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.

September 15, 2014

The Hockey News - Sep-14-14

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011515/9995979-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>F ORNSKOLDSVIK WASN&rsquo;T REAL, SOME</b>&nbsp;hacky hockey scribe would have invented it anyway. The tiny Swedish town is a picturesque burgh of fewer than 30,000 people, situated on the water and home to some of the greatest hockey players the nation has ever produced, from Peter Forsberg to Markus Naslund. It&rsquo;s also where two of the best current players in the NHL hail from in Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Every summer they go back to their hometown and decompress near the sea, where the boating is excellent and fellow NHLers such as Tampa Bay&rsquo;s Victor Hedman&rsquo;s live nearby. But the first two weeks of this off-season's vacation time were awful, as the clouds that followed the Sedins around during 2013-14 seemed to jump across from North America. Only in July did the skies clear in Ornskoldsvik. Now the twins are hoping their future in hockey will once again be beautiful as well.</p><p>The Canucks have experienced a jarring 2014. For most of last season, Vancouver was a playoff team in the homicidal Western Conference. But injuries, controversies and finally exhaustion hobbled the B.C. boys, dropping them out of the post-season picture altogether. GM Mike Gillis was fired after the season was over. Coach John Tortorella followed him to the guillotine a month later, after just one year behind the bench. &ldquo;It was disappointing for sure,&rdquo; said Daniel Sedin. &ldquo;Up until Christmas, we played pretty well. After New Year&rsquo;s, something happened. We couldn&rsquo;t really turn it around, and that&rsquo;s up to the leaders on the team. It&rsquo;s not something you can pin on one guy.&rdquo;</p><p>Gillis and Tortorella didn&rsquo;t help matters by botching the team&rsquo;s relationship with stars Roberto Luongo and Ryan Kesler, both of whom were eventually moved. The Luongo deal was particularly galling since Gillis had already dealt rising star goalie Cory Schneider at the 2013 draft. So instead of having two No. 1 goalies, the Canucks were left with inexperienced Swedes Eddie Lack and Jacob Markstrom &ndash; essentially, two backups.</p><p>Some in Vancouver believed the team played too slowly under the defense-minded Tortorella, though none of the Canucks were looking to make the former coach a scapegoat. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we were too slow, but we weren&rsquo;t scoring as much as we usually do, and that hurt us,&rdquo; said defenseman Chris Tanev. &ldquo;We were playing a little more defensive. We&rsquo;ll see what happens with the new coach and GM.&rdquo;</p><p>Enter the new cabal. Trevor Linden is now president while former Buffalo and Boston exec Jim Benning is GM, splitting the portfolio Gillis held. And Willie Desjardins was brought in for his first NHL head coaching gig, a move universally applauded by the hockey world. They&rsquo;ve been tasked with turning the Canucks around, and when Benning signed 2010 Vezina Trophy winner Ryan Miller as a free agent, it became abundantly clear Vancouver was reloading, not rebuilding. Last season could be fixed. &ldquo;From the outside, it seemed as if they didn&rsquo;t have the same energy at the end as they did in the first three-quarters of the season,&rdquo; Benning said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve always been a skill team that has used speed to score and wear teams down. We want to do what we&rsquo;re best at: taking pucks to the net and playing a skill game.&rdquo;</p><p>Whatever success Vancouver has this season will go through the Sedins. Not long ago, they were, accolade-wise, the best players in the NHL. Henrik won the Art Ross and the Hart trophies in 2009-10, while Daniel followed the next year with the Art Ross and Ted Lindsay &ndash; the MVP as decided by the players. The twins also piloted the Canucks to within one game of a Stanley Cup, dropping Game 7 of the final at home to Boston.</p><p>Now, they&rsquo;re tasked with rebounding from their worst season since their early NHL days. The easy answer is to blame Tortorella. The coach had the Sedins killing penalties at a much higher clip than in previous seasons under Alain Vigneault, but Daniel poured water on the notion shorthanded duties weighed on them. Under Vigneault, the Sedins were blessed with generous offensive zone starts. In 2011-12, for instance, the pair started a gobsmacking 79 percent of their shifts in enemy territory, while linemate Alexandre Burrows finished third in the NHL at 74 percent. Only Tampa Bay offensive defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron (who played just 47 games) came close at 71 percent. But to assume the Sedins were sheltered would be wrong. Based on the usage charts compiled by hockey researcher Rob Vollman, the Sedins were tasked with facing the toughest competition of any Vancouver players in recent years, along with defenseman Dan Hamhuis and the now-departed Ryan Kesler. So while the Sedins don&rsquo;t bring to mind burly two-way pivots such as Anaheim&rsquo;s Ryan Getzlaf, San Jose&rsquo;s Joe Thornton or L.A.&rsquo;s Anze Kopitar, Daniel doesn&rsquo;t believe there&rsquo;s any stylistic reason why Vancouver can&rsquo;t beat the West Coast titans. Residing in the Pacific Division, the Canucks will have to go through one or two California teams if they want to even get to the conference final. In 2013-14, the Canucks went 2-9-3 against those division rivals. &ldquo;You look at those teams, you look at the Rangers, Chicago, Boston, even Montreal &ndash; they all have a deep lineup,&rdquo; Daniel said. &ldquo;They have four lines that can score and do the little things right. They have good defensemen from No. 1 to No. 8. That&rsquo;s what we need to get back to. When we went to the Stanley Cup final, we had the deepest team in the NHL. If you have depth, you can play anyway you want to.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011494/9995972-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="1847" height="1508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>MEASURING UP</b></p><p>The Canucks feel they have the talent to battle Western powers like the Kings.</p></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-021012/9995965-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="1244" height="800"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FACELIFT FAITH</b></p><p>Jim Benning and Trevor Linden have the confidence of their players.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>That notion of depth played a big role in Benning&rsquo;s summer and the new GM even roped geography into the equation, something that has been a passion of the Canucks organization for years now. &ldquo;We have tough travel in Vancouver,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We need to be a fourline team. Every player is going to be important.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-011324/9995958-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="895" height="1208"><figcaption class="caption-body">ALEXANDRE <b>BURROWS</b> <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>So while netminder Miller was the biggest name to sign in free agency, Benning was also happy to acquire Derek Dorsett from the Rangers at the draft, as the former Blueshirt can bring energy to the bottom six. Nick Bonino and Luca Sbisa, two of the assets exchanged by Anaheim for Ryan Kesler, will contribute right away, while Radim Vrbata was brought in to play on the top line. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a give-and-go player,&rdquo; Benning said. &ldquo;We feel he&rsquo;ll work well with the Sedins.&rdquo;</p><p>This naturally brings up the inelegant question of what to do with Burrows. As a pesky goal-scorer, he&rsquo;s long been the favored running mate of the twins, but he suffered through a wretched campaign that included two major injuries (foot, then jaw) and an incredible run of bad luck that kept him out of the goal column until March 12. In fact, Burrows scored all five of his goals during a one-week span, and then went cold again for the remaining 10 games, missing one more contest due to a hand injury. For him, this is just another challenge to overcome in a pro career that began with him going undrafted and busing around the ECHL before gritting his way to the Sedins&rsquo; wing. &ldquo;Satisfaction is the beginning of regression,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Never be satisfied. Keep working hard. I had a tough year with injuries and broken bones, but it&rsquo;s a new year, a new chapter. A lot of us weren&rsquo;t too happy with the season we had, and it&rsquo;s a fresh start for a bunch of us.&rdquo;</p><p>And Burrows isn&rsquo;t fazed by the new guy vying for his job. &ldquo;Funny story,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I used to play junior with Radim in Shawinigan. He was a first-liner, I was a fourth-liner, but I got to play with him for a few games back then. During the past decade, I&rsquo;ve always talked to him during warmups. We&rsquo;ve gotten along. If he&rsquo;s with the twins, great, or if I&rsquo;m with them &ndash; at the end of the day, winning is more important than personal stats. That&rsquo;s how I&rsquo;m looking at it.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">The Sedins are elite players and world-class athletes. I don't worry about them<br>&ndash; Jim Benning</blockquote><p>And that&rsquo;s how the Canucks as a whole are looking at it. By replacing the failed Gillis/Tortorella brain trust with Linden, Benning and Desjardins, Vancouver has given itself a blank slate. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all really positive,&rdquo; said center Shawn Matthias. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be a great culture and everyone is really excited to get started, buying in already to the new regime.&rdquo;</p><p>Desjardins was a canny hire. He&rsquo;s never had an NHL team to call his own, but he has plenty of experience at many levels and was coveted in the off-season. His most recent masterpiece was in the American League, where he led the Texas Stars to a Calder Cup. He also has two Western League championships thanks to his eight years in Medicine Hat, where the Tigers never missed the playoffs and only failed to escape the first round once. &ldquo;His teams play a fast game,&rdquo; Benning said. &ldquo;They move the puck fast, they support each other and they work hard. Even in Medicine Hat his teams had discipline and structure.&rdquo;</p><p>Having Linden at the top is a big help, too. The most popular Canuck in history has been drawn back to the city time and again, only now he&rsquo;ll wear a suit full time. He has the support of the Sedins and that stretches all the way back to 2001-02, when he returned for his second stint as a player in Vancouver. &ldquo;Me and Henrik have a lot of respect for him,&rdquo; Daniel said. &ldquo;Our first four years in Vancouver were tough, and he was a great supporter. He gets a lot of respect from the fans, and he&rsquo;s a very smart hockey guy.&rdquo;</p><p>Burrows also championed Linden, and he believes the hirings made by the new president will help the Canucks get back on track. Now the question is whether Vancouver can regain their position among the upper echelon of teams in the West and compete for a Stanley Cup. Miller is a proven commodity in net who had an unfortunate short-term stay in St. Louis but loved his Olympic experience in Vancouver and is excited about playing in the city. Hamhuis and Kevin Bieksa will anchor the blueline, while Alexander Edler can only go up after a disastrous season under Tortorella. And up front, there&rsquo;s the Sedin-based attack that has been so effective for so long now. That&rsquo;s assuming 2013-14 was an aberration, which is what the franchise and the twins themselves are counting on. &ldquo;We need to produce,&rdquo; Daniel said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the bottom line.&rdquo;</p><p>They&rsquo;ve gotten to the apex of the NHL before, but in an impatient league, the Sedins will once again have to prove they can hang with the big boys. But at least they&rsquo;re not alone. Benning has surrounded them with talent because he has already seen their commitment. He saw them in the weight room in late May, a month and half after the season was over, before they headed back to Sweden. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re elite players in the league and world-class athletes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t worry about them. They&rsquo;re going to come back. As a group, the players are going to come back hungry.&rdquo;</p><p>But will hunger be enough? Los Angeles, Anaheim and Chicago are proven winners, while San Jose, St. Louis and Dallas want a piece of the Western crown as well. Just getting to the post-season will be a challenge for the Canucks, who can no longer count on playing in hockey's worst division (the old Northwest). That&rsquo;s the challenge that has unfolded in Vancouver, but it&rsquo;s one the Sedins accept. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want to be anywhere else,&rdquo; Daniel said. &ldquo;And we don&rsquo;t want to win anywhere else, either. People are excited about hockey here. They love it when you&rsquo;re winning and they hate it when you&rsquo;re losing. That&rsquo;s what you want as a player.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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FEATURES

GUT CHECK

<div class="byline">&#x2013; STEVE ZIPAY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01878/9996444-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-07246/9996437-1-eng-US/f0043-072.jpg" title="f0043-07" width="1361" height="1032"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAN <b>BOYLE</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>O GET TO HIS NEW NHL HOME, DAN</b>&nbsp;Boyle had to go coast-to-coast. It wasn&rsquo;t easy uprooting his wife and two young daughters from San Jose to the New York suburbs after six years in California. As expected, it required some planning. &ldquo;I was just on the phone with the movers,&rdquo; Boyle said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re pretty close on finding a place near the Rangers&rsquo; practice rink.&rdquo;</p><p>With the to-do lists on the front burner, Boyle, a staple of the Sharks blueline and the highest-scoring defenseman in team history, wasn&rsquo;t concerned that he had yet to speak with Rangers coach Alain Vigneault about his role. &ldquo;Listen, they got me for a reason,&rdquo; Boyle said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to reinvent myself. They know what they&rsquo;re getting.&rdquo;</p><p>The Rangers signed Boyle, 38, to a two-year, $9-million contract a few hours into free agency. What they hope to receive for their investment is a competitive, mobile, top-four defenseman who has an accurate, right-handed shot and can quarterback their power play.</p><p>His numbers were down last season, but Boyle averaged 21 minutes a night. He rebounded after a concussion in October cost him seven games. The Rangers had been interested in acquiring him for years, and he knew it. Former Blueshirts coach John Tortorella, who deployed Boyle as a &ldquo;rover&rdquo; when the Lightning won the Cup in 2004, often praised his play and lamented not having a similar asset on Broadway. Now Boyle will play for Vigneault, whose philosophy is familiar. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen a lot of Vancouver teams, especially in the playoffs,&rdquo; Boyle said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a creative mind, trusts in his players. Some coaches are too Xs-and-Os driven. I&rsquo;ve heard nothing but good things.&rdquo;</p><p>Boyle was part of the housecleaning after the Sharks&rsquo; first-round collapse against the Kings. San Jose traded his rights to the Islanders for a fifth-round pick. &ldquo;You had a feeling, the way we went out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If we&rsquo;d won a couple series, who knows?&rdquo;</p><p>Despite an offer from the Islanders, Boyle chose free agency, and ultimately the Rangers, where he rejoins former Tampa Bay teammate Martin St-Louis. &ldquo;The Islanders came out of the blue &ndash; I had no say,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I was never close to July 1 before, and I had plenty of options. Growing up as a Canadian kid (in Ottawa), I never had a chance to play for an Original Six team. We&rsquo;re anxious to get there.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>ON THE HOT SEAT</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02619/9996430-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="328" height="502"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BOURQUE: FRANCOIS LAPLANTE/FREESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>If the playoff <b>Rene Bourque</b> showed up every night, he&rsquo;d be a Hab for life. The big winger had eight goals in 17 post-season games. In 63 regular season contests, however? Nine goals. He&rsquo;s maddeningly inconsistent, and if he winds up on the third line, he&rsquo;s pricy at $3.3 million. He needs a strong wire-to-wire effort lest he be run out of town.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03515/9996423-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="321" height="501"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(NEAL: CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Was <b>James Neal</b> a 25-goal scorer masquerading as a 40-goal man thanks to elite line-mates in Pittsburgh? Or is he a bona fide sniper? The Preds banked on the latter and decided he was worth Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling. Staying out of disciplinary trouble will go a long way toward a rebirth for Neal in Music City.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04394/9996416-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="323" height="505"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BOYLE + LARSSON: DEREK LEUNG/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Several young blueliners will get great looks in New Jersey this season, but <b>Adam Larsson</b> will face the most scrutiny. When drafted No. 4 overall in 2011, he looked like one of the most NHL-ready players in his class, only to be passed in impact by Boston&rsquo;s Dougie Hamilton and Minnesota&rsquo;s Jonas Brodin. Time to prove the doubters wrong.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-05345/9996409-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="317" height="497"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HALAK: ANDY MARLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Once upon a time, <b>Jaroslav Halak</b> was a savior. The unknown Habs goalie led Montreal to a surprise playoff run. Four teams later (he was briefly a Sabre, don&rsquo;t forget), Halak must prove he still has magic for a team that desperately needs netminding. Halak won&rsquo;t be sheltered like he was in St. Louis, but maybe that&rsquo;s a good thing.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-06288/9996402-1-eng-US/f0043-062.jpg" title="f0043-06" width="328" height="501"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MILLER: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>J.T. Miller</b> has been on the cusp for a while, but with New York constantly dipping into the trade and free agent pool, he always had more time for development. With Brad Richards gone, Miller will be looked upon to take the next step. The kid&rsquo;s got a big body and nice playmaking skills. If the Rangers hope to repeat in the East, he has to excel.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0043-01

WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-04279/9996842-1-eng-US/f0049-042.jpg" title="f0049-04" width="592" height="597"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JERSEY: SWIFT CURRENT BRONCOS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he Western League&rsquo;s Broncos go back to their roots with this stylish update of the sweater Joe Sakic wore back in the late 1980s. On top of modernizing the jersey a little, the Broncos added an &lsquo;SC&rsquo; shoulder logo complete with wheat sheaf on one side, while still paying tribute to the four players who died in the 1986 team bus crash on the other.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-04

