At 5:23 PM -0700 6/19/96, Barkan, Jon wrote:
>Tomorrow at 2 p.m., Northeastern University will announce the hiring of
>their new hockey coach in the lobby of historic Matthews Arena.
>
>It looks as if it will be another glorious day in NU hockey history!!!
 
This is absolutely huge news.  I thought it was about 50-50 that Bruce
would go so I'm not surprised, but it's still very big news.  And it's a
great move by NU.  For those of us like Jon and myself who were at NU in
the days of Fernie and old-time hockey, when the Huskies had a cast of
characters and were one of the most colorful teams around, this seems to be
nothing less than a return to those days.  The Huntington Hounds of the 80s
were not one of the more talented teams, but they worked hard and were a
fun team to watch.  Knowing what Bruce has done at Lowell, I have to think
that NU has a great chance now at a solid future.
 
Will Bruce bring back the old Huskie bus and make it look mean again? :-)
 
Before this move I would have figured NU for the bottom or near the bottom
of the HE standings.  Now I just don't know.  I've learned not to bet
against Bruce.
 
What I will be interested to hear is just how Lowell let him get away.  It
seems as if he was at least interested and willing to stay if he got the
deal he wanted.  The people I feel badly for are those who worked extremely
hard to bring Bruce to Lowell and build the Lowell program into a very good
one.  AD Dana Skinner, a Merrimack grad, has done wonders in improving the
Lowell athletic department and interest in Lowell hockey, and I suspect
that if it was up to him, Bruce would have been signed, sealed and
delivered long ago.
 
On the face of it, it seems that Lowell alumni and fans have a right to be
very upset at how their administration handled this.  One has to question
their commitment to the excellence of the program - not the commitment of
Skinner or the athletic department, but that of the people above them.
 
>Give it about three-four years and I feel confident that you'll see the
>Huskies somewhere near the top of the national rankings!!!!!!!!
 
There are two questions here.  What will happen to Lowell?  What will
Crowder be able to do at NU?
 
At Lowell, there seem to be some big questions.  Will the job go to Tim
Whitehead, Bruce's very well-liked and respected assistant?  Will the
school react by going out and getting an established head coach to replace
Crowder?  And if so and if they do give such a candidate the kind of deal
that Crowder wanted, why didn't they just give that deal to Crowder in the
first place?  If they wind up with an unknown as coach or an unproven guy
like Whitehead, what will it do to Lowell's ability to recruit the kind of
players they need to be one of the upper echelon teams in HE?  Bruce has
already found, I think, that his presence alone isn't enough to attract
those players to Lowell, although I can't imagine a player who would not
want to play for him.  How can it not get more difficult with him out of
the picture?
 
This is a big setback for Lowell, but they do have some things to look
forward to, like the new rink opening in a year.  I hope they're able to
rebound from this, but it won't be easy.
 
NU looks to be in for a tough season given the amount of talent they have
lost and relative unknowns coming in.  But even if the Huskies exceed
expectations this season, the real test will come several years down the
road when Crowder has his players in there.  Crowder is, in my mind, one of
the two or three best coaches in the country (especially with Jeff Jackson
gone), and he has proven his ability to do more with less.  NU has been a
program that historically has gotten less in terms of player talent and
area interest.  Will Crowder be able to make history and recruit top talent
to NU where others before him have failed, and will he be able to generate
the kind of interest that Lowell enjoyed with him as coach?  Will AD Barry
Gallup prove to be a prophet when he said that he felt that NU hockey could
be the school's flagship sport and compete for a national title soon?
 
These are going to be two interesting programs to keep an eye on.  At the
moment, they seem headed in opposite directions.  But we'll have to see.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
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