Here is my reply to Mike's poll.
 
 
>   1) Do you think the change by Hockey East from three 20-minute
>        periods to two 25-minute periods is a good one?  Why
>        or why not?
 
>   2) Do you think your perception of Hockey East or the teams
>        in the league will change?  If yes, for better or for
>        worse?  Why?
 
		The answers to both of these are related.  I think that it is a
		crappy idea for HE to change to this system and will effect how
		they are perceived as a league.  First off, the pros aren't
		playing two twenty-five minute halves, why should the colleges.
		Aren't most of the better HE players hoping to play
		professionally.  What are the scouts from the pros going to
		think?  How are they going to compare a HE player to a player
		from another league?  If a choice had to be made, I would guess
		that the HE player would lose out because of this silly rule
		change.  This leads up to the point of recruiting.  Now these
		kids who have been playing "normal" hockey are going to look at
		the HE schools differently.  The difference in game style and
		the difference in professional playing possibillities.  He will
		lose kids to the other leagues.  The style of play is going to
		change.  I would guess that the pace of the game might slow down
		if a team has only three lines which must play for twenty-five
		minutes.  Either that or the quality of play will decrease
		because of "the dreaded" fourth line.  This will also screw the
		HE teams up when they play non-league games, which better be in
		the normal fashion.  Everyone knows how important these games
		are in the rankings.  So if the HE teams go into these games
		unaccustomed to playing three twenty minute periods, they might
		end up losing games against weaker teams which will bring down
		that team, and the other HE teams through the league games.  As
		for TV, screw them.  How can they say that the hockey games are
		too long when the last TWO minutes of a NCCA basketball game can
		take TWENTY minutes, the lenght of a non-HE period.  Well, I
		guess that HE has to do something different to try a seperate
		themselves from the rest of the "lower" (in their opinion)
		leagues.
 
>   3) Should HE teams receive less consideration for an NCAA
>        berth than non-HE teams, given all other things to
>        be equal, because their league games are shorter?
 
		They shouldn't be given any less consideration.  However, if
		they start losing non-legaue games because of this rule it is
		going to hurt them in the polls.
 
	Mike Zak
	Clarkson '87, '90 and...