The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

November 22, 2010

The Hockey News - Nov-22-10

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03762/9415259-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="263" height="477"><figcaption class="caption-body">(FUHR: ROBERT RIGER/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>OILERS ROOKIE RECORDS</h2>PointsJari Kurri (1980-81)75AssistsJari Kurri (1980-81)43GoalsJason Arnott (1993-94)33&lsquo;D&rsquo; PointsTom Gilbert (2007-08)33WinsGrant Fuhr (1981-82)28GAAGrant Fuhr (1981-82)3.31PIMK. Buchberger (1988-89)234<h2>0</h2>Number of Edmonton Oilers who&rsquo;ve won the Calder Trophy*GOALIE RECORDS BASED ON 10-GAME MINIMUM &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

BABY oil

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RD</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011448/9414676-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="968" height="711"><figcaption class="caption-body">(FOWLER: HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Teams may not being doing the Cam Fowler cringe just yet, but that could change in a couple years.Originally projected as a potential top-five &ndash; maybe even top-three &ndash; pick in last June&rsquo;s draft, Fowler fell to No. 12, where the Anaheim Ducks happily snapped him up.There&rsquo;s no scouting shame in looking back at missed opportunities because, quite frankly, it happens with a high degree of frequency in every draft. But if the smooth-skating Fowler becomes the player many expect he will, more than one franchise will want a do-over from the 2010 board.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s going to be a perfect example of that,&rdquo; said Rob Kitamura, director of central scouting and player development for the Ontario League.Fowler, who doesn&rsquo;t turn 19 until Dec. 5, made the direct jump from the Windsor Spitfires to the Ducks and despite being slowed by a broken nose, he&rsquo;s already glimpsing the substantial potential many believe he possesses. Kitamura thinks the fact he&rsquo;s not a bruiser may have been a factor in Fowler sliding at the draft, but he&rsquo;s not sure how much of a bearing that will have on his career.&ldquo;The biggest &ndash; and it&rsquo;s not really a knock &ndash; but the one thing that Cam isn&rsquo;t really known for is he&rsquo;s not a real tough player,&rdquo; Kitamura said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a soft player, but he&rsquo;s not a guy who is going to run someone through the boards and the reason he doesn&rsquo;t do that is because he doesn&rsquo;t have to. He&rsquo;s so quick, he gets to pucks and what hockey&rsquo;s about now is playing at a high rate of speed and for defensemen, getting in the right position and once there&rsquo;s a loose puck, get on it and transition to offense.&rdquo;Another rookie in that mold is former London Knight John Carlson, who propelled Fowler and Team US A to gold in January with his overtime winner at the World Junior Championship.&ldquo;Like Cam, his game is all about quick feet, puck movement,&rdquo; Kitamura said of the 20-year-old Caps blueliner. &ldquo;He might not be as physically talented as a Cam Fowler or Drew Doughty or a Mike Green; he is just so smart. The way he sees the game and makes plays allows him to play in the NHL at a young age.&rdquo; &#9632;

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From Slider to Standout

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02486/9415721-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">TWO KRONORRasmus Bengtsson, left, and Victor Rask visited L.A. last summer to hone their games. (COURTESY OF CAA SPORTS)</figcaption></div>To say Victor Rask and Rasmus Bengtsson &ldquo;went Hollywood&rdquo; this summer might be a bit of a misnomer. True, the pair of Swedes did hang out in Tinseltown, but it wasn&rsquo;t for the glamor; it was for the exercise and the experience.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01763/9415728-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="174" height="125"></div>Rask, a 6-foot-2, 194-pound center with Leksand and Bengtsson, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound defenseman with Rogle, were both in California thanks to their agency, CAA (home of Sidney Crosby, John Tavares and Jonathan Toews, among others).The agency runs a camp each summer for its young clients and this year&rsquo;s crew included prospects such as Shane McColgan, Ty Rattie and Slater Koekkoek, not to mention a flock of Swedes. While the 2010 draft had a dearth of big-name Tre Kronor talent, expect this year&rsquo;s podium to see a parade of gold and blue boys, with defenseman Adam Larsson a potential No. 1 overall pick and Rask soon to follow. Bengtsson, who battled injuries to start the campaign, is tabbed for the third round right now.Along with on-ice tutelage from Vancouver Canucks assistant coach Newell Brown and media training, the players also got to take in the L.A. experience. &ldquo;It was great to see the whole town,&rdquo; Bengtsson said. &ldquo;The famous stuff, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive.&rdquo;Back home, Rask is entering his first full campaign of top-level play with Leksand after getting a brief taste of the men&rsquo;s squad last season, where he skated with Phoenix Coyotes rookie defender Oliver Ekman-Larsson. &ldquo;He took good care of me when I was up there,&rdquo; Rask said.The big pivot cites his ability to find openings, passing and scoring as his best assets, while noting he would like to get faster. &ldquo;The first step I want to get quicker,&rdquo; he said.At the under-20 level, Rask dominated, putting up 41 points in 39 games for Leksand. Playing up with the big squad this season, he had four points in his first 14 games and was only slightly below 50 percent on faceoffs &ndash; not bad for a teenager. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a first-rounder,&rdquo; said one NHL scout. &ldquo;Big, strong and fully developed. He&rsquo;s creative and he&rsquo;s also a man, so he has no problem playing with the seniors.&rdquo;Added another scout: &ldquo;He is the type of player who makes the players around him better.&rdquo;Bengtsson, who played up with Rogle&rsquo;s under-20 team for most of last season, notched an impressive 23 points in 42 games with the squad. And while his saintly 14 PIM could be seen as smart hockey, he would still like to get a little nastier. &ldquo;I want to get better at everything,&rdquo; Bengtsson said, &ldquo;but mostly my speed game and my aggressive game.&rdquo;Bengtsson believes his strengths lie in reading the play and passing &ndash; and considering all but three of his points with Rogle&rsquo;s under-20 team came off assists, it&rsquo;s fair to say he knows what he&rsquo;s talking about. This year&rsquo;s goal for the slick blueliner is sticking with Rogle&rsquo;s senior team for the season.&ldquo;I want to find a spot with the six defensemen and play every game,&rdquo; he said.Said a scout: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a two-way defender. But more defensive than offensive.&rdquo;<h2>41</h2>Rask racked up 41 points in 39 games for Leksand&rsquo;s U-20 team last year in Sweden &#9632;

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Swedish Invasion

<h2>1. SETH AMBROZ, RW</h2>Omaha LancersPower forward trying hard on weak team<h2>2. TYLER BIGGS, RW</h2>U.S. NTDPBig and aggressive, he skates well and hits hard<h2>3. ROBBIE RUSSO, D</h2>U.S. NTDPAll-around defenseman has good vision; excels at passing game<h2>4. SCOTT MAYFIELD, D</h2>Youngstown PhantomsBig blueliner knows when to join the rush<h2>5. ROCCO GRIMALDI, C</h2>U.S. NTDPDynamic but diminutive, must prove size no issue<h2>6. J.T. MILLER, LW</h2>U.S. NTDPSolid two-way player has great hockey sense<h2>7. SEAN KURALY, C</h2>Indiana IceHard worker with professional size can shut down opponents<h2>8. MICHAEL PALIOTTA, D</h2>U.S. NTDPPhysical blueliner has pro size and strength<h2>9. COLTEN ST. CLAIR, RW</h2>Fargo ForceTerrific work ethic; projects as an energy guy<h2>10. CONNOR MURPHY, D</h2>U.S. NTDPBattling injuries, former NHLer Gord Murphy&rsquo;s son can skateRead more of &lsquo;The Hot List&rsquo; every Tuesday at <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a> &#9632;

U.S. Steel

<div class="byline">PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDRE RINGUETTE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-012121/9413954-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>Fist of Many</h2>Rookie Tyler Seguin victimized the Senators for his first NHL goal before getting a round of fist pounds. &#9632;

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THE BIG PICTURE

<div class="byline">WITH JASON KAY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-012143/9413999-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="907" height="580"><figcaption class="caption-body">(JAMIE HODGSON/THN)</figcaption></div>There was a time, not so long ago, when Canada had virtual a monopoly on elite-level goaltending. Sure, Europeans and Americans were starting to infiltrate the NHL steadily at the skilled skater positions, but the game&rsquo;s masked heroes were still overwhelmingly guys from the Great White North and, notably, the province of Quebec. The red and white owned the blue paint.The reality is no longer so smug. The decline of the Canadian goaltending empire is more than a decade old, one that began about the time Dominik Hasek was working magic in the Buffalo Sabres crease. He won the Vezina Trophy an astounding six times from 1994 to 2001, the Hart twice, and his rise signaled an international transformation.For evidence of how far the pendulum has swung, check out pg. 26, where as part of our cover story package, we highlight first-year puckstoppers. This year&rsquo;s class is headed by a Czech (Michal Neuvirth, rookie of the month for October), a Russian (Sergei Bobrovsky), a Swede (Anders Lindback) an American (Cory Schneider) and a two Canadians (Jonathan Bernier and Corey Crawford).The numbers support the anecdotal evidence. In 1988, 87 percent of all goaltenders in the NHL hailed from Canada. By 1998, the year Hasek won his second Hart, it had fallen to 68 percent. And this season, the number has swooned to 44 percent. During the same span, the skater data has remained relatively constant &ndash; 60 percent were Canadian in 1998 and 55 percent this season.And from a stats perspective, Americans and Europeans have dominated the leaderboard to start 2010-11. Conversely, the three men chosen to guard goal for Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team &ndash; Roberto Luongo, Martin Brodeur and Marc-Andre Fleury &ndash; ranged from average to awful in October. Carolina&rsquo;s Cam Ward had the best save percentage among Canadian-born backstops, and his .923 ranked 12th.We aren&rsquo;t presenting this as a crisis or a problem, but a reflection of how much our game has changed. And for the NHL, it could be an opportunity. The league is champing to grow the game south of the 49th parallel and east of Newfoundland. There are vast revenue streams to be siphoned, particularly in affluent Europe. And if you&rsquo;re looking to sell the game overseas, wouldn&rsquo;t you rather have Henriks, Miikkas and Jaroslavs to promote than Eds, Dans and Patricks?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021819/9413992-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="414" height="222"></div><h2>NEXT ISSUE DECEMBER 6, 2010</h2>CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TO SUBSCRIBE: <a href="http://THN.com">thn.com</a>CONTACT US: <a href="mailto:editorial@thehockeynews.com">editorial@thehockeynews.com</a><h2>LISTEN UP!</h2>THE HOCKEY NEWS RADIO SHOWFRIDAYS 3-4 EST XM 204<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031462/9413985-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="185" height="72"></div> &#9632;

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Look Who’s Stopping

<h2>SOUNDING OFF</h2>The reason most people are against women in the Hall of Fame isn&rsquo;t because they&rsquo;re worried there&rsquo;s not enough women to induct, it&rsquo;s that the women&rsquo;s game is completely different from the men&rsquo;s and should be treated that way.The men&rsquo;s game is faster, the players are bigger and, as much as most journalists won&rsquo;t admit it because they don&rsquo;t want to look sexist, the women&rsquo;s skill level is a joke compared to men&rsquo;s.When people go to the Hall of Fame, they want to see the world&rsquo;s best players, not the best from a team that plays tune-up games against midget boy&rsquo;s team and sometimes loses.Curtis Crawford, Kingston, Ont.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012370/9414075-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="987" height="1160"><figcaption class="caption-body">(HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>Mistaken Identity</h2>I have just looked over Ken Campbell&rsquo;s article on Fr. Les Costello (The Flying Father, Nov. 1) and he gets my vote for the Hall of Fame. However, it was Fr. Brian McKee who founded the Flying Fathers and not Fr. Peter McKee of Moncton, N.B., who played with them much later.I was stationed with Brian McKee in North Bay when he founded the team in the winter of 1963.&lsquo;Costy&rsquo; was the first to be asked to play and was truly the heart and soul of the team. I know Fr. Les would want me to do this for both of them. May all three of these good priests now rest a little more in peace.John H. Caswell, Sudbury, Ont.<h2>Money for Nothing</h2>When I see guys like Sheldon Souray and Wade Redden playing in the American League due to cap issues it makes me cringe.The NHL needs to implement non-guaranteed contracts during the next CBA.Steve Clowers, Grand Terrace, Calif.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04604/9414068-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg" title="f0006-04" width="458" height="625"></div><h2>Wing and a Prayer</h2>Your Nov. 1 issue moved me for two reasons.First, the beautiful story about Fr. Les Costello. He should be in the Hall of Fame. Second, the story about Mike Modano, one of the greatest players of all-time.I was at Modano&rsquo;s last home game in Dallas. He was so important to the fans that thousands had tears in their eyes. He built the game of hockey in Dallas.Thank you for giving these two men recognition. They highly deserve it.Sandra Timmons, Ridgeland, Miss.<h2>Desert the Desert</h2>NHL hockey just isn&rsquo;t working in Phoenix. The Coyotes drew 6,706 fans Oct. 21 and then, on Oct. 23, a Saturday night, they drew 8,189 fans. That&rsquo;s just pathetic.In comparison, in the Ontario League, on Friday, Oct. 22, the Kitchener Rangers drew 6,435 fans and the London Knights drew 8,979 fans. Final score: Phoenix 14,895; Kitchener/London 15,414. End this debacle and move the Coyotes to Southern Ontario, a place that actually cares about hockey.Pat Moules, Kitchener, Ont.<h2>Greasy Move</h2>Do the Oilers not realize that hockey isn&rsquo;t just for the guys?By bringing in scantily-clad female cheerleaders, they&rsquo;re basically telling all of us women who love and support the game that, hey, your money isn&rsquo;t needed.Really? When you&rsquo;re trying to get the public to foot the bill on a half-billion dollar complex? This entire idea is insulting to female fans.Karen Lajoie, Yellowknife, N.W.T.<h2>Sunny Outlook</h2>I never thought I&rsquo;d say this, but I had the pleasure of watching the Florida Panthers on their season-opening trip across Western Canada.Despite only getting two of the possible six points, I saw an exciting, hard-working team that easily could&rsquo;ve gone 3-0. And I see reasons for optimism for the Sunbelt.Tampa Bay boasts current and future stars, with Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman at the reins. Atlanta is having success with its recent draft picks. L.A. just keeps getting better and Phoenix sold out its final eight home games last season.Also, Nashville is ever-consistent, Anaheim won a Cup in 2007 and San Jose is always a Presidents&rsquo; Trophy candidate.There&rsquo;s a way to go, but the NHL is on the right track.Brandon Sparks, Fredericton, N.B.<h2>La-la-laughable</h2>When I picked up my copy of THN&rsquo;s Top 100 Players of All-Time by Position I was appalled to see Pat LaFontaine was not on the list.He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and was a key member of the 1996 U.S. team that won the World Cup. LaFontaine isn&rsquo;t on the list, yet Cam Neely and Pavel Bure are? That&rsquo;s not right.Cindy Decario, Burnaby, B.C.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021603/9414061-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="523" height="89"></div><h2>POLL RESULTS</h2>Who&rsquo;s the leading candidate for the Calder Trophy?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03947/9414054-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="483" height="559"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Jordan Eberle 29%Michal Neuvirth 17%Jeff Skinner 16%P.K. Subban 16%Tyler Seguin 7%Mark Letestu 5%John Carlson 4%Tyler Ennis 3%Magnus Paajarvi 2%Taylor Hall 1%Vote on polls from everything top to bottom in the world of hockey at <a href="http://thehockynews.com">thehockynews.com</a>Submit your letter at: <a href="http://THN.COM/LETTERS">thn.com/letters</a> &#9632;

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THN INBOX

What&rsquo;s keeping you up at night, hockey fans?If you&rsquo;ve got a question about the game, drop columnist Adam Proteau an email and he&rsquo;ll give you the inside scoop.Hey Adam, Do you think Steven Stamkos could become the NHL&rsquo;s new face?Derek Mcdonald, CalgaryHey Derek: Absolutely, I do. As a matter of fact, I recently Tweeted (@thehockeynews), that with Stamkos&rsquo; incredible start to 2010-11, the Sidney Crosby/Alex Ovechkin Era was over &ndash; and has now been replaced by the Crosby/Ovechkin/Stamkos Era.Stamkos is a marvelous talent, a down-to-earth kid and fantastic to speak with one-on-one. Promoting him alongside Ovechkin and Crosby &ndash; and expanding high-profile marketing beyond one or two mega-stars &ndash; is just what the NHL should be doing.Dear Adam, What do you think about the new stipulation to the tiebreaking procedure where the greatest number of wins, excluding shootout wins, puts you ahead? I think a win is a win and it&rsquo;s unfair to teams like Dallas that are good in the shootout.Stacey Hartness, Live Oak, TexasDear Stacey: I&rsquo;m a shootout fan, but I agree with the notion that any team that solves more of its games before the shootout deserves a higher ranking in the standings.If you were a fan of a team that wasn&rsquo;t overly skilled in shootouts, would you be this passionate of an advocate for making all wins equal? I&rsquo;ve got a sneaking suspicion you wouldn&rsquo;t.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-012121/9414106-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="657" height="884"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVEN STAMKOS (RICHARD WOLOWICZ/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Adam, the St. Louis Blues are finally off to a great start. After seeing the way they can finish a season like they have the past two years, is it time to say the Blues are for real?Joshua Weisel, St. LouisJoshua: The Blues are for real &ndash; and not just because Jaroslav Halak has been great for them. Once veteran forwards Paul Kariya and Keith Tkachuk left in the summer, it gave the Blues&rsquo; younger players &ndash; including T.J. Oshie &ndash; a chance to make the team their own.That&rsquo;s what they&rsquo;ve done and it shows in their improved on-ice confidence.Submit your burning questions at <a href="http://THN.COM/ASKADAM">THN.com/askadam</a> | Read more &lsquo;Ask Adam&rsquo; every Friday at <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a> &#9632;

