How A Senior League Hockey Fight Ended With One Player Pooping In An Opponent’s Glove

Barry Petchesky, Deadspin.com, Dec 15 2011


Earlier today, the most intriguing athlete bio in the history of athlete bios made the rounds. Zung Nguyen, a 37-year old defenseman for a Boston-area men's hockey league, became an instant legend for this single sentence:

"PLAYER KICKED OUT OF LEAGUE FOR DEFECATING IN OPPONENT'S GLOVE FOLLOWING A FIGHT ON THE ICE."

We put out a call for more information, and you did not disappoint. We spoke to teammates of both pooper and poopee, and have been able to reconstruct just what led one grown man to shit in another's gear.

Rogue Squadron and the Young Guns were first and second in their division, but it was not a grudge match when they faced off late on a Friday night. With players ranging from their late 20s to north of 50, it's usually just good, clean fun for men willing to pay $495 to play hockey intense enough to satisfy the need for competition, but casual enough for a case of beer to be on ice in every locker room.

So there was no bad blood, only a late season game with first place on the line at the Pilgrim Rink in Hingham, Mass. But the fireworks began early. Just a few seconds in the game, the puck ended up trapped against the boards in the Young Guns' zone. Rogue Squadron defenseman Zung Nguyen had it pinned, with Young Guns' d-man Dave Bermingham trying to poke it free. Nguyen gave Bermingham a few pokes to the ribs with the butt of his stick, "Bermie" responded in kind, and the gloves came off.

This was rare in itself. The "D" level is reportedly one of the more "goonish" leagues in the NESHL, and the 41-year-old Bermingham is described by a teammate as a "meathead" who's always looking to scrap. But because fighting is outlawed and grounds for immediate ejection, it's very rare to have an honest bare-knuckled fight. Nguyen, who had zero penalty minutes before this game, wasn't a fighter. A former teammate says he was never particularly crazy, and there are 50 other guys in the league he'd have pegged to pull something like this before Nguyen. Sometimes, you catch a guy on the wrong day.

Players on both sides say Bermingham won the fight clearly—"beat the crap out him," to use one's unfortunate phrase. Both players got unsportsmanlike conduct majors, and game misconducts; their nights were done. As they skated back to their respective locker rooms, a still-furious Nguyen hurled one of Bermingham's gloves over the glass into an empty section of seats.

That was supposed to be the end of it. "Guys get into it," one Rogue Squadron player said, "and then they move on. It's just rec league hockey."

Just after the second period began, Nguyen emerged from his locker room and went into the seats near where he had thrown Bermingham's glove. Teammates thought Nguyen was going to see his girlfriend, who had come to watch him play. Soon after, he went down to the corner of the arena, a semi-secluded area near where the Zamboni enters the ice. Young Guns players on the bench saw him squatting there, but didn't think anything of it at the time. He then returned the glove to its original spot in the seats.

Midway through the second period, Bermingham came out of his locker room. He had showered and changed and was ready to crack open a beer but needed to collect the last of his scattered equipment. Those gloves were nearly new: this was the second game he had worn them, and the price tag was still on. Bermie went into the seats where it had landed, picked it up, and put his hand in.

Inside, shit. Fresh, wet, warm, pungent human shit. Bermingham held the glove at arms length and immediately ran alongside the dasher to hand it to a referee. He then stormed off to the locker room.

"Bermie knew he needed to get out of there or he would have killed the guy," one says. "And he probably needed to wash his hands."

The referees immediately declared the game a forfeit win for the Young Guns. At a league meeting the next Monday morning, the NESHL banned Nguyen for life, with no refund on his entry fee. Since he was signed up for three teams at once, he was out $1500.

As it turns out, Rogue Squadron has won every game this year in which one of their players didn't poop inside an opponent's equipment. They lead the Young Guns by a single point in the standings, with just two games left to play. In their first game following the incident, Rogue Squadron passed the hat in the locker room to buy Bermingham a gift card for a sporting goods store. They heard he needed new gloves.

Proteau: Kings would be wise to hire Dallas Eakins as head coach

Adam Proteau, The Hockey News, 2011-12-15


Seventeen years ago, the Quebec Nordiques, a year away from becoming the Colorado Avalanche, had a tough decision to make. The organization, which was chock-full of emerging young stars, had just fired veteran coach Pierre Page and very easily could have replaced him with any number of experienced bench bosses. But GM Pierre Lacroix and the Nords went the opposite route and hired Marc Crawford, a young coach who had been running the Maple Leafs’ American League affiliate. Less than two years after they did that, Colorado won its first Stanley Cup.

That sequence of events popped into my head this week as the rumor mill churned out whispers the Los Angeles Kings were interested in making veteran former coach and world-class sourpuss Darryl Sutter the permanent replacement for the recently dismissed Terry Murray. As THN senior writer Ken Campbell wrote earlier this week, the idea that Sutter – who never met a smile he couldn’t turn upside down – represents the perfect elixir for what ails the struggling Kings is one that doesn’t sit right with me. You can’t tell me the problem with young stars such as Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar is that they haven’t had a miserable taskmaster breathing down their backs.

No, the Kings need their own version of Crawford – someone who represents the future of the coaching profession, not its ancient, authoritative origins as does Sutter. They need someone very much like Toronto’s current AHL coach, Dallas Eakins, a guy who rapidly is creating a sterling reputation for himself with his ability to challenge and communicate with players.

It isn’t just the Kings who would benefit from the cachet Eakins is building in the hockey world. The Canadiens, who currently are meandering near the fringes of the Eastern Conference playoff race under the somnambulant Jacques Martin, would have their young players infused with the confidence and mindset Eakins brings to the Marlies team. The Avalanche and Blue Jackets also could be in the market for a new coach and could do far worse than the 44-year-old, who stresses physical fitness in a way few coaches before him ever have.

“Fitness is so many different levels for me,” said Eakins, who is highly regarded inside the Leafs organization for what he’s done preparing Toronto’s young prospects for life in the NHL. “It helps me be a better husband, father and a much better coach. I’m not saying anything about any other coaches, but I personally have a problem going to players and harping on their fitness levels if I’m not fit myself.”

Eakins recently put himself through a 160-kilometer race through the Colorado mountains and uses his willingness to commit wholeheartedly to a physical program to provide an example to young players.

“I always tell players whether we’re in the weight room or on the ice, ‘I’ll never ask you to train, eat or do anything I’m not prepared to do myself’,” Eakins said. “They see a work ethic in me and I think it filters down. It also filters up – I see them working hard in practice, it gets me jacked up.”

A disciple of legendary coach Roger Neilson, Eakins sees himself as a manager of 25 disparate personalities and a preparer of players to coach themselves through high-pressure playoff situations. To that end, he pushes his players as hard as possible throughout training camp and the regular season with the singular goal of being the best-conditioned team at the most crucial moments.

“You should not be training for a 45-second shift or only 18 minutes a night,” he said. “What’s going to happen when you get caught out on the ice for a minute and 15 seconds, or a minute-and-a-half? I want to know that, when we’re in the Calder Cup final, in Game 7, and we’re in quadruple-overtime, I want to know right then we’ve got the other team right by the balls, because we are way fitter than they are.”

The Kings, or any other NHL franchise, can take a chance on a coaching retread any time they want. However, the future of coaching lies with guys like Eakins – and a team in need of a bump in competitiveness would be wise to snap him up before it’s too late.

Mollers cherish world junior memories:
Before the Brothers Hamilton, Albertans were last siblings to star for Team Canada

George Johnson, Postmedia News, December 15, 2011


CALGARY — O Brother, Where Are Thou?

Why, for the first time in three decades, right there, shoulder-to-shoulder, going for gold.

“Great on the Hamilton boys, just great for the family,’’ Mike Moller is saying from his home in Red Deer, Alta. “To have two boys on the same team, representing the country, you can’t get a much prouder moment.

