Articles

[hockeygod]

Before I made it: Carl Gunnarsson

Kevin Kennedy, The Hockey News, 2011-11-12

I played my first game on an outdoor rink in Orebro, Sweden. We had two rinks next to each other, one with a roof and one completely outdoors. The youngest age groups played on the outdoor rink before you graduated to in the indoor one. We didn’t have glass at many rinks when I was young, instead they had fencing that went around the boards.

We didn’t start body contact until we were 14 years old so that was a big moment I remember. These days I think they start contact at 12 which I think is better because when you’re 14 there is a big difference in size between players and it’s better to get used to it before and learn to keep your head up.

I’ve always been a defenseman except when I played goalie. I played both goalie and defense until I was about 11 years old, but I switched to defense permanently just because I was better at it. When you can play defense, you can really play every position because you see the game and you also need to be a good skater.

I remember a big moment in my minor hockey career which was good and bad. We played a Czech team at a rink just outside Gothenburg and they were outstanding. We lost the game 16-0 and I was goalie for half the game and let in like nine goals. I mean, the good part was because it was still a good experience and it was nice to get out of our town to play a game and to see how good other teams were.

I remember we didn’t even stay in a hotel. We stayed in a big hall or gymnasium and just slept in sleeping bags. It was great. We stayed up all night talking and running around.

As a kid I idolized the players on the junior team in my city, but I also looked up to guys like Nick Lidstrom. I didn’t get to watch many NHL games on TV as a kid, but would watch whenever I could and I would definitely watch all the national team games.

My dad is a carpenter so I worked with him most summers, but have pretty much been full-time in hockey since I was 16. I actually thought a lot about what I would do if I didn’t make it to the NHL and I took some University courses and also volunteered at a school to teach Phys Ed twice a week when I was in the minors because I thought I would work in education if hockey didn’t work out.

I don’t really have a good story behind the No. 36 I wear. They gave it to me when I got called up for the first time and I ended up playing 40 games so I didn’t want to switch after that.

The day I got called up I was practicing with the Marlies and the coach, Dallas Eakins, took me aside and told me the news, so I went over to the ACC and the guys were on the ice and I joined them on the trip to Chicago.

Getting called up didn’t happen the way I thought it was going to. I played 12 games in the American League and I didn’t think I did that well. I had a good training camp and I can only guess that’s why I got called up. When I skated for the first time with the Leafs I was very nervous. I didn’t even play that game in Chicago, but I got in the next game at home versus Calgary. My first shift was with Luke Schenn, but really the only thing I remember from that game was Jarome Iginla. I think he scored two or three goals and his speed was incredible.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Life of Bryan

Luke Fox, Sportsnet.ca, November 12, 2011, 9:28 pm

Two years removed from a long career, Bryan Berard received a call to return to the ice.

Living in an apartment in New York City, the 34-year-old Rhode Island native had never seen the CBC fish-out-of-frozen-water contest show before, or even laced up a pair of figure skates.

So when Battle of the Blades executive producer Kevin Albrecht rang up the retired defenceman, Berard needed a week to think about it. He was 50/50.

"I just didn’t know what to expect. Putting on a pair of figure skates was my biggest (hesitation), but I’m glad I did it. I’m having a blast," Berard said. "It’s not something I ever imagined, but the challenge is what I’m up for."

So far, Berard has triple-axeled that challenge (That’s a figure skating move, right?). With only three pairs remaining in the charity skate-off, Berard has a good shot to win it all.

The quick and dirty of Berard’s career path: Memorial Cup finalist and first overall NHL pick in 1995; Calder Trophy winner in ’97; Olympian in ’98; victim of a devastating eye injury in 2000; Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy winner in 2004 in recognition of his against-all-odds comeback; first NHLer to test positive for steroids (unintentionally, he says) in 2005; stint in the Kontinental Hockey League in 2008; potential pairs figure skating champion in 2011.

"The best way to describe it is going from Rollerblades to roller skates—it’s completely different," said Berard. "Different edge, different everything. You gotta learn to skate all over, basically. You get used to it pretty fast; we’re on the ice twice a day. There’s still some good falls, and you go down hard, but I think that’s part of it. Every day you learn new stuff."

It’s been grueling, according to Berard. Four hours on the ice every day, plus another couple hours working off the ice on the steps and lifts with his partner, Marie-France Dubreuil, a five-time Canadian ice champion and two-time Olympian. The work has paid off considering Berard and Dubreil are one of only three pairs remaining heading into the contest’s finale.

We caught up with Berard to talk about the making the leap to hit the ice stick-free, the Do It For Daron movement, and what it was like to travel in the KHL.

Sportsnet.ca: Before this, when was the last time you tried something completely new?

Berard: A long time. Probably the first time I picked up a golf club when I was 12-years-old. I never thought I’d ever try figure skating, but I’m glad I did. I always liked figure skating, watching it in the Olympics.

I was impressed with (how athletic) they were and how they skate. If kids want to play hockey, I think learning how to figure skate would help them tremendously. You’d become a better skater.

Sportsnet.ca: How frequently do you fall?

Berard: The last couple weeks I’m doing some more challenging things, so I’ve gone down probably three times in the last week pretty hard. You learn how to fall, too. There’s no pads—that’s the thing you forget. Elbows and knees are a little sore, but other than that it’s alright.

Sportsnet.ca The lifting must come easy.

Berard: The lifting isn’t bad. It’s the steps in between and some of the moves you’re not used to. The lifting, to be honest, we just support the weight. The girls mostly do the lifts themselves; we just put them up. Their body positioning makes the lifts pretty easy. We just have to look forward, not look up at them, and stay firm on our feet.

Sportsnet.ca: Since you retired from hockey, what have you been doing athletics-wise?

Berard: Just staying in shape, basically. This summer I worked out a little bit, and I think that helped with my decision to come into the show. I’ve lost 15 pounds since the show’s been on, so it’s been good for my gut.

Sportsnet.ca: Tell me about your connection to the charity you’re skating for, Do It For Daron.

Berard: I started getting involved less than a year ago. I played with Luke Richardson. He and his wife, Stephanie, after their daughter Daron died by suicide, they started this. When I heard about it, right away I knew this was the charity I wanted to represent and raise awareness for. What they’re doing is very brave, first of all, and second, for youth it’s great. The more we talk about suicide or depression, the more lives we can save.

Sportsnet.ca: If you could skate to one song, what would it be?

Berard: I leave the music department to my partner. It probably took me a good three shows to even hear the music, hear the beats. I was just concentrating on the routine.

Sportsnet.ca: You played for Chekov in the KHL for half a season in 2008-09. What was the biggest difference you noticed in that league?

Berard: The league’s very talented. Out of four lines, the top two lines could play in the NHL for sure. Bigger ice surface, more European, Olympic-type game.

