At 9:46 PM 9/10/95, Dave Garland wrote:
>Once again Hockey East will [prove to be the strongest conference in
>college hockey.  BU and UMaine will both in the top five of the
>pre-season polls and will probably be ranjed #1 and #2.  UNH and
>Providence will also be strong as should Michigan out of CCHA.
 
I'll stay away from the talk about strongest conference right now, as there
are too many dimensions this discussion can take.  Every conference has
teams it can claim to be among the best in the country.
 
And without going into much detail (for me) yet on HE...I think there are
several tiers we can consider teams to fall into, as usual.
 
The first is, clearly, Maine and BU.
 
I give Maine the nod with its returning cast, although the loss of Imes
will be a problem and I don't see how Maine can fill his shoes this year.
Allison may be even more of a factor than he was last year.  BU loses
several good players at all positions, which will put more pressure on the
freshmen than last year's freshmen had to deal with.  But they still have
one of the most talented teams in the country and should be considered
among the nation's best.
 
After these two teams, there seems to be a bit of a dropoff.  Everyone else
has to be considered no better than home ice contenders right now, with
several having a shot at HE if things work out right.
 
The next tier consists of the serious home ice contenders: UNH, Merrimack
and Northeastern.
 
UNH and Merrimack seem to be just above NU, and they are my tentative picks
to gain home ice.  UNH loses several good forwards and defensemen, but they
return a good set of forwards and an all-HE caliber D in Todd Hall.  Still,
there is a lack of depth on defense and Trent Cavicchi will have to have a
better year than last year in net.  It's difficult to assess right now what
effect the new rink and Olympic-sized ice surface will have, but it could
be a factor.
 
Merrimack returns All-HE goalie Martin Legault who led the league in save
%, as well almost all of one of the nation's best defensive corps.  But
scoring will be an issue unless several of the third-year players break
out.  Legault & the D should be enough to give them a chance to win every
game at least.
 
NU ranks just behind because of their serious losses at all positions.  But
the Huskies bring back goalie Mike Veisor and several outstanding players
including All-HE members Jordon Shields and Dan McGillis.  And like UNH,
the new ice surface (although same building) is a difficult variable to
assess right now.
 
The third tier are the rebuilding clubs or clubs with an outside shot at
home ice: Mass Lowell, BC, Providence, and Mass Amherst.
 
Lowell loses Greg Bullock, which is both good and bad.  Bullock was 5th in
the nation in scoring, but he brought with that a tendency to lose focus
which seemed to have a detrimental effect upon the rest of the team.
Returning are big guns Christian Sbrocca and Jeff Daw, although it remains
to be seen how they'll fare without Bullock and who will pick up the slack.
D & G are a bit shaky, and Craig Lindsay needs to build on his strong
finish last year to have an even better season for Lowell to do well.  But
strong special teams will help mask some of these deficiencies.
 
BC loses several quality seniors which will affect scoring output, but
returning is G Greg Taylor who has the ability to be one of the better
goalies in the nation.  A number of underclassmen also played well last
year and with the addition of two of the top recruits in the country, BC
could be a team that gets better and better as the season goes along.
 
PC seems an obvious choice to move into the upper tier of HE this year,
until you realize that they lost the three players who were most
responsible for their run at HE last year: Quenneville, Kramer, and G Bob
Bell.  There's a decent nucleus with players like Stefan Brannare and big D
Hal Gill, but overall, I think the Friars have a need for too many players
to step up for them to be considered one of HE's top teams right now.  If
goaltending questions are addressed, their good defense should be a factor
and keep them in many games.
 
UMass will continue to get their feet wet this year, but with returning
players like Bonneau, Manganaro, and HE All-Rookie G Brian Regan, along
with some size on D, the Minutemen are not a bad bet to at least avoid 9th
place and will certainly pull some surprises along the way.
 
The interesting thing to me is that among the third tier teams, all have
excellent coaches and won't be pushovers.  Almost any of these teams have a
shot at putting together a good run and possibly finishing several spots
higher than I would expect.  The league will be tough in the regard that
everyone can be expected to come to play every night, and after that,
almost anything is possible.
 
This is about all I have time for right now since Heather & I are beginning
to move this week.  Hopefully I'll have more thoughts as we get closer to
the start of the season.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
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