“So, congratulations. It’s quite an accomplishment.

“Hey, the distinction of being the only Canadian brothers to play together in a world juniors for so long was nice. But you’ve just go to tip your hat to these two kids.

Back in 1982, Mike Moller and his brother Randy had no inkling they’d be a part of sibling hockey history that would stand the test of time. Until Wednesday, that is, when Freddie and Dougie Hamilton officially survived coach Don Hay’s final trimming to 22 for Canada’s national junior team.

“Actually, I am a little bit surprised by that,’’ admits Randy Moller, on the phone from Florida. “That we were still the only ones. With all the hockey families in Canada over the years it’d stand to reason that there’d be more, you know, on the same team with brothers, say, only a year apart. At least, you’d think . . .

“Thirty years is a long time ago. At least, it feels like a long time ago.’’

That year, 1982, introduced the selection process to the international junior set-up, the radical philosophy of pulling top players from all over the country to mesh in a brief period of time. Prior to that, the Memorial Cup champions, bolstered by a sprinkling of add-ons, had represented Canada.

Mike Moller remembers his father, John, hopping in an old Camaro with Troy Murray’s father as a winger and the two of them driving to Winnipeg, where Canada played its first three games, and then up into Minnesota for the remainder of the tournament.

“My father’s no longer with us, he passed away in ’99,’’ says Randy, now in his 10th year as part of the Florida Panthers’ radio broadcasts. “But when Red Deer hosted the tournament, he was one of the organizers there. He put a lot of work into it. He loved the world juniors. So this (‘82) holds a real significance for me and my family.

“That’s why I think that not only playing alongside my brother, and winning a gold medal, but having my father there to enjoy the whole thing with us, is what made that whole experience so special.’’

The tournament today certainly doesn’t resemble the 1982 model. Only a sprinkling of games were televised then, and Canada’s tournament- clinching 3-3 tie in Rochester Minnesota, against the Czechs was strictly a radio affair.

In contrast, 5.1 million Canadians tuned into the 2011 gold-medal tilt between Canada and the Russians from Buffalo, New York.

“I’m very proud that the tournament has grown to what it is today,’’ says Randy Moller. “It’s every kid’s dream now, in midget and junior, to be involved in the world junior hockey championship; to be selected to play for your country.

“It’s gotten so big. So much exposure. So much interest.

“They kind of threw that team together. OK, we’re going to play in a world junior championship. We’ve been picked? Yeah, OK, great. Now it’s taken on so much history — just look the players that have gone on to play in the National Hockey League, from all the countries, not just Canada.

“Even having been in Florida for so long, the World Junior tournament is still a big deal for me and for my family. They’re glued to the TV, and I’m watching whenever I’m not traveling or working. Because Canada has done really well it has become such a huge, huge thing, overtaking the Grey Cup and a lot of other sporting events in the country. It’s become a spectacle.

“At the time I played, we were 17, 18 years old and didn’t realize what we were doing, that we were starting a tradition. I feel very honored about that, even 30 years later.

“And to be able to do it together ...”

That rare opportunity, that comes along once once in, oh, 30 years, is what sets the Moller brothers experience apart.

“Most of us didn’t have a lot of family there,’’ says Mike. “James Patrick was from Winnipeg. And Carey Wilson. But for most guys, teammates, coaches, the staff, were their only family. So to have my brother Randy there, with me, well, it couldn’t have gotten much better.

“Any time you have a goal you reach, it’s so fantastic to be able to share that. As brothers we’d played junior together in Lethbridge and for the province at the Air Canada Cup, as it was called then.

“But to be able to do this with my brother, to even be on the team to star with, and then bring home the gold, well ...

“It’s a very special feeling. One I’ll always remember. One that doesn’t happen to many people.

“A feeling I hope those Hamilton boys get to experience, too.’’

CANADIENS FIRE MARTIN; CUNNEYWORTH NAMED INTERIM HEAD COACH

TSN.CA STAFF, Dec 17 2011


Jacques Martin has been relieved of his duties as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens.

Randy Cunneyworth has been named interim head coach until the end of the season.

The team has gotten out to a 13-12-7 start this season and currently sits last in the Northeast Division.

Cunneyworth had been an assistant coach with the team and had previously served as head coach of the team's American Hockey League affiliate in Hamilton.

In one season coaching the Bulldogs Cunneyworth led the team to a 44-27-2-7 record, good enough to claim the AHL North Division title.

The 57-year-old Martin has been the Canadiens head coach since the 2008-09 season. He has amassed a 96-75-25 record with the team.

Martin has coached 1294 NHL games with St. Louis, Ottawa, Florida and Montreal, posting a record of 613-481-119-81.

A team release has indicated that Larry Carriere will become an assistant coach.

Cunneyworth and general manager Pierre Gauthier will address the media at a joint press conference scheduled for noon et

Sutter farmed out to the Kings

ERIC FRANCIS, QMI AGENCY, Dec 17 2011


TORONTO — It’s commonly believed only one man alive was going to give Darryl Sutter another chance to coach in the NHL again: His longtime pal, Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi.

That fact — and the fact Sutter never openly campaigned to return to the league — partially explains why it is taking so long for Sutter to get his house in order before joining the Kings on Monday or, more likely, on Tuesday. Sutter has been running a multi-million dollar calving operation in Viking, Alta., the last year with over 200 cows and needed time to find a ranch-hand to run it for him, amongst other issues.

Once he arrives, the question is whether the ball-breaking taskmaster has the ability to coach and communicate effectively in a league that has changed plenty since he last worked a bench in 2006.

Who better to ask than old-school colleague Ken Hitchcock, who admits he had to change his approach when taking over the St. Louis Blues last month?

“You have to change the way you deal with players,” said Hitchcock, known previously for being as hard on players as Sutter.

“You have to gently nudge when critiquing. Players are tougher and more demanding on themselves, and if you’re tough on them, it’s like piling on. “

During the game, things haven’t changed, but it’s the off-days you have to change.

“By the time I get into the rink the next day, they’ve already seen themselves on video. The off-time used to be about rest and relaxing, but now it’s review, review, review.”

Does Hitchcock think Sutter can adapt and be successful turning around the Kings?

“I can tell you from coaching against him, his teams didn’t take many shifts off and they compete at a high level,” Hitchcock said.

Crumpling a new trend?

Heading into the season, Terry Gregson warned all NHL officials to watch for — and crack down on — head-snapping aimed at drawing penalties. It hasn’t been a problem, though. Instead, the latest concern is ‘crumpling.’

“We thought there’d be more head-snapping, but we found now guys are doing it along the boards. They’re crumpling, and that’s worse because when referees only have that real-time snapshot of the hit — and no benefit of slow-motion replays — it makes it hard,” said NHL director of officiating Gregson.

“You don’t want to give guys a diving penalty for embellishment and then find out he has a separated shoulder — you’d look like an arse.”

Also, refs have been instructed to pay attention to their instincts in terms of what they call “situational awareness.”

For example, Carolina Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford feels the hit Edmonton Oilers’ Andy Sutton delivered to concuss Jeff Skinner would not have been possible had officials given the Oil defenceman two minutes and a misconduct for his hit on Alexei Ponikarovsky earlier (it went unpenalized).

Things were escalating in a game that was getting out of control, and officials have been advised to go with their gut on whether it’s just easier to sit a few guys with misconducts as tempers start to flare and play gets edgy.

That said, when refs do that, Gregson seems to get phone calls from GMs the next day suggesting his officials were overzealous.

As always, it seems the referees can never win.

RINK WIDENING

In an effort to cut down on concussions, many have trotted out the age-old idea of widening the rink to give guys more room on international-sized ice.

It’s a non-starter with NHL executives. One exec estimated it would cost upwards of US$12 million to retrofit his rink — a cost every team in the league would have to swallow to varying degrees. That doesn’t include the lost revenue in premium rink-side seats you’d lose.

Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford says the cost might actually be worth it, but there’s no proof international-sized ice would help reduce concussions because the European leagues don’t sport as good or as fast of hockey as the NHL. In fact, while it would give more room for players to avoid contact, some think an argument could be made that it would allow for more speed, producing even more violent collisions.

Campbell: Martin firing opens door to more change in Montreal
At 13-12-7, the Canadiens are two points out of a playoff spot.

Ken Campbell, The Hockey News, 2011-12-17


If it turns out that Randy Cunneyworth can’t learn French or improve the Montreal Canadiens power play, does Jacques Martin’s firing finally open the door for Patrick Roy to ascend to the throne?

After all, it’s not unprecedented that a former star who is the owner-coach-head-bottle-washer of a junior franchise is plucked from the team bus to take over an NHL bench. The Washington Capitals have already done that this season with Dale Hunter.

And the Canadiens are running out of candidates. Guy Boucher was once in their organization, but they lost him to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Kirk Muller got tired of waiting around for a coaching job and left for his own bench in the American League, where he lasted less than two months before being scooped up by the Carolina Hurricanes.

Regardless of who takes over in Montreal, there’s a good chance he will not be as reviled as Martin, the star of this week’s installment of ‘Look Who Got Gassed This Time!’ TM. For many Canadiens fans, half of their Christmas/Hanukkah gift came true, the other half would be if the Canadiens ownership decided to show the door to GM Pierre Gauthier.

Without question, the biggest criticism of Martin was his insistence on driving a square peg into a round hole in Montreal. And it’s something these defensive geniuses do all the time. You could give guys such as Martin and Dave King the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens and they’d somehow turn them into a bunch of defense-minded automatons. In case Martin hadn’t noticed, Gauthier and his predecessor, Bob Gainey, weren’t exactly assembling the 2007 Anaheim Ducks here. The Canadiens are a small, skilled and speedy bunch of players whose ability to create offense needs to be encouraged, not squelched, if you want to get the most out of them. Instead, Martin insisted on playing a system that was hardly a meritocracy – just ask some of the players – and was based on a defensive system that made it impossible to capitalize on their strengths.

All of which is all right when it’s working. Fans of teams don’t mind watching turgid hockey if it means their team is winning all those 2-1 and 1-0 games. But the Canadiens haven’t exactly been a roaring success on that front. With the exception of the 2010 playoffs, when they made the playoffs by one point and rode Jaroslav Halak’s goaltending to the Eastern Conference final, this is a team that has largely underachieved under Martin.

The whole idea of playing the game the way Martin insisted it be played is to get an early lead, then either bore the hell out of your opponent or at least shut them down and frustrate them to the point where the lead stands up. And that simply wasn’t happening for the Canadiens this season. Case in point was the Dec. 8 game against the Vancouver Canucks, when the Canadiens opened up a 3-0 lead before losing 4-3 in a shootout. At the Bell Centre, the Canadiens had a 5-6-6 record and in their 11 regulation and overtime losses, they had leads at one point in eight of those games.

What this team needs now is someone who will take the personnel available and coach it accordingly rather than impose his own philosophy on the situation. Cunneyworth, who has certainly paid his dues as a head coach in the American League and an assistant in the NHL, would seem better equipped to do that. He’d better be, because historically a coach who cannot speak French in Montreal has to be successful.

There’s every indication Martin’s message was being lost on the Canadiens, particularly considering Josh Gorges’ comments after the morning skate on Saturday, just hours after the coaching change was announced.

“If you only have half the guys or three-quarters of the guys doing what’s asked of them, then everyone is in disarray,” Gorges said. “And that’s where we got to…so consequently we lost games we shouldn’t have lost and changes needed to be made.”

The fact the players would be in disarray is an indictment of the coaching staff. Again, Martin’s system is supposed result in the exact opposite of disarray. Defensive systems are, by their very nature, based on control and slowing down the game. And Gorges is right. If there was disarray, it’s because some of the players became frustrated with playing that style.

Martin certainly couldn’t control the injuries on the blueline, nor could he have envisioned that number of underperforming players this season. In fact, with the exception of goalie Carey Price and the line of Erik Cole, David Desharnais and Max Pacioretty, you could certainly argue the Canadiens have been a group of passengers this season.

There are a group of younger players on this team that will be thrilled with this move. You can expect Pacioretty to have an even more front-line role, while other younger players will probably get a better opportunity to show what they can do.

It remains to be seen whether that will be enough. If not, you can expect a thorough housecleaning in Montreal after the season. Geoff Molson and his group paid about $575 million for the Canadiens in 2009 and they need the playoff revenues. If that doesn’t happen, you can expect the bloodletting to make Saturday’s move look like a paper cut. Gauthier will likely be gone and that will open up all sorts of possibilities – perhaps Pierre McGuire in the executive suite and Patrick Roy behind the bench.

Disappointing debut for Cunneyworth

THE CANADIAN PRESS, December 17, 2011


MONTREAL -- Even after the shock of a coaching change, things remained the same for the Montreal Canadiens.

The Canadiens held a 15-minute players-only meeting in their dressing room after Randy Cunneyworth's head coaching debut was spoiled by the same kind of third period letdown that ushered his predecessor Jacques Martin out the door.

David Clarkson tied the game late in the second period and Patrick Elias and Dainius Zubrus scored in the third as the New Jersey Devils downed the Canadiens 5-3 on Saturday night.

"It's a frustrated group of players," said Cunneyworth, who had been promoted that morning when Martin was fired after too many similar losses at home, where Montreal is now 5-7-6 for the season. "They know it's not enough.

"They were up against a good team but I thought they were up for the task. I know it was a letdown in the end."

Boos filled the Bell Centre as the game wound down on Cunneyworth's first game as an NHL head coach.

Elias passed John McLean as the Devils' all-time goal-scoring leader with his 347th and 348th, while Peter Sykora also scored for New Jersey (18-13-1).

Montreal (13-13-7) started the day in 11th place and fell further out of playoff position. Now they are relived to be heading out on a six-game road trip.

"We wanted to start fresh and it's the same story over again," said centre Lars Eller. "But there are still a lot of games left and we have to pull ourselves together and figure out a way to win."

Cunneyworth made small adjustments from Martin's routine, including placing more trust in a young centre like Eller and his linemates Louis Leblanc and Mathieu Darche. The team looked a little more adventurous on attack, while ice tme between the top three lines was more evenly distributed.

Eller and defencemen P.K. Subban and Chris Campoli scored for the Canadiens.

Campoli was also the goat on the game-winner, as he was stripped of the puck in the slot and Elias finished a give-and-go with Sykora 1:31 into the third period. Cunneyworth said it was not all Campoli's fault.

"We have to be better positionally," he said. "I don't think we gave him a good out, a good target. But we tell them to use the glass if they don't see anything."

Sykora picked up the puck for Elias' record goal.

"It just feels nice," said career Devil Elias. "It feels like you're doing something right and it keeps me going. Hopefully I have a lot more in me."

Zubrus sealed the win with a power-play goal at 10:18.

"Part of the reason for the changes was exactly what we did tonight," said defenceman Josh Gorges. "At some point we have to take ownership upon ourselves and understand it's not good enough."

He said it may help the team to be on the road over the holiday period. They have a winning record (8-6-1) away from home.

"It's a chance to be together as a group and focus on hockey," he said. "And on the road, you don't have to be pretty. You can just win games. We've done that a lot on the road and hopefully we can gain the confidence we need and apply it to home ice."

The Devils were coming off an emotional 6-3 victory over Dallas on Friday night, when legendary defenceman Scott Niedermayer's No. 27 jersey was retired.

The Canadiens hoped to take advantage by jumping on the Devils early, but New Jersey had the first seven shots and got the opening goal when Zubrus' shot went in off Sykora past a screened Carey Price.

