Wayne writes:
>IMHO, Maine and BC are rated too high;  MC is rated too low.
 
This should be an interesting year.  I don't see any truly awful
teams, and BU may be the only team to contend for a #1 national
ranking all season.  That means things will be close since the old "on
any given day..." syndrome will be in effect.
 
I sort of agree on BC.  I'm not sure they've added a lot in the way of
talent, but as Tony said last week, the Eagles *have* definitely
benefitted greatly from a year's experience (and a year of learning
Steve Cedorchuk's system).  They looked much more coherent vs Team USA
than they did most of last year.  If that trend continues, with the
parity (== mediocrity?) that exists elsewhere around the league, it could
be enough to land them in 5th after all.  And we have talked a lot about
Maine here, and I have yapped about Merrimack as well.
 
>At the
>HEast event where this was released, MC was rated to reverse its recent
>trend of improving each season and fall to last place.  Quotes by some
>coaches said that the 12 veterans lost for this season cannot be
>overcome (more fodder for the Merrimack locker room bulletin board,
>eh?).
 
It certainly won't hurt.  I can say that Merrimack isn't looking at
this as a rebuilding season.  They believe every team is beatable, and
they also believe they should have had a much better record in the
league last year than they did.  8-16-0 could have easily been .500 or
better if not for several games in which they lost leads over the second
half.  The returning defense should help towards trying to prevent
that from recurring.
 
>As has probably been reported on HOCKEY-L that Lowell's Roloson was
>passes over as pre-season All-Star Goalie for BU's Herlofsky.  Quotes
>from a couple of coaches could not explain why.  :-)
 
Goaltending might decide what happens this year; other than BU to take
first, I can see teams in groups (much like what Jack Parker said, but
I thought of it first :-)), and who knows where they'll end up.  I
also wouldn't be surprised to see someone else sneak in there and make
the All-HE team in net.
 
Maine and Merrimack are the real enigmas this season in HE.  We know
what everyone else has.  Maine & Merrimack each start out with two
rookies in net and freshmen will see a lot of time at the other
positions as well.  I've heard good things about the Maine goalies,
and I like what I have seen so far from the Warriors.  In fact, both
teams will be making NESN appearances this weekend, so everyone will
get an early chance to evaluate them.
 
BTW, my Merrimack address (below) will be going away at the end of
October as they are removing all non-student accounts from the unix
system.  I'll still be able to be reached at my work address, though.
---
Mike Machnik           [log in to unmask]          [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMN* 11/13/93