There’s not as much physical play, but more skating and more finesse. Just a bigger ice surface—not everyone realizes what a difference that makes.

Its’ really fun, a great league. For guys who are coming back from injury or getting up there (in age), it’s great.

Since the (NHL) lockout, it’s a young man’s game. Half the guys in the league, I don’t recognize their names anymore. There’s not many guys over 30 years old, so that’s tough for guys that get forced out too early.

Sportsnet.ca: When you played there, were you hoping to make enough noise to get back to the NHL?

Berard: No. My body was pretty much done. My back surgeries in Columbus put an end to playing an 82-game schedule, two or three times a week. It was a battle every day with the back. So the KHL, I went there to finish out, play a little bit, and I hate to say it, but make some money towards the end of the career.

Sportsnet.ca: In light of this summer’s tragedy, what did you notice about the travel situation in that league?

Berard: The planes are old. It was definitely a concern of mine. I’m not scared to fly or whatever, but when I was on some of the planes there, they were definitely old.

I hate to see what happened, but hopefully this situation—I hate to say it when it means taking people’s lives—means looking at the planes and making sure people travel safe, because they have the money over there.

Sportsnet.ca: So there were moments when you were actually scared?

Berard: Yeah, they’re just old planes, and they’re putting a lot of guys on there, a lot of equipment and stuff. It’s a scary place to fly.

And in the winter it’s cold, and the regulations are different over there.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Nostalgia for a nicer NHL

ALLAN MAKI, Globe and Mail, Nov. 11 2011

In his home, in green-and-blue plaid pyjamas, he sits in an easy chair across from his wall of memories. There’s a framed photograph of him with Wayne Gretzky. There’s one of the Hockey Hall of Fame building autographed by the greats. There’s a photo of the Calder Trophy he won as the NHL’s top rookie in 1946. There’s a photo of an early Madison Square Garden and another of him on the ice during a full-scale brawl with the Montreal Canadiens.

Playing for the New York Rangers, he is on the fringe of the fighting where, true to his nature, he is playing peacemaker, holding back a charging foe. Then as now, Edgar Laprade has always been a gentleman. Because of that, he’s not sure he likes the NHL any more.

Not the game, he clarifies. He still loves the skating, the shooting, the deftness of a good pass. Today’s players are fast and big. They’re also violent; prone to elbowing one another in the head or ramming each other into the boards from behind.

“The basic game hasn’t changed that much,” Laprade says, his eyes sparkling. “What’s changed is the people who play the game … the players have become more mean.”

At 92, he is the oldest living member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, born the same year the Black Sox threw the 1919 World Series and scientists confirmed Einstein’s theory of relativity. And since 1993, the year of his induction, Laprade has flown to Toronto to attend the annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony and be remembered for having played with and against some of the greats.

But this weekend, Laprade is staying put in the house he bought in 1945 using his $5,000 NHL signing bonus. It’s getting too hard for him to travel and, honestly, he’d rather watch his two great-grandsons play hockey at nearby Grandview Arena. They have girls on their team. Laprade thinks that’s wonderful.

“The hockey I like is the ladies’ hockey at the Olympics,” he says before telling how he took a bunch of 2010 Hockey Hall of Fame calendars featuring inductee Cammi Granato, autographed them then gave one to all the girls on his grandsons’ teams. So they could dream big dreams.

Skillful play was how Laprade etched his place in hockey history. He was smallish, fast, an elusive scorer who never stopped skating. And clean? He played 500 NHL games, scored 280 points and collected just 42 penalty minutes. Three times, he played an entire season without being penalized. In three other seasons, he finished with two minutes. Little wonder he earned the Lady Byng Trophy in 1950 along with his fourth invite to the NHL all-star game.

“When I was with St. Mike’s, we had passes at Maple Leaf Gardens and I’d go watch the Rangers and see [Laprade],” said Rudy Migay, the Thunder Bay-born centre who spent nine seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs. “He could skate and he wasn’t that small – 5 foot 8. Back in those days, there weren’t that many six-footers. If there were, they usually couldn’t skate or handle the puck and played defence.”

Laprade was set to play in the 1940 Winter Olympics after helping the Port Arthur Bearcats to the Allan Cup title as Canadian senior champs. The Olympics, however, were cancelled because of the Second World War and Laprade enlisted in the Army. He played in the Winnipeg Services League and later in the Kingston Hockey League, where he was pursued by both the New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens.

He signed with the Rangers because of the money. He was 26, old by NHL rookie standards, but eager to settle in.

“I lived at the Belvedere Hotel close to Madison Square Garden (then between 49th and 50th Streets). We’d get off the train after a 16-hour ride and guys would have to take the subway to Long Island where they lived,” said Laprade. “I walked to the hotel … I saw a lot of musicals on Broadway. I had friends give me tickets to Guys and Dolls, Carousel. It was fun.”

So were the games, although playing against Gordie Howe was never easy.

“I never liked Gordie. Even his own linemates, like Ted Lindsay, didn’t like him. He wasn’t that clean of a player. He was a good player; you can’t take that away from him,” Laprade said. “But he elbowed me once for no reason.”

When his NHL career ended in 1955, the Rangers wanted him to coach in their system but Laprade argued he didn’t have the patience. He returned to Thunder Bay to live in the only house he has owned and raise his three daughters. He later operated a sporting goods store, Percente and Laprade, and carried on after his wife Arline died in 1987. To fill the void, he often gathered with other former pros, such as Migay, Pentti Lund, Ben Woit and Arnott Whitney, to share stories and past glories. The sunshine boys of hockey.

These days, the oldest living member of the Hockey Hall of Fame still misses the game, but only the version he played when contracts were small and the players didn’t seem as mean as they do now. Under the television stand in front of his wall of yesterdays sits a stack of cards with Laprade’s image on them. Dutifully, he signs every card when the requests come for autographs, and come they do – from Poland, the Czech Republic, Japan, all over the world.

“People remember,” he’s told.

He smiles wearing plaid pyjamas.

“It’s nice to be remembered,” he said.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Imports and Overages in the CHL

Gregg Drinnan, TAKING NOTE, Nov 13 2011

Brock Otten from ohlprospects.blogspot.com — see below — is beating the drum for an interesting suggestion.

“I can already hear you saying it. In fact, I'm prepared to read your comments that tell me just that,” he begins. “I'm going to try and convince you that the OHL (and CHL) should increase the number of Import players allowed on each team's roster.”

If you are interested in the rest of his argument, check out his blog (below).

But I, for one, would be all for that.

And I would go two steps further . . .

I would do away with the provision that a 20-year-old import player takes up two spots — one as an import and one as a 20-year-old. (Teams are allowed to list two imports and three 20-year-olds on their rosters; a 20-year-old import thus takes up two of those five spots.)

I also would allow teams to keep four or five 20-year-old players. I would push for five, but would settle for four.

