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Tag Archives: Evander Kane

Players of color play pivotal roles in 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs first round games

14 Saturday Apr 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets, Devante Smith-Pelly, Evander Kane, San Jose Sharks, Seth Jones, Washington Capitals

The Stanley Cup Playoffs have only just begun but players of color are already having a major impact in opening-round games.

From the East Coast to the West Coast, minority players played pivotal roles for their teams in first-round contests.

Forward Evander Kane showed why the San Jose Sharks obtained him from the Buffalo Sabres shortly before the trading deadline. He scored two second period goals in his first-ever National Hockey League playoff game, helping the Sharks defeat the Anaheim Ducks 3-0.

Who else but @evanderkane_9 to get the @SanJoseSharks their first 2018 #StanleyCup Playoff goal? pic.twitter.com/BcmlDo1AH9

— NHL (@NHL) April 13, 2018

EVANDER KANE AGAIN! UNREAL! 2-0 SHARKS!

#SJSharks 2 – 0 #LetsGoDucks pic.twitter.com/nTTjqaTyQQ

— NHL Daily 365 (@NHLDaily365) April 13, 2018

The 26-year-old Vancouver native became the fourth player in the last 20 years to have a multiple goal game in his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut, according to the NHL.

“It was nice to finally get out in the playoff atmosphere, and it was fun to finally get my first playoff win,” Kane told reporters after the game. “It’s finally nice to contribute. That’s my job. I feel confident in my abilities. I don’t think it was my best game, but I’m never going to be mad when we get a playoff win and I get to contribute.”

Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly flashed some of the playoff magic he displayed  four seasons ago as a member of the Ducks, scoring a third-period goal that gave the Caps a 3-2 lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets Thursday night.

Embed from Getty Images

Not to be outdone, Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones scored a power play goal that tied the game at 3. The Blue Jackets won the game 4-3 in overtime, deflating the playoff euphoria inside Washington’s Capital One Arena.

In addition to his goal, Jones led all skaters in the game with 30:59 minutes of ice time, further building the case for his consideration for the Norris Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL’s best defenseman.

Embed from Getty Images

Jones was tenth among NHL defensemen in scoring in the 2017-18 regular season with 16 goals and 41 assists in 78 games.

Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones.

“If he’s in Los Angeles, or he’s in Montreal, or in Toronto, or New York, we’re talking about this guy as a Norris Trophy candidate,” ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose told The Columbus Dispatch last month. “He does get overlooked, but not by hockey guys that see him play…Every GM in the NHL would love to have Seth Jones, and every coach would love to have him in their lineup. Those guys are very, very hard to find.”

Winnepeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien is another blueliner who’s come up big early in the playoffs.

Big Buff was an offensive and physical force in the Jets 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild Friday night.

He contributed a backhand saucer pass assist from behind the Wild net on teammate Paul Stastny’s third period goal and delivered crunching back-to-back hits on Minnesota players in the second period that energized the sellout crowd inside Winnipeg’s Bell MTS Place.

Byfuglien logged a team-high 23:51 minutes of ice time Friday, helping him earn the game’s first star honor.

“Just another day at the office,” he told reporters afterward.

Wild rookie forward Jordan Greenway  is yet to score a goal in the series against the Jets.

But the former Boston University star did tally an assist Wednesday in the Wild’s 3-2 loss to Winnipeg on Wednesday and he continued to make hockey history as the first person to play in the Winter Olympics, the NCAA ice hockey tournament and the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the same year.

Never in the history of hockey has someone played in the @Olympics, the @NCAAIceHockey tournament and the @NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs in the same year.

Until now.
#ProudToBU pic.twitter.com/tw9rqwxMaN

— BU Men's Hockey (@TerrierHockey) April 11, 2018

Greenway became the first African American to play on a U.S. Olympic hockey team when he skated at the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.

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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What a difference a year makes for diverse 2015 NHL draft class: Part 2

28 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Andong Song, Bokondji Imama, Buffalo Sabres, Ethan Bear, Evander Kane, Rochester Americans, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals

The brain trust of the Buffalo Sabres has lots of talent down on the farm with the AHL Rochester Americans who’ll soon join  Jack Eichel and sniper Evander Kane in terrorizing NHL goaltenders.

Forwards Justin Bailey, Nick Baptiste, and Evan Rodrigues are biding their time and getting better with the Americans. If they don’t make the Sabres roster in 2016-17, they’ll have company in Rochester: WHL Kelowna Rockets defenseman Devante Stephens.

