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.

May 14, 2012

The Hockey News - May-14-12

<div class="byline">&#x2013; ADAM PROTEAU</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-04675/9640383-1-eng-US/f0012-042.jpg" title="f0012-04" width="777" height="803"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/HHOF-IIHF IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>ith her best year</b> yet, Meghan Agosta continues to cement her status as the planet&rsquo;s best female hockey player. The 25-year-old Canadian scored the tying goal at the 2012 IIHF Women&rsquo;s World Championship gold medal game against the archrival U.S., then assisted on the overtime winner to give her team its first win at that tournament since 2007. In addition, in her first year after finishing a spectacular U.S. college career, the Ruthven, Ont., native set a new points record playing in the Canadian Women&rsquo;s League and led her Montreal Stars to the Clarkson Cup title.</p><p>Oh, and she&rsquo;s also getting married and opening a hockey school in the next few months. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been pretty fortunate this year for sure,&rdquo; Agosta said. &ldquo;My goal is to be the best player in the world and that&rsquo;s not easy because there are a lot of great players out there. But I work as hard as I can and I try and bring my skills and leadership as much as possible.&rdquo;</p><p>The World Championship gold was Agosta&rsquo;s second, to go along with two Olympic gold medals and now a Clarkson Cup. She is only the fifth player in history to join the women&rsquo;s Triple Gold Club (Olympics, World Championship and Clarkson Cup) and in the eyes of many hasn&rsquo;t yet reached her peak. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve come a long way, but there&rsquo;s still things I need to work on,&rdquo; Agosta said. &ldquo;Getting stronger and quicker is a priority for me. And though I was so successful this year and had a lot of fun, I wouldn&rsquo;t have been able to do it without my teammates.&rdquo;</p><p>The WC began in troubling fashion for Canada, which was pounded 9-2 by the U.S. in the opening game and struggled to beat Finland 3-2 in their next outing. However, the U.S. shellacking  wound up being a positive that helped Canada in the final. &ldquo;That first game was an eye-opener, but it brought us closer together as a team,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We just looked at it as a loss and the coaches brought us in and had us talk about what we had to do better. Nobody likes to lose, especially like that, but to be honest I&rsquo;d rather lose that way and learn from it than lose by a closer score and not learn.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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IN THIS ISSUE

A Year To Remember

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-011262/9641104-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"></div><p>FOR INSTANT ACCESS ON YOUR iPad,<sup>&trade;</sup> TABLET, MAC, ANDROID OR PC!</p><p><b><a href="http://THN.COM/DIGITAL">THN.COM/DIGITAL</a></b></p><p><b>GET IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS,</b> CUTTING OPINIONS AND <b>END-TO-END COVERAGE</b> OF ALL 30 NHL TEAMS <b>AND BEYOND!</b></p><p><b>ACTIVATE YOUR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION TODAY!</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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STAY CONNECTED ANYTIME, ANYWHERE

<div class="byline">&nbsp;&#x2013; KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012323/9640138-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="251" height="304"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JAMIE SQUIRE/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021773/9640145-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="57" height="53"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-031254/9640131-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="1100" height="757"><figcaption class="caption-body">GABRIEL BOURQUE <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>Y</span>ou don&rsquo;t want to</b>make bold proclamations, but it&rsquo;s pretty certain no rookie will ever have the effect on a team Ken Dryden did in 1971, when he seemingly came out of nowhere to lead the Montreal Canadiens to the Stanley Cup.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-04710/9640124-1-eng-US/f0008-042.jpg" title="f0008-04" width="148" height="148"></div><p>But that doesn&rsquo;t mean first-year players can&rsquo;t have a significant effect on the proceedings and the first round of this spring&rsquo;s playoffs were providing ample examples. Braden Holtby, who knew? The Philadelphia Flyers were getting massive contributions at both ends of the ice from first-year NHLers Matt Read, Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn, while Gabriel Bourque was scoring goals for Nashville, depositing Colin Wilson in the press box.</p><p>This is all part and parcel of a trend that has developed since the lockout. Young players are increasingly proving they can not only handle the rigors of the NHL, but can thrive in at younger ages now.</p><p>It would stand to reason, then, that those same players would be less intimidated by the crucible of pressure that is the NHL&rsquo;s post-season.</p><p>That&rsquo;s particularly the case with players such as Couturier and Schenn, who have been top prospects since their early teens. Elite players now are subjected to high-level, pressure-filled competition from the time they&rsquo;re 16 years old and once most have reached the NHL, they&rsquo;ve played in a World Junior Championship. Those experiences can&rsquo;t compare with the playoffs in the NHL, but they&rsquo;re close, particularly if you&rsquo;re a Canadian player who has had to handle the pressure of playing in the tournament on home ice. &ldquo;I guess there are pros and cons to that,&rdquo; said Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray, whose team employed four first-year players in the first round. &ldquo;On one hand, you have kids who can come in and play, but on the other you have some kids in (junior) hockey who are bypassed even before they get a chance.&rdquo;</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-05503/9640117-1-eng-US/f0008-052.jpg" title="f0008-05" width="1033" height="924"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>FLYIN&rsquo; FRESHMEN No. 24 Matt Read and No. 14 Sean Couturier played big minutes early in the playoffs.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(LEN REDKOLES/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>There was a time when a lot of rookies would be so physically spent by the end of the regular season they wouldn&rsquo;t have much to give in the playoffs. But elite players now train so diligently and with such purpose in the off-season they often overcome that hurdle.</p><p>In the case of Bourque, there&rsquo;s also a matter of pedigree. Anyone who wins a trophy named after Guy Lafleur is doing something right in the post-season. Bourque won the Lafleur Trophy in 2010 as MVP of the Quebec League playoffs when he led the Moncton Wildcats to the league title and a berth in the Memorial Cup.</p><p>But when you look at Bourque&rsquo;s scoring totals over the years, his regular seasons have not been the least bit eye-popping. It&rsquo;s during the playoffs that he has been at his best, a trend that continued in the Predators&rsquo; first round affair with the Detroit Red Wings. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s part of the reason why we called him up in the middle of the season,&rdquo; said Predators GM David Poile, whose team was also playing rookie defenseman Roman Josi more than 20 minutes a game in the playoffs. &ldquo;His history has shown that the player comes through in big games and he&rsquo;s certainly doing this for us.&rdquo;</p><p>In Philadelphia, Read, Couturier and Schenn were three of the top four rookie scorers in the playoffs and through the first three games of the series, Couturier was being lauded for his success in shutting down MVP candidate Evgeni Malkin.</p><p>Marcus Kruger, meanwhile, was leading all rookie forwards in average ice time in the playoffs, seeing more than 19 minutes a game with the Chicago Blackhawks. &ldquo;These kids are playing,&rdquo; Murray said, &ldquo;and they&rsquo;re playing with a lot of confidence.&rdquo;</p><p><b>10,000</b> Iconic ice resurfacing vehicles produced by Zamboni. The milestone machine was finished in mid-April and was bound for the Bell Centre in Montreal.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Fresh Face, Playoff Punch

<div class="byline">BY DAVID SALTER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0047-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01554/9642269-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>PLAYERS&rsquo; COACH As a bench boss, Terry O&rsquo;Reilly could never handle watching his players being traded away.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(DENIS BRODEUR/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGESN)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>No</b>&nbsp;<b>player has ever</b> epitomized what it means to be a Boston Bruin like Terry O&rsquo;Reilly.</p><p>Tough? Check. Talented? Check. Irish ancestry? Check.</p><p>In the late 1970s, O&rsquo;Reilly was the ringleader of the Lunch Pail Gang, one of the most beloved outfits in Bruins history. As the name suggests, the Bruins of the time took a hard-hat approach to the game &ndash; a tight-knit squad whose success was mostly predicated on an unmatched work ethic.</p><p>Working-class Boston fans saw themselves in O&rsquo;Reilly, who overcame somewhat limited skills, particularly skating, with dogged determination. Nicknamed &lsquo;Taz,&rsquo; as in Tasmanian Devil, the right winger held his own as a pugilist against all comers in arguably hockey&rsquo;s toughest era. His scraps against the likes of Dave Schultz, Paul Holmgren and particularly Clark Gillies are the stuff of legend.</p><p>However, O&rsquo;Reilly sealed his status as a gallery god in Beantown by developing into an effective all-around player, culminating in 1977-78 with a 90-point season. O&rsquo;Reilly&rsquo;s stellar performance that year was rewarded with an appointment to the &rsquo;78 All-Star Game, the second appearance of his career. &ldquo;I spent most of my career playing on a line with Don Marcotte, who had to cover the defensive holes I left when I was going all over the ice,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Reilly said. &ldquo;I also played quite a bit with Peter McNab. But in &rsquo;77-78 I played on a line with Jean Ratelle and Rick Middleton. I got most of my goals from their shots that deflected off me.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>Don Cherry basically horse whipped us</b><br><b><i>&ndash; Terry O&rsquo;Reilly</i></b></blockquote><p>If O&rsquo;Reilly was the face of the Bruins in the late 1970s, coach Don Cherry was the mouth. The two ruffians were a perfect match and not surprisingly O&rsquo;Reilly&rsquo;s best years came with Cherry calling the shots. &ldquo;Don was a great,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Reilly, now 60 and still living in Boston. &ldquo;I enjoyed playing for him. He was a very much a player&rsquo;s coach&hellip;an honest coach. If he saw something he didn&rsquo;t like, he voiced it. You knew where you stood.&rdquo;</p><p>Although O&rsquo;Reilly flourished under Cherry, he never received any preferential treatment. &ldquo;After playing on the weekend we used to have Mondays off most weeks,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Reilly said. &ldquo;On Tuesday we used to have this thing called Black Tuesdays where he used to basically horse whip us. It was nothing personal; he just wanted us to be in better shape so we&rsquo;d have a better chance of beating our next opponents.&rdquo;</p><p>As for Cherry&rsquo;s television exploits after his coaching career ended in 1979-80, O&rsquo;Reilly is not surprised. &ldquo;Don knows the game,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Reilly said. &ldquo;He has good instincts about what a team needs and he speaks his mind about it. Sometimes he steps over the line. But the honest, gut instincts are what the fans like.&rdquo;</p><p>O&rsquo;Reilly appeared in three Stanley Cup finals, scored 606 points and accumulated 2,095 penalty minutes in 891 games &ndash; all with Boston, from 1972 to 1985. He finished his career as captain of the Bruins and to no one&rsquo;s surprise was named coach of the Bruins a year later. O&rsquo;Reilly was behind the bench for three seasons &ndash; highlighted by a berth in the 1988 Stanley Cup final.</p><p>The Niagara Falls, Ont., native relinquished his duties after 1988-89 to be with his ill son and was never a head coach again. O&rsquo;Reilly, whose number 24 was retired by Bruins, is content these days dabbling in real estate and playing with the Bruins alumni.</p><p>Ever the team player, O&rsquo;Reilly said as a coach he could never accept his group being torn apart by trades. &ldquo;I enjoyed the teaching aspect of coaching, being on the ice at practice, the atmosphere,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;However, as a coach, you have to get 20 men to work together liked a well-oiled machine but the possibility of trades was the opposite of doing everything as a team. I had a lot of difficulty with trades.</p><p>&ldquo;You get to know the players and their families and you get close. The Steve Kasper-Jay Miller trade with the Kings for Bobby Carpenter is an example. They were big parts of our dressing room. When you uproot guys like that there&rsquo;s an empty feeling behind.&rdquo;</p><p>FOR MORE TALES OF PAST HOCKEY GREATS, CLICK ON <b><a href="http://THN.COM/BACKCHECKING">THN.COM/BACKCHECKING</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Born For Beantown

<div class="byline">PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDRE RINGUETTE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-012173/9639841-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>Disk Management</b></h2><p><b>Ottawa&rsquo;s Craig Anderson finds pucks much safer to stop when his defense corps clears the traffic first.</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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THEBIGPICTURE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-012206/9639886-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="907" height="580"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JAMIE HODGSON/THN)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>wards voting</b> is a curious animal, especially in today&rsquo;s NHL with so many teams, so many great players and a sprinkling of ambiguity among trophy definitions. In 2011-12, nearly 1,000 players competed for more than 74,000 minutes, making the task of naming the best by category that much more complex.</p><p>To help untangle the tapestry, we&rsquo;ve narrowed the focus of The Hockey News Awards. For example, instead of one Hart-like prize to cover off the player most valuable to his team, we&rsquo;ve separated the honor in two &ndash; MVP and most outstanding player. Similarly, we have a best defenseman and a best defensive defenseman award; comeback player and breakout player.</p><p>This year, we decided to go one step further in determining our MVP, formulating our own version of Moneypuck to identify the top candidates. The winner and all the reams of data can be found in our cover story beginning on pg. 24.</p><p>That quasi-scientific approach mirrors what I&rsquo;ve been doing the past few years to help me come up with my Selke Trophy winner as best defensive forward. For me, the Selke is the slipperiest of the big-fish awards. Defensive excellence can be so subtle and nuanced, especially among forwards. Oftentimes, it&rsquo;s when you don&rsquo;t notice them, shutting down the other team&rsquo;s top scorers, that they&rsquo;re being most effective. So I opted to apply a set of guidelines to lend some objectivity to the process. In order to be considered, a player must:</p><p>1. Play on a team among the top third in goals against.</p><p>2. Play on a team whose penalty killing is among the top dozen.</p><p>3. Be one of his team&rsquo;s top PK forwards in terms of shorthanded time on ice.</p><p>4. Play at least 12 minutes of even-strength time on ice.</p><p>5. Be at least plus-10.</p><p>This season, six players met the criteria: David Backes, Patrice Bergeron, Jannik Hansen, Chris Kelly, Anze Kopitar and T.J. Oshie. I then looked at other variables such as shot-blocking, takeaways, faceoff prowess and shorthanded points as touchstones. And, finally, I relied on personal observation and opinions of qualified professionals to complete the picture. And our winner is&hellip;Boston&rsquo;s Bergeron &ndash; the man who many now recognize as the best two-way player in the game. Runners-up are St. Louis&rsquo; Backes and L.A.&rsquo;s Kopitar. Science has spoken. Partially.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021874/9639879-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="508" height="259"></div><h2><b>LISTEN UP!</b></h2><p><b>THE HOCKEY NEWS RADIO SHOW</b></p><p><b>FRIDAYS 3-4 EST XM 92</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031509/9639872-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="187" height="77"></div><p><b>SIRIUS 207 IN USA</b></p><p><b>NEXT</b>&nbsp;<b>ISSUE</b> MAY 28, 2012</p><p>&nbsp;<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><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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An Awarding Experience

<p><b>PUBLISHER</b> Caroline Andrews</p><p><b>EDITOR IN CHIEF</b> Jason Kay</p><h2><b>EDITORIAL</b></h2><p><b>SENIOR EDITOR</b></p><p>Brian Costello</p><p>&nbsp;<b>MANAGING EDITOR</b></p><p>Edward Fraser</p><p>&nbsp;<b>SENIOR WRITER</b></p><p>Ken Campbell</p><p><b>ASSOCIATE SENIOR WRITER</b></p><p>Ryan Kennedy</p><p><b>COLUMNIST/WRITER</b></p><p>Adam Proteau</p><p>&nbsp;<b>COPY EDITORS</b></p><p>Matt Larkin, Ronnie Shuker</p><h2><b>ART</b></h2><p><b>SR. ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR</b></p><p>Erika Vanderveer</p><p>&nbsp;<b>DESIGNER</b></p><p> Gregory Pynn</p><h2><b><a href="http://THN.com">THN.com</a></b></h2><p>&nbsp;<b>WEB EDITOR</b></p><p> Rory Boylen</p><p><b>VIDEO PRODUCER</b></p><p> Ted Cooper</p><p><b>INTERNS</b> Liz Bevan, Danielle Emanuele, Callum McCarthy, Andrew Mendler, Michael Stephens</p><p><b>DIRECTOR, MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS</b> Tracy Finkelstein</p><p>&nbsp;<b>MEDIA RELATIONS</b> Janis Davidson Pressick - pressickj@tc.tc</p><p>&nbsp;<b>MARKETING SPECIALIST</b> Carlie McGhee</p><p><b>COORDINATOR</b> Alyson Young <b>INTERN</b> Lauren Day</p><p>&nbsp;<b>DESIGNER</b> Corissa Bagan</p><p><b>INTERN</b> Lauren Day</p><p><b>PHOTOGRAPHER</b> Getty Images</p><p>&nbsp;<b>CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS</b> Steve & Brian Babineau, Hockey Hall of Fame</p><p><b>TORONTO PRODUCTION MANAGER</b> John Palmeri</p><p><b>PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR</b> Pamela Reyes</p><p><b>GENERAL SALES MANAGER - TORONTO</b> Kori Kobzina</p><p><b>ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR</b> Sandra Yakimchick</p><p>&nbsp;<b>NATIONAL ACCOUNT MANAGERS</b> Dave Burgess, Nicole Mullin</p><p><b>MARKETPLACE SALES & SALES CO-ORDINATOR</b> Sharlane Valleau</p><p><b>KEY ACCOUNT DIRECTORS</b> Monique Hourd</p><p><b>KEY ACCOUNT SALES ASSOCIATES</b> Paul Jaramillo, Patricia Mixemong</p><p>&nbsp;<b>DIRECTOR 360&deg; SOLUTIONS</b> Patricia Chateauneuf</p><p>&nbsp;<b>ACCOUNT DIRECTOR 360&deg; SOLUTIONS</b> Connie Corner, Jessica Scott</p><p><b>PROMOTIONS ART DIRECTOR</b> Peter Robertson</p><p><b>BUSINESS MANAGER</b> Nancy Baker</p><p><b>ASSOCIATE BUSINESS MANAGER</b> Angel Palacios</p><p><b>NEWSSTAND DIRECTOR</b> Pat Strangis</p><p><b>DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER</b> Jason Patterson</p><p>&nbsp;<b>VICE PRESIDENT, CONSUMER MARKETING</b> Christopher Purcell</p><p>&nbsp;<b>PRODUCT MANAGER</b> Sylvain Awad</p><p><b>CIRCULATION DIRECTOR, CONSUMER MARKETING GROUP</b> Doris Chan</p><p>&nbsp;<b>EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT</b> Linda Gill</p><p><b>RESEARCH MANAGER</b> Wendy Lambie</p><p>&nbsp;<b>SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST</b> Eva Chau</p><h2><b>TRANSCONTINENTAL MEDIA G.P.</b></h2><p><b>PRESIDENT</b> Natalie Larivi&egrave;re</p><p><b>SENIOR VP, BUSINESS AND CONSUMER SOLUTIONS GROUP</b> Pierre Marcoux</p><p><b>SENIOR VP, DIGITAL SOLUTIONS</b> Bruno Leclaire</p><p><b>SENIOR VP, MULTIPLATFORM MEDIA AND DEVELOPMENT</b> Philippe Lapointe</p><p><b>SENIOR VP, SALES & 360&deg; SOLUTIONS AND KEY ACCOUNTS</b> Reneault Poliquin</p><p><b>VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE</b> Haig Poutchigian</p><p>&nbsp;<b>VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING</b> Mathieu Peloquin<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

The Hockey News

<h2><b>Campbell Call Out</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>s everyone enjoying the rivalry-filled, fight-filled playoffs? I for one am <i>extremely</i> entertained. This is the type of hockey I, and most fans, crave. But don&rsquo;t worry, Ken, the Olympics are just around the corner; big ice, no fights, right up your alley, eh?</p><h2><b>Wise Guys, Eh?</b></h2><p>How ironic the new <i>Three Stooges</i> movie is playing in a theater near you. Given the violence, cheap shots and outright attempts to injure during the first round, Larry, Curly and Moe could do a better job of running the NHL. If league brass is proud of the first round, this is a sad day for professional sports. Why not let players use their God-given talents to play the game with art and grace instead of these games that look like gang wars on ice?</p><p><i>Rev. Joseph Moreno, Buffalo</i></p><h2><b>True Self-Policing</b></h2><p>I&rsquo;m loving the playoff intensity. Do these guys want to win or what? But there&rsquo;s a lot of talk about respect among the players. Do you let them fight it out for justice? Do you suspend them and for how long? Let the NHLPA decide what suspensions are. Then we&rsquo;ll really find out what the players think matters most.</p><p><i>Glen Townsend, Mount Forest, Ont.</i></p><h2><b>Let&rsquo;s Get Physical</b></h2><p>Your story &ldquo;Game Is The Same&rdquo; (April 16) shows stats indicating fighting falls by two-thirds and hitting increases by more than 15 hits per game in the playoffs. So much for the argument that taking fighting out of the game would reduce physicality. Physicality might actually increase if players would not jump a player after every clean hit.</p><p><i>Brian Hunsberger, Waterloo, Ont.</i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03980/9639955-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="458" height="625"></div><h2><b>Ronnie Forgotten</b></h2><p>That you didn&rsquo;t mention Hall of Famer Ron Francis in the list of stars who helped lead the 1993 Penguins is almost as laughable as calling this year&rsquo;s team the franchise&rsquo;s best (Primal Penguins, April 16). Only Wayne Gretzky has more career assists than Francis. Seems the most underrated superstar in NHL history has a new title: overlooked.</p><p><i>Dan Cook, Blue Bell, Pa.</i></p><h2><b>Face Frustration</b></h2><p>Concussion jokes aside, if I see Sidney Crosby on another cover (April 30) I&rsquo;m going to beat my head against a wall.</p><p><i>Andrew Spilar, Markham, Ont</i>.</p><h2><b>Adapt Or Die</b></h2><p>It&rsquo;s frustrating to read the constant flow of letters from fans imploring the NHL to not make any changes. Any good business must evolve to be relevant and improve. Today&rsquo;s larger, stronger and quicker players, along with improvement in equipment technology, scream for rules to ensure safety. The league also simply has to make changes to promote more offense. The reduction in goals is tied directly to increased goaltender size and equipment. Let&rsquo;s encourage the NHL to keep making changes and remain the most exciting sport to watch.</p><p><i>Terry Fraser, Sellersburg, Ind.</i></p><p><b>Submit your letter and see rules at: <a href="http://THN.COM/LETTERS">thn.com/letters</a></b></p><h3><b>SPILL FOR A DRILL!</b></h3><p><b>The author of our lead letter</b>&nbsp;<b>next issue wins a Premium</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-05489/9639948-1-eng-US/f0006-052.jpg" title="f0006-05" width="194" height="61"></div><p><b>DEWALT 20V MAX* Hammerdrill!</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012433/9639941-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="334" height="334"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

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THN INBOX

<div class="byline">Brock Holowachuk, Oakbank, Man.</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span> have two girls, aged seven and five. Neither plays hockey; their games are soccer and dance. They are active and athletic kids and, thanks to their dad and the Winnipeg Jets, are becoming fans of the game. I recently asked them if they wanted to play. My younger daughter said, no, because she didn&rsquo;t want to get in fights. Pause for a moment and think about what that means coming from a five-year-old. For me, that&rsquo;s enough reason to say the game should evolve and make fighting a thing of the past.</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021652/9639986-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="984" height="1160"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>TANNER GLASS & STU BICKEL</b> <span class="photo-credit">(TRAVIS GOLBY/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0006-02

NO TYKE FIGHTS

<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04625/9640017-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg" title="f0006-04" width="123" height="117"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>@HaNdFuLoFgReG:</b></h2><p>If I were Sabres GM, I&rsquo;d deal Thomas Vanek or Tyler Myers and 12th overall pick for Yakupov. #goalswingames</p><h2><b>@JeffdlS:</b></h2><p>Trade Trevor Daley, Sheldon Souray (just so they can send him back to the minors) and Jordie Benn for Nail.</p><h2><b>@billwinters18:</b></h2><p>I would trade Wade Redden. Don&rsquo;t really want Yakupov after his injury, but if I could unload Redden&hellip;</p><h2><b>@RTwhitePR:</b></h2><p>I wouldn&rsquo;t trade for a Russian unless I&rsquo;m trading a Russian. Can only afford to supply so much of the KHL.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0006-04

WHO WOULD YOU TRADE FOR NAIL YAKUPOV?