“The question is,” Otten writes, “would the league not benefit from increasing the quality of its talent base?”

Oh, boy, would it ever.

I have never been able to understand how it is that teams in the CHL will spend money to develop players and then cut one of them loose when he turns 20, not because he isn’t good enough to play, but because they are only permitted to keep three players in his age group.

The same holds true for imports. With the money spent on recruiting imports, getting all the paperwork done, flying them back and forth . . . why cut one loose because he’s 20 years of age when he still has another season in him?

Of course, it is doubtful that the CHL ever will go to three import players or more than three 20-year-olds.

Why not?

Because the CHL and its teams will argue that they are in the business of developing players.

While I would certainly agree with that, I would argue that they also are in the entertainment business. And given a little more maturity the product that now is being presented to the paying customers could be a whole lot better than it is today.

—–

An Argument to Raise the Number of Imports

Brock Otten, November 10 2011

I can already hear you saying it. In fact, I'm prepared to read your comments that tell me just that. I'm going to try and convince you that the OHL (and CHL) should increase the number of Import players allowed on each team's roster.

Let's take a look at the straight facts. OHL teams are allowed to carry two Import players on their roster (or even just their rights). That's just under about 8% of the players in the league.

As of Thursday night (the 10th), Import players made up 10 of the top 50 scorers in the league. That's 20%. Now I realize that's bias by simply examining the skaters. So how about the goaltenders? Imports held three of the top ten spots in SV%, G.A.A, and wins. That's 30%. Considering that Import players make up only 8% of the league…the fact that they are so heavily saturating the league's top performance charts speaks volumes as to their talent quality.

The question is, would the league not benefit from increasing the quality of its talent base? If every team was allowed to carry just one more Import player, they would now make up about 13% of the league's players. If that happened, could you not expect to at least have 15 guys in the top 50 of league scoring instead of 10? And maybe another goaltender in the top 10 of SV% and wins?

I know, I know. That's under the assumption that those extra players coming over from Europe are actually half decent. The league has a hard enough time drafting in the second round of the Import draft, let alone adding a third. But, if we allowed more Import players to come over, would more of Europe's top talent look to come over to join their buddies? Would the draw be larger, especially since so many players coming over are finding success and are drawing the gaze of NHL clubs? If the London Knights, or the Windsor Spitfires, or the Kitchener Rangers were given an extra pick, would they be able to lure those players over?

I can already hear you traditionalists though. In the vein of Donald S. Cherry; by creating another Import spot, we're taking away a spot from a good Ontario (or Canadian) boy. But is that really the case anymore? Let's be honest…if the Ontario Hockey League was concerned about the good ol' Ontario boy losing his spot in the league…wouldn't we have restrictions on the amount of American players in the league? Before the trades of Jack Campbell and Craig Duininck last week, the Spitfires had half their roster "imported" from the United States.

Now I'm not arguing that we should have a cap on the amount of players in the league from the United States. I'm simply asking, what makes an import from Europe different than one from the United States? The fact that we have teams based in the United States? It's still the Ontario Hockey League though…a branch of the Canadian Hockey League. I just think it's a tad ridiculous to limit the amount of Europeans on a team when certain teams can already ice a nearly entirely "non Canadian" team.

Would the league not benefit from the potential of adding more talent? Watching this Subway Super Series and enjoying the contributions of this year's outstanding Import crop certainly makes me believe so.

What do you think?

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

One year later Richardsons' hearts still heavy
Daron Richardsonhanged herself on Satuday, Nov. 13, 2010.

By BRUCE GARRIOCH, QMI Agency, Nov 12 2011

It is the kind of weekend no family should have to endure.

Senators assistant Luke Richardson, wife Stephanie and daughter Morgan, 17, will have heavy hearts as the one-year anniversary of 14-year-old daughter and sister Daron's suicide passes Sunday.

While time is supposed to heal all wounds, the process is ongoing for the Richardson family and as they deal with another "first" since Daron's death, they're bravely battling through after telling their story publicly.

The Richardsons will be featured on Hockeycentral on Sportsnet Saturday with reporter Christine Simpson. The couple sat down for an emotional talk in the only interview they will give. The past 12 months haven't been easy.

"I wake up and I still think, ÔOh, I have to make the girls breakfast' or wait for Daron to walk in the door or wait for her to text me and it feels like yesterday," Stephanie, fighting back tears, told Sportsnet in the nine-minute piece.

They aren't sure how they're going to feel when they wake up Sunday and Daron isn't there. Luke said they've been advised by doctors to acknowledge the date, because it's all part of trying to take the next step.

"I'm not so sure I'm looking forward to it," said Luke. "The doctors have said the only way through anything like this is to go right through it. It will be painful, but I've heard many times, that time does heal, but at certain times it doesn't feel like it.

"When the day is over, you realize that it does."

There was an outpouring in the community after Daron died and the Richardson family decided to go public. Not wanting anybody else to have live through this pain, they want to help raise awareness about teen suicide.

The Do it For Daron (D.I.F.D.) campaign, in conjunction with Royal Ottawa Hospital, was born out of this tragedy to encourage teens battling mental health issues to seek help.

Luke said D.I.F.D. is an idea that Daron's friends came up with to keep her memory alive. The family has just tried to lend its guidance with doctors at the Royal Ottawa. So far, the foundation has raised more than $1 million.

The reality is not many would have told their story the way the Richardsons have.

"With us being public, and her friends being so public, it let us know that we all need to have these conversations," said Stephanie. "Just because your child is high achieving or just because your child has a lot of friends, you still need to ask, ÔAre you OK?'

"If you're feeling funny or feeling sad, we can talk about that. That's what D.I.F.D. has done: It has really brought it mainstream and that it's OK to talk about it. I didn't understand how this could happen to an amazing young girl. Nobody ever would have asked someone like Daron if she was OK."

Though they've received plenty of support and Richardson has resumed duties full-time with the Senators, there isn't a day they don't think about Daron, wish she was here and wonder what her future would have been.

"There will be lots of tough times I'm sure," said Luke.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Simmons: Fletcher must be proud

By Steve Simmons, QMI Agency, Nov 13 2011

TORONTO – This is a proud, emotional weekend for Cliff Fletcher: Two of his boys are being inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Twice in his career, Fletcher made terrific team-changing trades for Doug Gilmour, one of them leading to a Stanley Cup win in Calgary, the other leading to the most dazzling and emotional Maple Leafs’ excitement of the past 44 years.

Fletcher came to admire Gilmour’s talents in 1986 when Gilmour almost single-handedly carried the St. Louis Blues to a seven-game series win against a much superior Flames team. It wasn’t in any way coincidental that two years later, Fletcher traded Mike Bullard and others for Gilmour and won his only Cup that first year.

