Lower rate of serious injury no justification for more bodychecking: U of C researcher
By Sean Myers June 20, 2011
CALGARY — University of Calgary professor Carolyn Emery has found more evidence she says conclusively argues that removing bodychecking from Pee Wee hockey will reduce concussions and injuries in young players.
She claims her new study, published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, shows there is no significant spike in injuries in bantam hockey players in Quebec, the first level hitting is allowed, over Alberta bantam players who’ve been checking for two years in Pee Wee.
The study takes dead aim at the belief among some coaches and parents that waiting to allow checking in older age groups will only delay injuries.
Her study did find a 33 per cent increase in severe injuries (those requiring a player to sit out for over a week) in Quebec bantam players but Emery said that was not significant compared to the risk in Pee Wee.
“I would argue it’s irrelevant ... in light of a fourfold greater risk of concussion and a threefold greater risk of that (severe) injury type in Pee Wee,” said Emery. “Across four years of play the evidence is fairly conclusive that removing bodychecking in Pee Wee ice hockey will have a significant public health impact in terms of concussion and injury reduction in youth ice hockey players.”
In her study of Pee Wee players last year, Emery said an estimated 1,000 game-related injuries and 400 game-related concussions could be prevented per year in 11-and 12-year-old Alberta players if body checking was eliminated.
Her bantam study also doesn’t rule out a cause for increased severe injuries in Quebec coming from the “survivor” effect.
In Alberta, some players drop out of hockey after Pee Wee because they don’t like the hitting or due to a history of multiple concussions. Those type of players would presumably carry on into bantam in Quebec she argued, where she said they would be at greater risk.
The bantam study looked at injury rates in 68 Alberta teams and 62 Quebec teams. There were 272 injuries including 51 concussions among the Alberta teams and 244 injuries including 49 concussions in Quebec.
The study supports the conclusions of 14 of 15 studies showing an increased risk of concussion and injury when bodychecking is allowed in Pee Wee said Emery.
“The results are consistent in all of these studies except for one,” said Emery. “So our work supports the evidence that’s out there.
USA Hockey has banned body checking from Pee Wee across the States starting next season. The hockey body is instituting an new progressive checking skill development program.
Emery, a hockey parent, would like to see something similar brought in to Canada.
Grace Lane is a Calgary parent with three boys who all played hockey up until this spring when her youngest decided to drop out rather than face body checking in Pee Wee next fall.
“He’s not interested in being hit,” said Lane of her son Nathan, 10, who played in atom this past season.
Her son Jason, 12, is going into his second year of Pee Wee and her oldest, Alexander, 14, suffered his third concussion in his first year of bantam this past season.
“We were seriously, at that point, considering pulling (Alexander) out of hockey” said Lane, president of the Westwood Hockey Association. “But he loves hockey. He cried, begged, pleaded.”
Lane isn’t sure checking should be removed from Pee Wee completely but perhaps from all by the elite level teams.
“I’m mixed, I have two kids who are playing and they like that aspect of the game,” said Lane who plays on a women’s recreational team.
“My middle son who hasn’t had any concussions, he loves to hit. He’s a clean hitter and believes it’s a really integral part of the game. And people have to remember it’s to knock the person off of the puck not take the person’s head off of the body.”
Relentless pursuit of excellence
Hal Terse the Coach in Chief of Minnesota Hockey and Jack Blatherwick a training expert wrote articles in Let's Play Hockey magzine. Hal about the changes to the American youth develoment model that they are encouraging coaches to adopt and Jack writes how young players should train and why they can't simply imitate what the pro's do.
Kevin Sullivan of Boston, who I consider the bridge of information exchange between the hockey playing countries, sent me the articles.Good stuff.
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By Hal Tearse
Coach in Chief, Minnesota Hockey
USA Hockey continues to expand their American Development Model (ADM) that is intended to provide youth players a better quality of experience in the game, higher skill levels and a safer environment that will attract and retain more players. The model is tested in other parts of the world, makes lots of sense for kids, and it has the support from many disciplines in the medical field.
Hockey associations and clubs around the country are quickly adopting the concepts and ideas, although some are fearful of the changes that are required. The interesting part of all of this is that many of these ideas have been around for a long time and only now are they organized into a coherent long term development program for youth players and older athletes.
The next step for the ADM is to begin to change the culture of our programs from one that is focused on short term measurements of numbers of games won to a long term view of a relentless pursuit of excellence.
A change in view to long-term development requires a very different approach from the very lowest levels of the game all the way through high school and junior hockey in this country. It is about the relentless commitment on the part of coaches and program organizers to insure that all players are given the opportunity to learn the skills they need to successfully advance to the next age level and competitive level of the game. Players that reach their mid teens with skill deficiencies are doomed and will not ever have a chance to realize their potential. This occurs far to often.
Other hockey federations in the world, including Canada, view the player development period all the way to ages 19 or 20. In the NHL, the ages for optimal performance is 26-36, according to researchers. There are some players who stand out at earlier ages but not many.
Only after the development period is complete are players ready to move into the highly competitive environment where they can continue to grow as players. Sadly, in the U.S. nearly 95 percent of our players have already left the game by age 16 and we have very few programs for those who want to continue to train and develop as players.
Although broad reaching organizations like USA Hockey and Minnesota Hockey are difficult to change, change occurs one coach and one team at a time. The coaches of each youth, high school, and junior team are the true leaders and developers of hockey players as they move through the system. It is at this point where we succeed or fail as developers of hockey players.
Coaching is the fulcrum of success or failure in every team and program. There are four essential criteria for successful coaching and development of players.
1. A coach needs to be relentless in improving as a coach each year.
2. Each team needs an assessment and development plan that is tailored to the specific needs of the players on the team.
3. Insuring that every player on the team acquires the necessary individual and tactical skills required to play at the next level.
4. Be accountable for achieving results in the three points above.
Does this mean winning lots of games and maybe going to the state tournaments? No. It means focusing on developing all of the players on the team with an understanding that each season is just one chapter in the long career of each player.
Maybe a coach gets 2 or 3 seasons with some players and that is even better if the coach is really focused on development. Otherwise the players move on and hopefully to coach who is also development oriented rather than just focused on winning games in youth hockey.
Making a shift like this is not easy in our current culture of �win, win, win.� It is also not easy for coaches because a shift of this nature makes the job more difficult. It does require coaches to be better prepared and more knowledgeable about the game and how to teach it.
Attending the required Coach Education Programs (CEP) is just beginning for coaches as they prepare for each season. Other seminars, books, and DVDs will enhance a coach�s skills. Spending time with more experienced and like-minded coaches is time well spent.
Adopting a viewpoint of learning as a coach is critical. A relentless pursuit of excellence for a coach will translate to the same for their team and players.
In Minnesota, local associations are responsible for their own programs and development of coaches and players. Every association should have an on going coach development, mentoring and assessment program in place that focus on technical competency and measurable outcomes. There are hurdles to this idea but it does work and the players get better because the coaching is better and focused on the right areas.
Youth hockey in Minnesota is a $150 million industry that hinges on coaching. Poor or inadequate coaching means time and money are wasted and players leave the game at an early age well before they have reached their potential. Good coaching should be the relentless pursuit of every association.
Minnesota Hockey offers a coach development program for local associations. It is a combination of on- and off-ice sessions and can be expanded on request. A team of experienced coaches will come to a local association and work with youth coaches to help them in their relentless pursuit of excellence. Interested associations can contact Minnesota Hockey for more information. halt@minnesotahockey.org
The offseason is the best time for coaches and associations to begin their own relentless pursuit of excellence.
See you around the rink.
Why young athletes should NOT train like NHL players
By Jack Blatherwick
Let�s Play Hockey Columnist
One hundred percent of the offseason training for young hockey players should be planned to develop (or improve) skills, athleticism and creative rink sense. On the other hand, established NHLers are often training to recover from a grueling season of competition, injuries, stress and travel. Their priorities include maintenance of endurance, strength and core stability.
These are huge differences: development or improvement vs. recovery and maintenance. Therefore, the definition of �young� in this case includes any player who wants to make great improvements in the offseason, and this includes high school, youth, junior and college players, plus many young professionals who are not satisfied that they have reached their peak performance yet.
The most important athletic qualities � as defined by coaching groups I�ve polled � include quickness, agility, speed, explosive strength, reaction to sudden changes, plus the endurance to maintain these qualities throughout a game. To play at a higher level, it is essential to combine athleticism with stick skills, skating, vision, rink sense and creative decision-making.
For several weeks after an NHL season, professionals should not train with the intensity required for these anaerobic capacities; recovery is more important. This often takes a few weeks of aerobic training, which means long, slow distances, jogging or bicycling. Late in the summer, the intensity and range of motion is increased before starting the NHL season.
Young players should NEVER waste valuable time doing long, slow distances. Aerobic endurance is important, but it can be improved by doing interval training for the higher priorities: athleticism, skills and rink sense. In other words, don�t waste time doing what fitness gurus call �cardio� workouts.
Cardiovascular fitness can be improved to a greater extent using intense anaerobic interval training. This has been verified for three decades by solid scientific research (see articles and books by EI Fox, WD McArdle, VL Katch, FL Katch, and most recently, an excellent study by E Ziemann et al., in the Journal of Strength Conditioning Research, April 2011).
To develop athleticism at young ages, strength training should be combined with jumps and sprints, not separated from them, so learn all you can about post-activation potentiation and complex training (discussed in future articles). Core stability for young athletes means strengthening core muscles at increased speed and range of motion, and this should be integrated into highly athletic movements.
On the other hand, established NHLers must isolate core muscles and train them at slower speeds for the first weeks of the offseason, because they aren�t doing as much dynamic athletic training at this time of the year.
How does a young athlete accomplish all this? Participate in sports that require quickness, speed, agility and explosive strength. There are many team sports that fulfill this need, and tennis or other racket sports are tremendous. Skills, vision and decisions are integrated with athleticism, just as in hockey.
High-speed, creative hockey scrimmages can be the best, whether this is 5-on-5, or fewer players � on full ice or smaller areas. The smaller rinks (Hat-Trick and Velocity) require skills and decisions in tight areas. Eliminate whistles for icing and offside, and encourage goalies to avoid freezing the puck. Turn the scoreboards off, so players are encouraged to try creative new skills with no fear of failure.
If coaches are concerned about winning in the winter, and if this restricts development of creativity and skill � this should never happen in the summer. Scrimmage for development and fun. Keep the game moving at high tempo. Eliminate whistles and there will be improvement in cardiovascular fitness as well as speed, agility, quickness and explosive strength.
Scrimmages are the best way to combine athleticism with skills and rink sense, and great players say unstructured hockey is the key to improvement.
Train the way NHLers did when they were young, not the way they do to recover and maintain fitness.
Visit Jack�s website at www.overspeed.info.
Let�s Play Hockey wants to publish your hockey stories. From tournament reports, to feature stories on teams, players or coaches, to opinion pieces on the game of hockey, Let�s Play Hockey accepts submissions from readers throughout the hockey community. To submit your hockey story and/or photo(s), e-mail us at editor@letsplayhockey.com.
Small (with talent) is the new big at NHL draft
ERIC DUHATSCHEK Globe and Mail Tuesday, Jun. 21, 2011
The day before the 1987 entry draft, as the NHL introduced its potential first rounders at the annual meet-the-prospects function, a diminutive centre from the Swift Current Broncos named Joe Sakic found himself standing between a pair of behemoth prospects, one on either side, who towered over him.
At that moment, David McNab, then a scout for the Hartford Whalers, dared to dream Sakic might actually fall to No. 18, where the Whalers were drafting. As skilled as he was (and the Burnaby, B.C.-born Sakic was coming off a 133-point WHL season, his first in junior), the prevailing NHL wisdom at the time was that bigger was better. Standing there, in a long line of prospects, the 5-foot-11 centre was positively dwarfed by the likes of Luke Richardson (6 foot 4, 215 pounds) and Brendan Shanahan (6 foot 3, 218). How low could Sakic go?
The answer came the next day: All the way to 15th.
Team after team passed up a player who would eventually become the NHL’s eighth-leading scorer of all time for one reason alone: The perception that anyone under six feet couldn’t survive or thrive in the NHL.
Among the players chosen ahead of Sakic that year: Wayne McBean, Chris Joseph, Dave Archibald, Bryan Fogerty, Jay More, Yves Racine, Keith Osborne, Dean Chynoweth and Stéphane Quintal. The Quebec Nordiques ultimately landed Sakic, but not before spending their first choice, ninth overall, on Fogerty.
And much, much later in that same draft class, the Calgary Flames took a flyer at 166 in order to draft 5-foot-6 Theo Fleury of the Moose Jaw Warriors, thinking he might top out as a great minor-league pro. Instead, Fleury is No. 56 on the all-time scoring list, and the list of players selected ahead of him too long to enumerate.
So fast forward to the present, and the consensus No. 1 pick in Friday’s NHL entry draft is a skinny, if slightly taller, centre, also from Burnaby, who played for the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels and grew up idolizing Sakic. That would be Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
For that matter, the 2011 equivalent to Fleury, Sakic’s great junior rival, is also in this draft – a 5-foot-6 American buzz saw named Rocco Grimaldi, who is projected to go in the second half of the first round, but whose stock is rising fast.
In the postlockout NHL, where hooking, holding and interference have largely been eliminated from the game, small is suddenly okay, provided the skill level is there.
“Minds have opened up to the smaller player,” said Craig Button, a former NHL general manager and chief scout who now works as a TSN analyst. “I’ll never forget being in a scouting meeting with Bob Clarke once and we were going on about this forward and that forward, and Clarkie would ask, ‘How big is he?’ We’d say, ‘5-11.’ And Bob would make these scrunching looks with his face, as if he were in the greatest pain ever, and say, ‘I don’t know.’
“Finally, Dennis Patterson, who still scouts for the Flyers, says: ‘It’s a good thing you’re not in this draft – because we wouldn’t be taking you.’ And Clarkie knew, Dennis had him dead to rights.
“So all that’s changed – and I laugh because in Philadelphia, Claude Giroux and Mike Richards, two really good players for the Flyers now, are both sub-six-footers.”
Officially, Nugent-Hopkins is listed at 6 foot 1, 164 pounds, so his frame is slightly different than Sakic’s. According to Button, he also shares Sakic’s vision, skill and slipperiness, but doesn’t shoot the puck as well.
“Everything else is so much like Sakic, except for the shot,” Button said. “Joe was able to knife his way into those really dangerous areas where he could either shoot or make a play. Nugent-Hopkins is the same way.
“They know what’s going to happen, they see the play unfold, and that’s the vision part. Then they have the quickness in their feet and their hands to get to the hard areas and not be deterred. Then they finish it off by making unbelievable plays.
“Everybody said, ‘You couldn’t touch [Wayne] Gretzky.’ Well, you couldn’t touch him because you couldn’t hit him. It has nothing to do with not trying, you just couldn’t do it. In the games I’ve seen [Nugent-Hopkins] play, I’ve never seen anybody get a clean piece of him.”
The Edmonton Oilers have the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft. Even if their greatest needs are for size up front, and depth on defence, the thinking is the Oilers cannot pass up the chance to select Nugent-Hopkins.
But if, for some reason, something changes, then he’ll be there at No. 2 for the Colorado Avalanche, a team that – wouldn’t you know it? – currently employs Sakic as its executive adviser and alternate governor.
Almost a quarter-century later, that would most assuredly complete the circle. The times, they really have changed.
I kept track of the hits on this site last week. I started at 8 a.m. MDT last Thursday and went to this moring. In the last week we had 77,507 hits which is 11,072 per day.
On a personal note a team in the Czech Republic offered me a coaching position as U20 assistant (the head coach is the only coach who speaks english) and coach mentor for their youth hockey. They were waiting for a grant from the city council which met last Friday. I haven't heard anything; so I assume they didn't get the grant. I requested that I be able to do something like go one month and come home a month.
I meet with a local coach who runs a lot of skill camps etc. tomorrow.
