TheColorOfHockey

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Tag Archives: Anaheim Ducks

Wayne Simmonds among players of color moved on NHL trading deadline day

26 Tuesday Feb 2019

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Anaheim Ducks, Anthony Duclair, Brandon Montour, Cliff Pu, Los Agelese Kings, Nashville Predators, Nicholas Baptiste, Philadelphia Flyers, Wayne Simmonds

Forward Wayne Simmonds topped the list of players of color who were dealt to new National Hockey League teams prior to the close of Monday’s trade deadline.

 

Forward Wayne Simmonds sent to Nashville Predators.

Simmonds, long a leading scorer and key locker room presence for the Philadelphia Flyers, went to the Nashville Predators for forward Ryan Hartman and a conditional 2020 fourth round draft pick.

 “I was extremely on edge, obviously, not knowing where the day would do or how it would unfold,” Simmonds told Canada’s TSN. “I went to the rink this morning for practice and then I was told I wouldn’t be practicing. I had a chance to say bye to the boys for the last time. It happened at the last minute of the deadline and I’m kind of overwhelmed right now.”

A hard-nosed player with scoring ability around the net, Simmonds was the Flyers seventh-leading scorer this season with 27 points – 16 goals and 11 assists in 62 games.

He notched 24 or more goals in all but one season season since the Flyers acquired him from the Los Angeles Kings in June 2011 along with forward Brayden Schenn and second-round draft pick for forward Mike Richards.

Simmonds played his last game as a Flyer outdoors Saturday night, a 4-3 overtime win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field. An emotional Simmonds and Flyers teammates knew he would likely be dealt Monday.

At 30, Simmonds is in the final year of his contract and the Flyers reportedly were reluctant to sign him to a long-term deal. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent this summer unless Nashville strikes a deal with him.

Monday’s trade reunites Simmonds with Nashville Coach Peter Laviolette, who was Philadelphia’s bench boss from 2009-10 to 2013-14.

pic.twitter.com/A8TfqyJzPc

— Jakub Voracek (@jachobe) February 25, 2019

"Keep making this push and keep our hopes alive and our dreams alive."

After a thrilling #StadiumSeries win on Saturday night, the #Flyers locker room had an emotional Helmet hand-off. pic.twitter.com/ZT9kOTwinh

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) February 24, 2019

Simmonds scored 32 goals in 2015-16 and 31 goals the following season. Most of those goals came on power plays when he would set up shop in front of the opposing goaltender and wait for deflections or rebounds.

Simmonds suffered a rash of injuries last season – a tear in his pelvic area, a fractured ankle, pulled groin, two mouth injuries, and a torn ligament in his right thumb. Still, he managed to score 24 goals and 22 assists in 75 games.

Embed from Getty Images

The Anaheim Ducks swapped defenseman Brandon Montour to the Buffalo Sabres for defenseman Brendan Guhle and a conditional 2019 first round draft pick. Montour, who grew up in the Six Nations community of Ohsweken in Canada, was Anaheim’s top-scoring defenseman.

Defenseman Brandon Montour dealt to Buffalo Sabres.

He tallied 25 points – 5 goals and 20 assists – in 62 games and logged the fourth-most ice time among Anaheim defenders at 22:40 minutes per game.

The Toronto Maple Leafs obtained forward Nicholas Baptiste from Nashville future considerations. Baptiste, a Buffalo 2013 third round draft pick, had been playing for the Milwaukee Admirals, Nashville’s American Hockey League affiliate. Had 22 points – 12 goals and 10 assists – in 55 games with the Admirals.

The Florida Panthers acquired forward Cliff Pu from the Carolina Hurricanes for future considerations. Pu, a 2016 Buffalo third-round draft pick, had 1 goal and 5 assists for the Charlotte Checkers, the Hurricanes AHL farm team.

Embed from Getty Images

On Saturday, the Columbus Blue Jackets traded speedy forward Anthony Duclair  and second round picks in 2020 and 2021 to the Ottawa Senators for forward Ryan Dzingel. Duclair, a New York Rangers 2013 third round draft pick, had 11 goals and 8 assists in 53 games for Columbus this season.

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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‘Chef Jojo,’ Willie, and the bobblehead hang out at a D.C. hockey charity game

08 Friday Feb 2019

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Anaheim Ducks, Congressional Hockey Challenge, Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, Paul Kariya, Willie O'Ree

Sometimes pictures say it all, but we’ll take a few words anyway.

Joel “Chef Jojo” Thomas cherishes four things: Cooking, hockey, the Anaheim Ducks, and Hockey Hall of Famer Willie O’Ree.

