With all this talk of playing style versus surface size, I'm interested to see how these affects the individual league and NCAA Championships. Yes, it is evident that many programs are deciding to move to the larger Olympic-sized surfaces. Looking at the international game, the larger surface emphasises speed and skating over the physical game. That said, I don't see a noticeable impact during the regular season, where teams will play a majority of the games on their home ice. I wonder how this size difference will come into play come playoff time. Most of these playoffs are held in larger venues that are normally host to professional hockey. Accordingly, they have the desired smaller surfaces for North American professional hockey. How will this affect the teams that play the majority of their games on Olympic ice? Will they be able to adjust their playing style for the three week run for the national championship, or will the NCAA's be dominated by the teams that continue to play on regulation-sized ice? Just some thoughts along the lines of this rink size discussion. __________________________________________________________ * * * Robb Dunn University of Michigan * * Project Administrator Sport Facilities * * Research Laboratory * * * * [log in to unmask] Cal '93, Michigan '94 and '97 * *__________________________________________________________*