Juniors

[Davey Boy 2.0]

ROY MacGREGOR rmacgregor@globeandmail.com In some ways, the two junior teams that hate each other most are also most alike.

The United States and Canada tied 4-4 at the end of that remarkable New Year's Eve game in the World Junior Hockey Championship, Canadian barely winning in the shootout.

The young players are the same age and roughly the same size; their coaches say they have similar speed, similar styles of play. There is even a sponsored scheme here, mercifully one that appears to be falling flat with the crowds, to come up with a jingoistic Canadian chant - Eh! O! Canada-Go! - to match the obnoxious U!-S!-A! of Olympic encounters between the two North American neighbours.

But there is a difference.

More than half the American junior hockey players are going to college. There are three players from the University of Wisconsin and one each from Boston College, Boston University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, St. Cloud State University, University of Denver, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of North Dakota and University of Notre Dame.

On the Canadian side, all but one player is playing major junior hockey in Canada - the lone exception being Alex Pietrangelo, who left Canadian junior hockey this fall to play for the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League.

That makes a clean sweep for Canada - every single player coming out of the junior ranks.

While seven of the American youngsters are playing in the Canadian junior leagues, there may in future years not be so many. A new push is under way to persuade American kids to forego Canadian junior hockey - the most traditional route to the NHL - and stick to college hockey, which is increasingly producing players that reach the same goal.

The newly appointed head of College Hockey, Inc., is Paul Kelly, most recently the capable head of the one Canadian-based institution that is more "dysfunctional" than Parliament: the NHL Players' Association.

Kelly was whizzed last summer by this self-suffocating union and it may well be that the 'PA's loss is college hockey's gain.

Kelly's grand plan is endorsed by Emile Therien, the respected past president of the Canada Safety Council, who was himself once a Canadian junior with St. Michael's College School in Toronto but who left for a scholarship to St. Lawrence University. Therien's son, Chris, also went the college route, Providence College, before moving on to a successful NHL career as a defenceman with the Philadelphia Flyers.

"The record speaks for itself," says Emile Therien in what some Canadians will take to be sacrilege. "The benefits offered by U.S.

college hockey far outstrip what major junior hockey has to offer: the opportunity to get a free education, a much better environment to enhance and develop one's life skills, the opportunity to play and grow in an environment that is less stressful and intimidating, characterized by less travel, fewer games and far more practice and development time." Therien says if it were possible to assess the "happiness quotient" of players from both systems who do not go onto to NHL careers, the college kids will have fared far, far better than those who put their future in a single basket that only rarely reaches its hoped-for destination.

He also argues that those who choose the college route have more choices as to where they would go. A drafted Canadian child is essentially "owned" by a business operation years before that child reaches the age of majority, with the businesses allowed to trade and sell the youngster without the child or his parents having any say at all. Many have called this practice "child labour," something Canada officially disdains, and yet those who fight such an archaic system, as the Lindros family did years ago, are considered, well, unpatriotic when it comes to the national game.

This may change. One Hockey Canada committee has recommended that no 16-year-olds should be playing junior hockey - Bobby Orr was property of the Boston Bruins at 14 - but the sad reality of the NHL salary cap suggests that teams are increasingly reaching down into the junior ranks for cheaper labour, meaning the junior teams must, in turn, continue to recruit new blood.

Speaking of which, Therien also points out that another advantage of the college game is that fighting is truly penalized in college hockey and players must wear complete facial protection.

Kelly says in an e-mail that this message for promising young players to look to school first is one College Hockey Inc. plans "to spread across Canada and the U.S. in the coming months." Let us hope it is heard in Canada as well as in the United States.

While the evils of Canadian junior hockey - hazing, sexual abuse, gratuitous violence - have often been the focus, there are arguments to be made, as well, for positive experiences with coaches, with billets, with overall experience, even with financial help from junior leagues for those who wish to switch their ambitions to post-secondary schooling.

But there needs to be much more emphasis on what lies beyond.

The 22 youngsters on Team Canada are fine young men with enormous skills. Yet history has proved that gold medals do not automatically gild a professional career.

Some of these young juniors - and hundreds of their current teammates back home - will need something to fall back on.

