Junior / CIS / NCAA / ACHA/ ACAC

[hockeygod]

MacKinnon: Oil Kings alive and thriving

John MacKinnon, edmontonjournal.com, May 13, 2012

EDMONTON – Just five seasons after being brought down from the musty attic of Edmonton’s sports memory and revived as an expansion franchise, the junior Oil Kings are alive and thriving, back on top of the Western Hockey League.

The Oil Kings defeated the Portland Winterhawks 4-1 in Game 7 of a thrilling best-of-seven WHL final series Sunday night in front of a franchise record playoff crowd of 12,514 at Rexall Place to clinch the championship.

Edmonton native Rhett Rachinski, who set the tone by scoring at 1:51 of the opening period, Tyler Maxwell, Michael St. Croix and T.J. Foster staked the Oil Kings to a 4-0 lead before Oliver Gabriel, also an Edmonton native, scored for Portland not long after the mid-point of the second period.

That was it for scoring, and Edmonton was able to protect that lead, no sure thing against the high-octane Winterhawks, who were held to just four shots in the third period.

Now the Oil Kings are headed back to the Memorial Cup tournament to compete for a national junior championship for the first time in 40 years.

“You know what, it’s a little surreal right now,” said Rachinski, a fifth-year player who has lived the growing pains of this fledgling franchise. “If you would have told me the last couple of years that we’d be winning a championship, I wouldn’t have believed you.

“Going through that adversity early on in my career, it makes you value this experience even more.”

The Oil Kings won’t have much time to savour their league championship. They play the host Cataractes on Friday night in the tournament opening game in Shawinigan, an industrial city of about 50,000 on the St. Maurice River, the hometown, famously, of former prime minister Jean Chretien and legendary goaltender Jacques Plante.

Their other opponents will be the Ontario Hockey League champion London Knights and the Saint John Sea Dogs, defending tournament champions, who are representing the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for the second straight season. The tournament runs from May 18-27.

“I’m just ecstatic,” said second-year Oil Kings head coach Derek Laxdal. “The work we’ve done in the last two years with this group of kids has been just outstanding.

“They’ve done everything we’ve asked. This is their time and this was the best game they played in the series. Now we’ve just got to take it on to Shawinigan.”

The Oil Kings haven’t been to the Memorial Cup since 1972, when they failed to win a game in the first national championship held in a tournament format in Ottawa.

In 1971, the Oil Kings lost a best-of-three series in two straight games to Guy Lafleur and the Quebec Remparts.

Back in the day, they were finalists seven straight years, from 1960-66, winning in ‘63 and again in ‘66, the latter occasion against Bobby Orr’s Oshawa Generals.

Reborn under the ownership of the NHL’s Oilers for the 2007-08 season, the Oil Kings have regained pride of place in the Edmonton sports community now, after some tough early seasons, including 2009-10, when they won just 16 games.

As with previous editions, these Oil Kings are tightly woven into the fabric of the community, from Rachinski, to team captain Mark Pysyk, of Sherwood Park, to assistant coach Steve Hamilton, son of Al, who helped the Oil Kings win a Memorial Cup in 1966.

Those connections also include defenceman Keegan Lowe, son of Oilers president Kevin, who was watching via the Internet from Finland, where he is GM of Team Canada at the World Hockey Championship.

“I felt bad,” the younger Lowe said. “He stayed up (Saturday) night to watch the game (a 3-2 Portland win), so staying up two nights in a row, he must be pretty tired.

“Growing up in Edmonton, most recently I can remember 2006 Oilers (run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final) and the city was absolutely electric. Edmonton knows their hockey, loves their hockey and the Oilers haven’t been having a great couple of years.

“We’re just happy to give Edmonton a little taste of a championship series. It was a great feeling and Edmonton got behind us, too, right at the end here, which was really nice.”

Here’s another nice thing: Win or lose in Shawinigan, roughly 20 members of the current Oil Kings roster will be back in 2012-13.

They will be a year older next season. And better? It should be fun finding out. For now, the fun will be in Shawinigan.

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

[hockeygod]

Oil Kings build winning culture

ROBERT TYCHKOWSKI, QMI AGENCY, May 16 2012

A Western Hockey League title is fantastic, and a Memorial Cup would be even better, but what the Edmonton Oil Kings accomplished over the last two seasons is bigger than any trophy.

They are the founding fathers of a winning culture, lifting an expansion team from a 16-win gutter and creating, with nothing more than their own character and work ethic, a legacy they hope will last long after they are gone.

“There have been some low times here but we stuck with the program, started building it up, and here we are today,” said team captain Mark Pysyk, who’s been there from the beginning. “Two years ago we only had 16 wins, this year we had 16 wins in the playoffs. There’s a winning culture here now with what we did this year and last year. In the years before that, we sort of came to the rink being afraid of teams. Now, hopefully we can be on the other end of that.”

They are. And Keegan Lowe loves that he helped do for the Oil Kings what his old man helped do for the Oilers all those years ago.

“Talking to a few (former Oil Kings), when they came down into the room after Game 7 against Portland, they were like ‘You guys are really paving the way for the Oil Kings of the future,’” said Lowe. “We’re no longer a team that can be pushed around. Hopefully this can be a successful hockey team for years to come.”

Being pushed around like they were in 2009-10 didn’t break the young Oil Kings, it made them stronger, hungrier, more determined to never be anyone’s doormat again.

“They say the third year is always the toughest for an expansion team and it lived up to it,” said winger TJ Foster, who joined the Oil Kings in Year 2. “It was hard on us, but as young players we got experience in different situations, which was good.

“It helped us in our careers. You look at it now and it’s unbelievable how we turned it around, 16 wins to 50 this year and winning the playoffs. It’s an unbelievable feeling that I’ll never forget.”

Foster remembers, before the Oil Kings taught themselves to win, coming to the rink half expecting to lose.

“Coming into games we knew we were in tough,” he said, adding they almost learned to accept defeat. “You’d lose a game and it wouldn’t sting as much as it did this year.

“This year, when we lost, there was no talking in the room, no anything. We re-focused, practised and knew we needed to win the next game. The whole outlook changed.”

And they’re the guys who changed it.

It’s not easy turning a losing program into a winner. A lot of times, when a team is as low as the Oil Kings were, they stay that way. They simply can’t recover. They learn how to be losers.

These guys fought back.

“I don’t know if some teams get used to losing or don’t know how to win,” said Foster. “I’m really glad that wasn’t our case.”

Being an Oil King now comes with weighty expectations and responsibility. Good enough isn’t good enough anymore, not on a winning program.

“I was here for that 16-win season and it was not fun,” said Lowe. “I don’t want to have one of those ever again for this franchise, even when I’m not here.”

Like the Oilers, back when they were winners, the Oil Kings will pass what they’ve learned to the next generation.

“That’s what Derek (head coach Laxdal) and Steve (assistant coach Hamilton) are telling the guys, how important it is if you learn how to win when you’re young,” said Foster. “You know what it takes, you’ve been through it. Now you’re able to teach it to the younger guys.”

They’ve built something here that, no matter what happens in Shawinigan, is bigger than they are, something they can look back at and be proud of.

“It’s been the best year of hockey of my life,” said Pysyk. “Hopefully we can cap it off with a win.”

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

[hockeygod]

Memorial Cup could be best in seven years

RYAN PYETTE, QMI Agency, May 16 2012

There's only one thing missing from this Memorial Cup.

An NHL lockout to grant it centre stage.

When labour woes cancelled the Stanley Cup tournament in 2005, the spotlight shone brightly on the Canadian Hockey League's showcase event at London, Ont., and the 10-day series of puck soirees which starts Friday in Shawinigan, Que., sets up to be the highest-calibre Memorial Cup since that classic seven years ago.

There isn't a Sidney Crosby-like talent to track this go-round — you'll have to make do with Florida's third overall pick, Jonathan Huberdeau of the Saint John Sea Dogs, once again — but there are zero pretenders here.

Four of the CHL's top five-ranked teams are in the mix.

None of the three league champs — Quebec representative Saint John, London of the OHL and Edmonton from the West – won fewer than 49 games. They blasted through the playoffs with only the Oil Kings needing a Game 7 pressure-cooker at home against Portland to punch their ticket to La Belle Province.

The host Shawinigan Cataractes lost a second-round Game 7 in a Q-league upset special by Chicoutimi, but they're no pushovers, either. They won 45 games, finished second to Saint John and surrendered the fewest goals in their league.

Each team has one defenceman who played for the Canadian world junior squad — Shawinigan's Brandon Gormley, Edmonton captain Mark Pysyk, Saint John's Nathan Beaulieu and London's Scott Harrington.

Just like 2005, the Hunter-led Knights are back in the tournament.

This time, it's Mark Hunter serving as general manager and coach. Dale Hunter made a splash Monday by leaving his short-lived gig in charge of the Washington Capitals to return to London, but the co-owner and president's primary function will be as an adviser in Quebec.

Unlike 2005, the Knights are not the clear-cut favourite. That label belongs to the Gerard Gallant-coached powerhouse Saint John, which was the first Maritime team to win the Cup, last year in Mississauga.

The Sea Dogs return with numerous familiar faces, trying to make it back-to-back titles just like the Windsor Spitfires in 2009-10.

The Edmonton Oil Kings brand, if you followed junior hockey during the 1960s, is a familiar one. Back in those golden years, it felt like they made it to the Cup final every spring.

