The late, great "Badger" Bob Johnson always said that "Every day is a great day for hockey."

On the professional side, the former Wisconsin and NHL coach must be looking down from above with disappointment about the NHL lockout, but no such work stoppage will ever hit the NCAA. And tonight sees the start of the Harvard men's hockey season, which means that many great days of hockey are in store for the near future.

The quest for the Crimson's fourth consecutive ECAC championship and second overall national title starts with a 7 p.m. contest against Brown at the Meehan Auditorium in Providence, R.I.

Three years ago, the Crimson fell in overtime to Rensselaer in the first round of the ECAC tournament.

Two years ago, Harvard fell to Northern Michigan in double-over-time in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

And just this past March 31, the Crimson ended its season on an over-time goal for the third consecutive year, when it fell to eventual NCAA champion Lake Superior State in the national semifinal game.

Just going by progressions, one should think that Harvard will at least reach the NCAA championship game this year (might it end before overtime?). And given the talent level of this year's squad, predicting such a season doesn't ask for a big stretch of one's imagination.

"The experience the players gained [from the last few campaigns] is invaluable," Head Coach Ronn Tomassoni says. "The further you go in the playoffs, the hungrier you get."

Forward (to) March!

The biggest strength of this year's squad comes in the form of its offense. Although the team lost two of its three top scorers from last season, Chris Baird '94 and Brian Farrell '94, a solid core of forwards remains.

Senior Steve Martins is the top offensive player on the team and is already a Hobey Baker candidate. Martins's blazing speed and crafty moves accounted for many of the 25 goals and 35 assists he racked up last year, numbers which helped him earn the ECAC Player of the Year award.

Martins will center the team's front line, with classmates Perry Cohagan and Cory Gustafson on his left and right wings.

"I don't really feel much pressure," Martins says about his switch from the second line to the first. "We are really deep. Our offense is a threat now, as it always has been."

The second line will be centered by junior Brad Konik, who is returning to the Crimson after taking last year off to recuperate from an injured knee.

Sophomore Joe Craigen, who had a solid freshman year playing on the fourth line (in addition to filling in on the other three lines when injuries hit), will play to Konik's left, while speedy junior forward Tom Holmes will play right wing.

"Our line really likes to skate, playing a give-and-go kind of game," Konik says. "We might not show great individual plays, but our strength is weaving in and out and passing the puck through."

The third line looks familiar--junior Kirk Nielsen will center senior captain senior captain Ben Coughlin on the left and junior Jason Karmanos on the right, just like last year.

This trio hardly ever gave up an odd-man break against and was perhaps the best forward line at the end of last season. While the three haven't put up the same offensive numbers that a Martins line might, they do generate a lot of clutch offense--for example, Karmanos scored only five goals, but four of them were game-winners.

"That's our most experienced line as far as playing together, because they played together last year," Tomassoni says. "Down the stretch I thought they were our best line last year five on five, and I expect big things from them, as I do the first two lines."

The fourth line will see freshman Henry Higdon centering freshman Dough Sproule on the left and senior Keith McLean on the right-at least for tonight's game.

Sophomore Stuart Swenson should re-enter the lineup once his bone bruise heals. And junior Brian Adams is ready to play up front.

Fan favorite Ethan Philpott is taking a year off from Harvard hockey--the 6-foot-4, 230-pound bruiser is currently making up for lost time last year playing for Des Moines in the USHL. Philpott does expect to rejoin the squad next season.

Blue-Line Special

The biggest hit that the Crimson took from graduation last year was in its defense. Sean McCann '94, Lou Body '94 and Derek Maguire '94 were all rocks on defense and headed the three defensive pairings.

Naturally, this year's squad will be more inexperienced at the blue-line, but that doesn't mean that the position will be a weakness. Freshmen Jeremiah McCarthy and Brian Famigletti looked particularly strong in last week's 6-2 exhibition win over New Brunswick.

"I think the freshmen are playing great, playing with a lot of confidence," says senior Bryan Lonsinger, who will head the first defensive unit. "We have big shoes to fill losing those three guys, but these are the kind of guys that can do it."

