HOCKEY PREVIEW 2007-08: Fire and Ice

The process is simple enough. Every spring, just as the current captain of the Harvard men’s hockey team is preparing to graduate, the players and coaches of the Crimson elect a rising senior to serve as captain for the upcoming season. The vote is generally a straightforward affair, refined over the course of 109 years of Harvard hockey, and the new leader of the Crimson is usually chosen without a hitch.

This year was different. For five straight seasons, Harvard had been the toast of the ECAC, capping off each successful season with an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. This year, for the first time in recent memory, the team was coping with the fallout from a frustrating campaign in which the tournament remained out of reach. The five-year run now ended, the new captain-elect would be expected to erase disappointment, rather than merely to expand on success.

Therefore, it was perhaps with a sense of added importance that the votes were cast this spring. And when they were counted, something strange happened. There was a tie.

So they voted again. And once again, the result was not one name, but two.

“We’ve had one captain over my first three years, and it’s kind of been a tradition at Harvard that we’d have one captain,” says Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91. “[But] we actually took a couple of votes and came out with the same tallies.”

Introducing your 2007-08 Harvard men’s hockey co-captains: Dave MacDonald and Mike Taylor.

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From talking to Dave MacDonald, you might think he’s been captaining the Crimson all his life. The senior defenseman is as comfortable in the locker room as he is on the ice and can handle the press as well as anything a rival offense could throw at him.

“Dave is more vocal, is more comfortable…talking to the media, or speaking out in front of his teammates,” Donato says, “and I think his teammates were very excited and very respectful in naming him captain.”

It is, in many ways, the logical next step for Harvard hockey. MacDonald represents the continuation of a long line of blueliners as captains, a streak that dates back to Kenny Smith ’04.

“We’ve had defensemen [as captains] over the last couple of years, but in a lot of ways, our defensemen have been some of our best players over the last few years,” Donato says.

MacDonald is no exception. Selected in the seventh round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the San Jose Sharks, he has developed a dual reputation as a mentor to be respected by his teammates and a physical force to be feared by his opponents.

At 6’4 and 235 pounds, he is the largest specimen in the Crimson’s lineup, and he has used his frame to his advantage, delivering big hits throughout his career. As a sophomore, he showcased his physical tenacity in a particularly rough contest against Boston College. Undeterred by the loss of his stick, he played defense with his body, flattening an opponent to deny an Eagles scoring threat.

However, while opponents may want to avoid crossing paths with MacDonald on the ice, during practice he’s proved to be eminently approachable. Last season, he and the other blueliners pitched in to help freshmen defensemen Brian McCafferty and Jack Christian adjust to college hockey.

Christian, in expressing his gratitude, might as well have been reciting word for word the job description of a Harvard captain.

“I think the team’s made it easy on us, especially the other defensive players,” he said at the time. “They’ve really helped us in practice, pointing out what we should do better and what’s needed at the next level.”

If MacDonald looks like he’s been captaining for his entire Crimson career, it’s because, in a sense, he has.

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If Dave MacDonald’s demeanor makes him the obvious choice for captain, Mike Taylor makes the same statement with his play. While Taylor is by no means short on advice for his teammates, his authority stems not from his words, but from his work—the smart play and grind-it-out effort he has put into every minute he’s spent on the ice in three years at Harvard.

“Mike’s a leader by example,” Donato says. “He’s unselfish, he comes to play every night, whether it’s practice or games, he works hard…He’s not an overly vocal guy, he’s not what I would call a “rah-rah” guy, but he’s a guy that I think is very respected.”

Taylor has, in fact, been quietly leading the way since his very first collegiate goal, the game-winner in a 2-1 nail-biter over hockey powerhouse Boston University during his freshman year. Back then, Taylor looked up to another soft-spoken leader: assistant captain Ryan Lannon ’05.

“[Lannon] is probably one of the only guys who never plays a bad game,” Taylor said as a rookie. “If I could play like anybody, I’d probably play like him.”

It took a while, however, for Taylor to learn to emulate Lannon’s consistency. He was spectacular at times, but he also went through long stretches during that first season in which the chances were there but the goals never seemed to be. As a sophomore, his hopes of a breakout season were frustrated by a leg injury that forced him to spend a significant amount of time on the bench.

Last year, however, Taylor finally stepped into the spotlight. He submitted the team’s most eye-popping play of the season, a coast-to-coast weave down the right side that culminated in a heads-up assist, propelling Harvard to a huge home win over then-first-place Quinnipiac. After compiling six points as a freshman and eight as a sophomore, he exploded for 21 last year.

However, even as a rookie, when the points weren’t always there, the effort always was. And Donato noticed it, even then.

“The thing that amazes me about Mike Taylor, as a coach,” Donato said during Taylor’s up-and-down freshman year, “is that he is in the right spot and the right position all the time.”

“As a staff,” he added, “we’re real excited about the future for Mike Taylor.”

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2007 will be an interesting year. It will be the first time since the 1979-80 campaign that Crimson captaincy will be shared. It also marks the first time in five seasons that an offensive player has been called upon to captain the team.

“I think it’s great,” MacDonald says of the two-captain format. “I think having two guys in a leadership position…definitely helps, and gives [the other players] more guys to go to.”

Similarly, according to Taylor, having leaders with different areas of expertise is already proving beneficial.

“It was nice...at the beginning of the year,” he says, “that when we were doing drills, I could take the forwards, along with the guys in my class.”

However, as the season progresses, the real story may turn out not to be the number of men at the helm or the positions they play, but rather the complementary nature of their personalities. After 28 years of individual Harvard captains and one disappointing 2006-07 season, they have been called upon to lead the Crimson as a unit: outspoken Dave MacDonald and soft-spoken Mike Taylor, the natural leader and the consummate professional.

“Tayles and I work well together,” MacDonald reports. “I think we complement each other as far as ideas and our views on what should go on within the team. So far, I think the team attitude is strong.”

He pauses, flashing a small grin as he casts a sidelong glance at his co-captain.

“Hopefully Tayles agrees.”

—Staff writer Daniel J. Rubin-Wills can be reached at drubin@fas.harvard.edu.