Men's hockey: Top 10 tracker

The CIS men's hockey rankings are here, and the RPI is here.


  1. UNB (2nd in RPI): Host St. Thomas on Friday, who will be seeking revenge for 43:33, 47:50, and 49:35 of this game. The Reds are +2.0 in SRS, a step down from their last two years where they've been three goals or more better than the average team. Though that may be because we're now ignoring shootouts country-wide in these rankings, and so what was previously a win or loss is a tie.

  2. McGill (1st in RPI): Survived the third period at Ryerson on Saturday, winning when (guess who) Francis Verreault-Paul put one home at 59:49.

    Have just one game left in 2011, a Friday morning school game vs. RMC in Verdun.

  3. Alberta (5th in RPI): As Evan noted, their trip to Manitoba this weekend "will be a good barometer of where this squad is after a relatively easy stretch of games against the conference's bottom three squads." Real Cyr will likely still lead the country in save percentage regardless of what happens, though.

  4. Western (6th in RPI): Host Waterloo and Guelph. The first one will be a bigger test, you'd think. This past weekend, at UOIT and Laurier, was the first one the Mustangs had where they won both games convincingly (by at least three goals), which is notable since they've played the weakest schedule in CIS so far. (Though it's hard to say a 9-3 win and a two-goal win aren't convincing.) (Never mind any of that. I read the wrong weekend off the schedule.)

  5. Moncton (19th in RPI): Play at UPEI Friday. They fell from third to fifth in the CIS rankings after losing to those Panthers, but that home loss (combined with everyone else's results) dropped them seven spots in RPI, to the point where they are technically below average. It's not the first time an above-.500 team with a soft schedule is ranked, and it won't be the last.

  6. Saskatchewan (13th in RPI): Cruised against UBC, as usual. Two games vs. Regina await.

  7. Acadia (12th in RPI): Host SMU Friday.

  8. Lakehead (4th in RPI): Host Waterloo this weekend for two. (Another goof. That would be the next weekend they play a regular season, which is in January, not this weekend.)

    Fourth in RPI but four spots below Western? Hmm. The 'Wolves and 'Stangs can settle it on the ice: they play four times between Jan. 20 and Feb. 4.

  9. Manitoba (3rd in RPI): Evan and math are both higher on Manitoba than the voters. Why not, right? They're only 4-0 against Calgary, and they lost by one goal in both games against Saskatchewan, and are 1-1 (or 2-0, depending how you count) against Alberta. What more can they do?

    They have two home games against those Bears this weekend, so I suppose we'll see.

  10. UQTR (8th in RPI): Face a much tougher slate this week: Nipissing and Carleton on the road, rather than RMC and Queen's anywhere. (The Gaels' 1-0 win over Carleton a few weeks back will remain an unsolved mystery for years.)

Next PostNewer Post Previous PostOlder Post Home

10 comments:

  1. Rob, not sure you meant to say "It's not the first time an above-.500 team with a soft schedule is ranked, and it won't be the last." about Moncton did you? I mean, they play the same AUS teams that everyone else does.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Soft schedule. Sure, we have the same soft schedule as UNB, Acadia, SMU, StFX, UPEI, DAL and STU. No such thing as a soft schedule in the AUS.

    #justsaying.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Totally not tracking with what you've written about Western. Last weekend they HOSTED UOIT and Brock (5-2 and 5-0 victories respectively). The 9-3 win against Laurier was at home but 3 weeks ago. They did play away at UOIT and Laurier 2 weekends ago but won one and lost the other. I'd also suggest that Guelph may give Western as much or more of a test as Waterloo - both games that UWO and Guelph played earlier this year went to extra time, with Western winning one in OT and the other in a SO.

    Also, Lakehead is not playing Waterloo this weekend - they have finished their first half conference schedule and are playing a pair of non-conference games against Calgary.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Saying Moncton has a soft schedule and McGill has a hard one is the complete opposite. McGill would be a below .500 team in the aus. We will see what kind of masacre happens when Ottawa is at UNB twice to wear off those xmas Turkeys

    ReplyDelete
  5. Taking these in order:

    Moncton's strength-of-schedule rank is 32nd out of 34 teams. It may be early and that may very well change between now and March, but I'm not just making this up as I go.

    As for Western/Lakehead, my apologies, I misread the schedule, and I've corrected it now; as always, we regret the error.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The toughest teams Lakehead has beaten are Ottawa and Windsor. They are barely better than Dal and STU, the two weakest teams on Moncton's schedule.

    AUS teams won 7 of 9 games against OUA teams in non-conference games this year.

    ReplyDelete
  7. How can we have the 32nd easier schedule in the CIS, that's just plain absurd... either that or I seriously don't understand how you rank it.

    Either:

    1) You need to explain your rankings

    2) You seriously need to come out east and watch some games, and I don't mean watching the AUS teams at Nationals either, regular season games between any of the 8 teams here.


    I know the rest of the country might be annoyed with us AUS guys always tooting our own horns, but we can back up our claims that we have the best and most competitive conference in the CIS. It's not very hard to see...

    I seriously wish the 'bottom' teams in our league would play some cross-conference exhibitions, I think some of you would be surprised with the results and us east coast boys would be justified.

    I don't think there's another conference or league in the country that as you going 'Oh shit we're playing XYZ tonigh (where XYZ is any of the other teams in the conference). Every game night here you end up worrying to some degree, even current last place DAL has me worrying when they roll into town, they have enough good players on their roster that they can surprise you, and were it not for their goalie troubles they'd certainly have a better record.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Uknown:

    Lakehead is 7-7-0 against AUS teams all time, with wins over UNB, ST Mary's, Acadia and St FX.

    They have yet to play St Thomas or Dalhousie.

    Against Canada West Lakehead is 24-21-6 including the sweep of Calgary last weekend.

    Judging by your comment, I'm assuming you've seen Lakehead play this year, which games were you at?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I don't remember the last time Lakehead has beat an AUS team, it's a few year, and have they ever beat an AUS team outside of their home rink in Thunder Bay? I don't think so.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Their last game against an AUS team would have been a 3-1 loss to UNB at the nationals in Thunder Bay.

    The previous games would have been a weekend split against St Mary’s, and I believe that year St Mary’s won the AUS.

    The last game outside of the Thunder Bay would have been at the nationals in Alberta where they defeated the AUS champs Acadia.

    Lakehead can hold their own against AUS and Canada West teams.

    ReplyDelete