Greg Ambrose writes:
> >> I\'m glad to have something to write not pertaining to subject
> >lines. The
> >> FoxNE announcers were very vocal in trashing Merrimack\'s decision
> >to sack
> >> Anderson. They also were not very complementary about Merrimack\'s
> >> facilities, citing it as one reason why Anderson has a handicap in
> >> recruiting.
> >
> >The question now is, does Ron Anderson deserve his job back? He
> >certainly proved his value to Merrimack by leading the Warriors to the
> >largest wins in their school's history and the first time in Hockey
> >East history that the #8 seed has knocked off the #1 seed in a
> >three-game series.
> >
> >Perhaps the Merrimack administration will be too "proud" to admit they
> >have made a bad decision, but anyone who saw these games already knows
> >it.
> >
> >-Deron
>
> As much as I am glad that Merrimack has finally reached the HE semis, is
> not their victory in some way a confirmation of the Merrimack's
> administration evaluation of Anderson? Could not the question be, if
> they
> are good enough to beat BU on their home ice, why did they not win more
> then 4 games during the entire HE season?
One year ago, after the team gained home ice for the first time ever
(granted, partly because Maine was not eligible for the playoffs) and lost
to BC in 2 games, the goal was to make the next step and get to the
FleetCenter for the first time ever.
They have done that.
Anderson's philosophy is to go through the season with the goal being to
play your best hockey in the playoffs. More often than not, they have done
that. Even in the playoff loss to BC, Merrimack arguably outplayed the
Eagles for the final four periods of the series, outshooting BC 68-28 and
outscoring them 7-6. Greg Taylor was the difference the second night.
But to get to that point where you are playing your best in the playoffs,
you have to take the time to put players in positions they may struggle in
at first and help them along -- with the inevitable growing pains.
The challenge was a difficult one this year because they had so many
inexperienced and weaker players at key positions, and also because the
league was so strong. Their strength was unquestionably up front, on the
first two lines, with glaring weaknesses in the defensive area of the game
-- including forward where graduation had taken several of the better two
way players.
Perhaps if Anderson had played his top players more throughout the season
-- no, not perhaps, definitely IMO -- they would have had a much better
record. They have lost 15 games by 2 goals or less, 7 since late January.
That's the mark of a team that is close to being where they want to be.
Players like White, Gray, Pyliotis, Halecki, etc. have come a long way.
Granted, other players have not developed as quickly, but players develop
at different rates and it is difficult to project up front how it will go.
It may be hard to believe for people who did not see them during the end of
the regular season, when they lost 12 straight, but with few game
exceptions, their defense and goaltending were vastly improved relative to
earlier in the year. This happened gradually as players took time to
develop and gain experience.
But the scoring dropped off considerably as this improvement in defense
coincided with a prolonged scoring slump. They scored more than 3 goals
only once in the last 12 HE games, as compared to 10 times in the first 12
games.
However I always maintained that if they were able to get it all together
and the scoring returned, they would be able to play much better than their
record.
Tom Welby, for example, did not just suddenly come out of nowhere this past
weekend. Since early February he has been in the rotation and played
pretty well. A 2-0 loss to PC, a 4-3 loss to BC (3-3 till :13 left), 5-1
loss to Lowell (3-1 with 7:00 left), 6-4 loss to PC (bad stretch in the 2nd
period but played well otherwise). Dave Hendrickson will confirm that
before the BU series I told him Welby would be in net and that I thought
they could win it.
John Pyliotis, on the other hand, did sort of come out of nowhere :-) -- a
terrific coaching move by Anderson to put him with Stringer and Porter for
the BU series. He joined the team in January from Quebec and like many
others, continued to get better and better until he had earned that spot on
the top line (as well as to enable the re-assembling of the 60 goal
Cohen-Laroche-Kesselring line, key because it allowed Laroche to return to
his natural center position). But you could see signs of it in the last
few games before BU. He's still effectively a midyear freshman
experience-wise. Anderson joked in the pregame interview Saturday that he
was still trying to learn where the cafeteria was. But against BU he
looked like a grizzled veteran.
At any rate, the key in my mind was that I wanted to see them get to where
they could make the semifinals and challenge for a HE championship.
And they are there. They could win it.
At least, they think they can. They think they can beat anyone right now,
anywhere. And that makes them dangerous.
11-25-1 goes right out the window at this point. It doesn't matter how you
get there, just that you do.
Anderson may still not be back -- though the question is being asked by
some and it remains to be seen how it will all play out -- don't ask me to
predict it, it has already proven to be one of the most amazing and
unpredictable things I have ever seen :-) -- but I don't think there is any
question that he can do the job and that with or without him, his team has
a bright future.
That is, assuming they make the right move and hire the right guy...or as
the case may be, do not hire the wrong guy.
--- ---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] *HMM* 11/13/93
***** Color Voice of Merrimack Hockey WCAP 980 AM *****
***** Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page located at: *****
***** http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html *****
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