AA Rankings for 2/8

[HShockeywatcher]

Duluth 4,
not at all. I had three teams (Edina, East and Blaine) I had decided were my #3, #4 and #5. From there I used those head to head games to decide where to put who.

HardF1,
I am fine with you disagreeing with me; that's what makes discussion. But if you're going to, post comments and we can discuss, that's what the bored is for. Vague statements saying "you're wrong" don't get anywhere. I don't agree with Karl's, but he has justification for what he's done and it's not bad.

[northhockey23]

I also understand how 2-10 are pretty much a big mess, but...

EP-Only good win against Minnetonka earlier in the year.

Duluth East- Good wins against Wayzata and Minnetonka early in the year but have lost to Breck? Rochester Century? How blaine is at 9 when they beat them i dont know?

Edina-Yes i give them credit for their brutal schedule, but how can Cent. be ranked so low when they just beat Edina. Not to mention Edina has lost 3 out of their last 5.

Benilde-Only good win also against Minnetonka.

Maple Grove-Yes good win against Centennial, but Centennial has beatin Edina, Hill(when they had the full team), and STA. Also Blaine has blown out Maple Grove.

I am just saying there are teams with better wins than some of your top 5. Also teams with fewer losses.

[dueling21]

dueling21,
You would say that in the same light would would hail Little Falls as the top #1 team.

You got it!

[scoreboard33]

How can you not put Jefferson number 1. They have proven it every game they have played, they have been beat EP by the same margin Edina did, twice and, in my opinion, they looked better doing it than Edina did. The Lake conference may be down, but they are still talented teams in the Lake and I actually think it is an underrated conference this year, there is so much parity that all the teams are beating up on all others causing every team to drop in the rankings, same with the Classic Lake.

HShockeywatcher, have you seen these teams play, because maybe if you saw Jefferson play, you might think differently about them. You also punish them for not winning big against teams you put at 8, 12 and 14 while not punishing teams that lose. Centennial and Minnetonka both lost there last game and you put them 1,2 while putting Jefferson at 7, that is ridiculous. Karl may not have seen these teams play, but he seems to listen to other posters who have seen most or all of these teams play.
I do not agree with putting EP over Edina, but after looking at the rankings, I can't justify to myself putting the teams in a different order to make that happen and that is very frustrating.

I think that spots 2-10 are a complete jumble and it looks like that any team can not only beat, but blow out any other team on just about any night.

Thanks for the rankings Karl, I think they are as spot on as anybody can make them with the maddingly inconsistent play of the top teams.

Northhockey, your arguments would put the rankings a certain way and then you could easily come up with some more arguments that completely shift the rankings again, so this seems like a lose-lose and maybe we should rate them on how they have looked when we have seen them play and not on the way who they have beat.

[redfirehockey1]

i'm not even going to bother wasting my time responding to highschoolhockeywatcher

[karl(east)]

Replying to a smattering of posts...what I think I need to emphasize once again is how fluid the rankings are. They are taking recent losses and direct momentum into the day of ranking into account. That makes East and Benilde look very good, Centennial and Blaine not so good, and Edina somewhere in between. I'm sticking by these ones.

If Centennial and Blaine are as good as some think they are, they'll prove it before the season ends. They will each beat the team the other just lost to, and one will win their game on Saturday for the top spot in the section, and that team will easily be in the top 5.

To be brutally honest, I don't think Benilde is better than Centennial or Blaine. But they have to prove it, and their recent losses didn't do that for me.

A lot will happen over the next 2 weeks. Either #1 or #2 will go down, and the rankings are close enough that the loser could drop a long ways. The conclusion of the Classic Lake season will also show us who really deserves to be ranked where. As I've said, these rankings, in my opinion, best represent the possibilities of what could happen in a balanced manner.

[Roseauverrated]

i'm not even going to bother wasting my time responding to highschoolhockeywatcher

Then why did you even bother posting?

