Here are the best TV commercials of Super Bowl XLVI (Including the Budwesier Hockey Flash Mab)
Sympatico.ca Sports, Feb 6 2012
We know that many of you simply tune into the NFL's Super Bowl (or visit websites like this one) for the latest over-the-top-sometimes-too-far-but-often-funny-and-extravagant TV commercials that companies pay millions of dollars for. With that mind we've grabbed what we think are the best commercials of Super Bowl XLVI and placed them all in one convenient place for you. And your friends. Check them all out and let us know which commercials you thought were the best.
http://www.thecheapseats.ca/2012/02/check-out-the-best-super-bowl-xlvi-tv-commercials.html
The one below is for the hockey ad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Cw6c77TaKWs
hockeygod
hockeygod
The Last Sweet Man in Boxing: The life of Angelo Dundee
Dave Kindred, Grantland.com, February 4, 2012
Angelo Dundee sent postcards. They came from everywhere. "With Willie in Puerto Rico," one said. Another, "Dupas in Miami tonight." He carried an address book and sent postcards to sportswriters. It was so quaint, postcards showing he'd thought of you. Sometimes, he called.
"Mailing you something," he said.
"What is it?"
"Helen found it," he said.
Such a sweet, sweet man. Angelo Dundee, the son of an Italian shepherd, came to be boxing's most famous trainer. He was an island of sanity in Muhammad Ali's mad world. He was in the corner for a dozen champions, among them Willie Pastrano, Ralph Dupas, Carmen Basilio, Jimmy Ellis, Luis Rodriguez, and, if only for one fight, George Foreman. Sixty years ago at a fight, the short, dark, Italian immigrant's son met a luminous, willowy model named Helen Marone. "She is," he would say, "my greatest champion." They were married three days after she came to Miami to tell him she couldn't marry him because her very Southern Georgia parents would never allow such a mismatch.
"Helen found this thing looking for something else," Dundee said. "You'll like it."
The mailman delivered a memory. It was an 8x10 photograph of an impossibly beautiful young man, 18 years old. There was a sunrise in his smile. He flexed his arms overhead, a strongman's pose. He sat on a fighter's stool. His name ran in script letters across his white workout shirt: "Cassius Clay." All of life awaited him. Behind Clay, Dundee leaned on the ring ropes. Behind Dundee, light came through a pair of tall windows painted with block letters: GYM. The trainer and the kid were in the 5th Street Gym, Miami Beach, 1960.
Two weeks ago, he and Ali were still together. God only knows how Dundee did it. Up from nothing, scrambling for survival through the Depression, street-smart, sly, and unfailingly optimistic, he came to Ali with a psychological gyroscope that kept him even-keeled in a quarter-century of unprecedented turbulence. Dundee's partner in Ali's corner, the fight doctor Ferdie Pacheco, told me, "Angelo did it by being an innocent. He was soft-hearted, kind, gentle. He was the exact same man Ali was — but no one knew that about Ali then. They clicked in ways nobody could ever have guessed, let alone explained."
The malevolent Fruit of Islam thugs — the thick-necked muscle of Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam in the 1960s — wanted the little white guy gone. Dundee stayed. He stayed through Sonny Liston, Malcolm X, Vietnam. He knew the glory of Zaire and the hell of Manila. He outlasted three of Ali's wives and walked without harm through the fight game's snakes, who were licking at Ali's feet. Pacheco's take: "Angelo kept his nose clean. He went about his business, nobody else's, and he was good at staying in the shadows. He knew Ali was the star of stars. He was just along on the ride, and he was happy to be part of the circus."
This January, though feeling ill, Dundee flew to Louisville for a celebration of Ali's 70th birthday, a celebration in name only, for all that's left of the Ali we knew are the abstractions layered onto the myth of a man who, once upon a magical time, lived those ideals. That man is now old and infirm, withered and silent, sitting in a wheelchair. It was cruel of fate, which had been so kind to Dundee for so long, to send him home from that party with a blood clot that put him in a hospital. On February 1, 90 years old, Angelo Dundee died, and a time died with him.
He came to boxing when boxing mattered. He knew men who knew men who knew Jack Johnson. He knew the great trainers Charley Goldman, Whitey Bimstein, Chickie Ferrara. He heard Ray Arcel talk of taking men in against Joe Louis. "They'd be all right until they looked across the ring and saw Joe," he said. "Then they wilted like tulips."
Dundee was born in Philadelphia in 1921, one of five sons of Angelo and Philomena Mirena. Before World War I, the shepherd had taken his wife out of the mountains to the toe of Italy to catch a ship across the Atlantic. He found work driving spikes into railroad ties. Mirena's firstborn son, Joe, became a boxer; to hide the work from his mother and to escape discrimination against Italian immigrants, he changed his name to Joe Dundee. All the Mirena boys became Dundees.
In 1948 Angelo joined another brother, Chris, who was managing fighters in New York. Afternoons, he hung around Stillman's Gym, watching trainers. Every night, he'd go to a fight club. His introduction to training happened as quickly as a man could toss a roll of tape to him. He told the story to Dave Anderson for In the Corner, a book on the trainer's art: "My first night, in Fort Hamilton out where the Verrazano Bridge is now, I was standing around the dressing room when Chickie Ferrara threw me two rolls of gauze and one roll of tape and said, 'Wrap this kid's hands.' I said, 'I never wrapped hands.' So he showed me."
Then, in 1957, in Louisville with the light-heavyweight champion, Willie Pastrano, Angelo Dundee took a phone call from a young man who said, "Mr. Dundee, my name is Cassius Marcellus Clay. I'm the Golden Gloves champion of Louisville, Kentucky." There followed a list of fights he had won and championships he intended to win, including the Olympics and the heavyweight championship. "I want to talk to you and Mr. Pastrano." Dundee said to Pastrano, "Some nut downstairs wants to talk to us. But he sounds like he might be a nice kid. Want to talk to him?" Pastrano said, "Why not? Nothing good on television."
Dundee had learned the game by listening to old men talk. Here was a kid speaking their language. How much roadwork did Pastrano do? How many times a day did he eat? How many rounds did he spar? Dundee liked both the kid's hunger for information and the intelligence of his questions. "By then, I'd worked with six champions," Dundee said, "and none of them ever talked the way the kid did."
After Clay won a gold medal in the 1960 games at Rome, his sponsors hired Dundee to make him a pro. Dundee may have done the smartest thing any trainer/coach/manager ever did. He left Clay alone. He recognized supranatural abilities when he saw them. He took credit only as a guileful cornerman looking to help his guy. Dundee once slit a glove to gain Clay time to recover from a knockdown. Hearing Clay complain of "something in my eyes," he pushed him off the stool in the first Liston fight with one instruction: "Run!" Dundee loved a thing the estimable Eddie Futch said. After 11 rounds in Manila against Futch's man, Joe Frazier, Ali thought to quit. He said he felt near death. But then, as always, he came off the stool. "Angelo prevailed upon him to continue," Futch said. Ali won when Futch wouldn't let Frazier come out for the 15th round.
There are people who believe Dundee should have prevailed upon Ali to quit — and long before Manila. Those people believe Ali's condition today is the result of brain damage suffered in 30 years of being hit in the head, the last decade by men younger and stronger than him. In fact, on an April morning in 1978, a few months after Ali had been beaten by the unknown Leon Spinks, Dundee told me he wanted Ali to retire.
"Forget it now, Muhammad," Dundee said.
"No, I gotta get a check," Ali said. He wanted to see a doctor.
"You don't need any checks," Dundee said. "There wasn't anything wrong with you. You were in great shape. Just forget it now, Muhammad. You got nothing to prove to anybody."
But he knew his guy wouldn't go away beaten. He said, "I'm not God. Muhammad quits when he wants to quit. Not when I think he ought to. Who am I? He wants to go on, he goes on. He's earned it. He can do what he wants and nobody ought to say any of that baloney about having so much 'heart' it'll wind up hurting him."
Ali fought for three more years, always with Dundee in his corner.
Dundee was still looking for fighters the last time I saw him, six years ago. He had worked as a consultant to Will Smith on an Ali movie and had helped the actor Russell Crowe get through a movie in which he played a fighter. But Dundee was 84 years old and pale and tired, and he stumbled over names and lost the thread in sentences. As Red Smith taught us, I closed the notebook when there was nothing more to learn. Then, when I thanked Dundee for all the years, and told him to thank Helen for finding the photograph of the young Clay, he spoke in a whisper.
"She's not good now," he said.
Ferdie Pacheco had told me about her cancer and said he had told Dundee he should be ready for the end.
"So I've gotta be with her as much as I can," Dundee said.
They'd picked out burial spots.
"We'll be together soon."
Helen Marone Dundee died two years ago.
Dave Kindred is the author of Sound and Fury, a dual biography of Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell.
hockeygod
Obituary
Angelo Dundee, trainer of Muhammad Ali, dead at 90
TIM DAHLBERG, The Associated Press, Feb. 01, 2012
Angelo Dundee, the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Muhammad Ali in his greatest fights and willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, died Wednesday in Tampa, Fla. He was 90.
The genial Dundee was best known for being in Ali’s corner for almost his entire career, but those in boxing also knew him as an ambassador for boxing and a figure of integrity in a sport that often lacked it.
He died with his family surrounding him, said son, Jimmy Dundee, but not before being able to attend Ali’s 70th birthday bash in Louisville, Ky., last month.
“It was the way he wanted to go,” Jimmy Dundee said. “He did everything he wanted to do.”
A master motivator and clever corner man, Dundee was regarded as one of the sport’s great ambassadors. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994 after a career that spanned six decades, training 15 world champions, including Leonard, George Foreman, Carmen Basilio and Jose Napoles.
But he will always be linked to Ali as one of the most successful fighter-trainer relationships in boxing history, helping Ali become the first to win the heavyweight title three times. The pair would travel around the world for fights to such obscure places as Ali’s October 1974 bout in Zaire against Foreman dubbed “The Rumble in the Jungle,” and Ali’s third fight against Joe Frazier in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, called by promoters as the “Thrilla in Manila.”
“I just put the reflexes in the proper direction,” Dundee said in a 2005 interview with The Associated Press.
Their partnership began in Louisville, Ali’s hometown, in 1959. Dundee was there with light heavyweight Willie Pastrano when the young Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, called their room from a hotel phone to ask if he could have five minutes. Clay, a local Golden Gloves champion, kept asking the men boxing questions in a conversation that lasted 3 1 / 2hours, according to Dundee’s autobiography, “My View From the Corner: A Life in Boxing.”
After Ali returned from Rome with a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics, Dundee ran into him in Louisville and invited him to come to Miami Beach to train. Ali declined. But that December, Dundee got a call from one of Ali’s handlers, seeking to hire Dundee. After Ali won his first pro fight, Dundee accepted.
He helped Ali claim the heavyweight title for the first time on Feb. 25, 1964, when Sonny Liston quit on his stool after the sixth round during their fight in Miami Beach.
In an age of boxing when fighter-manager relationships rarely last, Dundee and Ali would never split.
When Cassius Clay angered white America by joining the Black Muslims and become Muhammad Ali, Dundee never wavered. When Ali defied the draft at the height of the Vietnam war, losing 3 1 / 2years from the prime of his career, Dundee was there waiting for the heavyweight’s return. And when Ali would make bold projections, spewing poetry that made headlines across the world and gave him the nickname “The Louisville Lip,” Dundee never asked him to keep quiet.
