At 01:51 PM 3/13/97 EST, Dave Hendrickson wrote:
 
>My own personal pick would have been Tom Poti.  Although he wasn't *always*
>dominant, he came in at the toughest position to adjust to and was at times
>brilliant and at time merely very good.  If there is any one player in this
>year's rookie crop that I could have, it would be Poti.
>
>Maine fans may wonder at that pick since BU got mauled in the two games up
>there and perhaps during those two games Poti didn't look great.
>(Presumably no BU players looked great that weekend.)
 
Great point here Dave.  I was very anxious to see Poti play, but he was a
total non-factor vs. Maine and I came away less than impressed.
 
However, I watched both NU/BU games on NESN last weekend and I see exactly
what Dave is talking about.  Poti was a force, certainly the second or third
best defenseman on the team behind Coleman and maybe Kelleher.
 
I would have liked to see Poti gain more power play time (he's on the second
unit) because I thought he played the point very well.
 
>I could have gone with Kariya and Nickulas instead of Donovan and Reasoner,
>but would have felt badly about leaving Donovan off.
 
What is strange is that the HE awards seem to slide toward those with
"goals" over assists (i.e. Drury/Krog, and Koehler/Larose), but in the case
of Nickulas he scores 22 goals in league play (almost a goal a game) and is
second to the super Chris Drury with 27 and is left off the team.
 
Kariya's goal total probably hurt him as well as he had only 13 goals and 23
assists.  While his assists were higher than both Mowers and Boguniecki, his
goal totals did lag behind Mowers who had 15, but beat out Boguniecki who
only had 12.
 
As was mentioned on ME-HOCKEY, a Boston Globe article Wednesday referenced
Maine as perhaps being the best team in the league at this time, but also
noted the fact that they will be loaded next year.  No question about that,
Maine averaged 5.00 goals a game in league play last year and put just one
player on the All-HE team.  UNH will also be loaded next year, and I firmly
believe that these two teams are the ones to beat next season.
 
>He had a good year, but I'd have taken Jakopin or Kelleher over him in
>a heartbeat.  As Mike has pointed out, Jakopin had health problems early
>in the season, but his play in the later half was at All-American levels.
 
I agree that Kelleher had a great season, but Coleman was the better
defenseman in the games I saw with BU (granted less than Dave), though
Kelleher stepped up well (with Poti) later in the year when Coleman had a
bummed shoulder.
 
I also agree it's hard not to put Jakopin on the list.
 
>Horrendous choice of Noble.  Larocque totally outplayed him.  Larocque would
>have been my first choice and then a struggle over a backup.  A case could
>have been made both for and against Legault, Brian Regan (UMass-Amherst, hey
>you gotta love any guy who lists MacBeth as his favorite book), Matile, and
>Fillion.  Biggest disappointment: Dan Dennis.
 
Agree on all fronts except I think Legault was a poor choice as well, though
I agree it can be justified.  I think there is no question that Larocque may
be the best goalie in the league this season, so I can forgive the pick of
Legault because to some degree it is hard to pick someone else, but even Dan
Dennis put up better numbers than Legault.  I'm not suggesting Dennis
deserves to be here because he doesn't.  All I'm saying is many goaltenders
put up better numbers than Legault.
 
Mike, weren't Thibeault's numbers better than Legault's?
 
In Legault's favor is that he's well respected around the league, and when
Merrimack turned it around, Legault played a big part.  This is one case
where the poor start didn't hurt a player like it did Michaud.
 
>As noted before, I would have gone with Robitaille.  He played about twice as
>many games for a horrendous team and still turned in reasonable (considering
>his team) stats.
 
I'm not going to keep this part of the thread going on my part.  As I said
at the top of my comments originally, the Michaud pick is biased.  Michaud
is a sentimental favorite to me because of all the crap he took up here for
the poor start.  Many simply blammed it all on him and now he's a good
goaltender, the fans cheer louder for him than any other player and he
deserves credit for Maine's success during the second semester.
 
I can't remember the last time Maine started the year without at least one
proven, quality goaltender.
 
I have no problems with the pick of Matile, and I would have put Robitaille
number three.
 
>And I'd have had a tough choice between UNH's Jayme Filipowicz and Mottau.
 
Mottau I thought stunk up the joint in the first semester, but improved as
time went on.  I think one thing that helped him was that he was so highly
touted coming in that he got extra attention from the start.  All we heard
last summer was BC got Farkas, Bellefuelle and Mottau.
 
Filipowicz was hurt by the fact that so many other UNH players made it I think.
 
>All in all, some tough choices.  A case could have been made for all of
>them except for Tom Noble.  That one makes about as much sense as Homer
>Simpson for Intellectual of the Year.
 
Agreed, Tom Noble was the only truly horrible pick in the bunch.
---
Deron Treadwell ([log in to unmask])