I have been working with a pro player who has played NCAA, American League, Eastern League and was in Finland last season. We do about 75 min. of skill every morning this week. It was kind of neat on Tuesday as Tomas Pacina who is a Czech and also NHL skills coach was on the ice next. I went in to say hi to him and he was getting ready to go on the ice with Jerome Iginla. I have never met him before and we talked about ten minutes. Really nice guy. He goes on the ice to work on his skills 2 times a week.
It was interesting watching as Tomas had him working on doing everything with the puck from the triple threat position.
Teams missing hidden gems in NHL draft
DAVID SHOALTS Globe and Mail Wednesday, Jun. 22, 2011
A study by three academics at Simon Fraser University shows a surprising trend at the NHL draft and puts a dent in one long-held belief.
Peter Tingling, an assistant professor at the B.C. university’s faculty of business administration, and colleagues Kamal Masri and Matt Martell studied the NHL draft results from 1995 through 2003 and concluded teams miss a lot of good players in the later rounds because they dedicate their resources to the early rounds where the picks are easier.
While the authors confirmed the obvious, that players taken in the first round have the best chance of a meaningful NHL career (65 per cent of them by the authors’ count), they also discovered that players taken in the fourth through seventh rounds all have the same rate of success (roughly 11 per cent).
But on average, NHL teams harvest just two successful players a draft, so the authors concluded, in a study to be published in the July edition of the academic journal Sports and Business Management, teams lack consistency in evaluating teenage amateur players. They say teams’ rate of success in the last four rounds of the draft in the years they studied were no better than if they made their selections by simply drawing names. Outside of the first round, the authors discovered the order in which teams drafted did not give them an advantage in picking better players.
“People are focusing on the first 100 players [in the draft],” Tingling said Wednesday. “We say if you focus on the back half, you can pick up some gems.”
And this is where an NHL axiom took a hit. The Detroit Red Wings have long been held up as a team that finds gems in the late rounds, thanks to the drafting of players such as Pavel Datsyuk (171st overall in 1998) and Henrik Zetterberg (210th overall in 1999).
But when they studied the drafting success of individual teams, the authors found the Red Wings were slightly worse than most NHL teams at drafting players who had successful careers, which they defined as playing more than 160 NHL games. From 1995 through 2003, the Red Wings did not pick one such player in five draft years, a failure rate of 55.5 per cent. The Toronto Maple Leafs, a team long held up as inept evaluators or talent or prone to trading away picks, were in a group of teams that only had two years out of nine when they wound up with no successful players.
What that showed, the authors feel, is the Red Wings’ European scouting, under the direction of Hakan Andersson, outperformed the North American staff.
However, the authors also concluded the differences between the teams were so slight that no team could be considered to be superior to any other at drafting players. When they studied the draft results from 1981 through 2003, they found that of the 5,981 players selected by NHL teams, only 20.1 per cent played 160 or more NHL games and 58.3 per cent of them never played even one NHL game.
That was one of the only conclusions Carolina Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford was willing to agree with. The big problem with the draft, he said, is that scouts and general managers have to analyze 18-year-old players and project how they will perform as adults, which naturally makes drafting the guessing game the authors say it is.
“First of all, we’re drafting very young players,” Rutherford said. “So for a number of years all organizations are going to have some that don’t turn out, some that turn out and some that turn out better than you think. If you look at it over time, there is not as great a difference as you might think.”
Tingling readily agrees the age of the players in the draft causes great difficulty but still believes NHL teams can do a better job.
“Drafting is intrinsically difficult, we acknowledge this,” Tingling said. “It would be a whole lot easier if [the players] were not 18 years old. People say it’s like picking a Nobel Prize winner from a Grade 8 chemistry class. But if we did everything easy life would be a lot more simple.”
It is good business sense for teams to concentrate harder on finding good NHL players in the last four rounds of the draft, Tingling said. In a salary-cap world like the NHL, the cheapest players are the ones you draft, and good players taken in late rounds can be obtained for less money than inferior players simply because the inferior ones were drafted earlier.
Too often, teams are unwilling to apply unconventional thinking to draft picks, Tingling said. One example is Dustin Byfuglien, one of the NHL’s top scoring defencemen for the Atlanta Thrashers last season, who was taken in the eighth round of the 2003 entry draft by the Chicago Blackhawks.
He lasted that long, the authors said, because he let his weight balloon to 275 pounds and teams were scared off by his lack of conditioning despite his skills. But Byfuglien worked hard on his conditioning after he was drafted and became a top NHL player.
Another mistake teams make, Tingling said, is getting their scouts together before the draft to finalize their plans. Too often, the scouts simply confirm what teams already have decided about the top players and little information is gleaned about the lesser-known players.
KHL luring Russians away from NHL
DAVID SHOALTS | St. Paul, Minn. - From Monday's Globe and Mail - Published Sunday, Jun. 26, 2011
A trend continued at the NHL entry draft over the weekend – the Russians are not coming.
While there were twice as many Russian players selected in this year’s draft compared with 2010, when a mere four were taken, an overall slide that began in earnest in 2005 has not stopped. And every NHL executive asked for a reason named the same culprit – the Continental Hockey League (KHL).
Ever since the KHL began enticing young Russian players, usually with money, to stay and play at home rather than develop for a year or more in the North American junior or minor leagues they are electing to stay home in increasing numbers. In response, NHL teams draft less and less of them every year.
“I think what’s happened to the Russian player is the real good ones you know are going to come over and play, they’re locked in to play [in North America],” Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray said. “But the [Russian] guys are like a normal Canadian kid, where he has to go back for development or go to the American Hockey League for a year, we find that they don’t want to stay.
“They get encouraged to go back, get money to go back to the KHL. So [the players] have no patience and therefore we don’t take the chance on them.”
All of the NHL people questioned said the trend does not mean Russia is producing fewer hockey prospects, even though the four players taken in 2010 was the lowest since Russians were first drafted by NHL teams beginning in 1969. The high mark was 1992 when 45 players were selected, with the sharp decline starting in 2005 when 11 players were taken compared with 24 the previous year. It was no coincidence that the infusion of money from wealthy Russian businessmen into the KHL began around the same time.
By the 2010-11 season, there were 27 Russians playing in the NHL, down from 60 in 2001-02.
While relations between the NHL and KHL are better than they were a few years ago when players like Alexander Radulov walked away from an NHL contract with the Nashville Predators to sign with a KHL team, there is still no formal agreement between the leagues. They have agreed to respect each other’s contracts but Radulov is still playing in the KHL, which still rankles Predators GM David Poile. Another problem is the Russian Hockey Federation’s refusal to sign a transfer agreement with the NHL.
“The KHL has most of these players signed up and committed for the long term,” Poile said. “So it’s a draft pick that you may not be realistically getting in the short term or the long term.
“The St. Louis Blues took Vladimir Tarasenko last year [16th overall]. He was a very highly-rated player, so everything being equal he would have been taken higher in the draft. But not everything is equal any more when you’re taking the Russian players.”
This means a change in how some teams bring in young Russians. Murray, for example, traded for 21-year-old Russian forward Nikita Filatov at the entry draft. He was taken sixth overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2008 but has bounced between the NHL, AHL and KHL ever since. Murray is hoping a change of scene will bring out the best in Filatov, who told him he wants to play in the NHL.
“We traded for Filatov partly because of ability and he indicated he wanted to try and stay here, so we took that chance,” Murray said. “If he doesn’t make it, I’m sure the first thing he’ll do is try to get a contract back there.”
Russian players who are drafted now by NHL teams are usually ones who are already playing in the North American junior leagues or have indicated they want to play in the NHL. Tampa Bay Lightning GM Steve Yzerman, for example, made centre Vladislav Namestnikov the first Russian taken over the weekend at 27th overall in the first round.
But Namestnikov is the son of former NHL player John Namestnikov and grew up in North America. He plays for the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League.
Yzerman took three of the eight Russians drafted on the weekend. Since he did not have any high draft picks, he figured it was worth the gamble.
“Any player you pick in the second round or later, most are three to four years away,” Yzerman said. “We felt in three or four years, if they’re good players, they will be here. All the good players eventually come over from Russia.”
Interesting note about Floorball and how popular it is - contrasted to hockey!
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CBC Sports June 28, 2011 By Elliotte Friedman
From his 30 points...
27) Continuing concern: the low amount of Czechs and Slovaks being drafted. Apparently, more people in those countries are registered to play floorball than hockey. (The unbelievable Mikael Granlund goal from the Worlds? Floorball move called "zoroing," I've been told.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9B412oN9MA
Paul Kariya announces retirement
ERIC DUHATSCHEK Globe and Mail Wednesday, Jun. 29, 2011
At the age of 36 and after taking a full year away from the NHL to try and recover from the effects of multiple concussions, Paul Kariya retired Wednesday after a distinguished 15-year career.
And on the day he did so, Kariya had sharp words of criticism for a league that he believes still hasn’t done enough to address the issue of head injuries.
“The thing that I worry about,” Kariya said in an interview, “is that you’ll get a guy who is playing with a concussion, and he gets hit, and he dies at centre ice. Can you imagine what would happen to the league if a guy dies at centre ice?”
Kariya said that if the NHL wants to get serious about reducing the number of concussions in the game, it needs to introduce harsher penalties, in the same it did to eliminate the bench-clearing brawls that were so prevalent in the 1970s and 1980s, but are completely absent from the game now.
“If you want to get rid of it, I’m a believer that you don’t go after the employees, you go after the employers,” said Kariya. “The first concussion I had, on a brutal, blindside hit, the guy got a two-game suspension. That was in 1996. The last one, from (the Buffalo Sabres’ Patrick) Kaleta, was exactly the same play, and he doesn’t get anything.
“If you start at 10-game suspensions and go to 20, that sends a message to the players. But if you start fining the owners and suspending the coach, then it’s out of the game.”
Kariya went on to say that every hit that ever knocked him out came as a result of an illegal hit.
“Every single one,” he reiterated. “I’m not saying you’re going to ever eliminate concussions completely because it’s a contact sport, but if you get those out of the game, then you eliminate a big part of the problem.
“A two-game suspension? That’s not enough of a deterrent.”
Last summer, Kariya issued a statement through his agent Don Baizley that he was planning to take the 2010-11 season off in the hopes that he could be fully recovered in time to sign for the start of 2011-12. And while he is now symptom-free, and says he “feels great,” his doctor advised him that the risk of re-injury was too great.
Even 12 months ago, concussion specialist Mark Lovell warned Kariya that this day was likely to occur. After the Kaleta hit, Kariya said he hoped his symptoms would go away over time, as they had before.
“Instead, they just kept getting worse and worse. My doctor said, ‘there’s no one in my profession that could clear you to play in this condition.’ Even last summer, he said, ‘even if you recover 100 per cent, I would advise you to retire.’
“I knew I was bad, but I didn’t know I was that bad. But they had concussion data on me all the way back to 1996, and then from the (Gary) Suter hit (just before the 1998 Winter Olympics), so they could track my results from one concussion to another.
“The drop in my brain function, the doctor said, was down by 50 per cent. At that point, I wasn’t thinking, ‘Am I going to play again?’ I just wanted to get healthy.”
To that end, Kariya began a five-month rehabilitation process that involved multiple activities - weight lifting, yoga, surfing, ballroom dancing - all designed to enhance his neural responses. He also started receiving treatment in a hyperbaric chamber and began taking supplements - primarily high doses of fish oils - and eventually began to see some improvements.
“After two-and-a-half months, I saw a 40-50 per cent improvement, but the scans were still showing braining damage. After five months, I was up to 80 cent. As spring came around, and teams started calling, I went back to the doctor, but he said, ‘Paul, there’s just no way you can play again. You’re still too vulnerable to another concussion.’”
Kariya believes that because there are no visible outward symptoms of concussion, NHL teams tend to play them down to their players. He contrasted it to the treatment levels accorded to a player who suffered a major knee injury.
“If it’s an ACL/MCL tear, right away, the doctor, the player and the management, they all know he’s out for six-to-12 months. There’s no question about it. There’s a rehabilitation protocol that you follow and that’s what they do.
“With concussions, the guy walks into the dressing room the next day and they ask, ‘how are you doing? Are you okay to go tomorrow?’ It’s totally backward. I had (two major hip reconstructions) and I’ll take that any day over a concussion.”
Though he didn’t watch a lot of games this past season, he stayed in touch with Teemu Selanne, his close friend with the Anaheim Ducks and thus was aware of how concussions and illegal hits to the head were a hot-button issue in the NHL this past season. Only last week, the NHL board of governors approved a change to rule 48 - the head shot rule - that broadened its parameters and eliminated the language “blind-side or lateral hit to the head” from its wording.
From now on, “any hit resulting in contact with an opponent's head where the head is targeted and the principal point of contact is no longer permitted.”
However, the rule also includes language that permits a referee’s discretion, where “the circumstances of the hit, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit or the head contact on an otherwise legal body check was unavoidable, can be considered.”
According to Kariya, the concussion that sidelined Pittsburgh Penguins’ star Sidney Crosby halfway through the season is an example of how far the league still needs to go in order to alter its mindset.
“Crosby is a perfect example,” said Kariya. “You have the best player in the game playing on a the same team as a guy (Matt Cooke) who is ending guys’ careers with those kinds of hits.
“Hopefully, things will change.”
Kariya will finish his NHL career with 989 points in 989 games. He was a two-time winner of the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly conduct and sportsmanship, and was selected to the NHL’s first all-star team three times (1996, 1997 and 1999) and the second team twice (2000, 2003). Kariya played for Canada in the 1994 and 2002 Olympics, and was chosen to play in 1998, but couldn’t compete after suffering a head injury on a crosscheck from the Chicago Blackhawks’ Suter just days before he was supposed to head overseas.
One could argue that Kariya’s most memorable NHL moment came in the 2003 Stanley Cup final between the Anaheim Ducks and the New Jersey Devils when the Devils’ Scott Stevens laid him out with a crushing hit, leaving him motionless on the ice for several minutes with what was undoubtedly an undiagnosed concussion. Kariya returned to play after a short absence and later scored the decisive goal that permitted Anaheim to force a seventh game in a series that was ultimately won by New Jersey. It was the closest he ever came to winning the Stanley Cup.
“I feel very fortunate for the 15 years I spent in the NHL,” said Kariya. “At some point, whether you play 10 or five or 20 years, you have to retire eventually - and no matter what you do afterward, you need your brain to be functioning.”
Cup sets off on summer journey with Bruins
THE CANADIAN PRESS / TSN / July 5, 2011
The Stanley Cup is on the road with the Boston Bruins for a two-month celebration unlike any other in sports.
By the time the team gathers for training camp in September, the iconic trophy will have visited almost every member of the organization on a trek that stretches from coast-to-coast in Canada, throughout the United States and to remote locales in Europe.
Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs took the Stanley Cup to Yosemite National Park over the weekend before passing it on to assistant coach Doug Houda, who chose to spend his allotted time with it in Whitefish, Mont., on Tuesday.
The first player to get his day with the Cup is Nathan Horton, who was knocked out of the championship series against Vancouver with a vicious hit from Aaron Rome.
He'll host the trophy in mid-July in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., before sending it off on an adventure in Europe. Tomas Kaberle plans to bring it to his hometown of Kladno, Czech Republic -- just as brother Frantisek did in 2006 after helping the Carolina Hurricanes become champions -- while captain Zdeno Chara will share it with the people of Trencin, Slovakia.
The Cup will reach its farthest point east with backup goalie Tuukka Rask, who is spending time with it in his hometown of Savonlinna, Finland -- not far from the border with Russia.
A return to North America from there will see it make a number of stops around Ontario at the end of July: Oshawa (Shawn Thornton), Welland (Dan Paille), Guelph (Rich Peverley), Tillsonburg (Gregory Campbell), Brampton (Tyler Seguin), Peterborough (Marc Savard) and Ottawa (Chris Kelly).
In August, the Stanley Cup will visit seven other provinces. Patrice Bergeron is scheduled to have it in Quebec City, Mark Recchi (Kamloops) and Milan Lucic (Vancouver) will bring it to B.C., Shane Hnidy is hosting it in Neepawa, Man., and Johnny Boychuk will take it to his hometown of Edmonton before the Maritimers get their day with the Cup.
