Tag Archives: Chicago Blackhawks

Ex-Capitals Mike Marson and Bill Riley feel Smith-Pelly’s pain on racist taunts

22 Thursday Feb 2018

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PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA Mike Marson can relate to what Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly endured when four Chicago Blackhawks “fans” racially taunted him as he sat in the press box at the United Center last Saturday.

Mike Marson was drafted by the Washington Capitals at age 18 in 1974.

“One can only imagine what it must have felt like when a certain 18 year old was all by himself against such bad form on and off the ice,” Marson told me.

Marson doesn’t have to imagine it. He lived it his rookie year with the expansion Capitals in 1974-75. He was the National Hockey League’s second black player, entering the league 16 years after Willie O’Ree broke in with the Boston Bruins.

Marson expressed disgust that black players are being targeted with racial slurs and disdain for the fans – and sometimes players – who utter them.

“It’s a shame that pro hockey in all its greatness still has these low points,” he told me.

Bill Riley echoed Marson’s sentiment. Riley, a forward, joined the Capitals shortly after Marson. They say misery loves company, but Riley said he wouldn’t wish the racial vitriol that he and Marson endured on anyone.

“They referred to Mike Marson and I as round ball players in Detroit in the mid seventies and wasn’t (just) the fans,” Riley told me. “Hard to believe that garbage still exists 40 plus years later.”

The “fans” who were removed and subsequently banned from Blackhawks home games showered Smith-Pelly with a chorus of “basketball, basketball, basketball,” a not-too-thinly veiled message that he should be a power forward in the National Basketball Association, not the NHL.

Bill Riley and Mike Marson were teammates on the Washington Capitals in the mid-1970s. They experienced the same racists taunts that Capitals forward Devente Smith-Pelly endured in Chicago. Photos/Washngton Capitals).

“It’s pretty obvious what that means,” Smith-Pelly said of the taunts. “Whether it’s that word or any other word, I got the idea. And I’m sure they got the idea, too. Just one word, and that’s really all it takes.”

Marson and Riley didn’t go public about what they went through when they were playing.

Neither wanted to be viewed as complainers or malcontents because they thought it would be a sure way to get a one-way ticket to the minor leagues and hockey obscurity.

So they suffered in silence. Riley praises Smith-Pelly and other black players in the NHL for stepping up and speaking out against racist behavior on the ice and in the stands.

“Kudos to Smith-Pelly,” Riley said.

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Racist taunts toward Smith-Pelly by ‘fans’ ignores the history of their favorite team

18 Sunday Feb 2018

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GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA I just want to drop a few names on the Chicago Blackhawks “fans” who had their butts not-so-surgically removed from their United Center seats Saturday for allegedly hurling racist taunts at Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly.

Dirk Graham, Johnny Oduya, Dustin Byfuglien, Ray Emery, Jamal Mayers, and Trevor Daley.

These are black players or players of African descent who skated for the team that you root for – or rooted for before Blackhawks management ejected you from fairly high-priced seats for supposedly directing racial remarks toward Smith-Pelly.

Black players helped make the Blackhawks winners and hoist Stanley Cups.

Oduya was a mainstay on defense on the ‘Hawks 2012-13 and 2014-15 championship teams. Emery was the solid backup goaltender for the 2012-13 Cup winner. Mayers, a forward, added defensive toughness to that team for 19 regular season games that season.

And Byfuglien was a disruptive power forward that the Philadelphia Flyers struggled to control in the 2009-10 Stanley Cup Final.

Former Chicago Blackhawks goalie Ray Emery.

Graham was a gritty heat-and-soul captain of a Blackhawks teams that were competitive. He even scored a hat trick in Game 4 in the 1992 Stanley Cup Final won by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

These are all men of color who played for your team. For. Your. Team.

Imagine if Oduya, Byfuglien, and Emery adhered to the taunts aimed at Smith-Pelly and they played for, say, the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks instead of the NHL’s Blackhawks?

The idea that you could be shocked and appalled in this day and age at the sight of a black guy being on the ice or in the penalty box at a hockey game means you either don’t know your own team or that Smith-Pelly’s skin simply got under yours.

