Tuesday 9 March 2010

Were the '09-'10 Squirrels the best ever?

It's a slow time of year and this is an interesting AUS and CIS debate. Evan Daum over at the "South Campus Sports" blog looks at a few other teams that may test "the best ever team in CIS history that never won" theory as Bruce Hallihan of the Daily Gleaner put it last week.

Here is a quote.
While the series win by St. FX could very well go down as one of the biggest playoff upsets in CIS men’s hockey history, the most recent version of the V-Reds wasn’t the best team that never won.

That distinction goes to a team that UNB beat back in 2003/04 at the national tournament — the Alberta Golden Bears who were 40–0–2 heading into nationals. FULL BLOG POST
Interesting article, I hope all you CIS hockey fans enjoy it. Nice work Evan.

5 comments:

  1. I was at the 2004 Nationals and would agree that the 6 to 5 UNB win was one of the best hockey games I was ever at.

    The crowd was electric and it was a packed house.

    The next day, as a favour to a Squirrel friend of mine, I went to the AUC before the Dalhousie/Alberta game and bought tickets for the gold medal game for him from disheartened Bears' fans.

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  2. The most disturbing story in Federicton AUS hockey this year has to be the continuing coaching debacle at STU where it is rumoured that Eagles locked his players sticks up preventing their use by his players with longshoreman type language(apologies to any longshoremen this comment may have offended).
    Just one example of conduct unbecoming of an AUS hockey coach,Eagles seems to have a very limited repitoire of problem solving strategies and is not fit to be in a role model situation;it has or should be evident that Eagles lack of substantive background has him unable and should NOT be allowed to continue to foist his brand of leadership on these young men who have come to University for a growth,developement and higher educational experience;where does Eagles get off with the treatment of these young minds like this.
    STU administration is remis in not intervening,young men are being bullied and psycologically abused by a coach who is unable to appreciate that these are young mens lives that he is meddling with.

    Please tell me,if you can,how can one justify,berating with foul language,players for their playing conduct by locking up their sticks,sounds like he learned that during his stint in the NHL.
    The mens hockey team is Eagles sole creation and surly he in addition should have locked himself away as architect;it is past the time that this should continue to be tolerated by STU administration,it is more than embarrasing to STU alumnae to see someone with so little academic or appropriate background as head of atheletis and by recent beahavior have anything to do with the growth and developemnet of young men,for EVERYONE's sake DO SOMETHING!

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  3. to the poster above...wow, as a STU alum, that was some horrible spelling. I feel bad about also being a STU alum and reading that brutal debauchery of spelling. Question to you, why does it matter so much about Eagles's EDUCATION background to coach a hockey team? I am sure those classes Trevor Stienburg teaches at SMU are awesome. His education background has zip to with hockey. He has hockey education, and its rich. Why do you care so much about his language to the players. I have heard my fair share of swearing also from the other coaches.

    I think if you get to Nationals, with an undefeated record and DONT win, then your the greatest team to NEVER win....UNB didnt even get to the AUS finals!

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  4. Yeah, I agree with the previous post. Rantfather's diatribe loses credibility because his educational qualifications come into question; he certainly didn't take education or language arts; it's standard practice for canadian university coaches to have a post-secondary degree; many of them do teach courses, mainly in phys-ed mind you, but to teach whatever, you do need an academic background to some degree; eagles was hired despite meeting very few of the criteria outlined by St. Thomas University in job description. Having stated that, it doesn't make him a bad person, or a bad hockey coach. He may have difficulties relating to the university environment and the student-athlete dyanmic, and perhaps that is an issue in how he deals with his players. Find it hard to be believe he went on this verbal tirade that rantfather alledges. I don't think Eagles is the kind of guy who verbally assaults his players. He's quiet by nature, and certainly doesn't spew profanity-laced diatribes very often if ever. Perhaps a member of the Tommies could enlighten us on this topic. It would be interesting to hear commentary from a person who would know first hand.

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  5. as to the post above, the only credibility lost is that of Mike Eagles, both as coach and AD.

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