John Eric Moore <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>It seems the opinion of this list seems to be that Anderson should remain.
> But what did they really accomplish this season, that they will be able to
>improve on with the loss of several key seniors?
 
Highest finish ever in Hockey East.  Best record ever in Hockey East.
Season series victories over five of the other eight HE teams.
 
And the best record of any HE team over the second half of the season
except for Maine - a team which lost only two games the entire second half,
both to Merrimack.  Maine coach Shawn Walsh said this is the best Merrimack
team he has ever seen.
 
Some key players graduate, but a good nucleus returns, led by five of their
top seven scorers - three of whom established personal career bests in
scoring this season.
 
Yup, that's a team whose coach deserves to be let go. :-)
 
>We all know Vince Clevenger
>(his recent appearance on ESPN not withstanding) is not the answer to all
>Merrimack's problems.
 
Those problems are a lot less apparent now than they were a year ago.  No
single player Merrimack gets will be "the answer", but the caliber of
players who have come in has gotten better and better over recent years;
it's like night and day compared to the first few years they were in HE.
Indications are that the staff has worked hard enough to bring in a
recruiting class that could be one of their best ever.  Clevenger is only
one piece of the puzzle.
 
>I think it is time to show Ron the door and thank for
>all he's done, but explain to him that this is the perfect time for a young
>upstart to take over the program.
 
You will have a lot more people to explain that to than just Anderson. :-)
 
>Ron seems to have soured in recent years
>into a dictatorial force that drove players such as Gaetan Poirer into early
>exits from the North Andover campus.
 
It was pretty clear from the moment Poirier arrived on campus in fall of
1994 that he was going to leave to turn pro when he got drafted.  That was
simply his goal.  I suppose that Jack Parker drives away all his players
who turn pro early, too.
 
I'm not sure who all these other players are who were driven to leave
early.  The only other one who has left early in recent years was Steve
McKenna, but I tend to think that getting a free agent contract offer that
was worth more than what even Mike Grier got had something to do with it.
:-)
 
First it was that Anderson was too nice of a guy.  Now it's that he is too
mean.  It's tough to keep up with everything. :-)
 
>Just throwing it out there, I realize
>it will not be a popular opinion.
 
It's not a question of whether it is popular, it's a question of whether or
not it makes sense.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                [log in to unmask]               *HMM* 11/13/93
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