But this isn't the same outfit. This crew was started up by the Oilers owners six years ago as an expansion team, but the Oil Kings stopped playing like one in a hurry.

They can win it all this year and are young enough to be back next season, too.

The young Knights are in the same boat.

Back-to-back looks are starting to become a theme in major junior hockey.

SAINT JOHN SEA DOGS

* Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champions and defending Memorial Cup champs

Coach: Gerard Gallant. Two-time reigning Canadian Hockey League coach of the year.

Regular season: 50-15-0-3, 103 points. Didn't match 58 wins from previous season but played most of it without their full lineup. Finished season ranked first overall in CHL.

Playoffs: Rolled 16-1 through the playoffs. Lone defeat in Game 3 of the semifinal at Chicoutimi in overtime. Never trailed in four-game final sweep of Rimouski.

Big guns: The Sea Dogs were already good. Then, Minnesota Wild prospect Charlie Coyle left Boston University to join them. He racked up 15 goals and 34 points in playoff MVP performance … Russian Stanislav Galiev had 34 points, too, including five in the playoff finale … Florida's third overall pick, Jonathan Huberdeau, was Saint John's scoring hero last year in Mississauga. Sea Dogs captain had 72 points in 37 games this season … Overager Danick Gauthier scored 47 times during the season … Reedy overage G Mathieu Corbeil has 55 combined regular season and playoff wins after serving as backup last season.

NHL property: Eleven players, including Minnesota Wild first-rounder Zack Phillips.

Franchise history: The McCain-owned Sea Dogs lost 55 games as an expansion team in 2005-06. They are riding three consecutive 50-win seasons, having become the first Maritime team to win the Memorial Cup last year in Mississauga.

Motivating factor: Saint John bid on this event and, despite its powerhouse squad, lost. Best revenge is to hoist the Cup on Shawinigan ice.

LONDON KNIGHTS

* Ontario Hockey League champions ahead of schedule

General manager/coach: Mark Hunter. First coach in OHL history to take over during the season and win league title. Older brother Dale left in late November to take over NHL's Washington Capitals, but has returned and has said he wouldn't coach. His son Dylan is on the bench.

Regular season: 49-18-0-1, 99 points. Lost back-to-back games twice. Never dropped three in a row.

Playoffs: Went 16-3, including 8-1 on the road and swept rivals Windsor and Kitchener. Haven't lost in regulation since April 9 at home against Saginaw in Game 3 of the second round.

Big guns: Playoff MVP Austin Watson (10-7-17) does it all. Nashville first-rounder scores big goals, shuts down top lines and blocks shots like a machine … G Michael Houser is the OHL's most outstanding player and goalie of the year. He's the backbone … Finnish top import pick Olli Maatta (6-17-23) had one of the best playoffs by a defencemen in franchise history and is one of three world junior players on the blue line (along with Scott Harrington, Jarred Tinordi) … Seth Griffith scored 45 goals during the season, then 10 more during the playoffs … Gritty Ryan Rupert, a Dale Hunter clone, scored four of his nine playoff goals during the league final against Niagara … Nearly half of the players on this promising team are 17 or younger, including first-round rookies Max Domi and Bo Horvat.

NHL property: Six players. Group includes captain Jarred Tinordi (Montreal) and Tampa first-rounder Vladislav Namestnikov.

Franchise history: Second OHL title. Won Memorial Cup in only previous appearance on home ice, seven years ago.

Motivating factor: Launching a new dynasty and trying to re-capture 2005 glory.

SHAWINIGAN CATARACTES

* Host team waiting impatiently the past month

Coach: Eric Veilleux. Top scorer on 1993 Laval Titan Memorial Cup semifinalist in Sault Ste. Marie, now in his seventh year behind Cats bench.

Regular season: 45-16-3-4, 97 points. Second overall in the QMJHL behind Saint John. Went 22-8-1-3 on home ice at Centre Bionest but actually had one more win on the road.

Playoffs: Lost Game 7 shocker on home ice to Chicoutimi in the second round. Haven't played a game since April 17.

Big guns: Russian F Anton Zlobin (40-36-76) only Cat among top-20 scorers, but the team had a whopping eight 20-goal men … Much of the crease time this season went to 17-year-old G Alex Dubeau (2.56 goals-against average, .904 save percentage). The Cats had the lowest GAA in the Quebec league this season . . . Canadian world junior F and Montreal prospect Michael Bournival had 30 goals in 41 games, but scored only once during the playoffs … Watch out for Russian Kirill Kabanov, who had another strong post-season … The defence includes Morgan Ellis (27 points in 26 games after trade from Cape Breton) and veteran Phoenix first-rounder Brandon Gormley, QMJHL's first overall pick by Moncton in 2008.

NHL property: Eight players. Philly pick Michael Chaput can do some damage up front.

Franchise history: Founding members of the QMJHL, the Cataractes have never won the league title. They lost Game 7 of the final to Drummondville in 2009. They made it to the Cup final in 1985 as host team (losing to Prince Albert), even though most of the tournament was moved to Drummondville because of arena deficiencies.

Motivating factor: They're out to erase their playoff flop and prove they're just as good as the three league champs.

EDMONTON OIL KINGS

* Western Hockey League champs bubble to the surface

Coach: Derek Laxdal. Former Toronto Maple Leaf was a member of 1983 Memorial Cup champion Portland Winterhawks.

Regular season: 50-15-3-4, 107 points. Finished the schedule on an 11-game winning streak and kept rolling.

Playoffs: 16-4, needing a Game 7 victory over Portland at home on Sunday night to qualify for the tournament.

Big guns: Busy veteran G Laurent Brossoit showed little fatigue from 61 regular-season appearances He was named MVP of the WHL championship series … Rookie Curtis Lazar, a 17-year-old from Vernon, B.C., led team in playoff scoring (8-11-19) … Edmonton native and overage F Rhett Rachinski scored one of his seven post-season goals in overtime to knot up league final 2-2 … Top NHL prospect D Griffin Reinhart (team-best plus-14 in playoffs) is the son of former NHLer Paul Reinhart. Brothers Max and Sam part of last year's WHL champion Kootenay Ice … Henrik Samuelsson, whose dad, Ulf, was a notorious NHL defenceman, suspended a game during the league final. The 17-year-old F from Scottsdale, Ariz., had 14 points in 17 playoff games … New York Rangers pick Michael St. Croix scored 45 times and had 105 points — 25 more than his closest teammate, Dylan Wruck.

NHL property: Seven players. Buffalo first-rounder Mark Pysyk played for the Canadian world junior team in Alberta this year.

Franchise history: Fifth season in team's history. Ownership group is same as the Oilers — Daryl Katz' Rexall Sports. Previous incarnations of the Oil King brand won Memorial Cups in 1963 and 1966 and went to the Cup final eight times during an 11-year span (1960-71).

Motivating factor: Building joy to ease Oilers' pain.

HOCKEY TIES

* The hockey world is small, the select group in the Memorial Cup even smaller. There are bloodlines, puck family trees and old friendships at this year's tournament in Shawinigan

— Saint John star defenceman Nathan Beaulieu's father, Jacques, now the Sarnia Sting general manager/coach, served as a London Knights assistant before and after he ran the Sea Dogs (2006-09). He was part of the Knights' 2005 Memorial Cup champion team and Nathan grew up at the John Labatt Centre.

— Edmonton coach Derek Laxdal was a teammate of London Knights rookie forward Max Domi's dad, Tie, then a teenager, in 1989-90 with the Newmarket Saints, the Toronto Maple Leafs' former AHL affiliate.

— Edmonton forward Michael St. Croix is the son of former NHL goalie Rick St. Croix, who helped the Randy Carlyle-led Manitoba Moose in 1999-2000 when Shawinigan coach Eric Veilleux played forward for Winnipeg's International league entry.

— Edmonton defenceman Keegan Lowe's dad, Kevin, celebrated three Stanley Cups during the 1980s with Oilers teammate Dave Hunter, who is the brother of London Knights co-owners Dale and Mark Hunter. To boot, Shawinigan defenceman Morgan Ellis was named the best defensive defenceman in the Quebec league and received a trophy named after Keegan Lowe's father.

NUMBERS GAME

* A look at the members of the 2012 Canadian world junior team who will be playing in this Memorial Cup tournament. Each Cup team has one of the seven defencemen

Saint John: Nathan Beaulieu, Jonathan Huberdeau

London: Scott Harrington

Shawinigan: Brandon Gormley, Michael Bournival

Edmonton: Mark Pysyk

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

[hockeygod]

Patience key to building expansion franchise:
Green joked about having a five-year plan, but that’s how long it took to make the Oil Kings a WHL champion

Jim Matheson, edmontonjournal.com, May 14, 2012

EDMONTON – Bob Green was on the ice Sunday night, a Western Hockey League championship ballcap on his head, a smile plastered on his face amidst the cacophony of whooping and hollering from a bunch of kids.

He was like a dad on Christmas morning as the children got the presents they all wanted when the Edmonton Oil Kings defeated the Portland Winterhawks in the seven-game league final.

The Oil Kings general manager put this team together, in concert with assistant and chief scout Randy Hansch and a gaggle of other bird dogs over five roller-coaster years.

The expansion Oil Kings won 22 of 72 games their first season, but they have won 66 of 92 games in Year 5, including 16 playoff victories which takes them to the next destination — the Memorial Cup in Shawinigan, Que, with their first game Friday against the host Cataractes.

