Just a few thoughts.  This is going to both UNH-Hockey and ME-HOCKEY since
there was discussion on both.  Deron made some comments on ME-HOCKEY but I
won't quote them since he did not send them to UNH-Hockey, although I will
reference them.
 
First of all, I'm wondering how the awards leaked out.  I think they wanted
to try to keep them under wraps.  I know the SIDs knew, and I didn't push
either Merrimack SID Tom Caraccioli or HE's Greg Miller when I talked to
them today because I didn't think it would be right.  But someone leaked
them and I don't think it was either of these people.
 
Second, it is my understanding that the coaches alone selected all of the
awards except for, I believe, the Ceglarski Award which was also voted on
by the SIDs.  That may shed some light on some of the selections - or maybe
not...
 
>ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Greg Koehler, UMass-Lowell
 
Deron mentioned Larose.  I had thought it might be Matile.  It was
certainly a tough call.  But there were a number of strong candidates.
Koehler might have gotten the edge because he played well from the get-go
and people knew about him.  Deron wondered if Maine's TV ban hurt Larose.
Maybe, but all of the coaches saw Larose three times.  He seemed to be hot
and cold, so maybe he was cold in the games against some of the teams.
 
>ALL-HOCKEY EAST TEAM:
>
>Forwards:
>
>Eric Boguniecki, UNH
>Mark Mowers, UNH
>Jason Krog, UNH
>Chris Drury, BU
>Neil Donovan, UML
>Marty Reasoner, BC
 
Deron mentioned Kariya and Nickulas.  First, I felt that one of the four
UNH forwards who were strong candidates would be left out, so that part was
no surprise.  It is tough to leave Nickulas off, however.  Likewise Kariya.
The selection of Reasoner surprised me a bit because I felt he was expected
to do more than he did.  Cannot argue with any of the others, however.
Donovan, for example, was a deserving choice.
 
>Goaltenders:
>
>Tom Noble, BU
>Martin Legault, MC
 
A double surprise for me.  If I had to pick one BU goaltender, it would
have been Larocque.
 
I seem to recall that last year there was some hullabaloo over the
non-selection of Noble.  I wonder if that played a part.
 
Deron wondered what my thoughts would be on Legault.  Well, although he had
a terrific second half, I would not have chosen him.  His final numbers in
HE: 7-6-1, 4.04, .893.  That's amazing when you consider that he started
off 0-6, 0-3 in HE.  But IMO, that terrible start - with a GAA over 5.00
the first semester - was too much for me to select him.  There were other
goalies who had a better start-to-finish season, although in the second
half, Legault was outstanding.
 
>ROOKIE TEAM:
>
>Goaltender:
>
>Sean Matile, UNH
 
Deron mentioned Michaud.  I think his save percentage hurt him.  He is,
IMO, in the same boat as Legault - bad start, great finish.  But Legault
was All-HE while Michaud was left off the rookie team.  Different awards so
you can't really compare the situations.  But Matile was a good choice.  I
would have named Robitaille but not by much.  I guess that means I would
have had Michaud a close third.
 
Other things mentioned or not by some people:
 
All-HE defense: I would have had Jakopin over Nicholishen, but not over
Kelleher, and Kelleher was left off.  Jakopin was the one Merrimack player
who I thought had the best chance of being named All-HE.
 
All-Rookie forwards: Amazing that Farkas and to a lesser extent
Bellefeuille were left off.  I wonder if the coaches split votes on these
two, resulting in neither making the team.
 
Defensive forward: a new award this year.  My vote would have gone to
Dillabough's teammate, Russ Guzior.
 
Coach of the Year: Anderson wuz robbed. :-)  Just kidding...as I said so
many times :-), I felt it was down to Umile and Anderson at least, and from
there it was a tough call because both deserved it along with perhaps some
others.  So congratulations to Umile.  And I'm glad to hear he seems to be
doing well.
 
I don't necessarily want to know who the coaches actually voted for, but I
would be interested to know on what basis they voted.  Like, did they give
preference to players who played well against their teams?  Even if they
didn't do so intentionally, it may have been a factor, and it would explain
some things.  I don't think any coach would say he gave such preference,
but it's just one example of how the voting really cannot be completely
unbiased and we should not expect that it will.
 
Me, I'm waiting for the Academic Honor Roll and Distinguished Scholars to
be announced in a few months. :-)  Talk about the one award where you know
your team will fare well!
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                [log in to unmask]               *HMM* 11/13/93
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