quick will be a guest of Jimmy Kimmel tonight at Midnight on ABC.

The Cup and the Kings will be celebrated in the streets of Tinseltown on Thursday.

Quick wasn’t the only UMass representation at the Staples Center last night.  According to his Twitter, Californian Troy Power was in attendance to see it all happen first-hand.

Quick’s numbers during the post-season, statistically the best ever, obviously puts him in some very elite company.

Quick winning the Conn Smythe and the Kings being captained by fellow American Dustin Brown shows how far hockey is progressing in the States.

UMass’ pride in Quick and his accomplishments is shared by his Connecticut hometown of Hamden and Milford, where he was born and where today was declared “Jon Quick Day”

Those are the most interesting Quick-related links I’ve found during the day.  I’ll continue to pass them along as I find them.

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Quick was obviously one of the big topics on conversation at yesterday’s Pond Club Golf Invitational, which had another good turnout.  Of course the coaching staff was there as well as many fans and supporters.  Former radio partners Brock Hines and Donnie Moorhouse were reunited on the links for the day.  And there were a good number of players there; past, present, and future.  There were really too many to try to name them all but former stars like Thomas Pöck and Will Ortiz were there.  Peter Trovato was in attendance and able to accept a donation for his Massachusetts Soliders Legacy Fund that was collected during the day.  Recent graduate T.J. Syner played with some current players like Kevin Czepiel and Conor Allen.  And even Connor Doherty, who recently signed on to come to Amherst next fall, was on the course.  The UMassAthletics website has a video recap of the event with some comments from Pöck, Ortiz, and Pond Club President Mike Merchant.  The climax of the day was during the dinner where a Jon Quick Kings jersey, complete with Stanley Cup patch, was  auctioned off for $1,300.  Unfortunately I wasn’t the winner of that prize but I did walk away with a Pekka Rinne autographed game used stick to add to my growing collection of souvenirs just waiting for me to win the lottery and buy a sports bar.  As always, a good time.

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Matt Vautour came up with a list of the Top 25 UMass athletes of the past year which includes Syner and Mike Pereira.  Really hard to argue with his selections.  The top three of Chaz Williams, Will Manny, and Sara Plourde might as well be a toss up.

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The new NCHC will hold its conference tournament at the Target Center in Minneapolis.  The Twin Cities at different times will be holding the championships for the NCHC, Big Ten, and likely the WCHA.  And they say Detroit is Hockeytown?

The Rules Committee made its recommendation for changes for the upcoming season.  Some of them make sense, like allowing a goal to stand even if the net is off its pegs and distinguishing a “kicking motion” to goals going in off skates, much like the NHL.  You’ll remember both those issues were problems during the NCAA tournament a couple months ago.  Some recommendations are interesting, like giving conferences the ability to tweak overtime rules to allow teams to go four on four.  I’m open to this idea and am just glad shootouts were not mandated.  But one proposed changed left me scratching my head.  No more defensive zone hand passes.  Uh, ok.  I didn’t realize this was a pressing issue in the college game.  Personally it’s been that way since I learned to watch hockey and it’s always just been part of the game.  But outlawing hand passes all over the ice the NCAA now brings itself out of line with the junior leagues and the NHL on the rule.  As colleges try to make the point that they’re just as good as developing hockey talent as other avenues, I think needlessly breaking from this mostly universal rule doesn’t make sense.

The proposal to move to a three quarter face shield from a full shield/cage will be looked at more closely but was not adopted at this time

Last month I linked to this doctor’s opinion piece in favor of moving to the 3/4 shields based on a study he had done.  In all honesty when I originally read the original story on CHN I thought it seemed a little strange.  As someone who does financial analysis all day I thought how the data was used to get to the conclusion was a little suspect.  But in the end I chalked it up to a difference between academic and financial research and moved on.  Well, some in the academic world had problems with it too and I was forwarded this response to the study, challenging its assertions and methodology.  I personally find the criticism valid and since I linked to the story originally I feel an obligation to set the record straight after possibly passing along bad info, so that’s why I posted it.  The rebuttal is well thought out and logical.  Plus, I can guarantee the authors have watched a lot of hockey themselves since their son/brother currently patrols the Mullins Center blueline.