(ME-Hockey was quiet over the weekend, Bob!)

I agree that we'll improve more over the course of the season than the
veteran North Dakota team will, but there's a lot of "ground" to be made
up!  I think an original schedule had NoDak later this Fall, but NoDak
"double booked" and we obliged with a change to earlier (also
necessitating the very early VT game ... at least this is my
recollection from talking to someone. ;-)

I also agree that turning one of those NoDak losses into a win may have
huge bearing on end-of-season NCAA placement, should we get that far ...
I don't think people should assume anything about post-season.

Saturday's game w/Niagara was my first to sit down and get to see the
whole game.  What a pleasure to see Derek Damon play ...  Wow!  Maybe he
should have been a captain ... he sure looks like he wants to take this
team as far as it can go.  I hope he stays healthy ... I think he'll
really get league and national recognition this season.  Michel Leveille
looks great with effort and skill as a puck handler and distributor (but
not goal scorer, though he scored as a result of a great rush and
pass!).  If others have improved as needed, I didn't see it (afaik,
Ronan did not play Saturday).

There are a bunch of new players getting significant duty. It looks like
many of them have terrific potential.  But so far the offense is not
impressive and the defense is a long way from the tremendous defense we
had a year ago.

18-year old Matt Lundin played in goal Saturday night and looked very
good.  It's easy to see why Maine recruited him ... he is very quick and
seems technically very good ... certainly better than Dunham and Snow in
their 1st year, IMHO.  But he seems to lack physical strength (wish
someone that knows goalies might comment!) ... something that will
certainly correct itself over time.  As one fan commented, he gave up a
few "pop-up" saves, but overall was excellent ... and fun to watch!

But I really wanted to write this to counter Bob's comments on when we
played NoDak and its importance.   As much as beating NoDak once or
twice might have been to this team, losing twice does have an upside, I
think.  I was in balcony near the Maine-iak section at the end of the
2nd North Dakota game.  The team gave a salute to the fans, but they
were the sorriest lot I've ever seen.  Maybe humiliated (at having to
salute after having been beaten so soundly?).  I think that series is
one the players, captains and coaches may refer to during this season to
   encourage the improvements necessary to play with the North Dakota's
of Division I.  Just one opinion ;-)

cheers, wayne


Bob Woodbury wrote:
> Guess my e-mail is filtering out Maine Hockey because there have been NO
> posts about Niagara except the one I put up after Friday's game. So at
> the expense of possibly repeating a thread that's been going on without
> my knowledge, here goes.
>
> Chalk up the two losses to North Dakota to the schedule-maker. Had we
> swapped weekends, playing Niagara first, then North Dakota, the outcome
> of the North Dakota games may possibly have been drastically different.
>
> No diss on Niagara. None. It's just that Niagara is a step down, as far
> as program development is concerned, from North Dakota. Niagara would
> have been a very worthy and competitive opponent that would have
> provided Maine an introduction to the new season, without jumping into a
> Division I of Division I series.
>
> We may have lost a game to Niagara. But that would have not been as bad
> as losing two to North Dakota, at the end of the season when they tally
> up strength of schedule, etc. A split with Niagara would have been a big
> boost to their program - and one we could have afforded - had we split
> with the Fighting Sioux.