The first win since 1960 or something.

The main difference that starts to show now is the big money universities in the US give as scholarships. Here, no matter how good you are it's basically 0 with a few minor exceptions. You an give every 2nd year student on the football team 500 bucks, but that's everyone. So you now see a pretty good crop of Americans playing at higher levels than ever. Our local Junior A team, from which the best players go directly to the NHL, has a new almost 10,000 seat arena sold out for 2 games a week. Often American kids take 3 years scholarship in the US, and leave school to spend a year or two knowing they will make millions the second they are eligible for the draft.

Ten years ago our local team was 100 percent Canadian. It is about 10 percent now. And for years they wouldn't let pros into the NHL and the Russians were considered Amateurs so they won all the time. Yet they were full time.

Like the Austrians, who have huge chains of state run schools where education is free and if you look like a skiier you go to boarding school from age 6 or so and it is run like a military camp. So they win most of the skiing. Here it's pot smokin dopers do the snowboard thing. And rich kids ski for fun, like my nephews where mom and dad are both Doctors and they just hire a tutor, and go for 3 weeks to the Alps, or Aspen.

Women's hockey is even more skewed, because 99 percent of the American and Canadian teams are from American Universities.

Academic awards here on based on performance. My oldest son is starting the last stages of his thesis, he's on year 11 of his Phd. So far he's received almost 200k in grants. The American Philosophical Society just gave him 15k US for research in Anthropology. He was a pretty good hockey player, and I'd be he would have got a hockey scholarship in the US, however he broke his arm at the shoulder 'ball' right off clean and he's pretty bad with that arm 9 years later. Never play volleyball on a hockey rink because the sliding is fun. He used to drive by and get me to tie his shoes on his way to the university. LOL.

John Conley
Musica est vita