Bold move in world of college chess
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP), Apr 6, 2012
It was one of the most brazen moves in the chess world since the Najdorf Sicilian Defense, perhaps even the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit.
Fresh off her second straight national championship, the legendary chess coach at Texas Tech is jumping to another school and taking all the top members of the team with her. No one has ever seen anything like it in intercollegiate competition, not even among powerhouse basketball and football teams that are worth many millions of dollars.
Similar deals are not uncommon in academia, where a star professor recruited by another school may bring along a cadre of researchers, lab assistants and post-docs. But in the competitive realm, the practice is virtually unheard of.
"There's no equivalent," said Mike Hoffpauir, a Virginia consultant who helped organize the recent President's Cup chess tournament, the game's version of the Final Four, which was won by Texas Tech. "If the coach from Kentucky gets hired by UCLA this summer, the whole team's not going to go with him."
Susan Polgar, a home-schooled prodigy from Budapest and the world's top female player by the time she was 15, is taking her champions to private Webster University in suburban St. Louis, a city that is already home to the World Chess Hall of Fame and the U.S. national championships.
It also has a swanky new chess club and scholastic center bankrolled by a billionaire, the kind of place where students can immerse themselves in chess arcana, learning moves like the King's Indian Defense and others with mysterious names steeped in the game's 1,500-year history.
Webster lured the team with the promise of a greater financial investment.
"The program grew rapidly, and Texas Tech wasn't ready to grow with the speed of the program," said the coach, who founded the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence, known as SPICE, in 2007. "St. Louis today is the center of chess in America. It just seemed like a perfect fit."
The Webster program will be based on campus, but its top players will clearly spend plenty of time at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, a 6,000-square-foot shrine to the game where the resident rock star is Hikaru Nakamura, the top-ranked U.S. player and No. 6 in the world. He, too, is a recent transplant to St. Louis. The club was bankrolled by businessman Rex Sinquefield, a retired financial executive and avid chess player who is also active in Missouri politics.
The Knight Raiders of Lubbock won their second straight President's Cup in Herndon, Va., last weekend, defeating chess powerhouses New York University, the University of Maryland Baltimore County and the University of Texas at Dallas.
There are no hard feelings in Lubbock, said Texas Tech spokesman Chris Cook. The school plans to continue its chess program despite the departure of Polgar and her all-star squad of seven chess grandmasters, the game's highest competitive ranking.
"What these kids have done in the short time they've been here is amazing," Cook said. "They've put us in some niches where we haven't been before. They've put us in some countries where we haven't been before."
The championship chess team has also helped elevate the Texas Tech brand, Cook said — though chess matches draw far less attention than Tech football under former coach Mike Leach or Red Raider basketball under the irascible Bobby Knight.
Polgar said she was recruited by a half-dozen top programs, though she declined to identify her unsuccessful suitors. In the end, she chose Webster, a former Catholic women's college in a leafy suburb that now has more than 100 campuses worldwide, including many near U.S. military bases, as well as residential programs in Vienna, Geneva and China.
Provost Julian Schuster, a native of the former Yugoslavia who calls himself "a very strong fan and casual player," helped broker the deal after learning of Polgar's interest through mutual friends. He envisions a broader academic focus revolving around chess, espousing a "dream of connecting chess as not only a game but as a didactic tool, to apply in a learning setting."
Neither Polgar nor Schuster would discuss the specifics of the financial commitment to attract the program.
The Texas Tech students transferring to Webster in the fall will receive scholarships. At Tech, the program had a $30,000 pot for the entire team, but Polgar noted that some top chess schools award individual students that amount.
The team members hail from around the world: Germany, Brazil, Iran, Hungary, Israel and Azerbaijan. In interviews, several said they had no qualms about the surprise relocation. Such is their faith in Polgar, who in 2005 set a Guinness World Record by playing 326 simultaneous games — and winning 309 of those matches, with 14 draws and just three losses. That feat also gave her another world record, with 1,131 consecutive games played.
"It was a very easy decision," said Georg Meier, a freshman from Trier, Germany. "When the program decided to move to St. Louis, I didn't have to think twice."
About 30 schools nationwide have competitive chess teams, from Yale and Princeton to Miami-Dade College and the University of West Indies. And while college chess remains a niche activity, Polgar's unprecedented move has given the game a brief moment in the spotlight.
Hoffpauir's consulting firm of Booz Allen Hamilton heavily recruits elite chess players for their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Some Wall Street firms do the same.
"These players that were here were the equivalent of Kansas and Kentucky, athletes at the top of their game," Hoffpauir said.
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This isn't hockey but I was blown away that chess is an NCAA 'sport' with scholarships. As the story says, when a 'normal' sport coach moves, it is unusual for most of his players to follow...
NCAA Frozen Four: Boston College, Ferris State prepare for David vs. Goliath final
Derek Berry, The Hockey News, 2012-04-06
Tampa, Fla – A look at some of the odds and ends of the NCAA Frozen Four college hockey championship, direct from the Sunshine State:
AND IT’S DOWN TO ONE GAME
Looking ahead to Saturday night’s championship here in warm and sunny Florida, the brackets couldn’t be more perfect. You have the David vs. Goliath matchup with the Ferris State Bulldogs from Big Rapids, Mich., and the heavyweight Boston College Eagles, who knocked out the difficult Minnesota Gophers.
Ferris State players say they believed in each other when many doubted them.
“I think kind of the way the season started, everyone told us we weren’t good enough,” said Kyle Bonis, who had two goals in the Bulldogs 3-1 semifinal win over Union College. “I think that what we have in that locker room, I don’t think there’s any 26 guys I’d rather go into a national championship with.”
Boston College head coach Jerry York, who has been at the helm for the Eagles since 1994 wondered about his team at the beginning of the season, but couldn’t be more confident now.
“Starting the year I wasn't quite sure where we were going to take this group of guys and they really have matured and become a real - they've become a real good team,” he said. “And I think that's a great tribute to the leadership and the captains of our team.”
KEYS TO SATURDAY NIGHT’S FINAL
You have Ferris State’s tight, swarming defense and their growing confidence going up against Boston College, which has far more NHL draft picks and loads of talent, along with their ability to get up and down the ice quickly.
But the Eagles have a strong defense, too, having given up only one goal the entire NCAA tournament and riding an 18-game winning streak.
An offensive struggle type of game would favor the Bulldogs and an all-out offensive fest would favor the Eagles. Either way, it should be interesting.
BONIS TURNS SOME HEADS
With two goals in the semifinal, Ferris State junior forward Kyle Bonis is sure to turn the heads of NHL scouts, particularly because he is an undrafted free agent. Bonis had a knack for scoring going back to his junior days with the Traverse City North Stars of the NAHL.
“It’s funny, no one recruited Kyle Bonis,” said Ferris State head coach Bob Daniels. “He’s always been a scorer. He scores. He’s had a history of scoring goals since he was 14, 15 years old.”
UNION’S WELSH HAS THE NHL TOOLS
NHL scouts also took notice of big-bodied Union College forward Jeremy Welsh, who had a fine NCAA tournament. At 6-foot-3 this undrafted free agent has a presence down the middle, possesses good hands and feet, wins a lot of faceoffs and isn’t afraid to mix it up. Ferris State held Welsh mostly in check in the semifinal, but other schools had problems with him.
So it was no surprise when Welsh signed a pro deal with the Carolina Hurricanes mere hours after the Dutchmen fell to Ferris State.
LOOK IN THE MIRROR
One of the fascinating elements of this Frozen Four is that each team in the semifinal resembled each other to some extent. Minnesota and Boston College each have a selection of skill players and both like to get up and down the ice.
Minnesota head coach Don Lucia downplayed any rivalry with Boston College, despite the fact both teams are very similar in style. He said it’s really more of a respect between two storied programs.
“Certainly look at what they’ve done in their history, very similar to Minnesota over the years,” said Lucia of Boston College. “Very elite players.”
Boston College head coach Jerry York agreed adding: “I think of all the teams in the country, when we look at them, we kind of look in the mirror. They like to play the game with high skill level. They play very tenacious defensive play. They wear the same uniform colors. But the tradition of both programs, there’s a lot of things that are similar with BC and Minnesota.”
Ferris State and Union College are very disciplined and rely on their goaltending and defense to a large extent (though Union’s power play ranked fourth in the nation).
Ferris State coach Bob Daniels and Union College coach Rick Bennett both had complimentary things to say to one another as well, prior to their semifinal matchup.
“I think we’re both very structured in our approach to the games,” said Daniels. “I think both teams play a really strong unit-of-five team game on the ice.”
Bennett, a one-time player for Providence College and the New York Rangers, said both teams have a workman-like approach to the game.
“That’s how we both (got here)” he said. “It’s two teams that pride themselves on working hard.”
FERRIS AND UNION A JV MATCHUP?
Players from both Ferris State and Union College bristled when asked about Twitter and blogosphere pundits calling their semifinal game a ‘JV matchup.’
Ferris State goaltender Taylor Nelson especially took exception to the analogy prior to the semifinal.
“I think that’s silly,” said Nelson. “First off, we’re in the Frozen Four last time I checked. And it’s a pretty big accomplishment for both teams. And you look at Union…that’s not a team to joke about. We’re here playing for the championship. The junior varsity thing, I just find that kind of funny.”
Welsh also found the Internet buzz about the game odd.
“I wouldn’t bat at an eye at it. Don’t read that stuff,” said Welsh. “Doesn’t really matter what other people think. We’re here at the national championship. We’re all in the same boat.”
OH LOOK IT’S YOU!
Players from Union and Minnesota in particular were giving their stars a lot of grief for the larger than life murals pasted on the front of the Tampa Times Forum.
Welsh said it was neat to see as the team bus came in.
“It’s not every day I see myself on the side of a building,” he said.
But Welsh’s Union teammate, forward Nolan Julseth-White, gave him the business for it.
“This morning I woke up, saw this beautiful sunrise, and then, wham, there’s Jeremy Welsh,” he said jokingly. “Living with him all summer and dealing with him all year, you think you could get away from him for just five minutes.”
The Minnesota Gophers players had some fun with the murals, too. Gophers forward Nate Schmidt said of teammate Taylor Matson’s pose: “It was kind of fun when we pulled up. Everyone obviously gave Taylor a little bit of grief. But he’s a well-deserving kid to be up there.”
BY THE NUMBERS
1 – number of times Ferris State and Union College have appeared in the NCAA Frozen Four each.
42 – number of times Minnesota and Boston College have appeared in the NCAA Frozen Four combined.
0 – number of NHL draft picks on Ferris State and Union College.
24 – number of NHL draft picks on the Minnesota and Boston College rosters combined.
0 – number of scholarship players on the Union College Dutchmen.
9 – years since a team from the ECAC appeared in the Frozen Four until Union did it this year. The last was Cornell in 2003.
10 – Appearance number for Boston College in the NCAA championship.
0 – number of previous appearances by Ferris State in the NCAA championship.
18 – current Boston College winning streak.
1 – goal allowed by Boston College so far in the NCAA hockey tournament.
Boston College claims NCAA hockey title
TAMPA, Fla. — The Associated Press, Apr. 07, 2012
Boston College is making winning NCAA hockey titles look easy.
Coach Jerry York and star goalie Parker Milner know how hard it really is.
“You can't buy one of these championships,” York said Saturday night after the Eagles beat Ferris State 4-1 for their fifth NCAA championship and third in five seasons.
“You have to earn them. And this team definitely earned it.”
Milner, the Frozen Four's Most Outstanding Player, made 27 of his 33 saves in the final two periods.
“It's hard to put it into words because everyone did their part and we came together as a team,” Milner said. “You don't do this without contributions from everyone and that's what we got.”
Steven Whitney scored twice to help Boston College (33-10-1) finish with a 19-game winning streak. The Eagles outscored their opponents 77-21 during that span.
“We knew Ferris State was going to be outstanding,” York said. “They might not have the name recognition, but we knew how good they were. We stayed patient through the first two periods. Parker was extremely strong in net. You can't be measured until you win that last trophy. Now this team can take its place among the other championship teams.”
Ferris State (26-12-5) was making its first Frozen Four appearance.
“You can't say enough about what Boston College has accomplished,” Ferris State coach Bob Daniels said. “I think that's a very special program. It's going to be hard to duplicate.”
Paul Carey broke a tie with a power-play goal midway through the first period, redirecting Brian Dumoulin's blast from left point to make it 2-1.
Johnny Gaudreau also scored for Boston College.
Garrett Thompson scored for Ferris State.
Whitney opened the scoring at 3:18 of the first period, stealing a pass and beating lunging goalie Taylor Nelson. Thompson tied it at 5:19, and Carey put the Eagles in front at 10:33.
Gaudreau weaved through the Ferris State defence to make it 3-1 with 3:02 left in the game. He carried over the blue line with two defenders between him and the net. The freshman star went around one defenceman, faked forehand on the other defender, then went to his backhand and flicked a shot from the edge of the right circle. It got past Nelson to the far post.
“That was a big-time goal by a big-time player,” York said.
Whitney added an empty-net goal with 1:03 to go.
Boston College also won national championships in 1949, 2001, 2008 and 2010. The Eagles are the first program to win three titles in five years since Denver accomplished the feat with wins in 1958, 1960 and 1961.
Daniels said he felt Ferris State represented itself well.
“I felt very comfortable coming out of the second period, but they just had too much,” Daniels said. “I have zero regrets about this. We did the best we could. I have zero regrets about how they played and how they performed.”
NCAA Frozen Four: Boston College takes down title for coach Jerry York.
With a 4-1 win over Ferris State, Boston College won its third title in five years.
Derek Berry, The Hockey News, 2012-04-08
TAMPA BAY - In the aftermath of the Boston College Eagles 4-1 NCAA tournament championship victory over the Ferris State Bulldogs, let’s look at just how successful this BC program really is. When you sit back and think about it, it’s truly astounding. And programs that are this good, don’t just grow on trees.
Boston College coach Jerry York said he learned from legendary long-time Wisconsin coach ‘Badger’ Bob Johnson to create a blueprint. York recalled the advice he got in analyzing how he did and how valuable it still is to him.
You can see the results not only with what he’s done with the BC program, which has won three national titles in the past five years, but also with the types of players he produces and the success they have at the next level.
Looking back at the Eagles, you could call them the team of the past decade and you could make a solid case for them being the premiere college hockey program right now. Consider the results over the past 15 seasons for BC in the NCAA tournament:
1998 – lost to Michigan in overtime thriller in Boston?
2000 – lost to North Dakota ?
2001 – beat North Dakota in overtime? for title
2006 – lost to Wisconsin in Milwaukee?
2007 – lost to Michigan State
2008 – beat Notre Dame? for title
2010 – beat Wisconsin? for title
2012 – beat Ferris State for title
York admitted the blueprint includes simply getting to the championship and playing well, even if you fall short. Although he noted, you do want to win a few, which the Eagles have done.
Through the years, the Boston College players have bought into what York has taught them. And this team has to play in Hockey East, one of the toughest conferences, if not the toughest in college hockey, on a regular basis. BC battles teams such as Boston University, their arch-rivals, Maine, New Hampshire and others.
Players who come to Boston College not only come to win, they come prepared to go to the next level. The Eagles program is a machine. And York has played a big part in that. He understands the professional game and NHL GMs love picking players from BC because they know they’re getting solid, quality talent and players with good heads on their shoulders.
After the Eagles basked in the glow of yet another championship, York brought the trophy out to the media interview room and placed it atop the table for all to see and for he and his team to admire. It is the trophy that you strive for, that you are expected to win at Boston College, by following York’s blueprint.
NOTES
AWARDS – The annual Hobey Baker Award, presented to college hockey’s most outstanding player, was presented to Jack Connolly, senior forward from Minnesota-Duluth. The Hockey Humanitarian Award was presented to Aleca Hughes, senior forward from Yale University’s women’s hockey team who started a foundation in honor of a teammate who passed away from leukemia.
TAMPA SETS RECORD – Two-day attendance at the Frozen Four, held at the Tampa Bay Times Forum broke a record for a first-time host city.
SEE YOU IN STEEL TOWN – Next year’s Frozen Four will take place in Pittsburgh at the Consol Energy Center, home to the Pittsburgh Penguins, April 11 and 13, 2013.
JONES: Best-of-nine made history
Terry Jones, Edmonton Sun, April 15 2012
EDMONTON - If Bill Hunter was still alive and running the Edmonton Oil Kings, the series against the Moose Jaw Warriors would probably be beginning this weekend.
It would be a best-of-nine Might even go 10.
That’s the way it was the last time — the only time — Edmonton played Moose Jaw in a Western Hockey League playoff series.
And it almost did go 10!
Moose Jaw won it three games to two — with four games tied.
And Game 9 was a tie!
One of the wonderful things about the current Oil Kings magical 19-game winning streak and being eight wins away from the Memorial Cup, with Games 1 and 2 against Moose Jaw here Friday and Sunday, are the memories it brings back from the days when the juniors were king.
This series isn’t a first seed against a sixth or eighth seed; it’s between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference, both coming off sweeps.
The Oil Kings had a 107 point season and the Warriors put up 98.
The timing is right to remind Edmonton of what a real wild west junior playoff series can be like.
Even if it’s only a best-of-seven.
The last one, in 1967, was in the first year of the league, the year after the Oil Kings won their second Memorial Cup of the ’60s after playing in it seven consecutive years when it was a two-team East vs. West best-of-seven showdown.
The Oil Kings won the regular season title (as they did this year), but it was Moose Jaw, then called the Canucks, who won the series.
“It was unbelievable,” Billy Moores said of that Oil Kings squad. “We’d played the whole year in the Jasper Place Arena because they were renovating the Edmonton Gardens. The series started at JP and ended up in the Gardens.”
Teammate Ron Walters agrees, adding: “It was bizarre; it was Bill Hunter at his best.
“They changed the rules as we went along. It was a best-of-nine. And then it was going to go 10! I honestly think it was about gates.
“We beat them big in the first two games; it wasn’t even close. But back in Moose Jaw, it was a different story. I don’t know if our goalie, Smokey McLeod, had something to drink, but he couldn’t stop anything in one game. He let one in from the other blueline. That’s where they got their momentum.”