Clad in a Ducks jersey and carrying a Willie O’Ree bobblehead, Thomas ventured to Washington’s Capital One Arena Wednesday night to watch the annual Congressional Hockey Challenge between a team of D.C. lobbyists and a squad of lawmakers and to meet his idol, O’Ree, who was the National Hockey League’s first black player.

Mission accomplished.

Joel “Chef Jojo” Thomas with Hockey Hall of Famer Willie O’Ree at Capital One Arena in Washington.

To call Thomas hardcore hockey would be an understatement. The Washington, D.C.-area chef is a forward in a men’s league at the Piney Orchard Ice Arena in Odenton, Maryland, and helps out when he can with the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, North America’s oldest minority youth hockey program.

Thomas got hooked on hockey after seeing “The Mighty Ducks” movie as a kid and became an NHL Ducks fan back in the days when that team was Mighty.

And left wing Paul Kariya was his player, so much so that he made the journey to Anaheim in October 2018 to watch the Ducks retire Kariya’s number. He made the pilgrimage to Toronto to witness Kariya’s induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2017.

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

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‘Indian Horse’ Canadian hockey movie finally makes it to the U.S. big screen

03 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Anaheim Ducks, Brandon Montour, Devin Buffalo, Edmonton Oilers, Ethan Bear, Fred Sasakamoose, Greenville Swamp Rabbits, Harvard University, Indian Horse, Maryann Macdonald

“Nobody wants to see an Indian movie.”

That was the general response director Stephen Campanelli and the makers of “Indian Horse” initially received from the Canadian and Hollywood movie industry when they pitched the idea of bringing the fictional story of a First Nations boy – a survivor of Canada’s notorious Catholic residential schools – and his difficult path to adulthood and hockey fame to the big screen.

“‘Does the general public really want to see this?’ That was the attitude. ‘Why bring up the bad past,’ which really wasn’t that long ago.” Campanelli told me recently. “But it’s a great story that people connect with. And if you don’t connect with the part about the racism and horrible things that happened to the indigenous people, you connect with the hockey – you see the resilience and the power of a sport like hockey to change people’s lives.”

AJ Kapasheist is one of three actors who portrays Saul Indian Horse, a hockey-playing survivor of Canada’s residential schools, at various stages in his life (Photo/Elevation Pictures).

American audiences now have the chance to see “Indian Horse” as the Canadian-made film executive produced by Academy Award-winning actor/director Clint Eastwood has finally crossed the border.

It took five years before the film was finally made and released in Canada in April. And it took months to get distribution interest in the United States. But for a product that folks allegedly wouldn’t see, “Indian Horse” has done alright, collecting 16 film awards.

“We work in an industry where indigenous stories and characters on the screen do not reach mainstream audiences,” said  Christine Haebler, one of the film’s producers. “An all-Native or indigenous acted movie is not what distributors or theaters are used to seeing and selling on their screens even in 2018.”

But the timing seems right for “Indian Horse” – for positive and negative reasons.

The film comes at a time when a growing number Native American/First Nations players are achieving success at all levels of hockey – from Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price giving a nod to his heritage in accepting the Vezina Trophy in 2015 to the Ditidaht First Nation’s Maryna Macdonald playing defense for Harvard University this season.

It also comes at a time when indigenous hockey players are still experiencing a disturbing number of racist incidents and continue to endure hateful taunts about their heritage.

Last Friday, a pee wee hockey game near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, ended before the third period after players and parents allegedly hurled racially and culturally insensitive remarks toward the opposing team, the Waywayseecappo Wolverines.

“We heard many parents saying ‘Those boys are just going to get drunk, maybe they’re drunk now. They’re probably hung over…,”  Tanis Brandon, the mother of a Wolverines player and the team’s assistant manager, told CBC. “I felt like crying…As an adult, I didn’t even know how to handle it if someone called me a dirty Indian or a savage.”

In May, members of the First Nation Elite Bantam AAA team endured racist slurs and taunts at the Coupe Challenge Quebec in Quebec City, Canada.

“Indian Horse,” based on the late author Richard Wagamese’s best-selling novel of the same name, will be screened in Tempe, Arizona, on Friday and will be shown in other theaters nationwide later this month.

Actor Forrest Goodluck plays a young Saul Indian Horse, who hones his hockey skill at a Canadian residential school (Photo/Elevation Pictures).

It was shown at the Yakama Nation Heritage Theater in Toppenish, Washington, and at the 23rd annual Red Nation International Film Festival in Los Angeles last month.