Kelowna builds defensemen – Nashville Predators’ Shea Weber, Chicago Blackhawks’ Duncan Keith and Washington Capitals 2013 second round draft pick Madison Bowey.

Kelowna Rockets defenseman Devante Stephens hopes to be part of the Buffalo Sabres rebuilding process after the team drafted him in 2015 (Photo by Marissa Baecker/Kelowna Rockets).

Kelowna Rockets defenseman Devante Stephens hopes to be part of the Buffalo Sabres rebuilding process after the team drafted him in 2015 (Photo by Marissa Baecker/Kelowna Rockets).

The Sabres think they have another Kelowna defensive stud in Stephens, who was chosen in the fifth round with the 122nd overall pick. He scored 2 goals and 9 assists in 72 regular season games for the Rockets in 2015-16.

Edmonton feels it got a steal of the 2015 draft when the team selected Seattle Thunderbirds  defenseman Ethan Bear in the fifth round with the 124th pick. The 19-year-old high-scoring  Ochapowace First Nation member tallied 19 goals and 46 assists in 69 regular season games.

He’s maintained his scoring touch in the WHL playoffs with 3 goals and 8 assists in 11 games. In March, he was named a WHL Western Conference first-team all-star. If all goes well, the Oilers in the not-too-distant-future will have a defensive lineup that includes Bear, Caleb Jones and 2013 first-round pick Darnell Nurse.

Seattle Thunderbirds' D-man Ethan Bear hopes to patrol the Edmonton Oilers blue line someday (Photo/Brian Liesse/Seattle Thunderbirds).

Seattle Thunderbirds’ D-man Ethan Bear hopes to patrol the Edmonton Oilers blue line someday (Photo/Brian Liesse/Seattle Thunderbirds).

If all goes as defenseman Andong “Misha” Song and about a billion other folks in China hope, he’ll be patrolling the blue line for his country in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Song became the NHL’s first draft pick born in China when the New York Islanders chose him in the 172nd over pick in the sixth round in 2015.

New York Islanders draftee Andong Song wants to play in the NHL - and in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing (Photo/David Fricke/Phillips Academy).

New York Islanders draftee Andong Song wants to play in the NHL – and in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing (Photo/David Fricke/Phillips Academy).

He skated for Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., where he had 1 goal and 7 assists in 27 games in 2015-16. Song is doing for hockey in China what Yao Ming did for basketball – helping trigger interest in a sport that many in the country previously hadn’t watched or played.

“When Misha Song got drafted, it just blew up,” Wei Zhong, a friend of Song’s who plays hockey for Hinsdale Central High School in Illinois told The New York Times in January. “He inspired all these kids to start playing , and some of my friends who were with hockey before to dust off their skates and start playing again.”

The Tampa Bay Lightning went for toughness when it drafted Bokondji Imama in 2015.

The Tampa Bay Lightning went for toughness when it drafted Bokondji Imama in 2015.

Bokondji Imama, who was chosen by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the sixth round with the 180th overall pick in 2015, is poised to punch and hit his way to the NHL.

The Montreal-born son of immigrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Imama, 19, is one of the most-feared enforcers in the QMJHL and hardest body checkers. He had 7 goals, 12 assists and 86 penalty minutes in 48 games for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

He would have had more PIMs but he was suspended 15 games by the QMJHL in December for leaving the bench to defend a 15-year-old teammate who was being roughed up by a 20-year-old  member of the Halifax Mooseheads.

Though the league punished Imama, Sea Dogs management praiseed him for his actions.

“As an organization, we fully support Boko through this difficult situation,” Sea Dogs General Manager Darrell Young said in a statement in December. “He sacrificed himself to come to the aid of a young teammate. Once again, he proved to be the ultimate teammate and team comes first with us. Boko will be a big loss for our hockey club. He is a valuable member of our team both on and off the ice.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Same city, different Kane involved in sex offense investigation

29 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, Evander Kane, Patrick Kane

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.

#Buffalo Sabre's Evander #Kane addresses sexual assault allegations after Monday morning skate pic.twitter.com/6aL2GFsneB

— John Hickey (@jhickeyBN) December 28, 2015

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.

 

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NHL trade deadline, O’Ree Skills Weekend, showcase hockey’s growth

03 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Anthony Duclair, Chris Stewart, Evander Kane, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Wayne Simmonds, Willie O'Ree

Notes and quotes about hockey folks.

Another sign of how far people of color have come in hockey: Four black players were traded by the close of the National Hockey League’s trade deadline Monday.