Both men agreed that the best guy to tell the story of that memorable series is Ken Brown.
He won it.
The kid who grew up a couple blocks from Jasper Place (now Bill Hunter) Arena, was brilliant in goal for Moose Jaw.
Brown, who went on to be Jacques Plante’s goaltending partner with the 1974-75 Edmonton Oilers when Brown was 25 and Plante was 46. (Yes, Virginia, the legendary Montreal Canadiens goaltender played his final year of pro as an Oiler in the WHA).
Brown worked for years as Rod Phillips color commentator on Oilers NHL broadcasts and is a former advertising manager of the Edmonton Sun.
Contacted Friday in San Antonio, Texas where he now enjoys watching his 10-year-old grandson grow up, the memories flooded back for Brown from the same spring the Toronto Maple Leafs won their last Stanley Cup.
“How much fun was that ’67 series? Oh my!
“The 66-67 season was the year we were an outlaw league from the CAHA, so Wild Bill wanted to stretch out the season because we couldn’t play for the Memorial Cup.
“As I recall, the Oil Kings were seeded first, and we were sixth. So the best-of-nine series would give the other four teams enough time to play their two series to determine the other finalist to face either Edmonton or Moose Jaw.
Stolen
“The series didn’t go to 10 games — if it had, we would have stolen home ice advantage, that’s why it was so cool to be able to win with a tie. It actually turned into a ‘whoever gets to 11 points first wins the series.’
“And going into Game 9 we were up 10-8 in points, so they need to win just to stay alive.
“We got killed in the first two games at Jasper Place Arena. I think we got shutout both times by Smokey McLeod. Something like 4-0 and 8-0. I remember him making one save by actually stepping on the puck. It was the damndest thing I’ve ever seen.
“We went back to Moose Jaw for games 3-4-5. I think we tied the first one, then won the next two to go back to Edmonton tied at five points each.
“God bless him — our people made sure that Ace Bailey had enough beer in his hotel room while staying in M.J.,” Brown recalled of the former Oiler who mentored Wayne Gretzky and died in the 9–11 terrorist attack on World Trade Centre.
“I think we had about a week off, then went back to Edmonton to open the Gardens after the renovations.
“That’s when Ross Perkins of the Oil Kings stick hit Ken Hodge in the eye. I chased Perky from my crease to their bench then dropped him with a two-hander. The referee, Jules Swick, said he never saw it. Babe MacAvoy was the linesman, and he says he never saw it either.
“Eventually we ended up in Edmonton for that final game. We needed a tie. The Oil Kings needed to win to go back to Moose Jaw for Game 10.
“I remember the headline in the paper that morning: ‘Oil Kings book 20 plane tickets to Moose Jaw.’ ”
These days neither team is allowed to fly, so even if Bob Green could convince the league to go to a best of nine with a chance to play a Game 10, there would be no headline like that to write.
“We flew flew to Edmonton for Game 9,” said Brown. “That day and that game were so exciting, because for most of our guys, it was their first plane ride.
“All we needed was a tie to win the series.
“At the start of the third period, I think we were down 4 -2. I remember Garry Gilbert coming up to me prior to the period, tapping me on the pads and saying, ‘Well Brownie boy, this is where they separate the bearshit from the buckwheat.’
“The game ended in a 4 - 4 tie. We won the best-of-nine series with a tie!
“One of our rookies, Jerry Miller, a Moose Jaw boy, got the third goal and I think Edmontonian Donnie Walker got the tying goal.
“But it was mayhem for the final 10 minutes — intense, scary ... but so exciting.
“Because they had to win to play a Game 10, Bill Gadsby pulled Smokey with a couple minutes to go and they were all over us.
“I think Barry Long stopped as many shots as I did in that flurry,” Brown said of the defenceman who would later become an Oiler (and later head coach of the Winnipeg Jets).
Shaking
“I remember looking back at goal judge Ted McPhail, and he was just shaking his head.
“When it was all over, it was bedlam for us. We’d worked so hard and had so many ups and downs. With so many of us from Edmonton and area, our families were on the ice hugging us and just celebrating. That’s still a vivid memory today.
“I remember carrying my sister Sheila, who was 10, around the ice and the two of us were crying our eyes out. We went back to our rooms at the Beverly Crest Hotel and had one of those great evenings when you just couldn’t sleep and the party just went room to room , with everyone hugging and crying.
“When we got back to the airport in Regina on the Saturday afternoon there was a motorcade to escort us the 40 miles back to Moose Jaw, where the city had set up a parade. That was such a thrill!
“I remember the lead in the story in the paper on that Saturday: ‘They cancelled 20 air plane tickets to Moose jaw today: the Oil Kings aren’t going anywhere.’ ”
Yes, this Edmonton-Moose Jaw series could be good.
But there is NO chance it’ll be anything like that one.
Scouts galore descending on Moose Jaw
Terry Jones, Edmonton Sun, April 21, 2012
EDMONTON - Eighty scouts. That’s a lot of scouts.
That’s a lot of seats high in the corners of the stands. That’s a lot of hotel rooms in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
There are only 30 teams in the National Hockey League.
Eighty scouts equals 2.67 scouts per team.
And they’re all headed to Moose Jaw to watch 2.0 players.
They’re all coming from the about-to-be-completed U-18 world championships in the Czech Republic to Moose Jaw for Game 3-4 of the WHL Eastern Conference Final.
Morgan Rielly of the Warriors and Griffin Reinhart of the Edmonton Oil Kings are now two of the last few prized players eligible for the NHL Entry Draft still skating. And they’re in the same games for comparison including Game 2 Sunday.
In the case of Rielly, in Game 1 he played his first game after missing 63 due to injury after he tore up a knee Nov. 6 against Calgary.
“I think it’s safe to say this will be the largest gathering of scouts to ever come to Moose Jaw,” said Warriors head of hockey operations Alan Millar.
“Seventy or 80 for sure. Head scouts. Area scouts. General managers. Assistant general managers. Most of them are coming from teams picking in the top 10 or 12. Most of those teams are bringing contingents in.
“Obviously the big reason is because Morgan hasn’t played all year. But it’s also the head-to-head with Reinhart in a conference final playoff series. It’s intriguing viewing.
“We’ve already seen something like this happen this year. When Alex Galchenyuk came back from injury in mid-March, there were 64 scouts in Sarnia to watch him.
“It’s been one of those years. A lot of the top prospects got hurt and haven’t played many games. It’s now an important part of the year and there are only so many hockey games left to watch.”
The scouts, returning from watching Filip Forsberg, Mathew Dumba, etc. at the U-18, have had their last viewings of Nail Yakupov, Ryan Murray, Mikhail Grigorenko and Galchenyuk, the players ranked in the top four by Central Scouting. Rielly is rated No. 5. Reinhart was rated No. 10 but is said to be trending much higher than that with his play so far in the playoffs and the stock on players like Grigorenko, for one, said to have dropped dramatically with his play in the playoffs.
So what’s it like to be an 18-year-old kid to go to practice Saturday, after playing your first game back in Friday’s Game 1 loss to the Edmonton Oil Kings in the WHL Eastern Conference Final, to find out 80 scouts are going to be watching you back home in Moose Jaw?
“Pretty nerve-wracking, obviously,” said Rielly.
“It is kind of surprising to find out there are going to be that many scouts around. Right now I’m thinking that it’s good to have the opportunity to play a couple of games first,” said the Warrior’s puck-moving defenceman who averaged a point per game before his injury and returned to set up the only goal in the Moose Jaw loss.
“It was just a great feeling just to play in a game again. I’m just trying to keep it simple, play my game and try not to do everything.
“It’s been a pretty tough road to get back. I put a whole lot of work in giving myself a chance to get back to being part of the team in the playoffs. The toughest part was to watch the Prospects Game at home,” he said of the one game where 80 scouts is the norm.
For Reinhart, who grew up playing with Rielly on the West Coast, the news of having 80 scouts heading to Moose Jaw didn’t seem to have an effect on him — although if you watch him play, seldom does anything seem to have an effect on him. He’s an unflappable as 18-year-old defencemen come.
“I’ve been used to it all year,” he said.
The more the merrier, is his opinion.
“The further your team goes in the playoffs, the more I think it helps. I think it’s really helping me to play on a team like this. I think it’s been going really good for me in the playoffs so far. I’m not focusing on offence at all. I think I’ve been managing my own end really well,” said the six-foot-four, 202-pound player.
His dad Paul, the former Calgary Flames star who was the No. 12 draft pick in 1979, said times have changed.
“I was a first-round pick and I never knew there was a scout in the building. I never once talked to a scout. I didn’t even know I was drafted until I was at the Olympic camp and I was called off the ice to take a phone call from Cliff Fletcher,” he said watching practice Saturday.
“Now, if you are a GM or a head scout, you don’t want to make a mistake with a first-round pick or you’re going to pay for it.”
Ailing father inspires Oil King
Jason Hills ,Edmonton Sun, April 25, 2012
We've witnessed Laurent Brossoit make some incredible saves during these 2012 Western Hockey League playoffs -- battling and fighting to make that game-changing stop.
If you wonder where he gets it from, look no further than to his father John, who has spent the last five years battling multiple sclerosis.
In their own way, father and son are inspirations to one another.
When John has one of his "down" days, all he has to do is turn on his computer in Port Alberni, B.C., and watch Laurent and the Oil Kings in what has so far become a memorable playoff run.
For Laurent, just knowing what his dad has been through is inspiring in its own right.
"My dad has gone through a lot in his life, especially in the last few years. It's nice to see my dad fighting -- he fights so hard, and he teaches me so much," said Brossoit.
"It teaches you to not take anything for granted and appreciate what you have.
"I was young when he was diagnosed, but you start to learn how to deal with it, and try and remain positive and understand where he's at and just try to keep him positive."
When his father suffers through one of his bad days, Brossoit makes sure to give his dad a call or send him a text with a little encouragement. John does the same after every one of Laurent's games.
Last year, Laurent and some of his family members raised $8,000 for his father to undergo a chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency treatment.
The treatment is only available in the U.S. and it's been known to erase some of the symptoms of those suffering from M.S.
John's not cured, but since receiving the treatment in Seattle, it's helped ease many of his symptoms.
"Before I had the treatment, I would get vertigo ... it was pretty bad. I would get dizzy from any kind of activity. My brain was in a fog," said John.
"Physically, now I'm doing what I used to do. The only thing that I think hasn't got too much better is the cognitive side of things."
There are more good days than bad right now for John, as he's been able to watch the Oil Kings win 21 games in a row heading into Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final Wednesday in Moose Jaw.
He's one proud papa.
"Every game that I've been able to see him play (this year) has got me out of my doldrums. It really helps that the team is winning and the team is doing well," said John.
"We all gather at my brother's house on game nights. Even my mother, who isn't a big hockey fan, she's now hooked. We're so proud of him and the team."
Brossoit was given the reins to be the No. 1 guy in the Oil Kings crease this year, and he's entrenched himself as one of the best goaltenders in the WHL.
The 19-year-old, a fifth-round pick of the Calgary Flames in 2011 finished the regular season near the top of every statistical goaltending category. In the playoffs, he's been almost unbeatable with a sparkling 1.40 goals against average and 0.950 save percentage.
His 48-save performance in Game 2 of the Conference Final against the Moose Jaw Warriors were the most saves made by a winning goaltender in the Western Hockey League playoffs this year.
If he wasn't already on Hockey Canada's radar for the 2013 World Junior tournament, Brossoit is now.
His play in the playoffs has captivated Oil Kings fans, starting an 'LB' chant that could be heard all the way back to Port Alberni.
When Brossoit skates into his crease, he has the mentality that he owns it and it drives him to be the best.
"I knew I had to earn it," said Brossoit.
"But my whole focus is on the puck, I don't focus on where I am considered in people's eyes."
John has only been able to see four games in person this year. Not being able to work because of his illness has made it tough financially to see more games. But he may get an opportunity if the Oil Kings advance to the final.
"I have a good friend, who's son (Tyler Wotherspoon) plays for Portland," said John. "I've already been getting texts from him saying that if the Oil Kings play Portland, that he's bringing me with him."
How the Winterhawks ended up in Portland . . .
Gregg Drinnan, Taking Note, April 27 2012
This story, written by Dean (Scooter) Vrooman five or six years ago, appeared on this blog on March 30, 2008, and again on Nov. 4, 2008. Originally, it was to have been one chapter in a book about the Portland Winterhawks.
With the Winterhawks having advanced to the WHL final against the Edmonton Oil Kings, it’s worth another look. After all, the Winterhawks, who not that long ago were the Winter Hawks, started life as the Oil Kings.
Here then is Vrooman’s story of the Three Amigos and how the WHL ended up in Portland . . .
PORTLAND’S THREE AMIGOS
Written by DEAN (SCOOTER) VROOMAN
Edited by Gregg Drinnan
It was the summer of 1975 and Brian Shaw, Ken Hodge and Innes Mackie were unemployed. With nothing but time on their hands, they decided to go duck hunting in Stettler, Alta.
Shaw and Hodge had been fired by ‘Wild’ Bill Hunter, who owned the World Hockey Association’s Edmonton Oilers and the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings. Mackie had just returned from Kimberley, B.C., where he had turned down a job offer at a mine. The offer Mackie had received included a chance to play a little hockey on the side.
Shaw was in the process of putting together a group of investors to buy the Oil Kings from Hunter. Shaw would run the show.
Hodge would coach. Mackie would be the trainer. They didn’t know it at the time but they were embarking on a 20-year relationship — relationships of hockey, business and friendship.
The Three Amigos became inseparable until Shaw passed away in the summer of 1994.
On this day in Stettler, the three men, who would become the three original members of the Winter Hawks’ front office, were solidifying the mutual respect and trust needed. The ducks weren't flying that day, at least not in the Stettler area, so the three erstwhile hunters headed for a local bar to shoot a little pool. Everyone was having fun, too, until a cowboy in a black hat came over and started yipping at Hodge for monopolizing the pool table. After an unflattering comment from Hodge regarding the cowboy’s hat, feathers started to fly — and it had nothing to do with ducks.
"He started to take his jean jacket off and when it got about half way down each arm, I smoked him," Hodge remembers. "It's Saturday night and the place is full. There were five of us — and two of them bailed out. Brian, who was always quick with the wit, was not ready to handle this type of negotiation. So that left Innes and I — and, needless to say, we had our hands full. There were probably eight of them involved by now. The pool cues are getting broken, I'm getting thumped in the back of the head and Innes got jumped. Finally, we hear sirens and red lights. The three of us were never so happy to see the RCMP."
That incident was neither the first nor the last for friendships that would last more than 20 years.
When he was 16 years of age, Hodge earned a job as a defenceman with the Jasper Place Mohawks — a high-profile team in Edmonton. Coincidentally, the general manager and head coach was Shaw, who was working in the first of what would be many dual roles. It didn't take Shaw long to earn his reputation as a slick team manager.
"The team was the talk of the town," Hodge says. "People in Edmonton were very envious. Brian started out with just one bantam team and ended up with the first true feeder system in the Edmonton area when he expanded to midgets and junior. The Jasper Place Mohawks were first class all the way. They paid all their bills, wore flashy uniforms and won lots of hockey games."
Hodge was one of four players from Jasper Place chosen by Shaw to play the next season with the Moose Jaw Canucks of the newly formed Western Canada Hockey League. Shaw was the general manager and head coach and Hodge was a key defenceman.
Other than the Canucks, the WCHL featured the Oil Kings, Estevan Bruins, Regina Pats, Saskatoon Blades, Weyburn Red Wings and Calgary Buffaloes. Moose Jaw finished fourth in a 56-game regular season, 16 points behind the first-place Oil Kings, but went on to win league’s first championship trophy by beating the Oil Kings — the Canucks won that series 3-2 with four games tied — and then Regina, winning the best-of-seven final, 4-1.
It was the pivotal season of Hodge’s career. In a regular-season game against Regina, Hodge was struck in an eye by a high stick. In the playoffs, he again was hit in the same eye. After a series of operations during the summer, doctors told him that they would know by early 1968 if his eye would ever recover.
On Nov. 15, 1967, Hodge received a call from Gordon Fashaway inviting him to Portland to play for the Buckaroos of the professional Western Hockey League. Hodge was excited about the offer and pushed the doctors for an answer. Unfortunately, the answer he received wasn’t the one he had hoped to hear. Hodge's playing career was over.
The next season, Shaw moved on to the St. Catharines Black Hawks of the Ontario Junior Hockey League. While Hodge was helping with training camp, he accepted an offer to coach the Sorel Eparviers of the Quebec Junior A Hockey League.
Hodge, at 21 likely the youngest head coach in the history of Canadian junior hockey, had quite a debut season. Sorel put up a 33-16-1 regular-season record and went all the way to the Eastern Canadian best-of-five final where it lost 3-1 to the Montreal Jr. Canadiens, who would go on to win the Memorial Cup. It’s worth noting that the Jr. Canadiens played in the OJHL, where they ousted Shaw’s Black Hawks from the best-of-seven championship final in five games.
Hodge’s impressive season in Sorel opened up an opportunity for him to coach in the International Hockey League, with a team in Flint, Mich. He would spend four seasons in Flint.
Meanwhile, Shaw returned to Edmonton where he coached the Oil Kings, winning the WCHL’s 1971-72 title in his first season. That put the Oil Kings into what was the first Memorial Cup to be decided in a tournament format — this one also featured the Peterborough Petes and Cornwall Royals, but no host team — in Ottawa. The Oil Kings were eliminated with a 5-0 loss to Cornwall during which Edmonton defenceman Keith Mackie, Innes’s brother, was struck in an eye by a deflected puck and suffered a torn iris. For the record, Cornwall edged Peterborough 2-1 in the final.
The next season, Hunter, the Oilers’ general manager who was most impressed with Shaw's championship season with the Oil Kings, offered him the head-coaching job with the WHA team. When Shaw accepted, Hunter hired Hodge to coach the Oil Kings.
"I jumped at the opportunity because the Oil Kings were a very prestigious team," Hodge remembers. "I wanted to get on with my career in hockey and I saw too many people stagnating in Flint."
