Ryan Robbins writes:
>Mike Machnik writes:
>>TEAM OF THE DECADE
>>1986-87 Boston College.
>
>Gulp! I admit I don't know much about Hockey East before my freshman
>year here at Maine, but I assume Boston College played all its 1986-87
>games on the road, as you write?
 
Yes.  McHugh Forum had been torn down and with the construction of
Conte Forum, which began in 1986, BC had to play every game away from
BC for two seasons.  In 1986-87, they used rinks at BU, Northeastern,
Harvard, and also the Boston Garden as "home ice", in addition to
practicing at an MDC rink (in Brookline, I believe - not exactly next
door).
 
UNH will face this same dilemma next season.
 
>Even then, I find it hard not to
>pick last season's Maine team as the team of the decade, with a 42-1-2
>record, Paul Kariya, Jim Montgomery, Garth Snow, Mike Dunham.
 
Yes, it would be hard not to pick them...unless you saw that amazing
BC team.  Maine had great numbers, but I cannot go simply on stats.  I
rank the 86-87 BC team higher because of the following:
 
* Forced to play all 39 games away from home; won 31.
* More "superstars" than 92-93 Maine.
* Much better defense.  I.e. Brown, Leetch.
* Faced a much tougher schedule.  HE teams had to play each league
  opponent 4x plus one game against each of the 8 WCHA teams.  That
  included North Dakota (40-8-0, 1987 champ) & Minnesota (34-14-1).
  Last season, HE was Maine, BU & everyone else.  In 86-87, BC, Maine,
  Lowell, and BU were all pretty darn good, and the WCHA had a lot of
  tough teams...I remember thinking that every team that came out here
  could have competed for 1st or 2nd in HE.
* Much tougher competition on the way to the national title.  North
  Dakota, Harvard, Minnesota, SLU, MSU, BG - all had perhaps the best
  teams in their histories or at least close.  That made it even more
  impressive that North Dakota (some say the greatest team ever) ran
  over everyone on its way to the title.  BC would have won the NC$$
  title...in any other year.  College hockey that year, prior to the
  US icing the greatest Olympic Team it's ever had, was better than
  it has ever been in any single season.  The list of names of stars who
  played that year goes on and on; literally dozens are in the NHL now.
* Some of the other great HE players that year: LOWELL - Jon Morris (all-
  time leading HE scorer), Dave Delfino; MAINE - Mike McHugh, Mike
  Golden, Eric Weinrich, David Capuano, Jack Capuano, Scott King; BU -
  John Cullen, Mike Kelfer, Ed Lowney; PC - Gord Cruickshank; NU - Bruce
  Racine.  These guys all deserve to be listed among HE's best ever
  (Lowney was one of the most underrated players ever, playing in the
  shadow of Cullen)...yet BC went through the HE schedule like butter.
 
Before I get tons of hate mail...I'm not putting down Maine and most
of you remember the great things I wrote about them last season.  But
when I am asked if they're the greatest team I have seen, I answer
no...at least three were better.  BC is one of them.  And that's just
my opinion, although Maine was one of the teams I most enjoyed watching.
 
Frightening thought: I feel like I'm taking my first step into the
"When I was a boy" stage...
---                                                                 ---
Mike Machnik                                          [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMM* 11/13/93
<<<<<< Color Voice of the (9-10-2) Merrimack Warriors WCCM 800 AM >>>>>