Brief snippets.
 
Some surprises this weekend but I thought (and predicted here) that Merrimack and
Maine would sweep. These are two hot teams. Congrats to both, especially
Merrimack for finally playing like the competitor I had hoped for! Regrets to BC
fans ... its not ever yet, though!
 
Regrets to PC goalie sensation Kane. Was the 3rd period collapse due to his
inexperience? Congrats to Dan Dennis on a big-shutdown on UNH. I was surprised. I
had UNH sweeping 4-0 and 4-1.
 
Lowell ties BU ... at BU??? I heard Parker was absolutely livid at his teams'
performance. Congrats to Lowell ... hopefully they'll use this as a springboard
to resurgence form their recent funk. They play a severely and unjustly
handicapped PC team on Friday.
 
Maine's rookie Cory Larose has got to be something to see. Too bad we won't see
him in the playoffs (Fleet Center). I personally don't like the HockeyEast rule
of denying NCAA-sanctioned teams from their playoffs.
 
But, the topic of highest priority is the UNH-PC melee.
 
( What follows is an arbitrary, un-biased opinion. )
IMHO, UNH hockey has the cheapest, antagonistic, mouthy and generally-nasty team
in HockeyEast! The UNH coaching staff contributes to this and the steroid-pumping
Boguniecki is the perfect example of their product. Talk about a Napolean
complex! But, this is ice hockey so that general theme which has populated some
posts recently - "Its(sic) just hockey!" does apply here. "Big, Bad Bruins",
"Broadstreet Bullies" ... and now a smaller (*wink*) manifestation in "Bruising
Bobcats".
 
Providence and head-coach Pooley are clearly not in the same league and must have
been severely provoked to engage in such a mess. The "even-it-up" menatality (
that usually comes in to play around these things ) has probably penalized PC too
much and UNH not enough. I know it takes two to tango, but from the accounts that
have transpired, its clear who the antagonists where.
 
Now, I'm a Lowell fan and the Riverhawks have been known to get rough at times.
But, the Lowell coaches have never been guilty of the hot-headed antics that
Umile and his assistants display game in and game out. Every team has its
examples of coaches/players, but UNH isn't a team I'd enjoy supporting. I never
liked the cheap-retaliatory antics that the Greg Bullock would pull and I know a
few Riverhawks have been undisciplined a lot of the time. But, not to the degree
that I've seen elsewhere ... on a whole team in general. The worst thing I can
imagine though is a team of #19's from BU. It was nice to see #19 in the penalty
box at Lowell for tem minutes here and two minutes there. ;)
 
One last thing, my recent prediction of a Maine victory over UNH tomorrow night
goes double now. You should have seen all the UNH responses I got saying I was
crazy to predict such a thing. They all made a point of agreeing with my UNH-PC
assessments though. ;)
 
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