[log in to unmask] wrote:

>I haven't seen any comments (other than mine) on list.  You folks in the
>States are missing the best hockey on the planet which is played in this
>tournament.  The kids all care and aren't yet jaded by big money contracts
>etc.
>
Arthur,

I thought one example that typified this was Michigan's Mike Cammalleri
two years ago.  A kid who started college only a month after his 17th
birthday, not only did he reverse the Canadian team's policy of
rejecting small players (which Mike Comrie failed to do in two
consecutive try-outs) but, despite being the 7th smallest player in the
world tournament, only settled for tying the all-time tournament scoring
record because he didn't manage to tally a point in the final game.
 Despite missing 15 of Michigan's games because of the World Juniors and
a subsequent bout with mononucleosis, he was still easily Michigan's
highest goal scorer on the year.

However, I then have to wonder whether we might want to approach the
Guinness people with a claim to the world's record for fastest
subsequent jading.  By the end of summer, even with time spent battling
mono, unjaded Mike had managed to engineer, unknown to anyone else, a
scheme to pressure the Los Angeles Kings with convincing threats of
bringing a court action that would effectively reopen the Van Ryn option
for defeating draft rights, which he parleyed that into a fat contract
just in time to avoid fall registration.

Do you think there's any chance Guinness would give us an appointment?

Bob Griebel