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.

January 26, 2015

The Hockey News - January 26, 2015

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-02135/10002828-1-eng-US/f0065-022.jpg" title="f0065-02" width="231" height="405"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BILL WIPPERT/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>TIM MURRAY</b></h2><p>Plays general manager in Sabres front office. Tries to save fledgling lineup. Known for blunt quips.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-03100/10002821-1-eng-US/f0065-032.jpg" title="f0065-03" width="233" height="382"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JASON MERRITT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>RAINN WILSON</b></h2><p>Plays Dwight with rapier wit on <i>The Office</i>, Tries to save fledgling business. Known for blunt quips.</p><p>Email your suggestions to <b><a href="mailto:sab@thehockeynews.com">sab@thehockeynews.com</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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DEPARTMENTS

Separated AT BIRTH

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-01187/10002790-1-eng-US/f0065-012.jpg" title="f0065-01" width="483" height="583"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HHOF IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><i>&ldquo;I once made up an NHL player and drafted him as a prank because I was bored.&rdquo;</i></p><p><i>&ldquo;I coached Toronto to four Stanley Cups in the 1960s, including three straight.&rdquo;</i></p><p><i>&ldquo;I feuded with Frank Mahovlich and Carl Brewer. I converted Red Kelly from &lsquo;D&rsquo; to center.&rdquo;</i></p><p>WHO AM I: PUNCHIMLACH<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Guess WHO!

<div class="byline">BY SAL BARRY OF PUCKJUNK.COM</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021576/10001519-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="393" height="531"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>C</span>OMMISSIONER GARY BETTMAN OFFICIALLY CANCELLED</b> all of the 2004-05 NHL season on Feb. 16, 2005. Trading card company Topps issued a card of the cancellation a week later as a part of its Topps Chronicles set, which documented significant events in sports, politics and entertainment throughout the year. And this was quite significant. The aborted 2004-05 season is the first time a major pro sports league has called off an entire season due to a labor dispute. The not-so-subtle card shows an NHL-logoed padlock and chains superimposed in front of an empty Madison Square Garden. For Topps, a manufacturer of hockey cards since 1954, this was the last hockey card it ever made.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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In The CARDS

<div class="byline">WITH JASON KAY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-012291/10000886-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="526" height="923"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(RYAN BROOK/TC MEDIA)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>OUGHNESS ON ALL LEVELS</b> is integral to hockey&rsquo;s unwritten code. It&rsquo;s not exclusive to our game, but it&rsquo;s deep-rooted and pervasive, and helps explain how NHLers can take a slap shot to the face, lose teeth, need stitches, only to return to action minutes later.</p><p>It&rsquo;s all very admirable. But it&rsquo;s also a double-edged sword, particularly when it comes to mental and emotional stoicism. So much can be gained by speaking up. Three of the men on our 100 People of Power and Influence list ultimately came to that conclusion and are making an enormous difference in our world because of it.</p><p>Theo Fleury kept himself cloaked for years, paralyzed by shame. His internalization spawned acting out until he found the courage to talk. He wrote a best-selling autobiography, <i>Playing With Fire</i>, in 2009 that not only served as therapeutic but also opened his eyes to how may people were just like him. He estimates 500,000 people contacted him following the book&rsquo;s release. He says he discovered his true purpose in life, to use his celebrity as a platform to spread awareness and to help stop the cycle of sexual abuse. His second book, <i>Conversations With a Rattlesnake</i>, came out in November and chronicles his chats with a therapist in the hopes it prompts others to have their own dialogues. Fleury is now a sought-after motivational speaker.</p><p>Clint Malarchuk had a similar epiphany following his third escape from death, a miraculously failed suicide attempt (see pg. 64). Like Fleury, he discovered the power of vulnerability, sharing his tale in <i>The Crazy Game</i>. Malarchuk, who also does public speaking, says he receives about 10 emails a day and has been gratified by his book&rsquo;s impact in chipping away at the stigma of mental illness.</p><p>Bryan Murray&rsquo;s decision to come forward about his colon cancer, and urging people to get screened, has also had a huge effect. The 72-year-old at first was private about his condition, but he came to the realization he could leverage his profile for the common good. He says he&rsquo;s been amazed at the reaction and by the plethora of people who&rsquo;ve decided to get screened because of the message he&rsquo;s delivering.</p><p>Hockey is replete with good people who do good things. The aforementioned are representative of that, and also of men with massive courage who are wielding tremendously positive influence.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021942/10000879-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="414" height="222"></div><p><b>NEXT</b>&nbsp;<b>ISSUE</b> FEBRUARY 16, 2015</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>

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MEN OF MASSIVE COURAGE

<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-05403/10000997-1-eng-US/f0005-052.jpg" title="f0005-05" width="142" height="89"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>A</span>s a longtime reader, it was a pleasant surprise to see my research quoted in the Fighting Issue (&ldquo;Changing Of The Guard&rdquo;). Throughout my life, THN has provided me with inspiration and insight into the sport I love and was the impetus for devoting myself to research on hockey. I&rsquo;m glad my findings have shown up in debate surrounding the sport. Your continued examinations and analysis will hopefully provide your younger readers (like I once was) with ideas and passion to pursue further knowledge about not only the players and the teams on the ice, but hockey in the business, social science, hard science and analytics fields as well.</p><p><b><i>Rodney Paul, Syracuse, N.Y.</i></b></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-06259/10000990-1-eng-US/f0005-062.jpg" title="f0005-06" width="141" height="88"></div><p>I can&rsquo;t believe an entire issue is dedicated to fighting. I subscribe to a hockey magazine, not boxing or MMA. I&rsquo;m a former junior hockey player, coach and manager and have seen first hand the intimidation and injuries that are caused by fighting. And with the knowledge we have regarding the serious effects of concussions, I have no idea why there is any debate.</p><p><b><i>Lyle Bedford, Fingal, Ont.</i></b></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-07145/10000983-1-eng-US/f0005-072.jpg" title="f0005-07" width="141" height="88"></div><p>I cannot believe you would put out such a disturbing edition as the Fighting Issue. Do you expect young hockey players to take up the sport after looking at this cover? To devote an entire issue to this subject is disgusting. I trust other subscribers will feel the same way as myself and THN will refrain from displaying violence like this in the future.</p><p><b><i>James Sheen, Pictou, N.S.</i></b></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>ZERO SUMS?</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-0880/10000976-1-eng-US/f0005-082.jpg" title="f0005-08" width="154" height="95"></div><p>It doesn&rsquo;t have to be staged fights or no fighting at all. The game is heading for the ideal balance. I&rsquo;m fine with players like Colton Orr and George Parros being weeded out of the league, but I&rsquo;m all for having tough guys with skills who occasionally drop the gloves, like Cody McLeod and Milan Lucic. It wasn&rsquo;t one of questions put to your hockey insiders (&ldquo;And the Survey Says&rdquo;), but I wonder how many would want classic fights like the Vinny Lecavalier-Jarome Iginla bout removed forever. That was a true hockey moment and fights like that belong in the game.</p><p><b><i>Monika Wieland, Friday Harbor, Wash.</i></b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-0950/10000969-1-eng-US/f0005-092.jpg" title="f0005-09" width="154" height="95"></div><p>Ryan Kennedy&rsquo;s point about people not loving the game to begin with if they do not enjoy fighting is invalid (The Straight Edge, Dec. 6). I love the game and always have because of the skill of the players, the pace of the game, and so many other reasons. While I understand Ryan&rsquo;s point, he need not take it to the extreme and label all of us who do not enjoy fighting as something less than true fans of the game.</p><p><b><i>Matt Roe, Saginaw, Mich.</i></b></p><h2><b>LET. IT. GO.</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-1031/10000962-1-eng-US/f0005-102.jpg" title="f0005-10" width="154" height="95"></div><p>Ken Campbell, you say fighting is virtually gone from the game, yet you press for the league to &ldquo;make it official&rdquo; (Overtime, Dec. 8). If fans, players and owners still say there is a place for fighting, just <i>let it go</i>. But keep up your good fight and continue to pummel the goon when he is down and out. If fighting is virtually gone, why, sir, are you still fighting?</p><p><b><i>Louis Crew, Aurora, Colo.</i></b></p><h2><b>EVERY LAST DROP</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-1123/10000955-1-eng-US/f0005-112.jpg" title="f0005-11" width="154" height="95"></div><p>Poor Oilers can&rsquo;t catch a break. By far the worst team in hockey over the past eight years, and you can&rsquo;t even throw them a bone in the Fighting Issue. Luke Gazdic very well might be the best fighter in the NHL and he doesn&rsquo;t even get mentioned in your top five super heavyweights (Inside Hockey). And despite also having Matt Hendricks and Steve Pinizzotto, they rank 23rd in Fighter Rankings. Couldn&rsquo;t you at least let us poor, long-suffering fans have this one small victory?</p><p><b><i>Caleb Sunderland, Paradise Valley, Alta.</i></b></p><h2><b>ALL-TIME MISSES</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-1218/10000948-1-eng-US/f0005-122.jpg" title="f0005-12" width="154" height="95"></div><p>You guys dropped the ball by choosing Peter Worrell over Paul Laus as the Panthers&rsquo; all-time enforcer (NHL Team Reports, Dec. 8). Laus is Florida&rsquo;s all-time PIM leader and played a solid defense game. Most importantly, Laus holds the NHL record for most fights in a single campaign with 39.</p><p><b><i>Peter Amoruso, Jr., Garfield, N.J.</i></b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-1315/10000941-1-eng-US/f0005-132.jpg" title="f0005-13" width="154" height="95"></div><p>Tiger Williams &ldquo;gets the nod&rdquo; over Red Horner as the Toronto&rsquo;s all-time enforcer? Horner led the league in penalty minutes for seven seasons in an eight-year stretch &ndash; from 1932-33 through 1939-40 &ndash; and his impact is evidenced by the fact that in those eight years the Leafs reached the final six times.</p><p><b><i>Joe Gill, Easton, Pa.</i></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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THN INBOX

<div class="byline">Steven A. Fisher, Tiverton, R.I.</div><p class="dropcap"><i><span>Y</span>our Fighting Issue (Dec. 8) was exceptionally reported on both sides of the issue. However, once again you failed to take into account the real root cause of the discussion: the player who takes liberties outside the rules. Almost all fights, excluding the staged ones, are direct result of late hits, kneeing, elbows, etc. If penalties for dangerous acts were more vigorously enforced, fighting would all but cease to be a part of the game. Is fighting necessary? Not if the game is called tighter.</i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-012155/10001035-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="499" height="785"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021574/10001028-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="135" height="132"></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><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

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GOOD, BAD, UGLY

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PUCKPOLL

<div class="byline">&#x2013; AMBER DOWLING</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012521/10001118-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="249" height="282"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021730/10001111-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="507" height="838"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>MAN OF THE HOUR</b></p><p>Picking talk-show host George Stroumboulopoulos as a hockey host was a bold move for Rogers.</p></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-031038/10001104-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="1582" height="1012"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>IMMEDIATE IMPACT</b></p><p>Sportsnet president Scott Moore likes what he sees so far from TV ratings and ad revenue.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(2014 TORONTO STAR)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>F</span></b><b>ORGET NUDE KARDASHIANS. THE</b> Canadian Internet broke 13 months ago when news first leaked that Rogers Media had reached a record-breaking, 12-year deal with the NHL, taking public broadcaster CBC&rsquo;s biggest money-maker away for a cool $5.2 billion. Few expected the new deal to reach more than double what NBC paid &ndash; reportedly $2 billion &ndash; back in 2011 for a 10-year run.</p><p>All eyes were on <i>Hockey Night in Canada</i> and how its Saturday night institution would be affected. More money meant glossier visuals for fans via sky-cams, Q-ball cameras and head-cams on the refs, which are currently on their third prototype; Don Cherry&rsquo;s shortened, more concentrated <i>Coach&rsquo;s Corner</i>; and Ron McLean&rsquo;s slickhaired replacement in George Stroumboulopoulos. How would ratings and advertisers react?</p><p>For those orchestrating the deal, though, they had other goals in mind: making Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 360 go-to channels in the wake of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission talks about pick-and-pay packages, as well as increasing traffic to online Sportsnet properties to give advertisers more options. Fast forward to the end of 2014 and overall ratings have reflected those goals.</p><p>As of November, Sportsnet One was up in overall viewers by 60 percent, while Sportsnet 360 was up roughly 50 percent. In terms of advertising, Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet & NHL, said hockey is performing &ldquo;brilliantly&rdquo; for them, despite conflicting reports in national papers. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t talk about specific figures, but I will tell you that we are on track for this year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Our revenues are on target with potential upside for the playoffs.&rdquo;</p><p>As per the deal, Rogers has to shell out $300 million this year, with annual increases until the final year, which is estimated to be worth $500 million. NBC&rsquo;s bargain with the NHL is estimated at roughly $200 million annually. As for the CBC, when it lost broadcast rights last year, reports surfaced that it could see an annual advertising revenue loss of $225 million &ndash; a staggering number that is still less than Rogers&rsquo; annual payments. While Rogers is getting some coin from the former hockey host, which has rented studio, office and airspace to the broadcaster on Saturday nights, there&rsquo;s still production costs and a hefty seven-figure innovation budget for new technologies in 2015. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a 12-year investment,&rdquo; Moore said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t expect to blow the doors off in Year 1, but we&rsquo;re very happy where we are.&rdquo;</p><p>Moore also notes that his team has been conservative about budgeting for revenues during playoffs, given how few Canadian teams have actually played in the post-season recently. But if the season was nearing its end, Moore said he&rsquo;d be &ldquo;ecstatic&rdquo; given that six of seven Canadian teams remained in the playoff hunt.</p><p>In overall performance, Moore feels Rogers has plenty to celebrate. At time of press, <a href="http://sportsnet.ca">sportsnet.ca</a> had jumped to the No. 8 national spot on online ratings site Comscore and is expected to climb. The goal in 2015 is to bring it to No. 5.</p><p>Television coverage across the board also seems to be up, with Wednesday night games bringing in roughly 30 percent more viewers than last year&rsquo;s offerings on TSN. Sundays have been a different story, with an average of 664,000 weekly viewers to date, making it the 18th most-watched regular scheduled program that day. According to Moore, that&rsquo;s still better than what their programming was doing in that spot last year. And it&rsquo;s all a lot higher than hockey on NBC, where average viewership has remained flat year-over-year, if not slightly down, at 379,000 per game. Meanwhile, NBCSN is up one percent at 344,000.</p><p>As for that famous institution, <i>Hockey Night in Canada</i>? Rogers&rsquo; strategy of branching programming out across a number of channels &ndash; CBC, City, Sportsnet, FX and more &ndash; has helped bolster viewers slightly (during the first two months of the season the first game averaged 2.2 million viewers, up one percent), but according to Moore that number could have been higher in earlier weeks had viewers actually known where to find the games. Also problematic is the idea of one solid lead in. With so many options, that second West Coast game has been getting lost. Viewership during that same time period dropped roughly 17 percent to 860,000 weekly viewers, something that worries Moore. &ldquo;Viewers are now findingng hockey, and ratings are up on the early game, nine percent over last year&rsquo;s average,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The late game is the one area that I&rsquo;d be somewhat concerned about. We need to do a better job of promoting it.&rdquo;</p><p>Something tells us finding the money to do so won&rsquo;t be a problem.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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KEEPING EYES ON THE PRIZE

<div class="byline">By Charlie Teljeur</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-012209/10001149-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

