Happy Halloween UMass hockey fans!  I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday and is not in some kind of diabetic coma by this point.  Any Minuteman hockey related costumes out there?  One spotted at this past weekend’s game were some diehard student fans dressed as a “Rowe Boat”.

Sorry, no View From Section U again this week.  Frankly, I just haven’t found a subject to inspire me since last time’s You Can Play piece.  I have a couple ideas rattling around in my head that hopefully I’ll be able to transform into an actual column sometime soon.  However there is enough out there in the cyberspace related to UMass hockey that it’s worth posting something tonight.

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Matt Vautour of the Gazette has his piece on the Frank Vatrano committing to UMass.  As Matt details, and some readers have asked about, a lot depends on if Vatrano can get a waiver from the NCAA to consider this current fall semester as one of the two he’ll have to sit out as a transfer.  Since he was enrolled at BC he’s technically considered a member of the Eagle hockey team this semester despite not even practicing with the team.  He’ll need the NCAA to overrule that status, otherwise he wouldn’t be eligible to play at UMass until January of 2014 at the earliest.  There’s a chance that he may opt to play in the Q rather than wait that long if he’s unable to secure the necessary waiver.  In both the article in the Gazette and the Republican Vatrano seems confident that the NCAA clearinghouse issues were just a misunderstanding.  It’s still unknown if this means the issue is therefore resolved, but I’ll do my best to find out if that’s the case.

Nick Canelas of the Collegian has his Vatrano to UMass story for the student paper.  He also has this excellent piece on co-captain Rocco Carzo.  Canelas  is doing a great job following a tradition of talented student writers covering the Minuteman hockey team.  College Hockey News’ Michael King and Joe Meloni are part of that tradition as is current Boston Herald Patriots beat writer Jeff Howe.  Nice to see him get a opportunity with CHN this year in addition to his Collegian duties.

Another in that tradition of UMass hockey writers, Andrew Merritt, writes the Vatrano to UMass story for New England Hockey Journal.

Richard Murray is delivering regular profiles of Minutemen for Hockey’s Future.  This time it’s Joel Hanley who get the profile piece.  Hanley has had an up and down start to the season, thrown off a bit by his early exit in the game against Boston College.  But I still think he’s on the verge of a breakout season within Hockey East.

Being 0-3-0 in the conference drops UMass a spot in CHN’s Hockey East power rankings.