[HShockeywatcher]

scoreboard33,
I have not seen them play. I simply have the scores and posts to go by. Those who post about Jefferson usually post something along the lines of "they haven't lost, they should be number 1" which helps know nothing about the team. dueling21 continues to post and ignores SOS in everything he talks about. That's all fine and dandy, but when you play Edina's schedule, regardless of your talent, you are bound to mess up a few times.

There are Little Falls supporters out there who would put them at #1 simply because they haven't lost a game. Well, it seems as though over half (just a guess) of posters seem to disagree with that. Seems odd to me there isn't the same difference in AA when most (I'm guessing here) posters haven't seen them play.

I've seen East multiple times, Tonka, White Bear Lake, Duluth Marshall, Rochester Century, St Thomas, Holy Angels, Edina, and Centennial, plus what I've seen on TV. I cannot see everyone.

Instead of giving each team a rank we could just put the top 10-12 schools in a bunch and say "these teams are all good and could all compete with each other." Why don't we do that? Because we like to discuss and learn about teams we don't know about and get our people's opinions. We don't have the luxury of an 82 game season where teams play each other multiple times, or even a season half that like in college, we have 25 games and throughout the season many people form different opinions. As I've said before, I base mine on who I've seen and how their scores stack up to others in the state. If you don't like it, why can't we discuss it and be respectful instead of crucifying someone because their OPINION is different than yours?

I have not seen Jefferson play. And even if I had, the competition they would've played wouldn't have been that great. They beat Moorhead by the same score St Thomas did, except it was 3-3 at the end of regulation. Does that mean St Thomas is the #1 team in state? Heck no. Jefferson has played one good team and beat them by 1 goal at home. Hopkins has beaten multiple (2) top teams now and they aren't even on people's top 15. Jefferson is probably a great group of young men and great hockey players. They simply haven't played enough quality teams to be up there. Although I don't agree with the statement completely, one of the biggest reasons people have said up until yesterday that Elk River wasn't any good was they have no quality wins. Well, Jefferson has ONE. Big deal.

They'll probably get the #1 seed in the section, but whoever manages to make it to play them will be ready for them.

[dulutheastfan]

Here's Mine
(02-08-09)

Class AA

1. Bloomington Jefferson (21-0-0)
2. Eden Prairie (18-3-0)
3. Duluth East (17-3-1)
4. Edina (18-3-0)
5. Holy Angels (16-4-1)
6. Minnetonka (15-6-0)
7. Blaine (17-2-1)
8. Maple Grove (16-2-3)
9. Centennial (15-2-3)
10. Benilde-St. Margaret’s (17-4-0)
11. Woodbury (18-2-2)
12. Wayzata (13-7-1)
13. Hill-Murray (13-6-1)
14. Moorhead (9-9-2)
15. (tie) Elk River (12-7-1)
15. Hopkins (13-7-1)

Class A

1. Little Falls (20-0-0)
2. Warroad (20-2-0)
3. St. Thomas Academy (16-4-1)
4. Breck (17-3-1)
5. St. Cloud Cathedral (18-2-1)
6. Hermantown (19-2-0)
7. Virginia/MI-B (18-5-0)
8. South St. Paul (14-4-3)
9. Alexandria (16-3-1)
10. Thief River Falls (15-4-2)
11. Mahtomedi (14-5-1)
12. International Falls (14-6-1)
13. Duluth Marshall (12-7-1)
14. Hibbing/Chisholm (13-6-1)
15. (tie) Red Wing (13-7-0)
15. New Ulm (15-4-1)

[gophermadman]

scoreboard33,
I have not seen them play. I simply have the scores and posts to go by. Those who post about Jefferson usually post something along the lines of "they haven't lost, they should be number 1" which helps know nothing about the team. dueling21 continues to post and ignores SOS in everything he talks about. That's all fine and dandy, but when you play Edina's schedule, regardless of your talent, you are bound to mess up a few times.

