Articles

[hockeygod]

Oilers yet to decide Renney's future

Jim Matheson, Postmedia News, April 11, 2012

EDMONTON — Tom Renney’s future with the Edmonton Oilers isn’t any more clear after general manager Steve Tambellini met with the media on Wednesday.

“Tom is our coach right now . . . I won’t go into what ifs,” said the Edmonton Oilers general manager.

That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for Renney, but Tambellini doesn’t make snap decisions. He wants his head coach, whose contract expires June 30, to decompress after the 82-game NHL season and return to optimum health.

“I told Tom he needs to go away for a few weeks and rest,” said Tambellini. “I told him to take a vacation. And I’m going for a few weeks to the under-18s and eventually the world championship (May 4-20 in Helsinki and Stockholm).

“It’s time for us to think about the season, think about the things we did well and could do better. We’ll discuss that and he’s comfortable with that.’’

He also wants Renney, who has been the Oilers bench boss the last two seasons after replacing Pat Quinn, to think about how he sees the team going forward. Tambellini wants a game plan, an analysis of the team, if you will.

“I’ve spoken with Tom and he’s all right with this,” said Tambellini, whose four-year contract is also up, but will likely be renewed. “I thought the coaching staff . . . Tom, Ralph (Krueger), Steve (Smith), Kelly (Buchberger) and Fred (Chabot) worked extremely hard. The one-on-one communication with the players was good.

“They did a very good job.”

Tambellini said he’s not procrastinating on the coaching call. And he’s not looking at anyone else, or waiting to see if any other high-end coaches become available after their teams are eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs.

But Tambellini can’t let this coaching situation drag on too long because that leaves Renney and his coaching staff hanging in the wind should other jobs open up elsewhere.

The Oilers finished 29th in a 30-team league this season and finished last in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

“This is why we need time to step back,” Tambellini said. “I know Tom’s going to have a lot to say to me. I want to hear how he thinks we can get to the next step, how do we make people better, compete for a playoff spot.”

The feeling Tambellini got from the players is that they genuinely liked and respected the coaching staff.

“They liked the communication . . . they felt they were prepared for every game,” he said. “Players who get ice time like coaches. Players who don’t get ice time don’t, of course.”

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

[hockeygod]

Senators' Paul MacLean knows he'll be a factor against Rangers

Ken Warren, Ottawa Citizen, April 12, 2012

The coaching matchup between the Ottawa Senators' Paul MacLean and the New York Rangers' John Tortorella could be labelled the moustache versus the mouth.

While MacLean has no interest in a war of words with the fiery, f-bomb-slinging Tortorella – "All I'm going to do is work real hard to coach my team, and that's what my energy is going be used on," MacLean said Tuesday – he acknowledges in-game decisions can make or break a team.

"In the playoffs, (coaching) is even more of a factor, recognizing what's going on and being able to make adjustments," he said. "It's a big priority, if you can recognize it soon enough. It's about how you handle momentum. When the momentum is swinging, it's what your team does to maintain it or get the momentum back on your side. Those are decisions the coaches make that are vital."

While MacLean is a rookie NHL head coach, he hasn't missed the playoffs since joining Mike Babcock's Detroit staff as an assistant. "I'm confident in my team and coaching staff. I think we have enough experience to give the input our team needs," said MacLean, who spent six seasons in Detroit.

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

[Tom Molloy]

Last summer we visited one of the Titanic grave sites in Halifax N.S.. It was sad. The one stone told about how the crew really acted and not like in the movie which made them look like cowards.

Thought it was something worth sharing.

Attachments

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'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'

[hockeygod]

Travel keeps Mr. Hockey young:
Gordie Howe in Calgary to promote charity tourney, which runs at Canada Olympic Park this weekend

Allen Cameron, Calgary Herald April 13, 2012

Understand, Marty Howe had ambitions of having his 84-year-old dad take it a little easier.

But Gordie Howe, apparently would have none of it.

The effects of age have clearly caught up with Mr. Hockey — he won’t speak to the media, nor will he speak in public. But he will shake countless hands, pose for countless pictures and spread unlimited goodwill.

“I started running his company five or six years ago and I had this brainstorm that I would charge a little more (for his appearances) and we would do a little less so that we could go fishing,” said Marty on Friday at the Gordie Howe and Friends Luncheon at the downtown Westin, the kickoff event to the second annual Scotiabank Calgary Pro-Am for Alzheimer’s. “But he was bored out of his mind. So I changed the whole thing and went right back to charging less and going to more stuff. He probably does close to 60 events a year. I’ve been home 10 days in the last three months with all the travelling he does.

“And everybody thinks it’s really hard on him. But I think it’s actually what keeps him going and keeps him younger. He livens up. He loves these things, he really does. He loves talking to the people. I can’t stop him from doing it, I can tell you that. The only way he’s going to stop is when he can’t do it anymore. And hopefully that’s not for a long time.”

Being out in public is one thing, of course, but the cause is near and dear to the Howes’ heart. Colleen Howe — Gordie’s wife, and the mother to his sons and former World Hockey Association teammates Marty and Mark, died in 2009 after being diagnosed with Pick’s Disease, a neurological disorder similar to Alzheimer’s. The Scotiabank Pro-Am stages fundraising tournaments across the country, with funds going to the Gordie and Colleen Howe Fund for Alzheimer’s, with this year’s Calgary event, which runs today and Sunday at the WinSport Ice Complex, expected to raise around $1.4 million.

‘Well, it adds a purpose,” said Marty. “And it’s great, to have your name associated with something that’s helping people . . . We were happy to put our name on this when they came to us, and when my mom passed away, it was always something that was a perfect fit for us. And coming to these cities in Canada, getting to Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, the turnouts are always great. It’s fun getting out of the States and getting to where they actually know about hockey. . . . Calgary, it feels like home for Gordie, being from Saskatchewan. It makes things familiar for him and I know he enjoys it.”

The tournament has attracted 350 participants, and NHL alums such as Lanny McDonald, Bryan Trottier, Tiger Williams and Gary Roberts were being matched with amateur teams Friday night in time for the opening games today at 9 a.m., with an all-star game set for today at noon. And while Mr. Hockey won’t be on the ice, he’ll be in the building, doing what he still loves to do: be around people.

“Sometimes he recognizes the faces, sometimes he doesn’t, but he loves telling his stories and talking to the people,” said Marty. “And he loves seeing the kids; he’s always tweaking their ears or doing something like that.

“He could literally do an event every day if he was still doing speeches. . . . It’s nice that he’s still known after all these years and he’s still recognizable with that same hairdo —just a little greyer.

“And,” added Marty with a smile, the same sharp elbows.”

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

[hockeygod]

Beer league teams get to play with NHL greats — for mere $25,000 charity commitment

Bryce Forbes, Calgary Herald, March 27, 2012

CALGARY — It’s rare beer league hockey players will ever be given the chance to sit around and hear NHL stories from the likes of Lanny McDonald, Theo Fleury or Marty McSorley.

But if you commit to raising $25,000 per hockey team, that’s what you get in the Scotiabank Pro-Am for Alzheimer’s, all supporting Gordie and Colleen Howe’s Fund for Alzheimer’s.

“It’s a lot of fun and it’s a very, very impactful cause,” said Allan Klassen, a member of the host committee.

“Alzheimer’s is not one of the, I’ll call it, not one of the sexier diseases. It doesn’t get the coverage or exposure that other diseases get but it’s still impactful for so many families across Canada and the world that it’s going to become an even bigger impact as our parents — the baby boomer generation — continues to age.”

