>I also don't really believe that it is fair to continue pointing fingers at
>one player or another.  ...

Bull frogs!  What's unfair about "pointing fingers" when a player is
superb or stinks up the place?  This is a fanatics discussion, not a ...
(What was that 60s group seance thing?).  ;-)

If someone can hold fans accountable for their performance at a game,
surely we can hold players accountable in this forum.

Back to hockey (sort of) ...

You know when things are going great .. how a player just seems to throw
the puck behind the net or up the boards and there's a teammate right
there?  How when the players seem to watch their opponents and
instinctively know where there teammates are and will be?  How every
pass lands right on a stick?

Well, we're not doing much of that on our side of the blue line.  Loya
and Metcalf continue to turn the puck over.  I'm not smart enough to
know if the problems are poor focus, poor vision, poor planning, or poor
execution by them or the forwards.  But I do think I know a championship
team won't be doing those things in the latter part of the season.

Some fans were blasting the referee Fitzgerald.  Go ahead, I'm sure he
can take it.  Maybe he did miss some calls (spear on Kariya?) and maybe
he just let some things go.  Fitzy has gone from an average to one of
the nation's best referees, IMHO.  I think you'll find most of the
players really like him.  I certainly do, and not just because he comes
out before every game and tosses pucks to kids in the stands.

Speaking of penalties and team play ...  how 'bout Metcalf and an NU
player teasing each other near the middle of the third period when Maine
had a(n only) 2 goal lead?  Metcalf waits and gets in the last lick with
a stick in the skate.  How about Loya and an NU player trailing the play
and Loya pokes his stick into the NU player's skate?  Penalty Loya to
gives NU real hope for a(nother) comeback.  The NU players names don't
matter.  The Maine players weren't making tough team play, they were
making selfish retaliations, IMHO.

So many things to say ... so little time ...

I found it interesting that Coach Whitehead reported they worked all
week on defensive zone play.  After Friday night's NU performance, it
appears a few more weeks' work are in order.  :-(

NU it seems is in much the same boat ...  they play great and have
defensive lapses.  Before Friday, they'd had good goaltending.

Our goaltending perhaps hasn't been what we'd expect from a couple of
skilled veterans, with Yeats again waiting for cold weather before
playing well.  I'd like to see this tandem split every weekend as a
schedule, but I read Coach Whitehead's comments to mean he really wants
one regular goalie.  As bad as Yeats save percentage is (it's among the
worst in college hockey), he really made a number of key, tough stops
Friday.  He should be proud he kept Maine in the game, waiting for the
offense to come through ...  and it did.  Yeats even played through the
Kryptonite, maybe proving he's not Superman, but one of a pair of fine
goalies.

I'll close by suggesting there's nothing wrong with fan and band support
this year, except neither the community nor students filled the Alfond
last Sunday.  Come see Quinnipiac this Sunday at 4pm ...  you will be
able to get good seats ...  and see a home team victory!  :-)

cheers, wayne

Wayne T. Smith
[log in to unmask]                          Old Town Landing
The College Hockey lists: Hockey-L and Hockey3 at http://lists.Maine.edu/