2018 U Sports Playoffs/University Cup (Fredericton, NB)

[Drummer]

Wouldn't they stick pretty close to the last Ucup top ten?
#3 McGill
#4 Sask
#5 X
#6 Brock

OUA Runner-up is pre-assigned as #4, so USK can not be better than #5

Also - there is one more pre-tournament ranking to take place on Sunday to account for the AUS & OUA Finals

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

I will be shocked if Saskatchewan doesn’t go in as #5 and St. FX #6.

If that does happen you could see a bracket of Alberta/SMU or ACA and McGill/X.

If I’m X I might have a beef with that...by putting them behind Saskatchewan they would be getting McGill instead of Brock in the first round. I guess the counter to that is that X should’ve played better against UNB. Also, I think they are only 4-7 in their last 11 so they haven’t been playing great for an extended stretch now.

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

My guess for the UCup rankings are as follows:

1. UNB
2. Alberta
3. McGill or Brock (winner)
4. McGill or Brock (loser)
5. Saskatchewan
6. X
7. Acadia or SMU
8. Concordia or York

Each of the conference champs and the OUA runner-up must make up the top 4. IMO, UNB and X will not be in the same pool even though X was ranked higher in the last Top 10 than Saskatchewan.

This is how I see it as well.

 

[AUS Fan]

Looking at the latest rankings I can't see how UofS gets seeded ahead of SFX, who were 19 points better. I understand the need to avoid regional repeats, but......

The top 4 and 7-8 spots are fixed: UNB, UofA, OUA1, OUA2...AUS3, OUA3. SFX Should be 5 and UofS 6.....

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

This might be the first time in years the seedings aren’t a foregone conclusion and there is some actual debate about them.

 

[Drummer]

Looking at the latest rankings I can't see how UofS gets seeded ahead of SFX, who were 19 points better. I understand the need to avoid regional repeats, but......

The top 4 and 7-8 spots are fixed: UNB, UofA, OUA1, OUA2...AUS3, OUA3. SFX Should be 5 and UofS 6.....

If McGill win the OUA, which I think is quite likely, they will get a lot of #3 votes if not all of them, at the expense of SFX. Those who had McG at #4 (but moved them to 3) will have to find a new #4 pick (SFX or USK).

Now, how badly will the voters beat-up on SFX for losing to UNB. Both SFX and USK have losing playoff records, but SFX lost at home while USK lost as the home team (on the road). It will come down to #4 vs #5 vote split - SFX had a lot of #3 votes by my calculation and if the voters are going to go with McG for #3, they have to reassign SFX, but to what rank #4 or #5?

It will also be interesting to see if UNB gains any #1 votes at the expense of ALB.

 

[Prov1X]

I wasn't aware of the #4 seed having to be the OUA runner up, kinda a weird since a team from either the West or AUS could have been ranked higher than them all year. I know I will take a beating for saying it, but why reserve a runner up spot so high when it's not one of the stronger conferences?
Top 3 should be AUS, OUA and West (and not in that order, but determined by the rankings) and then go from there for rankings for #4-#8

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

I could be wrong but I think it has to do with the OUA being treated as essentially two conferences, Ontario and Quebec...so instead of having an AUS/CW/OUA winner it is actually AUS/CW/OUA East/OUA West winner.

 

[MiamiHockey]

There are four conferences in USports: AUS, CWUAA, OUA, and RSEQ. In every National Championship, each conference gets a guaranteed spot for its champion. In men's hockey, the OUA and RSEQ are one league, so the second OUA spot is actually the RSEQ's spot.

That structure also explains why the Queen's Cup (the OUA Championship) is always held in Ontario. So, McGill heads to Brock this week, despite having the better record.

 

[Drummer]

I could be wrong but I think it has to do with the OUA being treated as essentially two conferences, Ontario and Quebec...so instead of having an AUS/CW/OUA winner it is actually AUS/CW/OUA East/OUA West winner.

Exactly, but should we even be doing this (ranking them as 1 to 4)?

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

I’m not a huge fan of giving the conference champions an automatic top-4 seed. I think hockey might be the only sport that does this??

 

[Prov1X]

I’m not a huge fan of giving the conference champions an automatic top-4 seed. I think hockey might be the only sport that does this??

I think that you are right, just glancing at basketball and they don't.