There will be stops in P.E.I. (Adam McQuaid), Nova Scotia (Brad Marchand) and Newfoundland and Labrador, where Michael Ryder will be just the second player from that province to bring it home following Detroit's Daniel Cleary in 2008.
Other highlights along the way include a visit to Flint, Mich., where Conn Smythe winner Tim Thomas will spend one of his two days with the trophy in the city he was raised.
The time Stanley Cup champions spend with the trophy over the summer helps add to its legacy. Players often get creative with the silver chalice, just as Andrew Ladd did a year ago, when he took a helicopter to the top of a mountain peak outside Vancouver at the crack of dawn and posed for the iconic image of Chicago's 2010 championship.
Quebec association separates girls from boys
By ISABELLE MAHER, QMI Agency, July 7, 2011
MONTREAL - A hockey association south of Montreal has irked parents by banning girls from playing alongside boys.
Hockey Richelieu says it instituted segregated hockey in the Atom division to develop its girls' hockey programs.
But parents say the move, which takes effect next season, is discriminatory.
"We're in Quebec in 2011, not in Taliban country!" said Marc Louis-Seize, whose eight-year-old daughter is the only girl on her team.
"They want girls to play with girls, that's passe."
The decision will force girls to quit their teams at Hockey Richelieu and sign up with local squads that offer girls' hockey. Some parents say they'll be forced to drive long distances for practices and games.
Jacques Hebert, executive vice-president of Hockey Richelieu, says he's aware of the complaints but says that segregated hockey is necessary to keep women's teams alive.
"The problem is that women's teams are losing good people, creating an imbalance, and the product is diluted," he said.
Quebec's ice hockey federation says 6,500 girls play the sport in the province, and official Yvan Dallaire says it's gaining popularity.
"In the '80s, a 12-year-old girl was playing on the same team as an 18-year-old girl because there weren't enough players," he said. "Today, not only can girls have their teams, but more and more leagues tend to separate the girls from the boys, such as soccer. There is nothing sexist about it."
Hockey Quebec has received some calls from parents who are upset about Hockey Richelieu's decision.
"We have referred them to their local association, which has a certain autonomy," said Dallaire.
Hockey Richelieu says it won't go back on its decision despite the complaints.
"It's a done deal," says Jacques Hebert. "If some girls have to travel too far to (play), they may qualify for an exemption. Otherwise, the girls will play with the girls."
Chasing down the dream - Cuban cyclist proves attitude is everything
BEVERLEY SMITH | Globe and Mail Published Friday, Jul. 08, 2011
NOT A HOCKEY ARTICLE, but a remarkable story about overcoming the odds...
It is not easy looking at Damian Lopez Alfonso, his face puffy and deformed with half a mouth, his forearms amputated, his body scarred.
But that we may be disturbed by the sight shows our disability, not his.
Alfonso, 34, is a cyclist, and a pretty damn good one. On Sunday, he’ll be competing in the first World Cup of his cycling career at a Paralympic-qualifying event in Baie-Comeau, Que., in a quest to get to the Games in London next year.
And the Cuban native catches a break: for the first time, he gets to ride a bike with the stumps of both arms resting on upturned handle bars.
Alfonso’s path to Sunday’s start line has been far more difficult than his path to the finish line will be. Although severely disfigured by a childhood accident in Cuba, he has a dignity that has opened doors and broken down barriers. He has never been ashamed of himself. He has never cried over his fate. He has never asked for favours.
When he was 13, he tried to retrieve a kite caught in power lines, tried to coax it down with a metal bar. Tragedy. During an explosion, when 13,000 volts of electricity sizzled and cracked, the metal bar bounced onto and burned Alfonso’s face, arms and torso. He spent a year in a Havana hospital and lost the lower part of his arms to infection.
Alfonso caught a glimpse of a brutal reality when he saw a reflection of his face in a hospital glass door during his recovery. Shocked, he screamed: “I’m a monster!” But he got on with his life. He does not like to lose a day to bathos and pathos.
Nothing fazes him. Alfonso eats with a fork. He can draw and write. He uses a borrowed iPhone when in New York. He is a bicycle mechanic. He can flip the top off a pop can. He can pick a crumb off a table. He neither wants nor needs prosthetics for everyday living.
Back home from the hospital, Alfonso gravitated towards his bicycle, his mode of transportation since he was a little boy, but his parents took it away from him, fearing, as his father said, that he would “kill” himself on it. Alfonso took to borrowing bikes from his friends, a move that constantly got his young buddies into hot water with his parents. Still, he kept seeking them out, riding at every opportunity.
“It makes me feel normal,” he said.
He suffered two bad crashes before he got the hang of it. Finally, his parents acquiesced, realizing it was what he really wanted and needed to do. Now they support him wholly.
A decade ago, he had another life-changing experience, a result of a chance meeting with Tracy Lea, former president of the U.S. Cycling Federation, at a Havana cycling race. Lea recalls competing in the race, and realizing a rider with no arms was beside her. Alfonso sped off, too fast to catch. And yes, he was riding against able-bodied cyclists, something he does almost every weekend in Cuba.
She met him again at another race in Havana a couple of years later when she was fumbling to fix her bike. He took the tool from her and deftly set things right. Lea began to think of ways to help him, – even though he hadn’t asked for help. “He didn’t even ask for a tire tube,” she said.
Lea, a fundraiser by trade, stumbled on the National Foundation for Facial Reconstruction in New York, and three years ago, came close to getting Alfonso to New York to have facial surgery. But getting a visa for him to get into the United States proved problematic. “We just ran into severe communication issues,” she said. “I almost gave up. I was very disappointed.”
Last fall, she had a chance to race in Cuba again, and she decided to go for the sole purpose of solving Alfonso’s travel issues. She did. And then things fell into place to create Team Damian in New York: lining up a team of doctors including one of the top facial surgeons in the world, Dr. Joseph McCarthy to reconstruct his face; getting prosthetics with the help of Achilles International and the Hanger Foundation; getting an astonishing digital system from Shimano, with a push-button system to allow him to change gears; finding him a place to stay while he was in New York; and taking the steps to get him qualified for the Paralympics, starting with an event in Canada.
What is most remarkable is that Alfonso has inspired the cycling community of New York and beyond to look past their own handlebars to help a fellow cyclist who lives thousands of miles away. Donations poured in to help offset expenses.
His surgery – provided free, probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, by the best in the world – was considered one of the most difficult reconstructions the team had done. The burns had destroyed blood vessels needed to generate new tissue.
The first surgery was particularly tough. They rebuilt an eyelid by sewing it shut. For four weeks, he had no vision in that eye. And then they pulled a skin flap from the scalp over his other eye, using it to help build the vascular system. Four weeks later, they had to put it all back together again. He also underwent a chin implant, which his body rejected, and last month, he had it painfully removed.
“It was extremely hard for him psychologically that first week, but within a week, he was back on top of his game,” Lea said.
He told photographer/friend/translator Marco Quezada: “I’ve been through worse.”
As much as others have touched Alfonso’s life, he has left his mark on them, too.
“I’m a New Yorker, born and raised,” Quezada said. “And it was just a humbling experience to meet him for the first time. He didn’t ask for any of this. He was perfectly happy with what he was doing.
“It’s changed me personally. I can never complain about having a bad day. This guy lives like this every day of his life. He has opened up our eyes.”
Ace McDade, a former cyclist who offered up his home in Ridgewood, N.J. to Alfonso, says the young Cuban has made an impact on the lives of his three young daughters.
When Alfonso first rolled up in the car to their home, he stepped out and played basketball with children from the neighbourhood for 1 ½ hours. McDade quickly learned that, even without forearms and hands, Alfonso can toss a basketball 50 feet.
“He frightens some kids and he doesn’t frighten others,” McDade said, “But after two minutes, they are all totally accepting of him. He’s an incredible athlete that they revel in. The adults do double takes, but the kids just accept it. It’s really great for our kids and our community that people are exposed to things they wouldn’t normally be exposed to.”
Come Sunday, Alfonso will face the start line in Quebec and another journey will begin.
“I wake up every morning, just happy to be alive,” he said. “I have a normal life. You have to have a positive attitude. A lot of people wake up with a negative attitude, but that is what your day is going to be like.”
What will college hockey crisis mean for the CHL?
By Neate Sager, Yahoo! Canada Sports, Fri Jul 08, 2011
It would be remiss not to highlight the great upheaval unfolding in NCAA hockey, since nothing is and of itself. As most people know, the creation of the high-roller Big Ten Hockey Conference has had a domino effect with several of the best programs across the Midwest, which has hastened the University of North Dakota to push for a second superconference, breaking up two of the best college conferences, the WCHA and CCHA.
There's no foresight with these developments so it is early in the game to predict what ramifications this could have for the Canadian Hockey League. Please bear in mind, though, that at time when the WHL in particular is making headway at recruiting in the expanding player pool in the western United States and is trying to crack the talent-rich, college hockey-crazy Minnesota market, several smaller programs could be severely diminished. First, the details, from Brad Elliot Schlossman:
At least five other teams will join UND in this league: Denver, Colorado College, Nebraska-Omaha, Minnesota-Duluth and Miami (Ohio).
Notre Dame and an eighth school — possibly Western Michigan — also could be added to this group by the end of the summer.
... The league will begin at the same time as the Big Ten Hockey Conference, significantly changing the landscape of the college hockey world in two years.
Both the WCHA and Central Collegiate Hockey Association will be left with five teams — not enough for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. They will likely have to combine under one of the league's umbrellas, but it is unknown which one. (Grand Forks Herald)
Picture Paul Kelly of College Hockey Inc. waking up with a severe migraine. This is more dystopia than utopia for NCAA buffs, and a little disheartening for those who believe all prospects in North America deserve at least two viable options. Having the big programs aligned together might be great for TV contracts and ticket prices. However, if more top players are concentrated among a select few teams, how does that help keep a blue-chip prospect away from the CHL if there is concern about being buried on the third or fourth line as a 19-year-old freshman?
Tom Reale also pointed out almost all of the left-out schools, including Bemidji State, college hockey's answer to Butler in basketball and Boise State in football, are those which are in NCAA Division II for all sports except hockey. Bemidji or St. Cloud State losing the luxury of being able to sell tickets to a game against Minnesota or Minnesota-Duluth could be very bad.
In the west, it almost certainly means a stratification of the sport — and potentially, the loss of some programs. The remaining schools of the WCHA and CCHA are going to have no practical alternative than to band together for survival, and the result is not pretty. (Without A Peer)
Point being, someone stands to tap the growth in American hockey and it might not be the NCAA. As Western College Hockey noted, it "hasn't been able to capitalize on that growth, and if anything, is moving backwards."
One should at least be open to the possibility this could help the USHL, although it would take many years, become a league someone could play in until it's time to turn pro at age 20 instead of going to the CHL or NCAA. Meantime, some major junior hockey people must be metaphorically licking their chops (it wouldn't do to be seen doing it openly, you understand) about this shakeup. Chris Dilks pointed out an unintended consequence of having two mega-conferences could be for more players to head (or stay) up north:
Today [Thursday] was a very bad day for college hockey.
I've seen plenty of speculation that this spells the inevitable doom for the schools left on the outside looking in. There's definitely very legitimate concerns for those schools right now, but I don't think anyone can say with absolute certainty what their future will be. What I can say with a great amount of certainty is that yesterday, there were 24 strong schools in the west playing major conference college hockey. Today, there are 12, possibly 14.
... does this move push the pendulum for players more in the direction of the CHL? Head to head, the NCAA still offers a better package, with the option to get an education AND play pro hockey, which the CHL doesn't do. But for a 16-18 year old player that has a CHL offer, but not an NCAA one? Is it worth taking that gamble and waiting for the opportunity to play major college hockey that may never come? If you take 10 teams out of the picture, that's 180 full scholarships that aren't out there anymore. (Western College Hockey)
For any U.S. readers, there is no glee taken in passing this such news. The principle here is that what's best for hockey is the greatest good for the greatest number. That means having all 60 CHL franchises and all 59 NCAA Division I programs thrive to their best ability. It's a little disheartening the agenda of a few athletic programs might put that in jeopardy.
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The Secondary Conference is Official
by WCHBlog on Jul 7, 2011
The other shoe dropped today, and it was revealed that a new start-up conference will be announced on Wednesday. North Dakota, Denver, Colorado College, Nebraska-Omaha, Minnesota-Duluth, and Miami are the conferences new members, with Notre Dame and an eighth team, most likely Western Michigan, as potential members.
I don't want to talk too much about the future, because this conference won't begin until 2013-2014, and my suspicion, and hope, is that a lot will change between now and then. So for now, I'll try to stay in the present and simply say: today was a very bad day for college hockey.
I've seen plenty of speculation that this spells the inevitable doom for the schools left on the outside looking in. There's definitely very legitimate concerns for those schools right now, but I don't think anyone can say with absolute certainty what their future will be. What I can say with a great amount of certainty is that yesterday, there were 24 strong schools in the west playing major conference college hockey. Today, there are 12, possibly 14.
There has been a tremendous surge of growth in American hockey in recent years. The talent pool has grown exponentially. The USHL has expanded. The NAHL has expanded. College hockey hasn't been able to capitalize on that growth, and if anything, is moving backwards.
I often make fun of people who invoke Herb Brooks' name as some sort of infallible hockey deity, when he was a much more complex character than that. But one thing he was absolutely right about was that with the caliber and depth of talent in the state of Minnesota, the state had the capability of putting together more than just two top-notch college hockey programs. He was eventually proven right when it put together five of them, and now, it appears that we're moving back to two.
This seems like a good deal for the schools involved, though again, that could be debated, because I'm not sold on it. But is it really worth moving an individual program one step forward if it takes the entire sport two steps backwards?
Other random points:
- On the day that five of its largest members decided they no longer wanted to be part of the conference, here was the WCHA's brilliant counter-move:
WCHA spokesman Doug Spencer told The Associated Press the conference is aware of the reports but will "reserve comment" until "the league feels it is appropriate."
No comment at all. Nothing even resembling leadership in a time of serious crisis. It's not like this announcement came as a complete surprise. People can blame the Big Ten, and athletic department greed all they want, but the total ineptitude and inaction from the WCHA league office also deserves a heavy share of the blame here.
-As far as the future for the schools left out, I've seen a lot of people writing off the effect on the WCHA schools, but even if they don't have to drop their program, they'll at least take a serious hit. St. Cloud, arguably the strongest left out so far, was charging anywhere between $25-40 per game for conference games last year, which is ridiculous enough on its own, but obviously not going to continue with a conference slate made up of teams like Alaska-Anchorage, Michigan Tech, and possibly the likes of Ferris State and Bowling Green. And it's not like they can make up the revenue in other areas. The only way to cram more advertisements into a St. Cloud hockey game would be if people started sponsoring other advertisements.
-As far as competition, the remaining schools definitely lose some prestige, and likely become a clear third option for potential players, but the talent pool is big enough that these teams will likely still be able to draw similar levels of talent. With junior hockey expanding like I said, there will be no shortage of prospects to recruit. Recruiting still isn't an exact science, so good college players will still fall through the cracks and trickle down.
-That said, does this move push the pendulum for players more in the direction of the CHL? Head to head, the NCAA still offers a better package, with the option to get an education AND play pro hockey, which the CHL doesn't do. But for a 16-18 year old player that has a CHL offer, but not an NCAA one? Is it worth taking that gamble and waiting for the opportunity to play major college hockey that may never come? If you take 10 teams out of the picture, that's 180 full scholarships that aren't out there anymore.
-So the Secondary Six wanted freedom to get a better TV deal/conference tournament revenues. Now that they're on their own, they'll have to provide their own solutions. Where is the TV deal going to come from? Versus is the most likely national cable network, and they could be looking for Friday/Saturday night programming. But I'm not sure. The league is made of teams that are either non-factors in mid-major sized markets, or a big deal in markets that aren't even a blip on the radar. They may get a tough lesson in how little cachet their schools carry. Are they really going to draw enough people to beat out a far cheaper Mixed Martial Arts re-run?