There are Little Falls supporters out there who would put them at #1 simply because they haven't lost a game. Well, it seems as though over half (just a guess) of posters seem to disagree with that. Seems odd to me there isn't the same difference in AA when most (I'm guessing here) posters haven't seen them play.

I've seen East multiple times, Tonka, White Bear Lake, Duluth Marshall, Rochester Century, St Thomas, Holy Angels, Edina, and Centennial, plus what I've seen on TV. I cannot see everyone.

Instead of giving each team a rank we could just put the top 10-12 schools in a bunch and say "these teams are all good and could all compete with each other." Why don't we do that? Because we like to discuss and learn about teams we don't know about and get our people's opinions. We don't have the luxury of an 82 game season where teams play each other multiple times, or even a season half that like in college, we have 25 games and throughout the season many people form different opinions. As I've said before, I base mine on who I've seen and how their scores stack up to others in the state. If you don't like it, why can't we discuss it and be respectful instead of crucifying someone because their OPINION is different than yours?

I have not seen Jefferson play. And even if I had, the competition they would've played wouldn't have been that great. They beat Moorhead by the same score St Thomas did, except it was 3-3 at the end of regulation. Does that mean St Thomas is the #1 team in state? Heck no. Jefferson has played one good team and beat them by 1 goal at home. Hopkins has beaten multiple (2) top teams now and they aren't even on people's top 15. Jefferson is probably a great group of young men and great hockey players. They simply haven't played enough quality teams to be up there. Although I don't agree with the statement completely, one of the biggest reasons people have said up until yesterday that Elk River wasn't any good was they have no quality wins. Well, Jefferson has ONE. Big deal.

They'll probably get the #1 seed in the section, but whoever manages to make it to play them will be ready for them.

were you beat up by Jefferson kids growing up? If a team is 20-0 this far into the season, they should be at least in the top 5. Also, you havent seen them play? I have seen every top ten team play, and I have seen each team on its on days and off days. From what I have seen Jefferson is the best team out there. EP is also a VERY GOOD team. You need to get out there and see some hockey before you put a 20-0 team at #7, thats just uneducated and foolish.

[redfirehockey1]

jefferson was ranked 4th going into the season, beat wayzata, EP, tore through the lake conference schedule, bent over all of north dakota, rapids, and moorehead. caleb herbert was on the U18 USA team as a 17? year old, faust and pauluk are both d1 calibre, have a surprisingly impressive goalie, and have one of the best D's in the state as well as leadership from their senior class. despite this, if their amazing junior class doesnt go to juniors, they might find themself in the same position they are now next season.

[Lakeviewing]

Well, that was certainly an eventful week, wasn't it? Trying to put these together turned into quite the headache after Upset Night in the NWSC. Suddenly the field of teams fighting for a state title appears to have grown, and though the team on top is inching away from the pack a bit, it's very difficult to sort everyone out.

1. Bloomington Jefferson
-Had their closest call of the season to date against Moorhead on Saturday, but came out on top. Though it shows how beatable they are, winning a game in OT against another good team is usually good for a team's confidence. They'll need it on Tuesday night.
This week: Tues at #2 Eden Prairie, Sat vs. Eastview

2. Eden Prairie
-Also had a close call on Saturday, blowing a 3-goal 3rd-period lead before winning in OT. Like Jefferson, they aren't winning with authority lately, but they're winning, and the competition in this poll isn't, for the most part. The showdown for #1 on Tuesday should be a great one.
This week: Tues vs. #1 Bloomington Jefferson, Thurs vs. Apple Valley

3. Duluth East
-The beneficiaries of the slaughter in the standings immediately above them. Sure, they're not playing very hard teams right now, but they are moving through their schedule with efficiency and leaving little room for doubt. The ugly losses are fading further into the rear-view mirror, and unlike many of the other top teams right now, there's no sense that they're getting beaten up physically or tired. Huge rivalry game Tuesday.
This week: Tues at Cloquet, Sat vs. Stillwater