Montreal took three penalties in the first period, the last one a minor on Erik Cole for a hit to the head of rookie rearguard Adam Larsson, who was reaching forward for a puck behind his net when Cole's shoulder contacted his helmet. Larsson was not hurt and stayed in the game, but it will likely be looked at by NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan.

Montreal was on a two-man advantage when Subban scored on a point blast 2:21 into the second period. Tomas Kaberle picked up his fifth point in four games as a Canadien with an assist.

Elias got it back when he sneaked in from behind the net to pound Ilya Kovalchuk's pass into an open side on a power play at 5:05.

Campoli got his first as a Canadien on a shot from the slot at 6:33 and Eller scored from the slot at 8:57, but Clarkson tied it at 18:26 after taking a perfect stretch pass from Larsson and beating Price with a wrist shot.

Notes: Defenceman Raphael Diaz (sick) and forward Travis Moen (lower body) each sat out a second game for Montreal. . . Henrik Tallinder (back spasms) missed a second game for New Jersey, while Tim Sestito and Alexander Urbom were scratched. . . The NHL's two best penalty killing teams were in action, but New jersey gave up one and Montreal two on the power play.

Before I Made It: Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson was the seventh overall pick of the 2008 draft.

With Kevin Kennedy, The Hockey News, Dec 17 2011


I played my first ever hockey game when I was about four years old back in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The only thing I really remember from back then is my very first dangle. I remember putting the puck through somebody’s legs and being really excited on my way home.

I don’t remember my parents missing any games as a kid, but something I’ll never forget are the rides home from the rink with my dad. Depending on the game, my ride home with dad was always interesting. If it was a rural game and I played badly it would feel like a two-hour ride home when it was only actually 45 minutes. My dad would have the clip board with the rink on the back and he’d be going over plays while my mom drove. I took it all in and it made me a better player and since then I’ve been able to deal with coaches being hard on me because of it.

As soon as I got home from school I was out to the backyard pond behind my house. It was a big pond with a lot of houses on it so my dad made a path from the house to the pond where I could work on my puckhandling.
I was born while my father was playing for the New York Rangers and I adopted them as my team as a kid. My favourite player growing up was Jaromir Jagr. If I was born a couple years earlier or later I probably would’ve grown up a Calgary Flames fan because that’s where my dad was playing.

I didn’t watch a lot of NHL hockey as a kid, but I was really into the world junior tournament. I remember my parents would let me come home from school early just so I could watch games. Then I got to play in it and I know everybody says it’s very surreal, but it really is. In your very first game you can’t believe you made it to this level.

I’d have to say my most memorable moment in minor hockey happened in my bantam year. I remember we went to a tournament in Price Albert, Saskatchewan and there were a lot of top teams there. I remember Angelo Esposito, Kyle Turris and Luke Schenn were there. We ended up going to the final and I scored the game-winning goal in overtime. It was amazing.

Will Cunneyworth survive the meat grinder?

CHRIS STEVENSON, QMI Agency, Dec 17 2011


MONTREAL – So maybe we will finally see “ability to speak French” removed as the first criterion to coach the Montreal Canadiens.

It’s a legitimate thought after the Canadiens fired Jacques Martin Saturday and promoted unilingual anglophone assistant coach Randy Cunneyworth to the top job, the first non-French speaking coach of the Habs since Bob Berry in 1984.

“Anyone can learn a language,” said Canadiens GM Pierre “The Ghost” Gauthier when asked about the always sensitive language issue and its implications on coaching candidates.

For now, Cunneyworth will get a chance to show what he can do, his first priority to get the Canadiens underachieving veteran core of forwards back on track.

The Canadiens will revisit the coaching situation in the off-season and you can expect a groundswell of media and public support for former Habs goaltending great Patrick Roy, who’s had a successful run as coach of the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts, to get the job.

Whether he wants the job is another question.

Coaching in Montreal is a meat grinder with Saturday’s change the eighth in the last 15 years.

That is an incredible turnover for the NHL’s most storied and decorated franchise and speaks to the incessant expectations in the city.

The Habs lost 5-3 to the New Jersey Devils Saturday night in Cunneyworth’s debut. The same issues which took Martin’s feet from beneath him, according to The Ghost, cost the Habs Saturday night: the inability to protect a lead and a poor third period. The Canadiens led 3-2 before giving up a late goal in the second and seeing the winner scored on a bad turnover up the middle by Habs defenceman Chris Campoli.

The Canadiens held a players-only meeting after the game.

Cunneyworth, about as honest and hard-working a guy as there was during his 16-year playing career, which concluded as captain of the Ottawa Senators under Martin, said he’ll bring that same approach to coaching.

“I would hope that my coaching style is similar to the way I played. I felt for the most part I competed very hard. Hopefully, I’ll coach very hard. I think that it’s important this team, when it has the puck, has everybody in involved, we are utilizing all our assets. I think one of our biggest assets is our speed. We’re not a big team but we are certainly a team that can move and move a puck well. We’ll be asking that the players get right to that. Just being on the puck, competing and never giving up is something that I’ll demand.”

Look for that to be one of the changes compared to Martin’s more cautious style. Cunneyworth will want more speed, more of an attacking, north-south game, as he put it.

Canadiens assistant general manager Larry Carriere will be an assistant coach now, though he was upstairs Saturday night and goaltending coach Pierre Groulx was behind the bench.

The Ghost himself now has one foot in that meat grinder.

This is the second time this season Gauthier has made a move behind the bench on a game day. He fired long-time Martin assistant Perry Pearn at the end of October, 90 minutes before a game.

“Jacques is not the reason we weren’t winning games,” said winger Erik Cole, who made three trips to the penalty box Saturday night. “We haven’t been playing well enough. This is a good wakeup call.”

If the job of the coach is to get his best players to play their best, then Martin deserved his fate.

Injuries have been a factor, but the line for the Canadiens veteran offensive players is not good this season:

- Michael Cammalleri: six goals and 11 assists, -4 in 28 games.

- Brian Gionta: eight goals and seven assists, -5 in 29 games.

- Scott Gomez: no goals, four assists, -3 in 13 games.

Martin was ripped here for his dour public personality and Cammalleri made an interesting comment after the game when he was asked if he was disappointed about not getting Cunneyworth a win in his debut.

“Yes,” he said. “He’s got a personality that makes you feel he’s in the game with you. We would have liked to have won that one for him.”

Gauthier said he didn’t like the way things were going for the Habs lately - especially the blowing of leads and their play late in games - and had contemplated making a change behind the bench for the last couple of weeks.

“The primary reason is the team wasn’t performing as well as it should in my mind,” said Gauthier. “One thing that is my observation, especially in the last few weeks, we didn’t really know what was coming out of the box every day, every night and the way we were losing the leads. The way we were approaching the games wasn’t very consistent and that’s what we hope to change.”

But for the first night, it was “plus ca change, plus est la meme chose.”

Darryl Sutter poised to take over as L.A. Kings coach

Globe and Mail, Dec. 17 2011


Darryl Sutter has signed on as the new head coach of the Los Angeles Kings.

According to a report on the L.A. Kings website, Sutter has signed a multi-year contract and he will be introduced as their new coach on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Hockey insiders said that immigration issues had prevented the Kings from hiring Sutter earlier.

The 53-year-old Viking, Alta., native has already been in communication with members of team management regarding player scouting.

The Kings fired coach Terry Murray on Monday and replaced him with John Stevens on a interim basis.

Kings general manager Dean Lombardi had Sutter as his coach in San Jose from 1997 until he was fired in 2002.

Sutter's last coaching job was with the Calgary Flames but he stepped down in 2006 to focus on being the team's general manager.

In December 2010, he resigned as Flames general manager.

A Kings' hockey insider reported that the only remaining question is the make-up of the rest of the coaching staff. Assistant John Stevens is expected to stay aboard for at least the rest of this season.

