This is a warning shot that The College Hockey Update is about to begin, probably . . . . next week.  So don’t get all sidetracked by these second rate amusements with names such as NFL Football, The World Series, College Football, The NBA, College Basketball,  and The NHL.  Not even the Minnesota Curling Association and it’s Championship Series.

Nope, none of those.  College Hockey is underway and we are soon to bring it to you.

And what’s truly at stake in 2016-17?  Nothing has changed.  The same exact thing all eyes in the Hockey World await each year:  To read about who has won the coveted College Hockey Update Annual Pool, what else?  What else really matters in sports?

So if you want to be able to strut around the office, neighborhood, wherever, wearing the College Hockey Update Pool Trophy Shirt, you should pay attention, and of course, enter the pool, because you can’t win if you don’t play.

THE JIM ESPOSITO INTERVIEW

College Hockey Update sat down with Jim Esposito and he offered these insights on his winning year:

CHU:  Jim, let’s start out by just getting to know a little bit about you.  For instance, what is you favorite color?

JIM E:  You know, what is a color, really?  What does it mean?  And why do we have them?

CHU:  OK, maybe for expediency we should just steer this thing into hockey, and say congratulations on your place in history as the winner of the seventeenth annual College Hockey Update Pool.

JIM E:  Well thanks very much.  You know you really don’t do things like this on you own.  In its own way, this was a classic team effort.

CHU:  Is this something you had wanted to accomplish for a while?

JIM E:  For a while?  Try about seventeen years!  When I attended the 1999 Frozen Four in Anaheim with the College Hockey Update publishers, it ignited a flame within me that I didn’t really know existed until a year later when The Update came out with the Pool.  I was driven to win it and get that prize.  I simply had to have it.

CHU:  Would you be willing to share any insights as to how you did it?

JIM E:  First of all, perseverance.  I entered year in and year out, but never gave up.  It’s the key to success in life and we hear it over and over again, and it’s just the truth.  Second of all, as I said, it’s a team effort.  I couldn’t have done it without The Update.

CHU:  Oh, so you found reading College Hockey Update to be helpful in making your picks?  What about your hockey family genes and hockey family name?

JIM E:  College Hockey Update?  Absolutely indispensable.  My hockey family genes and hockey family name?  They’re not enough.  I mean, sure, it’s in me, no question about it, but it’s just not enough.  On the other hand, College Hockey Update and I were a team.  The weekly updates kept me informed as to who was hot, and who was not.  You know if you are going to be in the stock market, you need to read the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and the Economist.  In my years in real estate development I read those three and the big Real Estate trade magazines.  The truth is, nobody really knows what is going with those things, it’s almost impossible to predict, and after you’ve made your decisions and you see what happens, you realize that all those publications are pretty much just the salad, lettuce and dressing.  But The Update, that’s in a whole different realm.  It’s more as if you were eating steak, with chunks of iron in it.  It’s that real, it has that much gravitas.

CHU:  Oh my, that has to be quite an overstatement, I mean . . . .

JIM E:  Stop right there!  Don’t downplay the importance and the value of this powerful tool.  It is the key!

CHU:  Well, perhaps we’ll just say, once again, congratulations, and aw shucks, that’s very nice of you to say.  Good luck in the 2017 pool Jim, and thanks for your time today.

JIM E:  The 2017 Pool?  I’m not saying I’m going to win it, but I will say that I’ll be taking it very seriously.

We thank Jim Esposito for his time and for the interview.  Some really surprising answers from him that we just weren’t expecting.

More to come as we kick off the season of coverage.  So as we say . . . .

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go Terriers!

— Tom