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 14, 2011

The Hockey News - Nov-14-11

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-02277/9531018-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg" title="f0049-02" width="991" height="1290"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-03212/9531011-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="151" height="151"></div><p><b>Montreal&rsquo;s Rogie Vachon swats away a beauty during action against the Chicago Black Hawks.</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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IN THIS ISSUE

Blast from the Past from The Hockey Hall of Fame

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011397/9529895-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="980" height="1242"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ATHLETIC ROYALTY</b></p><p><b>Sven Tumba was a standout hockey and soccer player, golfer, water skier and inventor.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(AFP/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>M</span>ost North</b> American hockey fans don&rsquo;t have a clue who Sven Tumba was, but it&rsquo;s no stretch to suggest he was the best player Sweden has ever produced. In fact, in 1999 he was named the greatest of all-time in his home country, ahead of Borje Salming, Peter Forsberg and Mats Sundin.</p><p>Whether Tumba was the greatest Swede ever is open to debate &ndash; Salming is a Hall of Famer and Forsberg will almost certainly follow in 2014 &ndash; but one thing is certain: when Tumba died in early October at the age of 80, Sweden lost its greatest sports legend. Anyone who lived there in the 1950s and &rsquo;60s will maintain there was no bigger sports hero than Tumba. &ldquo;The same way it&rsquo;s basically impossible to compare Rocket (Richard) or Gordie Howe to (Wayne) Gretzky, it&rsquo;s so difficult to compare Tumba with Forsberg,&rdquo; said International Ice Hockey Federation communications director Szymon Szemberg, a former hockey writer in Sweden. &ldquo;But the thing about Tumba is he became a Swedish folk hero at a time when there was only one TV channel in Sweden. And he played for the national team for 20 years.&rdquo;</p><p>Born Sven Johansson in 1931, he legally changed his last name to Tumba in the 1960s for a few reasons. Foremost among them: Sven Johansson is the Swedish equivalent to John Smith. Tumba wanted to distinguish himself and he chose Tumba because that was his hometown. He also invented the first Swedish helmet, which was officially known as the SPAPS helmet, but is regarded by everyone in Sweden as the Tumba helmet. He was the first Swede to become known for his end-to-end rushes and even today when a Swedish player makes one it is often referred to by hockey commentators as a &ldquo;Tumba Rush.&rdquo;</p><p>Tumba&rsquo;s hockey accomplishments for Sweden are unparalleled. Playing for Djurgarden from 1950 to &rsquo;66, he led the team to eight Elite League titles. He represented Tre Kronor 14 times in the World Championship and won gold in 1953, &rsquo;57 and &rsquo;62, being named the tournament&rsquo;s top forward twice. He captured a bronze medal at the 1952 Olympics and silver in the 1964 games and remains his county&rsquo;s leading scorer in international competition.</p><p>The Swedes won the 1957 championship in Moscow (Canada and the U.S. boycotted the event because of the Soviet Union&rsquo;s occupation of Hungary). When Sweden clinched first place and a 6-0-1 record with a 4-4 tie against the Soviets in front of 50,000 at Lenin Stadium, organizers did not have a tape of the Swedish national anthem. So Tumba and his teammates instead belted out one of Sweden&rsquo;s famous drinking songs.</p><p>There&rsquo;s little doubt Tumba could have played in the NHL and, in fact, he turned down the chance to do it. He was invited to the Boston Bruins training camp in 1957 and scored their lone goal for a 1-1 tie in the first of two exhibition games he played. Not wanting to jeopardize his amateur status for the 1960 Olympics, Tumba rejected Boston&rsquo;s contract offer and spent five games with the Quebec Aces senior team, where he had four points. Even though he practised with the Bruins for a month in the fall of 1957, he resisted Bruins GM Lynn Patrick&rsquo;s continual  overtures to play in the NHL. Legend has it the Bruins offered Tumba a $50,000 contract. If it were true, he would&rsquo;ve been the league&rsquo;s highest paid player by far. &ldquo;I did everything possible to make Tumba a pro,&rdquo; Patrick said at the time, &ldquo;but he had too much going for him as an amateur in Sweden.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>There was no greater sports hero in Sweden</b></blockquote><p>Much of Tumba&rsquo;s legendary status has to do with the fact he was such a great all-round athlete. He was a champion water skier and also represented Sweden in both golf and soccer. In 2004, he was named the most influential person in Swedish golf history. He designed a number of courses in his homeland and the first one ever in the Soviet Union. Tumba was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1997. When he died, the two major Swedish newspapers, <i>Expressen</i> and <i>Aftonbladet</i>, devoted entire pullout sections to him. &ldquo;In terms of national popularity, he was right up there behind the king,&rdquo; Szemberg said, &ldquo;and when I say that, it&rsquo;s really not an exaggeration.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Sweden Loses A Sports Icon

<div class="byline">By Charlie Teljeur</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012264/9528966-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

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The Instigator

<div class="byline">PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDY DEVLIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-012148/9528700-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>Net Detective</b></p><p><b>Hopefully the only holes linesman Vaughan Rody sees upon his inspection are the ones meant to be there.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

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THEBIGPICTURE

<div class="byline">WITH JASON KAY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-012176/9528745-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="991" height="630"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>E</span>ven before</b> Zdeno Chara leapt to infamy in Montreal with his controversial hit on Max Pacioretty, the towering Slovak was on many fans&rsquo; &ldquo;hated&rdquo; radar. He&rsquo;s an apartment block of a man, with grizzly-bear strength and the matching desire to use it. His dark hair and Snidely Whiplash eyebrows add to the sinister aura. Can you think of another NHLer who so closely resembles a classic James Bond villain?</p><p>The crushing check on his Habs rival last winter cemented Chara&rsquo;s place on the NHL vitriol list. There are now blogs and Facebook pages dedicated to despising the Bruins captain. A search on Google of &ldquo;Zdeno Chara + hated&rdquo; returned more than 350,000 hits. We may as well change the spoked &lsquo;B&rsquo; on his chest to a &lsquo;D&rsquo; &ndash; for Devil.</p><p>Of course, those close to Chara insist you couldn&rsquo;t meet a nicer guy. Sure he&rsquo;s focused and driven, but he&rsquo;s also giving. At the All-Star Game in Montreal a few years back, he put up some of his own cash and solicited his fellow players and his union to do likewise for the hardest-shot competition. Then he promptly went out and set a record, making his favorite charity, Right to Play, $24,000 richer. He&rsquo;s also donated his time and energy, travelling to Africa and scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro, in order to help others.</p><p>And Chara&rsquo;s story isn&rsquo;t unique, at least not in theme. Time and again we hear how some of the most rugged players with the dirtiest jobs &ndash; players who&rsquo;ll go to extreme lengths to help their teams win &ndash; are good people once the final horn sounds. It presents a paradox of sorts, a curious meld of thuggery and philanthropy that could blur lines for fans.</p><p>In practice, that never happens. There aren&rsquo;t enough babies in burning houses for Chara to save that would stop him from being booed every time he touches the puck at the Bell Centre. And that, within reason and the bounds of decency, is just fine. If you aren&rsquo;t feeling when you&rsquo;re watching sports &ndash; joy, elation, pain or anger &ndash; what&rsquo;s the point?</p><p>Cue our cover story. Beginning on pg. 16, we examine the various ways, both serious and tongue-in-cheek, NHLers can be hated and how they go about achieving that end. It&rsquo;s about roles players fulfill, and personas they project, for their glory and our entertainment. Check your &ldquo;away from the rink&rdquo; reality here.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031487/9528738-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="467" height="249"></div><p><b>NEXT</b>&nbsp;<b>ISSUE</b> NOVEMBER 21, 2011</p><p><b>CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TO SUBSCRIBE:</b> <a href="http://THN.com">thn.com</a></p><p><b>CONTACT US:</b> <a href="mailto:editorial@thehockeynews.com">editorial@thehockeynews.com</a></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021847/9528731-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="293" height="340"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

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Hate’s OK, To A Point

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012403/9528814-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>JORDIN TOOTOO & AARON VOLPATTI</b> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span> used to think hockey fights were great when I was younger &ndash; then I grew up. Maybe the same will happen to Ryan Kennedy (Fighting Is Full Of Flavor, Oct. 31). Has he not noticed how great the playoffs are without the staged fights that slow down the flow of games during the regular season? All the other sports are controlled by the referees, why should hockey be different. The NHL does not need goons and a WWE mentality to succeed.</b></p><p><b><i>Paul Nourry, Halifax, N.S.</i></b></p><h2><b>The Blind Side</b></h2><p>The feature on realignment (Itch To Switch, Oct. 31) had a great map detailing the divisions. But right below it you list a possible &ldquo;New Eastern Divisional Format.&rdquo; You completely snubbed the entire West. I know there&rsquo;s an east coast bias throughout the league, but c&rsquo;mon, THN, you&rsquo;re better than that.</p><p><i>Brian Quast, Minooka, Ill.</i></p><h2><b>Wizard Of Ohio</b></h2><p>I enjoyed very much reading Aaron Portzline&rsquo;s feature on Rick Nash and Jeff Carter (Dynamic Duo, Oct. 31). However, Nash isn&rsquo;t the only true scorer in Blue Jackets&rsquo; history as some may think. Nash has a career .824 points-per-game average, but Ray Whitney produced at a .927 pace while in Columbus, from 2000-03. During the years Nash has been in the NHL, he&rsquo;s scored 488 points in 592 games. In that same period, Whitney&rsquo;s scored 510 points in 595 games. To suggest Nash is the first Blue Jackets winger who deserved an all-star center is a disservice to Whitney.</p><p><i>Pete Bauer, South Bend, Ind.</i></p><h2><b>A Tough Loss</b></h2><p>I really enjoyed Daryl Reaugh&rsquo;s reflection on Doris Rubel (A Great Lady Gone, Oct. 31). Young kids who go to different towns to play have no connections, so staying with a billet family makes the whole experience so much easier and enjoyable. I&rsquo;m sorry to her about Doris&rsquo; death because it is people like her who change other people&rsquo;s lives for the better.</p><p><i>Christo Morison, Vancouver</i></p><h2><b>Dan&rsquo;s Still The Man</b></h2><p>I took my little brother to see the Senators&rsquo; home opener against the Wild and knew there would be plenty of boobirds there to heckle Dany Heatley. Despite that, when my brother and I went down to watch the warmup not only was Dany kind enough to toss my brother a puck, but he even left warmups early to take the tape off his blade and sign the used stick for him. Amongst the booing he was still classy enough to do this for a young fan. Way to go, Dany, for showing your true colors.</p><p><i>Levi Hill, Athens, Ont.</i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021629/9528807-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="498" height="678"></div><h2><b>Best&hellip;And Worst</b></h2><p>I recently purchased THN&rsquo;s latest special edition, The Best of Everything in Hockey, and I must congratulate you on another masterpiece. However, as a longtime Rangers fan I feel compelled to question your choices of Bill Cook and Andy Bathgate as their all-time right wingers. Where is Mr. Ranger himself, Rod Gilbert. From a career standpoint, Gilbert outscored your two choices in points, games played and goals-scored. I would like to understand your rationale behind overlooking this worthy winger.</p><p><i>Bill Higgins, Pearl River, N.Y.</i></p><p>You put Alexei Yashin as the top center in Senators history in The Best of Everything. As a Sens fan, this outrages me. If you watched both of them you would realize Spezza is more skilled and has almost the exact same numbers (better in playoffs). Also, Spezza never cried his way out of the city. I even believe Mike Fisher is a better Ottawa center than Yashin. That being said, thanks, Alexei, because you gave us Jason Spezza.</p><p><i>Liam Simmons, Ottawa</i></p><p>I applaud THN&rsquo;s voters in selecting Nashville&rsquo;s Barry Trotz as best coach in the Best of Everything issue. Trotz is the only coach in team history and, with limited talent to work with, he makes the Preds one of the league&rsquo;s top teams year after year. Thank you for recognizing him. Hopefully a well-deserved Jack Adams Award is next.</p><p><i>Nathan Kopec, Weyburn, Sask</i></p><p>There is one result in your Best of Everything issue that your voters got wrong: Andrei Markov did not get a single vote for best power play point man. When he&rsquo;s healthy, Montreal&rsquo;s power play is spectacular because of his poise and passing ability. He may be often injured, but there is no way the Habs would have achieved a power play that rated in the NHL&rsquo;s top seven in five of the past six seasons (including two first place rankings) without him. No other team boasts such consistency and Markov is the man responsible for it.</p><p><i>Zachary Hampton, Lethbridge, Alta.</i></p><p>Rick Nash should have been the No. 1 pick for power forward in your Best of Everything edition. Nash gets 30-plus goals every year and does so on one of the worst teams in the league. Milan Lucic, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, the three ahead of Nash on your list, are all on great squads. Nash would be among the top five in points every year if he was on a playoff contender. Need proof? At the Vancouver Olympics Nash&rsquo;s line was probably Canada&rsquo;s best. If he had quality players around him his numbers would be higher. Your voters should have considered that.</p><p><i>Chris LaBella, Mississauga, Ont.</i></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-012139/9528800-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="138" height="454"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>WRITE TO WIN!</b></h2><p><b>The author of our featured letter next issue receives a Philips Bodygroom Pro Razor!</b></p><p><b>Submit your letter at: <a href="http://THN.COM/LETTERS">thn.com/letters</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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PLIGHT OF FIGHTS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021450/9528845-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="521" height="688"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(COOKE: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Matt Cooke 42%</b></p><p>Chris Pronger 10%</p><p>Daniel Carcillo 9%</p><p>P.K. Subban 9%</p><p>Todd Bertuzzi 9%</p><p>Maxim Lapierre 8%</p><p>Steve Downie 4%</p><p>Dany Heatley 4%</p><p>Steve Ott 3%</p><p>Patrick Kaleta 2%</p><p><b>Vote on polls from everything top to bottom in the world of hockey at <a href="http://thehockynews.com">thehockynews.com</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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POLLRESULTS

<p class="dropcap"><b><span>H</span>i Adam. Do you think Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller can play as he did a couple years ago? It seems that ever since he and the U.S. men&rsquo;s team lost the final game in the Olympics he hasn&rsquo;t been the same.</b></p><p><i>Kristina Kovalski, Knoxville, Ala.</i></p><p>Hi Kristina. I don&rsquo;t think Miller has lost much of anything off his considerable game. Remember, the 31-year-old wasn&rsquo;t completely healthy all of last season and Buffalo wasn&rsquo;t exactly a defensive menace, yet he still posted a .916 save percentage and 2.59 goals-against average. This season, with a better team in front of him, he was back to having a save percentage higher than .930. Trust me, the Sabres aren&rsquo;t worried.</p><p><b>Adam, with the eye injury to Chris Pronger, is it time the NHL & NHLPA made helmets with a full cage/shield mandatory? How many players must get hurt before common sense kicks in?</b></p><p><i>Jeff Heydt, Ramstein, Germany</i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03902/9528876-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="523" height="781"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>RYAN MILLER</b> <span class="photo-credit">(MILLER: DAVE SANDFORD/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Jeff, I&rsquo;ve been arguing in favor of mandatory visors for as long as I&rsquo;ve covered the NHL &ndash; and as far as I&rsquo;m concerned, there&rsquo;s no excuse whatsoever. All levels of minor league hockey require eye protection, with the American League coming on board in 2006. The NHL&rsquo;s team owners have claimed they want all players to wear visors, yet haven&rsquo;t made it a priority in negotiations with the union. And each year there&rsquo;s a Manny Malhotra or Chris Pronger who pays too high a price. It&rsquo;s just plain wrong.</p><p>Read more <b>&lsquo;Ask Adam&rsquo;</b> every Friday at <a href="http://thehockeynews.com">thehockeynews.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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ASK ADAM

