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October 16, 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.
Crackdown: Brainy move
IT’S ALL ABOUT CHANGING the way we think. When Canadian Hockey League president and Ontario League commissioner David Branch introduced an automatic penalty for headshots in the OHL last season, it wasn’t about taking the physicality out of the game. “It was our intention to change the way players think when it comes to body-checking,” Branch wrote on thehockeynews.com. “We have tried to influence a change in attitude. If you are going to deliver a hit you had better not put yourself in a position where you might accidentally hit an opponent in the head.” Headshots have been a major concern in hockey at all levels. Sometimes accidental head shots were described as “hockey hits.” The thinking, though, is changing and a lot of it has to do with Branch’s initiative. Last season, Ottawa’s…
HOCKEY WORLD IN BRIEF
CANADIAN PLAYER DIES IN ITALY Canadian-born defenseman Darcy Robinson collapsed and died at hospital while playing for Asiago in the Italian league. A draft pick of Pittsburgh in 1999, Robinson had an apparent heart attack during the Sept. 27 game. He was 26. The Kamloops, B.C., native won a Memorial Cup with Red Deer (WHL) in 2001 before embarking on a four-year minor pro career in the ECHL and AHL. This was his third season with Asiago. “He was a great guy,” said Pittsburgh’s Colby Armstrong, a former roommate and teammate of Robinson. “He was an up front and honest guy. If he saw something he didn’t like, he’d let you know right off the bat.” Robinson, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound rearguard, collapsed without being hit during the first period of his…
Killer bee favorite for No. 1
ONE NHL SCOUT compares the draft to the Kentucky Derby and at the moment, the smart money is on Sarnia Sting center Steven Stamkos to win. “We’re early in the race,” the scout said. “We know who the favorites are based on past performance, but they have to run the whole race. Right now he would be the 5-to-1 favorite.” Stamkos burst into the OHL last season as its first pick and responded with 42 goals and 92 points. He’s a contender for the scoring crown this season. “I just want to improve on what I did last year and with it being my second year, I want to have a more important role on my team,” said Stamkos, not setting specific goals that could put undo pressure on himself. Like there already isn’t…
Chicago’s way: Short shifts
IN THE BEGINNING, hockey was a game for 60-minute men. For more than 50 years – from the mid-1870s, when the fi rst rules were written, through 1925 – teams used just one complement of players the entire game. But in March of 1925, Lester Patrick’s Victoria Cougars beat the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup by using two lines. Other teams quickly adapted and began employing a second line to relieve their starters. The twoline era lasted just five years before another innovative coach named Dick Irvin came along and changed the way the game was played. Chicago’s eccentric owner, Major Frederic McLaughlin, hired Irvin as coach in the fall of 1930, at the outset of Chicago’s fifth NHL season. The Hawks had already been through six coaches and had never…
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