As it turned out, Hodge made the wrong move at the wrong time. He got caught in a rebuilding program with the Oil Kings. Much of the talent from the previous season graduated and Hunter gave Hodge a little over a year to win. He didn't, so Hunter fired him.
Meanwhile, Shaw's Oilers got off to an amazing start — winning 18 straight games. Unfortunately for Shaw, the team was playing over its head and it didn't take long for reality to set in. Hunter enjoyed the winning streak and wanted it to continue. When the wins stopped coming, Hunter, never know for his patience or for a willingness to avoid headlines, fired Shaw.
Two months later brought Shaw, Hodge and Mackie to a pool room in Stettler.
Eventually, Shaw's group bought the Oil Kings from Hunter and 16 games into the 1975-76 WCHL season the three amigos became the WCHL club’s new management team. Shaw was the general manager, Hodge the head coach and Mackie the trainer.
However, things weren’t all coming up roses. Shaw's one year at the helm of the Oil Kings was less than successful. Edmonton hockey fans weren’t in any hurry to go to the old Memorial Gardens to watch the Oil Kings when they could watch the WHA’s Oilers in the brand new Northlands Coliseum.
"Brian and I felt we knew more about the game than anyone else," Hodge says. "We thought we would be able to turn the Edmonton Oil Kings into the premier franchise in the Western Hockey League and a very profitable venture. We found out very quickly that we weren't as smart as we thought we were. We thought we could compete with a major league team on a minor league budget, but we lost more money than any of us could afford to lose.”
Mackie had played on Shaw’s and Hodge's Oil Kings and, contrary to what you might have guessed, the relationship didn't begin on the best of terms. When Mackie was an 18-year-old defenceman playing for Shaw in Edmonton, he had been asked to go to Crosstown Motors, an Oil Kings sponsor, and pick up a new car for Shaw.
"Innes and Brian probably came to an understanding after Innes smacked up two of Brian's brand new cars," Hodge says with a laugh. "One of the accidents was just one of those things, but the other was pretty funny. Innes went to Crosstown Motors, picked up Brian's big Dodge, and only had to cross one busy two-way street. Smack! He couldn't have been more than 40 feet out of the parking lot when he's done and it's tow truck city."
As a player, Mackie quit the Oil Kings early in the 1973-74 season after being taken out of a game by Hodge.
"It's all water under the bridge now," Mackie says. "When I was 18, I played for Brian as a fifth or sixth defenceman. At that time they only used four defencemen and sometimes three. I wasn't getting very much ice time and I wasn't going to go through the same thing when I was 19. So, Hodgie sat me out one game and that was it. Goodbye.“
"Innes and I didn't see eye to eye as coach and player," Hodge agrees. "But I always enjoyed Innes as a person. His brother Keith and I were golfing buddies and Innes was the little brother who always tagged along."
Even through their trials and tribulations, Hodge had enough respect for Mackie to make him the Oil Kings trainer.
Since then, Mackie has always been more than just a trainer. He looks for statistics, quotes and any other information he can find out about every player in the league. One of his attributes is a near photographic memory, and Hodge and Shaw came to depend on that over the years. If there is ever a question about a player, Mackie is the first person asked.
"Innes sometimes confirmed my feelings about hockey players," Hodge says. "He has always been a very knowledgeable hockey person. Innes helped Brian and I on some of our decisions on who we would keep and who we would release or trade. He also had input on people from other teams that might help our franchise if we traded for them. The early years of the Winter Hawks was basically built through trades. Most of our trades were very positive for us and Innes had a role in many of them.”
Mackie also scours the rule book on the long bus rides. He knows the rules inside and out — and has a knack for memorizing them, no matter how obscure.
Mackie earned the nickname ‘Eagle Eye’ for his ability to spot illegal curves in the blades of opponents' hockey sticks. Players with illegal sticks were sent to the penalty box with minor penalties and several Portland victories were been earned as the result of subsequent power plays. In 18 seasons, he was wrong about one stick — and he still claims that the referee didn’t measure that one properly.
"When the game is on, I watch things differently," Mackie, who now is with the Tri-City Americans, points out. "I watch what's happening behind the play, on the other team's bench, and away from the puck. If I see something the coaches don't, I can help out once in awhile. Sometimes, I can relay information to the coaches if an opposing player misses a shift, or a guy is hurt."
All three of the amigos were involved in the move from Edmonton to Portland.
Originally, Shaw went to Vancouver to meet with Nat Bailey, who owned the Mounties of baseball’s Pacific Coast League. Bailey wanted to get involved in hockey and was going to underwrite all the costs of moving the Oil Kings to Vancouver. Bailey also was prepared to give Shaw plenty of working capital to get started. This dream move never happened, however, because the New Westminster Bruins, a nearby WCHL franchise, blocked the move.
At the time, Hodge wanted to move to Spokane. Shaw, though, wanted to check out Portland and arranged a meeting with Dick Reynolds, the general manager of Memorial Coliseum.
"I didn't have any idea where Portland was," Mackie says. "I had to get a map. All I knew was that the Edmonton Oil Kings were in the Western Canadian Hockey League — and Portland wasn't in Canada."
Shaw’s meeting with Reynolds and the Coliseum staff was very positive and soon the Oil Kings were to become the Portland Winter Hawks.
"It was one of the best decisions that Brian made," Hodge recalls. "At that time, we both had an equal vote. So, it was one vote for Spokane and one vote for Portland. Brian decided his vote was bigger than mine and he won."
The first three seasons were very difficult in Portland.
In spite of good, competitive teams, large crowds in 10,400-seat Memorial Coliseum were a rarity. The team was losing money and several of the original investors from Edmonton pulled out when the going got tough. But Shaw, Hodge and Mackie never doubted the potential of the Portland hockey market. The three amigos hung in there and waited for Portland fans to discover the excitement of junior hockey.
"We raised our level of communication — and we communicated without a lot of words," Hodge says. "We had a very good understanding of one another — and we went through some very difficult times in our early years in Portland. There were times when we didn't know if we had enough money to bring the bus home. We had a good, solid relationship. Relationships are built on trust — and we trusted one another."
That trust was only broken one time and that was in the early days of the Winter Hawks. On an off-night in Lethbridge during the 1977-78 season, Mackie went out to do the team laundry and ended up having a couple of beers with several players.
"At the time, I was about the same age as the players — and I had known them as friends and even played hockey with some of them,” Mackie recalls. “I should have been smart enough to know there is a fine line between being a staff member and getting too close to the players."
"I had to fire him," Hodge says. "I really didn't have any options there. I was told to do it because somebody else (Shaw) didn't want to. I can't remember if he was fired for two hours, four hours or a half-a-day, but during this other person's cooling-off period, I convinced him to rehire Innes. Eventually, that other person did the rehiring."
They stuck together in other times of strife, too. From 1987 to 1991, the Hawks had terrible teams — missing the playoffs three of four seasons. This did not set well with Portland fans who had become accustomed to the winning tradition established by the Buckaroos and the early seasons of the Winter Hawks. Hodge became an easy target for the fans. It even came to the point where petitions were being circulated among the Coliseum crowd to have him terminated as coach. Publicly, though, Shaw took most of the criticism for the Hawks' poor on-ice record and deflected as much blame as he could away from Hodge.
"I appreciated what Brian did, but I didn't really feel it was necessary," Hodge says. "My record spoke for itself through the good seasons and Brian knew a coaching change might have injected some short term life into the team, but it would not solve the problem long term.
"We didn't have a very good product on the ice. We had some very good people that were not necessarily very good athletes. Some of the problems with the product were Brian's fault and some were my fault. Brian did take a lot of the heat."
Shaw's passing in 1994 was clearly an emotional time for Hodge and Mackie. The three amigos had been through it all together. The highs and lows. The good times and the bad. They always stuck together even though many times they agreed to disagree.
"It's very obvious to anyone who has worked in this office or is in any way connected with the Portland Winter Hawks that Brian's sense of loyalty was tremendous," Hodge notes. "His sense of loyalty was unwavering and nothing got in the way. Not dollars. Not wins. Nothing gets in front of loyalty."
This is a sense of loyalty that has been ingrained from standing up for one another in a Stettler pool room to building a hockey franchise. Very few have achieved what these amigos have.
WHL Draft Storylines
WCHBlog, May 3, 2012
Here's a look at some of the storylines from today's WHL Bantam Draft.
-The most direct impact on college hockey came early when Prince George moved up a couple spots in the first round by putting together a package that sent Michigan Tech recruit Jujhar Khaira's rights to Everett. Prince George seemed to have no chance at signing Khaira, and with Everett getting him in a trade, they have to think their odds are less-than-zero. Khaira was ranked 74th among NA skaters by NHL Central Scouting for this year's draft, and was invited to the NHL Draft Combine today, so he'd be a pretty big recruit for Michigan Tech. Khaira has a reputation as being pretty academic-minded, but there's always a chance he could be swayed after he is drafted by an NHL team.
-The second overall pick in the draft was forward Jansen Harkins of the North Shore Winter Club. Harkins is the son of Todd Harkins, who played three years of college hockey at Miami, before going on to a long pro career that included a couple stops in the NHL. Also, thanks to a retweet from Bob McKenzie, I had half of Canada inform me that Harkins also was on a reality show in Canada.
There's never a great amount of confidence for the NCAA any time a player is selected that high in a CHL draft, but on the positive side, he was picked by Prince George, which has a tough time drawing players due to location, and his dad has experience working in the BCHL, potentially giving him some place to play pre-college. And with the WHL drafting earlier than the other CHL leagues, a high draft pick doesn't mean as much. Luke Moffatt and Dan Bertram were both second overall draft picks and ended up playing college hockey. Jonathan Toews went first overall in his draft year. Perhaps there's a chance for the NCAA there.
Harkins also theoretically would have the option of playing for the NTDP, similar to the top prospect in the QMJHL draft this year, Daniel Audette. Although with the IIHF's goofy ruling on Stefan Matteau's eligibility, it seems Harkins would have to play in the US next year--I'm not sure if just playing in the Youth Olympic Games would count--in order to be eligible for the U18 world championships as a 17-year-old.
-The first player playing in the US to go in the draft was Los Angeles Selects defenseman Keoni Texeira, who was selected 26th overall by Everett. That's fairly high for an American, but lower than a player of his talent would usually go, depending on if you're glass half-empty or glass half-full.
-The younger brother of Seth Jones, Caleb, was taken at the end of the 3rd round by Portland. Caleb is reportedly a pretty good player in his own right, but probably more importantly, it gives Portland another bargaining chip in trying to woo Seth to play for the Winterhawks next year.
-The first Minnesotan to be selected was Osseo/Maple Grove forward Jesse Gabrielle. Benilde-Margaret's forward Chase Jungels was selected 133rd by Vancouver. He was overshadowed a bit as a very young kid on a very good Benilde team, but he definitely showed some talent, especially later in the year. Other Minnesotans to be drafted: Stillwater's Luke Osterman, Shattuck's Jordan Klehr and Rem Pitlick, and UMD recruit Blake Heinrich. Heinrich went in the 12th round to Portland, and seems like a complete shot in the dark.
-Kelowna traded away once-top prospect Shane McColgan for draft picks, so next time Bruce Hamilton runs his mouth about his team could get a player to the NHL faster than an NCAA school, know that by 'NHL' he really means 'Saskatoon'.
NCAA set to scrap full shields
QMI Agency, May 4 2012
It might seem like a backward move, but the NCAA is poised to scrap full face shields in favour of three-quarter visors.
The NCAA hockey rules committee will recommend the change at a meeting in Indianapolis next month, according to College Hockey News.
The committee admits the move will result in more facial cuts and lost teeth but it thinks the game will be safer in other ways.
There is a belief that full shields impair peripheral and up-and-down vision, creating unsafe conditions, the publication reported. It is not uncommon for a player to lose sight of the puck at his feet and have to look down to locate it, leaving him open to a headshot.
Hawks and Oil Kings together on a plane? I'd buy a ticket to that
John Canzano, The Oregonian, May 06, 2012
An otherwise lovely Sunday evening ended with a thud in the opponent's end of the ice for Ty Rattie. He was face down. Two Edmonton Oil Kings were jabbing their sticks into the back of his neck, mushing his NHL-drafted grill into the ice, while he waited for the horn to sound ending the game.
It was Portland 4, Edmonton 3. The Winterhawks lead the best-of-seven WHL finals 2-1. And while I know there's Tuesday's Game 4 ahead, it's the chartered plane ride after that game that I'm already thinking about.
Turns out the WHL finals are a big deal. The pucks are brand new. The officials are said to be the best in the league. The Zamboni gets a tune-up. And also, it's the only road trip of the season that the teams utilize an airplane instead of a bus. Except, these are still tight economic times and the teams have agreed to share a single plane.
Sunday featured a pair of fights, two ejections, blood on the ice, and an Edmonton goal late that was being celebrated when Winterhawks captain William Wrenn was jabbed with a stick. Wrenn took exception. We know this because he immediately charged at the huddled, joyful Oil Kings and pile drove their little party into the boards.
The officials missed the whole thing. It so bothered Edmonton coach Derek Laxdal that he refused comment in the postgame news conference about the issue, but then stormed back toward the visiting locker room where he cornered the team video guy and asked him to pull up the exchange on his laptop.
The team huddled around just outside the locker room. The video guy fidgeted. Finally, on the computer screen, there it was -- the goal, the Edmonton celebration, Wrenn turning whipping around toward it all, and then -- nothing.
The Oil Kings camera man cut away.
"Are you (bleeping) kidding me?!?" Laxdal muttered. "Oh my (bleeping) God! What a (bleeping) joke!"
So yeah. These two teams are going to share an airplane on Tuesday night after Game4. The series is either going to be 3-1, Portland or tied, 2-2. And I'm thinking the poor pilots end up innocent bystanders if this series continues to heat up the way it currently is.
The post-game ritual here turned into a brain teaser. You remember that puzzle where a man has to figure out how to get a fox, a chicken and a sack of corn across a river? Well, the WHL people were faced with just that after the game, ushering Edmonton's players into the news conference while directing Portland's players around the back hallway, trying to limit the contact, presumably so nobody gets eaten.
Nobody did, far as we know.
The league has already informed Portland and Edmonton that there will be protocol for the shared plane ride, too. Edmonton will board first and take the back of the plane. Then, the league officials and media will board second and take the middle-plane seats. Then, Portland will board last and sit in the front section of the plane.
Fox. Chicken. Corn. All on one plane.
They took the same ride from Edmonton to Portland after the first two games of the series. Winterhawks media relations director Graham Kendrick reported after that uncomfortable flight: "Not a lot of socializing."
This was before the two teams starting trying to beat each other's brains in.
Heaven help that rig as it flies through the skies toward Edmonton. Let's hope, too, there are bathrooms in both cabins. Also, that the flight attendants have military training. Because Portland's Brad Ross and Edmonton's Joe Peddle, who fought and were ejected for game misconduct on Sunday, will be aboard. As will be Winterhawks defenseman Joe Morrow, who threw his gloves down as the Ross-Peddle fight broke out, shed a helpless official and whipped Edmonton's Keegan Lowe as if they were fighting in the Rose Garden Arena's back alley.
Explained Portland coach Mike Johnston: "The way Lowe came after Joe in Edmonton, I was happy how (Joe) stood up."
Explained Morrow: "I've got a short temper."
Not the ugliest hockey game in history. Not the most bitter rivalry, either. But man, get yourself a ticket for Game 4, and also, can someone with the E! Network get a production crew on that plane? I'd watch that show while waiting for Mayweather-Pacquiao.
Sunday was again the best-kept secret in the city. Despite another playoff sellout, the Winterhawks' front office refuses to open the 300-level and sell more tickets. And why should they? It would ruin the exclusivity and intimacy. On Sunday, there were 10,947 ticket holders who felt like they were in a monogamous relationship with the Winterhawks.
Wish there were seats on that airplane for them all.
The Merchant of Portland…
Slightly Chilled - Where we let the puck and the beat drop, May 10, 2012
The father of National Team Development Program defenseman Seth Jones said Wednesday it was a “no-brainer” for his son to go to the WHL.
Former NBA forward Popeye Jones said there were a lot of items which helped his son decide if he wanted to spend next season with the Portland Winterhawks. Jones, 17, chose to play for the Winterhawks on Monday ending a tug-of-war for his services between the WHL’s premier franchise and the University of North Dakota.
“He put a lot of thought into it,” Popeye Jones said. “He did not want to choose a college early like a lot of kids do. We told him if you are not sure, to keep your options open. If a college is planning on you coming there, back it up. As parents, we felt it wouldn’t be a good thing to do and he didn’t think so either.”
Jones choosing Portland over North Dakota brought an end to one of the more publicized recruiting battles in recent hockey history. The 6-3, 205-pounder is projected to be the No. 1 or No. 2 overall pick in next season’s NHL Draft.
Popeye Jones said what made Portland stand out was the reputation of coach Mike Johnston, who has turned the team into one of Major Junior’s elite over the last few seasons.
Another thing, Popeye Jones said, that helped was the fact his son could continue his education while playing in the WHL.
“There is a great academic program there,” he said. “It was really important to us because he’s not playing in college. We want him to get a degree and get into a strong academic program. He’s a smart kid and skipped a year of high school and that in itself lets everyone know that as a family, we put education ahead of sports.”
Popeye Jones added his son wanted to stay in the United States and it is another reason why Portland made sense.
Jones’ rights were owned by the Everett Silvertips (Wash.) and were later traded to Portland further solidifying the chances he’d be staying in America.
Staying in the United States, playing for one of Major Junior’s elite franchises, having a 72-game regular season schedule coupled with producing four first-round draft picks since 2010 is what helped put Portland over North Dakota, Popeye Jones said.
“I think will all the success Portland has had,” Popeye Jones said. “And the guys they’ve developed, it was a no-brainer for him to go there.”
Popeye Jones did add that his son did enjoy his visits to North Dakota.
Though there is one question that remains for the Jones’ family. Will it be enough to convince Caleb Jones to follow his brother?
Caleb Jones was taken in the third round by Portland in last week’s WHL Bantam Draft.