It was different with Joe Nieuwendyk, whose career began under more scrutiny than was probably fair. He was a Flames draft choice, a player chosen with the pick that came from Fletcher’s controversial trading of Kent Nilsson. On draft day 1985, when the Leafs selected Wendel Clark with the first pick in the draft, Toronto chose defenceman Ken Spangler with its first choice in the second round.

Five picks later, Nieuwendyk was selected from Cornell, prompting a Calgary Herald headline of “Joe Who?” The Leafs, with a skeleton scouting staff, had basically the same reaction to Nieuwendyk’s selection. They scoured their draft list after the Flames made the selection but couldn’t find Nieuwendyk’s name anywhere. Truth was: They didn’t know who he was. Nieuwendyk, who scored 51 goals in each of his first two NHL seasons, including the Cup year in Calgary, had a marvellous career and is one of the most respected players in hockey history.

As for Spangler, things didn’t work out so well. He never did play an NHL game.

THIS AND THAT

There must be some bittersweet feelings to Mark Howe’s Hall of Fame induction. He finally gets in, with his father there, but with his longtime defence partner, Brad McCrimmon gone. In 1986, Howe was a ridiculous plus-86 with the Philadelphia Flyers while McCrimmon was plus-83. Next best on that team was Rich Sutter at plus-28. To put this in context, the NHL leader last season was Zdeno Chara at plus-33 … It is really too bad that Pat Burns isn’t part of this Hall of Fame class, even though he has passed away. Burns was Gilmour’s favourite coach and Gilmour was his favourite player … Applications are being accepted now for the Ron Wilson Journalism School. Courses include: Questions you can and can’t ask parents. Nothing is being offered regarding how to kill penalties but if you want, you can major in snarky … When the Leafs signed Ed Belfour as a free agent to replace the very popular Curtis Joseph, the move didn’t exactly go over well with fans. But for two years, they were treated to finest goaltending Toronto had seen post Bower and Sawchuk. The only one who predicted Belfour would thrive in Toronto: The Hall of Famer’s former coach, Ken Hitchcock.

HEAR AND THERE

Phil Kessel probably knows this, or maybe not, but no American has ever led the NHL in scoring. As of Saturday afternoon, NHL scoring looked like an international smorgasbord. The top point-getters were an American, two Swedes, an Austrian and a Slovenian … Kessel also leads the NHL in even-strength points, a statistic I place a lot of value in. Kessel has 18 ESP, way more than the Sedin brothers (10 each), Steven Stamkos (11), Pavel Datsyuk (7), Alex Ovechkin (7) and the impressive Claude Giroux (10) … Some guys just fit certain uniforms. With Ryan Smyth, it’s being back with the Edmonton Oilers. At 35, Smyth is among the league leaders in goal scoring, and hands up, both of you, who saw that coming? … Why I love stats: Because they show Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen with an 11-2 record, a 2.20 goals against average and a .934 save percentage as the best goaltender this season while Roberto Luongo at 6-5-1, 3.14 and .891 as one of the worst.

SCENE AND HEARD

With the passing of Joe Frazier, a thought occurred: Could anybody name the three heavyweights claiming to be world champions today? They are, for those who care, Alexander Povetkin, Wladimir Klitschko and Vitali Klitschko. The only thing that could draw me back to heavyweight boxing: A Klitschko-Klitschko title match. But no quoting the parents … Some of the politicians who have backed Joe Paterno for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest honours in the United States, have not so quietly withdrawn their support.

WE KNOW HOW THIS ENDS IN THE LONG RUN

There are basically two certainties to every lockout/strike in pro sports history away from the NFL: 1) The players always win; 2) The owners need a system in place to protect themselves from each other. And they, in the end, can’t control themselves. If you look at the NHL today, some six years after the lockout, what’s been solved? There are more teams in trouble than ever before. Players, for the most part, are being handsomely rewarded, you could argue overpaid, for their services. So other than implement rule changes and streamline league business, what was accomplished? If you can play at all in pro sports, you will be compensated beyond your wildest dreams. Take Jose Calderon for example. The average NBA guard is scheduled to earn $9.7 million this season. How can he or any NBA player vote no to that?

WHY DIDN'T HE JUST STOP IT?

You walk in to a dressing room and allegedly witness a grown man raping a young boy in the shower — and you do nothing???

How would you react? Would you not attack the adult in question? Would you not scream, grab, punch, pull hair, do everything in your power to protect the child? And if you don’t, how do you live with yourself? The more we learn about what went on with Jerry Sandusky at and around Penn State University, the more I am troubled by the actions of Mike McQueary, the former quarterback, graduate assistant and now assistant coach on leave from Penn State. Institutional silence is one thing: But where was the human, instinctive, emotional reaction here? McQueary is not the perpetrator, but he could have and should have stopped all of this years ago.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Gilmour: In his own words

By DOUG GILMOUR and CURTIS JOSEPH, Special to QMI Agency, Nov 13 2011

You are walking out on to the ice, meeting all these legends like Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay, the crowd chanting your name, all the while trying to keep your eyes from welling up.

And at that very moment, one of the biggest of your life, your BlackBerry is going off.

To those who were texting me as the pre-game Hall of Fame game ceremonies were going on on Saturday night, I just want you to know that I’m not mad. You actually helped me. Really.

It helped me from looking up in the stands, looking at the highlights up on the scoreboard, all the things that would have made me break down.

It was such a special occasion. When you are introduced and the fans are chanting your name, it’s overwhelming.

Joe Nieuwendyk and I were discussing it out on the ice as we were waiting for the ceremonial faceoff. Once you get out on the ice again and hear the crowd like we did on Saturday, you start to remember how you took all that time on the ice for granted. It’s just the aura. It’s something you can’t replace.

It was incredible to meet all those greats on the Air Canada Centre ice like Howe, Salming, so many.

But most of all, I want to pass on my appreciation to the crowd. Your reception was incredible.

Then again, I wouldn’t expect anything else from Leaf fans.

Thank you.

YES, GRETZKY THE GREATEST

Of all the guys I faced, Wayne Gretzky definitely was the best I ever played against. And the hardest.

I learned that the hard way.

When I first entered the NHL with the St. Louis Blues, coach Jacques Demers put me in a defensive role. The first time we faced No. 99, coach Demers told me that if Gretzky went to the bathroom, I was to follow him in there.

I remember we were beating them 5-2 when, all of a sudden, they picked it up. I recall people saying he wasn’t the fastest guy, but they didn’t have to play against him. He was plenty fast.

At one point, he started skating in circles. He did three of them. Each time I followed him. Finally I had to stop. Why? Because I was dizzy. Wayne had left me that way.

Of course, I’m not the only opponent whose head was left spinning by The Great One over the years.

WAITING FOR YOU, BURNSIE

One day, I’m confident Pat Burns will be in the Hockey Hall of Fame along with myself and so many others whose lives he touched so significantly.