Green knew what he was getting into when he left the Medicine Hat Tigers as head scout in 2006, spending a winter scouting bantam tournaments, watching WHL game webcasts, and picking the brain of another expansion team GM, Scott Bonner of the Vancouver Giants, to see what he had done. His first team in 2007-08 was older and didn’t win a pile of games, but it was the first stop on a long road.

Did he have a five-year plan for winning it all?

“Absolutely,” said Green, with a hearty laugh. “Five years? That’s what I told everyone. It’s a long process and I’m not sure if I’d go through it again, but this one sure turned out OK.

“It’s been done before. It’s not rocket science. Calgary has done it (with the Hitmen). The Kootenay Ice did it. Vancouver (Giants) did it.

“You have to be patient,” Green continued. “You build through the draft. That’s the only way. I mean, there’s a lot of great players who were never drafted in the bantam draft, like (Joffrey) Lupul and (Tyler) Ennis, Jason Chimera, (Scottie) Upshall, Clarke MacArthur, who are in the NHL now, but that was a different time.

“There’s upwards of 250 players taken in the bantam draft every year. It’s harder and harder to find free agents like Lupul and Ennis.”

In the Oil Kings’ first bantam draft in 2007, they got current captain Mark Pysyk and forward T.J. Foster, who scored in Sunday’s clinching win over the Winterhawks.

Green also added Rhett Rachinski, who had four goals in the final series, to the club’s organization list after nobody took him in the bantam pool. In 2008, he got Keegan Lowe, Stephane Legault, Michael St. Croix, Travis Ewanyk and goalie Laurent Brossoit. Griffin Reinhart and Mitch Moroz came the next year.

The Oil Kings were on their way. That’s nine bantam draft picks and a listed player on the current roster from the first three years they were in existence.

“Only one year drove me nuts and that was the third year. The others have been fun. Whatever could go wrong, did go wrong. Keegan Lowe and Tomas Vincour (now playing with the Dallas Stars) both had H1N1. We had an import defenceman leave. We had some players with concussions. Very frustrating year, illness, injury. I hate losing,” said Green, who decided to fire coach Steve Pleau, who is now a Calgary Flames pro scout.

“Hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in hockey,” Green said. “It usually doesn’t come down to ability as a coach, it’s injecting some life and a different delivery of the message.”

There was a large stack of applicants for the job, and Green interviewed more than 10 candidates. In the end, Green decided on Derek Laxdal, who was coaching the Idaho Steelheads, the Dallas farm club in the East Coast Hockey League.

“Derek is a smart guy and I think he saw the value of how coaching these kids, being a good teacher, could help him develop as a coach.”

Looking back, it’s all progression for Green.

“The first year, we had some good kids like (New York Islanders’ third-round draft) Robin Figren, who’s now playing in Sweden. The next year, we got into the playoffs when Rachinski scored in overtime. Pysyk and Foster were on that team, too,” said Green.

The Oil Kings lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Hitmen, but nobody cared. Any playoff games were a bonus.

Then there was the forgettable third season when the Oil Kings won only 16 times. In Year 4, they finished with 31 wins and lost to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and the Red Deer Rebels in Round 1.

“Last year, we weren’t too sure if we’d win games. We gave up lots of early leads and guys weren’t comfortable with playing from behind. This year, the guys wanted leads and they kept them. I think we lost only one game in the regular season taking a lead to the third period,” said Green.

This year, the Oil Kings won 50 league games and lost only four of 20 playoff games.

“Moving up six spots in the bantam draft to get Griffin Reinhart. It was complicated,” Green said about one of his best moves, going from the ninth pick to third overall in 2009. “We valued Griff the most, but that was the year that (Moose Jaw’s Morgan) Reilly and (Red Deer’s Matt) Dumba and (Portland’s Derrick) Pouliot all went in the top four.”

Reinhart, Rielly and Dumba could all go in the top eight at the NHL entry draft in June, Pouliot maybe 12 to 15.

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

[hockeygod]

Hockey runs in the Reinhart family

Elliott Pap, Vancouver Sun, May 14, 2012

Middle child Griffin Reinhart plays for the Edmonton Oil Kings and is projected to be a first-round NHL draft pick this year.

Middle child Griffin Reinhart plays for the Edmonton Oil Kings and is projected to be a first-round NHL draft pick this year.
Photograph by: Andy Devlin , for North Shore News

VANCOUVER — Brother acts in hockey. People seem to love them, although maybe not so much in Nashville after Andrei Kostitsyn's late night escapade helped torpedo the Predators' playoff drive.

But the Sedins have done okay. So have the Staals and, before them, the Sutters and Espositos, among others sublime siblings. Rocket Richard and his little bro, the Pocket Rocket, could play on our team any day.

Next up? It appears to be happening right here in B.C. where Paul Reinhart's three sons – Max, Griffin and Sam of West Vancouver – are turning hockey's scouting heads.

Max, 20, just wrapped up his junior career with the Kootenay Ice, was called up to the Calgary Flames farm team in Abbotsford and collected four points in four American League games. Max was a third-round pick of the Flames in 2010.

Griffin, 18, is this week flying off to the Memorial Cup with the Edmonton Oil Kings after he and his mates captured the Western Hockey League championship Sunday night, prevailing in a seven-game series over the Portland Winterhawks. Griffin is expected to be a top 10 pick in next month's NHL entry draft.

Sam, 16, was named WHL rookie of the year earlier this month thanks to a 62-point freshman campaign. He has a November birthday and won't be eligible for the NHL draft until 2014. Who knows how good he'll be by then?

Max and Sam won the WHL title last year with Kootenay and went to the Memorial Cup. Now it's Griffin's turn. The Staal brothers had better look out.

“Maybe we're a mini-version of them,” chuckled Griffin as he basked Monday in the glow of his team's championship. “We still have a long way to go to catch up with the Staals but, hopefully, someday we'll get there.”

There is obviously some pretty solid hockey DNA in the boys thanks to dad Paul. But mom Theresa came to the party with a vast athletic background that included competitive badminton and volleyball. Her dad played college football, her mother was a ski racer, her sisters were synchronized swimmers and her nephew, James Love, is playing professional golf on the Nationwide Tour.

“Paul and I were never really fanatical hockey parents,” explained Theresa. “We didn't go crazy. The boys were born after Paul played so they weren't around hockey. They didn't play spring hockey. It was never a priority for them.

“I never envisioned this,” she continued. “I kept trying to get them to be golfers. My sister was always going with her son to tournaments in Mexico or Hawaii or somewhere really nice and I was going to Prince George and Salmon Arm. Finally, one day Max looked at me and said: 'Mom, I'm a hockey player. I'm not a golfer.' It was never a dream for me. This is their dream.”

Theresa and Max will be heading to Shawinigan later this to watch Griffin play in the Memorial Cup. Sam will stay behind in West Van to do his schoolwork while Paul, who left early Monday morning on a mining business trip to Mexico, might join Theresa and Max once he's wrapped up his work.

Sibling competition being what it is, Griffin is happy he'll be matching his brothers in Memorial Cup appearances.

“I feel like I've caught up to them a little bit now,” he said. “Last year I was still in school and watching it on TV. I've just heard great things from them and I really wanted to do this for myself, to get some experience at the Memorial Cup.

“I was able to talk to both of my brothers after we beat Portland last night and they congratulated me. We all support each other very well.”

The Oil Kings, who have another Lower Mainland connection in goalie Laurent Brossoit of Surrey, will head Wednesday for Shawinigan and face the host Cataractes in their first game Friday. They'll be attempting to secure the WHL's first national title since the Vancouver Giants and Spokane Chiefs won back-to-back in 2007 and '08.

“That would definitely be really cool,” Griffin said.

It would also give him a family first. Paul didn't win a Memorial Cup when he played junior for the Kitchener Rangers and it appears Max will skate in the Flames' farm system next season, leaving Griffin and Sam as the last hopes. Win or lose, the three sons of Paul and Theresa Reinhart are making their parents proud.

“We just sort of wanted them to do well in what they wanted to do,” concluded Theresa. “So I am definitely enjoying this because they are all succeeding.”

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

[hockeygod]

U of A athletics: Search for new Bears hockey bench boss enters homestretch

Evan Daum, Edmonton Journal, May 15, 2012

Stan Marple, who was named Golden Bears GM in late March, will play a major role in finding his successor behind the bench for the 2012-13 season.

With the application deadline for the University of Alberta Golden Bears hockey head coaching position having come and gone, the real intrigue now begins.

The deadline for coaches to put their name forward passed Tuesday night at 5 p.m. with shortlisting expected to be completed by Wednesday. Interviews for the position will come soon after, as the process works towards an announcement of the new coach, which is expected for early June.

Countless names have been floated around as potential replacements behind the bench at Alberta after Stan Marple, who coached the Bears last season on an interim basis after former coach Eric Thurston left the program last spring, was anointed the first general manager in program history some six weeks ago.

Potential candidates to replace Marple include successful major junior coaches with ties to Alberta, most notably Kootenay Ice head coach Kris Knoblauch. Other possibilities include former players now making their living at the junior A level, like Gord Thibodeau of the Fort McMuarry Oil Barons.

