Postcard: Got to be starting something

This fall, the NFL celebrated the start of its season with a concert in Times Square – truly Mecca when it comes to anticipated dates.

This Friday, the puck will drop on the college hockey season in Dayton with the Lefty McFadden Invitational. Yes, Dayton, Ohio – the birthplace of carbonless copy paper. Even worse: I betcha most college hockey fans won’t even notice that the season is underway.

Now don’t get us wrong – as college hockey fans, we’re all realists. We know we don’t warrant Times Square, just as we know that the Hobey won’t go to somebody from the MAAC. But doesn’t the start of the season deserve a bit of fanfare?

In college basketball, fans not only know when practice begins, they stay up half the night to watch it. In baseball, good, conscientious parents let their kids skip school for Opening Day.

In college hockey, each of our teams starts practicing on different days – and, with a couple noticable exceptions, you never know when captains practices end and official practices begin. Six years ago, when the first Ice Breaker Invitational was played, it couldn’t attract the support to stay in its first home, at an off-campus site. Then, when the teams made their way to Madison, Wisc. – where the tournament returns this year – one of them didn’t think the results would count.

At insidecollegehockey.com, we think the start of the season is something special. So even if you’re not in Dayton, raise a glass to the first faceoff between Bowling Green and Niagara Friday night. Talk a little college pucks. Celebrate a bit.

It may not be much, but it’s a start.

– Nate Ewell