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THE INSTIGATOR

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021514/10001180-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>+PLUS</b></h2><h3><b>GOTTA HAVE HART</b></h3><p>Calgary coach Bob Hartley earns a multi-year contract extension thanks to his outstanding work with the overachieving Flames.</p><h2><b>&ndash;MINUS</b></h2><h3><b>SHAME ON JAMES</b></h3><p>Nashville&rsquo;s <b><i>James Neal</i></b> becomes the first NHLer fined ($2,000) and outed for diving following an off-season rule modification by the league.</p><h2><b>+PLUS</b></h2><h3><b>HELPING HAND</b></h3><p>Smith Falls, Ont., quickly rallies to raise funds for Neil Doef and his family after the 17-year-old suffers a severe injury at the World Junior A Challenge.</p><h2><b>&ndash;MINUS</b></h2><h3><b>BINGO BANGO BONGO</b></h3><p>AHL Binghamton goalie Andrew Hammond gives up three goals on three shots in the first 36 seconds of a game against Lehigh Valley.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">&#x2013; BENJAMIN WENDORF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012411/10001260-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">DEREK <b>STEPAN</b> <span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span></b><b>HOUGH THERE WERE PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS AT LIMITING NHL SALARIES,</b> the emergence of the cap for 2005-06 quickly elevated the importance of cost-effective strategies league-wide. With 30 teams more or less actively engaging the livelier cap-league market, the spending over the past few years has settled into a number of trends in regards to player valuation. Thanks to excellent online cap information resources like <a href="http://capgeek.com">capgeek.com</a> and <a href="http://nhlnumbers.com">nhlnumbers.com</a>, as well as player usage information from <a href="http://behindthenet.ca">behindthenet.ca</a>, we can break down player deployment and start to learn the value of different types of players. We can also determine how teams allocate their cap hits between forwards, defensemen and goaltenders and even make some simple calculations on which provided the best returns on their teams&rsquo; cap investments.</p><h2><b>PLAYER BREAKDOWN</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021853/10001253-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="1023" height="708"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-031325/10001246-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="1023" height="707"></div><p>With goaltending around 8.5% of the cap hit since 2007-08, teams have been willing to commit more than 20% of cap space to their top line. Despite a greater share of ice time and all-minutes use, top defensemen haven&rsquo;t received as much.</p><p>Their 5.7% share suggests they&rsquo;re harder to value. A player that is hard to project will typically make less, and since the value of defense is still difficult to capture by scouts and numbers alike, less of the cap is committed to it.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-04759/10001239-1-eng-US/f0008-042.jpg" title="f0008-04" width="1023" height="708"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-012136/10001232-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="1023" height="707"></div><p>There&rsquo;s no clearer image of value than the astronomically high portion placed on top power play forwards. At an average 7.4% share of their team&rsquo;s cap, they carry higher individual value than any other player. This share was high enough for me to wonder if these figures had changed over the past seven years &ndash; and though there were some minor fluctuations of around 0.5%, the trends above were fairly steady.</p><p>Goals speak louder than any other measure in the NHL, but within that cost should come caution. Teams in today&rsquo;s NHL have difficulty setting themselves apart simply with an expensive top line or power play unit.</p><h2><b>TEAM TRENDS</b></h2><p>From these figures, a typical complement of 18 forwards, defensemen and goaltenders should take up about 76% of the cap hit. The remaining 24% include call-ups, send-downs and buyouts, as well as two or more players to fill out the minimum 20-player roster.</p><p>When comparing the proportion of cap hit spent on forwards, defensemen and goaltenders to possession figures and scoring, there is no strong relationship between spending more for any of the groups and coming out on top in the standings. This is part of the reason that analytics have become an area of intrigue for management: the edge is gained by identifying costeffective talent.</p><p>There are still opportunities to get great returns on defensive and lesser-heralded two-way players. Possession is a virtue because it helps identify the latter group well. The affordable success of players like Anton Stralman and Radim Vrbata are excellent examples.</p><h2><b>COST-EFFECTIVE PLAYERS</b></h2><p>At a base-level, if you were to assume each skater contributes to 20% of the gameplay, defensemen would probably be undervalued &ndash; they play more minutes than forwards overall.</p><p>For instance, you can take the percentage of a team&rsquo;s ice time that a player was on the ice for and divide it by five.</p><p>In the case of defensemen, they average a stake in 7.8% of their team&rsquo;s gameplay, while forwards only average around 5.4%.</p><p>If you break forwards and defensemen apart and look at the top five whose stake in the gameplay exceeded their cap hit, you&rsquo;ll see how this plays out.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021502/10001225-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="1023" height="541"></div><p>In this scenario, defensemen are a clear bargain, but notice another similarity among these players? Most were on their entry-level contract. Teams routinely benefit from the returns they get on the controlled costs of ELCs. On the other hand, at least in the case of defensemen, they might not nearly be as much of a bargain as the above measure suggests. Why?</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-03915/10001218-1-eng-US/f0009-032.jpg" title="f0009-03" width="1023" height="179"></div><p>So much of the play in the neutral and offensive zones is influenced by forwards, as are the crucial moments of possession. While most of the defender&rsquo;s role in possession is perimeter movement, the early passes in the rush and containment, this often separates them from a direct hand in scoring on the other end. We also know that defenders rarely are deep in the offensive zone, while forwards are frequently involved in plays deeper in the defensive zone &ndash; which is to say it would be reasonable to suggest that defenders might contribute a bit less than 20% to the overall gameplay. All of these reasons contribute to the greater minutes D-men play.</p><p>Regardless, the value of the players listed above exceed any of the adjustments that might be made. They were delivering above and beyond their salary cap hits.</p><h2><b>CONCLUSION</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-04681/10001211-1-eng-US/f0009-042.jpg" title="f0009-04" width="566" height="886"><figcaption class="caption-body">RADIM <b>VRBATA</b> <span class="photo-credit">(CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The cap era has created a dynamic, competitive environment where teams have sought to find any edge possible.</p><p>The uncertainty around assessing defensive players has left an opportunity for teams to address depth at lower costs, and it&rsquo;s possible it has contributed to increased team efforts to employ statisticians and analysts.</p><p>While teams have tried to secure top players at premium prices, the best returns have come from middle-depth players and young players on ELCs.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0008-01

ALL THINGS NOT DIVIDED EQUALLY

<div class="byline">&nbsp;&#x2013; LAUREN BEAVEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012386/10001312-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>MONEY MOTIVATION</b></p><p>Cross is making a pittance in the AHL compared to what he&rsquo;d make if he ever got an NHL shot.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(SUSANNA ESINA)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>P</span></b><b>RO HOCKEY IS ALL ABOUT</b> winning, but getting to the NHL and earning the riches that come with it requires a different type of competition &ndash; one in which teammates are also rivals.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021750/10001305-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="216" height="224"></div><p>In minor-pro leagues, the teammates that players train with, travel with, win with and lose with are the same ones they compete with to achieve their NHL dreams. It&rsquo;s a psychological conundrum all non-NHL players face but most acutely in the AHL.</p><p>Tommy Cross knows the dilemma well. In July, the Boston Bruins signed him to a one-year, two-way contract worth $600,000 in the NHL and $72,500 in the AHL. That&rsquo;s $527,500 on the line for Cross. In training camp, he made it to the end of Week 2, before being assigned to the Providence Bruins. &ldquo;I knew it was coming this year,&rdquo; Cross said. &ldquo;There are a lot of good players, and (the Boston Bruins) have eight defensemen that are NHL defensemen, so I kind of knew where I fit in to start the year.&rdquo;</p><p>Demotion isn&rsquo;t necessarily a death sentence. Injuries in the NHL often prompt openings for AHLers, creating opportunities to move up. Similarly, NHL players who don&rsquo;t prove their worth can quickly find themselves back in the minors. Transactions are never-ending.</p><p>Still, it&rsquo;s been seven years since Cross was drafted in the second round (35th overall) by the Bruins out of high school hockey in Connecticut, and he&rsquo;s yet to play a game in the NHL. Now 25, he&rsquo;s approaching the age at which many pros face a difficult decision: give up their big-league dreams for higher salaries overseas or stick it out in the AHL and continue to chase the NHL dream and significantly higher wages.</p><p>Dr. Adam Naylor is a sports psychologist whose clients include previous Stanley Cup champions. He&rsquo;s helped players navigate this tension between their NHL dream and monetary reality. &ldquo;There are a lot of guys that hit the panic button too soon &ndash; the guys that run to Europe before they need to for the money,&rdquo; Naylor said. &ldquo;(One player) I worked with went over to Finland and he called me and he said, &lsquo;This is the worst idea I ever had. I should&rsquo;ve never moved for the money. I should have stayed in the American League for two or three more years. I would&rsquo;ve had more NHL shots.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-031133/10001298-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="474" height="712"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>DREAMS DON&rsquo;T DIE</b></p><p>More than seven years since being drafted, Cross is still chasing the NHL dream.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(GREGORY SHAMUS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;IF I CAN PLAY BETTER THAN (MY TEAMMATES), I&rsquo;M GOING TO PLAY BETTER<br>&ndash; Tommy Cross</blockquote><p>Though rare, there are players who have been to Europe and back. Right winger Bobby Robins, Cross&rsquo; Providence teammate, made his NHL debut in Boston at 32, with 13 pro seasons already under his belt, including three in Europe and three with Providence. Robins played three games for Boston in October, amassing 14 penalty minutes before he was sent back to the Baby B&rsquo;s.</p><p>Patience and development are the keys to personal success for AHL players, but there is internal friction. Discovering where they fit in with any organization means players are constantly evaluating their teammates and themselves and seeing where they stack up.</p><p>AHLers can never get comfortable. They&rsquo;re being watched and analyzed, but they&rsquo;re also doing the watching, because a player&rsquo;s progression rides heavily on being better than his peers. &ldquo;If I can play better than them, I&rsquo;m going to play better than them,&rdquo; Cross said, &ldquo;and if they can play better than me, then they&rsquo;re going to play better than me.&rdquo;</p><p>What&rsquo;s interesting, however, is the moral balance that players like Cross reach &ndash; the acceptance that teammates are also rivals. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want to succeed because of someone else&rsquo;s failure,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You want to do anything that you can do to move on and be the better guy, but at the same time you&rsquo;re also teammates and you&rsquo;re friends.&rdquo;</p><p>At your typical 9-to-5, being best friends with your cubicle buddy isn&rsquo;t a necessity, and it&rsquo;s not the end of the world if nobody wants to sit with you at lunch. But the AHL workday is anything but consistent. Of the 76 games per season, 38 require travel &ndash; hours on buses or planes, passing through customs, enduring exhaustion and injury from the last game while gearing up for the next. For professional athletes, coworker connectedness can be the key to survival.</p><p>The AHL, which has the bulk of its teams on the East Coast, presents players with a similar gruelling travel schedule to the NHL&rsquo;s, minus the chartered jets. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a long season,&rdquo; Cross said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re at the rink every day, you&rsquo;re travelling for games, you&rsquo;re going through battles together, you&rsquo;re going through slumps together, you&rsquo;re on win streaks together, you&rsquo;re eating dinner together. There is a lot of time together, so you get to know your teammates very, very well.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s worked for Cross, who has leased apartments with different teammates for each of his three seasons in Providence. Aside from the smart economics of sharing rent with players on the same short-term leases year to year, Cross said the process gives some muchneeded emotional support.</p><p>Still, there&rsquo;s money on the line. So while Cross and his Providence Bruins teammates are chasing the Calder Cup in the AHL, to a man they&rsquo;d each prefer a chance at a Stanley Cup and the bigger paycheck that comes with it.</p><p>Like each team in the AHL, that puts players in competition with each one another. &ldquo;We all want to move up and get a spot with the Bruins,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In my pro hockey experience, I&rsquo;ve had teammates that are awesome at finding that balance between being teammates, friends and rivals. They wish me nothing but the best, and I wish them the same. The reality is there are only so many jobs in the NHL, and there are a lot of guys that want those jobs. The competition&rsquo;s always there.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011981/10001291-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="877" height="1321"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HEY, ROOMIE</b></p><p>Cross knows well the benefit of having a teammate roommate, financially and emotionally.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(SUSANNA ESINA)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0010-01

WHEN FRIENDS ARE ALSO ENEMIES

<div class="byline">&#x2013; KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012323/10001350-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FANCY THAT</b></p><p>Ex-NHLer Steve Valiquette is adding a new layer to Corsi stats that incorporates quality of shot.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>O</span></b><b>NE NIGHT, STEVE VALIQUETTE</b> was removing his gear in the dressing room after one of his many games as a backup in the NHL. He remembers the coach of the team approaching one of his teammates and praising the player for having such a great game because he recorded nine shots on goal. Valiquette couldn&rsquo;t believe what he was hearing, but he knew what he had seen. &ldquo;I was on the bench that night and I said to myself, &lsquo;Are you kidding me? He just played catch with goalie from 75 feet,&rsquo;&rdquo; Valiquette said. &ldquo;&lsquo;He should be reprimanded, not applauded for that game.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>And so began Valiquette&rsquo;s quest to debunk the theory that all shots are created equal. They aren&rsquo;t, and Valiquette is frustrated that people look blindly at things like shots on goal and save percentage and take them at face value. What he wants to see is goaltenders rated on the basis of how many difficult shots they face.</p><p>Call it advanced advanced stats. To suggest Valiquette is out to turn conventional thinking on its head when it comes to analytics isn&rsquo;t a stretch. He&rsquo;s hoping his statistical approach to analyzing the quality of scoring chances changes not only perceptions of goalies and shooters but alters the way the game is played and coached. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that my first thought was Corsi is bogus, it&rsquo;s just there needs to be a stage 2,&rdquo; said Valiquette, now an analyst with the New York Rangers and a goalie coach. &ldquo;The old train of thought was, &lsquo;Pucks to the net, pucks to the net. Good things happen when you get pucks to the net.&rsquo; Actually (most of the time) it&rsquo;s, &lsquo;Pucks to the net, nothing happens.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>To that end, Valiquette is in the process of analyzing every shot taken in every game this season. He differentiates the quality by considering them &ldquo;red shots&rdquo; or &ldquo;green shots.&rdquo; Much of his analysis is based on what he calls the &ldquo;Royal Road,&rdquo; which is an imaginary line that goes length-wise up the middle of the ice and intersects with another imaginary line that crosses the top of the faceoff circles. Drawing two diagonal lines out from the net to the edge of faceoff circles forms the triangular area in which green shots are taken <i>(see diagram)</i>. Valiquette doesn&rsquo;t think about shots. He thinks about shot sequences, and said red shots are highly overvalued while green shots are hugely undervalued.</p><p>A red shot is one where a goalie has more than a halfsecond of clear sight on either side of the Royal Road. These shots require minimal movement. Valiquette claims NHL goaltenders, on average, stop 97 percent of red shots. Green shots are those where the puck crosses the Royal Road, either by the puck carrier or a passer, then are shot on goal. According to Valiquette&rsquo;s research, 76 percent of goals so far this season have been on green shots. Among green shots, the most dangerous is when the puck carrier crosses the Royal Road, followed by those that are passed across the Royal Road before they&rsquo;re shot.</p><p>What&rsquo;s more, Valiquette claims about 100 goals through mid-December were scored on what he calls broken plays, such as when the puck goes off a defenseman and into his own net. He said more than 80 percent of those goals have come off green shot attempts. He also claims one goal is scored on a rebound of every 3.5 green shots and just one in 25 of red shots. &ldquo;So red shots are lousy to beat the goaltender, they&rsquo;re lousy to create rebounds and they&rsquo;re lousy to create broken plays,&rdquo; Valiquette said. &ldquo;So they&rsquo;re lousy all around.&rdquo;</p><p>What frustrates Valiquette is coaches continue to insist they be taken. But he hopes that by being able to attach a more accurate number to the quality of shots, it will create a different mindset. &ldquo;A lot of coaches don&rsquo;t know how to categorize it, but they hate red shots,&rdquo; Valiquette said. &ldquo;I can show you in any game this year when a goalie has allowed (goals on) two red shots in a period, I&rsquo;ll show you a guy who&rsquo;s wearing a hat in the second period.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>ROYAL ROAD</b></h2><p><i>Not all shots are created equal. Shots at the net from Steve Valiquette&rsquo;s red zone rarely result in goals. It&rsquo;s green shots that tell a better story.</i></p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021833/10001343-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="1057" height="469"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0012-01

NEXT DIMENSION OF ANALYTICS?

<div class="byline">&nbsp;&#x2013; JOSH ELLIOTT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-012024/10001381-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS</b></p><p>Corey Perry was one of several Anaheim Ducks players who were sidelined by mumps.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span></b><b>HEN THE MUMPS VIRUS</b> hit the Anaheim Ducks in November, the dressing room went into lockdown. Infected players were isolated for a week. Healthy players were vaccinated. Every player got his own towel, water bottle and, of course, a warning: cover your mouth when you cough.</p><p>But the virus still infected Corey Perry, Francois Beauchemin and Clayton Stoner before spreading to other teams. The Ducks don&rsquo;t think they had it first, but they were the team that put others on alert.</p><p>Mumps lasts between seven and 10 days and typically causes fever, headaches, muscle aches, fatigue and loss of appetite. It also has a 40 percent chance of making a patient&rsquo;s saliva glands swell, which explains why some NHLers look like they&rsquo;ve hidden pucks in their cheeks. In rare cases, the virus has been known to cause testicular swelling. But without the swelling, mumps just feels like a bad case of the flu.</p><p>Stoner said he had a &ldquo;mild version&rdquo; of the virus, with typical fever, headache and fatigue symptoms but without the face swelling. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t get it as bad as some guys,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but it didn&rsquo;t feel great.&rdquo;</p><p>Others haven&rsquo;t been so lucky. The virus has infected more than a dozen players on at least five teams, including the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; Sidney Crosby.</p><p>It&rsquo;s a rare disease that&rsquo;s been almost entirely eradicated by vaccines, but the bloody, sweaty game of hockey makes players particularly susceptible to an outbreak. &ldquo;Once an individual becomes infected with the mumps, it spreads easily,&rdquo; said Shelley Deeks, Public Health Ontario&rsquo;s medical director for vaccines.</p><p>Deeks said the NHL outbreak is worse than anything in Ontario in 2014. There were only 11 reported cases of the virus all year in a province of 11.6 million.</p><p>The challenge with mumps is that the vaccine isn&rsquo;t foolproof, and most players have probably only had one of the recommended two doses. Doctors began vaccinating babies against the mumps in 1970, but they realized in 2000 that one dose wasn&rsquo;t enough. Nowadays, kids get two shots when they&rsquo;re young and have an 88 percent chance of avoiding infection.</p><p>Deeks said most NHLers have likely only had one shot, which explains why the vaccine isn&rsquo;t protecting all of them. But even with a second shot and extra safety measures, 88 percent protection isn&rsquo;t 100 percent. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re around each other so much,&rdquo; Stoner said. &ldquo;You do your best, but it&rsquo;s almost like it&rsquo;s inevitable.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0013-01

