I have only a few notes to add to Richard and Phil's excellent write-ups about
Friday's Harvard-Brown tie.
 
- Brown looks every bit as well-coached and agressive as they did last year,
and the main problem I see for them is the graduation of their real offensive
attackers, like Fraser and Chauvette. What they did best was out-muscle
Harvard. I would guess that Harvard was as big if not bigger than Brown, but
the Bears seemed to knock the Crimson around and controlled a lot of the
neutral ice play. This put a damper on Harvard otherwise flashier and more
potent looking offense.
- And the Harvard offense looks good, but as Richard notes, tentative. They end
up with brilliant individual efforts, but lack the coordinated attack. Steve
Martins, who looks like he could do it individually every time he touches the
puck, was largely stymied by Brown. I have a gripe here with the reffing:
Martins was constantly harrassed, sometimes egregiously so, and the refs
didn't follow up. I can't blame Brown--after Martins burned the Bears earlier
in the season, they played him very smartly, especially Kaban, who in seemed
to spend the whole game in the box, but always took someone with him, often
Martins. And this was the most frustrating thing: talented as he is, Martins
has to learn not to retailate. He's gotten better, but a few times he started
looking like the WWF.
- All in all, I'm impressed by Harvards backchecking, but depressed by their
lack of a coherent attack once they breakout. They get plenty of two-on-ones,
three-on-twos, and don't seem to know what to do with them. Part of the problem
is the lack of a real playmaker. If they want to get anywhere vs. RPI this
weekend (not to slight Union), they need to really work on these things.
 
Sandy