On Tue, 24 Feb 1998, Paul Gentile wrote:
 
> All of a sudden Brown is a contender? This is
> likely the ECAC Coach of the Year story as well as
> a possible ECAC top goalie story, wouldn't you
> say? Not bad for a rookie coach and a sophomore
> goalie.
 
I thought it was frowned upon (at least by readers of this list) for a
rookie coach to receive COTY? Still Grillo has transformed the team into a
serious contender, the numbers don't lie and you'll believe if you see
them. We'll see how the stretch run finishes up.
 
> So, is it first year coach Roger Grillo's system
> .. or is the stellar goaltending from sophomore
> Scott Stirling. Ever since Stirling replaced
> Holowaty in that Northeastern game (a loss), Brown
> has been on a tear ... losing only a close one to
> #6 Yale.
 
Yes, Stirling has been hot recently, but from the games I've seen he's not
been the one winning the games. As Kepler said, it has been the team's
overall intelligent play, and hard work, that has kept the high-quality
shots on goal away from Stirling. He hasn't seen a *huge* challenge (at
least in the last few home games where I've seen him in action) but he's
made the big saves when he's had to.
 
> This Damian Prescott senior has been on fire but
> Brown also seems to be getting quite a boost
> lately from Hoiness and Lawler. Is Prescott a
> sniper? Who's his playmaker if he has one?
 
The Prescott-Lawler-Zielinski line has been working well as a unit. In
last weekend's program, Zielinski is quoted as saying "Damian is obviously
a goal-scoreer, and Jeff's strength is is his skating speed and work
ethic. I bring the willingness to go into the corners, and the ability to
move the puck well."  The Jimmy Andersson/Bob Quinnell defensive pair
often shares time with this line and their names have been used in
association with Prescotts goals quite a bit lately. Quinnell had four
assists vs. Colgate.
 
> What is Brown's game? Defense, fast break,
> rough-n-tumble??? How well will it match up
> against Clarkson this weekend. Brown has outscored
> its opponents 29-13 in last seven games (28-1-
> excluding 3-1 loss to Yale).
 
Knowing little about Clarkson's style I'm not willing to make any
comparisons. But there are two big changes to this year's Brown team that
have been the key in its success, now that the team has gelled:
 
1) A defense. Finally the team has a good forecheck and is breaking up the
plays well. This has been key and is shown in the dramatically lower
shots-on-goal average per game.  Although I haven't done the analysis it's
probably fair to say that Brown goalies routinely saw over 40 shots per
game a while back. Over the last stretch the average has been around 30 or
maybe even just below. You can have have a great .930% goalie but on 40
shots that still adds up to three goals a game!! If you can't score then
you're out of luck.
 
2) A much improved passing game, combined with some speed, means that you
can actually put plays together in front of the net. Brown's passing has
been atrocious for the past three seasons. It is 200% improved this year,
and now they're trying to score rather than just shooting and hoping to
get lucky.
 
Add in that the team is working hard because they now know what it's like
to win, and it's a (apparent) recipe for success.
 
I guess I never cared much for Bob Gaudet. I was happy to see him go. It's
not as though the talent wasn't there on the team (it is -- the current
team is all Gaudet's, even the recruits), but his style never did much for
me. Everything about it just felt so passive -- there was no drive
to win. Watching Dartmough vs. Cornell a couple weeks ago from a neutral
viewpoint was very interesting... was this last year's Brown squad in
Green? :-) Dartmouth didn't win that game on their own merits, Cornell
helped.
 
Now, if we could only get some fans into Meehan...
 
Go Bruno!
-Brian
 
 
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