DEPARTMENTS

JerseyHOUND

<div class="byline">WITH STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021831/9995670-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ALL LEAFS ON ONE TREE</b></p><p>Charlie Conacher was a team player on Toronto in the &rsquo;30s and he didn&rsquo;t take kindly to any Leaf who wasn&rsquo;t.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(B BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012321/9995677-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="199" height="229"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>O</span>NLY ONE TEAM IN NHL HISTORY EVER HAD THE SOBRIQUET</b> &ldquo;Gashouse Gang&rdquo; attached to it, and that was the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1930 through 1937. They earned the label by pulling off some of the most mirthful, colorful off-ice antics imaginable. &ldquo;As their coach, they were my dream team type of players,&rdquo; said Dick Irvin. &ldquo;But they were certainly my nightmare types in hotels and on trains.&rdquo;</p><p>No prank was too outlandish and no hostelry was too swank, not even Boston&rsquo;s high-brow University Club, where one Maple Leaf, Charlie Conacher, once barricaded his buddy, Harold &lsquo;Baldy&rsquo; Cotton, in their room just for the fun of it. Only Cotton&rsquo;s screams brought an unsuspecting Irvin to the rescue. &ldquo;It was during an era that lasted all too briefly,&rdquo; said Ed Fitkin, an erstwhile Maple Leafs press agent.</p><p>Fitkin should know, having authored a book, <i>The Gashouse Gang of Hockey</i>, about the Gang&rsquo;s ringleaders. Naturally the headliners were Hall of Famer Conacher and often unsuspecting victim Cotton. &ldquo;Conacher was one of the prime instigators,&rdquo; Fitkin noted. &ldquo;Nothing was sacred. They couldn&rsquo;t even trust one another if there was the possibility of a good gag.&rdquo;</p><p>The Gashouse Gang&rsquo;s gag of all gags was labelled &ldquo;Man Over Manhattan&rdquo; by Cotton in Bill Roche&rsquo;s oral history, <i>The Hockey Book</i>. In it, Baldy spoke firsthand about what it was like to be hung upside-down outside a skyscraper hotel room. Cotton happened to be the man, and a piece of Manhattan was the hunk of geography over which he was perilously hung.</p><p>Interestingly, this particular bit of madcap mayhem took place in 1932-33, while the Leafs were defending Stanley Cup champions yet Jekyll and Hyde in their behavior. &ldquo;This Leaf team was full of fight and competitive zeal on the ice,&rdquo; Fitkin recalled, &ldquo;and full of fun and zest away from the rink.&rdquo;</p><p>He could have added &ldquo;and over Times Square as well,&rdquo; because that&rsquo;s where Cotton made his near-flying debut. But before getting on with the antics it should be noted here that when it came down to the business of winning, both Conacher and Cotton took defending their title very seriously. Conacher was the big gun on Toronto&rsquo;s famed &lsquo;Kid Line&rsquo; with Busher Jackson on the left side and &lsquo;Gentleman&rsquo; Joe Primeau in the middle. No slouch himself, Cotton spent a dozen big-league years on left wing for Pittsburgh&rsquo;s original NHL club, the Pirates, followed by his stint with Toronto and, later, the New York Americans.</p><p>The difference between the two was Conacher&rsquo;s marquee name as the Leafs&rsquo; hotshot scorer. Meanwhile, the unobtrusive Cotton played grunt guy on Irvin&rsquo;s checking line. &ldquo;For me scoring chances were none too plentiful,&rdquo; Baldy allowed.</p><p>But they were plentiful for Cotton one Saturday night at Maple Leaf Gardens. Trouble was that every time Baldy found an opening, no teammate skimmed him the puck. &ldquo;I had skated into scoring position several times, but I never got a pass,&rdquo; he lamented. &ldquo;I was downright annoyed.&rdquo;</p><p>Fair enough, but Harold should have kept his peevishness to himself. This was especially true after the Leafs arrived at New York&rsquo;s Hotel Lincoln in advance of a Sunday night game at Madison Square Garden with the Rangers. More importantly, Baldy should have noticed that Conacher desperately wanted to sleep.</p><p>Alas, slumber wasn&rsquo;t available in that 20th floor suite, because Cotton paced the floor beefing aloud about the Leafs&rsquo; lack of generosity with the puck. In <i>The Hockey Book</i>, Cotton vividly described how he talked himself out the window and almost down to the Eighth Avenue sidewalk without a parachute. &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll never pass the puck again to anybody in scoring position as long as I&rsquo;m with the Leafs.&rsquo; Then I repeated it and added, &lsquo;To heck with teamwork, I&rsquo;m going to be a lone wolf hockey player.&rdquo;</p><p>A crash-dive OOH-GAAH went off in Conacher&rsquo;s head, and before Cotton could even think an &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry,&rdquo; Conacher tackled his roomie, pulled him to an open window and grabbed his legs. &ldquo;He hung me, head-down, dangling 20 floors above the pavement,&rdquo; Cotton said. &ldquo;Everyone on the Leafs had known I had a fear of high places.&rdquo;</p><p>Conacher, on the other hand &ndash; or foot as the case may be &ndash; had a fear of seditious teammates. He transmitted that feeling by swinging Cotton to and fro to the tune of, &ldquo;Are you gonna pass the puck?&rdquo; Then just to make his point, Conacher let Baldy drop another inch or two. Rather than count the pedestrians below, Cotton got the message. &ldquo;I gave in,&rdquo; he concluded, &ldquo;and promised to pass the puck and be a good Maple Leaf.&rdquo;</p><p>Convinced the punishment fit the crime, Conacher pulled his bud back to safety, and did what he started out to do in the first place &ndash; go to sleep. Cotton didn&rsquo;t!<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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ARE YOU GONNA PASS THE PUCK?

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-012227/9995088-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BLING KING</b></p><p>A glimpse at all Jeff Carter&rsquo;s hardware and jewelry during his day with the Cup.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0003-01

IN THIS ISSUE

OPENING FACEOFF

<div class="byline">WITH JASON KAY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-012289/9995126-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="578" height="1011"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(RYAN BROOK/TC MEDIA)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE NHL TOOK A HARD STAND</b>&nbsp;during the 2012-13 lockout when it came to maximum contract length, fighting fervently for five years, then compromising at eight (for re-signings). Since then, up to the pact agreed to by our cover boy P.K. Subban in early August, 11 players had won max term. In the big picture, it&rsquo;s a small number, representing a tiny fraction of all deals. But due to the dollars and profile involved, the question remains: is eight great?</p><p>The answer depends on your perspective. If you&rsquo;re demanding equal value across all seasons, prepare to be disappointed. The evidence shows that, apart from notable exceptions, returns diminish on players beginning in their early 30s. A study released by the University of British Columbia business school this summer found an NHL forward hits his scoring peak at 28, a defenseman at 29. The data was slightly skewed for stars; they start hitting their high point at an earlier age and remain there longer. Their declines, also, aren&rsquo;t as sharp.</p><p>A snapshot of the Canadian men&rsquo;s gold-medal winning Olympic team tells a similar story about in-their-prime elite NHLers. The average age of the eight blueliners for the 2014 champs was 27, with Dan Hamhuis the elder statesman at 31. The 14 forwards&rsquo; average age was 28.6, a number that recedes to 27.6 if you substitute the then-injured Steven Stamkos for 38-year-old fill-in Martin St-Louis.</p><p>Anecdotally, if you retrace steps over an eight-season span (from the summer of 2006 to the summer of 2014), the tales mostly reflect the numbers. Joe Thornton, Brad Richards and Dany Heatley &ndash; all in their mid-20s back then &ndash; were three of the league&rsquo;s biggest stars. Today they range from declining cornerstone to question mark to last chance saloon. Conversely, there were exceptions such as Jaromir Jagr and Nicklas Lidstrom, two superstars who remained freakishly good in their early 30s right on through to their 40s.</p><p>On the bright side for Habs fans, P.K. will be just 33 when his contract expires, his prime years still visible in his rearview mirror. And if he, or any of his max-term brethren, help win a Stanley Cup, are perennial all-stars or drive large revenues with their stardom, and that all happens in the first five years, they&rsquo;ll be deemed good investments. Just don&rsquo;t expect your team has secured the next Jagr, Lidstrom or St-Louis.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021940/9995119-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="456" height="245"></div><p><b>NEXT ISSUE</b> SEASON PREVIEW 2014</p><p><b>CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TO SUBSCRIBE:</b> <a href="http://THN.com">thn.com</a></p><p><b>CONTACT US:</b> <a href="mailto:editorial@thehockeynews.com">editorial@thehockeynews.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0004-01

HOW GREAT IS EIGHT?

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-1314/9995216-1-eng-US/f0005-132.jpg" title="f0005-13" width="526" height="701"><figcaption class="caption-body">RYAN <b>DONATO</b> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>SWEET SIOUX ALUM</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-06258/9995265-1-eng-US/f0005-062.jpg" title="f0005-06" width="154" height="95"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>J</span>ust read your list, &ldquo;Top 10 Performers in the Shootout&rdquo; in the August issue and realized three of the 10 players listed played for the University of North Dakota: T.J. Oshie, Jonathan Toews and Zach Parise.</p><p><b><i>Ed Keller, Wallkill, N.Y.</i></b></p><h2><b>MIXED MESSAGES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-07144/9995258-1-eng-US/f0005-072.jpg" title="f0005-07" width="154" height="95"></div><p>I worked in major league baseball for 13 years. I knew the late Tony Gwynn and his family. As such I became very familiar with the can of &ldquo;dip&rdquo; in the proverbial back pocket of ballplayers. It seems odd to me that you would print an article on the risks of smokeless tobacco (Time For Hockey To Spit It Out, August), yet in the Opening Faceoff you have a photo of Thomas Vanek throwing a baseball with an obvious can of &ldquo;dip&rdquo; in his left pocket.</p><p><b><i>Jim Nevins, Temecula, Calif.</i></b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-0879/9995251-1-eng-US/f0005-082.jpg" title="f0005-08" width="154" height="95"></div><p>No argument from me about it being time to ban &ldquo;chew&rdquo; from the ice, even excluding the obvious health issues. I&rsquo;m an old goalie and I used to play against another goalie who would leave his crease pockmarked with green loogies mixed with chunks of spit-soaked tobacco. It was disgusting because we didn&rsquo;t have the benefit of a Zamboni between periods. I just had to slide around in his frozen green cancer-inducing sludge.</p><p><b><i>Tom Basinski, Getzville, N.Y.</i></b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-0949/9995244-1-eng-US/f0005-092.jpg" title="f0005-09" width="154" height="95"></div><p>I love the idea of kicking tobacco out of our sport. Obviously it is a health risk and a nasty habit. Growing up there was nothing more disgusting than falling into a pile of it (that was spit by my coach). Let&rsquo;s hope the tin shown in the Thomas Vanek contents photo is gum, right?</p><p><b><i>Michael Weinstock, Blue Bell, Pa.</i></b></p><h2><b>RANK RANKINGS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-1030/9995237-1-eng-US/f0005-102.jpg" title="f0005-10" width="154" height="95"></div><p>The problem with The Hockey News&rsquo; proposed format for a World Cup of Hockey (Sweet Sixteen For World Cup, August) is the rankings are based on current world championships. That really isn&rsquo;t fair when those teams are made up of players who have not made the NHL playoffs, assuming they decide to accept the invite. There has to be a better way to determine seeding for a best-on-best tournament.</p><p><b><i>Ed Keller, Wallkill, N.Y.</i></b></p><h2><b>WHY SO LATE?</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-1122/9995230-1-eng-US/f0005-112.jpg" title="f0005-11" width="154" height="95"></div><p>An Oct. 8 season start is late. By October I&rsquo;m anxious for hockey to begin. By June I want the Cup hoisted so I can enjoy the weather. Why can&rsquo;t the season start in September and end in May?</p><p><b><i>Peter Grecco, Oakville, Ont.</i></b></p><h2><b>B&rsquo;S NOTE GETS &lsquo;F&rsquo;</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-1217/9995223-1-eng-US/f0005-122.jpg" title="f0005-12" width="154" height="95"></div><p>In the August edition, you mention if Ryan Donato was to make the Bruins, he and his dad Ted would be the first father-son combination to play for Boston. As much as I love your magazine, you forgot Ray Bourque&rsquo;s son Chris played 18 games for the Bruins in 2012-13. <i>(Editor&rsquo;s note: we also forgot Ken and Ken Hodge Jr., Harvey and Bill Bennett, Ab and Ab DeMarco Jr. and Ron and John Grahame. We regret the error.)</i></p><p><b><i>Brian Rakoczy, Mississauga, Ont.</i></b></p><h2><b>CHIEF AMONG MEN</b></h2><p><b><i>I enjoyed, but was saddened by, your article on Gino Odjick and his terminal illness (The Fight Of His Life, August). I used to work on the Dallas Stars ice crew and one year when the Canucks were in town I was able to get a broken stick with the name &lsquo;Chief&rsquo; on it. No one on the Stars had that nickname, so I asked one of the Canucks players who it was. It was Odjick. He autographed the stick and I still have it today. Keep up the fight, Gino.</i></b></p><p><b><i>Paul Badovinac, Galveston, Texas</i></b></p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-012154/9995209-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="1163" height="672"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021573/9995202-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="156" height="167"></div><p>LOVE OR HATE ONE OF OUR FEATURES/STORIES?</p><p>LET US KNOW BY EMAILING US AT <a href="mailto:letters@thehockeynews.com">LETTERS@THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM</a></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-031027/9995195-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="77" height="78"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p><b>@THEHOCKEYNEWS</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04630/9995188-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg" title="f0005-04" width="77" height="76"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p><b>/THEHOCKEYNEWS</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-05402/9995181-1-eng-US/f0005-052.jpg" title="f0005-05" width="77" height="77"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p><b>/+THEHOCKEYNEWS</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0005-13

THN INBOX

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-149/9995394-1-eng-US/f0005-142.jpg" title="f0005-14" width="522" height="137"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-159/9995387-1-eng-US/f0005-152.jpg" title="f0005-15" width="141" height="70"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>WASHINGTON <b>19%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-168/9995380-1-eng-US/f0005-162.jpg" title="f0005-16" width="141" height="71"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>TORONTO <b>15%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-176/9995373-1-eng-US/f0005-172.jpg" title="f0005-17" width="141" height="71"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>VANCOUVER <b>12%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-186/9995366-1-eng-US/f0005-182.jpg" title="f0005-18" width="141" height="71"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>NY ISLANDERS <b>12%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-195/9995359-1-eng-US/f0005-192.jpg" title="f0005-19" width="141" height="70"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>NEW JERSEY <b>10%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-205/9995352-1-eng-US/f0005-202.jpg" title="f0005-20" width="141" height="71"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>NASHVILLE <b>6%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-213/9995345-1-eng-US/f0005-212.jpg" title="f0005-21" width="141" height="71"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>EDMONTON <b>6%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-222/9995338-1-eng-US/f0005-222.jpg" title="f0005-22" width="141" height="71"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>FLORIDA <b>4%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-232/9995331-1-eng-US/f0005-232.jpg" title="f0005-23" width="141" height="71"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>BUFFALO <b>4%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-242/9995324-1-eng-US/f0005-242.jpg" title="f0005-24" width="141" height="71"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>ARIZONA <b>3%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-252/9995317-1-eng-US/f0005-252.jpg" title="f0005-25" width="141" height="71"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>WINNIPEG <b>3%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-262/9995310-1-eng-US/f0005-262.jpg" title="f0005-26" width="141" height="71"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>OTTAWA <b>3%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-272/9995303-1-eng-US/f0005-272.jpg" title="f0005-27" width="141" height="72"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>CALGARY <b>2%</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-282/9995296-1-eng-US/f0005-282.jpg" title="f0005-28" width="141" height="71"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>CAROLINA <b>1%</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0005-14

PUCKPOLL

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012519/9995446-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="273" height="311"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021728/9995439-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="1168" height="955"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>WHO PULLS HIS WEIGHT?</b></p><p>Cameras will one day tell us how much a Chris Kunitz depends on a Sidney Crosby for success.</p></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>LTHOUGH THE ADVANCED</b> stats revolution has been swift, it&rsquo;s by no means complete. Corsi and Fenwick have easily displaced plus-minus as a go-to metric in evaluating a player&rsquo;s worth to a team, but in essence, those measures are simply more accurate versions of plus-minus, since they draw from a bigger sample size of shots instead of goals. What the so-called fancy stats crowd really wants to know is whether or not a player is driving puck possession when he&rsquo;s on the ice or simply tagging along while a linemate does all the work. And as amusing as it may be to picture a blogger painstakingly pausing their DVR every time a pass is made in a game to write down who has the puck and for how long, a much more rational solution is coming to the fore.</p><p>Video is the savior, but not just any video. We&rsquo;re talking about cameras that record an image every one-tenth of a second, compiling reams of data that can then be sorted by programs to give a more accurate representation of what&rsquo;s going on during a game. &ldquo;You can throw Corsi out the window,&rdquo; said Marc Appleby of PowerScout Hockey. &ldquo;Because we know how long a player had the puck.&rdquo;</p><p>So for every Chris Kunitz or Pascal Dupuis hater who thinks Sidney Crosby does all the work on his line, the answer will arrive soon. PowerScout, which has teamed up with tracking tech company ProZone Sports, was originally hatched from analytics research in 2009. It had contracts with two NHL teams last season but recorded more than 50 games in 25 NHL and major junior rinks overall. Using three Ultra-HD cameras, Appleby&rsquo;s firm can set up in any rink, right down to midget games, and doesn&rsquo;t require any permanent installation (though that&rsquo;s also an option). The cameras track every action in the game and the raw data is filtered through a cloud-based portal called Icetrax. The range of applications is stunning: a client team can look at zone entry speeds, how long a player holds the puck, the distance between two defense partners and even heat maps that show where a player spends most of his time on the ice. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re actually measuring the little things,&rdquo; Appleby said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re analyzing on a micro-level.&rdquo;</p><p>Appleby is a second-generation stats fiend. His father, Terry Appleby, invented a board game called National Pro Hockey back in 1985, which took real NHL player stats and allowed players to assemble lineups, with results based on probability. That same concept has led to one of PowerScout&rsquo;s most ambitious goals: figuring out if a player made the best choice when he had the puck. Using probability, the company can mine countless situations from the past and see what the ultimate outcomes were. For example, if Taylor Hall carries the puck into the offensive zone, is he better to stop inside the blueline and wait for help or charge to the net? PowerScout can look at the probability of the Oilers scoring on that play and relay that info to the team, which can then tell Hall if his instincts are helping or hindering.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-031036/9995432-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="460" height="667"><figcaption class="caption-body">SIDNEY <b>CROSBY</b> <span class="photo-credit">(GREGORY SHAMUS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Video analytics first came into sports in the 1990s, when optical tracking was used in soccer. The practice has expanded to many sports, including basketball, where PowerScout&rsquo;s main competition reigns. SportVU, a technology run by the company STATS, uses six cameras for NBA games and is installed in all 30 team arenas via the catwalk. SportVU is interested in hockey, and the battle for hearts and minds is being waged in meetings throughout North America. Still, even among the game&rsquo;s most progressive minds, there&rsquo;s doubt. &ldquo;The camera structure and logistics of it would have to be changed for hockey because of the different dimensions of the surface, how difficult it is to track the puck and the issues hockey has versus soccer and basketball,&rdquo; said Kyle Dubas, the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; new assistant GM and a darling of the advanced stats community. &ldquo;In hockey, substitutions can happen on the fly, while in the other sports it has to be at a stoppage. So it&rsquo;s being able to identify which players are going on and off the ice. I think there are some companies doing that stuff now, but we&rsquo;re still a long way away from where we need to go.&rdquo;</p><p>If you&rsquo;re worried all this info will take the fun out of hockey, keep in mind that even Appleby doesn&rsquo;t project a cookie-cutter NHL should video win the day. &ldquo;Teams define scoring chances differently,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We want to give them data that compares apples to apples.&rdquo;</p><p>If the NHL teams do become believers, however, there will no doubt be a rush to order. Every edge helps when building a Cup contender.</p><p><b>HEAT MAP DEPICTION OF SIDNEY CROSBY ON ICE</b></p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04667/9995425-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg" title="f0006-04" width="1108" height="476"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0006-01