The Buffalo Sabres shipped forward Chris Stewart to the Minnesota Wild Monday for a 2017 second-round draft pick.

Forward Chris Stewart, one of four black players moved before NHL trade deadline.

Forward Chris Stewart, one of four black players moved before NHL trade deadline.

The New York Rangers sent forward Anthony Duclair, their 2013 3rd-round draft pick, to the Arizona Coyotes as part of a package that took coveted puck-moving defenseman Keith Yandle  to Broadway.

The trade potentially reunites Duclair, currently playing for the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, with Max Domi, a Coyotes 2013 first-round draft pick who plays for the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights.

Duclair, Domi and Sam Reinhart, a Sabres 2014 first round draft pick, combined on a line for Team Canada that dominated the competition on Canada’s way to a Gold Medal at the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship. Don’t be surprised to see The Duke and Domi  as high-scoring pups who reinvigorate the Desert Dogs next season.

The Anaheim Ducks sent right wing Devante Smith-Pelly, a force in the Ducks’ Stanley Cup Playoffs appearance last season, to the Montreal Canadiens for left wing  Jiri Sekac.

The Winnipeg Jets shipped unhappy left wing Evander Kane to Buffalo in a multi-player mega-deal that landed the Jets defenseman Tyler Myers, right wing Drew

Stafford, and left wing Brendan Lemieux, a highly-touted prospect who plays for the OHL’s Barrie Colts.

What do these trades say about minorities in hockey? Growth. It wasn’t so long ago when there weren’t even four black players in the NHL. Today, there are nearly three dozen. Some of them are fixtures on their teams while others are call-ups from the minor leagues. The trades are a testament not only to the quantity of players of color in the league but to their quality and skill level as well.

Diversity on display in Flyers' locker room. Left to right: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Wayne Simmonds, Willie O'Ree and Ray Emery (Photo/Philadelphia Flyers).

Diversity on display in Flyers’ locker room. Left to right: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Wayne Simmonds, Willie O’Ree and Ray Emery (Photo/Philadelphia Flyers).

Congrats to the Philadelphia Flyers and the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation for hosting a fun and successful 2015 Willie O’Ree Skills Weekend last weekend. The event involved kids from the NHL’s “Hockey is for Everyone” programs.

O’Ree, the NHL’s first black player, is a role model for “Hockey is for Everyone” kids and for many of grownups playing on NHL teams.

“He’s my elder,” Flyers winger Wayne Simmonds told reporters. “I treat him with respect and let him know I have a lot of admiration for him. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be playing this game today. I know that.”

Team Ontario Assistant Coach Cyril Bollers, second row, right.

Team Ontario Assistant Coach Cyril Bollers, second row, right.

And finally, congrats to Cyril Bollers, coach and president of Skillz Hockey, for his work as assistant coach for Team Ontario’s Gold Medal-winning hockey team at the Canada Winter Games, which ended Sunday.

Ontario beat Team Alberta 3-1 Sunday in the championship game played in Prince George, B.C.  The Ontario squad finished the Under-16 tournament with a 6-0 record.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Evander Kane gets shuffled off to Buffalo by Winnipeg Jets in multi-player trade

12 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Barrie Colts, Brendan Lemieux, Buffalo Sabres, Dustin Byfuglien, Evander Kane, Winnipeg Jets

Evander Kane goes from the True North to Western New York in trade.

Evander Kane goes from the True North to Western New York in trade.

After years of trade rumors, the Winnipeg Jets and forward Evander Kane have finally parted ways.

The Jets shipped Kane, who had season-ending left shoulder surgery, defenseman Zach Bogosian, and college goaltender Jason Kasdorf to the Buffalo Sabres Wednesday in a seven-player trade. The Jets received gigantic defenseman Tyler Myers and forwards Drew Stafford and Joel Armia. Winnipeg also received the rights to Barrie Colts forward Brendan Lemieux, who was Buffalo’s 2014 second-round draft pick.

Both teams proclaimed the trade a win-win situation. Buffalo got a big, talented, speedy, tough forward whose shoulder injury won’t allow him to play until next season.

Kane can’t help the Sabres this season, meaning the team is still on course to have one of the worst records in the National Hockey League, meaning it will have a shot at the first or second pick in 2015 NHL Draft. That means Erie Otters and Team Canada wunderkind forward Connor McDavid or Boston University and Team USA star forward Jack Eichel could be snacking on Buffalo chicken wings or beef on weck this fall.

