Still in the emotion of a great game, Tony fails my test for a
good official: losing his cool.  (portions of his post repeated here) ...
 
>If someone has a flame (they will be accepted), please post it back to me
>personally.
 
   If you expect people to be angered with what you say, perhaps now is
   not the time to write to a couple of thousand folks?
 
...
>Walsh decided then to sneak out 5 players for the faceoff and, with the crowd
>screaming "5... they've got five!... too many men... 5... 5!" the face-off
>occurred with all the BU players covered.  Play ended and, as BU vehemently
>protested, Latendresse (Maine) took off for the bench and flew over the boards
>into the Maine bench.  Gravalesse (sp?) and Fitzgerald completely ignored it/
>missed it and Walsh smirked while running for cover.  The fans, outraged,
>unfortunately began pelting the ice with paper cups and little plastic
>megaphones.  ...
 
   Walsh decided that he wanted Ingraham to take the last faceoff of the
   game and so sent him out.  It was Walsh's fault that Latendresse
   didn't come off the ice?!  You UNDERSTOOD that Walsh did this
   intentionally?!  And with what intention?
 
   This and the ranting that followed is nothing but fantasy.  I can
   understand a bunch of fans in the stands coming to that conclusion,
   but that conclusion has as much base in fact as your typical Maine
   fan saying that Hockey East is blessed with 7 great coaches ...  the
   only bad one is the raging idiot at BU.  Jack Parker is, of course, a
   great coach, but one can take a few incidents, place your own
   motivations behind them and come up with any garbage you want.  :-(
 
   I'm willing to believe that both too-many-men situations had nothing
   to do with Walsh (Tony's description of the play causing the
   4-second face off implied an impropriety ... maybe by Walsh.  It's
   hard to imagine a coach having time to send out a forward to break
   up a break-out).
 
   Let's look at the final play again (I was NOT present, but listened
   to Joe Carr on the radio).  This is only my own fantasy description.
 
      With 4 seconds left in a 0-0 overtime, Maine commits a bench
      minor.  The face off is in the Maine zone with BU on a 5-4 power
      play.  Walsh sends in Ingraham to take the important face off (a
      common occurrence).  For whatever reason, Walsh does not tell
      Ingraham to tell Latendresse to come off the ice.  (Since it had
      been an interesting game I suspect the fans might have been NOISY
      enough so that verbal directions from the bench to players on the
      ice might have been impeded.  Even if Walsh understood that too
      many players were on the ice for the face off, I suspect that it
      was a stalling tactic ...  a tactic any coach might try.  Is it
      reasonable for Walsh to think that two Hockey East referees and a
      linesman would not count the number of men on the ice immediately
      after a penalty?  I think not.
 
   It was a GREAT game.  Too bad the poor sportsmanship of the BU fans
   caused them to litter the ice.  :-(
 
...
>The problem is that Walsh's "win at all costs" attitude ruined the game for
>everyone involved.  We watched a great game, and yet all we can think about
>is the cheapness of the way Walsh conducted his play at the end.
 
   I suspect YOUR characterization is shared by more than a few BU fans;
   but the person that has ruined this GREAT game is, IMO, the reporter.
 
...
>I do not blame the University as a whole, its fans or its players, but Walsh's
>display was disgusting.
 
   What is disgusting is your allegation of a dishonest person stealing
   your game.
 
>End of fact... now just ramblings.
 
   Your characterizations are not fact.
 
>I have heard many stories and unsubstantiated rumors about Walsh, things from
>credit cards being given to players to money being found on beds when players
>returned to their hotel rooms after winning the Great Western Freezeout last
>year.  I never believed any of it.  I thought it was an outside possibilty, but
>until I had evidence, I was not going to hurt someone's character.  I did not
>repeat these or other rumors, only commenting on what few things were published
 
   You just did repeat those outlandish rumors.  It's pretty easy to
   make up stories.  And in your next to last line above, you admit your
   intention is to hurt Walsh's character with this drivel?!  You, Tony,
   will get what you deserve out of this "report".  What you get from me
   is loss of respect.
 
   Maybe the next time one of your coaching opponent's fans attacks your
   credibility with innuendo, rumor and fantasy in the Boston media, you
   will value your reputation enough so that the your next character
   assassination will be accomplished with fact :-(
 
... (more characterizations of Shawn Walsh as dishonest not repeated here)
 
Yours in respectful, honest, college hockey reporting,
 
Wayne T. Smith
Systems Group - CAPS              BITNET/CREN:  wts@maine
University of Maine System        internet:     [log in to unmask]
 
P.S.  The list administrator is at this moment constructing a private
      letter to me saying this should have been said off-line.