ADVANCING PAST ADVANCED STATS

<div class="byline">By Charlie Teljeur</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-012208/9995477-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>MARTY BRODEUR, TRYiNG TO GET A FREE AGENT DEAL DONE&hellip;</b></blockquote><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0007-01

The Instigator

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021513/9995508-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="580" height="856"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DREW HALLOWELL/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>+PLUS</b></h2><h3><b>LUCKY AND BRONZED</b></h3><p class="dropcap"><span>L</span>os Angeles announces that Hall of Famer Luc Robitaille will be honored with his own statue outside the Staples Center, joining Wayne Gretzky.</p><h2><b>&ndash;MINUS</b></h2><h3><b>TOUGH RESULT</b></h3><p>Philly&rsquo;s <b><i>Kimmo Timonen</i></b> has his summer hijacked by blood clots in his leg and both lungs, hurting his chances of starting the season healthy.</p><h2><b>+PLUS</b></h2><h3><b>SOAKED FOR A CAUSE</b></h3><p>Scores of players, including many Bruins, dump ice water over themselves on video to promote awareness of ALS, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig&rsquo;s Disease.</p><h2><b>&ndash;MINUS</b></h2><h3><b>WHAT&rsquo;S THE POINT?</b></h3><p>First-overall pick Aaron Ekblad is concussed while playing at Canada&rsquo;s world junior camp. He&rsquo;ll likely play for Florida and miss the tournament anyway.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0007-02

PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MATT CARLSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012409/9995539-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BLOODY HELL! IT&rsquo;S HOCKEY</b></p><p>At <a href="http://hockeytutorial.com">hockeytutorial.com</a>, Chris Kibui gives his take on gear and skills, all in a pure British accent.</p></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>C</span>HRIS KIBUI, THE PASSIONATE</b> content creator of Hockey Tutorial, gets some memorable messages, such as this one via Facebook. &ldquo;I am LOLing, as a Canadian and 15-year hockey player, I would never guess I would be getting skate tips from a British-sound-ing black man. Awesome video, 100% detail, thank you for posting it, it was a lot of help&hellip;&rdquo;</p><p>Kibui isn&rsquo;t just British-sounding: Hockey Tutorial (<a href="http://hockeytutorial.com">hockeytutorial.com</a>) is based in Cambridge, England. Kibui usually plays 40 miles up the road in Peterborough, a small city that&rsquo;s home to one of just 55 indoor rinks in the United Kingdom. &ldquo;Me being probably the most minute demographic in hockey &ndash; black and English from Kenya &ndash; it&rsquo;s pretty interesting the comments that get left,&rdquo; Kibui said. &ldquo;But I do enjoy reading them.&rdquo;</p><p>Hockey Tutorial&rsquo;s equipment review videos provide top-to-bottom analyses with detail and clarity. And Kibui presents everything in crisp, proper English.</p><p>In other segments, he and his associates (friends and rec league teammates) precisely demonstrate skating and skills. There are also hockey lifestyle stories, such as a trip to Helsinki where Kibui and a friend, Chris Curtiss, who doubles as cameraman, played shinny on a frozen Baltic Sea harbor. &ldquo;Initially the idea behind the website was started because it was incredibly difficult to learn the sport here in England,&rdquo; Kibui said.</p><p>Hockey Tutorial has about 18,000 regular followers, with 15,000 subscribed to the associated YouTube account. Comments and thanks come from all over the world, and increasingly from Canada and the United States.</p><p>Kibui, 25, was born in Nairobi then moved with his mom and brother to London before he turned 10. At about 16, Kibui visited a now-closed rink that was three bus rides and a train away from home. He became entranced watching people in a routine public skate, so he set out to learn for himself. It wasn&rsquo;t easy. &ldquo;I found that the people at the ice rink that could skate&hellip; they really didn&rsquo;t give you the time of day as a beginner and explain what they were doing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;d ask them, but it was quite a disheartening feeling to get.&rdquo;</p><p>Lessons weren&rsquo;t an option, so Kibui watched experienced skaters and mimicked them. Based on the skating skills he demonstrates in his videos, he&rsquo;s come a long way. Kibui started his online hockey presence by posting a &ldquo;very rudimentary&rdquo; YouTube video on how to make a hockey stop. &ldquo;It managed to reach about 400,000 views in six or seven months,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The whole thing has kind of spiralled from there.&rdquo;</p><p>Kibui enlisted the help of an old non-hockey friend, Dan Fry, for added tech support to launch Hockey Tutorial. Now it&rsquo;s evolving, looking and sounding more authoritative to the hockey world. In a review of the new Bauer Supreme TotalOne MX3, he compares the skate with Bauer&rsquo;s flagship model from 2013 going step-by-step from the runner to the boot top. Kibui believes players at all levels should fully understand the benefits of high-end skates before plunking down $800 for a new pair. &ldquo;They need to know there&rsquo;s a justification,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I try to bring across.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0008-01

HOCKEY FREAK TO GEAR GEEK

<div class="byline">BY SAL BARRY, WEBMASTER OF THE HOCKEY CARD SITE PUCKJUNK.COM</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021851/9995570-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CHRIS KIBUI/HOCKEYTUTORIAL.COM)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>H</span>OCKEY FANS IN THE</b> United States were enticed to join the &ldquo;Topps Sports Club&rdquo; via an offer solicited on packs of 1975-76 Topps Hockey trading cards. For $2.50 plus one card wrapper, members would get a newsletter subscription, an 8&rdquo; x 10&rdquo; glossy photo of Bobby Clarke and packs of Topps cards before they were available for sale. As a bonus, Club members could also buy a subscription to The Hockey News for the rock-bottom price of $7.95 &mdash; a $2.55 savings. Unfortunately, this offer expired 38 years ago.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0008-02

In The CARDS

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HEN WILLI PLETT RETIRED FROM THE NHL, HE DID IT ON</b> his own terms. In his early 30s at the time, it wasn&rsquo;t that he was too old or that he couldn&rsquo;t keep up. And he wasn&rsquo;t too battered and bruised from playing his hard-nosed style. Rather, Plett didn&rsquo;t want to continue his career when his heart was no longer in it. &ldquo;I lost my desire for the game,&rdquo; Plett said recently from his home just outside of Atlanta. &ldquo;I had to play with a bit of an edge and as I got older it was harder to play with that edge. I felt that if I couldn&rsquo;t play that way, I wasn&rsquo;t going to play anymore. I just didn&rsquo;t want to hang on and play a style that I never played my whole career.&rdquo;</p><p>During his 13-year career, Plett racked up 2,572 penalty minutes, including 316 in 1983-84 alone as a member of the Minnesota North Stars. He was no slouch with the puck on his stick, though, tallying 20-plus goals six times. His best year came when he potted 38 for the Calgary Flames in 1980-81. In 1976-77, Plett lead all NHL rookies with 33 goals on his way to capturing the Calder Trophy.</p><p>Plett, with his blond locks flowing in the breeze as he skated without a helmet, was a fan favorite in Calgary, which was enjoying NHL hockey for the first time. He&rsquo;d be a much-appreciated power forward in today&rsquo;s game.</p><p>His career is made all the more amazing by the fact he didn&rsquo;t lace up skates and play organized hockey until he was 12. Plett&rsquo;s family &ndash; which had settled in Paraguay before Willi&rsquo;s birth, making him the only Paraguayan player in NHL history &ndash; came to Canada when Plett was a child.</p><p>Being a man who in large part made his living with his fists &ndash; he dropped the gloves more than 100 times during his career &ndash; it&rsquo;s a bit humorous Plett switched his stick for a putter in his life after the NHL. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to be involved in hockey,&rdquo; Plett said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to go that route or even try to do that. We came back to Atlanta, which was our home away from home, and we opened up a mini golf park and driving range. I thought that was kind of fun.&rdquo;</p><p>He came to the conclusion that Willi Plett&rsquo;s Sports Park was what he wanted to develop after taking a year off to be with his wife and four sons. He had more than a dozen acres of land in Atlanta, where he&rsquo;d played the first five seasons of his career, and decided to develop it into the sports park. He laughs now when talking about the business, saying he wouldn&rsquo;t wish the trouble of working in retail on anyone. &ldquo;Sometimes you learn too late that it&rsquo;s really difficult to be in the retail business,&rdquo; Plett said. &ldquo;Everybody thinks it&rsquo;s a great job &ndash; just sell beer and food, that everybody has a good time &ndash; but it&rsquo;s very, very difficult.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I JUST DIDN&rsquo;T WANT TO HANG ON AND PLAY A STYLE THAT I NEVER PLAYED MY WHOLE CAREER<br>&ndash; Willi Plett</blockquote><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012384/9995601-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="801" height="1135"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FANNING THE FLAMES</b></p><p>Willi Plett broke into the NHL with Atlanta, where he made his reputation as a fearsome enforcer.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(STEVE BABINEAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Plett, who comes from the generation of players who still work for a living out of necessity, said he&rsquo;s in a really good place in his life. Now, more than a decade removed from his days owning and operating Willi&rsquo;s, Plett works alongside his son Brian at Brian&rsquo;s landscaping company, Blaydes Landscaping. Plett works to ensure everything runs smoothly, whether it be getting the crews to their next job, overseeing the day-to-day operations on a site or helping with whatever Brian needs.</p><p>Now 59, Plett is enjoying his new role. And in this one, the only time he&rsquo;s dropping his gloves is when he walks through the door after a hard day&rsquo;s work.</p><p><b>FOR MORE TALES</b> OF PLAYERS PAST, CLICK ON <b><a href="http://THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM/BACKCHECKING">THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM/BACKCHECKING</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0010-01

BLUE-COLLAR WORK ETHIC

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MATT LARKIN</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS SHOCKED THE HOCKEY WORLD WITH THEIR</b> progressive hiring of Kyle Dubas, 28, as assistant GM. He&rsquo;d been GM of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds since he was 25. Dubas is a major proponent of advanced statistics like Corsi and Fenwick. Who is he, and what&rsquo;s it like being named an NHL exec before his 30th birthday? We tracked Dubas down for an exhaustive Q&A. Here&rsquo;s a portion of that exchange. Read the full version at <a href="http://thn.com/dubas">thn.com/dubas</a>.</p><p><b>THE HOCKEY NEWS:</b> What blew you away more: being named GM of an OHL team at 25 or being named assistant GM of the Leafs at 28?</p><p><b>KYLE DUBAS:</b> Frankly, the &lsquo;Soo&rsquo; job. There was a lot more negativity I could feel &ndash; and I certainly still have to prove myself now &ndash; but I could feel it, coming into the Soo, and being 25 and the team had struggled a little bit, even though they had some really good people. And I&rsquo;m local there, so I know people. So it was more rabid in the response to me coming in there. In Toronto &ndash; anybody that gets hired or traded for or signed, there&rsquo;s always negativity, but it&rsquo;s been overwhelming how many people have reached out to welcome me to Toronto, from the fans to the players to the media. It&rsquo;s all been, to my face, very positive, and it&rsquo;s been a totally different experience.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011979/9995639-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="517" height="739"><figcaption class="caption-body">KYLE <b>DUBAS</b> <span class="photo-credit">(ONTO MAPLE LEAFS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>THN:</b> When did your fascination with analytics start?</p><p><b>DUBAS:</b> As a young person, I went with my grandfather every Tuesday to pick up <i>Baseball Weekly</i> and scour the back pages, which were all the stats of all the Major League teams. They even had minor league teams in there. I started to become interested in that and just grew and developed and started reading some of the great work being done in hockey. It was probably five or six years ago when I really started reading about it and really began to draw some definitive conclusions between what the theory was, what the numbers were saying and what was actually happening on the ice.</p><p><i><b>POST TO POST</b> Read features like this and a whole lot more daily at</i>&nbsp;<b><i><a href="http://THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM/BLOG">THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM/BLOG</a></i></b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021442/9995632-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="38" height="66"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></div>

f0011-01

BOY WONDER

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-012022/9995729-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="460" height="456"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>F</span>ANS, WE KNOW</b> you&rsquo;re hurting for some hockey, and we feel your pain. When the dog days of the hockey calendar set upon the NHL, transactions slow to a trickle, and all that&rsquo;s left to do is wait for the start of the season.</p><p>But for those with vacation time to spare, a stash of cash to burn through and an adventurous spirit to unleash, it&rsquo;s a perfect time to plan for some serious road trippin&rsquo; come October. Just to grease the wheels a little, we&rsquo;ve put together four road trips to consider, one per division. Be warned. These are for hardcore trippers only.</p><p>The starting points are last season&rsquo;s division winners. Each route runs through every city in its division and wraps up before Halloween. The itineraries are a mix of short drives and long hauls (a bit of backtracking is involved, too), so it&rsquo;s best to bring your buddies. Feel free follow the schedules below, which include distances between stops, or construct your own sked and map an alternative route.</p><p>If you do end up hitting the road, be sure to pack properly. <a href="http://AutoGo.ca">AutoGo.ca</a>, an authority on all things automobile-related, lists these as road trip essentials: GPS, roof box, camera, first aid kit, entertainment system, rain repellent glass, waste bags, medicine and antibacterial wipes.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021410/9995722-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="740" height="529"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-031016/9995715-1-eng-US/f0013-032.jpg" title="f0013-03" width="2331" height="889"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-04817/9995708-1-eng-US/f0013-042.jpg" title="f0013-04" width="2332" height="797"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0013-01

ROAD TRIPPIN’