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ASK ADAM

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN DIXON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-031213/9414158-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="741" height="820"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BOTH MARLIES: GRAIG ABEL/ABEL IMAGES)</figcaption></div>An exchange with an old goalie buddy has prompted Dallas Eakins to alter the way he manages his goaltenders late &ndash; or more specifically, not so late &ndash; in games.A combination of factors &ndash; some he could do without &ndash; has put Eakins in a position to become a bit of a trailblazer with respect to the way he handles the always-frantic action of pulling his goalie. Eakins, in his second year as coach of the American League&rsquo;s Toronto Marlies, is the first to tell you he&rsquo;d rather not be espousing on the topic of goalie-pulling tactics because that means your team isn&rsquo;t winning as many games as you&rsquo;d like. But beyond that, Eakins has shown a willingness to get his masked man on the bench much earlier than people are accustomed to seeing, mainly because he&rsquo;s convinced it gives his club a better chance to claw back into hockey games.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021721/9414165-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="125" height="125"></div>The wheels started turning after Eakins&rsquo; friend, former NHL goalie and current manager of goalie equipment for the league, Kay Whitmore, passed on an in-depth study he&rsquo;d come across that drew a pretty basic conclusion. &ldquo;At the end of the day, what it said was, NHL coaches are probably being too cautious,&rdquo; Eakins said. &ldquo;The thing I&rsquo;ve found, in my short coaching career, anyway, is you can be more aggressive.&rdquo;</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-04678/9414151-1-eng-US/f0008-042.jpg" title="f0008-04" width="1024" height="968"><figcaption class="caption-body">MR. HOOKDallas Eakins has taken to pulling his goalie early to give his team a chance to rally. (BOOGAARD: PHILLIP MACCALLUM/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>That attitude has seen Eakins summon his puckstoppers from the crease at a point when spectators still have a lot of sipping to do on their third-period beverages. Early this year, with his team down three goals, Eakins yanked James Reimer with roughly six minutes left in the contest. Last year, with his team down three again, he reached for the hook with nine minutes remaining. The tactic failed to produce dramatic comebacks in either situation, but Eakins, who admits the method is still very much a work-in-progress, eschews the traditional conservative approach in favor of creating a sense of urgency much sooner.&ldquo;I know there are coaches when you&rsquo;re maybe down by two or three goals, they&rsquo;ll just sit on it thinking, &lsquo;We&rsquo;re not going to win the game,&rsquo; and they&rsquo;ll leave the goalie in to protect the team&rsquo;s goals against,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I kind of look at it the other way. If you&rsquo;re down two or three goals and it&rsquo;s in the third period and you&rsquo;re not sure you&rsquo;re going to get another power play or your team is not going the best, you still have to try to win the game. You&rsquo;ve got to get your goalie out earlier.&ldquo;Even if we&rsquo;re down one goal, I think most coaches are probably looking to that minute-and-a-half range where, if it looks like we&rsquo;re going to get control of the puck or have a faceoff down low in their zone, I&rsquo;ve got no problem pulling him with two minutes left because you need time to score.&rdquo;Eakins acknowledged it&rsquo;s much easier to be a member of the coaching avant-garde when you&rsquo;re in the American League as opposed to under the intense pressure of the NHL, where certain norms are firmly established. &ldquo;Everyone is used to that, all the managers are used to that, all the media are used to that,&rdquo; Eakins said of the typical time frame for goalie evacuation. &ldquo;So if you pull him in that time space and you get scored on, no one thinks twice about it, because that&rsquo;s what you do. But if you suddenly step up and pull him with two minutes to go&hellip;and if you get scored on, you might get chastised for it or called out on it.&rdquo;THN ran a study around this time last year that also suggested teams need to get the goalie out quicker and, at least for now, Eakins is staying the course. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sitting here saying I&rsquo;m right,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;m comfortable with right now and I&rsquo;m still trying to get a feel for it.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012261/9414144-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="252" height="299"></div><h2>232</h2>Consecutive goalless games for Rangers ruffian Derek Boogaard, the NHL&rsquo;s longest current drought<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-05479/9414137-1-eng-US/f0008-052.jpg" title="f0008-05" width="359" height="100"></div> &#9632;

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Progressive Tactician

<div class="byline">&#x2013; ANDREW GOYENS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-012034/9414217-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">BARRIE COLTS (OHL: TERRY WILSON / OHL IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Players moving on is a fact of life in the Canadian Hockey League &ndash; they play a few years, then it&rsquo;s off to the pros or the real world. Rosters turn over in a big hurry and good teams can become bad almost overnight. Here are three squads that have gone from the penthouse in 2009-10 to the outhouse this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021417/9414210-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="213" height="208"></div>Barrie Colts ONTARIO LEAGUE2009-10 57-9-2, .853 2010-11 3-11-1, .233The Colts lost eight of their top 10 scorers, but it was their defense that had let them down &ndash; they were allowing a ghastly five goals per game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-03874/9414203-1-eng-US/f0009-032.jpg" title="f0009-03" width="213" height="208"></div>Brandon Wheat Kings WESTERN LEAGUE2009-10 50-18-4, .722 2010-11 6-10-1, .382Brandon loaded up for a Memorial Cup run and lost seven of its top 10 scorers, plus both goalies; 2009 first-rounder Scott Glennie had two goals in 15 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-04663/9414196-1-eng-US/f0009-042.jpg" title="f0009-04" width="213" height="208"></div>Calgary Hitmen WESTERN LEAGUE2009-10 52-17-3, .743 2010-11 4-11-0, .267The Hitmen&rsquo;s biggest loss was in net, where Michael Snider and Juraj Holly hadn&rsquo;t matched Martin Jones&rsquo; heroics &ndash; four of top five scorers are gone, too. &#9632;

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Greatness gutted

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-05497/9414248-1-eng-US/f0009-052.jpg" title="f0009-05" width="379" height="652"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ROENICK: RICK STEWART/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>+PLUS</h2><h3>HALAK ATTACK</h3>Jaroslav Halak doing a wonderful job of adjusting to St. Louis with three shutouts in nine games as a Blue.<h2>&ndash;MINUS</h2><h3>CUTTING THE POWER</h3>Florida, Montreal and New Jersey have played more than 10 percent of the year with power plays that score less than 10 percent of the time.<h2>+PLUS</h2><h3>AMERICAN CLASSICS</h3>Jeremy Roenick, Derian and Kevin Hatcher enter the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, while Cam Neely, Jerry York, Jack Parker and Dave Andrews receive Lester Patrick Trophy.<h2>&ndash;MINUS</h2><h3>OH NO, BUFFALO!</h3>Cinderellas of the Northeast last season find the sledding much tougher this time out. &#9632;

f0009-05

PLUS MINUS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-06403/9414279-1-eng-US/f0009-062.jpg" title="f0009-06" width="848" height="1044"><figcaption class="caption-body">(SBISA: HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>ITALY</h2>Known more for producing top wines and cheeses than hockey players, Sardinia, Italy boasts an NHL blueliner, tooLuca Sbisa Getting to the NHL from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia isn&rsquo;t likely. So it was a good thing for Sbisa, born in Ozieri, that his parents moved to Switzerland when he was a year old. He joined the local team, EV Zug, before playing with Lethbridge in the WHL. In &rsquo;08 he was drafted 19th overall by Philadelphia and became the third Italian-born player to see NHL action. He was traded to Anaheim in the &rsquo;09 Chris Pronger deal. Sbisa plays internationally for Switzerland. &#9632;

f0009-06

HE’S FROM Where?

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-07346/9414310-1-eng-US/f0009-072.jpg" title="f0009-07" width="245" height="175"></div><h2>ITALY</h2>IIHF MEMBER SINCE1924TOTAL POPULATION58,090,681MEN&rsquo;S RANKING16thWOMEN&rsquo;S RANKING17thMALE PLAYERS1,776FEMALE PLAYERS490INDOOR RINKS44OUTDOOR RINKS24 &#9632;

f0009-07

GLOBAL Glimpse

<div class="byline">By Charlie Teljeur</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012232/9414341-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0010-01

The Instigator

<div class="byline">&#x2013; ADAM STEISS</div>Here&rsquo;s a lesson on reading the fine print &ndash; or at least on avoiding signing anything written in a language you don&rsquo;t understand.In September, Tomas Bulik, a Slovakian center who began the season with Yugra in the Kontinental League, was allegedly handed a paper by the club that it claimed was a work-visa related document. Of course, it was written in Cyrillic, the first problem. The second problem was that it apparently turned out to be a mutual agreement to terminate Bulik&rsquo;s contract &ndash; understandably a big surprise for Bulik and his agent.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021626/9414372-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="196" height="208"></div>In a statement, Bulik told his side of the story: After returning to the team following an injury, his icetime was reduced and he was pressed by the club&rsquo;s manager to sign papers regarding the termination of his contract. Bulik and his agent, former NHL goaltender Andrei Trefilov, were understandably upset and flat refused. Bulik and Trefilov were later informed that Yugra already had a document with Bulik&rsquo;s signature approving his release from the team &ndash; which appears to be the now infamous September Papers.In late October, Bulik&rsquo;s release was announced on the KHL&rsquo;s website. When contacted by THN, the league said, &ldquo;Bulik has appealed his case to the KHL disciplinary committee and it is in the process of being investigated.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-02

Sign Here, Please?

<div class="byline">&#x2013; ADAM PROTEAU</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012179/9414403-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">STRIPES EARNEDAfter a long career as an NHL official, Andy Van Hellemond turned to political office. (BRUCE BENNETT STUDIOS/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Andy Van Hellemond spent decades patrolling NHL ice surfaces as a referee &ndash; and from 2000 to 2004, he oversaw all of the league&rsquo;s zebras as director of officiating. These days, though, he is trying to enforce the agenda of a new set of constituents &ndash; the citizens of Guelph, Ont., who elected Van Hellemond as a city councillor in late October.&ldquo;I told people I want to be known as their ward representative, not a hockey referee,&rdquo; said Van Hellemond, who joined the political scene after discovering the escalating costs of Guelph&rsquo;s recycling facility. &ldquo;That might have opened doors for me, but I hope I didn&rsquo;t get in because of that. I got a lot of votes and beat the people who were the incumbents by quite a bit. And I did speak on the issues &ndash; that&rsquo;s where I&rsquo;m coming from.&rdquo;Van Hellemond, who resigned as NHL director of officiating in 2004, also weighed in on the state of today&rsquo;s NHL, saying he doesn&rsquo;t believe it&rsquo;s necessarily better than the pre-lockout product. &ldquo;We had a lot of goals scored in our time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They changed the game to get more goals and we still have these 1-0 and 2-0 and 2-1 games&hellip;and if they don&rsquo;t change the goalie equipment, the game will always be like this.&rdquo;When he was working for the league, Van Hellemond bristled when NHL brass tried to pin the blame for the low scoring of the Dead Puck Era on a lack of rule enforcement that led to massive on-ice obstruction. The changes that have been made in that regard &ndash; and the ensuing lack of a significant rise in scoring &ndash; have justified his pre-lockout beliefs.&ldquo;The excuse of too much hooking and too much holding, that doesn&rsquo;t wash anymore,&rdquo; said the fiscally conservative Van Hellemond, who appealed to seniors on fixed incomes. &ldquo;(T)here was too much of that going on, so they had to change and have a big summit because (they) wanted more goals. So we heard all this B.S. about hooking and holding and that by getting rid of it, we&rsquo;re going to have higher-scoring games? I don&rsquo;t see it, but you be the judge.&rdquo;Shrinking goalie equipment is the key for Van Hellemond. &ldquo;It all comes back to that,&rdquo; the 62-year-old said. &ldquo;The equipment &ndash; they keep saying they&rsquo;re going to police it, but I don&rsquo;t know&hellip;something has to change.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-01

Van Hellemond in Politcal Arena

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RONNIE SHUKER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021707/9414448-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="304" height="571"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-031098/9414441-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="522" height="352"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ARMY: MELCHIOR DIGIACOMO/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-04654/9414434-1-eng-US/f0012-042.jpg" title="f0012-04" width="161" height="113"></div>For more than 40 years, Flyers fans ripped apart their team&rsquo;s opponent during games at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. But Nov. 6 they came to pillage and plunder their former stomping grounds before the Spectrum met its fate with the Broad Street bulldozers.Fans were invited to a first-come, first-served free-for-all &ldquo;If You Can Carry It, You Can Keep It&rdquo; event &ndash; power tools and hand carts prohibited.For $25, they could take folding chairs (limit four per person), televisions, office furniture, couches, computer equipment &ndash; basically as much of anything as they could carry &ndash; from the Flyers former home.No word if the famous &lsquo;Schultz&rsquo;s Army,&rsquo; pictured, showed up. &#9632;

f0012-02

If You Can Carry it, You Can Keep it

SIDNEY CROSBY102 PTS2005-06PITTSBURGHFIVEDALE HAWERCHUK103 PTS1981-82WINNIPEGFOURALEXANDER OVECHKIN106 PTS2005-06WASHINGTONTHREEPETER STASTNY109 PTS1980-81QUEBECTWOTEEMU SELANNE132 PTS1992-93WINNIPEGONE &#9632;

Starting FROM 5

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MIKE LOFTUS</div>The mask and design are new. Same for the pads. And after surgery in May, his hip is like new.Tim Thomas hasn&rsquo;t changed, though. Count him out, and he&rsquo;ll prove you wrong. Presumed to be Boston&rsquo;s 2010-11 backup after a sub-par season coincided with the emergence of Tuukka Rask, Thomas instead returned to &ndash; even bettered &ndash; his Vezina Trophy-winning form of &rsquo;08-09.At 36, &lsquo;The Man In White&rsquo; usurped Tiny Thompson&rsquo;s 1937-38 team record of six straight wins to open a season. Three of his first seven wins came via shutout (if not for his own errant breakout pass that gave Washington&rsquo;s Jason Chimera an empty-netter on Oct. 21, Thomas would have had another blank) and he allowed more than one goal just once.&ldquo;I feel good,&rdquo; Thomas said after blanking Toronto Oct. 29 &ndash; two days before a shutout at Ottawa. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun to play, you know?&rdquo; Thomas couldn&rsquo;t make that claim for much of last year. Like most Bruins, his start was sluggish. And with a lingering hip problem hindering him, he slumped at one point to one win during a nine-start stretch that saw him pulled three times. Post-Olympics and through the playoffs, Rask was Boston&rsquo;s No. 1 goalie. Ironically, the lack of playing time down the stretch gave Thomas a chance to strengthen his hip area so much, he almost skipped surgery, which repaired a torn labrum.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-012154/9414510-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="475" height="711"><figcaption class="caption-body">(STEVE BABINEAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021617/9414503-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="1628" height="930"><figcaption class="caption-body">WHITE LIGHTNINGTim Thomas&rsquo; 0.72 GAA and .977 save percentage through seven starts led the league. (ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Thomas agreed to the procedure, he said, because &ldquo;the doctor (thought) it would be worth it and I had three years left on my contract. I still want to play for a long time. If this happened when I was 38, maybe you don&rsquo;t try (surgery), you just try to make it through the last year.&rdquo;Naturally, Thomas is glad he had the operation and happy, too, with his new look. While the new mask (&ldquo;the first one-piece mask I&rsquo;ve ever liked&rdquo;) doesn&rsquo;t have a team logo &ndash; Thomas substituted a replica of a quarter he wears as a necklace &ndash; the gray-and-white shell still features Thomas staples such as bear claws, a bow hunter and his children&rsquo;s initials.As for all the white &ndash; it&rsquo;s a goaltender thing. &ldquo;Bob Essensa, our goalie coach, has been talking about getting more white in my equipment for years,&rdquo; Thomas said. &ldquo;Some study proved white makes you look bigger, this and that.&rdquo; Optical illusion or not, Thomas has rarely stood taller than he has to start this season. &#9632;

f0014-01

New Look, Same Old Tim

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-031096/9414541-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>4</h2>Ryan Callahan, David Booth, Frans Nielsen and David Steckel all scored via penalty shots the day before Halloween, a scary one for goalies. &#9632;