“The sense I get from Buffalo is that, yes, they’re rebuilding but they’re not going to sit around and wait,” Kane told ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun. “They’re looking to do something now. It’s nice to go somewhere where you feel wanted and you feel they want to put you in a situation to have success.”

For Buffalo, mired in last place in the NHL Eastern Conference, it’s all about 2015-16 and beyond.

For Winnipeg it’s about here and now. The Jets are sitting in fifth place in the Western Conference, sandwiched between the fourth-place Chicago Blackhawks and the sixth-place Vancouver Canucks.

The Jets and their fans desperately want the team to make the playoffs for the first time since it relocated from Atlanta, where it was called the Thrashers.

By unloading Kane, Winnipeg’s management may feel that they’ve made an addition through subtraction. He had developed a reputation as a problem-child – an immature, bad teammate.

In addition, his brashness rubbed some Winnipeg residents the wrong way. His hip-hop hairstyles and photos of him clutching wads of cash in his hands didn’t endear him to some folks in Manitoba’s capital. Kane summed up the negative perception of him in an interview with The Hockey News in 2013.

“I think a good portion of it is because I’m black and I’m not afraid to say that,” Kane told the publication.

In Myers, the Jets get the 2009-10 NHL Rookie of the Year whose play had been up and down ever since. Winnipeg’s counting on a change of scenery and a shift to a winning franchise to improve his play. One thing’s for sure, the 6-foot, 7-inch Myers, paired with 6-foot, 5-inch, 260-pound defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, will give the Jets size that any NBA team would love.

Winnipeg also gets an intriguing and motivated prospect in Lemieux, the son of former Stanley Cup-winning super-pest Claude Lemieux.

Evander Kane has a wounded shoulder. Brendan Lemieux has a chip on his. He was the first player selected in the second-round of last year’s draft, but thought he was first-round material.

Lemieux vowed to make teams that bypassed him pay. Expect him to enter the Jets training camp in September gunning for a roster spot to deliver on his word.

“I’m definitely going to love going in their arenas and making it hard on their guys because they decided to pass me over, so I’m just going to use this as fuel,” he told the reporters at the draft  in Philadelphia. “They gave one of the more fiery guys in the draft, I’d like to say, a lot more fire.”

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USHL’s Everett Fitzhugh wants to rock the mic as an NHL play-by-play radio voice

03 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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David Amber, Detroit Red Wings, Evander Kane, Everett Fitzhurgh, Hockey Night in Canada, Jarome Iginla, Kevin Weekes, NHL Network, Wayne Simmonds

Everett Fitzhugh wants to be The Voice – the guy who shouts “goal!” when the home team puts the biscuit in the basket, the person who vocally paints a Picasso of what’s happening on the ice during a hockey game for those who can’t catch it at the arena or watch it on TV.

Fitzhugh aspires to be a National Hockey League radio play-by-play announcer, a career path not normally associated with 25-year-old African-American men. But Fitzhugh, a Detroit native who grew up spending cold winter nights listening to Ken Kal broadcast Detroit Red Wings games and lazy summer evenings hearing Ernie Harwell do Detroit Tigers baseball, is on a mission to join the small but growing club of NHL broadcasters of color.

Calling Bowling Green hockey games while a student stoked USHL's Everett Fitzhugh's interest in being an NHL radio announcer.

Calling Bowling Green hockey games while a student stoked USHL’s Everett Fitzhugh’s interest in being an NHL radio announcer.

He watches David Amber and Kevin Weekes on CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada,” and former NHLers Anson Carter and Jamal Mayers on NBC Sports Network and NHL Network’s nightly “NHL on The Fly” highlights show and thinks to himself “See you soon, dudes.”

“I think that’s going to be me in 15, 20-plus years, however long it takes,” Fitzhugh told me recently.  “This has been a dream of mine to work in sports, to work in media, since I was seven years old. I didn’t know I wanted to strictly work in hockey until I was in college. But I see those guys on TV and it gives me hope that what I’m doing will eventually pay off. It gives me hope that I can be on ESPN one day and I can become an NHL radio play-by-play man, which is my ultimate goal.”

In the meantime, Fitzhugh is busy paying his dues. He attended Bowling Green State University – alma mater of Pittsburgh Penguins and U.S. Olympics men’s hockey team Head Coach Dan Bylsma – and did radio play-by-play for 120 games for the NCAA Division I Falcons men’s hockey team.

He joined the United States Hockey League in 2012 and is manger of communications for the nation’s top junior hockey league that serves as a stepping-stone to college hockey or the NHL for many players.

