A Canucks sixth sense?

ROY MacGREGOR / Vancouver— From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, May. 31, 2011


It has become the great debate of the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Not the Vancouver Canucks or Boston Bruins – that will eventually be decided on the scoreboard – but whether or not the Sedin twins of Vancouver are psychic?

Daniel and Henrik Sedin look so alike it took coach Alain Vigneault years before he could tell them apart. They speak so identically that they will sometimes say “we” even when one is talking alone. On the ice, they are distinguished by numbers, 22 for Daniel, 33 for Henrik, and by an astonishing ability to find each other when making passes, many of them blind, while moving the puck around in the opposition end.

So remarkable is this ability that the man who brought them to the NHL 11 years ago believes they “absolutely” possess a second sight, a sixth sense, a built-in communication system that gives them – Henrik the NHL's scoring champion last year, six minutes younger Daniel this year's scoring champion – an advantage never before known in the game.

“I've seen guys who had chemistry,” says Brian Burke, general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs but GM of Vancouver in 1999, when the Swedish twins were drafted. “But I've never seen anything like this – it's like they have radar.”

The twins themselves are not convinced, though Henrik, the team captain, did concede this week that, “Sometimes, even ourselves, we can maybe think that something strange is going on.”

Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, a fellow Swede and a linemate of the twins during the 2010 Olympics, says he has experienced what happens with them on the ice enough to believe that their story is all about skill and familiarity, not telepathy.

“It's not more than two super-skilled persons who can read the play,” Alfredsson says. “It's more just being used to each other. They've played together so long. They know each other perfectly.

“But they can sure make it look like there's something telepathic going on.”

“People say we have that on the ice,” says Daniel, who also does not believe in telepathy. “We have the thing we have because we've played together for so long. It has nothing to do with anything else.”

“There are always reasons why those things happen,” Henrik adds.

Alfredsson agrees and says that such seemingly magical connection is not unusual among elite athletes playing on a team. He felt it himself when, for a couple of seasons, he and Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley were the game's most formidable scoring line.

“It just happens,” he says. “You don't even have to think. You just know where the other will be. The twins take this to another level.”

“They communicate like dolphins,” says the twins' current linemate Alex Burrows. “The way they move the puck, they have that sixth sense.”

They do so because they are supremely skilled athletes – both were given the opportunity to move 800 kilometres south of their northern Sweden hometown of Ornskoldsvik to join an elite soccer school, but declined in favour of sticking with hockey – and because they have always played together, always on the same line. Among elite hockey players, there is simply no comparison when it comes to longevity and compatibility. Henrik, the elder, has always been the centre, the one most likely to make the pass; Daniel has been the shooter. Henrik has always been the team leader, Daniel content to let his older brother serve as captain of the various teams they were on. Henrik talks slightly more, but only slightly. They have the same accent, inflections and exactly the same dry humour. In separate interviews held only steps away from each other this week, they at one point cracked the same joke about winning a team scrimmage.

At age 30, the twins are clearly in their prime. They have their back-to-back scoring championships and, if Daniel is named winner on June 22 of the three finalists nominated as the league's most valuable player, they will have back-to-back Hart Trophies, as well. This week they were named recipients of Crown Princess Victoria Prize, awarded annually to Sweden's best athlete.

It usually goes to single recipient – but even in Sweden they do not separate the Sedin twins.

No brothers have ever won consecutive scoring championships in the league's 94-year-history. Brothers, however, are far from novel in professional hockey. Even the Hall of Fame greats – Maurice (Rocket) Richard, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Phil Esposito, Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky – all had brothers play with variable success in the NHL. The six Sutter brothers of Viking, Alta., all made it, including Ron and Rich, the first twins to play in the league. There have been five sets of twins since.

But identical twins – the product of a single egg, as opposed to the more common fraternal twins, which come from two eggs – are different still. It has only happened twice in the NHL, and in the case of the Lundqvist twins, Henrik and Joel, they not only did not play together but played different positions, Henrik goal for the New York Rangers while Joel, who now plays back in Sweden, was briefly a forward with the Dallas Stars.

Only the identical Sedins can claim to have played the same position, forward, and on the same line. They have never been separated. Not in sports, not in school. Their father is a school principal and the parents, Tommy and Tora Sedin, placed high value on education, although they allowed the boys to complete their high school studies in four years rather than three to allow more time for hockey. “We considered it very important for Henrik and Daniel to finish their studies,” says their mother. “We talked about it at home. Who knows what would have happened with the hockey? There was no guarantee for success. Anything could have happened.”

Anything could happen in the Cup final, too, but that won't stop Tora from watching her boys compete for their first NHL championship, despite her stated affinity for the “more pleasant” sport of soccer.

“The games are played nighttime here in Sweden, but … well, it's really exciting now,” she says. “So I guess I'll sit up and watch. And if everything goes in the right direction, we will come over for the fifth game.”

Success did happen, and quickly. By 16 they were playing at the highest level – so involved with hockey that the parents let them complete high school in four years rather than three – and the play of the identical twins of Ornskoldsvik was being noted.

Twins are always a curiosity – and have been since the days of Greek and Norse gods, since the Old Testament, since Romulus and Remus founded Rome – but identical twins far more so in that there is large belief that they have their own special communication skills, as do certain birds and animals.

Such a possibility has always intrigued science – and fascinated false science. Experiments conducted on television have included separating young identical twins so one is in a room subject to various stimuli – hand plunged into cold water, frightened by a rubber snake – while the other is hooked up to a lie-detector machine in another room to record emotion. In those experiments, a telepathic connection was claimed. It was also quickly dismissed as pseudo science.

Writing in Psychology Today in 2009, British author Digby Tantam, who is both a psychiatrist and psychologist, claimed that legitimate parapsychologists “have been unable to duplicate these results in the laboratory.” Identical twins Randy and Jason Sklar said that they were involved in a clinical university study on telepathy when they were 14, Randy drawing shapes in one room while Jason was attempting to copy them in another. “I was so far off,” Jason Sklar told the magazine, “they ended up stopping the study.”

What, then, explains the blind passes of Henrik Sedin to Daniel, the innate ability of Daniel to place himself in a spot where he will have a clear shot at goal if only he is given the puck? The twins say familiarity. Brian Burke jokes that they have the mentalist skills of “The Amazing Kreskin,” who used to do mind-reading on a popular television show of the 1970s. There are many – several of them NHL teammates and opponents of the twins – who would agree with Burke.

They were still children playing in Ornskoldsvik when they were noticed by Thomas Gradin, a former NHL player then working as a scout for the Canucks. He believed they had an ability to “read” each other that was not understandable but also undeniable. On Gradin's urging, Burke travelled to the world championship in Oslo, Norway, to see for himself. He came back a believer, “We decided we were going to move heaven and earth to get them together.”

At the 1999 NHL entry draft, Burke completed a complicated series of trades with three teams that ensured Vancouver would have the second and third pick, having been assured that the team picking first overall, the Atlanta Thrashers, had settled on another choice. He called both Sedins to the podium at the same time, holding out jerseys with No. 22 (D. Sedin) and No. 33 (H. Sedin) in the hopes that each would take the jersey intended.

