It's our Rookie Issue, featuring Detroit's trio of Seider, Raymond and Nedeljkovic; Zegras; Lundell; Jeannot and others. Plus, we preview the Paralympics and take a look at some surprise NHL stars.

Rookie Issue 2022

The Hockey News Rookie Issue 2022

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-0195/794513-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ROBINSON: BILL STRODE/COURIER JOURNAL VIA USA TODAY NETWORK; CHAMBERLAIN: MALCOLM EMMONS-USA TODAY SPORTS; SELANNE: CHRIS RELKE/HHOF IMAGES; SAYERS: MALCOLM EMMONS-USA TODAY SPORTS; TROUT: GARY A. VASQUEZ-USA TODAY SPORTS; MOSS: PAUL CHAPMAN/ USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Buzz

ROOKIE SENSATION-O-METER

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_stutzl_110" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_stutzl_110/794392-1-eng-US/buzz_stutzl_1102.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">For Stutzle, the hardest part of pandemic restrictions is not having fans there to help him snap out of funks. <span class="photo-credit">(JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>P</span>ICTURE IT: THE FIRST</b> Stanley Cup final game in Montreal in 28 years, minutes away from commencing at the raucous Bell Centre, the roof about to <i>blow</i>. The players psych themselves up, listen from their dressing room and hear&hellip;nothing. Faint buzzing at best.</p><p>That&rsquo;s because Game 3 of the 2021 Cup final was, of course, played before 3,500 fans. As Habs right winger Tyler Toffoli would later recall, Brendan Gallagher turned to some of his newer teammates in that moment and said, &ldquo;If the building was full, our whole dressing room would be shaking right now.&rdquo;</p><p>That Habs team had rookies Cole Caufield and Alexander Romanov on it. All they could do was picture how &ldquo;normal&rdquo; would&rsquo;ve felt. And so it goes for any current NHL sophomores or multi-year rookies who have played the first couple seasons of their careers in the pandemic world. It&rsquo;s been a winding road of empty barns, constantly changing protocols and distant, surface-level media interactions. Any player debuting since 2020-21 has barely tasted the &ldquo;real&rdquo; NHL experience.</p><p>So what are the league&rsquo;s newest players missing most? In the most obvious and elemental sense, playing without fans sticks out for the sophomore brigade, especially those playing on Canadian teams, as they had empty buildings all through the 2020-21 regular season and for much of this season after COVID-19 cases rose again in the late fall.</p><p>Edmonton Oilers blueliner Evan Bouchard, now in his first full season after playing 21 total games prior to 2021-22, predicts the pin-drop-quiet rinks will be the lasting memory of his early NHL days. Sophomore Ottawa Senators left winger Tim Stutzle feels the empty arenas affect his performance, not so much in terms of helping him excel but in terms of snapping him out of funks. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just not the same playing without fans,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If you have a bad game (with no fans), you really, really have a bad game and just feel like s---, and it&rsquo;s just terrible without the fans.&rdquo;</p><p>Before NHL freshmen of 2020-21 even competed in empty rinks, however, they endured metaphorically empty training-camp experiences. Last season, many instructional sessions happened over Zoom rather than on the ice. As New Jersey Devils D-man Ty Smith explains, even &ldquo;in-person&rdquo; meetings had to be split into multiple rooms sometimes, then shared over Zoom so players could follow social-distancing requirements. Bouchard did find one positive in the abnormal experience, at least. &ldquo;It was something that I definitely wasn&rsquo;t used to, but when they go over (video), they send you the clips of it, and you can always rewatch it as many times as you want to really get everything down, so you really know everything that is going on,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>Communication between players and coaching staffs has changed in the past couple seasons, and it&rsquo;s shifted between players and their teammates, too. For all of last season and &ndash; thanks to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant &ndash; the second half of this season, players have been extremely limited in their social interactions. They can&rsquo;t bond over restaurant dinners or explore cities on the road. It might not massively impact veterans who&rsquo;ve known each other for years, but it&rsquo;s slowed down the rookies&rsquo; and sophomores&rsquo; processes of getting to know their teammates.</p><p>As Bouchard explains, bonding during the stricter protocol periods is actually tougher at home, where players pretty much have to leave when they finish with hockey-related activities. On the road, they can at least fraternize in the lounges, playing video games and ping-pong. A lot of the socializing must happen on the ice, as it&rsquo;s the one place players are allowed to interact fully. Added Smith: &ldquo;The guys were really good with me and the other guys who were in their first year or second year, making them feel comfortable and chatting at the rink when we could. Definitely a different year. We weren&rsquo;t really able to go to team dinners or team functions like that, so that made it a little more difficult.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_boucha_111/794378-1-eng-US/buzz_boucha_1112.jpg" title="buzz_boucha_111" width="1096" height="768"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE</b></p><p>Bouchard says being able to watch video breakdowns as often as he liked was one benefit of Zoom meetings.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>The difficulty has extended to media interactions, too. Veterans whose careers began pre-COVID have at least built rapports with beat reporters that can translate partially over Zoom calls. If you&rsquo;ve only been in the NHL for a couple seasons, however, you&rsquo;ve had few face-to-face interactions with media. The experience is far colder. Yet when dressing rooms temporarily opened for the start of 2021-22, the change to in-person interviews was a shock to the less experienced players. &ldquo;At one point last year that was kind of the new normal, so it wasn&rsquo;t too bad that everything was over Zoom,&rdquo; Bouchard said. &ldquo;Today, in person, it makes it that much more surreal and kind of in your face. It depends on who you are, but I like the face to face. You get to see the people who are asking you the questions rather than just staring at a screen.&rdquo;</p><p>Now it&rsquo;s back to staring at screens, as the NHL reverted in December to many of its 2020-21 protocols. This season, then, has been somewhat of a tease for the league&rsquo;s younger cohort. They got a brief glimpse of &ldquo;normal&rdquo; at the start of the season but may not get the full NHL experience until 2022-23.</p><div class="sidebar"><h4>For up to the minute coverage, visit</h4><h3><a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">Thehockeynews.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></h3></div>

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THE NHL’S PANDEMIC BABIES

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_lorenz_084" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_lorenz_084/796802-1-eng-US/next_lorenz_0842.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BE LIKE BLAKE</b></p><p>Lorenz, with his size, speed and heady play, keeps an eye on the Jets&rsquo; Wheeler to see how he performs. (CHAD GODDARD PHOTOGRAPHY/OKOTOKS OILERS)</p><p></p></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HEN THE ALBERTA JR.</b> A League&rsquo;s Okotoks Oilers beat the powerhouse Brooks Bandits in early January, they didn&rsquo;t just snap the Bandits&rsquo; 17-game win streak, they also demonstrated why this could be a prosperous NHL draft year for the franchise.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/okotoks_oil_085/796809-1-eng-US/okotoks_oil_0852.jpg" title="okotoks_oil_085" width="187" height="187"></div><p>The Oilers have two players on scouts&rsquo; radars in left winger Rieger Lorenz and right winger Bowden Singleton, and in that win over Brooks, both were offensive drivers as well as key penalty-killers as usual. &ldquo;We have a pretty young and fresh team,&rdquo; said Oilers coach-GM Tyler Deis. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a learning period, and everyone is getting opportunities to play in all different situations. With those two guys, they want to be out there and have the opportunity to play that 200-foot game. They want to be relied on.&rdquo;</p><p>Lorenz, a potential top-40 draft pick in 2022, is the only non-Brooks player in the top five of AJHL scoring. And with a great shot and mobility to go with his 6-foot-2, 185-pound frame, there&rsquo;s no question why NHL teams are interested in his future services. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a really focused individual,&rdquo; Deis said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s dialled in on the areas he wants to get better at and puts the extra time in. He asks questions, he goes over game tape, he&rsquo;s a big learner and has a huge passion for the game. He&rsquo;s got those intangibles.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_single_089/796795-1-eng-US/next_single_0892.jpg" title="next_single_089" width="566" height="824"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BOWDEN SINGLETON</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(CHAD GODDARD PHOTOGRAPHY/OKOTOKS OILERS)</span></figcaption></div><p>And the learning has continued during Lorenz&rsquo;s season with the Oilers. &ldquo;Before, I was more one-dimensional,&rdquo; Lorenz said. &ldquo;Coach Deis helped me build that 200-foot game, and I&rsquo;ve physically matured the two years I&rsquo;ve been here, which has helped, too. I still need to develop more of a power aspect to my game, that&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve been working at with the coaches right now. And at the next level, speed is something you always have to work on. I think I have the smarts to play at a high level, so it&rsquo;s more about getting your body in good positions where you can execute at that level.&rdquo;</p><p>To that end, he&rsquo;s been watching a lot of powerful NHL wingers, such as Blake Wheeler and Mikko Rantanen.</p><p>Lorenz&rsquo;s father played four years of NCAA hockey at Notre Dame. While he knows his dad would have loved to see him commit to the Fighting Irish, Lorenz made an early connection with the University of Denver&rsquo;s coaching staff, and he&rsquo;ll be heading down to play for the Pioneers next season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s more of an inner-city campus, and I really like that, you&rsquo;re close to everything,&rdquo; Lorenz said. &ldquo;And obviously, Denver itself is an unbelievable city.&rdquo;</p><p>Singleton will also be heading to play in the NCHC, as he has committed to the University of North Dakota. It won&rsquo;t be the first time he&rsquo;ll be lining up against his buddy, though. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve played against each other since novice and played spring hockey together sometimes,&rdquo; Singleton said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve always had a good competition.&rdquo;</p><p>Singleton has also known Deis since the youngster was in Grade 4, and Deis has been his skills coach ever since (on top of being his coach in Okotoks). So naturally, there was a familiarity in recruiting the winger to the Oilers. &ldquo;He can make guys around him better,&rdquo; Deis said. &ldquo;He sees the ice well, his small-area passes are off the charts, his release is elite and he makes plays out there.&rdquo;</p><p>Singleton, listed at 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds by Central Scouting, isn&rsquo;t blessed with Lorenz&rsquo;s size, but he&rsquo;s still quite effective thanks to his smarts and quickness. He&rsquo;s also a top scorer in the AJHL, and he looks at NHLers such as Brad Marchand and Brayden Point as role models. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re not the biggest or tallest guys in the league, but they&rsquo;re gritty and do everything right,&rdquo; Singleton said. &ldquo;They put the puck in the net and also work on the defensive side of the puck.&rdquo;</p><p>Central Scouting currently has Singleton tabbed as a late-round pick. He&rsquo;s continuing to work on his play in the defensive zone, his reads and his 200-foot game.</p><p>The Oilers came out of the holiday break with a decent record, albeit one damaged by a raft of injuries that forced them to go through a lot of adversity early on. But with players returning to health, there was a capable cast surrounding Lorenz and Singleton, and if anything, they&rsquo;ve already proven they can be giant slayers on any given night.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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OIL PROSPECTING IN OKOTOKS

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_lamour_086" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_lamour_086/796764-1-eng-US/next_lamour_0862.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lamoureux says he was overthinking early on. He&rsquo;s changed his mindset &ndash; and the scouts have noticed. <span class="photo-credit">(GHYSLAIN BERGERON/VOLTIGEURS DE DRUMMONDVILLE)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>GENT DOMINIC DE BLOIS</b> remembers the moment he realized his client Maveric Lamoureux was an elite athlete: the two were having some fun shooting hoops in Lamoureux&rsquo;s driveway a couple years ago when the 6-foot-5 teen threw down a monster two-handed slam dunk &ndash; while wearing sandals.</p><p>Lamoureux, a potential first-rounder in the 2022 NHL draft, is now 6-foot-7 and nearly 200 pounds, but by the time he fully fills out, he believes he could tip the scales at around 230. Needless to say, with his size, mobility and puckhandling ability, Lamoureux has NHL scouts intrigued, and they believe the Drummondville Voltigeurs defenseman is just scratching the surface in the QMJHL. And heading into the second half of the season, Lamoureux believes he has more to give, too. &ldquo;I would say the first month, I wasn&rsquo;t really playing my best,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was probably thinking too much about the draft and putting too much pressure on myself. After that, I changed my mindset and started to play well. That&rsquo;s when scouts started noticing me more, too.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/drummondvil_087/796757-1-eng-US/drummondvil_0872.jpg" title="drummondvil_087" width="186" height="187"></div><p>It&rsquo;s hard to miss him. On top of his frame and skating acumen, Lamoureux also has a mean streak, something he attributes to his background in lacrosse, which he played in the summer until he was 15. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good second sport for hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My nasty side, the cross-checks and slashes, comes from lacrosse.&rdquo;</p><p>There are also genetics to consider. His father, Patrick Lamoureux, is a former QMJHLer who eventually played in the province&rsquo;s notorious semi-pro LNAH, which is known for wild fights and brawls. So did Maveric get a history lesson from dad? &ldquo;Oh, of course,&rdquo; Lamoureux said. &ldquo;He showed me a couple videos of him fighting. Sometimes he gives me tips so I can be ready when it&rsquo;s time for me to fight, it&rsquo;s going to happen one day. I&rsquo;m not going to rush it, but with my style of game, of course it&rsquo;s going to happen.&rdquo;</p><p>In the meantime, Lamoureux has his sights set on an NHL defenseman who does a little bit of everything with his massive frame: St. Louis Blues stalwart Colton Parayko. Lamoureux likes the fact Parayko can move the puck, play in both ends and be physical. And Lamoureux continues to work on his own muscle strength so he can be a beast in a few years, too.</p><p>Once Lamoureux becomes a finished product, he&rsquo;s going to be a valuable NHLer. A slam dunk, if you will.</p><div class="sidebar"><h4>FOR DAILY PROSPECT COVERAGE, VISIT</h4><h3><a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">Thehockeynews.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></h3></div>

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LARGE AND IN CHARGE

<div class="byline">Matt Larkin</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="ml_2020_cmy_093" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ml_2020_cmy_093/794295-1-eng-US/ml_2020_cmy_0932.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(STEVEN ELLIS/THE HOCKEY NEWS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>EEMU SELANNE&rsquo;S 1992-93 ROOKIE</b> season remains unchallenged as the greatest in hockey history. The 76 goals? The 132 points? Come on. But &lsquo;The Finnish Flash,&rsquo; in hindsight, had it easy.</p><p>The Winnipeg Jets drafted Selanne 10th overall in 1988. Over the next four seasons, he completed his military service, lit up the Finnish League with Jokerit and, no joke, taught kindergarten during the day. North American hockey fans didn&rsquo;t recognize the teenaged Teemu Selanne on the street. They didn&rsquo;t watch highlights of his games on YouTube. They didn&rsquo;t follow him on Instagram. By the time he arrived in the NHL, he was 22. He carried a degree of hype given his first-round draft status, but he was overshadowed by the feverish obsession over fellow rookie Eric Lindros.</p><p>The rookie Selanne didn&rsquo;t live under a microscope. Fans didn&rsquo;t do things like chart his 5-on-5 expected-goals percentage and surmise he was actually inferior defensively. And people definitely didn&rsquo;t mine his old social-media posts. Remember what happened to Charlie McAvoy the night the Boston Bruins drafted him in 2016? The online detectives found tweets from three years earlier in which he, then a 15-year-old New York Rangers fan, wrote, &ldquo;I hate the Bruins so much.&rdquo;</p><p>The adage goes that older generations brag to whippersnappers about walking uphill in the snow to and from school but, when it comes to the NHL, the current young &rsquo;uns have it the toughest. Many come from smothering childhoods in which they play hockey year-round and have private skills coaches on top of team instruction. They play longer, more gruelling schedules than ever between the junior circuits and jumping to the pros. Those drafted in the top portion of the first round are expected to reach the NHL and contribute quicker than ever, lest they get slapped with &lsquo;bust&rsquo; labels. They&rsquo;re given media training at young ages. They live under pressure to be perfect. It&rsquo;s a wonder they can grip their sticks without their hands quivering by the time they debut in the NHL.</p><p>And that makes the current generation of freshman NHL players particularly miraculous. Trevor Zegras (pg. 28), who developed a hot-dog skill set watching YouTube as a kid, gets scrutinized whenever he pulls scintillating moves like &lsquo;The Michigan,&rsquo; which coach turned broadcaster John Tortorella called &ldquo;bad for the game.&rdquo; Rookie blueliner Moritz Seider, part of a powerhouse trio of Red Wings rookies (pg. 36), seems forever married to his surprisingly high draft slot and constantly answers for it. Meanwhile, every rookie in the NHL must navigate the unprecedented threat of COVID-19 (pg. 10). Selanne would&rsquo;ve had a hard time scoring 76 goals in the pandemic era. He probably would&rsquo;ve missed games in quarantine at some point.</p><p>So while the current batch of first-year NHLers may not approach the instant statistical highs of generations past, today&rsquo;s kids are equally impressive, because they&rsquo;ve reached the world&rsquo;s highest level in spite of the ceaseless background noise. We celebrate them in this issue.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/mattlarkin__094/794288-1-eng-US/mattlarkin__0942.jpg" title="mattlarkin__094" width="527" height="144"></div><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/twitterlogo_095/794281-1-eng-US/twitterlogo_0952.jpg" title="twitterlogo_095" width="42" height="34"></span><p><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/THNMattLarkin"><b>@THNMATTLARKIN</b></a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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The First Word

KIDS THESE DAYS…

<div class="byline">W. Graeme Roustan</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="0_graemerou_132" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/0_graemerou_132/794347-1-eng-US/0_graemerou_1322.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY MICHELLE VALBERG)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>J</span>AN. 27 MARKS MY</b> four-year anniversary as the owner of The Hockey News, and the present I was afforded was that I got to sit down and talk with the great Willie O&rsquo;Ree, who turns 87 years young this year. Starting on page 88, you can read some of my Q&A with him as we sat down to talk at the beginning of Black History Month on everything from growing up in New Brunswick as the youngest of 13 to his life in San Diego today. For the full interview go to <a href="http://THN.com/P2P">THN.com/P2P</a>.</p><p>Having been the chairman of Bauer and the owner of The Hockey News and many other hockey companies, I have had the honor and privilege of meeting scores of great people in the hockey industry over the past 30 years, but none more impressive than O&rsquo;Ree.</p><p>By now, everyone in the hockey industry, as well as many in other sports, knows who O&rsquo;Ree is and what a trailblazer he is. His first game in the NHL, on Jan. 18, 1958, solidified him forever in the history books for what he was able to accomplish. His on-ice appearance cleared the way for many others to see that they too could dream to play in the NHL and actually do it. Many have written about this and his story is well-told and well-known.</p><p>It is what he has done off the ice that is equally and arguably more important than what he did getting on the ice in The Show. The very appropriate ambassador title that the NHL has bestowed on him is spot on, as his off-ice hockey career has lasted much longer than his on-ice hockey career did. He wears the NHL ambassador badge well, but his message is much bigger than the game of hockey.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">YOUR LEGACY AND HOW PEOPLE WILL REMEMBER YOU IS ALL THAT MATTERS, <b>AND WE ALL HAVE ONE SHOT TO LEAVE A POSITIVE LEGACY</b></blockquote><p>When talking with him, you know that you are talking to an historic figure, which in and of itself is amazing that I get this once-in-a-lifetime (if at all) opportunity. After compartmentalizing that, I focused on listening to some of his experiences and the life lessons that he was able to take from them and add to his treasure chest of character and integrity that he takes with him everywhere he goes.</p><p>At times, I just wished more people could hear what he has to say and apply his outlook on life, especially how he believes people should treat one another. Although a fighter in his early years on the ice, he never fought when a racial slur was thrown his way because had he done that, the racists would win. O&rsquo;Ree&rsquo;s approach when he was a player was to always take the high road when he was threatened, insulted and berated.</p><p>Take a look at where he is today. He has spent decades traveling as the NHL&rsquo;s ambassador, spreading the word of inclusion and believing in one&rsquo;s self with kids on the streets, in schools, in hockey arenas and in prisons and institutions. He is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He has changed the lives of millions by inspiring them to go after their dreams.</p><p>And where are all those faceless, nameless and heartless people who hurled insults at him when he was on the ice now? What positive contribution have they made to society by throwing slurs at anyone? They are the forgotten people who chose the wrong side of history.</p><p>As we all get older, most of us realize that all that will remain of us once we die is the legacy of who we were and how we made life better or worse for others. That&rsquo;s it. Your legacy and how people will remember you is all that matters, and we all have one shot to leave a positive legacy.</p><p>O&rsquo;Ree will have a legacy of an historical figure who inspired people to go after their dreams and to treat others as they wished to be treated. After spending only an hour with him, I realized that the world desperately needs more people like Willie O&rsquo;Ree.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/graemeroust_131/794340-1-eng-US/graemeroust_1312.jpg" title="graemeroust_131" width="583" height="124"></div><p datastyle>Executive Chairman & Publisher, Roustan Media Ltd.</p><p><b><a href="http://roustan.com">roustan.com</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Opening Thoughts

WILLIE O’REE AMBASSADOR TO THE WORLD

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="mask_knight_060" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/mask_knight_060/794437-1-eng-US/mask_knight_0602.jpg"></div><h2><b>SPENCER KNIGHT | FLORIDA PANTHERS</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><b><span>K</span>NIGHT&rsquo;S CRISP AND SIMPLE</b> mask, prominently featuring the Panthers&rsquo; primary logo, feels fitting for a rookie netminder known for poise belying his age. But every design from artist Dave Gunnarsson, a self-professed &ldquo;paint nerd,&rdquo; is more complex than it seems. The faded background makes the Panther pop for a 3-D effect, and a closer look reveals tiny outlines of the team&rsquo;s old pouncing-cat logo on the top, sides and bottom.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/mask_knight_061/794430-1-eng-US/mask_knight_0612.jpg" title="mask_knight_061" width="648" height="855"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/mask_knight_062/794423-1-eng-US/mask_knight_0622.jpg" title="mask_knight_062" width="647" height="856"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVID GUNNARSSON/DAVEART.COM)</span></figcaption></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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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/jersey_ligh_063/794482-1-eng-US/jersey_ligh_0632.jpg" title="jersey_ligh_063" width="662" height="769"></div><h2><b>STADIUM SERIES | TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HEN YOU&rsquo;RE PLAYING IN</b> a Stadium Series, you gotta go bold. That&rsquo;s what Tampa Bay has done with its entry into the pantheon of special sweaters for the outdoor tilt against Nashville on Feb. 26.</p><p>There are folks who don&rsquo;t like when a team uses a nickname on a jersey, and I respect that, but I&rsquo;m on board with the &lsquo;Bolts&rsquo; wordmark here, especially with the unique font used by the Lightning. The fact this is a maximalist design with the big swath of blue at the bottom (in lightning bolt form, of course) is pretty fetching, too. Bringing that blue onto the cuffs also helps accent the otherwise clean white look.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jersey_ligh_064/794475-1-eng-US/jersey_ligh_0642.jpg" title="jersey_ligh_064" width="662" height="769"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jersey_ligh_065/794468-1-eng-US/jersey_ligh_0652.jpg" title="jersey_ligh_065" width="209" height="209"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS BY TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING)</span></figcaption></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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JERSEY HOUND

<div class="byline">&#x2013; SAL BARRY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_cards1_070/794558-1-eng-US/buzz_cards1_0702.jpg" title="buzz_cards1_070" width="776" height="551"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_cards2_072/794551-1-eng-US/buzz_cards2_0722.jpg" title="buzz_cards2_072" width="596" height="498"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>ILLIE O&rsquo;REE BECAME THE</b> NHL&rsquo;s first Black player when he made his debut with the Bruins on Jan. 18, 1958. But he didn&rsquo;t get his own hockey card with the B&rsquo;s until almost 40 years later. O&rsquo;Ree had a Beehive photo that fans could mail away for in the late 1950s and early &rsquo;60s, and a card in the 1956-57 Quebec Aces team set. Sharp-eyed card collectors can also spot O&rsquo;Ree on the 1961-62 Topps Hockey card picturing the 1961 Bruins team. O&rsquo;Ree finally got his own &ldquo;rookie card&rdquo; in the 1997-98 Pinnacle Beehive set, an oversized set of cards named after the old mail-away photos.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_cards3_071/794544-1-eng-US/buzz_cards3_0712.jpg" title="buzz_cards3_071" width="610" height="848"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_cards1_070

IN THE CARDS

<div class="byline">BY SAL BARRY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/puckculture_025/794624-1-eng-US/puckculture_0252.jpg" title="puckculture_025" width="626" height="626"></div><h2><b>1.</b><b>&nbsp;ZAMBONI</b></h2><p><b><i>by Gear Daddies</i></b></p><p><i>Zamboni</i> by Minnesota group Gear Daddies is about one man&rsquo;s desire to drive the ice-resurfacing machine at his local rink, only to be denied because it&rsquo;s expensive and takes practice to operate. The song&rsquo;s slow, lackadaisical tempo mirrors the hypnotic pace of a Zamboni gradually making its way around the ice. It was originally a hidden track on the Gear Daddies&rsquo; second album, &ldquo;Billy&rsquo;s Live Bait,&rdquo; but later appeared on the soundtracks for <i>D2: The Mighty Ducks</i> and <i>Mystery, Alaska</i>.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/puckculture_026/794617-1-eng-US/puckculture_0262.jpg" title="puckculture_026" width="617" height="617"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/puckculture_030/794610-1-eng-US/puckculture_0302.jpg" title="puckculture_030" width="648" height="462"></div><h2><b>2.</b><b>&nbsp;50 MISSION CAP</b></h2><p><b><i>by The Tragically Hip</i></b></p><p>This song by Canadian rock group The Tragically Hip is about Maple Leafs defenseman Bill Barilko&rsquo;s heroics in the 1951 Stanley Cup final, his mysterious disappearance and the eerie coincidence of the Leafs not winning the Cup again until 1962 &ndash; the year his body was found. The lyric &ldquo;I stole this from a hockey card&rdquo; refers to a 1991-92 Pro Set card that recounts Barilko&rsquo;s overtime goal and subsequent disappearance.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/puckculture_027/794603-1-eng-US/puckculture_0272.jpg" title="puckculture_027" width="618" height="618"></div><h2><b>3.</b><b>&nbsp;GRETZKY ROCKS</b></h2><p><b><i>by The Pursuit of Happiness</i></b></p><p>The song is called <i>Gretzky Rocks</i> and it&rsquo;s by Canadian rock band The Pursuit of Happiness, but it&rsquo;s actually a country song! No matter, the upbeat tune retells The Great One&rsquo;s storied career and opines that if those critical of hockey would &ldquo;just watch Wayne Gretzky play, then they&rsquo;d watch hockey every day.&rdquo; We completely agree.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/puckculture_028/794596-1-eng-US/puckculture_0282.jpg" title="puckculture_028" width="611" height="610"></div><h2><b>4.</b><b>&nbsp;I WANNA BE A NY RANGER</b></h2><p><b><i>by Misfits</i></b></p><p>This is a 98-second punk-rock twist of the U.S. Army&rsquo;s <i>I Wanna Be an Airborne Ranger</i> marching cadence. It was intended to be recorded by the Ramones and played at Rangers games &ndash; but the Ramones retired, so it was recorded by the Misfits, who released it as a limited-edition CD single in 1998. And the Rangers&rsquo; marketing department objected to the word &ldquo;danger&rdquo; in the lyrics, so it was never played at games. It later appeared on the Misfits&rsquo; 2001 album &ldquo;Cuts from the Crypt,&rdquo; while a 30-second version was on the 1999 compilation &ldquo;Short Music for Short People.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/puckculture_029/794589-1-eng-US/puckculture_0292.jpg" title="puckculture_029" width="606" height="606"></div><h2><b>5.</b><b>&nbsp;THE HOCKEY SONG</b></h2><p><b><i>by Stompin&rsquo; Tom Connors</i></b></p><p>Folk singer Stompin&rsquo; Tom Connors&rsquo; catchy tune about &ldquo;the good old hockey game&rdquo; is probably the sport&rsquo;s most famous song. Originally released in 1973 and rerecorded in 2008, <i>The Hockey Song</i> has three verses, each about a period of a fictional championship game. Today, it is played at rinks around the world, and it was featured in commercials for the video game NHL &rsquo;10 and for the 2012 NHL Winter Classic.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

puckculture_025

PUCK CULTURE

<div class="byline">BY REG LANSBERRY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_pronge_023" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_pronge_023/794683-1-eng-US/buzz_pronge_0232.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>Pronger&rsquo;s laundry list of accomplishments made him a no-brainer to have his number retired in St. Louis.</p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF CURRY-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>N THE &ldquo;RETIREMENT</b> Community&rdquo; feature in our Numbers Issue (Vol. 75, Issue 5), we took a deep-dive look at the 155 players who&rsquo;d had their number raised to the rafters by NHL franchises. But in the short time since that edition was published, in November 2021, four more players have been honored, with another three to come later this season, bringing the total to 162.</p><p>Defenseman Chris Pronger of the St. Louis Blues became the eighth player in team history to have his number retired. The Hall of Famer&rsquo;s No. 44 joined seven Blues legends in a ceremony held on Jan. 17. Pronger, winner of the Hart and Norris Trophies in 2000, was a menacing presence on the Blues&rsquo; backline for nearly 600 games over nine seasons.</p><p>Willie O&rsquo;Ree, who made history on Jan. 18, 1958, by becoming the first Black NHLer, had his No. 22 sweater retired by the Boston Bruins on Jan. 18. Due to COVID-19 concerns, O&rsquo;Ree, now 86, participated in the ceremony virtually from his home in San Diego. The following day, by a vote of 426-0, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill to bestow upon O&rsquo;Ree the Congressional Gold Medal, the U.S. Congress&rsquo; highest honor. O&rsquo;Ree received the Lester Patrick Trophy in 2003, he is namesake of the Willie O&rsquo;Ree Community Hero Award, and he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018 as a builder.</p><p>Two numbers were retired on Jan. 28. In New York, iconic goaltender Henrik Lundqvist joined 10 other Rangers greats when his No. 30 headed to the MSG rafters. &lsquo;King Henrik&rsquo; retired as the team&rsquo;s all-time leader in wins (459) and shutouts (64) after 15 seasons, which included snaring the Vezina Trophy in 2011-12.</p><p>Meanwhile, 1,548 miles to the south, the Dallas Stars saluted defenseman Sergei Zubov, a member of their 1998-99 Stanley Cup titlists, by retiring his No. 56. Zubov&rsquo;s quiet brilliance saw him register 111 goals and 549 points during 839 games over 12 seasons with the Stars.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_oree/794669-1-eng-US/buzz_oree2.jpg" title="buzz_oree" width="1021" height="684"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>LATEST HONOR</b></p><p>O&rsquo;Ree got the Lester Patrick in 2003 and was inducted into the Hall in 2018. Now his number hangs in Boston.</p> <span class="photo-credit">( BOB DECHIARA-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>The forthcoming trio of players to have their numbers retired this season will all hold the distinction of being the initial honoree in team history.</p><p>Goaltender Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators will have his No. 35 retired on Feb. 24. Rinne captured the Vezina Trophy in 2017-18 while winning a franchise-record 369 games and posting 60 shutouts over 15 seasons.</p><p>The Columbus Blue Jackets will fete left winger Rick Nash on March 5, when they raise his No. 61 skyward. The team&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer (289 goals, 547 points), Nash finished in a three-way tie for the Rocket Richard Trophy in 2003-04.</p><p>Finally, center Mikko Koivu, the Minnesota Wild&rsquo;s revered captain for 11 seasons, will have his No. 9 hoisted to the ceiling on March 13. In 1,028 games wearing Wild green and white, Koivu tallied 205 goals and 709 points.</p><h2><b>LATEST NHL NUMBER RETIREMENTS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-0168/794655-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="1035" height="410"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_pronge_023

