1. Kevin Porter
2. Peter Mannino
3. Ryan Jones
The award is still Porter's to lose, in my mind. His schedule gets considerably tougher over the next couple weeks, so everyone will be watching him closely, but I can't imagine much of a drop. Mannino had a rough weekend against Wisconsin, but I'd still take him over any other goalie, and nobody else really stood out in second place. Jones is still a little streaky for my tastes, but deserves to be up there for helping lead Miami to the season they're having.
CSTV Hobey Watch
Is here. Porter is the unanimous #1 choice. Two of his teammates also make the list. The first is Chad Kolarik, no surprise there, and the second is...wait for it...Billy Sauer, who received a third place vote from Comcast Local's Ben Holden. Holden goes mathematical on our collective asses with this quote, ""Sauer has allowed just two goals in his last four games and two of those games were shutouts." Meaning we know three of them weren't shutouts, and Sauer isn't giving up any pesky half-goals.
You could make a decent argument for everyone on the list, though none, besides Porter, really stand out. Eight of the ten candidates play in the CCHA or WCHA.
INCH Hobey Tracker
Is here.
INCH goes off the beaten path by putting Nathan Gerbe atop their list. It's a nice idea given Gerbe's hot play recently, but really, who are we kidding here? Gerbe has no business being a Hobey Baker candidate. There is other criteria to the Hobey Baker besides just scoring a lot of points and Gerbe comes up way short in those areas.
Gerbe was suspended for one game earlier this year after a game against Merrimack, where he was rumored to butt-end a Merrimack player. Here is what Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna said of the incident:
"While a suspension might not have been forthcoming on [Friday] night's actions alone, this is not the first time this season that I have been made aware of inappropriate behavior from Nathan," Bertagna said in the statement. "Given the fact that he had already been put on notice, I felt that supplemental discipline was in order in this instance."So Gerbe earned Hockey East Double-Secret Probation and then promptly violated it. And how many players are actually suspended by their own league in a given year? I can't think of more than a handful.
Not to mention that academics come into play with the people deciding the award. Every offseason since Gerbe enrolled at BC, there have been rumors of him signing with the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL because he was struggling academically at BC. Obviously that is all hearsay, but I doubt Gerbe started taking rocket science classes this year.
9 comments:
let me assure you, Boston College does not have the infamous "Sports Management" major for athletes like Michigan does... not to mention other joke academic schools like North Dakota that run semi pro hockey programs. So why Gerbe for Hobey?.... let's see, he leads the country in points and points per game (with fewer games played), is probably the single most exciting player in college hockey and plays on both the power play and power play kill units for BC. He also has done this without his favorite line mate Brock Bradford who just came back from injury. Oh yeah, Gerbe does all this being the smallest player in college hockey. Further, the trophy has been out west since 2000 so he is a prime candidate to win. If they consider guys from factories like Michigan and North Dakota I don't think Gerbe has much to worry about.
The majority of BC's players are (coincidentally I'm sure) enrolled in the Carroll School of Management.
It's General Studies and Kinesiology at Michigan. Get over yourself.
Gerbe for the Hobey? You're kidding right?? Points and points per game are not the only criteria for the award. There's a lot more to it.... character, sportsmanship etc. You just throw out his suspension??
"Smallest player...." So what?? The trophy has been out west...." So what?? I bet you're one of those people who think everyone deserves a ribbon. You east coast elitists who think your schools are so much better need to take a flying leap.
Just make sure the engraving guy over at the Hobey Baker office knows that there is no "y" in Gerbe.
Mannino? Is this a joke? There's three starting goalies in the WCHA alone with better stats with him. Including a freshman from Colorado College who has better GAA and save percentage. This sounds like the person who voted for Brett Favre over Tom Brady for MVP this year.
Once again, someone only looks at the stats. Who cares if three goalies have better stats? Billy Sauer has incredible stats this year, but I know a lot of folks who are still hesitant to call him one of the best in the nation. There's also a great defense and backchecking forwards playing in front of him who block shots, give the opponents nothing to shoot at, and save his butt from time to time. Sure, his play has improved greatly, but stats only tell part of the story, not all of it. If it was based purely on stats, T.J. Hensick would have won last year. Instead, it went to some guy who is barely putting up a point per game this year when part of his line is missing.
I'm not an east or west guy and I was a former teammate of Gerbe's (as well as some of the other guys on the list ).
Do I think he deserves the hobey? No.
But give the guy some credit and lay off of him. First off, No one looks at academics when handing out the hardware.
Secondly, he has a learning disability, busted his butt to get into the school in the first place, and has stayed eligible since. Give him credit for persevering when others jump ship when they can't cut it in the class or on the ice.
Thirdly, the suspension incident is how he has to play to make up for his lack of size. Ive played against him in midgets when he fought a teammate that was 6'5 and Gerbe handed it to him. He plays with an edge and thats going to only help him make a living in this sport.
I like Gerbe as a player. But even outside his allegedly shady antics on the ice, the fact remains that when guys are statistically comparable, being a senior captain of the #1 team in the nation vs. being a junior non-captain of a good-but-not-great team is going to be a major determining factor.
geez chris, profound analysis. i'm glad the hobey isnt awarded on the basis of 'rumors of this' and 'rumored to do that'
otherwise we might as well just let you pick who wins each year.
overhead in the committee... 'i read on this blog that......'
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