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-07268/9528928-1-eng-US/f0008-072.jpg" title="f0008-07" width="396" height="111"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012293/9528935-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="209" height="209"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>Y</span>outh reigns in the</b> NHL, right? Well, not so much this season. Sure, teenagers such as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Gabriel Landeskog help bring down the number, but compared to last season the NHL is an older league in 2011-12.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-031232/9528921-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="122" height="139"></div><p>The average age last year was 26.5, while this year&rsquo;s cohort clocks in at 27.8. The biggest reason for the dramatic shift is all potential bonuses in contracts must be accounted for, since this is the final year of the collective bargaining agreement. That means entry level deals, which often carry more money in bonuses than base salary, aren&rsquo;t the same bargains they were in previous seasons.</p><p>This phenomenon played out early in when Philadelphia kept top prospect Brayden Schenn ($3.1 million cap hit) in the minors for a brief spell while holding on to Zac Rinaldo ($544,000) and Harry Zolnierczyk ($900,000). Schenn&rsquo;s bonusladen contract included a $1.4 million stipend if he played all 82 games in the NHL this year, so the reasons for his slight slide aren&rsquo;t difficult to grasp.</p><p>Since the lockout, teams have dined out on their elite youngsters, who provided plenty of skill at price tags often lower than that of veterans, since many bonuses are never achieved (only one player can win the Calder Trophy each year, after all).</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021746/9528914-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="678" height="858"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>NICKLAS LIDSTROM</b> <span class="photo-credit">(LIDSTROM: DAVE REGINEK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-04692/9528907-1-eng-US/f0008-042.jpg" title="f0008-04" width="1124" height="1006"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT</b></p><p><b>James Reimer is one of many greenhorns on Toronto&rsquo;s roster &ndash; the youngest in the NHL.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(REIMER: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>In fact, by charting the average age of players in the NHL, you can see a gradual realization by the league&rsquo;s 30 GMs to this fact: From 2005-06 until 2010-11, the average age decreased every season. Until this year, when the economics flipped for GMs. The one-year increase in average age is actually the biggest numerical shift year-over-year since 1923 and the biggest increase ever.</p><p>The last era that featured big jumps in average age came, not surprisingly, at both ends of the Second World War in the 1940s. Many NHLers went off to fight in the major conflict, thus creating new roster spots in their absence.</p><p>Surprisingly, other major events in the history of hockey had less of an effect. When the league doubled in size with the 1967 expansion, the average age only rose slightly. The exodus of talent to the World Hockey Association in 1972-73, when NHL players got slightly younger, also had only a blip of an impact compared to the shift this season versus last.</p><p>Whether youth or veteran savvy creates a winner is trickier to calculate. This year, the youngest team in the NHL is the Toronto Maple Leafs, narrowly beating out the Nashville Predators (see chart on pg. 10) and Winnipeg Jets. Not far behind is Colorado. These teams represent a wide spectrum in the standings and also a cross-section of big and small markets, so it&rsquo;s tough to correlate.</p><p>Toronto&rsquo;s oldest player is defenseman John-Michael Liles, who turns 31 in late November, while the team&rsquo;s stars include sniper Phil Kessel (24) and goaltender James Reimer (23).</p><p>As per usual, in the rocking chair at the other end of the age spectrum is Detroit. The Red Wings have long thrived on a veteran lineup with &ldquo;greybeards&rdquo; such as Nicklas Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom and Todd Bertuzzi.</p><p>Alongside the Wings are the Islanders and Calgary Flames, a team that features several of the veterans Toronto cast off in the Dion Phaneuf (age 26) trade.</p><p>Even Detroit&rsquo;s youngsters are old by league standards. Center Cory Emmerton is still Calder eligible at 23, while defenseman Jakub Kindl is still shy of 100 NHL games as a 24-year-old.</p><p>If recent history is any indication, the Red Wings know very well how to build a roster, so it&rsquo;s best to respect your elders.</p><p><b>450,000,000</b> Estimated cost, in dollars, of Edmonton&rsquo;s proposed new arena, which will be paid for by the city of Edmonton and Oilers owner Daryl Katz<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Old Is New Again

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021652/9528997-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="604" height="672"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRYZGALOV: JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>+PLUS</b></h2><p><b>HAL OF A RUN FOR HABS&rsquo; GILL</b></p><p><i>Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; tower Hal Gill plays in his 1,000th NHL game.</i></p><h2><b>&ndash;MINUS</b></h2><p><b>STIFF BRYZ BLOWS FOR FLYERS</b></p><p><i>Philly goaltender</i>&nbsp;<b><i>Ilya Bryzgalov</i></b>&nbsp;<i>claims to have &ldquo;zero confidence&rdquo; in himself after a dismal 9-8 loss to the Jets. Good thing Philly fans are patient when it comes to their netminders.</i></p><h2><b>+PLUS</b></h2><p><b>SHOCKING BEST IN NORTHWEST</b></p><p><i>Edmonton and Colorado bolt out of the gates as the surprise leaders of a topsy-turvy division.</i></p><h2><b>&ndash;MINUS</b></h2><p><b>SHAMEFUL HAZING IN MANITOBA</b></p><p><i>Sixteen players and two coaches of the Jr. A Neepawa Natives are suspended following an alarming dressing room hazing incident involving underage rookies.</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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PLUS MINUS

f0010-03

Minor THREATS

<div class="byline">&#x2013; ADAM PROTEAU</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>he global</b> phenomenon that is Twitter hasn&rsquo;t swept up the entire hockey industry just yet, but a significant number of NHL players have embraced social media.</p><p>In fact, statistics compiled by former THN intern and student journalist Tim Kolupanowich show more than 20 percent of NHLers (141 out of 700) have opened up a Twitter account that allows them to communicate with the hockey community.</p><p>Although more players are joining every week, right now the Toronto Maple Leafs have the most players on Twitter with 10 (including Phil Kessel, Joffrey Lupul and Jake Gardiner). Close behind were the Canadiens, Flyers and Oilers (each of whom had eight players with accounts), while the Sharks, Rangers and Lightning had seven apiece.</p><p>At the other end of the spectrum, only the Ottawa Senators and the New Jersey Devils didn&rsquo;t have any players on Twitter.</p><p>The language barrier is clearly a significant hurdle toward getting European players into social media. Only Russian-born players have a similar rate of tweeters than North American NHLers, though from a rather small sample. Eighty-one Canadian-born players (out of 375 in the league this season; 22 percent) and 38 Americans (out of 145; 26 percent) were on Twitter. The totals from those overseas aren&rsquo;t as impressive: Sweden had the third-highest total (just eight players out of 51; 16 percent), followed by Russia (five out of 20; 25 percent) and Finland (three out of 23; 13 percent).</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021383/9529073-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="589" height="719"></div><h2><b>Twitter Use By Country</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011907/9529066-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="998" height="752"></div><p>It&rsquo;s no surprise Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin has the most Twitter followers (215,164) of any NHLer. Second in that race is colorful Coyotes enforcer Paul Bissonnette (142,983), followed by Montreal left winger Mike Cammalleri (91,798), Canucks center Ryan Kesler (81,492) and Oilers super-sophomore Taylor Hall (73,949).</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-03928/9529059-1-eng-US/f0011-032.jpg" title="f0011-03" width="1147" height="712"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANTHONY: MARK BUCKNER/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; CHRIS: LEN REDKOLES/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>THE</b>&nbsp;<b>THIRD</b> time was a charm for the Stewart Bros. who finally faced off against each other in the NHL. Anthony was a healthy scratch for their first scheduled meeting and Chris missed the second opportunity with a broken hand. They rekindled their sibling rivalry Oct. 21 in a 3-2 OT win for St. Louis. Both went minus-1 and neither tallied a point.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0011-02

Twigs ’n’ Tweets

<div class="byline">&#x2013; ADAM PROTEAU</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-04700/9529111-1-eng-US/f0011-042.jpg" title="f0011-04" width="247" height="286"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-05541/9529104-1-eng-US/f0011-052.jpg" title="f0011-05" width="630" height="214"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span> POTENTIALLY OMINOUS</b> harbinger of NHL labor strife is evident in the ongoing battle to decide the escrow rate players will pay for the 2010-11 season. The disagreement between the league and NHL Players&rsquo; Association is over what funds constitute hockey-related revenue, which will determine how much of a refund NHLers receive on the 12.4 percent of their salaries that were set aside last season. The union requested the grand majority of escrow that isn&rsquo;t in dispute be freed up to pay players (and contribute to the league&rsquo;s revenue-sharing plan), but the NHL rejected that request outright and the stalemate continues.</p><p>Interestingly, the NHL set the escrow rate for the first quarter of the current season at 8.5 percent, the lowest it&rsquo;s been in that span during current labor deal. Why? If there&rsquo;s a work stoppage next season, escrow refunds would be paid to players on the sidelines. Some observers believe the league would want that payment to be as minimal as possible.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0011-04

CBA WATCH

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012211/9529142-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>NO CHARGE</b></p><p><b>Jared Ross played for UAH before Philly, but now the NCAA team is done with Division 1.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(ROSS: LEN REDKOLES/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>L</span>et the record show</b> that the University of Alabama-Huntsville is not the least popular team in Division I college hockey. The Chargers aren&rsquo;t drawing well this season, but they&rsquo;re still ahead of schools such as Ohio State and UMass-Lowell, both of which play in major conferences. But as announced by interim president Malcolm Portera in late October, Alabama-Huntsville hockey will cease to be in Div. 1 after this season. The decision is a particularly bitter one to swallow for the Chargers, since they are the host school for this year&rsquo;s Frozen Four in Tampa Bay, but it&rsquo;s been a tough go for the only hockey school south of the Mason-Dixon Line lately. &ldquo;You have to be in a league to make it in college hockey,&rdquo; said UAH athletic director E.J. Brophy. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not in a league right now.</p><p>&rdquo;The Chargers have been on an island since 2009, when the College Hockey America conference broke up. Wayne State dropped its program in 2008, while Bemidji State joined the WCHA and Atlantic Hockey absorbed Niagara and Robert Morris two years later. Mass upheaval has hit the NCAA hockey world lately with the impending creation  of the Big Ten and NCHC conferences. With the CCHA losing the bulk of its programs to the two new leagues, it was thought Alabama-Huntsville would catch on, but the Chargers have made the same bid in the past. When Nebraska-Omaha jumped from the CCHA to the WCHA in 2010, it left the Midwestern conference with 11 teams, a poor number for scheduling. &ldquo;UAH applied and subsequently their membership was declined,&rdquo; said CCHA commissioner Fred Pletsch. &ldquo;It was a vote of the members.&rdquo;</p><p>Name recognition and geography never worked in the Chargers&rsquo; favor, though the latter hasn&rsquo;t been much of a factor in recent conference swaps. Notre Dame (Indiana) will be joining Hockey East in 2013-14, while Air Force (Colorado) has been a member of Atlantic Hockey since 2006-07.</p><p>And so it is that UAH departs the NCAA, leaving behind several Div. II titles and at least one NHL alumnus in Jared Ross, who played 13 games with the Philadelphia Flyers. The current Chargers will be able to join any college team that recruits them and won&rsquo;t have to wait the customary one year for a transfer.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0012-01

Rest In Peace, UAH

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><p class="dropcap"><span>G</span>o to a United States League game in Iowa and you&rsquo;ll feel the noise of America&rsquo;s heartland. Mostly because fans in Waterloo and Cedar Rapids are known for clanging cowbells in the stands in support of their teams. With the Dubuque Fighting Saints joining the Black Hawks and RoughRiders in the USHL last year, plans began rolling to maximize the rivalries in the Hawkeye State. This year, it was announced the three teams would vie for the Cowbell Cup. There&rsquo;s no actual chalice designed yet, but may we suggest something with Will Ferrell in a tight shirt?</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021734/9529180-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="241" height="76"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-031114/9529173-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="854" height="702"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(COWBELL: ELIOT J. SCHECHTER/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0012-02

More Cowbell

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RONNIE SHUKER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-04664/9529211-1-eng-US/f0012-042.jpg" title="f0012-04" width="523" height="525"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HULL SHIRT: COURTESY DAVE HASSETT)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>B</span>RETT HULL</b> loves being loathed in Sabreville. And more than 12 years after his 1999 Stanley Cup-winning goal, he&rsquo;s caused a stir in Buffalo again.</p><p>Hull recently posted a photo on his Twitter account of him, with a Cup replica, wearing a T-shirt that said &ldquo;Brett Hull is a Cheater.&rdquo; Then he tweeted this: &ldquo;New pic for all my friends in buffalo xoxo.&rdquo; Which, of course, just begged the question, &ldquo;Hey, Hull, where&rsquo;d ya get that shirt?&rdquo;</p><p>Well, apparently Brett got more than just his legendary shot from his father, Bobby.</p><p>According to Dave Hassett of Born in Buffalo, the company that makes the shirt, &lsquo;The Golden Jet&rsquo; got it for &lsquo;The Golden Brett&rsquo; in the summer of &rsquo;09. &ldquo;We get this email from a &lsquo;Bobby Hull,&rsquo; and I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;What a--hole put Bobby Hull?&rsquo;&rdquo; Hassett said. &ldquo;We get confirmation for the sale and it&rsquo;s to deliver to a Brett Hull at this house in Dallas. We open up Google Earth and sure enough we get an aerial view of this compound in Dallas. And I&rsquo;m like, oh my god! That&rsquo;s really got to be Brett Hull&rsquo;s house.&rdquo;</p><p>Hassett filled the order. Later that year, he received an order for 25 shirts from Brett. &ldquo;At that point I&rsquo;m thinking it&rsquo;s Brett Hull and 24 lawyers,&rdquo; he joked.</p><p>It was just Hull enjoying the irony, of course. The design remains the company&rsquo;s best seller. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy for Brett Hull to be the villain in Buffalo,&rdquo; Hasset said. &ldquo;I still hope to shake his hand sometime and say, &lsquo;That was one of the most painful nights of my life.&rsquo;&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0012-04

Tweet This

<div class="byline">&#x2013; BRIAN LIU</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>D</span>ucks fan</b> Jim Pull and his wife were at an NHL game in late 2010 when he noticed one of the players break his stick. Pull, who is disabled, immediately turned to his wife and said, &ldquo;That would make a great cane.</p><p>&rdquo;He obtained a few broken sticks from the Ducks and tried to model one after his own carbon-fiber cane. After tinkering with a few prototypes, Pull founded Canes-4-Vets, a non-profit organization that distributes hockey stick canes to amputee kids and veterans in the U.S. and Canada. &ldquo;My first thought was, &lsquo;ka-ching, I&rsquo;ll sell them to Canadians,&rsquo;&rdquo; Pull said. &ldquo;Then I spoke to the NHL and they said, if you do it retail, we want this, this, this and this&hellip;so I just decided to give them away to veterans and, of course, I can&rsquo;t say no to a kid.&rdquo;</p><p>To create a cane, Pull must first carve a wooden handle, then measure and adjust the shaft. Next, he applies epoxy and some paint. The entire process takes roughly a day and a half, though Pull can make five or six sticks simultaneously. Each hockey stick cane is custom-made to fit the recipient.</p><p>Pull only started distribu canes in earnest in April and had relied mostly on word of mouth and his website (<a href="http://canes4vets.org">canes4vets.org</a>) for publicity. He has also distributed canes through Veterans Affairs and Veterans of Foreign Wars groups.</p><p>Now he&rsquo;s getting help from the NHL community. The Los Angeles Kings recently committed to supplying Pull with broken sticks and agreed to feature Canes4Vets on the concourse during their Veterans Day game Nov. 12.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-012183/9529242-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="331" height="1580"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0014-01

Raising Canes

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MATT LARKIN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021638/9529280-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="789" height="498"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE FORT WAYNE KOMETS</b> may be named for a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle hurtling through the skies, but their presence has been anything but fleeting. The 2011-12 season marks just their second in the Central League, but their 60th in minor pro hockey. So what&rsquo;s six decades in Fort Wayne, Ind., worth?</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-031107/9529273-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="282" height="184"></div><p>Among NHL franchises, only the Original Six have played in one city longer and just two current minor pro teams &ndash; the AHL&rsquo;s Hershey Bears and Springfield Falcons (previously the Indians) &ndash; were founded before Fort Wayne. Twenty-seven minor leagues have folded since the Komets&rsquo; inception. And during the team&rsquo;s tenure, Fort Wayne has elected 11 different mayors.</p><p>After 60 years, 4,424 regular season games, eight championships, 25 logos and roughly 11 million tickets ripped, the Komets are going strong as ever.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0014-02

Fort Wayne ON THE Map ✪

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RORY BOYLEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-05517/9529318-1-eng-US/f0014-052.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04756/9529311-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="604" height="459"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SCOTT CUNNINGHAM/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>F</span>orward 1 (F1) starts just inside the opposition blueline and steers the play to one side of the ice. F2, F3 and D1 make a stand at the red line to slow the oncoming attack, cut off passing lanes and force the opposition to dump the puck in. F3 maintains his stand on the red line until the puck is dumped in, when he will move back to provide an outlet for the defenseman. D2 stays behind to hold the blueline and gets a head start to retrieve the dump-in. Most teams who use the 1-3-1 system employ it off neutral zone faceoff losses to prevent any fast attack &ndash; it&rsquo;s an efficient way to get the other team to give up the puck. With the second defenseman back &ldquo;cheating,&rdquo; he&rsquo;ll be on the dumped-in puck immediately to eliminate the second-half of the dump-and-chase tactic and will have an opportunity to move the puck back up the ice and out of the defensive zone.</p><p>FOR MORE DRILLS AND TIPS TO HELP YOUR GAME, CHECK OUT <b>PRO TIPS WITH DANIEL TKACZUK</b> AT <b><a href="http://THN.com">THN.COM</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0014-05

