Schedule Links

The men's schedule has been released, and everyone's talking about it:

Milewski (Icehouse): Dissecting the schedule

Milewski (TCT): No more conflicts with World Juniors

"We talked about it again," Eaves said, alluding to discussions at league meetings. "If teams want to play nonconference games at that time, that's fine. But no league games are supposed to be done at that time."

And apparently Wisconsin "wants" to play nonconference games at that time, as (in addition to the Badger Hockey Showdown) they'll be hosting Northern. It's nice that the WJCs won't affect league standings. But it's not-so-nice that the WJCs will affect the non-conference games that can such a huge affect on the Pairwise.

Levine (TCT): UW men's hockey opens 2008-09 slate vs. NCAA champs

Baggot (WSJ): Brutal schedule for Badgers

But while Eaves likes the performance bar to be set as high as possible, he acknowledged a scenario where that philosophy could change very quickly.

"If they create the rule that you have to be .500 or above to get into the tournament, we're going to have to take a look at what we do," Eaves said of his approach to scheduling.

Baggot (Badger Blog): Schedule not for faint of heart