As far as the conference tournament, it's the same issue the Big Ten had. There's nowhere to host it that will draw a significant number of fans from more than one school. If they host top seeds host for the playoffs, good luck if Miami ever wins the league.
WHL: Winterhawks bench boss talks about Portland's prospect pipeline
By Kelly Friesen, Yahoo! Canada Sports, Tues July 5, 2011
To find out how the Portland Winterhawks have had two first-round picks in back-to-back NHL drafts, go straight to the source.
There is a lot that went into the Winterhawks helping forward Sven Bärtschi (13th overall, Calgary) and defenceman Joe Morrow (23rd, Pittsburgh) join their older teammates Ryan Johansen and Nino Niederreiter, who were taken back-to-back in 2010 by the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Islanders. It's part player development, part recruiting players through the Bantam and Import drafts. And the Winterhawks drafting track record has been nothing short of spectacular.
To hear coach-GM Mike Johnston tell it, a huge reason is the professional atmosphere around the team, which reached the Western Hockey League final this spring.
"We treat our players like NHL teams treat their players," says Johnston. "We feel if they are already in an NHL-like environment, it will be easier for them to get to the next level. We constantly work with them in practice and help get their off-ice conditioning to a professional level."
All told, including the aforementioned four first-rounders, the Winterhawks have had eight players taken among the first 60 selections in the 2010 and '11 entry drafts.
Late round steal
Some were players long projected to blossom. Portland, however, did have to work hard to get some of its star players in a Winterhawks uniform. Johansen, who played on Team Canada's first line during the 2011 world junior championship and should do so again unless he makes the Blue Jackets for good, was a prime example. The centre was selected 150th overall in the 2007 WHL bantam draft, making him perhaps the biggest steal of the past five years.
"We think Ryan dropped in the draft because his hometown (Port Moody, B.C.) didn't offer a AAA bantam league, so he was forced to play in the AA league [one tier lower]," says Johnston. "And he was also a fairly skinny kid with not a lot of size at the time. Ryan hit his growth spurt later than most of the other kids."
The hard part with Johansen was convincing him to pass on a scholarship to Northeastern University in Hockey East to join the Winterhawks for the 2009-10 season.
"I went and watched Ryan when he was playing for the [Junior A] Penticton Vees and our scouting staff evaluated him as a player with enormous potential," says Johnston. "And we made it a priority to do our best to get him to join our organization."
"So I went to a restaurant for some coffee with him and his dad and I told them how good I feel Ryan could be. And what I did was took some pictures of (Prince George’s) Brett Connolly and some other top talents and I asked him if he thinks he can be as good as these players; and I told him I think he could be better than these players. And I think that conversation gave Ryan more confidence in his hockey future and also showed his family that we believe in him."
Swiss bliss
A mixture of networking and scouting played into the Winterhawks' adding Niederreiter and Bärtschi through the CHL import draft.
"Our assistant coach, Travis Green, played over in Switzerland during the NHL lockout, so the contacts he's developed was a factor in drafting Nino (Niederreiter) and Sven (Bartschi)," says Johnston. "And you know we also scouted these players at the IIHF tournaments and have talked with scouts over in Europe."
Niederreiter's impressive play at the world under-18 championship in Fargo, N.D., in April 2009 was his major selling point to the Winterhawks.
"I watched Nino at the under-18 tournament in Fargo and he really impressed me," says Johnston. "Then we followed up on him and watched him 10-15 more times. He seemed to be one of the most talented players in the draft, and obviously knowing that he's willing to move to Portland was important in the decision to draft him."
Simply chatting with Niederreiter's agent led the Winterhawks to Bärtschi, who had 85 points in his first season in North America.
"Nino and Sven have the same agent, so we asked Nino's agent if there was another top talent over in Switzerland and he told us about Sven," says Johnston. "And Sven was kind of under the radar, so knowing his agent helped us find out more about him."
Who's next?
Bärtschi, Johansen, Niederreiter and left wing Brad Ross, a Toronto Maple Leafs second-rounder, are each entering their age-19 seasons. The Winterhawks are well-stocked beyond their older drafted players. This season, draft followers will have a close eye on defenceman Derrick Pouliot. The former No. 1 overall choice in the bantam draft is growing into a smooth-skating, puck-moving rearguard. He counted five goals and 30 points in 66 regular-season games this season. For a 16-year-old defenceman who came directly from midget hockey, that's very good; it compares favourably with the numbers Carolina Hurricanes first-rounder Ryan Murphy had in 2009-10 as a rookie with the OHL's Kitchener Rangers.
"Pouliot is a defenceman that can control a game," says Johnston. "He's a puck possessing defenceman that understands the game with a lot of intelligence. He reminds me a bit of [future Hall of Famer] Scott Niedermayer, but he also shows similar poise to [Detroit Red Wings captain] Nicklas Lidström. He's definitely a potential first-rounder. I'd say his current skill level is ahead of where [Pittsburgh first-rounder] Joe Morrow's skill level was last year this time."
Kelly Friesen is a Western Hockey League writer for Yahoo! Sports.
EKATERINBURG, RUSSIA – We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
The Hockey News Rory Boylen 2011-07-18
Welcome to the home city of Pavel Datsyuk and, more specifically, the Kurganovo Complex, which sits about 20 minutes outside of town down an unassuming side road lined by open land and small clusters of shanties with makeshift sheet metal fences.
The area itself reminds you of cottage country, with its rough roads, lakes, pines and secluded lifestyle, but it’s a whole other world out here, a whole other continent on the eastern slope of the Ural mountain range. On the drive out from town to the complex, you pass a large marker that represents the end of Europe and the beginning of Asia.
As one of the stewards on the plane we took from Frankfurt to Ekaterinburg said when we told him why we were going to this destination: “That’s a strange place to go for a hockey camp.”
For the fourth year, the PD13 Hockey School will be hosted by No. 13 on the Red Wings and run by a collection of instructors with various backgrounds in the sport. You’ll meet them all in this space at some point during the week as we follow the inner-workings at the kids’ camp for players aged eight to 12 that runs Monday to Friday. We’ll also give you an inside peek at Pavel Datsyuk the person, but for now, how in the heck did this North American-designed camp sprout up so far from home?
It all started on a Detroit Red Wings plane trip a few years ago when Datsyuk approached Jay Woodcroft, then a coach with the Wings and currently an assistant with the San Jose Sharks. Datsyuk knew of a hockey camp Jay and his brother, Todd (an L.A. Kings scout), ran in Belarus and wanted to take that approach in his hometown to give something back to the community.
“He wanted to expose the kids in Ekaterinburg to a different style of coaching, to the North American style,” Jay Woodcroft said.
That North American style is all about fun and a positive attitude. It’s not something common in these circles, so it provides a unique experience for the kids. A lot of them are making repeat appearances and the glow in their faces as they arrived, recognized and ran up to greet their North American instructors tells you all you need to know about the impact this experience has had on them. It’s a reaction Datsyuk is proud to have helped create.
The facility itself has a resort feel, with dormitories for instructors and kids to stay in, a double ice-pad arena (Olympic and North American-sized), plus a weight room, boxing gym, basketball courts, a dual-purpose soccer and tennis court, cafeteria, wooded trails and a lakeside beach that is just like home, except without a single cottage in sight.
But it wasn’t always like that. Year 1 of the school was held here when a single aged arena stood with a “Soviet-style training camp feel” to it. For Year 2, the school was moved downtown. But because of Datsyuk, his supporters and a little input from Jay and Todd at the conclusion of that second year, the Kurganovo area was transformed into a modern complex in shockingly fast fashion in time for Year 3.
“To me, it has become a destination in and of itself,” said Jay Woodcroft. “Families can come and walk to the lake and spend time around the water. They can come and work on different things - there’s lots of stuff to do.
“It’s become an attractive part of the hockey school where you’re not just dropping your son off at nine in the morning and picking him up at four, you’re going to hockey school and you’ll be immersed in it from the time you get dropped off until when you get picked up at the end of the week.”
And it was all made possible by Datsyuk. Ask anyone here about him and you’ll quickly get an idea of his selfless, down-to-earth nature. He doesn’t seek to be treated like an NHL superstar - on the contrary, he just wants to be one of the guys.
Which he is, making the experience not just special for the kids, but enlightening for the instructors as well.
“Just a couple months ago Pav was at a Bass Pro Shop in Detroit and he saw some kid there who looked like me,” said T.J. Aubrecht, a former American high school varsity player who also played a year with the Minnesota Junior League’s Hudson Crusaders.
“He asked the kid if he could take a picture with him and sent it to me with the caption ‘I didn’t know you were working at the Pro Bass Shop in Detroit.’ That was pretty cool for me because I didn’t expect him to be thinking about me throughout the year. I’ll remember that for a while.”
Pavel Datsyuk asking someone to take a picture with him? This is the type of personality you’ll get a glimpse of during the camp this week.
Rory Boylen will file reports regularly over his time with Pavel Datsyuk and Co. at his hockey camp held at the Kurganovo Complex near the Red Wings star's hometown of Ekaterinburg, Russia.
Tim Horton: hockey's brand name
Adrian Dater SI.com INSIDE THE NHL July 15, 2011
Tim Horton, perhaps the most well-known name in all of Canada, was by most accounts a very difficult man to get to know.
Frank Orr spent 37 years writing about sports for the Toronto Star, much of that time covering the Maple Leafs, for whom Horton played from 1951-70. Orr says he can count on one hand the number of times that Horton ever really talked to him in depth, but one was in a Montreal hotel lobby on an off-night during the 1962 Stanley Cup playoffs between the Leafs and the Canadiens. Horton was well-established as an NHL defenseman by then, but never far from his mind were thoughts of how the Leafs had cut his roughly $8,000 salary in half for 1955-56 because he had suffered serious leg and jaw injuries on a hit by Bill Gadsby of the New York Rangers late the previous season.
"Horton told me that injury had drilled into him how fragile careers in a contact game could be, and with a wife and four young daughters to support, he said that he was looking hard for a business to get involved in off the ice," says Orr, who was inducted into the media wing of the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1989. "He had worked for a Studebaker dealership in Hamilton, Ont., and with some friends had tried a drive-in hamburger spot bearing his name, which barely broke even. A couple of years later with a partner, he tried a donut/coffee spot in Hamilton. It worked modestly well."
It may sound as if Orr is trying to be funny. After all, Tim Hortons is now the largest restaurant chain in all of Canada, with more than 3,000 locations and several hundred more in other countries including the U.S. The chain grossed nearly $2.6 billion (Canadian) last year and employs more than 100,000 people. You really can't go more than a few kilometers in reasonably well-populated areas of Canada before seeing Horton's name in familiar red, italicized letters. Canadian tourists often speak of going through "Timmy's withdrawal" if they go just a few days without a "Double Double" (large coffee with two creams, two sugars) or accompanying "Timbits" (bite-sized donut holes).
But the fact is, at the time of Horton's tragic death in an auto accident in 1974, the number of stores bearing his name numbered only 40. In 1975, Horton's half of the business was sold by his widow, Lori, for $1 million and a Cadillac Eldorado to Horton's second co-partner, a former Hamilton policeman named Ron Joyce. Today, Joyce is worth hundreds of millions and he travels by private jet to his several luxury homes. Lori Horton died in 2000, having squandered the money from the sale years before. She had unsuccessfully sued Joyce, claiming that she was not of sound mind while doing the original deal because of alcohol and prescription drug use.
The unpleasant business aspects of the chain's history and Tim Horton's life and death -- much of which was aired in the 2006 book "Always Fresh: The Untold Story of Tim Hortons By the Man Who Created a Canadian Empire" by Joyce and journalist Robert Thompson -- has not diminished Horton's legend. Orr says Horton probably never would have guessed that the stores bearing his name would become the phenomenon they are today, but he recalls that Horton felt great pride after his first store opened in Hamilton in 1964.
"The business was important to him, for the income it generated," says Orr, "but he once said to me, 'I think people are a little surprised that I'm having success at something other than hockey because they thought I was just a dumb jock.'"
Those who played with Horton said he rarely talked about his shops, which originally served just donuts and coffee but today feature a wide variety of other items, including soups and sandwiches.
"He was a hockey player first and foremost, and a very good friend and teammate," says former Maple Leaf Dave Keon, like Horton a Hockey Hall of Famer, who now lives in Florida. "The business stuff was a distant second, but I know he cared about his shops. I know he and Ronnie (Joyce) worked hard at it, but I'm sure he'd have been a bit surprised at how big it became."
Joyce is largely credited for turning Tim Hortons into a mega-success through tireless work and menu innovation, though there are some who believe that he has taken a little too much credit at the expense of Horton's name. (Repeated efforts to contact Joyce for comment were unsuccessful.) That Joyce chose to air some of the late Horton's dirty laundry in the book -- saying he was an alcoholic, unfaithful in his marriage and often an indifferent business partner -- has cast Joyce in a negative light among many Canadians. (If he "created" the Tim Hortons empire, as his book's title suggests, maybe he should have taken Horton's name off the signs and put his own up, say his detractors.)
Great on ice
Horton's name is known to most North Americans under the age of 30 for his coffee shops, but his feats as a hockey player haven't been lost on those who played with and against him. He won four Stanley Cups with the Maple Leafs before being traded to the Rangers late in the 1969-70 season. Even at 44, he was still playing a strong brand of defense for the Buffalo Sabres when, in the wee hours of Feb. 21, 1974, after a game, he lost control of his De Tomaso Pantera sports car on a highway near St. Catherines, Ontario. He collided with a culvert and died after being ejected from the vehicle. Police later said he'd been driving more than 100 miles per hour. An autopsy revealed his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit.
Peter McNab was a rookie forward on that Sabres team, and he got to know Horton when the two lived at the same Buffalo hotel, the Statler Hilton.
"We rode back and forth from the practice rink together in that Pantera. Sometimes he'd even let me drive it," McNab says. "He had those big, black horn-rimmed glasses (from nearsightedness) and didn't look the part of this guy who was such a big, powerful presence. But there was no stronger man in the game of hockey at that time, even at his age."
Despite his modest 5-10, 185-pound frame, Horton was all muscle and chiseled jaw. His "bear hugs" of players during fights were such that opponents said they couldn't breathe, and after awhile everybody learned not to mess with him.
"I remember one day at practice, I just went around Timmy Horton, and all of a sudden this hand came out and picked me up and sat me on the boards," McNab says. "And then he says, 'Kid, you didn't think that would work did ya?' And I weighed 225 pounds. Guys were just laughing."
Jim Schoenfeld was another rookie on that 1973-74 Sabres team. He was often paired with Horton, both on the ice as defensive partners and in hotel rooms during road trips. A native of Galt, Ontario, Schoenfeld idolized Horton as a Maple Leaf and says he never would have had the success he achieved as an NHL player without Horton's insight, despite the brief time they played together.
"The biggest thing he taught me was to time your departure from the offensive zone, so that you're matching the speed of the forwards in the neutral zone," Schoenfeld says. "It was all about timing; the old term is 'standing the guys up', but there's a misnomer there, where you think it's just standing flat-footed and lunging at the forward and you get toasted on either side. But it's really where you give the forward a little ice, and once you come to the point of no return, you take him out. Once I got it, it really made things easier for my game because I spent a lot less time in the defensive zone. And even if a guy beat you, he was often off-sides. I'd want to back up all the time, but Timmy's thing was always 'No, you've got to hold the line.'
He kept teaching me, and it was invaluable."
Horton was so strong, Schoenfeld says, that he could put his stick on the ice with just his thumb and two fingers to block passes. Most defensemen put the stick on the ice with their knuckles first, but that often leaves a little gap through which the puck can scoot. Horton taught Schoenfeld the proper way to get the stick flat on the ice, and as a result he broke up a lot more passes than he would have the old way.
Hall of Fame former coach Scotty Bowman also remembers Horton's strength above all.
"If he got you up against the boards, you didn't get out unless he let you," Bowman says. "He was just very powerful and impressive. He was a good looking man with these four beautiful daughters. He had a presence about him, but he was quiet, too."