Like everyone else, Burke could not tell the two apart. At times in the past, the twins have fooled the media, even doing interviews as their brother. They seem so much the same, yet have lived fairly separate lives in Vancouver – Henrik with wife Johanna and two sons in Yaletown, Daniel with wife Marinette and two girls and a boy in Shaughnessy.

They blossomed slowly, really only coming into their prime over the past three seasons. Burke says former coach Marc Crawford deserves credit for getting them to the level they are now at. Alfredsson says that, as with many European players, it took them years to adjust their talents to the smaller North American ice surface. The Sedins play what is called a “cycle” game – working pucks out from the corner boards by circling and dropping passes to each other and their linemate until an opening presents itself.

“It's harder to do on the North America ice surface where there's just not as much room,” Alfredsson says. “Obviously, you have to do it a lot quicker. And they're really good at that. They seem to find a way to take it to the net on a consistent basis. That's unusual. And they do it with small, little plays are so difficult to do. But they do it.”

They do it with such success that, despite earlier concerns that they were off to a slow start in these playoffs, Henrik is today the leading scorer in Stanley Cup play with two goals and 19 assists, and Daniel not far behind with eight of each.

“We thought they would be top-six players,” Burke says. “No one talked about Hart trophies or Art Ross trophies back then. It would be intellectually dishonest to pretend otherwise.”

Such success, naturally, has led to financial reward. And even when it comes to contracts, they are treated as one. When current GM Mike Gillis signed them to twin five-year, $30.5-million (U.S.) contracts two years ago, he said, “Because of their style of play, they are symbiotic and effectively inseparable. As such, we will treat them as a single entity for contract purposes, while recognizing their individual needs and attributes away from the arena.”

Henrik Sedin claims it doesn't bother them in the slightest to being regarded as one. “With those questions,” he says, “you're going to get the same answers.”

“We think pretty much the same way,” Daniel adds, “so we're going to answer the questions the same way, for both of us. It's been like this for 15 years – and it's not going to change.”

As for being regarded as “freaks of nature” if not mere curiosities, Daniel just laughs off all the talk about telepathy and psychic skills and being able to read each other's mind on the ice.

“We bring it on ourselves,” he says.

“We answer the same way … we like the same things ... and we can't really do much about it.”


With files from Matthew Sekeres in Vancouver and Janne Bengtsson in Sweden.

Thanks for this article.

Milbury has changed his public tune somewhat during this 2010-2011 season he has been on Hockey Night in Canada. He is a smart person who comes from a time where hockey players were considered Neanderthals. I suspect his change in tune has something to do with his kids (who play hockey) getting to the age of checking and now the 'dad' hat hits closer to home. I always thought Mike was different than the rest of the old-school culture and respect what he has to say. This is a good article and I continue to hope more people speak up to improve the game.

My friend Dan MacDonald emailed me earlier this week and suggested we practice 'contact confidence' weekly for at least 20 minutes / week on and / or off-ice from a younger age to get the kids more familiar with body contact - what is 'right' and what 'isn't' from both technique and ethical angles - so it isn't as big of a shock when body checking is implemented (at whatever age.) Right now in Canada, we attend a one-day coaching clinic, then that's it. Most coaches (in my experience teaching, mentoring and evaluating coaches) aren't comfortable teaching this (expecting others to teach it!) so they only give it a quick overview. Dan also calls for more regular teaching of angling, steering, influencing and playing the opponent's hands as methods to regain the puck - not just a big body check (which lately seems to be to separate the head from the man; not the man from the puck!)

Good points.

I agree that Mike Milbury has evolved a great deal over the last few seasons. I grew up watching him do stuff like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8K7roZu3WU

Here, at the high school level, we have a huge discrepancy in size between the 14 and 18 year old players and it makes for a tough adjustment for kids coming from house league. Not everyone is out to separate the players head from their body, but some certainly are and it only takes one bad hit. Watching the world championships this year I was amazed at how much the larger ice surface changes the game even with all the big bodies out there. If you ask me that's the easiest change the NHL could make. I know it's expensive, but so is having Sidney Crosby sit on the sidelines for half the season.

Dave

Dean - The 4 v 4 situation would be a tough sell, but I think you are right....much more affordable than renovating all the new arenas out there. It would also address the possibility that the 30 team league is too watered down, though I'm not sure I am sold on this idea.

Couldn't the league could allow the big sheets to be phased in as new buildings go up? I would think it would be a big advantage to teams that have the Olympic size sheet for the majority of their games, like the advantage Detroit has knowing how to use the fast boards at Joe Louis. I'm sure it would reduce injuries significantly for the teams as well playing at minimum of half their games (and some practices) on the big ice.

Re Milbury: I don't remember the Vancouver incident, but I remember watching the Rangers/MSG one in shock as a kid. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that's Milbury (#26) ripping the guys shoe from his foot and hitting him with it. There's a better clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ef1YVXM9IU

Yes, there is life after 30

Vancouver’s late-blooming Sedin twins are in full flower

03-06-11 IIHF


VANCOUVER – Wayne Gretzky was 22 when he played in his first Stanley Cup final in 1983 after shredding the NHL record book. Pavel Bure peaked with two 60-goal seasons by age 23. But the Sedin twins are cut from a different cloth.

Now 30 years old, the two superstar offensive players of the Vancouver Canucks have played the best hockey of their career over the past two seasons. Granted, Henrik and Daniel Sedin – the 2010 and 2011 Art Ross Trophy winners respectively – have taken their share of criticism en route to a Stanley Cup final meeting with the Boston Bruins. (That was especially true in the first two rounds versus the Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators, before Henrik exploded to take over the playoff scoring lead versus the San Jose Sharks, with Daniel close behind.)

Yet don’t forget Gretzky was also lambasted when the New York Islanders limited him to four assists in the ‘83 finals, and it was Mark Messier who took the Conn Smythe Trophy when the Edmonton Oilers finally revenged themselves on the Islanders and won the Cup the following year.

There is still no question that the Sedins, chosen second and third overall by Vancouver in the 1999 NHL draft, have established themselves among the world’s absolute elite at a later-than-average age.

“We had some tough years here in the early going,” said Daniel. “We wanted to get better every year. We took some small steps in the beginning. The last few years have obviously been going much better.”

In some respects, the Sedins’ journey simply confirms the prevailing view that Swedish players take longer to reach their top potential than, say, their Canadian or Russian counterparts.

But could the fact that the Örnsköldsvik natives didn’t strictly specialize in hockey as youngsters also account for their peaking late?

In Daniel J. Levitin’s well-known 2006 book This Is Your Brain on Music, the American psychologist states: “The emerging picture...is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert – in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or twenty hours a week, of practice over ten years.”

The Sedins had clearly put in their hours even before they came to North America in 2000. But like a fellow Swedish late-bloomer, Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, they didn’t just lock themselves in a hockey rink as teenagers.

When it comes to sports excellence, those ten thousand hours can be accumulated in more than one discipline, some experts believe. Overspecializing early can hold some athletes back.

“We were playing soccer up until age 16,” said Daniel. “I think it’s good to play a lot of sports when you grow up. Guys can get tired of playing hockey when they only play hockey growing up. But we played a lot of sports. We still think hockey is the best thing, and we’re having a lot of fun out there.”