The movie doesn’t pull punches. Through the eyes of protagonist Saul Indian Horse, the film gives an unvarnished portrayal of life for Indigenous youth who were plucked from their families and shipped to residential schools, which were established under the premise of helping the children assimilate to white Canadian culture.

Between the 1880s and 1996, more than 150,000 indigenous children attended  residential schools. Many of them reported being sexually, physically and psychologically abused by priests, nuns, and other teachers.

The Canadian government formally apologized for the schools in 2008 and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established out of a negotiated settlement that included monetary compensation for survivors.

Fred Sasakamoose, a residential school survivor, became the NHL’s first indigenous player with treaty status when he skated for the Chicago Black Hawks in 1953-54(Photo/Courtesy Hockey Hall of Fame) and Getty Embed.

Fred Sasakamoose cried as he watched “Indian Horse” at a screening in April. Sasakamoose, who is Ahtahkakoop Cree, became the first indigenous player with treaty status to play in the National Hockey League, accomplishing the feat when he skated for the Chicago Black Hawks against the Toronto Maple Leafs on February 27, 1954.

Like Saul Indian Horse, Sasakamoose found an escape from the horrors of the residential schools in hockey.

Harvard University defenseman Maryna Macdonald.

“It hit back the pain,” Sasakamoose said of the film. “The impact of that movie – it was my life. It is a good movie, but it is also painful.”

While there are some similarities between Sasakamoose and the movie’s lead character, Haebler notes that “Saul Indian Horse took a divergent path of Fred Sasakamoose’s life.”

“Without spoiling the movie, Saul Indian Horses experience differs greatly,” said said.

Harvard’s Macdonald, whose grandmother attended a residential school, said “Indian Horse” is “a great movie that, obviously touches on a heavy topic.”

“The depiction they have in the movie is pretty powerful,” she told me. “It kind of gives light for a lot of people who might not understand a lot about residential schools.”

And it gives light to how hard it was for players like Sasakamoose to make their way in a mostly-white hockey world. Sasakamoose’s NHL career spanned only 11 games in the 1953-54 season in which the talented center failed to score.

Harvard University defenseman Maryna Macdonald in action (Photo/Gil Talbot).

But his brief presence blazed the trail for other indigenous players like Reggie Leach, the high-scoring Philadelphia Flyers right wing who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the best Stanley Cup Playoffs performer in 1976, and center Bryan Trottier, a seven-time Stanley Cup champion on three different teams and the NHL’s Most Valuable Player in 1979.

Now, a new generation of Native American/First Nations players, like Macdonald, are at the dawn of their careers, helping to further break down barriers and debunk myths.

Brandon Montour, patrols the blue line for the Anaheim Ducks; Edmonton Oilers defensive prospect Ethan Bear skates for the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League; and Devin Buffalo has gone from being a standout netminder at Ivy League Dartmouth College to a rookie for the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL.

Greenville Swamp Rabbits goaltender Devin Buffalo hopes his play will help shatter stereotypes against Native American/First Nations hockey players (Photo/Greenville Swamp Rabbits).

Buffalo told CBC in October that his dream “to show people where a Native hockey player could go and overcome these obstacles and stereotypes.”

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

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Former Florida Panthers enforcer Peter Worrell joins pro hockey’s coaching ranks

14 Saturday Jul 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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ACHA, Anaheim Ducks, Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers, Frantz Jean, Fred Brathwaite, New York Islanders, Nigel Kirwan, Peter Worrell, Scott Gomez, Tampa Bay Lightning, University of Nebraska Omaha

 Peter Worrell punched his way into professional hockey. Now he’s looking to coach his way back to the pros.

Worrell, who accumulated more than 1,500 penalty minutes as a left wing and enforcer for the Florida Panthers and Colorado Avalanche from 1997-98 to 2003-04, was named assistant coach of the Fayetteville Marksmen of the single-A Southern Professional Hockey League last week.

Former Florida Panthers forward Peter Worrell in 2002.

A Panthers 1995 seventh-round draft pick, Worrell quickly turned to coaching after playing his last professional game with the ECHL’s Charlotte Checkers in 2005-06.

He returned to Florida the following season to become head coach of North Broward Preparatory School. He assumed additional responsibility in 2010-11 when he became bench boss of Florida Atlantic University’s American Collegiate Hockey Association’s Division III team.

“When I ended my seasons last year, I made the decision I wanted to explore new challenges,” Worrell said. “I contacted a lot of teams, in many leagues. When I first contacted the Marksmen and I talked to (Head Coach Jesse) Kallechy, it just felt right. It was a big decision for me, as I was comfortable in my previous positions, but everyone in Fayetteville has been so welcoming and first class, I know I couldn’t have found a better position.”

