Deron wrote:
 
>However, I sense a certain complacent undertone, not necessarily with this
>statement by Coach Walsh or not necessarily with Walsh or any player in
>particular.  Just a feeling I got this weekend watching the games.  There
>is that sense that they know how to peak at the right time, and as
>evidenced in the Frozen Four last year, they do.  Or rather, that they feel
>they can get away with not playing 60 minutes.  35 or 40 minutes is ok to
>get the win.  It wasn't this weekend.
>
 
Exactly what I saw after watching the BU series on TV in Boston:  I wrote then:
 
      My take on an obvious team weakness is a lack of focus.  Just like my
      Broons, they have a tendency to play on their heels for as much as full
      periods at a time.
 
      Also, they seem to play much better when scoring the first goal.
 
      Anyone tally what Maine's record is when they score the first goal ?
 
Maine is being affected very badly it seems by all the hoopla about being
National
Champions.  Not only did it seemingly impart in our team,a sense of smugness;
hubris, perhaps, and inevitably, it sparks their opposition to play at a
high level.
 
Maine can't turn it on like a light switch and they certainly can't
continue to
play from behind.  BC's first goal, shorthanded, on Saturday seemed to bust
the team's balloon.
 
Their current path to the Round of 12 seems to be pointing to:
 
1.  a trip West  and
2.  a low seed and two games on a weekend before Providence.
 
I also fear, as Deron implied, that if Maine hopes to come out as the fifth
HE team into the Round of 12, they ought to remember the MAAC will for
the first time this year receive an automatic bid.
 
Methinks the selection committee is going to do everything it can to avoid
draws which could lead once more to three teams from the same conference
playing in the Last Four.
 
If Maine doesn't win the HE tournament, we might just be out of the draw.
 
Just came back from the FleeceCenter.  Paul Kariya scored two and assisted
on the other two for the Ducks.  He skated circles around the Bruins, he and
Selanne are quite a tandem on the ice.
 
 
Dan Doucette
 
Maine - National Champions 1993 and 1999 -
first in the new Millennium ?
 
Bill Gates should be sentenced to using a Macintosh
for the rest of his natural life.