Like his brother, he is a defenseman and is currently playing midget hockey in the Dallas Stars’ youth program. Popeye Jones said Caleb was a different player than his older brother describing him as “bigger and more physical.”
“He’s still trying to decide,” Popeye Jones said about Caleb’s future. “He’s a very mature kid also as is Seth and that is what he’s thinking about right now. One thing that he’d love to do, is playing in Ann Arbor. That is his goal right now.”
Should Caleb Jones follow his brother to the NTDP, which fosters what is considered to be the nation’s best talent, it appears it may not be a problem for Popeye Jones.
Popeye Jones said he was impressed and grateful for everything the NTDP did for his son’s development on the ice and way from it during his two-year stay.
He said the NTDP was everything Jones wanted it to be and more given the demands the program has on its players from an academic viewpoint as well as the mindset it takes with development.
“For me and Seth may say something different, but any kid that has the chance to go to Ann Arbor and go to the NTDP, it’s a great program,” Popeye Jones said. “It is everything as a player that Seth wanted and everything as parents we wanted. The education aspect, even the grind of it. I don’t mind the grind of it and for a young kid, that is important. Seth’s billet mother was wonderful and he also lived with Quentin Shore (Denver) and they’ve been good friends for a long time. All of that has been great for him. The gains he has made while he was there were great. He was around 170 pounds and is leaving at 205 and the strength training and hockey training of Coach (Danton) Cole, they ride kids pretty hard there and they are very disciplined there as well.”
From patsy to powerhouse: Winterhawks coach/GM keeps building on success
Kerry Eggers, The Portland Tribune, May 10, 2012
Portland Winterhawks coach-GM Mike Johnston says the best thing he and assistant Travis Green did when they joined the club was to take the time and effort to create an environment for success.
There are a lot of reasons for the Winterhawks' resurgence since hitting rock bottom as the Western Hockey League laughingstock in 2007-08.
None bigger, mind you, than the man who serves as general manager and head coach.
Mike Johnston brought a lot of things to the franchise when he arrived in Portland in November 2008, including instant cred.
Johnston had served nine years as associate coach for the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings of the NHL. That after six years with Team Canada, serving as head coach the final season.
The even-tempered, level-headed Johnston has been the most instrumental part of a remarkably dramatic swing by a franchise in four years -- from worst to first if the Hawks are able to eliminate Edmonton and claim their first WHL championship since 1998.
It took a perfect storm to bring Johnston to Portland, a city he had never visited before taking over a woebegone team early in the 2008-09 season.
Johnston had been let go with Marc Crawford's Kings staff in June 2008. Interviewed by Kings ownership for the head coaching job, he learned in late July he would not be hired for the job.
The next day, he got a call from former NHL head coach Dave King, who was compiling a list of coaching candidates for the prospective new owner of the Winterhawks -- a Calgary oil magnate named Bill Gallacher.
In November, Gallacher got the franchise, and Johnston became his general manager and coach. Johnston had been interviewed for three NHL head coaching jobs, but didn't get them. He had offers to be associate or assistant coach with several NHL teams.
"But I wanted to be a head coach again," he says.
And he liked the idea of a dual role as GM and coach.
"I'd been in situations where other people control your destiny," he says. "I wanted to control my own destiny in every way. I wanted to control the draft, the players, the player signings, my staff. I was going to sink or swim on my own. There would be no excuses."
There never have been for Johnston since his days growing up in Nova Scotia, through his playing career as a forward at Acadia (Nova Scotia) and Brandon (Manitoba) universities and professionally in Australia, and through a long coaching career that began at age 23 at the University of Alberta.
After five years as head coach of one of Canada's top programs at the University of New Brunswick, he began his half-dozen years with the Canadian national team, serving as GM and associate coach of the '97 team that won gold at the world championships.
Nine years into his NHL tenure with Vancouver and L.A., he made the career move that turned the Hawks from patsy to powerhouse in the WHL.
Gallacher had one request -- that Johnston hire Travis Green, recently retired after a distinguished NHL playing career -- as an assistant coach. Johnston and Green had worked together for three years with Team Canada, including the '97 world championship club.
"It was a fabulous fit," Johnston says.
Johnston and Green set about overhauling the entire program.
"The best thing we did was sit back, evaluate and take care of the environment," Johnston says. "I'm a big believer in creating the right environment for success. Those are the things that make your program work."
There was increased focus on the billets -- the people who take the players into their homes as pseudo-parents. And on the players' schooling set-up. And on designing an off-ice and summer training program. And on partnering with some of the best medical people in Portland.
"We wanted to make sure we did everything so people felt comfortable with us," Johnston says. "That if you were a parent sending a player to us, you'd be really happy. We didn't have the players at that time, but when we went out recruiting the next May after having the team for six months, people were saying, 'We're hearing things are getting better.'
"Billets, education, medical -- that's what Mom wants. Dad's thing is the hockey environment -- 'Does my son have a chance to be a pro?' That took some selling. We had only 19 wins my first year. It slowly moved along, and we progressed from there."
Johnston has made shrewd trades and player acquisitions, but mostly he has developed through the draft.
"As easy as it is to get frustrated with a kid at 16, 17, 18 years old, usually when you make a trade, you're getting somebody else's problems," Johnston says. "It's best to deal with the issues you know and work with the guys you have. If they have some downfalls, you address it and push them to be better."
One of his mentors -- legendary Canadian college coach Clare Drake -- had offered advice that became a key component of Johnston's philosophy.
"Clare told me if you want to have a good program, the older players must set an example," he says. "The way they act, the way they dress, the way they practice, the way they train, the way they take care of teammates off the ice.
"You bring in good players, you're hard on your captains and top players, and when they're 18, 19, 20, they'll set the example for the younger group."
Johnston has become a hallowed figure among both his coaches and players.
"Right away, I knew he'd be a great guy to coach and learn under," Green says. "First and foremost, he is a good person. He is honest, which goes a long way. You look for a coach who isn't going to tell you one thing and do another. Players respect that.
"He has taught me a lot about patience. As a player, the fire is burning and you tend to react on things very quickly. As a coach, you have to take a step back sometimes and not overreact to situations.
"He speaks very well in front of a group -- probably better than anyone I've been involved with at any level in delivering a message to a team. He is very articulate and can get his point across very well. That's a real art. And I've seen him develop. He has become a better coach over these four years."
Team President Doug Piper -- hired the same week as Johnston -- had worked previously in the front office of NHL clubs in Edmonton and Carolina.
"I compare Mike to guys I knew at the NHL level," Piper says. "The reason Mike is so effective, he is as much a teacher as he is a coach. He is not a screamer, not a Bobby Knight type. He gets his point across without doing that. He has this demeanor, if he is displeased, you know it.
"Mike is the central figure that got everybody on board with the program very quickly. The parents, the agents, the scouts, the billets -- he displayed an air of confidence you buy into quickly. Plus, he's a real hands-on guy. He doesn't let his GM duties keep him from being right there with the team.
"By the second year here, he had really turned it around. He won over the kids who had been here before, and that's not easy to do. Kids really want to play for him."
The players verify that.
"He is consistent with the way he does things," defenseman Joe Morrow says. "You know what to expect from him. You can really respect a coach like that. He is easy to talk to, and he is an extremely smart man who can mix and match players and get them to where they're the most comfortable."
"He knows what buttons to push on different guys," goalie Mac Carruth says. "He's not going to call you out in front of the guys. He'll take you aside and let you know what you did wrong. We all look up to him. He is the leader in the locker room with how he carries himself in both wins and losses."
"He is the smartest Xs and Os guy, video guy, on-ice guy I've been around in hockey," right wing Ty Rattie says. "I've learned so much from him. My numbers would be nowhere without Mike Johnston. The plays he comes up with are second to none. I can tell you this right now -- he'll be in the NHL before you know it."
That's right. This could be Johnston's final run with the Hawks.
"He is one of the guys talked about (as a prospective NHL head coach)," Green says. "He is a guy the NHL has to look at. I'd be shocked if there isn't an NHL (head-coaching) opportunity for Mike Johnston some day."
Johnston, 54, admits it is a goal.
"I would like to be (an NHL) head coach," he says.
But Johnston has gotten a great deal of satisfaction in working with major junior players.
"I enjoy this as much as any job I've ever had," he says. "It's a great environment. You can impact young kids so much, change how they are as people as well as hockey players.
"I had a dream of playing in the NHL. Every kid growing up playing hockey does. If you can help your kids get to that place, that's special. There's nothing more special than to get your kids drafted and signing an NHL contract."
Last summer, Johnston was offered a position as associate coach with a "high-profile" NHL team.
"Toughest call I've had to make," he says. "I never thought I'd turn them down, but I did. I enjoy what I do, and Bill is great owner to work for."
Johnston and his wife of 25 years, Myrna, have embraced the city of Portland. They live in a high-rise condo on the South Waterfront.
"I love it here," he says, "and the response by the city to our team has been super."
Piper signed Johnston to a four-year extension last summer that runs through 2015. Piper would love to keep his GM and coach. At some point -- as soon as after this season -- Johnston will probably take over an NHL team.
Until then, Winterhawks fans should enjoy watching a master at work.
Edmonton 4, Portland 1: Winterhawks come up short in Game 7 of the WHL finals
Evan Daum, Edmonton Journal , May 13, 2012
EDMONTON, Alberta -- With everything on the line, the Portland Winterhawks couldn't shake history in Game 7 of the Western Hockey League championship series.
Looking to become the first road squad in league history to win a seventh and deciding game -- after visiting teams had come up short in the WHL's previous nine Game 7s in the finals -- the Winterhawks fell 4-1 on Sunday night against the Edmonton Oil Kings at Rexall Place in front of a boisterous crowd of 12,514.
"I wasn't a big believer in home ice until this series. I think home ice was a huge advantage," Portland forward Ty Rattie said. "Both teams had amazing crowds, and their crowd took over tonight. They had a couple early goals to give them a little bit of juice, but we just couldn't respond."
The loss marked the second consecutive season that the Winterhawks fell short in the WHL finals. They lost in five games to the Kootenay Ice in 2011. It was the eighth time in 10 trips to the league finals that Portland failed to take home the Ed Chynoweth Cup.
"Not much I'm going to say, not much I have to say," Rattie said. "This is the worst feeling ever, but you can't really look at a positive side right now. I guess we had a good season, but give a lot of credit to Edmonton and good luck to them."
For Edmonton, the win was the latest benchmark in a season that's been a breakout one for the franchise, which in its fifth WHL season topped the regular-season standings, won its first playoff game, first playoff series and first league title.
"I thought I had enough chances tonight to get a couple in, but now it doesn't matter. It's too late and we can't change it anymore," said Portland's Sven Bartschi, who finished first in WHL playoff scoring with 34 points.
With only 20 hours between the end of Portland's thrilling 3-2 win at the Rose Garden on Saturday night and the puck drop for Game 7, the short turnaround didn't faze the home side. At 1:51 of the first period, Edmonton's Rhett Rachinski squeaked a shot past sprawling Portland goalie Mac Carruth to make it 1-0.
"I think, in Game 7, scoring early is always important. It's a key turning point," Winterhawks coach Mike Johnston said. "They scored on their second shift there. I thought the fans got into it and gave them lots of energy and lots of jump in their legs."
Despite falling behind early, it didn't take Portland long to push back and generate several scoring chances. But that newfound jump in a series that's been a yo-yo of momentum was soon derailed.
After watching Portland control the play for several minutes, Edmonton made the most of a momentum-zapping TV timeout just past the midway point of the first. With 18 seconds left in the period, Ty Maxwell took advantage of a slick passing play by Kristians Pelss to make it 2-0.
Second-period goals from Michael St. Croix and T.J. Foster stretched the Oil Kings' lead to 4-0, before Portland got on the scoreboard at 11:40 when Oliver Gabriel beat Edmonton goalie Laurent Brossoit.
The Hawks couldn't beat Brossoit in the third period, firing only four shots on goal as Edmonton stymied Portland's offense.
"Our first 20 minutes, we scored right off the hop, we scored at the end of the period and that put us up 2-0 and in the (second) we scored two more and they scored a goal, but our guys shut them down," Oil Kings coach Derek Laxdal said.
The Oil Kings head to the Memorial Cup tournament in Shawinigan, Quebec, where they'll be joined by the host Shawinigan Cataractes, the Quebec league champion and defending Cup holder Saint John Sea Dogs, and the Ontario league champion London Knights. Edmonton will open the 10-day tournament against Shawinigan on Friday.
MacKinnon: Oil Kings alive and thriving
John MacKinnon, edmontonjournal.com, May 13, 2012
EDMONTON - Just five seasons after being brought down from the musty attic of Edmonton’s sports memory and revived as an expansion franchise, the junior Oil Kings are alive and thriving, back on top of the Western Hockey League.
The Oil Kings defeated the Portland Winterhawks 4-1 in Game 7 of a thrilling best-of-seven WHL final series Sunday night in front of a franchise record playoff crowd of 12,514 at Rexall Place to clinch the championship.
Edmonton native Rhett Rachinski, who set the tone by scoring at 1:51 of the opening period, Tyler Maxwell, Michael St. Croix and T.J. Foster staked the Oil Kings to a 4-0 lead before Oliver Gabriel, also an Edmonton native, scored for Portland not long after the mid-point of the second period.
That was it for scoring, and Edmonton was able to protect that lead, no sure thing against the high-octane Winterhawks, who were held to just four shots in the third period.
Now the Oil Kings are headed back to the Memorial Cup tournament to compete for a national junior championship for the first time in 40 years.
“You know what, it’s a little surreal right now,” said Rachinski, a fifth-year player who has lived the growing pains of this fledgling franchise. “If you would have told me the last couple of years that we’d be winning a championship, I wouldn’t have believed you.
“Going through that adversity early on in my career, it makes you value this experience even more.”
The Oil Kings won’t have much time to savour their league championship. They play the host Cataractes on Friday night in the tournament opening game in Shawinigan, an industrial city of about 50,000 on the St. Maurice River, the hometown, famously, of former prime minister Jean Chretien and legendary goaltender Jacques Plante.
Their other opponents will be the Ontario Hockey League champion London Knights and the Saint John Sea Dogs, defending tournament champions, who are representing the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for the second straight season. The tournament runs from May 18-27.
“I’m just ecstatic,” said second-year Oil Kings head coach Derek Laxdal. “The work we’ve done in the last two years with this group of kids has been just outstanding.
“They’ve done everything we’ve asked. This is their time and this was the best game they played in the series. Now we’ve just got to take it on to Shawinigan.”
The Oil Kings haven’t been to the Memorial Cup since 1972, when they failed to win a game in the first national championship held in a tournament format in Ottawa.
In 1971, the Oil Kings lost a best-of-three series in two straight games to Guy Lafleur and the Quebec Remparts.
Back in the day, they were finalists seven straight years, from 1960-66, winning in ‘63 and again in ‘66, the latter occasion against Bobby Orr’s Oshawa Generals.
Reborn under the ownership of the NHL’s Oilers for the 2007-08 season, the Oil Kings have regained pride of place in the Edmonton sports community now, after some tough early seasons, including 2009-10, when they won just 16 games.
As with previous editions, these Oil Kings are tightly woven into the fabric of the community, from Rachinski, to team captain Mark Pysyk, of Sherwood Park, to assistant coach Steve Hamilton, son of Al, who helped the Oil Kings win a Memorial Cup in 1966.
Those connections also include defenceman Keegan Lowe, son of Oilers president Kevin, who was watching via the Internet from Finland, where he is GM of Team Canada at the World Hockey Championship.
“I felt bad,” the younger Lowe said. “He stayed up (Saturday) night to watch the game (a 3-2 Portland win), so staying up two nights in a row, he must be pretty tired.
“Growing up in Edmonton, most recently I can remember 2006 Oilers (run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final) and the city was absolutely electric. Edmonton knows their hockey, loves their hockey and the Oilers haven’t been having a great couple of years.
“We’re just happy to give Edmonton a little taste of a championship series. It was a great feeling and Edmonton got behind us, too, right at the end here, which was really nice.”
Here’s another nice thing: Win or lose in Shawinigan, roughly 20 members of the current Oil Kings roster will be back in 2012-13.
They will be a year older next season. And better? It should be fun finding out. For now, the fun will be in Shawinigan.
Oil Kings build winning culture
ROBERT TYCHKOWSKI, QMI AGENCY, May 16 2012
A Western Hockey League title is fantastic, and a Memorial Cup would be even better, but what the Edmonton Oil Kings accomplished over the last two seasons is bigger than any trophy.
They are the founding fathers of a winning culture, lifting an expansion team from a 16-win gutter and creating, with nothing more than their own character and work ethic, a legacy they hope will last long after they are gone.
“There have been some low times here but we stuck with the program, started building it up, and here we are today,” said team captain Mark Pysyk, who’s been there from the beginning. “Two years ago we only had 16 wins, this year we had 16 wins in the playoffs. There’s a winning culture here now with what we did this year and last year. In the years before that, we sort of came to the rink being afraid of teams. Now, hopefully we can be on the other end of that.”
They are. And Keegan Lowe loves that he helped do for the Oil Kings what his old man helped do for the Oilers all those years ago.
“Talking to a few (former Oil Kings), when they came down into the room after Game 7 against Portland, they were like ‘You guys are really paving the way for the Oil Kings of the future,’” said Lowe. “We’re no longer a team that can be pushed around. Hopefully this can be a successful hockey team for years to come.”
Being pushed around like they were in 2009-10 didn’t break the young Oil Kings, it made them stronger, hungrier, more determined to never be anyone’s doormat again.
“They say the third year is always the toughest for an expansion team and it lived up to it,” said winger TJ Foster, who joined the Oil Kings in Year 2. “It was hard on us, but as young players we got experience in different situations, which was good.
“It helped us in our careers. You look at it now and it’s unbelievable how we turned it around, 16 wins to 50 this year and winning the playoffs. It’s an unbelievable feeling that I’ll never forget.”
Foster remembers, before the Oil Kings taught themselves to win, coming to the rink half expecting to lose.
“Coming into games we knew we were in tough,” he said, adding they almost learned to accept defeat. “You’d lose a game and it wouldn’t sting as much as it did this year.
