On Fri, 15 Dec 1995, Barkan, Jon wrote:
 
> Hello all,
>
> In response to Dave and Mike's little note battle about Merrimack, I hate to
> take sides, but I have to in this case.
>
> Ron Anderson is not only a great coach, he's a great person and an ever
> better man to lead any Division 1 hockey program in the country!!!! The
> problem is that its hard to recruit, as Mike and I have talked about before,
> with Volpe Complex as your home in the heart of Massachusetts.
 
>
> With UMass entering the picture, with a brand new building, it'll be harder
> for Ron to compete than it usually is with the BU's, BC's and NU's of the
> world when they have nicer buildings and the Beanpot to offer their kids.
> It's also tough to compete against guys like Maine and UNH, because they are
> the only thing in their towns. MC has to compete with the Celtics and the
> Bruins for fan support as well.
 
MC competing w/ Celtics and Bruins? Not 26 miles from Boston they don't.
Nobody sits at home and says, gee, Warriors or Bruins tonight....
 
Ron a great coach? Based on what? Based on his record leading a Division
2 team that kids fought each other to play for?
 
Volpe an obstacle? No argument there. Would Ron fare much better with a
new building? I doubt it. The word is out about the program. The kids who
have gone on to play elsewhere or went home know what playing for him was
like. Is he a great guy personally? Is he impeccably honest and beyond
reproach professionally? Yes.  None of which wins hockey games.
 
>
> But the bottom line is if you give Ron Anderson a new facility, I guarentee
> he'd be as successful as the rest of the eastern coaches, if not better.
 
Well, if the rink gets built, we'll see. Maybe he'll be coaching MC then,
maybe not. I've seen too many highly-touted, talented players come in and
play like crap for Anderson and go on to improve. Look at Mark Cornforth,
playing now for the Boston Bruins. He's played better since leaving MC
then he ever did there, save perhaps the first half of his freshman season.
 
 As
> much as it hurts me to say this, he took an average indepedent team into
> Matthews Arena a few years ago in an NCAA tournament and beat Northeastern
> before losing to eventual champion Lake Superior State. Did you think that
> was luck? I sure as hell don't!
 
Luck? In a manner of speaking, yes.
 
1988 Warriors key player #1:  Jim Hrivnak. He expected to go pro and was
told very late in the recruiting season he should play another year where
he was. He decided to go college instead, and MC was one of the few
schools left with scholarships to offer. BTW, he skipped town when his
grades dropped in the last half of his senior year, and turned pro--
resulting in the NCAA selections committe choosing St. Cloud State as the
guaranteed independent bid in 1989.
 
Key player #2: Jim Vesey. Played for a high school none of the Division 1
coaches cared about. His fantastic scoring stats that year were
discounted due to the relative strength of his school's schedule. He was
strong and good with his hands, but slow. He was a solid Division 1
player, but nobody looked at him.
 
Key player #3: Rich Pion. Pion was everything Vesey wasn't. Small and
fast. Too small. Not as small as Cal Ingraham, but pretty close. He
wasn't considered D1 material because he was too small. Playing a regular
D1 schedule, he might've been out with injuries for half his career. He
feasted on D2 teams and took the advantage of surprise and speed against
Division 1 teams.
 
Other players on that team were in similar situations: Mike Boyce, Chris
Kiene, etc.
 
A triumph of coaching? MC had already beaten NU in OT earlier in 1988.
All ANderson's cards were on the table.
 
I was at those games. MC was in a hole after five periods in the
total-goals series. All-America goaltender Bruce Racine had a series of
SERIOUS mental lapses. He gave up two long slap shot goals-- one from
beyond the blueline by Mark Ziliotto (another Canadian player overlooked
by Div 1 coaches-- this time, anecdotal evidence has it, because it was
assumed he was already playing major junior) and MC crawled back over the
final thirty minutes to win 10-8.
 
Is that great coaching? A nailbiting comeback playoff victory that
happened seven years ago? Did he engineer that win? Or did his players,
along with NU's falling asleep when they thought it was, to paraphrase
Dan Roche on WCCM, "all over"?
 
Great coaching is what Parker's teams do. They win regularly,
methodically, mechanically. They don't let teams back into games, They
don't let up. (Recent games vs. MC notwithstanding).
 
Ronnie has it tough recruiting. He scours Canada looking for those
overlooked players to build another dream team. It's not going to happen.
And even if it did-- is it a credit to him? Or just happenstance?
 
I'm struck by the impression that Anderson will be the Moses of Merrimack
hockey. He may have helped take the program to the Promised Land (after
seven years wandering in the desert-- and counting) but he may not be
allowed to cross over into it.
 
 
P.S. Even so, I have a tape of that game vs. NU and the highlight tape
that year. A mediocre team? I think not. That's my favorite hockey team
ever. Give them a good rink, decent crowd support, a real coach, and a
regular D1 schedule-- they would've been Hockey East champs at least once
and had Lake Superior visiting Massachusetts to play THEM.
 
-Dave Josselyn
 
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