Here's Ken Dryden commenting once again on the recent concussion epidemic in the NHL. I apologize if this one's been posted already. Happy holidays to all/

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Concussions in the NHL: Waiting for Science
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7352942/waiting-science?view=print

I like Gary Bettman. I was ready to like him before I had ever met him. He had gone to Cornell University; I went to Cornell. That was a good place to start. When I was president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, I dealt with him often, most directly in NHL governors' meetings. He would sit at the middle of a long table at the front of a room with the league governors, usually team owners, beside him. Team owners are rich. In their own communities, they are important. They are also used to seeing themselves as important, and like to see themselves that way. In their communities and in their companies, they are also used to having their own way, and do not give up their way easily. To suggest that directing them is akin to herding cats is to give cats a bad name.

At the front table was this expressive, bug-eyed bundle of nerve endings. He spoke in bursts of words and emotions. Quick-witted, quick-tongued, aggressive, smart, well prepared ? there was never any doubt who commanded that room.

His is a tough job. He presides over a league, but in many ways he also presides over a sport. In Canada, hockey matters. If Canadian NHL teams aren't doing well ? on the ice or off ? the hundreds of thousands of kids and adults who play recreationally don't seem to be doing as well. And because hockey seems to be a metaphor we as Canadians have applied to ourselves, and others have applied to us, when hockey isn't going well, we don't seem to be doing as well, either. As NHL commissioner, Bettman has a responsibility that the commissioners of the NFL, NBA, and MLB do not have.

In the U.S., Bettman has a different challenge. He has to try to make hockey matter for more than just an intensely dedicated minority, in more than just the North and Northeast of the U.S. In the U.S., it's baseball and football, then basketball, then ? hockey. It's MLB and the NFL, then the NBA, then ? the NHL. His is a perpetual struggle for attention and importance. To gain that status, it means having teams in parts of the U.S. where the struggle first must be for survival. Ask any CEO what it's like when one quarter of his or her stores, for example, drag down the others. Ask them what they would do. Shut them down; focus on their business' strengths. Bettman can't do that.

In our dealings, I've disagreed with him at times, sometimes strongly, but I've found him right far more often than wrong. Of all the NHL presidents or commissioners I've seen or dealt with, as a fan, a player, an administrator, and a fan again ? Clarence Campbell, John Ziegler, and (briefly) Gil Stein ? Gary Bettman is easily the best.

Now Bettman, and one day his successors, have a bigger challenge: head injuries. Amid the dangerous mess of the past few years ? the premature deaths of former players, suicides, career-shortening or career-ending concussions, and the grave uncertainty over the future of the NHL's biggest star, Sidney Crosby, I was sure there would come a point when Bettman would say, "Enough." That he would intervene as forcibly as he has on franchise and collective bargaining issues. Instead, he has left matters first to Colin Campbell, an NHL executive formerly in charge of player safety, and now to former star player Brendan Shanahan.

Bettman is a lawyer. A good lawyer understands his client's position and advocates strongly for it. A very good lawyer gets inside his client's position, tests and challenges it, shapes it where it needs to be shaped, and comes to know it, and embody it, as well as the client himself. Bettman is a very good lawyer. His relentless rigor gives him his confidence, his presence and posture. When a meeting begins, he's sure ? he knows ? that he's the smartest guy in the room. For him to be as aggressive and assertive, for him to be him, he needs to know that. That's what allows him to herd his cats.

But on those matters where he can't quite get inside his client as deep as he needs to go, when he can't quite know something as they do, his manner changes. He knows how much hockey means to Canadians, but as an American, he can't quite know. He knows how proud and noble, almost warrior-like, hockey players see themselves, but as someone who has never played the game, he can't quite know. Often criticized in Canada for being an American (and all that means to Canadians), he has been a determined advocate for things Canadian. He knows that hockey's soul resides in Canada. He knows that the NHL isn't strong and healthy unless hockey in Canada is strong and healthy. On matters Canadian, he is respectful and deferential. He listens. About on-ice matters, he is the same. Respectful and deferential, he listens to his "hockey guys."

The problem is that his "hockey guys" are so immersed in a game they have loved and played all of their lives, so steeped in and so respectful of its traditions and understandings, they haven't fully seen all the changes that have occurred. They have seen the changes in technology, strategy, and training that have allowed now bigger players to go faster and with more forceful impact. To Bettman's "hockey guys," these are the natural evolutions of the game. They are good. They are allowed. (Indeed, if you're going to have fighting, why not a better fighter? Why not the best?)

To these natural evolutions, Bettman's "hockey guys" have also seen some unintended consequences ? most notably, more, and more serious, injuries ? and have responded to them with efforts toward better protective equipment, better medical treatment, and, where these are not enough, "tweaks" to the rules. What they haven't seen fully is that technology, strategy, and training, driven by the creativity of coaches, players, scientists, and entrepreneurs, always run ahead of equipment, medical treatment, and "tweaks" to the rules. Better helmets, more muscular necks and shoulders, MRIs, and Rule 48 haven't offered the answer to 220-plus-pound players moving at 30 mph. Not even close. So concussions are more frequent and more serious. But to intervene with anything else ? with significant rule changes or imagining a game played in a more head-conscious, "head-smart" way ? to Bettman's "hockey guys," is unthinkable. Natural evolutions that change the nature of a game are OK, but anything else are "unnatural intrusions." They are bad. They aren't allowed. Bettman's "hockey guys" forget that hockey's natural evolution was once toward a jammed-up, goalless future until some president or commissioner intruded unnaturally with player substitutions and the forward pass. Imagine what the "hockey guys" of that time would have said.

When Bettman listens to his "hockey guys," because as someone who never played the game he can't quite know, this is what he hears.

I decided about two months ago to get back in touch with him ("Go Big Red!"). It was a few days after the start of the new season. I sent him an e-mail to congratulate him on the return of the Winnipeg Jets. A minute later, he e-mailed back. This led to a back-and-forth over the next several minutes, at the end each of us promising the other (when I'm in New York; when he's in Toronto) that we'd catch up. Not long ago, we e-mailed each other again. I had been traveling; he'd been traveling. We'd both be away for the holidays, but sometime early in the new year, we would make this happen. And I had no doubt we would.

What I'd say to him is what I've said here, but also that it's time for him to not be so deferential and respectful on hockey matters, on head injuries, but to take these on in his aggressive Bettmanesque way. The stories, almost every week, of another player being concussed (or, to allow for the possibility of a more acceptable earlier return to action, another player having "concussion-like symptoms"), or of a former player now living with the consequences of his head-injured past, are real. They have happened. They are not just a case of bad luck that will surely turn. You have to know that this is your future and the future of all those owners, governors, and players, every week, for so long as you and they are commissioner, owner, governor, or player. You can try to deny the problem or try to manage it or do something. And as overwhelming as it seems ? just imagine if even most of this is true: the on-ice consequences, the post-career consequences for former NHL and recreational players, the liabilities, etc., etc. ? a lot can be done. The changes that may be necessary are not undoable. Few are blaming you. Most know there is so much we don't know and can't know. We don't know the dimensions of the problem. We don't know the dimensions of the answer. But we do know there's a big problem, and we do know there are some things we need to do.

Hockey isn't the only sport in need of this action. If anything, football's problem is far greater. Soccer and other sports are experiencing their own head-injury problems. Outside sports, the military is faced with many of its personnel suffering the effects of new, more concussive weapons. And for decades, we've imagined the problems without having paid much attention to the consequences of victims of head trauma in child-abuse cases.

It is OK not to know, I was intending to say to him. It is not OK not to begin to puzzle through with others toward some answers.