Lonsinger came into his own as a solid defender in the second half of last season and will be joined on the first line along with sophomore Ashlin Halfnight. The two couldn't be more different--Lonsinger is a big, bruising blue-liner who doesn't get involved with the offense very much.

However, Halfnight is perhaps the quickest defender on the squad and often joins the offensive rush. The 1995 National Junior Team member joins martins on the list of consensus preseason Hobey Baker candidates.

The second defensive pairing puts junior Peter McLaughlin together with Famigletti. McLaughlin is a big, bruising defender (at 6'2" and 205 pounds), while Famigletti is a little smaller but has more offensive potential.

The third line should see senior Michel Breistroff, who will play tonight if his groin injury has healed, and junior Geb Marett. Marett is coming of an injury-filled year, while Breistroff returns to Harvard after a one-year absence in which he played on the French national team.

"Michel left as a pretty good player," Tomassoni says, "and you got to think he's coming back as a better player."

In addition to those six, McCarthy and sophomore Marco Ferrari will add plenty of depth on defense.

Freshman Geordie Hyland is expected to join the lineup once he has recovered from a bout of mononucleosis.

"The guys on the team are great in helping [the freshmen] out," Famigletti says. "Everyone has accepted us, coming in as rookies and working our way on the team."

Tripp-ing

The biggest change for Harvard from last year to this will be in the goaltending situation. For the last six years, the Crimson had employed a goalie rotation where each of two netminders would alternate games played.

However, Harvard is left with junior Tripp Tracy as the only returning regular goalie from List year's squad, as Aaron Israel signed with the Philadelphia Flyers last spring.

The solid fundamentals of Israel will be missed, but Harvard still has one of the top goaltenders in the country in Tracy, who had a sensational freshman year and whose 3.01 goals against average last year wasn't too shabby either.

Senior Steve Hennsdorl will be called on to spell Tracy periodically throughout the season.

"A two-man rotation in the third year of the rotation gets very old and stale for the two individuals they're frustrated because they all want to play more." Tomassoni says. "In a funny kind of way we may be stronger in goal without the two of them."

Very Special Teams

Special-teams play was one of the biggest factors in Harvard's success last season.

The penalty killing units has all the potential to be as good as last year, especially when Holmes and Martins are Paired together. The two seemed to generate as many scoring chances a man down as the opposing team had with the power play.

"We're more experienced on penalty killing up front, but a little inexperienced on the blue line." Tomassoni says. "The best way of getting experience is playing games."

Four of the five men on the first power-play unit graduated last year, the sole returning player being Martins. Fariell and McCann anchored the power play along with Martins, but there are other talented players to fill in on the extra man unit this season.

Konik and Gustafson, who scored four times on the second man-up unit last season, will play up front around Martins, while the duos of Coaghhn/Farmgletti and Lonsinger/Halmight are expected to assume the roles at the point.

"We have to feel each other out." Martins says. "We worked rather well [against New Brunswick], although our passing was a little bit off."

The Schedule

Tonight's contest against Brown marks the first of three straight games on the road for Harvard. The team doesn't come home until the night before the Harvard-Yale football game. When it will entertain Cornell (November 18).

From that point through December 7, the team will play seven consecutive games at home, including non conference tilts against top-ranked Boston University and fellow Hockey East member New Hampshire.

The Ivy league has allowed its hockey teams to play an extra two games this season, and the Crimson will head to Alaska-Fairbanks for two games just before Christmas.

The second half of the season sees a Russian touring team come to town on January 2 for an exhibition game, while Harvard will have a chance to avenge last year's overtime loss in the Beanpot final to Boston College when the two face off in this year's Beanpot opener (February 6).

Then comes the stretch run into the beginning of March, with the ECAC Tournament starting March 10. If everything works according to plan, Harvard could play for the national championship on April 1 in Providence.

However, one shouldn't jump too far ahead for now, as the team has to gel before any postseason talk can come about.

"We've got to keep building, keep working hard and hopefully everything will work out," Lonsinger says.

And if everything does work out. April Fools' Day in Rhode Island will certainly be a great day for Harvard hockey.Crimson"TRIPP TRACY with the save!"