The UCLA hockey team kicks off its 2003-04 season against its
cross-town rival: USC.
Despite the rivalry, new coach Daryl Evans is playing down
tonight’s game.
“The game against ‘SC is meaningless,” Evans
said. “I just want our guys to be playing their best in
February.”
Evans may be downplaying the game, but USC is doing the
opposite.
The motto on the hockey team’s Web site is “USC
““ where the only good Bruins are in Boston.”
Hockey is a club sport at UCLA, and not recognized as a sport by
the UCLA athletic department.
However, the team treats itself as a varsity sport would. They
have coaches, presidents, promote themselves and even have an
internet play-by-play broadcast.
Evans, a former Los Angeles King and current Los Angeles Kings
broadcaster, coached the Bruins from 1997-2000 and led them to a
51-16-0 record.
Since then, UCLA hasn’t been nearly as successful. This
past season, the Bruins went 1-21-2 (1-16 Pac-8). In 2001-02, they
went 3-24 (2-15).
“I’m disappointed in the last couple of
years,” Evans said. “I hope we can get back to the
level we were at before.”
Evans said that his team will be strong in its goal and has some
good new players, but wouldn’t say much else about the
strengths or weaknesses of his current team.
“I haven’t seen any of the other teams play, so
it’s too early to assess anything,” Evans said.
USC has won the Pac-8 four years in a row, compiling a 24-10-1
(17-1) last season.
The gap between the two programs over the past few years has
been tremendous, but Evans’ last game as coach was a 7-6
overtime loss to USC in the Pac-8 Championship.
“Evans is a really good guy,” first-year goalie Mike
McKinney said. “He cares a lot about the program, and he
wants to see us all improve.”
When Evans is on the road with the Kings, general manager
Patrick Masson will take over the head coaching duties.