f0014-03

NUMBER Crunch

<div class="byline">WITH ADAM PROTEAU</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021479/9414572-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">COMPANY MANJarome Iginla ranks third among active NHLers in tenure with one franchise. (GERRY THOMAS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011924/9414579-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="187" height="222"></div>Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change &ndash; this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress. &ndash; Bruce Barton, &rsquo;30s-era politician and authorOnly the wisest and stupidest of men never change. &ndash; ConfuciusThe Calgary Flames are at a crossroads &ndash; one that threatens to keep the franchise in middle-of-the-NHL-standings-limbo if its management chooses the wrong route.Of course, Flames fans have grown accustomed to change and tough decisions. Since the spring of 2004 &ndash; when Jarome Iginla, Miikka Kiprusoff and Robyn Regehr helped spark the organization to an appearance in the Stanley Cup final &ndash; there has been a steady, often-debatable parade of roster changes made in Southern Alberta.Yet here the Flames are &ndash; still with a bona-fide star in Iginla, still with a world-class netminding talent in Kiprusoff, still somehow much less than the sum of their parts &ndash; and still trying to convince themselves they can keep up with the NHL&rsquo;s powerhouse franchises.I don&rsquo;t buy it. Few people outside Calgary buy it. And the key to turning around the Flames&rsquo; faltering fortunes rides almost completely on GM Darryl Sutter&rsquo;s willingness to take a hard look in the mirror and make some painful decisions.The most important decision centers around Iginla &ndash; who, at 33, is beginning to hear his name kicked around in trade rumors in a way that&rsquo;s never happened in his 14 seasons as a Flame.And you know what? It&rsquo;s time that Calgary&rsquo;s captain moved on.To trade a franchise and community cornerstone such as Iginla surely would lead to ownership being carved by fans and media. But as long as Calgary is just bad enough to miss the playoffs (as they did last season) &ndash; and just good enough to stay out of the bottom of the league&rsquo;s standings &ndash; Sutter should see what he can get for his best forward.<blockquote class="pullQuote">I think Jarome is becoming the Flames&rsquo; Mats Sundin</blockquote>Otherwise, the Flames&rsquo; year-to-year situation will remain eerily similar to the team Sutter traded defenseman Dion Phaneuf to last January.&ldquo;I think Jarome is becoming the Flames&rsquo; Mats Sundin,&rdquo; said former Calgary GM Craig Button, referring to the circus that enveloped Sundin when he failed to accept a trade at the end of his Toronto career. &ldquo;Just like Mats loved Toronto, Jarome has always wanted to be part of the solution in Calgary. He loves Calgary.&ldquo;But the way I look at it is like this: Are they moving towards becoming a serious Cup contender or away from it? I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;re moving towards it and I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;re anywhere near it.&rdquo;In Button&rsquo;s opinion, the Flames are fooling themselves if they believe simply qualifying for the post-season will be the first step to an NHL championship.&ldquo;When you hear teams start to say, &ldquo;all you have to do is make the playoffs and anything can happen, I think that&rsquo;s exactly the point when teams have lost some perspective on reality,&rdquo; Button said. &ldquo;Because the reality is, getting into the playoffs, no, anything cannot happen. It was the first time ever last year the seventh and eighth-place teams played each other in the Eastern Conference final.&rdquo;Given that Iginla has a no-trade clause in his contract that expires in 2013, moving him won&rsquo;t be easy. If management hopes more middling play by the team will lead to Iginla demanding to be dealt, they&rsquo;re dreaming. Sometimes, hockey men have to make unpopular decisions. With the Phaneuf trade, Sutter already has shown himself capable of such moves.Fear in Calgary will arise immediately after Iginla goes. But soon thereafter, real hope for the Flames will follow.WANT MORE PROTEAU? READ ADAM&rsquo;S BLOG ONLY ON <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM</a> &#9632;

f0016-02

Time to Deal Iginla

<div class="byline">By Ryan Dixon</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011804/9414645-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>It should have come as no surprise that P.K. Subban goes on the offensive quickly.In this instance, the young Montreal Canadiens defenseman was calling a reporter to talk about his rookie season, the great run he had with the Habs last spring and all things Subban. The problem was he caught the writer on a day when he was masquerading as an athlete, tending goal in a United Way charity road hockey tournament.The impostor was still breathing a little heavy while trying to explain the somewhat frenetic circumstances under which he was receiving the call when P.K. pulled one of those famous &lsquo;Subby-doos&rsquo; of his by turning the question-and-answer tables.&ldquo;So what kind of goalie are you?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s your technique? Because I&rsquo;ve got Carey Price right here if you need some tips.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011558/9414638-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="2130" height="1510"><figcaption class="caption-body">BIG MAN ON CAMPUS P.K. Subban has been a big personality since he was a kid &ndash; and doesn&rsquo;t apologize for it.</figcaption></div>The pointers were needed, no doubt, but no further conversation was required to tip us off to the fact Subban comes exactly as advertised. Whether in your face or in your ear, there&rsquo;s no holding back, there&rsquo;s no hesitation and there&rsquo;s nothing to indicate things are going to change anytime soon. Shortly thereafter, the guy who was supposed to be giving answers was back to making queries when the topic turned to the fact he and teammate Josh Gorges live in the same building.&ldquo;I heard you&rsquo;re also going to be speaking with Josh,&rdquo; Subban said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re going to want to tell him that you heard Subban got the penthouse in the building.&rdquo;Truth is, the rookie doesn&rsquo;t actually occupy the top floor, but the fact he&rsquo;s two above his buddy was too much to resist.&ldquo;He would say that, too,&rdquo; Gorges said with a laugh.Subban is definitely not short on words and the ones that get directed at people who aren&rsquo;t on his team seem to draw a special manner of ire. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what it is about him; he doesn&rsquo;t have to do much and he offends the other team, their mindset, they seem to go crazy when he says anything,&rdquo; Gorges said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost comical. He&rsquo;ll say one little thing and you see the whole bench of the other team just lose it. I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s what he says or how he says it, but he definitely knows how to get under the skin of other guys.&rdquo;That, by extension, has caused Subban to rankle some of the old-school segment of the hockey world who believe there&rsquo;s a firmly-established pecking order on the ice that must be respected at all times.&ldquo;I think maybe as a young guy, especially a rookie, maybe guys on the other team don&rsquo;t like to see that confidence, but that&rsquo;s too bad,&rdquo; Subban said. &ldquo;I go out there and play my game and be myself and hopefully that brings me success.&rdquo;It did last spring when Subban exploded onto the scene during a 14-game playoff stint with the Canadiens. Before he joined the Habs in Game 6 of their first-round upset of Washington, his NHL experience consisted of two regular season games. But his role grew exponentially when No. 1 defenseman Andrei Markov was lost to a knee injury in Game 1 of the second round versus the Penguins. Subban&rsquo;s play ran the spectrum from dynamic to dangerous, but he demonstrated a take-charge mentality that left an impression.&ldquo;For him to step in last year in the situation he was in, not having played more than two regular season games and jumping into the playoffs, you can&rsquo;t do that if you don&rsquo;t have that swagger, that confidence in yourself,&rdquo; Gorges said. &ldquo;It might get the best of him right now at times, but I think in the long run, when he learns how to really hone that mental aspect of the game, that&rsquo;s what will separate him as a great player, not just a good player.&rdquo;One of the excellent players Subban often came visor-to-visor with during the post-season was Sidney Crosby. Again, some wondered if a guy whose NHL games-played total was still in the single digits at that time should be jawing with Canada&rsquo;s golden boy, but Subban saw it differently.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re playing against somebody and battling against them, there&rsquo;s going to be some animosity there and some tension,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think, over the series, we grew to not like playing against each other.&ldquo;I enjoy challenges. I enjoy playing against great players. It doesn&rsquo;t matter if it&rsquo;s a third-line guy or a first-line guy or a fourth-line guy, I&rsquo;m going to battle to the best of my ability and I&rsquo;m not going to back down from anybody. That&rsquo;s just the way I am and I want to win. That&rsquo;s the way I contribute, the way I carry myself.&rdquo;Not every member of the Subban family gets to walk around feeling that bulletproof all the time. Karl Subban is a middle school principal in Toronto where he raised three boys and two girls with his wife, Maria. Nastassia and Natasha, the eldest, followed their father&rsquo;s footsteps into the educational system, while the boys play hockey. In addition to P.K., Malcolm is a goalie eligible for the 2012 NHL draft currently playing with his brother&rsquo;s old Ontario League team in Belleville and Jordan is a minor-midget defenseman all but assured to make the jump to the OHL.Karl came to Canada from Jamaica when he was about 11 years old. His family didn&rsquo;t land in cosmopolitan Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, but rather the hardscrabble Northern Ontario mining town of Sudbury. The contrast between his tropical, sun-drenched native island and his rugged, wintry adopted home is stark, but there was one new reality that became a good omen. &ldquo;The street I lived on, all the kids were Montreal fans so I quickly became a Montreal fan,&rdquo; Karl said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I had a choice.&rdquo;Nor did he have much say on how he felt watching his oldest son make those risk-reward plays as part of the team he grew up cheering for, in the midst of its deepest post-season run in 17 years. Being the father of some stay-at-home defenseman might be a recipe for peaceful sleeps, but if you&rsquo;re P.K. Subban&rsquo;s pop, that stomach is going to be tied up in knots.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Dad, I&rsquo;m not afraid of making a mistake &ndash; P.K Subban</blockquote>&ldquo;I was just a bag of nerves and I like what he said to me one time, I said, &lsquo;P.K., you need to keep it simple,&rsquo; and so on and he said to me, &lsquo;Dad, I&rsquo;m not afraid of making a mistake.&rsquo;&rdquo; Karl relayed. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s that attitude he has. He doesn&rsquo;t go out there afraid of making a mistake, he goes out there knowing he&rsquo;s going to do something positive.&rdquo;That conversation may have ended well, but, as any parent can tell you, they don&rsquo;t all conclude on a positive note. Subban&rsquo;s cocksure composition is, of course, a double-edged sword. Given their druthers, most educators would rather deal with children who have a healthy dose of self-assurance as opposed to those who need to be prodded along. But it&rsquo;s a quick trip from fortitude to the kind of attitude that earns any kid a trip to the office, even if your dad happens to be principal at Warren Park Junior School.&ldquo;The Grade 6 teacher, Mr. Don Norman, came to me and said, &lsquo;You know what, Karl, I think P.K. needs us to have a conversation with him,&rdquo; the senior Subban recalled. &ldquo;We met with P.K. and in the middle of our meeting P.K. had tears coming down his eyes, not that we wanted him to cry, but I think he got the message. In life, kids need discipline just as much as they need supportive parents and teachers, and I think P.K. got both.&rdquo;It was no different at the rink. When a 16-year-old Subban joined the Bulls in 2005, he did so as a sixth round pick. In fact, Belleville took two forwards, one goalie and three defensemen before selecting a right-shooting blueliner from the Markham Islanders of the Greater Toronto League. But do you think that fact, for one minute, made the young man flinch? Belleville coach George Burnett&rsquo;s first encounter with Subban came when he met all the Bulls draftees at the 2005 Memorial Cup in London.&ldquo;I remember seeing him and he&rsquo;s grown significantly since that time, he was a little heavy and not near as tall,&rdquo; Burnett said. &ldquo;He came in, big smile as always, big handshake &ndash; and after the hellos, it was, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m going to make your team in September.&rsquo;&ldquo;You kind of take it for what it&rsquo;s worth, you appreciate his candor and his enthusiasm and push along. But after two or three days of training camp the first time around it was pretty clear he was going to be here.&rdquo;Problem is, there were already more accomplished athletes there &ndash; veterans who lost their power play time to a guy who didn&rsquo;t exactly make a habit of looking at the floor in the presence of older players. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d be lying if I said we didn&rsquo;t have a lot of meetings,&rdquo; Burnett noted. &ldquo;But when it came right down to crunch time, he was always there, he played his best hockey at the most important times.&rdquo;What Burnett &ndash; and everybody else who talks about Subban &ndash; stresses is that, while he may dazzle people with his personality, he wins them over with his diligence. It&rsquo;s easy to look at a 21-year-old who has so much flair and assume things have come easily, but the multi-faceted truth is Subban has to be among the hardest-working players on and off the ice to maintain his standing. When he was taken by the Montreal Canadiens &ndash; and yes, he delivered a message to former Habs GM Bob Gainey similar to the one Burnett heard two years earlier &ndash; it was on the second day of the draft because he wasn&rsquo;t a high pick, but rather the 43rd overall selection. He didn&rsquo;t jump right to the NHL after earning national acclaim for a nine-point performance in six games at the 2009 world juniors; rather, he gained a much-needed year of seasoning with Hamilton of the American League, where he was named a first-team all-star.&ldquo;Even today, I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;s great at a lot of things, but he&rsquo;s good at everything,&rdquo; said Guy Carbonneau, who was coach of the Habs when they selected Subban and is now an analyst with the French-language sports station RDS. &ldquo;His body is a good size, he&rsquo;s not too muscular, he&rsquo;s just the right size, he&rsquo;s going to grow still, and he&rsquo;s going to get stronger. But he can skate really well, he can move the puck really well.&ldquo;You look at a guy like Markov, I think they&rsquo;re kind of the same. Not that they&rsquo;re at the same level, but Andrei was always able to fake a shot and make a pass, fake the pass and make a shot, really play with the head of the opposition. I think P.K. has a little bit of that.&rdquo;Subban also has to keep plugging away because the swagger that steers his ship could beach his credibility with teammates and coaches if he ever stops. Burnett said some of the early friction in Belleville was alleviated when those around Subban saw he understands the walk-the-walk element of his persona.&ldquo;I think he gained a lot of respect through how hard he worked,&rdquo; Burnett said. &ldquo;As soon as you say &lsquo;P.K. Subban,&rsquo; people think you&rsquo;ve got a guy who&rsquo;s going to run your power play and he&rsquo;s a high-skill guy. Yes, he is &ndash; but I think when you see what else he&rsquo;s bringing to the table; how competitive he is; how hard he is to play against; how confident he is; how much he wants to be in key situations&hellip;&ldquo;Not everybody wants to be on the ice when the game is on the line and to kill penalties and to block shots and to go into the corner against a guy who&rsquo;s significantly bigger or more experienced and come out with the puck. Those are things you&rsquo;re not going to be able to convince everybody to do, but he was willing to do it.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-011268/9414631-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="1057" height="1040"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02918/9414624-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="321" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03691/9414617-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="321" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body">(RICHARD WOLOWICZ/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04512/9414610-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="321" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body">FULL TOOL BOXSubban does everything well and he&rsquo;s still growing and maturing &ndash; a good harbinger for the Habs. (BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Gorges, noting Subban avidly soaks in pointers from coaches and veterans, added: &ldquo;He puts the time in, he&rsquo;s willing to compete, he&rsquo;s willing to battle and when you see that from a guy who&rsquo;s got skill like he does, that&rsquo;s impressive.&rdquo;Being a black hockey player means there was also a pre-existing element to Subban that gave those looking for a reason to not like him an easy one to reach for.He said race really didn&rsquo;t play a huge role in his experience growing up in hockey rinks, but when it did, again, he was just required to rise above. &ldquo;I think it was jealousy more than racism,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re a good player, especially in hockey&hellip;I think people will say things, but it&rsquo;s more jealousy than anything.&ldquo;In hockey, there&rsquo;s a lot of great people&hellip; the people who should be recognized, not the donkeys or the people who are ignorant and you don&rsquo;t have the time of day for.&rdquo;P.K. is Pernell Karl because his dad didn&rsquo;t think it was right for him to be just Karl Subban and his mother had the name Pernell in her head from the actor Pernell Roberts, who starred alongside Michael Landon and Lorne Greene on the long-running television western Bonanza.It&rsquo;s almost like Maria knew her son had a little cowboy in him.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen people who win and I&rsquo;ve seen people who don&rsquo;t win often &ndash; and players who win, they&rsquo;re competitive, they don&rsquo;t like to lose, they don&rsquo;t back down and they&rsquo;re aggressors,&rdquo; Subban said. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t wait for anybody to attack them, they strike first. With me, it is my first year in the league, but I want to compete and I want to be known as a guy who, he&rsquo;s going to battle as hard as he can every night and he&rsquo;s not going to make it easy on the forwards playing against him; he&rsquo;s going to make it tough for them and he&rsquo;s a guy who can be a game-changer. He&rsquo;s going to help his team win and contribute.&rdquo;Those are the words of a young man in the infant stages of what could be a very unique career, but you also get the sense if you&rsquo;d asked that Grade 6 kid at Warren Park or the brash young Belleville Bull, you would&rsquo;ve heard the same thing.&ldquo;I know he&rsquo;s my son, but he&rsquo;s always had a positive attitude,&rdquo; Karl said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s always been a likable person. Even though the hockey journey is not always an easy one, he seems to have maintained who he is and he certainly knows who he wants to be on and off the ice and we just have to compliment him that he&rsquo;s continued to be who he is and he hasn&rsquo;t changed.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-01

Won’t Back Down

<div class="byline">By Adam Proteau</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011394/9414714-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="791" height="724"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-021002/9414707-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="1270" height="1275"><figcaption class="caption-body">MISSING MILESTONEAlex Pietrangelo has no shot at the 2011 Calder Trophy &ndash; but it&rsquo;s not because of his play. (DILIP VISHWANAT/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Understand one thing: Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is not a rookie &ndash; at least, not by NHL standards.By NHL standards, any player who sees action in six or more games in any two previous seasons loses his rookie status. And since Pietrangelo played eight games for St. Louis in 2008-09 and nine for the Blues last season, he&rsquo;s considered an NHL veteran &ndash; a 20-year-old NHL veteran who spent the better part of the past two years playing junior in the Ontario League.To many, that doesn&rsquo;t seem fair. And Blues coach Davis Payne is one of those many. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little bit too bad he doesn&rsquo;t meet the qualifications as a rookie,&rdquo; Payne said of the 6-foot-3, 206-pound Pietrangelo, drafted fourth overall by St. Louis in 2008. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s doing some things now he was built for when he was drafted. Our scouts were right about him all along &ndash; they said, &lsquo;You&rsquo;ll have to be patient with him&rsquo; and they said he has maturing to do physically, but when that happens, they felt the mind and the hockey sense would be there and he&rsquo;d adapt very well.&rdquo;St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong said the patience the Blues have had with Pietrangelo is a crucial organizational attribute when developing players. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t rush physical or mental maturity,&rdquo; Armstrong said. &ldquo;At age 18 or 19 in almost any other sport, an athlete will be in college. So I think there can be some unfair expectations of some of these prospects. You can really stunt their growth if you get over-anxious with them.&rdquo;Pietrangelo&rsquo;s journey started with an eight-game stint in St. Louis to begin the 2008-09 season, where he registered one assist. He was then sent back to Niagara in the OHL for 36 games, then finished with the Blues&rsquo; American League affiliate in Peoria, where he had three assists in seven playoff games. Last season, Pietrangelo played nine games with the Blues, potting his first NHL goal and raising his point total to three. He played a pivotal role as an alternate captain for Team Canada at the 2010 world juniors &ndash; notching three goals and 12 points in six games &ndash; and was named the tournament&rsquo;s top defenseman and an all-star. And when he returned to the OHL (this time with the Barrie Colts), he put up nine goals and 29 points in 25 regular season games and two goals and 14 points in 17 playoff games.Pietrangelo believes the wait to stick in the NHL was worth it.&ldquo;It is a huge difference from two year ago &ndash; the experiences I&rsquo;ve had have brought me a long way and I&rsquo;ve been able to use that at the start of this season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Playing for your country was obviously a great opportunity; you&rsquo;re playing with the best in the world at that age. And to have the role I did last year was a big confidence-booster for me; it&rsquo;s just too bad we fell a little short in the final.&rdquo;Pietrangelo is thrilled to be part of a young Blues core that includes T.J. Oshie, David Perron, David Backes, Erik Johnson, Patrik Berglund and Jaroslav Halak. &ldquo;Everybody knows what we have now,&rdquo; Pietrangelo said. &ldquo;The rise of young guys like Oshie and Berglund and Perron and Erik Johnson shows us that we have a lot to contribute. We&rsquo;ve got a new wave coming in and we&rsquo;re pretty confident in the room with the team we&rsquo;ve got. We&rsquo;re young, but we do have some good experience.&rdquo;Although Pietrangelo was off to a solid start to the 2010-11 campaign &ndash; with six assists in 10 games &ndash; it&rsquo;s his play in his own zone that has his coaches smiling. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re mostly pleased with the fact that, defensively, he&rsquo;s making his reads, he&rsquo;s engaging in the battle and he&rsquo;s not giving anything up defensively, so that we can now take advantage of his offensive gifts,&rdquo; Payne said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s always a tough thing to come by for a young defenseman. But he&rsquo;s had a real good balance&hellip;and we feel he&rsquo;s just scratching the surface as far as what he can do.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0024-01

