Beyond the Scoresheet

Thursday update

A couple of results from Wednesday games that are worth noting. First of all, and most importantly, East Side got a win! The Red Raiders beat St. Rose 5-4 on Thursday for its first win since beating St. Rose 7-1 on Feb. 1, 2006. Of course, that’s only about five games ago, since East Side did not field a team last year. Next time these teams meet (Jan. 14), I’ll root for St. Rose.

I also wanted to point out an article most people may have missed on Delbarton’s 6-2 win over two-time defending Rhode Island state champion Bishop Hendricken.

I’ll be flying back to New Jersey for a brief holiday stay on Friday night, which means Saturday will probably be my only day of checking out N.J. hockey games this year. Any suggestions as to where I should go?

Thursday update
Just to explain several updates to various schedules … I’m told Hackettstown and Hudson Catholic had five players EACH given game disqualifications in their Dec. 17 game. That’s from one skirmish, in which I’m told no punches were thrown, and both coaches were baffled by the referees’ decision. It happened in the first period, and Hudson Catholic played the rest of the game with only six players, total.

Due to mandatory two-game suspensions (which will also yield state tournament ineligibility for both teams) for roughly half of its players, Hudson Catholic has chosen to forfeit its next two games: Friday against High Point and Sunday against Dumont. Assuming my schedules are up to date, that could save Dumont from playing on three consecutive days, which it should be noted is NOT legal. Dumont, Nutley, and Parsippany are all teams in danger of playing three games on three days at some point this month. This is a violation of NJSIAA rules and has, in the past, been punished with forfeits.

Rankings, Vers. 2.0 (Dec. 16)

Alright, I’ve always said I needed two weeks to rank teams, so I guess it’s that time again.

I’m putting these out there for discussion and debate, not because I think they’re infallible or because I’m particularly attached to any comparisons. I’m also splitting public schools into their Public A and Public B classifications, as we will for the state tournament.

Read on for the njhockey.org Top 10s:

Continue reading Rankings, Vers. 2.0 (Dec. 16)…

NJSIAA posts public split

As you can probably tell, I’m fascinated by the state’s process in splitting the public tournament. The NJSIAA has posted the list of teams that will be classified as Public A or Public B. The list is available on Page 11 of this document (which always makes for interesting reading anyway).

I haven’t done a 100 percent cross-check, but here are a couple of things:

Woodbridge and JFK Iselin are on this list, but Monroe is not. Odd, considering Monroe fields a varsity team, and Woodbridge and JFK Iselin do not.

Co-ops are listed with the enrollment of one school (Whippany Park, Point Pleasant Boro, Tenafly, Jonathan Dayton, Verona) only. This leaves all five as Public B teams, when a combined enrollment figure would have pushed Point Pleasant, Tenafly and Park Regional into Public A.

I was originally told Nottingham would be Public B, but apparently the split has been amended to place Nottingham in the Public A classification.

I don’t know if these are mistakes or if the NJSIAA has reasons, but I really feel this should have (a) been fact-checked better and (b) been released much, much earlier.

MONDAY EDIT: I have been informed that the NJSIAA will likely re-release the list in the coming days, presumably with some of these mistakes corrected.

TUESDAY EDIT: The NJSIAA has added Monroe and fixed the enrollment of various co-ops. This led to me discovering that Pascack Valley and River Dell are both co-op teams. Why does nobody tell me these things? The only kink that remains involves Verona and WWPN. I’m trying to get it sorted out.

breaking down the public schools

I’m not going to pretend I don’t read the NJO forum, so I’m glad to see my rankings have stirred up such debate. And of course they’re not perfect. That’s the fun part.
Anyway, the thing I noticed most was confusion over which teams are Public A and which teams are Public B. So here’s the full list, with the NJSIAA enrollment numbers I have taken from the NJSIAA website:

Continue reading breaking down the public schools…

Preseason Top 10s

I usually eschew preseason polls. I don’t know enough about individual players, who’s back from last season, and the like. I prefer to wait for the first two weeks of results to provide some data. And I used to feel bad about ranking without seeing games, but hey, I see about two games per year now, so I might as well go ahead.

I’m putting these out there for discussion and debate, not because I think they’re infallible or because I’m particularly attached to any comparisons. I’m also splitting public schools into their Public A and Public B classifications, as we will for the state tournament.

Without further ado, the njhockey.org Preseason Top 10s (educated guesses included):

Continue reading Preseason Top 10s…

Explaining the public tournament

Thanks to a frighteningly early deadline (before practices even begin), I’ve been working on my HNIB preview (including a Top 10, of which you might see a sneak peek soon) all week and talking to coaches.

This afternoon, I finally broke through and got hold of NJSIAA Assistant Director Jack DuBois, who confirmed the particulars of the public tournament split. I’ve heard a lot of information from a lot of people on this one, but nobody seemed really sure. So here’s what I’ve got:

According to DuBois, the 95 public schools playing varsity hockey (I’m not sure if that number includes East Side and Monroe - I’ll check when I get home to my personal computer tonight) will be classified before the season as either Public A or Public B (the terminology is not finalized, but that’s how DuBois referred to them.) Hamilton (10-12 enrollment 1,013) will be in Public A and Nottingham (enrollment 1,010) will be in Public B. DuBois iterated that the at-large process will remain the same, which seems to mean three private and three public, regardless of class size.

I’ll try to have more analysis of this later.

On a private school note, great to see New Jersey prep seniors representing in the DHI Cup - Mike Morreale had a quick recap at njice.8m.com.

RIP Brian Fleury

I’ve thought so many times about what I would feel and say when this happened, but I’m still at a loss for words. The best coach I ever had, yet never had, and the best man I knew, died today at age 40.

Brian Fleury

Here’s the Daily Record article from Saturday, along with a photo gallery, and Joe Hofmann’s Sunday column. In the photo gallery, check out the shot of Coach Fleury in high school. My mom always said he looked like Derek Jeter. Here’s the Star-Ledger’s article.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

– W.H. Auden