“Through all those days of controversy, and the many that followed, Angelo never got involved,” Ali wrote in the foreword to Dundee’s book. “He let me be exactly who I wanted to be, and he was loyal. That is the reason I love Angelo.”
Born Angelo Mirena on Aug. 30, 1921, in south Philadelphia, Dundee’s boxing career was propelled largely by his older brother, Chris, a promoter. After returning from the Second World War – “We won, but not because of anything I did” – he joined Chris in the boxing game in New York, serving as his “go-fer” and getting the tag “Chris’ kid brother.” Angelo and Chris followed another brother Joe, who was a fighter, in changing their surname to Dundee so their parents wouldn’t know they worked in boxing.
hockeygod
LeBron uses bike to beat pregame gridlock
SIMON EVANS, Reuters, Jan. 29, 2012
LeBron James got in the saddle before the Miami Heat’s clash with the Chicago Bulls on Sunday, riding to the game on his bicycle.
The Miami Marathon on Sunday morning meant delays were expected around the city due to road closures and the two-times National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player, decided two wheels would be more effective than four.
Drivers stuck in traffic saw James, in cycling helmet, zipping past them and before long pictures of the spandex-clad forward were appearing on social networks.
James estimated the journey from his home took 40 minutes but the trip had no discernable influence on his performance as he racked up a game-winning 35 points and 11 rebounds in Miami’s 97-93 win.
“I’ve done it a few times, it’s not common but I’ve done it a few times. It felt good this morning,” he told reporters.
It was not likely that James would be cycling home, and with the tight NBA schedule meaning he is back on court on Monday, James joked he might not even take the trip back.
“I might just stay here till tomorrow’s shootaround,” he said.
hockeygod
Taylor Vause (Swift Current) - Photoshop Posters!
Gregg Drinnan, Taking Note, Jan 30 2012
Check out this and see what F Taylor Vause of the Swift Current Broncos does in his spare time. I guarantee you will be impressed.
http://imgur.com/a/RqPKG/noscript
hockeygod
Quote by: TomMJust got this. I guess they don't consider people who have got lower air fares on non refundable plane fares and hotel rooms. I guess I am having a vacation in the Maritimes.
------------------------
Dear Registered Delegate,
Please be advised that the 2011 International Coaches Conference scheduled for July 14-17 in Halifax, Nova Scotia has been cancelled.
Hockey Canada wishes to inform all registered delegates that conference registration numbers lagged behind the projected requirements to insure the delivery of an event that meets with the Hockey Canada standard of quality.
All delegates who are currently registered for the event and have paid the ICC registration fee will receive a full refund. Within the next 72 hours, refunds will be automatically processed back onto the credit card the registration was purchased with. Refunds should appear on your next credit card statement. Should you have any questions related to your refund, please contact Derek Amalfa at damalfa@hockeycanada.ca or 403-777-4589. All Hockey Nova Scotia registrations entered under the Hockey Nova Scotia promotional code will be removed from the system. No refunds will be processed under this promotion.
Hockey Canada wishes to recognize the commitment of Hockey Nova Scotia Board of Directors and staff for their support of the ICC planning process.
Please accept Hockey Canada’s sincere thanks for your interest in and commitment to the 2011 International Coaches Conference.
For any additional information please do not hesitate to contact me directly at your convenience.
Yours in hockey,
=====================================
Michael Bara
Manager, Coaching/ Responsable, entraineurs
Hockey Canada
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Tom, that is crappy. You would think they (Hockey Canada) would be able to do something - like offer those who have already booked their flights (and can't cancel) a free pass for their next event?
PS I know a prof at Acadia (motor learning / sport psych / TGfU) who is a hockey guy. I will see if he is around and maybe you guys can meet.
hockeygod
Just got this. I guess they don't consider people who have got lower air fares on non refundable plane fares and hotel rooms. I guess I am having a vacation in the Maritimes.
------------------------
Dear Registered Delegate,
Please be advised that the 2011 International Coaches Conference scheduled for July 14-17 in Halifax, Nova Scotia has been cancelled.
Hockey Canada wishes to inform all registered delegates that conference registration numbers lagged behind the projected requirements to insure the delivery of an event that meets with the Hockey Canada standard of quality.
All delegates who are currently registered for the event and have paid the ICC registration fee will receive a full refund. Within the next 72 hours, refunds will be automatically processed back onto the credit card the registration was purchased with. Refunds should appear on your next credit card statement. Should you have any questions related to your refund, please contact Derek Amalfa at damalfa@hockeycanada.ca or 403-777-4589. All Hockey Nova Scotia registrations entered under the Hockey Nova Scotia promotional code will be removed from the system. No refunds will be processed under this promotion.
Hockey Canada wishes to recognize the commitment of Hockey Nova Scotia Board of Directors and staff for their support of the ICC planning process.
Please accept Hockey Canada’s sincere thanks for your interest in and commitment to the 2011 International Coaches Conference.
For any additional information please do not hesitate to contact me directly at your convenience.
Yours in hockey,
=====================================
Michael Bara
Manager, Coaching/ Responsable, entraineurs
Hockey Canada
2424 University Drive NW
Calgary, AB T2N 3Y9
Ph/Tél (403) 777-3620
Fax/Téléc (403) 777-3635
mbara@hockeycanada.ca
www.hockeycanada.ca
TomM
Canucks flasher causes a stir
By KRISTY BROWNLEE, QMI Agency May 19, 2011
Vancouver Canucks fans are abuzz over their team's 7-3 win Wednesday night, but also a breast-baring woman in the stands.
With about 2:30 remaining in the third period of the Western Conference finals game, a blond woman lifted her Canucks jersey and pressed her breasts against the penalty box glass as San Jose Sharks player Ben Eager sat inside.
It aired uncensored on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada.
Jeff Keay, CBC spokesman, said the broadcaster has received "very few e-mails" from angry viewers.
Keay said it was an in-house camera, not controlled by CBC, that captured the nudity.
Jen Rollins, media relations co-ordinator for Canucks Sports and Entertainment, said the incident was "unacceptable behaviour."
Rollins said complaints have trickled in and are expected to be received throughout the day.
The identity of the woman is unknown.
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Didn't see it but I am sure it was better than the Green Men!
hockeygod
TWEET OF THE DAY:
“@USAHockey surpassed 100K members in 8&under category for 1st time in 2010-11 & finished season w/105,394. Goal for 2011-12: 110K!”
———
Those are rather interesting figures and should make Canadian hockey people sit up and take notice.
If you are wondering, Hockey Canada had 584,679 registered players in 2008-09. That figure slipped to 577,077 for 2009-10.
I couldn’t find figures for 2010-11 but apparently they were expected to decline another one per cent.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
hockeygod
You may have seen F Mikael Granlund score that spectacular goal for Finland in the world championship game against Russia last week. The MacBeth Report points out that he did the same thing during the 2006-07 season while playing for the Kärpät Oulu bantam team. The video isn’t top-flight but you can see it right here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2w5Q6yKk04 . . . . As The MacBeth Report adds: “So in four years, he goes from bantams to scoring possibly the most talked about goal in World Championship history.
(From Gregg Drinnan's Blog May 18, 2011)
hockeygod
Thank You,
Yes, it has been quite wild here for few days.
Granlund is very good promotion for the hockey. When he is interviewed he allways says how he is ejoying the game and just having fun. He is talking about how shinny is the base for he's skills and game sense.
Kai K
And how about Granlund's goal? Pretty nice...! Cheers to Finland!
hockeygod
Kai, you must be pretty excited about being World Champion.
It was fair. Canada beat Sweden, Russia beat Canada, Sweden beat the USA and Finland beat Both Russia and Sweden. So the best team won.
Congratulations.
You have 5 million people and we have 5 00 000 hockey players as does the USA. You must be doing something right.
TomM
Ed Chynoweth Cup comes home
May 15, 2011
Matt Coxford
PORTLAND, Ore. - After posing for pictures with Western Hockey League commissioner Ron Robison and the WHL championship trophy on Friday night, Kootenay Ice captain Brayden McNabb invited someone else to the party.
A few more shutter bursts later, McNabb handed the Ed Chynoweth Cup to the namesake's son. Team general manager and president Jeff Chynoweth lifted it above his head, and gave it a few revelatory shakes before kissing it.
"I thought it was fitting that he got the trophy first," said Ice head coach Kris Knoblauch. "It was our captains who thought of it, and Jeff didn't want to have any part of it because he felt it's the players' moment. But we pushed him out there and he did get it."
Chynoweth insisted the same thing after the game, crediting the players and coaches instead.
"They're the ones that are in the trenches, they're the ones that do it day in and day out," he said. "They deserve all the credit. I'm in the back and don't want to take away from anybody. At the same time, it's very special to me and my family and it's something I'll never forget."
Few who witnessed it will.
"It's tough to put into words," said Chynoweth, his eyes welling at the recollection. "I kept thinking about my dad and everything he did for this league and our organization. A lot of the kids here did meet him, and it's emotional. My mom's in Arizona right now and she's a mess. My brother is in New York and he's a mess. He'd be happy. Let's enjoy it and get ready for the next challenge."
An architect of the Canadian Hockey League and champion of the WHL education program, Ed Chynoweth moved the Edmonton Ice franchise to Cranbrook in 1998. Ten years later, he lost a battle with cancer, and was posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builders' category.
The trophy had previously been known as the Presidents Cup. The Spokane Chiefs were the first team to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup, and advanced to win the 2008 Memorial Cup.
A couple of Ed's former employees with the Ice had shots at the Ed Chynoweth Cup as general managers of other clubs: former Ice head scout Roy Stasiuk with the Lethbridge Hurricanes in 2009, and former Kootenay GM Bob Tory with the Tri-City Americans last year.
"This trophy is something we've always wanted, especially when they renamed it three years ago," said Chynoweth. "Roy said the other day: 'It's your turn. We're 0-2 already.'"
Much of the Ice team didn't get to meet Ed, but McNabb got to know him well in short order.
"I remember when I was 15, I got called up and he picked me up at the airport and took me out for a pre-game meal," said McNabb. "He was a great guy and he did a lot for this league and I'm very proud that we won it."
Although another Cup looms large on the horizon - the Memorial, of course - the Ed Chynoweth Cup isn't an interim sort of trophy, like the Eastern Conference mug.
"We can touch this one as much as we want," McNabb laughed.
hockeygod
Kris Knoblauch latest in line of great Kootenay Ice coaches
By Jim Matheson, Postmedia News May 15, 2011
EDMONTON — Kootenay Ice general manager Jeff Chynoweth proudly says he’s never fired a coach, probably because he keeps hiring the right ones.
Ryan McGill, Cory Clouston and Mark Holick all got professional minor-league offers after spending time behind the bench with the Western Hockey League team.
Kris Knoblauch may be on the same career path.
Knoblauch, in his first season as head coach of the WHL champions, has been pushing all the right buttons for the Ice, who’ve won 15 of their last 16 playoff games to reach the Memorial Cup.
It’s obviously not just Knoblauch. The Ice beat the Brayden Schenn-led Saskatoon Blades four straight in the second round of the playoffs. Schenn was taken fifth overall by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2009 NHL entry draft. Kootenay had another sweep in the third round, eliminating the Medicine Hat Tigers. The Ice then got past the Portland Winterhawks with Ryan Johansen (fourth overall to the Columbus Blue Jackets) and Nino Niederreiter (fifth overall to the New York Islanders) — two of the top five draft picks last June — in five games in the WHL final.