<div class="byline">WITH ADAM PROTEAU</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-012303/9995830-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BIG DOUGH, BIG &lsquo;D&rsquo;</b></p><p>P.K. Subban&rsquo;s new contract makes him the highest-paid blueliner in the NHL.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>ITH HIS ELECTRIC PERSONALITY AND</b>&nbsp;penchant for making news, P.K. Subban has become one of the NHL&rsquo;s most prominent and polarizing figures.</p><p>In his five seasons, he&rsquo;s been in the headlines for all sorts of reasons: his post-rookie contract bridge deal (and the brief negotiating impasse that caused him to miss the first four games of 2012-13); the racist slurs against him on social media in last spring&rsquo;s series with the Boston Bruins; the perception of him being self-interested and a showboat; the Norris Trophy he won in 2013; his emergence as a bona fide on-ice star in the 2014 postseason; his bittersweet Olympic experience (he was chosen for Team Canada, but played only one preliminary game for the eventual gold medal-winners); and, most recently, the eight-year, $72-million contract extension he signed with the Montreal Canadiens &ndash; a deal that makes him the NHL&rsquo;s highest-paid defenseman and gives him the league&rsquo;s third-highest salary cap hit at $9 million, behind Alex Ovechkin ($9.54 million) and Evgeni Malkin ($9.5 million).</p><p>All that attention could easily cause other players to crumble, but Subban shows no signs of withering under the spotlight. To the contrary, he thrives on it. He&rsquo;s as confident today as he ever was, and he&rsquo;s regularly mentioned as a candidate to be Montreal&rsquo;s next captain.</p><p>As he sees it, he can handle anything. So when THN offered him the chance to participate in a Q&A with questions provided by readers and fans, Subban unsurprisingly said yes without reservation.</p><p>As he confirms below, Subban doesn&rsquo;t do regrets.</p><p>BEING A MONTREAL CANADIEN, WITH EVERYTHING THAT IT IMPLIES (STAR STATUS AND ALL THAT), HOW DO YOU RELATE TO THE FRENCH SIDE OF THE CITY? HOW DIFFERENT OR DIFFICULT IS IT LIVING IN MONTREAL VERSUS LIVING IN ANOTHER PROVINCE IN CANADA BECAUSE OF THE FRENCH IDENTITY?</p><p><i>&ndash; Liane Henry, Montreal</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> The question you asked used the word &ldquo;difficult.&rdquo; I don&rsquo;t like that word in terms of talking about Montreal and the French population. Just because it&rsquo;s different doesn&rsquo;t mean it&rsquo;s difficult. It&rsquo;s like any other country or province you go to that has different languages: you have to adjust. I&rsquo;ve been living here four years, and I love it. I&rsquo;ve been able to interact with people in the community, and it&rsquo;s been a very easy transition for me. It&rsquo;s a great city, and I&rsquo;ve loved every moment of it.</p><p>They exude passion when it comes to the Montreal Canadiens. It&rsquo;s the religion of the Montreal Canadiens. Understanding the culture of the team and what it means to that province is so important, whether you&rsquo;re someone that plays for the team, someone who just moved to Montreal, someone who&rsquo;s lived in Quebec or someone who&rsquo;s a new hockey fan. And that&rsquo;s the cool thing about living in Montreal. Everybody cares about what you do as a player for the Montreal Canadiens. It&rsquo;s definitely flattering to be part of that.</p><p>IT&rsquo;S NO SECRET HOCKEY IS ONE OF THE MAJOR SPORTS THAT HAS A VERY SMALL NUMBER OF BLACK ATHLETES. AS ONE OF THE SPORTS BIGGEST STARS, WERE THERE ANY SORT OF BARRIERS OR DIFFICULTIES THAT YOU HAD TO OVERCOME TO GET TO WHERE YOU ARE TODAY? AND WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR YOUNG BLACK ATHLETES WHO ARE INTERESTED IN PLAYING HOCKEY?</p><p><i>&ndash; Erik Unger, Nashville</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> First of all, there are always challenges in life, no matter who you are, what color your skin is or what religion you are. There&rsquo;s always going to be challenges, and it&rsquo;s like anything else in life &ndash; you have to be able to persevere and rise above those challenges. Not just to black players, but to everybody, a good piece of advice would be to pay attention to detail and enjoy it. And expect adversity, no matter who you are, so that when you are facing it, you&rsquo;re prepared.</p><p>WHAT&rsquo;S YOUR <b>FAVORITE HOCKEY SLANG WORD</b> OR PHRASE? <i>&ndash; Joe McMahon, Austin, Tx.</i></p><p><b><i>&lsquo;Beauty.&rsquo;</i></b>&nbsp;<i>It&rsquo;s used way too much, but I love it.</i></p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-012067/9995823-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="1365" height="1727"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(FRANCOIS LAPLANTE/FREESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>HAS ANYTHING FUNNY EVER HAPPENED BETWEEN YOU AND CAREY PRICE IN PRACTICE OR IN A GAME?</p><p><i>&ndash; Deedee Noel, Hamilton, Ont.</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> There was one time in a game where a shot had come through that he didn&rsquo;t see. I sort of blocked it with my stick and he gave me a pat on the ass, then I patted him on the head. This was during the game, so I thought that was pretty funny.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021574/9995816-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="780" height="1060"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CHUCK MYERS/MCT)</span></figcaption></div><p>AS A LIFELONG BOSTONIAN AND DIEHARD BRUINS FAN, <b>I HONESTLY WANT TO HATE YOU,</b> BUT YOUR TACTFUL RESPONSE TO THE MEDIA UPROAR FOLLOWING GAME 1 IN BOSTON, YOUR EXCELLENT WORK DURING THE NHL AWARDS AND YOUR OVERALL OFF-ICE LIKABILITY IS MAKING IT MORE DIFFICULT THAN I CARE TO ADMIT. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO TO BE MORE HATEABLE AS A PERSON? <i>&ndash; John Dooley, Boston</i></p><p><i>(Laughs) I like that. You know what, for me I just have so much respect for the game and the fans. I&rsquo;ll always be respectful of the fans and players of opposing teams, because that&rsquo;s just the way I&rsquo;ve been taught.</i>&nbsp;<b><i>But it&rsquo;s flattering to hear that from a Boston fan.</i></b>&nbsp;<i>So thank you.</i></p><p>YOU HAVE A VERY POSITIVE ATTITUDE. DO YOU HAVE A DAILY MANTRA OR PERSONAL MOTTO? WHAT GETS YOU THROUGH TOUGH SITUATIONS?</p><p><i>&ndash; Heather Courtney, Toronto</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> I don&rsquo;t know, I just feel like it&rsquo;s a part of life, and everybody goes through ups and downs. You define who you are with how you respond in situations, and I just try and respond the best way I can. It&rsquo;s not always easy and I don&rsquo;t want anybody to think that it&rsquo;s easy, but you just try and respond the best way you can. That&rsquo;s all you can ask for, right?</p><p>HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO KEEP A RELATIVELY STABLE AND POSITIVE DYNAMIC WITH YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHILE BEING GONE ON THE ROAD FOR SO LONG? IS IT HARD TO MAINTAIN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS BECAUSE OF ALL THE TRAVELLING YOU DO?</p><p><i>&ndash; Isabella Bovero, Tampa, Fla.</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> I don&rsquo;t think so. I speak to my parents every day regardless of where I am, whether I&rsquo;m in Montreal, in Toronto or on the road, during the summers or during the year. It&rsquo;s a lot tougher with my brothers and sisters, but we always seem to bridge that gap. But no matter how long I&rsquo;m away, it seems like I never left when I&rsquo;m back home.</p><p>WITH THE CHANGING RACIAL DEMOGRAPHICS IN NORTH AMERICA, DO YOU BELIEVE THE LEAGUE IS DOING ENOUGH TO PROMOTE THE SPORT TO NON-WHITE AUDIENCES?</p><p><i>&ndash; Adam Flint, Houston, Texas</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> The league is doing a great job of promoting the sport, period. They&rsquo;re doing all the right things. We&rsquo;re still learning about the new communities who are being open to our game. We&rsquo;re still tapping into new communities who aren&rsquo;t familiar with our game and getting them involved. It&rsquo;s a challenge for all sports, not just hockey. They&rsquo;ve done a great job, and things are going to continue to get better. As we have more minorities involved in the game of hockey, that will help speed up the process.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011769/9995809-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="517" height="564"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JACKSON: PHIL DENT/REDFERNS)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-021343/9995802-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="424" height="629"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRYANT: NOAH GRAHAM/NBAE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03954/9995795-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="537" height="576"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BEYONCE: CHRIS GRAYTHEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>IF YOU COULD PLAY HOCKEY WITH ANY CELEBRITY, DEAD OR ALIVE, WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?</p><p><i>&ndash; Sarah Betros, Lincroft, N.J.</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> My team would be Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr and Guy Lafleur. I&rsquo;d like Guy Lafleur to get in there, and I&rsquo;d like Beyonc&eacute; to coach the team. We could go on and on. I&rsquo;ve got a long list. (Laughs)</p><p>WHO DO YOU <b>THINK YOU ARE?</b>&nbsp;<i>&ndash; Tim Sandanam, Cornwall, Ont.</i></p><p><i>&lsquo;Who do you think you are?&rsquo; I like that.</i>&nbsp;<b><i>You know what? I&rsquo;m just P.K.</i></b>&nbsp;<i>I just try to be who I am. That would be my answer to that question. I&rsquo;m not trying to be anybody else, that&rsquo;s for sure.</i></p><p>CANADA HASN&rsquo;T WON A WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP GOLD SINCE 2009. DO YOU THINK THIS SHOULD BE CONCERNING FOR THE FUTURE OF CANADIAN HOCKEY? DO YOU THINK CANADA IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK IN TERMS OF DEVELOPING ITS PLAYERS TO THE FULLEST?</p><p><i>&ndash; Adrienne Middlebrook, Toronto</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> It&rsquo;s a great thing for hockey. First of all, it also holds us as Canadians accountable in making sure that we continue to develop the best players on our world junior and Olympic teams so that we can continue to dominate. It&rsquo;s also great for the game, because it shows that other countries are starting to take hockey more seriously and are developing grassroots programs that are ultimately developing some pretty great players. We&rsquo;ve seen that in the past decade or so of players coming in from smaller countries and places we&rsquo;ve never seen players come from before, and they&rsquo;ve turned out to be some of the best players in our game. So it&rsquo;s great for the game, and it&rsquo;s only going to get more people involved.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011944/9995788-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="1004" height="1041"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/HHOF-IIHF IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021433/9995781-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="656" height="1087"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>DID YOUR LIMITED ICE TIME AT THE OLYMPICS <b>ACT AS MOTIVATION</b> FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE NHL SEASON OR DID YOU JUST FEEL HAPPY/FORTUNATE TO BE THERE? <b>REAL ANSWER PLEASE, NO SIDESTEPPING.</b>&nbsp;<i>&ndash; Rick Cote, Fort McMurray, Alta.</i></p><p><i>No, I really enjoyed it. Obviously, I would&rsquo;ve loved to participate more on the ice, but they made me feel my role was just as important, and at the end of the day, if something had happened and I had to step in, I would&rsquo;ve been able to do that.</i>&nbsp;<b><i>My satisfaction comes from knowing that, if I had to play, I knew I could play and be one of the best players on the ice.</i></b>&nbsp;<i>That&rsquo;s where my confidence is. As far as not playing, yeah, I would&rsquo;ve loved to play. Everybody wants to play. And although we&rsquo;re hoping the Olympics come back, we&rsquo;re not too sure if they will. And if they don&rsquo;t, I have a gold medal to show for it. So I&rsquo;m very happy.</i></p><p>WHAT STEPS SHOULD BE TAKEN TO DECREASE THE COST OF YOUTH HOCKEY IN CANADA SO AS MANY KIDS AS POSSIBLE CAN BE A PART OF THE BEST SPORT IN THE WORLD?</p><p><i>&ndash; Tim Allison, Burlington, Ont.</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> Continuing to be part of initiatives that raise awareness and that also raise money for kids who can&rsquo;t afford it. If you look at the Hyundai Helpers program I&rsquo;m involved in, that&rsquo;s definitely helping put more kids in our game, and we need to see more programs like that to encourage people who can support and help to go out and do it. We&rsquo;re getting more and more of that with every year that goes by, so we&rsquo;re definitely going in the right direction.</p><p>IT SEEMS SOME COACHES LOSE SIGHT OF WHAT&rsquo;S IMPORTANT IN YOUTH HOCKEY: HAVING FUN. DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE TO GIVE TO US MINOR HOCKEY COACHES TO HELP BRING BACK THAT ASPECT?</p><p><i>&ndash; Landon Gregg, Fort St. James, B.C.</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> Skills. A lot of minor hockey coaches work way too much on systems. When I look at the NHL, yes, systems are important, but if you don&rsquo;t have the skill level to work within that system to generate offense, to move the puck out of your zone, you&rsquo;re not going to win many games. So I&rsquo;d work on skill development. And skills are fun. Kids want to learn to be creative with the puck. That was a priority for me growing up.</p><p>CAN YOU TELL WHAT&rsquo;S THE STORY BEHIND THE USE OF DIFFERENT HOCKEY STICK MODELS IN A GAME? YOU STILL USE THE EASTON S19, WHICH IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE TO BUY. DID YOU STACK UP A PILE IN YOUR GARAGE?</p><p><i>&ndash; Simon LaRochelle, Quebec City, Que.</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> No, it&rsquo;s not an S19, actually. It&rsquo;s an SE16, which is an even older model that&rsquo;s just painted S19. Easton Hockey has been more than willing to make sure those sticks are made available for me, and I&rsquo;m very happy and thankful for that. And as you can see, my shot still comes off pretty nicely with those sticks, so I&rsquo;d like to continue to use them for as long as I can.</p><p>IF YOU COULD CHANGE OR REVISE ONE RULE IN THE GAME, WHICH WOULD IT BE AND WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?</p><p><i>&ndash; Josie R., Markham, Ont.</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> I don&rsquo;t know if I would change anything. I like things the way they are. Our game is at an all-time high.</p><p>WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS YOUR MOST AMAZING MEMORY AWAY FROM HOCKEY?</p><p><i>&ndash; Neal Foster, Nashville</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> I&rsquo;ve got a lot of memories. Meeting Magic Johnson recently was cool. That would have to be ranked up there with some of the best ones. He was aware of who I was, which was kind of cool. But there are a lot of events that have been exciting. You look at Seth Rogen and being able to have fun at Just For Laughs with him &ndash; that was pretty cool. I was able to go to Europe this summer and meet some really cool people like Novak Djokovic. He invited me to his match at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, and I&rsquo;m sure that will be a great experience. It&rsquo;ll be the first live tennis match for me, so that&rsquo;ll be another cool experience. But there are many.</p><p>WHAT DOES AN AVERAGE DAY OF TRAINING CONSIST OF DURING THE OFF-SEASON?</p><p><i>&ndash; Chantal L., Montreal</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> Well, it&rsquo;s 2 p.m. right now and I&rsquo;ve already worked out twice today, so that&rsquo;s pretty much how it starts. After this I&rsquo;m going to eat another steak and salad, and then probably just enjoy watching Jose Bautista put on a clinic at the SkyDome.</p><p>HAVE THERE BEEN ANY MOMENTS IN YOUR HOCKEY CAREER THAT YOU WISH YOU COULD <b>HAVE HANDLED DIFFERENTLY</b> AND HOW HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM THEM? <i>&ndash; Matthew Perry, Belleville, Ont.</i></p><p><i>No, I don&rsquo;t think so. I don&rsquo;t think I look back at anything I&rsquo;d like to change or do differently, because ultimately anything that</i>&nbsp;<i>maybe didn&rsquo;t go your way, you learn from it, you get better and you move on. <b>So I wouldn&rsquo;t change anything.</b></i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03860/9995774-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="615" height="1058"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MALCOLM (TOP) + P.K. (BOTTOM): BARRY CHIN/THE BOSTON GLOBE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011697/9995767-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="847" height="741"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(P.K.: BRIAN BABINEAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-021264/9995760-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="684" height="830"></div><p>WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN FIRST: YOU SNIPING A GOAL ON YOUR BROTHER MALCOLM, OR GETTING YOUR OTHER BROTHER JORDAN WITH A GOOD OLD-FASHIONED BODYCHECK?</p><p><i>&ndash; Michael Grenier, Winkler, Man.</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> Sniping on Malcolm for sure.</p><p>HOW IMPORTANT WAS YOUR SEASON IN HAMILTON OF THE AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE TOWARD YOUR DEVELOPMENT AS A PLAYER ON AND OFF THE ICE?</p><p><i>&ndash; Darryl Dionne, Niagara Falls, Ont.</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> It was really important, becoming a pro and learning from other pros who&rsquo;d been to the NHL or who had long careers in the AHL. I wouldn&rsquo;t take that year away for anything. I&rsquo;m happy I had the opportunity to play there, and it was probably one of the best things I&rsquo;ve done in my career so far.</p><p>DESCRIBE AN EMBARRASSING MOMENT YOU&rsquo;VE EXPERIENCED AS AN ATHLETE.</p><p><i>&ndash; Austin Bauer, Calgary</i></p><p><b>SUBBAN:</b> My most embarrassing moment was probably in junior one time. I came flying out during the warmup, and I was crossing over toward the red line, when I lost my edge and slid all the way to the top of the circle in the other team&rsquo;s zone. That was pretty embarrassing. It happened in Saginaw. Luckily, it wasn&rsquo;t in a place like Kingston, where we were rival teams, or Oshawa.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0014-01