ADD THESE ON

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_ovechk_136" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_ovechk_136/794910-1-eng-US/buzz_ovechk_1362.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">ALEX <b>OVECHKIN</b> <span class="photo-credit">(TOM SZCZERBOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>HERE&rsquo;S A TRIVIA QUESTION</b> to impress your friends. Who holds the NHL record for the most games played by a rookie?</p><p>I can hear you thinking.</p><p>It&rsquo;s not a thousand-way tie for first place with 82 games &ndash; the length of a typical NHL season. (Kudos to you if you remember the 84-game season and you guessed that. But you&rsquo;re still wrong, Binky.)</p><p>Remember, if you don&rsquo;t play a minimum number of games one season you&rsquo;re still a rookie the next. The rule for Calder Trophy eligibility is no more than 25 games in a preceding season or six or more games in any two preceding seasons. So you could be a rookie over and over again&hellip;for Calder purposes anyway.</p><p>The rookie record is held by Mike Hoffman at 108 games. He played one game for Ottawa in 2011-12, three games the next season, then 25 games in 2013-14. Then he played almost a full season for Ottawa in 2014-15, where his 79 games bumped his &ldquo;rookie&rdquo; games-played total to 108. Nelson Pyatt from the 1970s is next at 107 games, and four others, including Adrian Kempe of L.A., are at 106 games. Kempe played 25 games prior to his true Calder rookie season.</p><p>But how about the most prolific rookies regardless of number of games? Here are franchise leaders, including total number of games as a rookie, with goals, assists and points.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ari39/794952-1-eng-US/ari2.jpg" title="ari" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>1.</b>&nbsp;<b>ARIZONA</b>&nbsp;<b>COYOTES</b></h2><p><b>TEEMU SELANNE, 84-76-56-132</b></p><p>A rookie year like no other in 1992-93 for the Winnipeg Jets. His 76 goals that season tied for fifth-most of all-time.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/bos41/794945-1-eng-US/bos2.jpg" title="bos" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>2.</b>&nbsp;<b>BOSTON</b>&nbsp;<b>BRUINS</b></h2><p><b>JOE JUNEAU, 98-37-84-121</b></p><p>His 102 rookie points weren&rsquo;t enough for the Calder. Because Selanne. Juneau had 19 points in 14 games the year before.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/col41/794938-1-eng-US/col2.jpg" title="col" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>3.</b>&nbsp;<b>COLORADO</b>&nbsp;<b>AVALANCHE</b></h2><p><b>PETER STASTNY, 77-39-70-109</b></p><p>Stastny was a seasoned 24 when he came over from Czechoslovakia in 1980-81. He had 139 points as a sophomore.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wsh43/794931-1-eng-US/wsh2.jpg" title="wsh" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>4.</b>&nbsp;<b>WASHINGTON</b>&nbsp;<b>CAPITALS</b></h2><p><b>ALEX OVECHKIN, 81-52-54-106</b></p><p>Those stats came as a 20-year-old in 2005-06 and were third in NHL. He was ready at 19, but the lockout stalled him.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/pit41/794924-1-eng-US/pit2.jpg" title="pit" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>5.</b>&nbsp;<b>PITTSBURGH</b>&nbsp;<b>PENGUINS</b></h2><p><b>SIDNEY CROSBY, 81-39-63-102</b></p><p>Balloting for the Calder wasn&rsquo;t close in &rsquo;05-06. Ovechkin had 124 of 129 first-place votes, runner-up Crosby just four.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/dal46/794917-1-eng-US/dal2.jpg" title="dal" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>6.</b>&nbsp;<b>DALLAS</b>&nbsp;<b>STARS</b></h2><p><b>NEAL BROTEN, 76-40-60-100</b></p><p>The Minnesota native and 1980 Olympian was 22 when he ripped it up for his home-state North Stars in 1981-82.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cgy41/794903-1-eng-US/cgy2.jpg" title="cgy" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>7.</b>&nbsp;<b>CALGARY</b>&nbsp;<b>FLAMES</b></h2><p><b>JOE NIEUWENDYK, 84-56-42-98</b></p><p>He is one of just four rookies to have a 50-goal season. And he did it at 21 in 1987-88, one year after leaving Cornell.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nyi38/794896-1-eng-US/nyi2.jpg" title="nyi" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>8.</b>&nbsp;<b>NEW YORK</b>&nbsp;<b>ISLANDERS</b></h2><p><b>BRYAN TROTTIER, 80-32-63-95</b></p><p>An instant leader for the Islanders at 19 in 1975-76. Just two years later, Mike Bossy produced a 91-point rookie term.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/chi40/794889-1-eng-US/chi2.jpg" title="chi" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>9.</b>&nbsp;<b>CHICAGO</b>&nbsp;<b>BLACKHAWKS</b></h2><p><b>STEVE LARMER, 87-43-48-91</b></p><p>His Calder season in 1982-83 was the start of an 11-year run with Chicago in which he didn&rsquo;t miss a single game.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/det35/794882-1-eng-US/det2.jpg" title="det" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>10.</b>&nbsp;<b>DETROIT</b>&nbsp;<b>RED WINGS</b></h2><p><b>STEVE YZERMAN, 80-39-48-87</b></p><p>Stepped right in at 18 in 1983-84 after being drafted fourth overall behind Lawton, Turgeon and LaFontaine.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nyr42/794875-1-eng-US/nyr2.jpg" title="nyr" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>11.</b>&nbsp;<b>NEW YORK</b>&nbsp;<b>RANGERS</b></h2><p><b>BRIAN LEETCH, 85-25-60-85</b></p><p>The highest-scoring defenseman on this list, but 14 of his 85 &ldquo;rookie&rdquo; points came during a 17-game trial in 1987-88.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/la36/794868-1-eng-US/la2.jpg" title="la" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>12.</b>&nbsp;<b>LOS ANGELES</b>&nbsp;<b>KINGS</b></h2><p><b>LUC ROBITAILLE, 79-45-39-84</b></p><p>Two years after being drafted in the ninth round in 1984, he began a career that set the standard for left wingers.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_nyland_138/794861-1-eng-US/buzz_nyland_1382.jpg" title="buzz_nyland_138" width="1021" height="1122"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>WILLIAM <b>NYLANDER</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/phi39/794854-1-eng-US/phi2.jpg" title="phi" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>13.</b>&nbsp;<b>PHILADELPHIA</b>&nbsp;<b>FLYERS</b></h2><p><b>RON FLOCKHART, 86-36-46-82</b></p><p>&ldquo;Flocky hockey&rdquo; was a big thing in the Spectrum for a few seasons beginning in 1980-81. Man, could he rag the puck.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ott36/794847-1-eng-US/ott2.jpg" title="ott" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>14.</b>&nbsp;<b>OTTAWA</b>&nbsp;<b>SENATORS</b></h2><p><b>ALEXEI YASHIN, 83-30-49-79</b></p><p>He was the toast of the town at 20 in &rsquo;93-94, the first star face of the franchise. Six years later, he was reviled in Ottawa.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/edm38/794840-1-eng-US/edm2.jpg" title="edm" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>15.</b>&nbsp;<b>EDMONTON</b>&nbsp;<b>OILERS</b></h2><p><b>JARI KURRI, 75-32-43-75</b></p><p>Came over from Helsinki at 20 in 1980-81 and landed on Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s right wing. He turned into a two-way ace.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buf34/794833-1-eng-US/buf2.jpg" title="buf" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>16.</b>&nbsp;<b>BUFFALO</b>&nbsp;<b>SABRES</b></h2><p><b>RICHARD MARTIN, 73-44-30-74</b></p><p>Gilbert Perreault was the team&rsquo;s first-ever pick in 1970. A year later, Martin arrived and outscored him by two points.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tor40/794826-1-eng-US/tor2.jpg" title="tor" width="83" height="82"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>17.</b>&nbsp;<b>TORONTO</b>&nbsp;<b>MAPLE LEAFS</b></h2><p><b>WILLIAM NYLANDER, 103-28-46-74</b></p><p>Auston Matthews had 69 points in 2016-17 as a rookie. Nylander had 13 points prior to his 61-point full rookie year.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/stl43/794819-1-eng-US/stl2.jpg" title="stl" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>18. ST. LOUIS BLUES</b></h2><p><b>JORGEN PETTERSSON, 62-37-36-73</b></p><p>He averaged 32 goals and 66 points in his first five NHL seasons starting at age 24 in 1980-81 before Petter-ing out.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tb40/794812-1-eng-US/tb2.jpg" title="tb" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>19.</b>&nbsp;<b>TAMPA BAY</b>&nbsp;<b>LIGHTNING</b></h2><p><b>YANNI GOURDE, 104-31-42-73</b></p><p>He topped Steven Stamkos, Brad Richards and Vincent Lecavalier in 2017-18, but he had 104 games of runway.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/car39/794805-1-eng-US/car2.jpg" title="car" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>20.</b>&nbsp;<b>CAROLINA</b>&nbsp;<b>HURRICANES</b></h2><p><b>SYLVAIN TURGEON, 76-40-32-72</b></p><p>Pierre&rsquo;s older brother got off to a great start at 18 in 1983-84, but his three best seasons were his three first seasons.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/mtl38/794798-1-eng-US/mtl2.jpg" title="mtl" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>21.</b>&nbsp;<b>MONTREAL</b>&nbsp;<b>CANADIENS</b></h2><p><b>KJELL DAHLIN, 77-32-39-71</b></p><p>The magic disappeared after that debut season in 1985-86. Gets edge over Mats Naslund (also 71 pts) due to more goals.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nj35/794791-1-eng-US/nj2.jpg" title="nj" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>22.</b>&nbsp;<b>NEW JERSEY</b>&nbsp;<b>DEVILS</b></h2><p><b>SCOTT GOMEZ, 82-19-51-70</b></p><p>From 27th overall pick in 1998 to a Calder-winning season in 1999-2000. Gomez&rsquo;s forte was playmaking.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nsh44/794784-1-eng-US/nsh2.jpg" title="nsh" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>23.</b>&nbsp;<b>NASHVILLE</b>&nbsp;<b>PREDATORS</b></h2><p><b>FILIP FORSBERG, 100-27-42-69</b></p><p>Selected 11th overall by Washington in 2012, but he was a Predator less than a year later. Whither Martin Erat.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wpg44/794777-1-eng-US/wpg2.jpg" title="wpg" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>24.</b>&nbsp;<b>WINNIPEG</b>&nbsp;<b>JETS</b></h2><p><b>DANY HEATLEY, 82-26-41-67</b></p><p>Scoring star got off to a great start in Atlanta in 2001-02. Hit 50 goals twice, then the rest of career burned quickly.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ana36/794770-1-eng-US/ana2.jpg" title="ana" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>25.</b>&nbsp;<b>ANAHEIM</b>&nbsp;<b>DUCKS</b></h2><p><b>BOBBY RYAN, 87-36-31-67</b></p><p>His 23 games in 2007-08 set him up nicely for a 30-goal rookie season a year later. No. 2 pick behind Crosby in 2005.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_petter_137/794763-1-eng-US/buzz_petter_1372.jpg" title="buzz_petter_137" width="1021" height="1174"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>ELIAS <b>PETTERSSON</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(ANNE-MARIE SORVIN-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/van38/794756-1-eng-US/van2.jpg" title="van" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>26.</b>&nbsp;<b>VANCOUVER</b>&nbsp;<b>CANUCKS</b></h2><p><b>ELIAS PETTERSSON, 71-28-38-66</b></p><p>Streaking down the wing as a teenager in 2018-19, he scored in his first game on a howitzer to the corner against Calgary.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/sj40/794749-1-eng-US/sj2.jpg" title="sj" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>27.</b>&nbsp;<b>SAN JOSE</b>&nbsp;<b>SHARKS</b></h2><p><b>LOGAN COUTURE, 104-37-28-65</b></p><p>Won a job in 25 games with the Sharks in 2009-10, then came back and scored 32 goals as a rookie the next year.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/fla41/794742-1-eng-US/fla2.jpg" title="fla" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>28.</b>&nbsp;<b>FLORIDA</b>&nbsp;<b>PANTHERS</b></h2><p><b>JESSE BELANGER, 93-21-35-56</b></p><p>He had six points in 23 games with Montreal over two seasons before 50 points with the Panthers in 1993-94.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/min40/794735-1-eng-US/min2.jpg" title="min" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>29.</b>&nbsp;<b>MINNESOTA</b>&nbsp;<b>WILD</b></h2><p><b>KIRILL KAPRIZOV, 55-27-24-51</b></p><p>Prorate his 2020-21 rookie totals out to a full season and he&rsquo;s at 76 points and mid-pack. Marian Gaborik had just 36.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/clb45/794728-1-eng-US/clb2.jpg" title="clb" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>30.</b>&nbsp;<b>COLUMBUS</b>&nbsp;<b>BLUE JACKETS</b></h2><p><b>PIERRE-LUC DUBOIS, 82-20-28-48</b></p><p>The third overall pick in 2016 scored in his first game in 2017-18. Franchise icon Rick Nash had 39 points as a rookie.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/veg39/794721-1-eng-US/veg2.jpg" title="veg" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>31.</b>&nbsp;<b>VEGAS</b>&nbsp;<b>GOLDEN KNIGHTS</b></h2><p><b>ALEX TUCH, 84-15-22-37</b></p><p>Surprisingly one of just two rookies (Zach Whitecloud is the other) to play 50 or more games as a Knights rookie.</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/sea7/794714-1-eng-US/sea2.jpg" title="sea" width="83" height="83"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>32.</b>&nbsp;<b>SEATTLE</b>&nbsp;<b>KRAKEN</b></h2><p><b>WILL BORGEN, 14-1-1-2 (AS OF JAN. 28)</b></p><p>This is still a work in progress in Year 1for the NHL&rsquo;s 32nd franchise. But for now, Borgen holds the top spot.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_ovechk_136

THE COUNTDOWN

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-0160/795088-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="733" height="166"></div><h2><b>Name your favorite Non-NHL team</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-adi_139/795081-1-eng-US/soapbox-adi_1392.jpg" title="soapbox-adi_139" width="710" height="274"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-aih_140/795074-1-eng-US/soapbox-aih_1402.jpg" title="soapbox-aih_140" width="710" height="282"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-atl_141/795067-1-eng-US/soapbox-atl_1412.jpg" title="soapbox-atl_141" width="710" height="732"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-bel_143/795060-1-eng-US/soapbox-bel_1432.jpg" title="soapbox-bel_143" width="710" height="197"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-kal_151/795053-1-eng-US/soapbox-kal_1512.jpg" title="soapbox-kal_151" width="710" height="233"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-pet_152/795046-1-eng-US/soapbox-pet_1522.jpg" title="soapbox-pet_152" width="710" height="524"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-usp_153/795039-1-eng-US/soapbox-usp_1532.jpg" title="soapbox-usp_153" width="710" height="271"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-for_148/795032-1-eng-US/soapbox-for_1482.jpg" title="soapbox-for_148" width="710" height="572"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-iow_150/795025-1-eng-US/soapbox-iow_1502.jpg" title="soapbox-iow_150" width="710" height="190"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-cbj_144/795018-1-eng-US/soapbox-cbj_1442.jpg" title="soapbox-cbj_144" width="710" height="274"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-cyc_146/795011-1-eng-US/soapbox-cyc_1462.jpg" title="soapbox-cyc_146" width="710" height="188"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-cle_145/795004-1-eng-US/soapbox-cle_1452.jpg" title="soapbox-cle_145" width="710" height="480"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-epu_147/794997-1-eng-US/soapbox-epu_1472.jpg" title="soapbox-epu_147" width="710" height="190"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-gre_149/794990-1-eng-US/soapbox-gre_1492.jpg" title="soapbox-gre_149" width="710" height="190"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/soapbox-atl_142/794983-1-eng-US/soapbox-atl_1422.jpg" title="soapbox-atl_142" width="710" height="649"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0019-01

#TRENDING

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL&#xA0;BY KEN CAMPBELL&#xA0;</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="Screen Shot 2022-02-10 at 9.08.08 AM" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/screen-shot-2022-02-10-at-9.08.08-am2/797944-1-eng-US/screen-shot-2022-02-10-at-9.08.08-am.png"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>RIVALRY RENEWED</p><p>Farmer and Bridges will face off on the first day of action, as Canada takes on Team USA.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(Hockey Canada Images )</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>ITH EXACTLY ONE MINUTE</b> to go in the para-hockey gold-medal game in Pyeongchang in 2018, Rob Armstrong of Canada muscled his way down the right wall with the puck, then hit the goalpost on an empty net. Team USA&rsquo;s Declan Farmer got caught deep in the defensive zone, so he was late coming back up the ice. Teammates Brody Roybal and Josh Pauls miraculously managed to stay onside on the zone entry, and by the time Farmer made it into the offensive zone, he had the puck on his stick and an open net. Farmer scored his 10th goal of the tournament with 37.8 seconds left, then tied the Paralympic record when he scored his 11th of the tourney 3:30 into overtime. He&rsquo;d played every second of that 3:30.</p><p>It was one crucial, dramatic, glorious, gut-wrenching moment in time between the world&rsquo;s two most dominant para-hockey superpowers and heated rivals. Viewed through the divergent perspectives of Canadian superstar Billy Bridges and American puck wizard Farmer, you might be surprised to find that they don&rsquo;t differ all that much. Bridges possesses the hardest shot in the world and is in his 10th year of working toward a degree in astronomy and English literature, but he might as well be a philosophy major. &ldquo;I truly believe that someone on that American team needed that gold medal or else their life was going to pivot in a terrible way,&rdquo; said Bridges, who scored Canada&rsquo;s goal in the game. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not religious at all, but I do believe in hockey gods and hockey karma, and there must have been some need (for it) over there because that was such a crazy way to end that game.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/para-farmer_002/795175-1-eng-US/para-farmer_0022.jpg" title="para-farmer_002" width="1063" height="1796"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>DECLAN <b>FARMER</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(KEVIN JAIRAJ-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Farmer and his teammates have talked about that game often in the intervening years. The year before the Pyeongchang Games, coach Jeff Sauer, who led Team USA to the gold medal in Sochi and was to be behind the bench again in Pyeongchang, died of pancreatic cancer. &ldquo;We talked about (Sauer) nudging that puck just wide enough for it to hit the post,&rdquo; Farmer said. &ldquo;Weird things happen, and I&rsquo;m really glad Billy has that perspective on it.&rdquo;</p><p>Nobody knows what will happen in the para-hockey tournament in Beijing, but it would be shocking if Bridges and Farmer were not once again right in the middle of things. Because that&rsquo;s where they always are; the 2022 Games will be Bridges&rsquo; sixth Paralympics and Farmer&rsquo;s third. There was a time long ago when Bridges was the youngest player ever to represent Canada in international competition, and now at 37, he&rsquo;s the oldest guy on the team. Farmer, a 24-year-old who learned to play para hockey in Tampa, is the all-time leading scorer in U.S. national para-team history. Both have a penchant for coming up big in the big moments, both have devoted their lives to the sport and both approach their craft with the dedication befitting of the world&rsquo;s finest.</p><p>Since graduating from Princeton University with a degree in economics and a certificate in computer science in 2020, Farmer has moved to USA Hockey&rsquo;s unofficial para-team hub in Nashville to play and train with other players who live in the surrounding area.</p><p>Bridges, on the other hand, feels his best hockey-playing days are still ahead of him. He&rsquo;s already the Zdeno Chara of para hockey, capable of unleashing a one-handed shot clocked at 80 miles per hour when he sprints in from the red line. Before he had even heard of para hockey when he was a child in Summerside, P.E.I., Bridges would play road hockey with his non-disabled friends and dream of becoming the next Al MacInnis. The sticks he used at his first Olympics in Salt Lake in 2002 were actually handmade from two-by-fours he would cut out himself and sand down before having his father dip the two-centimeter blades into fiberglass. Two decades later, the Warrior stick company has a Billy Bridges pattern carbon-fiber para-hockey stick that most elite players worldwide, including Farmer, use in games.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/para-jeffsa_005/795168-1-eng-US/para-jeffsa_0052.jpg" title="para-jeffsa_005" width="551" height="787"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>HELP FROM ABOVE</p><p>The late Sauer was set to coach in 2018. But U.S. players believe he was still there to help capture gold.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(TEAM USA: KEVIN JAIRAJ-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>And when the puck is on those sticks, there might not be a better player in the game than Farmer. That mastery of the puck was never on display better than it was in overtime of the Pyeongchang gold-medal game, when he chased down a puck in the corner, came out with it and carried it wide before angling himself into a scoring position, then scoring the winning goal. &ldquo;I would say puck skills would be my biggest strength as a player,&rdquo; Farmer said. &ldquo;Shooting and handling with both hands. I take pride in playing hard defense, too. I look at other players to learn from their strengths. I was doing that before I made the national team, and I&rsquo;ve been doing that since I&rsquo;ve been on the national team.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">We talked about Sauer nudging that puck just wide enough for it to hit the post. Weird things happen<br>&ndash; Declan Farmer</blockquote><p>That includes watching the way U.S. teammate Josh Misiewicz, the world&rsquo;s best playmaker, reads the play and passes the puck. It&rsquo;s about taking a page from the manual of Canada&rsquo;s Liam Hickey, perhaps the fastest and most dynamic player in the world. And, of course, he&rsquo;s always trying to replicate Bridges&rsquo; world-renowned shot, one that comes from years of practising in his garage and from a rather unconventional style. You see, Bridges has a technique where he intentionally puts the pick of his stick into his knee, creating a lever that gives him extra leverage. He claims para-hockey players do it accidentally quite often, but because it hurts so much, they rarely do it again. With the technique, he goes through at least four sets of shin guards per year, but it works for him. After using his homemade sticks, the carbon fiber ones he now employs feel as light as feathers and allow him to really dig into his knee pad without causing pain. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost like I&rsquo;m shooting with two hands,&rdquo; Bridges said. &ldquo;Some guys can roll their wrist and take a one-handed shot, but when you see a guy who holds the middle of the stick and the other portion is tucked behind their back and they shoot, that&rsquo;s essentially what I&rsquo;m doing.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/para-roybal_004/795161-1-eng-US/para-roybal_0042.jpg" title="para-roybal_004" width="822" height="1054"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRODY <b>ROYBAL</b></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/para-pauls/795154-1-eng-US/para-pauls2.jpg" title="para-pauls" width="822" height="1054"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOSH <b>PAULS</b></figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">I truly believe that someone on that U.S. team needed that gold medal or their life was going to pivot in a terrible way<br>&ndash; Billy Bridges</blockquote><p>The rivalry between Canada and the U.S. in para hockey is every bit as hotly contested as it is between the two hockey superpowers&rsquo; women&rsquo;s and world-junior teams, with the Americans having the decided upper hand overall. Team USA has won four of the past five Paralympic gold medals and the past two World Championships. The two behemoths have met in the final of each of the past five World Championships, three of which the Americans won, but 2018 marked the first time they met in a Paralympic gold-medal game.</p><p>Whether they meet for gold again this time around is still very much an unknown. Part of that is because the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly restricted play between them. Since the Americans won the gold-medal game of the 2021 World Championship 5-1 back in June, the two teams have played only one two-game series, splitting those contests.</p><p>Another wild card is the presence of the Russian Paralympic Committee, which will be making its return to the Games after sitting out 2018 because of doping violations that resulted in suspensions that did not allow it to qualify for the Paralympics. But the Russians will be back, and they will be strong.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/para-hickey_006/795147-1-eng-US/para-hickey_0062.jpg" title="para-hickey_006" width="1553" height="1459"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>LIAM <b>HICKEY</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(HOCKEY CANADA IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The re-entry of the Russians and the tournament&rsquo;s format will make for an intriguing event from beginning to end. That&rsquo;s because the Paralympic tournament has adopted a format that sees the top four ranked countries in the tournament &ndash; in this case, the U.S., Canada, the Russian Paralympic Committee and Korea &ndash; in Group A. The four next countries &ndash; Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia and China &ndash; make up Group B. After each team plays a round-robin series in its own group, the top two teams in Group A receive a bye to the semifinal games. The bottom two teams in Group A and the top two teams in Group B then play in the quarterfinals. It&rsquo;s a format designed to cut down on the number of blowouts in the preliminary round and create an environment where every game is meaningful. For example, Canada plays the U.S. on the first day of the tournament, then faces the Russian Paralympic Committee the following morning. So there is no time to ease into this tournament.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I&rsquo;ve stopped putting all of my happiness and self-worth on that one game that comes every four years<br>&ndash; Billy Bridges</blockquote><p>And if all things fall into place the way they should, it will set up another showdown between the Americans and Canadians. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re coming into this thing pretty raw in terms of recent competition,&rdquo; Farmer said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to come down to whoever is playing the best the day of the game. Once you get to the semifinals, it&rsquo;s two Game 7s, and anything can happen. We&rsquo;ve been on the fortunate side of it the past couple of years, and we&rsquo;re trying to put ourselves in the best position to win those five or six games we play in Beijing.&rdquo;</p><p>When it comes down to it, there is not much more than a border separating Billy Bridges and Declan Farmer. Bridges was born with the effects of spina bifida and gets around using both crutches and a wheelchair. Farmer was born a bilateral amputee and, shortly after he was born, had surgery to better allow him to walk with prosthetics. Both Bridges and Farmer were exposed to the game at a young age, and both had a lot of success quickly. In fact, Bridges&rsquo; first major tournament was the 2000 World Championship, where he helped Canada win a gold medal at 15. Farmer, on the other hand, attended a clinic in Tampa put on by a New York team when he was nine. Para hockey was the first adaptive sport he ever played, and he fell in love with it. He also excelled at it early, in part because not long after he started playing, the Tampa Bay Lightning became the first team in the NHL to fully sponsor and coordinate a para team.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/para-farmer_003/795140-1-eng-US/para-farmer_0032.jpg" title="para-farmer_003" width="1207" height="1436"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>LOOK AHEAD</p><p>At just 24, Farmer could potentially play in another three Paralympics after the 2022 Games.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(USA HOCKEY)</span></figcaption></div><p>And even though 13 years and three Olympics separate them, Bridges and Farmer both feel they have a lot more to give the sport. With para players playing into their late 30s and early 40s, Farmer conceivably has at least three more Paralympics ahead of him. After these Games, he&rsquo;ll move to Colorado along with several other members of the U.S. team to live and train there. His girlfriend, who is finishing law school at the University of Florida, will join him there once she graduates, and that is where they&rsquo;ll make their home. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have to find a real job on top of hockey, and there are plenty of opportunities for that (in Colorado),&rdquo; Farmer said. &ldquo;They probably have the second-best hub after Nashville, and a bunch of guys are going to move there. I&rsquo;m going to play as long as I can stay healthy. I love it, and I can&rsquo;t imagine what my life would be like without the national team. Month to month, season to season, just getting to travel and play hockey with some of my best friends is something I&rsquo;m grateful for and something I want to do for as long as I can.&rdquo;</p><p>Bridges feels the same, but he also knows that as a player ages, he gets closer to the time when the decision of whether or not he will continue to play gets made for him. But the fire continues to burn for Bridges, who lives in Toronto with his wife, two-time women&rsquo;s Olympic hockey gold medallist Sami Jo Small, and their six-year-old daughter Kensi. He marvels at how he and Small could have produced &ldquo;the girliest girl of all-time,&rdquo; one who has to be coerced with LOL Dolls and candy to play 10 minutes of floor hockey with her parents. You know you&rsquo;ve been around the game a long time when you have both a hockey stick and a park that bears your name, as Bridges does in his hometown of Summerside, and you know you&rsquo;re starting a hockey family when your wedding song is <i>O Canada</i>.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/para_bridge_008/795133-1-eng-US/para_bridge_0082.jpg" title="para_bridge_008" width="551" height="767"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HOCKEY CANADA IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/para_bridge_007/795126-1-eng-US/para_bridge_0072.jpg" title="para_bridge_007" width="552" height="768"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>TIME LAPSE</p><p>Bridges went to his first Paralympics back in 2002. Beijing will be his sixth time donning the maple leaf at the Winter Games.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(MATTHEW MURNAGHAN/HOCKEY CANADA IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think a 10-year-old Billy would believe all of these things would happen to him, and that&rsquo;s what keeps me going,&rdquo; Bridges said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s so awesome to be part of this team. I want to help the guys on this team win their Paralympic gold medal, and I want to be a part of their journey. My mentality has always been that if I can still contribute and be a positive member of this team, I want to continue.&rdquo;</p><p>Farmer is just hitting his stride as a player at 24, but the funny thing is, Bridges feels he&rsquo;s doing the same thing in his late 30s. Thanks to his off-ice conditioning, Bridges said he&rsquo;s hitting his highest levels of physicality and athleticism this year, 23 years after he first joined the national team. His sprint tests have been getting even better the past couple of years, and his shot is as hard as it has ever been. One player has a bevy of years ahead of him; the other is pushing to make the most of the years he has left playing the game at an elite level.</p><p>It&rsquo;s strange that Farmer has played in just two Paralympics and already has one more gold medal than Bridges. Perhaps that&rsquo;s why Bridges has stopped focusing solely on the color of the medal and has begun concentrating more on the process it takes to get it. He loves that he has won World Championships and the Paralympic gold in Turin in 2006, but he&rsquo;s just as proud of the bronze medal in Sochi. After losing 3-0 to the Americans in the semifinal &ndash; a game in which Farmer scored twice &ndash; in Sochi, Bridges and his teammates gathered themselves to beat Norway in the bronze-medal game two days later. He&rsquo;s also just as proud of the silver Canada won in 2018, another game in which a spectacular performance by Farmer vanquished his squad.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/para_bridge_009/795119-1-eng-US/para_bridge_0092.jpg" title="para_bridge_009" width="1564" height="1520"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>BILLY <b>BRIDGES</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(HOCKEY CANADA IMAGE)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve stopped putting all of my happiness and self-worth on that one game that comes every four years,&rdquo; Bridges said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d be lying if I said it isn&rsquo;t what your dreams are made of, but I&rsquo;m quite certain that it&rsquo;s taking pride in the day-to-day efforts getting here that is going to help me be better prepared on that day. Those gold medals are not won at the Paralympics every four years, they&rsquo;re won in those little moments leading up to it.&rdquo;</p><p>There will have been thousands of those little moments leading up to the 2022 Beijing Paralympics for both Bridges and Farmer and all their teammates. And there will be little moments, small and seemingly forgotten plays, that will tie everything together in the end. Perhaps it will be another epic like the gold-medal game four years ago, and almost assuredly, Billy Bridges and Declan Farmer will be in the thick of it. Because that is just what they do.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Paralympic Hockey