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021467/9640048-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="482" height="306"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVE REGINEK/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/f0007-012160/9640055-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="85" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p><b>Nashville 11%</b></p><p>Philadelphia 10%</p><p>Los Angeles 8%</p><p>Boston 7%</p><p>St. Louis 6%</p><p>Chicago 6%</p><p>Detroit 4%</p><p>Pittsburgh 4%</p><p>Winnipeg 4%</p><p>Rangers 4%</p><p>Florida 4%</p><p>Others 32%<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0007-02

POLLRESULTS

<p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>dam, isn&rsquo;t a goalie in the trapezoid fair game? In Hawks-Coyotes, the collision between Andrew Shaw and Mike Smith got Shaw ejected, but he was chasing the puck.</b></p><p><i>Thomas Roscoe, Carmel, N.Y.</i></p><p>Thomas, Rule 69.4 states &ldquo;a goalkeeper is not &lsquo;fair game&rsquo; just because he is outside the goal crease&rdquo; and that contact with a goalie playing the puck outside his crease is allowed if &ldquo;the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such unnecessary contact.&rdquo; The grey area is &ldquo;reasonable effort.&rdquo; In suspending Shaw, NHL brass believed he could&rsquo;ve avoided Smith. Yet Milan Lucic wasn&rsquo;t suspended for colliding with Ryan Miller. The NHL interprets rules subjectively, so expect more decisions like these.</p><p><b>Adam, as a Sens fan, I&rsquo;ve enjoyed Erik Karlsson&rsquo;s stats rise. But other great D-men (Doughty, Keith) have regressed after huge years. Will Karlsson return to 40-50 points?</b></p><p><i>Derek Bulsink, Wallceburg, Ont.</i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03915/9640086-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="913" height="716"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MIKE SMITH</b> <span class="photo-credit">(CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Derek, it&rsquo;s likely Karlsson&rsquo;s numbers plateau or drop a bit. But that&rsquo;s no slight on him. It&rsquo;s a recognition of how much teams lean on young players and how wildly over-expectant some people are in thinking a player will improve by leaps and bounds every season. P.K. Subban boosted his assist total and went from minus-8 to plus-9, yet many people weren&rsquo;t satisfied. Development isn&rsquo;t linear and easy. Teams make adjustments and sometimes players&rsquo; adaptations to those adjustments take longer than expected.</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>

f0007-03

ASK ADAM

<div class="byline">By Charlie Teljeur</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-012074/9640176-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0009-01

The Instigator

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021449/9640207-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="243" height="329"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>+PLUS</b></h2><h3><b>WE&rsquo;RE ALL WATCHING</b></h3><p class="dropcap"><i><span>T</span>hanks to nastiness between</i>&nbsp;<b><i>Claude Giroux&rsquo;s</i></b>&nbsp;<i>Flyers and Sidney Crosby&rsquo;s Penguins, ratings in the first round were huge in Canada and the U.S.</i></p><h2><b>&ndash;MINUS</b></h2><h3><b>TINY NET, BIG PROBLEM</b></h3><p><i>Brinksmanship in Detroit sees Todd Bertuzzi call security on the Preds for using Wings&rsquo; ping-pong table.</i></p><h2><b>+PLUS</b></h2><h3><b>NEEDS MORE ICE</b></h3><p><i>Indiana, one of the more popular teams in the United States League, will play majority of games in NBA Pacers&rsquo; building next year.</i></p><h2><b>&ndash;MINUS</b></h2><h3><b>HOST WITH NO BOAST</b></h3><p><i>Controversial Memorial Cup host Shawinigan can&rsquo;t even get past second round of QMJHL playoffs.</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0009-02

PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">&nbsp;&#x2013; JEFF BLAY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012294/9640245-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GARY PETERSON/ACTION SPORTS IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>hen he&rsquo;s not busy</b> scoring goals, throwing hits or sticking up for teammates on the ice, Ottawa Senators draft pick Darren Kramer focuses much of his energy on his inventive side. The 20-year-old captain of the Western League&rsquo;s Spokane Chiefs has a patent-pending invention that revolves around his favorite pre-game snack topping: peanut butter.</p><p>After getting his sizable hands stuck in the jar too many times, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound native of Peace River, Alta., thought of a more efficient design: a jar that unscrews at the top and the middle, providing easier access to the remaining product at the bottom with a lid that attaches at both levels.</p><p>Kramer, who&rsquo;s now played two seasons with the Chiefs, thought of the idea while playing for the Alberta Junior League&rsquo;s Grande Prairie Storm as a 17-year-old. &ldquo;I was sitting around in the dressing room one day and my teammate&rsquo;s father had an invention that he became pretty wealthy off,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Then I started thinking of every day nuisances and I thought of peanut butter and how it would always end up on my hand when it got to the bottom of the jar.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021677/9640238-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="474" height="759"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BOTTOM FEEDER Darren Kramer&rsquo;s peanut butter jar opens from the middle so the bottom is easier to reach.</b></figcaption></div><p>After creating a prototype, Kramer filed for a patent in 2009. Since then, he&rsquo;s collected 506 penalty minutes and 72 fighting majors over two WHL seasons, which, according to Kramer, has made the aforementioned nuisance even more inconvenient. &ldquo;I already have big hands to begin with, but with swollen hands or knuckles it definitely makes things worse.&rdquo;</p><p>While Kramer hasn&rsquo;t had any offers on his jar yet, it has gained popularity on YouTube (search Darren Kramer&rsquo;s Innovative Jar). But the project took an interesting twist in March when he connected with Jonas Lalehzadeh, a former NCAA Div. I basketball player for the University of California Irvine, who had been working on a similar idea himself. &ldquo;We had never heard of each other before, but just a few weeks ago we got in touch and now we&rsquo;re partnering up and putting our ideas together,&rdquo; Kramer said, adding the pair filed for patents a month-and-a-half apart. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be joining his team and we&rsquo;re just trying to get as much publicity as possible.&rdquo;</p><p>Kramer became a more complete player this season, jumping from 14 to 40 points in 71 games and reducing his PIM from 306 to 200, but he&rsquo;s still known for his physical role.</p><p>He identifies with fellow tough guys who now have a hand in business, like retired NHLer Georges Laraque, president  of synthetic ice company Super-Glide Canada, and current Ottawa Senator Zenon Konopka, who has several endeavors in the wine industry. &ldquo;Jon Klemm, my assistant coach in Spokane, had a 15-year NHL career and said a lot of tough guys he played with had a business side to them as well,&rdquo; Kramer said. &ldquo;Maybe the stereotype should be that many tough guys are also successful in business, instead of some of the negative stuff that goes around these days.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0010-01

Agitator To Innovator

<div class="byline">&#x2013; STEVE LEPORE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011920/9640276-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="248" height="252"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>t the end of</b> the first weekend of the Stanley Cup playoffs, hockey fans in the United States had a lot to cheer or complain about on the ice. But off the ice, the coverage of the post-season has never been better.</p><p>It wasn&rsquo;t perfect, with some games still grabbing feeds from Canadian networks and local channels, but the NHL is in a brighter place on American television when it comes to its post-season coverage.</p><p>Thanks to its $2-billion contract with NBC, every game of the post-season now airs somewhere, whether on NBC, its fledgling NBC Sports Network, business channel CNBC or the still-growing NHL Network.</p><p>Ad space for the playoffs on TV is virtually sold out and executives say it&rsquo;s the desirable demographic the NHL reaches that has prompted this level of coverage. &ldquo;The young, male, affluent demo is really the cream of the sports audience,&rdquo; said John Collins, the NHL&rsquo;s chief operating officer. &ldquo;It is very easily accessible to blue-chip advertisers and marketers.&rdquo;</p><p>The strategy has paid off for everyone. Ratings for post-season coverage on NBCSN are up 22 percent from 2011. CNBC has nearly doubled its prime-time audience. But the best measure of success is NBC itself, which drew a 2.3 overnight rating (measuring the numbers in the top 56 urban-U.S. television markets) for Game 3 between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia &ndash; the best for a non-Cup-final playoff game since 2002 in the heyday of the Detroit-Colorado rivalry.</p><p>Debate was polarized regarding the on-ice antics in Round 1. But for the NHL, the lucrative American market is looking a whole lot better.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0011-01

Ratings Soar

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0011-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021394/9640307-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE</b>&nbsp;<b>HOCKEY WORLD</b> embraced the post-lockout paradigm shift. But after seven seasons questions have arisen about the officiating standard. Are refs calling it differently or have players just adjusted? In most cases, a lot fewer infractions were called in 2011-12 than in the league&rsquo;s first year back. The most extreme case: There were 4524 hooking calls in 2005-06 and only 1356 this season.</p><p><b>PENALTY MINUTES FOR EACH INFRACTION PER SEASON AFTER THE LOCKOUT</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0011-02

Pim TRIM

<div class="byline">&nbsp;&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012240/9640352-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="757" height="1135"><figcaption class="caption-body">JORDAN EBERLE <span class="photo-credit">(JUKKA RAUTIO/IIHF)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021759/9640345-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="973" height="1042"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN TAVARES <span class="photo-credit">(ALEX GRIMM/BONGARTS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>hen Canada took gold</b> at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the roster came in at an average age of 27.5. And though young bucks such as Sidney Crosby and Drew Doughty were part of that crew, fellow phenoms Steven Stamkos and John Tavares were not, meaning the potential squad for 2014 in Sochi will skew quite a bit younger.</p><p>Before that Russian sojourn even becomes a possibility, however, there is the matter of the World Championship.</p><p>In Europe, the event is lionized. In North America, it&rsquo;s that tournament during the NHL playoffs featuring the stars from cruddy teams that missed the big dance or were eliminated early. But for many players, it&rsquo;s an audition for the Olympics &ndash; which everybody cares about.</p><p>Canada&rsquo;s entry at the worlds this spring included Tavares, Jordan Eberle and P.K. Subban &ndash; players who are by no means locks for the Olympics, but at least bring intrigue to the table. And with big names like Martin Brodeur, Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer aging out, there are spots to be filled.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-031131/9640338-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="271" height="369"></div><p>Similarly, Team USA is bringing Cam Fowler and Justin Faulk to the party and though the Americans have a lot of talent aligned for Sochi, it&rsquo;s tough to say where players will be two years down the road.</p><p>But on top of providing meaningful ice time for potential new Olympians, the World Championship will also determine which nation is ranked No. 1 overall by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Right now, Russia holds the title, followed by Finland, Sweden and Canada. Team USA is ranked sixth (behind the Czech Republic) and, for the sake of completion, Bosnia-Herzegovina is 48th, good for last place.</p><p>The rankings are based on points earned through the past four world championships and most recent Olympics. Canada, for example, was tops at the Olympics but missed opportunities for points by finishing fifth at last year&rsquo;s worlds and seventh prior to that. Two gold-medal game losses to Russia in 2008 and &lsquo;09 kept the Canucks near the top overall, but the 2008 result will be dropped in favor of this year&rsquo;s finish in Helsinki and Stockholm, so it&rsquo;s basically gold or bust if Canada wants to keep pace with its European rivals.</p><p>Movement in the rankings is generally slow and no country rose or fell more than two spots over the past year. This is largely due to the fact the points awarded for finishes are packed fairly close together. Finland and Canada flipped spots thanks to the 6-1 Suomi victory over archrival Sweden at last year&rsquo;s World Championship in Slovakia. They exploded for five third-period goals to clinch their first gold medal since 1995.</p><p>In international signs of the times, Norway  and Germany both leapt past Slovakia, which rounds out the bottom of the top 10. Switzerland is No. 7.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0012-01

Canadian Kids

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-012213/9640414-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(2012 SESAME WORKSHOP)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021663/9640428-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="130" height="138"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-07316/9640421-1-eng-US/f0014-072.jpg" title="f0014-07" width="130" height="138"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></div>

f0014-01

Wacky Awards

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-031128/9640466-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="830" height="652"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>C</span>ould</b>&nbsp;<b>the Vancouver Canucks</b> be doing double duty as cheerleaders? Or is there a rat problem in the players&rsquo; dressing room? Send us your funniest caption for a shot at some swag from The Hockey News. We&rsquo;ll publish our favorites in the June 1 issue.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04771/9640459-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="183" height="156"></div><p><b>To win, submit your entry at <a href="http://www.thn.com/caption">www.thn.com/caption</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0014-03

Caption CONTEST

<p><b>$17,945,000</b>&nbsp;Jeremy Welsh&rsquo;s 2011-12 cap hit with Carolina, due mostly to his $92,500 signing bonus being pro-rated across the entire season. Welsh, a Ferris State product, signed with the Canes after the Bulldogs lost in the final of the Frozen Four and played just one game.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Big NUMBER

<p><b>AGE:</b> 58</p><p><b>WEIGHT:</b> 325 pounds</p><p>&nbsp;<b>HEIGHT:</b> 8-foot-1</p><p><b>POSITION:</b> Roving ambassador</p><p><b>ATTIRE:</b> Red cap with black buttons and <i>ceinture flechee</i></p><p><b>JOB DESCRIPTION:</b> Make sure people have fun time at Quebec City Winter Carnival</p><p><b>NOTABLE ACCOLADE:</b> Ranked third in the world&rsquo;s 10 creepiest mascots by <i>The Magazine</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>RETIREMENT:</b> Doesn&rsquo;t plan on it &ndash; ever</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-05529/9640528-1-eng-US/f0014-052.jpg" title="f0014-05" width="562" height="734"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-06408/9640521-1-eng-US/f0014-062.jpg" title="f0014-06" width="532" height="739"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHILLIP MACCALLUM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>AGE:</b> 26</p><p><b>WEIG HT:</b> 140 pounds</p><p><b>HEIG HT:</b> 5-foot-7</p><p><b>POSI TION:</b> Defense</p><p><b>ATTIRE:</b> Red Team Canada sweater with black accents and <i>joie de vivre</i></p><p><b>JOB DESCRIPTION:</b>&nbsp;Make sure opposing forwards have a miserable time at WC</p><p><b>NOTABLE ACCOLADE:</b> Ranked 89th in THN&rsquo;s 2011 People of Power issue, tops among female players</p><p><b>RETIREMENT:</b>&nbsp;She&rsquo;s not saying<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0014-05

BONHOMME CARNAVAL vs. TESSA BONHOMME

<div class="byline">&nbsp;&#x2013; KATHY GIERER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-031107/9640559-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>FOR THE BOYS Ian Vigier and Orrin Hergott (bottom center) celebrated their title with their newborns.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(COURTESY COLUMBUS COTTONMOUTHS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>The Columbus</b> Cotton-mouths captured their second Southern Pro League title thanks in large part to a pair of proud papas.</p><p>The Cottonmouths swept the best-of-three final from the Pensacola Ice Flyers in mid-April with goalie Ian Vigier and veteran center Orrin Hergott playing prominent roles on and off the ice. Both became dads during the 2011-12 season and their fresh roles as first-time fathers injected new life into their careers.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021519/9640566-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="206" height="146"></div><p>Hergott is the lone remaining member of the Cottonmouths&rsquo; team that hoisted the league&rsquo;s inaugural Cup in 2005. His eighth year in the league turned into a comeback season of sorts after his son Nixon was born to the assistant captain and his wife, Fonda, on Oct. 8, just days before training camp. As Hergott adjusted to his new role as a dad, he found his offensive game, posting 47 points after three disappointing seasons in which he never notched more than 27. &ldquo;Sometimes I still can&rsquo;t believe I&rsquo;m a dad,&rdquo; Hergott said. &ldquo;Guys always told me it changes your life and they&rsquo;re right. &ldquo;</p><p>Meanwhile, Vigier and his wife, Maggie, became proud parents when their son Paxton arrived in early January. Vigier went on to be named the SPHL&rsquo;s goaltender of the year after going 21-7-3 with a 2.56 goals-against  average, a .914 save percentage and a pair of shutouts. &ldquo;Having him helped me as a player,&rdquo; Vigier said. &ldquo;I matured a lot &ndash; I&rsquo;m a parent first. It helped me relax on the ice. If I let in a goal, at the end of the day, I still got to come home and hold my son.&rdquo;</p><p>Despite his impressive stats, Vigier was even better in the playoffs. In the Cottonmouths&rsquo; 6-0 playoff run &ndash; which included best-of-three series sweeps over Louisiana, Huntsville and Pensacola in the final &ndash; Vigier was nearly impenetrable, never allowing more than two goals in any game and posting a miniscule 1.30 GAA and a .956 SP. &ldquo;It hasn&rsquo;t set in yet,&rdquo; Vigier said after the 3-1 win over the Ice Flyers to seal the championship. &ldquo;The guys did an unbelievable job keeping the pucks to the outside. I saw everything tonight.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0016-03

Two Men And Two Babies

<div class="byline">&nbsp;&#x2013; KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011983/9640597-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="477" height="845"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT STUDIOS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>E</span>mile &lsquo;Butch&rsquo; Bouchard was</b> hockey&rsquo;s indisputable strong man. He was a classic defensive defenseman, scoring more than 10 goals just once in a 15-year career with the Montreal Canadiens. And though he was the most imposing physical player at the time, the highest penalty minutes total he ever registered was 88.</p><p>Bouchard died April 14 at 92.</p><p>The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Hab used his size and strength to his advantage, but didn&rsquo;t fight much and refused to use his physical advantage to be anything more than a peacekeeper. The fact he rarely fought is attributable to the fact opponents realized it was a good idea not to provoke him. Bouchard often used his enormous hands to pull combatants apart. &ldquo;It was like he was chiselled out of stone,&rdquo; former teammate Dickie Moore once said. &ldquo;He had the biggest shoulders and the smallest waist I had ever seen.&rdquo;</p><p>After a short stint in the minors, Bouchard landed in the NHL for good in 1941-42 and became a regular on the blueline the following season. And it wasn&rsquo;t long before Stanley Cups followed. The Canadiens ended a 13-year drought in 1944 and won the Cup again two years later. Goalie Bill Durnan became captain for a short time after Toe Blake retired, but then the &lsquo;C&rsquo; was handed to Bouchard in 1948-49 and he held it for eight full seasons. Only Jean Beliveau and Saku Koivu have enjoyed longer tenures than Bouchard as captain of the Canadiens (Bob Gainey was also captain for eight seasons).</p><p>Bouchard was a member of two more Cup winners as captain, including his final season, which was the first in the Canadiens&rsquo; five-Cup dynasty of the late 1950s. After playing only half the season in 1955-56, Bouchard missed the entire playoffs with a knee injury, but coach Blake dressed Bouchard for Game 5 of the final against the Detroit Red Wings. He sat on the bench for most of the game, but with the Canadiens leading 3-1 in the series and 3-1 late in Game 5, Blake sent Bouchard out for the last shift of his career and he was on the blueline when the buzzer sounded in the deciding game.</p><p>Bouchard&rsquo;s legacy with the Canadiens continued when his son, Pierre, joined the team in 1970-71. Pierre, who had his father&rsquo;s exact height and weight, won five Cups with the Canadiens, making the Bouchards the most Stanley  Cup-decorated father-son combination in NHL history. Bobby and Brett Hull are the only other father-son duo to have their names on the Cup as players.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0016-01