FANS ASK P.K. TELLS ALL

<div class="byline">BY DAVID BOCLAIR</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011697/9995889-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="715" height="441"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>T WAS 1968 WHEN Three Dog Night sang &ldquo;One is the loneliest number that you&rsquo;ll ever do.&rdquo; Forty-five years later, Mike Ribeiro learned the aching, numbing, disheartening truth of that sentiment.</p><p>Living as one last season, the 15th in a career that dates back to 1999-00, all the other numbers that mean so much to someone in his position suffered. First his point total dropped. Then his bottom line took a hit when the Arizona Coyotes bought out his contract rather than pay him the remaining $17.5 million he was due on a four-year deal signed a year earlier.</p><p>Separated from his wife, Tamara, and their three children, he was lonely and it affected his performance and his personality. Eventually, it prompted Coyotes GM Don Maloney to label him as someone who had &ldquo;some real behavior issues.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;I gave him the chance to say what he said because of the year I had last year,&rdquo; Ribeiro said. &ldquo;I know inside of myself I can still play, and I&rsquo;m committed to do well. We&rsquo;ll see. I want a new start, but also a good finish. I don&rsquo;t want to ruin my life. I really want to do well and prove people wrong. I&rsquo;m a healthy person and ready to be committed to a team throughout this year.&rdquo;</p><p>Right now this year is all he has. The Nashville Preda-tors&rsquo; gamble in signing Ribeiro is a conservative one, to say the least. He agreed to a one-year, $1.05-million deal July 15. He&rsquo;ll get more than that from the Coyotes under the terms of his buyout, which was signed under the current collective bargaining agreement.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-021214/9995882-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="2733" height="1918"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><i><b>SELLING HIMSELF</b></i></p><p>The Predators didn&rsquo;t reach out to Mike Ribeiro. He pitched his own services to GM David Poile.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(JOHN RUSSELL/NASHVILLE PREDATORS)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Predators took a chance on Ribeiro, 34, because they are desperate to upgrade their offense under first-year coach Peter Laviolette. As recently as 2012-13, Ribeiro was a point-per-game player in Washington. He had a career-high 83 points in 2007-08 with Dallas, where he was a teammate for three seasons with James Neal, Nashville&rsquo;s most high-profile acquisition of this off-season. Even the 16 goals Ribeiro scored last season, his fewest in an 82-game schedule since 2005-06, were more than all but three Predators forwards managed. Craig Smith had 24, Shea Weber had 23 and Patric Hornqvist, dealt to Pittsburgh in the Neal deal, had 22.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I WANT A NEW START, BUT ALSO A GODO FINISH. I DON&rsquo;T WANT TO RUIN MY LIFE<br>&ndash; Mike Ribeiro</blockquote><p>Nashville not only missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons, something that hadn&rsquo;t happened since the franchise&rsquo;s expansion era, but it also missed out on the first wave of free agent signings. Virtually every other team in the already competitive Central Division made some sort of splash &ndash; Thomas Vanek to Minnesota, Paul Stastny to St. Louis, Brad Richards to Chicago, Jason Spezza to Dallas, Jarome Iginla to Colorado &ndash; while the cash-strapped Predators were little more than spectators.</p><p>When the dust settled, GM David Poile and his staff were forced to pick through what remained in search of a bargain. On top of Ribeiro, the Preds inked fellow centers Olli Jokinen and Derek Roy, and blueliner Anton Volchenkov &ndash; all well into their 30s &ndash; to one-year contracts. But none offers the possibility of a greater payoff or potential disaster than Ribeiro. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d all like to have that Utopian situation,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;Does Mike have some disappointment and some regrets in his life? Absolutely. He&rsquo;ll be the first one to tell you. Has Mike taken steps to rectify that situation? Absolutely.</p><p>&ldquo;He knows he&rsquo;s living day-to-day. He&rsquo;s on a one-year contract. You don&rsquo;t know how these situations are going to work out. I am very excited hockey-wise with the potential of bringing Mike on our team, and I am praying, I have my fingers crossed for them, I&rsquo;m hoping he and Tammy find happiness and a good life here in Nashville.&rdquo;</p><p>The Predators didn&rsquo;t convince themselves this was a risk worth taking. Ribeiro convinced them, because he made it clear he wanted to be in Nashville whether he played for them or not. What happened in Phoenix made him painfully aware his days as a player could end at any time. He began to ponder life after the game, a scenario that included his now-reunited family. Having played for a different team in each of the last three seasons, he no longer wanted to look for a job. He searched for a home.</p><p>Ribeiro and his wife solicited opinions of friends and current and former teammates about the virtues of several cities, and Nashville got rave reviews from the likes of Francis Bouillon and J-P Dumont. The couple talked via Skype with Poile, who said the conversation touched on a lot of things but very little hockey. The Ribeiros flew in on their own dime, familiarized themselves with the city and the schools.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-021154/9995875-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="2270" height="414"></div><p>Only when they felt comfortable that it was a suitable place to stay following his career did they explore whether it could be the right place to resurrect that career. By the time he signed the contract, they also had picked out a home. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to retire,&rdquo; Ribeiro said. &ldquo;I feel like I still have a lot to give. I am committed to having a good year. I&rsquo;m committed to my job. I was separated during last season. I didn&rsquo;t really see my children during the year. That made me not focus on my job. I was really not focused and not committed to my job because of my issues. I just wanted the year to be over so I could actually go and work on my family and be a healthy person. I&rsquo;ve done that this summer.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011580/9995868-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="1215" height="1342"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><i><b>DESERT DROUGHT</b></i></p><p>Ribeiro hopes to rebound after a season in Arizona yielded his worst scoring numbers in years.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">I&rsquo;M PRAYING, I HAVE MY FINGERS CROSSED FOR THEM TO HAVE A GOOD LIFE IN NASHVILLE<br>&ndash; David Poile</blockquote><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03847/9995861-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="720" height="550"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JOHN RUSSELL/NASHVILLE PREDATORS)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;My head&rsquo;s really clear. I have my family with me right now, and we&rsquo;re ready to move forward. I&rsquo;m glad I have a chance to come here and prove to everybody I can still play and I am a good person. For me, it was to be able to see myself after my career in a city where I can watch my kids grow up. Nashville was a good fit for my family.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0020-01

FAMILY COMES FIRST

<div class="byline">WITH ADAM PROTEAU</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-011323/9995920-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="912" height="1671"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>NO MORE KITTENS</b></p><p>Florida joined the handful of NHL teams without cheerleaders when they axed their &ldquo;Lady Panthers.&rdquo;</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ELIOT J. SCHECHTER/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02908/9995927-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="199" height="238"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE HOCKEY WORLD HAS MADE GREAT</b> leaps and bounds in social awareness issues in recent years: the anti-homophobia You Can Play Project was embraced by players and teams, and racist epithets hurled at certain players are met with increasing disgust from the majority of fans. But there are still some areas in which the sport &ndash; and in particular, the NHL &ndash; can do better. One of them is in eradicating the misogyny, explicit and casual, that exists in the sport.</p><p>And one of the easiest places to start is by getting rid of half-dressed ice girls.</p><p>This issue isn&rsquo;t about the cheerleaders themselves. It&rsquo;s about what we ask them to do under the guise of &ldquo;entertainment.&rdquo; We ask them work for next to no money in frigid arenas with their shoulders, midsection and/or legs exposed. We ask them to objectify themselves &ndash; to be ogled and leered at by strangers &ndash; and never stop smiling. We ask them to reduce their contributions so that they&rsquo;re little more than eye candy.</p><p>And really, why? What purpose does it serve? Nobody has demonstrated teams that employ ice girls sell more tickets than teams that don&rsquo;t. Nobody leaves a game and says, &ldquo;The best part of the night didn&rsquo;t have anything to do with the action on the ice &ndash; it was when that cheerleader jumped up and down in coordination with other cheerleaders and said something positive about the team!&rdquo;</p><p>More importantly, let&rsquo;s look at what the presence of ice girls does to the paying female customer. When I asked female Twitter followers how the NHL could better engage them as fans, there were five common answers, including: hire more women in hockey positions (and hockey media), better sizing options for women&rsquo;s jerseys and merchandise, a de-emphasizing of the color pink (or at least more non-pink jersey choices), the elimination of ice girls, and the key answer &ndash; don&rsquo;t market specifically to women, and don&rsquo;t do anything to make them feel like &ldquo;The Other.&rdquo;</p><p>That&rsquo;s worth emphasizing. Hockey, like all sports, is about the tribe &ndash; about &ldquo;Us&rdquo; vs. &ldquo;Them&rdquo; &ndash; and anything that makes one section of the tribe feel different from the larger group is bound to have a negative effect on that section. That&rsquo;s what female fans are up against. And that&rsquo;s why things like ice girls are a problem. When women have paid their money &ndash; the same amount male fans pay &ndash; and are confronted with an amped-up representation of their sexuality, they&rsquo;re going to feel self-conscious and their entertainment experience will suffer.</p><p>If you&rsquo;re a man reading this and thinking, &ldquo;C&rsquo;mon, Proteau, why can&rsquo;t I look at a pretty girl who&rsquo;s trying to drum up excitement in the crowd?&rdquo;, ask yourself if you&rsquo;d be good with a group of well-built, shirtless men wandering through the arena. To ask the question is to answer it: there&rsquo;s no way it will ever happen, because one gender would be uncomfortable with it. And therein lies the unavoidable problem with ice girls &ndash; their mere presence suggests one gender&rsquo;s opinion matters less than the other&rsquo;s.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">THERE&rsquo;S A PLACE FOR ATTRACTIVE WOMEN IN HOCKEY. THEY CAN BE AMBASSADORS WITHOUT HAVING TO SHOW SKIN</blockquote><p>In late July, the Florida Panthers &ndash; a team that has struggled to attract fans &ndash; announced they&rsquo;d be discontinuing their &ldquo;Lady Panthers&rdquo; cheerleaders. Good for them. If they don&rsquo;t need scantily clad women to sell tickets, no team does.</p><p>There&rsquo;s still a place for attractive young women in hockey. They can be ambassadors without having to show skin. And by not requiring them to be in various states of undress or to play up their sexuality, the NHL and hockey world would tell all women the best thing they could:</p><p>You&rsquo;re not female fans. You&rsquo;re just fans.</p><p><b>WANT MORE PROTEAU?</b> GET DAILY UPDATES AT <b><a href="http://thehockeynews.com">THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0029-01

LET’S WISE UP AND ICE THE ICE GIRLS

<div class="byline">BY MARTY HASTINGS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011516/9996024-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GREGORY SHAMUS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>L</span>IKE ANY NHL PROSPECT, TIM BOZON HAS spent his off-season training hard for 2014-15. This summer, however, the road to a new season has been particularly long for the 20-year-old third-round pick of the Montreal Canadiens.</p><p>After all, it wasn&rsquo;t until June that he skated for the first time since falling ill in March and losing nearly a quarter of his bodyweight. His mother, H&eacute;l&egrave;ne, brought an iPad to the rink to film his return to the ice. &ldquo;If you think about three months ago, when he was laying down like a dead boy,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;if someone told you he could be on the ice in June, probably I would not believe them.&rdquo;</p><p>In the morning of March 1, Tim, who had scored a goal for the Kootenay Ice in a 4-2 win over the hometown Saskatoon Blades the night before, woke up in hysterics in his hotel room in Saskatoon, screaming in French at the top of his lungs. Kootenay trainer Cory Cameron quickly called an ambulance and Tim was rushed to Royal University Hospital. By nightfall he was in a medically induced coma.</p><p>A few hours later, Tim&rsquo;s father, Philippe, stepped onto a runway in Europe after a business trip and checked his voicemail. There was a message from Cameron. Tim had contracted Neisseria meningitis, a rare and potentially fatal bacterial form of the disease. Philippe got back on a plane immediately and flew to Saskatoon.</p><p>H&eacute;l&egrave;ne had read that week in a newspaper about three French children who had died of meningitis. She knew how serious the disease could be, but nothing could prepare her for the sight of her unconscious son, lying motionless, surrounded by doctors and nurses, with machines beeping and buzzing all around his bed. &ldquo;When we arrived, it was like a nightmare, like he was dead,&rdquo; H&eacute;l&egrave;ne said. &ldquo;You have to live that to explain it. It&rsquo;s not like your son. He had tubes everywhere and bags with water and antibiotics in the legs, in the neck and in the head&hellip;everywhere.&rdquo;</p><p>Each of the next 10 days was flush with trying moments, differing diagnoses and inescapable thoughts of her son&rsquo;s mortality. Even if he did make it, blindness, deafness, paralysis and brain damage were among the possible consequences. H&eacute;l&egrave;ne reluctantly brooded &ndash; especially on two occasions, when Tim&rsquo;s outlook became particularly grim &ndash; on how she&rsquo;d handle her son&rsquo;s death. Her husband, however, refused to muse on the morbid. &ldquo;Me, and I cannot explain why, I always, always believed that he was going to make it,&rdquo; said Philippe, a former NHLer. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t even start to think about anything else. Even if family, some people, were thinking about this, I didn&rsquo;t want to hear about it.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011399/9996017-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="517" height="872"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MARISS A BAECKER/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-021001/9996010-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="1180" height="758"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>CLOSE CALL</b></p><p>Tim Bozon, a Habs&rsquo; pick, contracted meningitis while playing for Kootenay.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/NH LI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>On March 10, doctors started the slow process of waking Tim from his coma. With his parents and a team of about 10 physicians at his bedside, he was administered medication to help lift him from his slumber. As his father held his hand and his mother looked on, Tim had a frightening seizure. He shook for 24 minutes, his eyes rolling back into his head. &ldquo;He was squeezing my hand so hard,&rdquo; Philippe said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll always remember that. Also, to see his eyes &ndash; it&rsquo;s a bad picture and scary moments.&rdquo;</p><p>The seizure was counteracted with sedatives. Doctors conducted tests and continued the awakening process. Tim became more and more responsive over the next two days, following his parents with his eyes and attempting to speak. That period was frustrating for Philippe, because it was impossible to communicate properly with his aggravated and confused son. In an odd way, Tim&rsquo;s anger was a calming sign for H&eacute;l&egrave;ne. She&rsquo;d seen that fiery temper before. He was still there.</p><p>By March 13, Tim was able to sit up in bed, and the improvements in the days to follow were astounding. Feeling and movement in his limbs returned, and he was able to utter raspy words from his parched mouth, which until then had been filled with feeding and oxygen tubes.</p><p>There&rsquo;s much Tim doesn&rsquo;t remember about those first few days back in the land of the living, but he vividly recalls looking in the mirror for the first time. &ldquo;I was like, &lsquo;Oh my God, that&rsquo;s not me,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I lost about 40 pounds, even more than that. You don&rsquo;t recognize yourself anymore. You&rsquo;re so skinny, you have nothing on your body. That was the most difficult thing to accept for me.&rdquo;</p><p>Tim was released from RUH March 28. He has no recollection of the coma and barely recalls scoring against the Blades. &ldquo;Honestly, I don&rsquo;t remember anything,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I woke up, I looked around and thought, &lsquo;What am I doing here?&rsquo; &rdquo;</p><p>Tim continues to rehab and work out in southern France, where his family has a home. He has set his sights on attending rookie camp in September, and hopes to play this season for the Habs&rsquo; American League affiliate, the Hamilton Bulldogs. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s because of all the fans that I&rsquo;m here right now, battling to get back on the ice,&rdquo; Tim said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s for myself and my family, too, for sure, but it&rsquo;s for everybody that helped me&hellip;who believed in me.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to think about it &ndash; imagining myself without legs or seeing. I&rsquo;m lucky and I battled through it.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0034-01

THE FIGHT OF HIS LIFE

<div class="byline">BY GLEN CUTHBERT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011417/9996069-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ALL: GLEN CUTHBERT)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HEN RILEY DUNDA RECEIVED A</b> tweet from his favorite hockey player, naturally he was excited. He just wished it were under better circumstances.</p><p>The tweet was a message of support from Mike Richards of the Los Angeles Kings, wishing him a speedy recovery and letting him know that Richards and the rest of the Kings were thinking of him. Riley, an 19-year-old Jr. A forward with the Hamilton Red Wings, is recovering from a stroke he suffered in early May, one that set in motion a chain of events that left his family marvelling at the amount of support from the hockey community.</p><p>As soon as news broke of Riley&rsquo;s stroke, tweets, texts, emails and messages started to pour in from across North America and even Europe. When his family opened his phone for the first time three days after his stroke, they found that Riley had more than 600 text messages and 500 Twitter notifications. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t think it would be like this,&rdquo; said his dad, Richard. &ldquo;It brought tears to our eyes.&rdquo;</p><p>Richard started the hashtag #Fight-RileyFight, based on the last thing he said to Riley before his son went into the emergency surgery that saved his life. He told Riley that no matter what happened, he had to keep fighting. That hashtag has since been used by NHLers such as Rich-ards, Cam Talbot, Trevor Lewis, Brian Mc-Grattan and Matt Carey, as well as countless junior players and fans. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s important for former and current NHL players to reach out to a personal situation like this,&rdquo; said Carey, who appeared in two games with the Blackhawks last season. &ldquo;It shows that other players are behind him every step of the way, even if we don&rsquo;t know him on a personal level.&rdquo;</p><p>Riley collapsed on the morning of May 3 while watching TV at his family&rsquo;s home in Grimsby, Ont. His mom, a former nurse, recognized his symptoms as either a stroke or seizure and immediately notified paramedics. It turns out Riley had a tear in the lining of the carotid artery in his neck, which allowed a blood clot to make its way to his brain. He was rushed to the hospital for surgery. The stroke left him paralyzed on his right side and affected motor skills such as speech, walking and eating.</p><p>The support and motivation for Riley has spurred him to make amazing progress in his rehabilitation. Using the same grit and tenacity he used on the ice, he&rsquo;s surpassed the doctors&rsquo; expectations. Riley&rsquo;s relearned how to use his right hand and foot and has even resumed walking. It&rsquo;s a long way from being the player he once was, but it gives Riley and his family a measure of hope for a full recovery. Although it seems impossible now, Riley is holding on to the dream of getting back on the ice next season. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to have to push myself really hard,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I want to do it, so I&rsquo;ve got to do it.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I&rsquo;M GOING TO HAVE TO PUSH MYSELF REALLY HARD, BUT I WANT TO DO IT. I HAVE TO DO IT<br>&ndash; Riley Dunda</blockquote><p>Other tributes and well wishes have come in from various sources: London Knights center Mitch Marner successfully campaigned the Canadian Hockey League to allow him to wear a tribute sticker to Riley on the back of his helmet during the Memorial Cup. TSN mentioned Riley a during Game 2 of the Western Conference final between Chicago and Los Angeles.</p><p>Riley isn&rsquo;t just trying to get back on the ice, he&rsquo;s also using this opportunity to give back and make a difference in the treatment and care of other stroke patients. The Dunda family hopes to use this situation to raise $150,000 in support of enhanced stroke intervention research, training, education and patient care.</p><p>For Riley&rsquo;s 19th birthday, which was June 11, he decided the best gifts he could receive wouldn&rsquo;t be for him but donations to help others. Once again, the hockey community supported him in a huge way, raising more than $11,000. Two weeks later, Riley was on hand to drop the puck for a benefit game featuring nearly 40 midget, Ontario League and American League players. Donations from that game exceeded $6,000.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-011265/9996062-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="1358" height="1541"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02900/9996055-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="646" height="1075"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>COMEBACK KING</b></p><p>Riley Dunda is setting his sights on returning to the Hamilton Red Wings some time in 2014-15.</p></figcaption></div><p>Riley&rsquo;s hard work earned him a release from the hospital June 27, less than two months after his stroke. With freedom comes a whole new set of distractions, but with so many people cheering him on, Riley is keeping focused on the ultimate goal: getting better.</p><p>The New York Islanders&rsquo; Cory Conacher is confident Riley has what it takes. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to prove a lot of people wrong in his recovery,&rdquo; Conacher said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re all hoping for.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0036-01