And Kallechy believes that he couldn’t have found a better bench sidekick for the Fayetteville, North Carolina, team than Worrell.

“He blew me away in the interview process,” Kallechy said. “He was an excellent communicator, our views on player personnel aligned, and he is eager to learn and bring fresh viewpoints to the team.”

Embed from Getty Images

Worrell will become the SPHL’s second black coach when the puck drops for the 2018-19 season. In May, the Macon Mayhem tapped Leo Thomas as its head coach, making him the only black professional hockey head coach in North America.

While the SPHL’s minority coaching numbers grow, the ranks of coaches of color in the National Hockey League declined following 2017-18 season.

The Calgary Flames let go veteran Assistant Coach Paul Jerrard, who was the league’s only minority coach to work behind the bench during games.

He wasn’t unemployed very long. The University of Nebraska Omaha Mavericks hired Jerrard in May to be an assistant coach for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference team.

“He has a very good track record of developing players,” UNO Head Coach Mike Gabinet said. “I knew, first off, how good of a person he was having played for him. He was my (defense) coach. And when you’re a player, people always ask you afterward who’s influenced you as a coach.”

Jerrard, who played hockey for Lake Superior State University from 1983-84 to 1986-87, said he’s stoked about returning to the college game. He tallied 40 goals and 73 assists in 156 games as a defenseman for the Lakers.

He brings to the bench 2⃣1⃣ years of coaching experience across the NHL, AHL and college hockey. 💪

Get to know Omaha's newest staff addition, assistant coach Paul Jerrard! pic.twitter.com/aRvOUPkGVW

— Omaha Hockey (@OmahaHKY) June 8, 2018

“I’ve always loved college hockey, and I’m looking forward to working with and developing our players, not just in their careers but academically as well to help them prepare for success in the future,” he said.

The NHL’s remaining coaches of color are goalie coaches Sudarshan Maharaj of the Anaheim Ducks, Frantz Jean, of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Fred Brathwaite of the New York Islanders.

Scott Gomez is on the Isles’ coaching staff and Nigel Kirwan serves as a video coach for the Lightning.

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. Download the Color of Hockey podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, and Stitcher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Paul Kariya’s Hall of Fame call sparks pride in Asian community

28 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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2002 Winter Olympics, Anaheim Ducks, Hockey Hall of Fame, Paul Kariya

Hockey is finally giving the National Hockey League’s first star player of Asian descent his due, and Ken Noma couldn’t be happier.

High-scoring forward Paul Kariya is finally Hall of Fame-bound.

The Hockey Hall of Fame’s decision to enshrine former Mighty Ducks of Anaheim forward Paul Kariya,  a Vancouver native whose father was born in a World War II Japanese internment camp, is historic, said Noma, the executive director of National Association of Japanese Canadians.

“We are equally proud that Paul is the first inductee of Asian heritage and the first Japanese Canadian,” Noma said in a statement released by the association. “Paul’s hockey style was reminiscent of the Asahi Baseball team of the 1930s who played a courteous but a tactical style of game dubbed ‘brain baseball.’  Sport writers have described Paul as a skilled, fast skating player who brought a cerebral dimension to the game.  He had an innate hockey sense that seemed to attract pucks.”

Paul Tetsuhiko Kariya, 42,  got the call from the Hall on Monday. He’ll be formally enshrined November 13 along with Ducks linemate and close friend Teemu Selanne;  former NHL forwards forwards Dave Andreychuk and Mark Recchi; women’s hockey star Danielle Goyette; former University of Alberta Head Coach Clare Drake and Boston Bruins Owner Jeremy Jacobs.

Forward Paul Kariya, back in the days when the Anaheim Ducks were called the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (Photo/Courtesy of Hockey Hall of Fame).

Kariya, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound wing played with Anaheim, the Colorado Avalanche, the St. Blues Louis and the Nashville Predators in a 15-season NHL career that was cut tragically short by concussions.

He scored 402 goals and 587 assists in 989 regular season games and 16 goals, 23 assists in 46 playoff contests. His numbers were good enough to earn seven All Star Game appearances.

He collected his share of hardware: Kariya won the Lady Byng Trophy in 1996 and 1997 for gentlemanly play and skated for Canada’s 1994 Silver Medal-winning Winter Olympics hockey squad and on the 2002 Canadian team that captured the country’s first Olympic Gold Medal in 50 years.

Kariya was a star even before the Ducks chose him with the fourth overall pick in the 1993 NHL Draft.

