There have been a number of moves among college hockey coaches since the
end of the regular season.
 
The was was the vacancy at HE's UMass Amherst, where they selected coach
Cahoon from Princeton of the EZAC.  Of course,  a few bodies cycled through
"the gateway to Belchertown" before there was a final choice.  We know they
asked permission of Maine administration to speak with Coach Walsh, and did
interview coach Umile from New Hampshire.
 
Has Coach Walsh put feelers out that he might look elsewhere, if the
circumstances were right ?
 
The heavy hitters in the college game will all be in attendance in
Providence (they can get the coveted ducats).   Shawn will be in the stands
today, all the better to schmooze whilst watching BC play our (one day
only) beloved Sioux.
 
We consulted no source but surmise an interesting possibility -
Coach Walsh gets the vacant slot at Ivy League/EZAC entry Princeton.  They
can pay what undoubtedly he would want to leave Orono, and goes to a school
looking perhaps to rebuild.
 
No scholarships, you say ?   No problem, if he brings Grant Standbrook with
him.  The duo might augment more creatively the European recruiting
pipeline which has stocked Maine so well recently.  Europeans can perhaps
deal with the financial situation better than Americans, but financial aid
is always a non-issue at most of the well-heeled Ivy schools, when it comes
to good athletes.
 
Who would replace Shawn ?  Well, we have a name.  John Tortorella.
What better validation of the power that Maine has built in its relatively
short tenure in the college hockey world, than to bring one of the original
group back to coach at his alma mater, and with NHL credentials beside...
 
John will last no more than the rest of the current season behind the bench
in NYC.  Gotham has to have a "name" coach to satisfy the media in that
town, and John ain't it.  So, what comes after for him ?  Why not the Maine
program, with much less pressure than the NHL.
 
The BDN reported this week that John's brother Jim was the first of the
brothers to attend a Last Quartet game involving our Bears.   Why the
interest this particular time, after so many Maine appearances in prior
tournaments ?  Jim may be carrying a message of some sort...
 
Of course I would like to see Shawn stay, and I'll tell him so if I see him
later this afternoon.  But I'm also a realist.  What else does Shawn have
to prove, especially after the program's redemption with the 1999
championship ?  He might have been itching for the near-impossible
back-to-back, but we now know that's not to be.
What next ?
 
Nothing lasts forever, just ask about my continuing as a Boston Bruins
full-season ticket holder.   Or Pat Burns for that matter.   A Maine
alumnus, now doing TV for one of the Boston stations, asked what we would
think if Pat were fired and he took up college coaching.  As Ned Martin
used to say, "Oh, My".   But I digress...
 
Maine hockey is now at a crossroads, methinks.   It is not necessarily a
bad thing, it is evolutionary in a sport reliant upon four or five-year
windows of opportunity.
 
I have great respect for Jack Semler, who I believe has become the
forgotten man in the history of our program.    But when he left, the
program moved on, and look what happened in its wake.
 
BTW: I saw Niagra's tournament play this year; I think Maine's Year Four
team would have beat them senseless (speaking of the Tortorellas).
Imagine what we could have done, if playoff circumstances for us then were
the same as for Niagra this year.
 
I wanted us to get the last win for a NC$$ hockey team this year, but we
won't get it.  I had thought, especially with Yeats, this season would be a
building year for a relatively inexperienced team, and a peak toward a
2000-2001 juggernaut, from Yeats out all the way to Barrett Heisten, who
surely will compete for the Hobey before an inevitable ticket to the NHL.
We now have secured that valuable experience, especially this trip for our
core team to the Last Quartet, where a visit before is necessary for
success.
 
But next year we surely will be tested by BU, and may not be again favored
even in HE.
 
So we see what happens as the ice melts, the mud comes out, and mild
weather turns our thoughts to the 1-2 Red Sox, picked by SI to win it all,
and by LasVegas to win 90.5 games.
 
Ain't sports just a hoot ?
 
Yes, John, how many more days until the Sioux come to Orono ???
 
 
 
Dan Doucette UMaine 78 MPA 80
 
searching for a replacement signature having
to do with Maine's hockey team next year...