First, a bit of news.  With the restructuring of the Mass. higher education
system to bring Lowell under the same administration as UMass-Amherst and
UMass-Boston, Lowell's OFFICIAL name is now UMass-Lowell.  This is how the
school is listed in the Hockey East composite schedule.  Also, Hockey East
has reordered their alphabetical listing of the teams to place UMass-Lowell
after Maine and before Merrimack.  The NCAA composite that will be sent to
this list will reflect this change.  However, don't be surprised if I still
refer to them as Lowell.
 
Southeastern Massachusetts University underwent the same process.  SMU will
now be known as UMass-Dartmouth (its location).  SMU is an ECAC III team.
 
The new all-sports radio station in Boston, WEEI (590), has been having
occasional interviews with US Olympic hockey hopefuls.  This morning the
guest was BU's Shawn McEachern.  McEachern is Team USA's leading scorer (stats
not given).  He pretty much talked about what it's like always being on the
road, and hoping to get a day or two to spend at home when the team comes to
New England.  He believes that playing the NHL teams now will help the team
improve its defense, and then playing the international teams will help
them get used to the international style of play.  He said that while the
NHL teams are bigger than USA, USA does have the speed advantage.
 
As for his future, McEachern just about flat-out stated he will be signing
with Pittsburgh after the Games.  He made no mention of even a possibility
of returning to BU, either for the end of this season or for next year.
 
The host, Dale Arnold, asked him if the BC & BU guys were getting along :-),
and McEachern said sure, but that while waiting on the line to be interviewed
he heard someone say he was from Boston College, and that made him *very*
upset. :-)
 
 
- mike