GOAL: STALL SPEED THROUGH NEUTRAL ZONE

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><p class="dropcap"><span>F</span>ROM SUPERSTARS, TO GOONS, TO LOUDMOUTHS, THE NHL&rsquo;S MOST DETESTED NAMES SUGGEST IT&rsquo;S THE GAME, NOT THE PLAYER, THAT CREATES THE CHARACTERS WE LOVE TO HATE</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011704/9529363-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="399" height="981"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/GETTY IMAGES FOR NHL)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>There are many reasons</b> why we hate Henrik Lundqvist. Foremost among them is the guy can&rsquo;t even lie very well. Ooh, that really bugs us. For example, Lundqvist is supposed to be a real bear on game days. Don&rsquo;t mess with him because he&rsquo;s so focused and intense. In fact, he doesn&rsquo;t even have much time for his lovely wife, Therese Andersson, Lundqvist&rsquo;s high school sweetheart whom he married over the summer. &ldquo;Sometimes I might come off as being rude,&rdquo; Lundqvist said. &ldquo;If you run into me on a game day, you might think I am not the nicest guy in the world.&rdquo;</p><p>That should have you shaking in your boots, right? That is, until you realize he politely and cooperatively answered those questions after a morning skate on a day when he was due to start in goal in a little more than seven hours. Please.</p><p>If you really want to be hated, be a 29-year-old goalie from Are, Sweden. It helps if you look like you&rsquo;ve been Photoshopped, with a swarthy complexion and one of those permanent two-day beards. Make an average of $6.9 million a year, have an Olympic gold medal around your neck, be one of the world&rsquo;s best-dressed professional athletes, play the friggin&rsquo; guitar and find your way into <i>People</i> magazine&rsquo;s list of the World&rsquo;s 100 Most Beautiful People. Be the NHL&rsquo;s best shootout goalie, look really good even when your hair is all messed up and remain essentially unaffected by it all.</p><p>(This is a guy who has it all, including three Honken Trophies, awarded annually to the best Swedish goalie. We mention that because we think it sounds funny. We also take an enormous amount of glee in the fact that Lundqvist hasn&rsquo;t won the Big Honkin&rsquo; Trophy yet.)</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011953/9529356-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="1043" height="1225"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>THE LATE SHOW</b></p><p><b>Henrik Lundqvist&rsquo;s greatest flaws? He can&rsquo;t cook and he&rsquo;s a &ldquo;time optimist.&rdquo;</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Yes, we hate you Henrik Lundqvist. Because we want to be you. And we can&rsquo;t.</p><p>Lundqvist&rsquo;s appeal is so broad that he is the subject of the Henrik Lundqvist Hockey Goalie God Blog, which describes him as &ldquo;sexy, stylish and damn talented.&rdquo; When you have this much disdain for a guy, you hope against hope the person running the blog is some overweight blue-seater from Madison Square Garden who never washes his Rangers sweater and lives in his mother&rsquo;s basement. Then you learn the webmaster is a 40-something woman by the name of Christine Breen and she works for a company that does search engine optimization for car dealer websites in the Midwest. Get this, she not only has never seen Lundqvist play, she has never even been to an NHL game and only became obsessed with all things Lundqvist because she watched him play in the 2010 Olympics.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I LIKE MY LIFE, I LIKE WHAT I DO. I FEEL VERY LUCKY TO BE ABLE TO PLAY HOCKEY IN NEW YORK</blockquote><p>When Breen started the blog, she did some digging for dirt on Lundqvist, but failed to locate any. What she did discover, though, was a legion of fans and a good number of people who were eager to read her blog and pass on any Lundqvist information they could find. One entry was a guide to stalking Lundqvist, complete with his address and pictures of his building in Manhattan, which she pulled down after a storm of protest. Nothing creepy about that. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got talent, he&rsquo;s got money, he&rsquo;s genuinely a great guy and he&rsquo;s drop-dead gorgeous,&rdquo; Breen said. &ldquo;Did the guy luck out or what?&rsquo;</p><p>Does he have his share of faults? Of course he does. He says he has a whole bunch of them. Then, like a guy who doesn&rsquo;t have any, he asks you where you want him to start. By his own admission, he&rsquo;s a terrible cook and he refers to himself as a time optimist. That and the whole being entirely surly and unapproachable on the day of a game pretty much covers it. &ldquo;Saying I&rsquo;m a time optimist sounds better than saying I&rsquo;m always late,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>And then there&rsquo;s that cockiness, that swagger that is generally shared by all Swedes, who are more impressed with themselves than any other nation on Earth. (Actually, the opposite is true.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-021304/9529349-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="1731" height="1330"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HONKEN HIS OWN HORN</b></p><p><b>Lundqvist&rsquo;s accolades include three Honken Trophies as Sweden&rsquo;s top netminder.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>If you&rsquo;ve ever met a Swede who is truly a bad, self-absorbed person, bring him or her by our office sometime because he or she obviously doesn&rsquo;t play hockey.)</p><p>&ldquo;I like my life, I like what I do,&rdquo; Lundqvist said. &ldquo;I feel very lucky to be able to play hockey in New York. When I look back on my career, there are certain points where your ability helped you, but you also have some luck along the way. I&rsquo;m very grateful that I got the chance to play here.&rdquo;</p><p>See what we mean? Going on and on about his ability. He talks about it like he worked his way up from being a 205th overall draft pick and proved everybody wrong or something. Well, anytime he wants to take that act back home is fine with us. And while he&rsquo;s at it, he can take fellow braggadocios like the Sedin twins and Daniel Alfredsson with him.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0017-01

GOT IT ALL

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011832/9529401-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>WORKING THE CROWD</b></p><p><b>Frequent fighter Kevin Westgarth is fine with feeling the wrath of opposing fans.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF GROSS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>K</span>evin Westgarth</b> may be a goon, but he&rsquo;s no dummy. Princeton-educated, the Los Angeles Kings right winger is very forthright when it comes to the subtleties of making a living as an NHL enforcer. In fact, he&rsquo;s downright philosophical when it comes to the mentoring he gets from older fighters in the game. &ldquo;You pick guys who you respect and who play the game right,&rdquo; Westgarth said. &ldquo;Some of the guys I look up to, I have to punch in the face &ndash; or get punched in the face by.&rdquo;</p><p>His peers include George Parros, a fellow Princeton alum who happens to hold down the policeman&rsquo;s job with the archrival Anaheim Ducks. Westgarth and Parros actually live in the same neighborhood and are friends in the off-season, but both know what their job is on the ice when the Kings and Ducks renew their toxic acquaintances. Over the years, Westgarth has also talked shop with legendary enforcers such as Marty McSorley and Stu Grimson. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a huge advantage to talk to coaches and other players who have gone through it,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>There is a fraternity of fighters in the NHL and it&rsquo;s been active for decades. The toughest job in the sport attracts a certain kind of guy and there&rsquo;s a mutual respect that goes with knucklechucking. Bob Probert was one of the most famous fighters of all-time and as fearsome as he was in the rink, he&rsquo;d swap stories with his fellow pugilists after the game, back in the days when teams didn&rsquo;t have charter flights to whisk them out of town right away. &ldquo;I remember fighting Bob McGill one night, then seeing him at the bar after the game,&rdquo; said Probert, before he passed away in 2010. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not even brought up. There was a code that you left it all on the ice.&rdquo;</p><p>The bulk of Westgarth&rsquo;s job is to project an image, he notes. And that image changes depending on who&rsquo;s on the ice. &ldquo;It varies with different guys,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t go up to Nicklas Lidstrom and tell him to keep his head up because he&rsquo;s gone over the line.&rdquo;</p><p>Indeed, Lidstrom&rsquo;s not much of a line-crosser to begin with, which is why he&rsquo;s one of the most respected players in the league. Lesser personalities should be aware of Westgarth&rsquo;s wrath, however. And if the target isn&rsquo;t in the same weight class, that&rsquo;s not Westgarth&rsquo;s problem: He goes right to the source of his anger when he believes a teammate has been trifled with. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the one who has to be dealt with,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If their enforcer doesn&rsquo;t feel that guy should fight, then he has to step up. A big part of my job is to keep the other team on its toes.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021372/9529394-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="605" height="414"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>ZENON KONOPKA</b> <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>There is a moral calculus to raising a ruckus, alas. Though the oft-maligned instigator penalty is undercalled in the NHL, Westgarth knows there&rsquo;s a time to drop the gloves and a time to bite your tongue. &ldquo;Inevitably, it&rsquo;s a delicate balancing act,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Judging what is good hockey and whether I should be putting my team down two minutes at that point of the game.&rdquo;</p><p>Not surprisingly, pummelling opponents raises the ire of fans of another color, but Westgarth takes it in stride. &ldquo;They want to get their licks in,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I get a lot of &lsquo;you suck!&rsquo; But generally there is still an appreciation for what we do out there. Sometimes you get the thumbs-up, sometimes you&rsquo;re the devil.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">SOME OF THE GUYS I LOOK UP TO, I HAVE TO PUNCH IN THE FACE &ndash; OR GET PUNCHED IN THE FACE BY</blockquote><p>Westgarth points to Philadelphia fans as some of the best in the league. Even though the Flyers faithful will say &ldquo;sometimes unscrupulous things,&rdquo; during games, they turn into knowledgeable well-wishers once the buzzer sounds.</p><p>The classic one-dimensional enforcer has been tough to find early on in the 2011-12 season. A quick look at the NHL fight leaders had Zenon Konopka on top, but the Senators scrapper is also an ace in the faceoff circle. Other five-minute-major leaders have tended to be energy players who take a regular shift.</p><p>Still, the circle of policemen is tight-knit. &ldquo;In some ways, I have more in common with the other enforcers than I do with my own teammates,&rdquo; Westgarth said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m never going to score 40 or 50 goals, like Anze Kopitar.&rdquo;</p><p>But he will make sure no one messes with the Slovenian while he&rsquo;s putting up those tallies.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0018-01

GOON

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011620/9529432-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="635" height="871"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(KALETA: ANDY MARLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>Y</span>ouTube highlights</b> generally come in two categories for hockey: impressive and infamous. Type in Patrick Kaleta&rsquo;s name and you&rsquo;ll find more of the latter.</p><p>Elbows, high hits, opening the door so teammate Cody McCormick can push Philly&rsquo;s Nikolay Zherdev into the Buffalo bench &ndash; sometimes the right winger is the perp, sometimes he&rsquo;s the victim. But it&rsquo;s fair to say everyone in the league knows who he is and what he brings. &ldquo;First off,&rdquo; Kaleta said, &ldquo;if you&rsquo;re playing hard and every shift you&rsquo;re giving it all you&rsquo;ve got, you&rsquo;re going to get under the other team&rsquo;s skin.&rdquo;</p><p>A hometown boy for the Sabres, Kaleta admits he wasn&rsquo;t blessed with a boatload of skill, so he substitutes hard work for a lack of natural talent. The locals love him, even if the fans of other teams loathe him. Kaleta said he just tunes those folks out. &ldquo;The only thing I look at is that I play for my teammates,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And I give them everything I&rsquo;ve got.&rdquo;</p><p>Funny enough, sometimes he even gives his teammates more than they can handle. Years ago as a rookie in Sabres training camp, Kaleta was doing his thing, running around and hitting, when he cut open star left winger Thomas Vanek. This summer, just before the Sabres left for Europe, it was Kaleta handling the puck when Vanek roared in. &ldquo;He laid me out,&rdquo; Kaleta said. &ldquo;I guess we&rsquo;re even now.&rdquo;</p><p>With Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Matt Cooke vowing to clean up his act this season (and with seven points and just four PIM through 11 games, he&rsquo;s doing a pretty good job) the title for dirtiest player in the NHL is up for grabs. Most in the league just hope it&rsquo;s one of their teammates and not an opponent who picks it up.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0019-01

MENACE

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011584/9529463-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HATE FOR &lsquo;HITCH&rsquo;</b></p><p><b>Ken Hitchcock coached to be respected rather than loved by his players.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>K</span>en Hitchcock maintains</b> there are no hardass coaches in hockey. &ldquo;Demanding&rdquo; is a better term for him. &ldquo;Except for Mike Keenan,&rdquo; Hitchcock said, in a case of takes-one-to-know-one. &ldquo;Maybe he was a hardass.&rdquo;</p><p>Hall of Famer Brett Hull had his moments with both Hitchcock and Keenan, guys who weren&rsquo;t warm and fuzzy when dealing with their players. Hull and Hitchcock butted heads constantly. After continually preaching to his players to dump the puck in deep, Hitchcock watched one practice as Hull did it on a breakaway drill. If Hitchcock drove Hull to distraction with his attention to detail and inability to let up, it was strictly a personality clash with Keenan. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always said &ndash; and (Keenan) admits it &ndash; away from the game, he&rsquo;s a hell of a guy,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;But as soon as he gets inside an arena as a coach, there&rsquo;s something inside that happens to him that he can&rsquo;t control.&rdquo;</p><p>Keenan might go down as the most despised coach in the history of the game, though he&rsquo;d have his share of company with the likes of Jack Adams, Punch Imlach and Scotty Bowman. Keenan had to take on that persona because he came into the hockey fraternity as an outsider, not having played at the pro level. He didn&rsquo;t have that common bond with the players and had to gain respect. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t handle the way he treated people,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;The way he&rsquo;d pick people out and they were getting traded, making examples of them. It was never his fault.&rdquo;</p><p>Hitchcock had the same problem with credibility. He maintains it never bothered him when he and a player were at loggerheads, but losing credibility for him was a lethal blow. &ldquo;The challenge for anybody who hasn&rsquo;t played the game is the information you give between periods and post-game,&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;If the team plays a period and you come in and give them information and that information is right, then you&rsquo;ve earned their respect. If the information isn&rsquo;t even close, then you lose respect. Deep down, every coach wants to be liked, but more importantly, you want to be respected.&rdquo;</p><p>There are so many dynamics to the coach-player relationship because a coach has to know how to get the most out of a grab bag of personalities. At the same time, Hitchcock said you don&rsquo;t want to show you&rsquo;re afraid of the players and you want to make players accountable. That sometimes prompted him to be more confrontational with a player and that can often cause hard feelings. &ldquo;Have I got into arguments with players?&rdquo; Hitchcock said. &ldquo;Sure I have. Lots of times. There have been players who didn&rsquo;t like the message and probably didn&rsquo;t like the messenger, but nobody likes to hear criticism.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0020-01

HARDASS

<div class="byline">BY RORY BOYLEN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-021145/9529494-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="623" height="1182"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>JASON SPEZZA</b> <span class="photo-credit">(JANA CHYTILOVA/FREESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>here are different</b> degrees of &ldquo;soft&rdquo; in the NHL &ndash; and at all levels of hockey for that matter. Is Daniel Sedin soft because he didn&rsquo;t return Brad Marchand&rsquo;s punches in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final, or was he smart for sticking to his role? &ldquo;Skill players are often called soft because they play the game a certain way,&rdquo; said 1997 sixth overall pick Daniel Tkaczuk. &ldquo;Jason Spezza is seen as soft, but he&rsquo;s a point-per-game player, so what does that mean?&rdquo;</p><p>Is playing the game with reckless abandon mandatory if you&rsquo;re able to be that influential on the scoresheet? It sure is if you don&rsquo;t want to be labelled as soft and hated for it. But despite the implied characterization of soft players as lacking passion, they can be pushed by their teammates to improve in this area. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want to be seen as that type of player,&rdquo; Tkaczuk said. &ldquo;So there&rsquo;s motivation.&rdquo;</p><p>The definition of a soft player is fluid. One from the 1970s could stand up well to competition in 2011 because the standards have been altered so dramatically. &ldquo;&lsquo;Soft&rsquo; has changed from generation to generation,&rdquo; Tkaczuk said. &ldquo;When I was coming up, if you got your bell rung you just played through it. Today we&rsquo;re more cognizant of concussions and careful with consequences.&rdquo;</p><p>These types of players are generally hated because of the perceived notion they don&rsquo;t give it their all, despite how imposing they are in other key aspects of the game.</p><p>It&rsquo;s a tough label to shake, too, and one that tends to linger for a lifetime.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0020-02