HOCKEY COMMUNITY HELPS TO HEAL ONE OF ITS OWN

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011375/9996114-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="441" height="469"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02963/9996107-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="1530" height="1154"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HEALED IN TEAL</b></p><p>Logan Couture is fully recovered from the wrist injury that plagued him for much of 2013-14.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(LEN REDKOLES/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>P</span>AIN WAS AN UNFORTUNATE THEME TO</b>&nbsp;Logan Couture&rsquo;s 2013-14 season. After starting strong and positioning himself to make the Canadian Olympic team, the young San Jose Sharks center injured his wrist at the worst of times. One week before the final squad was selected, Couture asked GM Doug Wilson to call Canada GM Steve Yzerman and say the gifted pivot was not healthy enough for Sochi. &ldquo;In my opinion, he would have made that Olympic team,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;And he would have fit in great.&rdquo;</p><p>Then there was San Jose&rsquo;s infamous first-round playoff collapse against arch-rival Los Angeles. Again, Couture was nursing a wrist ailment, but that doesn&rsquo;t make it any easier to swallow. &ldquo;You think about how much it hurts,&rdquo; Couture said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s sad. The feelings aren&rsquo;t going to go away, probably ever. It&rsquo;s something that sticks with you a long time. It should be motivation for our team.&rdquo;</p><p>Fortunately, Couture can do something about it. The Sharks have jettisoned a number of veterans, from Dan Boyle to Brad Stuart to Martin Havlat. San Jose has a lot of good players pushing up from underneath and it was time to hand the reins over. Couture, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Joe Pavelski, among others, will be a big part of that evolution on and off the ice, according to Wilson. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to hear that from your GM and other players, that they believe in you,&rdquo; Couture said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to move forward from what happened. I&rsquo;m hopefully going to be with the Sharks for a long time, so I hope to take on more of a leadership role.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03776/9996100-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="298" height="245"><figcaption class="caption-body">SAN JOSE <b>SHARKS</b></figcaption></div><p>At the draft, Wilson revealed that in exit interviews, many Sharks players felt like employees, not teammates. At least the team and its younger leaders know what they need to do as they work alongside esteemed veteran holdovers Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. &ldquo;I appreciated the honesty,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;Maybe they were too respectful. There comes a time when they have to be honest with each other. It&rsquo;s an important part of their growth and they&rsquo;re acknowledging that.&rdquo;</p><p>On paper, the Sharks are again a threat in the West. With Couture, Thornton and Pavelski, they have three elite pivots, and Couture, with his 200-foot game, can expect more ice time. &ldquo;Centermen are tough to come by, especially in the West,&rdquo; Couture said. &ldquo;You to need two, three, four good centers to win a championship. We saw L.A., we see Chicago &ndash; teams that have won lately &ndash; they&rsquo;ve got great centermen. It&rsquo;s the recipe for success.&rdquo;</p><p>And one that allows Wilson some leeway in bringing rookies into the fold. Integrating wingers into a system becomes easier when the centers are strong, and it even helps the blueline corps, since the centers are often a &ldquo;third D-man&rdquo; in the defensive zone for the Sharks. To that end, San Jose will take a long look this fall at winger Nikolay Goldobin, its 2014 first-round pick, and blueliner Mirco Mueller, its 2013 first-rounder. Couture will be charged with helping the youngsters along, and the GM fell back on a lesson from his NHL playing days when thinking of advice for his 25-year-old leader: &ldquo;The greatest gift you can give somebody is time.&rdquo;</p><p>Now it&rsquo;s on Couture and company to use that time wisely.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0038-01

WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU…

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>T THE RISK OF SOUNDING BLASPHEMOUS,</b> Mike Cammalleri&rsquo;s deal with the Devils was all about faith. He chose the team that believed in him most and the team he believed in most.</p><p>Calgary fans were disappointed but not surprised when he left in free agency after a resurgent 26-goal campaign. After all, team president Brian Burke retained Cammalleri&rsquo;s expiring contract at the trade deadline. Burke tried to deal his veteran, but he felt the offers weren&rsquo;t good enough. He decided to risk losing Cammalleri for nothing and stated his desire to keep him.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02859/9996152-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="299" height="237"><figcaption class="caption-body">NEW JERSEY <b>DEVILS</b></figcaption></div><p>Burke and new GM Brad Treliving made offers this summer to Cammalleri for a longterm pact, but they couldn&rsquo;t compete with what Lou Lamoriello and the New Jersey Devils tabled: five years and $25 million for a 32-year-old who&rsquo;s missed 15 or more games in four of his past five seasons and is six years removed from his best numbers.</p><p>That didn&rsquo;t matter to Lamoriello, who says he followed and admired Cammalleri&rsquo;s game all the way back to the University of Michigan. &ldquo;He played with an edge and had results,&rdquo; Lamoriello said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very diligent and he competes. When you see that in a player, it naturally sticks out. When we were looking at the potential free agencies and the type of player we needed, we felt we needed a scorer. Mike stood right out, and he was one of the top players we looked at, if not the top player.&rdquo;</p><p>The money and especially the term were a huge vote of confidence to Cammalleri, who says the courtship lasted longer than the free agent negotiating period. His best years are behind him, but he remains a useful scorer who can play among the top six forwards. The Devils are taking a leap of faith on him, but it works both ways. &ldquo;What attracted me to the Devils was the success they&rsquo;ve had, the template, the way they do things,&rdquo; Cammalleri said. &ldquo;I have a belief in how things are done that leads to successes.&rdquo;</p><p>The Devils haven&rsquo;t personified success in recent seasons, missing the playoffs twice in a row. But Cammalleri believes they can right the ship. That the Devils ranked fourth in the NHL in Corsi Close, and that they were a bit unlucky losing all 13 shootouts last season, suggests he&rsquo;s right. New Jersey only missed the playoffs by five points.</p><p>For Lamoriello and the Devils, the contract isn&rsquo;t as risky as it looks on paper, because they&rsquo;re not demanding a 30-goal effort for it to be worthwhile. They love Cammalleri&rsquo;s mind &ndash; and mouth &ndash; as much as they love his game. &ldquo;When I had a chance to sit down and talk to him, I couldn&rsquo;t be more impressed with what his thoughts were, his knowledge of the game and the questions he asked,&rdquo; Lamoriello said. &ldquo;It was a face-to-face meeting, and you can accomplish a lot in a short period of time when that transpires.&rdquo;</p><p>Lamoriello says &ldquo;there&rsquo;s no question&rdquo; the Devils view Cammalleri as a leader, and they believe he was the strongest voice in the Flames dressing room, even if he didn&rsquo;t wear the &lsquo;C.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s no stretch to call Cammalleri a human megaphone. He&rsquo;s among the game&rsquo;s most quotable players, known to speak his mind and also to toss a joke in here and there. He doesn&rsquo;t disappoint when asked if he&rsquo;s checked out his new home state, including the Jersey Shore. &ldquo;Is that because I&rsquo;m Italian?&rdquo; Cammalleri said. &ldquo;The Jersey Shore? Are you stereotyping me? Just wondering.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-011260/9996145-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="1356" height="1527"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>THE MIND MATTERS</b></p><p>The Devils coveted Mike Cammalleri not just for his scoring but also for his passion and the way he thinks the game.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(DEREK LEUNG/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Kidding aside, he&rsquo;s visited the Garden State and found a house for his family. With that out of the way, he can prepare to reward Lamoriello&rsquo;s trust. And he can dream about playing with Jaromir Jagr. Lamoriello calls the idea a &ldquo;coaching decision,&rdquo; but he can see Cammalleri sliding to the left wing to suit up with Jagr and Travis Zajac. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the greatest legends of our game of all-time,&rdquo; Cammalleri said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an iconic sports figure. To play on the same team as him will be a unique and special experience.&rdquo;</p><p>If it&rsquo;s on the same line, Cammalleri will surely have a lot more to say about it.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0039-02

BELIEVING IN THE DEVILS

<div class="byline">&#x2013; JOHN VOGL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01970/9996225-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02642/9996218-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="1368" height="1055"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOSH <b>GORGES</b> <span class="photo-credit">(GORGES: RICH LAM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>J</span>OSH GORGES WAS STUNNED BEYOND</b> words when he found out the Canadiens wanted to trade him. The defenseman, who&rsquo;d been in the discussion to be Montreal&rsquo;s next captain, is still reeling. &ldquo;When that phone call comes and you&rsquo;re told it&rsquo;s you, it&rsquo;s always a shocking day,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>What made the call more dumbfounding was Gorges&rsquo; proposed destination: Toronto. He&rsquo;d grown to hate the Maple Leafs, passionately, so he balked at altering his limited trade no-clause to include the rival.</p><p>He turned to friend and Canadiens teammate Brian Gionta to discuss the situation. During their talks, Gorges learned Gionta was leaning toward signing with Buffalo. With no future in Montreal, Gorges added the Sabres to his list of acceptable destinations.</p><p>GM Tim Murray already figured he&rsquo;d be a busy man July 1. Murray talked with numerous agents during the pre-free agency interview period and knew there was genuine interest from players such as Gionta and Matt Moulson. He didn&rsquo;t expect to complement the signings with a significant trade.</p><p>Then the Canadiens called asking if he&rsquo;d like Gorges. &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Yes, but what&rsquo;s the point of being interested? He&rsquo;s got a no-trade,&rsquo;&rdquo; Murray recalled. &ldquo;They said that he had added us to the list of teams he would go to. It happened very quickly after I found that out.&rdquo;</p><p>The Sabres traded a 2016 second-rounder for Gorges. It seems like a low price to pay for a leader who helped the Habs to the Eastern Conference final, but his remaining four years at $3.9 million annually was too much for Montreal. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s never easy to say goodbye and it hasn&rsquo;t been easy,&rdquo; Gorges said. &ldquo;One thing that makes it easier is knowing where your future is going to be.&rdquo;</p><p>The Sabres might dress four defensemen 22 or younger this season &ndash; Rasmus Ristolainen, Mark Pysyk, Jake Mc-Cabe and Nikita Zadorov &ndash; and Buffalo wants Gorges to show them how to be heart-and-soul professionals. &ldquo;If guys have questions, even just being a role model with how I compete, that&rsquo;s what I want to do,&rdquo; Gorges said.</p><p>Gorges, 30, and his wife, Maggie, had their first child this summer. Once they&rsquo;re ready for Buffalo, Gorges will again lean on Gionta, who&rsquo;s from neighboring Rochester, N.Y. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be a perfect fit,&rdquo; Gionta said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a huge piece to that locker room.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>ON THE HOT SEAT</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03499/9996211-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="316" height="502"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BOUDREAU: DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>In all seven of his NHL seasons as a coach, <b>Bruce Boudreau&rsquo;s</b> teams have won more games than they lost &ndash; an impressive 312-143-62 record. But in six trips to the post-season, Boudreau-coached teams have won just three rounds and lost six (27-30 record). Boudreau has to find a way to win at least two rounds to keep his job.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04397/9996204-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="327" height="501"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GAGNER: DEREK LEUNG/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Hard to believe <b>Sam Gagner</b> hasn&rsquo;t been able to match the 49 points he had as a rookie in 2007-08. It&rsquo;s even harder to believe the just-turned 25-year-old is entering his eighth season in the NHL. As the de facto replacement to Mike Ribeiro, Gagner will be expected to lead the offense. As a new face, he&rsquo;ll have a long leash.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-05339/9996197-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="327" height="505"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ERIKSSON: JANA CHYTILOVA/FREESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES; MYERS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Time for <b>Loui Eriksson</b> to elevate his offense. He wasn&rsquo;t a disaster in his first season as a Bruin, but injuries slowed him, he never sniffed his Dallas production and he spent time on the third line. With Jarome Iginla gone, Boston needs Eriksson to produce like a No. 1 winger. If he doesn&rsquo;t, the Tyler Seguin trade will start to stink.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-06300/9996190-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="327" height="502"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MYERS: CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Hulking D-man <b>Tyler Myers</b> hasn&rsquo;t been the same since he won the Calder in 2009-10, but he showed flashes after Ted Nolan took over as coach in 2013-14. With prospects Rasmus Ristolainen, Nikita Zadorov and Jake McCabe nipping at his heels, he must improve, especially since his no-trade clause doesn&rsquo;t kick in until 2016-17.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-07261/9996183-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="327" height="506"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ENGELLAND: JOE SARGENT/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>It&rsquo;s not his fault Calgary threw wads of cash at him, but <b>Deryk Engelland</b> will face the wrath of Flames fans if he&rsquo;s not a serviceable third-pair D-man. At $2.9 million each of the next three years, Engelland, 32, is a tough right-shot blueliner. But can he play? He was a healthy scratch 34 times (including playoffs) for Pittsburgh in 2013-14.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0040-01

ADDING BUFFALO TO THE LIST

<div class="byline">&#x2013; AARON PORTZLINE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0041-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01847/9996298-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-07271/9996291-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="1364" height="1025"><figcaption class="caption-body">SCOTT <b>HARTNELL</b> <span class="photo-credit">(HARTNELL: MARISSA BAECKER/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>S</span>COTT HARTNELL THOUGHT HE&rsquo;D BE A</b>&nbsp;Philadelphia Flyer for the rest of his NHL career. At 32, he had five years remaining on a contract that included a no-move clause. &ldquo;A nomove means you&rsquo;re not moving, right?&rdquo; Hartnell said with a chuckle. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I always thought.&rdquo;</p><p>But in mid-June, Flyers GM Ron Hextall called Hartnell to let him know, all clauses be damned, Hartnell was on the trading block. Oh, and would he accept a trade to the Columbus Blue Jackets?</p><p>Hartnell is rarely at a loss for words. Ask anybody who has played against him during his 13-year career. But he sat in stunned silence for a few minutes before the crude truth occurred to him. &ldquo;Any place that wants you is better than a place that doesn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That was my first thought.&rdquo;</p><p>Hartnell&rsquo;s first call was to former Flyers teammate Jody Shelley, who came into the NHL in 2000 with the Blue Jackets and returned to the franchise as a broadcaster after his retirement from the Flyers two seasons ago. Over the next few days, Hartnell also spoke with Blue Jackets president of hockey operations John Davidson, GM Jarmo Kekalainen and coach Todd Richards.</p><p>On the fourth day, he called Kekalainen and told him he&rsquo;d approve the trade. &ldquo;I spent three days mulling it over and I&rsquo;ve had a smile on my face ever since,&rdquo; Hartnell said. &ldquo;I want to win. I don&rsquo;t want to take a couple of years and see where this goes. I want to win today, right now, and that&rsquo;s how they feel.&rdquo;</p><p>Columbus traded R.J. Umberger and a fourth-round pick to the Flyers to ac-quire Hartnell. The trade delighted and surprised the Blue Jackets since they were fearful of having to buy out the re-maining three years on Umberger&rsquo;s deal if they couldn&rsquo;t find a taker. The Blue Jackets upgraded their top six for almost nothing. Hartnell&rsquo;s cap hit is $150,000 more than Umberger&rsquo;s, though his contract is two seasons shorter. Hartnell could play on the left side of center Ryan Johansen with Nathan Horton on the right, or Hartnell could play on the second line with center Brandon Dubinsky and Cam Atkinson on the right.</p><p>The Blue Jackets made the playoffs for the second time in franchise history last season. They&rsquo;re no longer a secret in the Eastern Conference; they&rsquo;re a threat to teams like the Flyers. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t wait for that first game back in Philly,&rdquo; Hartnell said.</p><h2><b>ON THE HOT SEAT</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02568/9996284-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="328" height="505"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(WARD: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The man who led Carolina to a Cup in 2006 and won the Conn Smythe Trophy may not even be the starter anymore. <b>Cam Ward</b> posted one of the worst SPs (.898) in the NHL last season. It was the third straight campaign in which he was down in that category. With Anton Khudobin rising fast, Ward&rsquo;s $6.3-million cap hit looks ominous.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03464/9996277-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="328" height="501"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BOWMAN: DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>It was a no-brainer for Hawks GM <b>Stan Bowman</b> to retain Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, but their cap hits leap to $10.5 million apiece a year from now. Bowman only has 15 players signed for 2015-16 at $65.8 million. If the Hawks don&rsquo;t deliver on the ice in 2014-15, he&rsquo;ll have a tough time improving his cash-strapped roster.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-04401/9996270-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="327" height="497"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(VARLAMOV: JANA CHYTILOVA/FREESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>If <b>Semyon Varlamov</b> proves to be a one-year wonder, the Avalanche are in trouble. The advanced statistics showed they were a weak possession team in 2013-14, heavily reliant on Varlamov&rsquo;s stellar goaltending. If he regresses at all, the Avs will slide closer to the playoff bubble in the hyper-competitive Western Conference.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-05362/9996263-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="328" height="505"></div><p>As August arrived, <b>Ryan Johansen</b> still hadn&rsquo;t signed. The animosity with the Jackets had dissipated, but it was still the dominant story this summer. Once he gets on the ice, Johansen will be under the heat lamps. He&rsquo;s coming off a breakthrough 33-goal campaign, and the Jackets need him to be great again to contend.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-06315/9996256-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="328" height="506"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JOHANSEN + SEGUIN: DEREK LEUNG/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Tyler Seguin</b> soared to new heights, finishing fourth in 2013-14 scoring, but he must maintain that superstar production for Dallas to compete with the top dogs in the West. After Seguin&rsquo;s last breakout in 2011-12, his points per game plummeted from 0.83 to 0.67 the following season. The Stars need year-to-year consistency from him.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0041-01

