Someone questioned how kids can keep playing and enjoying the game in the wake of the Travis Roy tragedy. Let me answer from the perspective of both a father (of a great eleven year old) and an assistant coach. We had a game the day after the accident, and the head coach requested that all the boys send their prayers (whatever religion they were) for Travis. The head coach's oldest son played with Travis on the Northern New England team during Hockey Night in Boston, during which Travis sometimes slept over their house. So the accident hit close to home. I addressed the issue of the kids' own fears. I pointed out that the car ride they'd made to the rink was much more dangerous than anything that could happen to them on the ice. And none of them were likely to stop riding cars. If they were going to play hockey, they needed to play aggressively and realize that tragedies are extremely rare, and are part of, and much more common in, the rest of their lives. There was no timidness in that game, and the game the next day (on Sunday) was probably our most aggressive, and intense game of the year, a game that was played after all the boys on the team signed a card for Travis. Private conversations with son have corroborated my feelings that kids recognize that unless you're going to be a hermit and withdraw from life, there are risks out there and that playing hockey is NOT a foolhardy risk. It's still a great game, and compared to riding an automobile it's a paragon of safety. All of which doesn't make the situation any less emotional. I'm only now able to complete conversations about Travis without breaking down. We can only hope for as full a recovery as possible and no future repeats of these types of accidents. "I still made it" #$%^&*()_)(*&!! DaveH HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.