The first INCH Podcast of the INCH Writers era is posted for your listening pleasure. Surprisingly there is more hockey talk than usual. As stated when we made the transition, our current editorial format doesn’t mean that we don’t like college hockey. The staff has lots to say about teams making an early impression.
When we compiled our first power rankings of the 2012-13 season—the Great 58+1 rankings of every Division I program—we put it together with the intention of releasing it on the old site in early October.
That, of course, didn’t happen, but there’s no use in wasting a perfectly good set of rankings, right?
Here, then, are the INCH Writers Great 58+1 Power Rankings. Please note these were put together a few weeks ago and between then and now, a few games have been played. Some teams look like they might be ranked a tad low; others appear to be spotted a bit high (we’re looking in your general direction, Maine.) We’re sticking with the original list, though—no revisionist history here.
As we ranked the nation’s top teams, we also highlight a key part of the schedule for each club.
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No.
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Team | Circle The Dates |
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1.
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Minnesota | Not only do the Gophers have the top-ranked team heading into the season, but they’ve also got a favorable schedule—no trips to Denver, Duluth, or Grand Forks and just one game at Wisconsin. |
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2.
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Boston College | Odd scheduling quirk for the Eagles, whose three regular-season meetings with arch-rival Boston University fall during a 20-day stretch from Nov. 11-Dec. 1. Of course, the two could face one another on a February Monday … |
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3.
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North Dakota | During a six-week stretch of November and December, North Dakota has series vs. Boston University, at St. Cloud State, vs. Minnesota Duluth, at Notre Dame, at Colorado College, and vs. Denver. |
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4.
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Cornell | From Dec. 28-Jan. 19, the Big Red play six games, all away from Lynah Rink: vs. Ferris State and either Maine or UMD at the Florida College Classic, a series at Denver, and league road matches at Union and Rensselaer. |
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5.
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Western Michigan | The Broncos’ chances for winning the final regular-season title in CCHA history may hinge on a three-week stretch in late January and February that includes home series with Michigan and Miami and a series at Ferris State. Continue reading |
• Maintaining simultaneous bias against 59 Division I teams threatened to cause a rip in the space-time continuum.
• Got in trouble with Apple lawyers when we said we launched in 1976 in Steve Jobs’ garage.
• In retrospect, we shouldn’t have funneled all our money into the Ryan Lochte speaking tour.
• Recent readers surveys show fans eschewed thoughtful, passionate writing about teams, players, and issues in favor of stories about Honey Boo Boo’s recipe for “sketti.”
• Joe Gladziszewski’s side project, AgainstAllThingsJessMyersLikes.com, takes up way too much of his time. (Gladdy: “My Rams!”)
• We’re still waiting for our cut of hockey-related revenue.
• We let it walk halfway across the University of North Dakota campus on a sub-zero winter night.
• Our work was so good, its excellence couldn’t be captured by binary code.
• We couldn’t figure out how to get from Grand Rapids, Mich. to Rochester, N.Y. in less than 30 seconds.
• No more napkin jokes about UNH national titles after they won the … HA! Like that would ever happen.
Welcome to INCH Writers, the new home for the thoughts and opinions of those of us who produced Inside College Hockey for the last 10 years. We’ll check in from time to time with some of our most popular coverage elements from the past, including plenty of podcasts, and other thoughts as they come to mind. We look forward to continue to share our thoughts here, and we promise to continue to express our long-held biases against all college hockey teams, conferences and regions.
INCH WRITERS 