This weekend was the second-to-last in a number of conferences' regular seasons, and Hobey Baker Award lobbying is really starting to pick up. The only campaign that matters, though, got under way in earnest, as Boston University unveiled its “I Like Eich” buttons and campaign, which are fun and nice.

For his part, Jack Eichel didn't have a great weekend, though, as Notre Dame took three of four crucial league points from BU, and he could only muster an assist in each game, and BU scored just four goals total. But even still, Eichel is up to 50 points in 30 games, as an underage freshman, and has a six-point lead on the player who's second in the nation in points. That player — Evan Rodrigues — is his linemate. The other guy in the mix, one point back of those two, is Union's Daniel Ciampini, who has been very good for a middling team.

Eichel is also tops in the nation in points per game, but his grip there isn't as firm. His 1.67 per game exceeds that of Harvard's Jimmy Vesey (1.52) and Michigan's Zach Hyman (1.54).

Meanwhile, as part of that BU/Notre Dame series, Jeff Jackson took the opportunity to note that defenseman Robbie Russo ought to be a Hobey candidate as well, and watching him play you can see why: He's close to a point a game from the blue line, and very staunch defensively for a team that needed a lot of help in that area this year. But for me there's only one defenseman worth talking about in this area, and that's Minnesota's Mike Reilly. No one else is as good as he is and it's really that simple. Not that I'd give him the award or anything, but he'll be in the top 10 no problem (so too, I bet, will Denver's Joey LaLeggia).

In net I'll listen to arguments for plenty of guys. St. Lawrence's Kyle Hayton is on .940 in 31 games behind a poor team. Alex Lyon's in the same area. Michigan Tech's Jamie Phillips, Providence's Jon Gillies, North Dakota's Zane McIntyre, they're all in the same ballpark a little ways back from the leaders, and all getting heavy usage. Any one of those guys are worthy candidates to finish in the top 10 in voting this year, and probably three of them will actually do it (I'd put my money on Hayton, McIntyre, and Gillies).

But the guy with the buttons is the guy that's unequivocally the best player in the country, and I know Hyman kisses puppies and gets straight A's and loves his mom and all that stuff. Maybe BU should have Eichel rather conspicuously walk old ladies across Comm. Ave. over the next few weeks if he wants to keep up in that regard.

Other than the standard “He's such a nice guy though!!!!!” argument there's not one reasonable argument in favor of anyone but Jack Eichel walking away with this award laughing. He's the best player in the country, who has almost singlehandedly elevated his team after a disastrous 2013-14 season.

People don't like Eichel because he gets a lot of attention, in the same way that Johnny Gaudreau got a lot of attention last year. People didn't like it then, either. But guess what: Gaudreau's 2013-14 was the best season by literally anyone in college hockey since Paul Kariya put up 100 points for Maine in 1992-93. Eichel's 2014-15 is the best season by a freshman since Paul Kariya put up 100 points for Maine in 1992-93. And people still talk about Paul friggin' Kariya all the time in college hockey.

There's a reason for that: It's because he's an all-time great. So was Gaudreau. So is Eichel.

If you don't like it, I'm sure there's a barely-point-a-game, 24-year-old two-way forward taking two classes as a senior at St. Cloud you can waste your stupid vote on.

BATTLE IN THE ECAC

The thing with the Pairwise rankings, which determines NCAA tournament seeding, is that they seem to weirdly undervalue teams for a big chunk of the season. So it wasn't that surprising to see Quinnipiac enter the Christmas break seeded 18th in the nation despite the fact that they were 10-5-1. That was good for third among ECAC teams, thanks to Harvard's unsustainably hot start and a solid showing from Yale.

But since then Quinnipiac has become one of the hottest teams in the nation at 10-3-3 over the last 16, and on Saturday night clinched at least a share of the ECAC regular-season title. They're 15-3-2 in-league right now, and what's really hurt their chances of making the tournament is a 5-6-1 non-conference record and played (mostly) good teams. As far as the Pairwise goes, they've only improved to 11th despite being one of six teams with 20 wins on the season. That is, however, the best Pairwise standing of any team in the conference, though Yale, Harvard, and St. Lawrence are all in the Nos. 15-19 range.

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