On Wed, 25 Mar 1998, (No Name Available) wrote:
 
> Bertagna was not favoring the Boston schools and their players but was
> supporting Drury who was possibly the best candidate from Hockey East.  (I
> am sorry but I deleted the original posts.)
>
> I found myself thinking about this last night.  I came to the conclusion
> that it is not the commisioner job to be promoting one candidate over
> another.  Shouldn't it be BU's job to promote Drury as a Hobey Baker
> candidate?
 
Yes, it is part of BU's job to promote its Hobey candidate.
 
> I would think that it is the commissioner's job to promote all
> possible candidates from his conference and let the individual schools
> promote their own players.
 
To some degree, but I think there comes a time when the commissioner, if
he is going to promote a candidate, has to pick a horse and ride him.
I think you could make an argument that it is in the interests of Hockey
East as a whole to have the Hobey Baker winner come from HE. That said,
the best way to ensure that would be to promote the you-know-what out of
the potential candidate you see as the conference's best chance to win.
 
In Hockey East's case, this year, that was Chris Drury. IMHO, this has
more to do with his performance in past years and his high profile than his
performance this year.
 
If the conference promotes all of its candidates, there is a greater risk
that the message could be diffused, and/or that the votes would be split.
A campaign of "Vote for Drury! Vote for Drury! Vote for Drury!" would
probably be more effective for HE than a campaign of "Vote for Drury, or
Krog, or Mowers!"
 
In its essence, this is a political campaign. It's not as overt in hockey
as it is in football for the Heisman, but the essence is still there.
 
See you later,
John
 
--
John Edwards - Carleton (ON) '96, Manitoba '00 - [log in to unmask]
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