“This year, when we lost, there was no talking in the room, no anything. We re-focused, practised and knew we needed to win the next game. The whole outlook changed.”
And they’re the guys who changed it.
It’s not easy turning a losing program into a winner. A lot of times, when a team is as low as the Oil Kings were, they stay that way. They simply can’t recover. They learn how to be losers.
These guys fought back.
“I don’t know if some teams get used to losing or don’t know how to win,” said Foster. “I’m really glad that wasn’t our case.”
Being an Oil King now comes with weighty expectations and responsibility. Good enough isn’t good enough anymore, not on a winning program.
“I was here for that 16-win season and it was not fun,” said Lowe. “I don’t want to have one of those ever again for this franchise, even when I’m not here.”
Like the Oilers, back when they were winners, the Oil Kings will pass what they’ve learned to the next generation.
“That’s what Derek (head coach Laxdal) and Steve (assistant coach Hamilton) are telling the guys, how important it is if you learn how to win when you’re young,” said Foster. “You know what it takes, you’ve been through it. Now you’re able to teach it to the younger guys.”
They’ve built something here that, no matter what happens in Shawinigan, is bigger than they are, something they can look back at and be proud of.
“It’s been the best year of hockey of my life,” said Pysyk. “Hopefully we can cap it off with a win.”
Memorial Cup could be best in seven years
RYAN PYETTE, QMI Agency, May 16 2012
There's only one thing missing from this Memorial Cup.
An NHL lockout to grant it centre stage.
When labour woes cancelled the Stanley Cup tournament in 2005, the spotlight shone brightly on the Canadian Hockey League's showcase event at London, Ont., and the 10-day series of puck soirees which starts Friday in Shawinigan, Que., sets up to be the highest-calibre Memorial Cup since that classic seven years ago.
There isn't a Sidney Crosby-like talent to track this go-round -- you'll have to make do with Florida's third overall pick, Jonathan Huberdeau of the Saint John Sea Dogs, once again -- but there are zero pretenders here.
Four of the CHL's top five-ranked teams are in the mix.
None of the three league champs -- Quebec representative Saint John, London of the OHL and Edmonton from the West - won fewer than 49 games. They blasted through the playoffs with only the Oil Kings needing a Game 7 pressure-cooker at home against Portland to punch their ticket to La Belle Province.
The host Shawinigan Cataractes lost a second-round Game 7 in a Q-league upset special by Chicoutimi, but they're no pushovers, either. They won 45 games, finished second to Saint John and surrendered the fewest goals in their league.
Each team has one defenceman who played for the Canadian world junior squad -- Shawinigan's Brandon Gormley, Edmonton captain Mark Pysyk, Saint John's Nathan Beaulieu and London's Scott Harrington.
Just like 2005, the Hunter-led Knights are back in the tournament.
This time, it's Mark Hunter serving as general manager and coach. Dale Hunter made a splash Monday by leaving his short-lived gig in charge of the Washington Capitals to return to London, but the co-owner and president's primary function will be as an adviser in Quebec.
Unlike 2005, the Knights are not the clear-cut favourite. That label belongs to the Gerard Gallant-coached powerhouse Saint John, which was the first Maritime team to win the Cup, last year in Mississauga.
The Sea Dogs return with numerous familiar faces, trying to make it back-to-back titles just like the Windsor Spitfires in 2009-10.
The Edmonton Oil Kings brand, if you followed junior hockey during the 1960s, is a familiar one. Back in those golden years, it felt like they made it to the Cup final every spring.
But this isn't the same outfit. This crew was started up by the Oilers owners six years ago as an expansion team, but the Oil Kings stopped playing like one in a hurry.
They can win it all this year and are young enough to be back next season, too.
The young Knights are in the same boat.
Back-to-back looks are starting to become a theme in major junior hockey.
SAINT JOHN SEA DOGS
* Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champions and defending Memorial Cup champs
Coach: Gerard Gallant. Two-time reigning Canadian Hockey League coach of the year.
Regular season: 50-15-0-3, 103 points. Didn't match 58 wins from previous season but played most of it without their full lineup. Finished season ranked first overall in CHL.
Playoffs: Rolled 16-1 through the playoffs. Lone defeat in Game 3 of the semifinal at Chicoutimi in overtime. Never trailed in four-game final sweep of Rimouski.
Big guns: The Sea Dogs were already good. Then, Minnesota Wild prospect Charlie Coyle left Boston University to join them. He racked up 15 goals and 34 points in playoff MVP performance ... Russian Stanislav Galiev had 34 points, too, including five in the playoff finale ... Florida's third overall pick, Jonathan Huberdeau, was Saint John's scoring hero last year in Mississauga. Sea Dogs captain had 72 points in 37 games this season ... Overager Danick Gauthier scored 47 times during the season ... Reedy overage G Mathieu Corbeil has 55 combined regular season and playoff wins after serving as backup last season.
NHL property: Eleven players, including Minnesota Wild first-rounder Zack Phillips.
Franchise history: The McCain-owned Sea Dogs lost 55 games as an expansion team in 2005-06. They are riding three consecutive 50-win seasons, having become the first Maritime team to win the Memorial Cup last year in Mississauga.
Motivating factor: Saint John bid on this event and, despite its powerhouse squad, lost. Best revenge is to hoist the Cup on Shawinigan ice.
LONDON KNIGHTS
* Ontario Hockey League champions ahead of schedule
General manager/coach: Mark Hunter. First coach in OHL history to take over during the season and win league title. Older brother Dale left in late November to take over NHL's Washington Capitals, but has returned and has said he wouldn't coach. His son Dylan is on the bench.
Regular season: 49-18-0-1, 99 points. Lost back-to-back games twice. Never dropped three in a row.
Playoffs: Went 16-3, including 8-1 on the road and swept rivals Windsor and Kitchener. Haven't lost in regulation since April 9 at home against Saginaw in Game 3 of the second round.
Big guns: Playoff MVP Austin Watson (10-7-17) does it all. Nashville first-rounder scores big goals, shuts down top lines and blocks shots like a machine ... G Michael Houser is the OHL's most outstanding player and goalie of the year. He's the backbone ... Finnish top import pick Olli Maatta (6-17-23) had one of the best playoffs by a defencemen in franchise history and is one of three world junior players on the blue line (along with Scott Harrington, Jarred Tinordi) ... Seth Griffith scored 45 goals during the season, then 10 more during the playoffs ... Gritty Ryan Rupert, a Dale Hunter clone, scored four of his nine playoff goals during the league final against Niagara ... Nearly half of the players on this promising team are 17 or younger, including first-round rookies Max Domi and Bo Horvat.
NHL property: Six players. Group includes captain Jarred Tinordi (Montreal) and Tampa first-rounder Vladislav Namestnikov.
Franchise history: Second OHL title. Won Memorial Cup in only previous appearance on home ice, seven years ago.
Motivating factor: Launching a new dynasty and trying to re-capture 2005 glory.
SHAWINIGAN CATARACTES
* Host team waiting impatiently the past month
Coach: Eric Veilleux. Top scorer on 1993 Laval Titan Memorial Cup semifinalist in Sault Ste. Marie, now in his seventh year behind Cats bench.
Regular season: 45-16-3-4, 97 points. Second overall in the QMJHL behind Saint John. Went 22-8-1-3 on home ice at Centre Bionest but actually had one more win on the road.
Playoffs: Lost Game 7 shocker on home ice to Chicoutimi in the second round. Haven't played a game since April 17.
Big guns: Russian F Anton Zlobin (40-36-76) only Cat among top-20 scorers, but the team had a whopping eight 20-goal men ... Much of the crease time this season went to 17-year-old G Alex Dubeau (2.56 goals-against average, .904 save percentage). The Cats had the lowest GAA in the Quebec league this season . . . Canadian world junior F and Montreal prospect Michael Bournival had 30 goals in 41 games, but scored only once during the playoffs ... Watch out for Russian Kirill Kabanov, who had another strong post-season ... The defence includes Morgan Ellis (27 points in 26 games after trade from Cape Breton) and veteran Phoenix first-rounder Brandon Gormley, QMJHL's first overall pick by Moncton in 2008.
NHL property: Eight players. Philly pick Michael Chaput can do some damage up front.
Franchise history: Founding members of the QMJHL, the Cataractes have never won the league title. They lost Game 7 of the final to Drummondville in 2009. They made it to the Cup final in 1985 as host team (losing to Prince Albert), even though most of the tournament was moved to Drummondville because of arena deficiencies.
Motivating factor: They're out to erase their playoff flop and prove they're just as good as the three league champs.
EDMONTON OIL KINGS
* Western Hockey League champs bubble to the surface
Coach: Derek Laxdal. Former Toronto Maple Leaf was a member of 1983 Memorial Cup champion Portland Winterhawks.
Regular season: 50-15-3-4, 107 points. Finished the schedule on an 11-game winning streak and kept rolling.
Playoffs: 16-4, needing a Game 7 victory over Portland at home on Sunday night to qualify for the tournament.
Big guns: Busy veteran G Laurent Brossoit showed little fatigue from 61 regular-season appearances He was named MVP of the WHL championship series ... Rookie Curtis Lazar, a 17-year-old from Vernon, B.C., led team in playoff scoring (8-11-19) ... Edmonton native and overage F Rhett Rachinski scored one of his seven post-season goals in overtime to knot up league final 2-2 ... Top NHL prospect D Griffin Reinhart (team-best plus-14 in playoffs) is the son of former NHLer Paul Reinhart. Brothers Max and Sam part of last year's WHL champion Kootenay Ice ... Henrik Samuelsson, whose dad, Ulf, was a notorious NHL defenceman, suspended a game during the league final. The 17-year-old F from Scottsdale, Ariz., had 14 points in 17 playoff games ... New York Rangers pick Michael St. Croix scored 45 times and had 105 points -- 25 more than his closest teammate, Dylan Wruck.
NHL property: Seven players. Buffalo first-rounder Mark Pysyk played for the Canadian world junior team in Alberta this year.
Franchise history: Fifth season in team's history. Ownership group is same as the Oilers -- Daryl Katz' Rexall Sports. Previous incarnations of the Oil King brand won Memorial Cups in 1963 and 1966 and went to the Cup final eight times during an 11-year span (1960-71).
Motivating factor: Building joy to ease Oilers' pain.
HOCKEY TIES
* The hockey world is small, the select group in the Memorial Cup even smaller. There are bloodlines, puck family trees and old friendships at this year's tournament in Shawinigan
-- Saint John star defenceman Nathan Beaulieu's father, Jacques, now the Sarnia Sting general manager/coach, served as a London Knights assistant before and after he ran the Sea Dogs (2006-09). He was part of the Knights' 2005 Memorial Cup champion team and Nathan grew up at the John Labatt Centre.
-- Edmonton coach Derek Laxdal was a teammate of London Knights rookie forward Max Domi's dad, Tie, then a teenager, in 1989-90 with the Newmarket Saints, the Toronto Maple Leafs' former AHL affiliate.
-- Edmonton forward Michael St. Croix is the son of former NHL goalie Rick St. Croix, who helped the Randy Carlyle-led Manitoba Moose in 1999-2000 when Shawinigan coach Eric Veilleux played forward for Winnipeg's International league entry.
-- Edmonton defenceman Keegan Lowe's dad, Kevin, celebrated three Stanley Cups during the 1980s with Oilers teammate Dave Hunter, who is the brother of London Knights co-owners Dale and Mark Hunter. To boot, Shawinigan defenceman Morgan Ellis was named the best defensive defenceman in the Quebec league and received a trophy named after Keegan Lowe's father.
NUMBERS GAME
* A look at the members of the 2012 Canadian world junior team who will be playing in this Memorial Cup tournament. Each Cup team has one of the seven defencemen
Saint John: Nathan Beaulieu, Jonathan Huberdeau
London: Scott Harrington
Shawinigan: Brandon Gormley, Michael Bournival
Edmonton: Mark Pysyk
Patience key to building expansion franchise:
Green joked about having a five-year plan, but that’s how long it took to make the Oil Kings a WHL champion
Jim Matheson, edmontonjournal.com, May 14, 2012
EDMONTON - Bob Green was on the ice Sunday night, a Western Hockey League championship ballcap on his head, a smile plastered on his face amidst the cacophony of whooping and hollering from a bunch of kids.
He was like a dad on Christmas morning as the children got the presents they all wanted when the Edmonton Oil Kings defeated the Portland Winterhawks in the seven-game league final.
The Oil Kings general manager put this team together, in concert with assistant and chief scout Randy Hansch and a gaggle of other bird dogs over five roller-coaster years.
The expansion Oil Kings won 22 of 72 games their first season, but they have won 66 of 92 games in Year 5, including 16 playoff victories which takes them to the next destination — the Memorial Cup in Shawinigan, Que, with their first game Friday against the host Cataractes.
Green knew what he was getting into when he left the Medicine Hat Tigers as head scout in 2006, spending a winter scouting bantam tournaments, watching WHL game webcasts, and picking the brain of another expansion team GM, Scott Bonner of the Vancouver Giants, to see what he had done. His first team in 2007-08 was older and didn’t win a pile of games, but it was the first stop on a long road.
Did he have a five-year plan for winning it all?
“Absolutely,” said Green, with a hearty laugh. “Five years? That’s what I told everyone. It’s a long process and I’m not sure if I’d go through it again, but this one sure turned out OK.
“It’s been done before. It’s not rocket science. Calgary has done it (with the Hitmen). The Kootenay Ice did it. Vancouver (Giants) did it.
“You have to be patient,” Green continued. “You build through the draft. That’s the only way. I mean, there’s a lot of great players who were never drafted in the bantam draft, like (Joffrey) Lupul and (Tyler) Ennis, Jason Chimera, (Scottie) Upshall, Clarke MacArthur, who are in the NHL now, but that was a different time.
“There’s upwards of 250 players taken in the bantam draft every year. It’s harder and harder to find free agents like Lupul and Ennis.”
In the Oil Kings’ first bantam draft in 2007, they got current captain Mark Pysyk and forward T.J. Foster, who scored in Sunday’s clinching win over the Winterhawks.
Green also added Rhett Rachinski, who had four goals in the final series, to the club’s organization list after nobody took him in the bantam pool. In 2008, he got Keegan Lowe, Stephane Legault, Michael St. Croix, Travis Ewanyk and goalie Laurent Brossoit. Griffin Reinhart and Mitch Moroz came the next year.
The Oil Kings were on their way. That’s nine bantam draft picks and a listed player on the current roster from the first three years they were in existence.
“Only one year drove me nuts and that was the third year. The others have been fun. Whatever could go wrong, did go wrong. Keegan Lowe and Tomas Vincour (now playing with the Dallas Stars) both had H1N1. We had an import defenceman leave. We had some players with concussions. Very frustrating year, illness, injury. I hate losing,” said Green, who decided to fire coach Steve Pleau, who is now a Calgary Flames pro scout.
“Hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in hockey,” Green said. “It usually doesn’t come down to ability as a coach, it’s injecting some life and a different delivery of the message.”
There was a large stack of applicants for the job, and Green interviewed more than 10 candidates. In the end, Green decided on Derek Laxdal, who was coaching the Idaho Steelheads, the Dallas farm club in the East Coast Hockey League.
“Derek is a smart guy and I think he saw the value of how coaching these kids, being a good teacher, could help him develop as a coach.”
Looking back, it’s all progression for Green.
“The first year, we had some good kids like (New York Islanders’ third-round draft) Robin Figren, who’s now playing in Sweden. The next year, we got into the playoffs when Rachinski scored in overtime. Pysyk and Foster were on that team, too,” said Green.
The Oil Kings lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Hitmen, but nobody cared. Any playoff games were a bonus.
Then there was the forgettable third season when the Oil Kings won only 16 times. In Year 4, they finished with 31 wins and lost to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and the Red Deer Rebels in Round 1.
“Last year, we weren’t too sure if we’d win games. We gave up lots of early leads and guys weren’t comfortable with playing from behind. This year, the guys wanted leads and they kept them. I think we lost only one game in the regular season taking a lead to the third period,” said Green.
This year, the Oil Kings won 50 league games and lost only four of 20 playoff games.
“Moving up six spots in the bantam draft to get Griffin Reinhart. It was complicated,” Green said about one of his best moves, going from the ninth pick to third overall in 2009. “We valued Griff the most, but that was the year that (Moose Jaw’s Morgan) Reilly and (Red Deer’s Matt) Dumba and (Portland’s Derrick) Pouliot all went in the top four.”
Reinhart, Rielly and Dumba could all go in the top eight at the NHL entry draft in June, Pouliot maybe 12 to 15.
Hockey runs in the Reinhart family
Elliott Pap, Vancouver Sun, May 14, 2012
Middle child Griffin Reinhart plays for the Edmonton Oil Kings and is projected to be a first-round NHL draft pick this year.
Middle child Griffin Reinhart plays for the Edmonton Oil Kings and is projected to be a first-round NHL draft pick this year.
Photograph by: Andy Devlin , for North Shore News
VANCOUVER — Brother acts in hockey. People seem to love them, although maybe not so much in Nashville after Andrei Kostitsyn's late night escapade helped torpedo the Predators' playoff drive.
But the Sedins have done okay. So have the Staals and, before them, the Sutters and Espositos, among others sublime siblings. Rocket Richard and his little bro, the Pocket Rocket, could play on our team any day.
Next up? It appears to be happening right here in B.C. where Paul Reinhart's three sons – Max, Griffin and Sam of West Vancouver – are turning hockey's scouting heads.
Max, 20, just wrapped up his junior career with the Kootenay Ice, was called up to the Calgary Flames farm team in Abbotsford and collected four points in four American League games. Max was a third-round pick of the Flames in 2010.
Griffin, 18, is this week flying off to the Memorial Cup with the Edmonton Oil Kings after he and his mates captured the Western Hockey League championship Sunday night, prevailing in a seven-game series over the Portland Winterhawks. Griffin is expected to be a top 10 pick in next month's NHL entry draft.
Sam, 16, was named WHL rookie of the year earlier this month thanks to a 62-point freshman campaign. He has a November birthday and won't be eligible for the NHL draft until 2014. Who knows how good he'll be by then?