SOFT

<div class="byline">BY ADAM PROTEAU</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>n infamous video</b> once made the rounds on the Internet of NHL greats Bryan Trottier and Kevin Stevens verbally dressing down then-Minnesota star Brian Bellows with a barrage of insults and slurs. It&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s gone on since the league was founded &ndash; and these days, it&rsquo;s more commonly known as &ldquo;chirping.&rdquo;</p><p>As with any part of the game, some guys are better at verbal assaults than others. The best chirpers inevitably find themselves hated, certainly by fans, and also by opponents. But they don&rsquo;t take it to heart. In fact, elite trash-talkers embrace the role of villain as well as anyone. &ldquo;I love being hated,&rdquo; said Dallas Stars left winger Steve Ott, one of the game&rsquo;s premier agitators. &ldquo;If other people are yelling at me &ndash; fans or opponents &ndash; that gets me going because I know I&rsquo;ve got them.&rdquo;</p><p>In the grand tradition of top-shelf shift disturbers, Ott researches opponents, makes the other team&rsquo;s most talented guys his main targets, and will go to extremes &ndash; including using a few words from a foreign language on non-North American players &ndash; to make his words cut as deeply as possible.</p><p>Former NHLer Matthew Barnaby also didn&rsquo;t much care what he had to say to make someone on the other team lose his marbles and take an emotional penalty. Talking about a player&rsquo;s children was out of bounds for him, but girlfriends, wives and money problems were fair game. And whenever a player was traded to his team, Barnaby would try to quiz the newcomer on his former teammates&rsquo; on-and-office weaknesses to give himself more yapping material for the next time the two teams met.</p><p>For the most part, Barnaby said, the most skilled players, who were usually the ones he wanted in his crosshairs, had the best discipline in terms of not reacting to his barbs. That&rsquo;s because they had been razzed from their earliest developmental days and usually answered back with a standard &ldquo;what are you doing on the ice at the same time as me?&rdquo; line.</p><p>But for him, there were exceptions to that rule. Big, brawny, exceptions that wore No. 88. &ldquo;Eric Lindros was easy to rattle,&rdquo; said Barnaby who, over a 13-year NHL career, encountered Lindros often. &ldquo;Sometimes I&rsquo;d ask my teammates before the game how long it&rsquo;d take before he slashes me. The over/under would be one or two shifts. And (former NHL enforcer) Chris Simon was another one &ndash; he would always retaliate, but he&rsquo;d also have some great one-liner comebacks that would stop you in your tracks.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011473/9529532-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="523" height="688"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(OTT: GERRY THOMAS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">I RELISHED KNOWING I&rsquo;D GET A DEATH THREAT OR SOMETHING THROWN AT ME<br>&ndash; MATTHEW BARNABY</blockquote><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-021084/9529525-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="1125" height="1327"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ACID TONGUE</b></p><p><b>For elite trash-talkers such as Steve Ott, messing with rivals&rsquo; minds requires research.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(BARNABY: BRAD WHITE/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>That raises another point &ndash; the best talkers eventually become a target of chirps themselves. As such, they require a thick skin and wisecracks specifically crafted to shut up the other yapper. &ldquo;An up-and-comer like (Derek) Dorsett in Columbus, for instance,&rdquo; Ott said, &ldquo;I challenge them by saying, &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t play my game &ndash; let me show you how it&rsquo;s done.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>Some believe there&rsquo;s a mental toll that comes with being the designated bad guy on the ice. But when Barnaby and Ott see outbursts of hate from fans and opposing players, their hearts &ndash; OK, their alleged hearts &ndash; fill with joy. They know people need a black hat to focus their anger on, and that it&rsquo;s all part of the modern-day entertainment package. &ldquo;My favorite building to play in was in Philadelphia,&rdquo; Barnaby said, &ldquo;because the fans are so passionate and I relished knowing I&rsquo;d get either a death threat or something thrown at me. As much as it&rsquo;s a game and it&rsquo;s competitive, it&rsquo;s also a show.&rdquo;</p><p>Whereas Barnaby had Lindros as a natural rival, Ott has Calgary captain Jarome Iginla &ndash; a bona fide star whom he can&rsquo;t bruise or verbally bash into shrinking away from the competitive areas on the ice. Because of that, his respect for Iginla rises each time they clash. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the prototypical skill guy who&rsquo;s a complete player,&rdquo; Ott said. &ldquo;When I challenge him to go hard, he always does. That&rsquo;s fun. He&rsquo;s an extremely important player to his team and I want to be extremely important to mine.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0022-01

CHIRPER

<div class="byline">BY ADAM PROTEAU</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011416/9529563-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BUCKING THE TREND</b></p><p><b>Cal Clutterbuck gets under his opponents&rsquo; skin with his hits, not his fists.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE KLUCKHOHN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>here is no explicit</b> NHL rule regarding the necessity of putting your meat hooks where your mouth is, but there may as well be. &ldquo;The Code&rdquo; clearly expects NHLers to, when challenged, drop their gloves and punch each other to the best of their ability.</p><p>Unfortunately for strict Code fundamentalists, there always are players who don&rsquo;t interpret its tenets the same as everyone else does. In this case, some players don&rsquo;t see their on-ice rights and responsibilities as always entailing a bout of fisticuffs after a stretch of physically robust play.</p><p>In other words, there are NHLers who play with an edge, but don&rsquo;t use fighting as a habitual answer for it.</p><p>Examples of such a player in recent NHL history are retired winger Claude Lemieux, as well as his former New Jersey teammate Bobby Holik, who at 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds had the physical tools to fight, but never the inclination. Holik understood if he fought as much as some wanted him to, he could be pigeonholed as a goon. He felt he was much more than that. More importantly, he didn&rsquo;t feel the need to play into an opponent&rsquo;s game plan. &ldquo;Every player like a Tie Domi wanted to fight me because I would play against the other team&rsquo;s top players and make their life miserable,&rdquo; said Holik, who retired in 2009 and now lives on a ranch in Wyoming. &ldquo;To me, those guys were the best at what they do, but they couldn&rsquo;t play my game and I didn&rsquo;t want to play their game. That drove them even crazier, because I had the discipline not to get involved in their game.&rdquo;</p><p>Minnesota&rsquo;s Cal Clutterbuck isn&rsquo;t the exact same type of player Holik was, but he and Vancouver&rsquo;s Alex Burrows are the best examples of a mucker-but-not-a-fighter type in today&rsquo;s game. Like Holik, Clutterbuck has occasionally dropped the gloves during his career, but the left winger is smart enough to know what he can do &ndash; in particular, playing a physical game that has helped him lead the NHL in hits in each of the past three seasons &ndash; and what he can&rsquo;t. &ldquo;Cal is great at getting players off their game, &ldquo;said Wild radio analyst and former NHLer Tom Reid. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very physical player, someone who&rsquo;ll get into your head &ndash; that&rsquo;s what he takes pride in. He doesn&rsquo;t relish fighting at all.&rdquo;</p><p>The likes of Clutterbuck and Holik flourish because of an innate steeliness that helps them focus on their strengths and avoid emotional, bad decisions. &ldquo;When you came into the league, the first thing they&rsquo;d call you was an &lsquo;effing commie&rsquo; &ndash; for years,&rdquo; Holik said. &ldquo;But one of my biggest strengths was my mental toughness. I could take just about anything. I didn&rsquo;t grow up dreaming about fighting. I grew up dreaming about making plays to win championships.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0024-01

WON’T FIGHT

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-021016/9529594-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="674" height="1146"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>LARRY MURPHY</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>hose who play</b> in the NHL are the best players in the world. But even the best can have tough days at the office. Just ask Steve Smith after his own-goal sunk the Oilers in Game 7 against the Calgary Flames of the &rsquo;86 playoffs. Others have longer stretches of roughness and fans can be unforgiving.</p><p>After defenseman Larry Murphy left the Capitals, his returns to Washington &ndash; particularly as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins &ndash; were marked by locals fans emitting a loud <i>whoop</i> sound every time he touched the puck. &ldquo;Some believed it was &lsquo;wuss,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Mike Rucki, a Caps blogger from On Frozen Blog. &ldquo;But it was more like &lsquo;oops, you weren&rsquo;t playing so well.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>Generally, shedding the goat horns in a city can only be done with the passage of time, or sometimes retirement. In Washington, fans eventually turned their attention to another former Cap-turned-Penguin, Sergei Gonchar. A gaffe in the 2001 playoffs saw Martin Straka blow by the blueliner for the series-winning goal and Washington fans renewed their whoop chant when Gonchar returned with Pittsburgh for years afterward.</p><p>Murphy was once again scapegoated in Toronto, when more was expected out of his time as a Maple Leaf. Once he left for Detroit in 1997, the Toronto faithful moved on to other blueliners such as Aki Berg and Bryan McCabe. As for Murphy, he won a Stanley Cup with the Red Wings and is now in the Hall of Fame, so he&rsquo;s had plenty of reasons to whoop it up since Washington.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0024-02

SCAPEGOAT

<div class="byline">BY ADAM PROTEAU</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>o be considered</b> a hot dog in the hockey world is not nearly the same as being, say, Chad Ocho-something-or-other in the NFL or mixed martial artist and egomaniac Quinton &lsquo;Rampage&rsquo; Jackson. Sometimes all it takes for an NHLer to be stuck with the label is an overly pronounced celebratory gesture &ndash; in other words, too much pump in the pumpernickel &ndash; or a post-game interview that included too many references to himself.</p><p>Fairly or not, there are players in each hockey generation who acquire the hotdog label and have a tough time shaking it. Currently, you&rsquo;re talking about emotionally demonstrative Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin and Montreal&rsquo;s exuberant blueliner P.K. Subban. &ldquo;The thing with Subban is people believe his celebrating is more about the fans cheering him than his team,&rdquo; said one former NHLer. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with celebrating a goal or a big moment, but there&rsquo;s a subtle difference &ndash; and all players are acutely aware of that difference.&rdquo;</p><p>In a sport like hockey, where players are taught from their earliest years to subjugate their individualism in the name of the collective unit, even the slightest sense of distraction from team goals can be interpreted as selfishness. A player&rsquo;s agent or family can cause him grief in that regard if they&rsquo;re overly or publicly vocal, as can behind-the-scenes complaining over ice time or linemates.</p><p>But there also is the sense in the hockey community that the idea of what it means to be a hot-dog is evolving. That&rsquo;s because players, coaches and management are beginning to understand the need to market the game through vibrant personalities and thrilling gameplay the way other leagues do. As a result, the sport&rsquo;s establishment is slowly demonstrating more acceptance of players who aren&rsquo;t emotionless robots unwilling to so much as smile after scoring. &ldquo;Listen, we&rsquo;re in the entertainment business in the NHL,&rdquo; said former superstar Jeremy Roenick, who had the hot-dog tag attached to his name a few times. &ldquo;Fans want to know who players are. They want players to show happiness when they do something well. We can&rsquo;t be attacking guys for showing fans that it&rsquo;s fun to play hockey. I think we need more of that.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-011255/9529625-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="815" height="1747"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>ALEX OVECHKIN</b> <span class="photo-credit">(CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0025-01

HOT DOG

<div class="byline">BY ADAM PROTEAU</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011430/9529656-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>LETTING LOOSE</b></p><p><b>Chris Pronger has never been shy about voicing his opinion to the media.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(LEN REDKOLES/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>t doesn&rsquo;t take much</b> for a player to be considered mouthy or opinionated. The NHL establishment has an abject fear of any player, coach or GM talkative enough to create bulletin board material for the opposition, which is why most players take refuge from inquiring reporters behind a shield of clich&eacute;s.</p><p>So NHLers who do say something of value stick out like sore thumbs. Outspoken players are a genuine rarity and usually attract an inordinate amount of hate for their candid approach. Philadelphia has two of the league&rsquo;s most opinionated players &ndash; right winger Jaromir Jagr and captain Chris Pronger &ndash; which only adds to the Flyers&rsquo; loathsome-worthiness in the minds of some fans and the odd player or two. &ldquo;That physical style the (Flyers play) makes it easy to dislike them,&rdquo; said one NHLer who spoke on condition of anonymity. &ldquo;Then when you see what Pronger or Jagr might say, it makes you feel like they&rsquo;re even cockier than they are on the ice, so you dislike them more for it.&rdquo;</p><p>Two of the most famously outspoken players in league history are recently retired superstars and close friends Jeremy Roenick and Brett Hull. Like Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux (whose rants about the shabby state of the game in the 1990s were prophetic), Hull and Roenick were resented in many circles for their willingness to be frank, but because they had the talent to back up their words, nobody demanded they put a cork in it.</p><p>However, although they were honest about the state of the game or officiating, they knew better than to publicly air out their team&rsquo;s internal dirty laundry. Still, there were teammates and management members who thought any outspoken behavior was too much. &ldquo;I had teammates who got sick and tired of listening to me, no question,&rdquo; said Roenick, who parlayed his ease with reporters into TV and radio analyst jobs since retiring in &rsquo;09. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure along the way they were like, &lsquo;enough.&rsquo; I had people who thought I did it just to get attention, but I never needed the attention &ndash; my play on the ice got me enough attention.&rdquo;</p><p>Added Hull: &ldquo;If they didn&rsquo;t like what I said, people would never say it to me, which I thought was always cowardly. I was taught that, if you believe in something, speak it. It&rsquo;s worse to sit and say nothing than it is to speak up. You don&rsquo;t want to hurt anybody, but you have to let people know how you feel.&rdquo;</p><p>If being outspoken earned Roenick and Hull the enmity of fans, that didn&rsquo;t translate off the ice, where both are among the most gregarious, engaging athletes you&rsquo;ll meet. Why? Because they&rsquo;re comfortable in their own skin, as they&rsquo;ve been since their first NHL games.</p><p>&ldquo;Hully and I don&rsquo;t give a s---what people think of us, &ldquo;Roenick said. &ldquo;We really don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0026-01

OPINIONATED

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-021027/9529687-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>ALEXEI KOVALEV</b> <span class="photo-credit">(MARK D. PHILLIPS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>ayne Gretzky</b> once said Alexei Kovalev was one of the most purely talented players he had ever seen. Soft hands, great shot, an ability to handle the puck gracefully &ndash; Kovalev had all the physical gifts. But if there is any historical poster boy for the lazy player, it&rsquo;s Kovalev. In fact, he&rsquo;s one of those rare players who is reviled more by the fans who cheer for him than those who cheer against him.</p><p>But how accurate is that, really? Ask anyone who has ever played in the NHL and they&rsquo;ll tell you there&rsquo;s no way you play 1,302 games in the best league in the world by being lazy. You certainly don&rsquo;t score that many points (1,024) playing on the periphery and you don&rsquo;t earn the respect of your teammates by being a malingerer. And, say what you want about Kovalev, his teammates liked having him around.</p><p>Did Kovalev have his moments? Of course he did. But players are gifted in different areas and people naturally get confused when they see many of them in a player who sometimes looks indifferent. &ldquo;For Alexei, it was like his talent was his worst enemy almost,&rdquo; said Hockey Night in Canada analyst Glenn Healy, who played with Kovalev on the Rangers. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard when you see that kind of greatness because you want to see it every game.&rdquo;</p><p>Kovalev is now with Moscow Oblast Atlant of the Kontinental League. After making his millions in the NHL, Kovalev will fade off and the Hall of Fame will not call his name. Too bad, because he had the talent to get there.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0026-02

LAZY

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02992/9529718-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>NO TIME TO RE-TORT</b></p><p><b>John Tortorella&rsquo;s 16-second presser epitomized how not to handle the media.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHILLIP MACCALLUM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011410/9529725-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="206" height="245"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>Y</span>ears ago,</b> former NHL chief disciplinarian Colin Campbell famously said, &ldquo;The NHL sells hate.&rdquo; Whether that&rsquo;s a savvy marketing plan or not, there&rsquo;s no doubt the pro hockey experience is marked by stretches of love and loathing. Here are the three hockey-related things I hate:</p><h2><b>1. SENSORY-OVERLOAD</b></h2><p>I&rsquo;m old enough to remember the days when going to an NHL game didn&rsquo;t mean having your ears caved in by a relentless, overwhelming attack of color and sound. But those days are long-gone, replaced by the bland, predictable, cookie-cutter, modern-day in-arena experience. And fans are much poorer for it.</p><p>Think about it &ndash; when was the last time you attended a game that didn&rsquo;t feature a kiss cam, rock music blasted at obscene volumes, a player/celebrity urging the crowd to make noise or some phony planted couple in the crowd paid to fake a marriage proposal gone wrong? I honestly can&rsquo;t remember, but I can recall what it meant to hear basically nothing but organ music during intermissions or stoppages in play at Maple Leaf Gardens.</p><p>Having a modicum of downtime gave me time to use my imagination &ndash; remember that thing? &ndash; to create and cultivate tension as it pertained to the two teams on the ice. If NHL teams realized that and stopped force-feeding their customers a steady stream of ponderous corporate drivel, the in-arena experience would drastically improve.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">PRE-SEASON GAMES ARE A DOG&rsquo;S BREAKFAST</blockquote><h2><b>2. MEDIA-UNFRIENDLY PLAYERS/COACHES/GMS</b></h2><p>Prominent NHL types don&rsquo;t need an expert understanding of the role of reporters, nor do they need to make a priority of their dealings with the press. But there&rsquo;s a difference between lack of understanding and active hatred for the people with notepads, cameras and microphones.</p><p>That appears to be the affliction that&rsquo;s befallen New York Rangers coach John Tortorella, who set a land-speed record for media disrespect in late October with a 16-second post-game press &ldquo;conference&rdquo; after a Blueshirts loss. Sure, Tortorella tossed out one gem (&ldquo;We sucked from head to toe&rdquo;) before taking his leave, but he didn&rsquo;t answer a single question. His attitude might bother me less if Tortorella hadn&rsquo;t leaped at the chance to become a media member when he was between coaching jobs, but he didn&rsquo;t seem to have a problem with the business back then.</p><p>Similarly, Capitals GM George McPhee harrumphed out a comment during last season&rsquo;s HBO 24/7 series along the lines of, &ldquo;if the media knew anything about the game, they&rsquo;d be in it.&rdquo; I almost burst out laughing when I first saw it, because it illustrated perfectly the erroneous notion reporters aspire to be employed by an NHL team.</p><p>For me, little could be further from the truth. The function of reporters is not to be sycophantic transcription artists, but rather to hold up a mirror to what they observe and to act in a manner that makes those they cover accountable for their words and deeds. The sooner crusty NHL types realize that, the better for all of us.</p><h2><b>3.THE INTERMINABLE PRE-SEASON</b></h2><p>The Toronto Maple Leafs played eight pre-season games this fall. The year before, they played nine games. That&rsquo;s basically 10 percent of a full regular season spent on games that don&rsquo;t matter to anyone but team owners who pocket all the proceeds.</p><p>Even worse, the games never feature the full lineup of NHL-caliber talent. Instead, you get a dog&rsquo;s breakfast of minor league or junior-bound players, veterans going nowhere in their last days of a tryout contract and bona fide-but-disinterested NHLers who no longer need an extended training camp to be in peak physical condition.</p><p>Despite that undeniable reality, many teams still charge regular season prices for these shams of games &ndash; in some cases, giving hockey fans no choice but to purchase them as part of their season-ticket package &ndash; and expect people to be happy about it.</p><p>But the most brutal effect of the dragged-out pre-season is the way it pushes the playoffs deeper into June. By radically shortening the warmup period and beginning games in September, the NHL would finish its yearly life cycle sooner and allow everyone involved to take more of a summertime breather. That can&rsquo;t help but benefit the game.</p><p>WANT MORE PROTEAU? READ HIS EXCLUSIVE WEB COLUMN THURSDAYS AT <b><a href="http://THN.COM/PROTEAU">THN.COM/PROTEAU</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0028-02