He deserves it.

During my induction speech on Monday, I will definitely acknowledge Burnsie. Like many others, I miss him.

Burnsie was all business. If we lost badly, there were times he’d make players stay in front of their lockers. In his mind, if he had to face the press after a loss like that, so did we.

Before he tragically passed away from cancer, he attended ground-breaking ceremonies for the soon-to-be-built Pat Burns Arena in Stanstead, Que., in October of 2010. He had no idea that a number of those who had played for him, including myself and Guy Carbonneau, were there to see him.

He was really surprised. He had photos taken with us. And in typical Burnsie manner, with reports having surfaced that he had died weeks earlier, he told reporters: “I’m still alive.”

Rest in peace, Burnsie. Here’s hoping you join us in the Hall one day. I know you’ll be there with me on Monday.

AND FINALLY, A WORD FROM CUJO

It’s been 18 years since Doug Gilmour scored the famous wraparound goal people always remind me about.

In that time, our lives continue to be intertwined.

In fact, we each had a son who played together on the same minor hockey team for a time, a team coached by the late Peter Zezel.

Even today, our paths frequently cross. I am the goaltending coach of the Kingston Frontenacs, the Ontario Hockey League team that Doug is the general manager of.

Given our history, I just want to take time out to extend my hand to Doug for being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. From my point of view, the honour is both well-earned and well-deserved.

As a player, I mostly remember Doug in his Toronto days playing alongside the likes of Wendel Clark and Dave Andreychuk. I was with St. Louis at the time, so we faced each other a lot back in the days of those Norris Division showdowns.

One of the things I remember most about Doug is that when he came over the blue line, it was like he had the puck on a string. He was fast. He was determined. And he was dogged. He never let up.

Of course, everyone wants to bring up the goal he scored in double overtime in the opening game of the second-round series between the Blues and Leafs in 1993.

To be honest, I was reading off my defenceman a bit while Doug was shifting back and forth behind the net, trying to get a hint of which way he might go. If I recall correctly, I believe it was Bret Hedican. I think Doug sucked us both in a bit.

I have no regrets about the way I played in that series. Doug’s goal, which gave the Leafs a 2-1 victory, was the 63rd shot I faced in that game. We ended up winning Game 2 in double overtime by the same 2-1 score. I ended up facing 121 shots in those first two games and ended up stopping 118 of them. That’s a lot of rubber.

I really wish we had won that series, though. They ended up beating us in seven. I know I left it all on the ice in that series, just like Doug did.

Doug was at his best at that time. Maybe he wasn’t the biggest guy, but you can’t measure a guy’s heart. And he had a huge one. No wonder he was so popular during his days with the Leafs.

I know what makes Leaf fans tick. They appreciate guys who play hard every night, guys who are always determined, guys who play through injury.

That was Doug, for you.

Congratulations Doug. It’s official. You are now a Hall of Famer.

— Curtis Joseph

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
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Simmons: Jones is 'Large'r than life

By STEVE SIMMONS, QMI Agency, Nov 13 2011

The nickname has always been perfect.

Large. It tells you who he is, what he is, what his career in sports writing has been all about, what kind of impact he has left on the industry.

You have to be Large to be honoured by the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The stories of our hockey life that mattered most were things we watched on television, heard on radio, purchased in video. Terry Jones didn't need any of that. He was there to chronicle the dynasties of the Edmonton Oilers and before that the New York Islanders. He was there when Mario scored in Ô87 and when Sidney scored in 2010 Ñ and so many memorable goals and moments in between.

For most of us, those are the where-were-you moments of your own personal hockey history: For Large, he knows where he was. He was there. In the press box, in the dressing room and in the bar, usually in that order. Telling the story quicker and better than anyone in the business. Somehow having the remarkable talent when the clock was ticking fastest and closest to deadline of finding the angle that succinctly told the story too many of us missed.

I would read Terry Jones every morning after we covered something at night to find out what I missed. I would read him because I had to, because I needed to, because it was the way to learn the business, because his legendary instincts weren't never easily explained.

You don't get where Large has gone and been and done without skills, without instincts and, in his case, without the craziest luck of any reporter I've ever known. The rest of us have to bust down walls sometimes to get stories. For Large, all it took some days was the right seat on an airplane.

One year, during one of Wayne Gretzky's remarkable scoring streaks, Jones had an idea. Why not get in touch with Joe DiMaggio, the baseball legend, he of the 56-game hitting streak, and talk to him about what Gretzky is going through, how much the streak plays on your mind?

Jones called the New York Yankees. No help. He called the baseball alumni association. No help. He called the Mr. Coffee, the company DiMaggio did television commercials for. No help. Jones had all but given up on getting in touch with DiMaggio when he got bumped up to first class on an American flight he was taking.

Sitting next to him on the plane Ñ none other than DiMaggio. Right place, right time: This is how you become an Elmer Ferguson winner. Stories have a way of finding you as much as you have a way of finding them.

You don't become Large and Hockey Hall without being inventive, without being aggressive and mostly competitive. One time, Jones travelled to Long Island with the Oilers for a second-round playoff series. When he got there, he picked up the New York Post and saw a controversial story on Gretzky. In those, the pre-Internet days, Jones did only what the best newspaper people could do. After seeing the story in the Post, he purchased all 17 copies of the paper in the hotel gift shop and made certain his competitor, who hadn't yet arrived, wouldn't see the story upon check-in.

When his competitor, Dick Chubey, walked into the gift shop he noticed there were no copies of the Post. He asked what happened.

"You won't believe it," said the woman in the store. "Some guy came in and bought all the Posts."

"Some guy," said Chubey. "What'd he look like?"

"Large," she said.

It is a difficult nickname to live up to, being Large all the time, in your market, in your newspaper, on the road, in your industry. When Gretzky finally made it official, that he would be playing his final game at Madison Square Garden on a Sunday afternoon, the best of the hockey-writing world gathered in New York to chronicle the end of an era. Gretzky looked around at his afternoon news conference on the day before the game and somehow noticed that Jones was missing. Most athletes, let alone superstars, wouldn't pay any attention to who was asking the questions Ñ but Gretzky wasn't like most athletes.

After the news conference, Gretzky picked up the phone and called Jones at his hotel room in New York.

"Do you need anything from me?" Gretzky asked.

In the end, The Great One took care of The Large One. One superstar looking out for another.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Mr. Hockey was a Hall of Fame hockey Dad, too

Tim Wharnsby, November 14, 2011

When Mark Howe turned up for various Hockey Hall of Fame functions in the past few days, he noticed the mass around his 83-year-old father Gordie always swelled more than the gathering around him.

The younger 56-year-old Howe wasn't surprised. He became accustomed to this scene early in life.