Max and Sam won the WHL title last year with Kootenay and went to the Memorial Cup. Now it's Griffin's turn. The Staal brothers had better look out.
“Maybe we're a mini-version of them,” chuckled Griffin as he basked Monday in the glow of his team's championship. “We still have a long way to go to catch up with the Staals but, hopefully, someday we'll get there.”
There is obviously some pretty solid hockey DNA in the boys thanks to dad Paul. But mom Theresa came to the party with a vast athletic background that included competitive badminton and volleyball. Her dad played college football, her mother was a ski racer, her sisters were synchronized swimmers and her nephew, James Love, is playing professional golf on the Nationwide Tour.
“Paul and I were never really fanatical hockey parents,” explained Theresa. “We didn't go crazy. The boys were born after Paul played so they weren't around hockey. They didn't play spring hockey. It was never a priority for them.
“I never envisioned this,” she continued. “I kept trying to get them to be golfers. My sister was always going with her son to tournaments in Mexico or Hawaii or somewhere really nice and I was going to Prince George and Salmon Arm. Finally, one day Max looked at me and said: 'Mom, I'm a hockey player. I'm not a golfer.' It was never a dream for me. This is their dream.”
Theresa and Max will be heading to Shawinigan later this to watch Griffin play in the Memorial Cup. Sam will stay behind in West Van to do his schoolwork while Paul, who left early Monday morning on a mining business trip to Mexico, might join Theresa and Max once he's wrapped up his work.
Sibling competition being what it is, Griffin is happy he'll be matching his brothers in Memorial Cup appearances.
“I feel like I've caught up to them a little bit now,” he said. “Last year I was still in school and watching it on TV. I've just heard great things from them and I really wanted to do this for myself, to get some experience at the Memorial Cup.
“I was able to talk to both of my brothers after we beat Portland last night and they congratulated me. We all support each other very well.”
The Oil Kings, who have another Lower Mainland connection in goalie Laurent Brossoit of Surrey, will head Wednesday for Shawinigan and face the host Cataractes in their first game Friday. They'll be attempting to secure the WHL's first national title since the Vancouver Giants and Spokane Chiefs won back-to-back in 2007 and '08.
“That would definitely be really cool,” Griffin said.
It would also give him a family first. Paul didn't win a Memorial Cup when he played junior for the Kitchener Rangers and it appears Max will skate in the Flames' farm system next season, leaving Griffin and Sam as the last hopes. Win or lose, the three sons of Paul and Theresa Reinhart are making their parents proud.
“We just sort of wanted them to do well in what they wanted to do,” concluded Theresa. “So I am definitely enjoying this because they are all succeeding.”
U of A athletics: Search for new Bears hockey bench boss enters homestretch
Evan Daum, Edmonton Journal, May 15, 2012
Stan Marple, who was named Golden Bears GM in late March, will play a major role in finding his successor behind the bench for the 2012-13 season.
With the application deadline for the University of Alberta Golden Bears hockey head coaching position having come and gone, the real intrigue now begins.
The deadline for coaches to put their name forward passed Tuesday night at 5 p.m. with shortlisting expected to be completed by Wednesday. Interviews for the position will come soon after, as the process works towards an announcement of the new coach, which is expected for early June.
Countless names have been floated around as potential replacements behind the bench at Alberta after Stan Marple, who coached the Bears last season on an interim basis after former coach Eric Thurston left the program last spring, was anointed the first general manager in program history some six weeks ago.
Potential candidates to replace Marple include successful major junior coaches with ties to Alberta, most notably Kootenay Ice head coach Kris Knoblauch. Other possibilities include former players now making their living at the junior A level, like Gord Thibodeau of the Fort McMuarry Oil Barons.
Knoblauch in particular is sure to draw major support from the Bears hockey alumni – whose importance in this whole process can’t be understated – as his connections to the WHL pipeline of talent, among other things, would be an extremely valuable asset. While I don’t think Knoblauch had considered the possibility of being Alberta head coach anytime soon when there were still question marks as to whether or not Marple’s interim tag would remain indefinitely, I don’t think it’s a stretch to believe his mood changed significantly after Marple’s new GM role came into effect, along with a first round playoff exit.
(Side note, but if Knoblauch did in fact apply for the Bears job and gets it, recently fired Islanders assistant Dean Chynoweth undoubtedly will be offered the job by his brother and Ice GM Jeff Chynoweth. Knoblauch’s assistant in Kootenay Todd Johnson recently took over the University of Regina job and even if he was still with the Ice, bros before non-bros, or something like that).
While it remains to be seen whether or not Knoblauch did apply, one thing is all but guaranteed when it comes to one credential the next coach of the Bears will have – alumni status.
That has seemed a given since the start of the process, as director of athletics Ian Reade and Marple – along with an advisory committee – will be looking for someone who isn’t a stranger to the program.
With respect to Knoblauch and Thibodeau, both have strong ties to the Bears after lengthy playing careers at the U of A.
Knoblauch, who is one of the few players in Western Hockey League history to have played for both the Edmonton and Kootenay Ice, had a tremendous career in Green and Gold. In five seasons with Alberta, the Imperial, Sask. product put up big offensive numbers and played a major role in the Bears second of back-to-back Canadian Interuniversity Sport titles in 2000 as a rookie.
As a coach Knoblauch has enjoyed his fair share of success in a short amount of time as well, after leading the Ice to the WHL title last season in his first year as the team’s head coach following two years as an assistant with the franchise.
For Thibodeau, who played with the Bears between 1987 and 1991 and was a teammate of Marple’s for two seasons, his connection to Alberta is also significant. The longtime Alberta Junior Hockey League coach has had great success with the Oil Barons including this season when the team went to the AJHL final before losing to the Brooks Bandits in six games.
Along with ties to the program, another prerequisite for the next head coach of Alberta will be a university degree.
While Thurston had U of A ties from both his single season playing for the Bears in 1985-86 and a lengthy run as an assistant with the program, a degree is one thing the former head coach didn’t have. While that certainly didn’t stop Thurston from having success as a head coach at the university level, I don’t expect we’ll ever see a scenario again in which the head coach of the program doesn’t have a degree. That’s no indictment on Thurston, but moving forward I can’t see candidates without undergrad credentials even getting a sniff.
So when it comes to who will be the next head coach of the Golden Bears two things are clear. Firstly, they’ll be coming into familiar territory when they take over behind the bench at Clare Drake Arena, and second they’ll have a degree to go with that experience.
Knoblauch and Thibodeau are just two possible candidates who satisfy both requirements. If they did end up applying, they’ll be a pair of options in a field that’s sure to be deep with qualified individuals one might expect, as well as some applicants who are sure to be surprise additions to the race for one of the country’s best collegiate coaching gigs.
My experience with the choice between major junior and college hockey
Justin Bourne, The Score, May 11, 2012
After reading about Seth Jones choosing major junior over NCAA hockey – a fine choice for the talented young buck – I felt the need to weigh in with my thoughts on The Choice, and share the path I took to come to a decision. Hope you enjoy, or at the very least, learn something about the process you didn’t know before.
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I tried out for the Kelowna Rockets, one of the premier programs in the Western Hockey League, in the fall of 2000. I was 17 years old, although in the junior hockey world I was considered an 18 year old because I was born in 1982. I was coming off of a successful year of Midget AA, having been captain of a team that won the BC provincial championship. But being that I was that old and undrafted, I was a definite longshot and I knew it.
The thing is, I had a really good camp, and sometimes you catch people off guard. I scored twice in a heavily attended low-scoring intra-squad game in Kelowna’s Prospera Place, and was invited to travel with the team to Kamloops to play the Blazers in the first of a number of exhibition games. They had already made a great many cuts by this point.
As a young player, you deal with a range of ideas and emotions: I’m from Kelowna, so if I could walk onto the hometown Kelowna Rockets and make it…I have to do that, right? (By the way, the Rockets won the Memorial Cup in the next year or two. Dammit.) But, I was also a gangly kid who got cut to house hockey his first year of Bantam, got better (read: bigger) in a hurry, and had figured out that you can get your entire undergrad education paid for if you play junior A puck. I also knew that if I played one game – even an exhibition game – at the major junior level, I was ineligible for at least a year of that NCAA hockey (plus a game for every CHL (major junior) game played, I believe), making that dream scholarship less likely.
My parents and I sat in the room and listened to The Most Important People in the Rockets Organization at the time and tried to gauge how likely it was that I would make the team while trying to make the decision to go for it or not. Essentially, it was down to myself and large, fellow right-winger Randall Gelech (a player far better than I, who would’ve likely played in the NHL for years by now had he not been drafted/buried in the Red Wings organization when they were on top of the world for years). We told them our concerns about NCAA eligibility. And they told us “how this works”: just play/tryout, and we’ll rip up the rosters after the game. If you make it – and you have a good chance – cool. If you don’t, you’ll be fine. I’m not sure if it still does, but it seems this is a thing that occasionally happened at the time.
My parents didn’t want me to play. Between all of us, a college scholarship was the goal. If I got an education paid for then the investment in gear, practices, and time would have amounted to something. Yes, you can get Canadian college hockey paid for after playing major junior, but it’s suuuuper rare to advance, hockey-wise, beyond that. You’re basically saying it’s NHL or done-by-20. NCAA puck gives late bloomers (like myself) years to develop against incredible talents to see what you can become.
At 15 or 16 or 17, a young hockey player has to a make a decision that will forever change his career and his life: take your shot at Major Junior or commit to the college path.
I played Junior B hockey that winter, led my conference in points (beating Chuck Kobasew’s team record), and finished second overall in the league to Andrew Ebbett. That summer, I signed a card with the Vernon Vipers of the BCHL, trained my butt off, and committed to earning that scholarship.
I scored 131 points over my 120 game Junior A career, and we won a BCHL title. After fly-down visits to three different NCAA schools, I accepted a full Div. 1 scholarship (to the University of Alaska Anchorage) just like my family had hoped – just like I had hoped.
So here I sit, with a primary education in hockey, but a different title on my business card, and I couldn’t be happier. I got an education (an education your love of hockey forces you to get, if you want to play), found my best friends and really, myself. College was an experience I can’t explain, an experience I’d never give back. I was fortunate to have the opportunity. (I was more fortunate that I lived with guys capable of installing a keg-orator line from the garage to the kitchen sink, giving us water taps labelled hot, cold and beer.)
When most players have to make the decision between major junior and college, they take what they can get. Most don’t reject one for the other; their talents, age and size direct them one way or the other. Only a lucky few get to choose.
Either one works. There is a hockey cliche that “If you’re good enough, they’ll find you”. And it’s true. They’ll find you in Timbukfuckingtu if you’re NHL calibre. It’s insane. Few are overlooked.
As someone quickly approaching their 30th birthday thinking about what I’d do if I were a young player now deciding between the two, I can’t help but think: I’d have to be awfully damn good to choose major junior hockey over college. It’s not taking anything away from those who choose to go the CHL route, it’s just that one way seems a little more all-or-nothing than the other. Both seem like flying down the highway on a motorcycle, but one affords you a helmet.
As a further college hockey pump-up: going that route isn’t exactly a hockey dead end. During my years in the WCHA I faced some great players – Zach Parise, Tomas Vanek, TJ Oshie, David Backes, Matt Niskanen, Alex Goligoski, Kyle Okposo, Phil Kessel, Blake Wheeler, Andreas Nodl, Jonathan Toews, Chris Conner, Matt Greene, Keith Ballard, Matt Carle, Paul Stastny, Joey Crabb, Ryan Potulny, Ryan Stoa, Brandon Bochensky, Brian Lee, Matt Smaby, Drew Stafford, Rene Bourque, Adam Burish, Brian Elliot, Tom Gilbert, Joe Pavelski, Ryan Suter, Travis Zajac, Ryan Carter, Jason Garrison, and the toughest to play of all of them all at the time, 5’7? Hobey Baker-winner Ryan Duncan (AHL). I was also teammates with Curtis Glencross, Jay Beagle and Nathan Lawson. You can develop at that level, and you can still make it big.
For the big guns, major junior is great too: it’s more pro-style puck, it’s great exposure, and it’s comparable to the NHL schedule.
Nobody can say for certain what’s the best route – each player has a different set of developmental needs, and each league fulfills those differently.
But for those who could use a little more time to develop and miiiigghht just want to hedge their bets on the future with an education, college hockey is the way to go.
THE COACHING GAME: Cory Clouston is out as Wheat Kings' Head Coach
Gregg Drinnan, Taking Note, May 15 2012
Kelly McCrimmon, the owner and general manager of the Brandon Wheat Kings, announced Tuesday that head coach Cory Clouston won’t return for a second season. Clouston, who had been fired by the NHL’s Ottawa Senators after the 2011-12 season, signed a two-year deal with Brandon on Aug. 3.
"I have given a great deal of thought to our coaching situation for the upcoming season," McCrimmon said in a news release. "I do not want uncertainty with this important position and as a result have decided we will not have Cory return next season. He will perhaps have opportunities to coach professionally, failing that, we will honor the second year of his contract."
Clouston, 42, told Rob Henderson of the Brandon Sun: “I don’t think I expected it, but I definitely understand Kelly’s thinking. He feels the team is in a rebuilding mode for the next couple years and he told me he just doesn’t want to have the coaching position in limbo for the next two months. I have options.
“He doesn’t want me coming in early July, telling him I’m going to the American league or wherever it may be. I’m not saying that was going to happen, but he doesn’t want that as an option and I can understand his reasoning.”
The Wheat Kings finished sixth in the Eastern Conference (39-28-5) and got past the No. 3 Calgary Hitmen in the opening round of playoffs. Brandon was then swept by the eventual-champion Edmonton Oil Kings.
McCrimmon was Brandon’s head coach for the seven seasons prior to his decision to hire Clouston.
McCrimmon doesn’t have a list of potential coaches. When he puts one together, you have to wonder if his name will be on it?
Clouston played four seasons (1989-93) with the U of Alberta Golden Bears, who happen to be in the market for a head coach. In fact, the closing date for applications was yesterday. You have to think, however, that the Golden Bears’ job wouldn’t be Clouston’s first choice.
Bruce Luebke, the veteran play-by-play man who calls Wheat Kings games on CKLQ, offers up his take below and it’s rather evident that he feels Clouston wasn’t a good fit.
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Cory Clouston is out as Wheat Kings' Head Coach
Luber's Lounge, May 15 2012
The Cory Clouston coaching era with the Brandon Wheat Kings came and went in a span of 287 days.
After being hired last August 3rd and signing a two-year contract with the club, the Wheat Kings announced Tuesday that Clouston would not be back behind the bench for the 2012-2013 season.
“I have given a great deal of thought to our coaching situation for the upcoming season," said Brandon general manager Kelly McCrimmon in a release, "I do not want uncertainty with this important position and as a result have decided we will not have Cory return next season. He will perhaps have opportunities to coach professionally, failing that; we will honor the second year of his contract.”
The club is framing the move as a preventive one, not wanting to be caught without a head coach if Clouston were to leave for the professional job at some point in the next few months.
However, it had become apparent to even the most casual of the Wheat King fan that Clouston wasn’t the proper fit for a club that, moving forward, will be employing a number of rookie players in 2012-2013.
One could also argue that he wasn’t as good a fit for the club during the 2011-2012 season as initially thought.
The hard-driving coaching style employed by Clouston was looked upon with disdain by the players, and his treatment of the players, especially the younger players, became such an issue that sources told me that team captain Mark Stone met with GM Kelly McCrimmon midway through the season to discuss the matter.
In addition to those interactions with the players, there was also obvious dysfunction within the coaching staff.
On the ice, there was a real lack of offensive imagination to the Wheat Kings’ game in 2011-2012, and the club used mainly a passive style of play rather the aggressive style fans had grown accustomed to.
Skill development was put the back burner for a more defensive style while, in my mind, there were also some questions about how some players were used.
For example, Ryan Pulock and Eric Roy were overplayed on the blue line throughout the season, which may have led to their lack of production late in the season and in the playoffs (a combined 70 points prior to January 1st, 43 points after plus a combined eight points in eight playoff games).
Another would be how Ayrton Nikkel and Dylan Kuczek were handled in the first half of the season – not only playing forward when they were in the lineup, but also PRACTICING as forwards instead of as defencemen on a daily basis.
An observation during the post-season for me came in the post-season, when I had a chance to watch the Wheat Kings’ opponents (Calgary and Edmonton) practice, something not often afforded during the regular season.
Those teams ran high-tempo practices with coaching staffs that worked in sync with one another – two things lacking during Brandon’s practices.
Bottom line, Cory Clouston might be good with the X’s and O’s of the game, but his motivational techniques and personality might be in conflict with what’s effective in this day and age of hockey.
Does not being warm and fuzzy make Cory Clouston a poor hockey coach? Not in the least.
But, it does make him a difficult person to be around on a daily basis.
For the most part, I could pick and choose how much time I wanted to spend around him.
His players don’t have that much freedom.
Moving forward, Wheat Kings’ general manager Kelly McCrimmon said that no decision has been made on Clouston’s replacement.
“There are a lot of those things that I’ll give consideration. I’m telling you honestly, there has been no decision made with respect to the coaching for the 2012-2013 season,” McCrimmon told CKLQ’s Tyler Crayston, “I say that sincerely and, because of that, there’s not a lot more that I can say about any possibilities that you might throw out.”
I did go through a quick checklist in my head, and here’s some men I’d consider to be potential candidates:
Dean Chynoweth – former Swift Current Broncos’ GM/Coach and Seattle Head Coach. Was recently let go from his assistant coaching position with the NHL’s New York Islanders.
Dave Lowry – former NHL player spent one successful season as head coach of the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen in 2008-2009 before spending the past three years as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Calgary Flames. Was let go by the Flames last month.
Dave Hunchak – associate coach with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers this past season after four years as head coach of the Moose Jaw Warriors.
Steve Hamilton – assistant coach with WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings for past two seasons and former head coach of the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints.
Mike Vandenberghe – former Wheat Kings’ player and assistant coach, spent the past 1 ½ years as an assistant with the Moose Jaw Warriors. Prior to that, was head coach for the University of Regina Cougars and the SJHL’s Notre Dame Hounds.