HOCKEY KARMA

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="trevorzegra_096" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trevorzegra_096/795248-1-eng-US/trevorzegra_0962.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>T THE JUNCTION OF</b> the Pacific Ocean and Newport Harbor lies one of the most legendary surf spots in all of Southern California and, by extension, the entirety of the contiguous United States. It&rsquo;s known as The Wedge, and it&rsquo;s not for the faint of heart. Under perfect conditions, when southern swells rip through the coastal waters toward the sandy shore of Balboa Beach and dive straight toward the Newport Harbor jetty, waves are said to crest as high as 30 feet in the air. When those giants meet waters crashing into and then careening off the 2,000-foot granite-boulder pier, it creates a peak. These towering aqua A-frame formations are what give The Wedge its name.</p><p>In the 1960s, a cadre of Newport Beach citizens wanted The Wedge closed. They had to settle for a compromise: signs warning those bold enough &ndash; or stupid enough, depending on how one views the pursuits of adrenaline junkies &ndash; to attempt to conquer The Wedge of the dangers associated with braving these specific forces of nature. But in the time since, it became recognized as dangerous enough for both riders and other enthusiasts, such as bodysurfers, that surfboarding it has been outright banned during peak hours from the beginning of May through to the end of October. The prohibition is marked by what, in surfing parlance, is called a &ldquo;blackball&rdquo; distinction.</p><p>This is all to say The Wedge is truly the territory of only the expert surfer, the veteran thrill seeker and, from time to time, the fool whose brains-to-bluster ratio is just a touch off. It is not &ndash; we repeat, <i>not</i> &ndash; the place for a Newport Beach newcomer whose experience is limited almost entirely to wake surfing, boogie boarding and a bit of bodysurfing.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trevorzegra_098/795241-1-eng-US/trevorzegra_0982.jpg" title="trevorzegra_098" width="1076" height="810"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>TREVOR ZEGRAS</b> & CHRIS TIERNEY</p> <span class="photo-credit">(MARC DESROSIERS-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>It&rsquo;s also not the place for a native of Bedford, N.Y., who is far more familiar with the waters of the Long Island Sound than the types of remorseless oceanic tides The Wedge produces. Put another way, despite now residing a stone&rsquo;s throw from one of SoCal&rsquo;s most iconic swells, Anaheim Ducks super-rookie Trevor Zegras knows his limits. &ldquo;The Wedge is dangerous,&rdquo; Zegras said, incredulity in his voice at the thought of even giving it a shot. &ldquo;Big waves, they crash pretty short, close to the beach. Maybe you see some more surfboards down there, but I definitely ain&rsquo;t bodysurfing down at The Wedge.&rdquo;</p><p>And really, there&rsquo;s no need for Zegras to bother with such a wave. After all, the one he&rsquo;s riding now may just be larger than anything The Wedge could throw at him. It&rsquo;s the wave of NHL stardom, and at risk of stretching the metaphor a little too thin, that he&rsquo;s managing to ride this wave with a Kelly Slater-esque expertise makes the 20-year-old all the more impressive.</p><p>In his first full big-league campaign, Zegras has become a sensation and, without question, one of the busiest young players in the game. Trying to pin him down for a chat about what life has been like during his rookie season is enough to make one sympathize with the defenders he&rsquo;s turnstiled with increasing regularity. Between day-to-day media, television appearances, radio spots and autograph signings, Zegras borders on impossible to catch. Everyone wants a piece of him right now.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I&rsquo;m a bit of a hockey nerd, and I love trying stuff on the ice, and I&rsquo;m not really afraid to. To be tied to a specific play is pretty special<br>&ndash; Trevor Zegras, on &lsquo;The Michigan&rsquo; assist</blockquote><p>Of course, he has only himself to blame. This is what happens when you&rsquo;re the author of an instantly iconic moment and one of the most viral highlights the NHL has seen since the dawn of the social-media era.</p><p>Not to suggest Zegras was some unknown before his &ldquo;Michigan&rdquo; assist in an early December game against the Buffalo Sabres. The No. 9 overall pick in 2019, Zegras had draft pedigree and a World Junior Championship gold medal to his name. He had earned tournament MVP honors and tied Jordan Schroeder as the highest-scoring American player in WJC history. Add his six goals and 21 points through his first two dozen games of 2020-21 and Zegras was already on the radar.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trevorzegra_097/795234-1-eng-US/trevorzegra_0972.jpg" title="trevorzegra_097" width="2390" height="2586"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>YOUTUBE SENSATION</b></p><p>Zegras grew up watching highlight-reel plays in the YouTube era. Now he's making his own magic.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PERRY NELSON-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>But since that December evening in Buffalo when he picked the puck up on his stick behind the net, tossed it over goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen's shoulder and set up Sonny Milano to bat the biscuit in out of mid-air, the spotlight on Zegras has been bigger and brighter than ever. He&rsquo;s been front and center in the wider hockey consciousness.</p><p>Overnight, &ldquo;Zegras&rdquo; wasn't just his surname. It was a verb. &ldquo;The Zegras&rdquo; had been born, and videos of others attempting to &ldquo;Zegras&rdquo; opponents have been everywhere in the time since. That included a less viral clip of Portland Winterhawks duo Cross Hanas and James Stefan successfully teaming up to pull the move off less than two weeks after the Zegras-Milano combination. &ldquo;I didn't think it was going to blow up like that,&rdquo; Zegras said. &ldquo;I guess it was a pretty new and creative play, and I guess a lot of people had fun trying it, and it was cool to see&hellip;I&rsquo;m a bit of a hockey nerd, and I love trying stuff on the ice, and I&rsquo;m not really afraid to. To be tied to a specific play is definitely pretty special.&rdquo;</p><p>There&rsquo;s a distinct feeling, too, that this won&rsquo;t be the last time Zegras sparks this kind of sensation. Unlike those who have created these mega-moments in the past &ndash; Alex Ovechkin scooping one in sliding on his back or even Marek Malik and his between-the-legs shootout goal &ndash; Zegras embodies a new wave of human-highlight-reel athletes who grew up during the YouTube era. True to form, too, YouTube is precisely where Zegras first laid eyes on the lacrosse-style scoop he put to such perfect use in Buffalo.</p><p>But Zegras is far from a one-move wonder. His game tape from this season alone boasts between-the-legs set-ups, spin-o-rama feeds, no-look dishes and much, much more. He even added a &ldquo;Michigan&rdquo; <i>goal</i> in late January against Montreal. He&rsquo;s a virtuoso with the puck, so much so that the NHL added him to its &ldquo;breakaway challenge&rdquo; event for February's all-star weekend. The clear hope being he&rsquo;d generate another mind-bending, internet-breaking moment. And if the generally stodgy and sometimes behind-the-curve brains at the NHL head office can recognize the magic in Zegras&rsquo; hands, you know he&rsquo;s got something special.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trevorzegra_099/795227-1-eng-US/trevorzegra_0992.jpg" title="trevorzegra_099" width="2104" height="1626"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>GIVE AND TAKEAWAYS</b></p><p>Zegras has the trust of the Ducks' coaches &ndash; even though his game carries a risk-reward balance.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(JEAN-YVES AHERN-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Don&rsquo;t go thinking any of Zegras&rsquo; prodigious puckhandling is for the sake of becoming hockey&rsquo;s decades-late answer to the AND1 series, though. No, this is functional flair. Zegras idolized Chicago Blackhawks superstar Patrick Kane growing up: the way he moved with the puck, the inventiveness there was to his game. So, as a young Zegras twirled around his backyard rink and replicated the moves he&rsquo;d seen Kane and other elite puckhandlers pull off, he saw it as a means to exploit the tiniest of openings and become harder to predict and defend. That it results in fans using only the front few inches of their seats is just a fortuitous byproduct. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s something I always try to tell myself,&rdquo; Zegras said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s always a play to be made, whether you see it now or you see it in a couple seconds.&rdquo;</p><p>It could be argued, however, that what&rsquo;s most remarkable about Zegras&rsquo; skill set isn&rsquo;t that it simply exists. To be sure, any number of NHLers are capable of replicating a Zegras-style assist or any of the awe-inspiring tricks he puts to use. What&rsquo;s most remarkable about Zegras&rsquo; panache, and what frankly borders on a minor miracle, is that he hasn&rsquo;t had it coached out of him.</p><p>Consider, if you will, John Tortorella&rsquo;s comments about Zegras&rsquo; assist. On an ESPN broadcast in the wake of the play, Tortorella said he would&rsquo;ve &ldquo;had a talk&rdquo; with Zegras and Milano had they been his players. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not trying to be difficult about it,&rdquo; said Tortorella, who has more than 700 NHL wins (regular season plus playoffs) to his name. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun to watch, it&rsquo;s really cool, but I just think our game has gone so far away from what the game should be, a hard game, an honest game. It&rsquo;s almost gotten too showman.&rdquo;</p><p>That is precisely the retrograde mentality and brand of old-school thinking that led Don Cherry to deride Sidney Crosby after his lacrosse-style goal in the QMJHL way back in 2003. It&rsquo;s messaging and a mindset that has a way of draining players of the imagination that breeds the high-skill and potentially game-growing plays out of the sport. Think of it this way: had Zegras come up under a coach who worshipped at the altar of chip-and-chase or back-to-basics hockey, there&rsquo;s reason to believe he never would&rsquo;ve tried a lacrosse-style assist.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">My coach at the NTDP, John Wroblewski, was probably the big reason why I never even thought twice about making those (skill) plays<br>&ndash; Trevor Zegras</blockquote><p>Thankfully, Zegras&rsquo; out-of-the-ordinary offensive maneuvers were encouraged, not reprimanded, as he made his journey to the NHL. Stunningly, much of that backing came not during his youth-hockey days, a period when the talent gap was such he&rsquo;d have a sizeable safety net, but during his time with USA Hockey&rsquo;s National Team Development Program. By then, he was an elite talent and NHL hopeful competing against other top talents who dreamt of playing in the pros. It would seem that, if ever, would have been when a coaching staff would attempt to rein him in. Not so for Zegras.</p><p>&ldquo;My coach at the NTDP (John Wroblewski) was probably the big reason why I never even thought twice about making those type of plays. It was almost too much at some times,&rdquo; Zegras chuckled. &ldquo;I was trying to make spin passes maybe three, four times a game. Every time I came back to the bench, he usually had a smile on his face and was laughing. That was the culture he created among our team. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m not going to coach your guys&rsquo; skill. Go out there and do your thing, and if you work hard, you get rewarded with more ice.&rsquo; It was always something I felt comfortable with doing when he was behind the bench, and it stuck with me.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trevorzegra_100/795220-1-eng-US/trevorzegra_1002.jpg" title="trevorzegra_100" width="1483" height="1226"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(STEPHEN R. SYLVANIE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>He&rsquo;s found similar support in Anaheim. Coach Dallas Eakins has supported Zegras&rsquo; willingness to try to manufacture magic, even if there is an inherent risk-versus-reward element. Statistically, the pitfalls are evident. Zegras is one of the league leaders in giveaways among forwards. That hardly counts as an indictment of his style of play, though, when his contemporaries in the category include Connor McDavid, Artemi Panarin, Jonathan Huberdeau and Mat Barzal.</p><p>And what&rsquo;s most important about Zegras, and why he&rsquo;s given the latitude he is, is that he&rsquo;s absorbed the lessons learned from his time under Wroblewski and Co. He&rsquo;s critical of his own game, understanding there is more to being successful than creating buzz online. &ldquo;You look at guys around the league and, I mean, I&rsquo;m not sitting here telling you I&rsquo;m one of the best players in the league,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are definitely a lot of things I can get better at, whether it&rsquo;s shooting, passing, 'O' zone, 'D' zone, penalty killing and power play. In all aspects, I can definitely grow and get better. I&rsquo;m not shutting any doors to any aspect of my game.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s that dedication to improving himself that has been apparent this season. The experience Zegras gained during his taste of the NHL last season &ndash; he played 24 games with the Ducks, notching three goals and 13 points &ndash; provided the foundation necessary for him to hit the ground running in his true rookie campaign. Now, he&rsquo;s determined to plant his flag. While it&rsquo;s accurate to say his campaign and career-to-this-point has been defined by one single play, he envisions so much more for himself. He wants to be a difference-making scorer, torchbearer for the franchise and considered among the league&rsquo;s best. &ldquo;That's been my mindset ever since I've been going is, I don&rsquo;t want to say prove yourself, but prove that you can play in this league and can dominate in this league,&rdquo; Zegras said. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t have half the success I&rsquo;ve had this year without my teammates and without relying on those guys, but it&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve made a point of, to play my best this year and show I can dominate.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

trevorzegra_096

Trevor Zegras

RIDE WITH THE TIDE

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="antonlundel_057" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/antonlundel_057/795300-1-eng-US/antonlundel_0572.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(KIM KLEMENT-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE FLORIDA</b> Panthers have been one of the premier teams in the NHL this season, thanks to a deep lineup featuring a Finnish center who excels at both ends of the ice. Check that: <i>two</i> Finnish centers who excel at both ends of the ice.</p><p>While captain Aleksander Barkov has been his usual excellent self, the Panthers have also welcomed rookie Anton Lundell into the fold, and the 12th overall pick in the 2020 draft has not disappointed. Lundell, who had five assists in a late January win over Columbus, has been one of the NHL's top freshman scorers and Florida&rsquo;s most frequently used penalty-killing forward.</p><p>Given the similarities, it&rsquo;s hard not to think of Lundell as &lsquo;Barkov Junior&rsquo; right now, and the Cats&rsquo; captain gets the comparison. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re both trying to play the game the same way,&rdquo; Barkov said. &ldquo;We want to score goals and be in the offensive zone as much as possible, but at the same time, we&rsquo;re going to be responsible and reliable in our own end. He has a lot of skill, good stickhandling and high hockey IQ &ndash; he can see the ice so well. He&rsquo;s really fun to watch.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/antonlundel_059/795293-1-eng-US/antonlundel_0592.jpg" title="antonlundel_059" width="499" height="812"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SAM NAVARRO-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>As for Lundell, his initial North American experience has been thoroughly gratifying already: Barkov was one of the NHLers he followed before coming over, and now he sees him practically every day. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the leader and has been here many years,&rdquo; Lundell said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the best players in the league, and you can see him every day, putting the work in. I can take things he does and put them in my game.&rdquo;</p><p>Barkov also took care of Lundell when he arrived in Florida, inviting the 20-year-old to live with him for a couple of months as he found his footing. &ldquo;That was very generous of him,&rdquo; Lundell said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a boy from Finland, and I had never lived in the U.S., so everything was new. When you go to the grocery store, there&rsquo;s like 25 different kinds of fish and so many different meats. It&rsquo;s so much bigger and very different. He helped me so much and still helps me.&rdquo;</p><p>For Barkov, it was a matter of paying it forward. When he first came to Florida, the team had one Finnish player, Sean Bergenheim, and one Russian in Dmitry Kulikov (Barkov&rsquo;s dad is Russian, so he spoke Russian and Finnish but not much English). Both helped him adjust to life in the United States, so he wanted to do the same for Lundell &ndash; introducing him to Whole Foods for organic and healthy groceries and going out for meals together frequently. Barkov also saw that Lundell made good decisions on his own and found his way quickly (the youngster now has his own place in Florida).</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/antonlundel_058/795286-1-eng-US/antonlundel_0582.jpg" title="antonlundel_058" width="1362" height="1448"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(TERRENCE LEE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>On the ice, the adjustment has been rather seamless for Lundell, and staying home instead of coming to North America last season played a significant role. In his second full year in the Liiga with HIFK in Helsinki, Lundell pumped up his offensive contributions and wore a letter for the team he grew up supporting &ndash; the same team his father, Jan, played goalie for back in the day. &ldquo;It was huge that I stayed there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I played big minutes, I was a key player and I used that time to improve my game and grow as a person, too. I played at the world juniors and the World Championship, where I was able to show everybody I could play against older players and even NHL players. The season had so many chapters and was really important for me.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">We play the game the same way. We want to score goals, but at the same time, we&rsquo;re going to be responsible in our own end<br>&ndash; Aleksander Barkov, on Lundell's game</blockquote><p>Lundell was a powerhouse for Finland at the WJC, captaining the squad to a bronze medal and putting up a team-high 10 points in seven games. Funny enough, Lundell already had a gold medal from the 2019 tournament when, as an underager, he assisted on Kaapo Kakko&rsquo;s winner in the final against the U.S. He missed the 2020 event due to injury, but the international game has been good for him so far: at the 2021 World Championship, he led Finland in scoring en route to a silver medal in Latvia.</p><p>Now that he&rsquo;s in the NHL, the mission is a Stanley Cup, and the Panthers are one of the contenders now and for the foreseeable future. He might have been new in town, but Lundell got a good vibe right away. &ldquo;When I came here, I knew we would have a really good team and really good coaches,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had only heard good things about the organization and that things are going in the right way. Last season, I saw they were doing really well, so I was excited to come. You never know until the season starts, but during training camp, I could really see the potential.&rdquo;</p><p>That potential became apparent once the campaign began &ndash; from the team&rsquo;s cornerstone center to its newest two-way beast-in-the-making.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

antonlundel_057

Anton Lundell

BARKOV JUNIOR

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="redwings_op_128" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/redwings_op_128/795345-1-eng-US/redwings_op_1282.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVE REGINEK/DETROIT RED WINGS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>&ldquo;WHOOOAAAAA,&rdquo; BOOMED THE</b> crowd at Vancouver&rsquo;s Rogers Arena on June 21, 2019. It sounded like a reaction to the slam-dunk competition at NBA all-star weekend. But fans were actually responding to a jaw-dropping draft pick.</p><p>The 2019 NHL draft attendees were justified in their mania. Moritz Seider wasn&rsquo;t exactly an obscure nobody playing in the Turkish second division when the Detroit Red Wings picked him sixth overall, but every major prognosticator had ranked him outside the top 20. The pick was so &ldquo;off the board&rdquo; that Seider himself put his hands to his face when he heard his name called. <i>He</i> was that surprised.</p><p>Making Seider the highest-drafted German defenseman in NHL history launched a new era in Hockeytown. The once powerful Red Wings&rsquo; engine had wheezed to a halt in 2016-17, ending a run of 25 consecutive playoff berths. That streak was the third-longest in NHL history. It had started as a source of pride for a franchise that captured four Stanley Cups between 1997 and 2008, but it gradually morphed into a rusty old anchor, dragging the team by its neck into deep, perennial mediocrity, with GM Ken Holland signing any decent veteran to a pricey long-term contract in hopes of keeping the streak alive. By 2019, after three consecutive playoff misses, Holland stepped aside and proudly handed the keys to his friend, his former pupil and one of the top players in franchise history: Steve Yzerman.</p><p>Yzerman arrived from his GM job in Tampa ready to transform the Red Wings top to bottom, but doing so required patience. With so many bad contracts tethered to the team, he couldn&rsquo;t make quick, wholesale changes, but he could let the boat sink to the ocean floor &ndash; by holding the team&rsquo;s best young prospects off the NHL roster and letting a depleted Detroit squad bottom out for a couple seasons until he could throw some veterans overboard, buying out Justin Abdelkader and Frans Nielsen.</p><p>The tank job was epic enough to produce, in 2019-20, Yzerman&rsquo;s first season as GM, the lowest points percentage by any NHL team since the expansion Atlanta Thrashers of 1999-2000.</p><p>But Yzerman&rsquo;s initial brush stroke, before all that, was the first draft pick of his Wings tenure: Seider.</p><p>With that shocking selection, Yzerman sent the message he wasn&rsquo;t confined to conventional thinking. Three years later, he has, in Seider, a future franchise pillar and Calder Trophy candidate. And Seider has company. Two of his teammates may wind up co-finalists for rookie of the year in the same season.</p><p>How did three freshman &ndash; Seider, right winger Lucas Raymond and goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic &ndash; become the new faces of a formerly floundering franchise seemingly overnight?<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Detroit Red Wings

START YOUR ENGINES

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKINBY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="Screen Shot 2022-02-10 at 11.05.25 AM" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/screen-shot-2022-02-10-at-11.05.25-am/797951-1-eng-US/screen-shot-2022-02-10-at-11.05.25-am.png"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVE REGINEK/DETROIT RED WINGS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo;</b> 2019 Draft Preview rated Seider 22nd in his class, well below projected stars such as Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko but also behind half a dozen players who still don&rsquo;t take regular shifts in the NHL today. The scouting report complimented Seider&rsquo;s 6-foot-4 frame and big shot but described him as an &ldquo;intriguing but raw prospect&rdquo; and qualified his strong play with Mannheim of the DEL with, &ldquo;The German League is not the best league in Europe, but&hellip;&rdquo;</p><p>Perhaps it was the German factor obscuring Seider&rsquo;s top-prospect status. At the time, his nation had produced just 15 NHL defensemen, and only three had made sizable impacts: puck-mover Christian Ehrhoff, whom Seider looked up to; rugged Stanley Cup winner Dennis Seidenberg; and Uwe Krupp, who scored the Cup-clinching goal in overtime for the Colorado Avalanche in 1996. Seider also didn&rsquo;t come from a rich bloodline of athletes. His parents ran a home for the elderly before quitting to move to Mannheim to support their son&rsquo;s hockey dream when he was 13.</p><p>But the new Yzerman regime saw something in Seider anyway, and not just because he&rsquo;d won DEL rookie of the year in 2018-19. They identified a caliber of two-way hockey sense that&rsquo;s tough to teach. The Wings had a history of hitting home runs at the draft when going off the board, having selected seven-time Norris Trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom 53rd overall in 1989, a pick they settled on because of his preternatural hockey sense. Yzerman, Lidstrom&rsquo;s longtime teammate, was transferring that logic to pick Seider, a kid who grew up watching Lidstrom&rsquo;s games &ldquo;every single night,&rdquo; as Seider puts it.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/redwings_se_120/795390-1-eng-US/redwings_se_1202.jpg" title="redwings_se_120" width="2043" height="1308"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEAN-YVES AHERN-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>To get drafted far earlier than expected and attract immediate Lidstrom comparisons could leave most teenagers trembling, but Seider viewed the surprise of going sixth overall as a positive. &ldquo;Honestly, it was a shock for me, too,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Other than that, I was super proud being selected by an Original Six team, especially the Wings, with all the history, and from that moment, my life changed. My confidence grew, definitely. But I was not worried about the number that was in front of that pick. I wanted to make sure I made the team as soon as possible and had a good impact.&rdquo;</p><p>No kidding. The way Seider played in the months following the selection, when he came to North America to play for the AHL&rsquo;s Grand Rapids Griffins, he rapidly transformed from reach to steal. Shawn Horcoff, the Red Wings&rsquo; director of player development, explains that the team staff working on the North American side hadn&rsquo;t seen much of Seider before he came over. He and coach Jeff Blashill refer to Seider&rsquo;s Adler Mannheim stint as when he &ldquo;played in the men&rsquo;s league,&rdquo; which almost makes it sound like a beer league. They were taken with his character and charismatic personality upon meeting him but didn&rsquo;t yet understand how much potential Seider possessed.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I was super proud being selected by an Original Six team, especially the Wings, with all the history, and from that moment, my life changed<br>&ndash; Moritz Seider</blockquote><p>As Blashill remembers it, some of the rawness was as advertised in the early going as Seider learned how to make quicker decisions with the puck. But any doubts about his ceiling disappeared quickly. Horcoff began to envision the type of all-situations defender who could play 25-plus minutes a night. &ldquo;It was apparent early the kind of tools that he had and the ability to play all aspects of the game,&rdquo; Horcoff said. &ldquo;So, as a development staff, it was pretty clear to us, &lsquo;This kid&rsquo;s got a chance,&rsquo; a guy that can impact an NHL hockey game at all levels.&rdquo;</p><p>Seider could hit. He could shoot. He could make a strong first pass. He skated very well for a big man. He shot right-handed. He showed leadership qualities. It wasn&rsquo;t long before he became the Griffins&rsquo; top defenseman, and he captained Germany at the World Junior Championship in 2020, too.</p><p>By spring 2020, in The Hockey News&rsquo; Future Watch, a panel of active NHL scouts and executives graded Seider as the No. 6 NHL-affiliated prospect in the game, second only to Colorado&rsquo;s Bowen Byram among blueliners. The perception changed from &ldquo;Yzerman reached&rdquo; to &ldquo;Yzerman&rsquo;s done it,&rdquo; and with the shift came calls for Seider to jump to the NHL. Would he join Detroit&rsquo;s blueline by 2020-21, or would the long-term tank mission withhold him?</p><p>The decision was taken out of Detroit&rsquo;s hands when COVID-19 delayed the start of the 2020-21 AHL and NHL seasons. The Wings didn&rsquo;t want to waste crucial development time bouncing Seider between the AHL, NHL and taxi squad, so they sent him to Rogle of the Swedish League. &ldquo;It was really important to Steve Yzerman, as it should have been, that Moritz was playing and developing at such a young age,&rdquo; Blashill said. &ldquo;And the decision was made for him to go to Sweden and, once he did, that he was going to be there for the year. Could he have played (in the NHL)? Yeah, he could have played, but none of us thought that was the best thing for him. You need to make sure you&rsquo;re doing what's best for these prospects and make sure they&rsquo;re in situations where they can thrive and not just survive.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/redwings_se_121/795383-1-eng-US/redwings_se_1212.jpg" title="redwings_se_121" width="1482" height="1600"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BOB DECHIARA-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Seider did just that, dominating the SHL and winning defenseman of the year. Working in his favor that season was his attitude. He never viewed the Swedish assignment as an insult. He&rsquo;s an optimist. Horcoff describes him as a happy guy with a contagious smile. As Blashill puts it, &ldquo;You know when you&rsquo;re in the room with him.&rdquo;</p><p>He&rsquo;s a thoughtful, social person who says his favorite thing to do outside hockey is &ldquo;sit downtown in Mannheim and have a coffee with my friends, and we usually just chill there all afternoon and talk. Sometimes serious topics, sometimes not the best topics, but also some fun stuff.&rdquo; He was perceptive enough to know a year in the SHL would help him. &ldquo;Being patient is a big strength of mine, and I just needed time first, to grow as a hockey player, to be more mature on and off the ice and develop a more complete game at both ends of the ice.&rdquo;</p><p>By 2021-22 training camp, there was virtually no doubt Seider, 20, would march right to the NHL. He did, and he won rookie of the month for October. By late January, he easily led rookie blueliners in scoring while averaging 22:30 of ice time, almost two minutes more than the closest rookie defensemen. He easily held the best shot-attempt share in 5-on-5 play among Red Wings D-men. As he develops confidence and joins the rush more, his offensive play has been slightly superior to his defensive play, but it&rsquo;s coming around. &ldquo;That balance of when to jump in the play, when to be the guy joining and when to be the guy not necessarily leading the rush is something we&rsquo;ve worked on with him,&rdquo; Blashill said. &ldquo;But Moritz has a real good inner confidence to him. He&rsquo;s got great self-belief that way. He&rsquo;s able to handle coaching. It doesn&rsquo;t affect him in a negative manner. He takes the information in, and he does what he thinks is best when he goes on the ice, and that&rsquo;s what the best players do.&rdquo;</p><p>The best players also lead, and Seider will do that &ndash; his own way. Teammates will follow him, but they&rsquo;ll laugh along the way. The young man loves to dance. It&rsquo;s somewhat of a trademark. And he does it with a purpose. &ldquo;Whatever our DJ plays, I&rsquo;ll vibe with, and I just want to make sure I feel good, get loose, don&rsquo;t have any pressure,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If that transfers to the other guys and they feel good, even better. I wouldn&rsquo;t say I have a strong voice, but I just try to make sure everyone is feeling good and get the most out of their game. If it&rsquo;s just telling a joke or making someone laugh, that&rsquo;s a great thing, too. I&rsquo;m not running around and screaming in the locker room. I just try to lead by example on the ice and hope the guys will follow.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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MO BRINGS THE MOJO