When the horrible news came on that early morning in 1974, McNab says, "You just couldn't believe that Timmy Horton was gone. He was just too big and strong."
The Sabres advanced to the Stanley Cup Final the following season. Schoenfeld says Horton's death was a tragedy that still affects him today, but it helped galvanize the Sabres as a team.
"I've never talked to a teammate about it, but I think that it made us kind of have a renewed respect for the contributions of everyone else," Schoenfeld says. "The next year, I thought we pulled together as a team, whether you want to call it because of his spirit or something like that. We all shared in the grief together, and we all helped each other get through it and I think it helped grow the team."
The name lives on
Horton has four surviving daughters -- one of whom, Jeri-Lyn, ironically married Joyce's son, Ron, Jr. The elder Joyce reportedly gives a regular stipend to the four Horton daughters even though Joyce himself cashed out of the business in 2001, selling his remaining shares to the Wendy's Corporation for a reported $250 million.
Jim Schoenfeld says that whenever he walks into a Tim Hortons store today he always takes a moment to remember the man he knew only too briefly.
"This may be the last generation that really only knows who Timmy was. Everyone else, they know the name, they associate it with coffee and donuts and conversation. But they don't know the magnitude of the man. That to me is a little sad, but that's life."
By the end of his, Horton's marriage appeared headed to divorce and despite better success with his shops, a $100,000-plus salary with Buffalo, and four Stanley Cup rings, "He never seemed really happy," says Orr.
Says Keon, "To those of us who played with him, though, he was always happy playing the game of hockey and he did anything for a teammate. That, to me, is where he'll always have made his name."
THN in Russia with Pavel Datsyuk: The kids hit the ice
Rory Boylen The Hockey News 2011-07-19
EKATERINBURG, RUSSIA – The language barrier here is thick, but it doesn’t stand in the way of the English instructors connecting with their Russian students and vice versa.
As Day 1 of the PD13 Hockey School took off Monday, the 80 kids were split into two groups – one of youngsters and one of the slightly older ones.
When asked which day of the camp was his favorite, Datsyuk answered and couldn’t help but show a small piece of his always-joking personality.
“My f…? Day off,” he said with a wry smile and a brief pause. “No it’s the first day, starting day, seeing lots of new kids. It’s new for them and they’re shy, but some kids when they get to their second camp they’re really open and they like it more and more.”
I took to the ice for the morning session, followed the young group through their rigorous day of training and got to see first-hand just how seriously uplifting the goals of this camp are. We’re only 20 percent through, but I’m beginning to understand Pavel’s joke and why the respite at the end of it will be both needed and rewarding.
The first thing to note is the fact there are 11 instructors on the ice for about 30 kids. The second thing is how vocal all of the guys in red tracksuits are throughout each drill, despite the language divide. There's stick-slapping to urge players to finish a drill hard, body language to get players to keep their heads up when carrying the puck, and high-fives, fist-pumps and head-pats that reward the mostly mullet-topped kids.
That’s part of the design of this camp: Pavel’s desire to ensure every kid learns from the experience and interacts positively with it has led to this almost overblown number of teachers.
“When you have one coach for 20 kids you don’t see everybody, but when it’s 10 coaches for 30 kids they teach every kid and give it to him good,” Datsyuk explained. “But it’s a five-day time, it’s small steps. The parents see and we tell (the players) every day what they need to be a better player, but when we talk about the camp…it doesn’t only make you a better player, but a better person.”
The day for each group was split into five rotating sessions, two on-ice, two off-ice and one for video. We began in the morning with skating drills: cutting hard corners on your edge and being led by your stick, quick-feet with explosive starts over three sticks and pivoting.
Skating drills turned into puckhandling drills, getting the kids to skate with the puck in front of them, and learning how to stickhandle with their heads looking straight forward. The afternoon turned more towards shooting, with five stations set up for different scenarios.
As difficult as it can be at times to communicate with these Russian kids, the camp has a couple of instructors who speak the language to translate and speak directly. One of those teachers is Vadim Podrezov, a sturdy former Russian League defenseman with an imposing presence, thick accent and kind personality.
Currently a Florida Panthers scout, it’s not terribly shocking to learn he played against legends such as Vladislav Tretiak and Sergei Makarov when he moved away from home at 18 to suit up for the Novosibirsk team in Siberia.
It’s his second year at the camp and he enjoys the instructing, but the bigger reason he participates is simple: his son, Dameed, gets the opportunity to skate on the same ice as one of this generation’s legends.
“I’m really excited to be here,” Podrezov said. “I was here last year and it was a great experience, especially for the kids because Pavel Datsyuk is the same kind of legend for them like for us when we were small guys with (Vsevolod) Bobrov or (Valeri) Kharlamov.”
When the kids are on the ice it’s not Pavel running the camp and explaining the practice. Instead, he’s constantly talking one-on-one with the kids, gathering pucks, setting up pylons and demonstrating a couple of drills. He’s more in the background than up front, but you can imagine each word he speaks to them is gospel and each moment he spends with them is surreal.
Think about the names Tretiak, Bobrov, Kharlamov - then add Datsyuk to the mix. And then think of this: At lunch in the cafeteria, there was Datsyuk playfully fielding questions from a few kids asking him something in Russian. When I asked him what they were saying, he told me they wanted to know what time they went back on the ice, but he didn’t know because he’s not running the show.
“He is a superstar in the hockey business,” Podrezov said, “but he’s so simple and easy to talk to.”
212 AWARD FOR MONDAY
Each day, the camp hands out the 212 award to a kid who “takes it to the extra degree.” It stands for the temperature water boils at and doesn’t go to the best player, but the one who works extra hard and has fun doing it. The winner gets a Datsyuk-signed hat, a special jersey to wear the following day, plus he gets to lead his group on the ice and start every drill in the next session.
Congratulations Monday goes to Matvei Nasyrov from Khanty-Mansiysk, whose smiling and eager face I ran into a number of times on and off the ice. His hometown is another 500-plus miles northeast of here.
THN in Russia with Pavel Datsyuk: The doozie of dry-land
The Hockey News Rory Boylen 2011-07-20
EKATERINBURG, RUSSIA - The rain fell hard and the thunder sounded Monday night at the Kurganovo Complex after a loud first day of workouts at the PD13 hockey school. It was an early, overcast morning after a long, gruelling session the day before, so the challenge Tuesday for the instructors was to make sure the kids were involved and active right from the get-go.
Enter Jeremy Clark, professional trainer, off-ice director at the camp and owner of the Minnesota Top Team facility. Clark specializes in MMA-style training and did some fighting of his own. But the type of workouts he swears by are valuable to hockey, which makes him a key piece of this team.
Clark focuses mostly on core exercises and preaches the importance of balance. Weights are overrated in this program because there are so many other, more basic elements you can use to give yourself better overall strength and fitness.
After following the younger age group Monday, I joined up with the older kids (10 to 12) Tuesday as they took to the field to be put through Clark’s paces right off the bat. At PD13, the schedules remain the same every day for each group, alternating between on- and off-ice twice a day with lunch and a video session in the middle. But the drills change, which is something especially important to Clark, who believe strength is built through muscle confusion.
The kids started off with two laps of the track, stretching and a couple other warmups before being split into groups at six workstations. Among them were medicine-ball tosses, lunges and pulling a resisting partner halfway down the field while holding a stick. The kids cycled through each station at two-minute intervals and went around the field twice.
By the end of it all they were red-faced and panting and with the on-ice session so close all they really had time to do was put on their gear. They gasped in disbelief when Clark told them they’d be spending about five times longer on these types of stations by the end of the week. At least the afternoon session was made up of a soccer game to give them exercise and a bit of fun, too.
Clark and translator Sviatoslav “Slava” Kiselev, the former manager of the Belarussian national team, are paired for the dry-land component of the camp. Clark shouts orders and designs the workouts, while Kiselev helps and chats with the kids in Russian tongue.
What’s neat to see, despite the separation of languages, is the kids’ recognition of the term “hockey player position.” Through Clark’s lead, the older age group all shout the phrase whenever it’s said by one of the instructors. If you’re trying to get one of the kids to bend his knees in the middle of a drill, just say “hockey player position.”
Clark has been a part of PD13 since it opened four years ago and says his viewpoint on why he helps out in the camp has changed drastically from when he began. Where at first it was special to work with and train Datsyuk, it’s now become a brotherhood bond filled with memories the gruff fighter cherishes.
There’s one story in particular that has become legendary at this annual camp.
“Jay and Todd (Woodcroft) always blow it out of proportion,” Clark said, “but they joke that I was running a station and Pav came down - we were doing a backhand off the boards station - and their joke, different in reality, is that I told Pav to step away and I was going to show them how to do this drill.”
Originally when Todd told me the story it involved Clark falling on his butt, while Ekaterinburg’s native son looked on…I’m just saying.
In fact, half the fun for Clark is the recalling of stories such as this one from PD13. He uses the words “precious” and “important” when describing what lasts on from here for him and the friendship he’s developed with Datsyuk.
“When he comes to Minnesota, Pav always drops me a text and we go out and grab a coffee and that matters to me a ton,” Clark said.
The memories will surely continue this year. I’ve already planted a few of my own. Today I met Nikita Morozov, a second-year student from Ekaterinburg. His favorite team is the Red Wings, his favorite player is Pavel Datsyuk and he says the camp has helped him improve his skating tremendously, while connecting him with his hero.
“His first impression of Pavel was definitely that he’s friendly with the kids and that he wants to share his experience with them to make them better,” Kiselev translated. “He was very impressed and he asked for an autograph when he first met him.”
212 AWARD FOR TUESDAY
On Day 2, the winners of the signed hat, special jersey and first-on-the-ice honors were Artur in the younger group and Ivan from the older group. On Day 1, as we were in the changing room waiting for the kids to get dressed before introductions, Artur gave me the strongest, most enthusiastic fist-pump of them all.
It’s funny - he’s also from Khanty-Mansiysk, the same as Day 1 winner Matvei Nasyrov. The pair sits two players down from each other here, but play on the same team 500-plus miles away at home where their squad tops the league standings.
Former NHL Goaltender and Ex-Red Staniowski went from NHL to Afghanistan, and still has a soft spot for Rhode Island
By MARK DIVVER Providence Journal Sunday, July 17, 2011
Ed Staniowski was 20 years old and straight from the prairies of Western Canada when he started his pro-hockey career with the Providence Reds in 1975. It didn’t take him long to acquire a taste for Rhode Island.
“I loved the ocean right from the get-go. It was easy for me to fit right in,’’ said the former goalie.
Staniowski quickly learned to enjoy lobster, which he’d never eaten while growing up in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He and his teammates often dined at Custy’s in North Kingstown, which was famous for its all-you-can-eat buffet.
“That was a favorite place of mine,’’ he recalled, laughing. “I think I ate five or six lobsters in my first sitting there.’’
It’s a good bet that Staniowski, now 56, will tear open a lobster or two when he visits Rhode Island for the R.I. Reds Heritage Society’s 11th annual Reunion Weekend, Aug. 5-7.
And it’s guaranteed that he’ll have plenty of stories to tell. Of the dozens of ex-Reds who are expected to attend the reunion, few have had the kind of post-hockey career that Staniowski has experienced.
After a decade in pro hockey, including NHL stops in St. Louis, Winnipeg and Hartford, Staniowski joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1985. Now a lieutenant colonel, he has been to Afghanistan four times, and has also served in Sierra Leone, the Middle East and Bosnia.
“I’ve had a chance to see a lot of the world, and I’ve been a lot of places where bad things were happening,’’ he said.
Staniowski was contemplating a military career before he ever thought of playing pro hockey.
“I was planning on going to the Royal Military College, which would be the equivalent of the U.S. Army’s West Point,’’ he said. “My intent was to go to military college, become an officer, and make a military career. But I had some success playing junior hockey’’ –– he was the Canadian Hockey League Player of the Year for the Regina Pats in 1975 –– “and the scouts told me, ‘Hey, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to get drafted . . . Hold off with any commitment to the military and see what happens.’ ”
St. Louis picked him in the second round in 1975, and Staniowski decided to give pro hockey a try. After training camp, he was sent to Providence, which at the time was a farm club of the Blues and the New York Rangers.
All these years later, Staniowski still remembers the warm relationship that Providence fans had with Reds players. “You were embraced as a member of the community. Folks were so outgoing,’’ he said. “Everyone’s goal is to play in the National League, of course, but it was a bittersweet moment when I was called up.’’
After retiring from hockey, Staniowski raised horses and grew grain on a farm back home in Western Canada. But he soon decided to give the military a try, joining the reserves.
“It was a natural fit for me. . . . The military has given me what I enjoyed most about professional hockey.’’
In addition to the camaraderie, he said, there is “a certain adrenaline rush about parachuting out of an airplane at 160 mph with 50 pounds of gear on your back. Jumping out of a helicopter on a hilltop in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Or leading troops in Afghanistan,’’ he said.
“The character of the folks I met and played with in the NHL and the American League — I see those same people in the military now. Folks that are team-oriented, dedicated, focused. They are going to get the job done. They’re the pride of America and the pride of Canada,’’ he said.
“I’ve seen some great young Canadians and some great young Americans who have paid the ultimate price for going over and serving our two great nations. I will carry that with me for the rest of my days.’’
Staniowski is currently stationed in Kingston, Ontario, where he is director of primary reserve training. His wife, Capt. Gillian Parker, is a military search-and-rescue pilot who flies C-130 Hercules planes.
Of the upcoming Reds reunion, Staniowski said, “I’m looking forward to catching up with some of the guys. Those friendships tend to mean more as you get older.’’
THN in Russia with Pavel Datsyuk: Goalie day
Rory Boylen The Hockey News 2011-07-21
EKATERINBURG, RUSSIA – Pavel Datsyuk may be one of the NHL’s premier skating talents, but here at the PD13 hockey school there’s also a place for goalies.
Taking charge of this aspect of the camp is the laid back Petter Sandstrom, a professional Swedish goaltender with Troja-Ljungby of the Allsvenskan circuit, one level below the Swedish Elite League. When the skaters are doing drills that don’t involve netminders, Petter and his students head off to their corner of the rink with translator (and our photographer for the week) Masha Leonova, to work on the fundamentals of the position.
Petter cites Stefan Persson, goalie coach of AIK, as his inspiration. When working with Persson in the past, Petter says he learned a lot from the coach who gave him insights into positioning he had “never thought of before.” AIK has a rich goaltending tradition, with such names as Miikka Kiprusoff and Tim Thomas spending time there.
Wednesday started with the young group and before hitting the ice the two goalies, Artem and Vladimir, were pulled into the dressing room for a quick video issued by the Swedish Hockey Federation that Petter uses to preview what they’ll be working on during the session. Today the focus began with backing-up and pushing-off one leg to get to the post in the butterfly position.
Petter has been an instructor for a couple of years at the camp and after Day 1 he noted how far along one student in particular had come since last year. Eight-year-old Artem Khachatvzov, a Moscow native from the CSKA program, was a little rough around the edges 12 months ago, but is a different player with a different mentality this time around.
A large part of that improvement is due to Artem’s dedication, but credit also goes to his mother, Aietan, who has provided her son with the opportunity by enrolling him in another goalie school back home.
Still, this is the one young Artem enjoys the most. Aietan said he’s been looking forward to it since last year’s ended.
“He’s been dreaming of seeing Pavel again,” she said.
I’ve mentioned a few times in this series about the upbeat nature of the coaches at this camp and that it runs in contrast to how things are usually done in Russia. Aietan mentioned how good all the instructors here were with the kids and asked me if this is how hockey is coached in Canada. I told her our programs back home absolutely push players to get the best out of them. But, at the same time, you’re being taught, not yelled at all the time, and after-practice joking around is common. Back home, a coach is a coach, but he can also have fun and be one of the guys.
To which she replied: “You’re lucky.”
There was an added spice to Wednesday’s program. July 20 marked Datsyuk’s 33rd birthday, so his stall was adorned with balloons and our dressing room was pasted with some amusing pictures and photos of him handing out hockey sticks to youngsters and carrying around the Stanley Cup.