Peaceful Pro

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011861/9640656-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021390/9640649-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="1254" height="1412"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JOHN RUSSELL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>On April 16, 9:15 a.m., Ryan Kennedy wrote:</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span> do. I don&rsquo;t think we should be surprised at the bad blood. You have players whose entire lives have been based around winning the Stanley Cup and none of them want to back down. Obviously the cheap shots are a problem, but I love that guys are sticking up for their teammates. Brian Boyle goes after Erik Karlsson, so Matt Carkner makes him pay. The NHL hasn&rsquo;t levied enough suspensions to discourage the behavior, so it&rsquo;s like a tacit endorsement. I&rsquo;d rather see players do that than do nothing. What&rsquo;s that old saying about good men standing by when evil is around? Ask Ryan Miller about that one.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 9:39 a.m., Adam Proteau wrote:</b></h2><p>I agree with Ryan regarding the line about good men standing by while evil is around. Unfortunately, the true evil and damage to the game is done when the good men standing around are the ones in the NHL&rsquo;s head office as the game regresses into a disrespectful, chaotic circus. Yet again this post-season, the NHL has reaffirmed its commitment to letting players &ldquo;police&rsquo;&rdquo; themselves. And what an honorable job they&rsquo;ve done! We&rsquo;ve seen pro-wrestling-style head smashes into the glass, blindside sucker punches and your usual, garden-variety, over-the-top assaults. For me, there&rsquo;s nothing admirable about that.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 9:51 a.m., Rory Boylen wrote:</b></h2><p>Who doesn&rsquo;t like the circus? It&rsquo;s all about entertainment and you can&rsquo;t tell me the thousands of fans on their feet at these games aren&rsquo;t entertained. At the end of the day, that&rsquo;s what the NHL is all about. I can&rsquo;t help but laugh when I hear the argument  that bad blood damages the game. This is nothing new to the sport and provides the color in its history. Sure, the league needs to take a stronger stand and have a steadfast voice in supplemental discipline for brutal cheap shots, but there is never more attention being paid to the league than when fighting asserts itself as a major talking point. The fans enjoy it and it&rsquo;s not as though fisticuffs is an entertainment activity rejected by all society outside of the hockey world. People love hate and the NHL sells it by the bushel.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 10:11 a.m., Ken Campbell wrote:</b></h2><p>You can&rsquo;t have it both ways, buddy. The reason why there are &ldquo;brutal cheap shots&rdquo; in the first place is because of the culture of violence that permeates this game.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 10:12 a.m., Ryan Kennedy wrote:</b></h2><p>And sells it well. The ratings for Game 3 of Philly vs. Pittsburgh were the highest for a non-Stanley Cup final game on NBC in a full decade. Fans are voting with their eyeballs.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 10:14 a.m., Adam Proteau wrote:</b></h2><p>Well, hey, since we&rsquo;re in full-on pander mode, why not insert some attractive naked people in the broadcasts and put them on the ice? Ratings are guaranteed to go up!</p><h2><b>On April 16, 10:15 a.m., Ken Campbell wrote:</b></h2><p>If violence sells so well, why is the NHL reduced to a rump sport in the U.S.? Why does it almost exclusively show the games on cable channels? If it&rsquo;s true that violence sells &ndash; in the real world and not the fantasy of movies &ndash; the NHL numbers would make NFL viewership look like the turnout for a Pauly Shore fan club meeting. Violence sells to a very small audience, one to which the NHL pathetically thinks it needs to cater toward because it doesn&rsquo;t have enough faith in the product on the ice.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04672/9640642-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="1013" height="722"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Attached:</b> Kris_Letang_pummels_Kimmo_ Timonen_then_gets_ejected.jpg <span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>On April 16, 10:57 a.m., Rory Boylen wrote:</b></h2><p>You make it sound like the NFL is a non-violent league, Ken. Hockey is a niche sport because of the cost and conditions needed to play, not because of the violence. The rate of players coming out of the U.S. is growing &ndash; even in non-traditional markets.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-05461/9640635-1-eng-US/f0018-052.jpg" title="f0018-05" width="1250" height="807"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Attached:</b> Old_time_hockey_breaks_out_in_ Philadelphia_in_Game_3.jpg <span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>On April 16, 11:19 a.m., Ken Campbell wrote:</b></h2><p>The NFL is a not a non-violent league, but it is a non-gratuitously violent league. Look back in history and you&rsquo;ll see the NCAA was formed mainly because the rogues who were running football at the time were promoting a dangerous style of play that was reckless and shameful. And the NFL has proved beyond a reasonable doubt with its handling of coach Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints that it has no appetite for beyond-the-rulebook violence that puts its players in danger and compromises the integrity of the league. That&rsquo;s what real leagues whose leaders have real spines do. You can have violent collisions without gratuitous violence.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 11:37 a.m., Adam Proteau wrote:</b></h2><p>Oh, and the NFL also made mid-season adjustments to clamp down on head injuries in 2010. By comparison, the NHL hides behind nebulous scrutiny-proofed terms like the &ldquo;fabric&rdquo; and/or &ldquo;history&rdquo; of our game. That&rsquo;s why Brendan Shanahan&rsquo;s supplemental discipline system has been so widely mocked. And that&rsquo;s why suspensions are like snowflakes &ndash; no two are ever the same and all of them fall apart when examined under a light source.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 11:50 a.m., Ryan Kennedy wrote:</b></h2><p>Consistency would go a long way in sorting out where the line actually is when it comes to on-the-edge vs. over-the-edge play. But wherever that line is, it doesn&rsquo;t change the fact sticking up for teammates by fighting is something that clearly brings teams together (and we know because the players tell us after the games) and these guys are trying to win the hardest tournament in major sports. Why are they wrong about how they feel and anti-fighting writers right?</p><h2><b>On April 16, 12:14 p.m., A. Proteau wrote:</b></h2><p>To imply all NHLers endorse the fighting culture is to ignore the league&rsquo;s stars who&rsquo;ve consistently spoken out against it. Mike Bossy, Ken Dryden, Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Hull, Serge Savard, Guy Lafleur and many others have been fully prepared to criticize and offer solutions that have been summarily rejected by the exceptionalist hockey establishment. Beyond that, there&rsquo;s a growing number of people currently involved in overseeing the sport who aren&rsquo;t fighting apologists, including Canadian League president David Branch and Hockey Canada boss Bob Nicholson. It&rsquo;s not just writers who are anti-fighting.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-06361/9640628-1-eng-US/f0018-062.jpg" title="f0018-06" width="682" height="868"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Attached:</b> Marian_Hossa_after_the_ Raffi_Torres_hit.jpg <span class="photo-credit">(JONATHAN DANIEL/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>On April 16, 1:23 p.m., Rory Boylen wrote:</b></h2><p>A poll on <a href="http://THN.com">thn.com</a> asked readers if they&rsquo;ve enjoyed the playoffs so far and 86 percent voted yes. Those who have a deep problem with bad blood are in the minority. Should we just ignore the 86 percent? Do their opinions mean nothing? This has made for great TV.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 1:45 p.m., Ken Campbell wrote:</b></h2><p>How on Earth can you say with any degree of certainty the 86 percent of people who say they are enjoying the playoffs like the garbage that has gone on? I&rsquo;m enjoying the playoffs, too, but I think they&rsquo;re being hijacked by this stuff. One thing we do know, however, is that 82 percent of the people who responded to a different poll on the site think the league&rsquo;s discipline system has failed.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 2:27 p.m., Rory Boylen wrote:</b></h2><p>I can&rsquo;t say the entire 86 percent like this so-called &ldquo;garbage,&rdquo; but I think most of them are OK with it since 82 percent voted earlier this season that fighting has a place in hockey.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 2:57 p.m., Ryan Kennedy wrote:</b></h2><p>Seems to me the majority of fans don&rsquo;t like the Carl Hagelin elbows, Raffi Torres air-leaps or Shea Weber head-smashing, but in the absence of proper league discipline (or maybe even if it was there) they like the players to stick up for their blood-brother teammates with fists or heavy checks. It&rsquo;s easy for people off the ice (or a handful of finesse Hall of Famers who were always sheltered by tough teammates, Adam) to cluck about violence, but those in the trenches are well aware of the stakes and have chosen their path as adults with free will.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 3:35 p.m., Adam Proteau wrote:</b></h2><p>Mike Bossy had his career ended prematurely by the relentless physical decimation of cross-checks to the back. I&rsquo;d hardly call him a finesse player. I guess what you call finesse players, I call Lady Byng Award winners &ndash; true tough guys like Martin St-Louis, Stan Mikita, Pavel Datsyuk and others who&rsquo;ve shown they can handle physical pounding without stooping to goonery or buying into the revenge culture. That&rsquo;s the problem &ndash; all these years of hockey dogma have warped our sense of what toughness truly is.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 4:14 p.m., Ryan Kennedy wrote:</b></h2><p>Datsyuk has dropped the gloves several times in the NHL. In fact, nearly all the top players do &ndash; Sidney Crosby, Ryan Kesler, Zdeno Chara, Alex Ovechkin, Jarome Iginla, etc. There&rsquo;s fighting and there&rsquo;s goonery and they are two very different things.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 4:29 p.m., Adam Proteau wrote:</b></h2><p>Agreed. But I&rsquo;ve never argued the league can or should eliminate all fighting. I just want the superfluous, staged, cartoonish nonsense &ndash; you know, 95 percent of it &ndash; eliminated.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 4:45 p.m., Ken Campbell wrote:</b></h2><p>The only problem is goonery goes hand-in-hand with fighting and there&rsquo;s no separating the two. Just like love and marriage, you can&rsquo;t have one without the other.</p><h2><b>On April 16, 5:01 p.m., Jason Kay wrote:</b></h2><p>So no strong opinions, then? Guess we won&rsquo;t waste any space on it.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0018-01

Love The Hate?

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-021160/9640687-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>FAIL WITH NAIL The Oilers must start addressing their &lsquo;D&rsquo; woes by drafting Ryan Murray.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(MARISSA BAECKER/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011613/9640694-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="194" height="229"></div><p><b>Hockey is known</b> for its armchair GMs, but what about fantasy team builders?</p><p>If the Edmonton Oilers stand pat and take Sarnia Sting right winger Nail Yakupov with the first overall selection this June in Pittsburgh, you have to wonder if that&rsquo;s what Steve Tambellini is about to be regarded as in the City of Champions.</p><p>At the least, the Oilers GM has said he&rsquo;s willing to listen to offers for the pick more so this year than he did in 2011 when he went on to draft Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with the first selection. This is crucial, because Edmonton needs everything except a high-scoring young forward right now.</p><p>Yakupov has publicly stated he would be excited to play in Edmonton. And why not? His fellow forwards would include Nugent-Hopkins,  Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle &ndash; all elite youngsters who bring a lot of flash to the table. But injuries to Hall and &lsquo;The Nuge&rsquo; have shown that physically, a Baby Oil-dominated top-six has its drawbacks. And what about talent on the rest of the team?</p><p>Edmonton was horrible on defense and no one in the pipeline is ready to make an immediate impact. The best-case scenario is that big, snarly Colten Teubert slots in on the third pairing. Otherwise, the Oilers are left with the same defensive group that gave up 2.83 goals per game despite a red-hot start from Nikolai Khabibulin. The problem is Khabibulin turned 39 and his body is not cut out for starter&rsquo;s duty anymore.</p><p>Devan Dubnyk is constantly lionized in Edmonton as the next great netminder, but he hasn&rsquo;t proven to be the answer in the crease yet, no matter how many Canadian World Championship rosters he gets named to.</p><p>Now, the Oilers are not going to get a starting goaltender in the draft, but they could get a defenseman with the chops to jump in right away. In fact, six blueliners in the past four drafts have jumped straight from the podium to the NHL &ndash; Drew Doughty, Luke Schenn, Victor Hedman, Dmitry Kulikov, Cam Fowler and Adam Larsson. The most likely name to join that crew in the 2012 draft is Everett Silvertips captain Ryan Murray, whom the Oilers would be wise to target. Murray is a late birthday, so by the time next season rolls around, he&rsquo;ll be 19 already. His skating and two-way play make him elite and he has already played for Team Canada at the world juniors &ndash; a tourney usually reserved for players a couple years older than he was.</p><p>The boldest move for Edmonton would be to simply throw caution to the best player available winds and take Murray with the No. 1 pick. But if Tambellini can swing a deal to move down a couple spots and still take Murray, the bounty would be even greater.</p><p>Toronto, for example, could provide a defenseman such as Carl Gunnarson in return for a flopping of the first and fifth overall picks, should the Leafs covet Yakupov.</p><p>Many Oilers fans would prefer to wait for free agency, forgetting that in the first week of July, their city is often the kid in class with the least amount of valentines in his paper bag box.</p><p>Edmonton has the rare opportunity to draft its third consecutive No. 1 overall pick. As enticing as all that offense together is, at some point the team needs to prevent goals and it needs to address that soon.</p><p>RYAN KENNEDY&rsquo;S WEB-EXCLUSIVE COLUMN APPEARS WEDNESDAYS AT <b><a href="HTTP://THN.COM/KENNEDY">THN.COM/KENNEDY</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0020-02

Oilers Must Forego Fantasy

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03824/9640725-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="321" height="438"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>E</span>dmonton picks No. 1 in the 2012 draft June 22 in Pittsburgh. The Cup winner and finalist slide to No. 30 and 29, conference finalists to No. 28 and 27. Picks 15-26 will be re-ordered based on playoff results.</b></p><p><b>1. EDMONTON</b></p><p><b>2. COLUMBUS</b></p><p><b>3. MONTREAL</b></p><p><b>4. N.Y. ISLANDERS</b></p><p><b>5. TORONTO</b></p><p><b>6. ANAHEIM</b></p><p><b>7. MINNESOTA</b></p><p><b>8. CAROLINA</b></p><p><b>9. WINNIPEG</b></p><p><b>10. TAMPA BAY</b></p><p><b>11. WSH</b> (FROMCOL)</p><p><b>12. BUFFALO</b></p><p><b>13. DALLAS</b></p><p><b>14. CALGARY</b></p><p><b>*15. OTTAWA</b></p><p><b>*16. WASHINGTON</b></p><p><b>*17. CLB</b> (FROML.A.)</p><p><b>*18. SAN JOSE</b></p><p><b>*19. CHICAGO</b></p><p><b>*20. NEW JERSEY</b></p><p><b>*21. TAMPA</b> (FROMDET)</p><p><b>*22. PHILADELPHIA</b></p><p><b>*23. BUFFALO</b> (FROMNSH)</p><p>&nbsp;<b>*24. PITTSBURGH</b></p><p><b>*25. FLORIDA</b></p><p><b>*26. PHOENIX</b></p><p><b>*27. BOSTON</b></p><p><b>*28. ST. LOUIS</b></p><p><b>*29. N.Y. RANGERS</b></p><p><b>*30. VANCOUVER</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0020-03

2012 DRAFT ORDER

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011500/9640791-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(RICK STEWART/ALLSPORT)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-021104/9640798-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="188" height="265"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span></b>F QUEBEC CITY ever gets an NHL team again, it would be considered sacrilege to call it anything but the Nordiques. We all get that. But if you really want to harken back to the salad days of professional hockey in La Vieille Capitale, you might want to consider the Bulldogs for a moniker.</p><p>After all, no professional team in Quebec City has even come close to the legendary Bulldogs, who won their first of consecutive Stanley Cups exactly 100 years ago. With future Hall of Famers Joe Malone, goalie Paddy Moran and defenseman &lsquo;Bad&rsquo; Joe Hall in the lineup, the Bulldogs were the toast of the hockey world two years running.</p><p>Back then, of course, professional hockey was still in its infancy and consisted of a mishmash of leagues where hockey mercenaries would go to the highest bidders. All right, so not that much has changed since then. The Bulldogs were members of the National Hockey Association, the precursor to the NHL,</p><p>IT&rsquo;S <i>- MARIO</i> joining the Montreal Wanderers, Montreal Canadiens, Renfrew Creamery Kings and the Ottawa Hockey Club for the league&rsquo;s second season. After winning the NHA title, the Bulldogs accepted a challenge from the Moncton Victorias and beat them 9-3 and 8-0. Legend has it they were then set to meet the New Westminster Royals in another challenge series, but by the time the Royals had arrived in Quebec City, the ice had melted and they couldn&rsquo;t play.</p><p>The next year, the Bulldogs won the Stanley Cup even more convincingly, but the good times didn&rsquo;t last. World War I, the 1918 influenza epidemic and a lack of willingness on the part of locals to invest in the team and build a new arena &ndash; sound familiar? &ndash; conspired to see the Bulldogs leave and become the Hamilton Tigers in 1920. We can only presume it was not nearly as heart-breaking  as the exit of the Nordiques in 1995 for Denver, which became the largest kick in the groin in the history of sports when the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in their first season at their new home.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">A PERFECT TIME TO GET A FRANCHISE BACK<br><i>LEFEBVRE</i></blockquote><p>That brings us to present day. Like 100 years ago when the Bulldogs were winning Stanley Cups, there is a positive vibe when it comes to pro hockey in Quebec, a city that has become the sentimental favorite to land the next NHL team in trouble. And with the Phoenix Coyotes, who are owned and operated by the NHL, you can never really tell what&rsquo;s going to happen. So Quebec remains on the radar, even more so now that the city has agreed to pay for renovations to the antiquated Colisee and, more importantly, struck a deal to build a $400-million arena, half of which will be paid for by the taxpayers of Quebec.</p><p>Forget that the NHL has never said publicly or privately Quebec will ever be allowed into the league again. Talk to power brokers and those who are plugged into such things and some will say Quebec could have the Phoenix Coyotes as early as this summer. Others will say the league doesn&rsquo;t view Quebec City as a viable NHL market in the long term and that there are simply not enough corporate dollars there.</p><p>Working in its favor, of course, would be a new 18,000-seat rink. After all, the Winnipeg Jets scooped up the Atlanta Thrashers last summer despite having an arena that seats 3,000 fewer fans. It also has an owner in Pierre-Karl Peladeau, the president of media giant Quebecor, and a hockey market that almost certainly would not make the mistake of taking the NHL for granted if it were to ever get a team again.</p><p>There are a fair number of policy wonks who think the return of Nordiques would work. The Conference Board of Canada recently did a study that suggested Canada could easily support nine NHL teams by adding franchises in Hamilton and Quebec City. Peladeau&rsquo;s company has established TVA Sports, a new sports network in the province that would instantly have loads of live content with the Nordiques. His company would also operate the arena. &ldquo;We think now of all times would be the perfect time for Quebec City to get a franchise back,&rdquo; said Mario Lefebvre, the director of Quebec affairs for the Conference Board of Canada and a co-author of the report. &ldquo;It compares very well to Montreal and Ottawa in terms of wealth. In fact, Quebec City is in pretty good shape right now.&rdquo;</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-011298/9640784-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="104" height="143"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02935/9640777-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="107" height="139"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03703/9640770-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="115" height="133"></div><p>To be sure, the Nordiques would be entering a different Quebec City than the one they left 17 years ago. Quebec City is the province&rsquo;s governmental and administrative hub, which provides both positive and negative factors when it comes to supporting an NHL team. On the one hand, it has a steady stream of stable jobs and a workforce with a decent modicum of disposable income. But what it lacks, according to Andre Richelieu, a sports marketing professor at Laval University in Quebec City, &ldquo;is such a critical mass of rich people as you might have in Montreal or Toronto.&rdquo;</p><p>And the numbers bear that out. The personal disposable income per capita in Quebec City is about $31,000, which is actually higher than Montreal and Vancouver, but lower than Calgary or Edmonton. Quebec City has the lowest percentage of low-income residents of any Canadian NHL city, so it is a lot less volatile to the vagaries of the economy, but it will never have the influx of corporate dollars that other Canadian cities have. In fact, the city is home to just 17 company head offices.</p><p>Filling the building with 18,000 fans will not be a problem, particularly in the early years of the franchise. Richelieu said the price point for most Quebec City consumers for high-end entertainment is about $150 per ticket, so the most expensive tickets in the house won&rsquo;t be able to exceed that amount, unless the team is able to attract corporate sponsorship from outside the city. &ldquo;The challenge will not be the fans as much as the corporations,&rdquo; Richelieu said. &ldquo;If you restrict yourself to the Quebec City market in terms of corporations, this will not work at all. But if you are able to attract companies that at least have a provincial dimension or national dimension, then I think it would be viable. That will be the key.&rdquo;</p><p>And there is one thing from which Quebec City will never be able to escape. With a metropolitan population of about 750,000, it would be one of the smallest markets in the league. It&rsquo;s true that population is rich and fertile because of the love for hockey Canadians have, but just as the case was in 1920 with the Bulldogs and in 1995 with the Nordiques, it will always be considered a small market playing in a league where, even with a salary cap and revenue sharing, large market teams have a competitive advantage.</p><p>But there is undoubtedly a reinvigorated sporting culture in Quebec City these days. Marc Durand, a local television reporter who is writing a book about the Bulldogs, said when the Nordiques left, there was a noticeable pall over the city, particularly since it lost a bid for the Winter Olympics the same month it lost its hockey team. But since then, the city has come to embrace big events and sports as a means of creating an identity.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04520/9640763-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="1404" height="824"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>SHINY NEW DIGS</b> The proposed $400-million arena in Quebec City, seen here in an artist&rsquo;s rendering, is another reason for optimism that the NHL will return. <span class="photo-credit">(ABCP ARCHITECTURE)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-05381/9640756-1-eng-US/f0023-052.jpg" title="f0023-05" width="678" height="1026"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>JE ME SOUVIENS</b> Quebec City is a small market, but its fans would welcome back a team passionately. <span class="photo-credit">(JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Quebec Capitales were established in 1999 and play in the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball and the Quebec Kebs are part of the National Basketball League. The junior Quebec Remparts average 12,000 fans per game and are an enormous success story and the Laval Rouge et Or, the local university football team, run a pro-like operation and are the class of Canadian university football on the field. &ldquo;In 1995, there were a lot of clouds over the city,&rdquo; Durand said. &ldquo;It was really down. But now we believe in sport more than ever. We have a mayor (Regis Labeaume) who sees sports as an investment. There is a really good vibe for the NHL right now.&rdquo;</p><p>But if the good people of Quebec City want a template for the successful return of an NHL team, all they have to do is cast their eyes westward to Manitoba. If Winnipeg could get its team back, why not Quebec City? The Canadian dollar is doing as well as ever and with Canada&rsquo;s commodities in high demand, there&rsquo;s little to suggest it will falter any time soon. The salary cap, while an albatross for teams that don&rsquo;t produce high revenues, at least provides cost certainty and might go down significantly with the next collective bargaining agreement.</p><p>The stars look to be aligned. All Quebec City needs now is a franchise to call its own.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0022-01

