Our exhaustive efforts to list accurate All-American teams has again uncovered a flaw in our record-keeping. A recent question from Jim Hayes at New England College sent me into the archives where I discovered that our official listings (web site and Directory) had been missing men’s College Division second teams from 1986 and 1988. Here is what we found.

Please let me know if the spelling is correct as the Olde English typeface on the old certificates is tough to read.

Yale head coach Tim Taylor was recently asked the following question on a CSTV interview: “What message would you send to youth coaches and parents regarding their approach with young players?”

His response:

“I think the strongest message I can send to youth hockey players and parents is that the amount of time spent on skill development and overall athleticism development during the younger and more formative physiological years is key to the improvement of hockey in this country. Unfortunately, our society — and our culture — is geared far too much to playing competitive games at these young ages, where there is a high emphasis on winning and losing.

“I know I sound like a coach preaching about how the old times were different and better, but certainly, when youngsters were playing shinny in fun games on the pond when they were young, and spending countless hours doing so as compared to long hours traveling to competitive games between the ages of eight and twelve,it certainly was a different time and a different era.

“When we look at the amazing resources we now have in this country, in terms of ice facilities and well trained, knowledgeable coaches, I think now all that remains is that we get our priorities straight in the value of skill development at the young ages. Kids can still have a great deal of fun playing hockey without playing an inordinate number of games. I constantly scan the NHL’s scoring leader board and I guess I feel deep down in my heart that there should be more U.S.-born players on that list given the number of kids we have playing hockey and the resources we have in this country.”

Count me among those excited about the men’s Division I “Frozen Four” returning to Milwaukee. I spent the 1975-76 winter attending journalism school at Marquette University and briefly playing for the Milwaukee Admirals.

Few cities are better suited for this event. The Bradley Center is a great hockey building. The restaurants and bars are all within a short walk of the arena and the hotels. Have lunch at The Tamarack and have a Bloody Mary at Goolsby’s and try to find Wolsky’s Pub. I won’t tell you the name of my favorite restaurant on East Brady because you’ll take my reservation.

The regular activities on the Frozen Four “off day” in Milwaukee will be moved and expanded this year. The presentation of the Hockey Humanitarian Award and the Hobey Baker Memorial Award will take place later in the day (Friday, April 7), preceding a new event: the “Frozen Four Skills Challenge,” sponsored by Nike Bauer Hockey.

This skills competition will involve male and female seniors, excluding athletes on the four semifinalists, and will be hosted by the Bradley Center. The AHCA is working with the NCAA on how the participants will be selected for this event, which will be televised by ESPNU.

Please make an effort to read the blurb (click here to read about the book) on the new book by the Caraccioli brothers about the 1972 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team. Performing twelve years after one gold medal and eight years before THE gold medal, this is America’s forgotten hockey team.

Speaking of the 1972 team, one of its most illustrious members, Stu Irving, recently concluded 20+ years of service at Merrimack College. There are few finer people in our business. If you are ordering goalie equipment for the 2006-07 season, be aware that the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey Rules Committee has indicated that it plans to adopt smaller limits, much like the NHL did this season. Setting limits on gloves and leg pads should be fairly easy. Dealing with a streamlined upper body (pads and jersey) might prove more complicated.

Another reminder: convention forms stay at $100 per person until April 1. Then it will cost you $125. — Joe Bertagna