Liberty Hockey Invitational, Day 2

We're back for another day of the Liberty Hockey Invitational. I'd heard conflicting reports about how many tickets had been sold for this event. Some were saying 5,000; others said sales were poor. Uh, we'll go with the latter. Announced attendance on Friday was 1,201. Looks like there won't be much more tonight. Now, Princeton and Yale are on board to co-host this thing for at least three more seasons here at the 18,000-seat Prudential Center. How they aren't taking a bath on this is beyond me. There is some scuttle butt that the Prudential Center is interested in playing host to an NCAA Frozen Four. Once the NCAA lifts its silly ban on the state of New Jersey playing host to its tournaments. Anyway, the facility is perfect. The location not so much. Yes, New York City is a short drive. But the city of Newark, even the area around the arena, is fairly frightening.

Here are fields for future Liberty Hockey Invitationals. Dartmouth and Brown are getting the boot, to be replaced by Hockey East teams. The format will see Yale and Princeton play on Friday, with the Hockey East teams in the other game, with a championship and consolation game on Saturday.

2014: Princeton, Yale, UConn, Merrimack
2015: Princeton, Yale, Maine, Massachusetts
2016: Princeton, Yale, UMass-Lowell, Vermont

It's a nice idea in a beautiful NHL building. But it would be nice to have a little atmosphere to go with it.