Obviously computers are doing the heavy lifting now - but I figured I’d chip in my thoughts on where these teams fall and hopefully get some other opinions as well. I have included the teams MYHockeyRanking, as well as Strength of Schedule for reference.
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Grand Valley (MY #2, SOS #3) - hard to argue with a weekend sweep over Belleville on their resume that they are currently deserving of a #1 seed
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Lindenwood Belleville (MY #1, SOS #1) - Incredibly talented team that will without question have an autobid come late Feb
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Davenport (MY #3, SOS #9) - Quick team who can’t burn you all over the ice. Battle tested, but not sure if they are poised to go deep just yet.
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Marian (MY #5, SOS #7) - Good, competitive team with sneaky talent mixed throughout.
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Lindenwood (MY #7, SOS #4) - Not nearly as good as their cross town rivals, but still a systematically sound team who can get very hot at times.
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Aurora (MY #4, SOS #13) - Besides Belleville, haven’t really been tested. Not as good as the computer might think.
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Michigan State (MY #9, SOS #5) - Disciplined team who always seems to get better as the year goes on. Limited sample size though.
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Michigan (MY #10, SOS #2) - Sporadically very good, usually pretty good. Depends which Michigan you see on a given night.
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McKendree (MY #6, SOS #17) - Weaker schedule with no signature wins - pretty average team
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Waldorf (MY #8, SOS #31) - There’s a reason these guys are only #8 but have 16 wins already. Wouldn’t be a bad idea to schedule a relatively challenging game every once in a while.