Now in its second year in Calgary, the hockey tournament will run the weekend of April 13.

The event raised $1.1 million last year, with hopes of $1.8 million this time.

Although Klassen doesn’t know how much has been raised so far this year, the number of teams has nearly doubled, from 15 to 26 squads.

“The amount of money raised in Calgary last year was outstanding and we are so thrilled that the event will be returning for a second season,” Bill Gaudette, chief executive of Alzheimer Society of Alberta and Northwest Territories, said in a news release. “The Scotiabank Pro-Am event has given Calgarians the opportunity to reach out to their communities and raise awareness and funds for this disease that affects many. We are extremely thankful for its ongoing support.”

The weekend starts with a draft held Friday night with the team that raises the most money earning the No. 1 draft choice. Last year, former Edmonton Oilers enforcer Marty McSorley went first overall to a group of Oilers fans, with Klassen and his squad taking Flames great Theoren Fleury with the second pick.

From there, each player will spend the weekend with the team.

“From a pure hockey perspective, it’s unbelievable,” Klassen said. “You get a chance to sit around the locker-room afterwards and have a couple of pops and just chat with these guys.

“They’ll spend the whole weekend with you and it’s just an amazing experience to be able to be buddies with guys that you watched play, whether it’s Lanny McDonald or Theo Fleury or Marty McSorley.”

It’s by no means a competitive tournament with no champions being crowned at the end. Instead, the teams will get three games of NHL alumni.

For more information, check out http://www.scotiabankproam.com/calgary.

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

[hockeygod]

Big fish throw women’s hockey minnows a line

BURLINGTON, VT.— RACHEL BRADY, Globe and Mail, Apr. 13, 2012

Shannon Miller wonders how the seasoned hockey men coaching Russia’s women’s Olympic team will feel about taking advice from a 40-something Canadian woman as they prepare their team for the 2014 Sochi Olympics. She’ll find out this weekend when she meets with them at the women’s world hockey championship.

Miller coached Canada’s 1998 women’s Olympic team and has since won five NCAA championships as head coach at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. She has been asked to act as a mentor in the International Ice Hockey Federation’s ambassador program, which pairs experienced medalists from the Olympics and world championships with developing women’s hockey nations in the hopes of improving the level of the women’s game worldwide.

The mentor program aims to bridge the gap between the rest of the world and the two North American powerhouses, Canada and the United States, who will once again play for gold on Saturday.

The mentors –from Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland – help the nations ranked fifth through 14th set up basics such as off-ice training programs and nutritional plans. Many mentors have said there are still some national teams that have players who smoke.

Many of the mentors will share their experiences with each other in a meeting this weekend with the IIHF. How can they help the countries who get little resources from their national federations, and have small pools of players from which to choose their national team? How do they push players from other nations to work harder, put in more hours and believe the effort will be worth it?

“The reality is that no matter how much time you spend mentoring, federations still have to put in the money and the time,” said Miller, who notes the federations accepted the mentoring invitation, not the teams directly. “They need the help, and the players deserve it. Some players worldwide will throw their coaches under the bus for their lack of success, and sometimes that’s rightfully so, sometimes it isn’t. But we’ll find out if Russia is serious about putting on a serious showing at the Sochi Olympics with the decisions they make in the next little while.”

The Russian team has said it aims to win a medal at the Sochi Olympics. Yet Russia did not win a game in Burlington, Vt., this week despite coming into the tournament ranked fourth in the world. The losses prompted Canadian star Hayley Wickenheiser to criticize Russia’s effort publicly. Star Russian player Iya Gavrilova called her team’s performance “a total failure.”

“I will be thankful for the help,” Russian coach Valentin Gureyev said through a translator, visibly agitated after a loss to Sweden. “I’m not happy at all about this tournament, but we are a very young team and of course we still want a medal in Sochi. We are working hard.”

Sweden, which dropped to fifth in the world and won’t play for a medal this week, came all the way to Burlington and never even got to face Canada or the United States.

“It’s not good enough, we need to be better, we want to compete for a medal, to grow women’s hockey in Sweden,” head coach Niclas Hogberg said. “But we have helped mentor teams behind us so of course they are closing the gap on us. To be honest, we feel a little left out of the mentor program. We could use some help too.”

Members of the Finnish team had mused aloud this week about being confident enough to upset Canada and be the first nation other than Canada and the U.S. to appear in a gold-medal final at the worlds. That didn’t happen.

Losing to one of the North American powerhouses is not surprising. But when another nation believes it may be able to pull off an upset, now that is new. Arto Sieppi, director of Finland’s women’s program, thinks his team is close, and he has reason for optimism. They have begun a training program for the best teenaged female players in Finland in Kuortane, four hours north of Helsinki, at a high school that also acts as a training facility for Olympic hopefuls in volleyball, track and field and wrestling. The hockey players are encouraged to go to a U.S. college.

“We won’t see the results of it in Sochi, but after those Olympics, I hope to see 10 to 15 players from Kuortane playing on the national team and growing for the next Olympics,” Sieppi said.

Former president of the WNBA, Val Ackerman, sat in the crowd Friday, hired by the NHL to observe women’s hockey and report back as they strategize how to help grow the women’s game.

“My initial observation is that it’s a niche, the crowd seems very local and the sport is in the shadows, not visible enough yet, but the NHL is paying attention and wants to use its assets to support its growth,” said Ackerman. “Olympic hockey players could be like Olympic gymnasts and figure skaters were to many girls like me growing up. I think we are in a new chapter in the book of women’s sports now, one where little girls may start to idolize athletes in team sports — soccer and basketball and hockey.”

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

[hockeygod]

How big of a factor is luck in winning the Stanley Cup?

JAMES MIRTLE, Globe and Mail, Apr. 13, 2012

In the six years since the lockout, the NHL has had six very different Stanley Cup champions.

Three were Original Six teams; two were in the American Sun Belt. Another, the Pittsburgh Penguins, won with a cast of young talent after being a bottom feeder for years.

Ask the general manager of the first one on the list, however, and he’ll tell you they all have at least one thing in common.

“All the stars have to line up for you,” Jim Rutherford, general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, said. “After you win a series or the Stanley Cup, in your quiet time, you sit there and think: ‘Oh man, what about that time when the guy missed the open net in overtime?’

“You can probably look back at 10 different things and say: ‘If that would have happened, we wouldn’t have won.’ ”

Rutherford can do that even now, on a whim, with his team’s only championship, in 2006.

He recalls the ’Canes being down two games to none in Round 1 to the Montreal Canadiens and then down 1-0 in Game 3, with thoughts of a sweep wiping out a 112-point regular season.

Eight weeks later, team captain Rod Brind’Amour was hoisting the Cup on home ice.

The stars that aligned in the Hurricanes’ case were in large part due to their situation in the crease, as they went into the postseason with Martin Gerber as their starter and one of the worst team save percentages (.897) among playoff-bound teams.

Enter rookie Cam Ward, who had started only 25 games during the season but took over in Game 2 of the Montreal series and was stellar the rest of the way.

Suddenly the ’Canes were a high scoring, high seeded team with vastly improved goaltending – a recipe that paid off in a Cup for Rutherford and Co. and a Conn Smythe Trophy for the then 22-year-old Ward.

That wasn’t anything anyone could have predicted before the playoffs started, but it does fit with a pattern for championship teams since the lockout.

All six of those Cup winners had their save percentages rise in the postseason, with Carolina and the 2008 Detroit Red Wings receiving the biggest bump – a .014 higher save percentage – at their most important position.

