Mathy Matturro writes:
>although it is a great honor and acheivement to be selected for the
>camp...it really sucks for us..when and if they go, that leaves 2 huge
>holes in our lines.....steve karyia, cory larose, and heisten, are the
>best scoring line for us...i mean who is going to step up and replace
>him?? maybe brendan walsh will be upped to a starting position and
>replace heisten on that line....and what are we going to do for
>defense.....ek is out for who only knows how long....obvioulsy cullen
>and metcalf who could run the show on their own but who else?????? is
>turgeon going to play next weekend?? i just hope that we continue to do
>well even with the loss..i think that we can do it though....
 
Mathy is right, it will be a challenge for the team, especially when
you consider Maine plays #2 Colorado College during this span.  CC will
be down at least one player (Justin Morrison?) during this time as well.
 
Heisten and Janik are two excellent players and I'm sure Walsh would
much rather have them in the lineup, but Maine should not fold up and
die without these two.
 
Maine is solid on defense.  Providing that there are no big injury bugs
on defense, Maine will be ok, even without Janik.  Don't get me wrong,
Janik has been huge this year and maybe you can't fill his shoes
completely.  I just feel Maine will be ok.
 
Up front, Heisten does play a key role on that first line (even though
he doesn't have many points).  It is hard to say who could step up and
take his place.  I'd like to see Dan Kerluke on that first line, but
you can't really breakup the Walsh-Kerluke-Gustafsson line because
they've done so well.
 
Another possibility is Matthias Trattnig.  He plays a similar style to
Heisten.  When Trattnig is at his best he's playing "feisty" and that
is what Heisten brings to the top line.  Trattnig could fill in well
there and it might be a way to jumpstart his offensive production.
 
Tuomo Jaaskelainen is another possibility.  He's got the offensive
skills to play with Kariya and Larose, and if you recall he was the
player who filled in for Heisten when he got hurt during the first game
of the year.
 
One thing you'll see that is different about Maine's team this year as
opposed to the last couple is that Maine has finally started to build
that depth up from the NCAA defections.  Maine played that first year
with 12 scholarships (because of the players who left) and then last
year with 14.  Now they have 16 and two recruiting seasons under its
belt.  Next year Maine will be back to a full compliment of
scholarships.
 
It makes a big difference when you have a little depth.  If you think
back to the last two years, Maine was at its worst when a few players
were down with injury.  Now think to this year about all the starting
players who have missed at least some time due to injury (Janik,
Stewart, Heisten, Larose, Ek.. others?).  Adam Tate (a starter last
year) hasn't played one game on defense this season yet due to injury
(played forward at least once).  Eric Turgeon has also been solid, but
is injured.  Last year, if you would have said Maine would lose 4 of
its overall defenseman to injury and they would be leading the country
in defense, most of us would have said you are crazy!
 
Maine is not at deep as they'd like to be, yet, but that will come.
It's been awhile since Maine's had a recruiting class talented enough
to place some players on the U.S. junior team.  Barrett and Doug...
good luck and make us proud!
 
---
Deron Treadwell - [log in to unmask]
 
"Any idiot can face a crisis -- it's this day-to-day living that wears
you out."
                                        - Anton Chekhov