Dear Hockey Fans,
 
I've been following the flap over Brendan Morrison's "best team" comment and
the snide comments about the new D-I conference with great interest and
sadness.  The last week has brought Hockey-L some of the worst nastiness
I've witnessed here.
 
The sniping directed at fans by fans is useless and mean-spirited.  This
latest rash of Michigan-bashing sounds a whole lot like kicking folks when
they're down, which is something my mom and dad taught me was wrong.
 
The snickering aimed at the new conference and the schools that will
participate in it is just plain stupid.  The fans of those schools will be
as loyal to college hockey as are the participants of this list, and more
fan support can only be good for college hockey overall.
 
In reading the comments of the last week, I couldn't help but think of the
atmosphere in the post-game press conference after Michigan lost to Boston.
There were many members of the media who were positively gleeful--gloating,
really--when Red Berenson and Blake Sloan came into the room.  It was nice
to see their attitudes change when Sloan choked up and nearly cried when
questioned.  After all, he's just a college kid.  I think many of my
colleagues forgot this, that the Michigan players who lost that game--that
all of the players--are just college kids.
 
The lack of compassion for a team that lost was shocking.  I felt equally
bad for Colorado College and Michigan.  It's tough when a season ends, when
a dream ends.  It hurts.  The young men who play(ed) for those teams are
kids playing hockey, and to malign them out of jealousy or just plain
mean-spiritedness is wrong.
 
Paula C. Weston
Girl Reporter
CCHA Correspondent for U.S. College Hockey Online (USCHO)
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http://www.uscollegehockey.com
 
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