Either way, it wasn’t a good look. I wonder what recently-acquired Blackhawks forward Anthony Duclair must be thinking after watching those home “fans” giving an opposing minority player the business by using race as a weapon.

Former Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Johnny Oduya.

Kudos to the management of the Chicago Blackhawks, Washington Capitals and National Hockey League for taking swift action on this ugly incident.

Captials Head Coach Barry Trotz was right when he said “There is absolutely no place in the game of hockey or our country for racism.”

“It just shows ignorance,” he added.

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Anthony Duclair departs the Arizona desert in a deal to Chicago Blackhawks

13 Saturday Jan 2018

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The desert seemed like the perfect place for forward Anthony Duclair.

He was supposed to be a roadrunner on skates, a key component on a young Arizona Coyotes team looking to resurrect itself from the ashes of losing seasons.

Anthony Duclair moves from the desert to the Windy City in trade.

But the 22-year-old fourth-season player didn’t prove to be a Phoenix rising for Arizona and the Coyotes dealt him Wednesday to the Chicago Blackhawks along with defenseman Adam Clendening for forwards Richard Panik and Laurent Dauphin.

Duclair, a New York Rangers 2013 third-round draft pick, was unhappy in Arizona and requested a trade after being a healthy scratch in 10 of the team’s 33 games this season and playing only 13:27 minutes per game when he was in the lineup.

“It wasn’t a decision I made overnight,” Duclair told reporters Friday before skating in the Blackhawks’ 3-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets in Chicago. “I didn’t have the leash that others had…Not going to say it was unfair to me, but talking to the older guys on the team, they felt I deserved better. And I thought so, too.”

The Coyotes were only too happy to comply with Duclair’s request to move on.

“It’s gone back for a few years now where the team wasn’t happy with the player and the player wasn’t particularly happy with the team and we worked through some things,  tried a lot of different approaches in a lot of different ways,” Arizona General ManagerJohn Chayka told reporters. “I hope he has success in Chicago and does good things.”

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The trade comes two seasons after Duclair tallied 20 goals and 24 assists in 81 games for the Coyotes. His production dipped in the 2016-17 season to 5 goals and 10 assists in 58 games and he spent 16 games with the Tucson Roadrunners, the Coyotes’ AmericanHockey League affiliate.

Duclair had 9 goals and 6 assists in 33 games for Arizona this season. The player nicknamed “The Duke” said he was “stoked” about a fresh start in Chicago, a start that found him skating laps in Friday’s morning skate after he was the last player to join a team huddle.

“We had a tough situation in Arizona,” Duclair told reporters. “(I’m) ready to be in a playoff atmosphere. Every game counts.”

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The brothers Foo chase NHL dreams through 2017 draft, free agency

25 Sunday Jun 2017

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CHICAGO – Parker and Spencer Foo share more than a brotherly bond.

Chicago Blackhawks draftee Parker Foo.

Parker is a scoring machine who tallied 34 goals and 32 assists in 60 games last season for the Brooks Bandits of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

Big brother Spencer is also a sniper – NCAA Division I hockey’s fourth-leading scorer in 2016-17 with 26 goals and 36 assists in 38 games as a junior for Union College.

Both are coveted by National Hockey League teams. The Chicago Blackhawks chose Parker Foo, an 18-year-old center, in the fifth round with the 144th pick in the 2017 NHL Draft at Chicago’s United Center.

Meanwhile, Spencer, a 23-year-old right wing, has committed to playing for the Calgary Flames, ending a bidding war among NHL teams from his hometown Edmonton Oilers to the Philadelphia Flyers for his college free agent services. Spencer’s signing will be formally announced on Saturday.

As for Parker, he was elated by being tapped by the Blackhawks. He didn’t attend the draft, not wanting to get his expectations too high. He did visit the Windy City a few weeks ago to attend a pre-draft combine.

“It’s incredible (to be selected by the Blackhawks),” he told The Calgary Herald. “I was there a couple of weeks ago. It’s a top-notch facility. Everything is incredible there — mind-boggling really. Obviously, the Blackhawks are an unreal team — all the superstars, and the coach is unbelievable.”