The guys carried on a running joke from the 2010 camp as well. Last year Valtteri Filppula attended and rather than coming all the way to Ekaterinburg they thought, why not have a VF51 school in Finland? So, this year, Jeremy Clark had a batch of white T-shirts made with a VF51 logo and the motto “The Prettiest Hockey School in Europe.” When Datsyuk saw that, he had a good laugh.
To all you Red Wings fans, he said he feels like Benjamin Button.
Happy Birthday, Pavel.
212 AWARD FOR WEDNESDAY
The third winners of the camp’s daily award went to Vasily in the younger group and Nikita in the older group – the same Nikita we met in this space yesterday.
Near the end of an on-ice session Wednesday, we were running a “tornado” drill, the most famous one at PD13, where two players battle over pucks inside the center ice circle and try to put them in one of the two small nets. Nikita got frustrated at one point after being bodychecked over, but after a quick pep talk, he went back into the ring the next time and laid a nice hit of his own for a little retribution.
CULLEN: NHL TAKEAWAY LEADERS IN 2010-2011
Scott Cullen TSN July 20, 2011
Tracking giveaways and takeaways in the NHL can be tricky business, as it does require some judgment on behalf of the scorer, certainly much moreso than goals, assists and plus-minus.
For that reason (and as you'll see below), giveaway and takeaway numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt, yet there can be interesting information gleaned from the results.
Scott Cullen looks at the numbers and comes up with the leaders and trailers in takeaways per 60 minutes of even strength play last season in the NHL.
While it's no surprise that Pavel Datsyuk, a three-time Selke Award nominee that has led the league in takeaways in three of the last five seasons, would rank among the leaders, it's more noteworthy that Joe Thornton would finish with the most takeaways in the league, as well as the best rate at even strength.
There are a couple of high-profile two-way players that rank among the leaders, including Jonathan Toews and Nicklas Backstrom, yet there is an interesting mix in style of play and calibre of player that ranks among the takeaway leaders.
Checkers like Frans Nielsen, Ryan O'Reilly and Dave Bolland aren't terribly surprising, yet the list also includes offensive talents like John Tavares and Alexander Semin that might be a tad more surprising.
Among forwards that played at least 25 games, then, here are the Top 25 in takeaways per 60 minutes of even strength play:
Rank PLAYER TEAM POS ES TAKE ES TOI ESTAKE/60
1. Joe Thornton San Jose C 93 73406 4.56
2. Pavel Datsyuk Detroit C 62 52020 4.29
3. Derek Roy Buffalo C 32 30130 3.82
4. Philippe Dupuis Colorado C 35 33145 3.80
5. Frans Nielsen N.Y. Islanders C 55 52186 3.79
6. Jonathan Toews Chicago C 74 75441 3.53
7. Mathieu Perreault Washington C 21 21770 3.47
8. Bryan Little Atlanta C 62 65098 3.43
9. Ryan O'Reilly Colorado C 55 57824 3.42
10. Josh Bailey N.Y. Islanders LW 52 54931 3.41
11. Matt Halischuk Nashville RW 15 15981 3.38
12. Peter Regin Ottawa C 38 40607 3.37
13. Kyle Wellwood San Jose C 26 27851 3.36
14. Greg Mauldin Colorado C 15 16093 3.36
15. Jeff Skinner Carolina RW 62 66552 3.35
16. T.J. Oshie St. Louis RW 40 43249 3.33
17. John Tavares N.Y. Islanders C 68 73853 3.31
18. Alexander Semin Washington RW 49 54278 3.25
19. Jamie Benn Dallas LW 52 58341 3.21
20. Nicklas Backstrom Washington C 64 73131 3.15
21. Dave Bolland Chicago C 41 49207 3.00
22. Cal O'Reilly Nashville C 27 32615 2.98
23. Matt Stajan Calgary C 47 56787 2.98
24. Alexander Burmistrov Atlanta C 43 52237 2.96
25. J.P. Dumont Nashville RW 33 40119 2.96
Among those players that weren't big in the takeaway department, naturally, there are quite a few enforcers. They tend not to move particularly well, which makes it difficult to get in quickly on the forecheck to create turnovers.
At the same time, not registering a lot of takeaways doesn't inherently prevent a player from being a useful checker. For teams that tend to have possession of the puck a lot, there aren't many opportunities to take it away from the opponent.
That's part of the reason that checking forward like Drew Miller and Danny Cleary for Detroit, Gregory Campbell for Boston, Michael Rupp for Pittsburgh, Blair Betts for Philadelphia and Ryan Johnson for Chicago end up at the low end of the scale. However, since they have teammates that obviously take the puck away more, there is still room for improvement in all cases.
Here are the Bottom 25 forwards in takeaways per 60 minutes of even strength play (minumum 25 games):
Rank PLAYER TEAM POS ES TAKE ES TOI ESTAKE/60
397. Ryan Johnson Chicago C 4 18156 0.79
398. Brad Staubitz Minnesota RW 6 27544 0.78
399. Brandon McMillan Anaheim C 9 41907 0.77
400. Danny Cleary Detroit LW 12 56788 0.76
401. Adam Hall Tampa Bay RW 12 58364 0.74
402. John Scott Chicago LW 3 14600 0.74
403. Tanner Glass Vancouver LW 7 34142 0.74
404. Michael Rupp Pittsburgh C 9 43964 0.74
405. Matt Calvert Columbus LW 5 25461 0.71
406. Blair Betts Philadelphia C 6 30598 0.71
407. Travis Moen Montreal LW 10 51220 0.70
408. David Desharnais Montreal C 5 25994 0.69
409. Cam Janssen St. Louis RW 3 15741 0.69
410. Vaclav Prospal N.Y. Rangers LW 4 21200 0.68
411. Ryan Reaves St. Louis RW 2 11275 0.64
412. Marc Savard Boston C 3 19106 0.57
413. Cody McLeod Colorado LW 6 38805 0.56
414. Gregory Campbell Boston C 8 55150 0.52
415. Trevor Gillies N.Y. Islanders LW 1 7037 0.51
416. Steve MacIntyre Edmonton LW 1 7144 0.50
417. Michal Repik Florida RW 3 22052 0.49
418. Paul Bissonnette Phoenix LW 2 15069 0.48
419. Drew Miller Detroit LW 5 37957 0.47
420. David Koci Colorado LW 1 8558 0.42
421. Colton Orr Toronto RW 1 13820 0.26
On defence, Dustin Byfuglien is far and away the leader in the category, but the most glaring result is that seven Islanders defencemen rank among the leaders at the position, which could be a reflection on how liberal they are in recording takeaways on the Island, but also perhaps an indication that the Islanders have many, many opportunities for their defencemen to take the puck from the opposition.
Here are the Top 25 defencemen in even strength takeaways per 60 minutes (minimum 25 games):
Rank PLAYER TEAM ES TAKE ES TOI ESTAKE/60
1. Dustin Byfuglien Atlanta 76 93180 2.94
2. Andrew MacDonald N.Y. Islanders 40 64691 2.23
3. Kevin Bieksa Vancouver 43 71562 2.16
4. Justin Braun San Jose 14 24223 2.08
5. Erik Karlsson Ottawa 46 82722 2.00
6. Jack Hillen N.Y. Islanders 34 61863 1.98
7. Travis Hamonic N.Y. Islanders 35 64741 1.95
8. Shea Weber Nashville 50 96237 1.87
9. Bruno Gervais N.Y. Islanders 22 44482 1.78
10. Kevin Shattenkirk St. Louis 35 71189 1.77
11. John Carlson Washington 43 89085 1.74
12. Marc Staal N.Y. Rangers 44 92247 1.72
13. Victor Hedman Tampa Bay 39 82158 1.71
14. Joe Corvo Carolina 42 88819 1.70
15. Milan Jurcina N.Y. Islanders 19 40194 1.70
16. Dan Hamhuis Vancouver 32 68949 1.67
17. Jim Vandermeer Edmonton 26 58241 1.61
18. Mike Weaver Florida 38 85272 1.60
19. Radek Martinek N.Y. Islanders 30 67891 1.59
20. Chris Tanev Vancouver 10 22890 1.57
21. Johnny Oduya Atlanta 36 82753 1.57
22. Brent Burns Minnesota 40 92472 1.56
23. Andrej Sekera Buffalo 33 78362 1.52
24. Dylan Reese N.Y. Islanders 9 21458 1.51
25. Ryan McDonagh N.Y. Rangers 17 41067 1.49
Among defencemen at the low-end, it obviously doesn't reflect well on part-timers Joe Callahan, Matt Smaby and Brett Lebda to have so few takeaways, but being low on takeaways doesn't necessarily mean a defenceman can't be effective.
Dennis Seidenberg was obviously very effective shutting down the top lines of Boston's opponents in the postseason, but he's one of five Bruins defencemen to rank low on the takeaway chart.
Here are the Bottom 25 defencemen in even strength takeaways per 60 minutes (minimum 25 games):
Rank PLAYER TEAM ES TAKE ES TOI ESTAKE/60
196. Nick Schultz Minnesota 9 76414 0.42
197. Matt Greene Los Angeles 7 60864 0.41
198. Steven Kampfer Boston 4 35778 0.40
199. Johnny Boychuk Boston 8 71590 0.40
200. Matt Niskanen Pittsburgh 6 53940 0.40
201. Anton Volchenkov New Jersey 6 54553 0.40
202. Keith Ballard Vancouver 6 54784 0.39
203. Dennis Seidenberg Boston 10 92869 0.39
204. Tim Gleason Carolina 9 84747 0.38
205. Bryan McCabe N.Y. Rangers 6 60253 0.36
206. Keith Aulie Toronto 4 40380 0.36
207. Adam Foote Colorado 4 42123 0.34
208. Adam McQuaid Boston 5 53714 0.34
209. Brian Lee Ottawa 4 45237 0.32
210. Alec Martinez Los Angeles 4 48505 0.30
211. Oliver Ekman-Larsson Phoenix 3 37779 0.29
212. Sami Salo Vancouver 2 25260 0.29
213. Andreas Lilja Anaheim 3 43345 0.25
214. Paul Mara Montreal 3 47774 0.23
215. Andrew Ference Boston 4 66316 0.22
216. David Schlemko Phoenix 2 36140 0.20
217. Sheldon Brookbank Anaheim 1 26859 0.13
218. Brett Lebda Toronto 1 27554 0.13
219. Matt Smaby Tampa Bay 0 12632 0.00
220. Joe Callahan Florida 0 24477 0.00
THN in Russia with Pavel Datsyuk: The draft
Rory Boylen The Hockey News 2011-07-22
EKATERINBURG, RUSSIA – So far at the PD13 camp, the kids have been put through countless drills on and off the ice. The entire program is designed to work on attributes that have made Pavel Datsyuk one of the world’s best players: puck protection, stickhandling, skating, body positioning, etc.
The only thing missing at this point is the NHL experience and the kids are about to dive into that aspect on Friday, with an authentic team draft setting the stage the day before.
The schedules on the second-last day of the camp ran as usual and even began to swerve towards the physical components of the game. But it was at the end of the second practice when the mood began to shift to game day. The players gathered around a table that was placed at center ice and coaches were assigned to the two teams that will face off Friday afternoon: The Banditos and The Torpedoes.
Todd and Jay Woodcroft became GMs of the two teams and, through the translating of Masha Leonova, went through all the pomp and circumstance you would expect from a professional team at the podium, with a little injected humor.
“He has an entourage the size of President Putin’s…The Banditos are proud to select: Vova!”
The GMs let the players know trades could still happen until 10:00 p.m. Thursday, so they had to make sure they answered the phone just in case (though it wasn’t that serious). There are stories of some past players being unable to sleep the night before and on the Friday a few have shown up in suits over the years.
From now until game time, the teams will be separated: Players eat with their teammates, do drills together and play soccer against each other. This is what the buildup has been coming to and the excitement in their young faces is palpable.
By now, everyone knows Datsyuk’s draft story, the fact he was a sixth-rounder selected 171st overall in 1998. But he’s not the only one here selected by an NHL team.
One of the coaches on The Torpedoes bench, Kirill Gotovets, a seventh round pick by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2009 as an 18-year-old, has been an instructor at PD13 for each of the four years of its existence. A native of Belarus, he also acts as a translator when the coaches are explaining drills.
Gotovets was originally a student at camps the Woodcrofts held in Belarus. The defenseman was seeking to play in North America and, with a little advice from his new friends, found himself playing two years at the prestigious Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep school. While there, he played with a few other European draftees such in Alexander Fallstrom and Erik Haula.
If that’s not impressive enough, the defenseman’s story gets even better from there. He always wanted to get a good education along with playing hockey and last fall began playing at Cornell University on a hockey scholarship – the first Belarusian to gain this kind of honor from an Ivy League school.
When Gotovet’s Torpedoes team takes to the ice Friday, it’ll be up against Greg Ireland’s Banditos. It’s being billed as the kids vs. the veterans as Ireland’s years of coaching experience from the ECHL and American League will come in handy. But since this is his first PD13 camp, will Gotovet’s unique experience here help?
Ireland, who was last in North America coaching the San Antonio Rampage, was once an assistant and then the coach of the Red Wings’ American League affiliate in Grand Rapids. At training camp, the Wings split players up into four teams and have a mini-tournament in Traverse City, Mich. In his first year at the camp, Ireland was coaching one of those teams and happened to have Datsyuk on his roster. At the time, the 25-year-old was only two seasons into his NHL career.
One end of the Traverse City Arena is all glass that extends up to the second floor where the weight room is. Whichever two teams aren’t playing are up doing mandatory workouts and a number of the Red Wings veterans happened to be upstairs when Ireland’s team was heading into a shootout.
“I saved Pav for the end,” Ireland said. “I thought it was amazing because you had guys up top like Yzerman, Shanahan, Chelios. I guess someone yelled ‘It’s a shootout and Pav’s shooting.’
“When I looked up I just saw all these guys looking out the window like little kids and they were waiting to see what the next move was going to be.”
With all the parents of the PD13 school kids invited to the showdown for the Cup, we can expect that same type of excitement here in Ekaterinburg Friday.
212 AWARD FOR THURSDAY
This is the final time the honor of excellence will be handed out this year and today’s winners were Vanya in the young group and Kirill in the older group.
Vanya is a return student and is a very familiar face to the instructors. “Vanya Vanya my little lasagna,” is what he’s recognized as and he was also the first overall pick in the young group’s draft.
On Friday, one player in each group will earn THN’s award for the week.
THN in Russia with Pavel Datsyuk: The final showdown
Rory Boylen The Hockey News 2011-07-23
EKATERINBURG, RUSSIA - Hello Russia and hockey fans in the Baltic states and Kazakhstan…
Welcome to game day at PD13. The drills and training are complete and the draft is behind us, so on Friday it was time for The Banditos and The Torpedoes to hit the ice and face off for the Pavel Datsyuk Cup. A metallic replica of the Stanley Cup, you won’t be able to drink out of this chalice as it’s topped with a strainer.
All day, both squads were eager to chant the name of their team in unison, whether it was on the walk down to the soccer field in the morning or heading out onto the ice in the afternoon. They were now part of a team: a message the camp was determined to get across as a chief reason why hockey is such an easy sport to fall in love with.
Friday was all about NHL simulation. From being shown how to properly set up their equipment in the dressing room to the pep talk before the game, it was about as authentic as it could get for the kids.
Just like in the NHL, the pucks were stacked and the kids stormed the ice to “Thunderstruck.” After a brief warmup, player introductions were carried over the loudspeaker. The parents lining the railing along the top concourse were amped up just as much as the youngsters who were suited up; there was even a “Torpedoes” sign posted on one end of the platform.
An air of excitement wafted through the Kurganovo Ice Complex and after the Russian National Anthem played, it was go time.
In both games The Torpedoes jumped out to dominating leads: 5-0 in one, 3-0 in the other. Their faces awash with emotion, the kids showed this was one of the biggest games they’d play all year.