MUMPS IS THE WORD

<div class="byline">&nbsp;&#x2013; SAL BARRY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011990/10001412-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="455" height="798"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>F</span>OR</b>&nbsp;<b>MANY OF US,</b> buying hockey cards was a celebrated part of our childhood, from ripping open packs of new cards each year to trading doubles with classmates. In <i>Hockey Card Stories</i>, Sportsnet Central anchor Ken Reid revisits his own childhood, picking some of his favorite cards from his youth and asking 59 former NHL players what their pieces of cardboard means to them. His choice of subjects is varied, from legends to bit players.</p><p>Their responses are varied, too. Some were excited to share their stories. Craig Fisher wistfully recounts the day he received the FedEx package containing a copy of his rookie card and the payment check from the card company. Others could have cared less, like Phil Esposito, who thought posing for hockey cards &ldquo;was a waste of time.&rdquo; Many were amused when remembering their 1970s hairdos, while others were horrified by the photos used on their old O-Pee-Chee cards.</p><p>The 255-page collection is illustrated with full-color pictures of cards from Reid&rsquo;s own collection adorned with creases, tears and other defects that didn&rsquo;t matter so much to us back then.</p><p>Any hockey fan, collector or otherwise,  will enjoy the stories Reid gathered for this book.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0015-01

CARDBOARD WARRIORS

<p><i>STANLEY CUP ODDS</i>&nbsp;<i>COURTESY OF</i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-021415/10001450-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="691" height="2370"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03985/10001443-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="765" height="2632"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0015-02

POWER RANKINGS

<div class="byline">&#x2013; NAMISH MODI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-012069/10001488-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JAMIE SABAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>LTHOUGH HE&rsquo;S STILL TOO YOUNG</b> to legally drink in the U.S. and parts of Canada, Aaron Ekblad is savoring his first taste of the NHL as the 2014 first-overall pick. The Florida Panthers rookie is in some pretty heady company, trailing guys named Housley and Orr on this list of the top-10 points-per-game averages all-time among 18-year-old blueliners.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-031142/10001481-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="981" height="1016"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0016-01

Follow The LEADER

<div class="byline">&#x2013; GARETH BUSH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04844/10001550-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="411" height="410"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he Alberta Oilers became the Edmonton Oilers after their first season in the World Hockey Association when owner Bill Hunter changed the name in recognition of the city&rsquo;s title as the oil capital of Canada. Hunter, who founded the Canadian Major Junior League (now the WHL), also owned the Edmonton Oil Kings, a junior team that went by the nickname &ldquo;Oilers.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0016-04

Behind THE NAME

<div class="byline">By Yvan Cournoyer</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03862/10001707-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="255" height="173"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011946/10001700-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="2409" height="3308"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>JEAN ELIVEAU 1931-2014</b> <span class="photo-credit">(FRANK PRAZAK/HHOF IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011699/10001693-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="769" height="1351"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT STUDIOS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span></b><b>HE LAST TIME I SAW JEAN BELIVEAU</b> was when I visited him about a month before he died. When you play hockey with a teammate who gets injured, you know at a certain time he&rsquo;s always coming back, but Jean would not. Jean was not doing well, but had made every effort to visit with me &ndash; we had a good 45 minutes together. And before I left, I kissed him and I said, &ldquo;Salut, mon capitaine.&rdquo; And I told his wife, Elise, &ldquo;I have to kiss my captain before I leave.&rdquo; I knew that could have been the last time I would see him.</p><p>Jean Beliveau was my captain with the Canadiens for seven years, but in reality, he has been <i>mon capitaine</i> for 51, even after I became one myself for the Montreal Canadiens. In my first year as a player, I arrived at the Montreal Forum in 1964 as a 20-year-old and had the privilege to sit beside him in the dressing room. And with the opportunity to room a lot with Jean, I was able to develop a personal relationship. Almost like father and son.</p><p>In those first years we were winning Stanley Cups, and I thought it would last forever. Jean would always remind me to enjoy the moment because time goes by very fast. Here I was a 20-year-old kid. Only now can I appreciate what he was talking about. Just the other day, I was thinking about how some of the most important people in my life are no longer with me. When I broke in with the Canadiens, Jean was my center and Gilles Tremblay was my left winger. They died within six days of each other. When Gilles retired, they replaced him at left wing with John Ferguson, who died seven years ago.</p><p>When I first came up with the Canadiens, I didn&rsquo;t have a lot of ice time. In fact, I was getting more time on the power play than with a regular shift. I used to joke to Jean for him to let me play for at least a minute so I had a chance to touch the ice before he scored. When we played together, Jean always used to tell me to come up the ice from behind him because he was such a great passer. Some nights after the warmup I would go back in the room and say, &ldquo;Hey, Jean, I think I&rsquo;m going to have to have a parachute tonight because I have the wind behind me and I&rsquo;m feeling really good.&rdquo; But I always tried to listen to the boss.</p><p>Another night we were playing in Chicago and Jean had the puck 1-on-1 against Glenn Hall. He made a deke to the left and went to the right and put the puck behind him. I got up on the bench and I applauded him. That was the only player I ever applauded on the bench after a goal. But he was beautiful to watch. Like my wife always said, &ldquo;He looks good before the game, he looks good during the game and he looks good after the game.&rdquo; Some guys can pull two of those off, but it takes a truly special person to do all three.</p><p>But Jean Beliveau was not only a beautiful hockey player. He was also a beautiful human being. I remember all of us wanted to be like him. I started signing my autograph so people could read it because that&rsquo;s what Jean Beliveau did. For 50 years now, the Canadiens have been visiting the kids at Ste-Justine Hospital. You know who started that? Jean Beliveau. There&rsquo;s a reason why his teammates elected him captain in 1961 over Bernie Geoffrion. We all knew what he could do on the ice, but also knew that whenever we needed anything, he would be there for us at any time, day or night. Even after he retired, I leaned on Jean many times.</p><p>With Jean gone, we all feel a void in our hearts. There is only one captain of the Montreal Canadiens, regardless of who wears the &lsquo;C&rsquo;. That person is, and always will be, Jean Beliveau. Oh Captain&hellip;Mon Capitaine! <b>&ndash; WITH KEN CAMPBELL</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-021266/10001686-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="248" height="189"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MANNY MILLAN/SPORTS ILLUSTRATED/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><i>Yvan Cournoyer, 71, won 10 Stanley Cups with Montreal, five of them with Jean Beliveau as his captain. Their friendship endured for 50 years.</i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011698/10001679-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="506" height="774"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-021215/10001672-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="1039" height="767"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03849/10001665-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="1047" height="729"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04581/10001658-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="506" height="727"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>THE MAN, THE MYTH&hellip;</p><p>Beliveau grabbed the Cup 10 times as a player and seven as an executive. His impact was felt as much on the ice as off it. Whether he was duelling with Ted Lindsay or making time for children, Beliveau was always extremely engaged.</p></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-05366/10001651-1-eng-US/f0020-052.jpg" title="f0020-05" width="1318" height="684"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-06301/10001644-1-eng-US/f0020-062.jpg" title="f0020-06" width="634" height="470"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-07248/10001637-1-eng-US/f0020-072.jpg" title="f0020-07" width="641" height="466"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-08180/10001630-1-eng-US/f0020-082.jpg" title="f0020-08" width="1794" height="1468"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-09131/10001623-1-eng-US/f0020-092.jpg" title="f0020-09" width="777" height="1191"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-05306/10001616-1-eng-US/f0021-052.jpg" title="f0021-05" width="768" height="1134"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-011360/10001609-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="1039" height="634"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02883/10001602-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="1043" height="635"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-04430/10001595-1-eng-US/f0021-042.jpg" title="f0021-04" width="772" height="728"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03565/10001588-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="501" height="729"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-06234/10001581-1-eng-US/f0021-062.jpg" title="f0021-06" width="1310" height="826"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>&hellip;THE LEGEND</p><p>Trophies and Beliveau always looked so at home together, whether it was accepting the Hart from former teammate Rocket Richard in 1964 or posing with the Cup and Conn Smythe (as the first Smythe winner ever) a year later. His retirement announcement in 1971 brought hundreds of media together, and he became just the third Canadien &ndash; after Howie Morenz and Richard - to lie in state at the Habs&rsquo; home arena, where thousands paid their respects.</p></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0019-03

FEATURES

FAREWELL TO A FATHER

<div class="byline">BY STU HACKEL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011582/10001759-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b><i>HOLD YOUR HORSES</i></b></p><p>Bill Daly and Gary Bettman have been quick to temper speculation that an NHL team in Las Vegas is a done deal.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>S A VEGAS WEDDING IN THE</b> NHL&rsquo;s future? Las Vegas brands itself as the live entertainment capital of the world, and the NHL believes its games provide best live sporting attraction in the world. It seems like a natural fit. But there are as many reasons to be skeptical as there are to believe this would be a long and happy marriage.</p><p>In early December, after months of media speculation, the NHL&rsquo;s board of governors gave would-be franchise owner Bill Foley permission to conduct a season ticket drive in Las Vegas to help determine that city&rsquo;s level of interest. Foley is chairman of mortgage giant Fidelity National Financial, and he has been in discussions with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for some months about acquiring a team for the internationally renowned resort city.</p><p>Foley&rsquo;s partners in Hockey Vision Las Vegas LLC are the Vegas-based Maloof family, who once owned the NBA&rsquo;s Sacramento Kings, a lucrative beer distributorship and majority stake in Las Vegas&rsquo; Palms hotel and casino. The 2008 recession eventually forced them to sell all of that except two percent of the Palms, and their level of ownership participation is unclear. Some believe they&rsquo;re included largely because they have local roots, which the league smiles upon (Foley currently lives in Florida, California and Montana), and because they have experience in sports ownership.</p><p>If this group gets a franchise, their team would play in a 20,000 seat, $375-million state-of-the-art sports arena and event center, which began construction last May in a prime location on the Vegas Strip, between two major hotel/casino complexes, New York-New York and the Monte Carlo. Set to open in 2016, it&rsquo;s privately financed by MGM Resorts International and AEG, which owns the Los Angeles Kings. It&rsquo;s being built to NHL (and NBA) specifications and will feature lucrative revenue-producing amenities, like 50 luxury suites, more than 25 luxury loge boxes and numerous food and beverage options.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><i>It&rsquo;s a market with far more questions than answers</i><br>- Harold Bloom</blockquote><p>On the league&rsquo;s checklist for potential expansion markets, a suitable arena and strong ownership are two boxes that must be X&rsquo;d off. A third is the market itself. If Las Vegas has checkmarks by the first two, it&rsquo;s the third one &ndash; a market everyone calls &ldquo;unique&rdquo; &ndash; that remains blank. That&rsquo;s why Foley requested the ticket drive and set up a website, <a href="http://lasvegas-hockey.com">lasvegas-hockey.com</a>, to help gauge local interest.</p><p>Although Foley has acknowledged Bettman assisted him in taking that step, the commissioner took great pains to explain that green-lighting the ticket drive was not part of a &ldquo;formal expansion process.&rdquo; &ldquo;There is no vote that was taken today,&rdquo; he told reporters covering the board of governors meeting. &ldquo;There is no vote that was contemplated. We don&rsquo;t have an agreement to sell anybody an expansion franchise. However, the interest that we are getting from Las Vegas has raised lots of questions about the market itself and the interest level in supporting a professional team in Las Vegas.&rdquo;</p><p>Just like the construction of a new arena in Quebec City won&rsquo;t guarantee that city an NHL team, Bettman stressed nothing has been promised to Las Vegas, even if the ticket drive goes well.</p><p>Deputy commissioner Bill Daly seconded Bettman&rsquo;s caution. &ldquo;I know people would like to speculate that we have already decided that we are expanding, but the fact of the matter is that we haven&rsquo;t,&rdquo; he told The Hockey News via email.</p><p>Foley also attests he&rsquo;s received no promises. But his ticket drive won&rsquo;t do anything to slow the rampant belief that Vegas is, if not &ldquo;a done deal&rdquo; &ndash; the term first used by Tony Gallagher in the <i>Vancouver Province</i> in a story in August &ndash; then pretty close to it. Nor will Foley&rsquo;s sudden visibility in the hockey world. He disclosed in various December interviews that both Wayne Gretzky and former NHLer Murray Craven were advising him, that he believed the city was ready for an NHL team and that his own confidence in getting a franchise had &ldquo;increased dramatically&rdquo; following talks with Bettman and the board of governors executive committee over the past few months.</p><p>Gallagher&rsquo;s article and a tweet by Ottawa-based sports business publisher Howard Bloom ignited the media wildfire this summer by saying expansion was all but assured, and both prominently listed Las Vegas as a target city.</p><p>Starting almost immediately, others added fuel, even though Bettman called the stories a &ldquo;complete fabrication.&rdquo; The price of a franchise was reportedly set at $400 million. Many suggested dates when this all might take place, and the league&rsquo;s centennial season (2017-18) was the favorite, though some now believe Vegas might be admitted sooner. Speculation immediately began on names for the nonexistent franchises (Foley said he likes the &ldquo;Black Knights,&rdquo; a tribute to his alma mater, West Point) and some even conducted mock expansion drafts to see what expansion teams&rsquo; rosters might look like.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-011358/10001752-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="1351" height="859"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The other three cities named last August are traditional markets and, on the surface, at least, made sense: Quebec City, a second Toronto club and Seattle &ndash; which has had a century-long succession of pro and junior clubs, including the first U.S.-based Stanley Cup champion, the Metropolitans in 1917, and would provide a perfect rival for the Canucks, Kings, Ducks and Sharks.</p><p>But Las Vegas? The game&rsquo;s roots lie shallow in the sands of the Mojave Desert. Pro hockey there goes all the way back to the 1990s &ndash; six seasons of the International League&rsquo;s Thunder, two seasons of nothing, then the Western States League&rsquo;s Rattler&rsquo;s in 2001, which two years later became the ECHL&rsquo;s Wranglers, whose franchise is inactive this season.</p><p>Vegas has produced one NHLer, the Wild&rsquo;s Jason Zucker, who grew up playing lots of roller hockey and on ice rinks located in hotels. He had to move north as a teenager to face better competition. That hasn&rsquo;t dissuaded the NHL, which is intrigued enough by Vegas&rsquo; potential to urge Foley to take his best shot.</p><p>Why does Las Vegas intrigue the NHL?</p><p>First, it&rsquo;s the largest U.S. metropolitan area &ndash; more than two million inhabitant &ndash; without a pro sports franchise and an astounding 40 million people visit Las Vegas each year. If the NHL became the first league in, it could conceivably capture the market. Plus, its location in the Southwest wouldn&rsquo;t just add a team to the Western Conference&ndash;which has two fewer teams than the East &ndash; it would help fill out the NHL&rsquo;s U.S. national TV footprint. That has been part of Bettman&rsquo;s vision for 20 years. &ldquo;The Las Vegas market has favorable resident income and fan demographics,&rdquo; said Daly, adding that &ldquo;TV ratings information would suggest a better than passing interest in professional sports and in hockey in particular.&rdquo;</p><p>Last season&rsquo;s Nielsen ratings for NHL national U.S. telecasts confirm that interest. Vegas ranked 13th among all markets and third among non-NHL markets for viewership of combined NBC and NBCSN telecasts. This season, perhaps sparked by expansion buzz, it ranks ninth overall and first among non-NHL markets of NBCSN games. Daly believes the Las Vegas audience extends beyond those who have a betting interest in the games. &ldquo;If all of those &lsquo;eyeballs&rsquo; were gamblers,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;ratings wouldn&rsquo;t register as highly.&rdquo;</p><p>The biggest ingredient, of course, is the expansion fee. It&rsquo;s logical &ndash; if not a foregone conclusion &ndash; for the NHL to consider expansion if only because of the huge payout each current club would receive.</p><p>Bloom, a former college professor of sports business, points out two related facts that should drive expansion. First, the collective bargaining agreement guarantees labor peace until at least 2020, when each side has the right to opt out, if not until it expires in 2022. &ldquo;When you have labor peace,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you can look at prospective investors and say, &lsquo;Hey, now&rsquo;s a great time to invest.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>Second, the value of NHL franchises has never been this high. When you consider that <i>Forbes</i> places the average club&rsquo;s worth at $480 million and the Islanders recently sold for $485 million, Bloom said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s reasonable that the NHL board of governors could ask $500 million for an expansion franchise.&rdquo;</p><p>The current owners would be overjoyed to take that money, and they&rsquo;d get all of it. The players get none since the CBA doesn&rsquo;t include expansion fees as part of hockey-related revenue. At $500 million, that&rsquo;s well over $16 million to each existing team. Four additional franchises would mean more than $66 million each. Bloom also said the special nature of southern Ontario could lead the league to ask even more.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011523/10001745-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="2197" height="1428"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b><i>EASY ACCESS</i></b></p><p>Unlike the Arizona Coyotes, a Las Vegas team would play in a centrally located arena (right on The Strip) instead of an out-of-way home rink.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL)</span></figcaption></div><p>Expansion works for the players, too, he said, by increasing the number of jobs and the size of the union. Four clubs means around 100 additional NHL spots. And the players would benefit from the four new markets likely increasing HRR, as long as those markets perform solidly. And that&rsquo;s where eyebrows get raised about Las Vegas. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re talking about a market where there are far more questions than answers,&rdquo; Bloom said.</p><p>While there is plenty of sports interest in town, some maintain it has been built around spectacles &ndash; Ultimate Fighting Championship and annual NASCAR, PGA, National Finals Rodeo and boxing events &ndash; not teams. No one truly knows how big, or small, the interest is in the city for an NHL team now nor how long that interest would last. As one senior NHL executive said, &lsquo;&rsquo;You don&rsquo;t want to create a big problem for yourself.&rdquo;</p><p>The NHL has already had a big problem in a southwestern desert city, one that the league once believed was a viable market but has provided more headaches than happiness. The Coyotes&rsquo; seemingly neverending troubles no doubt resonate among the owners, as the league dug $140 million out of its own pockets to buy the team out of bankruptcy &ndash; not to mention the many millions spent in legal fees &ndash; and had to partially underwrite additional millions in the team&rsquo;s losses. Combine that with the sad images of large swaths of empty seats that one still sees in Glendale, and you suspect at least some owners will approach Las Vegas carefully, as will Bettman and Daly. Of course, no one knows how strong the Coyotes might have been had their arena been centrally located in the Phoenix area, as originally intended. Location won&rsquo;t be a problem for a Vegas team playing on The Strip, but other issues are less clear.</p><p>Some believe the difference between Glendale and Vegas is that the big hotelcasinos would purchase tickets and hand them to their guests and high rollers, filling the new arena, but there is no guarantee those free tickets would actually be used. In Daly&rsquo;s view, the league cannot depend on tourists to pack the arena for every game. &ldquo;We believe that any NHL franchise in Las Vegas would need consistent local support to be successful,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>Whether a local fan base can develop is an open question. Should the ticket drive succeed, what happens if the new team doesn&rsquo;t win consistently? Will fans still care or vanish? And beyond that, the league must confront the fact that Vegas is not merely non-traditional. Its major industries &ndash; the entertainment and gaming businesses &ndash; are bound to create a challenging environment for pro sports if local residents have to decide whether to spend their discretionary income at the casinos or on NHL hockey.</p><p>There&rsquo;s also a new boom in nightclubs with world-famous DJs, outdoor events and music festivals that are remaking the city post-recession. Additionally, the nightlife nature of Vegas employs a huge part of the population. One third of the residents work in the evenings, which means a Vegas team is going to have to be creative with its home schedule to get fans to the arena. &ldquo;(It&rsquo;s) way, way too premature to have discussed this issue in depth,&rdquo; Daly said, &ldquo;but we are aware of it.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><i>I know people would like to speculate that we have already decided we're expanding, but&hellip;we haven't</i><br>-Bill Daily</blockquote><p>The Wranglers started at least one game for 11 consecutive seasons at midnight to accommodate the local workforce. Foley is reportedly interested in regular weekend matinee games and evening contests early in the week, as opposed to NHL teams&rsquo; favored dates of Thursday-Sunday, which are big nights for Vegas tourism and entertainment.</p><p>Having the local economy so heavily tied to tourism presents another issue. Las Vegas, and Nevada as a whole, feel economic downturns more harshly than regions with diversified economies. It struggled badly after the sub-prime housing crisis triggered the 2008 recession. Unemployment tripled between 2007 and 2010, topping off at 15 percent. Some of that was due to a collapse in home building &ndash; Vegas had been American&rsquo;s fastest growing city &ndash; but tourism also decreased, with casino revenue dropping for 22 straight months.</p><p>Things have significantly improved since, with unemployment now less than eight percent, but experts believe Vegas remains vulnerable to fluctuations in the national consumer economy. Another recession would likely heavily impact the locals who are needed to make an NHL team work.</p><p>The size of the local TV market could also prove problematic. Those Nielsen ratings for national games measure only the percentage of viewers who watch, and Nielsen ranks Las Vegas as the 41st largest in the U.S. with only 719,000 television homes, which is rather small. (Only Buffalo is smaller among current NHL teams, but that city is among the strongest local TV hockey markets in the U.S., something one should not expect from Las Vegas.)</p><p>How much revenue local TV rights might bring is unknown, but, Daly said, the &ldquo;ability to generate local revenues is part of any franchise equation and would be evaluated if it ever needs to be.&rdquo;</p><p>Not only is the market small, but viewership may not be strong. The city&rsquo;s nightlife culture and workforce could depress tune-in numbers and make the TV property far less attractive.</p><p>And finally, there&rsquo;s the matter of gambling. Would the NHL want to prohibit the Vegas sports books from taking action on the local team&rsquo;s games, something that was done with University of Las Vegas football and basketball? (That ban vanished 14 years ago.)</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-011334/10001738-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="356" height="488"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b><i>HIGH ROLLER</i></b></p><p>Mortgage company mogul Bill Foley is the man with the plan in Las Vegas.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(FIDELITY NATIONAL FINANCIAL, INC.)</span></figcaption></div><p>While Daly told the <i>Minneapolis Star-Tribune</i> in November that, &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want guys in the stands with bet tickets in their hands and the only reason they&rsquo;re watching the game is so they can cash in on a bet afterwards,&rdquo; the league&rsquo;s approach is still unclear. In his email to THN, Daly said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an issue that would have to be focused on and addressed (or not) if we ever get to the point of having to address it.&rdquo;</p><p>And Bettman, too, while not addressing a potential Vegas franchise but legalizing wagering nationwide, voiced some relevant concerns about sports gambling. &ldquo;Does it change the dynamic of the relationship that a child has growing up rooting for his or her favorite team to enter the concern of are you going to win your bet?&rdquo; Bettman said. &ldquo;Secondly, the issue is what does it do environmentally in a stadium and an arena where people&rsquo;s rooting interests would tend to diverge from the obvious.&rdquo;</p><p>But if the NHL seeks a ban, it may run into opposition from the gaming industry. Some are already speaking against a potential ban on betting on the local team. &ldquo;Bettman might not make the request, but if he does, there should be a unified effort to refuse a sports book blackout of the local team,&rdquo; wrote Matt Youmans, a <i>Las Vegas Review-Journal</i> sports betting columnist.</p><p>Youmans also quoted one Vegas sports book director who said that while the NHL only represents about two percent of the total amount wagered on sports, taking the local games off the board would set a bad precedent.</p><p>Perhaps all these concerns tied to the uniqueness of Las Vegas will be successfully addressed by Foley and the Maloofs. But until that happens, they will remain hard issues to ignore. An NHL-Las Vegas marriage would place hundreds of millions of dollars on the table for the taking. But it also could be a big-time gamble.</p><p>Should these two tie the knot? That&rsquo;s what courtships are for.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0022-01

