Hobey-Screwed

Milo's column last week alludes to the Tigers complete snuff by the Hobey committee. I don't care if we had a player that would have won it, but c'mon, the team had one of the best regular season's in the country and the hardest schedule of the top 5 teams. What a joke.

Hobey Baker committee’s snub of CC is pathetic
By MILO F. BRYANT

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Colorado College hockey team left the Western Collegiate Hockey Association awards ceremony with an impressive amount of hardware — and justifiably so.

But the thing that had folks in a River Center ballroom talking afterward was the huge snub the Tigers received.

Freshman goalie Richard Bachman joined senior defenseman Jack Hillen and junior forward Chad Rau on the WCHA first team. Hillen was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year. Bachman earned Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year honors.

There were many congratulations — as there should have been.

Then came the snub.

The Hobey Baker committee showed a video to release the names of the top 10 finalists for the nation’s highest college hockey honor. Seconds before the announcement a betting person would’ve put down his house that the Tigers would’ve had at least two and possibly three people on that list.

After the announcement, that man would’ve been homeless.

The Tigers were shut out of the top 10 Hobey Baker finalists.

Read that sentence again. They were shut out. The Tigers had the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year and the Player of the Year and they were shut out of the top 10?

That’s pathetic.

Bachman, Rau and Hillen are three of the nation’s best players. They play on one of the nation’s best teams. They play in the nation’s best conference.

There are not 10 players in the country better than those three. If anyone can find 10 players, they’re looking in the National Hockey League.

“Shocked,” University of Denver coach George Gwozdecky said of his reaction. “Disappointed may be better. Disappointed and shocked.

“I’ll be very honest with you. We’ve got great respect for CC. As bitter as the rivalry is, we’ve got great respect for CC. . . . Richard Bachman and Chad Rau have had great years in the WCHA. And within the WCHA they were awarded accordingly. For them not to receive the national recognition of being in the top 10 — it’s just not right.”

No, it’s not.

The last time the WCHA Player of the Year failed to be named as a Hobey Baker top 10 finalist was during the 1989-90 season when the University of Wisconsin’s Gary Shuchuk wasn’t named.

Bachman was twice the Hockey Commissioners’ Association National Rookie of the Month.

North Dakota’s Jean-Philippe Lamoureux is one of three goalies in the top 10 finalists list. Michigan State Jeff Lerg and New Hampshire’s Kevin Regan are the others.

In conference play, Bachman had a higher save percentage than Lamoureux. He had a higher winning percentage than Lamoureux. Had Bachman played the final regular season game he would’ve beaten Lamoureux in goals against average, too.

So Lamoureux, not even the best goalie in his own conference gets on the top 10 list, and Bachman doesn’t.

The only place where Lerg has proven to be better than Bachman is on the clock. Lerg played more minutes than any other goalie this season.

Bachman leads Regan in every major goalie statistical category.

So, what gives?

Some have said it’s because Bachman is a freshman. If that’s the case, the award shouldn’t be given. If it’s a freshman thing, then what’s the problem with Rau and Hillen?

“I’m actually surprised that none of them are up there,” CC coach Scott Owens said. “I thought we’d have a couple. I didn’t know which two they’d be but I thought we’d have a couple.

“Basically, you’ve got the top scoring defenseman in the country. You’ve got the Player of the Year and the Rookie of the Year. Yeah, I am a little surprised by that.”

I don’t know if it would’ve changed anything, but Colorado College didn’t have the best promotion of its players nationally. In this day, teams can’t rely on Internet message boards or college hockey Web sites to do their promotion for them.

Those who don’t do that, rightly or wrongly, get snubbed.

“It makes us want to get to the Frozen Four and get some more exposure because we have some unbelievable players on our team that didn’t get recognized,” Hillen said.

The Tigers, who are the second furthest team away from the Atlantic Ocean, played on the East Coast twice this season, and only once was up North. They played in Tampa the other games. Both of those trips happened before 2008. Few people remember specifics that far back.

They needed to be reminded, and CC did a poor job of doing that.

Contact Bryant at 636-0252 or milo.bryant@gazette.com. See his blog at milobryant.blogspot.com or catch him on KOAA’s Comcast Channel 9 most Wednesdays at 4 p.m.