The twins began pushing toward a point-per-game pace following the NHL lockout of 2005. Having been criticized relentlessly in their early years – would they end up as busts like the top pick from 1999, Atlanta’s Patrik Stefan? – they knew they had to get stronger in more ways than one.

There was the physical side. While the Sedins trained hard in their early years, they needed to refine their off-season routines to get NHL-ready. “It’s tough to play in this league when you struggle to keep up physically,” said Henrik, Vancouver’s captain. “When we came in, we didn’t have the speed, skating, or strength to beat guys in the corners. We’re still not the fastest skaters, but we can skate with the guys in this league. That’s been a big thing for us.”

How about the mental aspect?

“Mentally, I think you get stronger by the things you go through,” explained Henrik. “Mostly the bad stuff, that’s what makes you stronger. It’s easy to play when you’re not getting criticized and people think you’re the greatest. But when you go through tough stretches, either you quit or you move on and get stronger. That’s what we did.”

In 2009-10, things really came together when Henrik was named league MVP. His brother is a strong candidate to take home the Hart this season.

Now the twins bring the complete package, to the dismay of NHL foes and the delight of linemate Alexandre Burrows. He was playing in the ECHL as recently as 2004-05, but today finds himself alongside two NHL scoring champions nightly.

“I watched them play together for three or four years,” said Burrows. “They had different linemates. They’ve had Matt Cooke, Taylor Pyatt, Anson Carter. Even previously, when I wasn’t on the team, they used to play with guys like Jason King and Trent Klatt.”

Burrows knows the secret to complementing the twins’ extraordinary possession game: “The key is that they like to have the puck, and there’s only one puck on the ice. I’ve got to make sure they get the puck as many times I can. They’re going to make plays that nobody else in this league is able to do, saucer passes all over the ice. They can both beat guys out of the corner in what seems like really limited space. It’s spectacular. I just try to open up some space for them so they can have more time to settle the puck down and make plays.”

While the twins should remain great players for years to come, they know their window of opportunity to win a Stanley Cup is closing. That’s why they’ll do anything they can to oust Boston and bring the Canucks the first Cup in the franchise’s 40-year history.

It started well for the Canucks with a 1-0 victory on home ice in Game One on Wednesday when Raffi Torres scored the only goal with 19 seconds left in regulation time.

“We know from Vancouver’s experience in the past that it’s tough to get to this point,” said Henrik. “The Canucks have been in the finals three times now. It’s not easy, but there’s a reason for that. Especially since the lockout, we’ve had pretty much 25 teams that can win it every year.”

Just the kind of calm, logical perspective that you’d expect from a 30-something. One who knows the importance of staying on an even keel in the quest for Lord Stanley’s mug.

LUCAS AYKROYD

Myhres wants to give back to NHL by fighting substance abuse


By John Down, Postmedia News June 3, 2011 Calgary Herald


Brantt Myhres has been to the dark side . . . again and again and again and again . . . and again.

And now the 34-year-old former National Hockey League tough guy wants to give back, wants to share his knowledge, wants to help players who are struggling with substance abuse.

So with a certificate from Calgary’s Mount Royal University in substance abuse counselling, he has offered his services to the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association. As one who has first hand experience from years of battling with addictions, he believes it is a topic that is often ignored by the public or swept under the rug by the players themselves.

“A lot of it goes under the radar,” he said during a telephone interview from his home in Edmonton. “A lot of people really don’t hear the dark side of it. I played with seven different NHL teams, 17 pro teams to be exact, and I had a first hand glance at the abuse that went on.

“A lot of these guys don’t want to say anything to anybody because their careers are at stake and that’s where I could come in. They could confide in me because I’m speaking the same language. There’s no threat to them, like they’re going to a coach, a general manager or an agent. They’re going to an ex-player who’s been there, done that several times.”

Myhres struck out five times in the NHL, the fifth suspension leading to a lifetime ban.

“I think I was the only player to get suspended four times by the league and then get reinstated,” he said. “I played one game with the (Calgary) Flames, a pre-season game (in 2005), got my orbital bone smashed by (Edmonton Oilers’) Georges Laraque in a fight and after that my spirits were down and I ended up relapsing again.

“It was really dark for about a year and half. At some point I said, ‘I’m either going to die or I’m going to get sober.’ I went back to treatment for six months in Oregon and when I got out, my goal was to give back. I wanted to help players who are struggling with it.”

Myhres met with new NHLPA leader Donald Fehr recently but while they agreed he could be a liaison to players, any formal role would have to be jointly agreed upon by the league and PA.

The recent death of former New York Rangers’ Derek Boogaard further strengthened his stance that the issue needs to be openly addressed. Boogaard’s death was believed to have been triggered by a mix of alcohol and Oxycodone.

“I’d definitely like to see a little more awareness,” he said. “The whole league is up in arms over concussions but could you imagine if somebody had died from one of those concussions how crazy it would have gotten.

“But there seems to be very little attention paid to guys who die because of drug and alcohol abuse. You give an 18- or 19-year-old kid $500,000 or $1 million, it’s sometimes a recipe for disaster.”

Myhres drew his first suspension for alcohol abuse when he was just a 17-year-old member of the Western Hockey League’s Lethbridge Hurricanes. He paid his first visit to rehab when he was a 24-year-old member of the Philadelphia Flyers during the 1997-98 NHL campaign.

“They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result,” he said. “I looked at it as doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same result. You know what you’re getting into.

“For me I couldn’t seem to function without being medicated and I think fighting definitely took a major toll on me. I started fighting at age 16.”

Myhres had around 300 fights in pro hockey alone. In 154 regular season games in the NHL with Tampa Bay, the Flyers, San Jose, Nashville, Washington and Boston, he scored six goals and collected 687 minutes in penalties.

He never played in the NHL after Laraque broke his orbital bone, nor did he fight again. Now he’s been sober for three years but it’s an ongoing battle to stay out of the dark side.

“How I win the day is I don’t drink or do drugs,” he said. “I’m in the program and hang out with other people who have addiction issues and we try to get through it together.”

Mark Recchi continues to defy his age

ROY MacGREGOR | Boston - From Tuesday's Globe and Mail - Published Monday, Jun. 06, 2011


On Saturday night in Vancouver, Recchi became the oldest person in the history of hockey to score a goal in a Stanley Cup final when the shaft of his tree branch ticked a Zdeno Chara wristshot in behind Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo.

Monday night in Boston he became older still when he scored the winning goal in Boston’s crushing 8-1 defeat of the Canucks to set the series at two-games-to-one in Vancouver’s favour heading into Wednesday’s fourth game in this best-of-seven Stanley Cup final.

One period later, he became even older when he scored Boston’s sixth goal.

At 43, Recchi had just set, and then twice broke, a record he surely has no interest in owning. The previous senior citizen of the final had been Igor Larionov, who was 41 when he scored for Detroit Red Wings nearly a decade ago. Being “oldest ever” is an honour Larionov – who has won Olympic gold, world championships, Stanley Cups and the Canada Cup – likely hands over happily.

What the goals mean to Recchi is something quite different. Scoring in the NHL at 43 is not a distinction of age but rather a denial of age. He had not scored a point in his previous eight playoff games and was a minus-5 on the ice. He was being lashed in the media for his weak play, with the suggestion being that he be replaced by a player, 19-year-old rookie Tyler Seguin, who wasn’t even born when Recchi won his first Stanley Cup.

