Geoff Howell writes:
>2) Grier as a target of other teams
>
>I recently interviewed Grier for Drop the Puck (soon to be published).
 
DtP arrived in my mailbox, so I gave a read to Geoff's well-written
features on Grier and Princeton's Ethan Early.  Nice job, Geoff.  Not
too surprising that Grier wasn't known at T Anthony's - these are the
guys who get a kick out of imitating the workers at Riley's Roast Beef.
 
>Among other things, he told me "My parents feel more than I do that
>other people are taking runs at me ... by hitting me they're trying to
>say that they're not intimidated by (B.U.)."
 
I do think it is true that at least some opponents are not as
physically intimidated by BU as they used to be.  I remember saying
after the Merrimack-BU series that it wasn't long ago when Merrimack
would come into Walter Brown and get destroyed in all aspects of the
game - on the scoreboard, physically, even psychologically.  That
hasn't been the case this year.  Part of that is because either BU has
not been as physical this year as in the past or opponents have caught
up to them in terms of size (Merrimack is one that has).
 
As a result, Grier has become almost the focal point for physical play
on the BU squad.  He is the one Terrier who has a size advantage over
nearly everyone he plays against.  And as I mentioned before, a big
Grier hit can drive the BU fans crazy like nothing else.  So it's
important for opponents to try to neutralize that by giving him as
good as he gives others.
 
Is that running him?  I sure can understand how his mom and dad would
see it that way. :-)  But Grier's comments indicate to me that he
understands that as important as it is for him to intimidate opponents,
it is also a part of the opponents' strategy to intimidate him as well
or at least to try to neutralize him.
 
And although I haven't really been concerned with whether he is the
first this or that, or whether he is going to make it in the NHL, I do
think that if he IS going to be a pro player, with his style of play,
he is no doubt going to run into people who will want to hit him
before he hits them.  It sounds like he knows that is a part of the
game.
 
To close this...last year Heather and I wound up on the same flight
home from St Paul as BU, sitting amongst the players.  You can imagine
the atmosphere after what had transpired the night before.  As the
plane landed at Logan and we were walking out, we struck up a
conversation with Grier and found him to be quite a nice guy.  We
mentioned that we were from Merrimack and so had seen a lot of BU and
wished the outcome had been better...and we wished him luck next year,
except, of course, against Merrimack.  He got a good laugh out of that
and said thanks and that he understood.  From this and other
experiences both first- and second-hand, I would say BU should be
proud to have a Mike Grier representing them.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93