They did it more, as Chynoweth says, with “our will prevailing over their skill” mentality, along with wonderful netminding Nathan Lieuwen, who is getting plenty of NHL notice right now. They also had trade-deadline pickup Cody Eakin, a Team Canada junior star forward who could make the Washington Capitals next year, giving up eight draft picks and players to the Swift Current Broncos in the blockbuster deal.
After trailing the Moose Jaw Warriors 2-1 in the first round, they won 11 games in a row, lost an overtime match to start the final with the Winterhawks, then won the last four contests.
They’ll start the national junior championship tournament Saturday against the Ontario Hockey League champion Owen Sound Attack.
“We beat Saskatoon, which was the best team in the WHL (regular season), Portland was second-best and Medicine Hat, I believe, fifth overall. We didn’t have an easy route,” said Knoblauch, who once played for the Edmonton Ice before the team moved to Cranbrook, B.C.
McGill, who took the Ice to the junior championship in 2002, went on to coach the New York Rangers’ American Hockey League affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut; Clouston left for the Ottawa Senators’ farm job in Binghamton, New York, and eventually made behind the bench of the NHL club too; and Holick was hired by the Anaheim Ducks to coach their development club in Syracuse, New York, last summer.
Throw in Brad Lauer, McGill’s assistant, who went to Milwaukee as an assistant before joining the Senators, and it’s a well-worn road to the pros.
Knoblauch would like to follow in their footsteps.
The 32-year-old played five years for the Alberta Golden Bears, then had two pro years in Austin, Texas, and Paris.
He also spent four seasons as a WHL assistant, one in Prince Albert under Peter Anholt and three in Kootenay under Holick. He’s proof positive that Chynoweth knows his stuff.
Chynoweth had a stack of applications for the head job when Holick left, but opted for Knoblauch.
“In the last eight years, we’ve moved four coaches onto pro hockey and I don’t think any team in major junior hockey can say that,” said Chynoweth.
“We knew Kris had a bright future . . . he played at U of Alberta under Rob Daum, an assistant with Anholt and Holick, but it’s all timing. How do you know if you’re ever ready for a job? Not just in hockey,” said Chynoweth. “But we promoted Clouston when Ryan McGill left. I believe in hiring from within but, sometimes, it’s hard being a head coach of a team when you’ve been an assistant. It’s like substitute teacher day.
“Kris is a student of the game . . . his degree is in education. That’s important dealing with the 16- to 20-year age group. It’s a volatile age group.”
Knoblauch never once considered coaching until he played for the Golden Bears.
“I wanted to pursue the playing dream as long as I could, but I saw Rob Daum and I thought he had a pretty good thing there. He was very organized and he was very rational. He didn’t fly off the handle like a lot of coaches,” said Knoblauch, who thought about applying for the Golden Bears assistant job to Daum’s successor, Eric Thurston, before Chynoweth rewarded him with the Kootenay head job last July.
“Initially, Jeff felt more comfortable giving the (head) job to a more experienced coach, which was understandable, but he had a change of heart and I was fortunate to get this job,” said Knoblauch. “I’m very grateful to be in this situation. We’ve got a special group of players. I could coach many years and not have a group like this one. We have great character and, if we don’t have a lot of players who’ve been drafted, I think NHL teams are taking a second look at them now,” he said.
jmatheson@edmontonjournal.com
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
hockeygod
Jim Souhan: Jarring Friday reminds us no one is immortal
Article by: JIM SOUHAN , Star Tribune
Updated: May 15, 2011 - 8:11 AM
Kirby Puckett told us not to take life for granted; the news of Harmon Killebrew and Derek Boogaard reminds us of that lesson.
We shouldn't require reminders. We should know, innately, that death plays no favorites, that not even the strongest escape this planet alive.
Somehow, though, death always jars us when it intersects with sports, making this one of the saddest and most jarring weekends in memory.
Friday morning, we learned that Twins legend Harmon Killebrew will end his battle with esophageal cancer and spend his remaining days in hospice care.
Friday night, we learned that former Wild enforcer Derek Boogaard had been found dead at his Minneapolis apartment.
The men shared few connections. Killebrew is 74 and those close to him, such as Jack Morris, expected this news. Even those far removed from Killebrew's inner circle realized that this form of cancer was particularly devastating, especially for a man of Killebrew's age.
Boogaard was 28 and those close to him worried about his recovery from a concussion. At 6-7 and 258 pounds, possessing the toughness of a man who made his living with jaw and fists, he would have seemed, to an outsider, invulnerable as Killebrew in his prime.
They are not invulnerable, though. Beneath the muscle and machismo of a pro athlete beat all-too-mortal hearts.
We shouldn't require these reminders, especially we Minnesotans. We followed Kirby Puckett's descent.
In 1991, he became a part of World Series history. In 1996, he awoke blind in one eye, and retired months later. In 2006, he died after suffering a stroke.
A.E. Housman wrote the most celebrated elegy about interrupted athletic lives: "To An Athlete Dying Young."
The greatest poem ever written on the subject, though, was uttered, extemporaneously, by a product of the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago, when he announced his retirement in a cramped room deep inside the Metrodome on July 12, 1996.
"Can you all just do me one favor?" Puckett said. "Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us."
A version of that quote now hangs in the Twins clubhouse, close to Justin Morneau's locker. Saturday night, Morneau, the rare person who befriended both Killebrew and Boogaard, stood under that quote and spoke quietly about a weekend of loss.
"Yesterday was a rough day," he said, speaking of Friday. "Obviously it was rougher for their families, but it was tough. I found out after the game about Boogey, and I was in shock.
"On the ice, he was completely different than he was off the ice. You can ask anybody who knew him. He cared about people. If you asked him what he did and he told you he was a fighter in hockey, you wouldn't believe him."
Boogaard, like Morneau, struggled to overcome concussion symptoms. "With his concussion, he's been checking up on me and seeing how I'm feeling," Morneau said. "He texted me last week to see how I was doing, make sure everything was OK.
"We talked back and forth. He's come down and taken batting practice with us. To get news like this about him, it's not fun."
Many Twins knew that Killebrew was nearing the end of his battle with cancer. Boogaard's death arrived without warning.
"It's almost like, as athletes, you have that feeling of invincibility," Morneau said. "You're out here and you're supposed to be in the best shape of everybody, and that's not supposed to happen. That's why it tends to be more of a shock.
"You're looking at guys in their 20s and 30s who are supposed to be at the peak of health. Something like this happens, and you realize that you're not invincible, and that every day you get to come out here you're lucky, and you should enjoy it."
A visitor pointed to Puckett's quote. "That's it," Morneau said. "That's why what we're going through as a team, even though it's not fun and we're not used to it around here, we can't feel sorry for ourselves just because we're losing baseball games. You look at the big picture, and while obviously everyone wants to have success, you can't feel sorry for yourself because you went 0-for-4. There are people going through a lot harder things."
Fans brought flowers to Killebrew's statue by Target Field, and honored Boogaard by placing flowers outside of Xcel Energy Center.
"Boogey was 28 years old," Morneau said. "That's not supposed to happen to a guy that young."
hockeygod
Like Magic, Great Sports Nicknames Are Disappearing
New York Times By JOHN BRANCH Published: May 10, 2011
Today’s baseball rosters are filled with names, not nicknames, not like the ones that used to be. The N.B.A. playoffs are equally devoid of onomastic pleasures, just cheap echoes of Magic and the Mailman, Tiny and Tree, Chief and Cornbread. The N.F.L. cannot match the treasured nicknames that evoke folk heroes like Night Train, Hacksaw and the Refrigerator.
A part of sports, somewhere near the soul, is slowly dying an unimaginative death. In an age of A-Rod and D-Wade, when nicknames rarely conjure imagery beyond a corporate logo, it can be easy to bemoan the loss of another slice of simpler times.
“There’s no substance there,” said the Hall of Fame basketball player Walt Frazier, also known as Clyde.
But sociologists and experts in onomastics, the study of names, said the diminishment of nicknames was not exclusive to famous athletes. Studies on the subject are few, but there is widespread agreement that the use of nicknames across American society has steadily slipped.
“You just have to extrapolate in places where you can gather data, like baseball players,” said Cleveland Evans, an associate professor of psychology at Bellevue University in Nebraska, who writes a regular column on names for The Omaha World-Herald. “And they are certainly less common than they used to be.”
Less certain is why. Maybe it reflects a loss of intimacy and connectedness. Maybe it is because of the changing way we name children, or how we now deflect unflattering nicknames to shape our own identities. Maybe all the good nicknames are taken.
Whatever the case, the decline is most easily gauged in sports, where nicknames have long played a role in distinguishing and at times deifying athletes. They often arrived with a nickname given by family or school friends. (Such was the case for Lawrence Peter Berra, called Yogi by a boyhood friend for his apparent similarity to a film version of a Hindu yogi.)
Those who did not have one were frequently nicknamed by their teammates or coaches. (George Herman Ruth did not become Babe until he was signed by the Baltimore Orioles.)
Sportswriters, looking for imagery or lyrical alliteration in the age before cable television, made a habit of bestowing nicknames on athletes. Rams receiver Elroy Hirsch became Crazy Legs because of a Chicago newspaper reporter; decades later, a 15-year-old basketball player named Earvin Johnson was considered Magic by a reporter in Lansing, Mich.
“When we gave them a nickname, good or bad, it meant that we cared,” said Ernest Abel, a Wayne State professor of psychology and obstetrics who has studied names and is on the executive council of the American Name Society. “You don’t give someone about whom you are indifferent a nickname. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”
Doc Rivers, the coach of the N.B.A.’s Boston Celtics, was simply Glenn as a boy in Chicago. But he was a big fan of Julius Erving, known as Dr. J, and wore an Erving shirt when he arrived to play at Marquette. Al McGuire, the former Marquette coach, was there and nonchalantly called him Doc.
“I didn’t have a lot of say-so in it,” Rivers said recently.
When Rivers played for the Atlanta Hawks in the mid-1980s, his teammates included Tree Rollins, Spud Webb and Dominique Wilkins, the Human Highlight Film. Now Rivers coaches a perennial championship contender with big-name stars that is nearly devoid of memorable nicknames. Shaquille O’Neal continually nicknames himself — generally a no-no — but people still call him Shaq.
“Back then, I thought you got nicknamed from other people, and it stuck,” Rivers said. “And now it’s almost like guys or gym-shoe companies try to give you a nickname. It’s not as natural.”
One exception is Glen Davis, the soft-muscled Celtics forward. Everyone he knows — friends, coaches, his mother — has called him Big Baby since he was a big baby with a propensity for crying.
Now Davis is part of a dying legacy of great nicknames.
“That’s true,” he said. “Most people don’t even know my name. They just know Big Baby. That’s a good thing.”
There are a smattering of other present-day nicknames around the sports world, including the golfer Tiger Woods, the baseball player David (Big Papi) Ortiz and the basketball player Chris (Birdman) Andersen. The San Francisco Giants, last year’s World Series winners, featured pitcher Tim (the Freak) Lincecum and third baseman Pablo Sandoval, known as Kung Fu Panda.
But most famous athletes are now best known by their given name. The Yankees won generations of championships with men known as Babe, Iron Horse, Joltin’ Joe, Scooter, Yogi, Catfish and Mr. October. More recently, they won with players named Derek, Mariano and Andy. Alex Rodriguez — A-Rod — has what passes for a nickname these days.
The sociologist James Skipper, author of “Baseball Nicknames: A Dictionary of Origins and Meanings,” found that the use of nicknames peaked before 1920. It has since been in steady decline, dropping quickly in the 1950s.