<div class="byline"> BY MATT LARKIN BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="redwings_ra_122" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/redwings_ra_122/795428-1-eng-US/redwings_ra_1222.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVE REGINEK/DETROIT RED WINGS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>L</span>UCAS RAYMOND</b> wasn&rsquo;t a straight-A student. He enjoyed school, but hockey kept him out of class too often, he says. He&rsquo;d probably be top of his class if it weren&rsquo;t for that. Every time he steps on the ice, he&rsquo;s the smartest kid in the room.</p><p>Was it because of how he was raised, growing up in Gothenburg, Sweden? His parents had white-collar jobs. His mother, Cecilia, worked in real estate, while his father, Jean, worked in finance. Jean Raymond was born in France and moved to Sweden at 15, so Lucas grew up interested in, and learning about, French culture. He retained some of the language, though he didn&rsquo;t really keep it up. He wasn&rsquo;t a scholar in the making.</p><p>So why, then, in the years and months before Detroit drafted him fourth overall in 2020, did every scout immediately recognize Raymond&rsquo;s brain before anything else? Why was he said to have the best pure intelligence in his draft class? Why did he so effortlessly glide into the NHL this season despite having no experience playing in North America, and why did he vault atop the rookie scoring leaderboard like it was no big deal?</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/redwings_ra_123/795421-1-eng-US/redwings_ra_1232.jpg" title="redwings_ra_123" width="1362" height="1517"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(NICK TURCHIARO-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Raymond, 19, believes his synapses fire so quickly because he&rsquo;s spent his hockey life quietly observing and absorbing. He didn&rsquo;t just &ldquo;watch&rdquo; his heroes Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Patrick Kane growing up. He treated them as homework. He studied them, tried to copy their moves, baked their decision-making into his mind. In doing so, he encoded a skill set that almost felt automatic. He could think faster than other kids, see plays unfolding before they could, and that elevated his playmaking skills to a level surpassing his age. He made Frolunda&rsquo;s Tier II under-16 team at 12; the under-18 team by 14, the under-20 team by 15 and, by 16, debuted as a pro in the SHL, scoring his first goal in December 2018.</p><p>The Red Wings&rsquo; 2019-20 points percentage was their lowest since 1985-86. They had a league-high 18.5-percent chance at 2020&rsquo;s No. 1 overall draft pick and, with three shots at the lottery, felt confident they&rsquo;d land somewhere in the top three. They didn&rsquo;t. They whiffed back-to-back-to-back on the ping-pong balls. Yzerman vocally expressed his displeasure with the format and, largely because of that incident, there are only two lottery draws today. The Red Wings, though, deep down, didn&rsquo;t have to be too upset. They knew they were getting a special talent at No. 4 in Raymond. (Alexis Lafreniere, Quinton Byfield and Tim Stutzle went Nos. 1, 2, 3.)</p><p>Raymond played the cerebral brand of hockey that had defined so many stars of Detroit&rsquo;s most recent championship teams, from Lidstrom to Igor Larionov to Pavel Datsyuk to Henrik Zetterberg. &ldquo;He makes quick plays, constantly scanning, he&rsquo;s constantly watching the play, he&rsquo;s got an idea in his mind of what he wants to do with the puck before it comes to him,&rdquo; Horcoff said. &ldquo;Those are the players that are the best in the game, the guys that can think ahead of it. They know where the puck is going to go, and they&rsquo;re there before it gets there. They can see the plays develop in their head before they even happen. &lsquo;Ray&rsquo; seems to have that ability. It&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s very hard to teach, and he was born with that and was able to develop that through his early years.&rdquo;</p><p>So, we get it, Raymond belongs in Hockey Mensa. Does that really explain why he has appeared to require virtually no learning curve in the NHL? He arrived in North America during the 2021 off-season and surgically sliced up the 2021-22 pre-season. His 35 points in 46 games through January led NHL rookies and put him on pace for more than 60 points. He did so with a breezy confidence about him, too. How?</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">He&rsquo;s got an idea in his mind of what he wants to do with the puck before it comes to him. Those are the players that are the best in the game, the guys that can think ahead of it<br>&ndash; Shawn Horcoff on Lucas Raymond</blockquote><p>First off, Raymond explains the exterior confidence doesn&rsquo;t imply the absence of fear. Debuting in the NHL wasn&rsquo;t as easy as he made it look. &ldquo;I try to play with as much confidence as possible, that benefits my game, but at the same time, you are of course nervous,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You're trying to make an NHL team. For me to have the best possibility of that, my mindset was to play my game and to play hard every game and try to seize every opportunity I got. I felt good after, and it worked out, and I&rsquo;m really happy about that.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s always easier to be mentally tough, of course, when you&rsquo;re prepared, and that&rsquo;s exactly what Raymond was. As Horcoff explains, the development staff worked a lot with Raymond in video-training sessions last season due to COVID-19 limitations, and former Wings defenseman turned special assistant to the GM Niklas Kronwall worked directly with him in Sweden.</p><p>Horcoff describes Raymond as a driven player who takes criticism well, &ldquo;wants to be great&rdquo; and loves to go over video and break down his own play. Horcoff has been impressed with the improvement to Raymond&rsquo;s skating over the past year, and Raymond wants to mold himself into more of a goal-scoring threat. &ldquo;Something that I&rsquo;ve worked on for a long time and will probably work on for a very long time to come is my shot,&rdquo; Raymond said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s such a big thing in the league right now, to be able to get off a quick shot in tight situations and be calm under those situations as well, and find your spots and try to adjust.&rdquo;</p><p>Given how much time Raymond spent &ldquo;studying abroad&rdquo; before this season, it&rsquo;s easier to understand why he transitioned so seamlessly &ndash; and why the Wings feel his potential as a front-line, two-way player is limitless. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d seen him play on tape and in video, but I had not seen him play live,&rdquo; Blashill said. &ldquo;And the one thing that struck me right away was that he had a complete game. He was very responsible defensively, and he didn&rsquo;t cheat for offense. That is probably the quickest way you can get yourself into the lineup.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

redwings_ra_122

COOL HAND LUCAS

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKINBY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="redwings_ne_124" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/redwings_ne_124/795480-1-eng-US/redwings_ne_1242.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVE REGINEK/DETROIT RED WINGS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>&ldquo;POOR ALEX NEDELJKOVIC.&rdquo;</b> You said it, didn&rsquo;t you?</p><p>Plenty of us did on July 22, 2021, when the trade happened. The presumptive narrative suggested he&rsquo;d been stabbed in the heart. He&rsquo;d delivered a stellar debut season for the Carolina Hurricanes across 23 starts, posting the NHL&rsquo;s best goal-against average (1.90) and save percentage (.932). Among goalies with 1,000 or more minutes played, only Nashville's Juuse Saros saved more goals above average per 60 minutes at 5-on-5. Nedeljkovic started nine of 11 playoff games for the Hurricanes last spring, too.</p><p>He was supposed to be the entrenched young No. 1 on a Carolina team set up to contend for years. He&rsquo;d overcome a lot since being drafted 37th overall in 2014. He was perceived by many scouts as far too small for an NHL goalie at six-foot and 200 pounds. He fought through stints &ndash; and, at times, struggles &ndash; in the ECHL and AHL. He broke out with AHL&rsquo;s Charlotte Checkers in 2018-19, leading them to a Calder Cup. By February 2021, when he began filling in for injured co-starters Petr Mrazek and James Reimer, Nedeljkovic was already 25. He&rsquo;d started just four NHL games. He&rsquo;d languished on the Canes&rsquo; taxi squad and even passed through waivers unclaimed in January 2021. He&rsquo;d hurdled all those obstacles to find his confidence and become one of the NHL&rsquo;s most promising stoppers.</p><p>Nedeljkovic credits some of his success to spending the 2020 off-season working with retired NHLer and current Columbus Blue Jackets goaltending coach Manny Legace on skating. &ldquo;Moving in and out of the posts and throughout my crease just became a lot more fluid, a lot more smooth and way more efficient,&rdquo; Nedeljkovic said. &ldquo;That helped for sure when there was a scramble, I wasn&rsquo;t panicking or feeling I was so far out of space, I was just calm. One big push and I was back in position. And the opportunity part as well is a big thing, just getting an opportunity to try and prove that I can play at that level, that I can be an NHL goalie. I wanted to make the most of it.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/redwings_ne_125/795473-1-eng-US/redwings_ne_1252.jpg" title="redwings_ne_125" width="2392" height="1546"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEAN-YVES AHERN-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>He did. His reward for that remarkable ascension: the Hurricanes traded him for a 2021 third-round pick and pending UFA goalie Jonathan Bernier, whom Carolina did not end up signing. The Canes reportedly wanted to pay Nedeljkovic, an RFA, $1.5 million on his next contract. He&rsquo;d requested $3.5 million, but they wouldn&rsquo;t budge because he was arbitration eligible. So they punted their new star to the Red Wings, who immediately signed him to a two-year pact at a $3-million AAV.</p><p>Back to the &ldquo;dagger in the heart&rdquo; thing. What athlete wouldn&rsquo;t feel anguish when, after the best year of their career, an elite team trades them to a ground-zero rebuilder? Wasn&rsquo;t it a blow to Nedeljkovic&rsquo;s ego?</p><p>Yes and no. On one hand, the trade did catch him off-guard. He thought he and the Canes would work something out. He feels he gave up one or two soft goals in the playoffs that perhaps stuck in the team&rsquo;s mind, but he never expected that to punch his ticket out of town after such a superb season. &ldquo;I was kind of shocked,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I spent five years with the organization (coming through) the American League, and when I got the opportunity last year, I made the most of it. We were looking forward to having a long career in Carolina. It&rsquo;s a great place to live. We were excited to be in the Raleigh area for a while.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/redwings_ne_126/795466-1-eng-US/redwings_ne_1262.jpg" title="redwings_ne_126" width="904" height="853"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(RAJ MEHTA-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Note his use of the word &ldquo;we.&rdquo; That refers to him, his wife, Emma, and their black lab, Zeke. Emma Nedeljkovic is a nursing student at Michigan State. A trade to Detroit thus brings Alex and Emma under the same roof all season long, even if she&rsquo;s busy with her studies and he&rsquo;s travelling a lot for road games. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to come home most days and get to see her and spend time with her and the dog and finally be a family, the three of us, full-time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t beat being at home with the ones that you love and being around the ones that you love all the time.&rdquo;</p><p>On top of the love connection in Detroit, Nedeljkovic played most of his major-junior career in Michigan as a Plymouth Whaler and Flint Firebird. Before that: a year of AAA hockey in the Detroit area with Belle Tire. One of his teammates then: current Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin, who happens to be Nedeljkovic&rsquo;s off-season training buddy. Shortly after the trade was announced, Larkin reached out and arranged a dinner. Moving to the Motor City, then, was not actually a banishment. It was a homecoming. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t really disappointment,&rdquo; Nedeljkovic said. &ldquo;It was more of an excitement to get a new opportunity to play in a city that I knew, that I&rsquo;ve known for a long time, so we couldn&rsquo;t be any happier with how things turned out.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">You can&rsquo;t beat being at home with the ones that you love and being around the ones that you love all the time<br>&ndash; Alex Nedeljkovic</blockquote><p>Forget the idea of a jaded Nedeljkovic playing for a dead-end franchise. Once we recast him as a goaltender extremely comfortable where he is, the performance in 2021-22 makes a heck of a lot more sense. By late January, the young Wings were the most competitive they&rsquo;d been in years, holding their highest points percentage since 2015-16, their last playoff year. Nedeljkovic, 26, was a major reason why. The .912 SP didn&rsquo;t tell the whole story. Among 51 netminders who&rsquo;d logged 500 or more minutes at 5-on-5, he sat in the top 20 of the league in goals saved above average per 60 &ndash; even though he faced the ninth-most shots and sixth-most high-danger shots per 60. His expected goals against per 60, a stat that approximates the difficulty of his workload, placed him in the league&rsquo;s 75th percentile. Last season, on a stingy Canes team, it was in the 34th percentile. He had significantly less help than he ever had in Carolina, and he was keeping the Wings in more games than not regardless.</p><p>Blashill loves Nedeljkovic&rsquo;s athleticism and quickness and believes the team must utilize his strong puckhandling skills more. Perhaps what stands out most to Blashill, though, is Nedeljkovic&rsquo;s fighting spirit. &ldquo;The feeling was, coming in, that he&rsquo;s a guy who has overcome maybe a lack of belief and always found a way to be successful,&rdquo; Blashill said. &ldquo;He did it in junior, did it in the American League and then did it last year in the NHL in a small sample size. I&rsquo;m a big believer in guys that have not been given things easy and have had to really work, because those are the guys who end up with the inner drive that can separate themselves and really become great players.&rdquo;</p><p>Nedeljkovic has potential to become a key part of Detroit&rsquo;s long-term leadership group along with Larkin and Seider. Blashill describes him as a goaltender who behaves more &ldquo;like a skater.&rdquo; Nedeljkovic breaks the mold of the aloof, distant puck-stopper. His only trait that connotes &ldquo;different&rdquo; is his hair. Oh, that hair. He owns, unofficially, the longest, most luscious set of goalie locks since Kelly Hrudey&rsquo;s Hollywood heyday. &ldquo;I started growing it out when I was in high school and middle school, I did the long hair, and it evolved a little bit,&rdquo; Nedeljkovic said. &ldquo;I had the Justin Bieber haircut when I was younger, and it&rsquo;s grown more into some hockey hair now. It&rsquo;s been a long time since I&rsquo;ve had a shorter haircut. It&rsquo;s tough to see myself with short hair.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/redwings_ne_127/795459-1-eng-US/redwings_ne_1272.jpg" title="redwings_ne_127" width="1076" height="1131"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ALEX NEDELJKOVIC</b> & MORITZ SEIDER</p> <span class="photo-credit">(RAJ MEHTA-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>The mane is almost a metaphor for Nedeljkovic&rsquo;s confidence as a goaltender. The older he gets, the more it grows. But does he ever long for what could have been in Carolina or feel the little chip on his shoulder? He has no hard feelings, he says, as he had great relationships with his Hurricanes teammates and coach Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, and he even praises GM Don Waddell for being so honest about what was happening. Still, when you&rsquo;re as competitive as Nedeljkovic is&hellip; &ldquo;If you ever get traded or you sign with a different team or you play against an old team, you want to do well,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s always that spot in the back of your head that, &lsquo;I gotta do well,&rsquo; but you just have to play it like any other game.&rdquo;</p><p>When Yzerman got the GM job in 2019, he obviously arrived with a long strip of runway. And Detroit is still a few years away from serious contention. But the patience, the selling of expiring assets and the painstakingly slow prospect development are starting to bear fruit. Last season&rsquo;s Jakub Vrana acquisition looked brilliant after he scored eight goals in 11 games and, once he recovers from a major shoulder injury, he will inject Detroit with a deadly goal-scoring touch. The 2021 NHL draft yielded two more blue-chippers in defenseman Simon Edvinsson and goaltender Sebastian Cossa. And how symbolic would it be for the franchise&rsquo;s turnaround if it landed all three Calder Trophy finalists for the 2021-22 season?</p><p>The idea isn&rsquo;t inconceivable. Anaheim Ducks center Trevor Zegras and Florida Panthers center Anton Lundell were threats, but a mid-season poll of The Hockey News staffers ranked Raymond and Seider first and second and Nedeljkovic fourth. The last Calder Trophy finalists who were teammates were the Lightning&rsquo;s Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat in 2013-14. The 1963-64 Montreal Canadiens, with Jacques Laperriere, John Ferguson and Terry Harper, are the only team in NHL history to have all three Calder finalists. Have the Wings rookies dreamt about it? &ldquo;It would be a great thing, it just shows how much talent there is in this organization, first of all,&rdquo; Seider said. &ldquo;We just want to make sure we secure ourselves a playoff spot. We would trade in the trophy every time for it. Other than that, it&rsquo;s just been remarkable how those guys performed this season. It&rsquo;s been a real pleasure to be around them.&rdquo;</p><p>If Red Wings fans could speak collectively, they&rsquo;d say the pleasure is theirs.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

redwings_ne_124

NO DEAD END FOR NED

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="tannerjeann_031" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tannerjeann_031/795525-1-eng-US/tannerjeann_0312.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HEN YOU LOOK AT</b> the NHL rookie scoring race this season, there are some expected characters up high in Lucas Raymond, Trevor Zegras and Moritz Seider. All three were top-10 draft picks and came into the league with high expectations. But heading into the second half of the campaign, no rookie had as many goals as Nashville Predators left winger Tanner Jeannot.</p><p>Oh, you don&rsquo;t know Jeannot? Well, it&rsquo;s high time we changed that.</p><p>Jeannot, still Calder-eligible at the age of 24, passed through the NHL draft unclaimed during his WHL career with the Moose Jaw Warriors. He was invited to Minnesota&rsquo;s rookie camp at 19, then Washington&rsquo;s gathering at 20, but didn&rsquo;t get a draft call or a contract out of either.</p><p>In his overage season with Moose Jaw, he exploded for 40 goals and 80 points, and after a solid playoff run, Jeannot found interest from Nashville and signed with the Predators. &ldquo;The skating was the big obstacle,&rdquo; said assistant GM and director of scouting Jeff Kealty. &ldquo;Everyone has deficiencies, but when you see the drive, the character and the habits of doing things the right way, it gives you a good feel that this player is going to do everything they can to get there and improve.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tannerjeann_032/795518-1-eng-US/tannerjeann_0322.jpg" title="tannerjeann_032" width="2392" height="1504"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BATTLE TESTED</b></p><p>Jeannot, ever willing to do the dirty work, has already dropped the gloves eight times so far in 2021-22.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(BOB FRID-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Glen Sanders, the Preds&rsquo; Western scout, had been keeping tabs on Jeannot &ndash; who also went undrafted in the WHL's bantam draft &ndash; over the years and saw the progression in the young man, which he relayed to the rest of the organization. &ldquo;He just kept getting better and better,&rdquo; Kealty said. &ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t a hot-shot prospect by any means, but he&rsquo;s big and strong and powerful and got better each year. The origins of his habits and all the pieces of his game became noticeable as his junior career went on, and in his last year with Moose Jaw, he really took off.&rdquo;</p><p>Jeannot&rsquo;s physical tools are indeed impressive. He&rsquo;s 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, but on top of that, he&rsquo;s always been incredibly fit. In fact, he has two awards named after him already: the Warriors have the Tanner Jeannot Strength and Conditioning Award, while the Yorkton (Sask.) AAA Maulers, where he played prior to major junior, have the Tanner Jeannot Fitness Award. &ldquo;Both my coaches from there asked me a couple years ago if I minded if they named the award after me, and I was pretty shocked, honestly,&rdquo; Jeannot said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s an honor and a big part of my mindset. I always want to be one of the most in-shape guys coming in every day.&rdquo;</p><p>Growing up in the small, southern Saskatchewan town of Oxbow, Jeannot had most of the same classmates from kindergarten to graduation, and he still gets a lot of support from the locals. Both his parents are retired teachers, and his older brother is a teacher as well. By the time he was 15, one of his closest friends was Jayden Halbgewachs, who would go on to put up huge numbers as one of Jeannot&rsquo;s teammates in Moose Jaw and made his NHL debut with San Jose this season.</p><p>Halbgewachs also went undrafted in the NHL &ndash; he&rsquo;s small by league standards &ndash; but he was fast, and he had a skating coach in Saskatchewan named Liane Davis. Jeannot began working with Davis as well, setting him on the path to future success. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve always thought my acceleration and straight-line speed was pretty good,&rdquo; Jeannot said. &ldquo;But I wanted to get quicker, get out of the corners quicker, get out to the point quicker. I&rsquo;ve worked with her every summer for a long time now, and it&rsquo;s a lot of edgework and something I&rsquo;ll continue to do for sure.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">There were times I doubted myself, when things aren&rsquo;t going your way or you&rsquo;re getting passed over. But I always had that dream and was going to do whatever it took<br>&ndash; Tanner Jeannot</blockquote><p>For Davis, seeing Jeannot&rsquo;s evolution over the years has been gratifying &ndash; not only in terms of his skating but also his leadership. &ldquo;Tanner&rsquo;s gift is his work ethic,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;From the time I met him, he was always the fittest, always on time, engaged all the time, quiet and attentive. To see him come in this past summer and mentor some of the younger 20-year-old kids was marvelous because he was always pretty quiet and focused. Now, he has blossomed.&rdquo;</p><p>As for the skating itself, Jeannot&rsquo;s commitment got him the necessary results. &ldquo;He made a decision three summers ago to really focus on some specifics,&rdquo; Davis said. &ldquo;And his little taste of the NHL last year led him to figure out what he needed to do to stay at that level. He spent probably 75 percent of our ice time together this past summer on tight turns, corner work, reverse tight turns, battling and carrying the puck, like &lsquo;This is going to be my game, this is what I have to do.&rsquo; And he stuck with it. Tight turns are a skill that can get pretty scary the bigger you get, and I think he stopped using them because they weren&rsquo;t in his wheelhouse. Then he realized he better get them back in his wheelhouse.&rdquo;</p><p>On their last day together this past summer, Jeannot handed Davis his phone and asked her to film his tight turns while she did voiceover so he could keep working on them during the season.</p><p>After Moose Jaw, Jeannot turned pro, and his first stop was with the AHL&rsquo;s Milwaukee Admirals. His first season there was unremarkable, but it set the table for the burgeoning power forward. &ldquo;It was definitely an eye-opener,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t get away with the mistakes you can make in junior, and that was one of the things I learned right away, just how consistent you have to be.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tannerjeann_034/795511-1-eng-US/tannerjeann_0342.jpg" title="tannerjeann_034" width="1075" height="1268"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CHRISTOPHER HANEWINCKEL-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>He spent most of his sophomore pro campaign in 2019-20 in Milwaukee, spelled by some time down in the ECHL with the Florida Everblades. Last season, he started in Florida because the ECHL was the first league to get up and running. He then headed to the AHL, but because the Admirals organization decided not to play through the pandemic, Nashville sent its prospects to the Chicago Wolves, the Carolina Hurricanes' AHL affiliate. The Canes-Preds mashup was super young and super fun, putting names such as Seth Jarvis and Philip Tomasino on the same team. It also led to Jeannot wading into new but exciting territory. &ldquo;It was a really young team, and I was put into a leadership role, which was a new experience for me at the pro level,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had worn a letter in junior before, but not the pros. I was getting more ice time and more power-play opportunities, and as soon as I got it, I didn&rsquo;t want to let it go.&rdquo;</p><p>Jeannot also had his initial crack at the NHL last season, getting into 15 games with the Preds and putting up a respectable seven points. But this year has been even better.</p><p>Playing mainly on an &ldquo;identity line&rdquo; with Colton Sissons and Yakov Trenin, Jeannot has scored goals, thrown hits and dropped the gloves eight times &ndash; but he can also complement skill players and create space. With Nashville exceeding outside expectations this season, the Preds are looking like the type of team you don&rsquo;t want to face in the playoffs. And based on Jeannot&rsquo;s profile, it&rsquo;s hard not to predict the 24-year-old making an even more significant impact in the post-season, when games get tighter and tougher. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s absolutely something we&rsquo;ve talked about,&rdquo; Kealty said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something we talked about at length last year when we decided to protect him in the Seattle expansion draft. He hadn&rsquo;t played a lot then, but if you look at what Tampa Bay did to get over the hump, by adding some of the heavier, more rugged players that they did, there&rsquo;s no question that goes into the equation.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s all pretty remarkable for a player who was never at the top of a draft list, never played in a World Junior Championship &ndash; never played for Canada at any level, frankly. He had some sage advice from his dad &ndash; control the things you can control &ndash; and a bruising game married to a touch around the net. But the kid also had the drive, and once he got a taste of the NHL, he never looked back, even if the path to his dream wasn&rsquo;t always straightforward. &ldquo;There are definitely ups and downs, which any player will tell you,&rdquo; Jeannot said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of the hardest things as a pro athlete, having that mental stability and toughness without getting too high or low. There were times I doubted myself, when things aren&rsquo;t going your way, or you&rsquo;re getting passed over in the draft. But I always had that dream like every other player deep down and was going to do whatever it took to get there.&rdquo;</p><p>Now he&rsquo;s part of a great collective in Nashville where everyone seems to be pushing in the same direction and the Predators know who they are. &ldquo;The group we have is pretty amazing,&rdquo; Jeannot said. &ldquo;The vibe we have in the dressing room is really good, everyone is loving coming to the rink and playing for each other and has bought into the identity we have as the Predators. That identity is to be one of the hardest teams to play against, win all the battles we can, be really hard on their defensemen and try to get some greasy ones down low. But we also have the skill to go along with it. Everyone has bought in, and we want to keep it rolling.&rdquo;</p><p>Sounds like a Jeannot kind of team.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Tanner Jeannot

HEART OF A WARRIOR

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The COVID Rookies

Dream On

<div class="byline">WITH MATT LARKINWITH MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="malarkey_mc_133" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/malarkey_mc_133/795643-1-eng-US/malarkey_mc_1332.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SUPERSTAR SHOWDOWN</b></p><p>McDavid and Matthews didn&rsquo;t get the chance to face off at the Olympics. How about a World Cup showdown instead?</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PERRY NELSON-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>E ARE ALL STEVEN</b> Stamkos. Well, no, we are not quite Steven Stamkos. His international hockey journey actually invites <i>more</i> sympathy than ours.</p><p>We at least got to enjoy best-on-best men&rsquo;s hockey at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and 2014 Sochi Olympics. Stamkos didn&rsquo;t land on the Canadian roster in 2010 because he was an NHL sophomore, fresh off a disappointing rookie year. He was one of the world&rsquo;s elite players by 2013-14, scoring 14 goals in 17 games, but he gruesomely broke his leg and missed out on Sochi. By 2018? No NHL Olympic participation. Finally, leading up to the 2022 Games at which NHLers were set to return, Stamkos was the healthiest he&rsquo;d been in years and playing high-end hockey. He was finally going to realize his Olympic dream. And&hellip;thanks a lot, COVID-19. The NHL justifiably withdrew for pandemic concerns. Stamkos was robbed again.</p><p>So were we, as fans of the game. No Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby on the same team. No Auston Matthews/Patrick Kane connection. No Laine-Barkov-Rantanen super line. Take whatever amazing best-on-best scenarios you dreamed up over the past eight years and incinerate &rsquo;em. How utterly crushing.</p><p>Well, it was for most of us. The NHL and its owners collect no revenue from the Olympics, pause their season partway through the schedule and send their assets overseas to risk injury. For them, it was welcome news when the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, given &ldquo;the final say&rdquo; in a stroke of gaslighting genius by commissioner Gary Bettman, pulled out of the 2022 Beijing Games. The NHL brass probably did cartwheels.</p><p>Not only do they no longer have to worry about making what they consider a pesky concession to the players, but the appetite should now rumble in fans&rsquo; stomachs for something that does make the NHL money: the World Cup. We last saw it in 2016, and it&rsquo;s obviously back in play for a hockey fan base jonesin&rsquo; for men&rsquo;s best-on-best. The NHL and NHLPA are expected to meet over potential World Cup plans sometime in 2022. It remains to be seen how quickly an event could be planned. Surely not this summer. Perhaps 2024 makes sense, two years from an Olympic tourney on either side.</p><p>But what would the format look like? The 2016 World Cup was memorable, not so much for its result &ndash; Canada mostly sleepwalked its way to the title &ndash; but for its format. The ragtag Team Europe went all the way to the final, and Team North America, the under-23 squad featuring McDavid, Matthews and MacKinnon, was the story of the tournament, fun as heck to watch.</p><p>The detractors felt the gimmick teams sucked the &ldquo;best on best&rdquo; out of the tournament, given some North America players would&rsquo;ve made their national teams. And, as McDavid told reporters in December after the Olympic withdrawal, &ldquo;We need to find a way to get a best-on-best tournament done at some point here.&rdquo; So what tweaks to the World Cup format would quench the best-on-best thirst while maintaining a degree of creativity? Consider these suggestions.</p><h2><b>1. Forget the under-23 team. Make North America the under-20 team</b></h2><p>The odds of world-junior-aged players making Canada or the U.S. would be small anyway, so you wouldn&rsquo;t be stealing many if any contributors from the national teams. Instead, you get, essentially, a mixed WJC squad that could still produce the heart-skips-a-beat excitement of the 2016 Team North America. Think Connor Bedard, Shane Wright and Logan Cooley on the same team.</p><h2><b>2. No more Team Europe</b></h2><p>The 2016 World Cup only let six actual nations enter, with the gimmick squads increasing the field to eight. This time, eight countries play. If the tournament used current IIHF rankings, Canada, Finland, Russia, the U.S., Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Switzerland would compete. Then I&rsquo;d stretch the field to 10 for two circus-act teams. One is the world-junior hybrid squad. The other&hellip;</p><h2><b>3. Add a men&rsquo;s senior team</b></h2><p>Yep. Think anyone not currently under contract in the NHL. And they can hail from any nation around the world. Maybe we&rsquo;d get a grizzled team featuring the likes of Eric Staal, Jaromir Jagr, Vadim Shipachyov and Nikita Gusev, with Vasily Koshechkin in goal. Oh, you worry they&rsquo;d get pummelled? The 2022 Beijing Games had McDavid and Matthews tabbed to share a group with <i>China</i>. Sit down. In a short tournament, would the international senior team be any worse than what Slovakia or Denmark might bring to the table?</p><p>Ideas like these might feel far-fetched, but so did Team North America and Team Europe in theory. With these tweaks, we wouldn&rsquo;t lose the wacky unpredictability of 2016 but would gain a sense that we&rsquo;re watching a real best-on-best tournament. Who&rsquo;s with me?</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-0192/795657-1-eng-US/f0058-012.jpg" title="f0058-01" width="202" height="256"></div><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="42" height="34"></span><p><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/THNMattLarkin">@THNMATTLARKIN</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

malarkey_mc_133

Malarkey

WORLD CUP FEVER FIX

<div class="byline">BY GEORGES LARAQUE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="bgl_tavares_075" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/bgl_tavares_075/795695-1-eng-US/bgl_tavares_0752.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>AVOID THE SWARM</b></p><p>Tavares chose to play for his hometown team, but many players avoid markets such as Toronto because of the media.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(NICK TURCHIARO-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HINK ABOUT ALL THE</b> NHL media coverage from around the world. Now imagine how much this is worth to the NHL. TV shows, radio, newspapers, magazines, social media, you can pretty much listen or read about hockey everywhere.</p><p>As great as this is for the league, it&rsquo;s important to realize a lot of players are not comfortable with the media.</p><p>In hockey, as with all major pro sports, everyone is trying to get the big scoop. The competition between different media outlets is ferocious. As a player, during an interview, you have to watch what you say. If you make one mistake, there can be backlash, and your quote can be the top headline the next day. Even during 1-on-1 interviews, a journalist will tell you that a part of the conversation is off the record. Occasionally, what was supposed to be off the record comes back to bite you. Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, there are some athletes who actually like that kind of attention. Yet in the hockey world, which is very conservative, most players don&rsquo;t crave that extra exposure.</p><p>Every so often, you&rsquo;ll hear a player say they don&rsquo;t read the papers or follow what&rsquo;s said in the media. Well, that&rsquo;s a lie! The majority do read and listen to everything. That&rsquo;s when they get to know which journalists they can trust, and NHLers do have conversations about which media members are authentic and whom to avoid.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">EVERY SO OFTEN, YOU&rsquo;LL HEAR A PLAYER SAY THEY DON&rsquo;T READ THE PAPERS OR FOLLOW WHAT&rsquo;S SAID IN THE MEDIA. <b>WELL, THAT&rsquo;S A LIE!</b></blockquote><p>As players, we often have more trust in former NHLers who&rsquo;ve gone into the media, as they know the everyday grind of The Show and will mostly have a player&rsquo;s back. But relationships do develop between players and the media, especially with veterans and beat reporters because they see each other daily, year after year. And sometimes, because of these relationships, issues that are supposed to stay and be dealt with in the dressing room are exposed to the media.</p><p>After every practice or game (in normal, non-COVID times), the media are allowed to come into the room for interviews. The way it works is that the team&rsquo;s public-relations person warns players when he or she has to let the media in. Let me tell you, it&rsquo;s funny. A lot of players rush out of the dressing room through the back so they don&rsquo;t have to be interviewed. So when there is a request for them particularly, the PR person has to find them and bring them back.</p><p>I had my share of arguments with the media back in my playing days. Each time, however, we were able to sit down to settle our differences. That was important to me. Unfortunately, not every player feels confident enough to do that. The result of this is that sometimes, as a player, it feels like the same journalist keeps writing negative stuff about you. As if the pressure of winning and keeping your job is not enough, try adding the stress of dealing with a reporter who seems to be trying to take you down. For some, it can really be too much to handle. That&rsquo;s why a lot of players won&rsquo;t play in Canadian markets: there is much more media coverage, which means many more requests for you and much more scrutiny.</p><p>At the end of the day, players need to understand that the members of the media are the link between them and their fans. The more you talk to them, the more you show your personality, the greater the chances are that you can be seen as a good guy. And in a sport where very few are willing to open up, it doesn&rsquo;t take much to become a media darling, which, in turn, can remove a level of stress. On top of that, you can set yourself up for your life after hockey. Many former players join the media or sign sponsorship deals with companies, and all that is because they were not afraid to use the media to put themselves out there.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/laraque_geo_073/795709-1-eng-US/laraque_geo_0732.jpg" title="laraque_geo_073" width="202" height="256"></div><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="42" height="34"></span><p><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/GeorgesLaraque?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@GEORGESLARAQUE</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

bgl_tavares_075

BGL’s Corner

WHAT’S THE REAL SCOOP?