It may not sound like much, but that’s equivalent to three fewer goals against in a seven-game series.

It’s an old cliché that goaltending wins championships, but statistically speaking, the numbers – with apologies to Ilya Bryzgalov – bear that out. On average, the six most recent teams to win haven’t increased their goal production, been better on the power play or penalty kill, or kept shots on goal down.

They’ve simply had more saves than they did during the regular season.

“That was a case where Cam was fresh,” Rutherford said of his team’s run. “He hadn’t gone through the year and wasn’t worn down. He played a couple of good games and then his confidence just skyrocketed from there.”

As was the case with the Hurricanes (and the team they faced in that final, the Edmonton Oilers), it hasn’t always been a team that had solid goaltending during the season, either. Only two of those recent Cup-winning teams had been better than average in goal going into the postseason: the 2007 Anaheim Ducks and last year’s Boston Bruins.

All six teams did have some things in common during the season, however: They all finished among the top eight teams in the league in points (between 99 and 115), and they all were among the top eight in goals scored (between 2.98 and 3.49 a game) in the year they won.

Seven teams fit into both categories this year – a group that includes the four most recent winners as well as the Vancouver Canucks, Nashville Predators and Philadelphia Flyers.

But with the way parity has increased in the league since the lockout and how unpredictable goaltending can be, Rutherford still cautions that anything can happen.

“With goaltending and getting on a run at the right point, I think any team that’s in this year has a chance to win that Cup,” he said. “A legitimate chance. With the parity in the league now, anybody can win.

“You have to have exceptional goaltending. You also have to have a team that really believes in each other. But the key factors are the coach, the goalie and being very strong down the middle.”

What does a Cup winner look like? *

Team Record Goals GAA PP% PK% SV%
2006 Carolina 4th 3rd 19th 17th 17th 15th
2007 Anaheim 4th 8th 7th 2nd 5th 6th
2008 Detroit 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 8th 13th
2009 Pittsburgh 8th 6th 17th 20th 8th 14th
2010 Chicago 3rd 3rd 5th 16th 4th 23rd
2011 Boston 7th 5th 2nd 20th 16th 1st

*- all ranks from regular season of championship year

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

[hockeygod]

Goaltending is supposed to be everything in the playoffs, right?

ERIC DUHATSCHEK, Globe and Mail, Apr. 13, 2012

You gotta love that Ted Leonsis, unless you’re Bruce Boudreau, and then maybe you don’t love him quite as much after he fired you mid-season with a career 201-88-40 coaching record with the Washington Capitals. But Leonsis, the Capitals’ heavily engaged fan/owner, tweeted a message earlier this week, playing the underdog card to the hilt. "Why bother playing," asked Leonsis, tweeting a link to a local blog post in which 31 of 33 “experts” picked the Boston Bruins to defeat his Capitals in the opening round. Clearly, Leonsis didn’t like how heavily the sentiment was running against his team and reacted the way any fan might – loyally, but with just a hint of petulance thrown in for good measure.

Spoiler alert: I was in the minority that chose Washington in an upset. But the fact that most predicted a Bruins’ victory was defensible on many levels. The Bruins are the reigning champions; they have a defenceman in Zdeno Chara with the ability to shut down Alex Ovechkin, and on paper, the goaltending match-up looked decidedly one-sided.

For the Bruins, it featured Tim Thomas, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner (as the NHL’s top goalie) and the reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner (as MVP playoff), who earned a shutout in the opener, a narrow 1-0 Boston overtime victory. For Washington, it was a rookie, Braden Holtby, the No. 3 goalie in the organization, pressed into service because the Capitals’ regular netminders, Tomas Vokoun and Michael Neuvirth, are both injured, who acquitted himself very nicely in his debut.

Goaltending is supposed to be everything in the playoffs, right? Right?

Except …

Assessing the Bruins-Capitals series a few days ago, I thought Washington in 2012 shared some similarities with the Philadelphia Flyers of 2010. Remember how that looked in April two years ago, before the playoffs began?

Philadelphia was a seventh seed, had barely scraped into the playoffs and was trying to get by with a goaltending tandem that featured Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher. In the opening round, they were facing a tough No. 2, the New Jersey Devils, who had Martin Brodeur in goal, the goalie with the most victories of all time, someone coming off a strong season. Brent Sutter was the coach and the Devils were the heavy favorite. You could argue that the position players on both teams roughly offset one another, but the Devils held such a significant edge between the pipes that they were the consensus choice most places. Probably 31 out of 33 prognosticators had the Devils over the Flyers in that series too. Experts love to pick favorites; if you roll the dice on an underdog and you miss, you can look both naïve and silly after the fact.

Two years ago, the Flyers’ goaltending held up just fine in the opening round and was solid right to the finish line, where they came up just short in the Stanley Cup final against the Chicago Blackhawks.

That’s the thing about goaltending in the playoffs. Your career body of work counts for very little. Last year’s performance counts for very little. Hardware on the shelf? Nice to have, but in a best-of-seven series that starts from scratch, it is pretty close to irrelevant.

Any goaltender good enough to play in the NHL is also good enough to get on a roll for two weeks, or four, or even six, and win you a round or two or three. Anybody remember how great Patrick Lalime was for the Ottawa Senators in the 2003 playoffs (a 1.82 GAA in 18 games)? Anybody remember how great Brent Johnson was for the St. Louis Blues in the 2002 playoffs (a 1.83 GAA in 10 games)? Anybody remember how the Pittsburgh Penguins plucked Johan Hedberg out of the AHL’s Manitoba Moose and got a lot of mileage out of him in the 2001 playoffs, 18 games, nine wins, and a 2.30 GAA? Still remember Mario Lemieux extolling the virtues of the “Moose” to Pierre MacGuire after a memorable series win. You had a sense that if you’d ask Lemieux to identify “the Moose” by name, he might have come up with his surname or his Christian name, but maybe not both.

Anybody outside of Montreal remember Steve Penney? Or the early Rogie Vachon? Or Ken Dryden? Vachon was such an unknown that the opposing coach, Punch Imlach, scoffed that he had little fear of a “Jr. B” goalie. Dryden was an unknown quantity, a Cornell University grad, promoted to Montreal from the AHL Voyageurs, and helped the Canadiens knock off a 121-point Bruins team, the heavy favorites after finishing 24 points ahead in the standings. Probably 31 out 33 prognosticators picked the Bruins that year too.

The history of the NHL playoffs since 1994, when the current conference format was introduced shows a lot of No. 2s taking out No. 7. I agree with my old friend Bob McKenzie when it comes to making picks – I hate doing it; if I really knew for sure how it was going to turn out, I’d begin by sharing that knowledge with a friendly sports book or two in Las Vegas. But if I’m obliged to do it, I’m not just going to pencil in eight favorites and settle for the predictable 6-2 record that you can almost certainly get if you do that. I always pick a No. 7 over a No. 2. Philadelphia over New Jersey two years ago worked out just fine (and really enhanced my fantasy team that year). In fact, I was tempted to pick two No. 7s over No. 2s this year, because to me, San Jose-St. Louis is pretty much a pick-em series as well.

