City's sacking of Mancini came on the day United held a victory parade to mark their 20th league title and Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement, anevent that drew thousands of fans on to the streets of the English north west city.
Hall of Fame player Mark Messier, now a youth coach himself, chimed in at an Aspen Institute event in New York in January, issuing a harsh critique of coaches promoting the idea that training for the NHL needs to start in grade school.
At anevent hosted by Tech City Investment Organization Chief Executive Eric Van Der Kleij to mark the organization's first anniversary earlier this year, he was subjected to a barrage of questions about what more could the government do to help.
The two games that the teams will play against each other will mark the sixth edition of the event, which when launched in 2004, marked the first time that an American professional sports league played games in China. 2012 will be the first time that an NBA championship winning team has competed in the China Games.