On 4/12/13 9:43 AM, True North wrote:
On Friday, 12 April 2013 10:27:41 UTC-3, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 4/12/13 9:19 AM, True North wrote:

On Friday, 12 April 2013 09:27:25 UTC-3, F.O.A.D. wrote:

This Saturday, Yale vs Quinnipiac for the U.S. national collegiate



hockey championship. Both teams are "at home" in New Haven County,



which, for the moment, is the U.S. college hockey capitol of the universe!







QU is 3-0 against Yale this year, but I think the Elis may have a few



tricks up their sleeves this time!







Quinnipiac probably isn't a college you've heard of...from Wiki:







Quinnipiac University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational



university located in Hamden, Connecticut, United States at the foot of



Sleeping Giant State Park. The university grants undergraduate,



graduate, and professional degrees through its College of Arts and



Sciences; School of Business and Engineering; School of Communications;



School of Health Sciences; School of Law; School of Nursing and School



of Education. U.S. News & World Report's 2013 America's Best Colleges



issue has ranked Quinnipiac University first among northern universities



with master's degree programs as having made the most promising and



innovative changes in academics, faculty, campus or facilities.



Quinnipiac is home to the well-known Quinnipiac University Polling



Institute.



University hockey can be exciting, skilled and competitive.

Last month, our local school St Mary's, lost out in the final game of the Canadian University Hockey Championship to rival University of New Brunswick.

The games were played way out in Saskatchewan.

Big hockey excitement around here is our local major Junior team run at the Quecec League championship and then the memorial Cup against top teams from the Ontario and Western Leagues.

BTW.. a player on St Mary's was named MVP for the Canadian University Association and we have a couple players on the Mooseheads who topped the Junior list. Lots of good talent on display.







I like ice skating and the pickup hockey games we'd have on winter

weekends, but I was never a good enough ice skater to even consider

trying out for the high school team. We had a low-level pro team in New

Haven in those days called the New Haven Blades, part of the Eastern

Hockey League. But the real competition back then was collegiate, and

Yale had and has a gorgeous ice rink. Tickets were cheap then, don't

know about these days.



Pro hockey for me these days is too "Americanized," with serious

violence instead of sportsmanship. The only two pro team sports I will

even consider watching are baseball and basketball and, of course,

girls' beach volleyball.


I really don't know why the NHL didn't increase ice size to the International standard. specially since most cities have built new areneas in the last 10 years.
Players are much bigger and faster than back in the old 'Original Six' days.
I agree with you..the league is desperately trying to win new American fans with rough play and fighting.. (remember the broad Street Bullies?).



The Flyers? Sure. The gratuitous violence doesn't add a damn thing to
the sport. Hockey was always a team sport of finesse and grace, just
like baseball and basketball, but it doesn't seem that way anymore. I
remember watching so many of "old guard" players who could really ice
skate their way around the rink.

I remember a high school basketball game in which the star player on our
team was savagely and deliberately fouled by a player on the other team.
I remember it, because the opposing team's coach pulled his kid out of
the game, send him to the showers, and kicked him off the team. It was a
big story on the local sports pages for a couple of weeks, with the
coach being praised and damned. I always thought the coach was
absolutely right.