Knoblauch in particular is sure to draw major support from the Bears hockey alumni – whose importance in this whole process can’t be understated – as his connections to the WHL pipeline of talent, among other things, would be an extremely valuable asset. While I don’t think Knoblauch had considered the possibility of being Alberta head coach anytime soon when there were still question marks as to whether or not Marple’s interim tag would remain indefinitely, I don’t think it’s a stretch to believe his mood changed significantly after Marple’s new GM role came into effect, along with a first round playoff exit.

(Side note, but if Knoblauch did in fact apply for the Bears job and gets it, recently fired Islanders assistant Dean Chynoweth undoubtedly will be offered the job by his brother and Ice GM Jeff Chynoweth. Knoblauch’s assistant in Kootenay Todd Johnson recently took over the University of Regina job and even if he was still with the Ice, bros before non-bros, or something like that).

While it remains to be seen whether or not Knoblauch did apply, one thing is all but guaranteed when it comes to one credential the next coach of the Bears will have – alumni status.

That has seemed a given since the start of the process, as director of athletics Ian Reade and Marple – along with an advisory committee – will be looking for someone who isn’t a stranger to the program.

With respect to Knoblauch and Thibodeau, both have strong ties to the Bears after lengthy playing careers at the U of A.

Knoblauch, who is one of the few players in Western Hockey League history to have played for both the Edmonton and Kootenay Ice, had a tremendous career in Green and Gold. In five seasons with Alberta, the Imperial, Sask. product put up big offensive numbers and played a major role in the Bears second of back-to-back Canadian Interuniversity Sport titles in 2000 as a rookie.

As a coach Knoblauch has enjoyed his fair share of success in a short amount of time as well, after leading the Ice to the WHL title last season in his first year as the team’s head coach following two years as an assistant with the franchise.

For Thibodeau, who played with the Bears between 1987 and 1991 and was a teammate of Marple’s for two seasons, his connection to Alberta is also significant. The longtime Alberta Junior Hockey League coach has had great success with the Oil Barons including this season when the team went to the AJHL final before losing to the Brooks Bandits in six games.

Along with ties to the program, another prerequisite for the next head coach of Alberta will be a university degree.

While Thurston had U of A ties from both his single season playing for the Bears in 1985-86 and a lengthy run as an assistant with the program, a degree is one thing the former head coach didn’t have. While that certainly didn’t stop Thurston from having success as a head coach at the university level, I don’t expect we’ll ever see a scenario again in which the head coach of the program doesn’t have a degree. That’s no indictment on Thurston, but moving forward I can’t see candidates without undergrad credentials even getting a sniff.

So when it comes to who will be the next head coach of the Golden Bears two things are clear. Firstly, they’ll be coming into familiar territory when they take over behind the bench at Clare Drake Arena, and second they’ll have a degree to go with that experience.

Knoblauch and Thibodeau are just two possible candidates who satisfy both requirements. If they did end up applying, they’ll be a pair of options in a field that’s sure to be deep with qualified individuals one might expect, as well as some applicants who are sure to be surprise additions to the race for one of the country’s best collegiate coaching gigs.

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

[hockeygod]

My experience with the choice between major junior and college hockey

Justin Bourne, The Score, May 11, 2012

After reading about Seth Jones choosing major junior over NCAA hockey – a fine choice for the talented young buck – I felt the need to weigh in with my thoughts on The Choice, and share the path I took to come to a decision. Hope you enjoy, or at the very least, learn something about the process you didn’t know before.

***

I tried out for the Kelowna Rockets, one of the premier programs in the Western Hockey League, in the fall of 2000. I was 17 years old, although in the junior hockey world I was considered an 18 year old because I was born in 1982. I was coming off of a successful year of Midget AA, having been captain of a team that won the BC provincial championship. But being that I was that old and undrafted, I was a definite longshot and I knew it.

The thing is, I had a really good camp, and sometimes you catch people off guard. I scored twice in a heavily attended low-scoring intra-squad game in Kelowna’s Prospera Place, and was invited to travel with the team to Kamloops to play the Blazers in the first of a number of exhibition games. They had already made a great many cuts by this point.

As a young player, you deal with a range of ideas and emotions: I’m from Kelowna, so if I could walk onto the hometown Kelowna Rockets and make it…I have to do that, right? (By the way, the Rockets won the Memorial Cup in the next year or two. Dammit.) But, I was also a gangly kid who got cut to house hockey his first year of Bantam, got better (read: bigger) in a hurry, and had figured out that you can get your entire undergrad education paid for if you play junior A puck. I also knew that if I played one game – even an exhibition game – at the major junior level, I was ineligible for at least a year of that NCAA hockey (plus a game for every CHL (major junior) game played, I believe), making that dream scholarship less likely.

My parents and I sat in the room and listened to The Most Important People in the Rockets Organization at the time and tried to gauge how likely it was that I would make the team while trying to make the decision to go for it or not. Essentially, it was down to myself and large, fellow right-winger Randall Gelech (a player far better than I, who would’ve likely played in the NHL for years by now had he not been drafted/buried in the Red Wings organization when they were on top of the world for years). We told them our concerns about NCAA eligibility. And they told us “how this works”: just play/tryout, and we’ll rip up the rosters after the game. If you make it – and you have a good chance – cool. If you don’t, you’ll be fine. I’m not sure if it still does, but it seems this is a thing that occasionally happened at the time.

My parents didn’t want me to play. Between all of us, a college scholarship was the goal. If I got an education paid for then the investment in gear, practices, and time would have amounted to something. Yes, you can get Canadian college hockey paid for after playing major junior, but it’s suuuuper rare to advance, hockey-wise, beyond that. You’re basically saying it’s NHL or done-by-20. NCAA puck gives late bloomers (like myself) years to develop against incredible talents to see what you can become.

At 15 or 16 or 17, a young hockey player has to a make a decision that will forever change his career and his life: take your shot at Major Junior or commit to the college path.

I played Junior B hockey that winter, led my conference in points (beating Chuck Kobasew’s team record), and finished second overall in the league to Andrew Ebbett. That summer, I signed a card with the Vernon Vipers of the BCHL, trained my butt off, and committed to earning that scholarship.

I scored 131 points over my 120 game Junior A career, and we won a BCHL title. After fly-down visits to three different NCAA schools, I accepted a full Div. 1 scholarship (to the University of Alaska Anchorage) just like my family had hoped – just like I had hoped.

So here I sit, with a primary education in hockey, but a different title on my business card, and I couldn’t be happier. I got an education (an education your love of hockey forces you to get, if you want to play), found my best friends and really, myself. College was an experience I can’t explain, an experience I’d never give back. I was fortunate to have the opportunity. (I was more fortunate that I lived with guys capable of installing a keg-orator line from the garage to the kitchen sink, giving us water taps labelled hot, cold and beer.)

When most players have to make the decision between major junior and college, they take what they can get. Most don’t reject one for the other; their talents, age and size direct them one way or the other. Only a lucky few get to choose.

Either one works. There is a hockey cliche that “If you’re good enough, they’ll find you”. And it’s true. They’ll find you in Timbukfuckingtu if you’re NHL calibre. It’s insane. Few are overlooked.

As someone quickly approaching their 30th birthday thinking about what I’d do if I were a young player now deciding between the two, I can’t help but think: I’d have to be awfully damn good to choose major junior hockey over college. It’s not taking anything away from those who choose to go the CHL route, it’s just that one way seems a little more all-or-nothing than the other. Both seem like flying down the highway on a motorcycle, but one affords you a helmet.

As a further college hockey pump-up: going that route isn’t exactly a hockey dead end. During my years in the WCHA I faced some great players – Zach Parise, Tomas Vanek, TJ Oshie, David Backes, Matt Niskanen, Alex Goligoski, Kyle Okposo, Phil Kessel, Blake Wheeler, Andreas Nodl, Jonathan Toews, Chris Conner, Matt Greene, Keith Ballard, Matt Carle, Paul Stastny, Joey Crabb, Ryan Potulny, Ryan Stoa, Brandon Bochensky, Brian Lee, Matt Smaby, Drew Stafford, Rene Bourque, Adam Burish, Brian Elliot, Tom Gilbert, Joe Pavelski, Ryan Suter, Travis Zajac, Ryan Carter, Jason Garrison, and the toughest to play of all of them all at the time, 5’7? Hobey Baker-winner Ryan Duncan (AHL). I was also teammates with Curtis Glencross, Jay Beagle and Nathan Lawson. You can develop at that level, and you can still make it big.

For the big guns, major junior is great too: it’s more pro-style puck, it’s great exposure, and it’s comparable to the NHL schedule.

Nobody can say for certain what’s the best route – each player has a different set of developmental needs, and each league fulfills those differently.

But for those who could use a little more time to develop and miiiigghht just want to hedge their bets on the future with an education, college hockey is the way to go.

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

[hockeygod]

THE COACHING GAME: Cory Clouston is out as Wheat Kings' Head Coach

Gregg Drinnan, Taking Note, May 15 2012

Kelly McCrimmon, the owner and general manager of the Brandon Wheat Kings, announced Tuesday that head coach Cory Clouston won’t return for a second season. Clouston, who had been fired by the NHL’s Ottawa Senators after the 2011-12 season, signed a two-year deal with Brandon on Aug. 3.

"I have given a great deal of thought to our coaching situation for the upcoming season," McCrimmon said in a news release. "I do not want uncertainty with this important position and as a result have decided we will not have Cory return next season. He will perhaps have opportunities to coach professionally, failing that, we will honor the second year of his contract."

