» i > ,0 ’:_.q.-m;_-,=;.._ wwvfivr “Hi... JOCK TALK By Mickey Place With all Panther athletes now out of contention and concentrating on their books, making Jock Talk worth reading (or writing) becomes a problem. We'll start off by remarking that, inasmuch as we were far away for a week and Maritime news does not travel, we had to wait until our return to find out that Les Aigles Blue from Le U. ‘ de Moncton skated off with the hockey honours (remember how we demolished then?) and, we feel certain, will prove worthy representatives for our district in the C.I.A.U. finals this week in Regina. We are pleased to offer congrats to former Panther Basketball Coach Gary Heald as he leads his Saint Mary's Huskies into the finals in Calgary. Success by these teams would upgrade their almost—as-good rivals in the Atlantic area. We haven't seen the papers to see how these results ‘ were achieved, as we travelled considerably over the March, break and we're not really ‘ back to normal yet ., We de— parted frcm Charlottetown on Friday February 29th and arrived in Boston that after— noon, stayinc there until Monday A.M. when we flew to Baltimore and proceeded to New York by train early Wednesday morning. . There we Spent the day seeing a show (Oklahoma!) in the afternoon and the opera at 2;», » .‘.y‘$:-.z';. w“, night (Un Ba'llo in Masclera)_ and caught the midnight bus for Boston (We sleep on a bus as though it were the Ritz). We stayed in Beantovm until ’ Sunday, when we flew to Halifax. We enjoyed the _ day with two of our family and, took the late plane for ,hane and, believe it, we were sound asleep in our own bed by 11:00 P.M. Let us hasten to observe that, as usual, we saw no place we'd rather live than back have on P.E.I.!. In Boston, we saw the Bruins and Gerry Cheevers . shut out Los Angeles 4-0 and marvelled that league leading scorer Marcel Dionne, with Bob Miller covering him, got but one shot on goal and that a long and unsuccessful one midway in the third period. I We got our usual impre- ssion of N.H.L. play. It is all very skillful and a good exhibition of how the game can be played, they can all skate, they are . never out of ' position, they make very few mis— takes, but the fire and verve of the intercolle- giate play seems missing and, for real excitenent, we'll take the Atlantic Intercollegiates any day . We also saw the University of Vermont nose out Boston University 2-1 in a rousing game, but for real enthu— ‘ ' siasm, we were impressed with a high school play- down game we. saw at the Boston Garden. We went with co—worker of long 1 ago Whose grandson was playing for Wakefield (3) against St. John's (4) . Believe it or not, about ' ' 6000 screaming fans cheered every play. . The game was i N”, . ,, ~«~w4. ~ ~~ -.a UPEL SUNerAR H l3re1980. PAGE 18»_. _ - K. A YEARCONCLUDES elimination ‘Massuchusetts championship series, so this may give an idea of where and how those Americans seem to be catching up in hockey. We were impre— ssed with the 11.8. Inter- collegiate rule with only 0 bne line at centre ice as the off—side whistles were cut down very perceptibly. Play in both these games was rouah, but very clean. Coming hcme on the plane with no-one to talk to ( the little old lady on the aisle was irritated because we had the window seat, reserved before she arrived) we rmfinated on present day hockey as ccmpared to those supposedly halcyon days of our youth. You may, or ' may not, agree with our _ conclusions. We think that hockey is still the best game being played, but it has, in many ways, been spoiled for us because it has become polluted with dirty (not rough) play. It can still be a game of abundant skills, a sport which boasts the artistic elegance of a Guy Lafleur ' or a Jean Ratelle, .a sport in which the observer can still marvel at a pretty pass, a clever shift or a daring, save.‘ However, it would seen that, in the .recent past, nothing was easier to sell than bloddy violence and for a long ' time it seemed that the a“: _‘ I N.H.L. and”many minor league owners allowed or, indeed, . ' encouraged the bullying that hampered the real artists and encouraged and rewarded the goons. Can you imagine- any-other sport in which players are acquired for. no other rear son but that they may ‘ hamper Or, at times, injure the seni—final of the 22 leagle‘im stars of Opposing t5 -; 9 ‘10 A.M. ~10 PM. o Charlottetown Mall 96% momsr , ‘— CORSAGES AND FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS MONDAY 5 SATURDAY \ '892-0727- I‘nd‘ another ‘ year ,in the junior series . gets boring and we would ’dlotlght-u last” UP m PAN'I‘HERS'!!‘!‘!!!!HL!!I \ played here, we got sick and tired of the hugging, kissing and dancing that took place after every score. Satetjmes the score resulted from the " player slapping the'puck, from an impossible angle, and having it ricochet'off another player and into the opponent's net by sheer accident! Now we don't want to have a spoil- sport attitude and we like real enthusiasm, but the bun patting and rejoicing with the bench being cleared after every score, admire a referee who would decree that a five minute demonstration every time p the puck goes into a net meritsa "Delay of Game" penalty. Perhaps we are getting old andcrankyll We also note that Panther ‘Ffootball is'beingdropped, at least for a time. From those, with when we have talked around the campus, it seems to be recognized as an unfortunate", but necessary move. It is our om feeling that, after being in existance for over 10 years without any outstanding success in athletics, the greatest boost for 'UPEI morale would be a real Panther .we came pretty close to this objective last year with our basketball team, the enthusi was marked; Because it takes more players and. because most players are not‘ native to P.E.I.».we think that, quite probably, the gamerwith the least potential for Votltstan'ding success was ‘football,~."so if a cut in ex- » penditure essential, it seens reasonable that this was ' the game that had to 90.. Let's hope 1980—81 willbe t1“? year of the big-breakthrough-