You and the NHL can do something. You don't need to lead this effort ? in fact, it's better if you don't, to avoid the conflicts of interest that would naturally occur and any perception of them, and so not to hold back the work. But you can acknowledge the seriousness of the problem and your determination to deal seriously with it, now and in the future. One way to signal this might be to help create some ongoing structure that would encourage and generate public discussion, ideas, proposals, and action on head injuries in sports, notably hockey. It could begin with an annual conference, hosted by a university, the first one in Canada, but in subsequent years in the U.S. and Europe. The NHL could be one of the major sponsors. You, and not just your "hockey guys," could be there to show that on this "long run" problem you're in this for the long run, and are willing to puzzle through with others how we can do better.

The best brain scientists would be there to talk about what they know, and what they don't know. Players who have suffered brain injuries will provide their personal stories. League officials at different levels, in different sports, will talk about what steps they have taken, what's worked and what hasn't. The best coaches and best players, past and present, will be there to talk about what they've been trained to do and what they've done all their lives. Faced with an opponent, in this case a new "head-smart" set of rules and way of playing that keeps you from doing some things one way, what do you do? What new creative answer can you come up with? What can you do that is even better than what you did before? Each year, there will be new findings, new ideas, and fresh challenges to players, coaches, officials, scientists, and entrepreneurs who, in their DNA, feed on fresh challenges.

There is no running away. Next week's headlines have already been written. The need is to begin.

That's what I was intending to say to him in January or February when I was sure we'd be in touch again. Then I saw his video interview on the New York Times website.

The Times had published an outstanding three-part series of articles by John Branch on Derek Boogaard, a 28-year-old NHL "enforcer" who had died a few months earlier. This was Branch's follow-up video interview with Bettman. Bettman had experienced many interviews like this before, where he was asked to answer questions that weren't really questions, about violence and fighting in the NHL, and he had his usual nervous energy mostly under control.

In response to a question, he began by telling his often-repeated story ? fighting has a long history in "the game," he said. Players move at 30 mph in an enclosed area; they carry sticks. There's physical contact. Different from other sports, fighting in hockey is penalized only in a limited way ? with a five-minute penalty, not expulsion from the game ? not to sell tickets, as is often alleged, but because fighting acts as a kind of "thermostat," as Bettman puts it, so that "things don't go too far." The threat of fighting helps to keep other matters in a game under control. And because fighting is this organic part of hockey, the frequency of fighting changes as the game changes, he says ? sometimes more, sometimes less ? so you can't predict its future. As for the off-ice deaths in recent months of three former NHL "enforcers" ? Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak ? he reacted to the deaths more like a father than a commissioner, describing their deaths as a "tragedy" and his "almost disbelief at the coincidental timing of [them]." "The circumstances of all three were different," he continued. "It was a tragic, sad, unfortunate coincidence." When asked by the interviewer to clarify if he thought the circumstances, not the timing, were a coincidence, he replied, "Yes."

Later, the interviewer pointed to the recent findings by Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy that Boogaard had the presence of CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a close relative of Alzheimer's disease, in his brain, which is thought to be caused by repeated blows to the head. Boogaard is the fourth former NHL player ? the others being Reggie Fleming, Bob Probert, and Rick Martin ? to show these same indications. What about this research on CTE, the interviewer asked? "I think it's very preliminary," Bettman said. "There isn't a lot of data and the experts who we talk to, who consult with us, think it's way premature to be drawing any conclusions at this point because we're not sure based on the amount of data evaluated." He repeats how "preliminary" all this is, again citing the "handful of samples," all the possible factors in these players' deaths, how with CTE, Alzheimer's, and dementia there's so much we don't know. "There's a long way to go in medical science before people can make definitive judgments," he concludes.

Gary Bettman has arrived at Stage 2 in the NHL's response to fighting and violence. Stage 1, as embodied by Colin Campbell and former Boston Bruins coach and immensely popular TV commentator Don Cherry, was aggressive, belligerent, and dismissive. Look, this is hockey. This is how the game's played. Always has been. If you don't like it, don't play it. Stage 2, as embodied in Bettman's interview, is more modulated, more thoughtful-sounding, and more reasonable-sounding (aided by the interview's setting, a room lighted dark and warm, almost cozy; there's a reason 60 Minutes' interviews and congressional committee hearings are done in the glare of bright lights). Occasionally he strays into a lawyer's gentle, prickly combativeness, but mostly he stays on his message: It is Boston University's scientific work on the brain samples of former players that helped bring head injuries to a focus, he is saying. It's science that I'm going to argue back. Science isn't impressed with anecdote and story. Science demands proof. Four brain samples are merely four anecdotes, and that's out of the thousands who have played this game. Mine is the reasonable, responsible position. Mine is based on science. Science demands proof, and I demand proof, too. And when science gives me what science insists upon for itself, I will go where science takes me. In the meantime, even with science on my side, I will continue cooperating with doctors and researchers and generate rule changes where appropriate. That's how reasonable I am.

By waiting for science, thousands of asbestos workers and millions of smokers died. The fact is, as a society we rarely have the luxury of waiting for science on big, difficult, potentially dangerous questions to meet its standard of proof. We need to take the best science we have, generate more and better information, then apply to it our best intuition and common sense ? and decide. Scientists are always disparaging of politicians and other decision-makers for being so influenced by anecdote. But an anecdote, well observed, thorough, rigorous, and truth-seeking (not ax-grinding), can tell a lot. At any moment, it may also be the best information we have.

It is only by tragic fluke ? his early death ? that we have the Derek Boogaard "anecdote." Normally, we'd have to wait many more years to know what had happened many years before. But now we have this gift from Derek Boogaard. The NHL can also learn from the NFL experience. Many more football players than hockey players are dying now in their 60s and 70s after having spent the last several years of their lives in the living death of dementia. Football, for that generation of players, just as with hockey, was played with primitive equipment. But in football, then as now, every play involves many collisions involving many players, and one final collision. In hockey then, the game moved much more slowly with players playing coasting, two-minute shifts with few collisions. In hockey now, the game moving in full-abandon, 35-second shifts with bigger players, the collisions are never-ending and shuddering. And hockey fighters, once normal-sized and untrained, inflicted little damage. Today, far bigger and having been trained in combat much of their lives, they can cave a face with one punch and have their brains rattled in return.

Gary Bettman said in his online video interview with the Times that he hasn't talked to the doctors at Boston University. I hope he does soon. I also hope he has spoken with Derek Boogaard's family and friends to hear, really hear, about what his life was like. And with Paul Kariya, Eric Lindros, and Keith Primeau ? in depth ? or with any of a number of players who have had their careers ended early, about what life felt like after their injury, and what it feels like now. Or ? in depth ? with Sidney Crosby. As hard as it was in the 10 months of recovery after his injury ? the pain and discomfort, the unknowns, the hopefulness, the crashing disappointments ? now must be his darkest time. It was the sheer routineness of this latest hit. So invisible amid the action that observers assumed it must have been from a collision with his teammate Chris Kunitz. So routine it was only on replay: Crosby and Bruins player David Krejci yapping at each other from their player benches ? what could've caused that? ? then running the action backwards; Crosby and Krejci shoving at each other on the ice after the whistle ? what could've caused that? ? and backwards some more; Crosby skating toward the puck near the boards; Krejci, the puck in his skates, bent over, his back to Crosby; as Crosby bumps him, Krejci turns slightly, his left elbow striking Crosby in the visor. It was the kind of light blow that is exchanged without notice or consequence hundreds of times in a game. Krejci, in everything that follows, looks befuddled ? Why is he so mad? What did I do? But knowing how he feels, Crosby knows.

If after 11 months this is all it takes ?

I hope Bettman and Crosby have a good long talk.

There are debates among doctors, now played out in the media, over the correlation between hockey's blows to the head and CTE, between blows suffered now and a player's long-term future. These debates will continue. But there can be no debate about the impact of those blows on players now. Almost every day there's someone new ? this week it's star Flyers' defenseman and tough guy Chris Pronger and his teammate Claude Giroux, the NHL's leading scorer ? both gone and for who knows how long. The debate about CTE is important, but it's a distraction. The debate over fighting is a distraction. This is about head injuries. This is about what we can see. This is what we absolutely know. This is about now.