<div class="byline">BY SCOTT ZERR</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="veg_stephen_035" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/veg_stephen_035/795761-1-eng-US/veg_stephen_0352.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MARC DESROSIERS-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>THERE ARE TIMES WHEN</b> a player is able to do something out of the ordinary and that&rsquo;s what gets him promoted up the lineup.</p><p>For Chandler Stephenson, it was more about <i>not</i> doing something. He didn&rsquo;t change his game. He didn&rsquo;t do anything different. He was simply himself.</p><p>But he did go from being a fourth-line role player to a top-six producer. That&rsquo;s why his Vegas star turn is so impressive. &ldquo;My style is the same,&rdquo; Stephenson said. &ldquo;There wasn&rsquo;t anything I needed to try changing in my game. I just had to be myself. It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve tried to do ever since I started playing hockey, just be myself and not be somebody I&rsquo;m not. Just stick with what I&rsquo;m good at.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/vegas84/795754-1-eng-US/vegas2.jpg" title="vegas" width="188" height="187"></div><p>Stephenson, 27, hit the jackpot upon becoming a member of the Vegas Golden Knights after the team acquired him from Washington in December 2019 for a mere fifth-round pick. He had seen some top-six minutes during the Caps&rsquo; run to the 2018 Stanley Cup, and he made some significant contributions alongside the likes of T.J. Oshie, Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov. But a year later, being relegated to a far lesser role under a new coach had the inevitable downward effect on his ice time and stats.</p><p>When that dejecting trend continued into the first half of 2019-20, the news of a trade to Vegas became a defining moment in his career.</p><p>His initial impression in Vegas &ndash; 22 points in 41 games &ndash; earned him a four-year, $11-million contract, and in the first year of that new deal, he found a new role, all while playing the same straight-ahead style he always had. He found a home centering the two best wingers in the Knights&rsquo; lineup, Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/veg_stephen_036/795747-1-eng-US/veg_stephen_0362.jpg" title="veg_stephen_036" width="1653" height="1080"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>CENTER OF ATTENTION</b></p><p>Stephenson led the Golden Knights in scoring through January, while centering the top attacking line.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>And while both top-end stars have missed sizeable chunks of this season, Stephenson has maintained his top-line spot and a surprising lead in team scoring. &ldquo;It comes with being traded,&rdquo; Stephenson said. &ldquo;It takes some time getting familiar with a team, the guys, the style of play. Every player goes through it. But the more you are with a team, the more you play, your confidence and consistency goes up. I feel like that&rsquo;s been growing in me since I got here, and everything has been really good since.&rdquo;</p><p>Self-confidence is a must for an NHLer. But confidence reciprocated goes a long way, too. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just yourself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;One of the biggest things for a player is when the coach and management have confidence that you&rsquo;ve proven you&rsquo;re the best version of yourself. They trust you can play at the top and give you the minutes that come with playing with the top guys and playing the right way.&rdquo;</p><p>The Golden Knights didn&rsquo;t ask Stephenson to change his game on the ice. Off the ice, Vegas hasn&rsquo;t changed Stephenson either. You can take the kid out of Saskatoon, but deep down, he&rsquo;s still just a salt-of-the-earth prairie boy. &ldquo;Every summer, my fiancee and our dog go home to Saskatoon,&rdquo; Stephenson said. &ldquo;We both grew up there. It&rsquo;s always going to be home and where we want to be. It&rsquo;s very relaxing to be able to get away from all the hustle and bustle of the season and just get a chance to decompress.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I&rsquo;M A SENTIMENTAL GUY, FAMILY COMES FIRST. LIFE ALWAYS HAS <b>UPS AND DOWNS, BUT YOUR FAMILY IS ALWAYS THERE</b><br>&ndash; Chandler Stephenson</blockquote><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a sentimental guy, certainly family comes first. Your life always has ups and downs, but your family is always there. Family helps so much. They are there as a reminder that the highs are never too high, and the lows are never too low. You need family to fall back on. It helps you stay level-headed through the grind. It&rsquo;s a long season and family can take that stress away.&rdquo;</p><p>Hockey and family went hand in hand at the Stephensons&rsquo; place. Uncle Bob had a peripatetic run in the pros touring through the WHA, AHL, International League and the Central League before getting in 18 NHL games between Toronto and Hartford. Then there&rsquo;s cousin Joey Kocur, a former heavyweight with the Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers. And there is Chandler&rsquo;s brother, Colton, whose potential was cut short after 70 WHL games due to repeated concussions.</p><p>The tight bond of what hockey and family mean to Stephenson was strengthened when he celebrated his day with the Cup in August 2018.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/veg_stephen_037/795740-1-eng-US/veg_stephen_0372.jpg" title="veg_stephen_037" width="1105" height="915"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(STEPHEN R. SYLVANIE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Only four months earlier, he, like everyone associated with the game, was rocked by the Humboldt Broncos tragedy. And Stephenson did his part in trying to heal the enormous wound by bringing the greatest trophy in the game to the intersection where the fatal bus crash occurred &ndash; two-and-a-half hours from his hometown of Saskatoon. &ldquo;I still can&rsquo;t believe that happened. I remember being in Washington and it didn&rsquo;t seem real. That kind of thing is not supposed to happen, so I wanted to help as much as I could. I wasn&rsquo;t expecting it to change any lives, but I felt that I wanted to do something to try and help bring the families, the billet families and friends together. Just try and bring them some smiles and a chance to see each other.&rdquo;</p><div class="sidebar"><h4>For up to the minute coverage, visit</h4><h3><a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">Thehockeynews.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></h3></div>

veg_stephen_035

STRAIGHT-AHEAD STAR SHINES

<div class="byline">BY ERIN BROWN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="fla_duclair_101" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/fla_duclair_101/795806-1-eng-US/fla_duclair_1012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>GOALS & DREAMS</b></p><p>Duclair is clicking in a top-six role for the Panthers while becoming a role model in the community.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(TERRENCE LEE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>ANTHONY DUCLAIR FOUND</b> himself moved by a photo of a little boy holding a stuffed bear.</p><p>In the winger&rsquo;s Twitter feed was Musa Siddiqui showing off his new bear dressed in hockey gear. The 6-year-old named it Duclair, Musa told his father, Imran, &ldquo;because he&rsquo;s brown and he plays hockey like me.&rdquo;</p><p>After proudly showing his teammates in the Florida Panthers&rsquo; dressing room, Duclair invited the Siddiqui family to a game and gifted Musa and his older sister, Ayla, with a signed stick and puck. When Musa took part in Florida&rsquo;s &ldquo;learn to play&rdquo; program in June, he met the Panthers&rsquo; real-life teddy bear. &ldquo;Any story like that touches your heart,&rdquo; Duclair said. &ldquo;Hopefully it will touch a couple more minority kids and get them into hockey, sports, whatever they feel like doing.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0062-0176/795799-1-eng-US/f0062-012.jpg" title="f0062-01" width="186" height="186"></div><p>&ldquo;(Musa has) always been drawn to Anthony because he&rsquo;s a minority player. It blew his mind,&rdquo; Imran Siddiqui said. &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s not hockey, it&rsquo;s some other arena where he is going to be an unfamiliar face in the room. And the fact he has this community now, where he feels a little more welcome, it&rsquo;s really awesome.&rdquo;</p><p>The exact same might be said of Duclair. After struggling to fit in with five different teams in the first six seasons of his NHL career, Duclair has comfortably settled in Florida. In July 2021, he agreed to the longest contract since his entry-level pact, a three-year deal worth a total of $9 million.</p><p>Boasting elite puckhandling skills and speed, the native of Pointe-Claire, Que., has excelled regardless of where he slots into the Panthers&rsquo; lineup. The top-six forward&rsquo;s ability to carry the puck while blowing past defenders for on-the-rush scoring chances has been a key component in one of the league&rsquo;s best offenses. When a rush chance hasn&rsquo;t produced one of the 28 goals he&rsquo;s scored over past two seasons, Duclair&rsquo;s teammates often capitalize on the rebounds.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/fla_duclair_103/795792-1-eng-US/fla_duclair_1032.jpg" title="fla_duclair_103" width="1022" height="897"><figcaption class="caption-body">ANTHONY <b>DUCLAIR</b> <span class="photo-credit">(SAM NAVARRO-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Since Andrew Brunette took over as Florida&rsquo;s interim coach in late October, Duclair has picked up minutes on the power play for his ability to settle the puck. With 18 goals and 34 points in 37 games, Duclair was on pace to surpass his personal bests of 23 goals and 44 points.</p><p>&ldquo;With his speed, he&rsquo;s going to help any line he plays on,&rdquo; Brunette said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of merit-based. When you play at the level he&rsquo;s playing at, he&rsquo;s going to play on the top two lines and on the power play. If he&rsquo;s not going quite as well, he brings different intangibles to each line. As a player, when you know you&rsquo;re relied upon and needed, you usually perform better and feel better about yourself.&rdquo;</p><p>The summer of 2020 sparked a change in Duclair&rsquo;s personal and professional career. In the wake of George Floyd&rsquo;s murder and worldwide protests for racial equality that May, the 26-year-old signed on as an executive committee member of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, an independent group with the goal of &ldquo;eradicating racism and intolerance&rdquo; in the sport.</p><p>Just months later, he was an unrestricted free agent after the Ottawa Senators declined to offer him a contract even though he was coming off a 23-goal campaign. Duclair fired his representation and took control of his negotiations. After two months on the free-agent market, he signed a one-year deal with Florida for $1.7 million &ndash; only a $50,000 bump from his previous contract.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">WITH HIS SPEED, HE&rsquo;S GOING TO HELP ANY LINE HE&rsquo;S ON. <b>IT&rsquo;S KIND OF MERIT-BASED</b><br>&ndash; Panthers coach Andrew Brunette</blockquote><p>The union of perennial underachievers proved a perfect match. Duclair has earned time alongside two of the game&rsquo;s most prolific stars in Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau, while emerging himself as a valued player in Florida&rsquo;s success.</p><p>Once Duclair signed a longer-term deal in Florida, he decided to part with No. 91 in exchange for 10. When a few fans who pledged their fandom to &lsquo;Duke&rsquo; reached out online to see if he&rsquo;d do a jersey swap for the updated digits, Duclair came through.</p><p>His outreach in a market with a minority-majority population is having a positive impact, too. When the Hockey Diversity Alliance launched its &ldquo;tape out hate&rdquo; campaign, Duclair brought rolls of tape bearing the message &ldquo;Racism has no place in hockey&rdquo; to the Cats&rsquo; dressing room. He texted his teammates letting them know he&rsquo;d be using it and invited them to join him. &ldquo;Everyone jumped on board right away in supporting the cause,&rdquo; said Duclair to the media while wearing a &ldquo;Vamos Gatos!&rdquo; (Go Cats!) T-shirt. &ldquo;I really appreciate that of the boys, from the bottom of my heart.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;The role Anthony plays in the league, he embraces it,&rdquo; Siddiqui said. &ldquo;It would be easy for him to shy away from having to own the mantle of diversity and minorities in hockey, but he&rsquo;s so great at it. He really owns it so well. We really admire him.&rdquo;</p><p>It took some time to find a welcoming environment, but Duclair has discovered his comfort zone in Florida.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

fla_duclair_101

IMPACT PLAYER AT LAST

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-0244/795886-1-eng-US/f0063-022.jpg" title="f0063-02" width="175" height="175"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he Bruins have struggled to replace Torey Krug&rsquo;s production on the left side of their blueline since he left after the 2019-20 season, but <b>MATT GRZELCYK</b> has done underrated work when healthy. Through 70 games across two seasons since Krug departed, Grzelcyk had 34 points, and the Bruins outscored foes 61-36 at 5-on-5 with him on the ice. In a Jan. 10 game, he exploded for a career-high five points. The last B&rsquo;s blueliner to do that was Hall of Famer Ray Bourque on Jan. 2, 1994, three days before Grzelcyk was born.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-0325/795879-1-eng-US/f0063-032.jpg" title="f0063-03" width="175" height="175"></div><p>The 2018 Ryan O&rsquo;Reilly trade is an all-time fleecing, but 6-foot-7 right winger <b>TAGE THOMPSON</b>, one of the players Buffalo got from St. Louis in that deal, has begun to balance the scale ever so slightly. He led the Sabres in points through mid-January and was scoring at a 29-goal pace. He ranked in the 87th percentile of all NHL forwards in 5-on-5 shots per 60 and the 96th percentile in shot attempts per 60 (min. 300 minutes). He&rsquo;s only 24, so perhaps he just needed time to grow into his mammoth frame.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-0420/795872-1-eng-US/f0063-042.jpg" title="f0063-04" width="174" height="174"></div><p><b>TYLER BERTUZZI&rsquo;S</b> season is one of the strangest in recent memory. He&rsquo;s been so steadfast in his refusal to get a COVID-19 vaccine that he can&rsquo;t travel with the Red Wings to play road games in Canada, and he unsurprisingly tested positive for the virus in December. But when he&rsquo;s been healthy and allowed to play, he&rsquo;s been sensational. By mid-January, he had 17 goals and 28 points in 29 games, good for a 48-goal pace in an 82-game schedule. Only two players in the NHL averaged more goals per 60 minutes.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-0513/795865-1-eng-US/f0063-052.jpg" title="f0063-05" width="174" height="174"></div><p><b>SAM BENNETT</b> went gangbusters last season after the Panthers acquired him at the trade deadline from Calgary. Given the best opportunity of his career as Florida&rsquo;s No. 2 center, he ripped off 15 points in 10 games. Was it a fluke or was 2014&rsquo;s No. 4 overall pick finally realizing his potential? His 2021-22 suggests the latter. He&rsquo;d played roughly half an NHL season as a Panther from the 2021 trade through mid-January 2022, during which he&rsquo;d scored at better than a 40-goal pace.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-0611/795858-1-eng-US/f0063-062.jpg" title="f0063-06" width="175" height="175"></div><p>Following its surprise run to the Stanley Cup final, Montreal has endured a non-stop nightmare in 2021-22, sitting dead last in the NHL by mid-January. The only player doing positive things was the one who sat out the 2021 playoffs: <b>JONATHAN DROUIN</b>. In a better headspace after coming forward about his anxiety issues, he was scoring at a 50-point pace. With one more year left on his deal, might he become an intriguing buy-low trade candidate? He could spread his wings in a more obscure market with less pressure.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-0710/795851-1-eng-US/f0063-072.jpg" title="f0063-07" width="175" height="175"></div><p>Brady Tkachuk and Thomas Chabot got more lucrative deals, and Josh Norris was the breakout star last year, but <b>DRAKE BATHERSON</b>, 23, enjoyed the best start to 2021-22 among all Ottawa youngsters. Skating on the top line with Tkachuk and Norris, Batherson flirted with a 100-point pace while utilizing his 6-foot-3, 205-pound frame. He signed a six-year pact at a $5-million AAV in September, which looks like a bargain. Only a January ankle injury, which will keep him out months, could slow him down.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-0810/795844-1-eng-US/f0063-082.jpg" title="f0063-08" width="174" height="174"></div><p>How good are the Lightning at maximizing players&rsquo; potential? They&rsquo;re no longer just turning late-round or undrafted players into key pieces. They&rsquo;re now reviving careers. <b>COREY PERRY</b> is 36, an age at which most players are retired or prepping for it, yet he&rsquo;s on pace for his first 20-goal season in six years and averaging his most shots per game in four years. Efforts like his helped the Bolts remain a juggernaut despite losing their third line of Blake Coleman, Yanni Gourde and Barclay Goodrow from last season&rsquo;s Cup team.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-0910/795837-1-eng-US/f0063-092.jpg" title="f0063-09" width="175" height="175"></div><p>How did the Leafs hold a high spot in the standings despite losing heart-and-soul left winger Zach Hyman to free agency? Right winger <b>ONDREJ KASE</b>, dubbed &ldquo;a buzzsaw&rdquo; by coach Sheldon Keefe, has brought the heart and soul in all situations. On track for career bests with eight goals and 17 points through 30 games, he was playing on both the PP and PK and graded in the 91st percentile among all NHL forwards in takeaways per 60 (min. 300 minutes). Not bad for a one-year, $1.25-million commitment.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

SURPRISE STAR: ATLANTIC DIVISION

<div class="byline">BY SLAVA MALAMUD</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="clb_gavriko_104" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/clb_gavriko_104/795938-1-eng-US/clb_gavriko_1042.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>COLORFUL BLUE JACKET</b></p><p>Gavrikov brings much personality to the Columbus dressing room. He&rsquo;s loved by his teammates and the fans.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HEN IT COMES TO</b> prominent Russians in the NHL, words like &ldquo;highly skilled,&rdquo; &ldquo;explosive,&rdquo; &ldquo;exciting&rdquo; and, every now and again, &ldquo;enigmatic&rdquo; are thrown around far more often than not. Adjectives such as &ldquo;dependable,&rdquo; &ldquo;steady&rdquo; or &ldquo;gritty&rdquo; are usually reserved for the proverbial boys from Mississauga and Flin Flon, not imports from Yaroslavl and Yekaterinburg. The latter is probably as rare as seeing words such as &ldquo;glamorous,&rdquo; &ldquo;marquee&rdquo; or &ldquo;primetime&rdquo; in association with the city of Columbus.</p><p>Yet Vladislav Gavrikov, a 26-year-old native of Yaroslavl, a hockey-mad city on the Volga River, is as dependable and reliably gritty as a stay-at-home defenseman comes. And he&rsquo;s plying his trade in the Ohio capital few people would call the NHL&rsquo;s most glamorous location. Gavrikov falls squarely into the category of players who are mostly appreciated by more-than-casual fans and the hometown crowd. But one wouldn&rsquo;t have to search too hard to add to that list.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0064-0170/795931-1-eng-US/f0064-012.jpg" title="f0064-01" width="187" height="187"></div><p>You can start with coaches, who love Gavrikov&rsquo;s positioning and tenacity. His ability to suffocate opposing forwards has earned him the moniker &lsquo;The Octopus&rsquo; from first-year Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen.</p><p>Gavrikov is also an underrated media darling, as his sense of humor can easily shine through the accent and the laid-back personality. While he can be diplomatic and cliched when needed (such was the case in 2020, for instance, when Russian media attempted to get it on the record whether he, &ldquo;as an American resident,&rdquo; supported Joe Biden or Donald Trump; &ldquo;I am still a bit removed from this,&rdquo; was his answer.) He can also deliver smirking knee-slappers when in his element. Gavrikov once suggested that his goal song should be early 1990s Eurodance track &ldquo;What is Love?&rdquo; (because it sounds like his first name, get it?), and he is always ready to exalt his prowess in the subtle skill of beer pong.</p><p>It is his pleasant, down-to-earth personality, as well as his fashion sense, that has endeared him to the Blue Jackets faithful. To that end, a young fan in Columbus recently traded Gavrikov a pair of colorful socks (featuring flying pigs, because why not) in exchange for his stick. The defenseman was then spotted wearing those same socks to the next game.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/clb_gavriko_105/795924-1-eng-US/clb_gavriko_1052.jpg" title="clb_gavriko_105" width="1022" height="1105"><figcaption class="caption-body">VLADISLAV <b>GAVRIKOV</b> <span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Gavrikov is also a dressing-room favorite, as one would be hard-pressed to find any current or former teammate with anything but great things to say about him. Gavrikov is a close friend of former Blue Jacket Artemi Panarin, whose house he spent a fair bit of time at during the NHL&rsquo;s first COVID-19 pause back in 2020. Panarin, who rarely lets anyone in his orbit get bored, quickly roped Gavrikov into a project of winterizing his garage. Despite having zero experience with home improvement, the younger comrade agreed, and, according to the intrepid improvers (if not Panarin&rsquo;s wife), the pair completed the work with utmost success. When not rebuilding Panarin&rsquo;s domicile, Gavrikov takes care of Jackets rookie Yegor Chinakhov, who still needs a lot of help adapting to life in the United States. Gavrikov has volunteered his services translating for Chinakhov whenever he is in demand with the Columbus media and, paying for his newly acquired reputation as a handyman, tutors the fellow Russian in the usage of American household appliances.</p><p>The fact Gavrikov handles his blueline responsibilities with the same care as he does Panarin&rsquo;s power tools (at least one hopes) will likely ensure the longevity of his NHL career. Having arrived in the NHL as an Olympic gold medallist, Gavrikov, one of the best Russian defensemen in the league right now, certainly would have had a chance at a repeat had the league not pulled out of the Beijing Games. His selfless, shot-blocking performances during the Jackets&rsquo; 2020 playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning drew attention from across the hockey world to his grit and discipline. Still, earlier this year, Russian publication <i>Championat</i> included him on its list of the &ldquo;Seven Most Unnoticed Russians in the NHL.&rdquo; What they actually meant was &ldquo;underrated&rdquo; or &ldquo;unfairly forgotten in Russia,&rdquo; since they lauded Gavrikov as &ldquo;by far the most valuable player on the Jackets&rsquo; roster this season,&rdquo; in the same article. Boone Jenner and Zach Werenski were presumably unavailable for comment.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">GAVRIKOV CAN ALSO BE A MEDIA DARLING, <b>AS HIS SENSE OF HUMOR CAN SHINE THROUGH THE ACCENT</b></blockquote><p>Russian fans&rsquo; understandable fixation on more glamorous goal-scorers aside, Gavrikov is making the most of his ice time this year. If he keeps up his current pace, the kid from Yaroslavl should be in triple digits in blocked shots and hits, which is where the money is in his chosen trade. Of course, being tied for second on the team in assists, despite not being a part of the Jackets&rsquo; power play, won&rsquo;t hurt him at the bank either. After all, when it comes to getting off the list of &ldquo;most unnoticed Russians,&rdquo; beer pong and colorful socks can only carry you so far.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

clb_gavriko_104

KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0266/796018-1-eng-US/f0065-022.jpg" title="f0065-02" width="173" height="173"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>F</span>REDERIK ANDERSEN</b> put up decent numbers in Toronto, but he never performed at the high level he has consistently hit in his first season with the Hurricanes. The Danish goalie had some of the best first-half stats in the NHL, and his deep-dive numbers (such as goals saved above expected) shone as well. GM Don Waddell gambled when he turned over his goalie battery in the summer by trading Alex Nedeljkovic and letting Petr Mrazek walk, but Andersen and Antti Raanta have rewarded their new boss so far.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0348/796011-1-eng-US/f0065-032.jpg" title="f0065-03" width="173" height="173"></div><p><b>JAKUB VORACEK&rsquo;S</b> return to Columbus has been great. After spending a decade in Philadelphia, the veteran playmaker was traded back to the team that originally drafted him seventh overall in 2007 and where he spent his first three NHL seasons. Though he was stuck on one goal through the first third of the year, Voracek was second in Jackets scoring behind Oliver Bjorkstrand thanks to his 24 assists through 34 games. Voracek, 32, is one of the oldest players on a young squad that&rsquo;s exceeding pre-season expectations.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0435/796004-1-eng-US/f0065-042.jpg" title="f0065-04" width="175" height="175"></div><p>As the rebuilding Devils have found their footing, so too has <b>JESPER BRATT</b>. The fifth-year NHLer has been one of New Jersey&rsquo;s top scorers and is set to smash his previous offensive bests. Bratt has always been an elite skater, but now he&rsquo;s shooting the puck more often and getting rewarded: the Swedish national had never posted more than 101 shots in a season but was already at 93 through 34 games this year. Bratt is also scoring more at 5-on-5 and putting up some of the best possession stats on the team.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0523/795997-1-eng-US/f0065-052.jpg" title="f0065-05" width="175" height="175"></div><p>It&rsquo;s been a trial for the Isles this year, even with a shiny new arena to play in. Positives have been hard to come by, but at least <b>OLIVER WAHLSTROM</b> has shown he can be a consistent offensive threat in the NHL. The 21-year-old right winger has been one of the Islanders&rsquo; top scorers and has been particularly effective on the power play, battling Mathew Barzal for the team lead in extra-strength points. On top of that, Wahlstrom was doing his damage while averaging a little more than 13 minutes of ice time per game.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0616/795990-1-eng-US/f0065-062.jpg" title="f0065-06" width="175" height="175"></div><p><b>CHRIS KREIDER</b> has been an integral part of the team for years thanks to his speed, power and leadership. But he&rsquo;s never produced like this before. As the Rangers ascend in the East, the veteran left winger has put together his best offensive pace ever, nearing a point per game and breaking the 20-goal mark with more than half the year to go. Kreider&rsquo;s career best is 28 goals, which he has done twice. His chemistry with longtime linemate Mika Zibanejad has hit another level, and New York has benefitted from the combo.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-075/795983-1-eng-US/f0065-072.jpg" title="f0065-07" width="175" height="175"></div><p>Expectations for a better season in Philly have yet to be fulfilled, and the Flyers will have to grind to even entertain the notion of a playoff berth. But one player who has not disappointed is <b>TRAVIS SANHEIM</b>. With flashy acquisition Ryan Ellis missing most of the campaign due to injury, Sanheim was logging big minutes (his 22:31 per game was second among Flyers regulars) and had the best possession stats of any regular D-man on the team, despite starting just 45 percent of shifts in the offensive zone.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-085/795976-1-eng-US/f0065-082.jpg" title="f0065-08" width="175" height="175"></div><p>He might be the NHL&rsquo;s biggest surprise this season, and the Pens are glad to have him: <b>EVAN RODRIGUES</b> has been one of the best possession players in the league, and his 30 points, done in just 35 games, were already a career high. His 15 goals are also a career best, and given the high-profile injuries Pittsburgh has dealt with, Rodrigues&rsquo; breakout could not have come at a better time. Rodrigues, an undrafted college free agent who played with Jack Eichel at Boston University, has truly found his game at 28.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-095/795969-1-eng-US/f0065-092.jpg" title="f0065-09" width="175" height="175"></div><p>Washington&rsquo;s offense from the back end has always gone through John Carlson &ndash; and still does &ndash; but <b>DMITRY ORLOV</b> was quietly putting together his best season. The stocky blueliner was averaging just less than a half a point per game, putting him on pace to surpass his previous high of 33 points, set back in 2016-17. Not only that, but Orlov was scoring mostly at 5-on-5: he had only one power-play point (a goal) and hasn&rsquo;t played a ton of PP minutes. Meanwhile, the Caps were one of the top teams in the division.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

