mine:
 
>> preparation.  I think that restricting the NCAA to American-born
>> players, while allowing the CIAU team to use non-seniors and players
>> with professional experience (which the NCAA team *can't* use) makes
>> the game not really comparison of NCAA vs CIAU, but it does provide
>> for a competative US-Canada game, which is what sells tickets.
 
Arthur Berman's:
 
>What is "professional" is a matter of definition.  The NC$$ does not allow
>players who appear (more than briefly) with tier one juniors to be
>eligible.
 
        The announcers said that there were also CIAU players with
ECHL and I think AHL experience.
 
> This is *not* a rule in the CIAU.  To imply that one set of
>rules gets to define professional is out of bounds.  Any association can
>set up what rules it wants.
 
        Well yeah, and I wouldn't have complained if it were the CIAU
all-stars vs. the NCAA all-stars, but the NCAA team was subject not
only to their own restrictions, but also to choose only American
players, which was a bigger limitation on them than requiring the CIAU
players to be Canadians.  Since they were putting an additional
restriction in place than affected the USA more than Canada, why not
add others that made the rules the same for both sides?  (Rhetorically
speaking, of course; I'd rather see both sides use players regardless
of nationality.)
 
>At any
>rate, the exhibition suggested later in the post between the CIAU and NC$$
>champs would virtually certainly include some former juniors on the CIAU
>team.
 
        Yes, but it would include *all* players on both teams, not
just American seniors on the NCAA side and Canadians on the CIAU side.
 
        I guess that what struck me about this game was that it was
less a game between NCAA and CIAU representatives than another
US-Canada game in the same series that includes World Cup and World
Junior matchups, but with a different set of restrictions on the pools
of players.  (I mean heck, they even wore the same uniforms.)
 
>It should also be clearly pointed out that it was the NC$$ which
>restricted the participation on the American team to seniors.
 
        Presumably for the same reason that college all-star games in
any sport are limited to seniors.  But the restriction stands out more
in hockey, where underclassmen can go off and play for Olympic or
World Junior teams.  But because this Team USA was composed only of
NCAA players, I guess it counted as an all-star game.
 
        Anyway, just my opinion.  Clearly the organizers disagree.
And it was a good game, played with real intensity, not like those
namby-pamby NHL All-Star Games where the only penalty called is too
many men.
                                        John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                        <[log in to unmask]>
        <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html>
 
Cornell Men's Ice Hockey: Back-to-back ECAC and Ivy League Champions
 
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