{"id":1814,"date":"2015-12-23T07:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/from-the-press-box\/?p=1814"},"modified":"2020-08-24T17:53:13","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T22:53:13","slug":"weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Weighing the long-term value of a stellar start to the season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Harvard’s Merrick Madsen (31) and Kyle Criscuolo are part of one of four Division I men’s teams to post a zero- or one-loss record at the break (photo: Shelley M. Szwast).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here’s a philosophical question to ponder as we await the return of Division I men’s college hockey games on Dec. 28:<\/p>\n

What’s the value of a great start to the season if it doesn’t come with a great finish?<\/p>\n

Getting to the holiday break unbeaten or with one loss is a noteworthy accomplishment and puts a team on path for an NCAA tournament spot even if the second half is bumpy.<\/p>\n

Four teams have made it to that point this season: defending national champion Providence, Quinnipiac, Cornell and Harvard. That’s the same number that had one loss or fewer at the break in the previous 12 seasons combined.<\/p>\n

I was able to find full national standings at the holiday break for the 14 previous seasons, and there were a total of seven one-loss teams over that span.<\/p>\n

All seven made the NCAA tournament, three of them as the No. 1 overall seed.<\/p>\n

None of the seven won the national championship. Only one — Cornell in 2002-03 — made it to the Frozen Four.<\/p>\n

Here’s the list of zero- or one-loss teams at the break since 2001, with this season’s quartet included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Team (First-place votes)<\/th>Points<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
1. Cornell (11)<\/td>121<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2. Harvard<\/td>105<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3. Quinnipiac (1)<\/td>93<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4. Dartmouth<\/td>91<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5. Clarkson<\/td>82<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6. St. Lawrence<\/td>70<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7. Princeton<\/td>68<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8. Rensselaer<\/td>51<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9. Colgate<\/td>41<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10. Yale<\/td>36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11. Brown<\/td>22<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12. Union<\/td>12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

That being said, there have been some quality first halves recently by future national champions. Union and Minnesota-Duluth were 12-3-3 at the break before winning titles in 2013-14 and 2010-11, respectively. Boston College was 10-3-2 in 2009-10 and a somewhat more modest 12-6 in 2011-12.<\/p>\n

Still, it’s probably true that if your best games of the season are in October, November and December, you’re not going to go far in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are four zero- or one-loss teams at the break, the same number as in the last 12 seasons combined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":116560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1425],"tags":[1444],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWeighing the long-term value of a stellar start to the season - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are four zero- or one-loss teams at the break, the same number as in the last 12 seasons combined.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Weighing the long-term value of a stellar start to the season - College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are four zero- or one-loss teams at the break, the same number as in the last 12 seasons combined.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-23T13:00:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-24T22:53:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20151114-7D2-8776-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"499\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd D. Milewski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@toddmilewski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd D. Milewski\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/\",\"name\":\"Weighing the long-term value of a stellar start to the season - College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20151114-7D2-8776-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-23T13:00:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-24T22:53:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2db28f954968e12690aa288e8186b98c\"},\"description\":\"There are four zero- or one-loss teams at the break, the same number as in the last 12 seasons combined.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20151114-7D2-8776-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20151114-7D2-8776-1.jpg\",\"width\":499,\"height\":333},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Weighing the long-term value of a stellar start to the season\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/\",\"name\":\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"description\":\"Men's and Women's D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2db28f954968e12690aa288e8186b98c\",\"name\":\"Todd D. Milewski\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/f24296b62d0b2e2c0ed38fb788cc8581\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db18eed4fbc766c85823be8c92558b7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db18eed4fbc766c85823be8c92558b7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Todd D. Milewski\"},\"description\":\"Todd D. Milewski has been associated with USCHO since 1998, first as WCHA columnist, then as a senior writer and executive editor. He's now editor emeritus.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/@toddmilewski\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/author\/todd-milewski\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Weighing the long-term value of a stellar start to the season - College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"There are four zero- or one-loss teams at the break, the same number as in the last 12 seasons combined.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Weighing the long-term value of a stellar start to the season - College Hockey | USCHO.com","og_description":"There are four zero- or one-loss teams at the break, the same number as in the last 12 seasons combined.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814","og_site_name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/","article_published_time":"2015-12-23T13:00:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-08-24T22:53:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":499,"height":333,"url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20151114-7D2-8776-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Todd D. Milewski","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@toddmilewski","twitter_site":"@USCHO","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Todd D. Milewski","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/","url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/","name":"Weighing the long-term value of a stellar start to the season - College Hockey | USCHO.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20151114-7D2-8776-1.jpg","datePublished":"2015-12-23T13:00:23+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-24T22:53:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2db28f954968e12690aa288e8186b98c"},"description":"There are four zero- or one-loss teams at the break, the same number as in the last 12 seasons combined.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20151114-7D2-8776-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20151114-7D2-8776-1.jpg","width":499,"height":333},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2015\/12\/23\/weighing-the-long-term-value-of-a-stellar-start-to-the-season\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Weighing the long-term value of a stellar start to the season"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/","name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"Men's and Women's D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2db28f954968e12690aa288e8186b98c","name":"Todd D. Milewski","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/f24296b62d0b2e2c0ed38fb788cc8581","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db18eed4fbc766c85823be8c92558b7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db18eed4fbc766c85823be8c92558b7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Todd D. Milewski"},"description":"Todd D. Milewski has been associated with USCHO since 1998, first as WCHA columnist, then as a senior writer and executive editor. He's now editor emeritus.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/@toddmilewski"],"url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/author\/todd-milewski\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116561,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814\/revisions\/116561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1814"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}