SILENCE, RESPECT ARE GOLDEN

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-011244/9529777-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="408" height="459"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(LEMIEUX: RICK STEWART/ALLSPORT)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>1. CLAUDE LEMIEUX</b>&nbsp;<b>(1984-2003, 1,197 GP, 1,756 PIM)</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>H</span>e was the ultimate do-whatever-it-takes-to-win player, using his stick to score and slash as well as his mouth to annoy and, on one occasion, bite. In the &rsquo;96 Western Conference final, he crushed Kris Draper from behind into the boards, breaking Draper&rsquo;s jaw, nose and cheekbone and requiring reconstructive surgery on his face.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03612/9529770-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="407" height="453"></div><h2><b>2. SPRAGUE CLEGHORN</b>&nbsp;<b>(1918-1928, 251 GP, 489 PIM)</b></h2><p>Cleghorn was hockey&rsquo;s first policeman. A master of the butt end, he didn&rsquo;t think twice about taking the law into his own hands. But the law caught up with him in 1923, when after bopping Ottawa&rsquo;s Lionel Hitchman in the head with his stick, Cleghorn was charged with aggravated assault, found guilty and fined $50.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02855/9529763-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="404" height="413"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CLEGHORN+LINSEMAN: BRUCE BENNETT STUDIOS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>3. KEN LINSEMAN</b>&nbsp;<b>(1978-91, 860 GP, 1,727 PIM)</b></h2><p>Linseman was dubbed &lsquo;The Rat&rsquo; by teammate Bob Clarke for his on-ice demeanor and appearance. He was the ultimate agitator and stickman who inherently knew how to get under the skin of his rivals. He was also an effective player who had a knack for scoring big goals in the playoffs.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04460/9529756-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="402" height="406"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(REARDON: HHOF IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>4. KENNY REARDON</b>&nbsp;<b>(1940-50, 341 GP, 604 PIM)</b></h2><p>Reardon was consumed with winning and played on the Habs blueline as if his feet were on fire. He was reckless and fearless &ndash; much-loved for it in Montreal and much-despised around the rest of the league. In New York, fans went as far as to form a &ldquo;Hate Kenny Reardon&rdquo; club.</p><h2><b>5. ULF SAMUELSSON (1984-2000, 1,080 GP, 2,453 PIM)</b></h2><p>Samuelsson was a fearless hitter and supreme agitator who played the game on the edge. His knee-on-thigh check that hastened the retirement of Cam Neely made the Swede public enemy No. 1 in Beantown.</p><h2><b>6. SEAN AVERY (2001-PRESENT, 565 GP, 1,512 PIM)</b></h2><p>Avery makes the list for his mouth and on-ice actions, but mostly his mouth. He was selected as the most hated player in the NHL by his peers in a league-wide survey conducted by The Hockey News in 2007.</p><h2><b>7. EDDIE SHORE (1926-1940, 553 GP, 1,037 PIM)</b></h2><p>Shore, a four-time Hart Trophy winner, was a tough-as-nails defenseman who nearly killed Toronto&rsquo;s Ace Bailey during a collision.</p><h2><b>8. BILLY SMITH (1971-1989, 680 GP)</b></h2><p>Smith wielded his substantial goal stick at opposition players in the Islanders&rsquo; crease at times as if it were a machete.</p><h2><b>9. DALE HUNTER (1980-99, 1,407 GP, 3,565 PIM)</b></h2><p>The scrappy Hunter makes the list not for his plethora of penalty minutes, but primarily for his cheap shot on an unsuspecting Pierre Turgeon as the Islanders center was celebrating a game-winning playoff goal.</p><h2><b>10. BRYAN MARCHMENT (1989-2006, 926 GP, 2,307 PIM)</b></h2><p>Marchment was dubbed the &lsquo;Mid-Ice Madman&rsquo; for his submarine-style hip checks that often resulted in knee-on-knee collisions. The kamikaze blueliner was suspended 12 times by the NHL.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0029-01

TOP 10 ALL-TIME HATED PLAYERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02975/9529857-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="529" height="184"></div><h2><b>ATTENDANCE</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011420/9529864-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="180" height="204"></div><p>2011-12 (average) 16,638</p><p>2010-11 (average) 17,122</p><p>2011-12 (WPG. average) 15,004</p><p>2010-11 (ATL. average) 13,469</p><h2><b>ROSTER TURNOVER</b></h2><p>Change is part of life in the NHL. Every season, players depart or are ditched by their teams while others are brought in to replace them. This season, there&rsquo;s no shortage of fresh faces, though a few recent Cup winners dressed just one each on opening night.</p><p>5(17%)</p><p>NUMBER OF TEAMS WHO STARTED A GOALIE ON OPENING NIGHT WHO DIDN&rsquo;T PLAY FOR THEM IN 2010-2011</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03716/9529850-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="651" height="883"><figcaption class="caption-body">SEMYON VARLAMOV <span class="photo-credit">(RICHARD WOLOWICZ/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h3><b>MOST NEW FACES*</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04532/9529843-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="547" height="551"></div><h3><b>FEWEST NEW FACES*</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05408/9529836-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="526" height="369"></div><p>* Players dressed opening night who didn&rsquo;t play for them last year</p><h2><b>HOME/ROAD SPLITS</b></h2><p>The regular season is about making the playoffs and better yet, earning home-ice advantage. Owners want the extra cash, while players want to have their fans behind them for the post-season.</p><p>WINNING PERCENTAGE OF HOME TEAMS IN 2011-12* .512%</p><p>WINNING PERCENTAGE OF HOME TEAMS IN 2010-11 .519%</p><p>* Includes regular season games played between Oct. 7 and Oct. 25, 2011</p><h2><b>FIGHTING</b></h2><p>Fisticuffs are still prominent in the game, from the junior ranks straight through to the pros. Here&rsquo;s how much pugilists are pounding each other in the NHL, as well as the teams packing the most punch in various leagues.</p><p>PERCENTAGE OF GAMES WITH FIGHTS</p><p>2011-12* 40.18%</p><p>2010-11 37.24%</p><p>* Includes regular season games played between Oct. 7 and Oct. 25, 2011</p><h2><b>AVERAGE FIGHTS PER GAME LEADERS (TEAM) BY LEAGUE</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011301/9529829-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="793" height="831"></div><h2><b>SPECIAL TEAMS LEADERS</b></h2><h3><b>POWER PLAY TIME*</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02874/9529822-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="614" height="668"></div><h3><b>PENALTY KILL TIME*</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03669/9529815-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="617" height="629"></div><p>*Ice time is measured in average per game</p><h2><b>SHUTOUT STREAK</b></h2><p>Brian Boucher would rather be remembered for his record shutout streak from 2003-04 than his Captain Hook experience during last season&rsquo;s playoffs with the Flyers. L.A.&rsquo;s Jonathan Quick recently pitched three zeros in a row, two short of Boucher&rsquo;s five.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04521/9529808-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="1512" height="150"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0030-02

FOR THE RECORD

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03781/9529933-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">ILYA KOVALCHUK</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011414/9529947-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="78" height="87"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02981/9529940-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="195" height="130"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>hen Peter DeBoer</b> was hired to replace Jacques Lemaire in New Jersey, he inherited three cornerstone players he lacked during his three seasons with the Florida Panthers.</p><p>There was Martin Brodeur, the long-time face of the franchise, and Zach Parise, the team&rsquo;s new captain. But the biggest piece is arguably Ilya Kovalchuk, the $100-million man with the ability to score 50 goals and carry the team.</p><p>Kovalchuk loved playing for the now-retired Jacques Lemaire. But he didn&rsquo;t get along as well with Lemaire&rsquo;s brief predecessor, John MacLean, who made Kovalchuk a healthy scratch eight games into his tenure as coach and survived just 33 games last season. So when DeBoer came to New Jersey, he knew he had to get on Kovalchuk&rsquo;s good side and utilize him in a way that made the 28-year-old Russian feel important, trusted and happy.</p><p>Kovalchuk has played more minutes than any other forward in the league, double-shifting on the power play and even killing penalties. In an Oct. 15 game in Nashville, he played a seasonhigh 32:04. &ldquo;I got a few calls from friends around the league wondering if I was going to burn him out by Christmas,&rdquo; DeBoer said. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s got a big engine and he seems to thrive on the responsibility.&rdquo;</p><p>For his part, Kovalchuk loves the extra work. &ldquo;Yeah, I&rsquo;m ready for it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Except it&rsquo;s the coach&rsquo;s decision. Any guy in this room would take the ice time.&rdquo;</p><p>Few could handle it, though. No one doubts the 6-foot-3, 230-pound sniper&rsquo;s physical attributes  or skills. The trick is how he is used and his bond with his coach. &ldquo;You could see that Kovy really respected Jacques,&rdquo; Parise said. &ldquo;So it was no surprise he was on fire in the second half. We&rsquo;re all expecting to see that same Kovy, because on any given night he can be the best player in the league.&rdquo;</p><p>He scored 31 goals in 2010-11, the fewest since he had 29 his rookie season with Atlanta. And the early loss of Parise to a knee injury only magnified Kovalchuk&rsquo;s and the team&rsquo;s struggles. &ldquo;When (Parise) is in the lineup, he takes some attention away from me and everyone else,&rdquo; Kovalchuk said. &ldquo;If we&rsquo;re on different lines, teams have to decide who they want to play their top two &lsquo;D&rsquo; against. If we&rsquo;re on the same line, they can&rsquo;t just focus on one of us. It&rsquo;s like us when we play against Pittsburgh with Malkin and Crosby.&rdquo;</p><p>Kovalchuk floundered with Parise out of the lineup until Lemaire replaced MacLean. He admitted he felt Lemaire trusted him and used him properly, in key situations like on the power play and in the last minute of a game. &ldquo;When the coach trusts you, it changes everything,&rdquo; Kovalchuk said. &ldquo;With Jacques, he had a style where you wanted to play hard for the guy. So that&rsquo;s what happened. Jacques was one of those guys who would always say the right things at the right time and he&rsquo;d put every guy in this room in the right position to be the most successful.&rdquo;</p><p>DeBoer has taken that page from Lemaire&rsquo;s playbook. Kovalchuk&rsquo;s skills have always impressed him, but he&rsquo;s grown to appreciate Kovie&rsquo;s commitment to winning and playing at both ends of the ice. &ldquo;The details of the game, watching him from the other bench, I didn&rsquo;t appreciate how willing he was to buy in to doing things defensively,&rdquo; DeBoer said. &ldquo;Playing in the last minute of a game with a lead, doing those types of things &ndash; he&rsquo;s been very good.&rdquo;</p><p>And so, Kovalchuk said, has De-Boer. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s doing the right thing,&rdquo; Kovalchuk said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going in the right direction, that&rsquo;s for sure. And he&rsquo;s got a good personality.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>WORK</b>&nbsp;<b>Horses</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04632/9529926-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="274" height="435"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>ILYA KOVALCHUK</b> <span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>FORWARD ICE TIME LEADERS SINCE 2000</p><p><b>Ilya Kovalchuk 2010-11</b>&nbsp;<i>22:33</i></p><p><b>Ilya Kovalchuk 2009-10</b>&nbsp;<i>22:02</i></p><p><b>Alex Ovechkin</b>&nbsp;<b>2008-09</b>&nbsp;<i>23:00</i></p><p><b>Martin St-Louis 2007-08</b>&nbsp;<i>24:17</i></p><p><b>Martin St-Louis 2006-07</b>&nbsp;<i>24:09</i></p><p><b>R. Brind&rsquo;Amour 2005-06</b>&nbsp;<i>24:17</i></p><p><b>Ilya Kovalchuk</b>&nbsp;<b>2003-04</b>&nbsp;<i>23:41</i></p><p><b>R. Brind&rsquo;Amour 2002-03</b>&nbsp;<i>23:45</i></p><p><b>Pavel Bure 2001-02</b>&nbsp;<i>25:00</i></p><p><b>Pavel Bure 2000-01</b>&nbsp;<i>26:52</i></p><blockquote class="pullQuote">26:30 <b>Kovalchuk&rsquo;s average time on ice this season through the Devils&rsquo; first seven games</b></blockquote><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0034-03

In Kovie He Trusts

<div class="byline">&#x2013; ADAM PROTEAU</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011316/9530069-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02933/9530062-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="78" height="87"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03773/9530055-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="657" height="759"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>JAMES NEAL</b></figcaption></div><p><b>S</b>ome NHLers never admit to having a tough time adjusting after a trade.</p><p>But to his credit, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s James Neal isn&rsquo;t one of those players. The 24-year-old struggled to generate offense with the Pens after coming over from the Stars in exchange for defenseman Alex Goligoski. He managed just one goal in 20 regular season games and one in seven playoff contests. &ldquo;It was a tough adjustment for me,&rdquo; Neal said. &ldquo;Your world turns upside down in a matter of seconds and you don&rsquo;t really know what to expect. It definitely was a whirlwind of emotions.&rdquo;</p><p>After a summer to get more comfortable with the Penguins organization and the sports-mad city of Pittsburgh, Neal&rsquo;s adjustment looks complete. His blazing start to the 2011-12 campaign included a team-best eight goals in 11 games that offset the injury-related absences of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. But according to Pens coach Dan Bylsma, the public&rsquo;s notion Neal played poorly in his initial stint last season is wrong. &ldquo;There was a perception James didn&rsquo;t do well last year because he didn&rsquo;t score,&rdquo; Bylsma said of Neal, who has excelled this year on a line with veteran playmaker Steve Sullivan and journeyman Richard Park. &ldquo;But we won a lot of hockey games with James playing a lot of minutes and playing well for us, with speed, physicality and tenaciousness. A lot of uncertainties he had last year were removed this season and it shows.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04635/9530048-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="640" height="30"></div><h2><b>FOR THE RECORD</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05541/9530041-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10269/9530034-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="327" height="533"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(LARSSON: BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>With New Jersey&rsquo;s bountiful blueline days long gone, <b>Adam Larsson</b>, just shy of his 19th birthday, was chewing up the most minutes for the Devils &lsquo;D.&rsquo; The 2011 fourth overall pick out of Skelleftea was averaging nearly 24 minutes and anchoring the defense corps just six games into his NHL career because he&rsquo;s the only mobile, puck-mover the team has.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06489/9530027-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-11228/9530020-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(NEAL+MONTOYA: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>John Tavares was off to a scorching start on Long Island, but it&rsquo;s the tandem of <b>Al Montoya</b> and Evgeni Nabokov that has given the Isles the stability in goal they&rsquo;ve lacked in recent seasons. With Rick DiPietro concussed again, the duo allowed just 13 goals in six games, good for a 2.20 GAA and a .927 SP, in getting the Islanders off to a decent start.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07419/9530013-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-12197/9530006-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="322" height="546"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GIRARDI: DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>No Ranger is making up for the loss of Marc Staal more than defense partner <b>Dan Girardi</b>. The shot-blocking machine was playing nearly half of every game and more than seven minutes above his career average. The extra work has only made his defensive game better. When Staal returns, the Blueshirts will ice arguably the league&rsquo;s best shutdown pair.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08361/9529999-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="752" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-13169/9529992-1-eng-US/f0035-132.jpg" title="f0035-13" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HARTNELL: FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>After Philly&rsquo;s summer shakeup, <b>Scott Hartnell</b> was the one getting dressed down. The gritty winger went goal-less his first seven games before finally potting a pair against Toronto and had his minutes shaved by more than four from 2010-11. With rookies Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier and Matt Read getting opportunities, Hartnell was having to fight for ice time.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09312/9529985-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="753" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-14145/9529978-1-eng-US/f0035-142.jpg" title="f0035-14" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PARK: DALE MACMILLAN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>James Neal was sizzling and Matt Cooke was reformed. But surprises like <b>Richard Park</b>, a training camp invitee, were also helping the Pens find their groove without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, who returned Oct. 25. The PK specialist was scratched the first two games, but played the next nine, notching two goals and six points with a plus-4 rating.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0035-01

