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April 12, 2005
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
Nine-year tenure over as Huskies axe Crowder
Bruce Crowder is ready to move after he didn’t have his contract renewed as coach at Northeastern. “I’ll be fine. Things happen for a reason,” said Crowder who had a 120-170-36 record in nine years at Northeastern. He said he’d like to stay in college coaching or get a job as an assistant in the NHL. “It would be nice to be able to just coach (in the NHL) instead of having to do all the other things required as a coach at the college level,” said the 48-year-old Crowder, who had a 243-game NHL career with Boston and Pittsburgh. Crowder, who had just two winning seasons at Northeastern, said he was “disappointed” about his firing. “I thought we made some nice gains this year,” said Crowder, whose Huskies were sixth with a…
A year later, Lombardi back on ice
Calgary Flames center Matthew Lombardi made a successful return in late March, scoring for the Lowell Lock Monsters in his first game since sustaining a serious concussion in last year’s NHL playoffs. Lombardi was sidelined almost 11 months after taking an elbow from Detroit’s Derian Hatcher during a playoff game May 3. The hit was a painful end to a fine season in which the young center from Montreal scored 16 goals as an NHL rookie. “This summer was the lowest point,” Lombardi told the Lowell Sun. “I thought after the season I would be good. But then I just never got better.’ Lombardi’s first outing, an AHL game against the Springfield Falcons, came March 20, two days after his 23rd birthday. Led by Calgary teammate Chuck Kobasew, Eric Staal of Carolina and Colin…
Barons’ Clowe diamond in the rough
Put a puck along the boards and send Cleveland winger Ryane Clowe after it and this much is certain: either the puck’s going with him when he leaves, or it’s not going anywhere. Now send the puck toward the net and see who gets to the rebound, the defenseman of your choosing or the 6-foot-2, 215-pound Clowe. The smart money is on Clowe. “He’s probably the best power forward in the league,” Barons coach Roy Sommer said glowingly. “He’s us. He’s everything for us.” Clowe also is the most unheralded go-to player in the AHL. He led the light-scoring Barons with 24 goals and 54 points in 64 games. More impressive was his rating of plus-15, which was nine better than any teammate. “You try to find things they need to work on and…
Coyotes draft gamble wheels along
Could a teenager ask for more than to lead a normal life? Not really, but when you’re a high school senior who has already been chosen in the first round of the NHL draft, life, by nature, moves in ways more complicated than the norm. So it is for 18 year-old Minnesota-born Blake Wheeler, whose acclaim rose rapidly last year when the 6-foot-5,205 pound right winger scored 45 goals and 100 points in 30 games to lead Breck High School to the Minnesota class-A state title. As a result, many observers had an inkling he’d sneak into the first round of last summer’s draft. But fifth overall to Phoenix? “It’s still hard to believe,” said Wheeler, skating for the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers in advance of his arrival at the University of Minnesota next…
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