RinkWise podcast: Paul McNamara discusses the MIAA boys season

Cam Fici continues to dominate for Belmont. (Dave Arnold/NEHJ)

The MIAA boys hockey season is well underway and it’s been an exciting one so far. St. John’s Prep and Catholic Memorial are the big favorites, with Hingham not far behind.

As for everyone else? There is constant movement in the rankings. The Ed Burns Coffee Pot Tournament, which is taking place over the next two weeks, will certainly create even more movement. Click or tap here to view the schedule and full results for the event.

On the latest episode of the RinkWise podcast, Paul McNamara of MyHockeyLive joined me and host Stephanie Wood in the studio to discuss the season.

While we talked a lot about individual teams, we also discussed big issues in the MIAA like how public schools can compete with Catholic Conference teams and the playoff structuring.

On St. John’s Prep: 

McNamara: “The returning champion, St. John’s Prep, might’ve had a target on their back. Everybody knew they had a lot of guys coming back. They lost six or seven players that were important, but they brought back a pretty good cast. They actually have two first lines. Their top six forwards are almost interchangeable, but they’ve been playing with each other for a long time on each line. And they’ve got maybe one of the top three or four players in the state with defenseman Aidan Holland (Topsfield, Mass.).”

On the public schools: 

McNamara: “It’s a challenge to keep kids from going to private schools, the Catholics or the great independent schools that are around New England. But you talk about Hingham and the other teams I would look at are Arlington, Reading, Marshfield and Braintree. Those teams are able to keep more of their kids because of the youth program. The kids play together and grow together. The X factor that’s the elephant in the room — every one of those schools has terrific coaching.”