First-year? Fuggedaboutit

<div class="byline">By Kevin Woodley</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011408/9414752-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pushing for timeIt&rsquo;s still early, but Cory Schneider has posted better numbers than Roberto Luongo. (JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>When it comes to rookie goaltenders having an immediate impact in the NHL these days, most usually don&rsquo;t have to look too far to find common ground.Freshman Vancouver No. 2 Cory Schneider only had to look down to the other end of the ice two years ago, when he faced Washington&rsquo;s first-year standout Michal Neuvirth in the American League championship. And Neuvirth &ndash; the Calder Cup playoff MVP that season &ndash; only had to gaze 200 feet in last year&rsquo;s Eastern final to spot rookie Los Angeles Kings stopper Jonathan Bernier. &ldquo;You play them in the American League and see them in the NHL and it inspires you,&rdquo; Schneider said. &ldquo;It gives you confidence you can do it too. It&rsquo;s great to see a wave of new young goalies come in and establish themselves.&rdquo;This year&rsquo;s crop of rookie targets also includes opportunistic starting streaks by Russian Sergei Bobrovsky in Philadelphia and Swede Anders Lindback in Nashville; backup jobs won by Henrik Karlsson in Calgary, Corey Crawford in Chicago, Devan Dubnyk in Edmonton and Justin Peters in Carolina; and a hat trick of emergency fill-ins (Robin Lehner in Ottawa, Peter Mannino in Atlanta and Jhonas Enroth in Buffalo).It&rsquo;s early, but 11 rookies in the first month (plus Karlsson, who, at 26, isn&rsquo;t Calder eligible) fits yearlong trends over the past four seasons, with an average of 22 rookies getting at least a game, seven playing double digits, three playing more than 25 and two appearing in more than half their team&rsquo;s games.And the main source continues to be the AHL. Schneider, Neuvirth, Bernier, Dubnyk, Crawford were all drafted in the first two rounds, but spent at least the better part of two seasons apprenticing there, a trend that included 2009-10 standouts Jimmy Howard and Tuukka Rask. Neuvirth, the NHL&rsquo;s rookie of the month in October, even spent time in the ECHL in &rsquo;08-09.While forwards and the odd defenseman jump straight to the NHL right out of junior (or nearly so), the recent list in goal is limited to Montreal&rsquo;s Carey Price and Steve Mason in Columbus &ndash; and both have had setbacks since their sizzling first seasons.&ldquo;At the time you may not realize it, you may be frustrated or anxious to make it to the next level, but looking back I realize how much it did mean to me and how I matured,&rdquo; said Schneider, who spent three seasons in the AHL and was named top goalie in 2009. &ldquo;Adjusting to the pace of shots, being mentally tough, not getting shaken or rattled or upset after giving up goals &ndash; it&rsquo;s all part of it and playing over 100 games in the American League helps ease those nerves.&rdquo;Schneider has simplified his game this year, playing deeper in his net instead of starting aggressively and drifting back with attacks, an &ldquo;outside-in&rdquo; style that relies more on rhythm than the new, more passive technique.Bernier also shortened up since coming out of junior, positioning himself with his toes inside the top of the blue ice when play is in the zone rather than his old &ldquo;heels out&rdquo; style. That adjustment lends itself to what Kings goalie coach Bill Ranford praised as a &ldquo;very calming demeanor&rdquo; and Bernier&rsquo;s ability to &ldquo;make the game look very easy&rdquo; even while making tough saves, something teammates also noted. &ldquo;You just get better at everything,&rdquo; added Bernier, who was the AHL goalie of the year after his second season in 2010. &ldquo;I make better decisions now.&rdquo;Neuvirth shares Bernier&rsquo;s quiet approach, letting the play come to him with short, quick movements inside the blue ice rather than chasing the puck around. &ldquo;The perfect goalie makes hard saves look very easy and that is Michal&rsquo;s game,&rdquo; said Caps goalie coach Arturs Irbe, echoing Ranford. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s his ability to read the play and be in the right position ahead of it. It doesn&rsquo;t look like he is moving much, but he goes laterally at tremendous speed. He shows such poise. He looks like he&rsquo;s a very experienced goalie. He doesn&rsquo;t look like he&rsquo;s a rookie goalie.&rdquo;That Lindback and Bobrovsky are similarly composed so soon in their less-heralded careers can also be traced to prior pro experience overseas. Lindback, 22, is the latest in a long run of netminders making a successful jump from Sweden&rsquo;s Elite League including Karlsson this year, Toronto&rsquo;s Jonas Gustavsson last season and trend-setting Rangers star Henrik Lundqvist coming out of the lockout. At 6-foot-1, Lundqvist is the smallest of the bunch, with Lindback and Karlsson tipping the growth charts at 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-5. &ldquo;I just wish the nets were six feet high and four feet wide,&rdquo; joked Nashville goalie coach Mitch Korn. &ldquo;What are they feeding these guys over there?&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-011320/9414745-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="1513" height="758"><figcaption class="caption-body">COMRADE ANONYMOUSSergei Bobrovsky was unknown before surprising NHL fans with seven wins through nine starts. (DAVE SANDFORD/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>The answer is an increasing diet of goalie coaches, a recent development echoing Finland&rsquo;s decade-old decision to have position-specific coaching from age 8. But that doesn&rsquo;t explain Bobrovsky. While Philadelphia coach Jeff Reese points to playing in the Kontinental League for the 22-year-old&rsquo;s maturity, most young Russians come over lacking the technical refinement Bobrovsky has also shown. &ldquo;It really surprised me,&rdquo; Reese said. &ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t sure what to expect. We had real good reports and saw a little bit of tape, but you never know what you&rsquo;re going to get mentally. And technically he was very good when he got here.&rdquo;Like Lindback in Nashville, the biggest adjustment for Bobrovsky was to a smaller rink and a different style; more traffic in front and shots from everywhere instead of the east-west, pass-first, shoot-never mentality overseas. In both cases, that meant getting them further out and off their goal line in the NHL. But the European style may also contribute to the great patience both show now, though Bobrovsky takes advantage of it with explosive footwork and Lindback more with size. &ldquo;I certainly think it helps with staying on your feet as long as you can,&rdquo; said Reese, echoing Korn&rsquo;s philosophy. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a big believer in patience.&rdquo;When it comes to rookie goalies in the NHL, that patience appears to be key. &#9632;

f0026-01

Tender Goaltenders

<div class="byline">By Ryan Kennedy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011386/9414790-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">PASSING LE TESTMark Letestu had the magic stick going early, firing two game-winners for the Pens. (JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Kyle Wilson was not a high draft pick. In fact, the slot he was taken in &ndash; 272nd overall by Minnesota in 2004 &ndash; no longer exists. The draft just isn&rsquo;t that long anymore.Having said that, the 6-foot-1, 201-pound center had more points than fellow Columbus Blue Jackets Nikita Filatov and Kris Russell, and more goals than Jakub Voracek and Antoine Vermette, through the first week of November. And people know who those guys are.But Wilson, a 25-year-old rookie who is Calder-eligible by mere months, has no problem being left off of fantasy draft pools or keeper leagues. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played my whole career that way, as an under-the-radar guy,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a place I like to be.&rdquo;A defensively responsible, grinding pivot who wins battles, Wilson also showed off his skills in a 3-0 victory over Montreal recently, when he finished off a 2-on-1 with Jared Boll by going upstairs on the backhand over a hot Carey Price. The four-year man from Colgate had three goals and four points in his first six games with the Blue Jackets, who can always use a little more goal-scoring in their lineup.<blockquote class="pullQuote">I&rsquo;ve played my whole career that way, as an under-the-radar guy, it&rsquo;s a place I like to be &ndash; Kyle Wilson</blockquote>After his NCAA days, Wilson bounced around the pros, going from San Antonio in the American League to South Carolina in the ECHL, then AHL Hershey, where he was a point-per-game player in 54 contests for the Bears. That led to a free agent deal with parent club Washington and three more seasons in &lsquo;Chocolate City,&rsquo; not to mention two Calder Cup wins and another appearance in the final. Wilson recalled his time in Hershey fondly.&ldquo;As the playoffs progressed, the intensity was much more like the NHL,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I feel it really helped me.&rdquo;Wilson spent a week on the road with the Capitals last season, getting into two games, but this campaign with Columbus has been more permanent for the unlikely rookie. He&rsquo;s no teenager, but he&rsquo;s no veteran, either.&ldquo;You get the feeling of both,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;Sometimes you get a rude awakening that you&rsquo;re not that young anymore, but I still hope I have that rookie energy. I&rsquo;m still a little wide-eyed.&rdquo;And he is still a freshman, which means paying his dues at the NHL level. From gathering up pucks at the end of practice to letting the veterans eat first at mealtime, Wilson knows his place.&ldquo;You always do those things,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a respect thing and I&rsquo;m happy to be in the position I&rsquo;m in.&rdquo;And Wilson&rsquo;s not the only one. Thanks to a squad decimated by injuries, the New Jersey Devils have iced a flurry of rookies and even some of them &ndash; such as Swedish first-rounder Jacob Josefson and defenseman Matt Corrente &ndash; have been felled by ailments.The blueline corps has been particularly banged up with Bryce Salvador, Anton Volchenkov and Mark Fraser missing time, giving youngsters such as Matt Taormina and Olivier Magnan-Grenier a chance to shine. So were the Devs rookies pinching themselves over reaching the NHL? New Jersey&rsquo;s tailspin pretty much put an end to that. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re struggling right now,&rdquo; Taormina said. &ldquo;So the pinching goes out the window.&rdquo;At 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds, Taormina is no Zdeno Chara, but his five points through 14 games tied Andy Green for the team lead among defensemen and he noted that he does play for the franchise that discovered similar talents.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-011227/9414783-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="1625" height="1291"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEPPING UPThe Devils injury woes on the blueline helped thrust Matt Taormina into the spotlight. (JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the biggest guy, so I have to make up for it in different ways,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to be that power play guy, that puck-moving guy like Brian Rafalski, try to take over that role.&rdquo;A four-year man at Providence College &ndash; the same school New Jersey GM Lou Lamoriello started his legend at &ndash; Taormina was yet another savvy free agent signing by the Devils, who inked him to a contract midway through his 50-point season with Lowell, the Devs&rsquo; AHL affiliate, last season.Sometimes opportunity is all a player needs in order to shine.Take Penguins center Mark Letestu. Buried behind the Big Three of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal, there wasn&rsquo;t much of a job opening in Pittsburgh for the next decade, but when Staal was felled by an infected foot followed by a broken hand, the 25-year-old Letestu seized the reins. He was one of the top rookie scorers in the NHL through the end of October and did so in style. In his first 13 games, Letestu had two game-winners for the Pens and had scored a pair on the power play.Similarly, Jonathan Matsumoto, a 24-year-old center, spent several years in the Philadelphia Flyers organization before a summer trade sent him to Carolina. In his second NHL game for the Hurricanes, Matsumoto potted two goals in a rout of the Islanders.And while fans tend to be drawn to the marquee rookie names, pro scouts are well aware of every player in an organization, no matter when (or even if) they were drafted. Justin Falk, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound blueliner for the Minnesota Wild (not to be confused with Minnesota-born blueliner Justin Faulk, a 2010 draft pick of Carolina), was taken 110th overall in 2007 and saw limited action with the team last season. But this year, he&rsquo;s been a top-six regular. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big kid that is very capable of coming up with big hits,&rdquo; said one rival pro scout. &ldquo;He has decent mobility and plays a physical style. There&rsquo;s been improvement throughout the course of his career.&rdquo;Falk hasn&rsquo;t been thrown to the wolves with big minutes, but he hasn&rsquo;t been an afterthought, either. The big defenseman, who won a Memorial Cup in 2008 with the Spokane Chiefs, is averaging nearly 15 minutes of ice time per contest.So while he may not be a household name just yet, Falk and his lesser-known rookie brethren have been very valuable to their teams early on this year. &#9632;

f0028-01

Jumping on the Radar

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04522/9414866-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="228" height="426"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARTIN ST. LOUIS (ST. LOUIS: ABEL IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>THE NHL&rsquo;S LITTLE BIG MEN</h2>N. GerbeBuffalo5-ft-5B. GiontaMontreal5-ft-7S. SullivanNashville5-ft-8M. St-LouisTampa Bay5-ft-8S. SamsonovCarolina5-ft-8F. BouillonNashville5-ft-8T. EnnisBuffalo5-ft-9M. CammalleriMontreal5-ft-9D. RoyBuffalo5-ft-9<h2>157</h2>Tyler Ennis&rsquo; listed weight in pounds makes him the NHL&rsquo;s lightest player. &#9632;

f0030-04

SHORT Guys

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02957/9414821-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ENNIS: ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011396/9414835-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="69" height="80"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03702/9414828-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="228" height="168"></div>If arriving in the NHL comes when people on fantasy message boards ask whether they should trade Marian Hossa to get you, then Tyler Ennis has indeed arrived. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s pretty cool,&rdquo; Ennis said, &ldquo;but that guy might want to hang onto Hossa. He&rsquo;s pretty hot.&rdquo;As far as &ldquo;Welcome to the NHL Moments&rdquo; go, Ennis is more inclined to harken back to last season in Philadelphia. In his first ever NHL game, he scored a goal and was playing well, and in the mass of euphoria and testosterone, figured it would be a good idea to take a run at Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger. Not surprisingly, Pronger batted Ennis away as though he were a tsetse fly.It&rsquo;s not a great time to be an athlete or sports fan in Buffalo these days. But the NHL is as much in the business of selling hope as anything else and there is at least some of that in Western New York. In fact, there&rsquo;s a chance the Sabres will have Calder Trophy-winning Tylers in back-to-back seasons if Ennis can duplicate last season&rsquo;s accomplishments at the NHL level.Last season, Ennis was American League rookie of the year, scored nine points in 10 NHL games and was one of the Sabres&rsquo; best players in their first-round ouster at the hands of Boston. This season has not gone quite as well for both Ennis and the Sabres, but he remains a leading early season candidate for the Calder.After entering the league intent on proving themselves, young players often let up a little once they&rsquo;ve made it. When the Sabres bought out Tim Kennedy over the summer, they were basically handing Ennis a roster spot, but he has tried hard not to be complacent.&ldquo;I would say that I&rsquo;m definitely not content with it,&rdquo; Ennis said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had some power play time and I haven&rsquo;t had some. I&rsquo;ve played on the top line and I&rsquo;ve played on the third and fourth lines, so it has been sort of up and down. And our team has been up and down. I think I can improve a lot and our team can improve a lot.&rdquo;Ennis maintains it has not been a huge factor, but he has been playing with some serious thoughts on his mind this season. While in training camp, his father, Bruce, suffered a serious heart attack playing touch football and Ennis was granted a leave from the Sabres to be with his dad for several days. Bruce is due to have a triple bypass in November and the prognosis is positive, but there were some scary moments.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s in really good shape and he exercises super hard,&rdquo; Ennis said. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t smoke or drink or anything, so it was really kind of a freak thing. It was a real shock. It was a pretty big one and my mom was in Ireland at the time.&rdquo; His parents still haven&rsquo;t seen Ennis play in a regular season NHL game, but that&rsquo;s next on the list once his father makes a full recovery.Ennis is listed at 5-foot-9 and 163 pounds, tiny by NHL standards. But compared to six years ago when Ennis was cut by two AAA midget teams in Edmonton because of his size, he&rsquo;s a veritable giant. At the beginning of the 2004-05 season, Ennis claims he was just 5-foot-4 and 90 pounds. He and New York Islanders prospect Jared Spurgeon were cut by one team because of their size and when Bruce went to the next team that held his rights, he told the coach his son&rsquo;s vitals and was immediately granted his release.Ennis finally caught on with the Knights of Columbus in Edmonton and, despite not being drafted in the Western League, starred with both the Medicine Hat Tigers and Canada&rsquo;s world junior squad. &ldquo;I was never the big guy who stopped growing,&rdquo; Ennis said. &ldquo;I was always the small guy who never grew.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0030-02

Anyone for Ennis?

