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So UConn is having probably the best run its had in its 6 years a member of one of the top hockey conferences in the country.
It's a run that has put them from likely not even qualifying for the 8-team Hockey East playoff to a position where they now control their destiny to host a 1st round game and only 3 points out of 1st place with 3 games to go. Making the playoffs is now virtually a lock as they have built up a 5 point lead over #9 UNH and a 3 point lead over Providence (with a game at hand).
The fans are starting to notice. Two weekends ago vs UNH they drew 8,100. This Friday at home they drew at least 5600. Next weekend - probably the biggest weekend in UConn's hockey history thus far - against #2 UMass with a whole lot on the line - a fair estimate would be anywhere from 6000-8000.
And coming off a weekend of an exciting comeback win on Friday and maybe its best singular effort in its HE existence, on the road against a legit team like BU, the Courant shoves them all the way down to the bottom 2 inches of the 5th page. .
Put the front page aside for a second. They put the hockey coverage past pages dedicated to MLB spring training, the scoreboard page - where people stop to check out the NBA and NHL standings I guess along with the auto racing standings??? - past the non-UConn college basketball round up, past another full page dedicated to the UConn women (after the front page dedicated a large swath of land to them above the fold), and finally at the very bottom of the 5th page.
The front page had legit UConn women's game articles, but then prime real estate below the fold was was dedicated to high school track & field. Mike Anthony's column was dedicated to Paige Bueckers and her final HS game on Friday night - good idea for a column no doubt - but why put it in today? Why not yesterday or Monday? Why doesn't Anthony fly from Minnesota to Boston to cover last night's game? Or fly home and hop in a car for a night game in Boston? He's a hockey guy.
Quite frankly the Courant has had a lack of interest in the hockey program for years. But its times like this where at some point you just have to call them out. Here's the deal, if budget cuts are forcing them to ignore the hockey program when it's on a huge upswing and thousands of people are coming out to see them, than it probably is up to courant subscribers like myself to just dump the paper and rely solely on online content like the UConn blog, etc.
I like supporting newspapers. I wrote for the Daily Campus sports section for 2 years (Ostrout was my boss), interned at the JI for a year and then worked there for a year before I went elsewhere. I've held on to the Courant a lot longer than a lot of people I know because I have a soft spot for newspapers....but at some point there will be a tipping point.
I'll be interested to see where Anthony is this weekend. There are no excuses. The hoops teams as far as I can tell are on the road. This should be a big hockey weekend for the Courant. I want something above the fold on Saturday morning or else.
It's a run that has put them from likely not even qualifying for the 8-team Hockey East playoff to a position where they now control their destiny to host a 1st round game and only 3 points out of 1st place with 3 games to go. Making the playoffs is now virtually a lock as they have built up a 5 point lead over #9 UNH and a 3 point lead over Providence (with a game at hand).
The fans are starting to notice. Two weekends ago vs UNH they drew 8,100. This Friday at home they drew at least 5600. Next weekend - probably the biggest weekend in UConn's hockey history thus far - against #2 UMass with a whole lot on the line - a fair estimate would be anywhere from 6000-8000.
And coming off a weekend of an exciting comeback win on Friday and maybe its best singular effort in its HE existence, on the road against a legit team like BU, the Courant shoves them all the way down to the bottom 2 inches of the 5th page. .
Put the front page aside for a second. They put the hockey coverage past pages dedicated to MLB spring training, the scoreboard page - where people stop to check out the NBA and NHL standings I guess along with the auto racing standings??? - past the non-UConn college basketball round up, past another full page dedicated to the UConn women (after the front page dedicated a large swath of land to them above the fold), and finally at the very bottom of the 5th page.
The front page had legit UConn women's game articles, but then prime real estate below the fold was was dedicated to high school track & field. Mike Anthony's column was dedicated to Paige Bueckers and her final HS game on Friday night - good idea for a column no doubt - but why put it in today? Why not yesterday or Monday? Why doesn't Anthony fly from Minnesota to Boston to cover last night's game? Or fly home and hop in a car for a night game in Boston? He's a hockey guy.
Quite frankly the Courant has had a lack of interest in the hockey program for years. But its times like this where at some point you just have to call them out. Here's the deal, if budget cuts are forcing them to ignore the hockey program when it's on a huge upswing and thousands of people are coming out to see them, than it probably is up to courant subscribers like myself to just dump the paper and rely solely on online content like the UConn blog, etc.
I like supporting newspapers. I wrote for the Daily Campus sports section for 2 years (Ostrout was my boss), interned at the JI for a year and then worked there for a year before I went elsewhere. I've held on to the Courant a lot longer than a lot of people I know because I have a soft spot for newspapers....but at some point there will be a tipping point.
I'll be interested to see where Anthony is this weekend. There are no excuses. The hoops teams as far as I can tell are on the road. This should be a big hockey weekend for the Courant. I want something above the fold on Saturday morning or else.