Round robin play has finished. I was planning on breaking down the play based upon what I've seen and what was posted, but I left early to spend time with my family and now, at 11pm, the website still isn't updated with many of today's scores. My family and friends were told to follow the tournament via the web. I'm just now realizing they probably don't know if we are playing tomorrow or driving home right now. How many people do you think follow this tournament? Not having the website updated with game that finished over 12 hours ago seems pretty bad.

Here's one shocking piece of news. The Chicago Mission 92 team is probably at home in their own beds tonight. Clearly one of the best teams in the country, they weren't able to get it done this weekend. They had a difficult schedule and were on the wrong end of a couple close games. Schedule definitely plays into the whole equation. Not all teams' schedules are created equal. While seeding may be an interesting approach, USA Hockey does something pretty interesting that most people haven't noticed. At every age level, the brackets are the same and there is no subjectivity in where teams are placed and who plays who. The host team can't "fix" the schedule. The American Conference Olympic Division always contains the host team, the Massachusetts rep and the New York rep. The American Conference USA Division always contains the Michigan rep, the Southeastern rep and the Minnesota/Alaska/Pacific2 rep. The National Conference Liberty Division always contains the Atlantic rep, the Mid-Am rep and the Rockey Mountain rep. The National Conference NHL Division always contains the New England rep, the Pacific rep and the Central rep. On the first day of the tournament, at every age and skill level in USA Hockey, the Central rep team played the Atlantic rep team. That sort of rule-based scheduling is great, no host team can fix things to their own advantage or someone else's disadvantage. What can stink, however, is that this might mean the #1 team in the tournament plays #2 on the first day. That exactly what happened at Bantam Tier 1 when the North Jersey Avalanche beat the Chicago Mission 5-3 and started what turned out to be a set of events that had Chicago catch an early flight home. While that might not be "right", it's counter-balanced by the fact that you only have to finish fourth of six teams in your conference to make the semi-finals. If you can't make the top four in your conference, you haven't earned the right to play in the quarterfinals. In some brackets, that fourth place team is 0-3, in most, however, it's a 1-2 team. In fact, I'd bet better than half the 1-2 teams go on to the quarterfinals. And once the quarterfinals start, it doesn't matter what happened in round robin play. Last year, the Peewee Tier I National Champions went 1-1-1 in round robin. The Bantam Tier I National champs went 1-2. While the Tier II champions at these age levels both went undefeated throughout the tournament, these results show you that the best round robin play doesn't equal a championship.

Tomorrow we throw out all 50, 60, or 70 games that have led to this point in the season. None of that matters. What you did yesterday does not matter. It only matters in that it has put you in a position on the last weekend of the season to play for a National title. In just about every case, any of the eight teams can win the whole thing. It's all a question of will they play at the top of their game for three straight contests. Only one team will do it and that team will be crowned a National Champion. To the winner goes the spoils, but to the teams that pack up on Saturday, there is no shame in leaving Buffalo as one of the top eight teams in the country. Celebrate, enjoy and rest before lacing them up again for the 2007-08 season.