Thanks to Mike for posting TSN's preseason Top 20. A few thoughts:
>4. CLARKSON. Chris Rogles and Hugo Belanger could lead the Golden Knights
> to ECAC prominence.
>11. ST LAWRENCE. Scoring punch could keep the Saints headed toward the top
> of the ECAC.
So far, all the prognostications I've seen for the ECAC have put the Knights
and the Saints 1-2. Despite losing Dave Tretowicz and Dave Trombley, Clark-
son should be even better than they were last season, and should not have
much of a problem recapturing the league title. However, if St. Lawrence
can come up with a top-notch goaltender to replace Les Kuntar (neither Brady
Giroux nor Paul Spagnoletti looked too impressive in limited action last
year), they'll give Clarkson a tough battle. The North Country road trip
looks worse than ever.
As far as the Top 20 goes, I think I'd put the Knights third, ahead of a
Northern Michigan team that has suffered some significant losses (Bill Pye,
Brad Werenka, Dean Antos).
>14. RENSSELAER. If any team is to engineer an upset in the ECAC, RPI is
> properly equipped.
You have GOT to be kidding me. I'm wondering if TSN included RPI on this
list just to use that "engineer" pun. RPI has lost more players from last
year's team than any other team in the ECAC -- and we're not talking about
fringe guys, either. The Engineers will be without Joe Juneau (63 points),
Bruce Coles (52), Derek DeCosty (41), and Mickey LeBlanc (41), a significant
portion of their offense. Considering that they don't have a terribly good
defense to fall back on, RPI is not "properly equipped" to do that well in
1991-92. At the very least, they'll have to play a more disciplined style
of hockey next season, because they're not going to have the firepower to
get away with taking a bunch of penalties.
>19. HARVARD. Good goaltending and defense should bring the Crimson back
> into contention.
This is true. Harvard also lost a big part of its offense with the
graduations of Peter Ciavaglia, Ted Donato, and Mike Vukonich, all of whom
scored more than 50 points last year. But unlike RPI, the Crimson have an
improving defense and a pretty good goaltending tandem to shore things up.
Besides, Harvard always seems to bring in a couple of outstanding freshman
forwards every year. Harvard ought to be put higher than 19th -- perhaps
they should be in RPI's spot.
Beyond Clarkson, St. Lawrence, and Harvard, the ECAC picture looks a little
messy, as most of the other teams have suffered major losses to graduation
and/or the Olympics. Believe it or not, one team to watch may be Brown,
where they're finally putting together a decent, hard-hitting defense to go
along with the standout goaltending they got last year from Geoff Finch.
> The Black Bears
>could run away with HE and are a good selection as a preseason #1, but
>I'm sure Shawn Walsh would prefer not to see that. He knows what happened
>with BU (last year's preseason #1).
Hmm, so do I -- they came within a couple goalposts of winning the NCAAs!
Or are you referring to the Terriers' rough start and third-place HE finish?
Maine's selection as #1, even in a preseason poll, certainly gives their
opponents extra incentive to knock the Black Bears off. As if Maine's foes
needed any more incentive going up against Walsh, who would probably be
voted the Coach the Opposition Would Most Love to Beat 15-0. Of course,
people wouldn't be so upset with Walsh's "demonstrative" ways if he weren't
fielding 30-game winners every year...
--
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
"LOST DOG: 3 legs, blind in left eye, missing right ear, tail broken,
recently castrated... answers to name of 'Lucky'."
-- poster seen recently in a local coffee shop, among other places
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