Steve Czuba writes:
>Huntington Hounds ??? Just my opinion but I don't like the name change if indeed
>it is an official change.
 
It is not a name change.  It is a nickname that people who follow the
team more closely use.  Northeastern itself often refers to itself as
this in its press releases.  This has been happening for years, btw,
it just seems that some folks on HOCKEY-L first heard it this weekend.
 
I want to thank Northeastern for bringing back the Huskie on the
jerseys...it might be difficult to see, but at least it's there.
 
>And I agree, Dawn Mitchell was awful on Friday night (didn't see BU/Maine).
 
To reconcile the comments of people who saw only Maine-NU or Maine-BU,
Dawn was MUCH better the first half of the Maine-BU game.  I was
shocked...it seemed as if she had either worked very hard on improving
or was replaced by an exact lookalike. :-)  And yes, her Joubert
interview was not bad.
 
>I also thought Bob Norton got overly excited about the shootout on purpose. I
>don't like it, and I got the impression that HE wants no negative vibes on the
>new concept so that it gains early acceptance.
 
You've got to be kidding.  Whatever Norton said was what he felt
about the event.  Maybe he did overdo it a bit, but you're suggesting
here that HE told Norton to overdo it, and that is plain silly.  HE
doesn't tell Kurtz and Norton what to say, and I suspect if they did,
the two Bobs would tell them to get lost.
 
HE wants the experiment to succeed or fail on its own merits.  They're
not going to try to talk people into accepting it.
 
NESN and HE have also received a ton of feedback already on the shootout.
I am told that it is overwhelmingly positive.
 
>It's one thing if the NCAA adopts
>the rule, but I hate the idea of HE having different standings/records.
 
They don't have different records.  A tie in HE is a tie overall, just
as a tie in the ECAC is a tie overall.  The only thing that is different
is the point totals, which of course affects the standings.
 
There is one big problem I think needs to be solved if the shootout is
going to become standard.  It is just not right that a team that wins
a SO should receive as many points for the game as a team that won a
game in regulation or in overtime.  Effectively, the SO winner was not
able to beat the opponent in the "normal" way the game is played.  I
would like to see a change in the point tally so that a regular win is
worth the most, followed by a SO win, followed by a tie.
 
>Oh well. I hope RPI gets it's act together. A pretty mediocre performance
>against MC yesterday, but better an ugly win.
 
Well, the RPI team I saw yesterday was certainly not as good as last
year's, so at least early on, I wouldn't be expecting a great deal.
The youth and continued lack of big guns will cause them problems.
But there's only one way to gain experience.  In that regard, RPI and
Merrimack have very similar teams this year except that RPI's forwards
are a little better and more experienced, and Merrimack's goaltending
is better and more experienced.  So it wasn't any surprise that the
game was a close one (again).
 
I should add that I was impressed with RPI's media guide.  I never saw
last year's, but this year's is the best one I have ever seen from
RPI.  If this one was the work of now former RPI SID Kelly Vergin,
then I have to say Kelly went out with a bang.
 
I'm still waiting to see Providence's this weekend...Tim Connor
annually puts together a guide that is one of the very best in the
nation, and he has won a boatload of awards for it.
 
Merrimack's 0-4 start is its worst in at least 10 years.  Oddly
enough, I am not concerned.  That's probably because recent great
nonconference starts have turned into dismal campaigns once the HE
portion of the schedule rolled around.  It is time for a change. :-)
I'll gladly take close losses to Colgate and RPI in return for a
couple extra HE wins.
 
Adam Oates made a guest appearance at the game yesterday to see his
alma mater.  It also seemed that half of the crowd was made up of
other collegiate coaches on hand to scout one or both of the teams.
Merrimack had former captain Cooper Naylor pay a visit, Cooper was in
the area to see his brothers play for New Brunswick.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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