Dave Struch – Saskatoon Blades’ assistant coach for the past six years, although whether he would leave the Blades as they prepare to host the Memorial Cup would be a question.
Darren Kruger – Medicine Hat Tigers’ assistant coach for the past five years.
Dean Brockman – longtime coach of the SJHL’s Humbolt Broncos, leading the team to four league title in the last six years.
Chad Mercier – former WHL assistant with Regina and Saskatoon, has spent the past six years as GM/Coach of the AJHL’s Bonnyville Pontiacs.
I would have to also throw both current Wheat Kings’ assistant coaches – Dwayne Gylywoychuk and Darren Ritchie – into the mix.
A guide to the Memorial Cup
Rory Barrs, National Post, May 18, 2012
The 2012 Memorial Cup begins Friday in Shawinigan, Que., where the host Cataractes will battle the Edmonton Oil Kings, London Knights and Saint John Sea Dogs for Canadian junior hockey dominion. Post reporter Rory Barrs provides a breakdown of the four teams:
EDMONTON OIL KINGS
Western Hockey League champions
Memorial Cup appearances 10 (1954, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1971, 1972)
Memorial Cups 2
2011-12 regular season 50-15-7, 107 points, first in the Eastern Conference.
2012 playoffs Defeated Kootenay 4-0; Brandon 4-0; Moose Jaw 4-1; and Portland 4-3 in the WHL final.
Coach Derek Laxdal, second year.
First-round draft picks D Mark Pysyk (Buffalo, 23rd in 2010).
Top prospects D Griffin Reinhart (10th on Central Scouting’s list of North American skaters); F Mitchell Moroz (72nd); F Henrik Samuelsson (75th); D Ashton Sautner (92nd).
Names to watch Goalie Laurent Brossoit’s 2.82 goals-against average and .910 save percentage earned him MVP honours of the WHL championship series. Centre Michael St. Croix (New York Rangers) led all Oil Kings with 105 points, including 45 goals, in the regular season; he and Curtis Lazar shared the team lead with 19 playoff points. Third-year winger Stephane Legault had five goals in 20 playoff games, after recording just 15 in the regular season. Reinhart was a team-best plus-14 in the post-season.
They can win if Brossoit (Calgary) continues to stand tall in goal, while Pysyk, Reinhart and their fellow defencemen keep quality scoring chances to a minimum. Edmonton’s offence has been clicking — scoring five or more goals four times in the playoffs — and will ultimately determine how far this team can go.
From the lip “We’re not done yet, we have one more tournament to go to.” — Lexdal
LONDON KNIGHTS
Ontario Hockey League champions
Memorial Cup appearances 1 (2005)
Memorial Cups 1
2011-12 regular season 49-18-1, 99 points, first in the Western Conference.
2012 playoffs Defeated Windsor 4-0; Saginaw 4-2; Kitchener 4-0; and Niagara 4-1 in the OHL final.
Coach Mark Hunter, first year.
First-round draft picks F Vladislav Namestnikov (Tampa Bay, 27th in 2011).
Top prospects D Olli Maatta (eighth on Central Scouting’s list of North American skaters); F Andreas Athanasiou (40th); F Josh Anderson (57th); G Michael Houser (16th, goalies).
Names to watch Houser was named the OHL’s most outstanding player, posting a 46-15-1 record, tying the league’s record for wins in a season. His 2.25 goals-against average was the second best among all OHL playoff goaltenders. Winger Seth Griffith is setting the pace up front for the Knights, leading the club with 23 playoff points. 17-year-old centre Ryan Rupert had nine post-season goals, including five in the OHL championship series.
They can win if Defencemen Jarred Tinordi (Montreal) and Scott Harrington (Pittsburgh) can keep opposing top lines off the score sheet. Tinordi led all OHL playoff skaters with a plus-15 rating. London’s young guns can come up large, including 17-year-old Max Domi, who contributed with four goals in the playoffs.
From the lip “These are some of the most important hockey games some of us will ever play.” — Houser
SAINT JOHN SEA DOGS
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champions
Memorial Cup appearances 1 (2011)
Memorial Cups 1
2011-12 regular season 50-15-3, 103 points, first in the Maritimes Division.
2012 playoffs Defeated Cape Breton 4-0; Baie Comeau 4-0; Chicoutimi 4-1; and Rimouski 4-0 in the QMJHL final.
Coach Gerard Gallant, third year.
First-round draft picks F Jonathan Huberdeau (Florida, 3rd in 2011); D Nathan Beaulieu (Montreal, 17th in 2011); F Zack Phillips (Minnesota, 28th in 2011); F Charlie Coyle (San Jose, 28th in 2010).
Top prospects None
Names to watch The reigning Memorial Cup champions possess the top four scorers from the QMJHL playoffs: Coyle, Phillips, Russian winger Stanislav Galiev (Capitals) and Slovakian winger Tomas Jurco (Red Wings). Huberdeau played in just 37 games during the regular season due to injury, but still managed to record an inspiring 72 points. He appears to be skating in full stride, with 21 points in 15 post-season contests. Beaulieu is the backbone of the defence and goalie Mathieu Corbeil (Columbus) is not too shabby either, leading all QMJHL netminders with a 2.38 goals-against average in the regular season.
They can win if Saint John plays up to expectations as the heavy favourite, and harnesses its experience on the big stage. The Sea Dogs swept Rimouski in the QMJHL final, including a decisive 8-0 victory in Game 4. Expectations are set at win, or bust.
From the lip “I’m really happy with the way we’ve played lately and that’s a good sign going into the Memorial Cup, where you know you’re going to face really good competition.” — Gallant
SHAWINIGAN CATARACTES
Hosts
Memorial Cup appearances 0
Memorial Cups 0
2011-12 regular season 45-16-7, 97 points, first in the East Division.
2012 playoffs Defeated Rouyn-Noranda 4-0; eliminated by Chicoutimi 4-3.
Coach Éric Veilleux, seventh year.
First-round draft picks D Brandon Gormley (13th, Phoenix in 2010).
Top prospects F Anton Zlobin (137th on Central Scouting’s list of North American skaters).
Names to watch Zlobin scored a team-high 40 goals in the regular season, adding three more in 11 post-season games. Russian winger Kirill Kabanov (New York Islanders) is a potent weapon up front, scoring four times for Shawinigan in two rounds of QMJHL playoff action. Gormley, acquired from Moncton in January, has experience playing for Canada in the 2012 world junior championship.
They can win if Goalie Alex Dubeau, who had a league-best 2.08 goals-against average in the playoffs, can take his game to an otherworldly level, and the home fans can inspire Shawinigan to play its best hockey of the season.
From the lip “Obviously, it wasn’t an ideal situation not playing for the last few weeks, but our coaches had a plan in place for us.”
Pats' Volek exploring overseas options
Gregg Drinnan, Taking Note, May 18 2012
Earlier in the week, The MacBeth Report broke the news here that F David Volek, who just completed his freshman season with the Regina Pats, had signed a junior contract with Färjestad Karlstad (Sweden, J20 SuperElit).
Volek, 18, had 32 points with the Pats and it was expected that he would return for another season.
Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post provided the Pats’ view of this situation below.
The Färjestad news release was headlined J20: FBK Strengthens from Czech Republic.
The first three paragraphs of that release:
“Färjestad's J20 is strengthened for next season with a Czech national team member. Dominik Volek, most recently with the Regina Pats in the Canadian junior league, joins the club's J20 team. ‘From the reports we received, he is a very interesting two-way player with great potential,’ says Färjestad's Youth and Junior Manager Peter Johansson.
“Volek comes from the Canadian junior league where he played for the Regina Pats. His father, David, is a multiple Czech national team member who also played six seasons for the New York Islanders.
“Volek is one of three new forwards in the J20 squad.”
Of course, a lot can happen between now and late August, but that sounds pretty definitive.
Volek’s agent is his uncle, Ales, whose agency is called Alvo Sports Management. According to the agency website, Ales was a scout for the NHL’s Ottawa Senators from 1999-2002. Jiri Hudler Sr. is the head of player development for the agency.
Ales also is the agent for Roman Cervenka, who just signed with the Calgary Flames.
And here’s another connection for you — The MacBeth Report points out that the man in charge of running FBK from top to bottom, who just reorganized the FBK coaching and management staff for their junior programs, is former Flames F Håkan Loob.
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Pats' Volek exploring overseas options
Greg Harder, Leader-Post, May 18, 2012
The Regina Pats aren't hitting the panic button over the possibility that import forward Dominik Volek could jump ship to Europe.
Not yet, anyway.
In response to an online report stating that Volek had signed with Färjestad Karlstad of the junior elite league in Sweden, Pats GM Chad Lang placed a call Thursday morning to Volek's agent (he's represented by his uncle, Ales Volek). Lang said the agent told him no contract had been signed but the opportunity was being explored.
Volek, an 18-year-old native of the Czech Republic, has already been added to the Swedish club's roster on its website.
"It's a little bit of a surprise, yet it's not uncommon among Euros," said Lang. "We see this over and over where they go back home (in the off-season) and look at their options.
"I think it's a little premature. Yet, if it happens, it happens. At the end of the day if he signs over there, it doesn't affect his ability to come back here.
"Until I hear it from him or his agent, we're anticipating him back. I guess we'll wait and see."
Lang explained that Volek is indeed free to sign with a European team because the Pats' exclusive rights only apply to this side of the pond.
"Each European kid is on a year-to-year release," explained Lang, whose team selected Volek ninth overall in last year's CHL import draft. "He can go back to Europe and sign a contract there. If he wants to stay, he stays."
Lang pointed out that there are often complications in dealing with European players, be it due to posturing agents or the lure of playing at home. However, the Pats' GM has no concern about the intentions of Volek, a happy-go-lucky rookie who wore a perpetual smile during his time in Regina.
"I have no doubt the kid wants to be back here; no doubt whatsoever," said Lang, who hadn't yet spoken to Volek. "Do I question maybe some of the tactics of his agent? There's some question there with what they're trying to do yet I'm comfortable and confident that if it's Dom's decision I know where he'll be. I would be surprised if Dom even knows what's going on."
At this point, Volek's situation hasn't changed Lang's approach to the import draft on June 27, when the Pats are planning to select one player to fill out their two man import quota. Regina is slated to pick 32nd out of 60 CHL teams in the opening round.
Barring an NHL lockout, the Pats will be looking to replace Slovak defenceman Martin Marincin, 20, who's under contract to the Edmonton Oilers and expected to graduate to the pro ranks. Volek, meanwhile, is regarded as a key returning player who will be counted upon for offence, especially with the loss of star centre Jordan Weal.
Volek started strong last season but struggled with consistency down the stretch - a common trait for European players adjusting to the North American game - while contributing 14 goals and 32 points in 70 games.
Despite an invitation to the CHL Top Prospects Game, Volek's stock fell in Central Scouting's rankings for the 2012 NHL entry draft, dropping from 95th at midseason to 163rd on the final list (out of the top 210 North American-based skaters).
Volek also played for the Czechs this spring in the world under-18 championship, recording two goals and two assists en route to his team's eighth-place finish.
If he returns to Regina, the Pats are anticipating that Volek will follow the path of other European players, many of whom are known for taking a big step forward in their second WHL campaign.
"He definitely showed his ability," added Lang. "I said all year he was a young guy trying to get accustomed and familiarized not only with the style of play but our coaching staff, the new system, all those things.
"There's no question in Year 2 we anticipate he'd be a guy who would have to step up and fill a void for some of those guys who moved on. We're comfortable and confident he would be able to do that."
London upsets Saint John Memorial Cup
SHAWINIGAN, Que.— BILL BEACON, The Canadian Press, May. 19, 2012
It was a classic case of hard work beating talent as the London Knights came out on top Saturday.
Vladislav Namestnikov scored twice and Austin Watson had a goal and two assists as the Knights outhustled and upset the defending champion Saint John Sea Dogs 5-3 at the MasterCard Memorial Cup.
The No. 1-ranked Sea Dogs were a perfect 4-0 while winning last year’s Memorial Cup in Mississauga, Ont., but their star forwards were thwarted by London’s team defence and they needed two short-handed goals just to stay in the game against the Ontario Hockey League champions.
“We’ve been battling all year to outwork teams and beat teams,” said Watson. “Play a tight defence and capitalize on our chances.
“They definitely didn’t take us lightly. They came out flying. It was a good battle. They’re a great hockey team and we’ll have to battle if we see them again.”
London is in action again Sunday night against the host Shawinigan Cataractes (0-1), while the Sea Dogs play their second game on Monday night against the Western Hockey League champion Edmonton Oil Kings (1-0).
Watson’s goal at 10:49 of the third period turned out to be the winner as the Knights held off the Sea Dogs’ vaunted attack.
Down 4-3 in the third, Saint John mounted some late pressure, but any chance of tying the game and forcing overtime disappeared when star forward Jonathan Huberdeau over-reacted to a poke from pesky Ryan Rupert and got a four-minute roughing call with 2:04 left to play.
Coach Gerard Gallant went ballistic on the bench and got a bench minor, giving London a two-man advantage they used to put the game away on Namestnikov’s second of the game.
Gallant later acknowledged his top players didn’t work hard enough and that London deserved to win, but his frustration spilled out toward the officials. He said his team has been a target as it dominated the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League the last three seasons.
“I’ve been complaining for three years that we always get the short end of the stick and I’m tired of it,” he said. “I’m not taking anything away from London, they were the better team, but I’m so tired of that.
“You show your frustration at the end of the game. I don’t want to do that, but it’s been over and over again, so I’m tired of it.”
London went 1-for-8 on the power play, while Saint John was 1-for-5.
Huberdeau, the third overall pick in last year’s NHL draft by Florida, admitted his error.
“It was frustration. I shouldn’t do that,” he said. “We had a chance to come back and I took the penalty. It was undisciplined.
“Now we have to forget about it. We can’t panic now. We have to think about the next game and work on what we didn’t do well.”
Huberdeau may have been lucky not to be tossed from the game when he rammed Ryan’s brother Matt Rupert into the glass from behind only 16 seconds into the first period, earning an elbowing minor.
But the Sea Dogs used that to take the lead while shorthanded at 1:37 when Charles-Olivier Roussel beat Michael Houser with a long shot.
After that goal, Saint John let up and London took over, forcing turnovers and winning nearly every puck battle, even though the Sea Dogs ended up with a 25-24 shot advantage.
“We just played hard and out-competed them and came out on top,” said Ryan Rupert, who with his brother Matt checked Saint John’s top line relentlessly. “We wanted to come in here and make a splash right away.
“With them being Memorial Cup champions, we wanted to prove ourselves in the first game, and we did.”
Domi, son of former NHL tough guy Tie Domi, showed some grit as he went to the net and flipped the puck over Mathieu Corbeil while falling to the ice to tie the game at 14:11.
Only 1:20 later, strong forechecking saw Tyler Ferry feed Namestnikov in the slot as the Knights took the lead.
The Sea Dogs were in trouble when they were outhustled again and Seth Griffith made it 3-1 at 12:41 of the second frame.
But while shorthanded again, Saint John got a strange goal as Huberdeau’s long shot went off Namestnikov and bounced to the net and right between Houser’s pads with 2:03 left in the period.
Ryan Rupert stole a puck from Pierre Durepos behind the Sea Dogs’ net and fed Watson in front to restore the two-goal margin, but Saint John struck back at 12:01 with the man advantage. Unhappy with his stars, Gallant sent his third line out for the power play and Ryan Tysink scored on a deflection of a Nathan Beaulieu point shot.
Gallant said the bad ice at the Bionest Centre that has plagued the most skilled players was not an excuse because his best should have worked through it.
“We weren’t good,” he said. “The only time we worked hard was on the penalty kill.
“It was a pretty disappointing performance, but we’ve still got a couple of games to battle back. London played a great game. They frustrated our guys. That’s not typical for the Sea Dogs. We didn’t get our game going at all.”
Notes: The tournament hockey operations committee announced that officials should not have reviewed a Shawinigan goal in Friday’s 4-3 win by Edmonton. Goals scored after a whistle are not reviewable. The goal by Anton Zlobin at 6:37 of the third period cut Edmonton’s lead to 3-2. Had Shawinigan won, then there would be controversy.
Cataractes down Knights at Memorial Cup
RYAN PYETTE, QMI Agency, May 20 2012
SHAWINIGAN, QUE. - It doesn't matter if Brandon Gormley is on the ice all by himself staring at an empty net in the off-season back home on quiet Prince Edward Island.
Whenever the Shawinigan Cataractes defenceman winds up, he always imagines a massive crowd of defenders lining up to block his shots.
That's the London Knights' calling card, but the savvy Canadian world junior defender squeaked enough through their normally impenetrable wall of shin pads and sliding bodies, scoring twice in an entertaining 6-2 victory for the Memorial Cup hosts before 4,674 Sunday night at Centre Bionest.
“It's not easy against them,” said Gormley, the Phoenix Coyotes first rounder. “They're great at blocking shots and we knew that going in. You have to think about it in today's game. You look at that New York Rangers and (London president Dale Hunter's) Washington Capitals series in the NHL playoffs) and the number of shots that were blocked was just crazy.
“They probably blocked as many as I got through.”
But he'll take the 50/50 split, and the Cataractes will definitely take their first win here.
This is a compelling Cup now. The only club that hasn't won yet is the defending champion Saint John Sea Dogs.
“We knew it was going to be good coming in,” London veteran forward Jared Knight said. “You have four good teams here and it looks like anyone can win it.”
The games turn on a dime.
Down a goal in the third, Knight sent a bullet off the Shawinigan crossbar, and Pierre-Olivier Morin grabbed it and roared down the ice to score a much-needed insurance goal. The Cataractes never looked back.
“That's hockey,” Knight said. “Sometimes, that's all it takes. I got all of that one, and unfortunately, it didn't go in and they scored. It's a break and they got it. Hopefully, we get it next time.”
Shawinigan head coach Eric Veilleux had no problem testing Lady Luck.
After 17-year-old goalie Alex Dubeau surrendered four goals in an opening loss to Edmonton, Shawinigan opted to start tiny overager Gabriel Girard, who hadn't played a game in 44 days.
All he did was beat London's Michael Houser, who could end up the Canadian Hockey League's top netminder – and possibly player of the year.