Second Impressions

<div class="byline">&#x2013; JOHN VOGL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02884/9530184-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011314/9530191-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="78" height="87"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03729/9530177-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="658" height="818"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>THOMAS VANEK</b> <span class="photo-credit">(VANEK: CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>S</span></b>ince striding into the league in 2005, there&rsquo;s been no harsher critic of Thomas Vanek than himself. Every game he didn&rsquo;t score was a failure and every loss was on him because he felt he didn&rsquo;t do something to prevent it.</p><p>Having reached his prime at age 27, the Sabres&rsquo; perennial goal-scoring leader now realizes losing is still terrible, but beating yourself up over it makes it worse. &ldquo;Sometimes it&rsquo;s the frustration when you don&rsquo;t score and you lose, you take it hard,&rdquo; Vanek said. &ldquo;You can take it hard that night, but then you have to put it away. The season is long. You&rsquo;re going to have good stretches, you&rsquo;re going to have bad stretches. You enjoy your win, but the next day you&rsquo;ve got to come back to work because the next game is going to be harder.&rdquo;</p><p>Everything has come pretty easy in 2011-12 for Vanek. He had three points in the opener to start a run of six goals in six games. He also treated a huge contingent of Austrians to a two-point outing during Buffalo&rsquo;s 4-2 win over Los Angeles in its second game in Germany.</p><p>When Vanek, coming off a 32-goal, 73-point campaign, lost his long-time center Derek Roy to injury last season, the left winger took on the playmaking and leadership duties that were missing and he&rsquo;s doing so even more this season. &ldquo;When Derek went out, I thought I played better hockey than I had before and led a little bit more,&rdquo; Vanek said. &ldquo;I just want to continue doing that, take this team and thrive with it.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04581/9530170-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="640" height="31"></div><h2><b>FOR THE RECORD</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05495/9530163-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="753" height="592"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10238/9530156-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="327" height="551"></div><p><b>Tyler Seguin&rsquo;s</b> game is growing by leaps and bounds in his sophomore season. The 19-year-old averaged better than a point per game over his first eight contests (three goals, six assists) and was tied for second in the NHL with a plus-7 rating. Imagine what he might do when he spends more time at his natural position of center instead of right wing.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06437/9530149-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11218/9530142-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(REGEHR: RICHARD WOLOWICZ/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Defenseman <b>Robyn Regehr</b> was averaging nearly 19:28 of ice time in his early days as a Sabre, more than two full minutes fewer than he did last season in Calgary. But the veteran&rsquo;s influence on partner Tyler Myers can&rsquo;t be understated. Through his first eight games, Myers had an even plus-minus rating; after eight in 2010-11, he was a minus-9.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07368/9530135-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-12202/9530128-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GIONTA: FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>As <b>Brian Gionta</b> and the rest of the Canadiens slumped, GM Pierre Gauthier raised eyebrows when he fired assistant coach Perry Pearn hours before their Oct. 26 game against the Flyers. It isn&rsquo;t the first time a Montreal GM changed coaches on a game day. On Jan. 14, 2006, Bob Gainey fired coach Claude Julien before a game against the San Jose Sharks.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08313/9530121-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="753" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-13187/9530114-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ZIBANEJAD: ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>A large group of Senators rookies shrunk when 2011 first round pick (sixth overall) <b>Mika Zibanejad</b> was assigned to Djurgarden of the Swedish League. He&rsquo;d reached the nine-game limit that, if breached, would have burned a year off his entry level contract. The 18-year-old had just one assist and was a minus-3 before returning to his homeland.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09268/9530107-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="750" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-14171/9530100-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="319" height="546"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SEGUIN+PHANEUF: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Overshadowed by Phil Kessel&rsquo;s great start was the equally excellent play of <b>Dion Phaneuf.</b> The Leafs captain had two goals and nine points in eight games and more impressively led the team in plus-minus (plus-7) and ice time (26:27). Phaneuf also was far more comfortable with the local press. That&rsquo;s not a necessity, but it&rsquo;s a positive nonetheless.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0036-02

Gotta Get Up To Get Down

<div class="byline">&#x2013; BRIAN MCNALLY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-011173/9530313-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02820/9530306-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="78" height="87"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03657/9530299-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="657" height="766"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>TOMAS VOKOUN</b> <span class="photo-credit">(VOKOUN: MITCHELL LAYTON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span></b>he Capitals hit the lottery jackpot when the free agent goalie market collapsed and veteran Tomas Vokoun fell into their lap for the bargain-basement price of $1.5 million on a one-year deal.</p><p>For a team that remains a Stanley Cup contender despite repeated post-season failures, adding a quality veteran netminder &ndash; one with the NHL&rsquo;s second-best save percentage in the post-lockout era &ndash; was a no-brainer. So it came as some surprise when coach Bruce Boudreau decided to go with Michal Neuvirth, last year&rsquo;s playoff starter, in goal to begin the season.</p><p>Vokoun&rsquo;s debut, against Tampa Bay, was a disaster, with five goals allowed on 28 shots, including three from below his own goal line. Was Neuvirth in line for more time in net than anyone figured? Not so fast.</p><p>A foot injury shelved Neuvirth and Vokoun took full advantage. Over the next five games, which included victories in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and at home against Detroit, Vokoun stopped 164 of 170 shots for a .965 save percentage. &ldquo;He battles so hard even when guys are in front of him and he&rsquo;s making those extra saves,&rdquo; said defenseman Mike Green. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s just been outstanding. I don&rsquo;t want to pump him up too much, but it&rsquo;s a pleasure to play in front of him.&rdquo;</p><p>For Vokoun, it&rsquo;s all about doing his job well: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been playing losing hockey (in Florida) for a long time and it&rsquo;s really tough. My job is to stop the puck and that&rsquo;s all I&rsquo;m worried about.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04562/9530292-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="640" height="27"></div><h2><b>FOR THE RECORD</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05508/9530285-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="738" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-10204/9530278-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MAURICE: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>He may only be 44, but <b>Paul Maurice</b> became just the seventh bench boss in NHL history to coach 900 games for the same franchise when Carolina visited Buffalo in mid-October. Others are Al Arbour, Billy Reay, Barry Trotz, Jack Adams, Toe Blake and Maurice&rsquo;s opposite for the game, Lindy Ruff. Maurice first joined the franchise in Hartford in 1995.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06450/9530271-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-11168/9530264-1-eng-US/f0037-112.jpg" title="f0037-11" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GUDBRANSON: ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Erik Gudbranson&rsquo;s</b> ninth game of the season, and final one before the Panthers had to make the final call on whether to send him back to junior, was in his hometown Ottawa. But the nerves didn&rsquo;t get to him. The day before the game, Gudbranson, coach Kevin Dineen and video coach P.J. DeLuca helped run a youth practice with Erik&rsquo;s father, Wayne.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07385/9530257-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="751" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-12145/9530250-1-eng-US/f0037-122.jpg" title="f0037-12" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CONNOLLY: SCOTT AUDETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Lightning decided to keep 2010 sixth overall pick <b>Brett Connolly</b> past the nine-game cutoff instead of returning him to WHL Prince George. Assuming the Lightning keep him all season, it would be the first time they&rsquo;ve have had three first round picks in a row play at least one full season with the club since it happened four times from 1992-95.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08299/9530243-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="753" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-13129/9530236-1-eng-US/f0037-132.jpg" title="f0037-13" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(OVECHKIN: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>If <b>Alex Ovechkin</b> or any Cap scorer sees another drop in production it will speak to the team&rsquo;s newest philosophy. Coach Bruce Boudreau is focused on keeping shift lengths in check. Of the 11 skaters who played more than 50 games with the team in &rsquo;10-11, nine have seen their average time dip anywhere from 10 seconds to more than two minutes.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-09242/9530229-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="753" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-14116/9530222-1-eng-US/f0037-142.jpg" title="f0037-14" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PAVELEC: MARIANNE HELM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Jets goalie <b>Ondrej Pavelec</b> may be off to the worst start of his career, but it hasn&rsquo;t cost him his sense of humor. When asked what he sees as the difference from last season to this one, Pavelec quipped &ldquo;Last year at this time, I was in the hospital.&rdquo; The netminder fainted in the crease early in 2010-11 and had to spend time in the hospital before returning.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0037-01

No Doubting Tomas

<div class="byline">BY DAVID BOCLAIR</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03704/9530351-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">JONATHON BLUM <span class="photo-credit">(BLUM: MARK BUCKNER/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011273/9530365-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="78" height="87"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02875/9530358-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="196" height="131"></div><p><b>Jonathon Blum</b> almost feels as if he&rsquo;s a step behind in his first full season with the Nashville Predators.</p><p>But it has nothing to do with facing the likes of Pavel Datsyuk or Jonathan Toews on a regular basis in the tough Central Division. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been an adjustment,&rdquo; said the 22-year-old defenseman. &ldquo;Staying here from camp and all of that is all pretty new to me. Finding a place and getting all the furniture to put in it &ndash; it&rsquo;s still pretty hectic and there&rsquo;s still a lot to do.&rdquo;</p><p>It is part of the process a highly touted prospect faces when making the jump from the minors. Then again, it could have something to do with the fact he has spent the last third of his life acutely aware of just how precious time is.</p><p>Seven years ago he lost his twin sister, Ashley, in a house fire.</p><p>&ldquo;I have a baby picture of me and her together in my bedroom and one other &ndash; probably the last picture she ever took &ndash; with me and my nephew,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s something I wake up to every day and see&hellip;When I wake up to her picture, I say, &lsquo;I miss you&rsquo; or something like that.&rdquo;</p><p>The pair often talked of the day Blum would get to the NHL and Ashley expected to help her brother away from the rink. She had a passion for the kitchen and figured she would serve as her brother&rsquo;s cook. &ldquo;It would be a little easier if she was here, for sure,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Sometimes you get back from long days and you don&rsquo;t feel like cooking, so that would be nice. There&rsquo;s always something I do during the day that reminds me of what we did together. There&rsquo;s definitely tough days&hellip;But it&rsquo;s been seven years now, so it slowly gets easier and easier to deal with.&rdquo;</p><p>Blum was Nashville&rsquo;s first round pick (23rd overall) in 2007 and the last of nine blueliners the team took within the first three rounds over a five-year period. He was recalled late last season and made his NHL debut Feb. 22 at Columbus. In 23 appearances he had eight points (three goals, five assists) and a plus-8 rating. He then appeared in all 12 playoff games as the Predators reached the second round for the first time.</p><p>His performance under pressure &ndash; Nashville won 13 of its final 20 regular season games &ndash; convinced management he was ready for a full-time job. He opened the season opposite Kevin Klein on the Predators&rsquo; second defense pairing. &ldquo;I think right now is probably the toughest time for him,&rdquo; veteran defenseman Ryan Suter said. &ldquo;In camp you think you are (on the team), but you don&rsquo;t know for sure. Then when you&rsquo;re told, you might lower your guard a little bit&hellip; The last couple games he&rsquo;s been a lot better than he was early on, I thought.&rdquo;</p><p>Still not good enough in the eyes of coach Barry Trotz, though, who said he addressed the issue of complacency with Blum.</p><p>At 6-foot-1, 190 pounds, the California-born Blum relies more on smarts than size. Through Nashville&rsquo;s first eight games he was second in the league in blocked shots, but had not registered a hit. &ldquo;He thinks the game well,&rdquo; Suter said. &ldquo;He does the little things that a lot of people don&rsquo;t notice &ndash; that&rsquo;s positioning, reading a play before it happens so he can be there before the fastest guy. He&rsquo;s got a good stick and a good brain.&rdquo;</p><p>Given the long-term futures of Suter and Shea Weber in Nashville are uncertain, it is possible Blum could end up being half of Nashville&rsquo;s top blueline pairing as soon as next year.</p><p>&ldquo;For us to be successful, he needs to get his level of play to where it was last year,&rdquo; Trotz said. &ldquo;I believe he can be. I don&rsquo;t think he takes anything for granted.&rdquo;</p><p>Least of all, time.</p><h2><b>PREDATORY Practice</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04571/9530344-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="265" height="453"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>PEKKA RINNE</b> <span class="photo-credit">(RINNE: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>PREDS GOALS ALLOWED SINCE 2000</p><p><b>2010-11</b>&nbsp;<b>190, 2.32/G</b>&nbsp;<i>NHL Rank: 3rd</i></p><p><b>2009-10 221, 2.70/G</b>&nbsp;<i>14th</i></p><p><b>2008-09 228, 2.78/G</b>&nbsp;<i>13th</i></p><p><b>2007-08 224, 2.73/G</b>&nbsp;<i>15th</i></p><p><b>2006-07 207, 2.52/G</b>&nbsp;<i>8th</i></p><p><b>2005-06 224, 2.73/G</b>&nbsp;<i>8th</i></p><p><b>2003-04 217, 2.65/G</b>&nbsp;<i>21st</i></p><p><b>2002-03 206, 2.51/G</b>&nbsp;<i>9th</i></p><p><b>2001-02 230, 2.80/G</b>&nbsp;<i>23rd</i></p><p><b>2000-01 200, 2.44/G</b>&nbsp;<i>7th</i></p><blockquote class="pullQuote">26.4 <b>Average age of the Predators&rsquo; defense corps, third-youngest in the league this season</b></blockquote><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0038-03

Strength In Pain

<div class="byline">&#x2013; TIM SASSONE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-011166/9530487-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02768/9530480-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="180" height="204"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03602/9530473-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="647" height="766"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>DAN CARCILLO</b> <span class="photo-credit">(CARCILLO: BILL SMITH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>D</span></b>aniel Carcillo hoped for a bigger role than he had in Philadelphia when he signed with the Blackhawks as a free agent. But he never imagined he&rsquo;d play left wing on the Hawks&rsquo; second line with center Patrick Kane and right winger Marian Hossa to start his season. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re two of the best players in the league,&rdquo; Carcillo said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a privilege to be able to play with them. Every day I come to the rink, I want to do everything I can to stay on that line.&rdquo;</p><p>Hawks coach Joel Quenneville and GM Stan Bowman shifted Kane from right wing to center during the off-season and they saw a chance to use Carcillo on a line with Kane and Hossa. &ldquo;Danny has the skill to play with them,&rdquo; Quenneville said. &ldquo;He has the ability to make and see plays. He sees plays, makes plays and finishes checks, so I think he complements those guys in a different way.</p><p>&ldquo;If you look at his reputation, in the past with the need for fighting or the need for careless penalties, it&rsquo;s something we have to be smart about. We want to make sure we find the fine line. Over time, everybody finds their niche or they learn and so far so good. It&rsquo;s a work in progress.&rdquo;</p><p>Carcillo has livened up a dressing room that got quiet last season after losing Dustin Byfuglien, Kris Versteeg and Adam Burish. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been awesome,&rdquo; Kane said. &ldquo;Guys have really taken a liking to him the way he acts around here and he&rsquo;s a pretty funny guy. He gets along with everybody.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04503/9530466-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="645" height="34"></div><h2><b>FOR THE RECORD</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05421/9530459-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-10174/9530452-1-eng-US/f0039-102.jpg" title="f0039-10" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CRAWFORD: RICHARD WOLOWICZ/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>To more closely resemble the team that won the Cup than the one that was badly hung over last season, the Hawks&rsquo; must improve their penalty kill. Early indications are good. Newcomer Sean O&rsquo;Donnell is providing stability, but the real story is <b>Corey Crawford</b>, who allowed just two power play goals in seven games and had a .926 save percentage on the PK.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06348/9530445-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-11151/9530438-1-eng-US/f0039-112.jpg" title="f0039-11" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CARTER: JAMIE SABAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Blue Jackets have a head start toward leading the league in men missing action. Including James Wisniewski&rsquo;s eight-game suspension, Columbus had 49 man games lost through late-October. Included were a pair of busted thumbs (Marc Methot and Jared Boll) and a broken foot for <b>Jeff Carter</b>, who lasted just five games with his new team.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07304/9530431-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-12135/9530424-1-eng-US/f0039-122.jpg" title="f0039-12" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(FRANZEN: PHILLIP MACCALLUM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Is this the year right winger <b>Johan Franzen</b> finally puts it all together to challenge for the Rocket Richard Trophy? A perennial playoff monster who has averaged .45 goals per game in the post-season, Franzen has never really busted through in a regular season, topping out at 34 goals (2008-09). He began 2011-12 healthy and on a roll, scoring four times in six games.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-08256/9530417-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="749" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-13119/9530410-1-eng-US/f0039-132.jpg" title="f0039-13" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(FREDERICK BREEDON/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Francis</b>&nbsp;<b>Bouillon</b>, who had a suburban Montreal arena named in his honor this summer for the work he&rsquo;s done with families in need, finally got his name back on an NHL game summary after 288 days. Bouillon, 36, had been out since January with a concussion and will help stabilize a defense that&rsquo;s green beyond Shea Weber and Ryan Suter.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-09205/9530403-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="749" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-14109/9530396-1-eng-US/f0039-142.jpg" title="f0039-14" width="327" height="550"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ELLIOTT: RICH LAM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Brian Elliott</b> wasn&rsquo;t even a lock to win a job in camp, but early on he was outperforming high-priced starter Jaroslav Halak. Elliott struggled in Ottawa and Colorado last season, but already had more wins in October than he had with the Avs. If Elliott, with just a $600,000 cap hit, keeps making big saves, expect a goalie controversy in St. Louis.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0039-01

