More strangeness seen in the TSN Top 20 (and thanks also to Jon). Does
TSN just look at last year's finish and throw in a couple of surprises?
> 1) Michigan
Kiss of death?!? Reminds me of 86-87 when BU was the preseason #1 with John
Cullen and they finished below .500. I don't think UM will do that, but
it's a lot of pressure. They'll get a challenge from several teams within
their own conference, even.
However, I have a lot of trouble coming up with a preseason #1; it should be
pretty wide open this season as a lot of teams, at least 2-3 from each
conference, appear to have a legitimate claim to one of the very top spots
in the country. That can only make for an exciting season.
> 2) Maine
Perhaps a little high; loss of experienced scoring like Roy/Pellerin/Downey
Robitaille means the Black Bears may have to rely a bit more on defense and
netminding, but they have one of the top tandems in the nation in Snow/Dunham
and their D proved more than capable last year. Not to mention landing
high-scoring recruits Peter & Chris Ferraro, an instant line.
> 3) Minnesota
John has a good point about the Gophers losing a lot of players, but their
strong talent pool means they'll always be among the best. 3rd in the country
may be pushing it, though. Experience counts for a lot, and Woog will be
asking a few inexperienced players to step into the big skates of some very,
very good departed players.
> 4) BU
I'm not even sure Maine is the best in HE with BU around. Last year was
the get-your-feet-wet year for this club, many of whom were freshmen or
inexperienced sophomores - but very talented. This year they could return
to the form of the late 80s Terriers, and in 92-93 we could see a repeat of
the 90-91 team.
> 5) Clarkson
> 6) LSSU
> 7) Colorado College
Is this realistic, CC/WCHA fans? Somehow I think this is TSN's "sleeper".
The Tigers have been improving steadily and it would be great to see them
reborn as a power in college hockey, but 7th?
> 8) Michigan State
> 9) Minnesota Duluth
> 10) BC
The book's still out on BC, especially with LaGrand gone; their freshman
class last season was not as good as BU's - at least not as far as making
an immediate impact. In the long run, there could be several unexpected
pleasant surprises there. But the Eagles will suffer from a weak scoring
attack and the loss of several key leaders from last year (Franzosa, LaGrand,
Cleary, Rathbone). #10 is a little high IMO; maybe #14-15.
> 11) Harvard
Interesting situation at Harvard - goalie tandem Hughes & Roy are gone, but
a LOT of talented sophomores return. I still think they need to prove
themselves, but the potential is there.
> 12) Wisconsin
Good call; the Badgers have enough returning players to weather the losses
of MacDonald, Derksen, etc. Will Michelizzi, an inexperienced senior, get
the call in net or will it be blue-chip freshman Jim Carey? It isn't that
often that a Boston kid travels West to play between the pipes.
> 13) Illinois-Chicago
What does UIC have besides Hillebrandt? (A serious question.)
> 14) Providence
Hmmm...PC loses Gaudreau, Boback, Heinke, Robison, & Kane - but a pretty
solid nucleus remains, backed by Mullahy in net. Darby and Quenneville
should be among the top players in the league as sophomores and may turn out
to be Gaudreau and Boback II. Therien anchors the defense and is the best
in HE. A team to keep an eye on as the season progresses - they may not
impress early on and may finish something like 14-10 in the league, but
they'll compete for an NC$$ spot and if they squeak in, they'll do some
damage.
> 15) Northern Michigan
> 16) Lowell
TSN Sleeper #2. Nope, I can't see it. HE 1st Team netminder Mark Richards is
gone along with the three players that carried them much of last year - Gatti,
Parsons, and Carter. The Chiefs are still rebuilding under Crowder and this
is much too early to be predicting a top 20 finish, although I wouldn't put
it past Crowder leading UML to renewed glory in several years or so. A huge
chunk of the scoring leaves with the above three players as well as the
experience on penalty-killing and the power play. Mike Murray has a big
job ahead of him to repeat his superb sophomore year. Home ice is a lofty
goal for the Chiefs this season, but it may be attainable if Richards'
tandem-mate, Dwayne Roloson, continues to impress as he has for the past two
years.
> 17) North Dakota
> 18) New Hampshire
According to this, TSN is picking UNH for about 6th in HE. That may be
right, with the crushingly devastating losses the Wildcats suffered after
their wonderful 91-92 campaign. The top 5 forwards along with G Jeff Levy
are gone, and their D was already their weak point. So while I may agree
with 6th in HE, 18th in the country is pushing it, I do believe.
If you want a sleeper out of HE, try Northeastern. I'm also tempted to
throw Merrimack in there - if the goaltending situation settles out, the
Warriors will challenge for home ice and gain some top 15 votes during the
season - but you know about jinxes and all that. :-)
Maybe you can tell...but I see HE having a couple of very good teams (BU,
Maine), a couple of average teams (PC, BC) and a whole bunch of just-below-
average teams (UML, MC, UNH, NU) which have the potential to move into the
PC-BC group or even to finish dead last.
> 19) RPI
This surprised me. RPI is at least the 2nd best team in the ECAC, maybe
the best. Top 10 at least.
> 20) Michigan Tech
Team without a coach is right, but with the way Brown had them improving
over the last couple of years, I would have definitely pegged them for a
top 15 finish. It will be interesting to see if they stay within the
program or not - staying within may maintain some continuity and minimize
the problems that could occur with a program losing a coach who has been
working to take it up from the bottom.
>I also read in the Albany paper that Union has added another one of the
>Darby brothers. They must be quite the hockey playing family
>(considering they are from Schenectady). Craig was HE Rookie of the Year
>for PC. Another Darby (name?) was a freshman at Union this year. The
>newest Dutchman (Keith?) is a former leading scorer for Army who sat out last
>season and will be eligible to play effective with Union's opener with,
>of all teams, Army. Given that Union graduated 7 of its' top 9 scorers
>he will be a welcome addition.
I'll have to look into this, but there's something that confuses me about
all this - I didn't know there were *3* Darbys. I seem to recall some
confusion last year about one of the Darbys being headed to Army and then
winding up at Union at the last minute. The 91-92 Army/PC/Union media guides
(I have all three since we played all three) should shed some light on this.
- mike, sick of hearing about Syracuse football after 3 days out there
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