He led the University of Maine Black Bears to the 1993 NCAA Division I championship and won the Hobey Baker Award that year as U.S. college hockey’s best player. He tallied 25 goals and 75 assists – 100 points – in 39 games for Maine in the 1992-93 season.

Off the floor! On the board! In the @HockeyHallFame! Congratulations to the guy who helped make the Ducks a mighty team, Paul Kariya! pic.twitter.com/4xPnRVuTyu

— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) June 26, 2017

But for all his accomplishments, Kariya, who played his final NHL season in 2009-10, seemed to be a forgotten man by the hockey establishment.

He was  repeatedly passed over by the Hall of Fame and somehow wasn’t ranked among the 100 Greatest NHL Players, a list commemorating the league’s centennial anniversary.

So when Kariya received the Hall call, his fans rejoiced, especially those fans in North America’s Asian community.

“There’s a great love of hockey among the Japanese Canadian community, so seeing Paul recognized in this way is a source of pride,” James Heron, executive director of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto, told me.

It wasn’t just Japanese-Canadians who were thrilled. George Chiang, whose parents moved to Canada from Taiwan, said Kariya’s inclusion in the Hall is “a great thing because he deserves it based on his achievements.”

“He had a great career,” Chiang, a 47-year-old father of an up-and-coming hockey player, told me. “It is nice that Asians now have a role model that shows them that they can be recognized for their achievements just like other players.”

Noma hopes Kariya’s Hall entry starts a trend.

“We are hopeful that the next inductee to the Hall will be Vicky Sunohara who has been eligible since 2010,” he said. “Vicky is a trailblazer in Canadian women’s hockey who won 9 gold medals and 2 silvers and has devoted her life to the sport.”

Embed from Getty Images

Sunohara, 47, won medals at three Winter Olympics – gold in 2006 in Torino, Italy, 2002 in Salt Lake City, and silver in Nagano, Japan, in 1998. She played on gold medal-winning Canadian teams at International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championships in 1990, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007.

As head coach of the University of Toronto Varsity Blues women’s hockey team, Sunohara has compiled a 137-59-21 record since 2011.

 

 

 

 

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Ducks’ Vermette suspended 10 games for slashing NHL linesman Shandor Alphonso

15 Wednesday Feb 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Anaheim Ducks, Antoine Vermette, Minnesota Wild, Shandor Alphonso

The National Hockey League suspended Anaheim Ducks center Antoine Vermette 10 games Thursday for his two-handed slash of rookie linesman Shandor Alphonso during the Ducks’ Tuesday night’s game against the Minnesota Wild.

In addition to the 10-game ban, Vermette will forfeit $97,222.22 of his salary, based on his annual salary per NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Linesman Shandor Alphonso (Photo/Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)

Linesman Shandor Alphonso (Photo/Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)

With 12:30 to go in the third period, Alphonso dropped the puck Tuesday night in St. Paul, Minnesota, for a neutral zone faceoff between Vermette and the Wild’s Mikko Koivu.

What happened next has the hockey world shaking its head.

Koivu won the draw and Vermette stayed still, then turned to Alphonso and gave him a two-handed slash across the  back of his right leg. Vermette, 34, a veteran of 968 NHL games, was given a 10-minute misconduct for official abuse and ejected from the game.

Alphonso wasn’t injured. The Orange County Register reported that Vermette had been miffed that the puck was dropped when he wasn’t set for the draw.

Alphonso was promoted to full-time status this season, ending a two-year apprenticeship that had him officiating 40 NHL games and 40 American Hockey League contest. He joined veteran Jay Sharrers, his role model, and the NHL’s only other black on-ice official.

Ducks' Antoine Vermette suspended 10 games under Rule 40.3. https://t.co/i7oN5i91mB

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 16, 2017

Anaheim Ducks forward Antoine Vermette.

Anaheim Ducks forward Antoine Vermette.

The league had to decide whether Vermette would receive a 20-game suspension for intentionally trying to injure an official or the 10-game ban for the use of physical force against an official without intent to injure.

Ducks Head Coach Randy Carlyle told The Register that Vermette’s action “wasn’t really a vicious or any type of malice thing.”

“He wasn’t trying to hurt anybody,’ the coach told the newspaper. “It was more of a tap to blow-the-whistle-type of thing. Because usually what happens, if they do drop tje puck unfairly, the linesman or the referee will blow the whistle and reset it.”

 

The Color of Hockey’s Lew Serviss wrote this article.