Also: I see many similarities between this year’s editions of the Sharks and the Capitals. Both were considered legitimate Stanley Cup contenders back in October, because they had rock-solid line-ups specifically tweaked in the summer to enhance their playoff chances, Washington by adding a veteran goalie, San Jose by adding Brent Burns’ offence from the blue line and swapping out Dany Heatley for Martin Havlat. Both were coming off a string of 100-point seasons and theoretically possessed a hunger inspired by last year’s playoff stumbles. Moreover, neither the Sharks nor the Capitals could do anything in the regular season this year that wouldn’t be erased by another playoff pratfall anyway, so the motivation to play hard wasn’t there, and found themselves stuck between “coast” and “cruise” for much of the season.

The fact that things didn’t go all that well between October and April shouldn’t have come as a complete surprise. Nor does it change the fact that the Sharks and Capitals are still two pretty good teams that had off years. The Caps even had a decent excuse – Nicklas Backstrom’s half-season absence because of a concussion, which really permitted teams to concentrate on stopping Ovechkin.

So Backstrom is back, Ovechkin is playing pretty well, and Mike Green is something of a wild card, which means we circle back to goaltending. Holtby had a decent NHL cameo two years ago; was solid in the final week; seems to have the respect of his teammates; is confident in his own abilities, and by the way, probably knows that he wouldn’t be the first unknown goalie to make a splash out of the gate.

Sure the Caps can win, although I would have liked their chances better this morning if they’d found a way to steal Game 1 on the road. But they have enough elements to suggest they can play a hard competitive series against the Bruins, and if they earn a split in Boston, well, we’ll see what happens.

Why bother playing Ted? Maybe just to see if that tired ‘us against the world’ rallying cry really works, even in the world of professional sport.

THE GOALIE WARS: It’s two days into the playoffs and there isn’t a single goaltending crisis anywhere on the NHL landscape. Something’s gotta give, right? Maybe tonight in Vancouver, where the Canucks lost the opener through no fault of Roberto Luongo’s. Instead, they were just flat-out, outplayed by the Los Angeles Kings, which should provide a wake-up call for tonight’s second game.

Last week, I was chatting with former goaltender Greg Millen about the goaltending fraternity at large, and how not everybody understands how tight it really is inside the dressing rooms, where the goalies – in 99 per cent of the cases – work so well together.

Every team carries 18 position players, so when somebody needs a sounding board, they generally have multiple options. Usually there are only two goalies, and one coach assigned to their care and feeding. So it’s a small exclusive group, that requires a narrow specific expertise and thus its practitioners gravitate towards one another.

The one thing that never changes in the goaltending fraternity is that there’s a rotation. Every night, one starts and the other sits. And, according to Millen, if you happen to be the one sitting at the end of the bench, with the ball-cap on, and the towel draped around your neck, you cannot make that a distraction.

“You’re in a group that’s trying to win games as a team,” explained Millen, “and you have to be a big part of the team, whether you’re playing or not. If you don’t have that team-first attitude, you don’t hang around – because your teammates know it, your coaches know and everybody knows it. So unless you’re a goalie who is an elite, elite guy that people shake their heads at and put up with, because they’re just so good – and there have been a couple of those, not many – then you have to make sure you’re a team player. If you do that, you normally find success goes with it.

“Because that’s the other part of this puzzle that’s extremely important for a goalie – you need your teammates fighting for you. As a goalie, you rely heavily on the guys in front of you. You need their trust and you need them to want to play for you. If you’re a selfish person and not a team player, they’re not going to play for you – and then you’re not going to succeed as a goalie because I don’t care if you’re Jacques Plante, if you don’t have a team playing in front of you, you’re in trouble.”

Millen believes that the pressure on goaltenders may be greater than every these days, in part because scoring, across-the-board, was down again in the NHL this year. Five goalies, including two involved in the Kings-Canucks series (L.A.’s Jonathan Quick and Vancouver’s Cory Schneider) had goals-against average’s under 2.00, numbers associated with the various dead-puck eras of the past. There’s an irony at work here too – as scoring drops off, pressure on goaltenders heightens even further. The line is so fine, and the margins of victory so narrow that you’d think goalies would be celebrated for their collective achievements. Instead, it’s just the opposite, Millen maintained.

“We have put so much emphasis on goaltending in this day and age, and I understand it, because the league is so close now,” said Millen, “but it’s almost as if the goalies aren’t allowed to make mistakes anymore. It’s a bit unfortunate because goalies make mistakes just like forwards and coaches and managers and everybody else in the game.

“But the nice crutch for everybody on the managerial side is, ‘oh, we didn’t get the goaltending.’ That’s often a situation that could be part of the puzzle, but nine times out of 10, it’s not all of it.

Millen played in an era when GAAs in the 4.00 range were not uncommon. Sometimes, they even drifted into the 5.00s. Nowadays, even the statistically worst goalies, are still not giving up many goals.

“I can tell you, as a former goalie, that the goalies now are better than they’ve ever been. No question about it. The guys shoot the puck harder, they’re quicker, the game is faster, and they are better athletes than we ever were.

“The position is just fun to watch right now. It’s amazing. These guys are amazing.”

MILLEN ON VANCOUVER: So does Millen have any thoughts specific to Luongo and Schneider, the Canucks’ goaltending duo? Do you need to be part Sigmund Freud to play goal in Vancouver these days?

“I would suggest that’s the toughest market to play in the NHL right now,” said Millen. “I don’t think that’s unfair. I think it’s even tougher than Toronto or Montreal because the expectations are so high for the team.

“The nice part for Roberto Luongo is he now has somebody with him to help him along the road – and I think they’re going to need both guys to be successful. I assume they will, at some point, in the playoffs. And that’s OK. There’s nothing wrong with that. Everybody seems to want to get into a one-goalie system, and yeah, if you can run with one, obviously, in the playoffs, it’s better, just because you’re winning. You’re not into problems. But if they get into problems, at least they can mix it up a little, which is not a bad thing.”

BOBBY LOU AND SCHNEIDS SPEAK OUT: I put my theories on the goaltending fraternity to Luongo just before the playoffs began, and he explained it this way:

“There’s not many of us, so we almost feel like we’re in the minority and that’s why we stick together,” said Luongo. “It’s a tough position to play and we respect that in each other; and that’s why we’re pretty close.”

Unsolicited, he then added: “And he (Schneider) is a great guy. That’s what makes it easy. He’s an extremely hard worker. He’s got a big heart and he cares for everybody on the team. So how can you not root for a guy like that?”

For his part, Schneider says of Luongo: “I’ve always respected him. I remember watching him in college and high school. I didn’t know him really well before I got here last year, but in the time I’ve spent with him, he’s a bit misunderstood by some people. I think there’s a lot more to him than people realize and he’s done a great job, weathering the expectations, the criticism, his own personal drive – because I think he pushes himself harder than anybody and he’s harder on himself than anyone else ever could be.”

Ultimately, the goal for both is to win the Stanley Cup. If each can make a contribution to the 16 victories that it will take, so be it.

“Once you get to this level, you’re playing for the same team and you’re all pushing for the same goal,”’ said Schneider, “so you want what’s best for your teammates and that includes the other goalie on the team.

“We see other goalies play and you watch and you respect and admire what other guys are able to do and sometimes, you shake your head at how well a guy’s played and the saves they make. You say, ‘wow, I wonder if I could have done that.’ And you feel for them at the same time when they give up a bad goal, or you give up a bad goal, or what people may think is a bad goal but you actually say, ‘hey, it’s a little bit harder than it looks.’

“But at the end of the day, there’s no position quite like goaltending. We all sort of feel for each other and understand what everyone’s going through.”