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RORY BOYLEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011279/9414974-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02857/9414967-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="651" height="735"></div>It didn&rsquo;t take Derek Stepan long to make himself comfortable in the NHL. The 20-year-old became the fourth player in league history to notch a hat trick in his first game when he hit the mark against Buffalo.His ability to quickly fit into a new situation was also noticed by his coach at Wisconsin. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a bit of a pied piper,&rdquo; said Mike Eaves. &ldquo;I noticed in his freshman year at the back of the bus he was holding court, telling stories, telling jokes and he was bringing everybody in &ndash; and he&rsquo;s a freshman. He&rsquo;s got a real nice way about himself; he has the ability to pull everybody in and make them part of the group.&rdquo;After his fast start, the six-foot, 187-pound Stepan slowed, leading coach John Tortorella to bench him in a late-October tilt against Atlanta. While he didn&rsquo;t get any points the following game, he put up a better effort and recorded three shots on goal, something Eaves credits to Stepan&rsquo;s confidence.&ldquo;One of the great things about Derek is even when he knows he struggled, he has the capability to come back and be better,&rdquo; Eaves said. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t get down on himself, he doesn&rsquo;t carry that extra baggage.&rdquo;While Eaves believes Stepan would have benefited from a third season of NCAA hockey, he&rsquo;s confident he&rsquo;ll have a strong NHL career. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an excellent young man and he&rsquo;s going to be successful,&rdquo; Eaves said. &ldquo;And the level of success he&rsquo;ll have this year will be based on how much his body can take.&rdquo;<h2>FOR THE RECORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03654/9414960-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04509/9414953-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="305" height="509"></div>When star left winger Zach Parise underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus, he was sidelined for three months &ndash; and so was his impressive durability label. Since his rookie campaign of 2005-06, the 26-year-old Parise has missed only three regular season games: one in &rsquo;05-06, one in &rsquo;07-08 and one last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05405/9414946-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-06341/9414939-1-eng-US/f0031-062.jpg" title="f0031-06" width="305" height="508"></div>Center John Tavares was tied with blueliner Mike Mottau for worst plus/minus (minus-8) on the team as of late November. That pales in comparison to the minus-54 posted by Isles&rsquo; D-man Bill Mikkelson in 1972-73. Mikkelson went on to set the NHL record for worst plus/minus &ndash; minus-82 &ndash; with Washington in 1974-75.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-07283/9414932-1-eng-US/f0031-072.jpg" title="f0031-07" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-08227/9414925-1-eng-US/f0031-082.jpg" title="f0031-08" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(STEPAN+PARISE+TAVARES+DUBINSKY: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>After scoring seven times through 11 games, Rangers left winger Brandon Dubinsky was on pace for a 52-goal season &ndash; 32 more than he had last year. The 24-year-old Dubinsky&rsquo;s career-best goal total came in 2003-04, when he scored 30 times as a sophomore for Portland of the Western League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-09189/9414918-1-eng-US/f0031-092.jpg" title="f0031-09" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-10150/9414911-1-eng-US/f0031-102.jpg" title="f0031-10" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(GIROUX: ANDRE RINGUETTE/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Left winger Claude Giroux was off to a fine start, leading the Flyers in goals (seven) and points (12) through 12 games. The 22-year-old is accustomed to being the top point-producer on his teams: In his junior career with Gatineau of the Quebec League, Giroux led the Olympiques in scoring in all three seasons.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-11118/9414904-1-eng-US/f0031-112.jpg" title="f0031-11" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1288/9414897-1-eng-US/f0031-122.jpg" title="f0031-12" width="305" height="504"><figcaption class="caption-body">(CROSBY: DAVE SANDFORD/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>The Penguins&rsquo; power play was sputtering, converting just 12.1 percent early on. Since Sidney Crosby, who led the way with three PP goals, joined the franchise in 2005-06, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s power play efficiency has never ended the year below 17.2 percent &ndash; the same percentage the Pens had at the end of &rsquo;08-09 and &rsquo;09-10. &#9632;

f0031-01

Broadway’s Quick Study

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MIKE LOFTUS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011368/9415082-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02919/9415075-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="597" height="728"></div>Tyler Seguin isn&rsquo;t disappointed he won&rsquo;t relive the good old days of junior hockey in Plymouth, Mich. He wants to be in Boston &ndash; adjustments and all.There have been plenty for the No. 2 overall selection of last summer&rsquo;s draft, who torched the Ontario League for 48 goals and 106 points in 63 games as a Whaler last year. As a Bruin, he&rsquo;s a No. 3 center who must wait his turn to play. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s such a different environment,&rdquo; Seguin said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to earn respect, work my way up. Back in junior, it was first line, 25 or 30 minutes a game and goals and assists came a lot easier.&rdquo;Points came frequently enough for the Bruins to tell Seguin after just seven games that he won&rsquo;t be returning to the OHL. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s on the right track,&rdquo; said coach Claude Julien. &ldquo;We like what we see. He&rsquo;s an individual who really wants to get better.&rdquo;Seguin, 18, scored a relatively modest three goals and five points through eight games, but his contributions were consistent and timely: His first NHL goal helped seal a 3-0 victory over Phoenix Oct. 10 in Prague, Czech Republic, after a season-opening 5-2 loss the night before. Goal No. 2 came in a 2-0 win at TD Garden, in what has become an intense rivalry against Toronto and winger Phil Kessel &ndash; who Boston traded to the Maple Leafs for the pick that netted Seguin.&ldquo;I try to go into every game the same way,&rdquo; Seguin said. &ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s how I&rsquo;m going to stay consistent, build new habits.&rdquo;<h2>FOR THE RECORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03674/9415068-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04508/9415061-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="305" height="509"><figcaption class="caption-body">(SEGUIN+THOMAS: PHILLIP MACCALLUM/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Bruins veteran Tim Thomas became the first goalie in NHL history to start the season 6-0-0 and to allow fewer than two goals in each of his first six starts. Included in the run was three shutouts. Thomas finally allowed two in a game against the Buffalo Sabres Nov. 3.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-05400/9415054-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-06340/9415047-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(KASSIAN: RICK STEWART/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Zack Kassian had to complete his community service before being offered a contract. The Sabres originally halted negotiations with Kassian after he was involved in a bar fight last summer. The 13th pick in &rsquo;09 completed 25 hours of community service, expressed remorse for the incident and now has his entry level deal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-07280/9415040-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-08239/9415033-1-eng-US/f0032-082.jpg" title="f0032-08" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(GIONTA: RICHARD WOLOWICZ/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>First-year Canadiens captain Brian Gionta clearly has to change sticks. As of early November, Gionta was in the top 10 in shots in the NHL with 47, but had just a single goal to show for his efforts. That put him 326th in the league in shooting percentage. His 2.1 percent was dead last among players who had scored a goal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-09192/9415026-1-eng-US/f0032-092.jpg" title="f0032-09" width="685" height="548"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-10154/9415019-1-eng-US/f0032-102.jpg" title="f0032-10" width="305" height="509"><figcaption class="caption-body">(KOVALEV: ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Senators veteran winger Alexei Kovalev was only five points short of 1,000 in early November, which means he&rsquo;ll hit the mark by the end of the season. That would make him the third Russian player in history to reach the milestone and would tie Russia with Sweden, one ahead of Finland and two in front of the Czech Republic.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-11126/9415012-1-eng-US/f0032-112.jpg" title="f0032-11" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-12110/9415005-1-eng-US/f0032-122.jpg" title="f0032-12" width="305" height="509"><figcaption class="caption-body">(PHANEUF: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>In This Week in Overreactions, we present Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke, who expressed his disgust with fans who booed now-injured captain Dion Phaneuf, calling it &ldquo;disgraceful.&rdquo; He also pointed out that it was a small minority of fans who were doing the booing. If that&rsquo;s the case, why draw so much attention to it in the first place? &#9632;

f0032-01

Great Expectations

<div class="byline">&#x2013; GUY CURTRIGHT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-011220/9415190-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02838/9415183-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="677" height="734"></div>It took Alex Burmistrov nine games to register his first point, but the 19-year-old center&rsquo;s place with the Thrashers was never in danger. His two-way play had already certified the 2010 eighth overall pick as an NHLer, with coach Craig Ramsay labelling him a potential Selke Trophy-winner someday. He had already been matched up against Anaheim&rsquo;s Ryan Getzlaf and San Jose&rsquo;s Joe Thornton.Burmistrov came to North America from Russia a year ago with one goal in mind &ndash; to be ready for the NHL as soon as possible. The native of Kazan was a quick learner with Barrie of the Ontario League, working on his English as well as his North American game. Putting on some needed bulk was the next step. After weighing less than 160 at the end of the OHL season, The 5-foot-11 Burmistrov is now more than 175. &ldquo;I ate a lot and worked hard,&rdquo; he said.And hard work and enthusiasm is Burmistrov&rsquo;s trademark. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been an offensive player, but you also have to play defense,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You need to do everything to play in the NHL and that was always my dream.&rdquo;Added Ramsay, a smallish, two-way Selke winner in his day: &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t have any fear. He may get bounced around once in a while, but he always competes.&rdquo;Burmistrov is living in a hotel until his mother arrives from Russia to help him find a permanent place and he doesn&rsquo;t have a driver&rsquo;s license or car yet. But there is nothing underage about his game.<h2>FOR THE RECORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03659/9415176-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04534/9415169-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="305" height="509"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BURMISTROV+BYFUGLIEN: HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>In their first six wins, the Thrashers erased deficits and defenseman Dustin Byfuglien had notched three winners, tied for the league lead. Atlanta trailed 1-0 to both the Caps and Rangers, and 2-0 to the Ducks, Sharks and Sabres before falling behind 3-2 to the Panthers, but managed victories in each.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05450/9415162-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06392/9415155-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="305" height="508"></div>Through 12 games, Carolina was about as average as it gets. Led in scoring by rookie Jeff Skinner, the Canes were a true .500 team at 6-6-0, were practically even in goals-for and goals-against (33-35), were 2-2 at the RBC Center and 4-4 on the road. Their longest win streak was two. Longest losing streak? You guessed it, two.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07332/9415148-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-08267/9415141-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(SKINNER+HORDICHUK: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>His first fight of the season pushed Darcy Hordichuk past the career 1,000 penalty minutes mark, but the Cats remained the least penalized team in the league with 61 PIMs through their first 10 games. Only 15 Panthers had been penalized and not a single one had reached double figures in sin bin minutes.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-09214/9415134-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="685" height="548"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-10181/9415127-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="305" height="509"><figcaption class="caption-body">(HALL: DALE MACMILLAN/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>The East-leading Lightning also led the conference in faceoff percentage (52.7) and had top-end special teams, too. The dot domination was led by checkers Adam Hall (69.4) and Nate Thompson (57.7). Steven Stamkos and Vincent Lecavalier were 1-2 on the team in draws taken, but were under 50 percent combined.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-11159/9415120-1-eng-US/f0033-112.jpg" title="f0033-11" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-12141/9415113-1-eng-US/f0033-122.jpg" title="f0033-12" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(OVECHKIN: GERRY THOMAS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>With a .676 career goals-per-game average, Alex Ovechkin trailed only Mike Bossy and Mario Lemieux among modern snipers in that category. Ovie&rsquo;s two goals in 12 seconds against Calgary Oct. 30 were the fastest pair of tallies he had scored during his career and the third time he&rsquo;d scored twice within a minute. &#9632;

f0033-01

Old Man’s Aptitude

<div class="byline">BY ROB TYCHKOWSKI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02955/9415221-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">JORDAN EBERLE & TAYLOR HALL (EBERLE: ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011385/9415228-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="228" height="168"></div>Converting a 2-on-1? Easy. You know what&rsquo;s really tough? Putting together stuff from Ikea. So Taylor Hall was more than happy to settle for a draw in his first battle with the infamous Allen keys and cryptic illustrations. &ldquo;My stools didn&rsquo;t turn out the way they looked on the outside of the box,&rdquo; grinned the 19-year-old rookie, who just signed the lease on an apartment with roommate Jordan Eberle. &ldquo;But they still worked.&rdquo;Dealing with Ikea issues was a lot easier for Magnus Paajarvi and his mom, what with them being actual Swedes and all. &ldquo;When his mom was here and they were out shopping for furniture, that was great,&rdquo; said coach Tom Renney. &ldquo;I think that the furniture is probably now put together properly.&rdquo; Another lesson learned in the journey from rookies to (the Oilers are desperately hoping) stars.Like The Boys on the Bus did some 30 years before them, the trio will grow up together, on and off the ice, in the rock star fishbowl that is Edmonton Oilers hockey. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny, because every week you watch one of them deal with something personally,&rdquo; Renney said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun watching them dealing with that and at the same time being an NHL player. As coaches we need to help a guy like Magnus assimilate to the culture &ndash; the NHL, Edmonton, the fanfare.&rdquo;Paajarvi, who&rsquo;s been on his own since he was 16 and moved away from home to play in the Swedish Elite League, is the picture of independence. He lives alone, although in the same complex with the other two rookies. &ldquo;I like to take care of myself and do things for myself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s part of growing up. I&rsquo;ve been living by myself for three years playing for Timra&hellip;I&rsquo;ve found out I like to be a regular person.&rdquo;When they&rsquo;re not playing Call of Duty or NHL &rsquo;11 video games for money, they&rsquo;re doing what young men do &ndash; eating. Eberle is in charge of the stove at his place. &ldquo;I love to cook, actually,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I started cooking at a young age &ndash; my mom made me. I guess I started that stuff and my laundry when I was, like, 12 or 13. I&rsquo;m pretty independent for the most part.&rdquo;Like Eberle, Paajarvi&rsquo;s been around stove or two, as well. &ldquo;Swedish meatballs&hellip;I make them from scratch,&rdquo; he said, nailing the stereotype on the first try. &ldquo;I heard Ebbs is really good (in the kitchen), too. I&rsquo;m not better. But I can do enchiladas and spaghetti and meat sauce, and the meatballs.&rdquo;Hall&rsquo;s contributions consist of things with instructions on the box. &ldquo;I can make KD,&rdquo; he said.And who cleans up? Not them. One of the perks of being NHLers at 18, 19 and 20 is you can afford to hire someone to tidy up.They&rsquo;re not just rookies, they are the face and the future and the very hope of the franchise. There will be nothing quiet or discreet about their journey from boys to men. Banners in Moscow&rsquo;s Red Square are paraded with more subtlety than this trio. &ldquo;Obviously there&rsquo;s pretty big hype in this town over hockey, so to be a part of the direction they&rsquo;re going in is pretty exciting,&rdquo; Eberle said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice that you have three guys that you can kind of bounce the pressure off of. If it was just Hall and there were a hundred cameras in his face it would be kind of tough on him, but when you have another two guys to share the load I think it really helps all of us.&rdquo;And it&rsquo;ll be fun to watch. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re kids, but boy are they ever handling this well,&rdquo; Renney said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a wonderful thing for the Oilers and the Oilers fans to see this trio and more to come grow up in front of their eyes. I think it&rsquo;s pretty exciting stuff.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0034-02

Learning On the Fly

<div class="byline">&#x2013; BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011292/9415367-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02913/9415360-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="684" height="730"><figcaption class="caption-body">(KINDL: CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Of the ice, going to the amusement park can make for a fun-filled day. At the rink, it generally leads to a seat on the bench.Red Wings defenseman Jakub Kindl compares his rookie NHL season to a date on an amusement-park staple. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still kind of on a roller coaster &ndash; up and down,&rdquo; Kindl, 23, said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to find that level I want to be and be better every night.&rdquo;The latest in a long line of Detroit blueline prospects seeking to establish himself &ndash; and looking to succeed where Derek Meech and Kyle Quincey failed before him &ndash; Kindl&rsquo;s been force-fed his opportunity following early injuries to Brian Rafalski and Jonathan Ericsson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been playing well and my job is to help him make the most out of it and make him more comfortable on the ice,&rdquo; said Ruslan Salei, Kindl&rsquo;s defense partner.Detroit&rsquo;s 2005 top draft pick (19th overall), Kindl was briefly tried as point man on the second power play unit. &ldquo;He can really pass the puck,&rdquo; said Wings coach Mike Babcock, who felt Kindl wasn&rsquo;t shooting enough.He was benched during a 4-2 loss to Phoenix after Coyotes right winger Radim Vrbata turned him inside out for a goal. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve asked him to be firmer without the puck and he&rsquo;s taken a real step in that direction,&rdquo; Babcock said of Kindl.But with Rafalski and Ericsson healthy, Kindl&rsquo;s time as a regular is surely running out. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see how much longer I&rsquo;m going to stay in the lineup,&rdquo; Kindl said, acknowledging life as a rookie D-man.<h2>FOR THE RECORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03755/9415353-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04617/9415346-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(SHARP: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Patrick Sharp has never scored more than 36 goals in a season, so it&rsquo;s too early to proclaim him a Rocket Richard favorite, but his 60-plus goal clip is eye-popping. How&rsquo;s he doing it? By playing in all situations, manning the point on the first power play unit and shooting a ton, including 13 times in a game against Columbus.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05524/9415339-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06472/9415332-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(GARON: RICHARD WOLOWICZ/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>For the second consecutive year, Mathieu Garon is outplaying 2008-09 Calder Trophy winner Steve Mason, but not getting as many starts. At home through early November, Garon had not lost as a Blue Jacket in regulation (8-0-4 dating to last season). Coach Scott Arniel said he views his stoppers as 1A and 1B, but for how long?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07408/9415325-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="685" height="548"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08351/9415318-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="305" height="509"></div>Jimmy Howard has donned a new mask this season, but his game face remains the same. His confidence is apparent to his teammates and on the stats sheet as the 26-year-old had gone 20 consecutive games without a regulation time loss (17-0-3). Howard&rsquo;s new face shield is similar to last year&rsquo;s, adding the Detroit skyline.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09303/9415311-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10260/9415304-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(SUTER: GERRY THOMAS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Ryan Suter&rsquo;s puck-possession, puck-moving game was sorely missed after the minute-munching defenseman went down with a lower body injury in mid-October. In five consecutive contests following his setback, the Predators were outshot, reversing an early-season trend of out-gunning their opponents.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-11219/9415297-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-12188/9415290-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(HOWARD+DAVIDSON: DAVE SANDFORD/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>John Davidson&rsquo;s Blues are hot again in St. Louis. Thanks in part to a strong start, the club played to 100 percent capacity through six dates and saw its TV ratings spike. A 2-0 shutout of San Jose Nov. 4 set a Fox Sports Midwest ratings record for the Blues of 5.6, eclipsing the previous mark of 5.0 from 10 years ago. &#9632;

