In reply to: With two big game players returning for their senior seasons posted by Wearendhockey
opponents are far more appealing than those in Hockey East. I think the ones who most appreciated the schedule from 2013-2017 were our friends who were actually located in the northeast and having Notre Dame a member of Hockey East allowed them a number of opportunities to see games in person each year. But for most of our fans, New Hampshire, Vermont, or even teams with some hockey history like Maine and Boston University just didn't move the needle enough.
As much as I hate the Big Ten and as loathsome as a couple of the teams in the hockey conference are, I think playing them as conference mates is clearly the best fit for Notre Dame, for all sorts of reasons.
support it, but it seemed like the atmosphere was much better this season in particular.
During the first season of Big Ten play the average attendance was 4604. The just completed season attendance averaged a fire marshal alarming 5368. The average over the last two seasons is 4995. During the final season of Hockey East play interest in the opponents clearly appeared to be waning as the average attendance fell to just 4151 and over the four years in HE the average attendance was 4538.
my misinterpretation. B11 and I go to every game on cheap season tickets, moving down closer to the ice after we survey the scene for empties.
This season, it was much, much harder to do.