With all this talk about goons and Charles Manson, I would like to make a case
in defense of goons everywhere.  There was a player for Cornell by the name of
Rob Levasseur.  In his first three years, if he had scored the number of points
that he had penalty minutes, he would have been a Hobey Baker candidate.  As it
was, he had to be content to lead the team (by far) in penalty minutes; he may
have even set a single-season record for individual minutes.  Cornell stat
people would know better.
 
Regardless, when Reycroft was fired and McCutcheon hired as coach in
Levasseur's senior year, Rob led the team in goal-scoring and essentially had a
carreer year in terms of points.  (I believe he scored more points that year
than he had in his previous three.  I think the difference was the coach.
Reycroft liked goons, McCutcheon liked discipline.
 
The moral:  before condemning a player to goon status, consider who is coaching
him. That could have more to do with it than anything.
--
Dave [log in to unmask]
Cornell '91 OSU Med '95
Let's Go Red!
"I'm ambivalent" --OSU coach Jerry Welsh. Yes, he was talking about the
NCAA limit on assistants, but it may be the epitaph for the OSU hockey program.