 

 

 

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Sudarshan Maharaj named Anaheim Ducks’ new goaltending coach

17 Wednesday Aug 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Anaheim Ducks, Bruce Boudreau, John Gibson, Minnesota Wild, San Diego Gulls, Sudarshan Maharaj

Anaheim Ducks' new goalie coach Sudarshan Maharaj.

Anaheim Ducks’ new goalie coach Sudarshan Maharaj.

Sudarshan Maharaj, whose passion for hockey began when an NHL player who would later become his boss tossed him a puck at a game decades ago, is the new goalie coach for the Anaheim Ducks.

The team tapped Maharaj to replace former NHL netminder Dwayne Roloson, who stepped down from the coaching job earlier this summer.

A native of Trinidad, Maharaj has been with the Ducks organization since the 2013-14 season. He served as a goaltendting consultant working primarily with the San Diego Gulls, the Ducks’ American Hockey League farm team that relocated from Norfolk, Va., last season.

Under his tutelage,  Gulls goaltenders posted a 39-23-8 record, a 2.87 goals-against average, a .906 save percentage, and a spot in the AHL’s Calder Cup Playoffs. John Gibson, one of Maharaj’s former Gulls netminders, is poised to be the Ducks top goaltender for the 2016-17 season.

Maharaj is a veteran coach. He was the New York Islanders goalie coach from 2003 to 2006 and goaltending consultant for the team from 2009 to 2012. He also helped develop that National Goaltending Training Program for Hockey Canada from 2005-07.

In a hockey playing and coaching career that spans more than three decades, Maharaj has coached Montreal Canadiens backup goalie Al Montoya and former NHLers Kevin Weekes, Rick DiPietro, Joey MacDonald, Steve Valiquette, Martin Biron, and Roloson.

Maharaj attended Toronto’s York University and was a member of its 1984-85 championship hockey team. Afterwards, he played professionally in Sweden from 1985 to 1991. He enjoyed playing in Sweden, but living there wasn’t without its racial difficulties, including having his car set ablaze.

“One of the young lads didn’t particularly like the color of my skin, me being in the town, and who I was associating with and all that,” Maharaj told me last year. “So he decided to make a bonfire that night.”

Maharaj is one of hockey’s great six degrees of separation stories. His family moved from Trinidad to Toronto when he was about six years old. He went to his first National Hockey League game at the old Maple Leafs Gardens and stood by the low glass, wide-eyed as the Toronto Maple Leafs skated through their pregame warm-up.

Sudarshan Maharaj, left, gets promoted from the Ducks organization's' goaltending consultant to the full-time goalie coach for the NHL team.

Sudarshan Maharaj, left, gets promoted from the Ducks organization’s’ goaltending consultant to the full-time goalie coach for the NHL team.

As the Leafs left the ice, a player tossed him a puck – a moment that made Maharaj realize that hockey was the game for him.The Leafs player was Bruce Boudreau who became the Ducks’ head coach in 2011-12.

As goalie consultant for the organization, Maharaj helped evaluate, train, and educate goalies for the man who triggered his love for the game decades earlier.

“I told Bruce that story,” Maharaj told me last November. “He was shocked that I remembered. I said ‘Are you crazy? That’s a life-changing moment. It was one of my greatest experiences. My very first hockey game and a Toronto Maple Leafs player dropped a puck for me.’ To this day, if I ever see a young child in the stands I’ll always throw a puck.”

Alas, “Sudsie” and “Gabby” won’t be reunited in Anaheim. The Ducks dismissed Boudreau in April after the team lost a Stanley Cup Playoffs Game 7 for the fourth straight season. He’s now head coach of the Minnesota Wild .

 

 

 

 

 

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Hockey’s expanding international reach proves that it’s a small world after all

02 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Anaheim Ducks, Andong Song, Dallas Stars, International Ice Hockey Federation, Jim Paek, Mexico, New York Islanders

How much is hockey becoming a truly international sport?

I came across a YouTube video from 2012 – before this blog was created – on the Anaheim Ducks hosting a clinic for a Mexican youth hockey team at the National Hockey League team’s California practice facility.

I don’t know if the Ducks have repeated this endeavor – I’m waiting to hear back from the team. Hello? But it wouldn’t surprise me if this one clinic helped spur more interest in hockey south of the border and benefit Mexico’s national hockey program.

In January, Mexico won the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Under-20 Division III world championship at a tournament in Mexico City.

Last July, the Dallas Stars invited three members of South Korea’s national hockey program to its development training camp in Texas. The Stars extended the invitation at the request of former NHLer  Jim Paek, who’s looking to build a competitive South Korea hockey team for the 2018 Winter Olympics, which the country will host in Pyeongchang.