4. Edina
-Suffered another loss that did not look good, but rebounded with a thorough dismantling of Wayzata. I'm giving them some benefit of the doubt, assuming that they've figured things out and are reverting to form. If that proves not to be the case, they'll fall a lot further next week.
This week: Thurs vs. Hopkins, Sat at Buffalo

5. Benilde-St. Maragaret's
-While the rest of the Metro gets caught up in the carnage, this team has very quietly and effectively gone about its business. Like East, they're doing it against weak teams, but they have won 7 in a row against MSHSL competiton and beaten the team immediately behind them in the rankings. Busy week ahead, with a big one on Saturday.
This week: Tues vs. St. Francis, Thurs vs. Totino-Grace, Sat at #10 Holy Angels

6. Minnetonka
-Followed up a huge win with a disappointing in-section loss that dulled the momentum a little bit. How they finish the season will be crucial for how they look going into the brutality of 6AA. The Wayzata game has major section-seeding implications.
This week: Thurs vs. Robbinsdale Armstrong, Sat at #14 Wayzata

7. Maple Grove(!)
-Welcome to the state scene, Maple Grove. A large, convincing win over Centennial was the stunner of the week and threw the NWSC and 5AA into an utter mess. They have a little time to rest on their laurels before the Blaine rematch next week. They're for real, and there's no doubting that now.
This week: Thurs at Andover, Sat at Osseo

8. Centennial
-Just when it seemed like the Cougars were about to peak, they've hit a wall and suddenly have very serious question marks about them. I might have dropped Blaine and Centennial a bit far, but the middle of these rankings are very tight, and in this case I felt I had to give precedence to recent events. A very busy week ahead with two absolutely huge NWSC games on the docket.
This week: Tues vs. North Metro, Thurs at #11 Elk River, Sat at #9 Blaine

9. Blaine
-A very poor weak for a team that also looked very good last time I was ranking them. Again, the importance of the Centennial game cannot be understated, even if the rankings have changed a bit.
This week: Thurs at North Metro, Sat vs. #8 Centennial

10. Holy Angels
-They keep on sliding backwards in these rankings through no fault of their own. I feel a bit bad about it, especially when applying the same logic used for East and Benilde, but their overall achievements don't match those two teams, I had to make room for Maple Grove, and I couldn't bring myself to drop any of the higher-ranked losers any further. They have a real chance to prove themselves this week, finally.
This week: Tues at Hutchinson, Sat vs. #5 Benilde-St. Margaret's

11. Elk River
-The Elks crashed the NWSC party with a huge win over Blaine, finally beating one of the tough teams they've gone up against this year. Duluth East should be paying attention to what this team is doing now that they've made a statement. If they can knock off Centennial too, look out.
This week: Tues at Osseo, Thurs vs. #8 Centennial, Sat at Coon Rapids

12. Moorhead
-Looking at the body of work, this is a bit of a stretch. But the Spuds have proven over the past 8 days that they can play with absolutely anyone, and that maybe 8AA won't be such a pushover after all. This week, they can focus on shoring up their standing in the section.
This week: Tues vs. Brainerd, Sat at St. Cloud Tech

13. Woodbury
-They're continuing to win, but not in a manner that suggests they should be taken seriously at a statewide level. A pair of crucial SEC games this week will give us a better idea of where they stand.
This week: Thurs vs. Cretin-Derham Hall, Sat vs. Roseville

14. Wayzata
-Have done worse against Edina every time they've played them, which is really not a good sign regarding the direction they're headed in the state's deepest section. The Minnetonka game Saturday will be huge for them.
This week: Tues at Buffalo (seriously, of all the games this week, FSN chose this one??!!), Sat vs. #6 Minnetonka

15. Hill-Murray
-It's practically a toss-up between the Pioneers and Hopkins for this spot. I'm giving it to Hill for their first really strong win since The Incident, as they beat STA. A major section game looms on Thursday.
This week: Thurs vs. Tartan, Sat at Richfield
----
With 2 weeks to go in the regular season, I'll do the section-by-section thing again.