FLEUR DE LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Ryan Kennedy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011442/9640934-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JENNIFER POTTHEISER/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b><i>Evgeni Malkin</i></b></p><p><b>Best Player</b></p><p><b><i>Mario Lemieux Award</i></b></p><p><b>MVP</b></p><p><b><i>Wayne Gretzky Award</i></b></p><p><b>FEEL IS A BIG THING IN</b> hockey, particularly during awards season. Voters naturally gravitate to players they&rsquo;ve seen more often and certain stars will get consideration for what they&rsquo;ve done in the past &ndash; a sort of informal &ldquo;lifetime achievement award.&rdquo;</p><p>This year, we decided to throw even the possibility of that happening out the window and actually break down the numbers to determine our most valuable player. Sure, it&rsquo;s pretty obvious who had great seasons in the NHL, but would the statistics back it up? According to a wide range of metrics, the 2011-12 MVP rightly goes to Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin.</p><p>It&rsquo;s easy to point to his Art Ross Trophy effort of 109 points in 75 games, but value must come with those points. So we gathered statistical measurements from across the hockey world &ndash; new-school and old &ndash; to verify Malkin&rsquo;s impact on both the Penguins and the league. Comparing him to his nearest forward competitor, Tampa Bay&rsquo;s Steven Stamkos, and goaltenders Jonathan Quick and Henrik Lundqvist, it became clear who the best of the best was this season. &lsquo;Geno&rsquo; was also named our Most Outstanding Player for his efforts.</p><p>This was always going to be an important season for Malkin. His fellow superstar, Sidney Crosby, started the campaign on the shelf with a concussion and it was not known how long &lsquo;The Kid&rsquo; would stay there. Jordan Staal also missed significant time, meaning Pittsburgh really was The Malkin Show on offense. &ldquo;He was really on his own, playing against top forward lines and defense pairings,&rdquo; said GM Ray Shero. &ldquo;With Geno, he had to concentrate on his game first.&rdquo;</p><p>Crosby ended up making two separate comebacks: one on Nov. 21 that would last eight games, the next from March 15 on. Getting only 22 games of service from a franchise player would kneecap any team, but fortunately Pittsburgh has two such entities.</p><p>Malkin was a model of consistency, getting held off the scoresheet just 15 times and never going more than two games without contributing offensively. And as the mark of a great player, he made his linemates better. James Neal provides the best example. The former Dallas Stars up-and-comer struggled mightily after coming over near the 2011 trade deadline for defensemen Alex Goligoski and Matt Niskanen, tallying just one goal in 20 games for Pittsburgh last season. But that was without Malkin, who was laid up with knee surgery. With &lsquo;Geno&rsquo; back on the ice and dishing off pucks to Neal, the Dallas transplant set career highs with 40 goals and 81 points, nearly double his total output from the previous campaign. &ldquo;Geno&rsquo;s such a good passer and he uses his speed so well through the neutral zone,&rdquo; Neal said. &ldquo;As long as I put myself in spots where I can get the puck off, good things happen.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-011270/9640927-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="1693" height="1326"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>AL-MOST VALUABLE Despite his 60-goal season, Steven Stamkos came up just short in our MVP analysis.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(GREG FIUME/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02893/9640920-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="317" height="618"></div><h2><b>Points Share</b></h2><p>Estimated number of points in the standings a player individually contributed to on his team via scoring or preventing goals.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03621/9640913-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="719" height="892"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-04429/9640906-1-eng-US/f0025-042.jpg" title="f0025-04" width="300" height="454"></div><h2><b>Win Pct.</b></h2><p>The difference in a team&rsquo;s points percentage when the player was in and out of the lineup.</p><p><i>The exception to the rule in this case is that Steven Stamkos played all 82 games for Tampa, so his difference is a flat zero.</i></p><p>When it comes strictly to numbers, analysts give Malkin top marks. He ranked second to Phoenix netminder Mike Smith in Points Share, a metric devised by the website <a href="http//Hockey-Reference.com">Hockey-Reference.com</a>. According to the stat, Malkin was responsible for creating 15.7 points in the standings for Pittsburgh through his offense and defensive play. Smith led the way at 16.7 for the Coyotes, while Quick and Stamkos came in just behind Nashville netminder Pekka Rinne.</p><p>CORSI and its related stats have become big favorites among the hockey &ldquo;Moneyball&rdquo; set (such as <a href="http://behindthenet.ca">Behindthenet.ca</a>) and once again, Malkin does well in comparison to Stamkos, his nearest MVP competition among skaters. CORSI, named after former Buffalo Sabres goalie Jim Corsi, cannot be used on its own to divine proper results, but it does spawn a number of metrics that paint a picture when used together. <i>(see CORSI explanation.)</i></p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011454/9640899-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="1884" height="1147"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>GOTTA BE KIDDING Jonathan Quick lost nine games in which he gave up one goal or less in regulation.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>For example, when Daniel Sedin is on the ice for the Vancouver Canucks, the team directs 22.5 more shots at the opponent&rsquo;s net (including blocked shots and ones that miss the net) than when he is not on the ice. That&rsquo;s tops in the league. Malkin&rsquo;s relative CORSI sat at 11.3, while Stamkos&rsquo;s came in at 7.6. Here&rsquo;s where the perspective comes in: Another measurement, Zone Starts, reveals that Sedin began an incredible 79.6 percent of his shifts in the offensive end, meaning opportunities for shots were ample. Not surprisingly, linemates Henrik Sedin and Alex Burrows also had huge advantages in zone starts and no player outside of the Canucks broke the 70 percent mark. Malkin started 65.9 percent of his shifts in enemy territory, but ended up there 56 percent of the time, nearly the same amount as Sedin&rsquo;s 58.5. So with much less of a head start, he still got the puck where it needed to be in the end. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s always been a good defensive player when he concentrated on it,&rdquo; Shero said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a great stick, he&rsquo;s always positioned well and he outmuscles guys for the puck. The take-aways he makes are directly turned around into scoring opportunities. And his faceoffs have improved.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-021047/9640892-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="723" height="200"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03820/9640885-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="947" height="1147"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04613/9640878-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="285" height="558"></div><h2><b>CORSI relative</b></h2><p>The amount of all shots directed at the opposition&rsquo;s net (including missed shots and blocked shots) vs. the amount fired at a player&rsquo;s own net when he is on the ice. CORSI relative compares that number with that of his teammates to give an indication of his value to the team overall.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-05469/9640871-1-eng-US/f0026-052.jpg" title="f0026-05" width="323" height="551"></div><h2><b>Zone Starts</b></h2><p>Measures the percentage of shifts a player started in the offensive zone. We then took that number and subtracted the percentage of shifts ended in the offensive zone. This determines puck possession and also how effective a player is in moving the puck out of danger.</p><p><i>A negative number is possible here.</i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-011349/9640864-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="688" height="171"></div><h2><b>Campbellnomics</b></h2><p>A measure of &ldquo;Go-To&rdquo; prowess invented by THN&rsquo;s Ken Campbell. Points are awarded for goals that matter, such as the first goal of the game, a game-winning or game-tying marker, an OT score or a shootout goal. Assists are given half-a-point credit, since there are often two on a play.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02945/9640857-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="1578" height="1314"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>COLLATERAL EFFECT Like a true superstar center, Evgeni Malkin made his linemates markedly better.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(GREGORY SHAMUS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>In most measures, Malkin comes out on top of Stamkos, who did earn the Rocket Richard Trophy with a career-high 60 goals. But what happens when goaltenders are added to the mix?</p><p>Quick was a dynamo all year for the Los Angeles Kings, while Lundqvist got a lot of pub thanks to his play in the world&rsquo;s biggest media market. But the Rangers were pretty much the same whether &lsquo;Hank&rsquo; or backup Martin Biron got the call in net, while Los Angeles saw a significant decrease in points percentage when Quick rested in favor of Jonathan Bernier. And when the Kings weren&rsquo;t scoring &ndash; which was often during the regular season &ndash; Quick was still outstanding, racking up an NHL-high 10 shutouts and losing nine games in which he gave up one goal or less in regulation. Lundqvist had only three such results and an admirable eight shutouts.</p><p>But as good as Quick was, he was never honored in the NHL&rsquo;s Three Stars of the Month. Malkin was a frequent guest and his GM chalks it up to a summer spent recovering from the ACL surgery and with an eye towards excellence. &ldquo;He came back in the right frame of mind and in great shape,&rdquo; Shero said. &ldquo;He was a 50-goal guy who dominated at both ends of the ice.&rdquo;</p><p>And with the numbers to back it up, Malkin is both our MVP and most outstanding player.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03683/9640850-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="317" height="528"></div><h2><b>Stars of the Month Honors</b></h2><p>Malkin was a model of consistency, far outstripping his competitors for the NHL&rsquo;s monthly accolades.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-04502/9640843-1-eng-US/f0027-042.jpg" title="f0027-04" width="176" height="436"></div><h2><b>Quality of Competition</b></h2><p>Examines the relative CORSI of a player vs. the opponents he faces on the ice.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-05348/9640836-1-eng-US/f0027-052.jpg" title="f0027-05" width="952" height="200"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-06391/9640829-1-eng-US/f0026-062.jpg" title="f0026-06" width="5204" height="679"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0024-01

Trophy Metrics

<div class="byline">By Adam Proteau</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011433/9641035-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="886" height="790"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>BEST ROOKIE</b></h2><p><b>&gt;</b>&nbsp;<b>TEEMU SELANNE AWARD</b></p><h2><b>GABRIEL LANDESKOG</b></h2><p><b>&gt;</b>&nbsp;<b>COLORADO AVALANCHE</b></p><p><b>NOTABLES</b>&nbsp;Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Edmonton Matt Read, Philadelphia</p><p><b>COLORADO&rsquo;S</b> Gabriel Landeskog was a pre-season favorite for the Calder Trophy. He may lose to Edmonton&rsquo;s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Philadelphia&rsquo;s Matt Read or New Jersey&rsquo;s Adam Henrique, but we feel Landeskog was the top rookie.</p><p>If Nugent-Hopkins and his otherworldly offensive instincts hadn&rsquo;t missed 20 games due to injury, the debate would&rsquo;ve ended in his favor. However, the consistent excellence Landeskog displayed for the Avalanche cinched it for the 19-year-old Swede. He only led rookies in one offensive category &ndash; points (52, tied with &lsquo;The Nuge&rsquo;) &ndash; but was near No. 1 in virtually all of them: he had 22 goals (second to Read&rsquo;s 24); 30 assists (third behind RNH and Henrique); and his team-best plus-20 was second to the Rangers&rsquo; Carl Hagelin, who played on a much better squad.</p><p>Landeskog&rsquo;s durability despite his physicality also matters. He was the only Av to play 82 games and one of four rookies to do so. That he did it with the second-most hits (219) among rookies speaks to his toughness. Combine all those factors and it&rsquo;s clear Landeskog made the biggest all-around impact as a rookie.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-021007/9641028-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="886" height="790"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>BEST DEFENSEMAN</b></h2><p><b>&gt; BOBBY ORR AWARD</b></p><h2><b>ERIK KARLSSON</b></h2><p><b>&gt; OTTAWA SENATORS</b></p><p><b>NOTABLES</b>&nbsp;Zdeno Chara, Boston Shea Weber, Nashville</p><p><b>CHOOSING</b>&nbsp;<b>THE</b> NHL&rsquo;s best defenseman was extremely difficult. On one hand, you had Zdeno Chara, blueline behemoth and captain of the defending Stanley Cupchampion Bruins, who led his team in ice time (25:00) and was plus-33. On the other hand, you had premier D-man Shea Weber, who led Nashville with a plus-21 while averaging 26:09.</p><p>But Ottawa&rsquo;s Erik Karlsson made hockey observers want three hands.</p><p>And given how dominating the thirdyear NHLer was and how critical he was to the Sens&rsquo; resurgence, Karlsson is the league&rsquo;s best defenseman.</p><p>The 21-year-old Swede finished with the third-most assists (59) and 10th-most points (78) of any NHLer. He led Ottawa in ice time (25:19) and his plus-16 was second-best on the team. He was often the offensive focal point, leading the Senators with five game-winning goals. His 261 shots also led all defensemen.</p><p>Critics will say Karlsson doesn&rsquo;t deserve top honors because he isn&rsquo;t as well rounded as Chara and Weber. But you never see the league&rsquo;s top player award go to the most well-rounded guy. Usually, it goes to the most dominant.</p><p>Among blueliners, that&rsquo;s Karlsson.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03751/9641021-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="884" height="793"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>BEST GOALIE</b></h2><p><b>&gt; PATRICK ROY AWARDC</b></p><h2><b>JONATHAN QUICK</b></h2><p><b>&gt; LOS ANGELES KINGS</b></p><p><b>NOTABLES</b> Henrik Lundqvist, Rangers Mike Smith, Phoenix</p><p><b>WITH HIGHLY</b> touted prospect Jonathan Bernier breathing down his neck two years ago, Jonathan Quick was fighting to keep his starting job. Now not only is he the best stopper on the Kings, he&rsquo;s the NHL&rsquo;s best.</p><p>You can make a great case for Rangers star Henrik Lundqvist or Coyotes reclamation project Mike Smith as the league&rsquo;s top goalie. The former led New York to the Eastern Conference&rsquo;s best record, while the latter established himself as a front-line starter and helped Phoenix win the Pacific Division.</p><p>However, neither of them did as much as Quick did for his team, which endured a coaching change and significant trade before clawing to the final Western Conference playoff berth.</p><p>A quarter of the Kings&rsquo; 40 wins came when they scored two or fewer goals &ndash; and Quick patrolled the pipes in all of them. He had the second-best goals-against average (1.95) and his 13 overtime or shootout wins were tops in the league. He led goalies with 10 shutouts. He played 69 games and his defense corps took a hit when Jack Johnson was traded. So, sorry, Henrik and Mike. Oh, and Bernier, too.</p><p>Mr. Quick is No. 1.</p><h2><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b></h2><p><b>&gt; SAKU KOIVU AWARD</b></p><h2><b>JOFFREY LUPUL</b></h2><p><b>&gt; TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</b></p><p><b>FOR NHLERS,</b>&nbsp;comebacks don&rsquo;t get bigger than dropping to 170 pounds and not being able to walk before returning to set career highs in hockey&rsquo;s most pressure-packed fishbowl. That&rsquo;s the story of Toronto Maple Leafs left winger Joffrey Lupul, our comeback player of the year.</p><p>There were other amazing triumphs over adversity. In St. Louis, David Perron was sidelined 394 days by post-concussion symptoms before returning to produce 21 goals and 42 points in 57 games. Florida left winger Tomas Fleischmann overcame a serious blood clot issue in his lungs to lead the Panthers in goals (27) and points (61).</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-011264/9641014-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="519" height="705"></div><p>However, not only did Lupul, 28, reclaim his reputation as a solid scorer after two spinal surgeries and infections prevented him from even walking, he also equalled his career high in goals (25) and set a new best in points (67) in just 66 games.</p><p>Toronto viewed him as its MVP and when he missed the final 16 games with a separated shoulder, the Leafs were 5-8-3.</p><p><b>&gt;</b>&nbsp;<b>NOTABLES</b> David Perron, St. Louis; Tomas Fleischmann, Florida</p><h2><b>BEST DEFENSIVE DEFENSEMAN</b></h2><p><b>&gt; ROD LANGWAY AWARD</b></p><h2><b>DAN GIRARDI</b></h2><p><b>&gt; NEW YORK RANGERS</b></p><p><b>DAN GIRARDI</b> played in his first NHL All-Star Game in 2012. It was an accolade well deserved, but not for his five goals and 29 points. No, Girardi has risen to prominence thanks to his superior defensive abilities as the best blueliner on the New York Rangers. That&rsquo;s why, with a nod to fellow top shutdown D-men Zdeno Chara and Barret Jackman, Girardi is our best defensive defenseman.</p><p>Sure, he fell from No. 1 in the league in shot-blocking (with 236) in 2010-11 to No. 5 (with 185), but he improved his physical game, boosting his hits from 195 to 211. More importantly, he jacked up his average time on ice from 24:34 (15th-best in the league) to 26:14 (fourth-best) and posted his best plus-minus (plus-13) in five-and-a-half seasons.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02867/9641007-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="519" height="713"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>All Girardi does is take on the opposition&rsquo;s best forwards every night and avoid injury despite all the shot-blocking and bone-rattling hits he engages in. If anyone better fits the profile of the defensive specialist, we haven&rsquo;t seen him.</p><p><b>&gt;</b>&nbsp;<b>NOTABLES</b> Zdeno Chara, Boston; Barret Jackman, St. Louis</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011443/9641000-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="318" height="448"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MARK BUCKNER/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>BREAKOUT PLAYER / BRIAN ELLIOTT</b></h2><p><b>&gt; CAM NEELY AWARD &gt; ST. LOUIS BLUES</b></p><p><b>When Brian</b> Elliott&rsquo;s season began, his presence and future in the league were far from certain. He&rsquo;d bounced between Ottawa and Colorado last year and signed a two-way, one-year pact with St. Louis. All he&rsquo;s done since is cement himself as a goalie with whom to reckon, posting an all-time league best .940 save percentage and 1.56 goals-against average, as well as nine shutouts (second only to Kings goalie Jonathan Quick, who had 10) and a 23-10-4 record while platooning with the equally successful Jaroslav Halak. Small wonder the Blues re-signed the 27-year-old mid-season to a two-year, $3.6-million contract extension.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02994/9640993-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="320" height="442"></div><h2><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER / ZDENO CHARA</b></h2><p><b>&gt; JOHN FERGUSON AWARD &gt; BOSTON BRUINS</b></p><p><b>The most</b> physically imposing NHLer usually becomes a target and it takes a seriously tough customer to (a) answer the bell when necessary and (b) restrain himself from losing control and seriously hurting his often much-smaller opponent. That&rsquo;s true of Zdeno Chara, the Bruins captain and mammoth D-man who strikes fear into the hearts of opponents. But it&rsquo;s that restraint that makes him our toughest NHLer &ndash; a restraint you see in his consistently modest (relatively speaking) penalty totals. This season, Chara had only the 52nd highest PIM total with 86 in 79 games; last season he had 88 in 81 games; and in 2009-10, he had 87 in 80 games.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03728/9640986-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="320" height="444"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>TOP PENALTY KILLER / JOSH GORGES</b></h2><p><b>&gt; GUY CARBONNEAU AWARD &gt; MONTREAL CANADIENS</b></p><p><b>Crey Price</b> is Montreal&rsquo;s last line of defense, but another significant line is hauled out every time Canadiens defenseman Josh Gorges takes the ice, especially whenever one of Gorges teammates is hauled off it and sent to the penalty box. Gorges averaged 3:53 of penalty kill ice time (second only to Anaheim&rsquo;s Francois Beauchemin at 4:13). It was a markedly consistent number as Gorges was third overall in penalty kill time on ice last year at 3:46. Combined with his league-best number of blocked shots (250 &ndash; a full 51 more than the next-best total), it showed a player any goalie would give his blocker to have in front of him.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04540/9640979-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="321" height="447"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(LEN REDKOLES/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>BEST FIGHTER / SHAWN THORNTON</b></h2><p><b>&gt; BOB PROBERT AWARD &gt; BOSTON BRUINS</b></p><p><b>There&rsquo;s a</b> couple factors explaining why the Bruins re-signed rugged winger Shawn Thornton to a two-year, $2.2-million extension in March despite being near the salary cap maximum. First, he&rsquo;s a valuable member of their hardworking fourth line. Second, and more importantly, Thornton is pound-for-pound the NHL&rsquo;s best fighter. The 34-year-old only finished with 154 penalty minutes, eighth most in the league, but it was his willingness to take on all comers and success in doing so that set him apart. Of his 20 fights, which tied for tops with Columbus&rsquo; Derek Dorsett. Thornton was voted to have lost just four, based on voting from hardcore fight fans at <a href="http://hockeyfights.com">hockeyfights.com</a>.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05415/9640972-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="322" height="442"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>BEST SHOOTOUT SHOOTER / ILYA KOVALCHUK</b></h2><p><b>&gt; PAVEL BURE AWARD &gt; NEW JERSEY DEVILS</b></p><p><b>Premier offensive</b> sniper Ilya Kovalchuk was the Devils&rsquo; best player at a number of things, including the thing he was best at in the entire NHL: shootouts. Kovalchuk had 11 shootout goals on just 14 shots &ndash; three more than the next-most-productive shootout scorer, Penguins star Evgeni Malkin &ndash; and a league-best seven of those 11 were game-deciding markers. Those totals represented a huge leap forward for the Russian left winger, who had just two shootout goals (and one game-deciding-goal) in five attempts last season. No wonder the Devils had the best shootout record in the league at 12-4.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-06345/9640965-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="320" height="443"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>BEST SHOOTOUT GOALIE / SEMYON VARLAMOV</b></h2><p><b>&gt; GILLES VILLEMURE AWARD &gt; COLORADO AVALANCHE</b></p><p><b>SOME QUESTIONED</b> the trading of Colorado&rsquo;s first round pick last summer for Capitals goalie Semyon Varlamov. But based on Varlamov&rsquo;s performance in shootouts alone, the deal has paid big dividends. Varlamov&rsquo;s perfect 8-0 mark when the game was still tied after overtime was the reason why the Avalanche had the third-best shootout record and a large part of the reason why the team hung around a tough Western Conference playoff race as long as they did. More impressive: Five of Varlamov&rsquo;s eight shootout wins came on the road and he allowed just two goals on 24 shots in those wins. That&rsquo;s the type of steely nerves you want in your starting netminder.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0028-01

