Only two days remain before the University skaters will abandon their conditioning work on Soldiers. Field and take to the ice of the rebuilt Boston Arena. For almost a week now, the University hockey squad has been running near the Stadium under the direction of Captain W. P. Ellison '27, and on Monday afternoon the season will actually get under way on ice. under the watchful eye of Coach E. L. Bigelow '21.

Never before have the prospects for a successful season been brighter. Only three lettermen have been graduated from last year's Big Three champion sextet and the replacements that are available for these positions are considered as good, if not better than the men who wore the Crimson tights last year.

The three men lost through graduation are Captain Thayer Cummings '26, a capable net guardian: L. O. Pratt '26, a strong defense man: and C. L. Harding, a wing who fitted well into the reserve forward line considered by many to be the equal of the starting trio.

At goal, Cumming's absence is not likely to be seriously felt, for in Joseph Morrill '28, and W. W. Adams '28, Coach Bigelow will have a pair of safety men who have already proved their worth. Morrill was perhaps the outstanding player of the Freshman team two years ago, and it was largely due to his scintillating saves that the 1928 six was able to go through its season undefeated. Against the Dartmouth Freshmen and St. Paul, the former Middlesex luminary was especially brilliant, standing off repeated assaults to give his mates a chance to come out at the big end of the horn by a narrow margin. Adams, who for a long time was Morrill's chief rival for the goal position on the 1928 team, was sick during the greater part of his Freshman year Last year he alternated with Morrill as Cummings substitute, and this year be is again fit to give Morrill a run for the goal position. He has had considerable experience at Exeter, and has since then profited by working out in practice with professional and semi-professional teams. He was at one time substitute goalie on the strong Boston out it. contenders for the Eastern amateur crown.

Pratt's absence will be more keenly felt. He was not only strong on the defence, but was responsible for many a scoring dash down the ice. He was tall and rangy, and depended more on his speed, stamina and stickhandling than upon weight. But Coach Bigelow still has three letter men to choose from. These are Captain Ellison, C. D. Coady '27, and E. C. Clark '27. Any college coach would consider his defence problems solved with such material, but these three men will have to wage war for their positions against two stars of last years. Freshman team, undefeated throughout a long season. M. N. Stanley '29 and H. W. Bigelow '29, made things unpleasant for the Freshmen's schoolboy rivals last winter, and both of them will be out for the University team this year. Stanley will be out from the start of the season, and Bigelow as soon as he can get his scholastic difficulties straightened out, which should at the latest be in time for the Yale game.

Ellison is Deceptive

Captain Ellison is at the same time one of the most awkward and the most effective of hockey players. With a peculiar gait, comparable perhaps to that displayed by great open field runners such as Grange and Mahan, he moves up the ice at a speed that is not apparent from the spectators' seats. On the defensive, his tremendous reach, his weight and his aggressiveness make him effective if not graceful. Coady, who will report for hockey after a two weeks lay-off, is of all the Crimson skaters the least versatile, but he makes up, in the excellence of his specialty what he lacks in all around ability. His tremendous strength and his great weight, naive him hard to pass, and he possesses sufficient nimbleness to enable him to move quickly from his normal position in front of the cage to the side boards. His dashes down the ice are largely confined to taking the puck to mid-ice for a pass to a cleverer teammate or to a long shot at the opposing net. Clark displays on the ice all the same qualities that make him a feared halfback on the football team. He will also rest for a few weeks before reporting for hockey, but by mid-season the chunky halfback should be at his best defensive form. Down the ice, he is aggressive, breaking through the opposing line by sheer force rather than by subtle stick handling, and keeping his feet despite heavy jolting. He is at all times willing to mix things up with opposing forward lines, and he relishes nothing so much as stiff sessions of body checking.

Forwards Plentiful

Harding is the only man lost through graduation from the two forward lines that were the crimson last year. It was largely due to the two sets of forwards practically equal in ability, that Coach Bigelow was able to pilot the Harvard team through to straight victories over both Princeton and Yale last year. Nathaniel Hamlea '27, J. P. Chase '28, and C. S. Gross '27 were the three men usually named to start hostilities, but they did not often spend more time on the ice than the second trio of Harding, R. S. Scott '27, and Isadere Zarakov '27.

There are three outstanding candidates to fill the shoes of Harding, and these were all members of last year's undefeated Freshman six. They composed a year ago, what was probably the strongest Freshman forward line in the east. John Tudor '29, captain and left wing, E. T. Putnam '29, center, and more recently University quarterback, and H. C. Crosby '29, right wing are the three most likely looking Sophomore prospects for University rating