Howie Mansfield writes:
>I know that the vast majority of you don't particularly care for the
>University of Vermont Hockey team but this year, I make an exception.
>UVM was chosen #1 by the ECAC coaches and are ranked #6 or #7 by just
>about every college poll in the nation. But they are always some problems
>to being in the lime-light...
>
>1) No team in the history of the ECAC coaches poll has been picked #1 in
>preseason and finished there at the end of the regular season.
Though the ECAC coaches' poll has been more miss than hit in its ten-year
history, the coaches have correctly picked the ECAC regular-season champ
three times... including their selection of Clarkson last year. The other
two preseason #1's to win the title were Harvard in 1986-87 (the only time
an ECAC preseason #1 has won both the regular-season and tournament titles)
and Harvard in 1988-89. Well, OK, three and a half times -- St. Lawrence
was the coaches' pick in 1987-88, and the Saints finished in a first-place
tie with Harvard that year, with the Crimson winning the tiebreaker.
I tacked the past results of the ECAC coaches' poll onto the end of this post
if anyone is interested.
>3) Easy games - UVM has the attendancy to lose to teams they should
>soundly beat. i.e. UVM at Dartmouth, UVM at Union. Vermont needs to win
>the 'gimmie' games.
I mentioned this before, but the numbers from last year bear this out. The
Cats went a respectable 4-4 against the league's top four teams (Clarkson,
Brown, Harvard, and Colgate), but against the bottom five (St. Lawrence, Cor-
nell, Union, Dartmouth, and Yale), they went 3-5-2. This is not the kind of
thing they can afford to do this year if they hope to take the title.
>Lastly, keep in mind that Vermont has the nation's leading scorer last
>night returning in Martin St. Louis and his partner in crime Eric Perrin.
Which is certainly worth some envy (OK, a LOT of envy...) but points out
another problem that the Cats had last year, namely that despite the presence
of "the French Connection" in St. Louis and Perrin, Vermont scored only 85
goals in ECAC competition -- which, while good enough for third in the league
was only slightly above average. Once you got past St. Louis and Perrin,
there wasn't much depth on offense. Third-leading scorer Dominique Ducharme
was capable of scaring the opposition, but he's gone now. J. C. Ruid is the
top returning scorer not named St. Louis or Perrin... and he had 27 points
last year, a whopping 40 behind Perrin. Somebody is going to have to pick
up the slack, or opponents will know they can shut down the Vermont offense
simply by targeting St. Louis and Perrin (difficult though that may be to do).
In short, Vermont is certainly a threat to take the league title, and they
were the coaches' pick... but my money is still firmly on Colgate.
Past Results of ECAC Coaches' Poll
Year Top Pick Reg. Season Champ Tournament Champ
(Actual Finish) (Where Picked) (Where Picked)
1994-95 Clarkson (1) Clarkson (1) RPI (4)
1993-94 RPI (3) Harvard (2-tie) Harvard (2-tie)
1992-93 Clarkson (3-tie) Harvard (2) Clarkson (1)
1991-92 Clarkson (2-tie) Harvard (6) St. Lawrence (2)
1990-91 Cornell (2-tie) Clarkson (2) Clarkson (2)
1989-90 Harvard (6) Colgate (5) Colgate (5)
1988-89 Harvard (1) Harvard (1) St. Lawrence (4)
1987-88 St. Lawrence (1-tie) Harvard (?) St. Lawrence (1)
St. Lawrence (1)
1986-87 Harvard (1) Harvard (1) Harvard (1)
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
strictly those of:
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and '95
LET'S GO RED!!
Rebuild the Tradition DJF 5/27/94
"'Does he talk?' 'Uh, no.' 'Does he walk?' 'Uh, no.' 'Does he crawl?'
'Uh, no, he doesn't do any of those things. YOU try dragging him away from
the computer.'"
-- Monica Piper, on handling competitive my-baby-is-better-than-yours parents
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.
|
