Notes from the "Fan Fair" on Friday: Those of you who did not attend the "Fan Fair" in Providence over the weekend should be thankful -- what a waste! There were a few things for kids (and most of those involved spending more money to take part, even after paying an admission fee!) There was virtually nothing for adults except some promotional booths and a small "College Hockey Museum" display that showed the history of the NCAA Championships and had pictures and videos from some teams. They had the Beanpot trophy and the Hobey Baker trophy (at least up to about an hour before the presentation, when they took it away for the ceremony.) The most interesting elements were the sample jerseys from all the teams (I haven't seen every team yet, so I got to see what some of the western uniforms look like) and a map of the U.S. and southern Canada with little pins showing where the players on the 4 semi-finalist teams came from. You really notice the regional nature of the sport when you see this -- a massive cluster around Minnesota and Massachusetts, a healthy set from Michigan, a few from various Canadian provinces, and not much else. We were there for the "first public Hobey Baker award presentation", along with a lot of Maine fans (rooting for Chris Imes) and a scattered presence from other teams. You didn't miss much here, either. The ceremony was a brief television video of the 10 candidates, sponsored by some hockey equipment manufacturer, followed by the announcement of the winner. Buddy Powers, the BGSU coach, said about 5 sentences, then turned it over to Brian Holzinger, who made a nice, simple acceptance speech and then posed for pictures. The only interesting element of the whole thing was the Holzinger family, when one of them held up a poster with two pictures, one of Brian labelled "Hobey Baker winner 1995", and one of a baby, labelled "Hobey Baker winner 2115". (I'm not sure whose baby it was, but the last name was not Holzinger; Brian's sister's kid, maybe?) After a few minutes of pictures, Brian was moved to a conference room on the 5th floor for a press conference and questions; this was open to MEDIA ONLY. So much for the "public" presentation of the award. I did get to say hello to Len Ceglarski (former Clarkson and BC coach) and talk for a few minutes; he said he had heard good things about Marty Reasoner, the BC-bound player from Deerfield Academy. I also talked briefly with Bob DeGregorio, AD at Merrimack and Hockey East Commissioner. He was happy to have an all-HE final, of course, and told us that the referees for the final would be from HE. They probably would have been the ECAC crew except that Hearn was still injured from Thursday night's game (he missed the 3rd period of the BU-Minn. game.) Bob expressed great displeasure with the officiating in the overtimes in the Maine-Mich. game, not at all happy that they put the whistles away despite some obvious penalties. I don't know if he doesn't care for the WCHA refs anyway, but he was very happy that Shepherd and crew would not be handling the finals. From what I could tell, the Fan Fair was very sparsely attended (rightfully so) and downtown Providence was mostly deserted on Friday, at least by Phinal Phour fans. (or should that be Phinal Phour phans??) I don't know what the normal economic impact of a championship is, but I gave my two cents to the college kid who was conducting a survey on behalf of the NC$$ anyway. Providence itself was pleasant, the games were good, I got to see some of my fellow Hockey-L friends, so overall I had a good time. I would have met more of you Hockey-L folks at the dinner between semis except for the overtime delay and the fact that we had to head over to the hotel to check-in before the 2nd game. To those I met, it was nice to see you, and to those I didn't, maybe next time. Congratulations to all the teams. Intellectually I'm happy that BU won, as I thought they were the best team, but some of their fans were a little too obnoxious (not the Hockey-L ones, though). I didn't expect anything different, as I was wearing a BC hat all weekend, but when a guy in his 40's gets in my face and starts yelling "BC sucks", well, .... One of the reasons I enjoy participating on Hockey-L is that I get lots of information and that I deal (mostly) with knowledgable fans who appreciate all the teams, not just their own. Out among the greater fan base, though, things get a little irrational. That's life. Now I'm looking forward to some post-season discussions of hockey matters and not having to wade through 100+ messages per day. :-) --------------- ---------------------- Rick McAdoo [log in to unmask] BC will return! GO EAGLES!