More Than Just A Pest

<div class="byline">&#x2013; KEVIN WOODLEY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02546/9530602-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01867/9530609-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="180" height="204"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03421/9530595-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="658" height="798"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>AARON VOLPATTI</b> <span class="photo-credit">(VOLPATTI: DEREK LEUNG/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span></b>aron Volpatti isn&rsquo;t your typical tough guy. It&rsquo;s not the Ivy League education or a smallby-comparison six-foot, 215-pound frame. The soft-spoken Volpatti just doesn&rsquo;t think much about fighting, or see himself as a fighter.</p><p>Others don&rsquo;t either, which may explain why several have ended up on the wrong end of his fists. &ldquo;A lot of guys watch tape on the other guys they might fight, but for me it&rsquo;s just, I know I can handle myself,&rdquo; Volpatti said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just concentrating on becoming a better hockey player. Fights happen, but I try not to get too worked up worrying about it.&rdquo;</p><p>Volpatti learned the hard way not to worry about things. Six summers ago, the 26-year-old B.C. native sustained burns to 35 percent of his body after a campfire accident. He spent five weeks in the hospital, enduring the gruelling process of skin grafts and experiencing the confinement of a pressure suit to control scarring. Volpatti couldn&rsquo;t walk for a month and was told he may never play again, certainly not for a couple years. But he was back for 25 games the next season, went on to captain Brown University and last year signed as a free agent in Vancouver.</p><p>So after playing 15 games as a rookie last season, it should surprise no one that Volpatti won the opening-night job on the fourth line. &ldquo;My expectation was to start here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And now I have to keep getting better.&rdquo; As a player, he added, not a fighter. That&rsquo;s not something he worries about.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04336/9530588-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="640" height="31"></div><h2><b>FOR THE RECORD</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-05287/9530581-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="753" height="592"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-10122/9530574-1-eng-US/f0040-102.jpg" title="f0040-10" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(IGINLA: GERRY THOMAS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Before we attribute <b>Jarome Iginla&rsquo;s</b> slow start to a bad back, it&rsquo;s worth noting punchless Octobers are the norm for the captain. He had just two goals and three points over his first seven games of 2011-12, but scored just twice in his first 11 games last October, twice in his first eight games of 2009-10 and once in his first five of 2008-09.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-06250/9530567-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-11107/9530560-1-eng-US/f0040-112.jpg" title="f0040-11" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MUELLER: MICHAEL MARTIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Peter Mueller&rsquo;s</b> return from a serious concussion that sidelined him all last season lasted just three games. He&rsquo;s out indefinitely with what the Avs are calling a head injury. Impressive rookie left winger Gabriel Landeskog will see increased ice time, including top-six duty, in his absence. He notched his first career two-goal game Oct. 22 against Chicago.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-07215/9530553-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1296/9530546-1-eng-US/f0040-122.jpg" title="f0040-12" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(KHABIBULIN: DALE MACMILLAN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>It seems spending 15 days behind bars over the summer for an impaired driving conviction has done wonders for <b>Nikolai Khabibulin</b>. Through his first four starts of 2011-12, the resurgent 38-year-old netminder led the NHL with a 0.72 goals-against average and his .969 save percentage was second only to the Kings&rsquo; Jonathan Quick.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-08184/9530539-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="753" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1389/9530532-1-eng-US/f0040-132.jpg" title="f0040-13" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ZAZON: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Wild are missing Brent Burns&rsquo; offensive contributions from the blueline. Through eight games, they had just two goals from their defensemen; <b>Greg Zanon</b> and Marco Scandella had one each. Defensemen have scored just 12.5 percent of Minnesota&rsquo;s goals this season compared to 16.7 percent in 2010-11, when Burns scored 17 times.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-09136/9530525-1-eng-US/f0040-092.jpg" title="f0040-09" width="753" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1475/9530518-1-eng-US/f0040-142.jpg" title="f0040-14" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BOOTH: ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>After an Oct. 22 trade sent him to Vancouver along with Steve Reinprecht for Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm, <b>David Booth</b> reunited with an old friend. The left winger and center Ryan Kesler were teammates playing minor hockey growing up in Detroit and linemates on the 2004 U.S. national junior team that captured its first gold medal.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0040-02

No Sweat For Volpatti

<div class="byline">&#x2013; JONATHAN DAVIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0041-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02482/9530724-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01752/9530731-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="180" height="204"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03391/9530717-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="657" height="788"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>JONATHAN QUICK</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>N</span></b>ot since the days of Kelly Hrudey, and you may actually have to go back to the mid-70s when Rogie Vachon was between the pipes, have the Los Angeles Kings had a true top-flight goaltender.</p><p>For the past two seasons, Kings fans have wondered which Jonathan will lead them to the promised land and Lord Stanley&rsquo;s Cup. Will it be Quick or Bernier? Well, there isn&rsquo;t a debate on who&rsquo;s the king of the crease in L.A. anymore.</p><p>Quick, 25, earned recent player of the week honors as he became the first goalie since Chris Mason in 2008 to record three consecutive shutouts. He had a goals-against average under 1.00 and .972 save percentage through his first six games and is well on his way to eclipsing his career-high six shutouts posted last season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great feeling,&rdquo; said Quick, the Kings&rsquo; third round selection from the 2005 draft. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been a guy to look at numbers, like shutouts and save percentage. It&rsquo;s nice to have good numbers, but we&rsquo;re judged by wins and losses &ndash; that&rsquo;s what is most important to me and most important to this team.&rdquo;</p><p>The Kings &lsquo;D&rsquo; is reaping the benefits of Quick&rsquo;s standout play. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a stud &ndash; it&rsquo;s no secret in here,&rdquo; said defenseman Matt Greene. &ldquo;We all know it. He allows guys to play their game without a lot of fear. It&rsquo;s always nice knowing he&rsquo;s back there.&rdquo;</p><p>Kings fans are hoping Quick keeps it up and stays in the black, silver and white well beyond the two years remaining on his deal.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-04337/9530710-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="640" height="31"></div><h2><b>FOR THE RECORD</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-05304/9530703-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1096/9530696-1-eng-US/f0041-102.jpg" title="f0041-10" width="325" height="550"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GETZLAF: GERRY THOMAS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>For a team with elite talent such as <b>Ryan Getzlaf,</b> Corey Perry and Teemu Selanne, the Ducks had surprising scoring balance through the first month. Only three skaters &ndash; Matt Beleskey, fill-in Patrick Maroon and the injured Jason Blake &ndash; failed to collect a point through late October. Even George Parros and rookie Maxime Macenauer got in on the action.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-06264/9530689-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1176/9530682-1-eng-US/f0041-112.jpg" title="f0041-11" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(OTT: PHILLIP MACCALLUM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Dallas Stars were great out of the gate thanks in part to bashing the opposition. The Stars were tops in the league in hits with 256 through nine games. <b>Steve Ott</b> led the NHL with 36, while Brenden Morrow, Stephane Robidas and Mark Fistric weren&rsquo;t far behind. It didn&rsquo;t hurt that goalie Kari Lehtonen was playing out of his mind, either.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-07225/9530675-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="753" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1262/9530668-1-eng-US/f0041-122.jpg" title="f0041-12" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(QUICK+RICHARDS: HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Early on, <b>Mike Richards</b> has been everything the Kings wanted when they acquired him from Philadelphia. The veteran has helped improve L.A.&rsquo;s penalty kill and power play over last year&rsquo;s numbers and his presence has opened up more space for fellow pivot Anze Kopitar, who got off to a sizzling offensive start with 10 points in his first eight games.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-08172/9530661-1-eng-US/f0041-082.jpg" title="f0041-08" width="753" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1352/9530654-1-eng-US/f0041-132.jpg" title="f0041-13" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DOAN: DALE MACMILLAN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Shane</b>&nbsp;<b>Doan</b> hit a milestone early on by notching his 300th career goal in a loss to Dallas, but the Coyote captain still had not registered an NHL hat trick. His drought puts him second all-time behind Scott Mellanby, who scored 319 times before his first hat trick. That came on March 6, 2003 in a game against, you guessed it, the Phoenix Coyotes.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-09124/9530647-1-eng-US/f0041-092.jpg" title="f0041-09" width="753" height="593"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1445/9530640-1-eng-US/f0041-142.jpg" title="f0041-14" width="327" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HAVLAT: BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>When the Sharks pulled the trigger on the <b>Martin Havlat</b> trade this summer, the Czech star was expected to make a great running mate for sophomore center Logan Couture. Injury delayed Havlat&rsquo;s debut, but once he was in teal for real his presence helped Couture snap out of an early funk and put up three points in his first three games with the veteran.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0041-02

Quick Fix In Kings Net

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02507/9530769-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FLYIN&rsquo; RIELLY</b></p><p><b>Moose Jaw&rsquo;s Morgan Rielly excels at skating with the puck when the pressure is on.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01793/9530776-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="180" height="204"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>B</span>ecause it&rsquo;s going</b> to frazzle a whole industry&rsquo;s guild of editors this year, let&rsquo;s get it out of the way for the record: It&rsquo;s Morgan Rielly, not &ldquo;Reilly.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03396/9530762-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="171" height="131"></div><p>Ignore Microsoft Word&rsquo;s squiggly red line, hockey writers. &ldquo;At school it even happens,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>It is a name to remember, however, as Rielly has already proven himself to be a big producer from the blueline and one of the top players in the draft this season. It all begins with the youngster&rsquo;s ability to move out of his own zone. &ldquo;The way he can skate, it&rsquo;s a pleasure to watch,&rdquo; said coach Mike Stothers. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s like a hovercraft out there.&rdquo;</p><p>And an elusive one at that. Through his first 12 games this season, Rielly posted eight assists and 11 points, good for second on the Warriors. When he&rsquo;s pressured on the puck, Rielly uses his skating to get out of trouble and generally relies on his stick rather than his shoulders  to keep attackers honest on the defensive side. For Stothers, the kid reminds him of a recent Hall of Fame inductee. &ldquo;I see Brian Leetch,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Not big, has an impish grin, the blonde hair, good stick. He can be a very tough guy to play against.&rdquo;</p><p>At six-feet, 197 pounds, Rielly&rsquo;s not small, either. In fact, he has about 20 pounds on Red Deer&rsquo;s Mathew Dumba, another highly touted defenseman from the &lsquo;Dub&rsquo; who is draft eligible this year.</p><p>But Dumba&rsquo;s big hits and flashy game lend more to Dion Phaneuf than Brian Leetch. &ldquo;Where Dumba brings explosiveness, Rielly brings fearless playmaking,&rdquo; said Tyler Boldt, the Western League&rsquo;s manager of player development and recruitment. &ldquo;At such a young age, he&rsquo;s a pretty dynamic and fearless defenseman on the offensive side of the game. He looks very casual when he&rsquo;s handling the puck.&rdquo;</p><p>Both players are slated as top-10 picks this summer and an injury to another high-profile WHL defenseman, Everett&rsquo;s Ryan Murray, means the spotlight will shift until his return. Between the summer&rsquo;s Ivan Hlinka tournament (where Rielly won gold with Canada) and the NHL&rsquo;s research and development camp, the Moose Jaw standout has gotten to know a lot of his competitors. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had a chance to play with all of them and they&rsquo;re all great people,&rdquo; Rielly said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s cool that we&rsquo;re all good friends.&rdquo;</p><p>Young friends, at that. In just his second season of major junior, Rielly, 17, is aware there&rsquo;s a lot to do before he becomes an NHL defenseman. &ldquo;I know I have to prove myself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Defensive zone play, it&rsquo;s a pretty huge part of the game now and that&rsquo;s the area I want to concentrate on this year.&rdquo;</p><p>Part of the challenge will be letting the game come to him and it&rsquo;s not unusual to have that conversation about a young player. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s such a game-breaker,&rdquo; Stothers said. &ldquo;At that age, they want to make a great play every time and sometimes it&rsquo;s not there. You don&rsquo;t always have to hit a home run.&rdquo;</p><p>Though Moose Jaw has other NHL prospects on its blueline in Dylan McIlrath (New York Rangers, 10th overall in 2010) and Joel Edmundson (St. Louis, 46th overall in 2011), Rielly is getting the chance to play in all situations and make an impact. &ldquo;You can expect him to quarterback the power play on a team that could win 40 games this year,&rdquo; Boldt said.</p><p>Stothers characterizes his prodigy blueliner as a happygo-lucky kid who always has a smile on his face and that demeanor will serve Rielly well as the draft gets closer and the spotlight begins to sear. At the least, the Warrior&rsquo;s production and natural abilities ensure that by the time summer rolls around, every NHL scout and GM will know how to spell Rielly&rsquo;s name correctly.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">+7 <b>Plus-minus rating for Rielly, 22 points better than his minus-15 mark of 2010-11.</b></blockquote><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0042-02

Warrior Comes Out To Play

<div class="byline">BY ANDREY OSADCHENKO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03444/9530814-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>GOLDEN AGAIN?</b></p><p><b>Evgeny Kuznetsov is eligible and may be available to play at the 2012 WJC in Alberta.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(TOM SZCZERBOWSKI/GETTY IMAGEST)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01775/9530821-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="180" height="204"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>he Washington</b> Capitals are one of the most popular NHL teams among Russians. And no wonder &ndash; they have arguably the best Russian players in their lineup plus two other prospects &ndash; Dmitri Orlov and Stanislav Galiev &ndash; from the Motherland currently signed to contracts. Luckily for Capitals fans, one of them looks to be the next big Russian to make it to the &ldquo;show&rdquo;.</p><p>Many clubs would like to have a prospect in line like Evgeny Kuznetsov, but it&rsquo;s the Caps who&rsquo;ll get his services when he comes over next season after waiting an extra year. &ldquo;It was a tough decision for me,&rdquo; said Kuznetsov, Washington&rsquo;s first round pick (26th overall) in the 2010 draft. &ldquo;At one point I thought I would go to North America, but I had some issues with the Traktor coaching staff. Then everything changed. I promised my coach and the Chelyabinsk region governor that I&rsquo;ll play for Traktor for another year. I want to go to the NHL as a complete player and be sure I&rsquo;m going to make the team. It&rsquo;s just not my thing to play for two or three years in the (American League).&rdquo;</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02533/9530807-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="129" height="140"></div><p>Kuznetsov has turned quite a few heads with his performance this year so far. He had nine goals, four of those game-winners, and two assists in 17 games with Traktor Chelyabinsk in the Kontinental League, helping propel his team into second place in its conference. And, yes, he&rsquo;s still eligible to play at this year&rsquo;s World Junior Championship.</p><p>Last season Kuznetsov won a gold medal, with four goals and seven assists in seven games, at the WJC in Buffalo. Unfortunately, after the final game against Team Canada, the Russians were denied boarding their flight home because of alleged unruly behavior.</p><p>Whenever he&rsquo;s reminded of this incident, Kuznetsov just shakes his head. &ldquo;I always tell the truth about that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Only people with mental problems can&rsquo;t get through their heads that we didn&rsquo;t do anything wrong back then. I&rsquo;m not tired of retelling this story over and over again. No, normal people understand me. If your team wins, you&rsquo;re going to celebrate it somehow. Canadians shouldn&rsquo;t be offended just because we beat them 5-3. Moreover, we beat them in the third period 5-0. And because of that, they got angry. It&rsquo;s unsportsmanlike.&rdquo;</p><p>Right after Russia&rsquo;s miraculous win over Canada, Kuznetsov told the media he would wear the gold medal to his wedding, which took place this past summer, though he wouldn&rsquo;t verify that he did. &ldquo;How do you know I didn&rsquo;t wear it?&rdquo; said a coy Kuznetsov. &ldquo;Maybe I had it under my shirt. Did I? I&rsquo;m not telling you.&rdquo;</p><p>Yes, 19-year-old center is indeed married already, though people should be cautious when asking him personal questions. No matter how cheerful and chatty he may appear, there are some things he prefers to keep for himself. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like to be asked about my family,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Nobody does. This is personal.&rdquo;</p><p>Some people would get scared of moving to a new country if they were in Kuznetsov&rsquo;s shoes. Luckily, he has a second special someone to rely upon. It&rsquo;s</p><p>the Caps&rsquo; captain. &ldquo;Ovechkin told me he&rsquo;d help me find a place to live in Washington,&rdquo; Kuznetsov said. &ldquo;My wife and I will stay with him for the first time and then we&rsquo;ll get our own place. I&rsquo;m already searching for apartments on the Internet.&rdquo;</p><p>With a mentor like that there shouldn&rsquo;t be much problem for Kuznetsov adjusting to North America off the ice. And when it comes to hockey, he can work miracles on his own. Everybody saw that in Buffalo. You may get another peek at the 2012 world juniors in Alberta.</p><p><b>For more on the future, check out: <a href="http://thn.com/prospects">thn.com/prospects</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0043-03

