Clarkson Notes

Now that ECAC Hockey play has arrived the Watertown Daily Times will be running a weekly Clarkson Notes column every Friday. The Wednesday blog entry will now consist of secondary items, or video reports on selected weeks.

This week's edition is slightly different because a handful of players on the team have the flu, so the coaching staff has suggested it might be healthier for non-sick people to avoid the locker room area this week.

Today I thought I'd rank the six non-Ivy teams that have played a handful of nonconference games by strength-of-schedule.

I looked at two basic stats to come up with this study: record of opponents and number of road games.

The record of opponents does not include games played against that team. For example, Clarkson beat Niagara. Niagara is 0-5-1. When I counted Niagara's record into Clarkson's overall opponent record I gave them an 0-4-1 record (as if the Clarkson loss did not count).

NOTE: The Ivy League teams all start late so they are not included in this survey due to lack of games.

So here are my rankings for pre-ECAC Hockey strength of schedule (remember this is not a ranking of which teams I think are best so far this season):

1. Clarkson (3-4 overall): Clarkson's nonconference opponents to date (including the SLU game) are 13-13-1. Clarkson is tied with Quinnipiac for playing the most road games so far this season, with four. Clarkson gets the nod over the Bobcats because they've played the stronger road competition in Michigan State and

Minnesota-Duluth.

2. Rensselaer (4-3-1): The Engineers have played three road games (although one was a short drive over to Schenectady to play Union College). RPI's

opponents are 18-18-6.

3. Quinnipiac (4-1): Quinnipiac has played four road games, but their opponents have a combined record of 5-8-1 so far this season.

4. Union (3-3-1): Union has played only two road games this season and their opponents have a combined record of 11-11-4.

5. Colgate (2-2-3): The Raiders have also played only two road games and their opponents are only 9-19-2.

6. St. Lawrence (4-2-1): The Saints have the second-best nonconference record after Quinnipiac, but their weak schedule so far means it's hard to get a real gauge on this team. SLU has played only one road game, and that was just

10 miles away in Potsdam. (The Saints played two games in Omaha, Neb. to start the year, but played two other teams who also traveled so neither team had a home-ice advantage). SLU's schedule has been weak as well. The only winning

team the Saints have faced all year was UMass.-Lowell, who defeated them. SLU's opponents' overall record so far is 9-19-3.

Randy Jones Revisited

Yesterday was Pro Hockey Notes day, but the NHL decided to post video today of a Randy Jones interview, so here is a bonus item: