Rob Holmes was wondering who the putz was that was doing the color for the
East Regional games.  His name is Bob Norton and he is the regular color
guy for NESN's broadcast of New England college hockey games, in
particular Hockey East.  He was a long time assistant coach at UNH under
the "legendary" Charlie Holt.  He does have a terribly annoying Boston
accent (and I live near Boston), and he does a penchant for telling the
audience where everybody played their high school hockey.
 
Rob also mentioned that he thought the broadcasts were terribly biased and
I sort of feel the same way.  Watching my U-MASS Lowell Chiefs beat MSU I
felt the same way about the announcers doing the West Regional.  I think
this might be in part due to the fact that the announcers simply are not
"impartial".  They guys doing the West games are obviously much more
familiar with the teams in the CCHA and WCHA, having done those games all
year long.  Likewise, the East games are being done by guys who've
followed Hockey East and the ECAC this season.  You'd like to think they'd
all be a bit more impartial and/or knowlegable about ALL the teams, but I
guess it ain't gonna happen!
 
The game needs to be "de-regionalized".  More East vs. West games are
needed to help promote the sport.  Hockey East and the WCHA used to have
an "interlocking" schedule and it's too bad they don't do it anymore.
Each team played every team in the other conference once and the games
counted toward leagues standings.  This kind of thing should continue.
 
 
All in all though, I think we should all be lucky that all the games are
on the tube this year!  We've still got a long way to go towards exposure
- each school may have their local followings, but the market needs to
expand out of those areas.  I watched an interview with some guy before
the UNH-RPI game who, I belive, was some high mucky-muck in the NCAA
hockey ranks (I think his last name was something like Buttafuoco [no
joke!]), and he claimed that the NCAA was committed to "pushing" college
hockey.  Making sure all of the games were on the tube was the first step,
he said.  I guess it's a start, no?  If anybody knows this guy's name, let
me know.  I'm sure we could all give a piece of our mind, no?
 
Enough ramblings for now, I've many more ideas/comments to spit out at
later dates..........
 
 
 Steve Weisfeldt
 University of Lowell (now UMass-Lowell)
 1986, 1988
 
 Go Chiefs!!!!!!!!