Clouston, 42, told Rob Henderson of the Brandon Sun: “I don’t think I expected it, but I definitely understand Kelly’s thinking. He feels the team is in a rebuilding mode for the next couple years and he told me he just doesn’t want to have the coaching position in limbo for the next two months. I have options.

“He doesn’t want me coming in early July, telling him I’m going to the American league or wherever it may be. I’m not saying that was going to happen, but he doesn’t want that as an option and I can understand his reasoning.”

The Wheat Kings finished sixth in the Eastern Conference (39-28-5) and got past the No. 3 Calgary Hitmen in the opening round of playoffs. Brandon was then swept by the eventual-champion Edmonton Oil Kings.

McCrimmon was Brandon’s head coach for the seven seasons prior to his decision to hire Clouston.

McCrimmon doesn’t have a list of potential coaches. When he puts one together, you have to wonder if his name will be on it?

Clouston played four seasons (1989-93) with the U of Alberta Golden Bears, who happen to be in the market for a head coach. In fact, the closing date for applications was yesterday. You have to think, however, that the Golden Bears’ job wouldn’t be Clouston’s first choice.

Bruce Luebke, the veteran play-by-play man who calls Wheat Kings games on CKLQ, offers up his take below and it’s rather evident that he feels Clouston wasn’t a good fit.

—–

Cory Clouston is out as Wheat Kings' Head Coach

Luber's Lounge, May 15 2012

The Cory Clouston coaching era with the Brandon Wheat Kings came and went in a span of 287 days.

After being hired last August 3rd and signing a two-year contract with the club, the Wheat Kings announced Tuesday that Clouston would not be back behind the bench for the 2012-2013 season.

“I have given a great deal of thought to our coaching situation for the upcoming season," said Brandon general manager Kelly McCrimmon in a release, "I do not want uncertainty with this important position and as a result have decided we will not have Cory return next season. He will perhaps have opportunities to coach professionally, failing that; we will honor the second year of his contract.”

The club is framing the move as a preventive one, not wanting to be caught without a head coach if Clouston were to leave for the professional job at some point in the next few months.

However, it had become apparent to even the most casual of the Wheat King fan that Clouston wasn’t the proper fit for a club that, moving forward, will be employing a number of rookie players in 2012-2013.

One could also argue that he wasn’t as good a fit for the club during the 2011-2012 season as initially thought.

The hard-driving coaching style employed by Clouston was looked upon with disdain by the players, and his treatment of the players, especially the younger players, became such an issue that sources told me that team captain Mark Stone met with GM Kelly McCrimmon midway through the season to discuss the matter.

In addition to those interactions with the players, there was also obvious dysfunction within the coaching staff.

On the ice, there was a real lack of offensive imagination to the Wheat Kings’ game in 2011-2012, and the club used mainly a passive style of play rather the aggressive style fans had grown accustomed to.

Skill development was put the back burner for a more defensive style while, in my mind, there were also some questions about how some players were used.

For example, Ryan Pulock and Eric Roy were overplayed on the blue line throughout the season, which may have led to their lack of production late in the season and in the playoffs (a combined 70 points prior to January 1st, 43 points after plus a combined eight points in eight playoff games).

Another would be how Ayrton Nikkel and Dylan Kuczek were handled in the first half of the season – not only playing forward when they were in the lineup, but also PRACTICING as forwards instead of as defencemen on a daily basis.

An observation during the post-season for me came in the post-season, when I had a chance to watch the Wheat Kings’ opponents (Calgary and Edmonton) practice, something not often afforded during the regular season.

Those teams ran high-tempo practices with coaching staffs that worked in sync with one another – two things lacking during Brandon’s practices.

Bottom line, Cory Clouston might be good with the X’s and O’s of the game, but his motivational techniques and personality might be in conflict with what’s effective in this day and age of hockey.

Does not being warm and fuzzy make Cory Clouston a poor hockey coach? Not in the least.

But, it does make him a difficult person to be around on a daily basis.

For the most part, I could pick and choose how much time I wanted to spend around him.

His players don’t have that much freedom.

Moving forward, Wheat Kings’ general manager Kelly McCrimmon said that no decision has been made on Clouston’s replacement.

“There are a lot of those things that I’ll give consideration. I’m telling you honestly, there has been no decision made with respect to the coaching for the 2012-2013 season,” McCrimmon told CKLQ’s Tyler Crayston, “I say that sincerely and, because of that, there’s not a lot more that I can say about any possibilities that you might throw out.”

I did go through a quick checklist in my head, and here’s some men I’d consider to be potential candidates:

Dean Chynoweth – former Swift Current Broncos’ GM/Coach and Seattle Head Coach. Was recently let go from his assistant coaching position with the NHL’s New York Islanders.

Dave Lowry – former NHL player spent one successful season as head coach of the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen in 2008-2009 before spending the past three years as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Calgary Flames. Was let go by the Flames last month.

Dave Hunchak – associate coach with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers this past season after four years as head coach of the Moose Jaw Warriors.

Steve Hamilton – assistant coach with WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings for past two seasons and former head coach of the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints.

Mike Vandenberghe – former Wheat Kings’ player and assistant coach, spent the past 1 ½ years as an assistant with the Moose Jaw Warriors. Prior to that, was head coach for the University of Regina Cougars and the SJHL’s Notre Dame Hounds.

Dave Struch – Saskatoon Blades’ assistant coach for the past six years, although whether he would leave the Blades as they prepare to host the Memorial Cup would be a question.

Darren Kruger – Medicine Hat Tigers’ assistant coach for the past five years.

Dean Brockman – longtime coach of the SJHL’s Humbolt Broncos, leading the team to four league title in the last six years.

Chad Mercier – former WHL assistant with Regina and Saskatoon, has spent the past six years as GM/Coach of the AJHL’s Bonnyville Pontiacs.

I would have to also throw both current Wheat Kings’ assistant coaches – Dwayne Gylywoychuk and Darren Ritchie – into the mix.

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

[hockeygod]

A guide to the Memorial Cup

Rory Barrs, National Post, May 18, 2012

The 2012 Memorial Cup begins Friday in Shawinigan, Que., where the host Cataractes will battle the Edmonton Oil Kings, London Knights and Saint John Sea Dogs for Canadian junior hockey dominion. Post reporter Rory Barrs provides a breakdown of the four teams:

EDMONTON OIL KINGS

Western Hockey League champions
Memorial Cup appearances 10 (1954, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1971, 1972)
Memorial Cups 2
2011-12 regular season 50-15-7, 107 points, first in the Eastern Conference.
2012 playoffs Defeated Kootenay 4-0; Brandon 4-0; Moose Jaw 4-1; and Portland 4-3 in the WHL final.
Coach Derek Laxdal, second year.
First-round draft picks D Mark Pysyk (Buffalo, 23rd in 2010).
Top prospects D Griffin Reinhart (10th on Central Scouting’s list of North American skaters); F Mitchell Moroz (72nd); F Henrik Samuelsson (75th); D Ashton Sautner (92nd).
Names to watch Goalie Laurent Brossoit’s 2.82 goals-against average and .910 save percentage earned him MVP honours of the WHL championship series. Centre Michael St. Croix (New York Rangers) led all Oil Kings with 105 points, including 45 goals, in the regular season; he and Curtis Lazar shared the team lead with 19 playoff points. Third-year winger Stephane Legault had five goals in 20 playoff games, after recording just 15 in the regular season. Reinhart was a team-best plus-14 in the post-season.
They can win if Brossoit (Calgary) continues to stand tall in goal, while Pysyk, Reinhart and their fellow defencemen keep quality scoring chances to a minimum. Edmonton’s offence has been clicking — scoring five or more goals four times in the playoffs — and will ultimately determine how far this team can go.
From the lip “We’re not done yet, we have one more tournament to go to.” — Lexdal

LONDON KNIGHTS

Ontario Hockey League champions
Memorial Cup appearances 1 (2005)
Memorial Cups 1
2011-12 regular season 49-18-1, 99 points, first in the Western Conference.
2012 playoffs Defeated Windsor 4-0; Saginaw 4-2; Kitchener 4-0; and Niagara 4-1 in the OHL final.
Coach Mark Hunter, first year.
First-round draft picks F Vladislav Namestnikov (Tampa Bay, 27th in 2011).
Top prospects D Olli Maatta (eighth on Central Scouting’s list of North American skaters); F Andreas Athanasiou (40th); F Josh Anderson (57th); G Michael Houser (16th, goalies).
Names to watch Houser was named the OHL’s most outstanding player, posting a 46-15-1 record, tying the league’s record for wins in a season. His 2.25 goals-against average was the second best among all OHL playoff goaltenders. Winger Seth Griffith is setting the pace up front for the Knights, leading the club with 23 playoff points. 17-year-old centre Ryan Rupert had nine post-season goals, including five in the OHL championship series.
They can win if Defencemen Jarred Tinordi (Montreal) and Scott Harrington (Pittsburgh) can keep opposing top lines off the score sheet. Tinordi led all OHL playoff skaters with a plus-15 rating. London’s young guns can come up large, including 17-year-old Max Domi, who contributed with four goals in the playoffs.
From the lip “These are some of the most important hockey games some of us will ever play.” — Houser