Using a baseball encyclopedia listing all major league players from 1871 to 1968, Skipper found that 28.1 percent of players had nicknames not derived from their given names. (Lefty, Red and Doc were most popular.) No doubt the percentage has since dipped precipitously.
“The era of the colorful nickname may be over,” Skipper concluded about 30 years ago.
Chris Berman, and ESPN announcer, saw the void in the 1980s. He became well known for his creation and use of hundreds of colorful nicknames, based mostly on puns — Mike (Pepperoni) Piazza, Sammy (Say it Ain’t) Sosa and Bert (Be Home) Blyleven among them.
“I viewed it as reviving a lost art,” Berman said. “Why aren’t there nicknames now? Maybe everything is so literal. You can see everybody on the Internet, TV, YouTube, whatever it is. There’s very little left to the imagination.”
The Harlem Globetrotters, more than any other team, keep the nickname tradition alive. Every player on the roster has one.
“We want our fans to have an emotional attachment to our players, especially kids,” Kurt Schneider, the Globetrotters’ chief executive, wrote in an e-mail. “It’s more fun and easier to connect with — and emulate — Special K, Dizzy and Ant, than it is Kevin, Derick or Anthony. A nickname grants ethereal status to a player and elevates him to a platform where kids can aspire to be like them; it is a form of escapism and fantasy to want to be like Thunder or Hammer, and they are global in nature.”
In other words, the Globetrotters try to engineer a connection that generally does not exist today. Athletes are more famous and more disconnected from fans than ever, sociologists said.
“I think it represents a loss of intimacy and identification with the players,” said Ed Lawson, past president of the American Name Society. “I don’t know how you have the same level of affection when a guy makes $16 million a year.”
But nicknames rarely came from fans; they came from friends and family, teammates and reporters. None of those connections are as strong as they once were.
“With the communication age, everybody’s on the computer, the cellphones, there’s not a lot of communication,” said Frazier, who became Clyde four decades ago when his wide-brimmed hats reminded Knicks teammates of the movie “Bonnie and Clyde.”
“When we traveled, there were only three channels, and all during the day, there was nothing but soaps on,” Frazier added. “So the guys spent a lot of time together, playing cards, talking, hanging around in the same places, traveling together on the bus or whatever it might be. There was a lot of camaraderie among the players.”
George Gmelch, a professor of anthropology at the University of San Francisco and a former minor league baseball player, said the influx of international athletes could be a factor in the decline of nicknames. American players are less likely to give nicknames to Hispanic or Japanese players, he said.
He and others also suggested that nicknames were less useful, given the trend toward less-common names. After all, the N.B.A. player Joe Bryant was better known as Jellybean. His more famous son is simply Kobe.
According to the Social Security Administration, the 10 most popular baby names for boys in 1956 represented 31.1 percent of the total born. In 1986, around the time many of today’s athletes were born, the top 10 represented only 21.3 percent of the total. In 2010, the number dropped to 8.4 percent.
“Nicknames are less needed today because given names themselves are so much more varied than they used to be,” said Evans, the Bellevue psychology professor.
He also posited that nicknames are often “humorous or noncomplimentary, and we may live in a culture where people are less willing to accept names that are less complimentary.”
It is telling that few of today’s biggest stars have widely used nicknames. LeBron James is an exception, but he is better known as LeBron than as King, the lofty nickname used for commercial purposes. Michael Jordan never really had a nickname, lest those who wanted to “be like Mike” be distracted from buying Air Jordans.
“Their own names now act as brand names,” said Frank Neussel, editor of Names: A Journal of Onomastics, and a University of Louisville professor of modern language and linguistics. “Your identity is not your nickname. It’s your stats.”
hockeygod
Tom,
Is there anything you learned from your trip that you could share on the site?
Hope you had a good time... we need to go for a beer soon to discuss your trip in more depth!
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Dean, it was a great trip. Staying with Juhani Wahlsten and listening to him during the three days there is always interesting (11 years on Finnish National Team, 7 as captain, 3 Olympics, IIHF Hall of Fame). He was working on his autobiography that a publishing company asked him to do and he shared a lot of stories about Finnish and International hockey. There was no hockey there when he was a little boy and he got excited about this new game when it was introduced in Finland. They played soccer football and bandy. Lots of interesting stories and insights on a life well spent. He is also the Father of Ringuette in Finland; as he saw the game here and introduced it there. I think they are World Champs now.
Kalle Kaskinen is and assistant coach for the U18 Finnish Team and will be at the World Jr's here next year with the U20 team. We discussed lots of coaching ideas.
I was offered a coaching position in the Czech Republic as a U20 asst. and coach mentor. I said if I can come home on a regular basis I am interested. No decision yet.
In Salzburg it was just visiting friends and I have posted video of the whole trip in the video section here about my hockey trips.
Let me know when you want to get together.
hockeygod
Tom,
You continue to amaze (and embarass) me! I am so far behind you in techy stuff...! I was wondering about this playbook - I have avoided the iPad for the same reasons as you - the inability to play Flash, etc. I really want to use it as a teaching tool on site. Where did you get it and what are the costs for the various 'sizes' of stograge?
You say it needs to be connected via a WiFi connection to do so? Does it have the ability to connect to a USB jump drive? I am thinking you could store the stuff you need on one of those; then have it available to show so you don't need to rely on a WiFi connection...
Steve Norris (and his wife Lea) is going to Slovakia to present at both the Youth and regular IIHF conferences. Steve is a dynamic, passionate speaker who specializes in Long-term athlete development. I am sure people will enjoy his presentations.
Thanks to Dwight for getting me back onto the site. For some reason, I couldn't log on for the past several days. I had several articles to contribute, but don't know if I will be able to find them again - lots of news sources only keep them active for a few days. If I can find them, I will post them. Tough to find lots of time these daysbetween being sick, teaching, a couple of funerals lately (heading to another tomorrow in BC) and with the kidlings running around at home! (RCMat, I will try to call you as soon as I have time! I haven't forgotten...)
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Dean it does hook up via usb to the computer so can download all your videos, pictures, diagrams etc. and play them without wifi. It is a mini computer. It plays all of my hockey video, gets email and you can surf the web. The keyboard pops up when you need to make notes or write emails. It also has a word and excel function. I am still getting used to it.
I got the 16GB for $500, the 32 gb is $100 more and I don't know if they is a 64 GB one. It also has a good camera for both still and video with front and back lenses. I also can read my Kobo books on it. I think I will load the 4-500 hockey practice diagrams on it as well. I don't know if I can paste them onto the Technicoach template I use for practice planning or not. I have to experiment.
I have listened to Steve Norris. He is good. I leave for Vienna next Wed.
hockeygod
I have been waiting for a tablet computer that will show the videos from this site. Ipad won't play Flash and the others I have tried at the computer store show the diagram but not the videos.
Blackberry release Playbook on Tuesday so I went and tried it out and much to my wifes dismay I bought another what she calls "Toys". The 16 GB one does everything I need. You just need WiFi access.
It plays the videos really clearly and is basically a 7" computer. I like it.
TomM
Red Bulls - Champs
Today was game 7 and it went to OT tied at 2-2. Two previous games had gone to OT and the Red Bulls lost both. This time they won 3-2 early in the overtime. A player I recommended to Pierre Page assisted on their last two goals. Ryan Duncan a 5'6"-150 lb. PLAYER, who played at North Dakota and won the Hobey Baker while playing on a line with Jonathan Toews and Oshie.
I couldn't return because of family commitments but am really happy they won. I will be in Salzburg for 2 days at the start of May and hope some of the coaches I worked with are around and we can have a cola together.
TomM
Just got a video from a pro player that I have worked with the last two summers. We go on the ice together and work on puck handling, shooting, etc. He played in the Finnish first division this year. He played NCAA div. 1, some American league games and a few seasons in the Eastern League. Good skills, good size.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K1NIjeIH8c
TomM
Mission Impossible was the most popular activity I ran in schools. The pictures are from a Kindergarten to ninth grade school, 5-14 year olds. All classes did it. We set up an obstacle course with the equipment in the gym. The kid's got 8 minutes to get to the end. Any failure and they have to start again. There was complete silence because the scenario was that they are trying to escape from a prison of war camp. Half the students were guards and half prisoners. If they touched the floor anywhere but safe places, knocked anything over, made a loud noice, were touched by a snake (dangling ropes), fell off the raft and into the acid moat (off the scooter and touch the floor) etc. They had to ring the bell at the top of the rope to finish. I built in areas where cooperation was needed to pass through.
At noon they all played together and there are pics with them in the regular clothes.
This same idea idea can be used at hockey practice by making a progressively more difficult circuit requiring individual or partner work.
https://cid-bd6fa116988317e9.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?page=play&resid=BD6FA116988317E9!1117&authkey=qGy3MEUv!HE%24
TomM
Sherry Bassin still has plenty of bark at 71
By Tim Wharnsby CBC Sports.ca April 5, 2011
ERIE, P.A. -- There are a couple of hours before puck drop, and Erie Otters managing partner Sherry Bassin has exited through the front door of the Louis J. Tullio Arena to take his beloved corgi Newman for a pre-game walk.
For Bassin and his dog, it was time for reflection. His Otters were about to face one of junior hockey's best in Windsor Spitfires netminder Jack Campbell in Game 4 of a first-round OHL series. Campbell had stopped 70 of 75 shots in the two previous games to allow the back-to-back Memorial Cup champs to take a 2-1 series lead. Bassin and Newman hoped for better times.
The 71-year-old Bassin has experienced plenty of good times in his life. But that wasn't the case about eight years ago when his mind and energy were not on junior hockey and began to wander. That trademark oomph was gone when he was around the rink.
He was worried about his eldest daughter, Zalena. She was in a Las Vegas hospital fighting for her life after being diagnosed with bladder cancer and an aggressive case of Chrohn's Disease. For a few years, Bassin and his wife, Jean, traded weeks down in Las Vegas to be with their daughter. Son Darin and the youngest daughter, Alana, also made visits to be with their ailing sibling.
For the first time in their Dad's life, hockey had taken a backseat and the Otters' on-ice performance exhibited his lack of attention. Since capturing the 2001-02 OHL championship, the Otters had six consecutive poor to middling seasons.
One spring Las Vegas evening three years ago, Bassin returned to his daughter's townhouse. He was exhausted, but noticed the light was blinking on the answering machine. It was from the school where Zalena taught. They wondered when she was coming back to work.
The next day Bassin drove to the school to talk to the principal. It was in a rough neighbourhood and he didn't like the scene. When he went to visit Zalena in the hospital later that day, he asked his daughter what she was doing teaching in that school. Her reply hit Bassin smack in the face. "What are you doing in hockey?," she shot back.
"I told her not to answer with a question," Bassin recalled. "But she wanted to know what kind of a job I was doing."
The answer was not good. Zalena was telling her Dad that she loved what she was doing and she knew her Dad's lifelong passion was hockey. It was time for Bassin to have faith that his daughter was on the mend and better times were ahead. It was time for him to immerse himself back in hockey.
"When I landed back in Toronto I drove straight to Erie and organized a meeting with the front office staff, the coaches and the players," Bassin said. "I told them 'the Sheriff is back in town.' I told them I'll take full responsibility if we don't get this thing back on track."
Life lessons
The Otters began the turnaround the next fall, and in the third season since Bassin's address they notched 40 wins, one short of the remarkable championship season nine years ago. Bassin was back on top and all the people who have been touched by him in his 45 years of hockey couldn't be happier.
