Wrapping Up The Inaugural Season...Finally

I have to admit, the word 'inaugural' has found itself blacklisted from my vocabulary. The redundancy and overuse of 'the-word-that-shall-not-be-said' this season has taken its toll.

So hang it from the rafters, applaud its retirement, starting next year there will be no more firsts in the Big Ten hockey conference.

That being said, we can now look back on what was accomplished in 'Year One' of Big Ten hockey.

More opinions will of course be decided this weekend. The Big Ten Conference Championship Tournament invades the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., providing one final measuring stick before we find out where our Big Ten teams land on the national stage.

Does The Shootout Format Win Or Lose?

By Jessi Pierce

Julie "the Cat" Gaffney said it best: "I hate ties, it's like kissing your brother."

Of course shootouts were her thing because of this beauty of a save during the Ducks' Team USA debut.

The B1G Scoreboard (1/23/14/-1/26/14)

Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014: What The First Half of Big Ten Hockey Season Taught Us

College hockey season has officially reached the halfway point. Two weeks – or more for some teams – of holiday break and fans are ready to have hockey back.

An Old New:First Big Ten Weekend Looks Oddly Familiar

It was dubbed as “NEW” but this weekend's match-ups reeked of familiarity and they came and went without the travesty that many fans saw Big Ten hockey as.

Yes, the first weekend of Big Ten hockey action featured series' between former conference foes; Wisconsin at Minnesota, Ohio State and Michigan. Teams that had met in the past and have already established a rivalry among them.

Starting off the conference with these teams probably was the best route the Big Ten could go. A cherry on top is that all four are doing decently well across the board, especially Minnesota and Michigan who are the top two teams in the conference and No. 1 and 3 respectively in the nation.

So why the big hoopla leading up to this point? Were things any different?

No.