Capital Endorsement

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02420/9530859-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SEEING RUBBER</b></p><p><b>Edmonton prospect Olivier Roy is honing his craft in the wide-open play of the ECHL.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(LEE CALKINS)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01673/9530866-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="180" height="204"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>hen a</b> prospect graduates to the pro ranks, the NHL is the obvious dream. When that fails, it&rsquo;s no slight to be sent to the American League for more seasoning. The ECHL? That can be a shock to the system.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-03315/9530852-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="136" height="138"></div><p>But for young goaltenders in particular, the continent&rsquo;s third-best circuit can actually be a beneficial place to start their journey to the top. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good transition to the pro game,&rdquo; said Edmonton Oilers goalie consultant Frederic Chabot. &ldquo;The game preparation, the training&hellip;&rdquo;</p><p>For the Oilers, the creases in Oklahoma City are guarded by veterans Yann Danis and David LeNeveu, meaning rookie Olivier Roy was sent to ECHL Stockton to man the nets for the Thunder alongside San Jose prospect Thomas Heemskerk. &ldquo;We have two older guys in the AHL,&rdquo; Chabot said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want Olivier sitting on the bench. I want him playing as much as possible.&rdquo;</p><p>Edmonton has a pretty good template for ECHL goalies, given that one of its current starters, Devan Dubnyk, put in time &lsquo;E&rsquo; time before working his way up to the NHL.</p><p>And those goalies aren&rsquo;t the only ones. Toronto&rsquo;s James Reimer, L.A.&rsquo;s Jonathan Quick and St. Louis&rsquo; Jaroslav Halak all did stints in the ECHL. Halak&rsquo;s Slovakian understudy, Jaroslav Janus, played last season with the Florida Everblades after a goalie glut in the Tampa Bay system left him the man out.</p><p>&ldquo;We felt we needed a strong No. 3 goalie in the event of an injury,&rdquo; said Lightning assistant GM Julien BriseBois.</p><p>The Bolts didn&rsquo;t want that pressure on either of their youngsters, Dustin Tokarski or Janus, so they brought in veteran Cedrick Desjardins, leaving only one spot on the AHL squad. Tokarski grabbed it and played the majority of the games with AHL&rsquo;s Norfolk Admirals, while Desjardins did indeed see spot duty with Tampa when necessary.</p><p>Now Tokarski and Janus &ndash; who made his name as a wall at the 2009 world juniors &ndash; are both up with Norfolk and another new pro, former Ferris State workhorse Pat Nagle, is holding down the fort for the Everblades.</p><p>Not surprisingly, some get a gut feeling of disappointment at dropping down. &ldquo;You want to play at the top level,&rdquo; said Ontario Reign goalie Darcy Kuemper, a Minnesota Wild prospect. &ldquo;But the organization felt it would be better for me to get starts.&rdquo;</p><p>Kuemper had an excellent career with the Western League&rsquo;s Red Deer Rebels and was named the 2011 CHL goaltender of the year. He knows what he must accomplish with the California-based Reign. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s on the goaltender himself to be successful,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>The ECHL can also be a training ground away from the rink. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s important riding the buses and getting that day-to-day pro experience,&rdquo; said Ontario coach Jason Christie. &ldquo;It gives them a chance to grow.&rdquo;</p><p>As a member of the Quebec League&rsquo;s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles and Acadie-Bathurst Titan, Roy always lived with a billet family. In Stockton, he&rsquo;s sharing a house with three teammates and is faced with paperwork and other responsibilities that are new to him &ndash; including cooking. &ldquo;I practised last summer,&rdquo; Roy said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a big barbecue fan and I&rsquo;ll make pasta and salmon sometimes. Right now the biggest transition is off the ice. We&rsquo;ve got to be a lot more responsible.&rdquo;</p><p>The ECHL provides a lot of opportunity for responsibility on the ice, too. &ldquo;Teams have better transitions,&rdquo; Roy said. &ldquo;So there are more oddman rushes. And there are bigger bodies in front of the net. You have to battle to find the puck.&rdquo;</p><p>The fact defenders in the ECHL are generally playing there because the AHL was a struggle means netminders must be on their toes at all times. &ldquo;You see more scoring chances,&rdquo; Chabot said. &ldquo;More wide-open play.&rdquo;</p><p>The Edmonton goalie coach also knows that home is a long ways away for Roy, so he intends on visiting the young Quebecker often.</p><p>Stockton has one big advantage over Canada, however. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re probably never going to see snow this winter, Roy said. &ldquo;That would be awesome.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0044-02

Riding Buses, Being A Pro

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0045-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-02383/9530904-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>RYAN O&rsquo;REILLY</b> <span class="photo-credit">(CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01582/9530911-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="180" height="204"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>H</span>ockey Canada&rsquo;s Bob Nicholson made news recently with his proposal of raising the draft age to 19 (with some exceptions), arguing scouting would be more precise by having an extra year to watch kids. So who out of the 2009 NHL draft would have benefitted from an extra year?</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-03322/9530897-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="2346" height="1071"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0045-02

PUSHING BACK THE DRAFT?

<div class="byline">BY JOHN VOGL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0046-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-02374/9530949-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BRAWLIN&rsquo; BUFFALO</b></p><p><b>Rob Ray lost his shirt and often his mind during a fight-filled 1991-92 season for the Sabres.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JEAN-YVES MICHAUD/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>R</span>ob Ray is the</b> proud owner of the penalty box door from Buffalo&rsquo;s Memorial Auditorium. The Sabres gave him the gate when they vacated the building in 1995 and it was a fitting gift. He entered and exited through that door with more flair than any other player, never more so than in 1991-92.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>At the time, it was a style that fit our team</b><br><b><i>&ndash; Rob Ray</i></b></blockquote><p>Of course, if the Sabres had limited their gift giving to that season, Ray would have had a fight on his hands. That edition of the club fought for everything.</p><p>The Sabres set the NHL record for most penalty minutes in a season, racking up 2,713. Three players topped 300 minutes, led by Ray with 354. Brad May, a 19-year-old rookie, was next with 309. Gord Donnelly, an earlyseason trade acquisition from the Winnipeg Jets, had 305.</p><p>&ldquo;At the time it was a style that kind of fit our team,&rdquo; Ray said. &ldquo;You look at it and there were a lot of penalty minutes, but there was a time and a place for it.&rdquo;</p><p>The Sabres averaged 34 minutes in the box per game, with help from 91 fighting majors and an astounding 60 misconducts. Only one other team had more than 38 (Minnesota, 42). Even Hall of Famer Pat LaFontaine had 98 PIM, the only time in his career he topped 70.</p><p>&ldquo;He was a dirty son of a bitch,&rdquo; Ray said. &ldquo;He protected himself extremely well. He did what he had to do to survive out there, too. Everybody talks about how great a player, how great a guy he is and, yeah, he was, but he was a different person on the ice.&rdquo;</p><p>The directive to be aggressive came from the top, despite the fact two coaches led the Sabres that season. Rick Dudley was behind the bench for the opening 28 games and John Muckler took over from there. John Tortorella was an assistant. &ldquo;It was kind of the coach&rsquo;s personality,&rdquo; Ray said. &ldquo;&lsquo;Duds&rsquo; liked it aggressive. &lsquo;Mucks&rsquo; loved it.&rdquo;</p><p>The Sabres obviously had their share of tough guys, with defensemen Brad Miller (192) and Jay Wells (157) also on the team. But LaFontaine was hardly the only skilled player. The Sabres could skate with anyone, boasting Alexander Mogilny and Dale Hawerchuk, while Dave Andreychuk and Donald Audette were around to fill the net, too. May was the most prolific of the tough guys with 11 goals.</p><p>Ray said early in the season the skill players thought the testosterone-fuelled youngsters were nuts, but soon saw a benefit to the madness as opponents were quick to retaliate. The Sabres managed to rank second with 466 power plays and their NHL-best 22.5 percent suc-</p><p>cess rate helped them finish eighth in league scoring.</p><p>&ldquo;It took a little while before everybody would buy into it,&rdquo; Ray said. &ldquo;Some of the guys on the team were like, &lsquo;What the hell are you doing?&rsquo; What it did is it opened up so much room for a guy like Patty. Us drawing penalties and us getting things going, we were getting 3-on-3 situations, 4-on-4 situations. It opened up the ice for them back then at a time when there was a lot of clutching and grabbing.</p><p>&ldquo;These guys excelled, obviously, with fewer guys on the ice. They didn&rsquo;t mind it a bit. They were able to go play their game because they knew nothing was ever going to happen to them because everybody knew you had that reputation.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01586/9530942-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="346" height="517"></div><h2><b>AMAZING RECORDS</b></h2><p>Extraordinary exploits, odd occurrences and superstar scoring feats dot hockey&rsquo;s historic landscape and we&rsquo;ve documented our favorites in <i>Hockey&rsquo;s Most Amazing Records</i>. The book is a collection of 125 famous, and often infamous, accomplishments, like this one looking at Buffalo&rsquo;s bad behavior in 1991-92.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0046-02

Fighting For Room

<div class="byline">By Larry Humber</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0049-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01375/9530980-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg"></div><p><b>ANSWERS AVAILABLE IN THE NEXT ISSUE AND AT</b> <a href="http://THN.com/XWORD">THN.com/xword</a></p><h2><b>ACROSS</b></h2><p>1 Bobby, Brett and Dennis</p><p>8 The Northeast is one, as is the Northwest</p><p>9 The Northeast was previously known as the ___</p><p>10 Eric ___ is now an Oiler</p><p>11 &lsquo;The ___ One&rsquo;</p><p>14 Anaheim coach ___ Carlyle</p><p>15 One of the Bure bothers</p><p>20 ___ Walker was an original Predator</p><p>21 The NHL is giving this Canadian city another go</p><p>22 Thugs</p><p>23 Suiting up</p><p>24 An OHL team or a pop star</p><h2><b>DOWN</b></h2><p>2 In progress</p><p>3 Dean ___ is GM in Los Angeles</p><p>4 Albany ___ Rats</p><p>5 The Bruins and Canucks clashed in the Cup ___</p><p>6 The ___ play at &lsquo;The Joe&rsquo;</p><p>7 Marc-___ Fleury</p><p>12 He&rsquo;s in net for Dallas</p><p>13 He&rsquo;s Dallas&rsquo;s other goalie, pictured</p><p>16 Daniel Sedin is one, as is Henrik</p><p>17 Bobby Orr&rsquo;s ___ proved his undoing</p><p>18 Coward</p><p>19 Players aged 13-19</p><p><b>LAST WEEK&rsquo;S CROSSWORD SOLUTION ACROSS</b> 1. SMYTH, 8. COLORADO, 9. TRIOS, 10. NEBRASKA, 11. SHUTT, 14. SWEEP, 15. DUMMY, 20. PERRY, 21. ERIK COLE, 22. HITCH, 23. P.K. SUBBAN, 24. FRANK <b>DOWN</b> 2. MARK HOWE, 3. TROTTIER, 4. ROVER, 5. NOTRE, 6. MARSH, 7. ROMAN, 12. SUPERIOR, 13. AMERICAN, 16. TEPPO, 17. FIRST, 18. SCABS, 19. ALLAN<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-01

CROSSWORD

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-04194/9531049-1-eng-US/f0049-042.jpg" title="f0049-04" width="676" height="689"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>S</span>everal teams have cribbed their looks from the latest Los Angeles Kings jersey and though I&rsquo;m not a huge fan of the original (it&rsquo;s the font, mostly), it&rsquo;s hard not to enjoy Salmon Arm&rsquo;s rendition.</p><p>First off, naming your team after a ferocious gorilla is both original and intimidating. But having the foresight to sub &lsquo;SA&rsquo; into the logo and replace the crown with a gorilla head? That&rsquo;s the capper. Dealing with a non-traditional mascot on a hockey jersey can be fraught with peril, but the Silverbacks have found a winner here.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-04

JerseyHound

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01359/9531087-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="311" height="539"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>n Samuel Beckett&rsquo;s</b> play, <i>Waiting for Godot</i>, Vladimir and Estragon are a couple of tramps who wait in vain for someone who never bothers to show up and might not even exist. The play is part of a genre called &ldquo;Theater of the Absurd,&rdquo; which, come to think of it, is sometimes a spot-on description of the NHL.</p><p>Each time a player sustains a serious eye injury as the result of not wearing facial protection, the way Chris Pronger did Oct. 24 when he was clipped by a stick in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the debate about mandatory visor use is revived. And, like Vladimir and Estragon, we get our hopes up. We hear the NHL and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association are talking about it. They&rsquo;re really good at that. They talk about a lot of things. It&rsquo;s taking action they find so difficult.</p><p>Looking for the Pronger incident to suddenly make the NHL-PA come to its senses? Or for the NHL to grow some and institute mandatory visor use and stop worrying about NHLPA approval it doesn&rsquo;t even need? Good luck. This is a league that moves at a glacial pace when it comes to the safety of its players and it&rsquo;s no better now than it was 40 years ago.</p><p>Bill Masterton died in 1968 as a result of a head injury he sustained because he wasn&rsquo;t wearing a helmet and the NHL allowed 11 years to go by before it did anything about making buckets mandatory for players entering the league. That&rsquo;s exactly the same number of years that have gone into the books since Bryan Berard had his career derailed by a stick to the eye. We&rsquo;re still no closer to seeing mandatory visors, but we really shouldn&rsquo;t be surprised.</p><p>When it comes to something inconsequential such as diving or guys making a spectacle of themselves in front of goaltenders, you can expect the league to react with Teemu Selannelike quickness. But how many serious injuries have there been as the result of end-board collisions with almost nothing done yet about instituting no-touch icing?</p><p>Shortly after Pronger was injured, Flyers GM Paul Holmgren stood up and assured everyone the defenseman will wear eye protection when he returns to the lineup. However, the fact remains Holmgren can make all the bold declarations he wants, but Pronger will wear eye protection only if Pronger decides he wants to wear it. That&rsquo;s because even though there&rsquo;s nothing in the collective bargaining agreement that stipulates anything about it, the league doesn&rsquo;t want to alienate the players by imposing something they feel is a matter of freedom of choice. Using that logic, construction companies would be powerless to do anything about their employees wearing Wallabees and ball caps on a work site.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>The NHL moves at a glacial pace when it comes to safety</b></blockquote><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-02259/9531080-1-eng-US/f0050-022.jpg" title="f0050-02" width="628" height="751"><figcaption class="caption-body">CHRIS PRONGER <span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Freedom of choice? Please. What about the freedom of the owners to protect the assets in whom they invest hundreds of millions of dollars? Pronger was playing some of his best hockey in years when he was injured and if the Flyers lose enough games, it could mean the difference in getting home-ice advantage (and the extra home dates) in the playoffs. What are these guys thinking?</p><p>Well, they&rsquo;re buying the fallacies perpetuated by players who, against all evidence to the contrary, try to convince people that wearing visors can compromise performance. When asked last June about the possibility of the NHLPA embracing mandatory visors, special assistant to the executive director Mathieu Schneider talked about having a &ldquo;big bubble around your head&rdquo; and then made the following proclamation: &ldquo;The visors that are out there are not great products right now.&rdquo; True story. He really said that.</p><p>Perhaps Schneider was unaware 13 of the top 15</p><p>scorers in the NHL last season wore visors. Or that every scoring champion since 1997-98 has worn a visor. Or that of the 12 players who have won (or shared) the Rocket Richard Trophy since it was established for the 1999-00 season, only Jonathan Cheechoo did it without facial protection. Or that of the 31 players who have finished among the top 10 scorers in the NHL each year since the lockout, only Cheechoo, Eric Staal, Marc Savard, Ryan Getzlaf and Joe Thornton did so not looking through plastic. Or that almost 60 percent of the league is currently wearing facial protection.</p><p>It&rsquo;s time for the league to move unilaterally on this issue. To allow it to become a CBA issue would sabotage its own bargaining position. But don&rsquo;t get your hopes up, regardless of how many guys skate off the ice clutching their eyes and screaming the way Pronger did.</p><p>READ KEN CAMPBELL&rsquo;S WEB-EXCLUSIVE COLUMN MONDAYS & FRIDAYS AT <b><a href="http://THN.COM/CAMPBELL">THN.COM/CAMPBELL</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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November 14, 2011

Blast from the Past from The Hockey Hall of Fame

Sweden Loses A Sports Icon

The Instigator

THEBIGPICTURE