"He has been such a big influence to so many people and players," said Buffalo Sabres forward Brad Boyes, who played on Erie's 2001-02 championship team. "I went there not really knowing much about junior hockey. I moved away from home for the first time. Having him there was a bonus. He taught me how to carry myself, how to play, the kind of commitment you need to make and then there is his passion. He's had so much success and experienced everything. He's a special person.
"I just have so much respect for him. He is so captivating to listen to. He always has a story that helps get his point across."
For Boyes, the story about Joe Sakic's work ethic has stuck in his mind. When Bassin was hired by the Quebec Nordiques in the summer of 1993 as assistant general manager, he set out to talk to each Nordique player that summer because he wanted to gauge the character and personality of every player on the roster.
When Bassin phoned Sakic on a Saturday morning to introduce himself, his girlfriend asked Bassin if Sakic could call him back in about 90 minutes when his workout in the basement would be finished.
"I've got all kinds of stories like this to get the message across for all the generations I've been with," Bassin said. "Here was a superstar [Sakic] who was 24 at the time and he's already in a routine and regiment in July. People talk about the will to win, well, it's more than that. It's not just talent that wins, it's the will to prepare to win."
Bassin began forming his winning philosophy as a kid growing up in Semans, Sask., under the watchful eyes of his parents, Mal and Molly. Mal owned grocery and clothing stores in the town of 400. His industrious work ethic was unmatched and rubbed off on his son Sherwood, as did his parents' unflagging optimism.
Bassin's grandfather was killed in Russia because of his religion (he was Jewish). Mal helped his mother and five sisters flee to Canada. Molly was part of a family of eight that emigrated to this country.
"My Dad would always tell me that a job that is not worth doing well isn't worth doing at all," Sherry recalled.
"There was a three-strike sort of rule with my Dad. When he spoke to me in English you were safe. When he was telling you to do something in half-English, half-Yiddish, you better start to listen. If it was all Yiddish - lookout."
It was slang, however, that Mr. Bassin employed when he noticed his son was spending too much time at the local outdoor rink. "He told me, 'hockey, smockey.'" Sherry said. "School was the only thing I was supposed to be worried about.
"But I grew up in a small town and if you didn't play hockey or curl in the winter or play baseball in the summer, you died of boredom."
Back in the game
Dad got his way. When the family moved to Winnipeg when Sherry was 16, Sherry excelled at school. He went to United College (now the University of Winnipeg) and gained post-graduate pharmaceutical and law degrees in North Dakota.
It was in North Dakota that Bassin began to make his mark as a motivator with young hockey players. He led a Fargo youth team to an upset 1-0 win over Grand Forks in the state championship. All of a sudden Bassin was on his way.
When he moved to Toronto in 1968 to work for the legal division of Health Canada, he stopped by a nearby rink. Next thing Bassin knew he was teaching a kid how to shoot and the existing coaches swiftly installed him behind the bench that season.
Not long after, he guided the York Mills bantams to the league final, the Wexford midgets to a Metro championship and a dominant Pickering junior B team to its league final. Bassin's success was not ignored by Oshawa Generals owner John Humphreys. As a result, Bassin was hired to run the Generals in 1976 and after some early hiccups behind the bench, Bassin, who was teaching at Durham College in Oshawa by then, concentrated solely on the general manager duties.
"I remember John asked me when he hired me what I wanted him to do," Bassin said. "I told him I'm a big believer in owners own, managers manage, coaches coach, scouts scout and players play. I may play devil's advocate quite a bit to a scout or a coach or a player. But that's just to challenge them."
It wasn't long before the Generals won the 1982-83 OHL title and lost the Memorial Cup final to the Portland Winterhawks that spring. A few years later the Generals were back as hosts of the 1986-87 Memorial Cup tournament.
Bassin moved to Sault Ste. Marie in 1989 to help rescue, along with a local ownership group, the once-proud Greyhounds franchise. A few months earlier, the previous regime, led by Phil Esposito, refused to acquiesce to Eric Lindros's demands to play closer to home. But Bassin found a way to convince his fellow OHL governors to change the rule that prohibited a team from trading its first-round selection.
Half-way through that 1989-90 season, Lindros was dealt to the Generals. They won the Memorial Cup and the following season the Northern Ontario city exacted its pound of Lindros flesh when the Greyhounds upended No. 88 and the Generals in six games in the OHL final.
Bassin would make three straight trips to the Memorial Cup with the Greyhounds and they finally captured the elusive trophy in 1993. The junior championship, in his mind, allowed him to try the NHL after he turned down many offers.
Although he had left by the time the Colorado Avalanche hoisted the 1995-96 Stanley Cup, Bassin helped build that Nordiques/Avalanche club into a contender.
Golden moment
Another proud accomplishment for Bassin was his assistance in developing the Canadian junior program. He was an assistant coach and assistant GM on the 1982 and 1985 teams and won a silver in 1984.
When Canada won its first world junior gold in 1982, it was Bassin who helped inspire the players to the title. It looked bleak for Canada as the Czechs held a 2-1 advantage after 40 minutes. During the second intermission, Bassin persuaded an organizer to lend him a gold medal. The emotionally charged Bassin sashayed around in the dressing room, waving the prize.
"He told us we could touch it, but not hold it," Canadian goalie Mike Moffat said.
Bassin asked how many players had won city and provincial championships. He then said, "Well, if you don't win this third period, you will only be able to tell people you were 20 minutes away from being world champions."
Canada busted out with goals from Mark Habscheid and Mike Moller for a 3-2 lead. The Czechs scored the tying goal, but a draw was enough to give the Canadians their golden moment in the round-robin tournament.
"The party lasted a long time in Rochester, [Minn.]" Bassin said. "We realized we had to get back to Minneapolis for the official ceremony. Then this rink rat, the guy who drove the Zamboni, hands me a piece of paper with a 613 phone number on it and says, 'Some guy named [Pierre] Trudeau has been trying to get a hold of you guys.' We tried to phone the Prime Minister, but no one answered.
"I wish I would have kept that piece of paper as a souvenir."
So here is Bassin, 29 years later, still in junior hockey. He has had both hips replaced and received a new shoulder. He has six trips to the Memorial Cup. He doesn't need this at age 71. Or does he?
"What are you doing in hockey?" as Zalena asked her Dad a few years ago.
The answer is quite simple. Bassin isn't the retiring type. He still has plenty to teach and plenty more to accomplish. Plus, he knows it's in the Bassin DNA that he will be around for at least another 20-plus years. Mal was 97 when he passed away. Molly was 94.
"My life has been pretty good and as a family we've always tried to give back," said Bassin, who has been married to Jean for 47 years, but really only six, he jokes, if you count all the time he's been away.
"I still have the passion for hockey. What I love about the game is that there is no place to hide in hockey and some people do that in life."
And you can bet that Bassin won't be hiding in Windsor before and after Game 7 on Tuesday. You see, the Otters didn't win Game 4 at home last Thursday, but they have won two in a row to force a deciding seventh game.
Win or lose, Bassin will climb back into his car with Newman to make the lengthy drive home. They'll talk about the game, about hockey, about life. Bassin will either be upbeat about the next round or next season.
That's why he still is in hockey, Zalena.
hockeygod
By ERIC FRANCIS, QMI Agency, April 4 2011
Interesting study by the Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont, who took a snapshot of every team’s 20-man roster last week to determine how many players were still with the team that drafted them or signed them out of college, junior, the minors or Europe. Of the 274 ‘originals’ in the league only four were playing for the Flames — lowest in the league. What’s worse, only two (Mikael Backlund and Mark Giordano) are regulars, as the other two were recent call-ups: Lance Bouma and Greg Nemisz, who combined for three minutes of action Friday. By comparison, seven teams had more than a dozen originals, including Buffalo and Nashville with 14. New Jersey, Detroit and the Islanders all have 13 originals, while Ottawa and Colorado have 12 apiece. While such a study re-emphasizes how horrible the Flames draft record has been, most veteran teams have few originals.
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Debating the merits of the self-contained roster
By Kevin Paul Dupont Boston Globe Sports
April 3, 2011
The deal that sent Bruins Mark Stuart and Blake Wheeler to Atlanta at the end of February pulled two “originals’’ out of Boston’s lineup. Stuart was a first-round pick (21st overall) in 2003 and Wheeler, after initially being chosen as a first-rounder (No. 5 overall) by Phoenix in 2004, turned pro with the Bruins upon signing as a free agent out of the University of Minnesota.
All of which leaves the Bruins today with only five players who entered the league as Boston draft picks. The subset consists of, by order of draft selection: Tyler Seguin (2), Patrice Bergeron (45), Milan Lucic (50), David Krejci (63), and Brad Marchand (71). (Aside: Shouldn’t Marchand surrender that No. 63 sweater to the true 63, Krejci?)
A review of all 30 NHL game rosters this past week found that the Bruins now are at the bottom of the totem pole for drafting players and retaining them on the varsity. Please note that using game rosters slightly skewed the picture in that players such as Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, not to mention Edmonton’s Taylor Hall, could not be included because they are sidelined by injury. The exercise provides an imperfect snapshot rather than a complete representation of how organizations assemble their playing assets.
Nonetheless, of the 600 players who suited up, 274 were “originals,’’ in that they either were drafted by their clubs or signed as free agents out of college, juniors, minors, or Europe. That last free agent group, by the way, accounted for only 16 players leaguewide.
The Bruins, with only those five originals, ranked above only the Calgary Flames, who had four (Lance Bouma, Mikael Backlund, Greg Nemisz, and Mark Giordano). The other clubs very short on originals included Montreal, Phoenix, and Tampa Bay, all of whom had six.
The clubs that ranked best at drafting players, promoting them to the NHL, and keeping them were Buffalo (14), Nashville (14), New Jersey (13), Detroit (13), the Islanders (13), Colorado (12), and Ottawa (12).
Draw whatever conclusions you wish from all that.
Of those five clubs short on “original’’ talent, the Bruins, Lightning, Coyotes, and Canadiens are in playoff positions. The Flames are poking around the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference, but likely will miss for a second straight season, despite an impressive resurgence after the holidays.
Among the seven clubs with game rosters rich in their own stock, the Devils, Islanders, Avalanche, and Senators will wrap up their 2010-11 season next weekend, all of them DNQs. It’s important to keep in mind here that their high number of on-the-job draft picks reflects, in part, their regular-season failure. If the Senators were prepping for the playoffs this week, some of the draft picks now in the NHL assuredly would be in the minors.
It’s clear, however, that the Bruins, in part because of the Stuart-Wheeler trade that brought Rich Peverley to Boston, lag well behind the league average (slightly more than nine) for getting their own picks in the game and keeping them in the fold.
Focusing solely on the draft as an organization’s lifeblood for talent and keeping those players around, the Bruins are on the anemic side. The trade of former top pick Joe Colborne (16/2008) to Toronto in the Tomas Kaberle deal won’t help the number. Nor, it seems, will Zach Hamill (8/2007), who is wrapping up his third pro season in Providence and looks as if he won’t progress beyond the Wanna-B’s.
There are no guarantees, in any draft or in any sport, but organizations need No. 8 picks to become impact NHLers.
Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli, reviewing the snapshot tally Friday, noted the franchise’s recent record in identifying other clubs’ draft picks and developing them as key franchise components. To wit: Tuukka Rask (Toronto/2005), Adam McQuaid (Columbus/2005), and Steve Kampfer (Anaheim/2007). None was a Boston pick, but each was identified, obtained, developed, and brought to market by the Bruins.
