The Lake Placid Experience
 
or
 
I Will Soon Know (Again) How A Bear Feels When It Hibernates
 
 
 
Whilst our fellow college hockey fans, media & assorted followers
are traveling to Boston (population 574,283), St. Paul (pop. 272,235,
and right next to Minneapolis, with a population of 368,383) and
Detroit (pop. 1,027,974), we of the ECAC are headed for Lake Placid
(pop. 2,500).  It's a little different experience, if that's the proper
term.  Being in Lake Placid has its good points and its bad.  Here are
some for those who have never been there, and may never go:
 
GOOD POINTS
 
1.  The food spread in the hospitality room is AWESOME.  Free
beer, and soft drinks, cold cuts, salad, roast beef, etc.  At Hockeyfest
in 1992, at the Boston Garden, all they had were soggy hot dogs and
pretzels in some dingy little room.  At Lake Placid it's a spacious
room away from it all.
 
2.  The press box is AWESOME.  This is how a press box should be.
Spacious, ample room for numerous broadcast crews, print media
segregated from broadcast media.  Up high, excellent view of the ice.
 
3.  Hotels are within stumbling distance of the bars.  In fact,
everything is within stumbling distance of everything else.  The only
time you need to drive is if you go to ...
 
4.  The bobsled and luge runs.  You don't appreciate life until you've
gone down the bob run in one of those rickety old sleds.  You've
never truly lived until you go down the luge run.  After a brief (2
minute) crash course in steering, they send you on your way.  And for
some, the crash course continues while on the way down.  Just ask
Jayson.
 
5.  If you have one of the press/VIP passes, everyone is really, really
nice to you.  Plus it gets you the free bob and luge runs.
 
6.  The best brownies in the world are served in the hospitality room.
They are so good, I gave them a separate listing from the rest of the
food comments.
 
7.  Nice arena.  No bad views on the lower level, and the upper level,
with bleacher seating, has railings in the way, but gives it that old-
time feeling.  Also, knowing you're in the building where the "Miracle
on Ice" occurred is refreshing.
 
BAD POINTS
 
1.  They let the VIP people into the hospitality room, and it seems
half the people in the arena have VIP passes.  Well, you can't have
everything.
 
2.  You have to go through the crowd to get from the press box to the
press area downstairs.  Then again, you have to do this in just about
every college hockey rink and the Boston Garden.  Hell, at the
Knickerbocker Arena, there is no press box built in, and that building
was designed by Greg Crozier, RPI alum, hockey player and jailbird.
(I just mentioned hockey, so there is my obligatory hockey content)
 
3.  There's nothing to do up there.  I mean, what do you expect from
a town with only 2,500 people?  You walk down Main Street, then
you walk back along the other side.  If you walk slow, this takes 1
1/2 hours tops.  Then there is nothing to do.  You see the same
people over and over again.  Then you go into the Olympic center
and try to snoop around.  See if any doors are unlocked.  (No, the
security is good.  Trust me.)  You can drive over to the housing
center where the teams are, go to the gift shop, then check out the
rest of the building.  You'll run into the teams, and see that they are
as bored as you are.  Drive over to the ski-jumps and go to the top.
You'll then realize how insane ski jumpers are.  Stand at the speed
skating oval and try to figure out, out of all the flags flying on the
flagpoles, which represent nations that are still in existence.  If you
ski, you're better off.  But for those of us who don't, it is boring.
 
OVERALL ASSESSMENT
 
If you need to catch up on some reading, Lake Placid is where you
want your conference to be.  I actually prefer it to being in Boston
mainly because the arena is better.  However, next year this time, I'd
probably want to be in the Shawmut/Fleet/Whatever
Center/Forum/Garden, assuming the food spread is good.  For first-
timers, Lake Placid will be great.  For those of us going for the third
time, snore city.
 
Of course, Friday will be St. Patrick's day, so by midnight  I won't
care where I am, as long as there's more beer near me.  Wait, with
free beer in the hospitality room and RPI playing at 5 p.m., I'll
already be in the no-care mode before the Clarkson-Princeton game
ends.  Nice scheduling.
 
 
Kurt Stutt
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