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Next in Line Losing Time

<div class="byline">&#x2013; ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011285/9415475-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02859/9415468-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="597" height="798"></div>Not since Joe Nieuwendyk in the mid-1980s have the Calgary Flames drafted a center who looks as if he&rsquo;ll be a top-six forward in the NHL. Mikael Backlund could be that player. After spending most of last season apprenticing with the team&rsquo;s minor league affiliate in Abbotsford, Backlund cracked the Flames lineup out of training camp and has been a fixture on the third line for most of the early going.One important caveat here: The Flames were devastated by injuries in the pre-season, to the point where they signed free agent Brendan Morrison to fill out their early season roster. Backlund and Morrison have been two-thirds of a line basically ever since, with Morrison shifting to the wing and providing helpful tips on making the transition to the NHL.As a player, Backlund&rsquo;s primary value is that he&rsquo;s strong on his skates; when things are going his way, he is taking the puck to the net. When Backlund was first called up last year, he seemed reluctant to handle the puck &ndash; a sign his confidence wasn&rsquo;t there and nerves were at work. Early this season, he had a highly publicized video session with assistant coach Dave Lowry, stressing assertiveness and how Backlund could do more offensively without sacrificing anything on defense, a nono in coach Brent Sutter&rsquo;s universe.Backlund&rsquo;s confidence seemed higher in the first month, though he might be the odd man out again when more experienced bodies return to the lineup.<h2>FOR THE RECORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03708/9415461-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04564/9415454-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="305" height="509"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BACKLUND+LANGKOW: GERRY THOMAS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>The bad news that Daymond Langkow is likely sidelined for the season with a neck injury at least helps Calgary&rsquo;s salary cap woes. Had Langkow ($4.5 million), Ales Kotalik ($3 million) and David Moss ($1.3) returned from injury in the coming weeks, the Flames&rsquo; payroll would exceed $65 million, well over the $59.4 million cap.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05479/9415447-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="685" height="548"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06422/9415440-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(GRAHAME: DOUG PENSINGER/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Goaltender John Grahame&rsquo;s journey back to the NHL was like a 32-month Halloween odyssey. Craig Anderson&rsquo;s injury replacement last played in the NHL with Carolina March 14, 2008. Since then, he&rsquo;s been a River Rat in Albany, a Phantom in Adirondack, a Monster in Lake Erie, not to mention a season in Russia with Omsk.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07360/9415433-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="685" height="548"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08306/9415426-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(DUBNYK: RICHLAM/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>The Oilers are bucking conventional wisdom when it comes to developing goalies. Youngsters Devan Dubnyk, 24, and Jeff Deslauriers, 26, remain in Edmonton getting scant playing time behind Nikolai Khabibulin. Meanwhile, 36-year-old ex-NHLer Martin Gerber is the workhorse with the Oklahoma City Barons in the AHL.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09262/9415419-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10232/9415412-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(CLUTTERBUCK: DALE MACMILLAN/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>It didn&rsquo;t take Cal Clutterbuck long to climb to the top of the hits parade. The two-time defending champion in the category of NHL real-time stats had seven his first game and averaged more than four per tilt his first month. Clutterbuck won by a big margin in 2008-09 with 356 hits and again last season with 318.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11212/9415405-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="685" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-12196/9415398-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(TORRES: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Raffi Torres scored 111 goals in 185 OHL games a decade ago, so it shouldn&rsquo;t be too surprising the third-line grinder is off to a hot start with the Canucks. Torres, 29, scored 20 and 27 goals his first two seasons with Edmonton, averaging two shots per game in the second year. At $1 million, he&rsquo;s the league&rsquo;s best bargain. &#9632;

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Confidence is Everything

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-011147/9415583-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02798/9415576-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="610" height="736"><figcaption class="caption-body">LOGAN COUTURE (COUTURE: GUNNAR ASK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>By his own admission, Logan Couture had a pretty lousy commute last season. Making half a dozen or so trips from San Jose to the team&rsquo;s American League affiliate in Worcester, Mass., meant traversing the continent with every call-up or send-down for the rookie Sharks pivot.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a fun flight,&rdquo; Couture said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s Boston to San Francisco, with a 45-minute shuttle ride to Boston, then another 45-minute shuttle ride to San Jose. But ask anyone in the minors and they&rsquo;d do it in a second.&rdquo; Couture counts himself in the company.But paying his dues meant a 15-game playoff run with the Sharks to the third round and a chance to shine early on in 2010-11, even landing him on a line with Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley for a game. &ldquo;I was just trying to get them the puck and stay out of their way,&rdquo; Couture said.All kidding aside, the ninth overall pick in 2007 is giving the already-deep Sharks another scoring threat. A defensively sound pivot with good playmaking abilities, Couture began the year with four goals and no assists through October. He is Calder-eligible this year, but by the slimmest of margins: he played the maximum 25 games allowed last season.With Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski ahead of him on the depth chart, Couture also has a great stable of knowledge at his disposal. &ldquo;This team does have a lot of guys who have played a number of years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;On and off the ice, I can go to them with questions.&rdquo;<h2>FOR THE RECORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03640/9415569-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04546/9415562-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(PARROS: DEBORA ROBINSON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>As a Princeton-educated enforcer, Ducks right winger George Parros goes against the grain. So while scores of men were growing moustaches for November&rsquo;s &lsquo;Movember&rsquo; charity initiative, Parros shaved his famous upper-lip warmer for the same cause. Movember benefits and raises awareness for prostate cancer.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05492/9415555-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="685" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06434/9415548-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="305" height="509"><figcaption class="caption-body">(RAYCROFT: DOUG PENSINGER/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Their Texas brethren lost the World Series, but there&rsquo;s another reason Dallas is happy the Rangers are done for the year: attendance has been brutal for the Stars so far. The team averaged 13,760 fans in October (26th in the league), so many missed Andrew Raycroft&rsquo;s first start as a Star, a 4-0 shutout against Buffalo.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07374/9415541-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08289/9415534-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(WILLIAMS: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Thanks to a balanced attack led by Justin Williams, the Kings found themselves atop the Western Conference at the end of October, the first time Los Angeles could claim that distinction in 20 years. The 1990-91 edition also jumped out of the gates fast thanks to some guys named Gretzky, Robitaille and Sandstrom.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-09233/9415527-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="684" height="547"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-10195/9415520-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(TURRIS: HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>After a full season with San Antonio of the American League, center Kyle Turris was back in Phoenix getting familiar with the NHL. The third overall pick in 2007 already has a three-point game for the Yotes, while also reacquainting himself with the local wildlife: Turris has taken pictures of wolf spiders and scorpions for his Twitter page.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-11159/9415513-1-eng-US/f0037-112.jpg" title="f0037-11" width="685" height="546"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-12136/9415506-1-eng-US/f0037-122.jpg" title="f0037-12" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">(THORNTON: ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>In his first game of the season with old linemates Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley, captain Joe Thornton potted a hat trick and five points in a 5-2 romp over New Jersey. &lsquo;Jumbo Joe&rsquo; tied a career mark with the five-spot, but still came up a point short for the franchise record of six, set by Owen Nolan back in 1999-2000. &#9632;

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The Way to San Jose

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011243/9415628-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">SNAPPY SNIPERLinus Klasen has NHL talents and an attitude that suggests he&rsquo;ll make the most of them. (BOTH: SCOTT PAULUS/MILWAUKEE ADMIRALS)</figcaption></div>When Linus Klasen was called up to the Nashville Predators for a one-game audition in October and crossed paths with Steve Sullivan, you&rsquo;d think the conversation might have come around to what it takes for small players to make it in the NHL.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02849/9415621-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="125" height="125"></div>You&rsquo;d think, wouldn&rsquo;t you? After all, both are generously listed at 5-foot-8 and ridiculously talented. If you need proof, punch Klasen&rsquo;s name into YouTube. Sullivan, meanwhile, was an impact NHLer long before the league became small-and-talented-player friendly post-lockout.In fact, Predators assistant GM Paul Fenton called Klasen &ldquo;a magician with the puck,&rdquo; and said his skill level is &ldquo;frightening.&rdquo; So Sullivan must have offered Klasen some words of encouragement, right? &ldquo;No, we talked about plane crashes after the game and that was pretty much it,&rdquo; Klasen said. &ldquo;A couple of guys on the team are afraid of flying and I&rsquo;m afraid of flying, so we were talking about it and (Sullivan) was next to me.&rdquo;Klasen might get a little skittish at 30,000 feet, but there is no questioning his gumption and courage when his two feet are planted on the ice. Klasen is fearless, brazen almost, when it comes to hockey. He refused to be broken when a young thug named Chris Clackson drilled him with as vicious a headshot as you&rsquo;ll ever see during a rookie game against the Florida Panthers prior to training camp. The ensuing concussion knocked Klasen out of main camp with the Predators and cost him a chance at winning a roster spot, but he has responded by being one of the best players in the American League.When Klasen scored on a penalty shot early in the season against the Chicago Wolves, he pointed to the stands and held his glove to his ear. At the next break, Wolves veteran and former NHLer Jason Krog congratulated him, then sternly suggested he never do that again.And last season, when asked by a Swedish television reporter about a newspaper column that claimed his Sodertalje team was better off without him in the lineup, he responded by saying, &ldquo;Do you think Barcelona is better with Lionel Messi in their starting lineup?&rdquo;Klasen will likely not be the equivalent of Messi &ndash; or Messier &ndash; in the NHL, but his talent level is both sublime and intriguing. Before his call-up, Klasen, 24, had seven goals in seven games for the Milwaukee Admirals, prompting coach Lane Lambert to acknowledge Klasen as the most offensively talented player he has seen in four years of AHL coaching.The problem is, the lower leagues are littered with small players who can dominate at that level but can&rsquo;t accomplish much in the NHL.Lambert said whether Klasen makes it in the NHL will have nothing to do with size and everything to do with his willingness to contribute at both ends of the ice. Since he signed just a one-year deal with Nashville, he has this season to prove himself.&ldquo;To me, that&rsquo;s a decision that a player has to make,&rdquo; Lambert said. &ldquo;Every player can do it, but you have to be committed and pay attention to details. It&rsquo;s a matter of gaining trust. Trust equals ice time and ice time equals offensive opportunities.&rdquo;And when Klasen gets those, he tends to bury them. His puck skills are tremendous, something he attributes in part to the fact he&rsquo;s a drummer. Klasen&rsquo;s father, Robert, was the drummer in a 1980s punk rock band called Noice, a group that patterned itself after The Clash and The Sex Pistols and was very big in Sweden. Like Ferris Bueller, he never had a lesson &ndash; at least a formal one &ndash; but played along to songs by Kiss, Twisted Sister and Journey. But much of his skill level was acquired in Huddinge, a suburb of Stockholm, much the same way a kid from Swift Current or Sudbury would.&ldquo;I would be outside playing with a ball every day until I was 19 or 20,&rdquo; Klasen said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t go to school very much when I was a teenager. I would spend my time down at the rink just skating around and handling the puck all the time.&rdquo;Size, of course, has been a factor. When Klasen was 18, he played junior with the Lincoln Stars of the United States League, but went back home because he was about to be traded and no Canadian major junior teams expressed interest in him.He has played just three games for the Swedish national team, none in any tournament of significance, but helped lead his country to gold medals at the World InLine Hockey Championship three straight years, from 2007 to 2009.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-011144/9415614-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="1024" height="1003"><figcaption class="caption-body">HELL ON WHEELSKlasen helped Sweden to World Inline Championships three years running.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve produced everywhere I&rsquo;ve played,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;People said I was too small and too fat, but I&rsquo;ve dominated at every level I&rsquo;ve played in Europe and the stats never lie.&rdquo;<h2>5</h2>Klasen was the No. 5 scorer in the Swedish Elite League last season with 51 pointsFor more on the future, check out: <a href="http://thn.com/prospects">thn.com/prospects</a> &#9632;

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A Swede With Swagger

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01838/9415666-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROOM TO GROWAlready a WHL physical force, Mark McNeill is still learning to use his size and strength. (THOMAS PORTER PHOTOGRAPHICS)</figcaption></div>Based on all the talent that has flowed out of the circuit, it&rsquo;s a shocking fact that the Western League has only produced two first overall picks since 1988 &ndash; Chris Phillips and Mike Modano. Coincidentally, both those players came from the Prince Albert Raiders.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02520/9415659-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="170" height="128"></div>While he&rsquo;s not projected to break the Dub&rsquo;s skid, center Mark McNeill does play for the Raiders and has the skills to join the long list of WHLers who didn&rsquo;t go No. 1, but who went on to have a big impact in the NHL.A 6-foot-2, 210-pound power forward, ranked 32nd overall by International Scouting Services for the 2011 draft, McNeill has been a point-per-game player this season and credits his summer routine with putting him in a position to be successful.&ldquo;It was a huge off-season for me,&rdquo; McNeill said. &ldquo;I trained at Premier Strength in Edmonton with Barry Butt, five days a week for two-and-a-half to three hours a day.&rdquo;Training at Premier also gave McNeill access to NHLers and other pros honing their physiques, including Calgary&rsquo;s Jay Bouwmeester and Washington&rsquo;s Jason Chimera. Being surrounded by guys who have been there before also allayed some anxiousness McNeill had going into his draft year.&ldquo;Just give it,&rdquo; McNeill recalled of their advice. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t even think about the draft.&rdquo;Fortunately for the big pivot, scouts aren&rsquo;t forgetting about him. &ldquo;By the time he&rsquo;s done, he has the potential to be a Bobby Ryan type of player,&rdquo; said Ross MacLean of ISS. &ldquo;He has developed a very versatile game as a power forward. He plays well on the perimeter, but also goes to the net well.&rdquo;Prince Albert coach Bruno Campese had a similar appraisal of his star center.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been our go-to guy up the middle,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big, powerful player. When he uses his size and strength, it&rsquo;s a real asset to him. He drives lanes, drives seams and he has real good vision.&rdquo;Like many power forwards, McNeill will likely get better with time. He still wants to improve on his explosiveness and though he&rsquo;s always been a big kid, knowing precisely what he can do with his frame is something that will develop with more experience. &ldquo;Whether he&rsquo;s comfortable at 17, that&rsquo;s a good question,&rdquo; Campese said. &ldquo;Sometimes I wonder if he knows how strong he is. He has an opportunity to be even more forceful out there.&rdquo;McNeill admitted there&rsquo;s a bit of a different vibe in relatively remote Prince Albert compared to his hometown of Edmonton, but he&rsquo;s quite happy to live in a Raiders-centric environment. Campese said all his charges must be aware there&rsquo;s a line to walk when you&rsquo;re a major junior player. &ldquo;The Raiders are the biggest show in town, but I find they do a good job blending into the mainstream,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But they&rsquo;re also proud to be in the Western League. It&rsquo;s a fine balance.&rdquo;A balance McNeill is capable of. The big pivot has no problem with responsibility on the ice, either. Despite playing forward, he often mans the point on Prince Albert&rsquo;s power play.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got the hockey sense and composure to handle the heat,&rdquo; Campese said. &#9632;

f0040-01

The Raiders’ Prince of Power

<h2>1. RYAN NUGENT-HOPKINS, C</h2>Red Deer RebelsOffensive creativity and upside are off the charts for potential &lsquo;11 No. 1<h2>2. DAVID MUSIL, D</h2>Vancouver GiantsBig blueliner takes care of his own end first<h2>3. MYLES BELL, D</h2>Regina PatsTwo-way defender is ridiculously strong<h2>4. SHANE MCCOLGAN, RW</h2>Kelowna RocketsUndersized playmaker has nasty gritty side<h2>5. DUNCAN SIEMENS, D</h2>Saskatoon BladesSolidly built blueliner boasts all-around game<h2>6. MARK MCNEILL, C</h2>Prince Albert RaidersPower forward has become go-to guy<h2>7. TY RATTIE, LW</h2>Portland WinterhawksPure sniper with speed has been on fire early<h2>8. SVEN BARTSCHI, LW</h2>Portland WinterhawksImport has been putting up big points, just like fellow Swiss Hawk &lsquo;El Nino&rsquo;<h2>9. COLIN JACOBS, C</h2>Seattle ThunderbirdsTexas-bred power forward has perfect blend of size and skill<h2>10. MICHAEL ST. CROIX, RW</h2>Edmonton Oil KingsHigh-end skill player not afraid to battle for pucksRead more of &lsquo;The Hot List&rsquo; every Tuesday at <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a> &#9632;

Best Wests

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03381/9415759-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="474" height="497"><figcaption class="caption-body">(IHA)</figcaption></div>On the surface, defenseman Adam Larsson isn&rsquo;t having much of a season. With just three points through 17 games (all assists), it would be fair to assume the top-3 prospect for the 2011 draft is struggling.But talk to scouts in Sweden and they&rsquo;ll tell you the 6-foot-2, 200-pound blueliner for Skelleftea of the Elite League is doing just fine. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been playing good,&rdquo; said one European NHL scout. &ldquo;Skelleftea, the whole team is playing pretty well.&rdquo;Indeed, the squad sat second in the league through the first week of November, thanks in part to a scorching 7-1-1 record at home. Larsson, who tallied three goals and 17 points in 49 games last year, has been firming up his defensive game and it is shows in his plus-8 rating, best among junior-aged players in the league.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s pretty complete,&rdquo; the scout said. &ldquo;Offensive skill, defensive skill, size&hellip;he never panics with the puck.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0042-03