“In an ideal world,’’ acknowledged Chiarelli, “you’d like to have players come up through your system, and it’s what I’ve tried to do, we’ve all tried to do. At the same time, you want to win, of course. We’ve made trades to do that, and in some of those deals we’ve moved our own picks and, sure, you’re always trying to find that balance. Overall, I think we’ve drafted well.’’
As for that number of originals standing at five, he added, “It doesn’t concern me. I think you have to look at it as part of the whole exercise of team-building, and the draft is one of all the options. When we try to reinvigorate our lineup, whether that’s through draft or trade, I’m OK with either.’’
A more specific, perhaps more accurate measure, Chiarelli conjectured, might be found over a full season, totaling the days the franchise’s own draft picks remain on the roster. In that case, Boston’s number would improve this year because Stuart and Wheeler would be included.
Perhaps the most interesting number of all in last week’s review is that 14 in Buffalo. During the 2004-05 lockout, the Sabres essentially wiped out their amateur scouting department, shifting to a system that has front office employees scrutinizing game tapes of college, junior, and European hockey. Sure looks as though the tale is in the tape.
The move to wipe out amateur scouting in Buffalo was viewed around the league as penny-pinching at the time, and led to a number of longtime scouts leaving Buffalo, including Jim Benning, now one of Chiarelli’s assistant GMs. Now, with that 14 hanging there (some of whom were drafted in the Benning regime), we have to ask whether the Sabres were skinflints or savants.
hockeygod
HOCKEY PLAYER MANDI SCHWARTZ DIES OF LEUKEMIA AT AGE 23
THE CANADIAN PRESS March 3 2011
Saskatchewan hockey player Mandi Schwartz has lost her battle with leukemia.
The 23-year-old from Wilcox, Sask., died Sunday after two years of fighting the disease, according to the St. Louis Blues.
Schwartz played forward for the Yale Bulldogs and also attended Canadian women's team camps.
Her younger brother Jaden was drafted 14th overall by the Blues last year and played for Canada at this year's world junior championship in Buffalo, N.Y.
"From the entire St. Louis Blues organization, our thoughts and prayers are with the Schwartz family during this difficult time," Blues president John Davidson said in a statement.
Both Jaden and another brother Rylan play hockey for Colorado College in the NCAA.
Schwartz and her family fought hard for her survival. Her father Rick and mother Carol took leave from their jobs with the Saskatchewan Safety Council and Saskatchewan Justice respectively to shepherd their daughter through treatment.
She was engaged to engineering student Kaylem Prefontaine of Rockglen, Sask., and they had planned a wedding for the summer of 2012.
She was first diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2008 during her junior year at Yale. AML is an aggressive cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
Chemotherapy sent her into remission and she returned to Yale, but Schwartz suffered a relapse in April, 2009. Schwartz's situation was dire and she desperately needed a stem cell transplant.
Both the Yale and North American hockey communities combined in a massive on-line campaign to find both bone marrow matches and umbilical cord blood from women about to give birth.
The Facebook page "Become Mandi's Hero" has drawn almost 6,500 followers.
A message posted on the page Sunday read: "Thank you for your support. We regret to inform you that Mandi passed this morning at 10:35 PST surrounded by her wonderful family, fiance and friends."
Donors were found, but Schwartz's transplant scheduled for Aug. 26 was delayed when it was discovered the cancer had again returned.
She had more chemotherapy in Seattle before stem cells from two umbilical-cord donors were transplanted Sept. 20 at the University of Washington Medical Center.
Schwartz and her parents remained in Seattle for weeks for follow-up treatment. They hoped the transplant would do its job. Schwartz went home to Wilcox, but in late December tests revealed the devastating news that her cancer had returned.
Schwartz greeted Jaden at the Regina airport Jan. 6 upon his return from the world junior championship in Buffalo. A fractured ankle suffered during the tournament prevented Jaden from playing for Canada in the medal round.
He greeted his sister on crutches and draped his silver medal around her neck.
Her family wrote in a CaringBridge on-line posting that day that bone marrow tests revealed leukemia had aggressively settled in her bones. The treatment they'd hoped to continue in Saskatchewan was not possible.
"We ask for your support in prayers as we treasure our time with her at home," they said.
Schwartz, who was born in Yorkton, played high school hockey at Notre Dame College in Wilcox.
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Prayers to the Schwartz family. I saw Mandi play several times when she was with Notre Dame 'back in the day...'
hockeygod
More from the last game played in the Moose Jaw Civic Centre, courtesy of Gregg Drinnan's blog (Kamloops BC.)
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Monday, April 4, 2011
A fond farewell . . .
(The Moose Jaw Civic Centre — aka Crushed Can — was home to its final hockey game Sunday night. The Moose Jaw Warriors will move into a new downtown multiplex in time for next season. Matthew Gourlie of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald wrote a feature on the old girl and has graciously allowed it to be used here. We thank him for that.)
By MATTHEW GOURLIE
Moose Jaw Times-Herald
MOOSE JAW — Architect Joseph Pettick was trying to find a cost-efficient modern solution to the problem of heating a hockey arena — he felt a low, concave roof would keep the ice cool and the fans warm by funneling the heat upwards.
The design was meant to channel heat, but it ended up creating it, too — even on nights when you could see your breath inside the building. With its quirky bounces, small ice surface, steep stands and a ceiling that trapped noise and energy, Pettick had unwittingly designed a powder keg of a hockey rink.
“The fans are so close to the action,” offers Peter Loubardias of Rogers Sportsnet, who once was the radio voice of the Regina Pats so is quite familiar with the building. “When they’re involved in Moose Jaw, it’s loud. You’re right on top of the kids and I think the kids really, really feed off it. They can feel it. Almost everybody in that whole building is so close to the ice surface no matter where you are. With the roof the way it is — being so close to the ice — the noise just stays in there.”
The Moose Jaw Civic Centre played host to its final hockey game on Sunday night. But when it is talked about — and surely the old Crushed Can will be talked about by nostalgic hockey fans for years to come — the concave roof and the noise level in the building won’t ever be forgotten.
“When people walk into the place, they say, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ But that’s part of its charm. That’s why the legend will never die. It is so outrageously different,” says Kelly Remple, who was the Moose Jaw Warriors’ marketing director for two seasons and was the chair of the Trans-Canada Clash alumni games.
Different. Often derided. More often beloved. The Crushed Can is a Picasso in a hockey arena landscape being taken over by paint-by-numbers.
Brian Costello, the senior special editions editor at the The Hockey News, has never been in a coffin, but he imagines the experience might be similar to being in the Civic Centre.
“You feel like you can reach up and touch the ceiling wherever you were sitting. It’s a weird feeling,” says Costello, who covered the Swift Current Broncos for the Swift Current Sun in the late ’80s.
It’s a building that makes a strong first impression.
Current Warriors captain Spencer Edwards recalls being a 16-year-old rookie with the Red Deer Rebels when he first set foot in the rink. After a long bus ride, the Rebels unloaded their gear through a darkened concourse and down the side stairs.
“I hadn’t really seen the rink yet,” Edwards remembers. “We went straight to the dressing room. A lot of people don’t know it, but the visiting dressing room is pretty nice here. It’s a lot nicer than some of the newer buildings in the league.
“We put away all of our gear and walked out to the rink and I was shocked. I had never seen anything like it in my life.”
There may, in fact, be nothing like it.
Pettick was inspired by the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright to become an architect.
With the angles and curves of the Civic Centre and the SaskPower building in Regina, Wright’s inspiration is evident in some of Pettick’s most iconic work. When it opened, the arena looked modern and space-aged — like a tail fin on a ’59 Cadillac.
The sloped roof is the rink’s most notorious feature, but it’s far from its only quirk. The ice surface is officially listed as 194 feet long — only six feet short of regulation — but it’s hard to find anyone who really believes the listed 85x194 dimensions.
Along with the cozy confines came the lively boards and erratic bounces. Rare is the rink that has a personality, but there were nights when it felt like the Crushed Can was trying to help the home side.
In last season’s playoffs, a Chad Suer dump-in took a hard left turn off a stanchion without losing speed. The shot had a CGI quality to it as it made a beeline for Calgary goalie Martin Jones, hit him and ended up in the net.
In the Warriors’ first home game after the 2006 car accident in which forward Garrett Robinson was so badly injured, Warriors defenceman Jesse Zetariuk watched one of his dump-ins take a friendly hop into a vacated net.
Once the playoffs started and the days grew longer, the setting sun would even peek into the building, bathing the lower seats on the east side in sunlight.
Of all of the mythical qualities of the rink, none was as pronounced as the way momentum would rapidly build.
Earlier this season, the Pats had quieted the local crowd with three early goals. The Warriors promptly scored four goals in less than five minutes to grab the lead before the end of the first period.
“It’s the momentum. With the atmosphere and the fans behind you, that momentum is easy to keep building upon,” explains Mark MacKay, the original Warriors captain. “On the other end, it’s hard for the opposing team. It pushes them down.”
Loubardias says in his five seasons calling games with the Pats, he frequently saw a superior Pats team fall victim to a seven- or eight-minute run of Warriors momentum and lose in the Civic Centre.
“When that team gets going in that building and they get on a roll, they are no fun to deal with — and they’ve never been any fun to deal with,” says Loubardias.
“I always loved the passion there. When the games were good and the people were really involved, it really was a special, special place to go to a game.
“What makes Moose Jaw special and what makes that building special is that that team is so important to that community. The people liked hard, physical, tough hockey and thrived on it. It will always be a real special place to me and I will be sad to see it go.”
The passion spills over from time to time as well. And that, too, is part of the building’s lore.
There was the night Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman Theran Yeo was jumped by a group of fans in the tunnel as he exited the ice. And the night Pats fans knocked Puckhead, the Warriors’ mascot, to the ground. Puckhead got some quick medical attention but returned to action. One night later, the Pats’ mascot, K9, was a healthy scratch for fear of retribution.
It was a bench-clearing brawl in 1984 that kick-started the Pats-Warriors rivalry. Remple recalls being a wide-eyed 12-year-old standing at the glass, taking in all of the mayhem.
“I wish all of the new generation of fans in southern Saskatchewan could have been to a Pats-Warriors game in the ’80s,” Remple says. “It’s hard to explain to people, but the level of excitement and enthusiasm — and just the decibel level — was in a different universe than it is now.”
There are those who argue that there’s a good reason why there aren’t any other rinks like the Civic Centre. Its steep stairs are treacherous. The lineups to use its washrooms can be endless. There’s little room to move on the concourse that runs under the stands. The rink is showing its age. It can be tropical or freezing inside — sometimes in the span of the same week.
It’s not the most pleasant spectating experience for the fans, but those who played there have always loved it.
“Since I’ve been involved with the alumni, every single player I’ve ever talked to says they absolutely loved the games in there,” says Remple. “The amenities may not be quite up to par. But the 2 1/2 hours of actual hockey? They loved it.”
Of course, the Civic Centre is merely a building — concrete and steel, for the most part. MacKay believes the building is special because of the people who have spent more time in it than any player — the fans who have dutifully backed the Warriors through good times and bad.
“Any hockey player loves the fact that the people are involved. The fans are right on top of the ice. They’re loud,” says MacKay, who was a 20-year-old in the Warriors’ first season in Moose Jaw.
“We didn’t win a ton of games that year, but the ones we did win, they made it special for us. They made us feel special. Their support through hard times was so important.”