Parker is coming off an incredible 2016-17 season. He was the Bandits’ second-leading goal-scorer and fifth on the team in overall scoring – the combination of goals and assists. He was AJHL’s fourth-leading goal scorer during the regular season.

Foo was second on the Bandits and fourth in the AJHL in playoff scoring with 10 goals and 10 assists in 13 games. In addition, he tallied 4 goals and 5 assists in five games to help the Bandits win the Western Canada Cup.

Parker won’t be playing for Chicago any time soon. He’s committed to play NCAA Division I hockey next season. Where? Union College, just like his high-scoring brother did.

Parker was one of five players of Asian heritage picked by NHL teams in the weekend draft.

The others were:

Nick Suzuki, forward, Owen Sound Attack of the Ontario Hockey League, by the Vegas Golden Knights, first round, 13th overall pick; Kailer Yamamoto, forward, Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League, by the Oilers, first round, 22nd overall pick; Jason Robertson, forward, Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL, by the Dallas Stars, second round, 43rd overall pick; Tyler Inamoto, defense, USA Hockey National Development Team, fifth round, 133rd pick overall.

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Three players of color chosen in first round of 2017 NHL Draft

24 Saturday Jun 2017

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CHICAGO – Three players of color took center stage at the 2017 National Hockey League Draft at Chicago’s United Center Friday night.

Two major junior hockey players of Asian heritage and a black French-Canadian player were chosen in the first round of the 31-team draft. And Ryan Reaves, a pugnacious veteran forward, was traded by the St. Louis Blues to the Pittsburgh Penguins, a move that capped the first day of the draft.

Thirteen proved to be a lucky number for Nick Suzuki, a forward for the Owen Sound Attack of the Ontario Hockey League. He was taken with the 13th pick in the draft by the expansion Vegas Golden Knights.

Nick Suzuki of the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack hopes to be Vegas-bound after being drafted in the first round by the Golden Knights (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

“It’s not every day you get picked by an expansion team,” Suzuki said after he had his named called  and donned the fledgling Golden Knights’ jersey. “I’m really happy about being picked by Vegas and I want to get there pretty  quick and see the new building.”

Suzuki was ranked as the 10th-best North American skater by NHL Central Scouting. The 5-foot-10 native of London, Ontario, was Owen Sound’s second-leading scorer last season with 45 goals and 51 assists in 65 games.

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His younger brother, forward Ryan Suzuki, was the first player chosen in the 2017 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection Draft in April, plucked by the Barrie Colts.

Nick Suzuki said he has no worries about joining a new NHL team that’s bound to have more losses than wins in its first few seasons.

“I don’t think I’m nervous,” he said. “I’m more excited to see what Vegas is like. I don’t know if there’s pressure. I kind of just take it as a new team and you have to show them that you’re a good player.”

Kailer Yamamoto is looking forward to someday playing with Edmonton Oilers snipers Connor McDavid  and Leon Draisaitl  after Edmonton selected Yamamoto, a forward with the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs, with the 22nd pick of the draft.

“I’m really looking forward to going to that skill team,” Yamamoto said. “I think it’s going to definitely benefit my game.”

The 5-foot-7, 140-pound  right wing was listed as the 17th-best North American skater by Central Scouting.

Spokane Chiefs’ Kailer Yamamoto hopes to prove that size doesn’t matter after the Edmonton Oilers chose the 5-foot-7 forward in the first round of the NHL Draft (Photo/Larry Brunt/Spokane Chiefs).

A Spokane native of Japanese and Hawaiian heritage, Yamamoto led the Chiefs in scoring in 2016-17 with 42 goals and 47 assists in 65 games. His older brother, Keanu, was Spokane’s fourth-leading scorer last season with 26 goals and 43 assists in 72 games.

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“My dad’s dad, he’s from Japan actually, he was in the internment camps,” Kailer Yamamoto said. “My dad’s half Japanese so that makes me a quarter Japanese. It’s unbelievable to be Japanese, get the Japanese heritage, and hopefully be in the NHL someday.”

