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March 13, 2007
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.
With winners come losers
THE HOCKEY NEWS IS IN THE BUSINESS of informing and entertaining, crafting relevant stories that resonate with our audience and hopefully create a buzz in the industry. That mandate, while embraceable and exciting, has its challenges. Take this week’s cover story. Internally, we’ve been talking much of the season about doing a ranking of the NHL’s GMs. It’s a story with bite, founded on hard analysis and fitted with lightning rods. Early on in the campaign, we shelved the idea because there hadn’t been enough time to properly evaluate each of the 30 men. A legitimate excuse, but one that no longer exists. So when the concept re-emerged as the trade deadline approached, we had to ask ourselves: Is the reward worth the risk? Clearly, we decided it is. The risk in this case is…
The number 23 has place in NHL
Read Adam’s blog daily on thehockeynews.com I’M NOT AN ESPECIALLY superstitious guy. But every now and again, I do take some pleasure examining the subtle and overt harmonies between otherwise separate events, and wondering whether they’re more than sheer coincidence. So it was with semi-bated breath that I went to see The Number 23, the new Jim Carrey movie that originated out of the actor’s real-life fascination with numerology. BAD FILM, BUT COOL IDEA The ‘thriller’ didn’t thrill me at all, as I tend to prefer the talking-out-his-butt Carrey over the morose/dangerous Carrey. However, the movie did alert me to the many ways you can connect the number 23 to the NHL. So allow me to don my tinfoil fedora and spook the bejeebers out of you with some fun ‘23’ factoids (and a cool ‘23’…
Loud numbers, calm demeanor
ONE EXAMPLE STICKS OUT when Everett Silvertips GM Doug Soetaert is asked to discuss Zach Hamill’s affinity for hockey. “He’s a kid who used to walk to school with his hockey stick, kind of bouncing rocks off the end of his stick all the way to school and all the way back,” Soetaert said of the 18-year-old center. While growing up in Port Coquitlam, B.C., Hamill would also take his in-line skates to school. “I did it all the time,” he said. “We used to play road hockey at school.” Hamill continues to play roller hockey with his friends during the off-season. His passion for hockey, in whatever form suits the occasion, contributed to Soetaert’s decision to make Hamill the expansion Silvertips’ first-ever draftee in 2003. After scoring more than a point per game last season,…
Birthday link a bittersweet pill
The call came again, as it does every Feb. 17 from rural Warburg, Alta., the words of his robust parents coming across the line a little fainter. Bittersweet is the only way to describe what should be a happy occasion. Instead, a celebration of life is inextricably melded to an unspoken reminder of thieving death, and Lindy Ruff feels that robbery most of all when he hears his mother’s wistful voice. “It was quiet,” the Buffalo coach said of how he spent his 47th birthday, “just a conversation I had with my parents. They call me every year and just the tone of my mom’s voice…It was a tough day. “We don’t bring it up. It’s just understood.” Brent Ruff, the youngest of four boys, was born on his big brother’s birthday and dreamed…