Tim ‘Velvet’ Velemirovich, one of the coaches on The Torpedoes bench, knows a thing or two about championship matches. The former University of Manitoba left winger was in his second year at the program when it lost to Alberta in a showdown that would have brought the Bisons to their first University Cup final since 1965.
From there, ‘Velvet’ played a couple of seasons with the Southern Pro League’s Fayetteville FireAntz and won rookie of the year honors in 2007 after leading his team with 89 points in 56 games. It was during that freshman season he and the FireAntz went all the way to the President’s Cup final, defeating the Jacksonville Barracudas 3-1.
The two-time 30-goal scorer in the SPHL was looking good for a couple more titles Friday, but after finishing ahead 8-5 in the younger age group, the older kids had a much more unexpected finish. The Banditos overcame their deficit and took the game to a shootout, winning 2-0, with the clinching goal being scored by our friend Nikita Morozov.
The excitement wasn’t quite done there, of course. “Commissioner” Jeremy Clark presented the losing teams with the consolation trophy - a miniature version of the day’s big prize.
Then out came the granddaddy of them all, the Pavel Datsyuk Cup.
With Queen’s We Are The Champions blaring, the kids held the Cup over their heads, passed it off to one another and did a victory lap around the ice just as the pros do across the ocean and a world away. Parents ran down and crowded the surface for pictures to serve as lasting memories from one of the most unique and special hockey camps anywhere.
After the game, instructors Jay and Todd Woodcroft gave one last speech of inspiration and Datsyuk had the final Russian words. The kids and their parents then made the rounds, getting autographs from and pictures with all the instructors and giving their reluctant goodbyes.
The PD13 kids hockey school was a robust spectacle. In five days relationships and teams were built, skill levels were improved, confidence was raised and the game of hockey reached over borders and across cultures. It was made possible by the desire of Pavel Datsyuk to give something back to a community and country that helped him reach the sport’s summit with the hope that some day one of these kids will climb up right next to him.
Echoing what everyone said about Detroit’s No. 13 this week, Velemirovich takes us out with his own story of the superstar.
“He’s the best hockey player in the world right now and he’s just one of us, just a normal guy who goes out there and has fun,” Velemirovich said. “He’s like a kid out there. When the kids go off the ice, sometimes he and I are playing around, tossing saucer passes back and forth and playing little games. Like I had a puck here and he had a puck at his end and we were trying to hit the puck from the other side of the ice.
“I beat him by the way.”
Da Zvidanya from Ekaterinburg.
THN AWARD
In place of the 212 Award for the final day, we honored a skater from each age group who showed character and dedication from Day 1 through Day 5.
In the young group Danil Gushin received a Datsyuk-signed PD13 hat and in the older group the efforts of Kirill Tyutyaev earned praise.
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Though this column series is complete, the camp carries on for another week as the pace steps up a notch with teenaged prospects, beginning Sunday. Watch Rory Boylen's column space as well as THN's Prospect Report section for additional features based on his time in Russia in the future.
Scott Thornton, hockey's real Ironman
By Connie Jensen The Hockey News 2011-07-23
Scott Thornton had an extensive NHL career that saw him play for six different teams over 17 seasons. The rugged left winger amassed 285 points and 1459 penalty minutes over that span, but upon retirement in 2008 Thornton wanted to accomplish something that had been on his mind since before his career had even begun: An Ironman triathlon.
In 1991, Thornton was part of the Canadian world junior team that captured gold in Saskatoon. It was there that his love of Ironman racing began. A few days before the tournament started, the coaching staff played a video of Dick Hoyt, who pushed, pulled and carried his quadriplegic son, Rick, through all parts of the competition.
“It was a very inspirational movie and kind of helped all of us get through our Christmas blues that we had at the time,” Thornton said. “Since then I have watched Ironman Kona (the world championship) every year on TV.”
Thornton has stayed active post-hockey. He owns a CrossFit gym in Collingwood, Ont., where he spends about six hours a day training others. He had the opportunity to meet local Ironman star Claudia Johnston, who shared her experiences with him. Thornton liked what he heard and soon after met with Barrie Shepley, the Canadian Olympic triathlon coach and the man who helped Simon Whitfield win gold in Sydney in 2000.
“Next thing I know I’m signed up for Austria,” Thornton said.
At 6-foot-3, 210 pounds Thornton was far from an ideal candidate for an Ironman. Most triathletes are smaller as carrying extra muscle mass is a detriment. The optimal weight for a male is around 150 pounds.
If Thornton’s size unusual for an Ironman race, so was his way of preparing: “I really wanted to prove that Crossfit training could be effective endurance training, so we designed a specific program for me that’s different than most triathletes.”
From November to July, Thornton hit the gym every day, doing six-hour bike rides - even in the pouring rain - and countless laps in the pool.
In March, he even climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with his wife Joelle.
“That is the last thing I would want to put in the program,” Shepley said, “but he was going to fulfill this commitment to his wife on this project that they were going to do together.”
Before Thornton's training began, Shepley found some statistics about former NHLers who had also participated in Ironman. Mike Richter and Pat LaFontaine had competed in a few, so their times set the bar. LaFontaine’s time was best 11 hours and 50 minutes and that became the mark to beat...if only for the number.
“It had nothing to do with Pat and it really had nothing to do with me wanting to be the fastest NHL hockey player. It was just a goal to race towards,” Thornton said.
After eight months of preparation, Thornton, along with 149 other Canadians, headed to Klagenfurt, Austria for the July 3 race. When it came time to hit the starting line, Thornton was ready to go.
“It felt to me like getting ready for a playoff game,” Thornton said. “I was very, very excited, nervous, anxious…I wasn’t scared,”
The first part of the race was the 2.4-mile swim, something Thornton knew would be daunting. But before he took off he made sure to take it all in.
“Standing on the beach with 2600 athletes waiting to go in the water, waiting for that canon to go off was a feeling that I absolutely love, love and seek, so it was incredible,” Thornton said.
He finished the swim in one hour and 26 minutes, which meant he was still on target to beat the record. However, it wasn’t the most comfortable part of the race.
“You’re getting kicked and punched and people are grabbing your feet and you feel like you’re salmon spawning up a river at times,” Thornton said. “So once I got out of the water I felt very relieved.”
Next, Thornton had to cycle two 90-kilometer loops through the mountains. When he finished he was within one minute of the time he needed to be in order to break the record.
“At this point I thought, ‘Hey, this is no longer just a pipe dream. The guy is two-thirds of the way and he’s still on time,’ ” Shepley said.
The 26.2-mile run was last - and Thornton struggled. Halfway through he was four to six minutes behind his target. After some encouragement from Shepley on the sidelines, however, Thornton started picking up the pace and was passing people all the way to the end.
He completed the Ironman in 11 hours and 38 minutes, breaking LaFontaine’s record.
“The vast majority of people at 13 miles are hurting so bad that when they fall off the time they want they never get it back,” Shepley said. “So it was a huge accomplishment and a huge task for a big guy.”
Thornton’s children, Nash, 15, and Zoe, 11, jumped over the barricade as he ran in.
“I was just wrapped with emotion,” Thornton said.
Although Shepley believes Thornton could shave 30 to 40 minutes off his time, Thornton isn’t certain he will be doing another Ironman right away. For now he's satisfied with the top-notch memories of his first adventure.
“It’s hard to believe I did it, it still hasn’t sunk in,” he said. “It’s something for so many years I’ve respected and watched people do and thought, ‘Holy crap man, one day I’ll try to do one myself.’ It’s pretty neat. It’s a good feeling.
“I had some good moments in my career, big games and things, and this would match right up there.”
David Littman: How to be a good rookie, Part 1
David Littman The Hockey News 2011-07-24
With the NHL draft recently completed, I was thinking back on my times as a rookie.
A hockey player is considered to be a rookie many times in a career. Every time you step up to the next level, you go from being a veteran right back to being a freshman.
Some of the rookie “rules” are obvious, but there are also “unwritten rules” of being a rookie hockey player.
IN THE DRESSING ROOM
The biggest mistake a rookie can make is showing weakness. “Show no weaknesses” should be your motto. If guys get on you about a bad game, a weird birthmark you have or any insecurity you have about yourself, laugh with them. The veterans are doing it to test you. They want to see how much can you take.
There is an expression hockey players have: “Take it now or take it all year.” Remember that. Pass this test and you’ll become part of the team.
The other mistake I’ve seen rookies make is acting cocky. A cocky new face in the room will quickly get on the nerves of the veterans. I saw this firsthand when I played with the in the International League.
A player came onto my team straight out of college where he was a Hobey Baker finalist as the best U.S. college player. He was a free agent and many teams offered him contracts. He made the mistake, however, of saying that he thought he was too good for this league and he belonged in the NHL.
While this may have been true, he should have kept it to himself.
We all knew he would have a great NHL career (which he did), but we never looked at him the same way again.
ON THE BUS
Rookies sit towards the front of the bus. This is because the veterans are at the back (probably playing cards)...and the coaches are at the front.
Most players have a certain seat that they sit in every year on every trip, so at the beginning of the year don’t just go on the bus and take a seat. Wait until the veterans have taken their seats and then ask a second-year guy where you should sit.
Rookies are also expected to double-up if there aren’t enough seats. Veterans get their own two-seater.
When you arrive at your destination, rookies do most of the work (if you go directly to the arena). Rookies are responsible for the stick bags, helping the equipment managers with the skate sharpeners and all extra equipment.
I remember playing for Rochester in the American League and we would have three games in three nights. The first night might be in Baltimore, the second in Springfield and the third may be at home. We’d play the Friday night game and then get on the bus to travel five or six hours.
If you are doubled-up in a seat, rigamortis has pretty much set in by the time you arrive. The first stop is usually the arena. It’s three in the morning and you unload the bus. Rookies take the most stuff and usually it takes a few trips to get everything into the dressing room before going to the hotel. The next night you do it all over again.
If a rookie complains about any of this, they’re not going to be very popular with the rest of the team.
ON THE PLANE
The equipment manager handles all the equipment. This means the players can get off the plane and right onto the bus to the hotel.
Young hockey players, I am about to save you $50. Never check your personal bags when travelling by plane. If you do, the bus will have to wait for you.
The vets, who know you <never check your bags, will fine you $50. I’ve seen this happen a few times. I’ve been on two-week road trips with only one small carry-on bag. Stick some stuff in your hockey bag to save room.
Another tip: If you’re on a commercial flight, take a middle seat if the plane is crowded. You’ll earn a few points with the vets.
I made a few of these mistakes at some point in my hockey career. Hopefully, these “rules” can help future rookies avoid them.
Check back Monday for a few more in Part 2.
A native of Flushing, N.Y., David Littman was drafted by the Sabres in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft. He spent four years at Boston College before turning pro in 1989. Over the next 10 years, Littman would play in the ECHL, IHL, AHL and NHL (with Buffalo and Tampa Bay). He currently works as a producer for the wildly popular EA Sports NHL series of video games. Littman will regularly write columns detailing his time as a pro and his life after hockey for THN's Insider series.
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Personally, I think these rookie rules hurt the team and are a terrible form of bullying. All players should carry bags and take turns demonstrating leadership. This sense of entitlement in hockey (and other sports, work) are SO wrong and such a byproduct of the 1800's union (Industrial revolution) mentality - they are outdated now. I believe everyone should respect each other and take turns with all the duties. Who would you respect more - an established veteran doing the toughest jobs at the toughest times - or the same guy who expects or tells the rookie what he should do - otherwise he will make fun of him and fine him? This just perpetuates this stupid code. Ridiculous. What parent would want that for their kids? "It's the code" is a bunch of BS. Be a positive role model and show the rookies the 'right way' to do stuff... no more rookie dinner tabs, hazing, etc. It's 2011 for Pete's sake - it's about time we acted like it! (See Bruce Brown's stuff at proactivecoaching.info/proactive/ for some great character-based coaching items!)
David Littman: How to be a good rookie, Part 2
David Littman The Hockey News 2011-07-25
With the NHL draft recently completed, I was thinking back on my times as a rookie.
A hockey player is considered to be a rookie many times in a career. Every time you step up to the next level, you go from being a veteran right back to being a freshman.
Some of the rookie “rules” are obvious, but there are also “unwritten rules” of being a rookie hockey player. On Sunday I laid out tips for the dressing room and for travelling. Today we look at another big one...team meals.
Get ready to open up your wallets…wide.
ROOKIE NIGHT
The first thing rookies need to know is, you will always go through a rookie night.
Rookie night is when the entire team goes out to dinner and the rookies are the guests of honor. By guests of honor, I mean the entire team will eat and drink as much as possible, with the rookies picking up the tab.
The fewer rookies there are, the more each one will have to pay. In the minors, I’ve seen rookies pay up to $1,500 each. In the NHL, it can get as high as $10,000 to $15,000. How does it get this high? Vets will order steak and lobster, champagne and $500 bottles of wine.
The bottom line is this: Rookies need to understand that rookie night is a rite of passage. Forget about the money. It’s about becoming part of the team and that is worth its weight in gold.
NORMAL MEALS
Don’t be cheap and don’t beat the pot.
When a hockey team goes out to eat together, everyone pays the same amount when the bill comes. If the bill is $1,000 with tip and there are 20 players, each player puts in $50. There are no exceptions. Here are the two mistakes rookies make:
• “I only had potato skins.” I remember a rookie in Rochester who said exactly this when the bill came. Big mistake. We laughed at him and for the rest of the season he was considered “cheap.” Vets are always looking for a weak spot in a rookie. Once they find it, they’ll never let it go.
• “Beating the pot.” This is when you order the most expensive thing on the menu because you know the bill is split evenly. You order the shrimp cocktail and filet mignon when everyone else is having burgers. The best thing to do is wait to see what other people are ordering. If everyone’s having shrimp and steak, then, and only then, go for it.
• Birds in the nest
At some meals, vets will tell the players to put their credit cards in a hat. This is called “birds in the nest.” This is how it works: the hat is passed around and each player blindly picks out a credit card. The owner of the last credit card in the hat pays for the entire meal. It’s pretty nerve-wracking and a huge relief when you see your card come out early.
As a rookie you have to understand this is part of being a team. It all evens out by the end of your career, so don’t worry if you have to pay once or twice. More important is what you do when you are left in the nest and have to pay.
If you laugh and cheer along, your teammates will gain immediate respect for you. If you get upset or sulk, you’re in for a long season.
I made a few of these mistakes at some point in my hockey career. Hopefully, these “rules” can help future rookies avoid them.
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OR FUTURE VETERANS CAN BE POSITIVE LEADERS AND STOP THIS ANTIQUATED SYSTEM OF BULLYING... GROW UP! It would be so refreshing to have one of these media people write an article on positive leadership - let's show these misguided people how to change their culture for the better. I challenge all you coaches out there to encourage a positive culture of respect for everyone with your teams - remain vigilant for good and bad examples to help educate your team the right way.
Long-time Red Wing Draper retires
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS July 26, 2011
DETROIT -- Kris Draper loved playing hockey and he loved playing for the Detroit Red Wings.
Once the 40-year-old Draper learned he wasn't a sure bet to play for Detroit next season, he decided to hang up his skates for good.
Draper announced his retirement Tuesday after 20 seasons in the NHL, the last 17 with the Red Wings. He will remain in the organization in a still undefined front-office capacity, but he wasn't interested in signing a two-way deal to play in the minor leagues, coming to training camp on a tryout or playing with another team.
It was the Red Wings or nothing.
"I loved everything about the game and everything about the Red Wings," he said at a press conference at Joe Louis Arena. "And that's why I'm going to miss it so much"
Once one of the NHL's top checking forwards, penalty killers and face-off men, Draper helped the Red Wings win four Stanley Cups (1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008).
Not bad for a player acquired from the Winnipeg Jets in 1993 for the then-waiver price of US$1.
"I never thought that I would get a player at the cost of a smoothie at McDonald's. But it happened," Red Wings' owner Mike Ilitch said.
Draper's 1,137 games played with the Red Wings is fifth in franchise history behind only Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman, Alex Delvecchio and Niklas Lidstrom. His 222 playoff games trails only Lidstrom, and he had 24 goals and 46 points in those games.