 

[MiamiHockey]

Outside of #1-2 vs #7-8, it makes no difference. So you can debate whether St FX / McGill / Sask should be 3/4 vs. 5/6, but they still have to play each other in the QF.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

.....But York will travel to Montreal to face Concordia. RSEQ can host the bronze medal game.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

Acadia on it's way to booking their ticket. 4 zip over SMU, after period #1. Expected a better start than that from SMU.

 

[Prov1X]

Acadia and Concordia fill out the final remaining spots next week in Fredericton.

 

[Rob]

So we now know two matchups for sure. UNB vs Concordia and Alberta vs Acadia.

 

[Rob]

Interesting to note that Canada West and the AUS have the exact same teams as last year. OUA has two new teams.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

Alberta vs Acadia:
This is a rematch from last years University Cup quarterfinal, won 4-1 by the Axemen.
Both teams have basically the same core as last year, so this should be a dandy.
Alberta are no question the favourite, boasting a ton of skill up front and a very mobile defense,
but if Acadia gets a solid performance from Steeves (G), like they did last year, they may hang around and make things interesting or upset Alberta. . Keeping out of the box and limiting the Bears pp chances would also go a long way.
On paper, we hear of this Bear lineup as being the best ever, so there is pressure of back to back quarterfinal exits in 2016-17, after back to back U Cup titles in 2014-15.
The Axemen can run and gun, play physical and do have two of the best defensemen in the country.

 

[AUS Fan]

Am I correct in thinking the 1-8 (UNB-CON) game will go Thursday night and the 2-7 (UofA-ACA) game Thursday afternoon? Also 4-5 Friday night and 3-6 Friday afternoon?

 

[AUS Fan]

Acadia on it's way to booking their ticket. 4 zip over SMU, after period #1. Expected a better start than that from SMU.

D-zone coverage was brutal for SMU. ACA had many good chances and put them in. At the other end, Steeves was hardly tested with difficult shots. I expected a close game.

 

[Prov1X]

Am I correct in thinking the 1-8 (UNB-CON) game will go Thursday night and the 2-7 (UofA-ACA) game Thursday afternoon? Also 4-5 Friday night and 3-6 Friday afternoon?

I do know that the UNB - Concordia game is the Thursday night game, that's the only one I know for sure, but assume that you are correct. There had been some talk about UNB playing the Friday night game, but that is not the case.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

Am I correct in thinking the 1-8 (UNB-CON) game will go Thursday night and the 2-7 (UofA-ACA) game Thursday afternoon? Also 4-5 Friday night and 3-6 Friday afternoon?

UNB confirmed, will play Thursday night.

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

Am I correct in thinking the 1-8 (UNB-CON) game will go Thursday night and the 2-7 (UofA-ACA) game Thursday afternoon? Also 4-5 Friday night and 3-6 Friday afternoon?

I’ve always maintained that this is the best schedule to use (keeping teams in the same bracket in the same time slot on different days), but for some reason since the tournament went to the 8 team format they have insisted on doing 1/8 and 4/5 on the same day (Thursday in this case) and 2/7 and 3/6 on the other day....it has never made sense to me.

The best schedule (this year anyways, as the host can always choose when they want to play) IMO is this:

2/7 Thursday early
1/8 Thursday late
3/6 Friday early
4/5 Friday late

Winner of 2/7 and 3/6 Saturday early
Winner of 1/8 and 4/5 Saturday late

This keeps teams in the same general time slot like the old round robin system. It also prevents giving one of the top 2 teams the disadvantage of having to play three games in three days to win. So this year Alberta is probably going to get shafted by having to go 3 in 3 instead of playing Thursday and getting a day off of they win. Now Alberta and UNB doesn’t get any advantage in terms of rest over their opponents in a semi-final game because they all played the same day.

 

[AUS Fan]

Looking at the past 3 years, I see that 1-8 and 4-5 have played on the SAME day with 2-7 and 3-6 on the other day. Soooo, perhaps my assumption is incorrect and this year will be the same. If this is the case, then we have 4-5 Thursday afternoon, 2-7 Friday afternoon (winners play Saturday afternoon) and 1-8 Thursday night, 3-6 Friday night (winners play Saturday night). So, the pools are 1-4-5-8 and 2-3-6-7 and are same-day pools and NOT time-of-day pools. I'm getting dizzy here. Someone help me.

Looking at these years it would appear that the Host team set the tone depending on when they played and their seeding. In 2015 and 2016, SFX and SMU hosts at #8 played on Friday night (1-8) and 4-5 in the afternoon. Last year UNB host at #5 played Thursday night (4-5) and 1-8 in the afternoon.