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

[hockeygod]

FORMER CANADIENS CAPTAIN BOUCHARD PASSES AWAY AT 92

THE CANADIAN PRESS, 4/14/2012

MONTREAL — Emile (Butch) Bouchard, a longtime Montreal Canadiens captain and four-time Stanley Cup winner, died Saturday. He was 92.

Friend and sports analyst Ron Fournier says Bouchard was surrounded by his family when he died.

The defenceman scored 49 goals in 785 games during his 15-year NHL career, captaining the Habs for eight seasons before retiring in 1956.

The Canadiens won the Stanley Cup four times while Bouchard was with the team, twice while he was captain.

"He was one of the great captains in the history of the Canadiens," Rejean Houle, the Habs alumni president, who played with the Canadiens in the 1970s and 80s, said in an interview Saturday.

"It was a period where the team really became a dynasty."

Pierre Bouchard, member of the Canadiens himself from 1970 to 1978, said his father remained active until the end of his life.

"He was getting old, but he was in good shape," he said.

The Canadiens issued a release saying the organization was "deeply saddened" by Bouchard's death.

Born in Montreal on Sept. 4, 1919, Emile Bouchard wasn't planning on a career in hockey after originally wanting to work in banking or as a beekeeper.

He played many sports growing up, including baseball and boxing, but it was only around age 16 that he began to take hockey seriously.

After borrowing $35 from his brother to buy equipment, Bouchard began playing for the Verdun Maple Leafs of Quebec's old Provincial Senior League.

The rugged six-foot-two, 205-pound Bouchard quickly got noticed and the Montreal Canadiens offered him his first professional contract to play with their minor league club in Providence, R.I. He played 12 games for the team in 1940-41.

Bouchard grabbed the big club's attention at training camp the following year when he made the 80-kilometre trip by bicycle from his home in Montreal to the training site in St-Hyacinthe, Que.

He earned a spot on the blue-line and played the next 15 seasons with the Habs, establishing a reputation as one of the best hitters of the era.

Bouchard was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1966.

"He was one of the leaders in the 1940s for a team that wasn't going anywhere, and then later, things went very well, with the arrival of Maurice (Richard) and all the others after that," Pierre Bouchard said. "Those were great years for the Canadiens' organization.

Despite his success, Emile Bouchard had to wait 43 years to have his No. 3 jersey retired. After a grassroots campaign started by his family, he was honoured alongside fellow Habs great Elmer Lach before the team's centennial game on Dec. 4, 2009.

"It gave him a great boost in the last seven, eight years of his life," Pierre Bouchard said. "It allowed him to be better known to the younger generation."

Emile Bouchard was also a successful Montreal businessman. Hockey didn't keep him from beekeeping during his playing career. From 1938 to 1950, his 1.2 million bees produced up to 6,800 kilograms of honey annually.

In 1948, he opened his own restaurant, called Butch Bouchard, in downtown Montreal. It was a mainstay in the area, hosting cabaret shows and musicians until it closed in 1983.

Houle remembers going to the restaurant with his teammates after games, and got to know Bouchard well.

"He was a great leader, just by his presence," Houle said. "When we played a good game, he was always proud to see us win. His heart belonged to the Canadiens, that's clear."

Bouchard also combined business and sports, becoming the director of the Montreal Royals of baseball's International League in 1956, which was the farm club of the Brooklyn Dodgers at the time. He was promoted to president in 1957 but the club played its final season in 1960.

Bouchard married painter Marie-Claire Macbeth in 1946 and had five children.

A funeral service is expected to be held next Saturday.

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

[hockeygod]

Butch Bouchard a cherished captain in Montreal Canadiens history: Played from 1941-1956

Ken Campbell, The Hockey News, 2012-04-14

Butch Bouchard didn’t have a pair of skates to call his own until he was 16 years old, but five years later, having a pair of wheels was just as important to making the Canadiens as having a pair of blades.

The year was 1940 and Bouchard was just 19 years old. He had played only a few years of high-level competitive hockey in Verdun before catching the eye of the talent-depleted Canadiens, who invited him to training camp. Bouchard wanted so badly to make the team that each morning he would get on his bicycle at his home on Longueuil and pedal 35 miles to the team’s training facility in Ste-Hyacinthe.

As it turned out, Bouchard was just getting warmed up. He was 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds, regarded as a freak of nature at the time, and had built up his muscle mass by lifting railway ties with steel plates added for more weight. Once he got to practice, his youthful enthusiasm took over and the young Bouchard was making an impression on his future employers and a more lasting and tangible one on his future teammates.

And he certainly didn’t pick his spots. His penchant for hitting veterans as hard and as often as young players didn’t exactly impress some of the Canadiens’ older players.

In fact, Murph Chamberlain, a tough and durable forward who did his best work along the boards, told coach Dick Irvin one day after practice: “If I were you, I would order this young elephant to calm down and show less aggressiveness because if he keeps on going the way he is going, a few more days and you will find yourself without a player to open the season.”

The Canadiens, though, were delighted. At the time they were two years removed from what still stands as the worst season in franchise history and were in the process of remaking the Canadiens with players who had both NHL talent and a desire to win. In previous years, the Canadiens had not only languished near or at the bottom of the league standings, the players they had learned to accept losing. In 1939-40 the Canadiens were a dismal lot, going just 10-33-5. They would regularly get pounded in front of no more than 3,000 fans and coach Pit Lepine would come into the dressing room, put on his coat and say, “See you tomorrow, boys.”

They found exactly what they were looking for in the young Bouchard. He became an integral part of the new generation of Canadiens who, without hyperbole, not only saved the franchise from oblivion, but set the foundation for the dynasty teams that would follow. He was a classic defensive defenseman, scoring more than 10 goals just once in a 15-year career. And despite the fact that he might have been the most imposing physical player in the league at the time, the highest penalty minute total he ever registered was 88.

Bouchard spent much of his career as the steady, defensive influence on the blueline and after starting his career with Leo Lamoureux, was partnered with Doug Harvey, who was among the best ever in moving the puck up the ice and using his skill to create offense from the back end. Much of Harvey’s ability to freelance was due to the fact that he knew Bouchard was always behind him.

And Bouchard was hockey’s indisputable strong man. Although he wasn’t terribly mobile and skating was not his forte, he managed to get around the rink well enough not to be a liability. He used his size and strength to his advantage, but didn’t fight much and refused to use his physical advantage to be anything more than a peacekeeper.

The fact he rarely fought is attributable to the fact that opponents probably realized it was a good idea not to provoke him. Bouchard often used his enormous hands to pull combatants apart.

“It was like he was chiseled out of stone,” former teammate Dickie Moore once said. “He had the biggest shoulders and the smallest waist I had ever seen.”

Bouchard was also years ahead of his time when it came to being an entrepreneur. In the 1930s and early '40s, most hockey players were regarded as small-town bumpkins or lunkheads who had few abilities outside the confines of the rink. But early in his career, Bouchard ran an apiary that produced enough money to buy a home for his family and finance the start-up of a tavern in Montreal that was not far away from The Forum.

After a short stint in the minors, Bouchard landed in the NHL for good in 1941-42 and became a regular on the blueline in 1942-43 as the Canadiens tried to find a replacement for Ken Reardon, who left to join the effort in World War II.

And it wasn’t long before Stanley Cups followed. The Canadiens ended a 13-year drought with a Stanley Cup in 1944 and won the Cup again two years later. Goalie Bill Durnan took over the captaincy of the team for a short time after Toe Blake retired, but then the ‘C’ was handed to Bouchard in 1948-49 and he held it for eight full seasons. Only Jean Beliveau and Saku Koivu have enjoyed a longer tenure than Bouchard as captain of the Canadiens. (Bob Gainey was also captain for eight seasons.)