The NHL’s Vegas Staycation

f0026-01

IN THIS ISSSUE

PEOPLE OF POWER 100 INFLUENCE

<div class="byline">By&nbsp;Ken Campbell</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01783/10001905-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JAMIE SABAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>M</span>ICHAEL CAMMALLERI</b> once said he can tell who is on the ice playing against him at any given time simply by looking at the brand of his opponent&rsquo;s stick and how he tapes it. Hockey players are so meticulous with their own sticks they&rsquo;ve been known to send batches back to the manufacturer because of the most minor flaw. Gary Roberts was so in tune with his body when he played that all he had to do was pinch his skin after he woke up to determine whether he&rsquo;d load up on carbohydrates that day or base most of his diet on proteins.</p><p>When it comes to their performance off the ice, hockey players leave absolutely nothing to chance. They leave no stone unturned in the quest to make themselves the best players they can possibly be, and they do everything in their power to ensure they&rsquo;ve giving themselves the maximum opportunity to be successful. For some of them, such as Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson, that doesn&rsquo;t leave a lot of time to become financially savvy.</p><p>And the hazards are potentially devastating, as Johnson found out when he applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy two days before this season began. For Johnson, it appeared to be an issue of trust. He trusted the wrong people &ndash; his parents &ndash; who told him to worry only about playing hockey, and he is paying millions of dollars he hasn&rsquo;t even made yet for his blind faith. But Johnson is hardly an isolated case, even in hockey. Poor financial decisions have affected Hall of Fame players from Bobby Orr, Bryan Trottier and Mike Modano to 50-goal multi-millionaires like Dany Heatley to lesser stars such as Derek Sanderson and Darren McCarty.</p><p>Take Orr, for example. He now represents some of the wealthiest players in the NHL as an agent, a profession he embarked on in part because of his dealings with his former agent, Alan Eagleson. In his biography, <i>My Story</i>, Orr chronicles how Eagleson ran almost every aspect of his life. &ldquo;He controlled my money, he controlled my schedule, and in my mind he was in control of my life.&rdquo; And that willingness to cede control left Orr, the first player to sign a multi-million dollar contract, in terrible financial shape after his career ended. &ldquo;(Eagleson) had left me practically broke,&rdquo; Orr wrote. &ldquo;Where all the money went, I will never know. A huge part of what remained was eaten up by unpaid taxes. Whether this was due to incompetence, greed or malice on (Eagleson&rsquo;s) part is impossible to guess. At this point it doesn&rsquo;t matter. What mattered to me then was that I was watching what remained all but disappear.&rdquo;</p><p><i>Sports Illustrated</i> once reported that 78 percent NFL players are either broke or in financial stress within two years of retiring. And it&rsquo;s the same story in basketball, according to the NBA&rsquo;s own players&rsquo; association, with 60 percent of its players broke within five years of ending their careers. The NHL Players&rsquo; Association keeps no such statistics because it doesn&rsquo;t have a certified financial advisors program, but it&rsquo;s believed the ones who go broke in hockey are the rare exceptions. That may have something to do with the socio-economic factors in their upbringing &ndash; by the nature of how much it costs to play, elite hockey players tend to come from more financially stable families. Others think it could be because hockey players tend to be a little more conservative than their brethren in other sports.</p><p>But it can happen, as Johnson found out. And in some, but not all of the cases, the players who lost money did so because they placed an inordinate amount of trust in people who were either unscrupulous or incompetent, or both. And the same player who can tell an opponent by a minute detail such as how he tapes his stick leaves his finances to others without any knowledge of where the money is going or even the ability to ask the right questions. &ldquo;A lot of the guys I played with, and I include myself in that, we&rsquo;re way too trusting,&rdquo; said former NHLer Stew Gavin, president of Gavin Management, which handles wealth management for a number of NHL players. &ldquo;We often give away that trust blindly. Players are so diligent about their nutrition and their training, and if they put even half of the effort of what they need to do to be a great athlete and channel that into the financial side, then they&rsquo;d be much better off.&rdquo;</p><p>Rand Simon is a former editor/writer at The Hockey News who entered the agent business with Newport Sports Management two decades ago. Since then he has become a certified financial planner and handles the finances of any of the hundreds of players represented largely by super agents Don Meehan and Pat Morris who request it. On this day, his desk is scattered with paperwork &ndash; a tax refund check for a player for more than $13,000, a state request for $800 in taxes from another. Simon was asked how he would go about planning the finances for a player coming out of his entry-level contract who signs a five-year extension worth $20 million with the Montreal Canadiens, along the lines of the six-year, $22.5-million extension Brendan Gallagher recently signed. The first thing Simon points out is that $20 million over five years sounds like an enormous amount of money because that&rsquo;s exactly what it is. But what some players don&rsquo;t realize is that $4 million a year actually amounts to about $1.6 million per year after taxes and expenses. It&rsquo;s still a ridiculous amount of money but not even half what <a href="http://capgeek.com">capgeek.com</a> tell you he&rsquo;s making.</p><p>So let&rsquo;s take the case of the player making $4 million a year in Montreal. The first thing the player has to realize is that 14 percent of that will be gobbled up by escrow payments every year. That accounts for $560,000 right there. Agents are anticipating players will receive about two percent of that back, which means he&rsquo;ll be reimbursed about $80,000 for a total escrow payment of $480,000.</p><p>That takes his net take-home pay to $3.52 million, half of which he&rsquo;ll pay in income tax in Quebec, which brings his total down to $1.76 million. Then agent fees account for three-to-six percent, depending on the level of services rendered. So if you apply four percent to the post-escrow amount of $3.52 million, he&rsquo;s paying about $140,000 in agent fees, bringing his total down to $1.62 million. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s probably the most shocking thing for young players,&rdquo; Simon said. &ldquo;Because as a percentage of $4 million, that&rsquo;s 40.5 percent. Now if this player had been in Tennessee or Florida, he&rsquo;d be better off from a tax point of view because there&rsquo;s no state tax. If he were in California, he&rsquo;d be slightly worse off and if he were in New York City, he&rsquo;d be even worse off.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01697/10001898-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="658" height="879"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>COMMON SENSE</b></p><p>Super agent Don Meehan requests his clients work with a certified financial planner.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-02468/10001891-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg" title="f0046-02" width="2296" height="1509"></div><p>What a lot of players don&rsquo;t realize, too, is that, even though they make so much money, their retirement funds will have to last them 50 years post-retirement instead of 20. But some of that can be put into equity such as property, either in the city in which he plays or the place in which he spends the off-season. If he buys an off-season property, he might be better off paying rent and utilities in his hockey city, something Simon often recommends. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with renting in your NHL city,&rdquo; Simon said. &ldquo;Everyone gets traded. And if you buy real estate and don&rsquo;t hold it for very long, it ends up not being a good investment. If you sell in two years and you&rsquo;re paying land transfer tax to buy it and you&rsquo;re paying real estate commission of six percent when you sell it, it can be hard to make money.&rdquo;</p><p>Players also must pay about $10,000 to $15,000 a year in disability insurance to cover them if they have a career threatening injury when they&rsquo;re not playing hockey. And if they&rsquo;re going into a year when they know they&rsquo;re going to sign a big contract, they&rsquo;ll want to get additional insurance to cover future earnings against injuries on and off the ice.</p><p>And they become targets for everyone from family to friends to hangers-on to even teammates. &ldquo;I find whenever you start making lots of money, you have lots of friends,&rdquo; said Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Stephane Robidas. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to earn money, but it&rsquo;s really easy to burn.&rdquo;</p><p>And this is precisely where players get into the most trouble. It allegedly happened with Johnson and his parents. It happened with Orr and Eagleson. Heatley lost $10 million because of an associate of his agent and Modano lost about $5 million under similar circumstances. It&rsquo;s all about asking the right questions and demanding satisfactory answers, both Gavin and Simon said. Gavin gives each of his clients a 10-question checklist of key queries players should make when they deal with financial advisors. Simon said he tells players that any would-be investors, even if they&rsquo;re close family and friends, run their ideas past the agent, who then makes the decision as to whether or not it&rsquo;s a good investment. That way, the agent can act as the bad guy instead of the player if someone close to the player comes up with an ill-advised scheme. Most players listen to the advice, some don&rsquo;t. &ldquo;The most important thing is these guys make enough money from their careers that that&rsquo;s where all their wealth should come from,&rdquo; Simon said. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t need to be doing things outside their careers. Just take what you&rsquo;ve earned, preserve it, grow it a little bit and you&rsquo;ll be fine. It&rsquo;s very basic. It&rsquo;s cash, bonds, stocks, real estate. You don&rsquo;t need to put your money into anything else.&rdquo;</p><p>Gavin said when one of his NHL clients joined him recently, the first thing he did was ask for a statement from his financial advisor. What he received was one page, without letterhead, with some numbers in bonds and equity. &ldquo;I thought it was a fraud,&rdquo; Gavin said. &ldquo;I was so scared for the guy because you start thinking, &lsquo;Your money is not where you think it is.&rsquo; We were eventually able to get it out.&rdquo; Some aren&rsquo;t so lucky. By the time Heatley contacted Gavin before suing his former agent Stacey McAlpine for $11 million two years ago, most of the damage had already been done. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re still trying to find the money,&rdquo; Gavin said.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01629/10001884-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="666" height="625"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SOUND ADVICE</b></p><p>Ex-NHLer Stew Gavin helps players like Eric and Jordan Staal save their money.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(2013 TORONTO STAR)</span></figcaption></div><p>Former NHLer Aaron Ward, now a broadcaster for TSN, said every athlete should be mandated to watch the ESPN documentary <i>Broke</i>, which chronicles the rags to riches back to rags stories of a number of highprofile athletes. Ward said when he received his first signing bonus of $225,000 in 1993, it was directed to an independent investment broker agreed upon by his father and his agent at the time. That provided the foundation that would be his safety net as he made money throughout his NHL career. Everyone, including Ward himself, was concerned that kind of money in the hands of a 20-year-old kid might find a way of disappearing pretty quickly.</p><p>As Ward matured as a player and person, he took a greater control over his own financial affairs. Nobody else ever had power of attorney over his finances and Ward said he prevented anyone from taking advantage of him by ensuring he was on top of his finances. &ldquo;In the end, there was one person who made the final decisions about my money,&rdquo; Ward said, &ldquo;and that person was me.&rdquo;</p><p>What it comes down to, basically, is the same common sense anyone else has to use when it comes to finances but on a much larger scale. So if you&rsquo;re pulling in $1.6 million a year, it&rsquo;s probably not a good idea to buy a house worth $12 million. If you are already making enough money for you and your children and your children&rsquo;s children to live comfortably on, there isn&rsquo;t much sense in investing in high-risk, high-reward ventures. And it&rsquo;s important to remember that, like the ordinary person, most of your personal worth is going to be derived from your income. &ldquo;What I tell young players is, &lsquo;Yes, you get to enjoy this newfound wealth, but this is also the time you start saving,&rsquo;&rdquo; Simon said. &ldquo;Most of it comes down to common sense.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0044-01

