My last comments on the Ice Dance.
 
>LSSU 9 - BU 1. I still can't believe how completely LSSU took away BU' entire
>offense. IMHO Parker was completely outcoached and I don't think therewas a
>good excuse for it. They were beaten badly by LSSU in the semis last y,
>Parker was quoted as saying things prior to the game which indicated h knew
>what to expect - e.g., LSSU plays disciplined positional, in-your-face
>defense, generates offense from defense, etc. What bothered me most wa after
>the game, Parker took no - read zero blame. he made statements which idicated
>he thought it was a lack of , effort, focus, discipline on part of plaers
>which he could not explain. LSSU bottled up BU with ferocious forechecing and
 
Will anyone please stand up and say BU was outclassed, outtalented, outplayed,
outeverythinged?  IMHO Parker wasn't outcoached.  Jeff Jackson coaching the
BU team couldn't have beaten LSSU.  Like every ice dance the last three years,
LSSU rose to the top, or nearly the top, with only the heroics of Jim
Montgomery and Paul Kariya interrupting their winning skein.  LSSU wasn't the
best regular season team, IMHO that would be Michigan, with BU a very close
second.  But LSSU was the best team when it counted, the last four games.  They
beat every big top 10 team, and dominated the action in St. Paul.  Harvard
was the closest, with only a defensive breakdown separating them from the
UPers.
 
Jack Parker did try to coach his way to the championship.  Bob Norton brought
out BU's indirect passing strategy as a means of getting the forecheckers off
the puck carriers during the break-out play.  Parker's ploy was a direct
countermeasure from the Harvard game; even Harvard's super talented D's had
great difficulty getting up-ice quickly, and even more difficulty getting
the puck into the offensive zone with any room with which to maneuver.
 
BU's main problem was twofold, and Parker couldn't affect either one.  BU's
finishers, the team's obvious weakness, couldn't get the job done.  After
LaChance's shot banged off the post, the BU scorers folded.  The BU offense
couldn't muster enough effort to overcome the stingy LSSU defense, the same as
Harvard, a much more talented team offensively.  Second, Herlofsky and McKersie
suffered off-nights.  BU's only hope was for Herlofsky to come up big on those
second period power plays.  But LSSU's face-off play proved unstoppable, and
Herlofsky seem to lose his confidence.  McKersieshowed absolutely nothing as
a replacement, and the rout was on.
 
I don't know any coaching strategy which could have been employed to steal a
victory from the stifling Laker defense (Coach Walsh are you out there?)  So
the best team won, period.
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            "NYS   // Hockey"
        Go 'Gate  //   Brian Morris
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