The Instigator

CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1 Vladimir ___ is at center in St. Louis 4 Angela ___ is a Hall of Famer 7 Gordie Howe was a Houston ___ late in his career 8 Ontario is one and so is Quebec 10 He’s GM in Detroit 12 School in the same league as Cornell (or the Kings captain) 13 Las ___ hosts the NHL Awards 14 Phoenix’s Lauri ___ 18 Kind of ovation 19 Detroit’s ___ Hudler, pictured 20 Nashville is ‘___ City’ 21 In pain DOWN 1 San Jose’s symbol 2 Blue great dubbed ‘The Red Baron’ 3 A playoff month 4 Ed ___ is now a Panther 5 Jimmy ___ was a scrappy Jet 6 He was Conn Smythe winner in 2000 9 An enforcer with the Habs and Leafs, he died young 11 Matt D’___ is also with St. Louis 12 Develop into a genuine star 15 George Imlach’s nickname 16 Sending the puck the…

Searching For Answers

The last thing anyone, your trusty correspondent included, should do when three young men who made their livings with their fists die tragically in the space of four months is jump to the conclusion their role as enforcers was a contributing factor and use it as a rallying cry for a ban on fighting. In my estimation, there were more than enough reasons to do away with fisticuffs long before Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak passed away. But just as making wild assumptions is irresponsible, so is putting our heads in the sand. The irrefutable fact is there was a common thread that united the three men, all of whom played in the NHL last season, and that was they either wouldn’t have been in the NHL or wouldn’t…

ON THE Map Hershey

The town of Hershey is best known for chocolate, but there’s far more than sugar and cocoa to be proud of in Southeastern Pennsylvania. For the second straight year, the Hershey-Harrisburg area was named the best minor league city in the United States by SportsBusiness Journal. Hershey, about 100 miles west of Philadelphia, is home to the affiliates of both the Washington Capitals and Major League Baseball’s Nationals. The Hershey Bears were created in 1932 and are the longest-tenured team in American League history. Since the squad moved into the Giant Center in 2002, they’ve won three championships and attendance has steadily increased, reaching 9,800 per game in 2010-11. The Bears have won 11 Calder Cups, three in the past six years. On the turf, the Harrisburg Senators play AA baseball and set…