[NHL] I went to a hockey game...

[Josh '99]

RichS wrote:

GO SHARKS...the Adam Graves factor! :-D

Oh no...  Not only am I rooting for the same team in the west as RichS, I'm even doing it for the same reason.   ::yark:: :-P

[melissa \'01]

wow. ok. am rooting for every team Rich S isn't rooting for. hmmm. interesting. gotta love hockey.:-)

[jtwcornell91]

Note that Rich, having lived in Southern California and had the opportunity to benefit from the proximity of three professional hockey teams, is more entitled than most to criticize the NHL's move South.  I think most of us would say not that hockey should not be played in warm-weather cities, but that teams should not be moved from regions of the continent which have historically supported hockey in an attempt to popularize the sport at all costs.  Southern teams in regional minor leagues like the ECHL and (former) WPHL are useful for helping transplants get their hockey fix, and it was useful having teams like Houston and Orlando in the IHL, but what seems wrong is pushing the NHL into areas that haven't had a chance to develop a mature hockey culture at the expense of tradition-rich parts of Canada and the Northern US. (The demise of the I has transformed the AHL from the Northeastern regional minor league it used to be to the new IHL, a national top-level minor league, as was discussed in another thread.)

I hope that the college game can continue to avoid this expand-at-all-costs philosophy. The occasional Frozen Four in a place like Anaheim is a nice change of pace and pleasant to those of us whose lives have taken us far from College Hockey Land, and I don't begrudge the emergence of programs like Nebraska-Omaha and Alabama-Huntsville, which have stepped onto the national stage as a continuation of their own traditions.  But I hope we never see the day when Big East Hockey Champion Miami of Florida plays Pac Ten Champion USC in the Tostitios National Championship Game in the Alamo Dome.

[jeh25]

Ummm, unless you were refering to the Iroquois Confederacy when you said "their" game, I'd say no.

http://www.iroquoisnationals.com/ is a great site that talks about the (US based) Iroquois World Cup team.

To be fair, you may be thinking of the Six Nations of the Grand, a reservation between Hamilton and Brantford, about 120km southwest of Toronto.It was formed as an alliance of five Iroquois tribes -- the Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga and Mohawk -- plus the Tuscarora, who joined the confederacy in the early 18th century.

For some odd reason, BC seems to be one of the two lacrosse hotbeds north of the border. If memory serves, the Gaits were from BC.

[melissa]

think that he was simply refering to the fact that lacrosse is (or at least was for a long time) canada's official national sport - tho most could care less about it up there in actuality.

[jeh25]

Melissa wrote:

think that he was simply refering to the fact that lacrosse is (or at least was for a long time) canada's official national sport - tho most could care less about it up there in actuality.

If I remember correctly, lacrosse is Canada's official sport involving a ball. Thus, the german word for lacrosse is something like kanadischnationalballspiel (Of course, my german is very very rusty so that could actually mean "meat filled pastry" for all I know.)

That would be like the the US calling baseball the official national sport that uses a bat.

[jeh25]

John T. Whelan '91 wrote:

But I hope we never see the day when Big East Hockey Champion Miami of Florida plays Pac Ten Champion USC in the Tostitios National Championship Game in the Alamo Dome.

No. But I wouldn't mind seeing a Big East hockey conference of UConn, Providence, BC, Syracuse, Notre Dame, etc. simply due to the marketing muscle of the Big East with the networks.

"You wanna carry Big East basketball and football? Fine, then you won't mind showing 3 or 4 Big East hockey games too."

I think it is fair to say that HE and the ECAC currently have zero pull with the networks now. A Big East hockey conference might change that.

[jtwcornell91]

Out of curiosity, where the hell did the Big East come from?  What do those schools have in common with each other aside from big time semi-pro sports programs?  The idea of pooling that set of schools because they're a conference in other sports seems like saying that College Hockey America should form a basketball conference or that Notre Dame should play Alaska-Anchorage and Nebraska-Omaha in football because they're all in the CCHA together.

[rhovorka]

A most excellent post, JTW.  You've summed up my feelings exactly, and I couldn't have said it better myself without getting all ranty.

[CUlater \'89]

The reason is because they want to be a true conference, cutting across several different men's and women's sports, in order to take advantage of the cross-promotion possibilities and other synergies available.  Why not try to capitalize on the national reputation of Big East men's basketball (at that time)?  

It's much easier for a school's athletic program if it is a member of the same conference in several different sports (if not all), and it's much better for the conference to have many types of sports under its umbrella.

[jeh25]

CUlater '89 wrote:

It's much easier for a school's athletic program if it is a member of the same conference in several different sports (if not all), and it's much better for the conference to have many types of sports under its umbrella.

Witness the impotence of the ECAC vs. the strong branding of the Ivy League.

[RichS]

You are a good man!  :-D

Graves is my idea of what a pro athlete should be...but of course, too many are like...oh...take your pick...::rolleyes::

[RichS]

Yes I was...:-D

[RichS]

I think it's fair to say Dryden is also an icon of College Hockey...and maybe even of Les Habitants!

Of course, he did fire  Mike Smith, Clarkson '68, who seems to have turned around the Blackhawks as GM the past two years.

Maybe the two of them just could not agree on "the Clarkson thing"...:-D

[RichS]

Well, I think Fred mentioned earlier that it's not worth lambasting Karmanos all over again here....and I agree for the most pART.