The Awards Issue

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02958/9641066-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>UNCHARTED WATERS Tommy Wingels is leading the charge to eradicate homophobia from hockey.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011418/9641073-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="206" height="245"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>P</span>eople forget how</b> political the professional hockey world can be, especially for the players who aren&rsquo;t the can&rsquo;t-miss, cream-of-the-cream-of-the-crop. Opportunities are so scarce that the wrong move off the ice can hinder a player&rsquo;s chance at success as much as any injury could.</p><p>So when Tommy Wingels, a San Jose Sharks center who spent most of 2011-12 playing for Worcester in the American League, threw his full public support behind the You Can Play (YCP) project &ndash; founded last year to ensure equality, safety and respect for all athletes with no regard to sexual orientation &ndash; he had no way of knowing what the ramifications might be. That he did so anyway is why he has my vote to win this year&rsquo;s Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.</p><p>Some will say Wingels&rsquo; commitment to stamping out homophobia in hockey and all sports makes him a better candidate for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, which honors the player who best &ldquo;exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution.&rdquo;</p><p>While Wingels does qualify on all those counts, the Masterton is awarded to someone who demonstrates &ldquo;perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication&rdquo; to hockey. To me, Wingels&rsquo; efforts to open the door for gay athletes make the sport better.  At a time when hockey participation isn&rsquo;t rising, the YCP project helps increase the base of participants in the game. To me, true sportsmanship and dedication to the game means finding room for as many people to love it a s possible.</p><p>It&rsquo;s easy to see why YCP means so much to Wingels: The young man whose life it celebrates &ndash; Brendan Burke (the son of Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke), who perished tragically in a February 2010 car accident &ndash; became good friends with Wingels when he was playing for Miami University and Brendan was the team&rsquo;s student manager.</p><p>Wingels was one of the first people on the team Brendan came out to and he ensured Brendan was treated with respect at all times. Wingels, along with Phoenix Coyotes prospect (and former Miami teammate) Andy Miele, were the first two hockey players to lend their names to YCP. They are, in their own way, pioneers in tolerance. And it is because of Brendan Burke&rsquo;s life and legacy that they&rsquo;re such proud advocates for understanding. &ldquo;I had no second thoughts about helping this project,&rdquo; Wingels said. &ldquo;From Day 1, I was on board. It was important to talk to teammates, as it&rsquo;s only my second year in the NHL here. In that sense it was important to reach out to them and they were super-supportive of it. Guys approached me on how they could get involved and the support we&rsquo;ve had from the rest of the team and fans has been unbelievable.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>The You Can Play project touches the lives of kids</b><br><b><i>&ndash; Tommy Wingels</i></b></blockquote><p>Patrick Burke, Brian&rsquo;s son and Brendan&rsquo;s brother, is You Can Play&rsquo;s founder. He thinks that, thanks in part to the surge of support Wingels helped create &ndash; a surge that included stars such as Claude Giroux, Rick Nash, Zdeno Chara and Duncan Keith joining the chorus &ndash; the day is coming when the NHL has its first out-of-the-closet player.</p><p>And he thinks that day is coming soon. &ldquo;Within the next two years, I predict we&rsquo;ll have an openly gay National Hockey League player,&rdquo; Patrick Burke said. &ldquo;That is my personal belief &ndash; and numerous people, including people within the charity, disagree with me completely. It&rsquo;s my opinion only, but I think I&rsquo;m right.</p><p>&ldquo;Our athletes have made it clear they support their teammates, management has made it clear through their support of You Can Play, fans have made it clear, the commissioner has made it clear, the league office has made it clear. I believe players will take a little while and make sure we&rsquo;re not going anywhere, that YCP and the Burke family are here to stay. And within the next couple years they&rsquo;ll know that this is a league in which they can come out and still play.&rdquo;</p><p>When someone finally does, when hockey players anywhere can be themselves without fear of being attacked or belittled, it will be in part because of YCP and brave young men like Wingels. He fights this fight not just for Brendan, but for the sport of hockey.</p><p>That&rsquo;s why he deserves the Masterton. &ldquo;For me, that&rsquo;s the best part about this,&rdquo; Wingels said. &ldquo;If the You Can Play project touches the lives of kids who aren&rsquo;t willing to come out yet, but who gain con-fidence by seeing there are NHLers who don&rsquo;t care and people within the hockey community are accepting of this, that&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s most important.</p><p>&ldquo;I knew Brendan really well. I saw him do it, and I know other people can do it, so I want to be there for them, too.&rdquo;</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>

f0032-02

Out In The Open

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN MCNALLY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-021002/9641142-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="482" height="172"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011437/9641149-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="77" height="89"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03792/9641135-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="1297" height="1209"><figcaption class="caption-body">ALEX OVECHKIN <span class="photo-credit">(RICHARD WOLOWICZ/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>t was Alex Ovechkin&rsquo;s</b> worst statistical season. His effort was questioned early in the year. He feuded with coach Bruce Boudreau, who was later fired. A three-game suspension in January led him to ditch the All-Star Game festivities in Ottawa in a huff for a vacation in Miami.</p><p>With 31 games left, Ovechkin&rsquo;s seventh season was off the rails. He had only 20 goals and 39 points and one of the NHL&rsquo;s marquee players was headed for a second straight down season. Hard questions were being asked inside and outside Washington&rsquo;s locker room.</p><p>Former teammates like Olaf Kolzig, now an associate goaltending coach with the Caps, aired pointed criticism of Ovechkin&rsquo;s game and his sometimes flashy off-ice lifestyle. &ldquo;Alex was getting away from playing the hard, no-nonsense, honesty type of hockey &ndash; exuberant hockey &ndash; he displayed the first three years that he was in the league,&rdquo; Kolzig said mid-February. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what endeared him to everybody. Then all of a sudden he was still the same Alex, he was celebrating a certain way. And what endeared him to everybody now made him look like a villain.&rdquo;</p><p>Even Washington GM George McPhee agreed with the basic tenor of Kolzig&rsquo;s comments, saying Ovechkin needed &ldquo;a reminder&rdquo; of what it took for him to win two Hart Trophies early in his career. A Washington <i>Post</i> article in March examined the roots of Ovechkin&rsquo;s struggles and anonymously quoted several teammates voicing their frustration with his inability to adapt to a changing NHL.</p><p>Yet by the end of 2011-12, Ovechkin had responded. With star center Nicklas Backstrom out following a concussion in early January and Washington struggling just to reach the playoffs, Ovechkin began carrying his team again.</p><p>The numbers still look off when matched against his best years, but the Capitals needed every one of his 38 goals to sneak into the post-season. That was enough for The Hockey News to select Ovechkin as Washington&rsquo;s most valuable player.</p><p>How crucial was he to Washington&rsquo;s success? They were 21-5-4 when he scored. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s night and day &ndash; when he&rsquo;s going, our record is, I don&rsquo;t know what it is when he scores a goal, but I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;s a lot better than when he doesn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said right winger Mike Knuble. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re happy. All the guys are happy things are going well for him because when that happens it means we&rsquo;re all going to do well, too.&rdquo;</p><p>Ovechkin scored 18 goals over the final 29 games, including 11 in the last 13. And every one of those tallies was critical to the playoff chase. In the end, the Caps earned 92 points and a No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference.</p><p>Ovechkin, without Backstrom for 40 games and missing four of his own thanks to injury and suspension, still reached 65 points.</p><p>&lsquo;Ovie&rsquo; had some help: Karl Alzner played stellar defense night after night against top competition; defenseman Dennis Wideman was named to the All-Star Game; Jason Chimera reached a career-high with 20 goals. But top free agent pickups from the summer struggled (Tomas Vokoun, Joel Ward, Roman Hamrlik), Backstrom, the team&rsquo;s best player the first half of the season, was hurt and sniper Alex Semin was far off his scoring pace.</p><p>Without Ovechkin&rsquo;s late-season surge, it&rsquo;s highly unlikely Washington even makes the playoffs.</p><p><b><i>Over the following six pages</i></b>&nbsp;<i>you&rsquo;ll find THN&rsquo;s selections for awards in each of the NHL&rsquo;s 30 markets. And the winners are&hellip;</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0034-02

‘Ovie’ Still Atop Capital Hill

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04643/9641180-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="364" height="431"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>STEVEN STAMKOS</b> <span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Alex Ovechkin</b></p><p><i>0.61</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>S. Stamkos</b></p><p><i>0.55</i></p><p><b>I. Kovalchuk</b></p><p><i>0.54</i></p><p><b>M. Gaborik</b></p><p>&nbsp;<i>0.53</i></p><p><b>Sidney Crosby</b></p><p>&nbsp;<i>0.51</i></p><p><b>Evgeni Malkin</b></p><p>&nbsp;<i>0.49</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>Dany Heatley</b></p><p>&nbsp;<i>0.48</i></p><p><b>Jarome Iginla</b></p><p><i>0.47</i></p><p><b>T. Selanne</b></p><p>&nbsp;<i>0.46</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>Marian Hossa</b></p><p><i>0.45</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>A. Semin</b></p><p><i>0.45</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>Rick Nash</b></p><p>&nbsp;<i>0.44</i></p><p><b>V. Lecavalier</b></p><p>&nbsp;<i>0.43</i></p><p><b>26</b>&nbsp;<b>Ovechkin&rsquo;s PIM for 2011-12, the lowest total of his career</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0034-04

Goal RIENTED

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RICH CHERE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011334/9641295-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-13173/9641288-1-eng-US/f0035-132.jpg" title="f0035-13" width="77" height="89"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02949/9641281-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="726" height="803"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>PETR SYKORA COMEBACK PLAYER</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span></b>here was a spot for Petr Sykora on his hometown team in Plzen, Czech Republic. It was a long way from the NHL, but he was 34 and a long way from his glory days with the Devils and Penguins.</p><p>The door opened slightly when Devils GM Lou Lamoriello offered him a camp tryout with no contract. His perks started and ended with a hotel room. Sykora turned it into one of the most inspiring stories of the season. He earned a spot on the Devils&rsquo; second line and scored 21 goals while playing all 82 games.</p><p>Shuffling slowly as he walks, he is affectionately called the &lsquo;1,000-year-old man.&rsquo; But &lsquo;1,000-game man&rsquo; would be more appropriate since he reached that milestone March 4. &ldquo;Trust me, I wasn&rsquo;t looking that far ahead in training camp,&rdquo; Sykora said. &ldquo;I was looking just to make the team. I was looking for Game 1 and I was looking just to stay in the lineup.&rdquo;</p><p>All that after he played just 14 games for the Minnesota Wild in 2009-10 and split last season between HC Plzen and Dynamo Minsk of the Kontinental League.</p><p>Sykora, whose one-year, $650,000 contract expires July 1, is hopeful yet wary about his NHL future. &ldquo;Of course I want to play,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I would love to play here. What is going to happen? I don&rsquo;t know. I&rsquo;ve been disappointed before, like after the 2008-09 season with Pittsburgh. I just came back and played hockey and had fun. I&rsquo;ve just tried to enjoy it, because you never know how long it&rsquo;s going to last.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>AND THN&rsquo;s AWARDS GO TO&hellip;</b></h2><h3><b>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03787/9641274-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="108" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Ilya Kovalchuk, LW</p><p><i>Most minutes (24:26) of any NHL forward</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Adam Henrique, C</p><p><i>Third among NHL rookies in scoring with 52 pts.</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Anton Volchenkov, D</p><p>&lsquo;A-Train&rsquo; led Devils with <i>177 hits and 125 BkS</i></p><p><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Petr Sykora, RW</p><p><i>44 pts., six game-winners after a year in Europe</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>BEST BARGAIN</b> David Clarkson, RW</p><p><i>30 G, 46 pts., 138 PIM, 169 hits for $2.7M</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Henrik Tallinder, D</p><p><i>$3.4M buys you zero goals, six points, minus-11</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04647/9641267-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="327" height="576"></div><p>No one produced as much out of so little as <b>David Clarkson</b>. Among the 30 NHLers with 30 goals, the 28-year-old had the least amount of ice time per game (16:21) and only Max Pacioretty and Jordan Eberle made less than his $2.7 million. Clarkson was also one of three players with 30-plus goals and 100-plus PIM, joining Scott Hartnell and Corey Perry.</p><h3><b>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05550/9641260-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="116" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> John Tavares, C</p><p><i>Isles&rsquo; only bona fide star led team with 81 pts.</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> David Ullstrom, LW</p><p><i>Best of a bad lot with four goals and eight points</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Matt Martin, LW</p><p><i>374 hits were 81 more than Dustin Brown (2nd)</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Mark Streit, D</p><p><i>Full season and 47 pts. after missing 2010-11</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Evgeni Nabokov, G</p><p><i>2.55 GAA, .914 SP for $570K with porous &lsquo;D&rsquo;</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Rick DiPietro, G</p><p><i>Isles&rsquo; albatross &ndash; 3.73 GAA, .876 SP at $4.5M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06497/9641253-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="327" height="576"></div><p>See opponent, hit opponent &ndash; that&rsquo;s <b>Matt Martin&rsquo;s</b> mantra. The Isles&rsquo; rugged 22-year-old pounded out 374 hits, the most since the league started tabulating the stat after the lockout, and also had 15 fights. He averaged more than 12 minutes per game, most of them of the energizing variety to rouse teammates during another trying season.</p><h3><b>NEW YORK RANGERS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07426/9641246-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="112" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Henrik Lundqvist, G</p><p><i>Backbone (1.97 GAA, .930 SP) of East&rsquo;s top &lsquo;D&rsquo;</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Carl Hagelin, LW</p><p><i>Unsung rook took regular shift after call-up</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Dan Girardi, D</p><p><i>&lsquo;D&rsquo; bedrock with 211 hits, 185 BkS, 26:14 TOI</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Michael Del Zotto, D</p><p><i>Minus-5 in 2010-11 to plus-20 in 2011-12</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Ryan McDonagh, D</p><p><i>Played on top &lsquo;D&rsquo; pairing with 32 pts. for $875K</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Brandon Dubinsky, C</p><p><i>10 G for $3.75M; became bait at trade deadline</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08367/9641239-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Unlike how the Flames handle Miikka Kiprusoff, who hasn&rsquo;t played fewer than 70 games since the lockout, the Rangers have found the sweet spot for star &lsquo;King&rsquo; <b>Henrik Lundqvist</b>. The 30-year-old Swede posted career numbers in his fewest games (62) since his rookie campaign of 2005-06. He&rsquo;ll garner serious Hart Trophy consideration.</p><h3><b>PHILADELPIA FLYERS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09317/9641232-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="122" height="38"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Claude Giroux, RW</p><p><i>Top-three scorer after Richards and Carter dealt</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Matt Read, RW</p><p><i>At 25, solidified No. 2 line, led all rooks in goals</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Scott Hartnell, LW</p><p><i>Most goals (37) for players with 100-plus PIM</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Jaromir Jagr, RW</p><p><i>54 pts. in first NHL season since 2008</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Wayne Simmonds, RW</p><p><i>Brought sandpaper, 49 pts. from L.A. for $1.5M</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Ilya Bryzgalov, G</p><p><i>Late-season surge, but disappointed for $5.7M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10274/9641225-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="327" height="575"></div><p>On a team that got the most goals from rookies, <b>Matt Read</b> was the unlikely head of his class. His 24 goals led NHL freshmen and were one fewer than Flyers rookie first-rounders Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn had combined. The undrafted 25-year-old had six winners and was almost as proficient scoring at home (11) as on the road (13).</p><h3><b>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-11233/9641218-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="118" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Evgeni Malkin, C</p><p><i>Art Ross winner held Pens together without Sid</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Simon Despres, D</p><p><i>Played key minutes in 18 games on depleted &lsquo;D&rsquo;</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Deryk Engelland, D</p><p><i>174 hits and one of NHL&rsquo;s most feared fighters</i></p><p><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Steve Sullivan, LW</p><p><i>Played nearly full season after 44 GP in &rsquo;10-11</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Kris Letang, D</p><p><i>Norris Trophy potential before injuries for $3.5M</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Paul Martin, D</p><p><i>Two goals and 27 pts. for $5.5M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-12202/9641211-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Pittsburgh likes to build the middle via the draft and fill out the flanks with free agents. Many scorers turned journey-men have patrolled the Pens&rsquo; wings in recent years. When they signed <b>Steve Sullivan,</b> they tempered expectations for a guy who&rsquo;d played 82 games once since the lockout. But his wonky back held up for 79 games and he scored 17 goals.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0035-01