“The critics,” he announced at game’s end, “can kiss my ass.”

The native of Kamloops, B.C., in fact, played his first NHL game, in a Pittsburgh Penguins uniform, before five of his teammates were born. He himself was born in the year of the Prague Spring, the Vietnam War was raging; the year Pierre Trudeau became prime minister of Canada and The Beatles’ Hey, Jude was No. 1 on the hit parade.

What sets Recchi apart is that he is playing, at age 43, in a sport that has gotten dramatically younger in recent years, with footspeed far more a deciding factor than ice smarts. His familiar chop-chop stride – necessitated by short legs – remains almost as active as ever. Longtime hockey observers, however, have always maintained “it’s the hands that are first to go,” and recent evidence, such as the missed open net during Game 1 that would have given Boston a 1-0 lead in a game they lost 1-0, suggest that may well be true in Recchi’s case, as well, though his second goal of the night was off a good, quick shot.

Still, he is far from a ranking Methuselah in professional sport. Hall-of-Famer Gordie how was playing in the NHL at age 52. Soccer great Sir Stanley Matthews last played at age 50 in 1965. Football great George Blanda left the game in 1976 at 48. Satchel Paige pitched his last game at age 59 in 1966. Martina Navratilova played professional tennis at 49 and golfer Jerry Barber played a PGA event, the 1994 Buick Invitational, when he was 77.

According to Wikipedia, however, the oldest ranking athletes of all time are Ted (Double Duty) Radcliffe, who threw one pitch in the Northern League at age 96 back in 1999, and John Whitmore, a Masters Track competitor, who threw both javelin and discus at a competition back in 2004, when he was 104. “If I don’t drop it on my foot,” he said at the time, “I set a world record.”

Recchi’s record may stand for a long time, given that the game is getting so young and is also so physically abusive that even the best and strongest are often forced out in their early 30s. He is, in many ways, the game’s “Iron Man,” having missed precious few games to groin pulls and a single concussion suffered several seasons back. In more than 1600 regular-season games he has more than 1500 points, making him one of the game’s greatest scorers, even if he has rarely been recognized as such. His seasons have seemingly forever been overshadowed by teammates, from Eric Lindros when he was with the Philadelphia Flyers to Mario Lemieux when he was with Pittsburgh. He has played with seven teams, winning Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh in 1991 and Carolina Hurricanes in 2006. If he won a third this spring with Boston, he swore he would retire because he expected to party all summer and forego his usual extreme fitness regime.

The longtime oenophile recently told the Vancouver Province that a third Stanley Cup victory will mean he’ll be uncorking a bottle of 1970 Petrus that he bought back in the 1990s for $1,700.

It would be a proper salute to a career that surely will be remembered for more than three times – (with more still in him?) – becoming the oldest-ever to score a goal in the Stanley Cup final.

Rome suspended four games

THE CANADIAN PRESS June 7 2011


BOSTON -- The Vancouver Canucks will have to play the remainder of the Stanley Cup final minus defenceman Aaron Rome.

The NHL suspended Rome for four games Tuesday for his blindside hit on Boston forward Nathan Horton during Boston's 8-1 victory Monday night. With three games having already been played in the final, the suspension effectively ends Rome's season.

"Two factors were considered in reaching this decision," NHL senior vice-president of Hockey Operations Mike Murphy said in a statement. "The hit by Rome was clearly beyond what is acceptable in terms of how late it was delivered after Horton had released the puck and it caused a significant injury."

Rome was assessed a five-minute major for interference and game misconduct for the hit, which came at 5:07 of the first period.

Rome will miss the remainder of the Stanley Cup final. Should the series not go the full seven games, his suspension will carry over to the start of next season.

Horton will miss the rest of the final after suffering a severe concussion as a result of the hit.

"We have to find a way to rally around it," said Boston forward Milan Lucic. "Everyone has to do a little bit more."

"I talked to him today and he said he's feeling OK."

Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron added he thought the suspension was justified.

"I think it's significant," said Bergeron. "He's not going to come back, he's done for the playoffs. But losing Horts -- you can't replace him."

Horton had just passed the puck early in the first when Rome lowered his shoulder and left his skates to flatten him. Rome delivered what the Bruins saw as the kind of hit the NHL has tried to eliminate after several players sustained severe concussions.

The 26-year-old Horton, the right-winger on Boston's top line, was reportedly knocked unconscious by the collision, hitting his head on the ice and staying down for several minutes while medical personnel attended to him.

He left the game on a stretcher and was taken to hospital, where he remained overnight.

"He's been a great teammate for us all year," forward Mark Recchi, who scored two goals in Game 3, said before the decision was handed down. "It's tough to see your teammate down on the ice.

"We know it was late, but we're not in control of what the league does."

The Bruins updated Horton's condition in a release Tuesday morning.

Horton has eight goals and nine assists so far in the playoffs for Boston, which trails the best-of-seven final 2-1 heading into Game 4 on Wednesday night.

Horton is second in the playoffs with a plus-11 rating, and became the first player in NHL history to score a game-winning goal in a Game 7 twice in the same post-season run.

He skates on a line with centre David Krejci and Lucic. Boston coach Claude Julien hadn't yet decided how to replace Horton after the Bruins' victory Monday night.

"I think it's important for the whole league to protect our players from those sort of hits," said Julien.

Horton has been a hero in the post-season for Boston, which is in the Stanley Cup final for the first time in 21 years. Horton scored the winning goal in overtime in Game 7 of the first round against Montreal -- and again in the Eastern Conference final, getting the only goal in Boston's 1-0 victory over Tampa Bay late in the third period.

Horton is in his first career post-season after spending his first six seasons with the Florida Panthers. The former No. 3 overall draft pick has 168 goals and 180 assists in 502 games.

Horton was Boston's second-leading goal-scorer this season with 26 and finished fourth in team scoring with 53 points.

While Horton is a key offensive player for the Bruins, the 27-year-old Rome is a depth defenceman for the Canucks, usually playing in their third pairing. He has one goal and 37 penalty minutes in the post-season.

Vancouver already lost defenceman Dan Hamhuis to an undisclosed injury in Game 1 of the final. The Canucks are deep on defence, with veteran Keith Ballard sitting out the first three games as a healthy scratch.

Friend continues battle for Mandi Schwartz

ALLAN MAKI
Globe and Mail Update
Posted on Wednesday, June 8, 2011


Brennan Turner has lost his friend but he hasn’t lost the desire to fight for her.

The 24-year-old defenceman who befriended the late Mandi Schwartz, of Wilcox, Sask., is continuing to lead a bone marrow drive that could save the lives of others. Schwartz was diagnosed in 2008 with acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive cancer that attacks the bone marrow, and had undergone several treatments, including chemotherapy. She was scheduled for a bone marrow transplant this August after a donor was found but she died April 3 at the age of 23 after her cancer returned.

Turner, who like Schwartz played hockey at Yale University, is part of the OneMatch stem cell and marrow search operated by the Canadian Blood Services. There are several donation drives planned for Western Canada, including one in Regina this weekend and one in Calgary and Saskatoon on June 18-19.