"That comes with the territory. My mother helped the four of us children deal with this at an early age," said Howe, inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame with Ed Belfour, Doug Gilmour and Joe Nieuwendyk on Monday.

Hero off the ice

"I've often said and I'll say it again, my father has meant more to me for the way he' s been off the ice than for all his on-ice accomplishments. He didn't want to be a distraction this weekend. But it means far more to me to have him around."

The admiration goes both ways. Mr. Hockey was inducted into the HHOF in 1972 and he remarked that he's more proud of his son gaining entrance than when Gordie's day arrived 39 years ago. Gordie and Mark Howe are the fourth father-son duo to be inducted in the HHOF behind Bobby and Brett Hull, Lester and Lynn Patrick as well as Oliver and Earl Siebert.

Even though Mark didn't get his induction call until 13 years after he became eligible, Mark was set up to succeed by his father. Gordie wasn't your typical hockey father. Of course, he had more knowledge to share, but he told sons Mark and Marty that he only would offer advice if they solicited guidance.

"My Dad never told me what to do or how to do it," Mark said. "He sometimes pointed me in the right direction, but he told me early on that his door would always be open if I had any questions."

Tips from the pro

One of those times was when Mark moved from the Detroit area to join his older brother Marty, now 47, on the Toronto Marlies junior team that went on to win the 1972-73 Memorial Cup. Mark, a left wing at the time, felt he was playing well, but he wasn't generating enough scoring chances.

So he called his father, who was retired at the time, to see if he could pop over to Toronto to watch him for a few games. Gordie did and made a suggestion.

"He told me I was coming down the wing in line with the [opposing] defenceman," Mark recalled. "He told me to get my butt over to the boards and make the defenceman come to me. If the defenceman backed off, I could cut inside. If the defenceman came at me, I could use my speed to the outside."

Other advice the famous hockey Dad gave to the emerging son was to focus on a single player while watching games from the stands. When Mark and Marty were kids and would drive to the old Olympia Arena for their Dad's games, Gordie would tell Mark to watch Bobby Hull if the opponent was the Chicago Blackhawks or the habits of speedy Red Wings left wing Nick Libbett, a six-time 20-goal scorer.

"It never hurts to listen to people who have been there before," Mark Howe said.

New position, another learning curve

Like when Mark made the rare move from forward to defence. Here was a player who, in his final season as a forward, beat Wayne Gretzky for the 1978-79 WHA scoring race 107 points to 104. Yet, the next season with the Hartford Whalers, Howe's first in the NHL, he was moved to defence full time.

"I played a few games in Houston [for the WHA Aeros] under [coach] Bill Dineen," said Howe, the long-time Red Wings director of scouting. "But that was only three or four games. The year I moved to defence for good it was in a game [for Hartford in 1979] against Buffalo. I was told right before the game. I would have liked to have had a couple practices at least.

"Even though I scored points as a forward, I considered it a success if I could stop the opposing right wing I went up against. I wanted to prevent him from getting any shots on goal. I didn't want him to score. The adjustment probably went well because of I was a defensive player and I had speed and could make a good pass."

It wasn't until Mark moved on to play for head coach Pat Quinn and the Philadelphia Flyers in 1982 that his play on the blue-line elevated to an elite level. That was because he worked closely with retired Flyer defenceman Ed Van Impe and learned the particulars of playing on the blue-line.

Another factor that elevated Mark Howe's play in Philadelphia was a five-year, on-ice defence partnership he formed with the late Brad McCrimmon, who perished in the Russian hockey team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash two months ago. McCrimmon also was Howe's roommate on the road.

"It was probably the best five years of my career as a player," Howe remarked. "There were two players in my career who I had instant chemistry with, Brad and my father."

Dean
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Game Intelligence Training
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Tears of joy for Gordie Howe as son joins him in the Hockey Hall of Fame

Dave McGinn, Globe and Mail, Nov. 14, 2011

You don’t get to bask in the limelight the way other players who are inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame do when your father is a living legend. But Mark Howe, Gordie’s son, is taking it all in stride.

The former Philadelphia Flyers defenceman, his father and his brother Marty, who is also a former NHL player, arrived in Toronto last Friday to enjoy a weekend of Hall of Fame celebrations.

“The first day in the hotel, 50 people came up and asked for autographs and they all asked for Gordie. Marty and I just sat there. That just comes with the territory,” Mark said at a reception on Monday at the Hall in Toronto where he and this year’s other inductees in the player category –Ed Belfour, Doug Gilmour and Joe Nieuwendyk – received their Hall of Fame rings.

Mr. Hockey himself was sitting in the front row at the ceremony. The 83-year-old cried at the sight of his son being officially welcomed into the ranks of the sport’s greatest players.

Later, he casually dismissed the attention heaped on him and made clear who the man of the hour is.

“The heck with Gordie Howe. It’s Mark Howe,” Gordie said.

The Howes are the fourth father-son pair to join the Hall of Fame as players, joining Oliver and Earl Seibert, Lester and Lynn Patrick and Bobby and Brett Hull.

Mark spent six seasons playing forward in the World Hockey Association and another 16 years in the NHL, where he moved to defence. In his career he totalled 405 goals, 841 assists in 1,355 games before retiring in 1995. He ended his playing days with Detroit, where his father cemented his legend.

“My biggest wish for this week I guess would be that I receive a lot more credit than dad only for his sake,” Mark said. “He wants me to deserve all the credit and get all the credit and be honoured for this week. He doesn’t want to distract from that.”

The Howes have always been a tight-knit group, and their closeness has always meant much more than the many accolades heaped upon them, Mark said.

“Honours mean nothing in our family without having the family to share it. That’s what makes this so special,” he said. “It means far more to me having him around than anything else.”

Gordie Howe said Mark’s induction to the Hall of Fame was more special to him than his own in 1972. He added he would like to see Marty join them there one day.

“I’ve got one to go,” he said.

For now, though, Mark has stepped out of his father’s shadow, as much as he could ever hope at least, and is enjoying his moment in the sun, happy to share it with his famous dad.

“Every kid growing up who loves the game of hockey, you play in the driveway, you dream of winning Stanley Cups. You dream of winning Conn Smythe trophies, you dream of everything,” he said. “The only thing you never dream of is making the Hall of Fame, so this is beyond any dream I’ve ever had.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
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[hockeygod]

Proteau: Action towards change needed at GM level

Adam Proteau, The Hockey News, Nov 16 2011

A typical NHL GM meeting takes place in the beige, nondescript conference room bubble of an airport hotel. And the typical result of the six or seven hours of discussions on current issues usually feels just as artificial. Because nine times out of 10, the typical result isn’t any action at all, but a mere promise of more words.