SAINT JOHN SEA DOGS

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champions
Memorial Cup appearances 1 (2011)
Memorial Cups 1
2011-12 regular season 50-15-3, 103 points, first in the Maritimes Division.
2012 playoffs Defeated Cape Breton 4-0; Baie Comeau 4-0; Chicoutimi 4-1; and Rimouski 4-0 in the QMJHL final.
Coach Gerard Gallant, third year.
First-round draft picks F Jonathan Huberdeau (Florida, 3rd in 2011); D Nathan Beaulieu (Montreal, 17th in 2011); F Zack Phillips (Minnesota, 28th in 2011); F Charlie Coyle (San Jose, 28th in 2010).
Top prospects None
Names to watch The reigning Memorial Cup champions possess the top four scorers from the QMJHL playoffs: Coyle, Phillips, Russian winger Stanislav Galiev (Capitals) and Slovakian winger Tomas Jurco (Red Wings). Huberdeau played in just 37 games during the regular season due to injury, but still managed to record an inspiring 72 points. He appears to be skating in full stride, with 21 points in 15 post-season contests. Beaulieu is the backbone of the defence and goalie Mathieu Corbeil (Columbus) is not too shabby either, leading all QMJHL netminders with a 2.38 goals-against average in the regular season.
They can win if Saint John plays up to expectations as the heavy favourite, and harnesses its experience on the big stage. The Sea Dogs swept Rimouski in the QMJHL final, including a decisive 8-0 victory in Game 4. Expectations are set at win, or bust.
From the lip “I’m really happy with the way we’ve played lately and that’s a good sign going into the Memorial Cup, where you know you’re going to face really good competition.” — Gallant

SHAWINIGAN CATARACTES

Hosts
Memorial Cup appearances 0
Memorial Cups 0
2011-12 regular season 45-16-7, 97 points, first in the East Division.
2012 playoffs Defeated Rouyn-Noranda 4-0; eliminated by Chicoutimi 4-3.
Coach Éric Veilleux, seventh year.
First-round draft picks D Brandon Gormley (13th, Phoenix in 2010).
Top prospects F Anton Zlobin (137th on Central Scouting’s list of North American skaters).
Names to watch Zlobin scored a team-high 40 goals in the regular season, adding three more in 11 post-season games. Russian winger Kirill Kabanov (New York Islanders) is a potent weapon up front, scoring four times for Shawinigan in two rounds of QMJHL playoff action. Gormley, acquired from Moncton in January, has experience playing for Canada in the 2012 world junior championship.
They can win if Goalie Alex Dubeau, who had a league-best 2.08 goals-against average in the playoffs, can take his game to an otherworldly level, and the home fans can inspire Shawinigan to play its best hockey of the season.
From the lip “Obviously, it wasn’t an ideal situation not playing for the last few weeks, but our coaches had a plan in place for us.”

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

[hockeygod]

Pats' Volek exploring overseas options

Gregg Drinnan, Taking Note, May 18 2012

Earlier in the week, The MacBeth Report broke the news here that F David Volek, who just completed his freshman season with the Regina Pats, had signed a junior contract with Färjestad Karlstad (Sweden, J20 SuperElit).

Volek, 18, had 32 points with the Pats and it was expected that he would return for another season.

Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post provided the Pats’ view of this situation below.

The Färjestad news release was headlined J20: FBK Strengthens from Czech Republic.

The first three paragraphs of that release:

“Färjestad's J20 is strengthened for next season with a Czech national team member. Dominik Volek, most recently with the Regina Pats in the Canadian junior league, joins the club's J20 team. ‘From the reports we received, he is a very interesting two-way player with great potential,’ says Färjestad's Youth and Junior Manager Peter Johansson.

“Volek comes from the Canadian junior league where he played for the Regina Pats. His father, David, is a multiple Czech national team member who also played six seasons for the New York Islanders.

“Volek is one of three new forwards in the J20 squad.”

Of course, a lot can happen between now and late August, but that sounds pretty definitive.

Volek’s agent is his uncle, Ales, whose agency is called Alvo Sports Management. According to the agency website, Ales was a scout for the NHL’s Ottawa Senators from 1999-2002. Jiri Hudler Sr. is the head of player development for the agency.

Ales also is the agent for Roman Cervenka, who just signed with the Calgary Flames.

And here’s another connection for you — The MacBeth Report points out that the man in charge of running FBK from top to bottom, who just reorganized the FBK coaching and management staff for their junior programs, is former Flames F Håkan Loob.

—–

Pats' Volek exploring overseas options

Greg Harder, Leader-Post, May 18, 2012

The Regina Pats aren't hitting the panic button over the possibility that import forward Dominik Volek could jump ship to Europe.

Not yet, anyway.

In response to an online report stating that Volek had signed with Färjestad Karlstad of the junior elite league in Sweden, Pats GM Chad Lang placed a call Thursday morning to Volek's agent (he's represented by his uncle, Ales Volek). Lang said the agent told him no contract had been signed but the opportunity was being explored.

Volek, an 18-year-old native of the Czech Republic, has already been added to the Swedish club's roster on its website.

"It's a little bit of a surprise, yet it's not uncommon among Euros," said Lang. "We see this over and over where they go back home (in the off-season) and look at their options.

"I think it's a little premature. Yet, if it happens, it happens. At the end of the day if he signs over there, it doesn't affect his ability to come back here.

"Until I hear it from him or his agent, we're anticipating him back. I guess we'll wait and see."

Lang explained that Volek is indeed free to sign with a European team because the Pats' exclusive rights only apply to this side of the pond.

"Each European kid is on a year-to-year release," explained Lang, whose team selected Volek ninth overall in last year's CHL import draft. "He can go back to Europe and sign a contract there. If he wants to stay, he stays."

Lang pointed out that there are often complications in dealing with European players, be it due to posturing agents or the lure of playing at home. However, the Pats' GM has no concern about the intentions of Volek, a happy-go-lucky rookie who wore a perpetual smile during his time in Regina.

"I have no doubt the kid wants to be back here; no doubt whatsoever," said Lang, who hadn't yet spoken to Volek. "Do I question maybe some of the tactics of his agent? There's some question there with what they're trying to do yet I'm comfortable and confident that if it's Dom's decision I know where he'll be. I would be surprised if Dom even knows what's going on."

At this point, Volek's situation hasn't changed Lang's approach to the import draft on June 27, when the Pats are planning to select one player to fill out their two man import quota. Regina is slated to pick 32nd out of 60 CHL teams in the opening round.

Barring an NHL lockout, the Pats will be looking to replace Slovak defenceman Martin Marincin, 20, who's under contract to the Edmonton Oilers and expected to graduate to the pro ranks. Volek, meanwhile, is regarded as a key returning player who will be counted upon for offence, especially with the loss of star centre Jordan Weal.

Volek started strong last season but struggled with consistency down the stretch – a common trait for European players adjusting to the North American game – while contributing 14 goals and 32 points in 70 games.

Despite an invitation to the CHL Top Prospects Game, Volek's stock fell in Central Scouting's rankings for the 2012 NHL entry draft, dropping from 95th at midseason to 163rd on the final list (out of the top 210 North American-based skaters).

Volek also played for the Czechs this spring in the world under-18 championship, recording two goals and two assists en route to his team's eighth-place finish.

If he returns to Regina, the Pats are anticipating that Volek will follow the path of other European players, many of whom are known for taking a big step forward in their second WHL campaign.

"He definitely showed his ability," added Lang. "I said all year he was a young guy trying to get accustomed and familiarized not only with the style of play but our coaching staff, the new system, all those things.

"There's no question in Year 2 we anticipate he'd be a guy who would have to step up and fill a void for some of those guys who moved on. We're comfortable and confident he would be able to do that."

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

[hockeygod]

London upsets Saint John Memorial Cup

SHAWINIGAN, Que.— BILL BEACON, The Canadian Press, May. 19, 2012

It was a classic case of hard work beating talent as the London Knights came out on top Saturday.

Vladislav Namestnikov scored twice and Austin Watson had a goal and two assists as the Knights outhustled and upset the defending champion Saint John Sea Dogs 5-3 at the MasterCard Memorial Cup.

The No. 1-ranked Sea Dogs were a perfect 4-0 while winning last year’s Memorial Cup in Mississauga, Ont., but their star forwards were thwarted by London’s team defence and they needed two short-handed goals just to stay in the game against the Ontario Hockey League champions.

“We’ve been battling all year to outwork teams and beat teams,” said Watson. “Play a tight defence and capitalize on our chances.

“They definitely didn’t take us lightly. They came out flying. It was a good battle. They’re a great hockey team and we’ll have to battle if we see them again.”

London is in action again Sunday night against the host Shawinigan Cataractes (0-1), while the Sea Dogs play their second game on Monday night against the Western Hockey League champion Edmonton Oil Kings (1-0).

Watson’s goal at 10:49 of the third period turned out to be the winner as the Knights held off the Sea Dogs’ vaunted attack.

Down 4-3 in the third, Saint John mounted some late pressure, but any chance of tying the game and forcing overtime disappeared when star forward Jonathan Huberdeau over-reacted to a poke from pesky Ryan Rupert and got a four-minute roughing call with 2:04 left to play.

Coach Gerard Gallant went ballistic on the bench and got a bench minor, giving London a two-man advantage they used to put the game away on Namestnikov’s second of the game.

Gallant later acknowledged his top players didn’t work hard enough and that London deserved to win, but his frustration spilled out toward the officials. He said his team has been a target as it dominated the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League the last three seasons.

“I’ve been complaining for three years that we always get the short end of the stick and I’m tired of it,” he said. “I’m not taking anything away from London, they were the better team, but I’m so tired of that.

