{"id":38552,"date":"2011-10-06T05:00:02","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T10:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=38552"},"modified":"2020-08-24T21:24:57","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T02:24:57","slug":"offseason-of-change-means-new-faces-around-ecac-hockey-in-2011-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2011\/10\/06\/offseason-of-change-means-new-faces-around-ecac-hockey-in-2011-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Offseason of change means new faces around ECAC Hockey in 2011-12"},"content":{"rendered":"
In the wake of the most tumultuous summer in college hockey history, even insular ECAC Hockey has a few changes to adjust to.<\/p>\n
Gone is George Roll, fired by Clarkson and now coaching at new Division III program Nazareth in Rochester, N.Y. Gone is Guy Gadowsky, who hopes to replicate his Princeton successes with Penn State in the much tougher Big Ten. Gone is Nate Leaman, who ducked out of Union mid-contract to take on a new rebuilding challenge at Providence. Gone, too, after their junior seasons, are Rensselaer’s Allen York and Clarkson’s Mark Borowiecki. Sophomore Keith Kinkaid jumped ship at Union just before Leaman’s departure.<\/p>\n
Replacing the coaches are Clarkson’s Casey Jones, an assistant under Mike Schafer at Cornell last year; Princeton’s Bob Prier, who worked for St. Lawrence and Joe Marsh for the past nine years; and Union’s Rick Bennett, who was promoted from assistantship. That’s the easy part.<\/p>\n
The hard part is figuring out who will replace the prematurely departed trio, not to mention the dozens who compose the newest class of ECAC Hockey alumni. Flag-bearing Yale lost a half-dozen top-flight players to graduation. Rensselaer, Princeton, Dartmouth and Union each lost nearly as many, and the programs that appear to be starting this season with the greatest continuity may also have the most to prove. Quinnipiac, Brown, Colgate and Harvard may have bid adieu to the fewest significant contributors, but following mediocre (at best) campaigns in 2010-11, will the loss of any<\/em> production be too much to overcome?<\/p>\n