They knew how to make visiting players feel special, too, though not in quite the same way. After Regina forward Frank Kovacs declined to fight Warriors tough guy Kent Staniforth, then-Warriors head coach Lorne Molleken called out the Pats’ captain and called him “yellow” in the media.
“Molleken was no dummy,’’ Kovacs says. “He clicked into that and it was a good trade for him to have me sitting in the penalty box with Kent Staniforth.
“So I was in a tough spot. Do I fight Kent Staniforth and sit in the box or do I turn away from a fight offer? Well, I can’t win, right?”
Instead he was serenaded by the Warriors fans. Constantly. For more than a season.
“The way the rink is built, the fans are right on top of you. Everywhere you went, there were fans on top of you,” Kovacs says. “So when someone says something against you like ‘yellow! yellow!’, well, you hear it. It’s not like it’s up in Section 500 in the nosebleeds. It’s all right there. And one person says it and the whole crowd gets into it because you can hear it so easily.”
If anything, Kovacs says, he enjoyed the heckling and the odd profanity from the crowd. He says the rink was a good test for a hockey team because you had to show up every night when you played in Moose Jaw.
“You had to be ready for a good game coming in there or else you were going to get crushed,” says Kovacs. “I loved playing in Moose Jaw. It’s a great character hockey rink. That’s a great place to play.”
As hard as it was for most visiting teams to play in the Civic Centre, it could be a welcoming place, but only on the most significant of occasions.
After the Dec. 30, 1986 bus crash in which Swift Current players Trent Kresse, Scott Kruger, Chris Mantyka and Brent Ruff died, the Broncos returned to the ice for the first time in Moose Jaw.
“On the way to that game it was such a sullen feeling on that bus,” recalls Costello. “When the team and the players walked in that arena, it was pretty special — especially when they came in for the pre-game warm-up and the anthem. It was quite an amazing ovation for them. You don’t see that for the visiting team — at all — anywhere.”
The Civic Centre opened in the fall of 1959 with a gala performance by legendary jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, an event that was attended by then-Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas. It later played host to the 1983 world women’s curling championship.
With the Moose Jaw Canucks (WCHL and SJHL) and then the Warriors its primary tenants, the building became synonymous with hockey. A lot of great players passed through its doors and its rich history is in evidence on every wall with framed photos of Moose Jaw’s hockey past.
“There’s so much history,” Edwards says. “Even just walking through, you can tell that not only has it been around for a long time, but a lot of important people have walked in and played in this building.
“There’s no atmosphere like it. The noise level in the building on a playoff night or a Regina night is second to none in the league, for sure.”
hockeygod
Minnesota legend Glen Sonmor has combined hockey and humanity
By Brian Murphy Pioneerpress.com 04/03/2011
Glen Sonmor's hockey footprint is wide and deep in Minnesota, where he started shaping a legacy as a player, coach, manager, scout and broadcaster when Harry Truman occupied the White House.
One of the game's renowned characters is a cultural guidebook for bygone eras of the rebel World Hockey Association and a rowdier NHL when grudge matches ruled divisions named after the sport's founding fathers instead of sterile geographical regions.
For younger fans unfamiliar with Sonmor's place in the sport's history, here is an abridged version:
He played alongside John Mariucci, fought Gordie Howe, introduced the 'Hanson Brothers' to Hollywood and once wore an eye patch as coach of the North Stars to toughen his players.
Yet his greatest impact has come off the ice and is measured from his encounters in a corner booth at the Boulevard Café in Bloomington, where the recovering alcoholic has been influencing lives for three decades.
"Hey, buddy, how are you?" Sonmor says Thursday, extending a hand over his mushroom-and-Swiss burger to greet a fellow member of Alcoholics Anonymous.
"This guy saved my life. He's the greatest," said the man who identified himself as Scotty G.
Scotty had relapsed during several failed rehabilitations before he met Sonmor in 2001 during an AA meeting at the café. They talked about hockey and the demons of addiction, and shared their joys, sorrows and aspirations. Something resonated. Scotty hasn't had a drop since.
"I spent a long time before that not being able to stay sober," he said. "Glen, being the hockey guy that he is, I'm a Minnesotan and grew up playing hockey. Finally, I had a connection and he made me feel like I belonged to something and helped me figure out how to work a program of recovery.
"Because of him, it's worked for me over nine years. I don't always know how, but it worked."
CHANGE OF LIFE
Across the restaurant at the Ramada Inn, Sonmor's daily AA meeting is under way. And during an hourlong interview, Sonmor and lunch mate Whitey Westlund chat with three other recovering alcoholics who stop by their table to say hello.
He is on a first-name basis with waitresses, busboys and managers, some of whom have been working there since Sonmor began frequenting the café in the former Thunderbird Hotel when he coached the North Stars from 1978-83.
There also were too many late nights at the hotel bar where Sonmor pounded beers after games, in denial about a disease that had its hooks in him since the 1960s. He kicked the booze for good in January 1983 after an ugly meltdown. Stumbling out of a Pittsburgh bar, two muggers attacked Sonmor and left him bloodied in an alley.
The incident got him fired as North Stars coach, and Sonmor realized he had hit rock bottom.
"Pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization," is how he described it.
Then-general manager Lou Nanne arranged for him to go to treatment. Sonmor reclaimed his life and began helping others do the same.
"I didn't throw it all away because Louie Nanne wouldn't give up on me, but I really did throw it away," Sonmor said. "But there is hope. There is hope for all of us. I don't care how long you've been doing it because I'd done it a long time.
"It's the thing I'm most proud of to be an example and be able to help people who have absolutely destroyed their life."
Now, Sonmor faces another health crisis in the sunset of his life.
Sonmor, 81, abruptly retired last month as Gophers radio analyst for WCCO, ending a hockey career that started in 1949. Doctors had been advising him to curtail traveling, which had taken a toll on him physically. But dementia has invaded.
His mind remains sharp, and his ability to recall details from long-ago games and milestones are uncanny. When distracted or interrupted, however, Sonmor struggles to pick up where he left off. Some memories mash together into a disjointed story line.
Sonmor recently moved out of the Bloomington apartment where he had lived for 26 years and into an assisted-living facility in the city. Westlund, 80, who met Sonmor in AA in the 1980s, lives three doors down.
"It's been tough. Some of his memory is kind of messed up," Westlund said.
When fall rolls around, Sonmor faces the prospect of being on the outside of hockey looking in for the first time since he was a child.
"It's all right. I'll be following it closely," he said. "Yeah ..."
Sonmor's voice catches before he reassures himself that retirement is for the best.
"When you get past 80, I don't want to have to go to all those games. It does get a little heavy to do. I didn't think it would, but it did."
Sonmor will hear plenty of stories from his 62 years in the game and feel the love from dozens of friends, colleagues and former players when he is feted Monday night at Tom Reid's pub in St. Paul.
Oh, the hockey Sonmor has witnessed over the past 62 years, and most of it through only one eye.
"I have never met a man who loves the game of hockey more than Glen Sonmor," said former Wild general manager Doug Risebrough, who gave Sonmor his last NHL job when he hired him to scout for the Wild from 2000-09.
DRAWN TO MARIUCCI
Born in the fantastically named Canadian outpost of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Sonmor moved to Hamilton, Ontario, when he was 3 and became a three-sport star in high school.
The pitcher even caught the eye of a scout from the New York Yankees, but hockey was Sonmor's first love. He started his journey in Minneapolis, where he found a mentor who continues to influence him.
John Mariucci was considered the godfather of hockey in Minnesota until he died in 1987. A hard-nosed and talented playmaker with the Gophers, he was one of the earliest Americans to play in the NHL.
Mariucci was on the downslope of his career when Sonmor joined the Millers in 1949. The two shared a passion for the game and pugilism that sealed their bond.
"He found out early that I could fight, so he was training me to take over for him when he wasn't going to be there anymore," Sonmor recalled. "That was a great joy of my life. I watched him set the tempo — his love for the game, his respect and concern about his teammates."
Mariucci also drove Sonmor to the U campus in the spring of 1950 to enroll him.
"He pulled me aside and said, 'Kid, of all my teammates who have been Canadians, you're the first one that ever finished high school. You're going to college.' "
Late in the 1953-54 season, Sonmor worked his way into the New York Rangers' lineup and scored a pair of goals. He also dropped the gloves with Howe, the Detroit Red Wings icon. As the story goes, Sonmor was battering Ted Lindsay when Howe stepped in and decided to humble the rookie.
"He took charge, threw me down so hard I hit the back of my head on the ice. Just about knocked me out," Sonmor said of Howe.
"I'm laying there and the ref is down there, 'Are you OK, kid?' I said: 'Yeah, I'm OK. But I'm not getting up until I see that big son of a *censormode* in the penalty box!' "
Those two points and the tussle with a future hall of famer were the highlights of Sonmor's brief career.
On Feb. 27, 1955, Sonmor was playing for Cleveland in a minor league game in Pittsburgh. He was screening the goalie for teammate Steve Kraftcheck, his neighborhood buddy from Hamilton, when Kraftcheck's slap shot ricocheted and hit Sonmor in the left eye.
Doctors hospitalized Sonmor six weeks but couldn't save his eye. Just four days before the accident, his daughter, Katherine, was born. Suddenly, Sonmor's playing career was finished. He was just 25 and facing an uncertain future.
Then, one day in his hospital room, the telephone rang. It was Mariucci.
"He said: 'Don't worry about what you're going to do. I've got you the freshman coaching job at the university, and you can get into coaching right away,' " Sonmor said. "That's what I needed to hear. I needed something to do that I knew I would be good at."
Sonmor never spoke a bitter or self-pitying word about his fate and embarked on the career that would define him.
Sonmor succeeded Mariucci as head coach of the Gophers in 1966. He won two Western Collegiate Hockey Association championships and led Minnesota to the 1971 Frozen Four before turning pro and handing over the program to Herb Brooks.
The fun had just begun.
WILD, WILD WHA
The World Hockey Association existed only five years in the 1970s, but the upstart competitors to the NHL had an impact on the sport that endures.
Lucrative contracts, the 18-year-old draft and teams in cities with palm trees exist because the WHA explored new territory and dragged the NHL into the modern era. WHA teams also scraped the bottom of the barrel for castoffs and all-star beer leaguers.
"You might have had some characters who were orangutans," Sonmor acknowledged.
And no team was more boorish than the Fighting Saints of St. Paul, who hired Sonmor in 1972 to coach and assemble a rogue's gallery of fighters and local legends.
There was former Gophers stars Gary Gambucci and Mike Antonovich, plus ex-North Stars Ted Hampson and Wayne Connelly. Popular players included Mike "Shaky" Walton and Bill "Goldy" Goldthorpe, Dave "Killer" Hanson and the Carlson brothers — Jack, Jeff and Steve from Virginia of Minnesota's Iron Range.
The Carlsons spent the 1974-75 season playing for the Saints' affiliate in the steel town of Johnstown, Pa., where a young screenwriter named Nancy Dowd had embedded to polish a script about minor league hockey.
They were the inspiration for the colorful characters of "Slapshot," the cinematic cult classic that starred Paul Newman as the washed-up player-coach who unleashed his band of brawlers to terrorize the fictitious Federal League.
Back in St. Paul, Sonmor molded the Saints into mirror images of the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers, who fought their way to a pair of Stanley Cups in the mid-'70s.
"Glen's philosophy was he wanted to come out in the first 10 minutes of a game and pound the other team so the other players would think, 'Well, let's pack it in tonight,' " Jack Carlson said.
