Much has been said about the ECAC having moved its tournament from
Boston Garden to the Olympic complex in Lake Placid, NY. I think I'm
typical of the ECAC people on this list in that I had never been to
Lake Placid, so I couldn't compare the facilities.
 
OK, so Anne and I went on vacation in the Adirondacks two weeks ago,
and we spent one day and night in Lake Placid. First of all, the
natural surroundings are incomparably beautiful in the fall. Given
that the place is geared so heavily to the winter season, I'd assume
it is beautiful then, as well.
 
Whiteface Mountain is just down the road, so mid-March weather
permitting (I really don't know whether it usually is), a
Friday/Sunday tournament would set up a very nice ski weekend.
 
There aren't too many places in the world where most of the Main
Street stores use hockey paraphrenelia in their windows, but Placid
is one of them. Not surprisingly, it's something of a 1980 Miracle
theme park, but the bottom line is that amateur hockey is a high
profile subject in the community.
 
It's a very small place. The tournament is not going to be swallowed
up by anything else that takes place in the town.
 
The building is terrific. There are several rinks built into the
hockey center; the 1932 rink is now used as a convention floor. But
the 1980 rink, where the ECACs will be played, has ice down year
round. It is a very good looking, comfortable facility. If I had to
compare it to any ECAC rink, it is most like Cheel (Clarkson) without
the latter's utilitarian-bathroom-muted-blue-green color scheme. The
sight lines are excellent, and the building is large enough to
accomodate a good crowd, but not so large (like the Garden) that it
would dwarf a small, lively crowd.
 
There are lots and lots of motels all over town, ranging from
reasonable to outrageous. Lodging should not be a problem.
 
It's about as inaccessible as you'ld fear. Up the Northway from
Albany (a nice, major highway) but then a small, winding two-laner
for enough miles that a driving snow would be a major annoyance.
 
In sum, I loved the place. I don't know whether it's in the long term
interests for the ECAC to host its season-culminating tournament in
the Upstate Outback, but given its history I'm not at all convinced
that anyone can even agree what those interests are. Anyway, I'll be
there, Cornell or no, just to enjoy the weekend.
 
Greg
Somerville, MA
Let's Go Red!
 
Register and Vote! (College hockey fans are, by definition,
enlightened... we should form our own PAC.)