Four years later, it will be China’s turn. Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Games. And Andong Song, who became the first player born in China  to be drafted by an NHL team when the New York Islanders took him in the 6th round with the 172nd overall pick of the 2015 draft, has become the young face of his country’s Winter Olympics effort.

Like South Korea, China is quickly trying to build a hockey team good enough to compete with Canada, the United States, Russia, and other major hockey powers at the Winter Games. Song, a defenseman who skated for Massachusetts’ Phillips Academy, this season, could be its captain.

India is trying to become more of a presence on the international hockey stage, too. Money is tight, equipment is scarce, and the talent pool is thin, but that’s not stopping a group of very determined women from dreaming of someday competing in the Olympics.

India’s women’s team played its first international match last month and got crushed by Singapore, 8-1 in the Challenge Cup of Asia. Still, India’s women’s team hopes to advance to next year’s Asian Winter Games. To do that, the team must leapfrog Singapore, Thailand and Chinese Taipaei.

Female or male, it’s not easy being a hockey player in India. For all our nostalgic talk of playing the game on frozen ponds and lakes in North America and Europe, it’s a way of life for most Indian players. Many of them come from Ladakh, near the Himalayas and can only play for two or three months when the ponds are frozen.

A country with more than 1.2  billion people has only 10 indoor ice rinks, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation. The cricket-mad nation has 1,104 hockey players – 315 men, 541 juniors and 248 women and girls.

Take some time and watch the excellent Al Jazeera English feature below on the fun and frustration of playing hockey in India.

The efforts by India, South Korea, China and Mexico prove that, when it comes to hockey, it’s truly a small world.

 

 

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From Trinidad to Toronto to pro goalie coach, the journey of Sudarshan Maharaj

09 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Anaheim Ducks, Bruce Boudreau, Sudarshan Maharaj

Once upon a time, there was a young boy from Trinidad who fell in love with hockey after his family swapped their warm Caribbean island home for Toronto’s winter cool in search of a better life.

Goalie Coach Sudarshan Maharaj.

Goalie Coach Sudarshan Maharaj.

He went to his first National Hockey League game at the old Maple Leafs Gardens and stood by the low glass, eyes wide as the Toronto Maple Leafs briskly skated through their pregame warm-up routine.

As the Leafs left the ice, a player tossed the boy a puck, a moment that proved to be an epiphany and kismet.

Today, Sudarshan Maharaj is a goaltending consultant for the Anaheim Ducks organization. He helps train, evaluate, and scout goalies for the NHL team coached by Bruce Boudreau – the Maple Leafs player who gave him the cherished puck years ago.

“I told Bruce that story,” Maharaj told me recently. “He was shocked that I remembered. I said ‘Are you crazy? That’s a life-changing moment. It was one of my greatest experiences. My very first hockey game and a Toronto Maple Leafs player dropped a puck for me.’ To this day, if I ever see a young child in the stands I’ll always throw a puck.”

Roaming the Ducks organization, Maharaj spends time with goalies Frederik Andersen and Anton Khudobin in Anaheim; John Gibson and Matt Hackett at the San Diego Gulls, the Ducks’ American Hockey League farm team; and Ryan Faragher and Chris Rawlings at the Utah Grizzlies, Anaheim’s ECHL affiliate.

In a hockey playing and coaching career spanning over three decades, Maharaj has also coached Florida Panthers backup goalie Al Montoya and former NHLers Kevin Weekes, Rick DiPietro, Joey MacDonald, Steve Valiquette, Martin Biron, and Dwayne Roloson.

Sudarshan Maharaj, left, roves the Anaheim Ducks system coaching its goaltenders and scouting for the organization, too.

Sudarshan Maharaj, left, roves the Anaheim Ducks system coaching its goaltenders and scouting for the organization, too.

Maharaj is part of a small but growing army of minorities who’ve entered hockey’s coaching ranks as goalie instructors. Frantz Jean runs the goalies for the Tampa Bay Lightning, a 2014-15 Stanley Cup finalist.

Fred Brathwaite, who tended net for four NHL teams, is a goaltending consultant for Hockey Canada.  Grant Fuhr, who helped backstop the Edmonton Oilers to five Stanley Cups, was a goalie coach for the then-Phoenix Coyotes in the early 2000s.

“I’ve been offered opportunities to be on the bench, but I don’t like it,” he told me. “I like the behind the scene position – I’m not a front-of-the-herd guy. If ever there were a position that I would aspire to, it would be assistant general manager, but I don’t. I love what I do. I’d like to win a Stanley Cup as a goaltending coach.”