So it was Tuesday in Toronto’s west end, where the league’s brass and GMs assembled to break bread and talk shop. As a ragtag gaggle of caffeine-addled media ham-n-eggers in the hallway stared at the conference room doors like Walking Dead zombies, hockey’s gatekeepers had a number of items on the day’s agenda to consider and debate, including divisional realignment and the effect of the 1-3-1 neutral-zone trap that caused headlines in a recent Tampa Bay/Philadelphia game.

Those items were discussed in the afternoon session. In the morning, the central topic was the protection of goaltenders – and although there were some passionate player-safety advocates among the convened, the end result was unsurprising: no immediate, tangible action would be taken; the situation would be monitored and revisited in the months and seasons ahead.

There’s something to be said for not making knee-jerk reactions from season to season, but when the answer to any issue is always “let’s talk about it,” that becomes a kind of knee-jerk reaction as well. Sooner or later, there has to be a situation grave enough to merit immediate action.

You would think a league as allegedly interested in player safety would see the protection of some of the game’s biggest stars – and certainly, some of the players most important to their individual teams – as just such a situation. But this is the NHL, where change is effected at a tortoise-like rate.

“When (goalies are) out on the open ice, they’re going to be protected,” St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong said during a lunch break, echoing the standard line. “But we do want continued play in front of the net.”

In other words: away we go with the status quo. In still other words, there will be no mid-season rule re-adjustment, the way the NFL did in 2010 when it responded to a series of egregious on-field hits with what league vice-president of football operations Ray Anderson called “a very necessary higher standard of accountability. We have to dispel the notion that you get one free pass in these egregious or flagrant shots.”

The NHL’s GM meetings weren’t completely filled with status quo supporters. Sabres architect Darcy Regier, whose team lost goalie Ryan Miller to a concussion on a Milan Lucic hit that sparked the goalie protection debate, was one such dissenter. So was GM Ray Shero, he of the still-Sidney-Crosby-less Penguins.

“Several of the GMs brought up the fact that there’s only 60 goaltenders in the league,” Shero said. “That’s going to be the message to our team: goalies are not fair game. If a goalie is going to play the puck outside the crease, you have to be pretty careful.”

Shero expected the issue would be picked up again at the spring GM meetings in March. But he sounded like someone who never wanted to see something like the Lucic/Miller hit happen ever again.

“Usually, (a goalie hit) is in and around the crease or they’re playing the puck and there’s incidental contact,” Shero said. “GMs are looking at (Lucic’s hit) and saying, ‘OK, if we let this go on, what are we doing?’ It’s one of those things the league always talks about at these meetings – the league evolves, you’ve got to change, and player safety is important.”

The hockey world needs more Ray Shero-types in power. But the key phrase in his last quote, the one that truly sums up the essence of these hotel dalliances, is “the league always talks.” If actions speak louder than words, the NHL’s GM meetings are as soundless as a sphinx.

Dean
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Game Intelligence Training
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Proteau: Would the NHL return to Hartford?

Adam Proteau, The Hockey News, 2011-11-17

If the NHL can return a franchise to Winnipeg – and be poised to bring one back to les gens merveilleux of Quebec City – is a return to another former World Hockey Association city possible?

In the cases of Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Indianapolis, Baltimore, San Diego, Birmingham and San Francisco, probably not. But I wouldn’t be so sure about Hartford not having a shot. In fact, I think at some point in the near future, and maybe sooner than some people imagine, we may yet witness a new NHL era for those Kermit The Frog-green uniforms and the capital of Connecticut.

In fact, if you look at what’s happening in Hartford, you can’t help but notice how similar it all seems to what went on in Manitoba before the Atlanta Thrashers ownership group disintegrated and the franchise became the Jets, Part Deux. Although Winnipeg lost its NHL team to Phoenix in 1996, what remained was a relentless hockey supporter in businessman Mark Chipman, who was prepared to take the long view and bide his time until conditions were perfect to make a move.

Rather than employing the Jim Balsillie storm-the-castle approach to landing an NHL team, Chipman demonstrated to commissioner Gary Bettman and the hockey world his ownership group was not going to sulk or swing and instead could run a team (the American League’s Manitoba Moose, which replaced the Jets in town from 1996-2011) well no matter what league it was in. Consequently, when the NHL lost control over the direction of the Thrashers (in a way it hadn’t when encountering ownership problems in Phoenix or Nashville), the ties Chipman had established with Bettman paid the best of dividends: Winnipeg had a team again.

These days, the Mark Chipman of Hartford is Howard Baldwin, chief businessman for the AHL’s Connecticut Whale, former WHA president and founding owner of the WHA’s New England Whalers, and former part owner of both the Minnesota North Stars and Pittsburgh Penguins. He’s nearly 70 years old, but Baldwin hasn’t yet given up hope Hartford again can be big-league town; on Tuesday, he revealed his vision for a revitalized arena (the 36-year-old XL Center) that would help revitalize a decrepit downtown core, cost approximately $105 million and would meet all NHL regulations with the goal of landing an NHL team by 2017.

If you think Baldwin will have an uphill battle convincing Hartford politicians to fork over tax dollars in the present economic climate, you’re likely right. However, remember that the City of Glendale has been more than willing to throw tens of millions of civic dollars to justify arena-related jobs and revenue. Indeed, Baldwin’s proposal – which should be regarded with a healthy sense of skepticism, of course – included an independent economic study that shows a refurbished arena area would create up to 1,500 jobs and pump between $48 and $61 million per year into the local economy. You know there are politicians who’d be more than happy to be the ones responsible for bringing those positives to the community.

In addition to public funding, there are still considerable obstacles to the NHL returning to Hartford. Corporate support, which never was plentiful in the Whalers’ best days, isn’t on the upswing in any professional sports league. But that was a problem in Winnipeg at one time as well. Sometimes, leagues have to make the best of a bad situation. The NHL has plenty of those.

The fact is, the NHL has been propping up the teams in Phoenix and Dallas for too long. Columbus is devouring money like a Kardashian sister let loose inside the Federal Reserve, and the Islanders are far from profitable. The Coyotes situation will be remedied in one way or another in the next couple years – and in related news, Quebec City is believed to be a shoo-in for a franchise within five years. As we’ve seen with the Coyotes and Thrashers, there is only so much even Bettman and the owners can do to keep a team in or out of any specific market. If any other franchise melts down, there is not going to be a huge lineup of cities jostling to acquire it.

And save your breath attempting to convince me Kansas City and Las Vegas are more appealing options. If there was the requisite ownership interest in either of those towns, they would have gotten the relocated Thrashers and Winnipeg still would be an AHL city.

Hartford’s population was measured in 2010 at 1,212,381 – nearly half a million more people than are in Columbus (787,033), nearly double the population of Nashville (635,710) and triple the population of Raleigh, N.C. (403,892). Hartford is a cold-weather climate with a genuine hockey history and a small-but-passionate generation of devoted Whalers fans. And most importantly, Baldwin has maintained ties with the NHL and is pursuing the league with honey and not vinegar.