Draper's career totals are 161 goals and 203 assists for 364 points in 1,157 games (he played in 20 games for Winnipeg from 1990-91 to 1992-93). He won the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL's top defensive forward in 2003-04, when he posted career highs of 24 goals and 40 points despite missing 15 games due to a late-season shoulder injury.
"He was a role model for all of our young players and a leader in the locker-room," Detroit general manager Ken Holland said.
Draper also centred the "Grind Line" for many seasons with Kirk Maltby and Darren McCarty as his primary wingers.
"(Former Red Wings' coach) Scotty Bowman trusted us. He trusted us in a lot of situations," Draper said. "I certainly enjoyed playing with those guys."
Draper had hoped to play another season in Detroit, but the club does not have an available roster spot and plenty of forwards. He was the odd man out.
"I played with some great players and because of that, I got my name on four Stanley Cups," Draper said.
NCAA takes beating on '11-12 recruits
Ryan Kennedy The Hockey News 2011-07-29
Call it “Black Wednesday.” Because earlier this week, the NCAA was dealt a double body-blow. There was Phoenix first-rounder and Miami commit Connor Murphy deciding to take his game to the Ontario League’s Sarnia Sting instead. That same afternoon, it was confirmed that for the second straight summer, the University of Michigan would lose its incoming goaltender to the OHL as well.
John Gibson, Anaheim’s second-rounder from 2011, would be heading to Kitchener, much like Jack Campbell chose Windsor the season before. (The fact both Campbell and Gibson were Team USA national team development program products and the first American goalies taken in their draft classes only added to the bitter taste for college hockey fans.)
This came on the heels of New York Rangers first-rounder J.T. Miller spurning North Dakota in favor of Plymouth and Dallas top pick Jamie Oleksiak leaving Northeastern for Saginaw (though Oleksiak had played a year with the Huskies and left in part because coach Greg Cronin took a job with the Toronto Maple Leafs).
When all the broken glass is swept up, just one 2011 first-rounder is still slated to play college hockey this season: Toronto pick Tyler Biggs, committed to Miami. Even there, rumors are flying that the Oshawa Generals, who hold his major junior rights, are making a big push, though publicly Biggs says he’s heading to Ohio.
But assuming Biggs becomes a RedHawk, he’s still an island unto himself. In 2009, six first-rounders spent their next season in college, while in 2010 it was eight. Back in ’07, 10 made the choice, including James van Riemsdyk and Kyle Turris, the second and third players drafted overall.
So is this summer just an anomaly? Unfortunately for college hockey fans, probably not.
Along with Campbell, 2010 first-rounder Jarred Tinordi made the switch once he was taken by the Montreal Canadiens. Tinordi was supposed to attend Notre Dame, but ended up with the London Knights.
“I think (top prospects) are finding out the OHL prepares you for the NHL and you still get your schooling,” said London GM Mark Hunter.
The Knights have feasted on the NCAA since the Hunters took over, landing stars such as Sam Gagner (Wisconsin) and Patrick Kane (BU or Michigan – hadn’t decided yet), to name the most prominent examples. Education packages entice kids who worry about their academic futures and the OHL is still the best developmental league in the world. So much so that Tinordi struggled at the beginning of his London career, despite being 6-foot-6 and 205 pounds.
“He did come on in the second half,” Hunter said. “I don’t know if he was quite ready to play three games in three nights, but by the end of it, he was working that big body of his.”
The conventional wisdom in Canada is that major junior provides a quicker path to the NHL thanks to a schedule that mirrors the pros. But college hockey also has its upsides and I think there is a certain class of player in particular that benefits from less games and more time in the gym or at the rink.
“Pretty much every morning I could go to the rink before class,” said Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, who played for the University of North Dakota. “People thought I would leave school right after I was drafted, but I’m glad I stayed a second year. It worked out for me because I felt physically ready when I did get to the NHL.”
A great case study involves Turris and van Riemsdyk. While Turris was rushed to the NHL by Phoenix after one season at Wisconsin, JVR actually rebuffed the Flyers for a year, choosing to return to the University of New Hampshire for a second lap. After one full season with the Coyotes, Turris was demoted to the American League. Since that 2008-09 NHL rookie campaign, the still-developing youngster has played more games in the AHL than the big league. JVR on the other hand, played a few games for the AHL’s Phantoms once his UNH season was finished, but hasn’t been back since, registering 75 points in 153 NHL games (Turris has 46 in 131).
The battle for the hearts and minds of hockey’s youth will continue to be feverish and while the OHL certainly won the summer, it’s doesn’t mean the NCAA has been dealt a death-strike. The faithful will still fill Yost and Ralph Engelstad this winter and top recruits will still be in the lineup. Just not as many as there once were.
Khabibulin in for 'terrible' time at jail: Ex-inmate
By MICHELLE THOMPSON, QMI Agency,
July 29, 2011
EDMONTON - Let’s hope Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin likes ant infestations, rotting oranges, and the colour pink.
Those are the sorts of things he’ll be in for once he starts his 30-day sentence Saturday at an infamous Phoenix, Ariz., jail, said an ex-inmate.
“The food is terrible,” said 34-year-old Koren Conine.
“It’s not even edible — you wouldn’t even feed it to your dog.”
Conine added there is a dog crematorium near the tent city where Khabibulin will be staying.
“It’s disgusting,” she said.
“It smells like death in there. It’s terrible.”
Khabibulin, 38, heads to Arizona’s Tent City jail Saturday to begin a 30-day sentence for extreme DUI.
The charge stemmed from a Feb. 8, 2010, incident in which Scottsdale police reportedly clocked the Ukraine native doing 70 mph in a 40 mph zone.
A test showed his blood alcohol content was in the “extreme” category at the time, which has a range of .15 to .199.
Conine recently served a six-month sentence in Tent City for the same misdemeanour.
She was released last June 13.
Both Conine and Khabibulin will have served a work-release, which means inmates stay at Tent City for the first two days, before being allowed out on a 12-hour day pass during weekdays.
Prisoners are required to spend their weekends in jail.
When he checks into Tent City, Khabibulin will have to leave his cell phone at the door, and cap his wallet contents at $40, Conine said.
He’ll be able to spend that money on things like vending machine snacks.
And Conine said packaged candy is probably the highest quality food Khabibulin should expect within the jail.
Inmates are fed rotting oranges and peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast each morning.
The peanut butter is made at the jail and loaded with oil, while the bread it’s wedged between is triple-rye so that the jail can meet daily caloric requirements, Conine said.
“I actually had ants in mine,” she said.
“The place is infested with roaches and ants — especially on the guy’s side.”
For dinner, inmates are fed flavourless mashed potatoes, refried beans, and spinach, Conine said.
Things get even worse after dinner.
That’s when inmates head to bed on a thin mattress, where the temperatures in the tent often swell to 49 C, said Conine.
“There’s no AC — there’s a fan that blows hot air,” she said. “They give you a blanket and a sheet. You’re lucky if you get a sheet.”
The Moscano Jail is run by the meanest sheriff in North America, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who’s known for making life terrible for prisoners.
He snatches away all that’s sacred to prisoners — including cigarettes, coffee, and magazines — and uses numerous tools to humiliate them.
That includes forcing the male inmates to wear pink, right down to their underpants.
But Khabibulin may get a pass on that last point, Conine said, adding most day-release prisoners are allowed to wear street clothes.
The netminder won’t be the first celebrity to visit the jail.
Boxing champ Mike Tyson, rapper DMX, and NBA star Charles Barkley have all done stints there.
You best follow the rules, netminder!
If he doesn’t follow Sheriff Joe’s rules, Khabibulin will be heading to the penalty box.
That’s how an infamous jail watchdog put it Thursday while preparing for the Oilers goalie’s Saturday arrival.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio — notorious for his tough-on-crime antics — oversees the Tent City jailhouse where Khabibulin will serve half his 30-day DIU sentence.
And Arpaio hinted there may not be room for two celebrities at the Maricopa County jailhouse.
“We have postcards there with my picture on it that they mail out,” Arpaio said.
“When I go in with a celebrity, they want his autograph and not mine.”
Khabibulin will need to follow Arpaio’s strict rules.
That means no beard, no cell phone, and no returning from his day releases drunk.
Because he received a work-release sentence, Khabibulin won’t have to wear the jail’s famous pink outfits unless he breaks the rules.
And if he does, he’ll be headed for the “penalty box,” the sheriff said.
But if Khabibulin behaves well, he may be in for a treat.
“Maybe this guy can play on our sheriffs’ hockey team,” Arpaio said.
“I can make him a special deputy.”
Long way away: Danton resumes pro career with third-tier Swedish team IFK Ore
Canadian Press 2011-07-29
Mike Danton's professional hockey career is resuming a long way from the NHL.
The 30-year-old forward is joining Swedish team IFK Ore, which plays in the third tier of the country's pro system. General manager Jens Nielsen confirmed the Danton signing to The Canadian Press on Friday, but declined further comment.
Danton spent the past two seasons with the Saint Mary's Huskies in Canadian university hockey after serving five years in a U.S. prison for a failed murder-for-hire plot.
The former NHLer tweeted about his move on Thursday night: "Just signed my first pro contract in eight years. I'm off to Sweden for the 2011-2012 season. Thanks to everyone for their support."
IFK Ore is based in the small village of Furudal, which is a little over 300 kilometres north of Stockholm. The team plays out of the 32-year-old Furudals Hockeycenter, which has a capacity of 796. It averaged 169 fans per game last season.
Players in Sweden's Division 1—which is below the Elitserien and Hockeyallsvenskan—earn modest wages and sometimes hold other jobs. The top player on each team is typically paid around 20,000 Swedish Kronar (C$3,050) per month.
Terms of Danton's contract were unavailable. However, Nielsen told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet that it was a "great deal" for the team and expressed hope that Danton will be a role model for the younger players.
He's not concerned about the player's past.
"Of course we have discussed his past, but you can't judge someone for life," Nielsen told Svenska Dagbladet. "What's done is done, and now he seems eager to get away from North America and find the calm here."
Danton's time at Saint Mary's was a success. He enrolled in psychology at the Halifax university a few months after getting released from prison and was named an academic all-Canadian because of a straight-A average.
Even though he didn't dominate on the ice—Danton had three goals and five points in 28 regular-season games last season—he helped the school win its first CIS hockey championship in 2010.
All along, the allure of pro hockey remained. After Danton's parole ended in January, he was essentially free to pursue a playing career again with restrictions lifted on his ability to travel.
"I think anybody at this level would want to play at the highest level possible for them—for me, that would be the NHL," Danton told The Canadian Press then. "I'd like to get back to playing there. To be honest with you, yeah, it's in my mind.
"It's something I'd like to do."
Danton was a fifth-round pick by New Jersey in 2000 and played 87 career NHL games for the Devils and St. Louis. He was arrested while a member of the Blues in 2004 following a playoff game in San Jose, Calif.
U.S. prosecutors said Danton's intended target in the murder-for-hire plot was David Frost, a controversial figure who was his agent at the time. However, Danton suggested to the National Parole Board in 2009 that the target was his father, with whom he has been estranged.
The target wasn't identified in the agreed-to facts that were part of the court record when Danton pleaded guilty.
Reducing lifelong disability from sports injuries in children
See related research article by Emery and colleagues at www.cmaj.ca/cgi/doi/10.1503/cmaj.101540
Canadians admire their professional athletes, especially
if they overcome adversity and continue to play while
injured. These athletes are often role models for children
and youth. However, imitating professional athletes by
playing while injured comes with serious health and economic
consequences. We should ask ourselves whether such
practices on the hockey rink, soccer field or ski hill are worth
the risk of long-term disability.
First, as parents, let us dispense with the fantasy that our children
will become the next Sidney Crosby, David Beckham or
Nancy Greene. Only about 500 Canadians play in the National
Hockey League.1 Given our population of 32.5 million, that
means only 16 of every 1 million Can adians play professional
hockey at the top level.1 Similarly small proportions will achieve
professional or Olympic success in other sports.
Second, let us consider the health and economic consequences.
The annual incidence of catastrophic injury related
to sports or recreation is 6.9 per 100 000 participants, and a
substantial proportion of those injured are athletes less than
21 years old.2 Each year, nearly 500 Ontarians are admitted
to hospital because of a hockey-related injury, with thousands
more seeking acute medical care.3 Children aged 11–
12 years who play in hockey leagues that allow bodychecking
have more than a threefold increased risk of concussion
or other injury.4 In youth hockey, concussions are underreported
by team players and personnel: a maximum of 24.3
concussions per 1000 player game hours was estimated from
a survey of non-elite male youth hockey players, as compared
with a maximum of 0.61 per 1000 based on official
injury reports.5 Repeated concussions can cause long-term
disabilities that prevent return to play and have a lasting
impact on the ability to function and enjoy life.6 The economic
consequences of these injuries include the direct costs
of care and indirect costs resulting from loss of future productivity,
which are often much higher than direct costs
when young people are involved.
Allowing a child or youth to return to the same game after
an injury risks permanent damage, and it may even be career
limiting for elite players hoping to be future professional or
Olympic athletes. Injuries heal better and faster if they are
protected from further insults during recovery. With concussions,
preventing further trauma is crucial.
As a society, we hope to prepare young people for life
events, including how to persevere through difficulties. However,
we should not confuse excellence and bravery with behaviour
that needlessly and unwisely causes long-term harm.
Whose responsibility is it to reduce lifelong disability from
sports injuries in children and youth? Certainly not professional
athletes. Their livelihoods depend on taking risks. Similarly,
sports commentators and the media have a vested interest
in celebrating risk- taking behaviours and physical contact in
sport because audiences love the spectacle.
What about parents? Even though protective instincts and
bonds between parents and children are strong, so too are
hopes and dreams. Some parents contribute to the problem by
living vicariously through their children, seriously overestimating
chances of elite amateur or professional success, and
exhibiting unrestrained enthusiasm sometimes bordering on
rage. Simply educating parents will probably not work.
Reducing lifelong disability from sports injuries in children
and youth demands a public health solution similar to that used
to combat smoking and drunk driving. A coordinated, multifaceted
approach involving awareness, education and rule changes
is required. Unnecessary risk taking and violent physical contact
in sport need to be “de-normalized” through education and
awareness campaigns. Getting sports organizations to change
the rules is another solution. Parents who understand the problem
and want their children to play with less risk can champion
the cause. Former professional athletes whose careers were
ended by major injuries can also help. The medical profession
can contribute by providing evidence on what works in primary
and secondary prevention of injury and by developing guidelines
for practitioners and coaches on mandatory recovery times
before allowing players to return to play. Finally, tracking rates
and long-term consequences of sports injuries will be essential.
Children and youth can still be pushed to succeed in sports,
but with fewer risks and less physical contact. The goal is not
to change the behaviour and practices of professional and
Olympic athletes. Rather, it is to keep our young players
healthy to enjoy the rest of their lives. Unnecessary lifelong
disability will not help anyone, least of all a minor who cannot
fully appreciate the consequences of serious injury. Let’s be
careful not to excel at causing long-term harm rather than true
sporting achievements.
Alun D. Ackery MD MSc, Allan S. Detsky MD PhD; with the editorial ad -
visory team: Paul C. Hébert MD MHSc, Matthew B. Stanbrook MD PhD,
Ken Flegel MDCM MSc, Noni E. MacDonald MD MSc
For references, see Appendix 1, available at www.cmaj.ca/cgi /content /full
/cmaj.110634/DCI
Competing interests: None declared by Alun Ackery or Allan Detsky. See
www.cmaj.ca/misc/cmaj_staff.dtl for editorial advisory team statements.
Affiliations: See www.cmaj.ca/misc/cmaj_staff.dtl for editorial advisory
team statements. Alun Ackery is with the Division of Emergency Medicine,
Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.; and Allan
Detsky is with the Departments of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation,
and Medicine, University of Toronto, and the Department of Medicine,
Mount Sinai Hospital and University Health Network, Toronto, Ont.
Correspondence to: CMAJ editor, pubs@cmaj.ca
CMAJ 2011. DOI:10.1503/cmaj.110634
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Game Intelligence Training
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