“They’re looking for a specific age group, 17 to 39, and especially people of Black, Latin and Aboriginal descent,” said Turner. “It takes 15 minutes and (the collectors) do a cheek swab and the results are on (the CSB’s) reporting for 30 years.”

Turner had helped lead the charge to find a suitable donor for Schwartz. Schwartz’s teammates at Yale also held bone marrows drives and, according to Turner, five samples collected have produced matches for people in need.

“It wasn’t all for naught,” said Turner, who has remained in close contact with the Schwartz family. “We didn’t get the result everyone was hoping for Mandi, but there’s hope for others. I talked to Rick (Schwartz, Mandi’s dad) the other day and he doesn’t wish this on any family.”

Turner remains under contract to the Binghamton Senators of the American Hockey League.

NHL GMs support broader penalties for head hits

ERIC DUHATSCHEK
BOSTON— Globe and Mail Update
Published Wednesday, Jun. 08, 2011


To the surprise of virtually no one, a special blue ribbon committee asked to re-examine the NHL’s controversial head shot rule - aka Rule 48 -recommended that its scope be broadened and clarified for the start of the 2011-12 season.

The committee, which features Brendan Shanahan and Rob Blake of the NHL’s hockey operations staff and general managers Steve Yzerman (Tampa) and Joe Nieuwendyk (Dallas) made its report to NHL GMs Wednesday, the first step in getting it put into place for the start of next season.

Rule 48, which was introduced last year to eliminate blindside and lateral hits to the head, has resulted in a great deal of confusion, as the debate over head injuries dominated the league’s off-ice agenda this year.

Members of the committee didn’t specify exactly how the wording had changed, other than to acknowledge that the term “blindside” had been dropped. But it’s intentions are clear.

“With the broadening of the rule, it’ll incorporate more hits - and there’ll be stiffer penalties,” said Nieuwendyk. “The real teeth of it will be in supplemental discipline with Shanny - he’ll have the job to do that. It’s like any rule change. The players take time to adapt, but eventually, they figure it out.”

Hits to the head that featured “north-south” contact - such as the one delivered by the Vancouver Canucks’ Aaron Rome on the Boston Bruins’ Nathan Horton in Monday’s third game of the Stanley Cup final - do not contravene Rule 48 because the check was delivered in a head-on matter.

The reworked rule is supposed to clarify interpretations for all the interested parties - primarily coaches, players and managers, but also for the public at large, which has been perplexed by its seemingly uneven application over the course of the 2010-11 season.

Shanahan’s group will also present their findings to the competition committee and to the board of governors before it can be formally adopted.

Nieuwendyk retired in 2006 and says that the game has become so much faster in the short time that he’s been away - and that has been a contributing factor to the increase in head injuries.

“I marvel at the speed of it now,” said Nieuwendyk. “The rule changes that were implemented coming out of the lockout really opened up the game, but with that, bad things can happen - and I think that’s what we’ve been finding. Those rules were put in to make the game a certain way, but now we have to look at it again and say, ‘how do we make it safer?’”

Leafs’ general manager Brian Burke, who was the NHL’s chief disciplinarian before Colin Campbell, said his advice to Shanahan, who will get the job starting next year is “to have real thick skin and real small ears.”

“We want to continue the crackdown on head shots,” said Burke, who then repeated a familiar mantra - that hockey is a physical game and that the league cannot make it completely safe for all its players.

“I think people watch these interviews and say, ‘I don’t think these guys care about head shots.’ The tightrope we walk is, this is a full contact sport. It has always has been since we opened our doors for business - and we don’t want to change that.

“We want to eliminate the really dangerous plays, but this is a game where you’re going to get hit and there’s going to be injuries and we have to start with that basic understanding.”

Blake, who recently joined the NHL’s hockey operations staff after retiring last year, said: “Each year, you try to do something to improve it, and this year, it’s the safety of the players and expanding the head-hit rule.”

However, Blake said there was no appetite among GMs for a full ban of head hits - yet. “I don’t think it’s there by any means,” said Blake. “There are steps to that process. If that needs to be (adopted) down the road, someday maybe, but ...”

Blake left the sentence unfinished, but the answer was clearly: Not now.

Campbell: NHL GMs have no appetite to eliminate head shots

Ken Campbell / The Hockey News / 2011-06-08

BOSTON – Nobody is really sure exactly what the GMs spent five hours discussing Wednesday afternoon when it comes to head shots, largely because they were being deliberately vague, but we know two things emerged from their meeting.

First, despite its claims that player safety is paramount, the NHL is perfectly fine with the prospect of players still being carted off the ice on stretchers. Second, if Aaron Rome drills a player in the head the way he did to Nathan Horton in Game 3, he won’t be suspended provided the victim is carrying the puck or less time has lapsed between his pass and Rome lowering the boom.

The NHL continues to tweak its head shot rule, all the while claiming it’s making the game safer for its players. Apparently it considers this tiptoeing and lack of willingness to ban head shots outright as a form of progress.

“If you took that (Rome hit) back, put the puck on his stick, that hit is there,” said director of hockey operations, Rob Blake, who was part of the league’s “blue-ribbon panel” along with Brendan Shanahan, Steve Yzerman and Joe Nieuwendyk to guide the league on head shots. “That’s where we talk about the legal contact to the head. There are situations where there are big hits in the game and by no means do we want to take those out. Those are the ones that are full, clear body-contact hits. The ones where the head is targeted, those are going to be looked at.”

Until they run their recommendation past the competition committee next Monday, all parties involved were short on specifics. But there is the notion that Rule 48 was broadened. It appears now the north-south aspect of the rule will be abolished if the head is targeted and is the principal point of contact.

“Blind-side has been taken out as far as terminology,” said Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray. “And there will be more focus on hits to the head that will be penalized more.”

Which means when it comes to head shots, the league still can’t get beyond the notion that if it bans all hits to the head the way the Ontario League has done, it will reduce the league to four-on-four ringette.

“Why should we (have an outright ban on head shots),” said Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke. “If you have an otherwise legal hit that results in contact to the head, that’s part of the game and always has been. If you go to that rule, you’re going to take hitting right out of the game.”

Burke said he has monitored the OHL, which banned all head shots this season, and isn’t satisfied it hasn’t reduced hitting significantly. Those who run major junior franchises would argue otherwise and as Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller once said, nobody wants to take hitting out of the game, they just want to take stupid hits out of the game.

“This wouldn’t be like the OHL rule and some of the international rules,” Shanahan said. “This wouldn’t just be a blanket rule where any contact to the head is illegal. It’s not quite that far, but at the same time it’s more than what we have right now.”

In its first season of implementation, there were eight suspensions for hits that fell under the purview of Rule 48 and two of them were rescinded. GMs and league officials weren’t forthcoming when asked which hits from this season would have been deemed illegal under the new rule. Burke said his interpretation of the proposed new rule would not have penalized Raffi Torres for his hit on Brent Seabrook in the first round because it was a north-south hit.

All of which makes all of this just as confusing as ever. For years, the powers that be in hockey haven’t been able to even come up with a consensus on what actually should be deemed a head shot. Any hit to the head might be a good place to start. But it appears the men who hold the most power in the league to make change, and they all think they’re doing the best thing for the game, are unwilling to do anything drastic…ever.