Working out of Chicago, Fitzhugh handles the USHL’s social media entries, press releases, YouTube posts and video highlights. The job often gets him out of the office and into the lock rooms of USHL teams. But more than anything, Fitzhugh wants to get back behind the microphone and call hockey games on the radio.

“People call me weird. We used to joke when I was in school that TV guys do half the work but get twice the money,” he said. “But I love radio. I just love painting the picture. I love being able to describe what’s going on and the art of being on the radio. It’s a difficult job, but when you’re able to master hockey radio play-by-play, for me, that’s the ultimate position in sports.”

Amber knows how Fitzhugh feels. He grew up in Toronto listening Toronto Maple Leafs broadcasts and thought that he, too, might be a play-by-play guy some day.

"Hockey Night's" David Amber sees diversity gains on the ice and in the media.

“Hockey Night’s” David Amber sees diversity gains on the ice and in the media.

But he gravitated to sports reporting instead. Now, he’s the pre-game, between-periods, and post-game presence on Canada’s equivalent of “Monday Night Football.” He’s pleased to see more minorities are on the air talking hockey and more people like Fitzhugh in the pipeline waiting for their break.

“The exposure from ‘Hockey Night,’ I’ve certainly had a significant amount of minority faces – mostly black, but even Indian and Asian – say they’re happy to see it’s (hockey) not so homogeneous the way it was maybe 10 years ago; that there are people of color coming in and being able to lend a voice and face to the sport,” Amber told me recently. “It has been a slow transition, absolutely, but there are going to be a lot of new young guys coming up now.”

And the interest of people like Fitzhugh to work in hockey reflects the increasing number hockey players of color and the growing impact they’re are having on the game from the USHL all the way up to the NHL, Amber said.

“There are more black faces in the NHL than there’s ever been,” he told me. “When you look at the guys who’ve made it now, these are impact players whether it’s (Philadelphia Flyers’ Wayne) Simmonds, we know what (Boston Bruins’ Jarome) Iginla’s been able to do over his career, (Winnipeg Jets’) Evander Kane, (Dallas Stars’) Trevor Daley. But because the position of the players have increased and the position of some of the media members has increased from a minority standpoint, I think success breeds success and visibility breeds more visibility and I think that’s a good thing.”

But old stereotypes still die hard. Fitzhugh says people – both minorities and whites – occasionally do double-takes when he tells them what he does for a living and what his dream job is.

“I’ve gotten snide comments, off the cuff comments “Oh, you’re black, you can’t be in hockey, you can’t do this, that and the other,'” he said. “And I’m like ‘No, you look on TV, we’re growing.’ You look at some of the best players in the NHL – up and coming Evander Kane, if he can ever stay healthy; Jarome Iginla fed (Pittsburgh Penguins’)Sidney Crosby to lead Canada to the Gold Medal four years ago; (Winnipeg Jets’) Dustin Byfuglien was barely left off our U.S. Olympic team this year.”

“Black people, we’re not barely surviving in hockey,” he added. “I think we are staples. We’re contributing  day in, day out to the hockey world on the ice, off the ice, in the media.”

Amber said he rarely gets negative comments about his presence on hockey telecasts. But he recalls getting the odd tweet during his NHL Network days from viewers filled with keyboard courage who’d urge him “to stick with basketball.”

“Nothing crazy, certainly nothing like what (Washington Capitals forward) Joel Ward received after he scored the Game 7 OT winner against Boston (in April 2012),” he said. “But a couple of snide remarks, inappropriate remarks. By and large it hasn’t been a big issue. Living in Canada, it hasn’t been a prevalent issue. In the States, I think it’s still by and large viewed as a white guy’s sport.”

Even among minorities. Fitzhugh says striking up a hockey conversation at his local barbershop can be a challenge.

“They look at me a little weird,” he said with a laugh. “My barbers knows that I work in hockey. When I first told them, they kind of looked at me like I was a science experiment like ‘Oh, you work in hockey?’ I enlighten them a little bit, but hockey’s not a regular topic of conversation when I go to the barbershop.”

But Fitzhugh believes that will change in time because “more and more minorities and people of color are becoming aware of the game.”

“Think if anyone goes to a hockey game, they will be hooked,” he said. “If could have a mission, it would be to take everybody, everyone in this country to a hockey game.”

Or to have folks listen to his play-by-play account on the radio.

Special thanks: to Color of Hockey follower and ChicagoSide Senior Writer Evan F. Moore who first reported on Fitzhugh.

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