Turkey in New York (Jim Connelly - USCHO.com)

Turkey in New York

While many teams will enjoy their Thanksgiving dinner among family, a few eastern teams will be eating turkey served by hotel banquet staffs. Providence and Holy Cross will both travel to Rensselaer for their Thanksgiving to play in the Rensselaer Holiday Tournament.

I'm of the belief that Thanksgiving is a little early for holiday tournaments. Years ago, these two-night events were reserved more for the week between Christmas and New Year. Some seem to agree.

Providence this year will move its tournament from the Thanksgiving weekend to the post-Christmas weekend. Last year, despite being a well-run tournament, the Dunkin' Donuts Coffee Pot tournament drew miserably small crowds on both nights.

But some people, still, love tournaments no matter what time of year. Holy Cross coach Paul Pearl said that he wants to play as many tournaments as his team can and this year will add the Ohio Hockey Classic at Christmastime to the RPI tourney, giving his team a twin billing of hardware-hunting opportunities.

Whatever the case, Holy Cross and Providence will join host RPI and Nebraska-Omaha in upstate New York this weekend, each club hoping to put its first piece of hardware on the shelf.

Out west, the College Hockey Showcase, which is not really a tournament as much as it is two games that feature some of the nation's better teams, will have Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State and Minnesota battling in the two-night event.