Dick Tuthill writes:
>        Geez,  is that what it's come to?   I hope the college game never
>gets like that!   All you have to do is enforce the hitting from behind
>rule at the same time.   Btw,  I think Burke was a defenseman at Providence
>wasn't he?
 
Yes, Burke played for PC from 1973-77.  Ironically, he was among the
Friars' leaders in PIM in two of his four seasons, according to the PC
media guide.
 
I suppose I have always found it interesting that NHL followers claim
that the college game with its full shield results in more stickwork,
while I see the exact opposite in the NHL.  I believe that this is
more a result of what is permitted in the NHL, and Burke's comments
seem to support that.
 
The college game can always use improving, but I think they have done
a better job than the NHL of targeting what they want to crack down on
and putting it into action.  The NHL has shown in the past that if
they want to eliminate some aspect of the game, they can - like bench-
clearing brawls.  It's all a matter of what they want to do (or don't
want to do).
 
>        The other thing that I have noticed recently,  is that college
>recruiting this year seems to have even more of a Canadian flavor than
>normal.   Seems like only the occasional American gets to play D-1 these
>days,  while D-3 is populated almost entirely by American kids.   Is this
>simply a numbers thing,  or does it speak to something structural in the
>youth hockey programs of the two countries?
 
Well, I went through the list of Eastern recruits from the Globe
posted by Geoff Howell a little while ago, and it shows 25 Americans
and 24 Canadians (also 1 from Finland and 1 from Czechoslovakia).  I
had to guess at the home country for some players since in some cases,
the Globe only listed the school or team the player came from.
 
According to the 1994-95 UMass media guide, a survey of 41 schools
from the 1992-93 season showed the following results:
 
* Athletes from the United States make up 60 percent of Division I
hockey players.
* 27 of the 41 schools surveyed had more American than Canadian
players.
 
Without having a list of all recruits on hand, it is hard to tell
whether the appr. 50% American from the list Geoff posted indicates a
below average year for Americans heading into DivI programs or not.
This doesn't include the 6/6 at Michigan, all of the Minnesota
recruits, and those from BU & Harvard which I believe are mostly
American.
 
BTW, like Dick's comments, this isn't meant to be an American vs
Canadian thing, just an examination of the situation.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93