FLYING HIGH OR FEELING WANTED

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01901/9996371-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02597/9996364-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="1372" height="1067"><figcaption class="caption-body">TEDDY <b>PURCELL</b></figcaption></div><p><b>THERE ARE TRADES, AND THEN THERE</b> are trades that ship you 2,366 miles northwest.</p><p>The late-June swap that sent right winger Teddy Purcell from Tampa Bay to Edmonton was a shock. His closet said it all. It contained zero winter jackets and hadn&rsquo;t for seven years. He&rsquo;d spent his entire NHL career in California and Florida and it seemed as recently as a year ago he wasn&rsquo;t going anywhere for a long time.</p><p>The undrafted college free agent didn&rsquo;t blossom in parts of three seasons with L.A., but the Lightning took a chance on him with a 2010 trade. He realized his potential as a top-six forward, posting 51- and 65-point seasons, often as Steven Stamkos&rsquo; linemate.</p><p>Something changed this past season, however. Young guns Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat burst onto the scene, and Purcell&rsquo;s role diminished. Coach Jon Cooper, and even teammates like Valtteri Filppula, publicly asked Purcell to shoot more. He slipped to 12 goals in 81 games and tumbled to the fourth line. Purcell became expendable when the team identified other needs and off he went in the Sam Gagner deal.</p><p>Standard storylines would have Purcell entering 2014-15 motivated to prove Tampa wrong, but that&rsquo;s just not him. He&rsquo;s about as easygoing as it gets.</p><p>He&rsquo;s happy to call frigid Edmonton his new home, pointing out he grew up in Newfoundland and played in Saskatchewan and Maine. And he&rsquo;s not angry at Tampa Bay. He speaks highly of GM Steve Yzerman. &ldquo;When I first broke into the league in L.A., I couldn&rsquo;t find my role,&rdquo; Purcell said. &ldquo;I was up and down. I couldn&rsquo;t find my confidence. So I&rsquo;m very grateful for all the stuff that happened in Tampa. At the end of the day, it&rsquo;s a business decision. They have young guys coming up, they were trying to shed some salary cap space and go after some defensemen. You can&rsquo;t feel sorry for yourself.&rdquo;</p><p>Purcell, 28 and 6-foot-3, 203 pounds, is a welcome addition to a team with a lot of flashy young talent up front and a dearth of size and leadership. &ldquo;The top six forwards are scary-skilled,&rdquo; Purcell said. &ldquo;With guys like myself and Benoit Pouliot coming in, and a couple solid defensemen, it&rsquo;s going to make the team deeper. Especially in the tough Western Conference, there&rsquo;s no easy games, but hopefully guys like us will give them a better chance to win.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>ON THE HOT SEAT</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03471/9996357-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="324" height="493"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BABCOCK: BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Coach <b>Mike Babcock</b> enters the final year of his contract and, if a deal isn&rsquo;t struck before the season starts, he says he won&rsquo;t negotiate during the year. The Wings have locked up AHL affiliate bench boss Jeff Blashill long term, setting him up as the heir apparent. If Detroit misses the playoffs and Babcock isn&rsquo;t signed, he&rsquo;s likely gone.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-04381/9996350-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="327" height="498"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(YAKUPOV: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Nail Yakupov</b> was just 20 during his sophomore slump season, but the burden of being a No. 1 overall pick carries great expectations. Even those fans patient enough to cut him some slack last season might not be so forgiving this time around if Yakupov is any combination of unproductive, moody, irresponsible or lazy.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-05323/9996343-1-eng-US/f0042-052.jpg" title="f0042-05" width="326" height="505"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BOLLAND: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Florida decided to pay <b>Dave Bolland</b> $5.5 million annually when his career highs for goals and points are 19 and 47, respectively, and he&rsquo;s missed 143 games over the past six seasons. He&rsquo;s never scored like a top-six forward, but now he&rsquo;s being paid like one, even if he&rsquo;s valued more for his two-way game and clutch play.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-06287/9996336-1-eng-US/f0042-062.jpg" title="f0042-06" width="316" height="505"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PURCELL + RICHARDS: CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Mike Richards</b> is halfway through a 12-year deal that has a cap hit of $5.75 million until the end of the decade. That&rsquo;s fine if the Kings keep winning and Richards keeps producing. Back-to-back 30-goal seasons seem like ancient history and Richards has been relegated to the fourth line at times. At 29, he&rsquo;s too young to be washed up.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-07244/9996329-1-eng-US/f0042-072.jpg" title="f0042-07" width="327" height="506"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(VANEK: RICHARD WOLOWICZ/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Playing in Minnesota gives Gopher alumnus <b>Thomas Vanek</b> a happy homecoming, but also heaps pressure on him. He disappointed in the playoffs with Montreal after a promising start. Scoring with the Wild in the regular season won&rsquo;t be a problem, but Vanek must elevate his game next spring to justify his $6.5-million price tag.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0042-01

IT’S NOT PERSONAL, IT’S BUSINESS

<div class="byline">&#x2013; SHELLY ANDERSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01781/9996517-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02515/9996510-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="1374" height="1015"><figcaption class="caption-body">CHRISTIAN <b>EHRHOFF</b></figcaption></div><p><b>PERHAPS THE PENGUINS WILL</b>&nbsp;breathe a sigh of relief the first time a crisp Christian Ehrhoff pass leads to an Evgeni Malkin goal.</p><p>After all, Pittsburgh made an abrupt change in its approach to free agency about 48 hours before July 1. GM Jim Rutherford&rsquo;s focus shifted from finding wingers for Malkin to pursuing Ehrhoff, a defenseman who became an unrestricted free agent when Buffalo bought out the final seven seasons of his 10-year, $40-million deal.</p><p>The idea of making it up to Malkin by setting him up made Ehrhoff chuckle. &ldquo;That would be nice, to be part of a combination like that,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>The Penguins had not anticipated Ehrhoff would be available. He was surprised, too. He thought he might be traded, but was content to move on in any way possible from a Sabres team coming off a league-worst 52-point finish. &ldquo;After a disappointing last season, very frustrating most of the time, I&rsquo;m happy with a new start,&rdquo; said Ehrhoff, who was a career-worst minus-27.</p><p>Ehrhoff was in Pittsburgh in late July to hunt for a house for his family, which includes two young daughters and another child on the way. Perhaps his best tour, though, was of the Penguins facilities at Consol Energy Center. &ldquo;Really impressive,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>Ehrhoff feels the same about his new club. While it&rsquo;s been difficult to miss the Penguins&rsquo; recent post-season flameouts, Ehrhoff indicated they are still perceived as an elite team around the NHL. &ldquo;It feels good to be wanted, especially with an organization like the Penguins that wants to win,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I thought Pittsburgh was the best fit for me, the best shot at a Stanley Cup.&rdquo;</p><p>So much so, he not only dismissed the interest of multiple teams, but also signed for just one season at $4 million. Ehrhoff and Rutherford see that as a way of leaving options open.</p><p>Pittsburgh gets a rearguard whose skating and skill will dovetail with the team&rsquo;s up-tempo, puck-possession game under coach Mike Johnston. It also gets a vet who can ease the transition to the NHL for the young D-men who&rsquo;ll fill the spots vacated by departed free agents Brooks Orpik, Matt Niskanen and Deryk Engelland.</p><p>Ehrhoff, 32 and approaching 700 NHL games, gets a chance at rejuvenation on a club stocked with stars and offensive prowess.</p><h2><b>ON THE HOT SEAT</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-03392/9996503-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="324" height="505"></div><p><b>Paul MacLean</b> fell from coach of the year to out of the playoffs in one season. He toughened his demeanor after winning the award and his players responded poorly. He lacks clear support from GM Bryan Murray, who refused to give a vote of confidence in a late-season interview. MacLean must make the post-season to keep his job.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-04311/9996496-1-eng-US/f0044-042.jpg" title="f0044-04" width="327" height="506"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MACDONALD: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Flyers spent a lot to retain <b>Andrew MacDonald&rsquo;s</b> services, but will he be worth it? Philly&rsquo;s blueline is old and MacDonald is best positioned to be an impact player along with Braydon Coburn. But MacDonald is not a strong possession guy and didn&rsquo;t even play the toughest minutes on the team. Will the Flyers still love him in six years?</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-05260/9996489-1-eng-US/f0044-052.jpg" title="f0044-05" width="327" height="505"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MACLEAN + DESPRES: JANA CHYTILOVA/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Pens lost 42 minutes of ice time per game when Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik left, which means <b>Simon Despres</b> must play a bigger role. The big 23-year-old has been brought along slowly and was passed by Olli Maatta last season. With youngsters Derrick Pouliot and Scott Harrington knocking on the door, Despres must impress.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-06230/9996482-1-eng-US/f0044-062.jpg" title="f0044-06" width="327" height="505"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(EHRHOFF + ELLIOTT: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Parting ways with Ryan Miller was an indictment of his playoff performance, but also an endorsement for <b>Brian Elliott</b> and Jake Allen. The Blues are a contender banking on two wildcards in goal now. Elliott has great numbers, but has never been a full-time starter. Allen projects as a long-term No. 1, but has just 15 NHL games to his name.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-07198/9996475-1-eng-US/f0044-072.jpg" title="f0044-07" width="327" height="489"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(NIEMI: DEREK LEUNG/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>When isn&rsquo;t Joe Thornton on the hot seat? Because that&rsquo;s his regular spot, we&rsquo;ll divert the attention to goalie <b>Antti Niemi</b>. A kingpin during the season, Niemi hasn&rsquo;t been able to match or outperform those standards in the post-season. Like with Evgeni Nabokov before him, Niemi&rsquo;s next spring failure in San Jose will be his last one.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0044-01

FROM A FREE BIRD TO A PENGUIN

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MICHAEL TRAIKOS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0045-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01687/9996590-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-07225/9996583-1-eng-US/f0045-072.jpg" title="f0045-07" width="1370" height="1034"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEPHANE <b>ROBIDAS</b> <span class="photo-credit">(ROBIDAS: DEBORA ROBINSON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>F</span>IVE MONTHS LATER, STEPHANE ROBIDAS&rsquo;</b>&nbsp;right leg still swells up after a long workout. It&rsquo;s going to be like that for about a year, he said. One last reminder of just how painful last season was for him.</p><p>The veteran defenseman has been no stranger to injuries over his 13-year NHL career. He&rsquo;s received a concussion from being sucker-punched in the face and had his nose and jaw broken in two incidents involving loose pucks. But last season, in which he broke his leg twice, was easily the worst.</p><p>In November, he toe-picked while trying to block a centering pass and fractured his fibula. &ldquo;I blacked out from the pain,&rdquo; Robidas said.</p><p>In April, after being traded from Dallas to Anaheim, Robidas got tangled up with another player and fell awkwardly on the same leg, snapping a screw that had previously been inserted and causing a new fracture inches above the old one. &ldquo;It hurt bad,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it was more frustration. I was thinking I had a chance to win a Stanley Cup. I just couldn&rsquo;t believe it happened again.&rdquo;</p><p>At 37, you&rsquo;d think Robidas would have entered free agency trying to pick a place where he could try for one last chance at a Cup. And he has, he says. It just doesn&rsquo;t look like it.</p><p>The Toronto Maple Leafs, who famously collapsed and missed the playoffs last season, may not be anyone&rsquo;s pick to win the Stanley Cup. Heck, few will pick them to even qualify for the post-season. But with Jonathan Bernier in net and Phil Kessel leading the offense, Robidas said there is a lot to like in a team that is young, fast and still realizing its potential. &ldquo;I like the makeup of the team,&rdquo; said Robidas, who signed a three-year contract worth $9 million. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a playoff team. You look at that team two years ago, they made the playoffs and were up on Boston (in Game 7 of the first round). It&rsquo;s a team that can compete against any team in the West.&rdquo;</p><p>All those thoughts are debatable. What we know is that, after a death spiral that spoiled their playoff hopes and resulted in a bottom-10 finish, the Maple Leafs signed Robidas, whom GM Dave Nonis called a &ldquo;heart-and-soul&rdquo; player, to provide leadership to a young team that lost its way.</p><p>As Robidas said, &ldquo;a bone that breaks is going to come back stronger.&rdquo; Maybe the Leafs can, too.</p><h2><b>ON THE HOT SEAT</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-02468/9996576-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg" title="f0045-02" width="324" height="505"></div><p><b>Ben Bishop</b> must show he&rsquo;s worth his two-year, $11.9-million extension after one stellar season. He was a Vezina finalist, but missed the playoffs with a wrist injury. He has to prove his 6-foot-7 frame can handle a full NHL workload. As great as Bishop is, Tampa has options, with elite prospect Andrei Vasilevskiy joining the AHL affiliate.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-03398/9996569-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="324" height="505"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CARLYLE: 2014 TORONTO STAR)</span></figcaption></div><p>Leafs president Brendan Shanahan did everything but fire <b>Randy Carlyle</b> this summer, ousting every assistant coach. Carlyle received a contract extension, but no bench boss enters 2014-15 on a shorter leash. If this team, maligned for its horrendous possession play, struggles out of the gate, it&rsquo;ll hand Carlyle a pink slip quickly.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-04338/9996562-1-eng-US/f0045-042.jpg" title="f0045-04" width="323" height="496"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BURROWS: ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>For a long time, <b>Alexandre Burrows</b> was one of the most underpaid players in the league &ndash; four seasons of 26 or more goals and never more than $2 million annually. When the big stipend came ($4.5 million last season), the offense stopped &ndash; five goals in 49 games. Unless he rebounds, he&rsquo;ll become an overpaid fourth-liner.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-05290/9996555-1-eng-US/f0045-052.jpg" title="f0045-05" width="328" height="493"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BISHOP + OVECHKIN: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The advanced stats era has not been kind to <b>Alex Ovechkin</b>. It would be fine if the Caps threatened to win Cups every year, but they haven&rsquo;t. &lsquo;Ovie&rsquo; won the Rocket Richard with 51 goals last season, but the Caps were a wreck. Now they have a new defensively staunch coach in Barry Trotz. How will that affect their one-way superstar?</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-06257/9996548-1-eng-US/f0045-062.jpg" title="f0045-06" width="328" height="497"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MAURICE: JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Paul Maurice</b> guided the Jets to a 9-2-0 record over his first 11 games as coach, but his team faded to 9-10-5 the rest of the way. That stretch amounts to a .479 points percentage, which would put Winnipeg nowhere near the playoff picture. If the Jets can&rsquo;t play like they did upon Maurice&rsquo;s arrival, his stay will be shorter than anticipated.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0045-01

BLACK AND BLUE AND WHITE

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01695/9996642-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="326" height="356"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-02466/9996635-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg" title="f0046-02" width="983" height="1347"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>PHILADELPHIA STORY</b></p><p>Anthony DeAngelo felt extra pressure with the draft held 20 minutes outside his hometown.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>O</span>NE OF THE BIGGEST WILD</b>&nbsp;cards in the draft this summer, Anthony DeAngelo faced a ton of pressure heading into Philadelphia. The standout defenseman for the Ontario League&rsquo;s Sarnia Sting put up outstanding offensive numbers from the blueline, but was also suspended twice for violating the league&rsquo;s harassment, abuse and diversity policy (essentially, he said something very inappropriate to an official and, later, a teammate).</p><p>On top of that red flag, DeAngelo is 5-foot-10, 175 pounds &ndash; not an ideal frame for an NHL defenseman.</p><p>To top it off, he grew up 20 minutes outside Philadelphia in southern New Jersey, so he would be drafted at the same rink he saw countless Flyers games at while growing up.</p><p>As the hometown kid, DeAngelo took part in all the pre-draft mania alongside top names such as Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett. He took batting practice at the Phillies&rsquo; diamond, climbed the <i>Rocky</i> stairs and faced throngs of reporters at the media lunch one day before the first round. He also had a ton of family and friends in the stands on the Friday night, which, for a player who very well could have slipped in the rankings, was a double-edged sword.</p><p>Then, with the 19th selection of 2014, Tampa Bay called out his name and all fears turned to joy. &ldquo;It was 50-50,&rdquo; DeAngelo said in the aftermath. &ldquo;If I didn&rsquo;t go tonight, it would have been way worse.&rdquo;</p><p>For a franchise on the upswing, Tampa took a gamble on DeAngelo, but they didn&rsquo;t do it on a lark. Those red flags were accounted for. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve met almost everybody who has ever been in contact with Anthony, and there was nobody who didn&rsquo;t speak very well of him,&rdquo; said head scout Al Murray. &ldquo;He gets mad every now and then, and that anger manifests itself into behavior that he&rsquo;s going to have to learn to control. But we feel the risk is not very high. We love the competitiveness in him. He just needs to dial it down a notch and show better self-control.&rdquo;</p><p>While DeAngelo didn&rsquo;t know for sure Tampa would grab him, he at least had a positive pre-draft experience with the franchise at the combine. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s one interview I was really confident with,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We had a good dialogue and didn&rsquo;t talk about the suspensions too much.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-04264/9996628-1-eng-US/f0046-042.jpg" title="f0046-04" width="582" height="735"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(TERRY WILSON / OHL IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>One of the most skilled blueliners in the draft, DeAngelo is an excellent skater who moves and manipulates the puck with flair. An early commit to Boston University, he changed his mind before his 16th birthday prior to 2011-12 and jumped to Sarnia, where his teammates included Nail Yakupov and Alex Galchenyuk. DeAngelo otherwise would have spent several more years in the United States League before even getting to the Terriers. &ldquo;My goal is to get to the NHL, and the fastest way was to go through the &lsquo;O,&rsquo; &rdquo; DeAngelo said.</p><p>DeAngelo must get a lot stronger before he pushes for a pro spot. Heading back to Sarnia, he can be a great foil for man-child blueliner Jakob Chychrun, the first overall pick in the OHL draft who comes in at 6-foot-2, 195 pounds and is just 16.</p><p>The Sting may struggle again in the standings, but at least DeAngelo can also reach out to his new GM in Tampa Bay if he ever feels that anger boiling over. Steve Yzerman commands respect from anybody involved in the game. &ldquo;Obviously he was a great player,&rdquo; DeAngelo said. &ldquo;And he seems like a great guy. I&rsquo;m looking forward to working for him.&rdquo;</p><p>And, hopefully, leaving those red flags in the past.</p><h2><b>ANTHONY DEANGELO</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-03321/9996621-1-eng-US/f0046-032.jpg" title="f0046-03" width="181" height="181"></div><p><b>POSITION</b> Defenseman</p><p><b>AGE</b> 18</p><p><b>HEIGHT</b> 5-10</p><p><b>WEIGHT</b> 175 lbs</p><p><b>DRAFTED</b> Tampa Bay, 19th overall in 2014</p><h2><b>71</b></h2><p>Points for Anthony DeAngelo in 2013-14. That total led OHL blueliners and was 10 points ahead of second-place finisher Matt Finn, who played 15 more games. DeAngelo&rsquo;s 1.39 points per game projects to 95 points had he played all 68 games.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0046-01