The WHA's shaky financial footing led to bounced paychecks and teams folding and merging season by season. Sonmor recalled racing with assistant coach Harry Neale from a bank in a taxicab to the airport with sacks of cash, crunching contract terms to determine prorated amounts to disperse to players on the plane.
NORTH STARS REVIVAL
The North Stars of the early and mid-'70s were a sad-sack bunch who missed the playoffs six straight seasons before Sonmor, hired as head coach in November 1978, led them to the Stanley Cup semifinals in 1980.
In 16 seasons in Minnesota, the North Stars were never more successful than during Sonmor's five years under Nanne. He posted a regular-season record of 174-161-81, plus a 36-21 mark in the postseason.
"He was a great coach," said former captain Steve Payne, who played six of his 10 seasons in the NHL under Sonmor. "He was smart enough to realize how to work with the personalities he had instead of against them with a my-way-or-the-highway attitude. He ran a great practice and prepared us very well."
The pinnacle was spring 1981, when the North Stars ripped through Boston, Buffalo and Calgary to reach the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in team history. They smacked head-on into an emerging dynasty, losing in five games to the New York Islanders, who won the second of their four straight Cups.
Months before Minnesota caught fire in the playoffs, Sonmor delivered a pregame speech at the Boston Garden that is seared into the memories of players on that team.
The North Stars were winless in 35 games in Boston. Worse, they had been pushovers against the big, bad Bruins, who taunted them mercilessly on the ice and in the media. John Wencik once skated in front of the North Stars' bench, spread his arms wide and dared anyone to fight him. No one budged.
So on Feb. 26, 1981, Sonmor stood in the cramped visitors' dressing room and challenged his team to stand up for each other.
"Not the second time, not the third time, but the first time they show any sense they're trying to intimidate us, I want you to stand up to these guys," Sonmor recalled 30 years later.
Shortly after the opening faceoff, Boston's Steve Kasper high-sticked Bobby Smith, and the North Stars' mild-mannered playmaker dropped the gloves for a rare fight. When the night was over, officials had tallied 42 penalties, seven game misconducts and a record 406 penalty minutes in a 5-1 Boston victory that nonetheless restored Minnesota's dignity.
"Glen stood up there and said: 'I don't care if we lose 1-0 or 15-0, this (stuff) ends tonight. We're going to play and fight as a team,' " Jack Carlson recalled. "Glen was one of those guys who didn't mind taking the heat. There was always a reason behind his madness. Was it right? That's the way the game was played back then."
The North Stars faced the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs and swept the best-of-five series in three games. The players discovered they had a spine while Sonmor wore a black pirate's eye patch over his empty orbit for all three victories.
"Hockey was lucky to have Glen Sonmor in the game for 60 years," Payne said.
hockeygod
NHL Weekend - The last whistle
DAVID SHOALTS
From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published Friday, Apr. 01, 2011
On Saturday in Washington, Bill McCreary will step on an NHL ice surface for the 2,034th and final time, completing a career that began in the same city almost 27 years ago.
When the game between the Washington Capitals and Buffalo Sabres ends, if the self-effacing McCreary were so inclined, he could say he is going out as one of the best NHL referees ever to put on stripes. Few would argue, including Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke, who was once the NHL director of hockey operations and McCreary’s boss.
“When we had a hot spot, we had a handful of guys we could put in there and he was one of them,” Burke said. “We could put him in any situation. Threats, prior fights, suspensions, whatever was going on before that game, we could put him in there and know he would keep the lid on the pot.”
Asked if the NHL game he is leaving, with its rules designed for speed and flow, is better now than when he started, McCreary offered the same answer he gave an NHL GM recently: He’s not sure.
“I had the privilege of being on the ice with Marcel Dionne and his Three Crowns line and with Gilbert Perreault and the French Connection and the Islanders of the 1980s,” he said. “Those players to me were as skilled as any today. And they played through all the hooking, holding and interference that we were taught not to call because that was the way they wanted the game called.
“But if you want to see speed and go and flow, then you can say without a doubt today is a better game. I was fortunate to be part of all of it.”
One thing McCreary is sure of is the season-long controversy over concussions and hits to the head is overblown. He does not think the league needed to bring in rule 48, which outlawed blind-side hits to the head, because it already had rule 21.1, which allows an official to give a match penalty to a player who deliberately attempts to injure another player and subjects him to further discipline from the league.
“Had it been examined enough, I believe the match penalty would have been more than sufficient [to deal with head shots],” he said. “It goes to the same desk. It gets to [NHL director of hockey operations] Colin Campbell, who would then rule on it.
“But it’s a credit to the media. They’ve blown it out of proportion in certain ways.”
However, McCreary is not saying the NHL does not have a problem with concussions. “Is it fair to say there is a crisis in our game?” he said. “I’d say it’s fair, but it has to be studied.
What he says needs to be examined are issues like fighting, the rules, arena design (including the glass and posts around the ice surface) and player equipment.
McCreary sees equipment as one of the biggest problems because some players still wear outdated, inadequate gear from their younger days and others play with the shoulder and elbow pads covered by hard caps that can cause a lot of damage in collisions.
Most of the trouble, McCreary believes, comes from a small number of players who do not respect their peers and go head-hunting. But the small number means it should be easy to stamp out.
“I really think it is,” he said. “I don’t think it’s as big an issue as we’re letting on.
“Players used to check the puck carrier and check the puck. They never used to try and separate the head from the shoulders. That’s what they do now. That is something the players can control.”
One thing McCreary is proud of about the undying controversy around the subject is “there’s been very little said about the officiating. It’s all about players being hurt and the suspensions. I think that’s a credit to all the guys I work with.”
Those questioned about McCreary’s work all mentioned he is a communicator, something of a dying art among today’s referees.
Broadcaster Harry Neale was a head coach in the days of the old one-referee system and said: “I was happy when I read the referee was going to be McCreary. I thought he managed a game better than most.
“He would talk to you if there was a problem you didn’t understand or you needed a clarification,” Neale added.
McCreary says communication is “a tool you have in your toolbox as a referee” along with making sure you are physically fit enough to keep up with the speed of the game and mentally agile enough to make the right call on instinct instead of stopping to think about every move.
But it may be the most important tool.
“If you are able to communicate, in a lot of cases you can bring down the emotional level when it starts to rise and looks like things are going to happen,” he said. “If you can be proactive and communicate to a player or coach, I think it eliminates calling some penalties and creates a level of respect between you and the player.”
As he made his way through the NHL in his last two weeks, McCreary received tokens of respect from his peers, the players and coaches. Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Chris Pronger presented him with a team sweater autographed by the players and Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma did the same with a Sidney Crosby sweater.
Fellow referee Tim Peel gave McCreary a special bottle of wine from a California winery engraved with his important career statistics: 1,737 regular-season games, 15 Stanley Cup finals, 44 Stanley Cup final games (the most by an NHL referee) and 297 playoff games.
McCreary, 55, was supposed to retire a year ago, but was asked to stay another year by Terry Gregson, the NHL director of officiating. There will not be another request because McCreary says it is time to go.
“The way the game is played you have to work out to keep up,” he said, adding he is ready to leave the grind of the physical and mental preparation behind.
He decided to end it in Washington because that was where his NHL career began rather than go through what would surely be a media event in Toronto, which is not far from his hometown of Guelph, Ont.
The future is up in the air right now, although McCreary is talking to Gregson about a job with the NHL as a mentor, coach and perhaps a scout of younger referees. “I’m hoping to stay in the game in some way,” he said.
McCreary was involved in few officiating controversies over the years, another tribute to his excellence, although he was on the ice for the famous Brett Hull goal in the 1999 Stanley Cup final.
Hull had his toe in the crease when he scored the Cup-winning goal for the Dallas Stars against the Buffalo Sabres and, despite the zero-tolerance approach on such incidents in force at the time, Gregson, who was the referee at the net, allowed the goal.
To this day, Sabres officials and fans insist it was the biggest injustice in NHL history. McCreary begs to differ. He says Bryan Lewis, then-NHL director of officiating, called down to the ice to confirm the call on the goal was legitimate.
“In layman’s terms, it was a good hockey goal,” McCreary said. “By the letter of the law, the way the rule was written that year, I suppose it could not have been allowed but I defy anyone to say [Hull] interfered with the goalie.”
Such is the regard for McCreary that even Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, who feels to this day his team was robbed, managed a one-liner when it was mentioned McCreary admitted he was on the ice for that goal.
“Man, he’s got to let that go,” Ruff said, deadpan.
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Zebra McCreary set to go out to pasture
By LANCE HORNBY, QMI Agency, April 1 2011
Zebra to pasture
The NHL usually lets retiring officials select the site of their last game to be near friends and family. For Guelph-born Bill McCreary, hanging up his whistle Saturday night after almost 30 years and 2,000 games, that would have been Toronto, perhaps Tuesday against Washington or Saturday against the Canadiens.
But wishing to keep it low-key, McCreary chose the Capitals-Sabres game in Washington, where he first started on Nov. 3, 1984. The Leafs were probably grateful they wouldn’t be distracted from their playoff chase by a pre-game ceremony at the Air Canada Centre, but had plenty of praise for the 55-year-old’s work through the years.
“He was always pretty fair,” veteran goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere said. “You always knew that when he handled a game it would be more old-school. Maybe he would let a bit more go. But at the same time, he would be fair with both teams.
“I will always have respect for referees. It’s tough when you think how fast the game is and that a lot of criticism goes their way. That’s pretty impressive that he’s 55 and he has to stay in shape and skate up and down with the 20-year-olds. It can’t be easy.”
Added winger Clarke MacArthur: “He has been in the game a long time and he’s obviously a well-respected official. He’s put a full career in and our hats are off to him.”
hockeygod
When Al Saunders' sentries let him down
Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronichle, February 7, 2012
Oakland Raiders offensive coordinator Al Saunders during their NFL football training camp in Napa, Calif., Sunday, July 31, 2011.
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Al Saunders has been replaced as Raiders' offensive coordinator. Now that he's likely gone, I can share a story with you, because it has a useful life lesson: Always check the asparagus.
Saunders did a nice job with the Raiders under adverse circumstances, but I feel relieved that he is no longer around, because I probably don't have to worry about accidentally bumping into him.
He's a good guy. That's the problem.
In 1988, I was living in Los Angeles and my wife and I came to San Francisco to attend a banquet in honor of Leigh Steinberg, the player agent. The event was in the ballroom of an Embarcadero hotel. We were seated next to Saunders, then head coach of the San Diego Chargers.
Saunders was a charming fellow. We chatted with him for a half hour or so. Dinner was served. At some point, Saunders said, "Excuse me, I see someone I want to say hi to. Would you watch my plate, make sure the waiter doesn't pick it up?"
No problem.
Actually, problem.
My wife and I were yakking with others at the table when she did a comedic double-take.
"Oh, no!" she said, or words to that effect. "They took his plate! We're dead."
I noted that technically, Saunders had asked her to watch his plate. That observation didn't seem to relieve the tension.
Looking around desperately, I saw that the person clearing the tables had left the pickup cart right behind us. I found a plate that barely had been touched and placed it at Saunders' seat. Voila!
My wife recoiled in horror.
"It's gotta be his," I said confidently. "He had hardly started eating."
Saunders returned to the table and prepared to dig back into his dinner, then:
"This isn't my plate."
My wife and I usually don't perspire heavily at social functions, but we might have made an exception.
"What do you mean?" we asked in clumsy unison.
Saunders was staring at his plate.
"I ate my asparagus."
Awkward silence.
Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
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