SURPRISE STAR: METRO DIVISION

<div class="byline">BY LOU KORAC</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="stl_kyrou3" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/stl_kyrou3/796070-1-eng-US/stl_kyrou32.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HITTING THE HIGH NOTE</b></p><p>Kyrou broke his single-season marks for both goals and points by Game 36 of this season.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ANNE-MARIE SORVIN-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>LEAVE IT TO ST.</b> Louis Blues center Robert Thomas to offer the best description of teammate Jordan Kyrou.</p><p>The two were sitting together for a post-game interview following a 2-1 win against the expansion Seattle Kraken in January and Thomas didn&rsquo;t mince his words when asked what Kyrou is like off the ice. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s pretty goofy,&rdquo; Thomas said, laughing before offering a more serious description. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s always putting smiles on guys&rsquo; faces. He&rsquo;s always joking around, a fun guy to be around. Not so much in the mornings, though, but as the day goes on, he&rsquo;s pretty funny, and he just brings a lot of joy to people. But yeah, don&rsquo;t talk to him in the morning.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-0171/796063-1-eng-US/f0066-012.jpg" title="f0066-01" width="186" height="186"></div><p>Kyrou looked over to his left, smiled and said, &ldquo;Thanks, bro. That&rsquo;s nice of you&hellip;I&rsquo;m not that grumpy. Only until like 9:30 or 10.&rdquo;</p><p>Kyrou and Thomas are part of the next generation of Blues players climbing the ladder and helping the team evolve from the big, bruising, heavy mindset that helped them win a Stanley Cup in 2019 into a more fast and skilled group.</p><p>Need an example? Look no further than the Dec. 29 game between St. Louis and Edmonton. Imagine the range of emotions that were going through the mind of Oilers defenseman Dmitri Samorukov when Kyrou had the puck on his stick and nobody between them.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">IT&rsquo;S FUN TO WATCH. <b>HE CAN DO A LOT OF AMAZING THINGS WITH THE PUCK AND FIND WAYS TO SCORE</b><br>&ndash; Blues center Tyler Bozak</blockquote><p>The dynamic Kyrou had just received a pass from teammate Vladimir Tarasenko on his side of the center-ice red line and had only one man left to beat &ndash; Samorukov. One on one, Samorukov had no chance. A quick burst by Kyrou and he was gone, and only goalie Mike Smith was between him and the back of the net. Kyrou won that battle with a quick, deft flick of the wrist over the veteran netminder&rsquo;s glove hand. It gave the Blues a 2-0 lead, on their way to a 4-2 win.</p><p>That was just a small sample of what the 6-foot-1, 195-pound speedster can do already, and many believe the 23-year-old is just scratching the surface. &ldquo;Elite skill,&rdquo; said veteran Blues center Tyler Bozak. &ldquo;Something we get to see every day in practice and in the games. It&rsquo;s fun to watch. He can do a lot of amazing things with the puck and find ways to score, make something out of nothing. We&rsquo;re lucky to have him.</p><p>Added Blues goalie Jordan Binnington: &ldquo;I know how good he is, how hard he works. It&rsquo;s really good to see. I&rsquo;m glad I&rsquo;m on his team, for sure.&rdquo;</p><p>Kyrou, a second-round pick (35th overall) by the Blues in 2016, made a name for himself in 55 games last season with 14 goals and 35 points, but he topped both of those marks this year by Game 36. For his efforts, he was named to the All-Star Game, winning out over teammates Tarasenko, Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich.</p><p>It took Kyrou, who tore up the OHL while playing for the Sarnia Sting, some time to get to where he is, and that required patience. The offensive gifts were evident, but learning to become the well-rounded player one must be to become an NHLer required perseverance and seasoning in the AHL. So he spent parts of two seasons with the San Antonio Rampage to begin his pro career.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/stl_kyrou22/796056-1-eng-US/stl_kyrou22.jpg" title="stl_kyrou2" width="1020" height="1395"><figcaption class="caption-body">JORDAN <b>KYROU</b> <span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>There&rsquo;s still work to do on the defensive side, but it&rsquo;s hard to overlook the gifts that Kyrou brings to the table. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been a real good player all year,&rdquo; said Blues coach Craig Berube. &ldquo;Pretty consistent all year. He&rsquo;s producing at a pretty good level. His all-around game has been good. He&rsquo;s very noticeable out there, and he&rsquo;s doing some really good things night in and night out. The NHL&rsquo;s a different league. You&rsquo;ve got to do things a lot different in the NHL than you do in college or junior hockey.</p><p>&ldquo;These (younger) guys are real good offensive players, but over time here, they&rsquo;ve managed the game better, managed the puck better, made good decisions. When you don&rsquo;t have the puck, defensive responsibilities are really important. They have to keep improving and keep doing it. That&rsquo;s how you gain trust in a player.&rdquo;</p><p>Kyrou feels his patience has paid off. &ldquo;I put my time in over the years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just continued to work on my game with the coaching staff and work on all the little things I need to do.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

stl_kyrou3

THIS KID IS NO JOKE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-0219/796150-1-eng-US/f0067-022.jpg" title="f0067-02" width="175" height="175"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>RAVIS BOYD</b> has lived life on the NHL&rsquo;s fringes, earning cups of coffee but rarely a full-time roster spot. Case in point: in seven years since leaving the University of Minnesota, the pivot&rsquo;s career-best season was a 53-game, 20-point campaign in 2018-19 with Washington. However, a ragtag Arizona roster has given Boyd the chance to shine with the Coyotes. He&rsquo;s already set a career high in goals and is on pace to surpass his 20-point best. At 28, he&rsquo;s waited for this chance, and he&rsquo;s making the most of it.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-0313/796143-1-eng-US/f0067-032.jpg" title="f0067-03" width="174" height="174"></div><p>If <b>BRANDON HAGEL</b> wanted to assert himself as a legitimate NHL talent, one 24-point campaign wouldn&rsquo;t do the trick. But his eight goals and 16 points through mid-January have the 23-year-old left winger appearing as though he&rsquo;s found a steady spot in the middle of Chicago&rsquo;s lineup. Better yet for the Blackhawks is Hagel&rsquo;s ability to be an all-situations contributor. Beyond steady even-strength time, he&rsquo;s skating second-line minutes on both special-teams units and ranked fifth in ice time among Hawks forwards.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-049/796136-1-eng-US/f0067-042.jpg" title="f0067-04" width="174" height="174"></div><p><b>DEVON TOEWS</b> has gone from relative unknown to potential Norris finalist in four seasons. The star turn for the 27-year-old rearguard began during his sophomore season with the Isles, continued when he arrived in Colorado last season and has only risen further with the Avalanche this year. Before the NHLers-to-Olympics dream went kaput, Toews was considered a contender for a top-four spot on Team Canada. That&rsquo;s remarkable for a player who has never before worn the maple leaf at a major tourney.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-056/796129-1-eng-US/f0067-052.jpg" title="f0067-05" width="174" height="174"></div><p><b>JAKE OETTINGER</b> wasn&rsquo;t necessarily in the Stars&rsquo; plans this year. Rather, Dallas&rsquo; crease was supposed to be split between Braden Holtby and Anton Khudobin, with Ben Bishop&rsquo;s potential return making it a three-man battle. But Bishop&rsquo;s injury-related retirement and Khudobin&rsquo;s declining play opened a spot for the 23-year-old stopper, and he&rsquo;s held on to it with both hands. Oettinger has been a superb 1B behind Holtby, and the 2017 first-rounder appears every bit the goalie of the future the club hoped he&rsquo;d become.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-065/796122-1-eng-US/f0067-062.jpg" title="f0067-06" width="174" height="174"></div><p>The Venn diagram of those who believed <b>RYAN HARTMAN</b> would be a near point-per-game player this season and those who are liars is just one giant circle. Sure, the 27-year-old right winger had two 31-point seasons &ndash; including a 19-goal campaign &ndash; on his resume. But given he had scored 28 goals and 68 points across 203 big-league contests prior to the 2021-22 campaign, not a soul could have predicted Hartman would be, as of mid-January, on pace for 37 goals and 70 points this season.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-074/796115-1-eng-US/f0067-072.jpg" title="f0067-07" width="173" height="173"></div><p>The Predators&rsquo; ability to cultivate defensemen into high-quality pieces borders on uncanny, and you can add <b>ALEXANDRE CARRIER</b> to the list. Carrier, 25, has provided a bit of everything to Nashville&rsquo;s back end this season and was averaging more than 20 minutes per game to go along with his 13 points through 34 contests. But where he&rsquo;s stood out most has been on the penalty kill. In tandem with Mattias Ekholm, Carrier was an integral part of Nashville&rsquo;s top-10 success rate shorthanded.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-084/796108-1-eng-US/f0067-082.jpg" title="f0067-08" width="174" height="174"></div><p>Opportunity knocked in St. Louis and <b>IVAN BARBASHEV</b> answered. Though the 26-year-old has been a big-league mainstay since 2017-18, he&rsquo;d never skated more than bottom-six minutes. Given the chance this season, however, Barbashev exploded offensively. By mid-January, Barbashev had 13 goals and 28 points. He needed just one more goal to equal a career high and had already exceeded his best point total. Call it a hunch, but Barbashev won&rsquo;t be fighting over bottom-six minutes anytime soon.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0067-093/796101-1-eng-US/f0067-092.jpg" title="f0067-09" width="175" height="175"></div><p><b>EVGENY SVECHNIKOV&rsquo;S</b> stats don&rsquo;t dazzle, but they also don&rsquo;t tell the whole story. The 25-year-old left winger arrived in Winnipeg on a professional tryout and has carved out a unique role as a hole-plugger throughout the Jets&rsquo; lineup. Often, he&rsquo;s sneaking up the roster to give Winnipeg&rsquo;s top six a change of pace. His three goals and nine points were career-best totals and had him on pace for an eight-goal, 25-point output. That&rsquo;s sound production from a player who wasn&rsquo;t in the mix entering camp.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

SURPRISE STAR: CENTRAL DIVISION

<div class="byline">BY GEOFF BAKER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="sea_mccann3_107" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/sea_mccann3_107/796202-1-eng-US/sea_mccann3_1072.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(STEVEN BISIG-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>S</span>EATTLE KRAKEN CENTER</b> Jared McCann has been too busy scoring goals to find time to visit one of his new city&rsquo;s foremost tourist attractions.</p><p>But the famous salmon-tossing fishmongers at Pike Place Market are forever etched in memory. Days before the NHL expansion draft last summer, the Penguins &ndash; fearing they&rsquo;d lose McCann for nothing &ndash; dealt him to Toronto in exchange for prospect Filip Hallander and a seventh-round draft pick.</p><p>The deal went down when McCann, 25, was at a buddy&rsquo;s cottage in Grand Bend, Ont., not too far from his hometown of Stratford. He was still in shock from the trade and wrapping his brain around the plusses of playing for the Maple Leafs as a &ldquo;home team of sorts, closer to my family&rdquo; when Leafs GM Kyle Dubas called to tell him he&rsquo;d be left unprotected in the draft.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0068-0146/796195-1-eng-US/f0068-012.jpg" title="f0068-01" width="187" height="187"></div><p>McCann, by then feeling &ldquo;pretty stressed out,&rdquo; quickly learned through media chatter that Seattle would either take him or Leafs left winger Alexander Kerfoot. Then came the viral social-media post showing cellphone video of ESPN analyst Kevin Weekes rehearsing a planned expansion-draft TV sketch tossing salmon with the Pike Place mongers.</p><p>Weekes pulled out a note attached to one fish and he and one monger jointly read: &ldquo;The Seattle Kraken select, from the Toronto Maple Leafs, forward Alexander Kerfoot.&rdquo;</p><p>McCann certainly didn&rsquo;t miss it. &ldquo;That was pretty funny,&rdquo; McCann said. &ldquo;I watched the video and I thought &lsquo;Oh, they&rsquo;re taking Kerfoot, I guess I have nothing to worry about.&rsquo; But then they took me. It was a very strange week.&rdquo;</p><p>Fast forward to the end of January, when McCann led the Kraken with 18 goals and 28 points, nearing career highs in both categories. He&rsquo;d become the go-to guy on the team&rsquo;s power play and Seattle&rsquo;s answer to William Karlsson, the formerly unheralded center who surprisingly scored 43 goals for the Vegas Golden Knights in their expansion season. &ldquo;I guess,&rdquo; McCann said, &ldquo;it all worked out in the end.&rdquo;</p><p>After years as a winger and part-time center, McCann&rsquo;s standout training camp earned him a surprising top-line nod between Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle. And he&rsquo;s remained there, even after being sidelined by a bout with COVID-19 in November, which left him physically depleted and unable to taste or smell.</p><p>But he scored twice his first game back and hasn&rsquo;t stopped. McCann had scored some goals before &ndash; tallying 14 in each of the past two pandemic-shortened seasons and 19 in 2018-19 &ndash; but not quite at this rate. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve definitely been trying to shoot the puck more,&rdquo; McCann said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like they always say, you can&rsquo;t score if you don&rsquo;t shoot.&rdquo;</p><p>McCann, drafted 24th overall by Vancouver in 2014, has long been known for his shot. Not just one-timed slappers but a pinpoint wrister as well. He had developed the shot in backyards of multiple homes growing up: his parents, Matt and Erin, owned a construction company, which caused them to move around a lot. &ldquo;It was good,&rdquo; McCann said. &ldquo;Because my dad knew how to build things, and he was always building me these cement pathways to practise my shooting.&rdquo;</p><p>He&rsquo;d blast pucks and rubber balls into concrete cinder blocks used to store some of his parents&rsquo; construction equipment. McCann explained that was advantageous because &ldquo;that way I wasn&rsquo;t causing any damage to the house.&rdquo;</p><p>These days, the damage is being done to opposing goalies, especially on the power play. As of late January, he&rsquo;d scored 13 power-play goals in his past 82 combined games between Seattle and Pittsburgh, compared to just five PP goals in his first 310 career games. That included six of his first 18 goals coming on the man advantage this season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like anything else,&rdquo; McCann said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a maturation process in your game where you learn more about the type of player you can be.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/sea_mccann1_106/796188-1-eng-US/sea_mccann1_1062.jpg" title="sea_mccann1_106" width="1021" height="1104"><figcaption class="caption-body">JARED <b>MCCANN</b> <span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>As he moved from Vancouver to Florida, then Pittsburgh, he slowly gained confidence shooting the puck from anywhere. In an early January game against Colorado, he beat goalie Pavel Francouz with a wrister from the outer hashmarks beyond the left faceoff circle.</p><p>But while McCann will shoot from anywhere, he&rsquo;s done with hopscotching the continent for new teams. The pending restricted free agent, counting for $2.94 million against the salary cap this season, wants to stay with the Kraken long-term, and high-profile teammates have taken to lobbying on his behalf. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s done a good job of getting an opportunity and running with it,&rdquo; Eberle said. &ldquo;I know him personally, and he&rsquo;s been a guy who&rsquo;s bounced around a lot on one-year deals. He&rsquo;s really looking for a place to grab security, and I know he loves it here and wants to be here.&rdquo;</p><p>McCann felt he&rsquo;d found a home in Pittsburgh. It&rsquo;s why last summer&rsquo;s trade stung him and his longtime girlfriend, Valerie, so hard at first. &ldquo;I know it&rsquo;s part of the game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But people really aren&rsquo;t aware of what it does to you as a player.&rdquo;</p><p>But that initial shock eventually faded. In McCann&rsquo;s first trip back to Pittsburgh in late January, he spoke graciously about his former team after scoring a game-tying third-period goal in a stunning Kraken overtime win over the Pens. He even thanked the Penguins for &ldquo;reviving&rdquo; his career.</p><p>With that career now in overdrive, he might consider thanking Pike Place fishmongers for being wrong in that viral video. McCann said a visit to the market is on his to-do list once he gets some free time.</p><p>And he&rsquo;s hoping for several more years locally to make good on that pledge.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

sea_mccann3_107

GOING TO MARKET

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-0223/796282-1-eng-US/f0069-022.jpg" title="f0069-02" width="174" height="174"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>F</span>ans have been forecasting a breakout from <b>TROY TERRY</b> for quite some time. The Denver native and University of Denver alum was just getting his feet wet in his first three years in the NHL, topping out at seven goals and 20 points in 48 games last season. He wasn&rsquo;t even drafted in most hockey pools, but the goals have come fast and furious this year. Terry scored 11 goals in his first 14 games and had 22 through 38. His 24.4 shooting percentage was third in the league among players with at least 25 games.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-0311/796275-1-eng-US/f0069-032.jpg" title="f0069-03" width="175" height="175"></div><p>Things got so bad for <b>MILAN LUCIC</b> a couple years ago that he contemplated retirement despite a lucrative contract with several years remaining on it. At 31, the power forward was coming off a career-low six goals and 20 points in Edmonton, and it didn&rsquo;t get much better in his first year in Calgary. But then Lucic started having fun again, became a fan favorite and embraced his grinding bottom-six role. And sure enough, the goals started coming, most of them connecting at his target of choice &ndash; the five-hole.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-049/796268-1-eng-US/f0069-042.jpg" title="f0069-04" width="174" height="174"></div><p>With his booming &lsquo;Bouch Bomb&rsquo; shot and flair for offense, <b>EVAN BOUCHARD</b> was projected to be a leading producer from the blueline when he was drafted 10th overall by Edmonton in 2018. But he was slow to develop, needing another year of junior and most of two more in development leagues. Expectations were modest in his first full season with the Oilers, but the 22-year-old has been more productive than Tyson Barrie, Darnell Nurse and Duncan Keith, all while averaging more than 21 minutes of ice time.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-055/796261-1-eng-US/f0069-052.jpg" title="f0069-05" width="173" height="173"></div><p>Just when it looked like <b>ADRIAN KEMPE</b> settled into a zone of 15 or so goals and 30 to 40 points &ndash; his general range the past four years &ndash; he went and became a sharpshooter. After scoring one goal in nine October games to start the season, and with promising young Kings forwards popping their heads up all around him, Kempe went on a tear with 16 goals in 29 games, passing all of his teammates. He&rsquo;s also on pace to top his career high in shots (148 in 2019-20) before finishing his 50th game this season.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-063/796254-1-eng-US/f0069-062.jpg" title="f0069-06" width="175" height="175"></div><p>The one thing the Sharks had plenty of going into the season was job openings at the forward position. With just a handful of regulars on the depth chart and Evander Kane suspended, 27-year-old Russian veteran <b>ALEXANDER BARABANOV</b> had a legitimate chance to make a good impression. His speed and assertive puck movement were just what the Sharks were looking for in middle-six wingers. He&rsquo;s too old to get any Calder votes, but he&rsquo;s winning over a lot of fans with his tireless work ethic and production.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-073/796247-1-eng-US/f0069-072.jpg" title="f0069-07" width="174" height="174"></div><p>At 25 and already on his fifth NHL team, <b>JARED MCCANN</b> is too young to embrace the label of &ldquo;journeyman.&rdquo; The 24th overall pick by Vancouver in 2014, McCann cut his teeth in Florida for a couple years before upping his game in Pittsburgh the past three seasons. He was acquired by Toronto last summer prior to the expansion draft, but never played for the Leafs. With the Kraken in Year 1, McCann scored in each of the team&rsquo;s first two games and has led Seattle in goal-scoring most of the season.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-083/796240-1-eng-US/f0069-082.jpg" title="f0069-08" width="174" height="174"></div><p>It&rsquo;s not completely accurate to call <b>THATCHER DEMKO</b> a surprise star because, let&rsquo;s face it, the Canucks bid adieu to proven pros Jacob Markstrom and Braden Holtby the past two seasons to give more playing time to Demko. But during a season that went off the rails by December, Demko was the one true tower of power in the lineup every night. By mid-January, Demko was among league leaders in shots faced and games started. For that reason, he was the lone Canuck to make the NHL All-Star Game.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0069-093/796233-1-eng-US/f0069-092.jpg" title="f0069-09" width="174" height="174"></div><p>How about that unheralded center in Vegas who emerged from the darkness to really make a difference for the Golden Knights? Chandler Stephenson? Of course. But what about <b>NICOLAS ROY</b>, too? Acquired from Carolina in 2019 when Vegas had to offload salary &ndash; Erik Haula went to the Hurricanes &ndash; Roy has flourished in a third-line role for the Golden Knights and outproduced William Karlsson. At 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, Roy plays a heavy game that Vegas will count on even when Jack Eichel gets in the lineup.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

SURPRISE STAR: PACIFIC DIVISION

<div class="byline">BY DOUG WARD</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="kingsmexico_113" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/kingsmexico_113/796341-1-eng-US/kingsmexico_1132.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS COURTESY OF LOS ANGELES KINGS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>IN HOCKEY, &ldquo;SOUTH OF THE</b> border&rdquo; used to mean the United States. Not anymore.</p><p>Fifty-four years after arriving in Los Angeles as hockey missionaries charged with playing and selling Canada&rsquo;s game in a non-traditional market, the Kings are pioneering evangelists once again, this time taking the sport to another warm-weather market: Mexico City.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0072-0140/796334-1-eng-US/f0072-012.jpg" title="f0072-01" width="188" height="187"></div><p>Of course, if there is one thing the Kings&rsquo; success in Los Angeles has taught us, it&rsquo;s that the term &ldquo;non-traditional&rdquo; hockey market applies to the past and bears little impact on the future. The NHL has never played a game in Mexico, but the country has a population close to 130 million &ndash; including more than 3,000 registered hockey players &ndash; and 18 indoor ice rinks. So the Kings believe their neighbors to the south represent hockey&rsquo;s next frontier. &ldquo;Hockey is a lot like soccer, which is the most popular sport in Mexico,&rdquo; said former King Derek Armstrong. &ldquo;That similarity makes it easy for kids there to grasp the game.&rdquo; The 48-year-old Armstrong is now the Kings&rsquo; director of community and hockey development.</p><p>The Kings are so bullish on hockey south of the border that they have expanded their Jr. Kings program to Mexico City, where they conducted their second Jr. Kings Camp in November 2021. Along with fellow Kings alum Brad Smyth, Armstrong conducted on-ice training sessions for approximately 45 players. &ldquo;If we can get two to three kids excited about hockey,&rdquo; Armstrong said, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s well worth it.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/kingsmexico_114/796327-1-eng-US/kingsmexico_1142.jpg" title="kingsmexico_114" width="1022" height="602"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS COURTESY OF LOS ANGELES KINGS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Kings president Luc Robitaille was instrumental in bringing hockey to the L.A. mainstream. He scored 668 career NHL goals and possesses a magnetic personality, making him the ideal pitchman for the game in California.</p><p>After seeing firsthand what can happen when a market is exposed to hockey, Robitaille saw reaching out to Mexico City as a duty as much as an opportunity. &ldquo;We think it&rsquo;s important because we love the game of hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We want to share our passion for the game.&rdquo;</p><p>While conducting the camps in Mexico City, Armstrong came to believe hockey and Mexico have comparable core values, making the two a natural fit. &ldquo;Mexico is very family-oriented,&rdquo; Armstrong said. &ldquo;Great families, a hardworking culture. Those similarities help explain why hockey is so popular in Mexico.&rdquo;</p><p>The Kings&rsquo; November camp took place at Centro Comercial Santa Fe rink, located in a shopping mall in Mexico City &ndash; a setting that took Armstrong back a few decades. As a young hockey fan, Armstrong watched Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers practice at a rink inside the West Edmonton Mall, an experience that enflamed Armstrong&rsquo;s passion for the sport. &ldquo;I even got my picture taken with Wayne Gretzky,&rdquo; Armstrong said, recalling how the allure of hockey can produce the memory of a lifetime. Now, he and the Kings would like to ignite that same fire in Mexico.</p><p>Armstrong calls the rink in Mexico City one of the finest facilities he has seen. It is similar to the West Edmonton Mall&rsquo;s in that pedestrians and shoppers see the skaters and are instantly drawn to the action. &ldquo;We were flipping pucks in the third level of the mall,&rdquo; Armstrong said, &ldquo;engaging the fans, the parents, the grandparents, concession workers.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">AT THE CAMPS, I START WITH FREEZE TAG. YOU FIND OUT WHO CAN SKATE. <b>THEY THINK IT&rsquo;S A CHILDHOOD GAME, BUT IT&rsquo;S REALLY A TEST, AND THEY GET ENGAGED</b><br>&ndash; Derek Armstrong, L.A. Kings&rsquo; director of community and hockey development</blockquote><p>The Kings began their pilgrimage to Mexico City with a youth hockey camp in 2018, but the uncertainty of the pandemic prevented the team from returning for an encore engagement until late 2021. The emphasis is always on fun. &ldquo;At a lot of the camps I do, I start with freeze tag,&rdquo; Armstrong said. &ldquo;You find out who can skate. They think it&rsquo;s a childhood game, but it&rsquo;s really a test, and they get engaged. They see that the sport is really fun.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/kingsmexico_112/796320-1-eng-US/kingsmexico_1122.jpg" title="kingsmexico_112" width="1570" height="1135"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SPREADING THE LOVE</b></p><p>The Kings believe hockey is a global sport. They&rsquo;ve held camps in China and Mexico to grow the game.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS COURTESY OF LOS ANGELES KINGS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Armstrong also makes it a priority to celebrate the small victories along the way. &ldquo;We teach them to celebrate every goal they score 100 percent &ndash; or it doesn&rsquo;t count.&rdquo;</p><p>Mexico might be the next country to fall hard for hockey, but after becoming a global ambassador for the game in his post-playing career with the Kings, Armstrong wholeheartedly believes it won&rsquo;t be the last. &ldquo;We want to make hockey a true worldwide sport,&rdquo; Armstrong said, &ldquo;like basketball, like baseball.&rdquo;</p><p>The Kings &ndash; who&rsquo;ve had players born in eight different countries skate for them across the 2021-22 season &ndash; have long viewed hockey an international sport. Looking to grow the game in emerging markets and establish themselves as a global brand, the Kings have previously held camps in Beijing and Shanghai, China. &ldquo;The hardest part of hockey is skating,&rdquo; Armstrong said. &ldquo;Once we get kids skating and we can get better athletes playing, hockey can be a worldwide sport. I think it is very important for the NHL.&rdquo;</p><p>Armstrong, who still plays three times a week, sees hockey as a sport that can be played for life. &ldquo;Hockey is for everybody,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a game that teaches accountability and discipline.&rdquo;</p><p>When the Kings first planted a flag in L.A., the game was an unknown entity. The arrival of Gretzky in 1988 brought star power, which translated to visibility and relevance. But in today&rsquo;s world, social media has already laid the groundwork for selling the game abroad. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s much easier than you think,&rdquo; said Armstrong of building interest in Mexico City. &ldquo;Back in the day, no one ever watched hockey. Now, with YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, all those things, the kids are watching it. They can google highlights too when we go down there, they can actually relate to the L.A. Kings.&rdquo;</p><p>Robitaille believes the Kings will continue to have a presence in Mexico City for the foreseeable future. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s important for us to keep going to Mexico,&rdquo; Robitaille said. &ldquo;And continue to grow the game.&rdquo;</p><p>The Kings will continue sending people to Mexico and, maybe someday, Mexico will be able to repay the efforts. &ldquo;You never know,&rdquo; Armstrong said. &ldquo;Someday, we might get a player out of Mexico. Arizona, California, Florida have players in the NHL. Why not Mexico? Hardworking, competitive people always find a way.&rdquo;</p><p>The Kings have seen hockey&rsquo;s future. It&rsquo;s south of the border.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

