Then again, the pre-season pick for "Line ofFire" or "Superline" is clear: the "red" squad ofsophomores Cory Gustafson and Konik (who played onthe same line last year) andCaptain/Olympian/Hobey Baker-candidate Ted Drury.

These guys thrive off speed and finesse:passing, passing and more passing "We're not goingto be beating three guys between the legs. you'renot going to find a lot of individual skating upthe ice," Konik says. "Teddy's best aspect is hecan find openings. The way we play is quick. Thepuck moves fast. We're moving the puck a lot, soit sometimes seems we're moving a lot faster thanwe are."

Harvard can safely expect to get scoring fromthe second line as well, which features Flomenhoft(the team's leading returning scorer), senior MattMallgrave and freshman Tom Holmes--a trio ofhard-hitting, high-shooting forwards. The thirdline of sophomore Perry Cohagen, sophomore BenCoughlin and junior Brian Farrell should alsoexperience some success through its forechecking.

From top to bottom, however, the key won't bescrappiness or hitting; it will be speed. "I thinkwe're a very quick team. Most of the bigger teamsout there are just a lot slower than us. If wekeep up with our speed and keep the pace of thegame up, we can wear them down," says freshmanJason Karmonos.

The only question on offense is sophomore SteveMartins, who will likely sit through Decemberbecause of an ankle injury. Next to Drury, Martinsis perhaps the Crimson's most talentedforward--he's pesky, speedy and strong. While hesits, Harvard's power-play and penaltykillingunits won't be nearly as strong as they could be,though Drury should keep them solid.

Defense

On the blue-line, Harvard has many morequestions to answer. The Crimson's strongestdefender, junior Derek Maguire, is taking the termoff because of family reasons; his absence hurtsthe team's stability on defense, not to mentionits physical game and power-play unit.

Thankfully for the Crimson, Maguire'sroommates, juniors Lou Body and Sean McCann,should provide stability. McCann, for one, is anaggressive defender around the crease, and hisbelligerence has made him the team's unlikelyenforcer (next to Flomenhoft of course).

Tomassoni plans to spread these two out,teaming McCann up with freshman Jeb Maret and Bodywith forward-turned-defender junior MichelBreistroff. The third defensive pairing is theCrimson's most untested: sophomore BryanLonsinger, who served as both a forward andblueliner last year, and freshman PeterMcLaughlin.

In goal, the Crimson will go to a rotation ittried successfully four years ago: two freshman.Aaron Israel (who played a fierce game in the 3-2victory over Brown last week) and Tripp Trace willbe the rotation, while Steve Hermsdorf, a toweringsophomore who continues to get rave reviews fromhis JV teammates, might get a shot at the bigleagues.

"On defense and particularly at goal, we havesome players who are untested. It's going to takea few games to get them some experience,"Flomenhoft says. "We're willing to live with anymistakes they may make now, because they're goodplayers and after some games, they'll be evenbetter ones."

The question, of course, is: how long will thattake? Last year, the fabulous freshmen forwardsmade their impact immediately, but as the seasonprogressed, it became all too apparent that theirinitial burst of goals couldn't last. Harvardstruggled later in the season to find a reliable,game winning finisher.

With the return of Drury from the Olympics andthe maturation of last year's frosh, thatshouldn't be a problem. But there's no doubt, whatglimmers now may not look much brighter than tarcome March. Will the goalies remain solidthroughout the season? Will the blue-line breakunder pressure? Will the Crimson's forwards gettossed around by their bigger opponents?

There's certainly cause for concern, reasons toexpect that last March's funeral at Bright--asymbol of expectations shattered--could repeatitself this year.

But, with so much talent and so much desire,the 1992 Harvard men's hockey team also has causefor hope. And confidence.Final Scoring Statistics, 1991-92

Overall  ECAC  Ivy League

Name  GP  G  A  Pts  G  A  Pts  PPG  SHG  GWGTim Burke  27  8  24  32  6  22  28  1  0  0S. Flomenhoft  27  14  17  31  14  14  28  8  0  3Steve Martins  20  13  14  27  9  12  21  6  0  2Matt Mallgrave  27  12  15  27  11  14  25  3  0  1Brad Konik  27  10  10  20  9  7  16  4  0  2Ben Coughlin  26  10  10  20  9  9  18  2  3  1Derek Maguire  25  1  16  17  1  15  16  0  0  0Sean McCann  27  4  10  14  2  10  12  0  0  0Cory Gustafson  27  3  10  13  3  9  12  2  0  1Jim Coady  25  7  4  11  6  4  10  0  0  2Perry Cohagan  27  5  6  11  5  3  8  0  0  1Lou Body  22  1  9  10  1  7  8  1  0  0Rich DeFreitas  27  1  8  9  0  8  8  0  0  0Brian Farrell  9  5  3  8  5  2  7  3  0  1Gus Gardner  26  3  3  6  3  3  6  0  0  0Bryan Lonsinger  19  1  5  6  1  5  6  0  0  0Chris Baird  21  3  2  5  3  1  4  1  0  0Kevin Sneddon  17  2  3  5  1  3  4  1  0  0B. McCormack  26  0  5  5  0  5  5  0  0  0Michel Breistroff  21  0  5  5  0  5  5  0  0  0David Kilpatrick  6  0  1  1  0  1  1  0  0  0Sean Wenham  4  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0Greg Hess  2  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0Brian Connolly  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0Goaltending Statistics, 1991-92

Name  GP  GS  MP  GA  Svs  GAA  Sv%  W  L  T  ShoAllain Roy  15  15  919  39  366  2.55  .904  9  4  2  1ECAC  12  12  732  28  292  2.30  .913  7  2  2  1Chuckie Hughes  12  12  739  38  269  3.09  .876  5  3  4  0ECAC  10  10  620  30  216  2.90  .878  5  1  4  0

Crimson File PhotoHarvard Players celebrate last year duringHarvard's Home victory over Union. It was the1000th team victory for the Crimson.