Numbers Racket

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01653/9415797-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">WORLD TRAVELLERZemgus Girgensons is a long way from home following his dream. So far, so good. (COURTESY OF USHL IMAGES)</figcaption></div>There is the road less traveled and then there is the road so rarely travelled that it oozes intrigue. Such is the case with first-year Dubuque Fighting Saints center Zemgus Girgensons, who sat second in United States League scoring with 10 points in seven games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02408/9415790-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="224" height="69"></div>A native of Riga, Latvia, the 6-foot-1, 181-pound pivot came over to North America in 2008 when he played in the Selects Hockey program, a summer hockey organization whose alumni include Sam Gagner and Greg Nemisz. From there, he played for Vermont&rsquo;s Green Mountain Glades of the Eastern Junior League. He plans on eventually returning to the state in the future, this time as a member of the University of Vermont Catamounts. So how did a kid from Latvia decide on going to Burlington? &ldquo;I chose UVM because I really like the coaching staff and I really liked the city,&rdquo; Girgensons said. &ldquo;I have friends from last season who will go to UVM as well, Connor Anthoine and Tom Forgione.&rdquo;While educational elements will determine whether Girgensons plays one year in the USHL or two, Fighting Saints coach Jim Montgomery is glad to have the kid on board. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s dominant down the middle,&rdquo; Montgomery said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a complete player who works as hard defensively as he does offensively.&rdquo;Landing the Latvian was a coup for the Saints who, despite being an expansion team, sat atop their division with the league&rsquo;s best record.&ldquo;There was a buzz around the Northeast about him,&rdquo; Montgomery said. &ldquo;I knew he was committed to Vermont and that he could be an impact player even at 16.&rdquo;And that&rsquo;s another dazzling element behind Girgensons; he&rsquo;s still so young. The powerful center isn&rsquo;t draft eligible until 2012, meaning he has a lot of time to hone his skills. Fortunately, passion is not a problem. His coach even brings up names such as Jonathan Toews and Mark Messier to describe his will.&ldquo;At the beginning of the year, we had all our players write down their two best attributes,&rdquo; Montgomery said. &ldquo;Zemgus wrote &lsquo;puck protection&rsquo; and &lsquo;I will never give up.&rsquo; I couldn&rsquo;t agree more. I describe him as a relentless player. His intensity, never-say-die attitude; you&rsquo;d think he comes from Moose Jaw.&rdquo;Stereotypes aside, Saskatchewan and Latvia do share agrarian roots, and Girgensons wants the world to know his home loves the puck in a very Canadian way: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like religion. We have the best fans in the world and I can say that hockey is the No. 1 sport in Latvia.&rdquo;The most famous recent Latvian players are Arturs Irbe (Girgensons&rsquo; hero, alongside Wayne Gretzky and Mike Modano), Sandis Ozolinsh and Karlis Skrastins, but the engine is revving up. Oskars Bartulis and Raitis Ivanans have also seen NHL action this year and Latvia was a fan favorite at the 2010 world juniors in Saskatchewan.For now however, Girgensons is content to learn his craft with the Fighting Saints.&ldquo;Dubuque I can compare with smaller Latvian cities and the differences are not so big,&rdquo; Girgensons said. &ldquo;Smaller cities always are quiet and therefore I like Dubuque. In a smaller city, it is easier to play hockey, nothing else bothers you.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0044-01

Latvian Lightning

<div class="byline">BY JASON KAY</div>Leafs Nation, listen up. You&rsquo;re not alone. Kerry Fraser apparently had a vendetta against the other 29 NHL teams, too.&ldquo;Every place I go fans say, &lsquo;Why do you hate our team?&rsquo;&rdquo; Fraser said. &ldquo;Every team&rsquo;s fan base seems to think I was harder on their team than the other team. I must have been doing something right.&rdquo;Fraser, who retired at the end of 2009-10 having officiated a record 1,904 games over 30 seasons, has chronicled his career in The Final Call, a book in which he takes readers behind the scenes. Included is the notorious non-call in Game 6 of the 1993 Campbell Conference final when, in overtime, he missed a Wayne Gretzky high-stick on Toronto&rsquo;s Doug Gilmour. Gretzky proceeded to score the winner and carry Los Angeles to a Game 7 triumph to advance to the Stanley Cup final. It&rsquo;s the closest the beleaguered Leafs have been to a championship since winning one in 1967, and the bitterness has lingered&hellip;and mutated genetically. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m running into children who weren&rsquo;t born then who hate Kerry Fraser because their parents said he made a bad call,&rdquo; he chuckled.Fraser is undaunted. The 58-year-old Sarnia, Ont., native understands the role he played in the NHL and considers his career a blessing. Disdain and hard feelings from passionate supporters come with the territory, but his integrity remained intact. That&rsquo;s not to say there aren&rsquo;t moments he wishes he could have back. And Gretzky was at the center of another one.Fraser said &lsquo;The Great One&rsquo; made a habit of flopping, particularly early in his career and only at home, in the Northlands Coliseum. The diving got Fraser&rsquo;s back up. A brief feud ensued in which Fraser refused to call a penalty, regardless of whether he thought Gretzky dove or not, inciting even more alleged pratfalls from No. 99. Things came to a head in a game against the Flyers. Gretzky was standing behind the net by himself, Fraser said, and he bellyflopped. When Fraser challenged him, Gretzky chastised him for not calling anything all night.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-01213/9415859-1-eng-US/f0058-012.jpg" title="f0058-01" width="357" height="520"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">Former NHL ref Kerry Fraser shares some of his best stories from 30 years in the game in&nbsp;The Final Call</blockquote>&ldquo;I said, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re right, I&rsquo;m going to start right now. You&rsquo;ve got two for unsportsmanlike conduct,&rsquo;&rdquo; Fraser said. &ldquo;He said, &lsquo;Thanks. It&rsquo;s about time you called something.&rsquo;&ldquo;And he stormed off the ice. He never even went to the penalty box.&rdquo;The exchange was a learning experience for Fraser and he subsequently mended his ways.&ldquo;I came to the quick conclusion what I did was inappropriate. It wasn&rsquo;t in the best interest of the game, it wasn&rsquo;t going to serve me well.&rdquo;It also marked one of two times in his career a player thanked Fraser for giving him a penalty. The other was pugilist Jim McKenzie, who in his rookie year with Hartford, approached Fraser following the final buzzer of the final game.&ldquo;He said to me, very quietly, &lsquo;Kerry, if I told you to f--- off, would you give me a misconduct?&rsquo;&rdquo; Fraser said. &ldquo;I laughed and said, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re kidding.&rsquo; He said, &lsquo;Kerry, I&rsquo;ve got a bonus in my contract for penalty minutes, I&rsquo;m four minutes short and the coach never played me once tonight.&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;What did you say?&rsquo; He said, &lsquo;f--- off.&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;Say it like you mean it.&rsquo; He said, &lsquo;F--- OFF!!!!&rsquo;&rdquo; I said, &lsquo;YOU GOT 10!!&rsquo;&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-02141/9415852-1-eng-US/f0058-022.jpg" title="f0058-02" width="969" height="1479"><figcaption class="caption-body">SANTA CLAUSEKerry Fraser once helped a player attain a contract bonus by assessing a misconduct. (FRASER: JEFF VINNICK/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He said, &lsquo;Thank you&rsquo; and left happy as a pig in sh--.&rdquo;There were darker incidents, such as the one that took place during the &lsquo;Monday Night Miracle&rsquo; in St. Louis. It was Game 6 of the Campbell Conference final in 1986 and the upstart Blues&rsquo; surprising playoff run was in jeopardy as they trailed the series against Calgary 3-2 and the game 4-1 at the end of two periods. That&rsquo;s when two large, undercover policemen escorted Fraser off the ice and told him a death threat had been made against him if he emerged for the third period. The call was traced to a phone in the St. Louis Arena.&ldquo;The cop said, &lsquo;We know the guy&rsquo;s in here. He said he has a gun and if you come out for the third period, he&rsquo;s going to shoot you.&rsquo;&rdquo; Fraser remembered. &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t have a choice. I&rsquo;m going out.&rsquo;As it turned out, not a hair on Fraser&rsquo;s famous coif was hurt. St. Louis stormed back, eventually winning in overtime before losing the series in Game 7.Fraser, who wrote all the prose for the book himself during the 2009-10 campaign, said the project was a labor of love, mirroring the affection he felt for his fascinating, expansive career. &#9632;

f0058-01

Fraser: The Call Guy

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div>It might be difficult to believe, but the Montreal Canadiens actually had a losing record against the Boston Bruins in 1976-77. After one of those losses superstar Guy Lafleur said, &ldquo;I will never accept losing. Never. The law of averages is bound to catch up with us, but that&rsquo;s no excuse for a bad performance.&rdquo;And, that, in a nutshell, is what made the &rsquo;76-77 Canadiens the greatest collection of talent in the history of the game. The rest of the NHL provided Montreal such feeble competition that they had to fabricate it from within by challenging themselves to be better and more dominating with every game. Practices, for the most part, were even more demanding than the games.&ldquo;When we scrimmaged, you were playing against the best players in the world,&rdquo; recalled Peter Mahovlich, who lost his spot on the first line to Jacques Lemaire that season, despite posting a team-record 82 assists the year before. &ldquo;You couldn&rsquo;t help but get better because we had a bunch of guys who loved to be on the ice. Guy Lafleur loved to be on the ice. Steve Shutt loved to be on the ice. Larry Robinson loved to be on the ice and going at top speed. It was fun.&rdquo;The Canadiens opened that season with a 10-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, finished it with a 2-1 overtime win over the Boston Bruins in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final and in between, they were the most electrifying, dominant and unstoppable team the NHL has ever seen. All told, they established 21 NHL records that season, including a 132-point performance that still stands as the league&rsquo;s benchmark. Their goal differential of 216 is by far the best in NHL history, 40 ahead of the next-best mark, which was established by the Habs the following season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-01174/9415904-1-eng-US/f0060-012.jpg" title="f0060-01" width="352" height="528"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">This chapter, as well as stories, rankings and recollections of other great squads from the world of hockey, appear in&nbsp;We Are The Champions. In bookstores now.</blockquote><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-02106/9415897-1-eng-US/f0060-022.jpg" title="f0060-02" width="1447" height="1333"><figcaption class="caption-body">LOCKS AND LOADGuy Lafleur&rsquo;s flowing follicles is an iconic image from the Habs halcyon days of the &rsquo;70s. (DENIS BRODEUR/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>They had nine players in the lineup who ultimately made their way to the Hockey Hall of Fame, along with coach Scotty Bowman and GM Sam Pollock. They became one of only two post-expansion teams (the 1970-71 Bruins were the other) to place four players &ndash; goalie Ken Dryden, defenseman Robinson, right winger Lafleur and left winger Shutt &ndash; on the first all-star team. The league might as well have held its awards ceremony at the Canadiens team banquet, since Lafleur won the Art Ross, Hart and Conn Smythe Trophies, Dryden and Michel Larocque the Vezina, Robinson the Norris and Bowman the Adams.Had the Rocket Richard Trophy been in existence, Shutt would have taken it on the strength of a 60-goal season that established a record for left wingers. The Selke Trophy was established the next season, when Bob Gainey won his first of four consecutive honors as the league&rsquo;s best defensive forward.When you consider Montreal&rsquo;s dominance that season, you must look at it through the prism of a four-year run in which the Habs won four Stanley Cups and established themselves as arguably the most dominant dynasty in the history of the sport. In those four years, the Canadiens lost just 46 games. To put the Canadiens&rsquo; 60-8-12 record in 1976-77 into perspective, they&rsquo;re the only team in NHL history to play more than 60 games in a season and lose fewer than 10. In fact, prior to Montreal losing just 11 games the season before, the low-water mark for losses in a 60-plus game schedule was 13, by the 1950-51 Detroit Red Wings, who established the mark in 70 games.But what made the Habs roster so impressive was that it was almost entirely homemade. With the exception of Mahovlich, every player on the roster was either drafted or developed by Montreal. Dryden and Doug Jarvis were drafted by other teams, but were dealt to the Canadiens before their NHL careers even began.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0062-01171/9415890-1-eng-US/f0062-012.jpg" title="f0062-01" width="1398" height="1092"><figcaption class="caption-body">HIGH AND DRYThe crease protection of keeper Ken Dryden was one of the key elements in Montreal&rsquo;s success. (DENIS BRODEUR/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>And to trace the lineage of that team, you have to go back a few years prior to the 1970-71 season, when the Canadiens shocked the hockey world by stunning the powerhouse Bruins in the first round of the playoffs en route to the Stanley Cup. They did it with Dryden, a rookie goaltender who had originally been drafted by the Bruins in 1964. At the 1970 draft, Pollock traded Ernie Hicke to the California Golden Seals for a swap of first round picks and helped seal California&rsquo;s fate as the last-place team by dealing Ralph Backstrom to the Los Angeles Kings at the deadline.That allowed Pollock to draft Lafleur first overall, but then he took Murray Wilson 11th overall and Robinson in the No. 20 spot. With the 53rd overall selection, the Canadiens took Greg Hubick, whom they flipped to get the rights to Jarvis four years later. All of those parts, along with what was already a formidable lineup in its own right, combined to make the team a juggernaut.And although it might seem like the Habs didn&rsquo;t break a sweat that season, it wasn&rsquo;t as though they simply threw on the pads and played shinny for 60 minutes. In fact, the Bruins defeated Montreal in each of their first three meetings that season before the Canadiens took the final two. Even though they played 86.5 percent of the time that season either tied or in the lead, they trailed at one point in 21 of their 60 wins and in nine of their 12 ties. At one point in the campaign, they lost 7-2 to the St. Louis Blues and 7-3 to the Bruins in the space of five days.But when the Canadiens won that season, they won big. They outscored their opponents by an average of almost 5-2 and 21 times that year they bested their opponent by five goals. Sixteen times the margin was six, nine times it was seven and four times they won by eight goals. And the scary thing about it was the Canadiens were so young. The only players on the roster who were over 30 were Jimmy Roberts and Yvan Cournoyer, who was beginning to be plagued by back troubles that caused him to miss 20 games and the entire playoffs, and forced him into retirement a year later. Lafleur and Shutt were just 24, Robinson was 25, Gainey and Doug Risebrough were 22 and Mario Tremblay was just 19.<blockquote class="pullQuote">You were scared to death of losing your spot</blockquote>That youthful enthusiasm, more than anything, kept Montreal from becoming complacent. It also helped that practices were intense and competitive, and that Bowman knew exactly what kind of mind games to play to keep the players constantly on edge.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty simple,&rdquo; Mahovlich said. &ldquo;Scotty never allowed us to get bored. Everybody talks about all the talent we had. But one of the things Scotty did very well was he knew how to manipulate that talent to make sure that talent was ready to play every night. We always had two or three extra players around who could take your spot in the lineup and the team wouldn&rsquo;t miss a beat.&ldquo;Even though we were winning all the time, even if you had bumps and bruises, you kept playing because you were scared to death of losing your spot in the lineup. When you go through the first half of the season and you&rsquo;ve lost only four or five games, it&rsquo;s the coach who creates the atmosphere where everybody is on pins and needles.&rdquo;If there was one downside to that season, it was the squad was so dominant it spelled the beginning of the end of Dryden&rsquo;s career. He was 29 years old at that time and had won so much by such a great margin, that it was during that season Dryden began to contemplate new challenges in his life.&ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t a complaint, but I didn&rsquo;t enjoy last season very much,&rdquo; Dryden said the next year. &ldquo;We had a great team and a great record, but there were an inordinate number of games which we won without even a reasonable amount of difficulty. There were moments when we&rsquo;d win a game and you&rsquo;d go into the dressing room and there would be a certain amount of emptiness. Some guys would have to yell it up just to emphasize the fact we had won.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy we won as often as we did and lost only eight times. But I found myself spending increasing time thinking about what I want to do with my future.&rdquo;Perhaps it was a portent of things to come that the Canadiens&rsquo; only two playoff losses came to the New York Islanders that spring. It would be another three seasons before the Islanders would usurp the Montreal dynasty with their first of four straight Stanley Cups. As dominant as those teams were, however, they were not the 1976-77 Canadiens, the standard by which all other great teams in the NHL will continue to be measured. &#9632;