Right after Yamamoto had his name called, defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph was chosen with the 23nd pick of the draft by the Arizona Coyotes.

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Joseph patrolled the blue line last season for the Charlottetown Islanders of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, where he had 6 goals and 33 assists in 62 games.

Joseph wasn’t a stranger to the spectacle and hype of draft day. He watched his older brother, forward Mathieu Joseph of the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs, get drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the fourth round in 2015.

Still, the younger Joseph – who was ranked as the 27th-best North American skater eligible for the draft by Central Scouting – admitted to having a case of the jitters on Friday.

“Obviously, I didn’t want to think about the draft,” he said. “I played cards and watched movies as the day goes on, but as I sat in the stands and watched the names go by, I was thinking whether I’d get called or not.”

He credited his older brother and his parents for helping him achieve his draft day moment.

“I was a bit of an underdog,” Joseph said. “Obviously, I had my brother and my family to push me. Everyone has been there for me to push me and make me the player I am now.”

Thanks to Evan Moore for contributing to this report.

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Blackhawks’ Artemi Panarin apologizes for making racially crude remark in 2012

07 Tuesday Mar 2017

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Chicago Blackhawks star forward Artemi Panarin apologized Tuesday for a racially insensitive remark he made in a 2012 Russian television interview when he was playing in the Kontinental Hockey League.

Chicago Blackhawks Artemi Panarin

The Chicago Tribune, The Athletic, and other outlets reported that Panarin, the National Hockey League’s rookie of the year last season, participated in an interview segment in 2012 with former KHL teammate Yaroslav Tulyakov, who asked him what he would never do, three sources who saw the video told The Tribune.

“Have sex with a black woman,” Panarin replied, the three Russian-speaking sources told the newspaper.

The existence of the video, which has been removed from YouTube, was first reported by a Chicago hockey blog called Faxes From Uncle Dale.

The Tribune reported that Panarin’s remark occurred during a segment in which he and Tulyakov appeared to trying to be humorous, making off-color remarks as they read questions.

Panarin issued a statement to the Tribune through the Blackhawks Tuesday, saying “In 2012, I was a guest on a Russian TV show and made insensitive comments that I deeply regret…I understand my comments are offensive and I apologize for my hurtful words.”

The team also issued its own statement: “On Sunday, we were made aware of the video of Artemi’s appearance on a Russian TV show in 2012…We immediately addressed the matter with him. His comments in the video in no way represent the values of our organization. He has apologized and understands the offensive nature of his words.”

Panarin, 25, has 20 goals and 38 asssts in 65 games for the Blackhawks this season.

 

 

Undrafted class of 2016 audition for NHL teams at development camps

10 Sunday Jul 2016

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For some, the glow of the 2016 National Hockey League Draft has long flickered out. Now is the time for sweat and hard work for the players who didn’t have their names called in Buffalo.

Several members of the Undrafted Class of 2016 have scored second chances of sorts with invites to the development camps of NHL teams interested in giving them a look  and maybe a spot in their minor league systems.

Right wing Daniel Muzito-Bagenda of the Ontario Hockey League’s Mississauga Steelheads didn’t get the call during the two-day draft in Buffalo. But he got a call from Buffalo a couple of days later.

Passed over by NHL teams at the 2016 draft, Mississauga's Daniel Muzito-Bagenda signed a one-year deal with the Rochester Americans, the Buffalo Sabres AHL farm team (Photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Passed over by NHL teams at the 2016 draft, Mississauga’s Daniel Muzito-Bagenda signed a one-year deal with the Rochester Americans, the Buffalo Sabres AHL farm team (Photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

The Rochester Americans, the Buffalo Sabres‘ American Hockey League farm team, signed him to a one-year contract. The Swedish Muzito-Bagenda, 20, was ranked the 205th-best draft-eligible North American skater.

He finished fifth on the Steelheads in scoring in 2015-16 with 20 goals and 17 assists in 63 regular season games. He notched 6 goals and 4 assists in seven playoff games.