As it was with Winnipeg, people focus so much on the downside of the city, they forget the reasons the league was situated there in the first place. That’s why some were so shocked by the Thrashers move – but if you paid attention to the foundation Chipman quietly was building, you wouldn’t have been blindsided.

Baldwin isn’t quite at that stage just yet. But he’s not as far off as pessimists would argue, either. If the NHL can reappear again in Winnipeg, you’d better believe it can do the same thing in Hartford. Stranger things have and continue to happen.

Dean
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Game Intelligence Training
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Legendary Habs trainer dead at 71

THE CANADIAN PRESS, November 17 2011

MONTREAL — Eddy Palchak, the Montreal Canadiens legendary trainer and equipment manager, has died after a long illness, the NHL club announced Thursday. He was 71.

Palchak, a member of the Canadiens organization for 31 years, died Wednesday night at Montreal General Hospital, the team said.

The Montreal native joined the Canadiens as assistant trainer to Larry Aubut for the 1966-67 season and worked in a variety of jobs until he retired in 2000.

He had his name etched on the Stanley Cup 10 times, a record for a support staff member of an NHL club. He was an instantly recognizable figure on Montreal's powerhouse clubs in the late 1960s and 1970s with his pinched expression behind his glasses and his squat, lumbering physique.

Palchak began the team's 100th anniversary celebrations on Dec. 4, 2009, by walking to the Canadiens bench and dumping two buckets of pucks onto the ice, just as he had done before practices and warmups for years. Fans chanted "Eddy Eddy" from the seats.

Palchak was a scoring star in minor hockey as a youngster. His career as a trainer began when he attended the Memorial Cup tournament in Toronto in the mid-1960s. The Junior Canadiens trainer fell ill and Palchak filled in for him.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Professional Hockey Athletic Trainers Society in 1998.

Dean
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Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
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[hockeygod]

Why Capitals’ big gun Alex Ovechkin is firing blanks

PAUL WALDIE, Globe and Mail, Nov. 17 2011

He’s still a big enough star to get four guys from Norway House, Man., to travel 800 kilometres to Winnipeg and watch him go through a pregame skate at the MTS Centre. Still big enough for a gang of school kids to gawk at his every move and for a throng of journalists to hang on his every word.

But Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin is not having his usual spectacular season. And he knows it.

“So-so,” Ovechkin said Thursday when asked to assess his season during a media scrum prior to the Capitals’ game against the Winnipeg Jets. “Sometimes I get great chances, I just stay in the offensive zone most of the time, but I don’t score and so sometimes I just get frustrated.”

Ovechkin knows that his job is to ring up goals and with just seven so far this season heading into Thursday’s game, that hasn’t happened nearly enough. “I’ll say I [haven’t] scored goals like I used to score, wrist shot or slap shot. I think about it all the time. I’ll react a bit differently and, you know, we’ll see how it goes.”

Ovechkin’s slump is not only bad news for his team – the Capitals got off to a fast start but have won just once in their last five games as of Thursday – it’s also bad news for the NHL. The league has built much of its marketing around Ovechkin and Pittsburgh Penguin star Sidney Crosby and both are missing in action.

Crosby has yet to play this season because of a concussion and it’s not clear when he will return or how well he will play once he is back. And Ovechkin is rarely delivering the kind of showstopping moves that made him famous. He’s on track to score 35 goals this year and collect 70 points. That would be his worst point total in his NHL career and a far cry from the three 50-plus goal seasons he had between 2007 and 2010.

“I think it’s an issue when any of your stars are missing,” said Brian Cooper of S&E Sponsorship Group in Toronto, a sports marketing company. But it’s even more important for the NHL, he added, since Ovechkin and Crosby are by far the league’s biggest and most recognizable players. They endorse more products than any other NHL players and they are the only two who are in multiple national advertising campaigns.

Cooper said Crosby and Ovechkin could still return to top form, mitigating any long-term damage. And he said the NHL has done a better job marketing hockey in general and not just the two superstars. But for now, the loss of Crosby and the slumping play of Ovechkin hurts, he said.

“It’s certainly an issue,” added Bob Stellick, a Toronto-based sports marketing consultant. “It’s not what the league is looking for right now. It’s disappointing.”

Ovechkin may be a victim of his own success. Teams have studied his preference for flying down the left wing and cutting to the middle and they focus on stopping him or at least slowing him down. Opposing players are also stronger and more skilled, making them better able to block shots or give Ovechkin less room to operate.

“I think there’s a sense that other teams key on him all the time,” said Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau, whose team faces the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday. “But that’s the same with every good player on every team, they find ways to key on him and it’s up to us and him to find ways to get around it. It’s just the way nature goes and hockey goes.”

Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec said Ovechkin is a remarkable player, but added: “For him it’s tough to play because everybody looks at him and everybody tries to stay with him on the ice and [make sure he] doesn’t make a play.”

Jets coach Claude Noel isn’t convinced that anyone has figured out Ovechkin just yet. “I don’t know that there’s many people that can control him,” Noel said prior to the game. “There’s no doubt that we are going to be paying attention to him. I don’t know that there’s a recipe to take away his enthusiasm other than get on the rosary and start making phone calls to the big guy upstairs.”

For now, anyway, fans like the four guys from Norway House can’t get enough of Ovechkin and can’t wait to see him play. “He’s exciting,” said one group member, Will Kizuik, who like all the others was wearing an Ovechkin jersey. “He’s famous.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
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Blue Jackets should move Nash

By Mike Milbury, CBC Sports, , November 18, 2011

In the world of NHL hockey, it is a badge of honour in many ways to remain with the same team for your entire career. It speaks of a player's loyalty to team and a town. It speaks of consistency and achievement. It also is not always the best for either the player or the team.

Take the case of Rick Nash.

After having watched him play another uninspired game for the Columbus Blue Jackets, I can't help but think that a trade would be beneficial for both player and club. Let's face it. The ship has sailed on Columbus. Their season is already over. With just under 20 games played, they are on pace for less than 15 wins for the season.

Hardly playoff contenders.

And this is not to put the blame solely on the player. But the reality of the mess screams for significant change. It ain't working so fix it. A player of Nash calibre could command a king's ransom in a deal. Especially if the player himself could begin to show more flashes of being an elite player. Four goals to date puts him in the average slot.

It is a tough call. An obviously loyal Nash opted to stay local even though free agency would have provided safe passage to a hockey hotbed/winner. He stayed in Columbus to help bring success to the franchise that gave him his start.

Noble. But when the player becomes as stale as Nash seems to be, and when a franchise like Columbus cannot find its way out of troubled waters, you have to be bold.

Time for Nash and the Jackets to look at this option. It very well might be the best option they have to rejuvenate his career and to begin yet again the rebuilding of the team…

By the way, in Calgary …

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

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