1AA
No ranked teams.
Mayo has taken the lead in the race for the 1 seed, but it's still a mess involving the Lakevilles, and Century and Owatonna are capable of causing problems too. Same old story, essentially.

2AA
1 Bloom. Jefferson
4 Edina
10 Holy Angels
The real thing to note here is Burnsville, which nearly beat EP on Saturday. They've really come together and are capable of upsetting Jefferson in the section semis if enough things go right. If I had to rank them, I'd give them #17. Just what this section needed, another good team to cause problems.

3AA
13 Woodbury
I'm really not impressed by what I'm seeing out of Woodbury lately. Cretin has quietly won 6 in a row and is crawling back into the picture, along with a capable Eagan team and maybe Apple Valley too. Big game this week between Woodbury and CDH.

4AA
15 Hill-Murray
Who would have guessed...the #1 seed in the section will probably be decided in this week's Hill-Tartan game. Stillwater is playing terribly but for some reason WBL can't beat them. WBL is injury-riddled but talented and probably falls in around #18. And Roseville is still hovering in the picture too. A mess, and the matchups that result from the seeding may be very significant in deciding who ends up at State.

5AA
7 Maple Grove
8 Centennial
9 Blaine
The numbers say it all here. 3 very good teams with shots at the section title. Should be an excellent race down the stretch, and getting the #1 seed is very significant.

6AA
2 Eden Prairie
5 Benilde
6 Minnetonka
14 Wayzata
(16) Hopkins
Loaded and confusing. I thought the top 3 were separating themselves a bit, but then Hopkins had to go and upset Tonka. I wouldn't even try making a call on this one yet.

7AA
3 Duluth East
11 Elk River
This section's teams moved up the standings a bit this past week. It's still very much East's to lose, and as they seem wont to do, the top teams in the section are coming on strong at the end of the year.

8AA
12 Moorhead
Roseau, after seemingly putting to bed any chance of a southern team winning with a resounding 6-0 win over Tech last week, came back and tied them this week, leaving me very unsure about them. Moorhead appears to have a pretty good lead, but Roseau is still very capable of beating them.

Whew, there you go...looks to be another excellent week.

Nice breakdown, but there were a lot of breakdowns in some of the top ten teams this past week. Maybe the schedule is getting against the top teams or may be the lower teams are stepping up their play against the higher rated teams.

Here is may personal rankings.
#1 Centennial- Some big wins and some bad losses, they will be there.
#2 Tonka- Big wins, and a let down against a good goalie- Fons
#3 Edina- Needs to regroup and focus on Section play
#4 Jefferson- Poor Lake shedule, and no top 10 wins- only EP, but 0 losses
#5 Holy Angels- Poor conference, but too talented not to be in the top 5
#6 Blaine- Above average team in an average conference
#7 Duluth East- Average schedule, but is just peaking
#8 EP- Poor Lake schedule, but did beat Tonka and Hopkins
#9 Benilde- Below average schedule, but are talented- good goaltender.
#10 Maple Grove- Good team and will be competitive down the stretch.
#11) Hopkins- Great goalie and solid 1st line.
#12) Wayzata. A lot of ups and downs. Needs to get some big wins.
#13) Burnsville- Average goaltender, but top 1st line that will score.
#14) Woodbury-
#15) Moorhead/Hill Murray

What has happened to the White Bear, Stillwater, Anoka, Grand Rapids, Roseau teams?

Just my thought.

[Slap Shot]

Please tell me your logic why Ep is 8, and how a average Tonka team is 2?

I might not put MHS at #2, but to call them average is ridiculous.

[Indians forever]

What has happened to the White Bear, Stillwater, Anoka, Grand Rapids, Roseau teams?

Just my thought.[/quote]

They are all having a down year!!