PROTECT THE FORTUNE

f0049-01

THE FIGHT TO SELL WOMEN’S HOCKEY

<div class="byline">BY MIKE HEIKA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-02233/10002016-1-eng-US/f0052-022.jpg" title="f0052-02" width="272" height="299"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-01362/10002023-1-eng-US/f0052-012.jpg" title="f0052-01" width="67" height="77"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-03164/10002009-1-eng-US/f0052-032.jpg" title="f0052-03" width="1398" height="968"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>TEXAS GUNSLINGER</b></p><p>Tyler Seguin has an arsenal of shot types at his disposal and he isn&rsquo;t afraid to unload any of them.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS OVER THE PAST</b> two seasons, Lindy Ruff can be seen with Tyler Seguin in practice, working one-on-one and laughing.</p><p>An odd couple if ever there was one, the grizzled coach and the tatted kid really do seem to have a special chemistry. Asked if he enjoys coaching Seguin, Ruff smiled. &ldquo;I do,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I like coaching him because he cares. He takes responsibility.&rdquo;</p><p>So what happened to the player who was sent out of Boston with bad grades? Well, Seguin has stepped into a new team with a new dynamic and has embraced a leadership role. He gets top minutes and that has resulted in him fighting to be the top scorer in the league. But he has also received respect and a voice in the building process from Ruff and from GM Jim Nill. &ldquo;I love it here,&rdquo; Seguin said of the playing and living experience in Dallas. &ldquo;From the start, Lindy and Jim were up front with their expectations and what they wanted, and I wanted the same thing. I look at where I was drafted and most players would go to a team that was struggling and rebuilding, and I went to a team that was pretty well set and knew what it wanted to do to win, and that was great. But now I think I&rsquo;m kind of where I would have been, and that&rsquo;s been a fun experience, too.&rdquo;</p><p>Nill said his team has been blessed by acquiring a star at just the right time in his development. He references the perception of taking a No. 2 pick for any team and said the hype would have been incredible in a town like Dallas: &ldquo;Now imagine you get a second-overall pick, and he has three years of experience and has won a Stanley Cup.&rdquo;</p><p>Ruff will often compliment Seguin by saying he has been coached well in his career, that he does things the right way. And teammates say that his work habits in practice are solid. Jason Spezza, a man who has worked on his shot and stick handling a ton, said he sees the same dedication to offense in Seguin. &ldquo;You can see in his release, how quick it is, and the variety of shots he takes, just how much he practices it,&rdquo; Spezza said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s natural talent, obviously, but you don&rsquo;t get to be that good without a lot of work.&rdquo;</p><p>Seguin said he has worked on his shot almost every day of his life since he was five. And why not? It&rsquo;s the most fun part of the game, after all. And when you look at the assortment of goals he had rung up through mid-December, the variety is impressive. He took one stretch pass and scored on a backhand breakaway. He took another and went five-hole. He lifted one shot in tight off the crossbar. He powered a one-timer off a faceoff pretty much through Montreal&rsquo;s Carey Price. Oh yeah, and he has about five one-timers from the circle on the power play.</p><p>Seguin said he has been embracing a shoot-first mentality this season, but he&rsquo;s never been shy about getting his shots in. He ranked fourth in shots on goal last season at 294. He&rsquo;s on pace to finish second this year with a projected 325. He&rsquo;s showing confidence and getting opportunities.</p><p>With the Stars struggling defensively, they&rsquo;re always looking for the next goal, and Ruff leans heavily on Seguin. In the meantime, Ruff also is pushing the 22-year-old to play a complete game and pretty much do everything right. &ldquo;He is young, we can&rsquo;t forget that,&rdquo; Ruff said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m asking an awful lot for a young player. For where he&rsquo;s at now, you&rsquo;d think he was 26, 27, but he&rsquo;s not. He&rsquo;s growing, he&rsquo;s maturing. It&rsquo;s all part of it, and he&rsquo;s accepting of criticism, which sometimes for young players they have a tough time with that.&rdquo;</p><p>But if the coach mixes in a laugh or two in the process, the lessons are a little easier to learn. &ldquo;I just have this agreement that I&rsquo;m going to keep pushing him,&rdquo; Ruff said, &ldquo;and he&rsquo;s OK with that.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0052-02

TOUGH LOVE PAYING OFF

<div class="byline">&#x2013; ERIC STEPHENS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-01339/10002103-1-eng-US/f0053-012.jpg" title="f0053-01" width="936" height="176"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-02236/10002096-1-eng-US/f0053-022.jpg" title="f0053-02" width="68" height="77"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0839/10002089-1-eng-US/f0053-082.jpg" title="f0053-08" width="1312" height="939"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>SAMI VATANEN</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span></b><b>HEN DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU&rsquo;VE</b> made it in the NHL? Scoring goals will do it. Your coach puts you in the lineup each and every game. Your team signs you to a one-way contract worth seven figures.</p><p>All that has happened for defenseman Sami Vatanen, but you know you&rsquo;ve really become a household name when you&rsquo;re a prized possession for someone&rsquo;s fantasy hockey team &ndash; and when your pals curse the day they dealt you. &ldquo;Back home, my friends always pick me,&rdquo; Vatanen said. &ldquo;I started the season really bad, and then after they traded me away, I started to make some points.&rdquo;</p><p>As one of the NHL&rsquo;s top scoring D-men, Vatanen is doing just fine in fantasy and reality. He&rsquo;s enjoying a breakout year with the Ducks, who finally thought he was ready for full-time duty to start 2014-15. They just didn&rsquo;t see him eating 20-plus minutes every night, quarterbacking the power play and being one of their more creative talents on offense. Not this soon. &ldquo;He has great belief in himself,&rdquo; said coach Bruce Boudreau. &ldquo;And it&rsquo;s not like he just played junior and came up. He played against men in Finland. He played in the Olympics.  He&rsquo;s done all those things. He&rsquo;s reached all the highest plateaus, except for maybe going deeper in the playoffs than he&rsquo;s gone. Confidence is something he doesn&rsquo;t lack.&rdquo;</p><p>Vatanen&rsquo;s skills were undeniable, but the Ducks had a full complement of defensemen last season, and Boudreau still didn&rsquo;t have complete trust in him. Vatanen made multiple trips to the AHL, including a brief spell in the post-season. &ldquo;With Sami, last year was more consistency than anything else,&rdquo; Boudreau said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d go great, and then he wouldn&rsquo;t be so great. At the beginning of the year, he wasn&rsquo;t that good as far as the power play goes. His passes were off, his shots were off. And so sometimes you get sent down to gain confidence in doing those things. When he came back, he was really good.&rdquo;</p><p>At the end, Vatanen was with the Ducks for their second-round Game 7 loss to Los Angeles. He&rsquo;s been with them ever since. &ldquo;You know you&rsquo;re not getting anything free in this league,&rdquo; Vatanen said. &ldquo;You have to work hard every day to show the coaches that they can trust you and put you in all the situations. I stayed positive and now I got a chance.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>2014 PLAYER OF THE YEAR</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-03170/10002082-1-eng-US/f0053-032.jpg" title="f0053-03" width="305" height="461"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Ryan</b>&nbsp;<b>Getzlaf</b> was runner-up for the 2013-14 Hart Trophy and a second all-star team center. He&rsquo;s also a big reason why Corey Perry is such a dominating scorer. Getzlaf was statistically better in the first half of last season rather than the 2014 portion (47 points vs. 40), but averaged more than a point per game in the calendar year.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-04141/10002075-1-eng-US/f0053-042.jpg" title="f0053-04" width="307" height="443"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Keith Yandle gets more points than fellow defenseman <b>Oliver Ekman-Larsson</b> every year, but it&rsquo;s OEL&rsquo;s all-around game that puts him at the head of the class. Yandle led the Coyotes with 53 points in 2013-14, but was minus-23 and didn&rsquo;t get a sniff of shorthanded duty. Ekman-Larsson plays in every situation and also produces.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-05105/10002068-1-eng-US/f0053-052.jpg" title="f0053-05" width="305" height="467"></div><p>When you include the end of last season and the beginning of this one, <b>Patrice Bergeron</b> had points in 15 consecutive games. He also padded his trophy case, earning a gold medal with Canada at the Sochi Games and won his second Selke Trophy in three seasons to go along with his NHL Foundation Award for community work.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0690/10002061-1-eng-US/f0053-062.jpg" title="f0053-06" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>It was a season the Buffalo Sabres would rather forget, but it was also one in which <b>Tyler Ennis</b> established himself as the team&rsquo;s most consistent offensive producer. Twenty-eight of the 43 points he earned in 2013-14 came after Jan. 1, and he was the team&rsquo;s leading scorer this season through early December.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0766/10002054-1-eng-US/f0053-072.jpg" title="f0053-07" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DEREK LEUNG/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>After a slow start to 2013-14 and 18 games lost due to injury, <b>Mark Giordano</b> was a league force in the second half and was considered for Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team. Combine that with a brilliant start to this season &ndash; in which he&rsquo;s an early candidate for the Hart Trophy &ndash; and Giordano has been the NHL&rsquo;s top D-man in 2014.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0053-01

THIS SLEEPER IS A KEEPER

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MATT CARLSON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-02213/10002176-1-eng-US/f0054-022.jpg" title="f0054-02" width="936" height="169"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-01352/10002183-1-eng-US/f0054-012.jpg" title="f0054-01" width="68" height="76"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-04114/10002169-1-eng-US/f0054-042.jpg" title="f0054-04" width="1247" height="920"><figcaption class="caption-body">KRIS VERSTEEG <span class="photo-credit">(ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>K</span></b><b>RIS VERSTEEG IS BACK WITH THE</b> Blackhawks in a big way. After a four-year detour, the skilled, pesky 28-year-old winger is prospering again in Chicago, where he was a Calder Trophy finalist in 2009 and won a Stanley Cup in 2010.</p><p>Skating on the &lsquo;PB&K&rsquo; line with Patrick Kane and the resurgent Brad Richards, Versteeg hasn&rsquo;t only rediscovered a shifty swagger, he&rsquo;s quietly taken it to a new level. In his first 10 games this season, he had five goals, 15 points and was dishing tic-tac-toe plays that earned a call-out from coach Joel Quenneville. &ldquo;When you look at top guys in the league, &lsquo;Steeger&rsquo; can make plays&hellip;almost at that level where &lsquo;Kaner&rsquo; is at,&rdquo; said Quenneville. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t encourage other guys to do those things, but he&rsquo;s able to.&rdquo;</p><p>And Versteeg was pulling it off. &ldquo;I know what I want to be doing on the ice, and it&rsquo;s trying to strip pucks and get them into great players&rsquo; hands,&rdquo; Versteeg said. &ldquo;I want to get (the puck) as quick as possible to great players like Kane and Richards.&rdquo;</p><p>Versteeg is having fun skating with fast company. Last season, he was benched several times in the Blackhawks&rsquo;  playoff run that fell one goal short of a return to the Stanley Cup finals. Asthepost-seasontemporamped up, Versteeg was more than a step slow.</p><p>Blackhawks fans recalled Versteeg as a small, speedy forward who had helped Chicago win its first Cup in 49 years in 2010. But just days later, GM Stan Bowman shipped him to Toronto as part of a salary cap dump. So United Center patrons cheered loudly and re-embraced Versteeg after the Blackhawks reacquired him from Florida in a trade early last season.</p><p>Several months later, the same fans were howling for Versteeg&rsquo;s head. The problem, though, was his knee. Versteeg tore his right ACL as a Panther in a March 2013 and underwent surgery. After training and healing back into shape last summer, he suffered an unrelated lower-body injury in practice two days before this season&rsquo;s opener and missed the first four games. That was only a speed bump. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s better than ever, to be honest,&rdquo; Kane said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s great with the puck, hanging onto the puck, good in battle areas, finding himself open, finding other players open. He&rsquo;s been awesome pretty much the whole year.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>2014 PLAYER OF THE YEAR</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0584/10002162-1-eng-US/f0054-052.jpg" title="f0054-05" width="305" height="467"></div><p>On a team that has struggled this past year, there are a few candidates for best player. Captain Eric Staal and defenseman Andrej Sekera are in the mix, but fellow blueliner <b>Justin Faulk</b> has raised his profile in Carolina. The 22-year-old was leading the Canes in ice time and scoring through mid-December.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0664/10002155-1-eng-US/f0054-062.jpg" title="f0054-06" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Gold brings out <b>Duncan Keith&rsquo;s</b> best. In 2010, he was an Olympic champion and followed that with the Norris Trophy after a 69-point season. In 2014? Another Games gold, another Norris, another 60-plus points. Peruse Keith&rsquo;s resume, which includes two Cups and two firstteam all-star selections, and you get a Hall of Fame trajectory.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0742/10002148-1-eng-US/f0054-072.jpg" title="f0054-07" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DOUG PENSINGER/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Avalanche, every advanced stat geek&rsquo;s favorite whipping boy, owed much of their success last season to Semyon Varlamov. Injuries have limited him this season. Colorado&rsquo;s best player in 2014? <b>Tyson Barrie</b>. The young D-man has 50 points in 66 games since last January, which pro-rates to 62 points over 82 games.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0832/10002141-1-eng-US/f0054-082.jpg" title="f0054-08" width="306" height="468"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Ryan Johansen has a good case, but <b>Sergei Bobrovsky</b> gets the nod for the Blue Jackets, largely for his contribution to last year&rsquo;s playoff run. Not only did &lsquo;Officer Bob&rsquo; win his last four decisions to secure a wild card berth, but he set the stage for success early in 2014 when he reeled off 10 wins in 12 starts in January.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0923/10002134-1-eng-US/f0054-092.jpg" title="f0054-09" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Jamie Benn</b> and Tyler Seguin carried the offense in 2014 and equally deserve Dallas&rsquo; player-of-the-year honor. Benn gets the edge because, on top of his point-per-game production since January, he&rsquo;s blossomed as a leader since assuming the captaincy. Benn also broke out on the world stage for Canada at the 2014 Olympics.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0054-02

BACK TO WHERE IT ALL STARTED

<div class="byline">&#x2013; BOB DUFF</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-01307/10002263-1-eng-US/f0055-012.jpg" title="f0055-01" width="936" height="169"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-02200/10002256-1-eng-US/f0055-022.jpg" title="f0055-02" width="69" height="77"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0827/10002249-1-eng-US/f0055-082.jpg" title="f0055-08" width="1247" height="981"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>TOMAS TATAR</b></figcaption></div><p><b>THE DETROIT RED WINGS LIKE TO</b>&nbsp;play games, on and off the ice.</p><p>After a recent road trip, goalie Jimmy Howard strayed from his gear, and teammates quickly emptied his bag so Tomas Tatar could squeeze inside. Howard returned, undid the zipper and was taken aback as a grinning Tatar popped out.</p><p>That&rsquo;s Tatar&rsquo;s M.O. He arrives at the rink every day with the smile and an objective of ensuring everyone envisions the bright side of life. &ldquo;I hate bad mood, so I always try to make people laugh and try to bring the energy and put a smile on everyone&rsquo;s face,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>He can even see the humor when he&rsquo;s the butt of the joke. For his 24th birthday Dec. 1, the Wings presented Tatar with a cream-pie facial supplied by defenseman Jonathan Ericsson. &ldquo;He threw me a cake in my face,&rdquo; Tatar laughed. &ldquo;I tasted it. I enjoyed it.&rdquo;</p><p>Off the ice, the Wings enjoy what Tatar brings to the rink. &ldquo;We get to choose our attitude every day,&rdquo; said Detroit coach Mike Babcock. &ldquo;You can have the Duracell drainer &ndash; you sit next to them, they suck the life out of a Duracell battery &ndash; or you can have someone who&rsquo;s the Energizer bunny and changes everybody else up. He energizes the group, so it&rsquo;s real good to have him.&rdquo;</p><p>On the ice, the Wings are equally enamored by what Tatar supplies as he water bugs his way around, seeking openings for scoring chances. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s so tenacious and he&rsquo;s extremely skilled,&rdquo; said Riley Sheahan.</p><p>Last season, Tatar was second on the team with 19 goals. This season, after a slow start, he&rsquo;s right up there again among the team&rsquo;s leading snipers.</p><p>Babcock drives Tatar harder than most but said he is capable of becoming an elite talent. &ldquo;&lsquo;Tats&rsquo; is a guy who has high-end skill and he&rsquo;s determined to score,&rdquo; Babcock said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got to learn to play and play without the puck all the time, and he&rsquo;s got to be competitive every night. If he does those things he&rsquo;s going to score more.&rdquo;</p><p>Tatar insists he understands his coach&rsquo;s motives. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s just trying to help me out,&rdquo; Tatar said.</p><p>Besides, it&rsquo;s not like anything is going to get Tatar down. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a reason to be smiling, to be part of this team,&rdquo; Tatar said. &ldquo;My dream came true to play in the NHL. I don&rsquo;t see why I should be sad, so every day when I walk in here I have a big smile.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>2014 PLAYER OF THE YEAR</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-03147/10002242-1-eng-US/f0055-032.jpg" title="f0055-03" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>If the Hart Trophy were awarded solely on which player was most valuable to his team, <b>Gustav Nyquist</b> would&rsquo;ve received serious consideration last season, as he helped the injury-depleted Wings make the playoffs for a 23rd straight season. He had 38 points in 37 games from Jan. 1 on and led Detroit in goals as Christmas approached.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-04110/10002235-1-eng-US/f0055-042.jpg" title="f0055-04" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Taylor</b>&nbsp;<b>Hall</b> isn&rsquo;t the most conscientious backchecker in the world, but he is a world-class offensive player who sets the tone for the Oilers. Edmonton didn&rsquo;t have much to be happy about in 2014, with the fewest wins in the NHL through mid-December, but Hall set the pace, with 59 points through the first 61 games of 2014.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0576/10002228-1-eng-US/f0055-052.jpg" title="f0055-05" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ELIOT J. SCHECHTER/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>As the Panthers plan for the future, <b>Nick Bjugstad</b> continues to make his case as a franchise forward. In 2014, he established himself as the team&rsquo;s go-to offensive player, picking up 23 points in 40 games in the second half to lead the team in scoring as a rookie, and he was the leading goal and point producer through early December.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0653/10002221-1-eng-US/f0055-062.jpg" title="f0055-06" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES;)</span></figcaption></div><p>It&rsquo;s not typically about goals or points for defenseman <b>Drew Doughty</b>. The thing that matters to him is championships, and he was a vital force in a pair of 2014 titles &ndash; the Winter Olympics and Stanley Cup. Doughty was Canada&rsquo;s go-to player at the 2014 Games, and he should have won the Conn Smythe Trophy as NHL playoff MVP.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0740/10002214-1-eng-US/f0055-072.jpg" title="f0055-07" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(LEN REDKOLES/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Many of the Wild&rsquo;s core players, from Jason Pominville to Mikko Koivu, alternate streaks and slumps. <b>Ryan Suter</b> is a constant, always ranking among league leaders in ice time. Before getting the mumps, Suter had the seventh-best Corsi Close among D-men in 2014-15. And he spends a lot of time against top scoring lines.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0055-01