“You show your frustration at the end of the game. I don’t want to do that, but it’s been over and over again, so I’m tired of it.”

London went 1-for-8 on the power play, while Saint John was 1-for-5.

Huberdeau, the third overall pick in last year’s NHL draft by Florida, admitted his error.

“It was frustration. I shouldn’t do that,” he said. “We had a chance to come back and I took the penalty. It was undisciplined.

“Now we have to forget about it. We can’t panic now. We have to think about the next game and work on what we didn’t do well.”

Huberdeau may have been lucky not to be tossed from the game when he rammed Ryan’s brother Matt Rupert into the glass from behind only 16 seconds into the first period, earning an elbowing minor.

But the Sea Dogs used that to take the lead while shorthanded at 1:37 when Charles-Olivier Roussel beat Michael Houser with a long shot.

After that goal, Saint John let up and London took over, forcing turnovers and winning nearly every puck battle, even though the Sea Dogs ended up with a 25-24 shot advantage.

“We just played hard and out-competed them and came out on top,” said Ryan Rupert, who with his brother Matt checked Saint John’s top line relentlessly. “We wanted to come in here and make a splash right away.

“With them being Memorial Cup champions, we wanted to prove ourselves in the first game, and we did.”

Domi, son of former NHL tough guy Tie Domi, showed some grit as he went to the net and flipped the puck over Mathieu Corbeil while falling to the ice to tie the game at 14:11.

Only 1:20 later, strong forechecking saw Tyler Ferry feed Namestnikov in the slot as the Knights took the lead.

The Sea Dogs were in trouble when they were outhustled again and Seth Griffith made it 3-1 at 12:41 of the second frame.

But while shorthanded again, Saint John got a strange goal as Huberdeau’s long shot went off Namestnikov and bounced to the net and right between Houser’s pads with 2:03 left in the period.

Ryan Rupert stole a puck from Pierre Durepos behind the Sea Dogs’ net and fed Watson in front to restore the two-goal margin, but Saint John struck back at 12:01 with the man advantage. Unhappy with his stars, Gallant sent his third line out for the power play and Ryan Tysink scored on a deflection of a Nathan Beaulieu point shot.

Gallant said the bad ice at the Bionest Centre that has plagued the most skilled players was not an excuse because his best should have worked through it.

“We weren’t good,” he said. “The only time we worked hard was on the penalty kill.

“It was a pretty disappointing performance, but we’ve still got a couple of games to battle back. London played a great game. They frustrated our guys. That’s not typical for the Sea Dogs. We didn’t get our game going at all.”

Notes: The tournament hockey operations committee announced that officials should not have reviewed a Shawinigan goal in Friday’s 4-3 win by Edmonton. Goals scored after a whistle are not reviewable. The goal by Anton Zlobin at 6:37 of the third period cut Edmonton’s lead to 3-2. Had Shawinigan won, then there would be controversy.

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

[hockeygod]

Cataractes down Knights at Memorial Cup

RYAN PYETTE, QMI Agency, May 20 2012

SHAWINIGAN, QUE. – It doesn't matter if Brandon Gormley is on the ice all by himself staring at an empty net in the off-season back home on quiet Prince Edward Island.

Whenever the Shawinigan Cataractes defenceman winds up, he always imagines a massive crowd of defenders lining up to block his shots.

That's the London Knights' calling card, but the savvy Canadian world junior defender squeaked enough through their normally impenetrable wall of shin pads and sliding bodies, scoring twice in an entertaining 6-2 victory for the Memorial Cup hosts before 4,674 Sunday night at Centre Bionest.

“It's not easy against them,” said Gormley, the Phoenix Coyotes first rounder. “They're great at blocking shots and we knew that going in. You have to think about it in today's game. You look at that New York Rangers and (London president Dale Hunter's) Washington Capitals series in the NHL playoffs) and the number of shots that were blocked was just crazy.

“They probably blocked as many as I got through.”

But he'll take the 50/50 split, and the Cataractes will definitely take their first win here.

This is a compelling Cup now. The only club that hasn't won yet is the defending champion Saint John Sea Dogs.

“We knew it was going to be good coming in,” London veteran forward Jared Knight said. “You have four good teams here and it looks like anyone can win it.”

The games turn on a dime.

Down a goal in the third, Knight sent a bullet off the Shawinigan crossbar, and Pierre-Olivier Morin grabbed it and roared down the ice to score a much-needed insurance goal. The Cataractes never looked back.

“That's hockey,” Knight said. “Sometimes, that's all it takes. I got all of that one, and unfortunately, it didn't go in and they scored. It's a break and they got it. Hopefully, we get it next time.”

Shawinigan head coach Eric Veilleux had no problem testing Lady Luck.

After 17-year-old goalie Alex Dubeau surrendered four goals in an opening loss to Edmonton, Shawinigan opted to start tiny overager Gabriel Girard, who hadn't played a game in 44 days.

All he did was beat London's Michael Houser, who could end up the Canadian Hockey League's top netminder – and possibly player of the year.

“I was a little bit anxious in the beginning,” the 5-foot-10, 162-pound puckstopper said, “but I felt better as it went on and I know, now that I've had this game to play, I'm going to be better.”

No one's facing their Cup mortality yet. A tie-breaker game on Thursday is looking more and more like a possibility.

“They definitely had more legs than we did,” said Knight, whose team was on the end of back-to-back games, “but that's an excuse. We played back-to-backs all year. We have to bounce back with a better effort.”

The OHL champs have to start keeping the puck out of the net while they're on the power play.

Hard-working Shawinigan forward Loik Poudrier put the Cataractes up two goals in the second with a fine shorthanded individual effort. The Knights have given up more goals with the man advantage so far (three) than they've scored (two).

“That's not the goal,” Poudrier said, “but I got the puck in my own end and if the opportunity is there, then, of course, you look for it and go to the net as hard as you can. It worked out, we scored.”

London looked at it as a sign of a lacklustre effort.

“That's the kind of thing that can happen when you don't have all five guys coming back hard on the play,” Knight said. “We have to be going both ways.”

Both teams had goals called back. The Cataractes, though, had more finish.

The game turned nasty late. There were a handful of roughing calls and London's Brett Cook and Shawinigan's Vincent Arseneau engaged in a spirited punchup – the second fight of the tournament.

“That's part of the game,” Gormley said. “You get here, there's going to be a lot of hitting.”

The real key against London, he knows, is to keep pucks from hitting them.

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

[hockeygod]

Paul Cyr – former Victoria Cougar (WHL), RIP

Gregg Drinnan, Taking Note, May 20, 2012

Paul Cyr, who was one of the best players in the history of the WHL’s Victoria Cougars, has died. He was 48 years of age. Cyr played on the 1982 Canadian national junior team that won the world tournament in Minnesota. That team is recognized as the spark that ignited Canada’s love affair with the national juniors and the world tournament. Cleve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times Colonist has more on Cyr right here:

http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/Former+NHLer+dead/6649793/story.html

Hockey Buzz has more right here, including a news report from CHEK-TV:

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/GARTH/Rest-In-Peace-Paul-Cyr/6/44497

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

[hockeygod]

Sea Dogs dump Oil Kings at Memorial Cup

SHAWINIGAN, Que. — Bill Beacon, The Canadian Press, May. 21, 2012

The Saint John Sea Dogs have served notice they are still the team to beat at the MasterCard Memorial Cup.

Zach Phillips scored twice and the defending champion Sea Dogs used greater effort and more of their considerable skill to defeat the Edmonton Oil Kings 5-2 on Monday night and create a four-way tie for the tournament lead.

It is the first time all the teams have been tied with 1-1 records since the current four-team format was adopted in 1983.

For Saint John, it was a much stronger performance, particularly from their top talents like Phillips, Jonathan Huberdeau and Charlie Coyle, than their listless loss to the London Knights in their opening game on Saturday.

“It’s really just our work ethic,” said Phillips. “When we work hard, there aren’t many teams that can beat us.”

The Western Hockey League champion Oil Kings are back in action Tuesday night against Ontario Hockey League winners London, while Saint John faces what is sure to be an emotional final round-robin game on Wednesday against their Quebec Major Junior Hockey League rival Shawinigan Cataractes.

Huberdeau, Danick Gauthier and Ryan Tesink also scored for the Sea Dogs, while Kristians Pelss and Stephane Legault replied for Edmonton, which beat the host Cataractes in their first game.

Sea Dogs coach Gerard Gallant singled out Tysink as an inspiration as he was crushed by a Griffith Reinhart hit in the first period and rebounded with a solid two-way game.

It was an important win for Saint John, as only one team has ever started 0-2 and won the tournament — the 2009 Windsor Spitfires.

“We try to steer clear of what the game means and just play our game,” said Phillips. “That’s what we did tonight, and it worked.”

The Oil Kings, who were coming off a two-day break, must now make a quick turnaround to face a London side that plays a tight defensive game and likes to surprise opponents on counterattacks.

“We just couldn’t get it done,” said forward Curtis Lazar. “We need to pick up the effort, but it’s short-term memory time now.

“This is bitter, but we need to get a good night’s sleep and forget about it.”

Lazar also took a massive hit in the first period and responded in the second with what appeared to be a knee-on-knee hit on Phillips, although no penalty was called. Phillips limped to the bench in pain, but returned before the end of the period.

“That hit on Phillips was borderline,” Lazar admitted. “I felt bad.