Bouchard was a member of two more Cup winners as captain, including his final season, which was the first in the Canadiens’ five-Cup dynasty of the late 1950s. After playing only half the season in 1955-56, Bouchard missed the entire playoffs with a knee injury, but coach Toe Blake dressed Bouchard for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final against the Detroit Red Wings. He sat on the bench for most of the game, but with the Canadiens leading 3-1 in the series and 3-1 late in Game 5, Blake sent Bouchard out for the last shift of his career and was on the blueline when the buzzer sounded in the deciding game.

Bouchard’s legacy with the Canadiens continued when his son, Pierre, joined the team in 1970-71. Pierre, who had his father’s exact height and weight, went on to win five Cups with the Canadiens, making the Bouchard’s the most Stanley Cup-decorated father-son combination in NHL history. Brett and Bobby Hull are the only other father-son duo to have their names on the Cup as players.

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

[hockeygod]

Canada defeats U.S. in gold medal game at women’s world hockey championship

Pat Hickey, Postmedia News, Apr 14, 2012

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Caroline Ouellette scored her second goal of the game at 1:50 of overtime to give Canada a 5-4 win over the United States in the gold-medal game of the IIHF women’s world championship on Saturday night at Gutterson Fieldhouse.

Canada took advantage of a fortunate bounce as the Americans attempted to clear the puck, but it struck one of their players as she was leaving the ice and bounced back toward the U.S. zone.

The win ended the Americans’ bid for a fourth consecutive championship and gave Canada its first title since they won in Winnipeg in 2007. Canada has a 10-4 advantage over the U.S. in overall titles.

Meghan Agosta scored a power-play goal with 2:38 remaining in regulation time to knot the game at 4-4.

The United States scored three unanswered goals on the power play as they rallied from a 3-1 deficit to take a 4-3 lead. Gigi Marvin scored her second power-play goal of the game at 2:57 of the third period to snap a 3-3 tie.

The U.S. scored three times on nine power-play opportunities. Canada was two-for-four on the power play.

Canada scored twice in a 90-second span early in the second period to take a 3-1 lead. Jayna Hefford put Canada ahead 2-1 with a power-play goal at 4:07. Hayley Wickenheiser got the puck to the net with a slapshot from the point and Hefford beat Molly Schaus after Agosta had a swipe at the puck.

Ouellette gave Canada a two-goal lead at 5:36 when she took a drop pass and fired on Schaus. The goaltender stopped Ouellette’s first shot but the veteran scored on the rebound.

But penalties proved to be Canada’s undoing late in the period. Brianna Decker, the outstanding player in U.S. college hockey this past season, cut Canada’s lead to one goal with a power-play goal at 16:43.

The U.S. went on the power play 25 seconds later when Gillian Apps was sent for bodychecking and Marvin tied the score at 18:16.

Canada found itself a player down four times in the opening period but took a 1-0 lead when veteran Wickenheiser scored a short-handed goal at 7:52. Wickenheiser blocked a pass in the neutral zone and took off on a breakaway. Schaus blocked the initial shot but Wickenheiser buried the rebound.

The game was seven and a half minutes before the U.S. had its first shot on goal but the Americans picked up the pace after falling behind. Kendall Coyne tied the score on a goalmouth scramble at 12:54 after goaltender Shannon Szabados made a stop on Amanda Kessel.

Twins Jocelyne Lamoureux and Monique Lamoureux-Kolls forced Szabados to make big saves and luck was on her side when Monique, the leading scorer in the tournament, had a chance in close.

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

[hockeygod]

Costello targets 2018 for a competitive Olympic tournament

BURLINGTON, VT.— Rachel Brady, Globe and Mail, Apr. 14, 2012

The chairman of the Women’s World Hockey Championships is glad International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge warned women’s hockey to get more competitive or lose its Olympic spot. He thinks Mr. Rogge will be pleased with the ongoing efforts to develop it.

At the end-of-tournament news conference on Saturday ahead of the medal games, chair Murray Costello expressed not only pride in the progress of the game worldwide, he also had stern words for “old boys networks” and nations who aren’t providing female hockey players with proper opportunities, saying the skill is there and the game is not going away. And Switzerland’s team followed up his words with its surprising bronze medal later in the day.

“It’s good he gave us that warning, because it got people really thinking about it and there is a real effort going on,” said Costello. “It would be nice to see a real difference in 2014. We may not see it by then, but I think by 2018 we will, competitive to where there are perhaps six or eight nations really contending.”

Switzerland pulled a major upset in the bronze medal game Saturday afternoon with a 6-2 win over Finland. It was the first-ever World Championship medal for the Swiss women. Switzerland is currently ranked sixth in the world, and Finland is third, the bronze medal winner at the 2010 Olympics. It points to a closing of the gap within the second-tier nations behind the two North American powerhouses. Where Finland and Sweden used to always compete for bronze, now there are more challengers. Germany, the Swiss players noted actually beat Switzerland earlier in the tournament.

“We won bronze — I still can’t believe it,” said Swiss goaltender Florence Schelling, after a lengthy Swiss on-ice celebration. “It’s huge. The smaller nations can keep up with the bigger nations. This is a huge win for women’s hockey.”

Costello called out Russia, who was seeded No.4 coming into the tournament and placed in the top pool, yet did not win a single game. As host of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the Russians have repeatedly said they intend to challenge for a medal at the Games.

“We often hear about an old boys network even in North America. Well you can quadruple that in Russia,” said Costello. “The men who run the game there really control it. An awful lot of them still believe this isn’t a game for women. But as they see more happening, they begin to realize the skill is there and the desire to play is there.”

“They are under the gun now, and will respond unless they want to be totally embarrassed,” he continued. “They’re scouring the nation now for raw talent and trying to direct it toward our game as opposed to other sports. If Russia puts their governmental effort behind it, a lot can happen there very quickly. I’m not saying they’ll be up there with North America, but they will be a lot better than they are not. They are just getting started. They are about one year into their dedicated efforts.”

Costello said he has not been asked to provide formal reports on the scores of the tournament to Rogge, who said at the 2010 Olympics that women’s hockey must become more competitive and balanced or lose its spot in Olympic competition. But he’s sure the IIHF and IOC are keeping watch.

“They are noticing the effort in the emerging nations. We are trying to get the ones who can play to play better,” said Costello. “Rogge will certainly notice.”

A new tournament format was used at in Burlington, the same one that is to be used at the 2014 Olympics. It had the top four-seeded nations in the world in Pool A, and the next four in pool B. Then only the top two from Pool B made it into the playoff round. Switzerland came out of Pool B on its journey to bronze. The relegation was determined by a three-game series rather than a single game.

Promoting lower scores was key in the new format since goal differential wasn’t so essential to advancing. Nine of the 19 games played before the medal round were decided by one goal or less. Costello called the scores “very gratifying”.

“Some nations in Europe still don’t think this is a game for women and aren’t willing to give up the ice time to women. We’re still trying to convince them to accept that,” said Costello. “We [in North America] are about 20 years ahead of where they are. They are beginning to realize the women’s game is not going away, so they better show some equality and opportunity developing it.”

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

[hockeygod]

Walter Gretzky determined to be ‘thankful for everything’ despite hard knocks:
Baffled by all the autograph requests that he gets. “I am just a dad,” he says.

