Franklin high on performance brands with ACD

The 1999 hockey retail season marks a new phase in Franklin Sports’ ice age. Long known as a leader in the street and roller hockey market Franklin reached out to serious ice hockey players three years ago with the introduction of Total Hockey Technology (THT) protective equipment that incorporated Air cooled Design (ACD.) for me coming season, the company has refined the ACD concept now called ACD-3 Micro Lite, to increase performance and comfort while trimming weight. “This is a major relaunch of Total Hockey Technology,” said Bill Best, Franklin’s division manager for hockey. “Franklin is more committed than ever as a high performance brand. “For the coming year, we’ve built in many new innovations and have done some revolutionary things. We were the first to introduce vented protective equipment in street hockey five…

Neilson gears up for 23rd year of summer fun

Roger Neilson was a teacher who became a coach. But when he made the career change, he didn’t completely abandon his former line of work. This summer, for the 23rd straight year, the veteran of 13 NHL seasons behind the bench, will host the Roger Neilson Hockey Camp at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Lindsay, Ont., a 20-minute drive north of Peterborough. It’s the third year there since re-locating from Port Hope, Ont. And if there’s one thing the teacher has learned, through all the years, is the students need to be as stimulated away from the ice as they do on it. That’s why Neilson is thrilled with the camp’s new location that features two beach volleyball courts, an Olympic-Sized swimming pool and the recently-purchased roller hockey rink. There’s also miniature golf. “Nowadays…

ONTARIO SUMMER HOCKEY SCHOOL LISTINGS

Wings’ recovery moves at glacial pace

Given a choice, Ken Holland would prefer being the caretaker of champions. He would love the luxury of tinkering around the edges of a dynasty-in-progress, making the small moves that have maximum effect. In his book, a Bandaid is preferable to major surgery. Holland feels no need to prove his brilliance by building a Stanley Cup team from the ground up. Holland’s challenge, in his second season as GM of the Detroit Red Wings, is to maintain that championship feeling. For the moment, the talk about three-peats and places in history has been muted. The Red Wings lurched to the season’s halfway mark 21-18-2, their worst showing since 1990-91 when Bryan Murray ran the show as the new kid in town. “Two words to me kind of summarize the first half of the…