Deal With The Devil

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MIKE LOFTUS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011338/9641403-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-13190/9641410-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="77" height="89"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02906/9641396-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="658" height="800"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>CHRIS KELLY BEST BARGAIN</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>C</span></b>hris Kelly doesn&rsquo;t agree with anyone who might have considered him overpriced, but he doesn&rsquo;t resent that. What matters is knowing he earns what he&rsquo;s paid and that his teammates, coaches and employers believe he&rsquo;s worth it. &ldquo;You appreciate things so much more when you work for them,&rdquo; said the Bruins center, who hit career highs in goals (20) and points (39) and finished fourth in the NHL at plus-33 &ndash; all for a $2.1-million cap hit. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like with a car &ndash; you appreciate it more when you work summer after summer and buy it on your own, instead of having it just given to you.&rdquo;</p><p>Some questioned what it cost the Bruins to obtain Kelly from Ottawa (a second round draft choice in 2011) Feb. 15, 2011 and also wondered if the salary (courtesy of a four-year contract negotiated with the Senators) was too high for a No. 3 center.</p><p>That opinion didn&rsquo;t die down when he scored only twice in 24 games down last season&rsquo;s stretch.</p><p>But Kelly&rsquo;s stock soared locally after a strong Stanley Cup run (five goals and 13 points in 25 games), usually playing on a line with Michael Ryder and Rich Peverley, though many fantasy sports folks remained unconvinced he was a good buy for 2011-12. &ldquo;That was actually a little motivation,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Nobody wants to be thought of like that. In the long run, maybe it helped.&rdquo;</p><p>Kelly will find out July 1 just how much he&rsquo;s valued &ndash; and by who &ndash; when he becomes an unrestricted free agent.</p><h2><b>AND THN&rsquo;s AWARDS GO TO&hellip;</b></h2><h3><b>BOSTON BRUINS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03749/9641389-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="123" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Patrice Bergeron, C</p><p><i>Defensive mindset set tone for rest of squad</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Jordan Caron, RW</p><p><i>Scorer had decent numbers in 48-game stint</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Zdeno Chara, D</p><p><i>Blueline monster a magnet for other teams</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Brian Rolston, RW</p><p><i>Cagey veteran showed his tank wasn&rsquo;t empty</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Chris Kelly, C</p><p><i>UFA will get big raise on $2.1M salary</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Joe Corvo, D</p><p><i>One-year experiment at $2.5M failed</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04599/9641382-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="327" height="576"></div><p><b>Patrice Bergeron</b> was Boston&rsquo;s best player not because he was its flashiest or meanest, but because he embodied the team&rsquo;s ideal of smart defensive hockey and opportunistic offense. For Bergeron, that began at the faceoff circle, where he won 64 more puck-drops (973) than the closest NHLer. That was a huge jump from his fifth-best 815 last season.</p><h3><b>BUFFALO SABRES</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05507/9641375-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="132" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Ryan Miller, G</p><p><i>Biggest reason team got back into playoff race</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Jhonas Enroth, G</p><p><i>5-foot-10 stopper spelled Miller admirably</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Marcus Foligno, LW</p><p><i>Late-season stint offered glimpse of edgy game</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Jason Pominville, RW</p><p><i>Classy winger led team in goals, points</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Tyler Ennis, C</p><p><i>34 pts. in 48 GP at $875K cap hit</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Brad Boyes, RW</p><p><i>Eight goals and 23 pts. for $4M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06448/9641368-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Left winger <b>Marcus Foligno</b> didn&rsquo;t stick with the Sabres until a 13-game run late in the season, but he quickly established himself as a force with which to reckon. He produced at a point-per-game pace in that stretch, but more importantly, played with the physical edge Buffalo will need to counter what divisional rival Boston has in Milan Lucic.</p><h3><b>MONTREAL CANADIENS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07378/9641361-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="121" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Carey Price, G</p><p><i>Without him between pipes, Habs finish 30th</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Alexei Emelin, D</p><p><i>Physical blueliner got better throughout season</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> P.K. Subban, D</p><p><i>Star blueliner is tough physically and mentally</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Max Pacioretty, RW</p><p><i>Team&rsquo;s top point-man after awful head injury</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>BEST BARGAIN</b> David Desharnais, C</p><p><i>Led team in assists (44) for $850K</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Scott Gomez, C</p><p><i>$7.4M cap hit, tied for 473rd in NHL scoring</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08322/9641354-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Max</b>&nbsp;<b>Pacioretty&rsquo;s</b> return from last year&rsquo;s frightening concussion was a rare highlight in Montreal&rsquo;s nightmare season. The 23-year-old boosted his points-per-game pace from 0.65 to 0.82 and demolished his previous career highs of 14 goals and 24 points by amassing 33 goals and 65 points. He&rsquo;ll get a huge raise after his contract expires next summer.</p><h3><b>OTTAWA SENATORS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09275/9641347-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="104" height="38"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Erik Karlsson, D</p><p><i>Assist total (59) matched Alfredsson&rsquo;s points</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Colin Greening, LW</p><p><i>Nearly tripled goals after cup of coffee in &rsquo;10-11</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Zenon Konopka, C</p><p><i>Third in league with 193 PIM</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Filip Kuba, D</p><p><i>Went from a minus-26 last year to a plus-26</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Erik Karlsson, D</p><p><i>He earned just $1.3M, but is an RFA</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Sergei Gonchar, D</p><p><i>Better than 2010-11, but still overpaid at $5.5M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10244/9641340-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="327" height="575"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Colin Greening</b> led all Sens rookies in point production (17 goals and 37 points in 82 games) while playing on the top line with Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek. The former U.S. collegiate star hit the wall in February, recording just one assist in 12 games, but found a second wind, posting nine points in his final 17 regular season games.</p><h3><b>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11223/9641333-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="113" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Joffrey Lupul, LW</p><p><i>Management loved how he set the tone in room</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Jake Gardiner, D</p><p><i>Could be best long-term D-man since Salming</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Mike Brown, RW</p><p><i>Often injured, but always makes team edgier</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Joffrey Lupul, LW</p><p><i>Set career high in points after future jeopardized</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Carl Gunnarsson, D</p><p><i>Best two-way blueliner made just $1.3M</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Tim Connolly, C</p><p><i>Veteran had his moments &ndash; just not enough</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-12207/9641326-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Tim</b>&nbsp;<b>Connolly</b> was signed last summer as a playmaker who could help produce offense on one of the top two lines. By season&rsquo;s end, he was routinely on the third or fourth line, posted just 36 points, and was a team-worst minus-14. Did we mention he&rsquo;s earning $4.75 million this season and next? He is. It&rsquo;s going to be a long season for Connolly in &rsquo;12-13.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0036-01

Boston’s Best Buy

<div class="byline">&#x2013; GEORGE RICHARDS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-011194/9641525-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-13136/9641518-1-eng-US/f0037-132.jpg" title="f0037-13" width="77" height="89"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02838/9641511-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="657" height="765"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>ERIK GUDBRANSON TOP ROOKIE</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span></b>f Panthers GM Dale Tallon and assistant Mike Santos weren&rsquo;t taken seriously before, sending Erik Gudbranson back to junior after an outstanding training camp in 2010 sent a strong message.</p><p>Gudbranson, taken third overall by Florida in &rsquo;10, went on to have a good final season with Kingston of the Ontario League and signed his first pro contract with the Panthers in July 2011. He made the team and played 72 games, scoring two goals with six assists. Pairing with 35-year-old Ed Jovanovski for most of the year proved extremely beneficial. &ldquo;He has been an absolute gem for me and I really appreciate the time he&rsquo;s put into me,&rsquo;&rsquo; Gudbranson said a day before making his NHL post-season debut. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been made comfortable and it has probably been the best part of my rookie season so far.</p><p>&ldquo;I have picked up my play lately and that comes from experience. Yes, I&rsquo;m still young, but having this year under my belt and playing 70 games has helped me figure it out. I&rsquo;ve had a couple rough games, but since Christmas, I&rsquo;ve been playing physical, moving the puck.&rdquo;</p><p>Gudbranson was scratched a few times by coach Kevin Dineen, who thought things were moving too quickly for the 20-year-old. But Gudbranson doesn&rsquo;t look like a rookie anymore. &ldquo;His past couple months have been his best hockey,&rsquo;&rsquo; Jovanovski said. &ldquo;You can see him maturing. He&rsquo;s getting it. He has a nasty streak when he gets going. The sky is the limit for him.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>AND THN&rsquo;s AWARDS GO TO&hellip;</b></h2><h3><b>CAROLINA HURRICANES</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03673/9641504-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="122" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Eric Staal, C</p><p><i>Led team in pts. by 24 despite slow start</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Justin Faulk, D</p><p><i>Led all NHL rookies in TOI with 22:50</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Jay Harrison, D</p><p><i>117 hits, 153 BkS and 20:33 TOI</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Jiri Tlusty, LW</p><p><i>More goals, 17, in &rsquo;11-12 than pts., 12, last year</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Jeff Skinner, C</p><p><i>Slowed by concussion, but bargain at $1.4M</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Jaroslav Spacek, D</p><p><i>Seventh-highest D-man in TOI, earned $3.8M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04577/9641497-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="327" height="576"></div><p><b>Jay Harrison</b> was Carolina&rsquo;s nominee for the Masterton Trophy, but also earned a team award. Harrison was given the Josef Vasicek Award, newly named this season, for his co-operation with the media. The award is in honor of the 30-year-old former Hurricane veteran who perished in the September Lokomotiv plane crash in Russia.</p><h3><b>FLORIDA PANTHERS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05521/9641490-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="124" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Brian Campbell, D</p><p><i>Highest TOI in league, brought out J. Garrison</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Erik Gudbranson, D</p><p><i>Wins by default, but still strong first season</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Mike Weaver, D</p><p><i>114 hits, 137 BkS in 20:19 of TOI</i></p><p><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Tomas Fleischmann, LW</p><p><i>Returned from blood clot, posted career year</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Jason Garrison, D</p><p><i>Scored 16 G out of nowhere on $675K</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Wojtek Wolski, RW</p><p><i>Scored only 12 pts. for $3.8M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06463/9641483-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="327" height="576"></div><p>Entering the season, <b>Jason Garrison</b> had seven goals in 113 games, but he tallied 16 in a career year. Now he&rsquo;s up for a new contract and eligible for UFA status July 1. Though he had an impressive breakout, potential buyers must tread carefully. Garrison is due a significant raise, but could he keep up this offense elsewhere without Brian Campbell?</p><h3><b>TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07397/9641476-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="122" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Steven Stamkos, C</p><p><i>Only 60-goal scorer in NHL &ndash; end of story</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Brett Connolly, RW</p><p><i>Learned a lot through up-and-down season</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Brett Clark, D</p><p><i>Among most proficient shot-blockers in NHL</i></p><p><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Marc-Andre Bergeron, D</p><p><i>Mid-&rsquo;10-11 signing, 0.56 PPG before back injury</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Teddy Purcell, RW</p><p><i>Breakout season (24 G, 65 pts.) for $2.4M</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Vincent Lecavalier, C</p><p><i>Points keep falling, $7.7M cap hit does not</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08310/9641469-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Though <b>Marc-Andre Bergeron</b> only played 43 games due to injury, his NHL comeback is impressive. Last season, he wasn&rsquo;t signed until Tampa Bay came calling in January. In 2011-12, he posted a comfortable 24 points and, more surprisingly, finished plus-6 on an awful team. He was minus-10 in 23 games with the Bolts last season.</p><h3><b>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-09253/9641462-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="143" height="38"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Alex Ovechkin, LW</p><p><i>Even in down year, can&rsquo;t give MVP to any other</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Dmitri Orlov, D</p><p><i>When blueline injuries hit, Orlov stepped in</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Troy Brouwer, RW</p><p><i>His 247 hits were ninth most in the league</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Jason Chimera, C</p><p><i>Doubled goal total and returned as plus player</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>BEST BARGAIN</b> John Carlson, D</p><p><i>Only makes $846K, but looks like Olympian</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Alex Semin, RW</p><p><i>Shrunk to 21-goal scorer, paid like 40-goal man</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-10214/9641455-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="327" height="575"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>What the heck is up with <b>Alexander Semin</b>? His 40-goal 2009-10 seems like a lifetime ago. Semin&rsquo;s 21 goals in 2011-12 were just one more than Jason Chimera had. Semin signed back-to-back one-year deals with the Caps, but the pending-UFA likely won&rsquo;t be back in D.C. and instead could be KHL-bound if teams deem him too risky.</p><h3><b>WINNIPEG JETS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-11178/9641448-1-eng-US/f0037-112.jpg" title="f0037-11" width="130" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Blake Wheeler, RW</p><p><i>Broke out as team&rsquo;s best big-bodied scorer</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Spencer Machacek, RW</p><p><i>Only 13 GP, but he&rsquo;ll play more in 2012-13</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Mark Stuart, D</p><p><i>198 hits, 182 BkS for unassuming defender</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK</b> Kyle Wellwood, C</p><p><i>Good &rsquo;11 playoff in S.J. parlayed to career year</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Ondrej Pavelec, G</p><p><i>Earned less ($1.2M) than backup in strong year</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Nik Antropov, C</p><p><i>NHL&rsquo;s most expensive fourth-liner at $4.1M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-12154/9641441-1-eng-US/f0037-122.jpg" title="f0037-12" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(TRAVIS GOLBY/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Phoenix Coyotes went off the board when they selected <b>Blake Wheeler</b> fifth overall in 2004. Because of that and his low production, the Minnesota native became recognized as an underachiever. But now the Jets are reaping the rewards. Wheeler started with seven points in 17 games and so-so minutes, but finished as the team&rsquo;s best player.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0037-01

From Cub To Panther

<div class="byline">&#x2013; BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011299/9641633-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-13149/9641640-1-eng-US/f0038-132.jpg" title="f0038-13" width="77" height="89"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02899/9641626-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="657" height="735"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>JIRI HUDLER COMEBACK PLAYER</b> <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>I</b>t would be unfair to suggest Jiri Hudler&rsquo;s return to the NHL last season drew mixed reviews. The reviews weren&rsquo;t nearly that good.</p><p>Entering a contract year, he sought the benefit of mixed martial arts training to improve his strength. This time around, once more, the reviews of his performance are not mixed. They are much better than that.</p><p>Two years into his NHL comeback after playing in 2009-10 with Dynamo Moscow of the Kontinental League, Hudler, 28, earned a regular turn on Detroit&rsquo;s second line with Henrik Zetterberg and Valtteri Filppula, potting a career-high 25 goals, 15 more than last season. &ldquo;Last year didn&rsquo;t go my way,&rdquo; Hudler said. &ldquo;It was frustrating, but this is a different year.&rdquo;</p><p>Good-different, as it turned out. Playing his off wing, a left-handed shot on the right side, Hudler bumped his points total from 37 to 50, just seven shy of the career high he set with the Wings in 2008-09.</p><p>Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom always knew Hudler would once more find his groove. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been playing great for us,&rdquo; Lidstrom said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a shifty player, he&rsquo;s good with the puck, he knows how to find the back of the net.&rdquo;</p><p>The Wings also were impressed with how the bulked-up Hudler was willing to get his nose dirty to make something happen. &ldquo;He goes to the hard areas, too,&rdquo; Lidstrom said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a big guy, but he goes to those hard areas and he&rsquo;s gotten rewarded for going there.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>AND THN&rsquo;s AWARDS GO TO&hellip;</b></h2><h3><b>CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03726/9641619-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="122" height="38"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Patrick Sharp, LW</p><p><i>Led Hawks in goals, plus-minus, GWG, shots</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Andrew Shaw, RW</p><p><i>27-goal pace; top NHL rookie total was 24</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Brent Seabrook, D</p><p><i>One of four NHLers top-30 in hits and BkS</i></p><p><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Ray Emery, G</p><p><i>Beat career-threatening hip condition; 15 wins</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Viktor Stalberg, RW</p><p><i>22 G, six game-winners, $875K</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Michael Frolik, RW</p><p><i>Five goals, minus-10, $2.3M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04590/9641612-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DALE MACMILLAN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Patrick Sharp&rsquo;s</b> cap hit jumps from $3.9 to $5.9 million next season, but he&rsquo;s done everything to justify his lucrative extension. He led Chicago in most offensive categories despite missing eight games and was remarkably consistent, notching at least 10 points in five different months and scoring eight goals in three different months.</p><h3><b>COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05475/9641605-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="117" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Vinny Prospal, LW</p><p><i>Led team in assists; even rating after ASG break</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Cam Atkinson, RW</p><p><i>Mighty mite had 10 pts. in final six games</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Derek Dorsett, RW</p><p><i>235 PIM, 199 hits, 12 G; 19 fights third in NHL</i></p><p><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Jack Johnson, D</p><p><i>Minus-12 in L.A., plus-5 in Columbus</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Nikita Nikitin, D</p><p>Seven goals, <i>32 points in 54 games, $600K</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> James Wisniewski, D</p><p><i>Eight-game suspension, six goals, $5.5M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06407/9641598-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(RICH LAM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Future Watch 2012 talked up 5-foot-7 <b>Cam Atkinson</b> as a sneaky-good Blue Jackets youngster to watch. Columbus&rsquo; fourth-ranked prospect didn&rsquo;t disappoint during a late-season call-up. Atkinson bumped Rick Nash from Columbus&rsquo; top line and ended the year with five goals in two games, including his first NHL hat trick April 5 in Denver.</p><h3><b>DETROIT RED WINGS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07343/9641591-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="119" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Pavel Datsyuk, C</p><p><i>Wings 3-8-1, 6.4 percent on PP without him</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Brendan Smith, D</p><p><i>23-year-old had seven points, plus-3 in 14 games</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Niklas Kronwall, D</p><p><i>Led team in blocked shots, third in hits</i></p><p><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Jiri Hudler, RW</p><p><i>25 G; third in NHL in shooting percentage</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Jimmy Howard, G</p><p><i>35 W, .920 SP, six shutouts, $2.3M</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Tomas Holmstrom, RW</p><p><i>11 G, 24 pts., minus-9, $1.9M; UFA in July</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-08280/9641584-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Jimmy</b>&nbsp;<b>Howard</b> was on track for an historic season before injuries slowed him. His 30-11-1 mark before the all-star break had him on pace to shatter Terry Sawchuk&rsquo;s franchise record of 44 wins, but Howard won just five more after that. Still, his 35 victories tied for fifth most in the NHL. Not bad for the league&rsquo;s 25th-highest-paid stopper.</p><h3><b>NASHVILLE PREDATORS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-09239/9641577-1-eng-US/f0038-092.jpg" title="f0038-09" width="126" height="38"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Shea Weber, D</p><p><i>19 G tied for most among NHL defenseman</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Roman Josi, D</p><p><i>Averaged 18-plus minutes, scored five goals</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Shea Weber, D</p><p><i>Team&rsquo;s leading hitter four years running</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Alexander Radulov, RW</p><p><i>Seven points in nine games in return from KHL</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Craig Smith, C</p><p><i>Cooled in second half, but 14 G, 36 pts., $715K</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Andrei Kostitsyn, RW</p><p><i>Only one goal in final 14 GP, $3.3M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-10203/9641570-1-eng-US/f0038-102.jpg" title="f0038-10" width="327" height="575"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JOHN RUSSELL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>After joining Nashville at the Feb. 27 trade deadline, <b>Andrei Kostitsyn</b> exploded for six points in five games. But he became a non-factor after that, bouncing between the second and third lines once Alexander Radulov arrived. If he wants anything close to another $3.3 million annually in his next contract, the Preds will pass on a re-up.</p><h3><b>ST. LOUIS BLUES</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-11179/9641563-1-eng-US/f0038-112.jpg" title="f0038-11" width="95" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> David Backes, C</p><p><i>Led team in goals (24), hits (226), shots (234)</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Jaden Schwartz, C</p><p><i>Two goals, one GWG during seven-game call-up</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Ryan Reaves, LW</p><p><i>13 fights, 171 hits in 60 GP</i></p><p><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> David Perron, LW</p><p><i>42 pts. in 57 GP after missing a year</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Brian Elliott, G</p><p><i>Set modern-day GAA and SP records, $600K</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Chris Stewart, RW</p><p><i>15 G after 28 each of past two years, $2.9M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-12166/9641556-1-eng-US/f0038-122.jpg" title="f0038-12" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Enforcer <b>Ryan Reaves</b> acquitted himself well in his first full NHL campaign. He didn&rsquo;t pick his spots when he dropped the gloves, battling heavyweights Brian McGrattan, John Scott and Deryk Engelland, among others. The 25-year-old Winnipeg native also showed offensive potential, scoring his all three of his goals after the all-star break.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0038-01

