Search for your favorite player or team
© The Hockey News. All rights reserved. Any and all material on this website cannot be used, reproduced, or distributed without prior written permission from Roustan Media Ltd. For more information, please see our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Goalie Issue 2021
Goaltending is the most important position in hockey. Get the latest on coaching techniques and programs from advisors who work with the very best. And find out what's driving the latest wave of hot stoppers – Igor Shesterkin in New York, Cal Petersen in Los Angeles and Thatcher Demko in Vancouver.
GAME CHANGER
YOU KNOW WHAT THEY say about November. Or maybe not. It goes something like: “Dull November brings the blast, then the leaves are whirling fast.” Not exactly inspiring at the best of times, but particularly gloomy if you happen to have the fourth-worst power play and third-worst penalty kill in the NHL. As the Montreal Canadiens approached the first full month of 2021-22, they were staring down the barrel of their worst start since 1941-42. That is exactly 80 years, 20 Stanley Cups and 58 Hall of Famers ago. So there they were on the first day of November, a month in which they’d probably have preferred to turn back the clock to last summer when they were romping their way to the Cup final. And there was Jonathan Drouin, facing…
NO BANNER FOR YOU!
THERE’S A LITTLE SOMETHING missing in the rafters at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. You would think it should be found between Nicklas Lidstrom’s iconic No. 5 and Ted Lindsay’s esteemed No. 7. But even though Larry Aurie’s No. 6 has long been put out of circulation by the Red Wings, it’s not officially retired. And why is that? Well, it’s about semantics and it’s a little complicated. Pull up a chair. By any standard of excellence, Aurie had as much right to have his banner hanging in Detroit as Gordie Howe or Steve Yzerman. (Eight Red Wings have had their numbers retired over the years.) A slick and talented right winger from Sudbury, Ont., Aurie helped build the Detroit franchise in the 1930s as much as the club’s legendary boss Jack…
GOING ROGUE
A LITTLE MORE than three years ago, Darcy Kuemper and the former Sydney McClure decided they wanted a dog, so they went out and got themselves an all-black German Shepherd and named him Rogue. Because, ya know, nothing screams Rogue more than a youthful-looking, clean-cut son of a police officer and an accountant from the prairies who is paid millions of dollars a year to play hockey. Turns out they had just watched Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and agreed the name would be pretty cool. “Just because I’m not a rogue,” Kuemper said, “it doesn’t mean my dog can’t be one.” Aside from an insatiable need to play fetch – “he’d play pretty much 24/7 if we let him” – there’s not an awful lot off script for Kuemper’s…
STOPS ALONG THE WAY
GROWING UP IN NORTHERN Ontario, San Jose Sharks prospect Ben Gaudreau wasn’t exactly surrounded by bright lights: his hometown of Corbeil – with a population around 200 – has a gas station, a roller-hockey rink, a soccer field and a town hall. Otherwise, it’s a blip on the map near North Bay. But playing his youth hockey there helped make it easier for Gaudreau to adjust to his future OHL travel schedule. “Our closest game was Sudbury, which was about an hour-and-a-half, two hours, and our furthest was Kapuskasing, which is six to eight hours,” Gaudreau said. “It was quite a bit of travel, every tournament was at least four hours away for the most part, so I thank my parents a lot for all that driving. But you almost learn…
Made possible with the support of