Sudarshan “Sudsie” Maharaj’s hockey story is an unconventional tale of immigration, opportunity, prejudice, and perseverance. His family, who’s of Indian descent, relocated from Trinidad to Toronto in 1970 when he was six years old.

His father found work at an auto dealership and worked his way up from washing cars to selling them. Canada took some getting used to, particularly the weather.

“I distinctly still remember the first time I ever saw snow,” Maharaj told me. “We ran outside the apartment complex where we were living and stood there in the snow watching it come down.”

The family’s assimilation to their new country was aided by hockey. Like most Canadians, the Maharaj household gathered around the television on winter Saturdays and watched “Hockey Night in Canada.”

Maharaj was asleep in his mother’s arms when Boston Bruins defenseman Bobby Orr scored his iconic Stanley Cup-winning goal against St. Louis Blues goalie Glenn Hall in 1970.

Watching hockey led to Maharaj taking up the game. First, street hockey with neighborhood kids. Then he joined an in-house hockey league. Maharaj’s oldest brother was a huge fan of Leafs goaltender Bernie Parent and directed his younger brother to the pipes.

“He said ‘That’s it, you have to be a goalie.’ He stuck me in net all the time and then come tryout at the local house league he said ‘Okay, you’re going to tryout in net,'” Maharaj said. “I loved it and ended up playing there the rest of my life. Oh, that mask. The mask and the equipment, and I just loved the position.”

And he was good at it. He was a member of the University of Wisconsin’s hockey team briefly before moving on to York University in Toronto. When no NHL teams knocked on his door, Maharaj packed his pads and headed to Sweden where he played professionally from 1985 to 1991.

Racial taunts and hostility on and off the ice accompanied Maharaj along his hockey journey, and Sweden was no exception. There, some so-called “fans” didn’t like his looks and torched his car.

“One of the young lads didn’t particularly like the color of my skin, me being in the town, and who I was associating with and all that,” Maharaj told me. “So he decided to make a bonfire that night.”

Things could have been worse for him racially in Sweden and North America, Maharaj figures, but his goalie gear offered him a degree of anonymity.

“Back in those days you wore the mask that covered your whole face, so you didn’t get it as much until they knew who you were either before or after,” he told me. “As the years went on, when you’re playing the same people, they knew. You’d have (opposing players) come to the front of the net and say some things that today people would be shocked to hear.”

Maharaj retired as a player in 1991 at age 27. He returned to York University to complete his degree work in English and physical education. About the same time, the school’s goalie coach left the team, and he was asked to fill the vacancy. A career was born.

San Diego Gulls goalie John Gibson is one of Maharaj's pupils.

San Diego Gulls goalie John Gibson is one of Maharaj’s pupils.

He liked coaching so much that he began to instruct goalies on junior teams while working as a school teacher in the greater Toronto area.  His positive results with young goalies caught the attention of the New York Islanders.

He was a goalie coach or goaltending consultant for the Isles from the 2003-04 season to the 2011-12 NHL campaign. In 2013-14, He became goaltending consultant for the Norfolk Admirals, then the Ducks’ AHL team.

The Admirals moved to San Diego this season as part of the AHL’s ambitious west coast expansion and are now called the Gulls.

Maharaj’s pupils past and present sing his praises.  When Faragher was called up by the Ducks from AHL Norfolk for a stint last season he said “being able to get more games down the stretch and working with Sudarshan Maharaj allowed me to feel more comfortable at the AHL level.”

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Ducks ship Emerson Etem to N.Y. Rangers for Carl Hagelin

27 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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2014 NHL Draft, Anaheim Ducks, Emerson Etem, New York Rangers

Emerson Etem is Broadway-bound. The swift winger was dispatched by the Anaheim Ducks, along with a high second-round pick to the New York Rangers for the lightning-quick Carl Hagelin on Day 2 of the NHL draft.

Forward Emerson Etem goes from the pond of Anaheim to Broadway in draft day trade.

Forward Emerson Etem goes from the pond of Anaheim to Broadway in draft day trade.

Etem, 23, scored one of the more dazzling goals of the playoffs last season, dancing by Winnipeg defenseman Jacob Trouba and finishing with a flourish against Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec.
Etem, born in Southern California, had five goals and five assists last season in 45 games for the Ducks. He will be the only player of color on the Rangers, who dealt the prospect Anthony Duclair last season to the Arizona Coyotes. At 6-foot-1 and 206 pounds, Etem brings more of a physical presence to New York than Hagelin, one of the fastest skaters in the NHL.

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