THE GLASS IS ALWAYS FULL

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RICH CHERE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-02183/10002336-1-eng-US/f0056-022.jpg" title="f0056-02" width="932" height="176"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-01280/10002343-1-eng-US/f0056-012.jpg" title="f0056-01" width="67" height="77"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-03116/10002329-1-eng-US/f0056-032.jpg" title="f0056-03" width="1248" height="942"><figcaption class="caption-body">PATRIK ELIAS <span class="photo-credit">(LANCE THOMSON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span></b><b>T WAS ALMOST AS IF PATRIK ELIAS</b> was a player without a team. The New Jersey Devils were on the road and Elias, the franchise&rsquo;s all-time scoring leader, would drive to Newark&rsquo;s Prudential Center to test his sore groin by skating with a small group of injured players. Then he would return home to his two young daughters and open another page on their Christmas advent calendar.</p><p>To say this season has been a struggle for Elias would be an understatement. He went 17 straight games without scoring a goal after notching one opening night and has most recently dealt with the groin issue. But Elias, 38, retains the confidence that has him within striking distance of 1,000 points, 400 goals and 600 assists for his NHL career. He believes he can still be a player who makes a difference for the only NHL team on which he&rsquo;s played. &ldquo;I do believe that,&rdquo; Elias said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always had a better second half of the season. There are still a lot of games left. I can get on a roll. Usually in December I start going. I don&rsquo;t know the reason. There haven&rsquo;t been too many seasons out of 16 or 17 where I came flying out of the gate.&rdquo;</p><p>This has been an unusual season in other ways for the veteran Czech. His longtime teammate, Martin Brodeur, wasn&rsquo;t re-signed by the Devils. Elias watched as Brodeur patiently waited for a team to come calling, wondering if his career might be over. Brodeur is back, and now Elias is healthy and looking to make an impact and prove those who think he&rsquo;s over the hill wrong. &ldquo;People can think what they want,&rdquo; Elias said. &ldquo;Look at Marty. He plays one game and people say, &lsquo;He should&rsquo;ve stayed at home.&rsquo; All of a sudden he wins a game and, &lsquo;It&rsquo;s great to have him back.&rsquo; There are going to be good games and bad games. I had that as a rookie, in the middle of my career and I have it now. You battle through it.&rdquo;</p><p>Elias is signed through next season at $5.5 million. He will reach his milestones and try to live up to expectations from teammates and management. &ldquo;They expect the same thing I&rsquo;ve always done,&rdquo; Elias said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s produce, create, play well defensively and play on special teams. I don&rsquo;t think there is anybody that doubts me and thinks, &lsquo;Hey, listen, he doesn&rsquo;t have it anymore.&rsquo; I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s the case at all.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>2014 PLAYER OF THE YEAR</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0487/10002322-1-eng-US/f0056-042.jpg" title="f0056-04" width="305" height="465"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Carey</b>&nbsp;<b>Price</b> posted back-toback shutouts in the semifinal and the gold medal game to help Canada win the championship in Sochi. In the NHL, Price backstopped the Canadiens to the Eastern Conference final, and might have led them to the Stanley Cup final if not for a playoff-ending knee injury in Game 1 against the Rangers.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0551/10002315-1-eng-US/f0056-052.jpg" title="f0056-05" width="305" height="467"></div><p>The Nashville Predators are <b>Shea Weber&rsquo;s</b> team, no matter how hot Filip Forsberg has been as a rookie. Weber opened 2014 with 16 points in 16 January games and never looked back. His 23 goals last season equalled his career high. Weber&rsquo;s 137 goals over the past 10 seasons are 15 more than any other D-man in the NHL.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0644/10002308-1-eng-US/f0056-062.jpg" title="f0056-06" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The continuing excellence of <b>Jaromir Jagr</b> is stunning and the Devils are surely glad he is still prowling the NHL at age 42. The Czech legend recently passed Marcel Dionne in career points, putting him fifth in NHL history. Not only has Jagr kept the Devils&rsquo; offense afloat, but his charms with the media have been a welcome distraction.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0728/10002301-1-eng-US/f0056-072.jpg" title="f0056-07" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>As great as he is, John Tavares didn&rsquo;t play past the Olympics last season, so it would be unfair to give him the MVP crown. <b>Kyle Okposo</b>, on the other hand, was consistently good in 2014 and continues to make magic with Tavares and new linemate Brock Nelson. Okposo has harnessed his skills to the fullest and points have followed.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-0813/10002294-1-eng-US/f0056-082.jpg" title="f0056-08" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(RICH LAM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Not like he needed to do much convincing, but <b>Henrik Lundqvist</b> will always have a place in the hearts of Rangers fans thanks to the heroics he provided in the Stanley Cup final. &lsquo;Hank&rsquo; did all he could against the potent Kings and stole the only game New York won in the tilt, with a little help from the snow in his crease.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0056-02

JUST YOU WAIT AND SEE

<div class="byline">&#x2013; SHELLY ANDERSON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-01263/10002423-1-eng-US/f0057-012.jpg" title="f0057-01" width="936" height="170"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-02190/10002416-1-eng-US/f0057-022.jpg" title="f0057-02" width="67" height="77"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-0819/10002409-1-eng-US/f0057-082.jpg" title="f0057-08" width="1256" height="865"><figcaption class="caption-body">EVEGNI MALKIN</figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>E</span></b><b>VGENI MALKIN WAS UP TO HIS VISOR</b> in ready-made excuses for stutter-stepping through the season. Like the rest of the Pittsburgh Penguins, he had to learn what was expected from new coaches and get to know several new teammates.</p><p>As if to pile on, Malkin lost linemate and friend James Neal in an off-season trade, and Jussi Jokinen left via free agency. He was shifted from the right half-wall on the power play to the left point. Also, Malkin missed all of training camp because of a mysterious injury and was then bounced between his normal spot of second-line center and both wings because of injuries.</p><p>Yet Malkin, 28, has channelled the version of himself that has won an Art Ross, a Hart and a Conn Smythe Trophy and compiled three 100-point seasons. &ldquo;I just try to use my linemates,&rdquo; Malkin said. &ldquo;I have more confidence. I feel fresh. I feel great. I just try to shoot the puck, control the puck, play my game.&rdquo;</p><p>Apparently, it&rsquo;s that simple. &ldquo;You see the way he competes,&rdquo; said Sidney Crosby. &ldquo;When he&rsquo;s doing that, you can&rsquo;t stop him &ndash; his energy level is just really high. He looks like he&rsquo;s having fun on the ice and competing hard, and that&rsquo;s the way you want to play the game. That&rsquo;s when he&rsquo;s at his best.&rdquo;</p><p>Malkin made it clear through the first couple months of the season that he was going to be in contention to lead the league in points and power play goals. Regardless of where he plays or who he plays with, Malkin has been dominant in all three zones.</p><p>There is another element to Malkin&rsquo;s game emerging. As a long-time alternate captain, he has been actively asserting himself. He doesn&rsquo;t necessarily motivate his teammates with speeches, but he&rsquo;s delivering the message. That includes poking his nose into scrums, and barking at or even slamming opponents who take liberties with his teammates. &ldquo;When he&rsquo;s going and he&rsquo;s skating and competing, getting in there, sticking up for teammates, that really fires a team up,&rdquo; said second-year winger Jayson Megna.</p><p>The increased responsibility is something Malkin has put thought into. He figures Crosby deserves assistance on a club facing tremendous pressure to advance deep into the playoffs. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very important moment for us with leadership,&rdquo; Malkin said. &ldquo;We know everyone looks to us.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>2014 PLAYER OF THE YEAR</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-03144/10002402-1-eng-US/f0057-032.jpg" title="f0057-03" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Senators captain <b>Erik Karls</b><b>son</b> has been maligned for a slip in his defensive game, but his ability to create offense is beyond dispute. Karlsson was a point-per-game player from Jan. 1 to the end of last season, and in the 65 games he played in 2014 through mid-December, he was on the ice for fewer than 25 minutes in just six of them.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-04119/10002395-1-eng-US/f0057-042.jpg" title="f0057-04" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JAMIE SABAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Claude</b>&nbsp;<b>Giroux</b> hasn&rsquo;t had great starts lately, but he&rsquo;s pretty good at endings. Last season, he was blanked in his first five games, but ended up as the third-highest scorer in the NHL with 86 points, garnering a Hart Trophy nomination in the process. And once again this season, he&rsquo;s one of the top offensive players in the NHL.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-0576/10002388-1-eng-US/f0057-052.jpg" title="f0057-05" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Living up to the lofty expectations the hockey world has placed on him, <b>Sidney Crosby</b> continued to thrive for the Pens in 2014. This season, he became the sixth-fastest NHLer to reach 800 points, and in 2013-14 he earned the Hart and Art Ross trophies, plus the Ted Lindsay Award as the players&rsquo; choice for most outstanding player.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-0653/10002381-1-eng-US/f0057-062.jpg" title="f0057-06" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Let 2014 be known as the year St. Louis found the missing piece of its puzzle: an elite goal scorer. <b>Vladimir Tarasenko</b> took his game to a new level during the first-round playoff series with Chicago, scoring four times in six games. He carried that into this season, leading the Blues in scoring and challenging for the league lead in goals.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-0727/10002374-1-eng-US/f0057-072.jpg" title="f0057-07" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DON SMITH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>&lsquo;Little Joe&rsquo; has taken over from &lsquo;Big Joe&rsquo; as San Jose&rsquo;s most valuable player. <b>Joe Pavelski</b> led the Sharks with 41 goals last season, the majority (25) coming in the 42 games in 2014. Pavelski had three more points than Joe Thornton did last season, and the former finished seventh in Hart Trophy voting as league MVP.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0057-01

STEPPING UP AND TAKING CHARGE

<div class="byline">&#x2013; TIM CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-02192/10002496-1-eng-US/f0058-022.jpg" title="f0058-02" width="935" height="169"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-01285/10002503-1-eng-US/f0058-012.jpg" title="f0058-01" width="67" height="77"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-03113/10002489-1-eng-US/f0058-032.jpg" title="f0058-03" width="1257" height="866"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BRYAN LITTLE</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span></b><b>HERE&rsquo;S NO SHORTAGE OF IRONY</b> that, early in a season in which the Jets are making a defensive transformation, an offensive highlight jumps off the page for Winnipeg.</p><p>Bryan Little&rsquo;s hat trick in a 6-2 win over Colorado Dec. 5 was the first three-goal game by a Jets/Thrashers franchise skater since Eric Boulton scored three Dec. 18, 2010. Little&rsquo;s large night was part of Winnipeg&rsquo;s second eight-game streak with at least a point this season, results mostly fashioned with the Jets running along among the top five goals-against clubs in the NHL. The Jets, or the Thrashers for that matter, have never ended a season above the league&rsquo;s bottom 10 in that department. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been sick of losing for a long time now,&rdquo; said Little, Atlanta&rsquo;s first-round pick, 12th overall, in 2006, who played his 500th game this fall. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough when you&rsquo;ve played this long and haven&rsquo;t seen any playoff action. You get frustrated every summer, and you go through what you can do better, and it&rsquo;s just a matter that we&rsquo;ve all kind of got it in our heads and bought into this system that we know if we play it right, we play well and have a chance of winning.&rdquo;</p><p>Little said there&rsquo;s a growing comfort level in his role and the tight games that seem to be the norm in the Central Division and Western Conference.</p><p>No doubt the underappreciated Little, 27, has been in deep nearly every night as Winnipeg&rsquo;s No. 1 center against an elite list of opponents. &ldquo;You do feel more responsibility, because you know if you don&rsquo;t do a good job, the other team&rsquo;s top players are probably going to score, and there&rsquo;s a good chance they&rsquo;re going to win,&rdquo; Little said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve kind of gotten used to it.&rdquo;</p><p>Jets coach Paul Maurice, when he took on the Winnipeg job, said he had watched the Thrashers and Jets plenty as an opposing coach and TV analyst but said he knew the least about Little. He has learned that Little is exceptionally smart and consistent. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very quiet guy, seldom quoted,&rdquo; Maurice said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d make good plays over the course of the game, but I didn&rsquo;t fully appreciate what his strengths were until I got here. He&rsquo;s more competitive than you know, and his practice habits are outstanding, a very good pro. I viewed him more as a skill player, but there&rsquo;s so much more to his game, and he&rsquo;s still learning.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>2014 PLAYER OF THE YEAR</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0486/10002482-1-eng-US/f0058-042.jpg" title="f0058-04" width="305" height="467"></div><p><b>Steven</b>&nbsp;<b>Stamkos</b> didn&rsquo;t play a game for the Lightning in 2014 until March 6 after missing almost four months with a broken leg, but he managed to put up 17 points in the final 17 games of the season. Even though he said he didn&rsquo;t feel fully comfortable until November, he started 2014-15 among the league&rsquo;s best in points.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0554/10002475-1-eng-US/f0058-052.jpg" title="f0058-05" width="305" height="467"></div><p><b>Phil</b>&nbsp;<b>Kessel</b> has led the Maple Leafs in scoring every season he has played in Toronto and did so again in 2013-14, winning the team&rsquo;s scoring title by 19 points. He&rsquo;ll likely finish at the top for Toronto again this season. Kessel was spectacular for the U.S. Olympic team early, until it faltered in the semifinal and bronze medal games.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0640/10002468-1-eng-US/f0058-062.jpg" title="f0058-06" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>It wasn&rsquo;t a banner 2013-14 for the Sedins, though they&rsquo;re back on track now. So, in a bit of a shocker, Vancouver&rsquo;s MVP for 2014 goes to <b>Dan Hamhuis</b>. He was a member of Canada&rsquo;s gold-medal defense at the Olympics, and with the Canucks, he was one of just seven regulars to finish as a plus, a team-high plus-13, in 2013-14.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0727/10002461-1-eng-US/f0058-072.jpg" title="f0058-07" width="305" height="464"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Rocket Richard Trophy winner in 2014 and a second-team all-star, <b>Alex Ovechkin</b> is no stranger to accolades, just as he is no stranger to criticism. Often seen as a defensive black hole, he improved his possession stats during the first half of this season while taking on tougher competition under new coach Barry Trotz.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0815/10002454-1-eng-US/f0058-082.jpg" title="f0058-08" width="305" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Plenty of other Jets get the headlines &ndash; Evander Kane in particular &ndash; but all <b>Blake Wheeler</b> does is produce. He&rsquo;s led Winnipeg in scoring two of the past three years, he set career highs with 28 goals and 69 points last season and is 21st in points over the past three campaigns. He&rsquo;s the team&rsquo;s most consistent source of offense.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0058-02