kingsmexico_113

Grassroots

ROYAL ASCENT

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="rewind_bouc_001" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rewind_bouc_001/796372-1-eng-US/rewind_bouc_0012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>WHERE&rsquo;S BILLY?</b></p><p>Hall of Famers George, left, and Frank, center, were without brother Billy when they took to the diamond.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(LE STUDIO DU HOCKEY/HHOF IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE ODDS OF A</b> couple of Hockey Hall of Famers challenging two of their baseball counterparts &ndash; on the diamond, no less &ndash; would be about 1,000-to-1. But it happened. Brothers Frank and George &lsquo;Buck&rsquo; Boucher were the two hockey guys, and none other than Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were on the other side.</p><p>Hull, Que., across the river from Ottawa, played host to the event in October 1928. It was mere months after Frank led the Rangers to their first Stanley Cup. The MLB season had just concluded &ndash; the Yankees were also champs &ndash; and the pair of baseball legends took off for Canada on one of their annual barnstorming tours.</p><p>Many diamond stars of that era would pick up extra cash by touring smaller cities in the U.S. and parts of Canada. Hall of Fame goalie Emile &lsquo;The Cat&rsquo; Francis often told stories of how he&rsquo;d manage and play for Western Canadian teams that lined up against barnstorming baseball heroes. &ldquo;They were really good games,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;And we gave them a good run. A couple of our stars were Hall of Fame hockey players, Max and Doug Bentley, who then were with the Black Hawks.&rdquo;</p><p>So when word got around the Ottawa area that the Yankees&rsquo; two most prominent players would take on a local, handpicked nine, it was front-page news. &ldquo;It was a big deal for us, having Ruth <i>and</i> Gehrig come to our town,&rdquo; Frank Boucher later said of the experience. &ldquo;Buck and I loved baseball, and we were part of the home team against those Yankees.</p><p>&ldquo;We had some spare time before we left for our training camps. I was with the Rangers, and Buck was with the Montreal Maroons. We&rsquo;d just about finished with our farm work and accepted the invitation to play some baseball.&rdquo;</p><p>Not surprisingly, the game was a sellout. Fans wanted to see a few of Ruth&rsquo;s enormous blasts as well as Gehrig&rsquo;s all-around prowess. A rare air of excitement greeted the New York big shots, something akin to the aura of a Stanley Cup final. Only in this case, the turf replaced the ice and the boys would be hitting the horsehide and not a six-ounce hunk of vulcanized rubber.</p><p>&ldquo;Buck wound up playing centerfield for us although he had never played that position before,&rdquo; Frank said. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t even have one of his own outfielder mitts, so I had to lend him one of mine. This was an intense challenge for him. Especially if Babe poled a few big ones his way.&rdquo;</p><p>Most surprising of all was the mastery that Hull&rsquo;s hometown pitcher held over Ruth; well, at least at first. On his third at-bat, Ruth swung at a juicy pitch and the crowd watched the ball sail deep toward the fences with Buck Boucher galloping after it with all the stamina he could summon. It was a long shot, and Boucher pulling it down was a long shot, too. &ldquo;Buck already had played Babe deep, but the ball was going even deeper in center, toward right,&rdquo; Frank said. &ldquo;As the ball started coming down, we figured Buck might reach it, although we all knew he wasn&rsquo;t a natural outfielder.</p><p>&ldquo;Then, all of a sudden, my brother misjudged the ball and started running in loose circles under it. But, at the last, desperate second, he reached across his body and one-handed it in the webbing of his glove for the out.&rdquo;</p><p>The crowd watched in astonishment as Buck proudly displayed his mitt with the ball comfortably nestled inside. Buck&rsquo;s teammates were equally stunned, as was brother Frank. &ldquo;Babe already was on his way to second when he watched Buck do his improbable trick,&rdquo; Frank said. &ldquo;At first, Ruth was dumbfounded, and by this time, the crowd was going wild, cheering the catch.</p><p>&ldquo;Then, after he realized what Buck had done, Babe started laughing and finished off his admiration by thumbing his nose at my brother. As for Buck, he couldn&rsquo;t believe what he&rsquo;d done and just stared at the ball in his glove with amazement.&rdquo;</p><p>In a sense, Buck Boucher&rsquo;s baseball fantasy turned to reality, as there was no Hollywood ending to the game. The Ruth-Gehrig combine won the exhibition, which was stopped in the eighth inning following a Ruth double to centerfield.</p><p>But the loss didn&rsquo;t faze the hockey stars turned baseball players for that one memorable contest in Hull.</p><p>As Frank Boucher so aptly concluded, &ldquo;After all, how many times could a couple of hockey fellas like me and Buck go at it against a pair of legends like those fellas?&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

rewind_bouc_001

Rewind

BLAST FROM THE PAST

<div class="byline">BY IAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="rewind_chin_014" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rewind_chin_014/796417-1-eng-US/rewind_chin_0142.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ACCLAIM IN ANN ARBOR</b></p><p>Chin played four seasons at Michigan, going down as one of the greatest players in the program&rsquo;s history.</p></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>N TINY LUCKNOW, ONT.,</b> hockey has always been a way of life. The village produced NHL star Paul Henderson, but by the time Henderson was born in 1943, another hockey family was the talk of the town. In fact, if it wasn&rsquo;t for this family, we might not know Henderson&rsquo;s name at all.</p><p>Rose and Charles Chin immigrated to Canada from China in the early 1920s and quickly started a family. Luckily for the Chins, they had arrived in Canada just prior to parliament&rsquo;s passing of the Chinese Immigration Act in 1923, which effectively banned all Chinese immigration to Canada.</p><p>Over the coming decades, the Chins ran a Chinese restaurant in Lucknow and kept the local minor-hockey system populated, having 14 children &ndash; including 11 sons, all of whom played the sport.</p><p>If it wasn&rsquo;t for hockey&rsquo;s racial lines, one of those sons &ndash; George &ndash; may have become the first player of Asian descent in NHL history.</p><p>Still, in 1944, he came close.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rewind_chin_013/796410-1-eng-US/rewind_chin_0132.jpg" title="rewind_chin_013" width="1677" height="1135"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>MAROONED</b></p><p>Due to financial constraints, Chin&rsquo;s 1949-50 Chatham Maroons couldn&rsquo;t travel for the national championship.</p></figcaption></div><p>According to Detroit Red Wings scout Freddie Cox in 1944, George was set to impress the hockey world, along with brothers Albert and Bill. &ldquo;The three Chin boys from Lucknow are going to surprise everyone this winter,&rdquo; said Cox back then. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll be ready for the big time before long.&rdquo;</p><p>The talented trio earned an invitation to the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; training camp prior to the 1944-45 season, where, as a line, they turned heads throughout camp and in the Blue and White games. &ldquo;The ones attracting the most attention in the games have been the three Chinese brothers, Albert, George and Bill Chin from Lucknow,&rdquo; the <i>Toronto Daily Star</i> wrote at the time. &ldquo;Although on the small side and several steps away from top-flight hockey, the Chinese line made a big hit with the crowd with its clever passing, good stickhandling and aggressiveness.&rdquo;</p><p>After a strong showing, the Leafs released the trio, in a move mocked by the Toronto media as George, then just 15, went home and started lighting up his juvenile league. &ldquo;George Chin, a 15-year-old who laughed his way through Leafs training camp last fall, scored all 12 of his juvenile team&rsquo;s goals at Kincardine Saturday night,&rdquo; the <i>Toronto Star</i> wrote. &ldquo;Hadn&rsquo;t we better send for him, Hap?&rdquo; (Hap being Leafs coach Hap Day.)</p><p>Only two days later, Chin scored another six goals in a game, prompting the <i>Star</i> to again call, this time on Maple Leafs scouts, to bring the brothers back. &ldquo;Maybe (Leafs scout) Squib Walker should hustle out to Lucknow and scout the kids all over again as a Leafian front-line threat!&rdquo; the <i>Star</i> wrote.</p><p>Despite the brothers&rsquo; success, no NHL offers came, which speaks to the segregation and racism that Black, Asian and Indigenous hockey players then faced. The Canadian government repealed the Chinese Immigration Act in 1947, and the following year, Larry Kwong &ndash; another player of Asian descent &ndash; made his NHL debut.</p><p>Kwong was the leading scorer of the New York Rangers&rsquo; farm team and was called up for a game against the Montreal Canadiens. He was benched all night before playing a single shift in the game&rsquo;s final minute. It was Kwong&rsquo;s first, last and only shift in the NHL.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rewind_chin_012/796403-1-eng-US/rewind_chin_0122.jpg" title="rewind_chin_012" width="1207" height="850"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(LEAFS: TUROFSKY/HHOF IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Racism held players of color back, and Kwong was acutely aware of how fans and opponents viewed him on the ice. &ldquo;The fans like to see a Chinese player as a curiosity,&rdquo; Kwong is quoted as saying in a 1944 interview with the <i>Vancouver Sun</i>. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s my good luck. But it has its disadvantages. There has always been a player or two trying to cut off my head just because I was Chinese. And the bigger the league, the bigger the axe they use.&rdquo;</p><p>According to Chin, he was also subject to regular racist slurs on the ice growing up. &ldquo;When we played in places like Goderich, Kincardine and Hanover, we heard the occasional racial taunt. It was stuff like, &lsquo;Kill that ch---!&rsquo; We just shrugged it off and tried to score another goal to beat them,&rdquo; he told the <i>Toronto Star</i>.</p><p>In 1946, Chin joined the original incarnation of the Windsor Spitfires for their inaugural season, scoring more than a point per game for the team, collecting 31 points in 24 contests.</p><p>Two seasons later, Chin joined the Chatham Maroons, where he helped the team win the IHL&rsquo;s Turner Cup. Chatham beat the Detroit Auto Club playing at Detroit&rsquo;s Olympia Stadium, and then took down the Sarnia Sailors in the league final.</p><p>Chatham went on to defeat the Toledo Buckeyes to win the Eastern United States Amateur Championship. But due to financial issues, the Maroons could not travel to play Spokane for the national championship.</p><p>Decades later, a young Black hockey player named Mike Marson would also suit up for the Chatham Maroons&rsquo; junior team, only three seasons before becoming the NHL&rsquo;s second Black player, in 1974-75.</p><p>After the 1949-50 season, Chin headed to play for the University of Michigan. There, he led the Wolverines to back-to-back national championships in 1952 and &rsquo;53, leading the team in playoff scoring both years. He earned NCAA all-tournament first-team honors in &rsquo;52 and a second-team selection in &rsquo;53.</p><p>That same season in 1953, back home in Lucknow, brothers Jack and Charlie Chin helped the Lucknow midget team win an OMHA &lsquo;D&rsquo; championship, defending their 1952 bantam OMHA title.</p><p>In 1954-55, Morley Chin followed in George&rsquo;s footsteps to play for Michigan.</p><p>Around this time, in the basement of the Chins&rsquo; restaurant, children from Lucknow, including Paul Henderson, would spend hours playing hockey, working on their skills and even skating &ndash; as the damp floor froze through the frigid winter months.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>WE HEARD THE OCCASIONAL RACIAL TAUNT. STUFF LIKE, &lsquo;KILL THAT CH---!&rsquo;</b> WE JUST SHRUGGED IT OFF AND TRIED TO SCORE ANOTHER GOAL<br>&ndash; George Chin to the <i>Toronto Star</i></blockquote><p>After graduating from Michigan, George played one year of professional hockey for the Nottingham Panthers in England while attending graduate school. He then retired from the game. He was later inducted into the Michigan Dekers Hall of Fame in 1977 and was listed as the 36th-best player in Michigan Wolverines history by <i>Michigan Live</i> in 2018.</p><p>George Chin was a groundbreaker and a star of the times.</p><p>The Chin family will forever be tied to hockey in Lucknow, as will Henderson. In a discussion with historian and writer Paul White, Henderson credited the family with his hockey success, including his 1972 Summit Series-winning goal over the Soviet Union. &ldquo;If it wasn&rsquo;t for a Chinese-Canadian family, I would never have scored the most important goal in Canadian hockey history,&rdquo; Henderson said.</p><p>One can only wonder if George Chin had been born in a different time whether he would&rsquo;ve suited up alongside Henderson.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

rewind_chin_014

LUCKNOW’S FORGOTTEN LEGEND

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="marchement0_078" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/marchement0_078/796455-1-eng-US/marchement0_0782.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS BY CONNECTICUT WHALE)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/premier_hoc_079/796476-1-eng-US/premier_hoc_0792.jpg" title="premier_hoc_079" width="143" height="143"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>N THE MIDST OF</b> discussing the transition to life in the PHF after spending three seasons in the Swedish Women&rsquo;s League, Kennedy Marchment can&rsquo;t help but make a couple offhanded references to a practice session here or there when, for one reason or another, she hasn&rsquo;t quite had it. Hey, it happens. Not every practice will be all crisp passes and perfectly placed shots, and as she adjusts to the Connecticut Whale&rsquo;s systems after back-to-back campaigns with HV71, there are bound to be moments where she&rsquo;s thinking rather than reacting. It comes with the territory.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>But the funny thing about her insistence that she&rsquo;s struggled in practice is that the same can&rsquo;t be said for the games.</p><p>Coming out of the league&rsquo;s holiday break, Marchment was riding a nine-game point streak. She was the league&rsquo;s top sniper, with six tallies. And with 13 points, Marchment was second in the circuit in scoring and was pacing all rookie skaters. It&rsquo;s a success she credits almost entirely to the comfort level she&rsquo;s found among her new teammates. &ldquo;Being nervous on a new team doesn&rsquo;t help your performance, so a big part of it was coming to Connecticut and everyone being so welcoming and not making you feel super pressured,&rdquo; Marchment said. &ldquo;You can just go out there and play hockey and have fun. That&rsquo;s a big thing for me because I&rsquo;m having fun. There&rsquo;s less pressure and you can just play your game how you&rsquo;re supposed to play, and the success follows that.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/marchement0_076/796462-1-eng-US/marchement0_0762.jpg" title="marchement0_076" width="632" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS BY CONNECTICUT WHALE)</span></figcaption></div><p>If that is indeed the secret to her success, then it would seem the welcome mat has been rolled out for Marchment wherever she&rsquo;s laced up her skates. Because she sure has made a habit of hitting the ground running everywhere she&rsquo;s been. In her initial campaign with the NCAA&rsquo;s St. Lawrence University Saints, Marchment tied for second in team scoring and ranked ninth among all first-year collegiate players with 29 points. In 2018-19, her first season in Sweden, she racked up 52 points, good enough to top Linkoping&rsquo;s attack and finish the campaign sixth in league. Thus, given her history of instant offensive output, her production through the early part of her PHF career shouldn&rsquo;t be surprising.</p><p>Regardless of how she has met or exceeded expectations, though, Marchment&rsquo;s play has been nothing short of transformative for a Connecticut club that has historically struggled to put pucks in the back of the net and keep pace with league foes. Barring the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season, not since the 2016-17 campaign have the Whale managed to score at a rate greater than two goals per game, and they&rsquo;ve been mired at the bottom of the league&rsquo;s standings in each of the past four full campaigns.</p><p>But Marchment&rsquo;s arrival has sparked a resurgence in Connecticut. The Whale exited the holiday break leading the league in scoring, averaging more than three goals per game and boasting the league&rsquo;s second-best record. &ldquo;At the beginning, you don&rsquo;t really know what kind of team you&rsquo;re going to have because there are a lot of new faces,&rdquo; Marchment said. &ldquo;But once we stepped on the ice and started to get in our groove, now I think people are like, &lsquo;Oh, the Whale are going to be really good this year.&rsquo; As a team, it gives you that extra boost of confidence you need day in and day out to be better and the desire to be at the top of the league.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">ONCE WE STEPPED ON THE ICE AND STARTED TO GET IN OUR GROOVE, NOW I THINK PEOPLE ARE LIKE, <b>&lsquo;OH, THE WHALE ARE GOING TO BE REALLY GOOD THIS YEAR&rsquo;</b><br>&ndash; Kennedy Marchment</blockquote><p>Despite her offensive success and how that&rsquo;s aided the Whale, Marchment maintains that much like those off-days in practice, not everything has been smooth sailing. Adapting back to the smaller ice has been one of the bigger challenges she&rsquo;s faced since arriving in the PHF. She&rsquo;d grown accustomed to the extra space to create, find lanes and make decisions from her three seasons in Europe. It&rsquo;s a faster game with significantly less on-ice real estate stateside, and it took Marchment a couple of outings to condition herself to NHL-sized ice.</p><p>Certain elements of what she picked up throughout her European excursion have translated well to the North American game, however. &ldquo;A lot of times over here on small ice, a lot of teams try to dump it, chase it and go get it,&rdquo; Marchment said. &ldquo;Even on such a small ice, what I try to take away is turning it back, regrouping, just trying to keep the puck because, obviously, that&rsquo;s the best way to score goals. That&rsquo;s one thing that I&rsquo;ve taken from such a big ice and controlled game, that that can happen on the small ice as well.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/marchement0_077/796448-1-eng-US/marchement0_0772.jpg" title="marchement0_077" width="1563" height="1517"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>INSTANT CONNECTION</b></p><p>Marchment credits the Whale dressing room&rsquo;s welcoming environment for helping her find early PHF success.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS BY CONNECTICUT WHALE)</span></figcaption></div><p>It&rsquo;s those aspects of Marchment&rsquo;s game, her puck-control and possession-based style of play, that Whale coach Colton Orr said has allowed her to slide into the Connecticut lineup so seamlessly. &ldquo;She brings a sense of calmness to our game,&rdquo; Orr said. &ldquo;She&rsquo;s got really great vision, she&rsquo;s really good with the puck, her stickhandling skills are probably among the best in the league, and she just sees the ice really well. She&rsquo;s able to kind of slow the game down. We play a possession-style game where we want to control the pace and the puck and dictate the play, and it fits right into her game.&rdquo;</p><p>Yet Marchment isn&rsquo;t satisfied. Though she&rsquo;s stuffing the stat sheet, she understands the difference between the Whale being a powerhouse in the regular season and a team that wins when the games matter most will come down to shoring up her own-zone play. &ldquo;Personally, being at center right now, focusing on the defensive side of things is a goal I have for myself in the second half of the season,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Plus-minus is an often underrated stat. That&rsquo;s a goal I&rsquo;ve set for myself, to fulfill my role and be the offensive player Colton trusts me to be, but to also be better in the &lsquo;D&rsquo; zone and be more positionally sound as a center.&rdquo;</p><p>And if she rounds out her game in that way, the sky will be the limit for both Marchment and the long-suffering Whale.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

marchement0_078

Women’s Hockey

MARCHING FORWARD

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="hemp-4" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/hemp-4/796535-1-eng-US/hemp-42.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BJORN FRANKE/MINNESOTA GOPHERS HOCKEY)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>P</span>EYTON HEMP CAN&rsquo;T</b> pinpoint the exact moment she made up her mind. It could have been during one of the games she attended with her father. Or maybe it was while she was participating in her first Minnesota Girls Hockey camps, where she had the chance to skate with and learn from some of the women she idolized. Possibly it happened even later, when those same women autographed her gear, or perhaps the moment came as she watched one of the four national championships the University of Minnesota captured during her formative years.</p><p>No matter the moment, once she&rsquo;d zeroed in on it, there was only one thing she aspired to be: a Golden Gopher. &ldquo;I was a little stubborn,&rdquo; said Hemp, recounting her university recruitment experience. &ldquo;I was set on the Gophers. I went on other visits with my family and all that. I honestly gave other schools a chance, I would say, but I knew since I was young that (Minnesota) was the place that I wanted to be and if it became an opportunity for me, I was going to take it.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/minnesota_g_135/796528-1-eng-US/minnesota_g_1352.jpg" title="minnesota_g_135" width="186" height="186"></div><p>And so she did. When the Gophers came calling before her freshman year of high school, Hemp wasted little time committing to the program of her dreams. And, boy, is the University of Minnesota glad she did.</p><p>In the four years after she gave her pledge, Hemp became one of the most high-octane high-school players in the nation. She scored 102 goals and 218 points in just 90 games for the Andover Huskies. And following her senior season, in which she scored an eye-popping 34 goals and 80 points in 23 games, Hemp was named Minnesota&rsquo;s Ms. Hockey, joining an exclusive club alongside the likes of former and current U.S. Olympians Gigi Marvin, Hannah Brandt, Dani Cameranesi and Grace Zumwinkle.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/hemp-1/796521-1-eng-US/hemp-12.jpg" title="hemp-1" width="653" height="876"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BJORN FRANKE/MINNESOTA GOPHERS HOCKEY)</span></figcaption></div><p>None of that, really, came as much of a surprise to Minnesota coach Brad Frost. Across his 14 seasons as coach and more than two decades with the program, Frost has developed a keen eye for talent. The first time he saw Hemp, back when she wasn&rsquo;t even yet a teenager, it was more than just her shock of red hair that caught the coach&rsquo;s eye. &ldquo;She was just a little girl skating around, a very good player for her age, but once she got into eighth or ninth grade, I started to watch her much more seriously,&rdquo; Frost said. &ldquo;I knew from a pretty short time watching her that she was going to be a pretty special player.&rdquo;</p><p>It is, of course, one thing to be a player of Hemp&rsquo;s caliber at the high-school level. It&rsquo;s another thing entirely to continue to produce that way in the NCAA. But the early returns suggest Hemp is a budding star. Since planting her flag with a goal in her first career collegiate game &ndash; against powerhouse Ohio State, no less &ndash; she&rsquo;s had more than the odd cameo on the scoresheet. By mid-January, the 18-year-old&rsquo;s 24 points in 22 games made her the highest-scoring freshman in the country.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/hemp-5/796514-1-eng-US/hemp-52.jpg" title="hemp-5" width="1687" height="1177"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FIRST IN THE NATION</b></p><p>Hemp was averaging more than a point per game to lead all NCAA freshmen through mid-January.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(BJORN FRANKE/MINNESOTA GOPHERS HOCKEY)</span></figcaption></div><p>That Hemp has asserted herself is far easier to understand once you realize there&rsquo;s no aw-shucks attitude to the way she plays. A shrinking violet, she is not. Instead, she carries herself with conviction. She knows what she can do. &ldquo;It was obviously a little nerve-racking playing for the Gophers the first few weeks, but being able to have that confidence and say, &lsquo;I can play with these girls, I can hold strong with these girls,&rsquo; a lot of it was confidence for me,&rdquo; Hemp said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been confident this first half and that&rsquo;s helped me out a lot.&rdquo;</p><p>Frost calls that confidence something else: swagger. He clarifies, however, that it&rsquo;s no false bravado. As Frost sees it, Hemp believing in herself and her ability to influence the outcome of games is a byproduct of her preparation, attention to detail and dogged work ethic. There&rsquo;s a maturity in her that is rare among first-year players. And more than that, there&rsquo;s an understanding that there&rsquo;s more to the game than lighting the lamp. &ldquo;You cannot be one-dimensional in college hockey,&rdquo; Frost said. &ldquo;She&rsquo;s multi-dimensional. She plays an honest game. There&rsquo;s not a ton of flash about her, but she plays well in the defensive zone, blocks shots, gets off the wall well in the breakouts. She&rsquo;s a very mature player in particular for her age.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s for that reason she&rsquo;s earned the faith of Frost and his coaching staff. Arriving as a fully formed two-way player, she has been a boon for a Gophers team without Zumwinkle and Abbey Murphy, both of whom will suit up for Team USA in Beijing.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/hemp-3/796507-1-eng-US/hemp-32.jpg" title="hemp-3" width="1254" height="1018"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BJORN FRANKE/MINNESOTA GOPHERS HOCKEY)</span></figcaption></div><p>Some might see filling the void left by two American Olympians as undue pressure on a freshman skater who is still acclimating to the college game. Not Hemp. &ldquo;Pressure is a good thing, being a little nervous is a good thing,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;But something that I always put in my head if I&rsquo;m feeling that pressure a lot more than normal is, &lsquo;What&rsquo;s the point of hockey if you&rsquo;re not having fun with it?&rsquo; You can&rsquo;t take the pressure to heart too much. It&rsquo;s good to use as motivation, but don&rsquo;t let it get you down and use it to affect your performance in a negative way.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I KNEW FROM A PRETTY SHORT TIME WATCHING HER <b>THAT SHE WAS GOING TO BE A PRETTY SPECIAL PLAYER</b><br>&ndash; Brad Frost, Minnesota Golden Gophers coach</blockquote><p>But despite not feeling the burden some might when bolstering an offense absent last season&rsquo;s top two scorers, it doesn&rsquo;t mean Hemp hasn&rsquo;t needed a moment here or there to pinch herself. After all, she&rsquo;s still the kid from Andover, Minn., who used to sit in the Ridder Arena seats to cheer on her heroes. &ldquo;Seeing all the girls in the stands, it&rsquo;s crazy to think that used to be me, and I used to want to be in the college girls&rsquo; spot so bad,&rdquo; Hemp said. &ldquo;To be that person now that little girls look up to, and they look up to everyone on my team, it&rsquo;s crazy we&rsquo;re all a part of that, and I&rsquo;m so grateful to be in this spot right now.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

hemp-4

LIVING THE DREAM

<div class="byline">BY JON ROSEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="internation_043" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_0432/796608-1-eng-US/internation_0432.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>JOLLY OLLI</b></p><p>Making players happy is Jokinen&rsquo;s priority, even if that means listening to terrible tunes in the dressing room.</p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(MIKKO KANKAINEN/JUKURIT)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>B</span>EFORE INSTALLING</b> structure as the first-year coach of Liiga club Mikkelin Jukurit, Olli Jokinen installed a karaoke machine in the team&rsquo;s dressing room.</p><p>&ldquo;Some guys like to sing a lot,&rdquo; said 39-year-old center Jarkko Immonen.</p><p>The machine hasn&rsquo;t always been plugged in, but Jukurit players surely have been, prodded by the guidance of a coach who has unquestionably been a boon for organizational culture since being appointed to the position in February 2021. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m coaching the team, but I&rsquo;m the servant for the players, 24/7 for the players,&rdquo; Jokinen said. &ldquo;Whatever they need on the ice, off the ice. Help them with the life lessons. Help them with the day-to-day things. Anything, what it means to be a pro.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s an archetype of the trend toward coaches at virtually all levels of sport who have adapted to get the most out of a younger athlete who might not take as well to more heavy-handed prodding. Rather, many modern players respond better to personal time and explanation, and, importantly, the understanding that the coach truly cares for them. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got guys singing before the practices, but they understand that when we go to work, we work,&rdquo; Jokinen said.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_0452/796601-1-eng-US/internation_0452.jpg" title="internation_045" width="1022" height="728"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MIKKO KANKAINEN/JUKURIT)</span></figcaption></div><p>The 43-year-old is a veteran of 1,231 NHL games, but his only prior coaching experience was with the minor South Florida Hockey Association. Well past the midway pole of his first season, however, Jukurit is far surpassing any prior organizational high-water mark with 11 wins in a 13-game stretch through mid-January. There is no annual promotion or relegation in the Liiga, and this is easily the 52-year-old club&rsquo;s best run since it accepted an invitation to join Finland&rsquo;s top flight in 2016.</p><p>European hockey might not be on the radar of many North American fans, but a vast and intriguing personnel pool indicates that it should be. There are talented coaches who may be positioned to benefit from an evolving mindset signalling that North America&rsquo;s traditionally staid hockey culture may be trending away from its familiar insularity. And Jokinen, who drew appreciation bordering on cult status for his talent, baby-faced looks &ndash; and in the twilight of his career, perhaps some flowing blonde locks &ndash; is certainly among that group.</p><p>No European has been hired as an NHL head coach since Chicago&rsquo;s Alpo Suhonen and Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Ivan Hlinka were brought on in the summer of 2000. Suhonen lasted just one season; Hlinka led the Penguins to the 2001 Eastern Conference final before he was fired four games into 2001-02.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_0442/796594-1-eng-US/internation_0442.jpg" title="internation_044" width="1022" height="728"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MIKKO KANKAINEN/JUKURIT)</span></figcaption></div><p>Since then, Finland&rsquo;s Jarmo Kekalainen was hired as Columbus&rsquo; GM in 2013, Sweden&rsquo;s Patrik Allvin was recently named Vancouver&rsquo;s new GM, and Ralph Krueger, born in Winnipeg to German immigrants, helmed 145 games with Edmonton (2012-13) and Buffalo (2019-21) after an extended run with the Swiss men&rsquo;s national team. Marco Sturm guided Germany to the silver medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics and is now an assistant with Los Angeles, while Tuomo Ruutu and Ulf Samuelsson are assistants in Florida. Tomas Mitell, who coached Stockholm&rsquo;s AIK for two years in HockeyAllsvenskan, had just turned 41 when he was among the casualties when Jeremy Colliton was let go by Chicago earlier this season. There are a handful of European goaltending coaches, Evgeni Nabokov among them, but that&rsquo;s the extent of European NHL assistants.</p><p>There&rsquo;s a saying that the coaching guard is an &ldquo;old boys&rsquo; club,&rdquo; and that&rsquo;s certainly true in many corners of hockey. Peter Laviolette and Darryl Sutter are on their fifth coaching stints, while Bruce Boudreau and Peter DeBoer are on their fourth. Of course, all have found layers of success in the NHL, with Laviolette and Sutter combining for three Stanley Cups. It&rsquo;s more eyebrow-raising when coaches who failed to make an impact in earlier stops are given second or third chances before the best European coaches get their first.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_0472/796587-1-eng-US/internation_0472.jpg" title="internation_047" width="1570" height="964"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>STERLING RECORD</b></p><p>Gronborg has three World Championship golds to his name but hasn&rsquo;t gotten an NHL call.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/HHOF-IIHF IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>But a prime reason North American coaches are afforded multiple opportunities is that they benefit from the constant presence and support system of their networks. That might imply nepotism or serve as a different way of saying &ldquo;old boys&rsquo; club,&rdquo; but it&rsquo;s much harder to factor in the immediate orbit of those who make decisions in North America from a continent away. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about knowing somebody, believing, and finding a connection,&rdquo; said Hall of Famer Jari Kurri, the GM of Jokerit Helsinki since 2013, which since 2014 has played in the KHL. &ldquo;It has to be right, and the timing (has to be right). There is no question that Europe has a lot of great coaches. Of course, the history is different. I think that&rsquo;s the most of what they worry about. Do they know enough about the NHL and the history of the game and the style of hockey? So, I think those are all things that make them worry, maybe. But, why not? Why not?&rdquo;</p><p>The history, according to Rikard Gronborg, is important, and not for reasons one would expect. Employed by the Swedish national team from 2006 to 2019, the three-time World Championship gold medallist (twice as head coach, once as an assistant) and coach of the 2018 Tre Kronor team in Pyeongchang, Gronborg, 53, has regularly been a darling name on &ldquo;outside the box&rdquo; coaching lists, whether at his alma mater at St. Cloud State or NHL openings in Buffalo and New Jersey. He identified bandy&rsquo;s influence on the European game &ndash; &ldquo;where everything is built from the defense up&rdquo; &ndash; as opposed to the more straight-ahead, &ldquo;lacrosse way&rdquo; favored by NHL teams.</p><p>But Gronborg, who has both Swedish and American citizenship and has coached in Minnesota, Utah, Montana, Wisconsin and Washington, has always described himself as a &ldquo;hybrid&rdquo; coach, one who relies to a greater degree on his relationships and the maximization of his players&rsquo; abilities over schematic advantages. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s so much of &lsquo;tactics&rsquo; and &lsquo;strategy,&rsquo; because I think when you get to a certain level, it&rsquo;s my personal reflection that the tactics are (similar) with most teams,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s more of the leadership part of it, how you can lead people, because it&rsquo;s a people business. With everything going on now with the NHL, how do you treat the people in the organization, how do you treat the players in the organization, the staff and everyone else?&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I&rsquo;M COACHING THE TEAM, BUT I&rsquo;M THE <b>SERVANT FOR THE PLAYERS, 24/7 FOR THE PLAYERS</b><br>&ndash; Olli Jokinen</blockquote><p>Coaches within and outside of the NHL use another team&rsquo;s clips to demonstrate the way they&rsquo;d like to see their structure and game plans executed, and some teams have the personnel to better harness the up-tempo, more direct North American game. From Scandinavia to Salzburg, many coaches speak highly of the Carolina Hurricanes&rsquo; systems play and cut their clips to emphasize points in video sessions.</p><p>While it helps to have a Sebastian Aho and an Andrei Svechnikov, the Hurricanes are a much greater entity than their pace and skill. &ldquo;If you look at the whole idea of &lsquo;everyone matters in that organization,&rsquo; they did something different with their after-game celebrations, for example,&rdquo; Gronborg said. &ldquo;They did something together.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s so much focus on strategy and tactics, and those things are very important, but when you get up to a certain level, most of the coaches are very in tune with that on both sides of the puck. But how do you lead people? That&rsquo;s my kind of question, what kind of leadership do you want for your organization and your teams?&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_0462/796580-1-eng-US/internation_0462.jpg" title="internation_046" width="1572" height="1052"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>EVERYONE&rsquo;S INVOLVED</b></p><p>Gronborg believes strongly that to get buy-in you have to include players in the decision-making process.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(BEREND STETTLER/ZSC LIONS)</span></figcaption></div><p>His method is more Socratic. Like North American coaches, Gronborg relies on regular communication with a leadership conduit he believes empowers his most important players to establish the team&rsquo;s high standard of play. The team meets as a group after every game, a process he likened to marines debriefing after a mission. Representative of the trend toward decreasingly abrasive coaching, he insists that his players begin and lead each post-game session. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re dealing with high-pressure situations, it&rsquo;s scientifically proven that you have to involve everybody in the process, otherwise not everyone&rsquo;s going to buy in, and I think that&rsquo;s what Carolina, for example, is doing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And they do it really well.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">THAT&rsquo;S MY KIND OF QUESTION, WHAT KIND OF LEADERSHIP DO YOU <b>WANT FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION AND YOUR TEAMS?</b><br>&ndash; Rikard Gronborg</blockquote><p>Like others in high-profile positions who&rsquo;ve managed or played in both Europe and North America, Gronborg is under no delusions. GMs have volatile job security and don&rsquo;t usually get opportunities to make more than one or two coaching hires during their tenures. The safer coaching pool is of exponentially greater volume than the more off-the-board pool. &ldquo;But again, the curiosity is there, that&rsquo;s for sure,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>Kurri&rsquo;s coach at Jokerit, Lauri Marjamaki, also presents an interesting case. Finland has traditionally punched above its weight internationally, and Marjamaki, who earned a bronze medal at the Sochi Games under Erkka Westerlund, led the Finnish team in Pyeongchang at the age of 40.</p><p>He&rsquo;s now fine-tuning his approach to make the most of Jokerit&rsquo;s playoff appearances and finally displace KHL juggernauts in SKA St. Petersburg and CSKA Moscow. In a league transitioning to an NHL-sized playing surface, such slim margins in playoff games are often earned by the team with a raised competitive level that more effectively harnesses important details. &ldquo;During the summer, we watched a lot of clips about Tampa Bay, Boston Bruins faceoffs,&rdquo; Marjamaki said. &ldquo;I think we want to develop that, we have to find something new about our game. There are small rinks in the KHL, and this league is a tough defensive league. A lot of battles. A lot of battles.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_0482/796573-1-eng-US/internation_0482.jpg" title="internation_048" width="1022" height="769"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(KEVIN SOUSA-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>One regular sentiment was that in order to have the best chance at an NHL job, a coach had to not only pay dues but build their network at the junior, collegiate and lower professional levels. That can be a hold-up for European coaches, who after years of experience in the continent&rsquo;s top leagues, might not want to ride buses between North Bay and the Soo. &ldquo;Maybe they want to go right away to the NHL,&rdquo; Marjamaki said. &ldquo;For example, (current Finland and former Jokerit coach) Jukka Jalonen said that he can go to the assistant coach of a good coaching staff and want to see what kind of league it is and how he can help his players and support his team to be successful.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s essentially the path blazed by Sturm, who joined Los Angeles as an assistant only nine months after leading Germany to an improbable silver medal in Pyeongchang.</p><p>Will Jokinen get a similar opportunity? If there&rsquo;s a team looking to build camaraderie among its players, he should. While the karaoke machine might draw more attention, he&rsquo;s installed a more direct reminder of the playing fraternity flourishing beneath him.</p><p>&ldquo;We have a sign in our locker room,&rdquo; Jokinen said. &ldquo;It says &lsquo;Home.&rsquo;&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

