From what I have heard this summer, and based on players return- ing from last season, Providence College and Brown should be the favorites to win the ECAC Women's league title and or playoff championship. Other teams with strong squads should be Princeton, UNH and Northeastern. I expect that of the three newcomers to the league, Boston College, Bowdoin and Middlebury, that BC will make the most impact in its first year. The last couple of year's I have watched the Eagles develop a good base to build from. The Ivy League should again be dominated by Brown's high-scoring team. However, I do expect Princeton to give them a run for the title. In many ways I expect this season to be spectacular because many players should be trying to impress in the hope that they will make one of the international teams for the upcoming World Championship and Olympics. Below are comments from Team Canada Women's player Andria Hunter about upcoming international events. ********************************************************************* There have been 3 official IIHF sanctioned Women's World Championships so far (1990, 1992, and 1994), so the next World Championship was to be held in 1996. However, since Women's hockey has been accepted into the 1998 Winter Olympics, (as a full medal sport, for the first time), the next World Championship may be postponed until 1997. Here is part of the Canadian National Women's Team Bulletin which I received from the CAHA. It explains why they are thinking about having the next Women's World Championships in 1997 instead of 1996. ************************************************************************ CANADIAN NATIONAL WOMEN'S TEAM BULLETIN: At the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) meetings in June, a small group was asked to review women's international events. They came back to the council with the following proposal: 1995 Pacific Rim competition: Canada, USA, China and Japan 1996 Pacific Rim competition: Canada, USA, China and Japan 1997 Women's World Championship The rationale seems to have been that the fairest manner for teams to qualify for the 1998 Olympic Games was through the World Championship. In order for this to be an accurate measure, it could not take place two years before the Olympics (i.e., not in 1996, when the next World Championship was originally scheduled). The second point was that Japan needs help in raising their standard of play as host country and both China and Japan deserve more international competition, hence the Pacific Rim. The bidding process for the host site of the Women's World Championships in Canada in 1997 will continue as planned with a site to be announced this Fall. Quebec, Ontario, BC, Alberta, and the Maritimes have each submitted the name of a city which will be considered. The Pacific Rim was to be discussed at an IIHF Council meeting in early July, and we should know soon where and when it will be held in 1995. The High Performance Plan is currently being revised to accomodate these changes, which give us a more gradual build up to 1998. Included in the plan will also be a competition with Finland and possibly the USA and we are talking to both of these countries at the moment to set up some dates. ==================================================================== I just found out that they are making hockey cards for the women's Team Canada and the women's Team USA. This is awesome - I get to have a hockey card made of me!!!!! :-) I'm pretty sure that this is the first complete set of women's hockey cards that have ever been made, so this will probably be a collector's item. I know Manon Rheaume (Team Canada), Cammi Granato (Team USA), and Erin Whitten (Team USA) already have hockey cards, but I don't know of any other women who do. They did take pictures of us at the World Championships in 1992 for hockey cards, but for some reason didn't end up going through with it. I'm glad to see they decided to go through with it after the 1994 World Championships! Here is some information about the hockey cards that I just received from the Canadian National Women's Team Bulletin: ********************************************************************** HOCKEY CARDS: According to Steve Charendoff of Scoreboard, they will be producing a hockey card of each and every player on the Canadian and US teams this September. The pictures which were taken at the 1994 Women's World Championships in Lake Placid (April 11-17 1994) will be used for the cards. Our cards will be on gold foil board with a shadow of the Canadian flag in the background and the Americans on silver foil board. We will have an action shot on the front and a casual shot on the back. There will be a writeup for each player on the back of the cards. ************************************************************************ I think the casual shot on the back of the Team Canada cards will be a picture of each of us playing some other sport. During the week of the World Championships (in Lake Placid), a photographer came to the gym at the Olympic Training Centre in Lake Placid where we were staying, and took the pictures of us doing various sports. My picture is of me juggling a soccer ball. Some of the other players were doing things like roller blading, basketball, or pretending to ride on a bobsled or luge. For you Manon fans out there, look for a picture of Manon spiking a volleyball! ;-) ************************************************************************* back to rhun: The idea of using the WWC as a stepping stone to the Olympics does not appeal to me. I like the idea of an international competition every two years (WWC - Olympics). Each has its own feeling. The Olympics tends to be one big circus, while a world championship really focuses on a given sport well. I can understand the desire for promotion, but in the end I feel it fails and can hurt a sport. The Pacific Rim idea will be good for the teams to check out the ice in Japan (assuming they will play it there at least once). It will help Japan and China a lot. I think an Atlantic Rim tourney would be a good idea too, because the real competition is from Finland and Sweden. Still, word has it that China is taking women's ice hockey very seriously. Supposedly there are 150 women who are in a program where they live and train together all year. They take classes in the morning and are on the ice in the afternoon. It does explain their improved play in WWC94. I also understand that now that women's ice hockey is an Olympic sport that in Canada 40 players will start to get money to help out with training etc. Oh my God, money for women's sport!!! Considering the number of sacrifices many of these women make to play their sport with no chance of ever making the big bucks right now, that is a great idea. I am looking forward to the hockey cards. Sounds like the CAHA and maybe USA Hockey are finally starting to move a little. I would have to say, up until now it has been very difficult to get information/stuff out of either of them. _____________ / good shooting rhun _____________/