Muzito-Bagenda attended the Sabres’ development camp last week and played alongside Steelheads teammates Alexander Nylander – the Sabres’ 2016 first-round pick, the eighth player chosen overall – and local boy Austin Omanski, Buffalo’s 2016 seventh-round pick, the 189th player selected.

The Sabres once featured the “French Connection,” the high-scoring line of Gilbert Perreault, Rene Robert and Rick Martin. Buffalo, at least for the development camp, could boast the “Mississauga Connection” with Muzito-Bagenda, Nylander and Omanski.

“We know each other from being teammates all last year, so it makes us feel more comfortable out there,” Muzito-Bagenda told the Americans’ website. “That has helped getting to know the other guys here, too.”

Mississauga Steelheads' Josh Burnside attended the Washington Capitals rookie and development camp (Photo/ Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Mississauga Steelheads’ Josh Burnside attended the Washington Capitals rookie and development camp (Photo/ Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Like Muzito-Bagenda, Steelheads team captain Josh Burnside went undrafted. Not ranked by NHL Central Scouting,  the 5-foot-11, 186-pound left wing landed a development camp invite from the Washington Capitals.

Burnside, 21, was the Steelheads fourth-leading scorer last season with 13 goals and 32 assists in 55 regular season games. He had 2 goals and 2 assists in seven playoff games.

Youngstown Phantoms right wing Yushiro Hirano is becoming a development veteran. Hirano, the first player born in Japan to skate in the United States Hockey League, was invited to the San Jose Sharks camp.

The Hokkaido native attended the Chicago Blackhawks’ prospects camp last year. Hirano, 20, was ranked the 184th-best North American player in 2016 by NHL Central Scouting prior to the June draft.

He finished third on the Phantoms in scoring in 2015-16 with 24 goals and 22 assists in 54 games.

High-scoring forward Yushiro Hirano found his way to the San Jose Sharks' development camp after he wasn't drafted by an NHL team (Photo/Bill Paterson).

High-scoring forward Yushiro Hirano found his way to the San Jose Sharks’ development camp after he wasn’t drafted by an NHL team (Photo/Bill Paterson).

Left wing Jermaine Loewen of the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers joined Hirano at the Sharks camp.

The 18-year-old is one of hockey’s remarkable stories. Born in Jamaica and adopted from an island orphanage by a white Manitoba family when he was five, Loewen didn’t lace on a pair of skates until he was six -late by Canadian standards.

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But he’s making up for lost time. The 6-foot-3, 205 Loewen tallied 8 goals and 7 assists in 67 regular season games for the Blazers last season. He was held scoreless in 37 games in 2014-15.

It seems that no matter where defenseman Jalen Smereck goes, he always manages to surprise and impress. The Detroit area native worked his way from the USHL’s Bloomington Thunder to the Oshawa Generals who took him with the 299th overall pick of the 2013 Ontario Hockey League draft.

He developed into a top  defenseman for the Generals last season with 5 goals and 20 assists in 63 games.

Smereck  didn’t crack Central Scouting’s rankings and NHL teams passed on him in Buffalo, but the 6-foot, 173-pound alum of the minority-oriented Detroit Hockey Association  proved to be one of the highlights of the Arizona Coyotes’s development camp recently.

Former Oshawa Generals defenseman Jalen Smereck apparently impressed at Arizona Coyotes camp (Photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Former Oshawa Generals defenseman Jalen Smereck apparently impressed at Arizona Coyotes camp (Photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

“Jalen Smereck may be undrafted, but his play Monday looked like he should have been,” the website FanSided reported on its Howlin’ Hockey  Coyotes blog. “Smereck played hard on the puck, making it seem like he was bigger than he really was. His puck handling seemed reminiscent of P.K. Subban’s defensive stylings.”

Smereck appears destined to return to the OHL next season. The Generals traded him in the off-season to home state Michigan’s Flint Firebirds. That is, unless he surprises and impresses some more.

 

 

 

 

No way, P.K.: Canada leaves Subban off its World Cup of Hockey roster

28 Saturday May 2016

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Teams participating in the World Cup of Hockey finalized their rosters Friday, providing plenty of news about who’s in and who’s out of the eight-team tournament.