UNSUNG ENGINE POWERS THE JETS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0059-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-01227/10002534-1-eng-US/f0059-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>UNITED SKATES</b></p><p>Don Fehr says the key to success for any union leader is to inform and empower his constituents.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PATRICK MCDERMOTT/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-02150/10002541-1-eng-US/f0059-022.jpg" title="f0059-02" width="193" height="229"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span></b><b>WO YEARS REMOVED FROM A LOCK</b> out battle, NHLPA executive director Don Fehr and his organization are in regular contact with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in what Fehr calls &ldquo;a pretty straightforward businesslike working relationship.&rdquo;</p><p>But Fehr is under no illusions as to what will happen when the collective bargaining agreement between the two parties expires after 2021-22: another lockout. &ldquo;If you put baseball to the side where there&rsquo;s no cap,&rdquo; Fehr said, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see anything which suggests any of the other three leagues are likely to break out of the phenomenon of a lockout every time, because a salary cap produces that phenomenon on the management side. They think they&rsquo;ve got nothing to lose. Let&rsquo;s just go see what happens and maybe we&rsquo;ll get a little bit more.&rdquo;</p><p>But Fehr isn&rsquo;t hung up on the inevitability of labor war seven years from now. He&rsquo;s entering his fifth season as leader of the NHLPA (after 26 years as boss of the MLB players&rsquo; association) and is still in the process of building a once-troubled organization into something that will thrive long after the 66-year-old steps down. And the way he does that is by keeping his constituents informed and by building consensus so that, when next they&rsquo;re challenged by owners, the players remain united. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t have strength in this job because you&rsquo;re smart, or because you&rsquo;re experienced, or have a law degree,&rdquo; Fehr said. &ldquo;You only have support and leverage if players give it to you. (MLBPA legend) Marvin Miller was my first boss, and he taught me the job of maintaining and creating a cohesive, knowledgeable and informed bargaining unit is retail politics. We&rsquo;re not dealing with tens of thousands of members. We see everybody one, two, three or four times a year.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;FEHR IS ONE OF THE FEW MEN WHO MAKE OWNERS OF PRO TEAMS STEP BACK IN GRUDGING RESPECT</blockquote><p>There is no shortage of issues that affect the men who hired Fehr. He&rsquo;s famous for eloquently telling reporters little about his true thoughts on delicate matters, so when he&rsquo;s asked about the prospect of the league expanding to Las Vegas &ndash; and the potential for players to be tempted by the excesses of gambling &ndash; Fehr refuses to speculate other than to say he&rsquo;s not troubled by it. (&ldquo;Lots of people live in Las Vegas and obey the law.&rdquo;) As well, although he acknowledged players were concerned about the outbreak of mumps, Fehr deferred to league doctors and did the same regarding questions about NHL concussion protocols.</p><p>That said, he did allow that the issue of players being looked at by independent doctors (rather than physicians employed by teams) wasn&rsquo;t going to fade. &ldquo;Players have a complete right to a second medical opinion, so they&rsquo;re not locked in exclusively to team doctors,&rdquo; Fehr said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m sure that is an issue that will get attention as time goes on.&rdquo;</p><p>What makes Fehr one of the game&rsquo;s most powerful figures &ndash; and one of the few men who make owners of pro teams in multiple leagues step back in grudging respect for his tactics and talents &ndash; is his devotion to the athletes he represents. In the same way Bettman succeeds because he serves at the pleasure of his bosses (the 30 team owners) and couldn&rsquo;t care less what media, fans or players think of him, Fehr has no yearning to curry favor with reporters, fans or owners. The players&rsquo; approval is the only currency he accepts, and theirs is the only feedback he values.</p><p>Education, consensus and unity. That&rsquo;s what Fehr&rsquo;s professional legacy is all about. &ldquo;If you can maintain knowledgeable, informed consent among the players with very heavy support, you can do the rest of this job,&rdquo; Fehr said. &ldquo;If you can&rsquo;t maintain that, it doesn&rsquo;t really matter what else you can do.&rdquo;</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>

f0059-01

IN BETWEEN NHL LOCKOUTS

<div class="byline">BY RISTO PAKARINEN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-02143/10002586-1-eng-US/f0060-022.jpg" title="f0060-02" width="293" height="300"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-01231/10002593-1-eng-US/f0060-012.jpg" title="f0060-01" width="60" height="68"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-03102/10002579-1-eng-US/f0060-032.jpg" title="f0060-03" width="1508" height="1026"><figcaption class="caption-body">KASPERI <b>KAPANEN</b> <span class="photo-credit">(ATTE RISSANEN PHOTOGRAPHY)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span></b>&nbsp;<b>YEAR AGO, KASPERI KAPANEN</b> and William Nylander were the two top-ranked European draft eligible players. Both were second-generation players, both were skilled, both had played with their famous fathers in their home leagues, and both were aiming to make the NHL roster this season. But both are now back in Europe: Nylander in Sweden and Kapanen in Finland.</p><p>Kapanen was ranked first on the NHL Central Scouting&rsquo;s list of European skaters all season long, but it was Nylander who got drafted first (eighth overall, the Maple Leafs), while Kapanen fell to 22nd before the Penguins GM Jim Rutherford called up a name he knew well. He had drafted Kasperi&rsquo;s father, Sami, to the Hartford Whalers in 1995.</p><p>One of the reasons Kapanen dropped was his poor outing in the under-18 World Championship in Lappeenranta, Finland. He had one goal, two points in five games, 11th on the team, and was minus-3. (Nylander lead the tournament in scoring with six goals, 16 points in seven games). &ldquo;We knew he was going to be under a lot of pressure and we discussed it before the tournament,&rdquo; said Finland&rsquo;s coach Rauli Urama. &ldquo;His play was fine, considering the fact he&rsquo;d always played with the older national teams and didn&rsquo;t know the other players, and that he had some injuries during the season.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a highly skilled player, he&rsquo;s got a great shot but bases his game on smart passing. His first few steps are very fast, and he can do everything at a very high speed.&rdquo;</p><p>Kapanen has put the tournament behind him but notes he probably tried to do too much on his own. Besides, the draft turned out fine for him. &ldquo;Sure, I dropped,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I was drafted by the Penguins, a topthree club in the world.&rdquo;</p><p>Kapanen went into the Penguins training camp thinking he&rsquo;d be able to fight for a job, even on a team with wingers such as Chris Kunitz, Patric Hornqvist and Pascal Dupuis. He scored a goal in an exhibition game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, a team whose GM (Jarmo Kekalainen) is his father&rsquo;s former agent, but at the end of the camp, he was called into the office and told he&rsquo;d be better off going back to Kuopio. &ldquo;I guess I was the last forward to get cut, so obviously it was a disappointment to get that close to my dream and then not make it,&rdquo; Kapanen said. &ldquo;I had a lot of time to think about things on my long trip home, but I&rsquo;m over it now. All in all, the camp was a great experience and even though my dad has played there, and I know something about the NHL, it&rsquo;s another thing to experience it all first hand.&rdquo;</p><p>Like, for example, how to adapt to the NHL style of play and how to tweak his own game. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a different game over there, but I think I adapted fairly quickly to it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I realized how much more important it is to go to the net, and do it faster. My game has to be more complete, too, and I&rsquo;ll try to focus on that in Finland. It&rsquo;s good to be home. I&rsquo;ll have a big role on the team and unlike last year, we&rsquo;ve been winning a lot this season, which feels good.&rdquo;</p><p>Kapanen missed two weeks due to an injury to his arm, but he was averaging close to a point per game for KalPa this season. Last year, he missed the world juniors due to an injury, which is why he skipped a tournament in November, for precautionary reasons.</p><p>Watching Team Finland win gold in 2014 made Kapanen hungrier. &ldquo;We saw last year that anything&rsquo;s possible,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be the first world juniors for me, and in Canada, so I&rsquo;m looking forward to it. You can&rsquo;t ask for a better stage than that.&rdquo;</p><p>And he intends to show up.</p><h2><b>KASPERI KAPANEN</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0473/10002572-1-eng-US/f0060-042.jpg" title="f0060-04" width="188" height="218"></div><p><b>POSITION</b>&nbsp;Right Wing</p><p><b>AGE</b> 18</p><p><b>HEIGHT</b> 6-0</p><p><b>WEIGHT</b> 181 lbs</p><p><b>DRAFTED</b> PIT, 22nd in 2014<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0060-02

ONE STEP BACK, TWO FORWARD

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0061-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-02144/10002638-1-eng-US/f0061-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>BROCK <b>BOESER</b></p><p><b>SCORING MACHINE</b></p><p>Boeser is averaging more than a point per game for the struggling Waterloo Black Hawks.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(STEPHANIE LYN PHOTOGRAPHY)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-01209/10002645-1-eng-US/f0061-012.jpg" title="f0061-01" width="60" height="68"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span></b><b>HEN BROCK BOESER</b> and his buddies want to unwind in the summer, they go to Cannon River, near his hometown of Burnsville, Minn. It&rsquo;s a perfect spot for swimming and cliff jumping and sounds like an idyllic getaway for teenagers, particularly since Boeser&rsquo;s career as a pro hockey player looks so promising right now.</p><p>A projected first-round pick in the 2015 NHL draft, Boeser played at the All-American Prospects Game in Buffalo and before that was chosen to represent Team USA at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup in Europe this past August. He and linemate Tommy Novak, a longtime friend from summer hockey, were 1-2 in tournament scoring, helping the Americans to a bronze medal. But just as the elite gathering was kicking off, a tragedy rocked Boeser&rsquo;s world.</p><p>Four teens from Burnsville high school were driving back from a day at Cannon River when their SUV lost control and rolled, killing baseball player Ty Alyea, while injuring the other three. Boeser&rsquo;s old teammate from the Burnsville hockey team, Cole Borchardt, was critically hurt. Initially, Borchardt needed emergency brain surgery to relieve pressure and was on a feeding tube until early November. He is still undergoing extensive therapy, and the local hockey community has banded together to raise money for his medical bills.</p><p>Boeser was already in the Czech Republic when the crash happened (alcohol was not a factor) and did what he could to stay in the loop. &ldquo;Right before the first practice it happened,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was a long trip, I&rsquo;ll tell you. I think I counted, at one point, 100 texts from different people. My phone bill was off the rails, but it was necessary.&rdquo;</p><p>Going home was not the answer for the star right winger. Not yet at least. &ldquo;I knew they would have wanted me to stay there and play it out, so that&rsquo;s what I did,&rdquo; Boeser said. &ldquo;I tried to play for them.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-0482/10002631-1-eng-US/f0061-042.jpg" title="f0061-04" width="666" height="681"><figcaption class="caption-body">BROCK <b>BOESER</b></figcaption></div><p>And if this season is for the Burnsville boys, Boeser is doing them proud. He and Novak play for Waterloo in the United States League and Boeser in particular is torching the circuit. He was one of the highest scorers in the league through mid-December and had talent hawks very interested. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a big fan,&rdquo; said one scout. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a little underrated right now. He&rsquo;s got a cannon for a shot, he&rsquo;s quick, plays heavy and he can find those soft spots in the offensive zone.&rdquo;</p><p>At 6-foot-1 and 192 pounds, Boeser also has the frame to go into the dirty areas, which he does gladly. He wants to work on his explosiveness and his defensive zone coverage, but scouts love his compete level, and the youngster definitely has the chops to be a net-front nuisance in the NHL.</p><p>Before Boeser does that, however, he&rsquo;ll be headed to college. Originally committed to the Wisconsin, Boeser reopened his options in November. The Badgers have been brutal this season, but the speculation surrounding Boeser is that there&rsquo;s a personal pull to stay closer to Burnsville, based on recent events. Novak is headed to Minnesota, and that would be an obvious choice for his buddy, too.</p><p>Boeser actually had several familial ties to the Badgers, with his mom having family in Madison and older cousin Dan Boeser a former captain of the team. Dan is now an assistant coach with the USHL&rsquo;s Chicago Steel, but he held the same role with the Burnsville high school team last season and went to the hospital the night of the crash. He talks to Brock every day and has seen his formerly shy cousin really blossom in Waterloo.</p><p>That&rsquo;s bad news when the Steel clash with the Black Hawks, but as the Boesers know, some things are bigger than hockey.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-03104/10002624-1-eng-US/f0061-032.jpg" title="f0061-03" width="201" height="160"></div><h2><b>BROCK BOESER</b></h2><p>POS RW</p><p>AGE 17</p><p>HT 6-1</p><p>WT 192 lbs</p><p>DRAFTED 2015 eligible<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0061-02

HEAVY SHOT, HEAVY HEART

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0062-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0062-02129/10002676-1-eng-US/f0062-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>THE <b>STRAIGHT EDGE</b></p><p><b>POINT OF NO RETURN</b></p><p>Paul Bittner knew he had to leave Minnesota high school hockey after visiting WHL Portland.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(BRYAN HEIM/PORTLAND WINTER HAWKS)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0062-0381/10002690-1-eng-US/f0062-032.jpg" title="f0062-03" width="194" height="229"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0062-01229/10002683-1-eng-US/f0062-012.jpg" title="f0062-01" width="60" height="62"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>M</span></b><b>INNESOTA&rsquo;S MR. HOCKEY</b> Award goes to the state&rsquo;s most outstanding senior in high school hockey, and a perusal of past winners churns up impressive names. Ryan McDonagh, Nick Leddy and Nick Bjugstad won, and each was then taken in the first round of the NHL draft.</p><p>For years, a Minnesota highschooler always went in the top 30, but those days are gone. Since 2011, the first names called have been second-rounders, but sometimes fifth-rounders. In 2014, a Wisconsin high-schooler (Matt Berkovitz, Anaheim) was taken before any Minnesota kids, which, traditionally speaking, is insane.</p><p>The &lsquo;State of Hockey&rsquo; is still producing talent, but those kids are no longer sticking with their schools. Instead, Team USA, the USHL, the WHL and prep school Shattuck-St. Mary&rsquo;s have all taken chunks out of the high school circuit, which still holds its vaunted state tournament at the Minnesota Wild&rsquo;s Xcel Energy Center and packs the house. It&rsquo;s getting to the point where some scouts are less than enthusiastic about watching the games, and a fierce protectionism has frayed relationships at the local level.</p><p>Two Minnesota kids with a shot at being drafted this year are Paul Bittner and Alec Baer. Both played at USA Hockey&rsquo;s All-American Prospects Game in Buffalo in the fall and got to know each other well when their flight home was cancelled. The duo spent 12 hours together at the airport in Detroit before they departed for Vancouver. That&rsquo;s right: the West Coast. Because Baer plays for the WHL&rsquo;s Giants, while Bittner, a potential NHL first-rounder in 2015, is a member of the Portland Winterhawks.</p><p>Baer went to see the Giants play last season and upon his return to Minnesota, was told he was no longer welcome to play for his Benilde-St. Margaret&rsquo;s Red Knights. Bittner left the Crookston Pirates when he was 15 and in the wake of that decision, his father ended up resigning from the executive board of the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Association. Jon Bittner had coached high school hockey for 28 years. &ldquo;It was a hard decision, obviously the hardest of my life,&rdquo; said Paul, the 6-foot-4, 202-pound power forward. &ldquo;After I visited Portland and met the guys, saw the fan base, it was almost an easy decision.&rdquo;</p><p>Bittner started slowly in the &lsquo;Dub,&rsquo; but has worked his way up to the top line where he plays with Winnipeg prospect Nic Petan and Columbus pick Oliver Bjorkstrand. Bittner says he is sad he won&rsquo;t ever get to play at the Minnesota state tournament but has few regrets. &ldquo;Junior wasn&rsquo;t the goal and the NCAA wasn&rsquo;t the goal,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The NHL is the goal.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;WE ENCOURAGE KIDS TO LEAVE FOR THE USHL. IN HIGH SCHOOL, EVERYTHING IS TOO EASY FOR THEM<br>&ndash; NHL scout</blockquote><p>And NHL teams are wondering if they can still get an accurate read on kids in the Minnesota high school circuit due to the level of competition. &ldquo;We definitely encourage kids to leave for the USHL,&rdquo; said one scout. &ldquo;In high school, everything is too easy for them.&rdquo;</p><p>Those within the high school circuit have a different opinion. Trent Eigner coaches the Lakeville North Panthers, a team that lost in the state final last season. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been able to instill in our kids that it&rsquo;s not a race,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And if it is a race, what are the benefits of leaving before you&rsquo;re ready?&rdquo;</p><p>The 25-game schedule is another barrier for scouts, who call that the &ldquo;stone age&rdquo; days of outdoor rinks. Eigner would like to see a couple more games allowed, but notes his team gets in four practices for every two games, which resembles the NCAA, where these players hope to end up.</p><p>In the end, it&rsquo;s comes down to the talent on the ice. Lakeville North defenseman Jack Mc-Neely was the only Minnesota high-schooler at the AAPG in Buffalo. He chose to stick with high school hockey not only for the development time but also the opportunity for redemption in front of a sold-out crowd at an NHL arena. &ldquo;Last year we made the state (title) game and lost 8-2 to Edina,&rdquo; said the 2015 draft prospect. &ldquo;And there wasn&rsquo;t a thought in my mind after that I&rsquo;d leave for junior.&rdquo;</p><p>McNeely, a two-way blueliner committed to Nebraska-Omaha, will head to the USHL for 2015-16 and may practise with the Tri-City Storm once his year with Lakeville North ends. But the resolve in his voice says that won&rsquo;t happen until the very last game of the season at the Xcel Energy Center is played.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0062-02