Consider that Shanahan, Blake, Yzerman and Nieuwendyk are considered the brightest, most progressive young minds in the game. If they’re not willing to do what it takes to seriously curb head shots, there’s really no hope anyone will.

Honestly speaking

Like them or not Alex Burrows and Maxim Lapierre haven’t figured out how to play an honest game.


Mark Spector Sportsnet.ca June 12, 2011


BOSTON — It really isn’t about whether or not you like the Vancouver Canucks, abhor them, or whether they qualify as Canada’s Team, a term we’ve never cared for.

Beauty, alas, is in the eye of the beholder.

In Maxim Lapierre, the Canucks fan sees a toothy grin and a game-winning goal, while others temper that snapshot with the embarrassing bit of play acting he plied in the first period of Game 5. Zdeno Chara’s stick touched Lapierre’s torso, and Lapierre acted like he’d been run through by a jousting lance.

A Canucks fan wonders how that cross check by Dennis Seidenberg could possibly not be called. The guy in Ottawa sees No. 14’s head snap back roughly four times a game, and wonders how on earth a referee could tell when he’s watching the gritty Alex Burrows, or his alter ego, spring-boarder Alexandre Despatie?

But here’s the problem for Vancouver: referees aren’t Canucks fans. They aren’t Boston Bruins fans, or fans of any team in the National Hockey League.

They are, like us sports writers, observers whose job it is to separate fiction from reality. And deep down, they are hockey men, just like players, coaches, and managers.

There is a term that is exclusive to hockey, one you seldom hear in a football locker room or baseball clubhouse. When an NHLer gains the permanent respect in hockey circles, he is known by his peers simply as an honest player.

It is faint praise — unless you know the culture. Then, it is the ultimate compliment.

So, by their hockey DNA, officials are less trustful of any foul that involves a player not thought to be an honest player.

Burrows is a very good player but you can’t dupe officials as often as he has over the years, and be known as an honest player.

Lapierre has dug his hole even deeper over the years. In NHL circles, his reputation is likely irretrievable.

That’s not simply my opinion, or some fan’s view, and nor does it mean that he can’t help your team win. Clearly he can.

Two skilled players like these, however, have become a metaphor for the Canucks. They don’t need to dive to be impactful, useful players. Nor do the Canucks need those forged elements to win the Stanley Cup.

The team would be fine — perhaps even further ahead — without those elements.

"They have so much speed and skill on that side," Bruins Brad Marchand said. "We have to play physical to try and slow them down. If we’re worried about guys falling down and stuff like that, that’s what the refs are there for is to make judgment calls and they’ll do that."

And there is the rub, folks.

We’ve had the conversation enough times, with enough NHL referees. Like just over a year ago, after that incident between referee Stephane Auger and Burrows.

You’ll recall Burrows’ claim that Auger had threatened to pay him back for some fakery in a game Auger had refereed earlier that season. Then Auger called two late penalties on Burrows, as if on cue.

What Auger had done wrong, a few fellow officials told me the next day, was follow Burrows around during the warmup, conducting a conversation heard by only between the two of them. He left the interpretation of that chat open to a he-said she-said scenario that followed that night in Vancouver.

If an NHL official were allowed to speak publicly to this, here is what he would say:

"I go to the bench to talk to the coach, I stand in front of the player, and I make sure his teammates can hear me. I tell the coach, ‘Look, I don’t know what is a penalty and what isn’t a penalty with this guy. So I’m just not going to call anything with him, because then none of us look bad.’"

At that moment, the player’s coach and teammates all realize the same thing: This player has turned the officials against them, to some small extent. And they know the opponent, as the Bruins did in Game 5, will take advantage of that impunity whenever possible.

So even if it is only by a small increment, the actions of Lapierre and Burrows make it harder to win. The calls that aren’t made, the Lucic powerplay evened out by Burrows’ perceived dive — how could the ref possibly tell? — they are going to cost you.

The goal of the referee is that the player’s own teammates and coaches cure him. Why that has not happened in Vancouver, under a solid man like Alain Vigneault, we just don’t know.

Via twitter, Canucks fans have asked, "Why don’t referees call each incident separately from the other ones. Why does one call affect the next?"

The answer: Human nature, and tradition.

Human nature penned the old standard, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

For the rest of this Stanley Cup final, it will be shame on Burrows, and shame on Lapierre.

That’s the way it works, and that’s the way it always has worked in hockey.

And it won’t change for a couple of guys who, like them or not, have never figured out how to play an honest game.

Vancouver brothers sculpted game of hockey 100 years before Canucks vied for cup


The Canadian Press 2011-06-13 The Hockey News


VANCOUVER - When Roberto Luongo drops to his knees to make a game-changing save, overjoyed Vancouver Canucks fans erupt with wild gratitude for the swift move.

What many don't appreciate is that dynamic manoeuvre was invented by a pair of hockey-head brothers 100 years before the superstar goaltender was to compete for the Stanley Cup in the same city where the brothers laced up the new rule.

In fact, the exuberant crowds wouldn't be watching playoffs at all if not for the Vancouver-based Patrick brothers.

"They really were innovations, stuff that wasn't tried anywhere before in the game," said Jason Beck, curator for the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, of the lengthy list of ingenuities introduced by the brothers.

"(They) literally changed the game to what we're seeing today in the Vancouver-Boston series. I mean, there is a direct connection between what happened in 1911 to 2011."

Lester and Frank Patrick are credited with making vital contributions to Canada's favourite sport, earning them and their offspring the moniker of "hockey's royal family."

They invented the playoff series as it now stands, put numbers on jerseys, created the blueline, tightened the number of players teams were allowed to have on the ice and permitted goalies to develop the butterfly stance.

The duo was born in Drummondville, Que. to a wealthy lumber baron who moved his operations and sons to Nelson, B.C. in the early 20th century. They were both skilled professional hockey players who won the Stanley Cup, convincing their father to sell off his land in the Southern Interior to start their own three-team league further West.

It was a huge risk, considering Vancouver rarely got cold enough for local ponds to freeze into ice. Sometimes, the hockey season lasted only a few days.

But with a half-million dollars, the family built artificial ice arenas in Vancouver and in Victoria, creating the Pacific Coast Hockey Association.

"They were really smart businessmen, and they had to be, because it wasn't a money-making operation, especially at first," Beck said, adding that in the beginning, the Patricks made more cold, hard cash selling ice for iceboxes from the refrigeration plant than from the sports sales.

Within their league they played, coached, managed and owned the teams and held the role of commissioner, allowing them to adjust the rules and move players around as they liked, just to keep play exciting. Between 1911 and 1926, they implemented nearly two dozen additions and changes that remain with the game today:

Playoff format: Other than baseball's World Series, neither hockey nor other professional sports featured a "second season" to determine the best of the best. The team that won in its division was simply crowned king. The Patricks wanted to reward teams that played well but might have been lower in the standings. They created a best-of-three or best-of-five series instead of the traditional two-games, total-goals series. Ticket sales shot up.

Jersey numbers: Prior to helmets, players were identified from the head up. By pinning a number on the backs of hockey sweaters, the Patricks surmised they could sell programs listing player names alongside their number.

Blueline: The red centreline was once the only one. Wanting to invigorate the game and add more offence, the Patricks installed blue lines. Unrestricted passing was allowed in the neutral zone, the central zone, which led to the acceptance of forward passing.