Reinvented Red Wing

<div class="byline">&#x2013; BEN KUZMA</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-011188/9641755-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-13126/9641748-1-eng-US/f0039-132.jpg" title="f0039-13" width="77" height="89"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02789/9641741-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="658" height="806"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>HENRIK SEDIN</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span></b>hey reached the same destination by a different route. How? the Vancouver Canucks don&rsquo;t have to look any further than their calm captain for marshalling the troops and claiming a second consecutive Presidents&rsquo; Trophy.</p><p>Without an Art Ross winner, Jennings tandem or leading contenders for the Vezina, Hart, Norris or Selke Trophies, it was left for Henrik Sedin to be the voice of reason when there was reason to wonder whether the Canucks could complete another long climb back to the top of the regular season mountain. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t mind having four 100-point scorers, but we&rsquo;ve got a lot of unselfish guys here,&rdquo; said Sedin, who led the club with 81 points. &ldquo;Everybody has bought into the team-first attitude and it&rsquo;s been a great year that way.&rdquo;</p><p>Not that it was easy. The club stumbled out of the gate (4-3-1), prompting GM Mike Gillis to trade for David Booth. There were player-only meetings after the March 21 loss of Daniel Sedin to a concussion and the once-vaunted power play lost its way. But Henrik was always there to answer every question and lead by example and the fans&rsquo; vote as team MVP rightly went to the captain. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an honor for sure,&rdquo; Henrik said. &ldquo;Last year, we found out how tough it is to be up there after 82 games and how close this league is.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had a lot of statement games and the biggest key for us was to stay on an even keel. As a group we knew when to take care of things and when to play better.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>AND THN&rsquo;s AWARDS GO TO&hellip;</b></h2><h3><b>CALGARY FLAMES</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03622/9641734-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="122" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Miikka Kiprusoff, G</p><p><i>Flames would be Yakupov hunting without him</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> T.J. Brodie, D</p><p><i>Veteran poise and high panic threshold</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Tim Jackman, RW</p><p><i>Underrated fighter and one of few willing hitters</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Mike Cammalleri, LW</p><p><i>Popular return after getting chased in Montreal</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Curtis Glencross, LW</p><p><i>On 30-goal pace for local discount ($2.6M)</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Jay Bouwmeester, D</p><p><i>12 G past three years; 42 previous three in Fla</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04521/9641727-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="327" height="576"></div><p><b>Jay Bouwmeester</b> ranks fifth among defensemen with a $6.7-million cap hit and for that he&rsquo;s sixth among blueliners in ice time. Beyond that, Bouw-meester doesn&rsquo;t provide much return. His placing in other statistical categories is low for what the team is paying him: 45th in points, 58th in goals, 64th in blocked shots, 116th in hits and 290th in plus-minus.</p><h3><b>COLORADO AVALANCHE</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05438/9641720-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="126" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Ryan O&rsquo;Reilly, C</p><p><i>Third-liner evolved into front-line go-to player</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Gabriel Landeskog, LW</p><p><i>Raised the bar with each passing month</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Steve Downie, RW</p><p><i>His arrival added grit throughout lineup</i></p><p><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Semyon Varlamov, G</p><p><i>Extricated himself well from miserable start</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Ryan O&rsquo;Reilly, C</p><p><i>RFA due for four-fold hike from $900K pittance</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Paul Stastny, C</p><p><i>Production waned since five-year, $33M deal</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06364/9641713-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GERRY THOMAS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Semyon Varlamov</b> made a remarkable recovery from both the doghouse and a dubious date with disaster. Varlamov cost the Avs their first round draft pick in 2012 and after a poor start, that was looking to be of the lottery variety. Varlamov won just five of his first 15 games with an .892 save percentage, but afterwards won 21 of 38 with a .921 SP.</p><h3><b>EDMONTON OILERS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07318/9641706-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="134" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Jordan Eberle, RW</p><p><i>Both a crafty playmaker and a terrific finisher</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, C</p><p><i>Had Calder wrapped up until January injury</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Ben Eager, LW</p><p><i>Rugged presence gives kiddie corps confidence</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Ryan Whitney, D</p><p><i>Played just four games in 11-month window</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Jordan Eberle, RW</p><p><i>Remarkably still has a year left at $1.2M</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Shawn Horcoff, C</p><p><i>Halfway through dreadful six-year, $33M deal</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-08269/9641699-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Two shoulder injuries knocked <b>Ryan Nugent-Hopkins</b> out of the lineup for 20 games, but he was still a candidate for the Calder Trophy. Critics doubted the skilled pivot would be ready as an undersized teenager playing against men, but he started with 13 goals and 35 points in 38 games. He slipped to five goals and 17 points in 24 games after the first injury.</p><h3><b>MINNESOTA WILD</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-09217/9641692-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="128" height="38"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Mikko Koivu, C</p><p><i>Wild won seven of 27 games captain missed</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Marco Scandella, D</p><p><i>Second among rookie D-men with 21:46 TOI</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Cal Clutterbuck, LW</p><p><i>Injuries snuffed out fourth-straight NHL hit title</i></p><p><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Josh Harding, G</p><p><i>Stunning return from injury-lost 2010-11</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Kyle Brodziak, C</p><p><i>Coming off $1.2M pact, will rise to $2.8M</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Dany Heatley, RW</p><p><i>Goal-scoring trend: 50-50-41-39-39-26-24</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-10186/9641685-1-eng-US/f0039-102.jpg" title="f0039-10" width="344" height="579"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Kyle Brodziak</b> started out as a fourth-line energy player in Edmonton before methodically moving up the depth chart and maxing out at 22 goals and 44 points in his third season with the Wild. It helps that Brodziak kills penalties, plays on the second power play, is solid on faceoffs and matches against top centers on other teams. The raise he earned is coming.</p><h3><b>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-11163/9641678-1-eng-US/f0039-112.jpg" title="f0039-11" width="143" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Henrik Sedin, C</p><p><i>Now has edge over brother in terms of health</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Marc-Andre Gragnani, D</p><p><i>Offensive instincts dried up in Vancouver</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Kevin Bieksa, D</p><p><i>Chews nails for breakfast with a smile</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Manny Malhotra, C</p><p><i>Eye injury hasn&rsquo;t sullied his faceoff skills</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Alex Burrows, RW</p><p><i>Scored 28, then signed four years for just $8M</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Keith Ballard, D</p><p><i>Gets $4.2M to mostly spectate from press box</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-12147/9641671-1-eng-US/f0039-122.jpg" title="f0039-12" width="345" height="593"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>When it comes to grit, skill and intimidation, <b>Kevin Bieksa</b> ranks among a special group of defenseman. Zdeno Chara, Dion Phaneuf and Bieksa are the only three to rank among the top 30 in points, average time on ice and hits. Of the group, Bieksa and Chara had the most fighting majors with four. Bieksa&rsquo;s point (44) and hit (159) totals were career highs.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0039-01

Cool Hand Captain

<div class="byline">&#x2013; DAVID POLLAK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01891/9641870-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1393/9641863-1-eng-US/f0040-132.jpg" title="f0040-13" width="77" height="89"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02567/9641856-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="735" height="776"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>DOUGLAS MURRAY TOUGHEST PLAYER</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>S</span></b>an Jose Sharks defenseman Douglas Murray has a well-earned reputation as one of the league&rsquo;s hardest hitters, but his own numbers took a dive.</p><p>After tallying 203 and 233 hits the previous two campaigns, Murray had just 126 in 2011-12 &ndash; still enough to lead his team, but dropping him from his traditional perch among the league&rsquo;s upper echelon.</p><p>Injuries were largely to blame, because they limited him to a career-low 60 games and may have altered his playing style, something Murray would never admit.</p><p>But the 6-foot-3, 240-pound Swede suggested there were other reasons for his drop-off. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been around the league longer and people know I play physical,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Players are smart. Veteran guys, they adjust so they&rsquo;re not going to get hit.&rdquo;</p><p>At 32, Murray also considers himself older, but wiser when it comes to physical play. &ldquo;When I was younger, I might have gotten more hits, but I put myself out of position a lot more, too,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about waiting for the right situation, too.&rdquo;</p><p>Like many players, Murray questions the numbers on the nightly stat sheet as off-ice officials are more generous in some buildings than others. But, tough as he is, the big blueliner wasn&rsquo;t looking to pick a fight with statisticians.</p><p>&ldquo;If you put too much worry into that, you&rsquo;re in it for the wrong reasons,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it frustrates you because obviously you get judged by it.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>AND THN&rsquo;s AWARDS GO TO&hellip;</b></h2><h3><b>ANAHEIM DUCKS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03440/9641849-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="143" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Corey Perry, RW</p><p><i>Led team with 37 G, six game-winners</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Devante Smith-Pelly, RW</p><p><i>Brought offense to third line, grinded right away</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Sheldon Brookbank, D</p><p><i>Eight fights, 110 BkS, 120 hits</i></p><p><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Francois Beauchemin, D</p><p><i>Upped his TOI to 25:33 and improved offense</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Sheldon Brookbank, D</p><p><i>Career bests in all categories for just $750K</i></p><p><b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Lubomir Visnovsky, D</p><p><i>Less than half the offense, same $5.6M cap hit</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04354/9641842-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="327" height="576"></div><p>The Ducks&rsquo; blueline is still going through growing pains, but <b>Francois Beauchemin&rsquo;s</b> presence was steadying. In his second tour of duty with the team, the physical blueliner improved markedly in most categories since coming over last year from Toronto. His eight goals tied a career high and he played major minutes, blocking a team-best 194 shots.</p><h3><b>DALLAS STARS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-05299/9641835-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="101" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Kari Lehtonen, G</p><p><i>Posted his best full-season GAA (2.33)</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Richard Bachman, G</p><p><i>Usurped Andrew Raycroft for backup job</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Mark Fistric, D</p><p><i>Had 235 hits, 105 BkS in just 60 GP</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Sheldon Souray, D</p><p><i>Plus-11, 21 pts. in return from AHL exile</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Jamie Benn, C</p><p><i>Second-leading scorer at $822K</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Brenden Morrow, LW</p><p><i>Injuries, time killing captain&rsquo;s impact at $4.1M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-06261/9641828-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="327" height="576"></div><p>The Stars&rsquo; lone All-Star Game representative, <b>Jamie Benn</b>&nbsp;proved to the league what Dallas fans already knew about his talent. In the final year of his entry level contract, Benn posted a career-best 26 goals and 63 points, tying him for second on the team and doing so at a frugal cap hit of $821,667. Look for the 22-year-old to command five times that as an RFA.</p><h3><b>LOS ANGELES KINGS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-07227/9641821-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="139" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Jonathan Quick, G</p><p><i>NHL-best 10 SO; 1.95 GAA was second</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Slava Voynov, D</p><p><i>Plus-12, 20 pts. in 54 GP from back end</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Kyle Clifford, LW</p><p><i>10 fights, 179 hits for sophomore</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Willie Mitchell, D</p><p><i>Career-high 24 pts. after two banged-up years</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Jonathan Quick, G</p><p><i>Only $1.8M for best goalie in the NHL</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Drew Doughty, D</p><p><i>Fewest points since rookie year for $7M</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-08195/9641814-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="327" height="576"></div><p>At 22, Drew Doughty doesn&rsquo;t need a successor yet, but <b>Slava Voynov</b> at least proved to be a nice complement on the blueline. The Russian by way of major junior provided the Kings with offense every time he was called up and will enjoy a more consistent role in the future with fellow puck-mover Jack Johnson now toiling with the Blue Jackets in Columbus.</p><h3><b>PHOENIX COYOTES</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-09144/9641807-1-eng-US/f0040-092.jpg" title="f0040-09" width="98" height="38"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Mike Smith, G</p><p><i>Eight shutouts, .930 SP both T-third in NHL</i></p><p><b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Michael Stone, D</p><p><i>Big &lsquo;D&rsquo; was plus-7 in just 13 GP</i></p><p><b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Martin Hanzal, C</p><p><i>Threw 239 hits in 64 GP, often vs. top lines</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Ray Whitney, LW</p><p><i>Led team with 77 pts. after two lesser seasons</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Mike Smith, G</p><p><i>Goalies this good make three times his $2M</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Derek Morris, D</p><p><i>Minus-12, $2.7M cap hit stick out</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-10130/9641800-1-eng-US/f0040-102.jpg" title="f0040-10" width="327" height="575"></div><p>Cast off by Tampa Bay, <b>Mike</b>&nbsp;<b>Smith</b> became the Dogs&rsquo; savior in the wake of Ilya Bryzgalov&rsquo;s departure for Philly. Smith put up huge numbers in net for the Coyotes and according to some metrics, was individually responsible for more points in the standings than any other player in the NHL. On a team ranking in the league&rsquo;s bottom half in goals, he was a rock.</p><h3><b>SAN JOSE SHARKS</b></h3><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-11114/9641793-1-eng-US/f0040-112.jpg" title="f0040-11" width="117" height="37"></div><p><b>MVP</b> Joe Thornton, C</p><p><i>Won 56 percent of draws, led team with 77 pts.</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOP ROOKIE</b> Andrew Desjardins, C</p><p><i>Three game-winners; 53 percent on faceoffs</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>TOUGHEST PLAYER</b> Douglas Murray, D</p><p><i>Hits leader (126) second in BkS (143)</i></p><p><b>COMEBACK PLAYER</b> Joe Thornton, C</p><p><i>Stats back up after poor 2010-11 campaign</i></p><p><b>BEST BARGAIN</b> Logan Couture, C</p><p><i>All-around pivot strong as a $1.2M sophomore</i></p><p>&nbsp;<b>MOST OVERPAID</b> Patrick Marleau, LW</p><p><i>Dwindling returns don&rsquo;t justify $6.9M cap hit</i></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-12103/9641786-1-eng-US/f0040-122.jpg" title="f0040-12" width="327" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Sharks locked down an aging core at big bucks and it&rsquo;s starting to look bad. <b>Patrick Marleau&rsquo;s</b> yearly stipend may not be horrible on its own, but couple it with several similar pacts and the cap space fills up quickly. The former captain&rsquo;s numbers have dropped two straight seasons and the Sharks are no longer the toast of the Pacific.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0040-01

Waiting In The Waters

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01770/9642034-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="491" height="182"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1830/9642027-1-eng-US/f0041-182.jpg" title="f0041-18" width="77" height="89"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>T WAS ABUNDANTLY</b> clear from the first round on that the 2012 playoffs would be filled with intrigue &ndash; and attrition. Below is a look at how the 16 teams stacked up before they were trimmed down to just eight hopeful Stanley Cup squads.</p><p><b>LEGEND:</b></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1924/9642020-1-eng-US/f0041-192.jpg" title="f0041-19" width="23" height="23"></span><p>SPARE |</p><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-2023/9642013-1-eng-US/f0041-202.jpg" title="f0041-20" width="23" height="23"></span><p>INJURED | <b>S</b> SUSPENDED | <b>A</b> AHL 2012 UFA | RFA</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02501/9642006-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="753" height="513"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03407/9641999-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="752" height="513"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-04353/9641992-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="754" height="512"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-05319/9641985-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="753" height="513"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-06277/9641978-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="753" height="514"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-07238/9641971-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="753" height="513"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-08184/9641964-1-eng-US/f0041-082.jpg" title="f0041-08" width="754" height="514"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-09135/9641957-1-eng-US/f0041-092.jpg" title="f0041-09" width="752" height="512"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-10108/9641950-1-eng-US/f0041-102.jpg" title="f0041-10" width="752" height="515"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1188/9641943-1-eng-US/f0041-112.jpg" title="f0041-11" width="752" height="513"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1273/9641936-1-eng-US/f0041-122.jpg" title="f0041-12" width="752" height="513"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1360/9641929-1-eng-US/f0041-132.jpg" title="f0041-13" width="753" height="514"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1450/9641922-1-eng-US/f0041-142.jpg" title="f0041-14" width="753" height="514"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1547/9641915-1-eng-US/f0041-152.jpg" title="f0041-15" width="752" height="513"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1641/9641908-1-eng-US/f0041-162.jpg" title="f0041-16" width="753" height="513"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1735/9641901-1-eng-US/f0041-172.jpg" title="f0041-17" width="753" height="513"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0041-01

2012 ROUND 1 DEPTH CHARTS

<div class="byline">BY BRION O&#x2019;CONNOR</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02527/9642072-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>TRIAL BY FIRE Upon signing with the New York Rangers, Chris Kreider was thrust into playoff action.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS: J. MERIC/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01818/9642079-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="77" height="89"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>fter a 2-0</b> opening-round NCAA loss to eventual-champion Boston College, Air Force coach Frank Serratore marvelled at the collection of talent in maroon and gold. &ldquo;That kid who scored their two goals,&rdquo; Serratore asked, &ldquo;where&rsquo;s he playing in three weeks? New York?&rdquo;</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03414/9642065-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="138" height="125"></div><p>&ldquo;That kid&rdquo; was junior Chris Kreider, a 2009 first round pick of the New York Rangers and BC&rsquo;s leading scorer (23 goals, 45 points). Two days after the Phillips Andover (Mass.) product helped the Eagles hoist their fifth national title with a 4-1 win over Ferris State at the Frozen Four in Tampa, Kreider made good on Serratorre&rsquo;s prediction, signing with the Rangers and playing on their on top line with Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards for Game 3 against Ottawa. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an outstanding kid,&rdquo; said BC coach Jerry York. &ldquo;He rises to the competitive level.&rdquo;</p><p>While wearing BC colors, Kreider was the face of a dominating program. When he turned pro, he became the latest in a litany of ex-Eagles making their mark on the NHL, joining new Ranger teammate Brian Boyle, Brian Gionta, Cory Schneider, Brooks Orpik and Hall of Famers Joe Mullen and Brian Leetch, to name just a few.</p><p>In his freshman campaign, Kreider became the first player to win a World Junior Championship, collegiate conference title and NCAA title in one season. Over three years, the 21-year-old tallied 92 points on 49 goals and 43 assists for BC. Kreider was the Rangers&rsquo; No. 2 prospect in Future Watch and ranked No. 23 across the NHL.</p><p>The 6-foot-3, 225-pound winger from Boxford, Mass., was one of nine NHL draft choices suiting up for the Eagles. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no magic formula to it,&rdquo; said York of his team&rsquo;s 10 Frozen Four appearances since 1998. &ldquo;Get a lot of good players and keep them on the same train throughout the year.&rdquo;</p><p>Keeping those players from season to season is even trickier. It&rsquo;s become an annual right at The Heights to figure out which of BC&rsquo;s blue-chip players will bolt for the pros. Last year, junior forwards Cam Atkinson (the team&rsquo;s leading scorer) and Jimmy Hayes as well as sophomore defender Philip Samuelsson (son of Ulf) traded in their college eligibility to sign contracts. Yet enough key players return every year to give BC a solid nucleus &ndash; players like Kreider, captain Tommy Cross, alternate captain Paul Carey and junior Brian Dumoulin.</p><p>Cross, a highly touted second round choice by Boston, battled knee injuries his first three years at BC. This season, a healthy Cross suited up for all 44 games and set career highs in assists (19) and points (24). After accepting the NCAA trophy, Cross wasted no time signing with the Bruins. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been an outstanding leader for us and his play warrants all-league consideration,&rdquo; York said. &ldquo;He did not make first or second team all-league, but he&rsquo;s in that mix of players that are among the best defensemen in Hockey East.&rdquo;</p><p>Carey, likewise, inked with Colorado. Dumoulin, who earned all-American honors his sophomore season, surprised by returning as a junior. All the Maine native did was submit another all-American campaign, capped off by his all-tournament selections in the Hockey East and NCAA tourneys. Like Kreider, Dumoulin opted to forego his senior year, signing with Carolina. &ldquo;He was very good when he enrolled at our school and to his credit he&rsquo;s worked really hard in the weight room,&rdquo; York said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s stronger now and each year he gets better at every aspect. I&rsquo;ve seen improvement in his puckhandling, his skating, his strength &ndash; which is the biggest factor &ndash; and he&rsquo;s become more of a leader. He&rsquo;s more vocal now and he&rsquo;s a real central part of our team core.&rdquo;</p><p>Then there are BC&rsquo;s under-classmen. Winning begets winning and good players attract good players, like Kevin Hayes (Jimmy&rsquo;s younger brother) and Calgary draft pick Bill Arnold. And sometimes there&rsquo;s a bit of luck involved. Freshman sensation Johnny Gaudreau, another Flames pick, had committed to Northeastern, but when coach Greg Cronin left to take a post with the Maple Leafs the school released Gaudreau from his commitment and he landed across town.</p><p>At BC, Gaudreau scored at a point-per-game clip, finishing with 21 goals and 44 points, while also garnering Beanpot and Hockey East tournament MVP honors. He is, York said, the prototypical small Eagle forward, with great skill and vision. But given Gaudreau&rsquo;s slight stature &ndash; 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds soaking wet &ndash; the Calgary brain trust will surely want him in school for at least another year. That&rsquo;s bad news for BC opponents.</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>

f0042-02

Head Of Class With Honors

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03461/9642110-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04354/9642117-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="77" height="89"></div><p>&ldquo;Winning is hard,&rdquo; said Boston College coach Jerry York after his Eagles secured their third NCAA title in five years. You wouldn&rsquo;t know it from the boxscores: BC outscored its four opponents 16-2 in the 2012 post-season.</p><p>The Eagles&rsquo; remarkable run includes 10 Frozen Four appearances since 1998. So how do they do it?</p><p>Some believe it&rsquo;s the &ldquo;will beats skill&rdquo; mantra. The Eagles have both. They&rsquo;re littered with NHL draft picks, including Chris Kreider and Johnny Gaudreau this year, but they&rsquo;ve also created a culture of hunger. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not satisfied with this,&rdquo; said goaltender Parker Milner after they won the Hockey East tournament. &ldquo;We want the big one, too.&rdquo;</p><p>The Eagles don&rsquo;t burn energy chasing prey. They wait for the optimal moment, then strike. Against Minnesota in the NCAA semifinal, the they were outshot 31-25 &ndash; and won 6-1. Their match against Air Force had a similar feel. &ldquo;When BC gets it going, they get four or five shots in spurts,&rdquo; said Falcons coach Frank Serratore. &ldquo;When they get you on your heels, you have to just find a way to weather the storm.&rdquo;</p><p>Leading that storm for BC was Gaudreau, who ignited the Tampa crowd with his highlight-reel third-period goal in the final. Lost in the excitement was the pounding he withstood for the first two periods.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>That&rsquo;s BC&rsquo;s trademark: under-sized, talented, fearless forwards, like Gaudreau (5-foot-7, 150 pounds), junior Steven Whitney (a slight 5-foot-7, 162-pounder who netted three goals in Tampa) and senior Barry Almeida (a 5-foot-8, 183-pounder who notched a career-high 22 goals).</p><p>While BC&rsquo;s small, quick forwards are not intimidating, they possess an ideal combination of speed and endurance. They simply wear teams down. In their four NCAA tournament wins, the Eagles got stronger as the games got longer. Or, as Serratore said, &ldquo;They want to impose their will on you in every facet of the game.&rdquo;</p><p>Teamwork trumps talent. Having both is ideal. York credits assistants Mike Cavanaugh and Greg Brown with recruiting top players, but that&rsquo;s just a start. &ldquo;We feel at BC, when you come into our program, no one player&rsquo;s bigger than the Eagle,&rdquo; York said. You&rsquo;re there for one purpose. You represent our school. Your focus is on winning trophies. I don&rsquo;t care how good the player is. The reason we&rsquo;re so effective is they all buy into that system.&rdquo;</p><p>Another key to BC&rsquo;s success is taking the long view, which is captured in the schedule posted outside the locker room. It&rsquo;s an inverted pyramid, with early-season games at the bottom in tiny print. As the season progresses and the games get more important, the type size increases.</p><p>At the very top is not the final regular season game or league tournament, but the NCAA championship game. That&rsquo;s where the Eagles always expect to be.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0043-03