“I was a little bit anxious in the beginning,” the 5-foot-10, 162-pound puckstopper said, “but I felt better as it went on and I know, now that I've had this game to play, I'm going to be better.”
No one's facing their Cup mortality yet. A tie-breaker game on Thursday is looking more and more like a possibility.
“They definitely had more legs than we did,” said Knight, whose team was on the end of back-to-back games, “but that's an excuse. We played back-to-backs all year. We have to bounce back with a better effort.”
The OHL champs have to start keeping the puck out of the net while they're on the power play.
Hard-working Shawinigan forward Loik Poudrier put the Cataractes up two goals in the second with a fine shorthanded individual effort. The Knights have given up more goals with the man advantage so far (three) than they've scored (two).
“That's not the goal,” Poudrier said, “but I got the puck in my own end and if the opportunity is there, then, of course, you look for it and go to the net as hard as you can. It worked out, we scored.”
London looked at it as a sign of a lacklustre effort.
“That's the kind of thing that can happen when you don't have all five guys coming back hard on the play,” Knight said. “We have to be going both ways.”
Both teams had goals called back. The Cataractes, though, had more finish.
The game turned nasty late. There were a handful of roughing calls and London's Brett Cook and Shawinigan's Vincent Arseneau engaged in a spirited punchup – the second fight of the tournament.
“That's part of the game,” Gormley said. “You get here, there's going to be a lot of hitting.”
The real key against London, he knows, is to keep pucks from hitting them.
Paul Cyr - former Victoria Cougar (WHL), RIP
Gregg Drinnan, Taking Note, May 20, 2012
Paul Cyr, who was one of the best players in the history of the WHL’s Victoria Cougars, has died. He was 48 years of age. Cyr played on the 1982 Canadian national junior team that won the world tournament in Minnesota. That team is recognized as the spark that ignited Canada’s love affair with the national juniors and the world tournament. Cleve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times Colonist has more on Cyr right here:
http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/Former+NHLer+dead/6649793/story.html
Hockey Buzz has more right here, including a news report from CHEK-TV:
http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/GARTH/Rest-In-Peace-Paul-Cyr/6/44497
Sea Dogs dump Oil Kings at Memorial Cup
SHAWINIGAN, Que. — Bill Beacon, The Canadian Press, May. 21, 2012
The Saint John Sea Dogs have served notice they are still the team to beat at the MasterCard Memorial Cup.
Zach Phillips scored twice and the defending champion Sea Dogs used greater effort and more of their considerable skill to defeat the Edmonton Oil Kings 5-2 on Monday night and create a four-way tie for the tournament lead.
It is the first time all the teams have been tied with 1-1 records since the current four-team format was adopted in 1983.
For Saint John, it was a much stronger performance, particularly from their top talents like Phillips, Jonathan Huberdeau and Charlie Coyle, than their listless loss to the London Knights in their opening game on Saturday.
“It’s really just our work ethic,” said Phillips. “When we work hard, there aren’t many teams that can beat us.”
The Western Hockey League champion Oil Kings are back in action Tuesday night against Ontario Hockey League winners London, while Saint John faces what is sure to be an emotional final round-robin game on Wednesday against their Quebec Major Junior Hockey League rival Shawinigan Cataractes.
Huberdeau, Danick Gauthier and Ryan Tesink also scored for the Sea Dogs, while Kristians Pelss and Stephane Legault replied for Edmonton, which beat the host Cataractes in their first game.
Sea Dogs coach Gerard Gallant singled out Tysink as an inspiration as he was crushed by a Griffith Reinhart hit in the first period and rebounded with a solid two-way game.
It was an important win for Saint John, as only one team has ever started 0-2 and won the tournament — the 2009 Windsor Spitfires.
“We try to steer clear of what the game means and just play our game,” said Phillips. “That’s what we did tonight, and it worked.”
The Oil Kings, who were coming off a two-day break, must now make a quick turnaround to face a London side that plays a tight defensive game and likes to surprise opponents on counterattacks.
“We just couldn’t get it done,” said forward Curtis Lazar. “We need to pick up the effort, but it’s short-term memory time now.
“This is bitter, but we need to get a good night’s sleep and forget about it.”
Lazar also took a massive hit in the first period and responded in the second with what appeared to be a knee-on-knee hit on Phillips, although no penalty was called. Phillips limped to the bench in pain, but returned before the end of the period.
“That hit on Phillips was borderline,” Lazar admitted. “I felt bad.
“I said sorry to him and I think he was a little surprised.”
Phillips said he was hit by Lazar’s knee and that it hurt for a few minutes, but he said he will be fine.
Edmonton coach Derek Laxdal said Lazar’s line with Legault and Henrik Samuelsson was his best because of their energetic play, but said there were some passengers on his team who will need to pick up their game against London.
“They’ll trap you and try to score on 2-on-1s and 3-on-2s,” he said. “We’ve got to be ready for that.”
The slow, choppy ice that has plagued the tournament during a spring hot spell was evident again in strange bounces and unusual goals. Organizers have called in ice expert Mike Craig to help improve the playing surface for the rest of the event.
The Sea Dogs got a quirky one early as Phillips fired the puck at a slim angle from the right boards and it got between Laurent Brossoit’s pad and the post at 4:23.
Edmonton tied it at 7:03 when Pelss tipped a high Mark Pysyk point shot past Mathieu Corbeil on a power play.
Huberdeau, who rebounded from a weak opening game with a stronger effort, showed his skill as he got behind the defence to take a Coyle pass and beat Brossoit with a deke 4:42 into the second frame.
Gauthier made it a two-goal lead at 15:53 with a partially blocked shot that bounced crazily past Brossoit, but Legault got it back 1:03 later as he took a feed from Samuelsson and put a move on Corbeil.
Phillips put the game out of reach with his second of the game with 1:37 left to play and Tesink added an empty net goal.
With each of the teams winning at least once, it guarantees there will be a tiebreaker game on Thursday night to determine one semifinalist.
Notes: Organizers fined the London Knights $1,000 for an incident near the end of their 6-2 loss to Shawinigan on Sunday, in which Greg McKegg and Matt Rupert threw punches at the Cataractes’ Alex Grandmaison from the bench. . . Saint John made two changes, putting Devon Oliver-Dares and Oliver Cooper into the lineup and scratching Spencer MacDonald and Jason Cameron.
Popeye and son: Former NBA forward's offspring, teenager Seth Jones, shows his strength is in hockey
U.S. U-18 captain-defenseman prepares to play for WHL Portland Winterhawks
Kerry Eggers, The Portland Tribune, May 20 2012
Despite what you might guess, Popeye Jones can ice skate. A little.
“I have a custom-made pair of size-15 skates,” the father of the newest Portland Winterhawks defenseman, Seth Jones, says. “It’s a long way for me to fall, though, and the ice is hard.
“I could never learn to stop, so I can’t go that fast. It gives you a whole new perspective and appreciation for the game of hockey.”
Popeye Jones is a lug of a man who is 6-8 and was listed at 265 pounds at the end of his 11-year run as an NBA power forward. The middle of his three sons is good-sized for a young hockey player, 6-4 and about 200 as he nears his 18th birthday this October.
Seth Jones — whose Western Hockey League rights were acquired by Portland from Everett this season — is one of the top junior prospects in the country. The captain of the under-18 team with the National Hockey Development Program, he would have been one of the top 10 picks in this year’s NHL draft, though he was too young to be eligible.
Jones is good enough that he could go No. 1 in the 2013 draft.
For at least a season, though, he’ll be patrolling the back end for the Winterhawks, who want to kick down the door after knocking at it while reaching the WHL finals the past two years.
Papa Jones has become very knowledgeable about the sport all three of his sons have chosen to play.
“I remember laying in the bedroom with the kids and watching Brett Hull (of the Dallas Stars) score a controversial goal to beat Buffalo in the 1999 Stanley Cup finals,” says Jones, now an assistant coach for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.
When Popeye was playing for the Dallas Mavericks, Stars center Mike Modano invited the Jones gang to a game.
“We didn’t know what we were watching,” the senior Jones says, “but had a really good time going to the game as our family. The Stars became our team.”
In 1996, Jones was traded to Toronto, “and you know how hockey is up there,” he says. “If you’re going to watch sports in Toronto, you watch (The Sports Network) and Hockey Night in Canada.”
By the time Jones was dealt to Denver in 1999, the oldest son — Justin, now 21 — had decided he wanted to play hockey.
“Seth tagged along when we went to the hockey shop for gear,” Popeye says. “He wanted hockey skates and roller blades.”
About that time, Jones ran into Colorado Avalanche standout Joe Sakic.
“I said, ‘Joe, my kids want to play hockey; what do I need to do?’ " Jones says. “He said, ‘They’re going to be huge. Just make sure they know how to skate.’ "
At 5, Seth took lessons from a female figuring skating coach for a year before entering into a youth hockey program. He continued working with her for years.
“He enjoyed skating as much as playing hockey, at least at first,” Jones says. “She taught him strides and edges and how to skate backward and to do forward and backward crossovers. She would always comment on how quickly he picked things up.”
Few blacks play or have much interest in hockey.
“That worried me a little bit when the kids were young,” says Jones, 41. “But we know the reason why is because of the cost of the sport. It’s very expensive, which makes it tough for a lot of African-Americans to be able to afford to play.”
As an NBA player, Jones was a rebounder — he twice averaged more than 10 boards a game for the Mavericks — and a defender. It may have rubbed off on Seth, who always preferred playing defense in hockey.
“I always said, ‘Defense wins championships,’ " the elder Jones says. “Seth wasn’t a great puckhandler as a little boy. He was always nimble and light on his feet, though. He’d lose the puck off his stick, and skate a few more strides before realizing he didn’t have it.
“He just liked defense. The forwards would get in the scrum and fight over the puck. He never wanted to do that. He wanted to stay back.”
At 15, Seth left the family and moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., to become part of the National Hockey Development Program, providing a wealth of national and international experience.
Though he was the youngest player, Jones was captain of the U.S. under-18 team that won gold at the 2012 world championships. He was nearly a year younger than the next youngest player invited to try out for the U.S. national junior team for players 20 and under. Jones made the team, but suffered a shoulder injury in an exhibition game against Russia and had to return home.
“The national program was wonderful for Seth,” Popeye says. “He needed to get stronger, develop his body, develop personally being away from home, fit into a group setting and train with kids who have the same goal as you at a young age.
“USA Hockey does a great job with the kids teaching them what it takes to be an elite athlete and an elite student and person. The whole experience for him was great — even the 14- to-16-hour bus rides.”
Jones has a few more long bus trips on the horizon next season with the Hawks, who sold him on a weekend recruiting visit to Portland with mother, Amy, during the playoff series with Tri-City last month.
“She had a lot of questions about billets and wanted to meet our academic advisor,” says the Hawks’ general manager and coach, Mike Johnston. “Seth had questions about hockey and our team.”
Seth had some familiarity with the Hawks, who had listed his roommate with the U.S. U-18 team — forward Quentin Shore — a year ago. Defenseman William Wrenn, Portland’s captain this season, is a former member of the national development program.
“Seth knew a little bit about how we play,” Johnston says. “We play a puck-moving, up-tempo style that is suited toward his game.”
Jones could have chosen to accept a scholarship to play for nearly any college hockey power in the country.
“It’s fine that he didn’t go the college route,” his father says. “I was happy he didn’t choose a college early, then back out. I’m glad he waited to choose between college and the Western Hockey League.”
Jones, Johnston says, “is going to fill out. He can play at 210 or 215 next season. He’s a big guy but he doesn’t look heavy. He skates really well for a defenseman. He can jump up ice with the puck and lead the rush. He handles and moves the puck very well.”
There’s no telling how good Jones will be next season, or further in the future. His father isn’t about to predict.
“We don’t look at that,” Popeye says. “The one thing you can control is how hard you work. You put in the time, you make sure you’re prepared for games and everything else falls into place. The stars align when you do those things.”
When Jones was coaching with the Mavericks after his playing days ended, he would take Seth to practice and point out the work habits of such players as Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry.
“Seth watched them take extra work before and after practice and shootaround, how they prepared, how they locked in to try to learn the opponents’ plays and tendencies,” Popeye says. “It helped him grow as a hockey player.”
Justin Jones is a forward who will play hockey at Division-III Wisconsin-River Falls next season. Seth’s younger brother, Caleb, who turns 15 on June 6, is a 5-11, 175-pound defenseman who was chosen in the third round (with Portland’s second pick) by the Hawks in the recent bantam draft.
“Doctors have projected him to be 6-5 or 6-6 and about 235,” Popeye says. “He is going to be a big kid. Seth will play the body when he has to, but that’s not his total game. Caleb, that’s his thing. He wants to knock you on your butt.”
The younger Jones was coached by one of the Hawks’ scouts on his Texas youth team.
“Caleb is a more physical player than Seth, with good upside,” Johnston says. “We’re excited to have both of them in our system.”
So is their father.
“Everything I’ve heard about the Winterhawks is that they are a class organization all the way,” Jones says. “It reminds me what we’re trying to do with the Nets, except the Winterhawks are ahead of us because of their success in the playoffs.
“I’ve talked to (associate coach Travis) Green and I’m looking forward to meeting Mike Johnston. I plan to come up for training camp to spend three or four days up there. I'm hoping to have Caleb take part, too.”
Caleb’s father, the youngest of five children, was christened Ronald at birth.
“But my parents asked (his siblings), ‘What should we call your new baby brother?’ " he says.
The kids were watching a Popeye cartoon at the time. “Ronald” became “Popeye,” and it stuck.
Seth Jones doesn’t have a nickname yet.
George Gervin’s “Iceman” might be appropriate.
Small schools take spotlight at Frozen Four
TAMPA—Steve Kornacki, Globe and Mail, Apr. 04, 2012
The Frozen Four has gone to the dogs this year.
It’s the underdogs from Ferris State and Union College playing in Thursday’s first semi-final game at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
Then it’s the big dogs – Boston College and the University of Minnesota – going at it in the second game.
And, come Saturday night’s NCAA Division I championship game, there will be a top dog.
While Minnesota features no Canadians and Boston College has three from British Columbia (defencemen Mark Begert and Isaac MacLeod and forward Destry Straight), the two surprise teams are stocked with players from the country.
Ferris State has eight Canadians, including star goalie Taylor Nelson and leading scorer Jordie Johnston, both from Saskatchewan.
Union College has 13 players from five provinces. Six of Union’s top seven scorers are Canadians, led by forward Jeremy Welsh (27 goals, 16 assists) of Bayfield, Ont.
Rounding out the top point men for the Flying Dutchmen are Kelly Zajac (8 goals, 34 assists) of Winnipeg; Daniel Carr (19 goals, 20 assists) of Sherwood Park, Alta.; Josh Jooris (8 goals, 20 assists) of Burlington, Ont.; and East Paul, Man., brothers Kyle Bodie (6 goals, 24 assists), and Mat Bodie (8 goals, 21 assists).
“There has never been a game like this in the Frozen Four,” said Neil Koepke, who has covered 34 of the past 35 tournaments for the Ann Arbor News and Lansing State Journal in Michigan. “And it’s great for the game. It would never happen in football with two schools this small in a national semi-final. But it can happen in hockey if you find the right players for your system.
“Ferris has uncovered diamonds in the rough, many from Saskatchewan, to put together a team that has beaten Michigan State and Ohio State.”
Nelson, who has a 2.1 goals-against average and .923 save percentage, played for Humboldt and is from Regina.
Johnston, a forward from Rosetown, leads Ferris with 20 goals and 36 points.
They followed another Saskatchewan product, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Chris Kunitz, to Big Rapids.
Johnston said an aggressive coaching staff, which includes associate head coach Drew Famulak of Saskatchewan, made him feel “welcome and wanted” on his visit. He liked the “homey” aspects of the town and closeness of the team, too.
“And I kind of also liked the underdog kind of feel of the school,” Johnston added.
Nelson said having Johnston, Mike Trebish and Justin Menke – all from his native province – at Ferris opened the doors.
Union relies almost completely on Canadians to score.
Welsh, an undrafted shooter, will have his pick of NHL teams after this weekend. He played for the Oakville Blades of the Ontario Junior Hockey League.
“There’s people who like to score goals and the people who love to score goals,” said Flying Dutchmen coach Rick Bennett. “And I think he really loves to score goals by the way he shoots it. He puts everything he has into those shots, and he’s actually ... killing our stick budget.
“He’s been a force. He’s a huge reason why we’re here. I’m not going to say he’s the only reason. But he’s a big reason.”
Ferris and Union are vying for a chance to slay a giant.
“No matter what happens Thursday night,” said Gary Thorne, who will call the game on ESPNU with Barry Melrose, “we are going to have a David-Goliath matchup. That’s guaranteed. And in sports, that is always interesting. You are waiting for the unusual as a fan, and this game will be that.”
The Golden Gophers have been to 19 Frozen Fours and won it all five times.
The Eagles have played in 23 Frozen Fours with four NCAA championships.
This is the first time either Ferris State or Union College has advanced to the sport’s Holy Grail game. Hockey fans will be scratching their heads when reading about the matchup between a team from Big Rapids, Mich., and Schenectady, N.Y.
Ferris State’s Bob Daniels, on Wednesday chosen the winner of the Spencer Penrose Award as the top Division I coach, said retired dean of the school of business Dick Hansen put the situation into perspective for him.
“He had an interesting take on small school versus big school,” Daniels said. “He said, ‘Say you end up running into a Minnesota in the finals.’” Daniels said Hansen used a 40,000 enrolment figure as an example. Minnesota, with more than 52,000 students, is the nation’s fourth-largest school.
Hansen told him, “The nice thing is you’re only playing 20 of their student-athletes. You don’t have to play all 40,000.”
Daniels continued, “So, size of school I don’t think makes much of a difference.”
Ferris lists its enrolment at 14,560, while Union has just 2,200.
These schools are big only in their dreams.
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Should be some exciting hockey to watch this weekend...! I hope I can find it on the satellite. Alwys neat to cheer for the underdog; especially when Union is such a small school. If memory serves me, I believe they started their hockey team as a Div 2 or 3 program?
Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
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