Player structure: Hockey was originally played by seven people—three forwards, two defencemen, a goalie, and a rover who could skate all over the ice. The brothers eliminated that final position.

Goaltending: Prior to the Patricks' league, goalies were only permitted to stand to make a save.

Other innovations included introducing the penalty shot, legalizing the kicking of the puck in play, allowing substitution of players during play, having two referees on the ice and tracking assists, as opposed to just goals. The brothers also coined the term "superstar," which they applied to players such as Cyclone Taylor.

Beck said Frank Patrick was the dreamer and the thinker, while his older brother Lester was the promoter and showman. Together they had the insider knowledge of players, as well as the resources to ensure their rule changes would stick.

Most significantly, they were able to cut through the "old, stodgy" rules that prevailed in the East, Beck said.

"The West was uncharted territory for hockey, a blank canvas. I don't think there's any possible way they could have implemented so many of these changes in such a dramatic way in the East because everything was so entrenched there," he said.

"These were crazy, revolutionary things at the time but they're still here with us."

FRASER: GAME 7 MEANS PRESSURE ON OFFICIALS AS WELL

Kerry Fraser's Blog TSN 6/15/2011

Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry Fraser wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn.ca!


As both teams approach Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, a number of cliches can be used to describe the importance of this game, including, "There's no tomorrow; It's Do or Die; This game is for all the marbles..." The real heart of the matter, in my opinion, is the team that hoists the Cup tonight will ultimately be the group that collectively demonstrates the most heart (in addition to the odd break, lucky bounce or even a power play here or there.)

The events of this series have been more bizarre than any that I have witnessed during my 30 years as an NHL referee. I can't ever remember this kind of drama since I watched every Stanley Cup series as a fan from the time I was allowed to stay up past my normal bedtime either (Prior to that, I snuck my transistor radio with ear piece into bed to catch the end of the game).

Both teams are banged up and their rosters depleted through serious injuries and suspensions; perhaps the Canucks more than the Bruins. All things not being equal, this is when drastic times call for drastic measures. It will take heroic efforts from one or all to have their names etched forever on this Challis.

The kind of heroic feet (no pun intended) I'm talking about is the “heart” exhibited by Bobby Baun in the 1964 Stanley Cup Final. Baun blocked a Gordie Howe shot with 10 minutes remaining in game 6 and was carried off the ice on a stretcher. Refusing medical treatment he had the ankle frozen, taped and returned to score the game winner on a broken ankle in overtime to force Game 7. Bob Baun's heroism didn't just end with that victory. His job wasn't done and he refused to have the ankle x-rayed until after helping the Leafs win Game 7 and the Stanley Cup by a score of 4-0. Bob Baun didn't miss a shift in that final game. That's the kind of heart I'm talking about that will be required tonight. Whoever can dig the deepest and overcome this reservoir of pain will taste from the Cup. It's the Stanley Cup stuff heroes and legends are made of.

There will be a third team on the ice as well. Their deep desire is to avoid becoming (or perceived as) a negative factor in the outcome of this game. Added pressure will certainly be on them to achieve this objective given the events to this point in the series. How they prepare themselves (& are prepared by Officiating/Hockey Ops) will go a long way to achieving a successful result in their performance. I say with the utmost confidence that all of us hope the officials will be a non factor in this final game. Let me share some thoughts on my preparation and occasional obstacles to overcome in memorable game 7's that I worked.

Dealing with pressure is unique to every player and official; individual coping skills are developed along the way. Experience is often the best teacher when dealing with the internal combustion associated with the pressure of a Game 7. Sometimes you even have to incubate yourself from everything just so you don't crawl out of your skin prior to the game.

The first time that I was thrust into a Game 7 pressure cooker was in the Battle of Quebec in 1985. This was only the third time I had been assigned to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the first time I had been chosen to work Game Seven of a divisional final series. Needless to say I was pretty raw in terms of experience. I arrived in Montreal in the morning the day before the game and well in advance of my 10:00 P.M. curfew. There was nothing that matched the intense rivalry between these two franchises and their fans. I wanted to be well prepared!

As soon as I landed in Montreal and collected luggage, I noticed how intently I was being stared at by arriving passengers and airport workers. As I passed a skycap, I was greeted with a nod of the head along with “Bonne chance.” Once I hit the line for the taxis, it seemed that everyone I met, from the man who loaded my bags, to the cab driver, to the doorman at the hotel, to the front desk staff wanted to talk to me about the “big game”; even asking who I thought would win!

By the time that linesmen, John D'Amico and Ray Scapinello arrived that evening I had locked myself in my room and ordered room service. I couldn't even turn the television on without something popping up about the game. I told Scampy I'd see him for breakfast - I was in for the night.

I woke early with the sensation that something was crawling all over my body. Upon inspection, I discovered I was covered head to toe in big, red, itchy welts. At least they weren't on my face. I thought, What the hell is this? I was too embarrassed to mention it to anybody - let alone Referee in Chief, John McCauley. He might have thought he made the wrong choice in assigning this young referee to such a huge game. Instead I stayed covered up neck to toe and privately consulted the advice of a pharmacist after my lunch with the officiating crew. Eliminating a series of diagnostic questions he finally asked if I was nervous or anxious about anything. My Hell Yes I'm nervous, caused him to recommend an antihistamine for the serious case of hives that I had. I met up with the other guys and told them I would meet them at the Forum that night using the excuse that I had to get there early for some equipment repair. The truth is I didn't want to have to change in front of them. By the time Scamp and D'Amico arrived in the room, the red welts were totally concealed by my long underwear.

I attempted to calm my mind and focus in the room on what I had ahead of me in the game. As soon as I stepped on the ice, all was forgotten, other than the energy inside the Forum. It was an unbelievable, end-to-end game. Both teams came to play, and there was none of the rough stuff that we might have anticipated. At the end of regulation time, it was all tied up.

Once I dropped the puck it didn't take long for Peter Stastny to score on Steve Penney to give the Nordiques the series win in OT. Back in the dressing room I cautiously removed my long underwear, this time in front of my colleagues. To my pleasant surprise, the only thing I saw was my lily white skin. The pressure was off.

The experience I gained in this Game 7 assignment helped me through countless pivotal games and other Game 7s throughout the balance of my career.
I worked game seven in the 2001 Final between the New Jersey Devils and the Colorado Avalanche and I must tell you the city of Denver was electrified from the moment the sun came up that morning. The only minute of calm I found that day was at 8 a.m., when I went down to the Pepsi Center for a skate before the teams arrived. Most of the energy was created in anticipation of Raymond Bourque winning his first and only Stanley Cup.

My final Game 7 was the 2004 Tampa victory over Calgary that I wrote about the other day and touched on the bizarre circumstances that occurred behind the scenes in that one.

In spite of the pressure and energy that was created in Denver and Tampa, quite similar to that which I experienced in Montreal, my coping skills and approach to dealing with it had vastly improved. There were no red welts on my body beyond that May night in 1985. Instead of hiding in my room I went to morning mass before getting to the rink early for a skate; whether alone or with any of the officiating crew that wanted to join me. I looked for peaceful environments on the day of the game. I also drew on my internal engine to control my energy level, emotions and positive thoughts. The distractions must be blocked out for the players and the officials to embrace this moment in hockey history with excitement, all the while retaining a calm resolve and focus to achieve their maximum potential on the ice in this final game.