f0060-01

The Best of the Best

<div class="byline">BY ANDREW GOYENS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0064-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0064-01143/9415935-1-eng-US/f0064-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">NEXT CHALLENGEPaul Rosen backstopped Canada to multiple international gold medals in sledge hockey.</figcaption></div>In many ways, goaltending is a microcosm of life. One never knows just what lies around the corner; every shot and scoring chance represents a new set of circumstances and challenges. It&rsquo;s no wonder then that Paul Rosen was so good at it.Rosen backstopped Canada&rsquo;s national sledge hockey team for eight years, representing his country at the IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship, the World Sledge Hockey Challenge and the Paralympic Games &ndash; winning at least one gold in all three. Now retired, Rosen sees his experience with Team Canada as a blessing. &ldquo;I had the honor of playing the greatest game in the world for the greatest country in the world,&rdquo; Rosen said. &ldquo;Not everyone gets that chance.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">They said I&rsquo;d be dead in three months if they didn&rsquo;t amputate</blockquote>And for a long time, it looked as though Rosen would never get the chance to compete at an elite level. Rosen progressed through the ranks of youth hockey and reached the midget level at 15. By that point, hockey was all he wanted to do.&ldquo;Every breath was the NHL,&rdquo; Rosen said. &ldquo;Unfortunately, after my injury, that was pretty well over.&rdquo;The injury was a fluke. During a game, Rosen was cutting around his own net when his skate got caught in a rut. He twisted his leg as he went down, breaking it in 14 places. &ldquo;I could still play in pickup games and men&rsquo;s leagues,&rdquo; Rosen said, &ldquo;but the dream was over. It was devastating&hellip; having your dreams crushed because of one crazy situation.&rdquo;Rosen left school, got married and fathered three daughters. He spent the next two decades hopping from job to job.&ldquo;I first started working at the Athletes World in Yorkdale (Shopping Centre),&rdquo; Rosen said. &ldquo;After that, I had tons of jobs, hundreds of &lsquo;em&hellip;You name it, I tried it.&rdquo;His old injury came back to haunt him. In 1997, Rosen had knee replacement surgery on the leg he&rsquo;d broken; the site became infected and he underwent 14 surgeries in 18 months, coming &ndash; as he described it &ndash; &ldquo;as close to dying as you possibly could.&rdquo;Finally, doctors gave Rosen the choice: keep your leg or keep your life. &ldquo;They said I&rsquo;d be dead in three months if they didn&rsquo;t amputate,&rdquo; Rosen said. &ldquo;It was surreal&hellip;I told myself I&rsquo;d get over this, then do something phenomenal with my life.&rdquo;It didn&rsquo;t take long for Rosen to find his calling.A chance encounter with a 12-year-old boy named Shane Smith introduced him to sledge hockey. Within six months, Rosen tried out for Canada&rsquo;s national team as a goalie &ndash; and made it.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not normal to make (the team) so soon, or at all when you&rsquo;re 40,&rdquo; Rosen said.He was the backup goalie for Canada&rsquo;s fourth-place finish at the 2002 Paralympics in Salt Lake City. Four years later, in Turin, Italy, Rosen took over the starting duties and backstopped Team Canada to a gold medal &ndash; recording a 3-0 shutout in the final against Norway.&ldquo;That was the ultimate,&rdquo; Rosen said. &ldquo;Other than the birth of my kids, it was the greatest moment of my life.&rdquo;After finishing fourth at this year&rsquo;s Paralympics in Vancouver, Rosen called it a career. &ldquo;I wanted to win another gold and retire at home,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The glitch against Japan (which upset Canada in the semis) made it harder, but I felt it was time to go. That&rsquo;s the hardest thing for an athlete &ndash; figuring out when to go.&rdquo;Rosen resides with his girlfriend in Thornhill, Ont., a suburb of Toronto, where he&rsquo;s lived the past 40 years. He has a successful career as a motivational speaker and was recently given the Rick Hansen Award of Excellence by March of Dimes Canada for his achievements benefiting the physically disabled.There&rsquo;s at least one more obstacle Rosen wants to overcome. He recently went back to school to improve his literacy. &ldquo;I promised my daughters and my girlfriend that I&rsquo;d go back to school after I retired,&rdquo; Rosen said. &ldquo;(Former NHL coach) Jacques Demers actually gave me the courage to go back. It showed that even a world-class athlete can have problems.&rdquo;Typically, Rosen is using his own situation as a way to help others. He&rsquo;s teaming up with Grade Learning &ndash; the education center at which he&rsquo;s studying &ndash; to document his journey through a video blog called &lsquo;What&rsquo;s Next.&rsquo;Above all, Rosen hopes his story can inspire others to believe that tomorrow can be a better day. &ldquo;Not everyone can win a gold medal,&rdquo; Rosen said, &ldquo;but everyone can dream.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0064-01

Back to The Basics

<div class="byline">BY NICOLAS CHABOT</div><h2>ROOKIES BOLT OUT OF GATES</h2>EDMONTON&rsquo;S TAYLOR HALL entered the season with the hoopla of being the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft &ndash; and he hasn&rsquo;t disappointed &ndash; but it was teammate Jordan Eberle whom The Hockey News Poolbook tabbed as the projected top freshman producer.Our Ultimate Fantasy Pool Guide predicted Eberle would score 59 points this season and with eight through 10 games, he was well on his way. His hot start is among the top 20 of the past decade for freshmen.Between the pipes, Washington&rsquo;s Michal Neuvirth is turning heads and more than ably filling in for the injured Seymon Varlamov. In fact, Neuvirth&rsquo;s play is reminiscent of Varlamov&rsquo;s strong start as a rookie for the Capitals in 2009-10.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-01140/9416022-1-eng-US/f0066-012.jpg" title="f0066-01" width="608" height="842"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-0287/9416015-1-eng-US/f0066-022.jpg" title="f0066-02" width="164" height="215"></div><h2>8</h2><h3>Fast start</h3>Here are the best first 10 games of a season by a rookie in the past 10 seasons (between 2001-02 and 2010-11)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-0336/9416008-1-eng-US/f0066-032.jpg" title="f0066-03" width="809" height="594"></div>First 10 regular season games of his team<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-0424/9416001-1-eng-US/f0066-042.jpg" title="f0066-04" width="164" height="213"></div><h2>36</h2><h3>Top Rookies</h3>Here&rsquo;s how the top rookies are doing so far in various stats categories (with current NHL leaders)<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-0514/9415994-1-eng-US/f0066-052.jpg" title="f0066-05" width="1052" height="774"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-0610/9415987-1-eng-US/f0066-062.jpg" title="f0066-06" width="164" height="212"></div><h2>30.8</h2><h3>Percentage of team&rsquo;s goals a rookie scored a point on</h3>With total team goals (TG)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-079/9415980-1-eng-US/f0066-072.jpg" title="f0066-07" width="494" height="768"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-088/9415973-1-eng-US/f0066-082.jpg" title="f0066-08" width="164" height="212"><figcaption class="caption-body">(NEUVIRTH: GERRY THOMAS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>6</h2><h3>Fast start by a goaltender</h3>Best first 10 games of a season by a rookie goalie in the past 10 seasons<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-097/9415966-1-eng-US/f0066-092.jpg" title="f0066-09" width="494" height="768"></div>First 10 regular season games of his teamCAN&rsquo;T GET ENOUGH NUMBERS? VISIT OUR ONLINE &lsquo;STATS&rsquo; SECTION EVERY DAY AT <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM</a> &#9632;

f0066-01

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN GLEW</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0068-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0068-01107/9416053-1-eng-US/f0068-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL OF GOODSBill Ranford had sterling stats in the 1990 playoffs: 16-6; 2.53 GAA; .912 SP; one shutout. (PAUL BERESWILL/HHOF IMAGES)</figcaption></div>The dynasty was supposed to be over.With &lsquo;The Great One&rsquo; in L.A. and Grant Fuhr sidelined, the Oilers&rsquo; glory years appeared to be behind them entering the 1990 playoffs.But, as opponents would soon learn, Bill Ranford, a determined 23-year-old netminder who had toiled in the shadow of Fuhr for the previous two seasons, had something to say about that.Concerns arose after the first game of the post-season, however, when Ranford was shelled in a 7-5 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. Fortunately, the youngster had the confidence of his coach and GM. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure if it was &lsquo;Slats&rsquo; (GM Glen Sather) or (coach) John Muckler who did it, but the next day they played a short video of some of the saves I had made throughout the year in front of the team,&rdquo; Ranford said. &ldquo;Basically they said to the team, &lsquo;This is your guy. You&rsquo;re going to win or lose with him.&rsquo;&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">This is your guy. You&rsquo;ll win or lose with him</blockquote>The Oilers weren&rsquo;t immediately inspired and fell behind 3-1 in the series. But many point to Ranford&rsquo;s save on Dale Hawerchuk&rsquo;s breakway in the last minute of Game 5 (preserving a 4-3 Oilers win) as the turning point of the playoffs. Edmonton regrouped to oust the Jets and followed it up with a second round sweep over Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings.&ldquo;Beating Los Angeles was a confidence boost because they took it to us the year before,&rdquo; Ranford said.Along with a good mix of young talent, Edmonton still boasted Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson and Kevin Lowe from previous championship squads. This combination of veteran savvy and youthful exuberance, coupled with outstanding goaltending from Ranford, propelled the Oilers past the Chicago Blackhawks in the conference final, setting the stage for a 1988 Cup final rematch with the Boston Bruins.A 1985 Bruins draft pick, Ranford, who backed up Fuhr during the Oilers&rsquo; 1988 Cup triumph, was not only competing against his former club, but against Andy Moog, the goalie the Oilers had dealt for him in March, 1988. The first game was an epic battle at the Boston Garden that took nearly three overtime periods to decide. &ldquo;I remember the game getting to the point where you&rsquo;re just hoping it would end,&rdquo; Ranford said. &ldquo;The thing that people forget about that game is that it was not only long, but there were stoppages due to the lights going out and because of fog. The building was so old that it didn&rsquo;t have a great circulation system, so it was like a sauna at that time of year.&rdquo;Benched for much of the game, an unlikely hero finally solved Moog at 15:13 of the third overtime. &ldquo;It was two-and-a-half hours between shifts for Petr Klima,&rdquo; Ranford said.Holding the Bruins to just eight goals in the series, Ranford and the Oilers defeated Boston in five games to claim the franchise&rsquo;s fifth Cup in seven years. Between the pipes for all 16 playoff wins, Ranford was given the Conn Smythe Trophy.He was also the MVP of the &rsquo;91 Canada Cup and the &rsquo;94 World Championship, where Canada won its first gold since 1961.Ranford now resides in New Westminster, B.C., with his wife, Kelly, and two daughters, Cassady and Tristan. He is part-owner of the Jr. A Coquitlam Express of the British Columbia League and the goaltending coach of the Los Angeles Kings.Working in L.A. for part of the year, it&rsquo;s only fitting Hollywood would come calling. He made his big screen debut in Miracle &ndash; the ode to the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic team.&ldquo;Any Jim Craig scene where he has the mask on is me and anything with the mask off is Eddie Cahill,&rdquo; Ranford said.His participation in the movie seems apt. After all, some might say he authored his own &ldquo;miracle&rdquo; when he led the Oilers to their most unlikely Stanley Cup triumph. &#9632;

f0068-01

One Miracle to Another

<div class="byline">By Larry Humber</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-0195/9416084-1-eng-US/f0069-012.jpg" title="f0069-01" width="913" height="913"></div><h2>ACROSS</h2>1 Marian ___ finally won a Cup with Chicago8 ___ Toews is captain there9 There&rsquo;s a penalty for ___ of game10 He&rsquo;s GM in Pittsburgh11 Tally14 Rick ___ briefly coached the Pens15 One of the Stastnys20 Another nickname for Tampa&rsquo;s team21 Florida&rsquo;s other team22 Nickname of Washington&rsquo;s old American League team23 He wore No. 35 in Chicago24 Shut out<h2>DOWN</h2>2 A one-time hockey card maker3 Brent ___ is another Blackhawk4 New Jersey goalie ___ Hedberg5 Dupe6 Johnny Bucyk&rsquo;s nickname7 Pester12 Cup that&rsquo;s found in Windsor13 Dallas netminder Kari ___, pictured16 ___ Deck is another card maker17 Goes berserk18 All goalies were ___ protectors19 One of the HullsANSWERS AVAILABLE IN THE NEXT ISSUE AND AT <a href="http://THN.com/XWORD">THN.com/xword</a>LAST WEEK&rsquo;S CROSSWORD SOLUTION ACROSS 1. CAPITAL, 4. MASKS, 7. ROUT, 8. STILLMAN, 10. SIDELINING, 12. TENSE, 13. UNITE, 14. BARGAINING, 18. DAVE KEON, 19. DINO, 20. RUN AT, 21. SELANNE DOWN 1. CHRIS, 2. POUNDING, 3. LET IN, 4. MILAN LUCIC, 5. SEMI, 6. SAN JOSE, 9. BLUE JACKET, 11. DIVISION, 12. THUNDER, 15. GOONS, 16. GLOVE, 17. EVEN &#9632;

f0069-01

CROSSWORD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-0261/9416122-1-eng-US/f0069-022.jpg" title="f0069-02" width="908" height="1184"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BLAST: TUROFSKY/HHOF IMAGES)</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-0424/9416115-1-eng-US/f0069-042.jpg" title="f0069-04" width="135" height="135"></div>Toronto coach Billy Reay congratulates rookie Frank Mahovlich on a hat trick in 1957-58. &#9632;</div>

f0069-02

Blast from the Past

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-0337/9416153-1-eng-US/f0069-032.jpg" title="f0069-03" width="644" height="655"><figcaption class="caption-body">(JERSEY: JIM UTTERBACK)</figcaption></div>The United States League&rsquo;s Musketeers have rebranded themselves this year and the result is solid.Sioux City&rsquo;s old logo was a little esoteric, so this new version, featuring a bearded Musketeer and crossed rapiers behind a shield, is a nice upgrade. Plus, the color scheme on this edition is a strong forest green and gold combination &ndash; not that gold and purple was bad, it&rsquo;s just never subtle. The Musketeers have done an admirable job in forging a new identity for themselves and laces at the neck never hurt the cause either. &#9632;

f0069-03

Jersey Hound

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0070-0251/9416191-1-eng-US/f0070-022.jpg" title="f0070-02" width="282" height="499"></div>So it&rsquo;s a Tuesday night in November and the Toronto Maple Leafs are hosting the Ottawa Senators. You&rsquo;re a little tired and sore from a marathon ball hockey game the day before. You toy with the possibility of sitting this one out, but you decide to pick up and go. After all, it&rsquo;s the over-hyped &lsquo;Battle of Ontario&trade;.&rsquo; You can&rsquo;t possibly miss that. It takes Ottawa almost 13 minutes to register its first shot of the game. When the Maple Leafs finally find the back of the net early in the third period, they end a goal drought that lasts 167 minutes and 39 seconds. Soccer teams don&rsquo;t go that long between scoring goals. At one point, a Senators forward has the puck in front of an open net and whiffs on it, only to be knocked into the open net with the puck stuffed underneath him.It&rsquo;s all so glorious.If parity in the NHL is Gary Bettman&rsquo;s idea of the land of milk and honey, he must love what he sees in the Eastern Conference the past couple of seasons. Because with a few notable exceptions, teams in the East are united in their odiferousness. Sure, the hockey is exciting as all get out the same way the American League and junior hockey are exciting. Bad players making bad plays lead to lots of offensive chances at both ends of the ice.In every facet of the game, the Western Conference is superior to the East. Teams in the West have drafted and developed better, they&rsquo;ve got more experienced and better coaches and their games are not only more structured, but they&rsquo;re far quicker and more difficult to win. Perhaps that&rsquo;s why the West has made a pretty consistent habit of taking the East out to the woodshed in the post-lockout NHL. As of early November, the Western Conference had a 27-20 edge over the East in intra-conference play this season. (Note: Overtime and shootout losses are treated as losses in these records.) Last season, the Western Conference won 40 more head-to-head games versus the East and since the lockout, the West has won almost 100 more games than the East (566-470) and has had a decided edge in victories each season.Last season, it took 95 points to make the playoffs in the Western Conference and just 88 in the East. The Nos. 9 through 11 teams in the West would have made the post-season in the East. Western teams have claimed three Cups in five years, compared with two from the East, even though Western teams have a much tougher road to the final. Sure, there are bad teams in the West, too. But at least they seem to get themselves out of the morass once in a while. The Chicago Blackhawks were god-awful, but they found their way. To a lesser extent &ndash; since they haven&rsquo;t won a Stanley Cup &ndash; so have the Kings, Coyotes, Blues, Blue Jackets and Avalanche. For all their ineptitude, the Edmonton Oilers at least have a Stanley Cup final to show for their efforts, along with some outstanding young talent and hope for the future.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0070-0192/9416184-1-eng-US/f0070-012.jpg" title="f0070-01" width="678" height="928"><figcaption class="caption-body">SIDNEY CROSBY (CROSBY: PHILLIP MACCALLUM/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">The West is superior to the East in every single facet of the game</blockquote>But does anyone see the Florida Panthers becoming a legitimate playoff team anytime soon? Can anyone see the light at the end of the tunnel for the train wreck that is the New York Islanders? The Atlanta Thrashers, meanwhile, were so impressed with the job Don Waddell did as GM that they promoted him to team president. After a promising start, the Leafs are staring down the barrel of a sixth consecutive season out of the playoffs. The New Jersey Devils look as though they&rsquo;ve set themselves up for a nice, long extended run of darkness and the New York Rangers, well, if anyone can figure out what Glen Sather is doing there, please give us a call.In short, the Eastern Conference is a mess. Of course there is some spectacular individual talent in the East in the form of Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos, but Ovechkin still takes shifts that are way too long and freelances far too much, and he and his team play with far too little structure. Crosby&rsquo;s supporting cast in Pittsburgh is laughable, as is the defense corps and goaltending that plays behind Stamkos in Tampa Bay.All of which might go a long way toward explaining the disparity between the West and East. You could argue the East has far more dynamic individual talent, but the West builds far better teams. And while these things sometimes tend to go in cycles, this gap has been too disparate and the trend has gone on too long to simply chalk this up as a cyclical phenomenon.So if you&rsquo;re looking for exciting games with lots of mistakes, comebacks and offensive chances, cast your eyes to the East. But if you&rsquo;re looking for the best teams in hockey, you&rsquo;re going to have to turn your head 180 degrees.CAN&rsquo;T GET ENOUGH CAMPBELL? CLICK ON <a href="http://THN.com">THN.COM</a> FOR KEN&rsquo;S EXCLUSIVE BLOG &#9632;

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November 22, 2010

BABY oil

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Swedish Invasion

U.S. Steel