Rant of the week: "Some people have REAL problems"

I recently read on USCHO that Providence College had descended into the ranks of a Atlantic Hockey. While I'm as frustrated with PC's performance as the next person, I think that's a little harsh. So here's some teams that have done less than Providence College in recent history.

AIC: You know what stinks? When you're the worst team in D-I hockey. Every year.

Army: Everyone loves Army, but they've never won anything and their arch rival is a Canadian school. That can't be good.

Bentley: The Falcons play in a rink that makes Merrimack look like a palace. And it's about 3 miles away from the campus.

Sacred Heart: Distinguished mainly by the fact they have a player named "Bear Trapp".

UCONN: The Huskies are successful in pretty much everything else. But not men's ice hockey. Inexplicable.

Western Michigan: At some point in the past five years, something awful happened to this team and the fans never recovered. I have no idea what, but I did catch the third period of their game against Miami a few nights ago and the rink was EMPTY. I guess their coach got an extension recently. Lovely.

University of Alaska: Death, taxes, and the Nanooks doing nothing. They have a lovely rivalry with the Seawolves and that's about it.

Yale, Brown and Dartmouth: These three schools have long glorious histories and surprisingly little to show for it. Dartmouth and Brown have played for the national title. And lost. Yale won the 1998 ECAC regular season title. And seemingly nothing else. With Princeton breaking away from the pack and Harvard and Cornell weighed down by recent hardware, there seems to be a divide between the haves and have-nots in the Ivy League.

Quinnipiac: They've been THE program on the rise for about 5 years now. Without actually doing anything.

Union: The general impression I get from the fans of the Skating Dutchmen is that the AD is happy to be successful 40% of the time. Ow.

RPI: It seems odd to lavish any sympathy on the team that beat PC for the 1985 National Title, but the Engineers have been stuck in neutral for quite a while now.

Merrimack: They play in a rink that is basically a high school gym with a sheet of ice in the middle. They remain the only team in Hockey East to never play for the title.

Northeastern: 14 years without making the Hockey East semi-finals.

Bemidji, Niagara, Robert Morris, and Alabama Huntsville: Because the CHA is about to die.

Saint Cloud State: Sure, the Huskies have been a much more successful team than PC over the past decade or so, but 0 NCAA wins? That has to be frustrating.

Alaska Anchorage: Sometimes, playing in a really good league does nothing for you. UAA always seems to be an okay team, but they can't get out of the basement.

Yeah, this season has been brutal. But some perspective would be nice. This list certainly isn't exhaustive.

Random rants:

-How much fun is it to be a Bruins fan these days? 6-1 over Les Habitants? I can't even believe this.

-The Patriots are not winning the Super Bowl this year, and the culprit isn't Tom Brady's knee. It's defense. 31 points should be enough to win any game.

-I keep hearing about the Celtics and the "short window" they have to win another championship. All the more reason to enjoy the opening of this season.

-Hi Mark!