How BC Does It

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02553/9642148-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="522" height="404"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>hree of the four starting goalies in the NCAA&rsquo;s Frozen Four came to Tampa boasting All-American credentials. The one who didn&rsquo;t, Boston College junior Parker Milner, left the Sunshine State not only with a national championship, but Most Outstanding Player honors as well. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s our backbone,&rdquo; said BC defenseman Brian Dumoulin. &ldquo;That gives us tons of confidence, knowing that if we make a mistake, it&rsquo;s not over and he&rsquo;s going to make a big save.&rdquo;</p><p>The Eagles&rsquo; win in the championship game was their 19th in a row (33-10-1) and capped a stunning reversal not only for the team, but also for Milner.</p><p>At semester break, he was mired in a three-goalie rotation and the team was struggling through a 2-5-1 stretch. That&rsquo;s when Milner took up the challenge laid down by BC coach Jerry York, rededicating himself to his training. He started skating extra morning sessions, working with goalie coach Jim Logue and assistant coach Greg Brown.</p><p>Milner and the Eagles haven&rsquo;t lost since Jan. 21. They swept the Beanpot, Hockey East regular season, league tournament and NCAA championship (highlighted by Milner&rsquo;s back-to-back shutouts in the NCAA regionals, a 6-1 win over Minnesota and a 4-1 victory over Ferris State in the title game). &ldquo;He&rsquo;s improved an awful lot,&rdquo; York said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you can become a top-end team unless you&rsquo;ve got a remarkable goaltender.&rdquo;</p><p>Milner was ironclad during the Eagles&rsquo; winning streak, posting a 1.09 goals-against average and .959 save percentage. He finished the season 29-5-0, with a 1.66 GAA and .937 SP.</p><p>Next year, when the Frozen Four comes to his hometown in Pittsburgh, Milner and the Eagles will contend again. By then, he might be an All-American and pro scouts will be taking a look.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0043-02

Milner A Marvel

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-03333/9642186-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>PEP FOR PREP Zach Stepan chose the prep school game and Shattuck&rsquo;s for the superior competition.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(PAUL SWENSON PHOTOGRAPHY)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-04267/9642200-1-eng-US/f0044-042.jpg" title="f0044-04" width="77" height="89"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>M</span>ost draft</b> buzz tends to center around high scorers or monster defensemen. But what about the kids who are just really good at making sure their team wins games?</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01696/9642193-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="187" height="81"></div><p>Center Zach Stepan is that type of prospect. Playing for the Shattuck-St. Mary&rsquo;s Sabres, the Minnesota native is following in the footsteps of his cousin, New York Rangers sophomore center Derek Stepan, who also attended the prep school. The two grew up together, but their styles diverge on the ice. &ldquo;I like Zach &ndash; much different player than Derek,&rdquo; said one scout. &ldquo;He works his butt off, never cheats. He&rsquo;s an honest two-way player.&rdquo;</p><p>Derek&rsquo;s no loafer, but the Blueshirts wunderkind is the type of forward who would net a hat trick in his NHL debut (which he did last season). Zach, meanwhile, is the player who keeps the other team&rsquo;s star in check and wins faceoffs in the defensive zone and on the penalty kill. &ldquo;Zach is a very hard-working boy,&rdquo; said coach Tom Ward. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a lot of &lsquo;want-to&rsquo; in his game and a heart of gold. High engine, hard to play against and when you have the puck, he&rsquo;s hard on you.&rdquo;</p><p>Though high school hockey is huge in Minnesota, Stepan elected to go to Shattuck&rsquo;s instead, where the prep school plays a mixture of private programs, international teams and top-flight midget squads. Shattuck&rsquo;s recently captured the USA Hockey under-18 national championship &ndash; its second straight and fourth in the past six seasons &ndash; defeating the Los Angeles Jr. Kings 2-1 in the final. &ldquo;It was better competition overall,&rdquo; Stepan said. &ldquo;And I wanted to play for coach Ward. I wanted to play my whole high school career here.&rdquo;</p><p>Committed to Ohio State, Stepan was ranked 86th overall for the 2012 draft by Draft Preview. The Sabres have a good crop of prospects, with defenseman John Draeger and Latvian center Teddy Blueger also in the mix to be selected. Big forwards Jake Montgomery and Hunter Fejes are bubble candidates.</p><p>The players all live at the school in dorms, fostering a great team atmosphere and bonding experience. And since Faribault, Minn., is far from a metropolis, it&rsquo;s not hard to focus on the task at hand.</p><p>&ldquo;You pretty much do the same thing every day,&rdquo; Stepan said. &ldquo;You get up, you go to school &ndash; we actually skate during class; we practise during our off periods &ndash; get out of practice, do your workout, do your homework, go to bed. We basically live off of &lsquo;eat, sleep, hockey,&rsquo; with some homework thrown in.&rdquo;</p><p>Derek played street hockey with Zach when they were kids and though the age gap (three-and-a-half-years) meant they never played organized games together, they are close. And since Derek went from Shattuck&rsquo;s to the University of Wisconsin to the NHL, he&rsquo;s been able to provide a roadmap for his cousin. Derek&rsquo;s also a big fan of the Sabres system. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re surrounded by hockey 24/7,&rdquo; Derek said. &ldquo;Coach Ward does a great job taking boys and preparing them for the next step in junior or college &ndash; and it is a big step, because you&rsquo;re playing against men in college. He teaches you how to handle yourself.&rdquo;</p><p>With the Sabres&rsquo; season done, Zach&rsquo;s next step is the NHL draft and most likely the combine that precedes it. It&rsquo;s a nerve-racking time, but family is there for him. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s trying to do his best not to focus on it,&rdquo; Derek said. &ldquo;I told him it&rsquo;s a fun process, but the real fun begins after that.&rdquo;</p><p>Zach cites his vision and ability to throw his body around as two of his strongest traits, but he knows there are still areas to improve upon in his game: &ldquo;My puck skills. I&rsquo;m a good passer, but I&rsquo;d like to be able to make that one extra move to get around somebody to make the pass easier for the next guy.&rdquo;</p><p>That&rsquo;s Zach Stepan in a nutshell &ndash; always thinking team first.</p><p><b>1.33</b>&nbsp;<b>Zach Stepan&rsquo;s points-per-game average with Shattuck&rsquo;s in 2011-12</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02443/9642179-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="139" height="147"></div><p><b>For more on the Shattuck-St. Mary&rsquo;s program, watch the video feature at <a href="http://thn.com/ssm">thn.com/ssm</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0044-03

Same Name, Different Game

<div class="byline">BY LIZ BEVAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0046-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01614/9642238-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>STAR PLAYER Chad Brownlee recently opened for country icon Dierks Bentley.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(IDAHO STEELHEADS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>When Chad</b> Brownlee decided to hang up his skates, he picked up a guitar and hasn&rsquo;t looked back.</p><p>Brownlee was a 6-foot-2, 200-pound defenseman drafted in the sixth round by the Vancouver Canucks in 2003 fresh from the Vernon Vipers of the British Columbia League. He went on to play four seasons at Minnesota State-Mankato, where he wore the &lsquo;C&rsquo; and made his professional debut for the ECHL&rsquo;s Idaho Steelheads in 2007. He then decided hockey was no longer his lifelong dream.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>Hours at the rink&hellip;made me who I am as an artist</b><br><b><i>&ndash; Chad Brownlee</i></b></blockquote><p>Why the switch? Brownlee&rsquo;s passion for hockey was fading while, simultaneously, his love for music was rapidly growing. By Brownlee&rsquo;s own admission, it wasn&rsquo;t the most glamorous of times for him. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t like I was a prolific NHLer by any means,&rdquo; Brownlee said. &ldquo;Music was just progressing&hellip;and I figured while I was still young I should give it a shot.&rdquo;</p><p>That shot has hit the mark. Brownlee has released two albums in the past two years, with the most recent, &ldquo;Love Me or Leave Me,&rdquo; on Feb. 14. Brownlee said he put his heart and soul into his new album and writing songs is his favorite part of the process. But it&rsquo;s also the most challenging.</p><p>The inspiration for &ldquo;Love Me or Leave Me&rdquo; came to Brownlee song-by-song. He wrote more than 100 tracks for the album before choosing only 10 for the final cut, but they all came from the heart. &ldquo;There is a song in there about my grandfather who passed away,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And there&rsquo;s one about my dad, who is still here.&rdquo;</p><p>Brownlee also recently played a string of shows opening for platinum-selling country artist Dierks Bentley on the Canadian stops of his 2012 Country & Cold Cans tour and experienced playing for crowds of thousands. The tour went by quickly, with Brownlee only playing six songs at each show, but that didn&rsquo;t take away from the experience. &ldquo;(The best part was) just getting up on stage every single night,&rdquo; Brownlee said. &ldquo;But man, what an experience playing in front of those crowds.&rdquo;</p><p>Getting a late start in the music industry &ndash; thanks to years of dedication to hockey &ndash; hasn&rsquo;t hampered Brownlee&rsquo;s success. If anything, it has helped him. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t be the musician I am today without all those hours and hours at the hockey rink,&rdquo; Brownlee said. &ldquo;Like any sport, it gives you a thicker skin.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-02401/9642231-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg" title="f0046-02" width="738" height="991"></div><p>That thick skin has come in handy working in an industry that can be ruthless. And he got to know himself while being faced with the difficult, high-pressure situations hockey offered.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s those kind of moments that made me who I am as an artist and as a songwriter and help me navigate my way through the business,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>Brownlee&rsquo;s hockey background has opened doors artistically. Being recognized as a player-turned-singer piques the interest of fans around the world, specifically in Canada, where hockey is religion. Dreams of Stanley&rsquo;s silver have been replaced by gold records, but for Brownlee: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just continuing to do what I love to do.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0046-01

Country Strong

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01400/9642307-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="643" height="461"></div><h2><b>WINNER</b></h2><p><i>&ldquo;I told you guys something didn&rsquo;t smell right at the oyster bar.&rdquo;</i></p><p><b>MIKE MERGES, RENSSELAER, N.Y.</b></p><p><i>&ldquo;Anyone find my contact?&rdquo;</i></p><p><b>STEVEN MANZO, NORTH ARLINGTON, N.J.</b></p><p><i>&ldquo;OK, now let&rsquo;s move from Child&rsquo;s Pose to Downward Dog.&rdquo;</i></p><p><b>STEVE UTZ, CALGARY</b></p><p><i>&ldquo;Duck&hellip;duck&hellip;duck&hellip;goose!</i></p><p><i>&ldquo;An annoyed Coach Renney denied using the trap although he did admit that the Oilers were now adopting a more passive defensive posture.&rdquo;</i></p><p><b>DAN LEE, OAKVILLE, ONT.</b></p><p><i>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not worthy! We&rsquo;re not worthy!&rdquo;</i></p><p><b>BRIAN KUHN, KELOWNA, B.C.</b></p><p><i>&ldquo;These piggyback races in between periods are getting a bit ridiculous.&rdquo;</i></p><p><b>KEN SZUBERT, PLAINFIELD, ILL.</b></p><p><i>&ldquo;Chuga chuga chuga choo choo!&rdquo;</i></p><p><b>LOU DEMAIORIBUS, HENDERSON, NEV.</b></p><p><b>SEE THIS WEEK&rsquo;S CAPTION CONTEST PHOTO ON PAGE 14</b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-03233/9642300-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="44" height="44"></span><p><b><a href="http://THN.com">thn.com</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-01

Caption CONTEST

<div class="byline">By Larry Humber</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-02301/9642338-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg" title="f0049-02" width="999" height="999"></div><p><b>ANSWERS AVAILABLE IN THE NEXT ISSUE AND AT</b> <a href="http://THN.com/">THN.com/</a><b>xword</b></p><h2><b>ACROSS</b></h2><p>1 Nickname of Toronto&rsquo;s AHL team</p><p>4 Zdeno ___ was an All-Star Game captain</p><p>7 Win easily</p><p>8 Lightly passes the puck</p><p>10 Intense grief (after a devastating loss, say)</p><p>12 One of the Stastnys</p><p>13 Team based in Uniondale, N.Y.</p><p>14 500-goal getter Joe ___ is now GM in Dallas</p><p>18 Team that went Cupless from 1955-97</p><p>19 Sign of what is to come</p><p>20 &lsquo;The Joe&rsquo; is Detroit&rsquo;s</p><p>21 Gary ___ won his only Cup with Calgary</p><h2><b>DOWN</b></h2><p>The last full month of the season</p><p>2 &lsquo;The Flower&rsquo; starred for this Quebec junior team</p><p>3 Jab with one&rsquo;s stick blade</p><p>4 St. ___ was home of the AHL&rsquo;s Saints from 1982-86</p><p>5 Calgary&rsquo;s ___ Tanguay, pictured</p><p>6 14 Across also racked up 562 ___</p><p>9 He was Hart Trophy winner in 1967 and 1968</p><p>11 ___ Konstantinov won two Cups with Detroit</p><p>12 &lsquo;The Battle of ___&rsquo; takes place in Edmonton and Calgary</p><p>15 Garry ___ was once the NHL&rsquo;s &lsquo;Iron Man&rsquo;</p><p>16 Team that plays at the Staples Center</p><p>17 Sharpened part of the skate blade</p><p><b>LAST WEEK&rsquo;S CROSSWORD SOLUTION ACROSS</b> 1. ROBERTO, 4. KEHOE, 7. DIGS, 8. SENATORS, 10. RON FRANCIS, 12. GREEN, 13. UNION, 14. BARGAINING, 18. SHUTOUTS, 19. RIGA, 20. SUTER, 21. SPRINGS <b>DOWN</b> 1. RYDER, 2. BEGINNER, 3. ONE-ON, 4. KHABIBULIN, 5. HOOD, 6. EASTERN, 9. BRIND&rsquo;AMOUR, 11. DIVISION, 12. GLASSES, 15. GATES, 16. GOALS, 17. CURT<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-02

CROSSWORD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-04214/9642376-1-eng-US/f0049-042.jpg" title="f0049-04" width="991" height="1294"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-05167/9642369-1-eng-US/f0049-052.jpg" title="f0049-05" width="150" height="150"></div><p><b>In 1926-27, the Stanley Cup didn&rsquo;t have much of a trunk when Ottawa won it over Boston.</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-04

Blast from the Past

<div class="byline">- RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0693/9642407-1-eng-US/f0049-062.jpg" title="f0049-06" width="487" height="676"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>H</span>ockey looks are not universal. If you&rsquo;re an Original Six team, there&rsquo;s a stoic dignity implied in your sweater design. If you&rsquo;re a reborn IHL Sunbelt team in the ECHL, you can loosen up a bit.</p><p>Which is why the Solar Bears (a delicious pun) will be looking good when they make their second strike into pro hockey next season. Teal and purple may not be bleu, blanc et rouge, but it fits Florida. And the mascot and logo are catchy, but not in an eye-bleeding way. Plus, the bear-paw-in-sun shoulder logos are pretty awesome.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-06

JerseyHound

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01386/9642445-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="311" height="543"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>E</span><b>very time I write</b> a column either on this page or on <a href="http://THN.com">THN.com</a> criticizing the NHL for its stance on violence &ndash; and Lord knows the league and its players give me lots of fodder &ndash; the deluge of hate mail is as predictable as the swallows returning to Capistrano. The content varies somewhat, but the general idea is yours truly should immediately don a skirt and start covering figure skating.</p><p>Not about to do that any time soon, though I&rsquo;m a little curious about how the material would feel against my skin. Alas, my legs are far too bulky and hairy and I&rsquo;ve been cursed with thick ankles. However, you have to love the passion people have for the game. There&rsquo;s something about the bravery that comes with anonymity that makes people express their opinions so vociferously.</p><p>Watching the first round of the playoffs unfold, I wish the NHL would simply do the same thing. You know, just tell all the pantywaists that, if they don&rsquo;t like the level of violence they&rsquo;re seeing in the game, they should go amuse themselves with something else. I believe it&rsquo;s time for the league to stand up for itself and, more importantly, not make any excuses or apologies for the behavior of its on-ice employees.</p><p>There hasn&rsquo;t been one act of violence during the first round of the playoffs that couldn&rsquo;t have been stopped if the league legitimately wanted to put an end to it. Look at the NFL. You&rsquo;d have to be naive beyond belief to think the New Orleans Saints were</p><p>the only team in the league putting financial bounties on opposing players. But after the way commissioner Roger Goodell dealt with the Saints and their coach Sean Payton, it&rsquo;s not a practice that will ever find its way into an NFL dressing room again.</p><p>The tone for everything that&rsquo;s gone on in these playoffs was set in Game 1 of the Nashville-Detroit series when Shea Weber of the Predators punched Henrik Zetterberg in the back of the head, then smashed his face into the glass and was fined only $2,500. The league used the opportunity to make a statement by basically saying it has almost no problem with escalating levels of violence in the post-season.</p><p>And when you look at the situation objectively, why would it? Driven by the potential for mayhem, television ratings in both Canada and the U.S. were up significantly. Those firmly entrenched in the hockey establishment &ndash; from players to coaches to commentators &ndash; could hardly contain their excitement over all of it and a large segment of the fandom loved it.</p><p>That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m beginning to think along the same lines as television analyst Mike Milbury. Earlier this season, Milbury said the league should simply come clean and admit it punishes fighting with only a five-minute penalty because it likes having fighting in the game. It entertains people. Those who follow the NHL have long thumbed their noses at the sporting establishment and wear their loyalty for the brutal aspects of the game like a badge of honor. And it&rsquo;s high time the NHL did the same. I&rsquo;d have a lot more respect for the league if it told people, &ldquo;Look, we are what we are. If you like our product, we appreciate your loyalty. If it turns you off, go somewhere else because we have no intention of changing.&rdquo; And instead of paying lip service to the safety of players, it would be more appropriate for the league to say: &ldquo;Our players are compensated beyond anyone&rsquo;s wildest beliefs for playing a game they love. There is some collateral damage that comes with that, but these are willing participants. They know the risks and they should accept them.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-02284/9642438-1-eng-US/f0050-022.jpg" title="f0050-02" width="678" height="820"><figcaption class="caption-body">SHEA WEBER <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>The NHL has no problem with escalating violence</b></blockquote><p>The NHL likes having a certain level of violence in its product. That much was clear when Colin Campbell, during his tenure as director of hockey operations, uttered the famous phrase, &ldquo;We sell hate.&rdquo;</p><p>Hockey is a game played at its highest level when things are most chaotic on the ice. It&rsquo;s this atmosphere that leads to the frenetic pace that makes this game so exciting. And that&rsquo;s what the NHL believes when it comes to off-ice exposure as well. If nothing else, these playoffs have people talking and engaged, and for the league, it doesn&rsquo;t much matter why. When it comes to this sort of thing, the NHL lives by the immortal words of Oscar Wilde: &ldquo;The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.&rdquo;</p><p>Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke recently opined people complaining about the violence in this year&rsquo;s playoffs are like &ldquo;people complaining about the rain at Woodstock. Yes, there was lots of mud, but it was the greatest music gathering in history.&rdquo;</p><p>There&rsquo;s one distinction, though. There was nothing anyone could do about the rain at Woodstock. But there is a lot the NHL could do about the violence and it chooses not to. Both are mired in mud.</p><p>CAN&rsquo;T GET ENOUGH CAMPBELL? CLICK ON <b><a href="http//THN.COM">THN.COM</a></b> FOR KEN&rsquo;S EXCLUSIVE BLOG<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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May 14, 2012

A Year To Remember

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Fresh Face, Playoff Punch

Born For Beantown