Three black players will represent their countries in the games to be played Sept. 17-Oct. 1 at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, home of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban wasn't among the players picked for Canada's World Cup of Hockey team.

Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban wasn’t among the players picked for Canada’s World Cup of Hockey team.

Toronto is also the home town of Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban. But Subban, the 2013 Norris Trophy winner as the National Hockey League’s best defenseman, won’t be there because Team Canada didn’t add him to its roster.

“The decisions weren’t easy, and with the depth of player talent we have in Canada, we knew it would be a difficult process to finalize our roster – but it’s what we signed up for, and we feel we’ve been able to put together the right balance to create a winning team,” Team Canada General Manager Doug Armstrong said.

Canada selected seven blue-liners: Brent Burns  and Marc-Edouard Vlasic of the San Jose Sharks; Drew Doughty  and Jake Muzzin of the Los Angeles Kings; Duncan Keith of the Chicago Blackhawks;  Alex Pietrangelo of the St. Louis Blues; and Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators.

Subban was 12th among NHL defensemen in scoring in the 2015-16 regular season with 6 goals and 45 assists in 68 games. Weber finished ninth among D-men with 20 goals and 31 assists and Doughty was tenth with 14 goals and 37 assists.

An article in Canada’s National Post Saturday had a lead that summed up the Subban skip best: “Call him P.K. Snubban.”

“OK, so the nickname needs a little work but that doesn’t excuse the fact the reimagined World Cup of Hockey will be devoid of one of its marquee talents: The marvelous P.K. Subban,” John Matisz wrote.

Subban’s talent is undeniable. Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley, appearing in filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason’s “Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future” black hockey history documentary, said Subban should simply be known as “Norris” – as in Norris Trophy.

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Subban represented Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics, but Team Canada Head Coach Mike Babcock made it clear that he wasn’t a fan of Subban’s game. He played only 11 minutes – all in one game – during the entire Olympics.

Many Subban fans feel he’s disrespected by the Canadian hockey establishment – be it the Canadiens, Hockey Canada, or old-school hockey heads who think he’s too mouthy, too flashy, too…whatever.

After Montreal endured the hockey season from hell –  a 38-38-6 record, no playoff berth – the Canadian rapper Wasiu had had enough with the Subban bashing.

Earlier this month, Wasiu picked up the mic and dropped “P.K. Subban,” a sometimes-explicit tribute to the player he says is “putting the city on his back.”

“The Canadiens had a bad season and the local media pointed the finger at P.K.,” Wasiu wrote in an essay for Fader. “It’s funny though, because he’s the best player and we all know he isn’t the problem. Same way when there’s violence that occurs at a club or in general, the thinking is to go check on the black people first because they look like they ‘fit the description’ – even if they weren’t the ones to start any problems.”

Wasiu’s is the second rap homage to Subban and his skills. Toronto-based rapper/producer Saukrates contributed “Say I” in 2011 as part of a Nike ad campaign that featured Subban.

If P.K. was P.O.’d about being excluded from the World Cup of Hockey, he didn’t show it over the weekend. Hanging out with the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre Saturday, Subban told Canada’s Sportsnet “I just want to see Canada win gold. So, I’ll be there cheering just like everybody else.”

“It’s a selection process,” he added. “So either you get selected, or you don’t . All I can do is be a model citizen. I’m Canadian so I support my country and I support my team just like everybody else.”

Dallas Stars' Johnny Oduya.

Dallas Stars’ Johnny Oduya.

Another notable World Cup omission is Dallas Stars defenseman Johnny Oduya from Team Sweden’s roster.

Oduya, who won Stanley Cups with Chicago in 2013 and 2015, represented his country at the 2014 and 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2009 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship.

Despite no Oduya and no Subban, there will still be players of color to watch at the World Cup tournament.

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Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien  will skate for Team USA. The Minneapolis-born big man – 6-foot-5, 260-pounds – with the booming slap shot finished third on the Jets in scoring in 2015-16 with 19 goals and 34 assists in 81 games.

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Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones made the World Cup’s Team North America roster. The Texas-born Jones tallied 2 goals and 18 assists in 41 games for Columbus after being acquired from the Predators.

