>I also don't really believe that it is fair to continue pointing fingers at >one player or another. ... Bull frogs! What's unfair about "pointing fingers" when a player is superb or stinks up the place? This is a fanatics discussion, not a ... (What was that 60s group seance thing?). ;-) If someone can hold fans accountable for their performance at a game, surely we can hold players accountable in this forum. Back to hockey (sort of) ... You know when things are going great .. how a player just seems to throw the puck behind the net or up the boards and there's a teammate right there? How when the players seem to watch their opponents and instinctively know where there teammates are and will be? How every pass lands right on a stick? Well, we're not doing much of that on our side of the blue line. Loya and Metcalf continue to turn the puck over. I'm not smart enough to know if the problems are poor focus, poor vision, poor planning, or poor execution by them or the forwards. But I do think I know a championship team won't be doing those things in the latter part of the season. Some fans were blasting the referee Fitzgerald. Go ahead, I'm sure he can take it. Maybe he did miss some calls (spear on Kariya?) and maybe he just let some things go. Fitzy has gone from an average to one of the nation's best referees, IMHO. I think you'll find most of the players really like him. I certainly do, and not just because he comes out before every game and tosses pucks to kids in the stands. Speaking of penalties and team play ... how 'bout Metcalf and an NU player teasing each other near the middle of the third period when Maine had a(n only) 2 goal lead? Metcalf waits and gets in the last lick with a stick in the skate. How about Loya and an NU player trailing the play and Loya pokes his stick into the NU player's skate? Penalty Loya to gives NU real hope for a(nother) comeback. The NU players names don't matter. The Maine players weren't making tough team play, they were making selfish retaliations, IMHO. So many things to say ... so little time ... I found it interesting that Coach Whitehead reported they worked all week on defensive zone play. After Friday night's NU performance, it appears a few more weeks' work are in order. :-( NU it seems is in much the same boat ... they play great and have defensive lapses. Before Friday, they'd had good goaltending. Our goaltending perhaps hasn't been what we'd expect from a couple of skilled veterans, with Yeats again waiting for cold weather before playing well. I'd like to see this tandem split every weekend as a schedule, but I read Coach Whitehead's comments to mean he really wants one regular goalie. As bad as Yeats save percentage is (it's among the worst in college hockey), he really made a number of key, tough stops Friday. He should be proud he kept Maine in the game, waiting for the offense to come through ... and it did. Yeats even played through the Kryptonite, maybe proving he's not Superman, but one of a pair of fine goalies. I'll close by suggesting there's nothing wrong with fan and band support this year, except neither the community nor students filled the Alfond last Sunday. Come see Quinnipiac this Sunday at 4pm ... you will be able to get good seats ... and see a home team victory! :-) cheers, wayne Wayne T. Smith [log in to unmask] Old Town Landing The College Hockey lists: Hockey-L and Hockey3 at http://lists.Maine.edu/