Sean Pickett writes:
>I have not yet read much about the Hockey East rosters, and
>from Mike's comments on Merrimack, I infer that he believes
>that they will finish in the top of the league this year.  If
>they are that good it will be a major achievement for them.  It
>will also make HE even more exciting than last year.
 
I should start by saying that I've already asked Bill Fenwick to
forward me the names and addresses of people who rank Merrimack too
high in their HOCKEY-L pre-season poll, so that I can hunt them down.
:-)  (Kidding, of course...Bill doesn't release that information.)
 
I remain cautiously optimistic about Merrimack's chances this year
until they prove to me that they are worthy of being considered among
the better teams in HE.  I tentatively pick them to finish 5th with
the definite possibility existing that they could do much better or
worse than that.
 
In the post Sean refers to, I did trumpet the extremely good returning
defensive corps Merrimack has, but there are still big question marks
at forward (thus my suggestion that we may see 2 or more Ds asked to
play up front), and goaltender Martin Legault has to not only avoid
the sophomore jinx after a great rookie campaign, but he must also
continue to improve for Merrimack to challenge seriously.  The
surprising play of the many rookie forwards last year (Merrimack had
more freshman man-games last season than almost any other fulltime
DivI team) like Peca, Johnson, Krauss, and Beck means that should a
few of them step up and perform as hoped, Merrimack will contend for
home ice and maybe more.
 
I've written a HE preview for a publication that I will post here
later on in a week or two.  But to preview the preview, HE to me
appears to be BU and everyone else.  Northeastern is a close second,
but someone other than Aube must step up and fill the shoes of Mike
Taylor, and G Todd Reynolds must stay healthy.  UNH may be the most
balanced team in the league, but there were big losses at forward and
in D Scott Malone, not to mention the adversity in playing every game
away from home.
 
Maine's recruiting class will be key, as they don't return much in the
way of scoring - basically Latendresse and a lot of potential.  BC is
perhaps the most interesting team, one that could challenge for the
top or finish in the second division based on how much Jerry York can
get out of what he has inherited.  Lowell lost too much to be able to
duplicate the season they had last year and has huge holes at all
positions, but if a worthy successor to Roloson emerges, they have the
ability to surprise.  PC needs too many players to improve
dramatically in a short time for them to go from near-last to
contending, and UMass has a boatload of potential but no experience
playing DivI competition day in and out.
 
In short, other than BU, everyone else has some serious question marks
and some real potential.  I rank Merrimack higher than some teams
because of the defense, but below others because of the need for
scoring.  It will be an interesting season even if BU does run away
with first, because at least one other team is guaranteed to come out
of HE with an NC$$ bid and nearly everyone has at least an outside
shot of being that team.
 
One reason I have given for keeping your eyes on Merrimack, is that
with the addition of UMass and the end of the unbalanced schedule,
Merrimack trades single games with its 3 toughest foes last season -
BU, NU, and Maine - for 3 with the Minutemen, who they handled easily
twice last year.  It's true that everyone else also trades 3 "tougher"
opp for UMass, but no one else had the kind of trouble with their 3
opp that Merrimack has had the last few years.  If (and this is
certainly no guarantee) Merrimack is able to pick up three wins there
and put together a better season against everyone else as compared to
last year, chances for a home ice berth seem bright.  Converting that
8-0-4 OT record over the last two years to some shootout wins wouldn't
hurt either. :-)
 
That said, I would still rather see people ignore Merrimack in the
first few polls and give them their due if they earn it. :-)
 
Trying my best not to woof,
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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