So let us all wish Paul Kelly more fortune in this job than his last.

His is a message that needs to be heard on both sides of the border.

[Hal Johnson]

Decent game so far, go US!! (Kidding...kinda)

[dave-O]

Ridiculous. The US has outplayed them for the majority of the game but Canada always finds a way to sneak it out. How clutch is Eberle?! Is either team going to get any goaltending in OT?

[AD]

this game is ok

[Birdy]

shitty goaltending!

[Booche]

I blame Hal.

[Guest Low Roller]

Great game to watch. Unfortunately the better team won. Too many defensive lapses and some pretty average goaltending lost us the game. I would have pulled the Canadian goalie after the second goal because he just never looked comfortable out there.

[Schwa.]

Way out played last night but what a great game to watch. Both teams were flying!

Hockey Canada, welcome back to Earth.

[badams]

Now we just wait for the USA to win in Vancouver and the sweep will be complete

[Schwa.]

I'm actually really glad that Canada has some friggin' competition. The Canadian media hype almost makes this unwatchable.

[Kanada Kev]

Congrats USA

Frustrating Damn FAST game though. The great thing about watching the young players is the element of surprise. You simply never know when somebody is going to rise up and shine, and when somebody makes a juvenile mistake.

Eberle was amazing coming through at the end there. Too bad the were beaten by what the Americans did so well in both games ... fast fast FAST odd man rushes.

Those guys were hurting at the end of the game. Shows how much their hearts were in it. The were hungry for the win but credit to the USA who weathered the storm and captured the gold. Classy interview by Carlson at the end of the game.

Who's up for some games in Buffalo next year?!?!?

Still can't believe that Canada never got to play Russia, Finland or Sweden in games that counted in this tournament.

[badams]

I'm actually really glad that Canada has some friggin' competition. The Canadian media hype almost makes this unwatchable.

[color:purple]It's a little known fact that the Junior Canadian hockey team actually saved 452 lives last night. Then an Angel cried when they lost.

God Bless Them

[Schwa.]

Who's up for some games in Buffalo next year?!?!?

In.

[Guest Low Roller]

I'm glad that the stupid Eh Oh Canada Go chant completely fell flat on its face.

[badams]

That chant is horrible

[Davey Boy 2.0]

and jesus wept

[Kanada Kev]

The spontaneous "O Canada" being sung while they got their silver medals was pretty damn good!

Classy crowd too. Good on them for most of them sticking around for the ceremonies and applauding the USA for their efforts. The only boos seemed to be coming from a few of the questionable calls/non-calls by the refs (they had a few for both teams).

[Booche]

I was hoping the headline on the front page of the Ottawa Sun was going to read:

Eh, Oh. Canada No.

[dave-O]

Let's hope that cheer is dead in the water.

The thing I don't understand about this year's Team Canada is how/why did guys like Jared Cowen and Adam Henrique even make the team if the coaching staff didn't have the confidence to give them any minutes?

[Booche]

Because NHL gm's have more of a say in who gets chosen than you are probably willing to believe?

[Northern Wish]

See The Globe and Mail headline above the picture of a dejected Canuck goalie for some real Rich Stadium fodder.....

Actually it deserves its own thread.

[Kanada Kev]

How about those 50/50 draws at the games?! Have you ever heard of them getting this big:

There is about to be a revolution in 50/50 draws, with a trial run of computer-generated scoreboard-tracked ticket sales throwing Saskatchewan crowds into a betting frenzy. Last night's pot was headed into the $300,000 range by the third period. By Tuesday, the draws had grossed some $1.5-million, triple the estimated figure of $600,000.

[Northern Wish]

The new 50/50 system was designed by a guy from a small town just outside of Charlottetown PEI.

Its about to revolutionize the draws across North America!

[Northern Wish]

How about those 50/50 draws at the games?! Have you ever heard of them getting this big:

By Tuesday, the draws had grossed some $1.5-million, triple the estimated figure of $600,000.

My math isn't that great, but isn't that 2.5 times the estimate? People don't really round up hundreds of thousands of dollards do they?

[Schwa.]

Glaring! I noticed it right away.