“I said sorry to him and I think he was a little surprised.”

Phillips said he was hit by Lazar’s knee and that it hurt for a few minutes, but he said he will be fine.

Edmonton coach Derek Laxdal said Lazar’s line with Legault and Henrik Samuelsson was his best because of their energetic play, but said there were some passengers on his team who will need to pick up their game against London.

“They’ll trap you and try to score on 2-on-1s and 3-on-2s,” he said. “We’ve got to be ready for that.”

The slow, choppy ice that has plagued the tournament during a spring hot spell was evident again in strange bounces and unusual goals. Organizers have called in ice expert Mike Craig to help improve the playing surface for the rest of the event.

The Sea Dogs got a quirky one early as Phillips fired the puck at a slim angle from the right boards and it got between Laurent Brossoit’s pad and the post at 4:23.

Edmonton tied it at 7:03 when Pelss tipped a high Mark Pysyk point shot past Mathieu Corbeil on a power play.

Huberdeau, who rebounded from a weak opening game with a stronger effort, showed his skill as he got behind the defence to take a Coyle pass and beat Brossoit with a deke 4:42 into the second frame.

Gauthier made it a two-goal lead at 15:53 with a partially blocked shot that bounced crazily past Brossoit, but Legault got it back 1:03 later as he took a feed from Samuelsson and put a move on Corbeil.

Phillips put the game out of reach with his second of the game with 1:37 left to play and Tesink added an empty net goal.

With each of the teams winning at least once, it guarantees there will be a tiebreaker game on Thursday night to determine one semifinalist.

Notes: Organizers fined the London Knights $1,000 for an incident near the end of their 6-2 loss to Shawinigan on Sunday, in which Greg McKegg and Matt Rupert threw punches at the Cataractes’ Alex Grandmaison from the bench. . . Saint John made two changes, putting Devon Oliver-Dares and Oliver Cooper into the lineup and scratching Spencer MacDonald and Jason Cameron.

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

[hockeygod]

Popeye and son: Former NBA forward's offspring, teenager Seth Jones, shows his strength is in hockey
U.S. U-18 captain-defenseman prepares to play for WHL Portland Winterhawks

Kerry Eggers, The Portland Tribune, May 20 2012

Despite what you might guess, Popeye Jones can ice skate. A little.

“I have a custom-made pair of size-15 skates,” the father of the newest Portland Winterhawks defenseman, Seth Jones, says. “It’s a long way for me to fall, though, and the ice is hard.

“I could never learn to stop, so I can’t go that fast. It gives you a whole new perspective and appreciation for the game of hockey.”

Popeye Jones is a lug of a man who is 6-8 and was listed at 265 pounds at the end of his 11-year run as an NBA power forward. The middle of his three sons is good-sized for a young hockey player, 6-4 and about 200 as he nears his 18th birthday this October.

Seth Jones — whose Western Hockey League rights were acquired by Portland from Everett this season — is one of the top junior prospects in the country. The captain of the under-18 team with the National Hockey Development Program, he would have been one of the top 10 picks in this year’s NHL draft, though he was too young to be eligible.

Jones is good enough that he could go No. 1 in the 2013 draft.

For at least a season, though, he’ll be patrolling the back end for the Winterhawks, who want to kick down the door after knocking at it while reaching the WHL finals the past two years.

Papa Jones has become very knowledgeable about the sport all three of his sons have chosen to play.

“I remember laying in the bedroom with the kids and watching Brett Hull (of the Dallas Stars) score a controversial goal to beat Buffalo in the 1999 Stanley Cup finals,” says Jones, now an assistant coach for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.

When Popeye was playing for the Dallas Mavericks, Stars center Mike Modano invited the Jones gang to a game.

“We didn’t know what we were watching,” the senior Jones says, “but had a really good time going to the game as our family. The Stars became our team.”

In 1996, Jones was traded to Toronto, “and you know how hockey is up there,” he says. “If you’re going to watch sports in Toronto, you watch (The Sports Network) and Hockey Night in Canada.”

By the time Jones was dealt to Denver in 1999, the oldest son — Justin, now 21 — had decided he wanted to play hockey.

“Seth tagged along when we went to the hockey shop for gear,” Popeye says. “He wanted hockey skates and roller blades.”

About that time, Jones ran into Colorado Avalanche standout Joe Sakic.

“I said, ‘Joe, my kids want to play hockey; what do I need to do?’ " Jones says. “He said, ‘They’re going to be huge. Just make sure they know how to skate.’ "

At 5, Seth took lessons from a female figuring skating coach for a year before entering into a youth hockey program. He continued working with her for years.

“He enjoyed skating as much as playing hockey, at least at first,” Jones says. “She taught him strides and edges and how to skate backward and to do forward and backward crossovers. She would always comment on how quickly he picked things up.”

Few blacks play or have much interest in hockey.

“That worried me a little bit when the kids were young,” says Jones, 41. “But we know the reason why is because of the cost of the sport. It’s very expensive, which makes it tough for a lot of African-Americans to be able to afford to play.”

As an NBA player, Jones was a rebounder — he twice averaged more than 10 boards a game for the Mavericks — and a defender. It may have rubbed off on Seth, who always preferred playing defense in hockey.

“I always said, ‘Defense wins championships,’ " the elder Jones says. “Seth wasn’t a great puckhandler as a little boy. He was always nimble and light on his feet, though. He’d lose the puck off his stick, and skate a few more strides before realizing he didn’t have it.

“He just liked defense. The forwards would get in the scrum and fight over the puck. He never wanted to do that. He wanted to stay back.”

At 15, Seth left the family and moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., to become part of the National Hockey Development Program, providing a wealth of national and international experience.

Though he was the youngest player, Jones was captain of the U.S. under-18 team that won gold at the 2012 world championships. He was nearly a year younger than the next youngest player invited to try out for the U.S. national junior team for players 20 and under. Jones made the team, but suffered a shoulder injury in an exhibition game against Russia and had to return home.

“The national program was wonderful for Seth,” Popeye says. “He needed to get stronger, develop his body, develop personally being away from home, fit into a group setting and train with kids who have the same goal as you at a young age.

“USA Hockey does a great job with the kids teaching them what it takes to be an elite athlete and an elite student and person. The whole experience for him was great — even the 14- to-16-hour bus rides.”

Jones has a few more long bus trips on the horizon next season with the Hawks, who sold him on a weekend recruiting visit to Portland with mother, Amy, during the playoff series with Tri-City last month.

“She had a lot of questions about billets and wanted to meet our academic advisor,” says the Hawks’ general manager and coach, Mike Johnston. “Seth had questions about hockey and our team.”

Seth had some familiarity with the Hawks, who had listed his roommate with the U.S. U-18 team — forward Quentin Shore — a year ago. Defenseman William Wrenn, Portland’s captain this season, is a former member of the national development program.

“Seth knew a little bit about how we play,” Johnston says. “We play a puck-moving, up-tempo style that is suited toward his game.”

Jones could have chosen to accept a scholarship to play for nearly any college hockey power in the country.

“It’s fine that he didn’t go the college route,” his father says. “I was happy he didn’t choose a college early, then back out. I’m glad he waited to choose between college and the Western Hockey League.”

Jones, Johnston says, “is going to fill out. He can play at 210 or 215 next season. He’s a big guy but he doesn’t look heavy. He skates really well for a defenseman. He can jump up ice with the puck and lead the rush. He handles and moves the puck very well.”

There’s no telling how good Jones will be next season, or further in the future. His father isn’t about to predict.

“We don’t look at that,” Popeye says. “The one thing you can control is how hard you work. You put in the time, you make sure you’re prepared for games and everything else falls into place. The stars align when you do those things.”

When Jones was coaching with the Mavericks after his playing days ended, he would take Seth to practice and point out the work habits of such players as Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry.

“Seth watched them take extra work before and after practice and shootaround, how they prepared, how they locked in to try to learn the opponents’ plays and tendencies,” Popeye says. “It helped him grow as a hockey player.”

Justin Jones is a forward who will play hockey at Division-III Wisconsin-River Falls next season. Seth’s younger brother, Caleb, who turns 15 on June 6, is a 5-11, 175-pound defenseman who was chosen in the third round (with Portland’s second pick) by the Hawks in the recent bantam draft.

“Doctors have projected him to be 6-5 or 6-6 and about 235,” Popeye says. “He is going to be a big kid. Seth will play the body when he has to, but that’s not his total game. Caleb, that’s his thing. He wants to knock you on your butt.”

The younger Jones was coached by one of the Hawks’ scouts on his Texas youth team.

“Caleb is a more physical player than Seth, with good upside,” Johnston says. “We’re excited to have both of them in our system.”

So is their father.

“Everything I’ve heard about the Winterhawks is that they are a class organization all the way,” Jones says. “It reminds me what we’re trying to do with the Nets, except the Winterhawks are ahead of us because of their success in the playoffs.

“I’ve talked to (associate coach Travis) Green and I’m looking forward to meeting Mike Johnston. I plan to come up for training camp to spend three or four days up there. I'm hoping to have Caleb take part, too.”

Caleb’s father, the youngest of five children, was christened Ronald at birth.

“But my parents asked (his siblings), ‘What should we call your new baby brother?’ " he says.

The kids were watching a Popeye cartoon at the time. “Ronald” became “Popeye,” and it stuck.

Seth Jones doesn’t have a nickname yet.

George Gervin’s “Iceman” might be appropriate.

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

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