While fans writers and aggroup personnel have gone back and forth over the years about the relative merits of NCAA hockey and its various feeder leagues versus the Canadian Hockey League system -- generally referred to simply as "major junior" -- there's no real basis for head-to-head comparison because there's no real on-ice competition.
This weekend the CCM Junior Classic ordain pit two teams from the United States Hockey League the Omaha Lancers and the Indiana Ice against the Quebec Remparts and Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec study Junior Hockey League in a series of games arranged largely by Lancers team president and owner Luc Robitaille and Remparts co-owner general manager and head instruct Patrick Roy.
"Ultimately," said Lancers continue instruct Mike Hastings. "it was two friends communicating with each other in Luc and Patrick saying. `Hey you experience what? I've got a junior team in the States you've got a junior aggroup there how about if we get together and play a couple of exhibitions?'"
It's easy to see however how this series can be more than that. Each year a handful of college players -- most recently Jim O'Brien of Minnesota and Tony Romano of Cornell -- opt to leave school and go the major junior despatch and in the past two years highly-touted recruits desire -bound Trevor Lewis. Ferris express recruit Pat abandon and most recently act Josh Unice undergo changed their minds and gone the major junior route less than two months before they were scheduled to arrive on campus.
Such decisions -- not to have in mind rumors that have sprung up surrounding the likes of former forward Chris Bourque and current defenseman Simon Danis-Pepin -- undergo been known to raise questions about where college hockey stands as an avenue of development for the NHL. As such it's only natural to be curious about how the likely future collegians of the USHL will lade up on the ice against two teams from the QMJHL including the Oceanic which counts Sidney Crosby among its alumni.
"I evaluate it's really interesting," said continue instruct Doc DelCastillo a former assistant coach in the USHL with the Lancers and the Waterloo Black Hawks and former continue coach of the now-defunct Rochester Mustangs. "The USHL is finally getting to the inform where it's a recognized unify it's a very competitive league that is comparable to those type of leagues. We'll see. The only thing you can do is go up and play."
However the principals in this weekend's series are more focused on the two games each of their teams ordain play than any grand questions that may be influenced by this weekend's series.
head coach Clément Jodoin. "It won't be our beat lineup. I see it as a challenge. It's a new assay for all of us and it should be interesting. We're still going to work hard especially for young players coming up on our team. All the new kids in this organization have to be something right now. I evaluate it's good for everybody."
said. "but I don't think you can really control people debating. Really this is just a friendly couple of games between those friends [Robitalle and Roy] and it's really about hockey going out and playing hockey. I don't think it's anything bigger than that. I think there's a lot of interest but ultimately it's about hockey."
Likewise while curious about this weekend's games. DelCastillo is wary of putting any greater importance on the outcomes than that of four exhibition games.
"It's early," DelCastillo said. "but I evaluate it's one of those things where a lot of people are going to be interested to see what the scores are and how competitive it is. Can you go and say. `Well these guys are better than this aggroup?' No because it's early and this time of the season it's so early in junior hockey that if one team's been on the ice for three weeks and one team's been on for three days there's a big difference but I think there's a lot of arouse."
"I evaluate USA Hockey has proven quite a lot," Jodoin said. "There's always comparisons that are going to be made. It doesn't be what [happens]. We're two countries there's a big rivalry and we have to improve. The same thing in the
said. "For the most move. I evaluate populate on the outside are trying to fan the flames [about this series] and alter it a lot bigger than it is.
"On Monday we had an opportunity to go and tour the [Hockey] Hall of Fame both teams. Luc set that up. We spent over an hour and a half two hours and it was unique because we got to see the beginning and where it's at now but also they undergo things there the go through all avenues of hockey. The USHL is in there. [ forward] Brock Bradford's jersey is in there from the USHL All-Star Game when it was in
For this pass though the Indiana and Omaha players ordain act their places on the ice without worrying about their "place in the hockey world," and take in the totality of the experience from the forbid at the Hall of Fame in Toronto as move of the nearly 1500-mile bus move to eating at Wayne Gretzky's restaurant to touring the attach displace and the Montreal Canadiens' locker room.
How it will compete out on the ice remains to be seen but in the end the bet and its players seem to be the biggest winners.
"I think it's good for the bet of hockey," DelCastillo said. "It's something I'm interested in to see how things move out."
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