Friday night I ran into Merrimack senior John Jakopin at the inaugural
Warrior football game (many of the hockey players were working doing stats,
spotting for the PA announcer, selling programs, serving as ballboys,
etc.), and we talked about the World Cup and how hockey is so important to
the country of Canada.  (Jakopin is from Toronto.)  I mentioned the
excellent Ken Dryden six hour documentary from 1990, "Home Game", which
takes an in-depth look at Canada and hockey, and John said something
interesting.  First of all, he played for the Toronto Marlboroughs team
that was profiled in Episode 2, "The Playing Fields of Scarborough".  You
can see him throughout the episode wearing #5 for the Marlies as they
compete in Quebec City in Le Colisee.  He would have been 14 or 15 then.
 
He also said that the player who was the subject of the episode, Greg
Koehler, his teammate with the Marlies, is coming to Mass Lowell this fall
as a freshman.  Sure enough, I dug up a list of Lowell recruits, and one of
them is Greg Koehler, who played last season for Brampton of the OPJHL (Jr
A).  His stats last season: 49 GP, 33-64--97, 87 PIM.
 
In Episode 2, Dryden takes a look at how hockey was such an important part
of the lives of Greg (also 14 or 15 then) and his family, and he is
interviewed quite often and asked about his hopes and aspirations as he
tries to make it to the NHL someday.  Ironically, at the end of the
episode, Dryden's voiceover says something like, "Some of these players
will go on to play major junior or college hockey," and indeed, Koehler
will be playing DivI hockey this season.
 
Also interesting is that this makes the second time that Lowell will have a
player who has had a visible role in a hockey-related film.  Former Lowell
captain Scott McPherson, now an assistant coach at Mass Amherst and a
former assistant coach at Merrimack (ironically, he recruited Jakopin to
Merrimack), was a skating double for actor Rob Lowe in the movie
"Youngblood" prior to enrolling at Lowell.  And it will be interesting as
these two former Marlie teammates go up against each other in Hockey East,
playing at schools that are only ten miles apart.
 
BTW, I do not believe "Home Game" was ever released in the US.  It is
available in Canada, through the Hockey Hall of Fame as best as I know and
perhaps also through The Hockey News.  I believe there was also a book that
accompanied the documentary.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
*****       Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page located at:       *****
*****   http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html    *****
>>>  14Sep96 11:16PM USA 5, Canada 2: It's A Great Day For US Hockey  <<<
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.