Bettman and the NHL cannot wait for science. They can't hide behind science, using it as their shield. They must move, and move quickly, out of Stage 2 to Stage 3. No amount of well-modulated, reasonable- and responsible-sounding words change the fact that a hit to the head, whether by elbow, shoulder, or fist, is an attempt to injure that needs to result in expulsion or suspension. No amount of hopefulness and crossed fingers will change the fact that the NHL, like the NFL, must begin to imagine and introduce more "head-smart" ways to play. Bettman needs to be Bettman. We look back on those people 50 years ago who defended tobacco and asbestos and think, How could they be so stupid? Bettman and the NHL cannot wait for this generation of players to get old just so they can know for sure.

Ken Dryden is a Hall of Fame NHL goaltender and six-time Stanley Cup champion. He is also the former president of the Toronto Maple Leafs and a former member of the Parliament of Canada. He is the author of several books.

Getting To Know: Chris Therien
Chris Therien played 764 career games in the NHL.

Mark Malinowski, The Hockey News, 2011-12-18


Status: NHL defenseman from 1994-2006 with Philadelphia Flyers and Dallas Stars. Currently serves as a radio color commentator for the Flyers.

Ht: 6-foot-5 Wt: 235 pounds

DOB: Dec. 14, 1971 In: Ottawa, Ont.

First Hockey Memory: "Well, I grew up in Ottawa, so, I had access to the Rideau Canal which was obviously my home skating rink. I remember watching the Montreal Canadiens, the Ottawa 67s. It was a long time ago. Grew up watching major junior hockey and the local OHL team."

Nickname: "Well, everyone calls me ‘Bundy’ that's what I've been since I've been in the NHL. When I played and now."

Hockey Inspirations: "Larry Robinson. Guy Lafleur. Wayne Gretzky. A lot of the Canadien team. My favorite team, of course, is the Montreal Canadiens. My dad was a Canadien fan growing up. I would say just about everything and all Montreal Canadiens at the time."

Last Book Read: "A book called Adrenaline by Jeff Abbott. Fast-paced, action thriller."

First Job: "Paperboy. Ottawa Citizen."

First Car: "Was a Jeep Grand Cherokee."

Current Car: "Cadillac Escalade."

Greatest Sports Moment: "First game in the NHL, Spectrum."

Most Painful Moment: "My last game (laughs). I left, I had concussion problems and that was really about it. I just knew my time was probably about up and that journey was over."

Favorite Uniforms: "Philadelphia Flyers, great uniforms. (Number two?) Chicago Blackhawks."

Favorite Arena: "Madison Square Garden."

Closest Hockey Friends: "Craig Berube, Luke Richardson, Dan McGillis, Eric Desjardins was my mentor, my partner for years."

Funniest Players Encountered: "Gilbert Dionne was a really funny guy. A lot of guys. Funniest...I mean there's a lot of them. Brian Boucher is a funny guy. Dionne used to sing and dance and stuff. It was just hilarious the way he would clap his hands and he'd...he was a really funny guy. I was young too at that time."

Toughest Competitors Encountered: "Jaromir Jagr. Great competitor. Peter Forsberg. Steve Yzerman. Joe Sakic. Mario Lemieux - I guess more great skill. He didn't have to compete hard, he was that good."

Most Memorable Goal: "My first one. Against Washington in Philadelphia. Everybody remembers their first goal. Against Rick Tabaracci, upstairs. I think it ricocheted off maybe someone's uniform, upstairs over his blocker."

Embarrassing Hockey Memory: "We've all had 'em, getting beat one on one, turnovers."

Favorite Sport Outside Hockey: "Baseball, hands down. (Phillies fan?) Ah, Yankees."

Funny Hockey Memory: "Every single day I walked into the rink. I mean, that's the truth. I mean, just being around 20-25 guys, there's a lot that could go on. It gets pretty funny. I mean, it's a great experience."

Strangest Game: "I think we had a 5-2 lead in Vancouver one night with three minutes to go. We ended up losing in overtime. What I remember the most is we had our own power play with two minutes to go. Yeah, that was ugly. I think Mogilny got the game-winner."

Favorite Player(s) To Watch: "Claude Giroux is pretty unique. I get to watch him every night now that I do radio. I get to see my own players, but Giroux is pretty special talent. Drew Doughty is a nice player. Great hockey player. He's great skating, fun to watch him. Chara, I think, is just a really, really unique talent, for the size that he has and his ability to play the way he does."

Personality Qualities Most Admired: "People who are fun. People who care a lot about the game. Guys who compete hard. They really leave it at the rink. You're paid to be professionals, but while you can be professional, make sure that you can enjoy every second of it. Because you're playing a kid's game. You're getting paid to play it. A game that you grew up loving and enjoying. And you may as well make the most of the opportunity."

Habs coaching appointment stokes Quebec nationalist sentiments

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN, Globe and Mail, Dec. 18, 2011


Brian Burke thinks he has problems with the media telling him how to run his Toronto Maple Leafs.

Heaven forbid Burke ever has to run the Montreal Canadiens where the media’s hand is a permanent fixture on the tiller.

The firing of Jacques Martin as Canadiens coach on Friday serves as a textbook example of how the impact of the press- the Francophone press-- must be taken into consideration to a far greater extent than in any other NHL city.

Specifically, the team knew the selection of anglophone Randy Cunneyworth to succeed Martin on an interim basis was bound to provoke controversy.

While politics rarely intrude in other Canadian NHL cities, they underpin every move in Montreal where hockey and politics are blood sports.

Forget the apparent disinterest lately for separation in the general populace, the media corps in Montreal still exists in a mentality where the language kill shot is always in season.

Witness the flap in years past over former Hab captain Saku Koivu’s lack of French or the vilification of Phoenix captain Shane Doan over anti-French comments made by a European teammate.

Even as it became obvious that Martin might not last the season, the pressure mounted to find a Francophone coach-- any Francophone coach--to replace him.

As if finding the right coach to revive the floundering Canadiens’ fortunes on the ice isn’t tough enough.

The vielle souche in the media must also be placated that the coach passes the cultural smell test. And so, within ten minutes into the Canadiens’ press conference, the question of language was raised.

The Habs went into full language lock, announcing Cunneyworth would work on his French while being assisted by assistant GM Larry Carriere as his translator to the large media pack following Les Glorieux.

And even though the only two Francophone coaches who might make a difference-- Alain Vigneault and Guy Boucher-- are under contract elsewhere, the pushback still came in the press and the blogosphere to find a Francophone. Perhaps not as strong as before, but strong enough.

Everyone acknowledges English as the working language of the NHL. And that the perfume of a Stanley Cup would excuse everything.

But in Quebec’s hockey milieu, at least, losing with Bob Hartley is seemingly preferable to some generic Anglo such as Cunneyworth playing .500. “If you had a roster of 23 Swedes and Czechs and Finns it wouldn’t matter to Quebeckers as long as they win the Cup,” La Presse’s Francois Gagnon explained to us.

“After that, have as many Canadians and French Canadians as possible. After that, when losing, they want a team you can relate to. What I hear now is if the team is losing, why not have team we can relate to? Not only Francophones but guys from Ontario, Canadians.”

Gagnon relates Quebec’s preference for a Francophone to other provinces. “Would the Leafs have a coach, like Pittsburgh did a couple of years ago, who only spoke Czech (Ivan Hlinka)? Of course, that’s not going to happen.

I can't imagine, even though there are lots of Francophones in Alberta, that English Albertans would accept a Calgary coach who would not say word in English. Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto would not accept that. I understand, Montreal, in having a coach who can speak French to fans, they would be putting aside some great candidates. But if Montreal doesn't give chance to Francophone to coach in NHlL who will?”

