This Week in Atlantic Hockey: American International seeing ‘there’s a difference between being good and thinking you’re good’

AIC senior forward Johno May has played in 31 of the team’s 34 games this season, picking up five points along the way (photo: Omar Phillips).At American International College, a strong character team has always been built on sportsmanship and academic progress.

Unfortunately for the players in uniform, though, that didn’t translate to winning percentage.

So when Eric Lang returned to Springfield, he knew he had to help build a hidden hockey culture started by generations of players who dedicated their souls to the Yellow Jacket black and gold.

This season, those foundational stones finally found a footing.

Hockey supremacy back in Canada

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Canada's Games were always about Canada's game.

In a country where hockey defines its national identity, the 14th and record-breaking gold medal of the 2010 Winter Olympics was the one that really allowed the party to start. It also allowed the country to exhale.

"Being in Canada, that's an opportunity of a lifetime to play in the Olympics here and try to win a gold medal," said Sidney Crosby. "You dream of that moment a thousand times growing up."

Sidney Crosby's overtime winner gave Canada its first Olympic gold medal on home soil. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Who else, of course, would deliver a goal of this magnitude, capping a thrill-a-minute 3-2 overtime win over an equally deserving Team USA squad to wrap up arguably the greatest hockey tournament ever played?

Bill Belichick: Humble Legends, Modest Superstars

Bill Belichick can make anything sound epic. Even a Barbecue place in Anapolis, Maryland.

Some have called him the greatest coach of all time. Some have called him some other colourful phrases, some that can’t be repeated here in this space.

For football fans and fans of sports in general, Bill Belichick is the mastermind who unlocked the magic of the New England Patriots through its star quarterback … what’s his name? Tom something? Oh Brady, that’s right. Tom Brady. Maybe you’ve heard of him.

THE MONEY PIT: WHY ‘PROFESSIONALIZATION’ OF YOUTH SPORTS IS WORRISOME

The same science of sport that has allowed innumerable records to fall and the superhuman to become routine has also created a Frankenstein.

The knowledge provided by these sciences has spawned entire industries, employing practitioners who charge monster fees. But without that specific coaching, the nutrition training, the strength training and medical support, breaking through to the elite level is unlikely.

The resulting trend has been the stratification of sports: a level for the affluent, and one for most everyone else.

Postmedia News inspects three of the most popular youth sports — hockey, basketball and soccer — to see the models their athletes follow to achieve the elite level, and the pitfalls that threaten players along the way.

Vinay Menon: For the sake of peoplekind, Justin Trudeau needs to shut up

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in a town hall meeting in Edmonton on Feb. 1.

Editor’s note: The opinions in this article are the author’s, as published by our content partner, and do not necessarily represent the views of MSN or Microsoft.

If I were advising Justin Trudeau, I’d tell him to shut his piehole.

Requiem for a middleweight

He snores when he sleeps on his back.

His wife isn’t thrilled with the rumbling, he jokes. But he can’t do much about it even when she gives him a poke to roll over. The lingering effects of numerous shoulder injuries and four surgeries to put things back together in those joints have made it tough to drift off lying on his side.

But at least Kyle Hagel sleeps well now. It wasn’t always so easy.

For nine years, he would lie down for an afternoon nap before games as has been hockey tradition forever. Yet by the time his teammates were already dreaming, he’d often still be staring at the ceiling with his head spinning. Just as he’d done the night before.

Queen's Gaels claim Carr-Harris Cup in overtime thriller

KINGSTON, Ont. – Darcy Greenaway scored at 1:21 of overtime to give the Queen’s Gaels a 6-5 victory over the Royal Military College Paladins in an exhilarating 32nd Carr-Harris Cup Challenge.