[HShockeywatcher]

gophermadman,
Sorry, I have a job and I live in Duluth. Pretty difficult to see all those teams play. Like I said, I go from accounts that people give. And the accounts people give on both Little Falls and Jefferson are not much more than "they haven't lost, they're number one."
And even if I had seen them play, it would've been against a mediocre team. It's like seeing Northern Lakes dominate a game and calling them the best team. Not sure if you haven't noticed, but they've played all of ONE top team.

"If a team is 20-0 this far into the season, they should be at least in the top 5."
Last year Park Rapids made it 20-0 and people who had seen them play were making it sound like they were God's gift to hockey, yet they were no where near anyone's top 15 rankings. Why? Their strength of schedule. Somehow this logic has left people's mind's this year with the top teams in both AA and A having a really weak SOS.

Lakeviewing's list is the same as mine except Jefferson is a few spots higher. At least some people can see what's going on.

Instead of scheduling sub-par ND teams for their non-conference games, why don't they try scheduling some closer high quality competition? They could play Holy Angels and sell out just about any venue, not only would it be a great game on two schedules, but it could be a huge money maker for both. Have it on a Saturday, they could pack Mariucci. Just one suggestion. There are plenty more who would probably be happy to accept a game with them.
I have yet to say they are a bad team or anything bad about them. Simply that they have yet to prove on the scoreboard how good they are. They can have all the talent in the world, but in the end there are three things that matter; who they play, how many pucks they put in the other net and how many pucks end up in their net.

[BIGSEXY]

[#6 Blaine- Above average team in an average conference

The NWSC is an average conference?!?!

That being said I agree with them at #6.

[dueling21]

Here's Mine
(02-08-09)

Class AA

1. Bloomington Jefferson (21-0-0)
2. Eden Prairie (18-3-0)
3. Duluth East (17-3-1)
4. Edina (18-3-0)
5. Holy Angels (16-4-1)
6. Minnetonka (15-6-0)
7. Blaine (17-2-1)
8. Maple Grove (16-2-3)
9. Centennial (15-2-3)
10. Benilde-St. Margaret’s (17-4-0)
11. Woodbury (18-2-2)
12. Wayzata (13-7-1)
13. Hill-Murray (13-6-1)
14. Moorhead (9-9-2)
15. (tie) Elk River (12-7-1)
15. Hopkins (13-7-1)

Class A

1. Little Falls (20-0-0)
2. Warroad (20-2-0)
3. St. Thomas Academy (16-4-1)
4. Breck (17-3-1)
5. St. Cloud Cathedral (18-2-1)
6. Hermantown (19-2-0)
7. Virginia/MI-B (18-5-0)
8. South St. Paul (14-4-3)
9. Alexandria (16-3-1)
10. Thief River Falls (15-4-2)
11. Mahtomedi (14-5-1)
12. International Falls (14-6-1)
13. Duluth Marshall (12-7-1)
14. Hibbing/Chisholm (13-6-1)
15. (tie) Red Wing (13-7-0)
15. New Ulm (15-4-1)

Hey, thanks dulutheastfan! Those look familiar...and right on in my book! I just posted the writeup on the class A rankings in another post if anyone's interested.

[dueling21]

dueling21 continues to post and ignores SOS in everything he talks about. That's all fine and dandy, but when you play Edina's schedule, regardless of your talent, you are bound to mess up a few times.

That's much too strong a generalization to place on me because you disagree with my rankings. I don't ignore SOS, just as I know you don't ignore actual wins and losses.

[HShockeywatcher]

Okay, you're right, you don't ignore it, I know this because of where many teams are. How bout "the weight you give SOS is different for different teams"? Or "you use it for some teams and not ones without losses"?

[buzzershot]

Wow Karl you need to get a life DC must be boring you lately!

[talkofthetown17]

top 5
#6 Blaine- Above average team in an average conference
Just my thought.

How Can you say The NWSC is average what is above average for you four teams battling it out all four of them in the top fifteen except for in your poll you still moorhead in there

[karl(east)]

top 5
#6 Blaine- Above average team in an average conference
Just my thought.