Sports Illustrated’s Michael Farber is an American who has lived in Montreal for decades and is married to a Francophone. “The Montreal Canadiens once stood for excellence,” he says. “Now they stand for something else. The team has gone on record that they must be representative. I heard someone in the press box say that there are not enough French Canadians on the power play? I understand it as an outsider, but I’m not sure it’s productive.”

The real measure of its productivity may be, in a climate where support for sovereignty is tepid and the Canadiens are mediocre, does playing the language card at the rink still sell newspapers or get people to change the channel?

Habs owner stickhandles through language debate

Les Perreaux, Globe and Mail, Dec. 19, 2011


The scion of the Molson family that owns and runs the Montreal Canadiens is defending his team’s selection of an interim coach who doesn’t speak French while conceding the team must take language into consideration when making the next hire.

Geoff Molson says general manager Pierre Gauthier needed a quick spark to improve the moribund team and he chose then-assistant Randy Cunneyworth to take over because, in addition to being quickly available, he is a “qualified and experienced coach who has earned the respect of the players.”

But the ability to speak French and English will be “a very important factor in the selection of a permanent head coach,” Molson, a native Quebecer who speaks fluent French, added in a statement. Gauthier had said he hoped Cunneyworth would continue beyond this season.

The Canadiens and Molson, whose family founded the eponymous brewing empire in 1786, are under blistering criticism for naming a coach who doesn’t speak French for the first time since 1970.

While opinion appeared to be split among diehard hockey fans, many of whom just want to see the team win, pundits, politicians and nationalists fueled the controversy. In one of the more extreme examples, columnist and radio commentator Réjean Tremblay argued team management have long wanted to “eradicate” French from the club to strengthen its iron grip on communications.

More typically, nationalist groups called for a boycott of Molson products while former team executives such as Serge Savard, along with provincial political leaders of all parties, insisted the coach of the Canadiens should speak French.

“The Canadiens say it is temporary, but it’s also unfortunate,” provincial Culture Minister Christine St-Pierre told The Canadian Press. “There is an element of pride for Quebecers. The Canadiens are in our genes, it’s an institution and the Canadiens should be sensitive to it.”

The Canadiens were founded in 1909 by Ambrose O’Brien, the son of an Irish immigrant, and soon became the team of French Montrealers. English Montrealers, who were about 1/3 of the city’s population, dominated most of the city’s hockey teams. The sport was slower to catch on among French speakers and O’Brien, seeing an untapped vein, started recruiting and marketing among francophones, author D’Arcy Jenish wrote in his history of the team.

Over many years, the team became central to French-Canadian pride, as well as a conduit for rivalry with the English-speaking world.

What O’Brien sowed, Molson now reaps.

The Canadiens are seen by many French-speaking Quebecers as a part of the cultural fabric far beyond hockey.

“The team is an institution for Quebecers and French Canadians, and out of respect for the francophone majority population of Quebec, the coach of this institution should speak French,” said François Legault, the leader of a new and wildly popular political party called the Coalition Avenir Québec.

Molson took over the team two years ago. The family had a long history with the Canadiens which won 11 of its 24 Stanley Cups in Molson hands. Tradition and heritage have long been a key marketing tool for the franchise, which frequently trots out retired giants such as Guy Lafleur, Jean Béliveau and Henri Richard for public appearances.

But when Molson bought the team, he waved off calls to boost the number of French-speaking players, saying “we are in the hockey business and not into politics.”

In Quebec, it’s difficult to separate the two.

Boylen: What makes hockey great

Rory Boylen, The Hockey News,2011-12-20


All too often we hear about how our game is broken, flawed, behind the times and barbaric. Most of the time, those reactions are bloated, misleading, sensational, miss the point or are from someone who doesn’t like or understand the game in the first place.

So I’m going to take this opportunity, five days before Christmas, to share all the things I find wonderful about hockey.

’Tis the season.

• They’re almost all gone, but I love how there are still a few players around the league who I remember fondly from my younger days as a happy-go-lucky fan. The return of Jaromir ‘Mario’s Little Sister’ Jagr and the Winnipeg Jets let off an overwhelming whiff of nostalgia and the fact both parties are playing well means the aroma is as pleasant as ever. Teemu Selanne’s return to a standing ovation in Winnipeg was goosebump-inducing and Nicklas Lidstrom is still the cream of the crop at 41. Something tells me when I go home for the holidays and a hockey game breaks out, someone will eagerly call out “I’m Jaromir Jagr!”

• As much as I love to watch the Sidney Crosbys, Pavel Datsyuks and Steven Stamkoses (Stamkoi?) of the league I also love how diverse the skill sets are in the NHL and hockey in general. I love the work ethic and drive of Tomas Holmstrom, who specializes in taking a beating in front of the net just to redirect a shot. I love the ferocity with which players such as Milan Lucic, Derek Dorsett and Steve Ott play that brings fans to their feet at any given moment. I love Martin Brodeur’s calm and calculated approach as much as I love Tim Thomas’ off-the-wall unpredictability. I love the fearlessness and art of shot-blocking players such as Dan Girardi and Brett Clark have mastered. And, even though I sometimes loathe them for the style, I love how Brad Marchand, Sean Avery, Jordin Tootoo and the like have a knack for getting under your skin.

• I love how, for the most part, hockey players (and hockey people in general) have humble personalities that they carry around with them. When Phoenix was in town recently, we were at the morning skate to shoot a video on Keith Yandle. We were patiently waiting to interview Shane Doan, who was talking to a friend and his little boy. When Doan realized we were waiting for him to finish, he excused himself from that conversation, came over to us and apologized. Of course, we were the ones who felt a little intrusive. The gritty and grizzled culture of the game, so often under attack, holds much responsibility for this characteristic, a fact lost on irrational fear-mongers.

• I love how we don’t have over-the-top celebrations after every goal that demean the role and importance of sportsmanship, that we don’t have self-absorbed athletes holding weight-lifting sessions in their driveways to attract media attention or an epidemic of players holding their teams hostage to force a trade. I love the team mentality. I hope none of these players listen to anyone who says they should be more like their MLB, NFL or NBA brethren, where the player, more often than not, seems to come before the team.

• I love how this is a global game, enjoyed by many different kinds of people and growing in so many countries such as Latvia and Switzerland. When I travelled to Russia for a kids’ hockey camp in the summer it was an incredible experience to connect with a new generation of hockey fans on the other side of the planet and, despite the thick language barrier, talk to them about their favorite players. It amazed me how many of them shouted “Sidney Crosby” when the question was asked and how many gave me a thumbs down when the name Alexander Radulov was raised.

• I love the community of hockey and how it unites after accomplishments, such as Hall of Fame inductions, and tragedies, such as the untimely deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak and everyone on the Lokomotiv team. It’s a shame when these instances are used to connect an unproven dotted line to hot button issues, but most hockey folk see through those callous grabs for attention.

• I love the sounds of the game: the slap of the puck off a stick, the boards and the glass; the urgent calls for a pass or a heads-up from a teammate; the crunch and thunder of a hit; the carving of the skate blade; the hollowness of a pad save; the rising excitement and bursting celebration of a crowd after a goal; and the “ping” of a puck going off the post…and in. (Hey, I’m a forward.)

• I love how when friends get together after a long time apart it takes about five minutes before hockey talk sets in. I love how it’s a common denominator for so many of us and that we share many of the same types of stories and experiences from our days growing up as fans and players.

• I love old rural rinks where it’s colder inside than out in mid-January.

• I love flooding the outdoor rink in the serene quiet of night so that hours and hours of loud, good-natured fun can be had in the dead of winter. (Let’s just hope the weather will allow that one this year.)

• And, most of all, I love how when you organize a full-equipment hockey game over the holidays, the least of your worries is accumulating 18 willing players.

Merry Christmas.