The HAA could have selected a tougher team for the Crimson hockey forces to open against McGill and Toronto both had open dates. But if the schedule makers were hunting for a bruising squad, they couldn't have picked a better one than BU.

Boston University is a good American college hockey team. It is typical of the squads that will face the Crimson this winter. But BU has nobody who can make the Bruins and nobody who can skate like Buddy O'Connor or check like Jack Crawford. Nor do they have any budding Bruins, or even Olympic stars, for that matter.

There is, and there must be a tremendous difference between college and professional hockey. The pros are virtually reared on skates, they practice four and five hours a day, and they are paid for their services. Most pass through half a dozen Canadian amateur leagues during their carcers; only 120 at a time hit the top--the National Hockey League.

Boston Garden is a modern Colossueum. Under its blinding are lights, the best hockey players of the world engage in brutal, high-speed, modified mayhem. The incredible pace of pro hockey puts the amateur college game in the unfortunate position of a poor relation.

To get any accurate picture of New England college hockey, therefore, one must accept it for what it is: a slower, less skillful, but still exciting game.

A good college team is primarily one that can pass and shoot well, and these are the departments which beat the Crimson Wednesday. Veteran Boston University lines consistently set up triangular attack patterns that forced the Crimson goalies to commit themselves. BU Scored all but one of their goals on these "set" pass plays.

The Crimson passing game was ragged, to say the least, though it showed flashes of proficiency. Fully two dozen loose pucks sailed in front of the goal month as the result of aborted pass plays. Only the Harvard second line showed any degree of real coordination.

Nevertheless, in their 1948-49 debut, John Chase's hockey charges looked good individually and seemed on the verge of clicking as a unit. On this third of December, it looks like a successful year for Crimson hockey.