internation_043

International

EURO VISION

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="clarkgillie_115" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/clarkgillie_115/796653-1-eng-US/clarkgillie_1152.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(LEWIS PORTNOY/HHOF IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>U</span>NTIL RECENTLY, THERE&rsquo;D</b> been no saints on the New York Islanders. But that&rsquo;s now changed with the death of four-time Stanley Cup champion Clark Gillies. Since his passing, &lsquo;Jethro&rsquo; must have set a record for the most loving condolences imaginable. As Denis Potvin, captain of the dynastic Isles, put it: &ldquo;We lost a special person.&rdquo;</p><p>The beloved Hall of Fame left winger departed this world far too soon. There he was joking with me &ndash; and just about everyone else &ndash; at UBS Arena&rsquo;s opening on Nov. 20. We shared quips in the parking lot after the game, too. But then, just like that, my buddy &ndash; everyone&rsquo;s pal &ndash; was gone at age 67.</p><p>In these troubled times, when &ldquo;positive&rdquo; means something negative, the world needed the &lsquo;Maestro of Moose Jaw&rsquo; around. But the prostate cancer he tamed for several years returned with a vengeance. This time, it would claim Gillies&rsquo; life.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ny_islander_116/796660-1-eng-US/ny_islander_1162.jpg" title="ny_islander_116" width="172" height="167"></div><p>Scouted by GM Bill Torrey and chief bird-dog Jim Devellano, Gillies had starred for the WHL&rsquo;s Regina Pats. &ldquo;We liked his size and shot,&rdquo; said Devellano, now senior vice-president and alternate governor of the Detroit Red Wings. &ldquo;And we were happy to pick him fourth overall in the &rsquo;74 draft.&rdquo;</p><p>Gillies made an immediate impact on the 1974-75 Islanders, helping them to the franchise&rsquo;s first playoff berth. His goals against the Rangers in the opening round of the &rsquo;75 playoffs led to the Islanders prevailing against their crosstown rivals. &ldquo;Clark made an immediate impact,&rdquo; said Torrey at the time, &ldquo;and he&rsquo;ll only get better.&rdquo;</p><p>The addition of Bryan Trottier and eventually Mike Bossy meant coach Al Arbour had a top line, nicknamed &lsquo;Trio Grande.&rsquo; It would evolve into one of the NHL&rsquo;s best-ever units.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/clarkgillie_118/796646-1-eng-US/clarkgillie_1182.jpg" title="clarkgillie_118" width="1523" height="991"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>LONG ISLAND LEGEND</b></p><p>Gillies was a vital piece of the Isles&rsquo; 19 consecutive playoff series wins, including winning the 1983 Cup.</p></figcaption></div><p>While Gillies was becoming a star on the Island, he also became deeply invested in the community. He&rsquo;d show up at benefit softball games; he created a foundation that worked with hospitals; and he and his childhood sweetheart, Pam, raised three lovely daughters together. Jethro was a model citizen. &ldquo;He seemed to be everyone&rsquo;s friend,&rdquo; said Vincent Catania, a New York City policeman and longtime Islanders fan. &ldquo;Clarkie had time for everyone.&rdquo;</p><p>Maple Leafs captain John Tavares remembered when he was a young Islander and team alumni &ndash; particularly Gillies &ndash; offered guidance. &ldquo;Clark always went out of his way to make you feel at home,&rdquo; Tavares said.</p><p>But why has the kindly man&rsquo;s passing been so hard to accept? Because this was the same fellow who TKO&rsquo;d tough guys like Dave Schultz and Terry O&rsquo;Reilly &ndash; and pummelled Ed &lsquo;Boxcar&rsquo; Hospodar into the hospital. Ironically, Gillies loathed fighting. &ldquo;All I ever wanted to do was play hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But if one of my guys needed help, I was there for him.&rdquo;</p><p>Linemates Trottier and Bossy entered the Hall ahead of their left winger, but that was deceptive. &ldquo;Clark made it easier for everyone who played with him,&rdquo; said former teammate Butch Goring, now an MSG TV analyst. &ldquo;Trots and Boss could do what they wanted because they had the big guy on their wing.&rdquo;</p><p>Gillies not only was the balance wheel on his line, but he was a leader on his team and a force as much as any during the club&rsquo;s remarkable run of 19 consecutive playoff series wins, starting in 1980 and concluding in 1984.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/clarkgillie_117/796639-1-eng-US/clarkgillie_1172.jpg" title="clarkgillie_117" width="1018" height="1265"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gillies&rsquo; charitable efforts, kindness and work ethic ingratiated him with the Islanders&rsquo; faithful.<span class="photo-credit">(TOP: PAUL BERESWILL/HHOF IMAGES; BOTTOM: ANTHONY GRUPPUSO-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>One of my buddies &ndash; a big baseball fan &ndash; called Clark &ldquo;the Gil Hodges of hockey.&rdquo; He was referring to the Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman who was larger than life and, like Gillies, so good at what he did. Each was a massive part of his respective community. And as Hodges was the heart of the Dodgers, Gillies had been the true heart of the dynastic Isles. And he was uproariously funny to boot.</p><p>Gillies could make Al Arbour laugh when &lsquo;Radar&rsquo; was angry, and he could make opposing goalies cry because his shot was as deadly as his bodychecks. &ldquo;When Gillies went into the corner, he was like an 800-pound gorilla,&rdquo; said Potvin. &ldquo;He went where he wanted to go.&rdquo;</p><p>Gillies never really wanted to fight, though. &ldquo;I put up with Eddie Hospodar&rsquo;s nonsense for two years, and I kept warning him,&rdquo; Gillies once told me. &ldquo;Finally, he went too far.&rdquo; Years later, after Ed and Clark had become pals and teammates in Buffalo, &lsquo;Boxcar&rsquo; admitted to Gillies, &ldquo;Yeah, I did go too far.&rdquo;</p><p>But there were no limits to Gillies&rsquo; charitable work on the Island nor his ability to captivate with a good hockey tale. &ldquo;Always leave &rsquo;em laughing&rdquo; seemed to be Jethro&rsquo;s theme. And he was an inspiration as well to young and old. &ldquo;He epitomized everything being an Islander is,&rdquo; said current Islanders left winger Matt Martin.</p><p>One of Gillies&rsquo; lifetime pals &ndash; dating back to their days growing up in Saskatchewan &ndash; was longtime NHL center Bob Bourne. As teens, they played baseball together. As Islanders, they lived next door to each other, and, as fate would have it, Gillies&rsquo; daughter Brianna married Bourne&rsquo;s son Justin. It was the match made in hockey heaven &ndash; which is where Clark, the saint, must be right now.</p><p>Why not? As Bourne said, &ldquo;Clarkie loved the world!&rdquo; And clearly, the hockey world loved him right back.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

clarkgillie_115

In Memoriam

CLARK GILLIES 1954-2022

business_or_056

Peer-to-Peer

Q&A WITH WILLIE O’REE

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_dorofe_088" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_dorofe_088/796840-1-eng-US/next_dorofe_0882.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>PHYSICALITY/COMPETE LEVEL</b></p><p><b>&ldquo;SINCE HE&rsquo;S COME OVER,</b> he&rsquo;s gotten physically stronger, and that has translated on the ice. He&rsquo;s naturally strong on his stick, kind of like the old Soviet teams, when they leaned on their sticks, it was hard to get the puck off them, and he does that naturally. He&rsquo;s strong on his skates. And Jeff Conkle, who heads up our strength and conditioning in Henderson, has done a wonderful job with Pavel with his nutrition and training. So he&rsquo;s put on the right kind of weight, and that has translated on the ice as well.&rdquo;</p><p><b>PLAYMAKING</b></p><p><b>&ldquo;ANOTHER STRENGTH. HIS</b> offensive instincts and creativity are up there, so his passing and hockey sense are very strong. Especially given his age. He&rsquo;s still just 21, and it&rsquo;s early in the process, but he&rsquo;s had a great season offensively so far.&rdquo;</p><p><b>SKATING</b></p><p><b>&ldquo;HE&rsquo;S GOT GOOD SPEED,</b> there&rsquo;s no doubt about it. Like a lot of young forwards, he&rsquo;s learning to use it with and without the puck. Something I like about Pavel is that he reminds me of the old John Wooden quote: &lsquo;He moves quickly, but he&rsquo;s not in a hurry.&rsquo; He doesn&rsquo;t chase the game.&rdquo;</p><p><b>HOCKEY IQ</b></p><p><b>&ldquo;HE&rsquo;S GOT A HIGH</b> IQ with and without the puck. If you look at his path before he came over, you can see he played with men, and he&rsquo;s got really good details to his game.&rdquo;</p><p><b>DEFENSE</b></p><p><b>&ldquo;IT&rsquo;S GOOD AND IT&rsquo;S</b> gotten better for sure. He&rsquo;s like a lot of young players where that&rsquo;s usually the area where, when they&rsquo;re in the AHL, it needs to become consistent. With Pavel, his defensive play just needs to continue to grow and be consistent, but (coach) Manny Viveiros and (assistant coach) Joel Ward and the staff have been phenomenal with working with him. He has definitely made strides.&rdquo;</p><p><b>SHOT</b></p><p><b>&ldquo;ONE OF HIS BIGGER</b> strengths. Not only does he have an excellent shot, but he has a great release, too. He likes to shoot it.&rdquo;</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ZAK KRILL/HENDERSON SILVER KNIGHTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>PAVEL DOROFEYEV</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HILE THE VEGAS GOLDEN</b> Knights have stocked their roster with NHL stars over the years by trading high-end prospects, the franchise does have reinforcements available on the farm in nearby Henderson, where the AHL&rsquo;s Silver Knights play. Henderson&rsquo;s leading scorer this year was 21-year-old Pavel Dorofeyev, a third-rounder from 2019 who made his North American debut last season after playing a couple of years in the KHL. We asked Vegas director of player development Wil Nichol to break down Dorofeyev&rsquo;s game.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

next_dorofe_088

SCOUTING REPORT

<div class="byline">WITH JASON BUKALAWITH JASON BUKALA</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="scoutshonor_108" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/scoutshonor_108/796871-1-eng-US/scoutshonor_1082.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>TOP CAT</b></p><p>Bukala, far right, cherished his years scouting in the NHL, culminating with a job as director of scouting in Florida.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ANNE-MARIE SORVIN-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>P</span>ROFESSIONAL HOCKEY SCOUT SOUNDS</b> like a dream job for even the most casual hockey fan. And they&rsquo;d be right. To get paid to travel the world in search of NHL-quality talent is something anyone would be fortunate to do.</p><p>I&rsquo;m one of the lucky ones, and I have been for more than 16 years, most recently as the director of amateur scouting for the Florida Panthers. Scouting for an NHL team is something I don&rsquo;t take lightly. I know I have been blessed. The journey, however, is a long one. Especially for people like myself who were never good enough to play a single game at the professional level of the sport.</p><p>During the pandemic, I celebrated my 50th birthday. It has been, to a degree, a time of reflection, a period to look back at what I have accomplished in my 30-plus years in the hockey business. It has also provided time to reset my career and plan for the future.</p><p>But before we get into what the future holds, let me detail my past in the hopes I can provide readers with some insight into how I got into the world of pro scouting.</p><p>I was a goalie. I loved the position from a very young age. My journey took me through minor and high-school hockey in London, Ont., and finally Jr. B in St. Marys, Ont., with the Lincolns. Suddenly, I was 20 years old and my hockey career at a competitive level was over. I wanted &ndash; <i>needed</i> &ndash; to stay in the game. I set my sights on the lofty goal of one day becoming an NHL scout.</p><p>My first minor-hockey coaching experience came at the major-bantam level in London. I turned 21 mid-season. That same year, I was also the goalie coach at the city&rsquo;s Oakridge Secondary School. A year later, I was named head coach, and I remained at Oakridge until I was 26.</p><p>It was at my next stop that I really started to become engaged with the process required to make a career in hockey. I was the associate coach with the Lucan Irish in the OHA Junior Development League from 26 to 29. We had excellent teams, culminating with an all-Ontario championship in 1999.</p><p>Winning breeds opportunity. I was named head coach of the St. Marys Lincolns in the fall of that year. The first year was full of growing pains, but we persevered, and I added the GM title the following season. It was then that I started to ramp up my list of contacts; my relationships with hockey personnel at the major-junior, college and pro levels started to take shape.</p><p>One of the people I most respected was the owner, GM and coach of the Chatham Maroons. Dave Torrie had built powerhouse teams. He too was moving along with his hockey career and was named GM of the OHL&rsquo;s Soo Greyhounds. Dave and I had developed a respectful, albeit very competitive relationship with each other when I was in St. Marys and he was in Chatham. He asked if I would be interested in becoming his director of player personnel in the Soo. I immediately accepted. I had now arrived at the OHL level. I was 31.</p><p>Being in OHL rinks got me in front of several NHL scouts and executives. Our team was strong in the Soo, and scouts were interested in our players. I developed a bond with several high-ranking NHL people. When an opportunity became available to jump to the NHL as a regional scout for Nashville, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I turned 34 my first year scouting for the Preds.</p><p>After five years in the league, the Panthers asked Nashville for permission to bring me to Florida as the assistant head scout. Scott Luce was the director of scouting and Dale Tallon was the GM. I turned 40 during my first season with the Panthers.</p><p>In the summer of 2016, at 46, I was promoted to director of scouting. Twenty-six years from the time I started in the business, I found myself running the amateur scouting department for an NHL team.</p><p>I&rsquo;m a better scout and person today as a result of my time with Florida. Being around people like Tallon, Luce, Brian Skrudland, Bryan McCabe, Roberto Luongo, Chris Pronger, Erin Ginnell and Al Tuer had a massive impact on me over the years. I owe the bulk of my career to the trust that, especially, Tallon showed me. I&rsquo;m proud to call him a friend and colleague.</p><p>This is starting to feel like my eulogy, but, trust me, it&rsquo;s not. An exciting new chapter is about to unfold. I&rsquo;m jumping over the boards into the next phase of my scouting career. I&rsquo;m honored to be joining The Hockey News as their director of scouting. This is especially exciting for me because I am a massive fan of The Hockey News and have been a subscriber for several years.</p><p>In the coming weeks, months and hopefully years, I&rsquo;ll be sharing insights on all things hockey both in this space and at <a href="http://THN.com">THN.com</a>. You will see unique NHL-style reports on players from the CHL, NCAA, Europe, USHL, Tier II junior and prep/high-school ranks (hello, player cards!). You can expect non-biased analysis on previously drafted players, free agents and draft-eligible players from around the globe, as well as coverage of major events like the NHL trade deadline and draft. You can count on my black-and-white opinions every step of the way.</p><p>Scout&rsquo;s Honor.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jbukala_hea_109/796892-1-eng-US/jbukala_hea_1092.jpg" title="jbukala_hea_109" width="202" height="256"></div><p datastyle>JASON BUKALA</p><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/twitterlogo_074/796885-1-eng-US/twitterlogo_0742.jpg" title="twitterlogo_074" width="39" height="32"></span><p><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/ProHockeyGroup">@PROHOCKEYGROUP</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

scoutshonor_108

Scout’s Honor

THE LONG ROAD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0097-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0097-0136/796944-1-eng-US/f0097-012.jpg"></div><h2><b>CROSSWORD</b></h2><p><b>BY LARRY HUMBER</b></p><h3><b>ACROSS</b></h3><p>1 OHL Kitchener or an Original Six team</p><p>4 Leeder who was Sens&rsquo; president (or Team Jamaica coach Bollers)</p><p>7 Frank Boucher took home this trophy a record seven times</p><p>8 Traditional <i>Hockey Night in Canada</i> night</p><p>10 What you may play on outdoors: 2 words</p><p>12 Amalie is one, as is T-Mobile</p><p>13 He went after Erik Johnson and 3 Down in the 2006 draft</p><p>14 Trophy won by Duncan Keith in 2015</p><p>18 One of four Islanders to win that same trophy</p><p>19 ___ Hay won the Calder in 1960</p><p>20 Far from sensational, ___-___-the-mill</p><p>21 Daniel is the ___ of the Sedin twins (by about six minutes)</p><h3><b>DOWN</b></h3><p>1 Islanders rookie ____ Salo</p><p>2 Joe Sakic&rsquo;s number (he wore 91 at the Olympics, though)</p><p>3 The youngest player to get an NHL hat trick, pictured</p><p>4 Critical phase of a game: 2 words</p><p>5 Be stuck on the bench, ___ the pine</p><p>6 Periods of inactivity</p><p>9 Get back on track, ___ ___ ___ a slump</p><p>11 Getting even, ___ a score</p><p>12 Sakic played in his first NHL ___-___ Game in 1990, his last in 2007</p><p>15 He&rsquo;s the Bruins president</p><p>16 Longtime Canuck blueliner now with L.A.</p><p>17 2011 film about a hockey enforcer</p><h2><b>Word</b>&nbsp;<b>SEARCH</b></h2><p>Plenty of huge names appear on the list of players who won NHL rookie of year in the &rsquo;80s.</p><h3><b>1980s Calder Winners</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0097-0217/796937-1-eng-US/f0097-022.jpg" title="f0097-02" width="857" height="922"></div><p>LEETCH</p><p>NIEUWENDYK</p><p>ROBITAILLE</p><p>SUTER</p><p>LEMIEUX</p><p>BARRASSO</p><p>LARMER</p><p>HAWERCHUK</p><p>STASTNY</p><p>BOURQUE</p><h2><b>Hockey</b>&nbsp;<b>TRIVIA</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trivia_belf_039/796930-1-eng-US/trivia_belf_0392.jpg" title="trivia_belf_039" width="472" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(TRIVIA: PAUL BERESWILL/HHOF IMAGES; STAAL: SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>&gt; BEGINNER:</b></p><p>Four goaltenders have won the Vezina and Calder Trophies in the same season. The last to do it was the man pictured here, in 1990-91.</p><p><b>&gt; INTERMEDIATE:</b></p><p>Teemu Selanne set the NHL rookie record for points (132) in a season in 1992-93. Who owned the record of 109 points before that?</p><p><b>&gt; EXPERT:</b></p><p>Only one rookie in the history of the NHL has topped 30 goals and 200 penalty minutes in the same season. Name him.</p><h2><b>PUCK PUZZLE</b></h2><p>Can your hockey brain bring its A-game?</p><p>The challenge is on!</p><p>No surprise that a goaltender graced the cover of our latest Goalie Issue. To find out who it was, fill in the blanks to identify 10 other current netminders. The cover boy&rsquo;s name will appear in the red boxes.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wordsearch__038/796923-1-eng-US/wordsearch__0382.jpg" title="wordsearch__038" width="1121" height="1045"></div><p><b>CROSSWORD SOLUTION: ACROSS</b> 1. RANGERS, 4. CYRIL, 7. BYNG, 8. SATURDAY, 10. NATURAL ICE, 12. ARENA, 13. TOEWS, 14. CONN SMYTHE, 18. TROTTIER, 19. BILL, 20. RUN-OF, 21. YOUNGER <b>DOWN</b> 1. ROBIN, 2. NINETEEN, 3. STAAL, 4. CRUNCH TIME, 5. RIDE, 6. LAYOFFS, 9. BREAK OUT OF, 11. SETTLING, 12. ALL-STAR, 15. NEELY, 16. EDLER, 17. GOON</p><p><b>TRIVIA ANSWERS:</b> ED BELFOUR, PETER STASTNY, WENDEL CLARK</p><p><b>WORD SEARCH:</b> PLAY ONLINE AT <a href="http://THEWORDSEARCH.COM/PUZZLE/3231730">THEWORDSEARCH.COM/PUZZLE/3231730</a></p><p><b>PUCK PUZZLE SOLUTION:</b> ANDERSEN, HELLEBUYCK, VASILEVSKIY, BOBROVSKY, HOLTBY, FLEURY, HART, DEMKO, SOROKIN, BINNINGTON (FINAL ANSWER: SHESTERKIN)<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0097-01

TimeOut

CROSSWORD/ HOCKEY TRIVIA/ WORD SEARCH/ PUCK PUZZLE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="lastword_ca_042" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/lastword_ca_042/796982-1-eng-US/lastword_ca_0422.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FOR THE PLAYERS</b></p><p>Former NHLer Carcillo has been a vocal advocate on several fronts for players, including abuse in major junior.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ANTHONY GRUPPUSO-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>WITH RYAN KENNEDY</p><p><b>AS A CLASS-ACTION SUIT</b> against the CHL continues to work its way through the legal system, the hockey world got a little bit of insight into major junior&rsquo;s hazing and bullying issue recently with the release of a report by an independent panel tasked with investigating the culture.</p><p>As part of the process, the CHL also commissioned a survey by polling firm Leger, asking a variety of people in the major-junior world for input. And for everyone who has asked the question &ldquo;Where were the adults?&rdquo; when it comes to the myriad horror stories shared by former players in recent years, the survey paints a pretty grim picture.</p><p>Leger polled CHL coaches, GMs, other staff members, players and families, and the two groups most at odds with everyone else were the coaches and GMs.</p><p>When asked if cases of harassment or bullying were greatly exaggerated in major junior, the coaches and GMs were the only groups where a majority agreed. Coaches and GMs were also the least likely to hear about bullying or harassment and, perhaps most surprisingly, the least likely to witness said actions &ndash; even less likely than families, who aren&rsquo;t present in dressing rooms or on road trips.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/chl3/796975-1-eng-US/chl2.jpg" title="chl" width="186" height="186"></div><p>On the other hand, when asked if the CHL has a problem with bullying, harassment and discrimination, the percentage of families who said yes was at least double that of coaches and GMs in all three categories (52 percent vs. 23 percent and 25 percent when it came to bullying, as one example).</p><p>For James Sayce, the lawyer representing Daniel Carcillo, Garrett Taylor and the other plaintiffs in the hazing lawsuit, it&rsquo;s all very troubling. &ldquo;One of the allegations we are making in our case is that the people in power, the &lsquo;grown-ups,&rsquo; aren&rsquo;t necessarily equipped to know what is appropriate and what is inappropriate,&rdquo; Sayce said. &ldquo;So it&rsquo;s not surprising that so few of the GMs thought there were issues with harassment, hazing and abuse. But then you see that more than half the parents and staff think these problems are happening. There&rsquo;s a real disconnect between those in power and those who don&rsquo;t hold the power. That&rsquo;s very problematic from my perspective, as well.&rdquo;</p><p>The independent panel &ndash; which was comprised of former NHLer and abuse survivor Sheldon Kennedy (cofounder of Respect Group), former New Brunswick premier Camille Theriault and Olympic gold-medal coach Daniele Sauvageau (who was also in the RCMP) &ndash; had many findings and made many recommendations regarding the path forward for the CHL. The overarching takeaway is that major junior has a cultural problem that, while improving, still makes the unacceptable seem acceptable.</p><p>&ldquo;Class members and the plaintiffs have said there is an incredible culture of silence in the CHL,&rdquo; Sayce said. &ldquo;These types of &lsquo;off-ice misconduct&rsquo; as Sheldon Kennedy put it and what our class members would call sexual assault, happen all the time, physical and sexual assault, harassment, bigotry, racism. But there is no real way of reporting it because the culture of silence involves certain types of retribution for reporting, you&rsquo;re either in or you&rsquo;re out. If you don&rsquo;t keep your mouth shut, that&rsquo;s going to impact your path forward in hockey.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s a grim indictment of the major-junior scene, but an allegation that cannot be ignored. After all, pretending everything is fine is what got us all into this mess in the first place. Helping coaches and GMs understand the severity of all bullying and hazing is but one spoke in this wheel, though no doubt an important one. One of the panel&rsquo;s most vigorous recommendations was for the installation of an independent, third-party apparatus to receive reports of maltreatment from the CHL world.</p><p>Sayce believes that an independent body would be a positive step, though it would have to protect player anonymity and it would only be part of a larger solution. Ultimately, he sees this as a cultural problem that must be rooted out.</p><p>And in the end, isn&rsquo;t that what most of us want? We want these kids to develop and have fun in a positive environment and we certainly don&rsquo;t want them suffering from mental-health crises or turning to substance abuse in order to cope with a nightmare scenario they feel they cannot escape.</p><p>Unfortunately, we&rsquo;re not out of the woods and it&rsquo;s going to take a lot more work to get there. And it starts with the adults in charge. They are the mentors, they hold the power &ndash; and they can be forces for positive change.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rk_2020_cmy_0412/796996-1-eng-US/rk_2020_cmy_0412.jpg" title="rk_2020_cmy_041" width="200" height="256"></div><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="42" height="34"></span><p><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/THNRyanKennedy?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@THNRYANKENNEDY</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Rookie Issue 2022

ROOKIE SENSATION-O-METER

THE NHL’S PANDEMIC BABIES

OIL PROSPECTING IN OKOTOKS

LARGE AND IN CHARGE