Associate Professor of Biochemistry
Phone: (502)588-5752
  Living in college basketball land we see little college or pro hockey so
during a work trip to Boston last week I watched 2 Bruins games and went to
the Fri night Maine - Northeastern game. The latter was the more enjoyable and
I feel compelled to make a few comments.
   I played high school hockey in NU's Matthew's Arena several decades ago
when it was still the Boston Arena. It is still a great place to watch a game,
but the ice surface seemed smaller and less "egg-shaped" than I remember. I
would think Maine's style of play would better fit a larger ice surface and
was wondering if there was much difference in rink size around HE or ECAC.
   Since I had never seen Maine play, I was impressed by their offensive
skills and style, but NU was not 6 goals worse. NU was bigger, stronger and
slower, but had many scoring chances that just missed. "Snakebitten" comes to
mind when describing their efforts. It could easily have been a 1-2 goal game
well into the 3rd period. NU IMO played Maine close to even when they had
their more physical players on the ice in periods 1 and 2, but were at a big
disadvantage when they tried to skate with Maine.
    I had never seen a college
    hockey player as small as Ingraham, but the kid is a player. He always
seemed to be involved with the action and helped create a lot of it. Kariya
was a pleasure to watch - quick feet - soft hands and an awareness of where
teammates and opponents were. He never stopped moving, which is good because
someone on the other team was always trying to molest him. I was impressed by
the way he absolutely ignored all the attention and went about his offense. He
may also be the best candidate in any league for the Lady Byng Trophy.
 
    Since Maine is outscoring everyone about 3:1, I thought they might be
twice as talented as other teams. Not so, IMHO. They use their talent much
more effectively, and coach Walsh deserves the credit. (BTW we were sitting
near the Maine bench, but couldn't tell for sure who was the Asst Coach
because both were taking notes, etc. - had to ask a Maine fan) Maine is as
pure an offensive machine as any I can imagine. They outplayed NU when they
were shorthanded and under Walsh's direction have taken playing shorthanded to
a higher level. I guarantee you a lot of coaches couldn't relate to this
style. One time when they were down a man I heard Walsh tell them to turn it
up a notch and within seconds I saw 4 blue jerseys hit the NU blue line at the
same time! A 4 on 2 while they were shorthanded - it was beautiful.
 
They rarely got into anything that resembled a defensive box and continually
sent one man after another at the puck carrier and with their speed, they
recoverbefore the other team has a chance to take advantage of the
unpredictable positioning. One time 3 Maine players had 4 NU players tied up
along the boards and came out of it with puck control. I'll be surprised if
anyone can beat them unless its a big physical team with speed. I guess we'll
find out in the next few weeks.