Joe O'Connor, National Post, Apr 14, 2012

BRANTFORD, Ont. — Walter Gretzky is skittering about like a water beetle, sliding through his house in his stocking feet, and talking constantly. Over there, he says, piled high on a coffee table in a sun-dappled backroom overlooking a backyard where the most famous backyard hockey rink in Canada — now a swimming pool — used to be, is a teetering stack of manila envelopes destined for points across Canada and the United States, with an autographed picture inside.

“Wayne is in California, so he sends me stacks of photographs that he has autographed and I reply to the letters,” Walter says. “The pile around here never seems to get any smaller.”

Then he is off, again, beetling over to the dining room table and another photograph, this one of himself, waving a Canadian flag and cheering on Canada, cheering on his eldest boy at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Remembered by hockey fans as the Olympic hockey tournament where Canada lost to the Czechs in a shootout, in which Marc Crawford, the Canadian coach, neglected to pick Wayne Gretzky — the greatest goal-scorer of all-time — to shoot in.

“Wasn’t that something?” his father says. “Boy oh boy, that coach is never going to live that one down. You know, Wayne has never said a word to me about it.”

More skittering, with the sunroom crammed with family photographs — there is Wayne on his wedding day, with Janet Jones on his arm — as the destination. “Sit down, sit down and get comfortable,” says Walter, gesturing at the oversized leather furniture the hockey star bought for his folks after Phyllis Gretzky was diagnosed with the lung cancer that eventually took her life in 2005.

Walter pauses, just then, stops moving and considers a question, about all the hard knocks he has had in his life: losing the hearing in his right ear in a workplace accident; losing the bulk of his memories from 1970 to the 1990s because of a brain aneurysm; losing his wife to cancer and now, another cruel blow, a formal diagnosis this month that the tremors in his left hand is Parkinson’s disease.

“You can see it shaking,” Walter says, holding his arms straight out from his body and watching as the fingers on his left hand trace circles; a constant, involuntary dance.

“I don’t even think about it,” he says. “I feel blessed, truly blessed, because everything is special to me, because I know what it’s like not to have something.

“Time for me from the early 1970s until about the year 2000 doesn’t exist anymore. I remember some things, in flashes, but much of it I don’t.”

Meet Walter Gretzky for the first time one day and he probably won’t remember you the next. Ask him to tell you what he did yesterday morning, and he can’t. Listen to him tell you a joke about the parade in Toronto in two weeks time — to practice just in case the Leafs ever make the playoffs — and he might tell you the same joke again 15 minutes later.

“It’s a challenge,” he says. “When I go to the mall and park my car most of the time I come out and I have no idea where it is. Before I go in I will think about my parking spot — think about it being three poles down from the building. That’s how I help myself remember. I also have a paper and pencil to write things down.”

He keeps life simple, as simple as it can be, that is, for Wayne Gretzky’s father. Raising money for the CNIB, giving his time to basically any good cause that asks nicely, speaking at schools, cutting the grass of an older woman who lives around the corner, driving the neighbours’ kids to church on Sundays and wandering over to the Wayne Gretzky Sports Complex, most winter nights, to be around the game he loves.

Whenever he goes out, he stuffs two 50-sheet pads of paper in his pockets. Not to help him remember, to sign autographs with. It is a request that he gets often, never fails to agree to and continues to be baffled by.

“I am just a dad,” Walter Gretzky says. Which, in this country, is kind of like the Virgin Mary saying she is ‘‘just a mom.” Another thing he never says no to is random visitors, mostly kids, knocking on the front door of the famous brown-brick bungalow — which is now a two-storey home thanks to an addition paid for by the famous son when his parents refused to let him build them a new home — and asking to see the basement.

It is a King Tut’s tomb of Wayne Gretzky memorabilia. Its keeper has been encouraged by the NHL, by police and by others not to be so welcoming to strangers, considering the contents, and the times in which we live.

“I don’t listen to that,” Walter says.

Casually displayed on one wall: the stick Wayne Gretzky set the NHL’s all-time career points record with. On a nearby shelf: a mini-Stanley Cup presented to each member of the 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers. On another wall: a photograph of the Great One shaking hands with Ronald Reagan at the White House and, draped over a chair, a Gretzky jersey from Wayne’s days with the Los Angeles Kings.

“Two teenagers from Woodstock were here before you came,” Walter says. “I let them try on the jersey.”

He reaches for an imaginary stick, and begins taking shots at an imaginary net at the opposite end of the basement, just like Wayne once did, for hours on end.

“Wayne would stand right here,” Walter says.

A cell phone rings. The host/tour guide checks his pockets, produces a flip phone, puts it to his good ear, says “hello,” nods his head a few times and says “goodbye.”

“That was Wayne,” Walter says. “He was calling to congratulate me on the school.”

Walter Gretzky Elementary School is brand new, built on the edge of a new subdivision in Brantford. A contest was held to select the name. Walter won in a landslide. Thursday was the gala opening, and inside the gymnasium students’ are bustling about. There is a faint smell of fresh paint.

The guest of honour gives a speech talking about his mother and how amazed she would be to see him standing there, a blue collar kid, with a Grade 12 education, in a gleaming building with his name on the front.

He tells the kids education means everything, then reads a poem about selflessness, about seeing your own problems for the trifles that they are — when compared to the problems of some. Life is about humility, about being thankful for everything you have.

A red ribbon is cut and the school’s namesake is engulfed, thereafter, by a sea of shining young faces, a swarming tide washing over him, with notepads and autograph requests.

Walter Gretzky’s smile, in the middle of it all, glows as big as a backyard rink. His right hand, as always, is ready with a black pen while his left is at his side, slightly hidden from view.

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

[hockeygod]

Jaromir Jagr’s evolution comes full circle:
From a mulleted teenager with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the early 1990s, to a leader and mentor with the Philadelphia Flyers today.

Bruce Arthur, National Post, Apr 13, 2012

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — In Jaromir Jagr’s locker, next to his shin pads and below his visored helmet, there is a small keepsake, a Madonna and child, bronze and nearly Flyers orange. He is Russian Orthodox, he says; he doesn’t think much of the difference between religions, but “I liked it because for 2,000 years, they are the same.”

Jagr is 40 years old now, hockey old, but he has changed. He has lived in tumultuous times: his mulleted glory days in Pittsburgh; his desultory time in Washington, where he was called a coach killer, with moods as unpredictable as his play; his gambling and tax problems, with debts to offshore casinos and to the IRS; his turn on Broadway with the Rangers; and his departure to Russia for three years, where he watched teammate Alexei Cherepanov collapse and die on the bench in 2008.

And upon his return this season, Jagr angered Pittsburgh one last time by swerving at the last minute to sign his one-year deal on the other end of the state, for reasons that still mystify many. But he seems to have found serenity in Philadelphia.

“I don’t think I was on a team [with] no argument, no fighting over the year,” Jagr says. “That’s the first time happened to me.”

He was a part of it. His night workout sessions were called Jaromir Jagr Hockey School by the young players who participated — Wayne Simmonds, for one, says he learned about body position and about how to keep the puck. Off the ice, he flashed his sense of humour — after Penguins fans taunted Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov about his stated fear of bears, Jagr wrote on Twitter, “Bryz is scared of bears. There were like 70 bears at the game! I wonder what would happen if he said he is scared of beautiful naked girls?!”

Jagr became a human Rosetta Stone in the Flyers locker room; as defenceman and fellow Czech Pavel Kubina puts it, “sometimes he’s talking to our goalies in Russian, speaking Czech with me and [Jakub Voracek], and the rest of the team he’s speaking English.”

