↑ Merrimack goalie Lauren Lyons – The freshman made 43 saves in her first career start, earning the win over No. 7 Clarkson.
↓ My hope that officials will actually emphasize the points of emphasis – We didn't even get through Thursdays games and it was clear that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The rules and officiating educational video for refs this season had a section specifically on women's hockey that said collisions, body checking and legal body contact were points of emphasis. The calls in the Minnesota/Boston College series were inconsistent at best and I'll leave it at that.
↑ Milestones – Congratulations to Minnesota's Abbey Murphy who became the 11th Gopher to reach 200 career points. Teammate Josefin Bouveng tallied her 100th point this weekend, as well.
↓ Ease and quality of streaming – Well one of the positives is that women's college hockey was at the top of the ESPN+ homepage for a good portion of Thursday and Friday, which was nice to see. But we also got to watch streams from a distance behind the penalty boxes, through blurry lenses, on a delay because someone forgot to flip the switch, seemingly in the dark and with commentary that held no concept of context.
↑ Holy Cross – The Crusaders are off to a 2-0 start for the first time in 8 years!
↓ Pronunciation – You're going to think this is only about one person, but I promise you it's not. There were mispronounced names in every broadcast I watched this weekend and simply put, we have to be better. Even if the broadcasters are students. I'm not unforgiving or compassionate that this is difficult and mistakes will happen. But I also think broadcasters should at least show that they've done the work and are trying to get this right. Most teams' line sheets (which are generally printed out and available at the arena or shared online) have guides on how to say each players' name. But there's also the opportunity to ask someone on the team for help. Anyone on site at the game should be able to get this right (or close to right). To me, there's more leeway when its not gameday. Not every team has pronunciation guides on their websites and that can make things harder, but when everyone is in the rink the game is happening in, it feels egregious and really, shows a lack of preparation when announcers sound surprised and tripped up by a players' name the first time they have to say it.
But also - teams, please create pronunciation guides. Put those online, not just on line sheets. Make a social video with your players saying their own names. My kingdom for a nationwide pronunciation guide.
↑ Excitement – This is a snark-heavy edition, but also there were some spectacular fun games to watch and the season feels like it's really underway. Early season brings tons of great non-conference matchups and those games have really lived up to the billing so far. The Husky-off between UConn and SCSU was as tight as we imagined a 12 vs. 13 would be. Penn State had a pair of statement wins. And there are more ranked nonconference series coming up this weekend. It's a really fun time to be an women's college hockey fan.
(Photo: Pexels/Tony Schnagl)
