This is in response to an earlier posting I had regarding SLU. I'd posted the rumor circulated by the Watertown Daily Times that SLU Coach Joe Marsh made his team skate after the first Clarkson-SLU game. Skating a team after a game is a violation of NC$$ rules. I made the posting the find out if anyone had heard Marsh's radio show (where he addressed the issue) or seen anything further in the Times. It has come to my attention that some interpreted the article as implicitly passing judgement and suggesting that SLU was actually guilty of the chrages. In fact, the opposite was true. When I heard that, I was quite skeptical for several reasons. First off, Marsh is one of the most reputable and respected coaches in the ECAC. Although I dislike the SLU team with a passion, I certainly respect Marsh. Secondly, a few years ago, there were similar allegations made about Clarkson coach Mark Morris (that he skated a team after a loss). That rumor also received publicity. It received publicity because it is a violation of the NC$$ rules. That fact was made clear in the local media. If the SLU coaching staff had been unaware before, they certainly knew of this rule now. I profoundly doubted Marsh would do something he had to have known was contrary to the NC$$ rules. I tried to note my skepticism with a comment, "[Skating a team after a game] is a clear violation of the nC$$ rules." I was trying to imply that the violation is so obvious that Marsh wouldn't have considered risking his reputation and SLU's reputation by breaking it. However, I guess it could also be infered as me passing judgement on the guilt of the program. I guess I should have used "would be" rather than "is". Now, onto the news. I spoke with Coach Marsh about this issue, earlier today. He made several comments about this. He said he was diametrically opposed to skating a team after a game and did not do so. He said he was aware that it was a rules violation. He also said he is also opposed to it because he feels it would have had the opposite of the desired result. He mentioned that, "[Clarkson-SLU] was an emotional game. We lost to a good team." He felt that if he had skated the team after, it would have been viewed more as a punishment and have been counterproductive. He said that better results are achieve when you fire up a team rather than further demoralize them. Actually, he spoke a (relative) length about this. Marsh emphasized that he knew it was a rules violation and made clear that the incident did NOT happen. He told me that on Sunday, he spoke to the Times reporter and mentioned most of the same things he mentioned to me. However, I have yet to see a retraction of the rumor or any further comment on the situation in the Times (says a lot about the Times, IMHO). Just wanted to clear the air... {{{{{{{{{{{{Let's go Tech}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} BRI FARENELL [log in to unmask] GO ERIN WHITTEN! Clarkson University '95 Glens Falls High '91 USA Hockey in '94! NCAA, AHL, ECAC and Boston Bruins contact for rec.sport.hockey Join the AHL mailing list: [log in to unmask] "Man is the only animal that blushes...or needs to." ---Mark Twain *******THIS ACCOUNT WILL LIKELY BE VACANT FROM DEC. 18 TO JAN. 13*********