His hockey remains fluent, too. At 40, after three seasons on the KHL’s big ice, he produced 19 goals and 54 points in 73 NHL games, and now has 665 goals and 1,653 points over his career.

“Jags? He’s one of the — what’s the word I’m looking for? — I don’t know if it’s professionalism, but he knows his job, he knows how to do it,” says Scott Hartnell, who played on a line with Jagr and Claude Giroux, and scored a career-high 37 goals. “He knows what works, he knows how to take care of himself. He knows what he has to do to be great. A pro. At 40 years old you’d think he’d lose that passion to play hockey, but there’s no sign of that.

“Sometimes you can really tell when he doesn’t have the jump, or whatever, and he lets us know — he says, ‘I don’t feel good. You’ll have to do a lot of the work tonight.’ … [But] just being a sponge, it’s been a really, really positive year for me. On the ice, off the ice, seeing the work he puts in, I’ve tried to, not emulate what he’s done, it doesn’t work — but it’s just really cool what he does.”

“I’m not going to say I wasn’t ready, but no matter how ready you are, you still have to go through this,” Jagr says. “Because you practise differently, you play in a different game for the last three years. You cannot play the same kind of game. You would look stupid on big ice … because it’s a small rink here, and because you’ve got to do everything quicker, because you’ve got no room. That kind of stuff, you’ve got to learn back.”

That is one reason he wants to play next year; he thinks he can be better, even with grey whispering into his hair. He isn’t afraid to see what he has left. As Hartnell puts it, Jagr knows what it takes to be great, even if only relative to his age.

“I think I got to the point where hard work make me happy,” Jagr says. “And I think that’s the best thing that happened to me in my life. If I go to the gym, and if I do some things, I’m happy after that. Some people are happy when they have a day off — I’m the opposite way. And I don’t know why it’s that, but that’s just me. And I’m just doing that to be happy. Strange stuff, but that’s how I would describe it.”

Jagr is still part of the mural here, next to Mario Lemieux’s fancy 66 club in the arena, featuring Penguins greats. He is still the author of a big and occasionally messy life, capable of charm and moods and faith in many things. And he still loves hockey, and is unwilling to cheat it anymore.

“He’s a big icon back home, and a lot of kids they want to be Jaromir Jagr when they start playing hockey,” Kubina says. “It’s not only about the hockey, but the way he represent himself. He’s still a pretty much down-to-earth guy. If you see him in the locker room you wouldn’t think he’s Jaromir Jagr, you’d think it’s one of the guys fighting for a job.

“He’s not one of those guys trying to be big star, even though he knows he is.”

Here in Pittsburgh, of course, he has been disowned, and they boo. Not that it matters, really, to a man at peace.

“Yeah, well, first of all, I don’t pay any attention to that,” Jagr says. “Even the boos, you don’t hear them. I kind of get used to it, I guess. Like early in the game, and you’ve got the puck, the fan think you’re going to hear it, you don’t hear it. It’s tough to describe, but it’s like your wife is talking to you, and you’re concentrating on something else, and you don’t hear her. That’s it. She’s complaining, ‘Why you don’t want to listen to me,’ but that’s what it is. Your mind is somewhere else.

“But you know, I never forget. I came here when I was 18, and everything was new to me, and I didn’t speak the language. I didn’t speak any English, actually. The city was so good to me, it tried to help me any way I went. I appreciate it.”

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

[hockeygod]

Two favourites on the brink

James Mirtle, Globe and Mail, April 16, 2012

If you're in a playoff pool, chances are your team is about to be missing some of its key bodies here in the next week.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Vancouver Canucks are both on the verge of being wiped out in Round 1, as they sit down 0-3 despite being picked by many pundits and fans as this year's two finalists.

That's illustrated nicely over at CupPick.com, where out of the 18,350 brackets submitted prior to the playoffs starting, the Penguins were the top choice to win the Stanley Cup this season with 24.4 per cent of the votes.

Vancouver wasn't far behind, in third behind only the Pens and New York Rangers, picking up 12.3 per cent of the vote.

(One gambling site tweeted Monday morning that had you bet $100 on the underdogs in every game so far, you'd be up $800 after 19 games.)

So why was there so much optimism around these two teams coming in?

For the Penguins, that's easy, as they went 18-4-1 heading into the playoffs and had only recently gotten Sidney Crosby back from a concussion. They were being hailed as the league's top team by many, getting a lot of good press for a late run that certainly looked a bit like when they won it all back in 2009.

Vancouver, meanwhile, was a finalist last year and hasn't really changed the composition of its team a great deal. Add in their Presidents' Trophy win and a Western Conference that's fairly wide open and, well, that's a good reason why they were a top pick for many.

So where did it all go wrong?

For Pittsburgh, goaltending has obviously been a huge part of the problem, as they've set a franchise record for goals allowed in the first three games of a series and Marc-Andre Fleury has a god awful .798 save percentage.

He has been terrible, and his team has unravelled in front of him, losing their composure when it was believed that the Philadelphia Flyers would be much more prone to that.

That all would have been hard to predict, especially considering Fleury leads all goalies with the most playoff wins since the lockout.

For Vancouver, it's been at the other end of the ice where they've struggled, scoring just four goals in the three games without Daniel Sedin after leading the Western Conference in goal production all season.

But both series illustrate just how close teams in the postseason are these days and also how the many, many shootouts can skew the standings.

In the playoffs, shootouts are pretty well irrelevant, but during the season, they contribute a great deal to where teams sit in the standings. Consider that if we wiped out all of the extra points for winning the skills competition, the Flyers would have the exact same number as the Pens with 99.

That's part of what made that series, in many ways, a coin flip from the beginning – especially with questions over Daniel Briere's health and Ilya Bryzgalov's playoff history on the Flyers side.

That same remove-the-shootouts trick doesn't work with Vancouver and LA, but consider that both teams had strong goal differentials and excellent goaltending during the year, and this really wasn't your typical one-versus-eight seed without Sedin in the Canucks lineup.

Only three teams in league history have come back from down 0-3, with more than 98 per cent of teams moving on, which makes it a fairly safe bet that the Flyers and Kings will advance at some point in the next week or so.

What's really interesting about this whole scenario is how it opens up both conferences, giving room for a team like Boston or Philly or Nashville to go on a run.

It reminds me of a conversation I had with Carolina Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford last week, when he talked about his team's run to the Cup in 2006 and how several favourites that he had been worried about before the postseason were knocked out early.

"When we got in, we thought about Detroit and Ottawa [both first in their conferences with 124 and 113 points during the year] and we were like 'boy those guys are going to be tough to get by,' " Rutherford said. "But as it turned out, we never had to play those teams.

"So teams that get in shouldn't look at teams they may have trouble with. They may never see them. Because there's other teams that may match up better than can eliminate them."

Who are the favourites minus Pittsburgh and Vancouver? I'd go with the Bruins near the top of the list, if they get past Washington, and whoever comes out of the Nashville-Detroit series.

Then you've got teams like the Rangers, Philadelphia, St. Louis and San Jose that, in the right situation, with potentially an easy second round opponent, could catch lightning in a bottle like the Hurricanes did and go all the way.

Maybe the real lesson from all of this is there really aren't three or four "favourites" so much anymore in the NHL – just teams with better seeds and better regular seasons who can be knocked off as easily as anyone.

That's bad for your pool – but it's been good for the intrigue factor watching these playoffs.

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

[Author]

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