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Team Europe added Philadelphia Flyers left wing Pierre-Edourard Bellemare to its roster Friday. Bellemare, who is from France, had 7 goals and 7 assists in 74 games for the Flyers.

 

 

 

 

Hoops fan Barack Obama goes hockey on Canadian PM Justin Trudeau

13 Sunday Mar 2016

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This is President Barack Obama’s favorite time of year, sports-wise. The Leader of the Free World no doubt is keeping his eyes on important matters both foreign and domestic.

But he’s also keeping tabs on the ACC, Big East, Big 10,  Big 12, SEC, Pac 12 and maybe even the Ivy League as those conferences wrap up their championships and winning teams await berths in the NCAA Division I men’s championship tournament, a.k.a. March Madness.

Obama is a stone-cold bracketologist basketball junkie who regularly puts his predictions to paper – he shares it with ESPN – on which team he thinks will successfully negotiate its way through the 68-team tourney and win the national title.

But a president who usually talks more hoops than hockey couldn’t resist going frozen pond on new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he visited the White House for an official visit last week.The president bragged about which team is the reigning National Hockey League champion.

Yes, the Chicago Blackhawks are Stanley Cup champs, but Trudeau reminded Obama that Canadian imports like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp were key components to Chicago’s Cup runs.

And the prime minister and citizens of the Great White North weren’t shy about pointing out which country has more Olympic hockey gold medals.

It’s interesting that Obama engaged in hockey trash talk with Trudeau. The president hasn’t attended a Washington Capitals game since entering the White House, according to CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller, who maintains an authoritative record of presidential activities.

Throw out the first pitch at a Washington Nationals game? Certainly. Take in NBA Washington Wizards or WNBA Washington Mystics matches? Yep. Attend George Washington University  and Georgetown University hoops contests? You bet. Make a trip to the Verizon Center to catch Alex Ovechkin’s Capitals? Nyet.

Will President Obama see Alex Ovechkin play live in D.C. before he leaves office?

Will President Obama see Alex Ovechkin play live in D.C. before he leaves office?

“Well, the President is not a regular viewer of the sport,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters last month. “I think even casual fans of hockey can appreciate, again, both the skill and athleticism that’s required to engage in that sport, but also appreciate how exciting playoff hockey is, and that brand of hockey is something that I think causes television ratings to spike in playoff time for hockey.”

Capitals and NHL officials had hoped that Obama would break his absence streak for the 2015 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic when his hometown Blackhawks faced the Capitals at Nationals Park, but no dice.

Frustrated by the no-show president, the Capitals fan site Russian Machine Never Breaks wrote Obama a letter in 2013 imploring him to venture down to Washington’s Chinatown and attend a game.

The letter was part of a petition drive to get Obama to “Barack the Red,” a take on the Capitals’ “Rock the Red” motto.

“Right around the time President Clinton attended a Caps game, he had eliminated the budget deficit and projected a surplus for the first time in decades,” the Russian Machine Never Breaks editors wrote to Obama. “And watching the officials loosely interpret the NHL rulebook might be a great chance to refresh your Constitutional law background.”

 

Same city, different Kane involved in sex offense investigation

29 Tuesday Dec 2015

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Sabres forward Evander Kane.

Sabres forward Evander Kane.

Buffalo Sabres forward Evander Kane is the subject of an investigation into an alleged sex offense.

The allegation comes more than a month after an Erie County district attorney announced that Chicago Blackhawks star forward Patrick Kane, a Buffalo native, wouldn’t face criminal charges following a three-month sexual assault investigation.

The Sabres, the National Hockey League, and law enforcement officials didn’t say much about the latest investigation Monday. Kane spoke about it briefly with reporters in Buffalo.

The Sabres issued a statement Sunday, saying “We take the allegation made today against Evander Kane very seriously.”

“We are gathering facts and have been in touch with the NHL and Evander’s representatives,” the organization said.

Even though little has been said officially, much has already been written about the investigation, including calls not to rush to judgment about those involved in the Evander Kane matter.