By Eric Kolber

I can’t agree with Jack Weiland’s presumption of “forever failure” for the Northeastern hockey program (March 23). The coaching change doesn’t have to be an acrimonious process and it doesn’t appear it is.

Coach Bruce Crowder gave it a shot, but it didn’t quite work out as well as planned. He was a nice guy and ran a clean program. After nine years and no Beanpots, four last-place finishes in the league playoffs, no trips to the FleetCenter and obviously no tournament bids, the goals for the program were not met and it’s time for someone new.

I don’t think any of this means NU is doomed to be a doormat in Hockey East forever. The administration’s goal is to be academically competitive with other highly-ranked schools like BU and BC — there’s no reason we can’t be athletically competitive too.

The hockey team was pretty successful back in the ’80s — four Beanpots and a trip to the Frozen Four in 1982. NU played one of the toughest schedules in the country last year, fine. A lot of that comes from playing in one of the top conferences. In the end, we finished sixth in the league and that’s only based on league games. Everyone else had to play the same league schedule, so it’s not much of an excuse.

There’s a saying in English soccer that “the table never lies” — you’re usually as good as your record says. I thought we had a pretty talented team (great goalie, creative forwards) but they didn’t play consistently enough to crack the top four. If the best local kids tend to choose BU and BC, maybe the push has to be to get guys like Keni Gibson from way outside of New England. The thinking has to be this program, and this school, has a lot of potential for greatness and we shouldn’t settle for anything less. What we need now is someone to come in who will say, “The hell with all this loser talk. This is a great place to go to school and a great place to play hockey, and we’re going to make this into a winner.” If the recruiting box is closed around BU and BC, then we have to start thinking outside the box.

Far from becoming pessimistic about the hockey program’s potential, instead I’ve only become more encouraged about it. Fellow alums, students, fans, administrators, we can be successful but we’ve got to want it. After all, life’s a fix for the eternal fatalist.

– Eric Kolber is a graduate of the class of 2002.