And in Vancouver, whether any of the officiating crew has red welts on their body or not, it is my hope that when the puck drops, any nervousness is forgotten and they simply react to what the players dictate by applying a consistent and acceptable standard from start to finish.

One way or the other, history will be made...

I know this is a hockey site, but I believe the hockey model in Canada could use some improvements. Soccer is the #1 sport in our country and growing much more rapidly. Hockey has plateaued and registration numbers are down. Wake up hockey!

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In a hockey city, soccer scores

In our hockey-obsessed nation, soccer has quietly become the most played sport in the country. In Calgary, soccer participation has been growing so quickly that it's becoming a victim of its own success.

By Sean Myers, Calgary Herald June 19, 2011

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/hockey+city+soccer+scores/4971134/story.html#ixzz1Pk3KCaCm



When Lia Lousier and husband Michael Hicks decided to start their two boys Torin, 6, and Rylan, 4, in organized sports, they considered hockey, but hesitated.

Torin is autistic and Rylan is still young. And they worried hockey might be too expensive and time consuming. Both parents played soccer as kids, and thought it might be a good first exposure to team sports.

Nobody batted an eye at signing both boys up. Today, Torin is playing alongside his brother on the roster of the under-six Orange Tigers in the community league run by McKnight Sport Council.

"The coaches have been great with him, running up and down the field with him," she said of Torin. And for Rylan? "He really enjoys it and I think for him it's something he'll carry through for a number of years."

The couple is among the growing number of Calgarians becoming deeply involved in soccer. In a nation obsessed with hockey -enough to spark a riot in Vancouver -soccer has quietly become the most played sport in Canada. Fuelled by its accessibility, low cost and universality, and given new dimensions by multicultural immigration from soccer-loving nations, Canada has become a participatory soccer nation.

In Calgary, the pace of soccer's growth over the past decade has been breakneck and, despite some growing pains, the sport's popularity will likely keep climbing.

Nationwide, soccer now far surpasses hockey or any other sport for participation. Last summer, 847,616 soccer players of all ages and abilities registered to play in a league, according to the Canadian Soccer Association, compared to 572,411 Canadians registered to play hockey in the 2010-11 season, from the youngest tykes through minor associations, postsecondary and senior and recreation leagues.

During the recent boom in Calgary, soccer registration increased by as much as 20 per cent annually. Now it's going up at about the same rate as population growth.

Today, about 15,000 kids are signed up for minor soccer and another 15,000 in community soccer leagues. In total, an estimated 109,000 Calgarians take part in soccer as players, coaches and referees, including house leagues, high school teams and various independent organizations such as the city's Chinese Soccer Association.

At the same time, minor hockey registration has plateaued at about 13,000 over the past four years, according to Hockey Canada.

Part of that growth has come from new Canadians, who bring with them a love of soccer from all over the world.

Organizers with the Calgary Minor Soccer Association, however, are still reaching out to new immigrants and Muslims who are underepresented in Calgary's soccer leagues.

One of those initiatives is enlisting a multilingual Muslim family in Taravista to help break down barriers

"Overall in the minorities, soccer is loved. Regardless of where they come from, they truly do love the sport," said Khalil Karbani, vice-president of the Genesis Centre, an athletic facility currently under construction in the northeast.

"They play soccer on the street and on any bit of green space they can find up here."

But he and his wife Noshy, and their four soccer-playing children, said families have shied away from registering their kids to play community and minor league soccer, especially the girls. They attribute that reluctance to an incident in 2007 at the Calgary Soccer Centre involving a girl who was told by a referee she couldn't play unless she took off her hijab head covering. She refused and the aftermath gained widespread media attention.

The Alberta Soccer Association later ruled that girls could wear sport hijabs as long as they could come off easily for safety reasons.

FIFA rules also allow long pants and long sleeve tops to be worn for religious reasons, but the Karbanis say that isn't widely known in the immigrant and Muslim communities.

The Karbani family plans to visit schools to spread the word through the communities in the northeast encouraging kids to sign up for teams and soccer clinics.

"We're trying to gradually get them to get back into it and say, 'yes you can wear a hijab,' " said Karbani. "You can wear your lose clothes and still be able to play football, get healthy, get fit and enjoy yourself."

Daryl Leinweber, executive director of the Calgary Minor Soccer Association, said he actively sought help to reach out to families of visible minorities who aren't signing up to play.

"If you can find people that speak the language and that can identify with the culture to become a support of your sport, that's key," said Leinweber. "We found that with this family. They're terrific ambassadors for us.

"Our objective is to find ways for kids to be able to play not find ways to stop them. So we make every effort we can to be inclusive to find a way so every child can play."

Soccer in the city has also become a victim of its own success. A lack of playing fields is limiting growth.

"Soccer has participation well beyond any other sport," said Leinweber. "If we had the facilities we'd see even more of this growth within the sport."

In 2008, Sport Calgary (formerly the Calgary Sport Council) put out a 10-year strategic plan for developing new athletic facilities. It identified a serious deficit in the number of facilities compared to participants.

Since then, $300 million in provincial funding has poured into the city, largely for hockey arena projects. The money also supported two outdoor artificial turfs at Shouldice Park, and about $70 million is going toward the Genesis Centre which will include three new indoor fields and two outdoor soccer pitches.

The city lost three indoor fields when the bubble collapsed at the Calgary Soccer Centre last year, but those are to be replaced under a new permanent structure to be built at the site.

"We're making some strides to catch up," said Tim Bjornson, executive director of Sport Calgary. "When you look at the top 13 sport activities, the majority are summer activities.

"Things are happening but our investment in sport and recreation infrastructure has to be on a continual basis or we'll never catch up."

A major difference between the demographics of soccer and hockey also has an impact on facilities, said Bjornson.

There are far more adults playing hockey who require higher quality facilities, while 80 per cent of soccer players are youth and the majority of those are under 14, he said.

"They don't need as high-level facilities," said Bjornson. "A lot of the growth in soccer has been in that community soccer range with under-eight, under-six and under-four. They just need a field that is safe to play on, they don't need artificial turf. You have to ask what level of facility do you really need to participate.

"But soccer has been growing, there's no doubt about that, and there are demands there."

Calgary Minor Soccer has placed an emphasis on improving coaching at the earliest ages to improve the skill level of young players. Better skilled players stay in the game longer said Leinweber, meaning better facilities are going to be needed in the short and long term.

For parents, the biggest and most obvious advantage soccer has over hockey is financial. It can cost a minimum of $1,000 for a set of hockey equipment that will have to be replaced several times as the player grows.

Soccer requires a pair of shin pads and cleats.

"We don't consider hockey for the cost," said Kristen Dawson, who has a seven-year-old daughter and five-year-old son playing on the same under-six team in the McKnight community league.

"It's too expensive -the equipment, ice time, and then there's all the volunteer time, it's so involved.

"This is something you can pick up. It's within the community, we enjoy it. They do it twice a week, they get to run, it's great."

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/hockey+city+soccer+scores/4971134/story.html#ixzz1Pk2lMM8Z