I certainly acknowledge -- as I did in my original post -- that such hits
take place more than they should, and certainly are not limited to the
U.Maine program.  Therefore, don't mean to indict the entire Maine team, as
it might have seemed.  My post covered two topics 1) the hit on Mowers was a
cheap hit, which was borne out by the fact that Guite got a five minute
major.  In addition to the hit being from behind, it was also away from the
puck -- thus my calling it a "cheap shot".  My second point, which may not
have been developed as much -- in part because I did not want to get into my
whole take on the Shawn Walsh issue -- is that Walsh does play it agressively
and close to the line.  My examples related to eligibility issues (Taking
students who flunked out elsewhere -- Mike Golden, Tom McComb, playing
students who were declared academically inelligible by the NCAA like Jeff
Tory), dishonesty issues (a less than truthful approach to the NCAA
investigators, a  questionable response to the circumstances in which he
learned that Tory was inelligible), and sportsmanship (reportedly violating
the unwritten coaches code against bad-mouthing other schools during the
recruiting process).  In each situation, Walsh played it close to the line, a
la Jerry Tarkanian or Tom Osborne.  Perhaps it was unfair for me to link
these traits to the on-ice discipline of his teams -- particularly juxtaposed
to the potentially serious nature of Mowers' injury -- and I will admit that
I have not seen many of the Maine games recently.  I merely hoped to allude
to the latter issues in response to the earlier pro-Walsh posts, which seemed
to slough-off these character issues because they did not relate to the
on-ice play.
 
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