A CALCULATED RISK IN TAMPA

<div class="byline">BY ROBIN SHORT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0047-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01627/9996687-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>CUP OF COFFEY</b></p><p>With a swift, smooth stride, Josh Morrissey&rsquo;s skating reminds many of Paul Coffey&rsquo;s.</p></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>J</span>OSH MORRISSEY ARRIVED IN</b> the American League for a little look-see in early April as a highly regarded prospect whose major junior season had drawn to a close in Prince Albert, Sask.</p><p>The Winnipeg Jets didn&rsquo;t want Morrissey&rsquo;s year ending just yet, so the plan was to introduce their 2013 first-round pick (13th overall) to the pro game through the St. John&rsquo;s IceCaps.</p><p>Morrissey, who landed in Newfoundland the week he turned 19, not only suited up for the IceCaps, but became one of the team&rsquo;s better defensemen as St. John&rsquo;s enjoyed a memorable Calder Cup run, reaching the final before losing to Texas. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s impressive,&rdquo; said Will O&rsquo;Neill, Morrissey&rsquo;s blueline partner through much of the playoffs. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a young dude, but man, he&rsquo;s a really good player.&rdquo;</p><p>And a busy one, too. The Calgary product played more than 100 games last season, which started in Winnipeg at training camp last fall, continued to Prince Albert, to Malmo, Sweden at the world juniors and finally to St. John&rsquo;s after the Raiders were bounced from the Western League playoffs.</p><p>He appeared in an NHL exhibition game with the Jets before captaining the Raiders and earning first-team WHL all-star defenseman honors.</p><p>Despite the long season, Morrissey showed no signs of slowing down. The youngster got better with each game, and it wasn&rsquo;t long after his arrival in St. John&rsquo;s he was manning one of the IceCaps&rsquo; penalty killing units. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why, but I&rsquo;m a guy who, every time I go up to a different level, it just seems like I have to figure it out a little bit at first and get accustomed to the guys,&rdquo; Morrissey said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a pretty intellectual guy (he was WHL scholastic player of the year in 2012-13), so once I start to get comfortable, get used to the systems, I start to develop chemistry with certain players, and I know where they&rsquo;re going to be on the ice at certain times. Every game, I felt I was playing more confidently.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-03326/9996680-1-eng-US/f0047-032.jpg" title="f0047-03" width="558" height="875"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOSH <b>MORRISSEY</b> <span class="photo-credit">(COLIN PEDDLE/ST. JOHN&rsquo;S ICECAPS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Mention the name Josh Morrissey to hockey people and invariably the first attribute brought to light is his skating, a stride that is Paul Coffey-esque. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just that he&rsquo;s a good skater,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Neill said, &ldquo;but the way he skates will allow him to show he&rsquo;s a smart player, show that he has good hands, has poise, a good shot. His feet will allow his smarts and his skill to take over and allow him to play at the next level.&rdquo;</p><p>Before picking up the coach&rsquo;s whistle, IceCaps mentor Keith McCambridge was a journeyman defenseman in the minors. One of his stints came in Saint John, N.B., then home to the Calgary Flames&rsquo; farm club. Mc-Cambridge remembers another 13th overall pick joining Saint John after his WHL season was done with the Regina Pats, a player who went on compete in more than 1,100 NHL games. &ldquo;Derek Morris was a big piece in Saint John, and Josh Morrissey became a big piece for us in St. John&rsquo;s,&rdquo; McCambridge said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an exceptional talent.&rdquo;</p><p>Morrissey admitted his season became a grind towards the end, but he forged ahead, playing heavy minutes in the playoffs. &ldquo;Playing in the Calder Cup was nothing but a huge benefit for Josh Morrissey and the organization,&rdquo; McCambridge said. &ldquo;He will go into Winnipeg&rsquo;s camp in September believing and understanding he can play at a real high level.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-02412/9996673-1-eng-US/f0047-022.jpg" title="f0047-02" width="256" height="173"></div><h2><b>JOSH MORRISSEY</b></h2><p>POS Defenseman AGE 19 HT 6-0 WT 185 lbs</p><p>DRAFTED Winnipeg, 13th overall in 2013<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0047-01

AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

<div class="byline">BY JOEL CLEROUX</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0048-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01491/9996718-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ZEAL APPEAL</b></p><p>The Southern Stampede and West Auckland Admirals are two of five NZIHL teams.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PETER IDOINE)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>N</span>EW ZEALAND IS BEST KNOWN FOR ITS WORLD-CLASS RUGBY,</b> merino wool and the <i>Lord of the Rings</i> trilogy, so you&rsquo;d think hockey would be reserved for ex-pats with satellite dishes and a bad case of homesickness. Yet despite a population of just 4.5 million &ndash; about half the size of New York City &ndash; the country is quietly building a strong amateur program.</p><p>Although still in it&rsquo;s infancy, the New Zealand Ice Hockey League has five teams spread across both the North and South Islands. Its hockey season is the NHL&rsquo;s off-season, running typically from May through the end of August, so while fans in North America endured the dog days of summer, the NZIHL was in its stretch run. &ldquo;Rugby is the New Zealand equivalent to hockey in Canada, you&rsquo;re just born into it,&rdquo; said Bert Haines, captain of the Southern Stampede and a transplanted Saskatoon, Sask., native. &ldquo;To introduce a young rugby boy, a teenage netball girl or an adult to hockey is a real treat. It&rsquo;s incredible to see the sport win them over. Once they get a taste, Kiwis go mad for hockey.&rdquo;</p><p>The league, which began in 2005, is considered amateur to attract international players during their Northern Hemisphere off-season and college players who don&rsquo;t want to void their eligibility. But thanks to the tireless efforts of a small yet dedicated group of parents, volunteers and fans, the league is amateur in name only.</p><p>As the offspring of minor and pro level hockey, the NZIHL delivers a special brand of the game. Teams practise two to three times a week and play 16 games a season, with a one-game winner-take-all final. Because it&rsquo;s technically an amateur league, however, games are relegated to weekends, since most players have full-time jobs or are in school. Players cover their own expenses including league registration, travel to and from New Zealand and the cost their equipment. Clubs fly players to away games and cover their accommodations while on the road. A full medical staff travels with the players, including a team doctor and a chiropractor.</p><p>To help grow the game, import players are encouraged to share their knowledge by teaching at hockey camps and making guest appearances at schools. &ldquo;Hockey is special in New Zealand, it&rsquo;s still so pure,&rdquo; Haines said. &ldquo;Not all fans are aware of the finer points of the game, but they love the speed and physicality of it.&rdquo;</p><p>Still, playing organized hockey in New Zealand requires a certain level of dedication. The challenge of trying to grow the game in a non-traditional market is often extremely difficult, and New Zealand&rsquo;s young players face a typically steep uphill battle against long commutes to rinks and equipment prices. A top-of-the-line set of skates can run in the neighborhood of $1,000 and a mid-range twig costs $300. (Never mind getting a Zamboni on that side of the Pacific.)</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">ONCE THEY GET A TASTE, KIWIS GO MAD FOR HOCKEY<br>&ndash; Bert Haines</blockquote><p>Another obstacle is the lack of strong coaching. To overcome this, the Southern Stampede, who are based in Queenstown, have focused their efforts on developing an infectious hockey culture that has caught on in the community. &ldquo;The fans are amazing,&rdquo; said Simon Glass, a long-serving former Stampede captain who retired at the end of last season. &ldquo;Playing in that small barn, in front of a full house every game, it&rsquo;s loud and the atmosphere is electric.&rdquo;</p><p>Hockey is finding its feet and blossoming into a viable option for an entire generation of Kiwis thanks to the efforts of passionate supporters, volunteers and, of course, fans. For players, meanwhile, the NZIHL offers an opportunity to reignite their all but extinguished dreams of continuing their playing careers. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of those rare opportunities in life when, for a fleeting moment you get the chance to be part of something greater than yourself,&rdquo; said Michael Sommer, a former player and assistant coach with the Stampede. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something truly special.&rdquo;</p><p><i>Joel Cleroux played with the Southern Stampede in 2012.</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0048-01

HOCKEY ZEALOTS IN NEW ZEALAND

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01485/9996749-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="508" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GUESS WHO: DENIS BRODEUR/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><i>&ldquo;I never won a Norris Trophy, but I finished second in voting six times in my career.&rdquo;</i></p><p><i>&ldquo;Among NHL D-men, I&rsquo;m 13th all-time in points (896) and 9th in points per game (0.81).&rdquo;</i></p><p><i>&ldquo;I went to Boston as part of the blockbuster 1975 trade that sent Phil Esposito to New York.&rdquo;</i></p><p>WHO AM I: BRAD PARK<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-01

Guess WHO!

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MATT LARKIN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-03300/9996780-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="900" height="835"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MASK: STEVE NASH/EYECAND EYECANDYAIR.COM)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>M</span>urphy toiled in Carolina&rsquo;s system but decided to hone his craft in Austria this season. There, he&rsquo;ll play for a team called the Bulldogs. His mask artist, EyeCandyAir&rsquo;s Steve Nash, produced a menacing robo-dog, complete with red eyes, visible wiring and a modified version of the team logo on the back.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-03

Behind THE MASK

<div class="byline">By Larry Humber</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0049-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-02377/9996811-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg"></div><h2><b>ACROSS</b></h2><p>1 Coach Dave ___ helms Arizona</p><p>4 Hall of Famer ___ Fuhr, pictured</p><p>7 Jacques Plante was the first to wear one</p><p>8 One-time Sabre Jerry Korab was nicknamed &lsquo;___ ___&rsquo; after a movie monster</p><p>10 Junior team that represented Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s hometown</p><p>12 Ray ___ was GM in Pittsburgh</p><p>13 Ted ___ is back behind the bench in Buffalo</p><p>14 One of a hockey family, he played for seven different NHL teams</p><p>18 Ignore</p><p>19 <i>Slap</i> ___ had Paul Newman as aging player-coach Reggie Dunlop</p><p>20 &lsquo;It takes two to ___&rsquo;</p><p>21 Fought, ___ off</p><h2><b>DOWN</b></h2><p>1 Where &lsquo;Stevie Y&rsquo; is GM</p><p>2 Hounded</p><p>3 Patrick Roy won his ___ Conn Smythe Trophy in 2001</p><p>4 The ___ ___ is the KHL championship trophy</p><p>5 Level of hockey for younger kids</p><p>6 Put more emphasis on defense, ___ up</p><p>9 Lou ___ is GM in Jersey</p><p>11 Chuck ___ is the Wild&rsquo;s GM</p><p>12 &lsquo;SO&rsquo; stands for ___</p><p>15 Uses one&rsquo;s stick to impede an opponent</p><p>16 Evaluated</p><p>17 Legendary Hab ___ Beliveau</p><p><b>ANSWERS AVAILABLE IN THE NEXT ISSUE AND AT <a href="http://THN.com/XWORD">THN.com/XWORD</a></b></p><h2><b>LAST ISSUE&rsquo;S CROSSWORD SOLUTION</b></h2><h3><b>ACROSS</b></h3><p>1. CHANCE, 4. JERSEY, 9. REFEREE, 10. GREEN, 11. STEVE, 12. RUSSELL, 13. ABEL, 15. RASK, 18. ATLANTA, 21. CYCLE, 23. CROWN, 24. PLAYERS&rsquo;, 25. LAROSE, 26. ODD-MAN</p><h3><b>DOWN</b></h3><p>1. CARESS, 2. ALFIE, 3. CORNELL, 5. EDGES, 6. STEVENS, 7. YANDLE, 8. KERR, 14. BELFOUR, 15. RICHARD, 16. MARCEL, 17. SEASON, 19. NONIS, 20. APPS, 22. CREAM<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-02

CROSSWORD

<div class="byline">WITH KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-02361/9996873-1-eng-US/f0050-022.jpg" title="f0050-02" width="870" height="738"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAT <b>BRISSON</b> <span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01474/9996880-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="180" height="225"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>S SOMEONE WHO WAS BANGING THE</b>&nbsp;drum for a legitimate union to represent major junior players seven years ago when nobody else was, your trusty scribe is encouraged by efforts of Canada&rsquo;s biggest private-sector union to bring fairness to a workplace that has long benefitted from the efforts of the most talented teenaged hockey players on the planet.</p><p>Unifor, a 300,000-strong union that represents workers in trades ranging from auto assembly to journalism, is making a push to organize a union for the Canadian Hockey League&rsquo;s 1,700 players. And whether the organization is successful or not, changes will come to junior hockey and the way it&rsquo;s operated. That&rsquo;s because the union will mobilize junior players or those who run junior hockey will try to prevent the players from joining a union by improving working conditions and compensation.</p><p>Representatives from Unifor met with Ontario&rsquo;s ministry of labor in late July in an effort to establish a task force to scrutinize the business of junior hockey in Ontario. The fact Unifor president Jerry Dias has met with Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne indicates this attempt to organize is more sophisticated and legitimate than the ham-handed effort to establish the CHL Players&rsquo; Association two years ago. Old-time hockey people will bristle at the notion government is getting involved where it seemingly has no business. And they&rsquo;ll again have to be reminded that when you can&rsquo;t police yourself properly, that&rsquo;s when others step in to do it for you.</p><p>Junior hockey operators are making strides to better compensate the individuals who are the main draw for customers coming through the turnstiles. I&rsquo;ve long been critical that the players who draw thousands of fans in dozens of markets are paid a paltry $55 a week &ndash; and have been for the past two or three decades. In the OHL, that compensation is going up to $470 monthly, but will include incidentals such as gas, clothing and food. And it came on the heels of attempts to organize players two years ago. Hmm.</p><p>So attempts to do something to improve this are admirable. The only problem is the two constituencies that should be at the forefront at looking after this have been eerily silent for, like, ever. The fact Unifor has stepped up to do this while those who make a lot of money from the hockey industry have sat by and allowed paltry wages to continue is, quite frankly, a little curious.</p><p>The NHL Players&rsquo; Association and the agents who are so integral to it are, in my opinion, going to have to get behind this initiative for it to succeed. In fact, the NHLPA is probably the best-equipped group to organize the young men, a small percentage of whom will someday be multi-millionaire members of its own organization. The NHLPA, by comparison, is a small operation with fewer than 1,000 members. It could, and should, pick up this file and do what visionaries such as Doug Harvey, Ted Lindsay and Carl Brewer did for the NHLers five decades ago.</p><p>And where are the agents in all this? These are the men on the front lines, the people who sit at the kitchen tables of 14- and 15-year-old kids trying to persuade their parents to allow them to represent their kids. In many ways, agents represent the players&rsquo; first indoctrinations into the business of hockey. In the majority of cases, business in junior hockey is very good. Why would the people who are directing these young men&rsquo;s careers not be looking out for them to get a bigger piece of that action? Some of their clients end up hitting the jackpot, while a lot of others never go on to make much of a living from the game. Agents owe it to the former to make sure they are treated fairly and to the latter to secure a better future.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">THE NHLPA AND THE AGENTS ARE GOING TO HAVE TO GET BEHIND THIS INITIATIVE FOR IT TO SUCCEED</blockquote><p>So it&rsquo;s time to step up, J.P. Barry and Pat Brisson. Same goes for you, Don Meehan and Pat Morris. You don&rsquo;t think Bobby Orr adding his weight to a major junior union would not make the owners of the 60 CHL franchises take notice? Allan Walsh and Anton Thun, two of the more outspoken agents in the business, need to tell their clients this is a good idea that&rsquo;s worth supporting.</p><p>Like any union, there will be some people who want nothing to do with it and don&rsquo;t want to cause waves. Others will be mildly interested and there will be those who are eager to effect change. It&rsquo;s up to the agents to convince the first two to join the latter group. And if they fail to do so, aren&rsquo;t they in effect abdicating their responsibilities as an agent? To sit back and do nothing is not an option.</p><p>Many of these kids don&rsquo;t have the knowledge or maturity to truly know what is in their best interests. That&rsquo;s why they hire agents. And that&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s up to them to make sure a major junior players&rsquo; union has the best opportunity to be brought to life.</p><p><b>CAN&rsquo;T GET ENOUGH CAMPBELL?</b> GO TO <b><a href="http://thehockeynews.com">THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM</a></b> FOR DAILY UPDATES<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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September 15, 2014

GUT CHECK

WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET

JerseyHOUND

ARE YOU GONNA PASS THE PUCK?