How Can you say The NWSC is average what is above average for you four teams battling it out all four of them in the top fifteen except for in your poll you still moorhead in there

I realize the quoting of me there is probably unintentional, but I'd never say that. The NWSC is right up there with the Classic Lake as one of the top conferences in the state.

[Zamman]

Sorry folks. Rankings are peoples opinions and some people are offended where as others agree. Karl(EAST) is in DC, how can he possibly know how these teams are playing. All he has to go on are the posts on this bored and the newspaper. I think he does a pretty damn good job with his postings and commentary. I don't always agree, but they are pretty good.

No one knows who really is number 1, until the trophy is handed out. And that is only because they had played the best till the end.
Many number 1 teams were beat in sections and even the first round of the tourney, only to have finished in 5th place or not even showing up at the big show.

I know that in my mind, my team is number one. Nobody else sees that, but hey they are entitled to their opinion.

OH GO STARS

[scoreboard33]

How can you compare Elk River and Jefferson, ER has 7 losses and Jefferson has one. The Lake Conference still is a top conference, they haven't completely blown up. The teams are good, there is just parity, which drives strength of schedule down. Also, they have beaten Moorhead and Wayzata, Are you calling them not quality teams, because I am pretty sure that when we did this for Edina, we called them quality teams.

As has been said before, Edina has 12 "quality" wins, Tonka 5, DE 4, Jefferson 3, Centennial 3. You put Centennial 1 and Jefferson 7, even though Centennial has 2 losses and 3 ties and Jefferson has none.

Anyone notice how every week we put Jefferson lower and lower, the argument used to be Jefferson doesn't deserve to be #1 because Edina has one losses and a much tougher schedule and was making every other team they play just bend over and take it, but they are the clear number 2 and if Edina losses, they are number 1, and now we say Jefferson is 7.

hshockeywatcher, the reason you are attacked is because you have stupid opinions backed up by even stupider logic and then say "At least some people can see what's going on." Don't you think that the fact you haven't seen some teams play while have seen others will bias your opinion. I have seen 12 of the top 15 and all of the top 10 and am an admitted Edina fan, so I think when I say that Jefferson is number one in my opinion, it is unbiased.

I can accept lakeviewing's opinion because he generally seems to have strong opinions backed up by solid logic and seems like he has seen enough teams play to have a solid opinion, although there is a littel NWSC bias.

[karl(east)]

Sorry folks. Rankings are peoples opinions and some people are offended where as others agree. Karl(EAST) is in DC, how can he possibly know how these teams are playing. All he has to go on are the posts on this bored and the newspaper. I think he does a pretty damn good job with his postings and commentary. I don't always agree, but they are pretty good.

No one knows who really is number 1, until the trophy is handed out. And that is only because they had played the best till the end.
Many number 1 teams were beat in sections and even the first round of the tourney, only to have finished in 5th place or not even showing up at the big show.

I know that in my mind, my team is number one. Nobody else sees that, but hey they are entitled to their opinion.

OH GO STARS

In my defense, I make liberal use of myfoxhockey.com, and I was in Minnesota for a few weeks around the holidays. I've seen DE, Edina, Benilde, Minnetonka, Centennial, Blaine, Wayzata, AHA, Hill, Moorhead, Burnsville, and Hopkins play at least once, some of them several times. I've also picked up a few games on internet radio here and there, which is obviously not like watching a game but still somewhat helpful. With any human ranking there's a limitation on what one can see, and I understand that it's very possible that I catch a team on one of their best or worst nights and don't get a very good picture of them. But I have seen most of the contenders in some way and it's not like I'm in complete disconnect.

The point of the post is a good one, though; it's one that has been mentioned every week since I started this and should probably continue to be reinforced. I do this because I enjoy it, some other people seem to enjoy reading it, and it prompts some good healthy (and sometimes unhealthy ) discussion. I make no claims to superiority over LPH or any other system, but at the same time, I'm not one to go commenting on things that I don't know much about, or at least not without doing my homework first.