The scrimmaging was sloppy as the players got a feel for one another, with many of them trying too hard to play unselfishly and share the ball.

Meanwhile, an announcer introduced two local mite hockey teams, composed of 5- and 6-year-olds, who were scrimmaging between periods on this Sunday afternoon in January.

Muckler intends to divide the team into A and B squads after three days of scrimmaging in Burlington, with the A group consisting of players expected to make team.

The two teams had been scrimmaging for more than an hour, with a small band of spectators - a dozen or so - buffeted along the sidelines by high winds that made the 40-degree afternoon seem much colder.

"We hardly can believe that is the real reason," he said, and went on to suggest that the delay might actually be caused by the kind of political scrimmaging and turf wars for which New Jersey has become famous.

Hearing that band is like watching a rugby game: it's all high-impact scrimmaging, fractured and tightly composed, with rhythms pounded in uneven numbers as two guitarists alternated between torrential arpeggiation and slashing chords.