STATE OF DISREPAIR

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-01173/10002721-1-eng-US/f0063-012.jpg" title="f0063-01" width="953" height="1504"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>DON&rsquo;T TIE THAT KNOT</b></p><p>Among his many rules, Conn Smythe forbade his players from marrying during the season.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(B BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-02113/10002728-1-eng-US/f0063-022.jpg" title="f0063-02" width="193" height="227"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span></b><b>F</b>&nbsp;<b>YOU WERE A SMART PLAYER WHEN CONN SMYTHE RULED</b> Toronto hockey &ndash; and he paid your salary &ndash; you didn&rsquo;t mess with the &lsquo;Little Major&rsquo; of Maple Leaf Gardens.</p><p>Smythe had his rules, and woe to those who chose to break them. One of Conn&rsquo;s canons had to do with weddings. Get married during the season and &ndash; uh-oh &ndash; brother you&rsquo;ll get Zamboni-ed right out of the lineup. Johnny &lsquo;Goose&rsquo; McCormack, who just happened to be the Leafs best penalty killer, couldn&rsquo;t wait and wed Margaret Gordon during the 1950-51 campaign. Alas, the Goose was cooked. Faster than you can say <i>mazel tov</i>, Mc-Cormack was sold to Montreal.</p><p>William &lsquo;Wild Bill&rsquo; Ezinicki, one of the best bodychecking forwards in history, helped Toronto win three straight Stanley Cups (1947, 1948, 1949) and might have been part of the 1951 champs. But &lsquo;Ezzie&rsquo; loved golf as much as he did hockey, and Smythe didn&rsquo;t like that, so he shipped one of his favorite players to Boston, and Wild Bill never won a Cup again.</p><p>Had he played his putts right, Ezinicki might have been skating alongside his former Toronto center, Cal Gardner, when the latter watched Bill Barilko score the 1951 overtime Cup-winner against the Habs. Better yet, Ezzie would have witnessed Smythe at his punishing best &ndash; or worst, as the case may be.</p><p>&lsquo;Tis a sad day when a hockey boss fines his best center $1,000 merely for not taking a shot. But that was the Smythe style and Gardner knew it. &ldquo;Conn was a crusty old guy,&rdquo; Cal told me one afternoon at the Gardens, &ldquo;and he ran our team with an iron fist. On the one hand, he was a great hockey man but very opinionated about how the game should be played.&rdquo;</p><p>On the night of April 21, 1951 &ndash; the fifth game of the Cup final with Toronto up three games to one &ndash; Smythe underlined that point. He delivered one of the most bizarre fines ever levelled by an executive immediately after his team had won the championship. It happened because left winger Harry Watson was supposed to shadow Montreal ace Maurice Richard when the sudden-death period began, and didn&rsquo;t do his job. &ldquo;Instead, Watson went in deep and that meant my job was to watch The Rocket, which I did,&rdquo; Gardner said. &ldquo;All of a sudden the puck came right out in my direction, but I didn&rsquo;t touch it. I was too busy watching Richard.&rdquo;</p><p>Smythe went nuts when he saw Gardner ignore both the puck and a scoring chance. Right then and there he decided to fine his center $1,000. (This was in a frugal NHL era when the average annual salary was about $10,000). Nevertheless, Gardner believed he was doing the right thing. &ldquo;The puck went right past me toward the blueline,&rdquo; Gardner went on. &ldquo;Next thing I knew, our big defenseman Barilko dove at it and while in mid-air, shot the puck right over goalie Gerry McNeil. We had won the Cup!&rdquo;</p><p>Smythe was suitably enthused over the win but not Gardner&rsquo;s failure to strike when the puck was hot. The Boss insisted that the $1,000 fine would stick, Cup win or not.</p><p>In those pre-union days, Cal could only appeal to his creative mind for help. He requested a meeting with the still-seething Smythe and got a brainstorm: he decided to go to the movies. &ldquo;Actually I told Smythe to watch the movies that the Leafs took of every game,&rdquo; chuckled Gardner, &ldquo;and he did &ndash; with me. I showed him that The Rocket was uncovered, and that I had to be watching him and not the puck. I convinced him that I did the right thing by watching Richard and letting Barilko do his thing.&rdquo;</p><p>The fine was rescinded, but Cal couldn&rsquo;t avoid the fate that befell his Smythe-law-breaking buddies, Goose and Wild Bill. Before the 1952-53 season, Smythe punished his vigilant center by trading him to the Blackhawks. In those days the only thing lower than Chicago was Antarctica.</p><p>P.S. The follow-up story is said to be either true or apocryphal, but, knowing Smythe, it could have happened. Prior to overtime Smythe warned his defensemen never to venture into the offensive zone when Richard was on the ice &ndash; under threat of a $500 fine. When Gardner allowed the puck to reach the blueline, Barilko broke the rule by diving into Montreal ice to score the Cup-winner. According to some insiders, the Little Major still fined his hero.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0063-01

TALES FROM ‘LITTLE MAJOR’

<div class="byline">BY JASON KAY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0064-01185/10002759-1-eng-US/f0064-012.jpg" title="f0064-01" width="808" height="1116"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(B BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>C</span>LINT MALARCHUK WAS AT A BOOK SIGNING IN EDMONTON</b> this fall, promoting his biography <i>The Crazy Game</i>, when an older child approached him and thanked him. &ldquo;He said, &lsquo;You saved my life. I was gonna do it.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>The &ldquo;it&rdquo; was suicide. The boy had done his research and made preparations to take his own life when his father found out and intervened. The dad pushed his son to read up on Malarchuk and the powerful message the former NHL goalie has been sharing with anyone who will listen. Put simply, mental illness is not a weakness, it&rsquo;s an illness. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no different than having diabetes,&rdquo; Malarchuk said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a chemical imbalance. Mental illness is usually a chemical imbalance of the brain, the serotonin levels.&rdquo;</p><p>Malarchuk, 53, isn&rsquo;t the first to spread these words of wisdom, but his back story makes him highly effective, particularly for males. A native of Grand Prairie, Alta., he&rsquo;s a cowboy &ndash; country tough, a man&rsquo;s man who&rsquo;s participated in rodeos, dabbled in boxing, picked bar fights and even challenged legendary pugilist Tiger Williams to a scrap. There was also that time he had his jugular vein sliced and nearly bled out in front of the world. Twelve days later, he was back in goal for the Buffalo Sabres.</p><p>The horrific injury was one of three times Malarchuk has dodged death. The other two were at his own hand. He took a pill and booze cocktail in 1992 that caused him to collapse, need CPR (from his second wife), be resuscitated and require hospitalization. Then in 2008, he held a gun under his chin and shot himself in front of his fourth and current wife. The bullet ricocheted off his molars, passed through his tongue, the roof of his mouth and his sinus, narrowly missing his eye, before lodging in its permanent home, millimeters from his brain.</p><p>When he awoke from his suicide attempt, with his mom standing bedside holding his hand, the light came on. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s obviously a reason. I used to think playing in the NHL was my purpose. Now I look at (my career) as giving me a platform to speak about mental illness. This is my calling.&rdquo;</p><p>In <i>The Crazy Game</i>, co-written with Dan Robson, Malarchuk recounts his sometimes desperate childhood and memories of an alcoholic, troubled and eventually absentee father. He recalls his early memories of his obsessive compulsive disorder, the time he nearly had his leg amputated due to infection and the brief period he spent in a state mental institution. He bares his soul about his own alcohol dependence, relationships, deep-rooted jealousy and mistrust that impacted each of his four marriages. And he details the vicious cycle of mental illness, the internalization of what he perceived was weakness, which fostered even greater anxiety. &ldquo;Writing the book was one of the hardest things I&rsquo;ve ever had to do,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d done the therapy, and I thought this would be pretty safe to do, but man, once I got into it, it was really, really difficult. Now that it&rsquo;s out and I&rsquo;m getting the feedback, it&rsquo;s so gratifying for me.&rdquo;</p><p>Malarchuk points to a solid support system, led by his wife Joanie, her parents, his mom and good friend Rick Dudley, among others, as invaluable in keeping him among the living. He said he&rsquo;s received about 800 emails over the past few months from people who&rsquo;ve read his book, seen or heard him speak or saw his message elsewhere, thanking him for his help.</p><p>The veteran of 338 NHL games knows his work isn&rsquo;t done. The myriad voices who&rsquo;ve joined his informal online support community have shown him just how common mental illness is. He&rsquo;d love to work with the NHL or the Players&rsquo; Association in helping to foster a greater environment of acceptance. &ldquo;As a society, we&rsquo;re making strides in all areas,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Look at how far the gay community has come. In the &rsquo;90s, the reaction (to people coming out) was still pretty intense. Now it&rsquo;s matter of fact. That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;d like with mental illness.&rdquo;</p><p>Malarchuk spends most of his time nowadays at his ranch in Nevada, where he runs a horse dentistry/chiropractic business. He said he&rsquo;s had interest from documentary filmmakers to do a 90-minute piece on his life. He&rsquo;s had several stints as an NHL goalie coach, the most recent with Calgary, which ended in June.</p><p>The game is no longer Malarchuk&rsquo;s <i>raison d&rsquo;etre</i>. Instead he&rsquo;s focused on supporting anyone who knocks on his door, pops up in his inbox or talks to him at a book signing, like the lad in Edmonton. &ldquo;The kid hung out with me for a while after the signing,&rdquo; Malarchuk said. &ldquo;He was dressed like a cowboy. I think I was kind of his hero. And it wasn&rsquo;t because of hockey.&rdquo;</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>

f0064-01

MAN WITH A NEW MISSION

<div class="byline">By Larry Humber</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0472/10002859-1-eng-US/f0065-042.jpg" title="f0065-04" width="935" height="934"></div><p><b>ANSWERS AVAILABLE IN THE NEXT ISSUE AND AT <a href="http://THN.com/XWORD">THN.com/XWORD</a></b></p><h2><b>ACROSS</b></h2><p>1 ___ Boudreau is coach in Anaheim</p><p>8 Johnny ___ is new to Calgary</p><p>9 Skate lazily</p><p>10 Home of the AHL&rsquo;s Bulldogs</p><p>11 Veteran winger ___ Torres</p><p>14 He was NHL MVP in 2011</p><p>15 Detroit is the &lsquo;___ City&rsquo;</p><p>20 San Jose&rsquo;s ___ Couture, pictured</p><p>21 Not close</p><p>22 Mediocre, wishy-___</p><p>23 Where the AHL&rsquo;s Crunch play</p><p>24 Thugs</p><h2><b>DOWN</b></h2><p>2 Let&rsquo;s go</p><p>3 Corey ___ is in goal in Chicago</p><p>4 Country that hosted the 1998 Olympics</p><p>5 Goalie ___ Lack</p><p>6 Faces</p><p>7 Former IIHF head ___ Ahearne</p><p>12 Where Patrick Roy calls the shots</p><p>13 Chicago&rsquo;s ___ Toews</p><p>16 Hit an opponent with one&rsquo;s stick</p><p>17 Fights</p><p>18 Ken Hitchcock&rsquo;s nickname</p><p>19 Avalanche&rsquo;s newcomer ___ Winchester</p><p><b>LAST ISSUE&rsquo;S CROSSWORD SOLUTION ACROSS</b> 1. SUBBAN, 4. MASCOT, 9. CRIPPLE, 10. ARENA, 11. EGG ON, 12. LARSSON, 13. ACES, 15. OWEN, 18. STAMKOS, 21. ERIKA, 23. ARGUE, 24. TAILING, 25. ASSIST, 26. MERGED <b>DOWN</b> 1. SACKED, 2. BRING, 3. ALPINES, 5. A PAIR, 6. CHEESIE, 7. TRAINS, 8. BELL, 14. CHARGES, 15. ONE TIME, 16. OSHAWA, 17. RAGGED, 19. KNEES, 20. SITS, 22. ICING<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0065-04

CROSSWORD

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0065-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0549/10002890-1-eng-US/f0065-052.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVID GUNNARSSON/DAVEART.COM)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>D</span>ave Gunnarsson&rsquo;s design is a love letter to Neuvirth&rsquo;s idol and fellow Czech Dominik Hasek. One side boasts a Hasek sketch and Hasek-era Buffalo logo. The other: an &ldquo;aged&rdquo; Buffalo logo and a castle from Neuvirth&rsquo;s hometown. The latter adorns all his masks.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0065-05

Behind THE MASK

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0636/10002921-1-eng-US/f0065-062.jpg" title="f0065-06" width="540" height="610"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(EBBETS FIELD FLANNELS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>oledo&rsquo;s Eastern League team was sponsored by the Buckeye Brewing Company, so the source of inspiration for this one-of-a-kind logo isn&rsquo;t tough to figure out.</p><p>Brought back to life as a throwback sold by Ebbets Field Flannels, this sweet sweater features a color scheme reminiscent of another Midwest team: the NFL&rsquo;s Green Bay Packers.</p><p>But it all comes back to the world&rsquo;s most charming waiter, just helping folks forget that the team would return to the International League as the Mercurys after just one season.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0065-06

JerseyHOUND

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-02114/10002952-1-eng-US/f0066-022.jpg" title="f0066-02" width="526" height="979"><figcaption class="caption-body">JEAN <b>BELIVEAU</b> <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-01185/10002959-1-eng-US/f0066-012.jpg" title="f0066-01" width="192" height="220"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span></b><b>S I WRITE THIS, I&rsquo;M SITTING IN AN</b> arena in Toronto watching my son tend goal for his high school team. His <i>high school</i> team. Seems like just yesterday he put the pads on for the first time and I was coaching his team, looking on with my hands over my eyes, watching between my fingers every time the puck entered our zone.</p><p>Alas, another year has passed us by, and the anniversaries begin to pile up. In the spring, it will be 30 years since I walked into the newsroom of the <i>Tim</i><i>mins Daily Press</i> for the first time to start my career in this wonderful business. And this Christmas marks 40 years since I received the book <i>Hockey Annual</i> from my older brother, which turned me from a reluctant reader into a voracious one &ndash; at least when it came to hockey books &ndash; and, in turn, fuelled the passion that led to my career writing about this game.</p><p>My father had become very ill that year and was in the hospital for much of Christmas. The inside cover of the book reads, &ldquo;Merry Christmas 1974, Kenny. Love Mom and Dad.&rdquo; But my brother wasn&rsquo;t able to fool me. On the wages he earned as an orderly, he bought all the presents for me and my four sisters, and words will never be able to express the love and admiration I&rsquo;ve felt for him since. I&rsquo;m not a big fan of what Christmas has become, but whenever I get down about it, I think about that magical Christmas.</p><p>Truth be told, the passing of this year has made me more reflective than ever. As much as I&rsquo;ve loved this profession, the last while has not been easy. Ours is a profession in transition and we&rsquo;re all struggling to adapt to a new landscape. And when you&rsquo;re in your 50s and see a whole new cohort of hockey journalists that look a lot like you did years back, you wonder how much longer you&rsquo;ll be in this business.</p><p>But it&rsquo;s more than that. In the past while, we&rsquo;ve said goodbye to two icons of the game, Jean Beliveau and Pat Quinn. The former was my first hockey hero and the latter an influential person in my daily newspaper career for eight years. And, as of this writing, Gordie Howe continues to fight the good fight at 86 despite having advanced dementia and having suffered a number of strokes.</p><p>The first time I was allowed to stay up late to watch the end of a game was Feb. 11, 1971. The second was three months later, May 18, 1971. Jean Beliveau was a central figure in both. The first was never supposed to happen. Beliveau had entered the game that night against Minnesota with 497 goals. If 500 goals doesn&rsquo;t seem like a big deal, consider that Rocket Richard and Howe were the only two to that point to hit that mark. Thirty-nine others have done so since then.</p><p>I was eight and staying up for an entire game was a non-starter &ndash; unless I could convince my parents I&rsquo;d be to witnessing history. With my father on board and Beliveau at two goals halfway through the first, the stage was set. And Beliveau, of course, did not disappoint. He scored the 18th and final hat trick of his career with his third goal at 6:42 of the second on a backhand deke of rookie goalie Gilles Gilbert. I read later Beliveau sought out Gilbert after the game and told him not to get too down on himself, that everything was going his way that night, and that he&rsquo;d go on to have a great career.</p><p>He did, but Gilbert must have felt cursed by the Habs. Eight years later, he was playing goal for the Bruins, who had a 4-3 lead on Montreal late in Game 7 of the semifinal, putting them on the verge of ending the Canadiens dynasty at three straight Cups. But who can forget the infamous too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty the Bruins took and Danny Gallivan saying, &ldquo;Lafleur coming out rather gingerly on the right side,&rdquo; seconds before blasting the puck past Gilbert? Then in overtime, Serge Savard stripped Rick Middleton of the puck to start the rush back that was ended by Yvon Lambert.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;BELIVEAU&rsquo;S LIFE WAS BLESSED AND HE PASSED THOSE BLESSINGS TO SO MANY MORE PEOPLE</blockquote><p>My second late night in 1971 was Game 7 of the final against Chicago. With the Habs down 2-0, things were looking bleak for my father and me, but Montreal had come back after trailing 2-0 in the series. And they did so again on the back of Henri Richard, who had been benched earlier in the series and went off on coach Al MacNeil, stopping only when Beliveau softly squeezed his arm. Richard scored twice, the Canadiens won 3-2, becoming only the second of four teams in history to win Game 7 of a final on the road. That was the 10th and final time Jean Beliveau lifted the Stanley Cup.</p><p>The elegant, talented and omnipresent Beliveau is gone. Henri Richard is 78 and dealing with his own health issues. Time marches on for all of us on the ice and off. It&rsquo;s not a sad thing to be sure. Beliveau&rsquo;s life was blessed and he passed those blessings on to so many more people. And there are worse ways to mark the passage of time than by wonderful hockey moments. It can just be a little difficult at times. For all of us.</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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January 26, 2015

Separated AT BIRTH

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In The CARDS

MEN OF MASSIVE COURAGE