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Edmonton Oilers’ Jujhar Khaira scores 1st goal, makes hockey history

18 Wednesday Jan 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Edmonton Oilers, Everett Silvertips, Jujhar Khaira

Congratulations to Edmonton Oilers center Jujhar Khaira for scoring his first National Hockey League goal on Monday and making history by becoming  only the third  Indo-Canadian player to pot a goal in the league.

Edmonton Oilers center Jujhar Khaira.

Edmonton Oilers center Jujhar Khaira.

Khaira, Edmonton’s 2012 third-round draft pick, took a pass from teammate Mark Letestu and fired the puck by Arizona Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith in the second period, giving the Oilers a 2-0 lead on the way to a 3-1 win at Edmonton’s Rogers Place.

We introduced Khaira to Color of Hockey readers in 2014 when he was a member of the Western Hockey League’s  Everett Silvertips, which had two other players of Punjabi descent on the roster at the time.

With his goal Monday, the Surrey, British Columbia-born Khaira joins Robin Bawa  and Manny Malhotra in the record books. Bawa, a right wing, scored 6 goals and 1 assist in 61 games for the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Mighty Ducks and San Jose Sharks in the late 1980s and mid-1990s.

Called it @jujhar94 pic.twitter.com/XaU8G362Fu

— Jordan Oesterle (@joesty15) January 17, 2017

Malhotra, who was chosen by the New York Rangers with the seventh overall pick in the 1998 NHL Draft, tallied 116 goals and 179 assists in 991 games for the Rangers, the Sharks, Dallas Stars, Carolina Hurricanes, Vancouver Canucks, Montreal Canadiens, and Columbus Blue Jackets.

Khaira, who is Sikh, told Canada’s Sportnet that his first NHL goal was a dream come true.

“You think about it, at the back of your mind, always,” he told reporters after the game. “Growing up as a kid, playing street hockey, you always picture it in your head as you’re playing. It’s a reality now, and it feels good.”

"It's a relief… You always picture it in your head. It's a reality now & it feels good." @jujhar94 on his first @NHL goal pic.twitter.com/6mVRsM3hqf

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 17, 2017

And it felt great for Canada’s South Asian community, which has grown so much in size and hockey interest that Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts in Punjabi.
“Because this community has had to endure and sacrifice, our parents and grandparents, it’s really rewarding when you see young people achieve success in new areas,” Bhupinder Hundal, a member of Hockey Night in Canada’s Punjabi broadcast team, told CBC. “A hundred years ago people would come here and they couldn’t bring their families. They didn’t have the right to vote and they couldn’t own property. Now Jujhar Khaira can play hockey for the Edmonton Oilers.”

 

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Washington Capitals prospect Madison Bowey racks up points, scores CHL honor

08 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Bobby Orr, Everett Silvertips, Madison Bowey, Mike Green, Seattle Thunderbirds, Washington Capitals

Madison Bowey.

Madison Bowey.

It’s early in the 2014-15 hockey season and Washington Capitals defensive prospect Madison Bowey is already putting up numbers that would make Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, or Mike Green proud.

Bowey, a Capitals 2013 second-round draft pick, was the Canadian Hockey League Player of the Week for Sept. 29-Oct. 5. The defenseman for the Western Hockey League’s  Kelowna Rockets scored two goals and six assists in three games and had a plus-minus rating of plus-7.

Bowey, the team’s captain, did most of his damage last Wednesday in a 7-5 Rockets home win over the Vancouver Giants, notching two goals and three assists. Both goals were scored while the Rockets were shorthanded.

The 19-year-old Winnipeg native picked up two more assists in a 5-4 overtime road win against the Everett Silvertips last Friday and another in a 6-4 road victory against the Seattle Thunderbirds last Saturday.

Bowey’s scoring binge gives him two goals and nine assists in five games this season. He tallied 21 goals, 39 assists, and collected 93 penalty minutes in 72 games with the Rockets last season.

 

 

 

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Everett Silvertips trio, Punjabi hockey broadcast, highlight game’s growth

09 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Boston Bruins, Edmonton Oilers, Everett Silvertips, Nashville Predators, Seth Jones, Vancouver, WHL

They share a heritage, they share a team, and two of them share a line. But Everett Silvertips forwards Jujhar Khaira, Manraj Hayer and Tyler Sandhu have something else in common: undeniable talent.

The three Vancouver-area players are among the top seven in scoring on their Western Hockey League major junior team. Their scoring numbers jump off the stat sheets, but the trio also opens eyes because they are among a small but steadily growing number of Indian players who are helping change the color of hockey.

Everett Silvertips' Manraj Hayer (Photo: Christopher Mast Images)

Everett Silvertips’ Manraj Hayer (Photo: Christopher Mast Images)

“Kids have kind of seen us in the WHL and see players go into the AHL and NHL and they’re kind of taking note that it can be done,” said Hayer, 20, who was fourth on the team in scoring with 11 goals and 17 assists in 33 games before being sidelined by a concussion. “Lately, lots of East Indian kids have started to play hockey. Little kids have come up to me and said ‘I’ve seen you play and I want to follow in your footsteps.’ That’s kind of cool.”

Sandhu, who plays on a line with Hayer, seconded his teammate’s “cool.” “It’s exciting and an honor to have kids look up to you as you looked up to older players,” said Sandhu, 18, who is fifth on the Silvertips with 13 goals and 14 assists in 40 games. “For our culture, it feels good to be able to be part of a lot kids’ development in how they look at hockey and how they dream about playing as well. For me, it’s a dream of mine to play in the NHL and I just hope kids in my culture have that dream as well.”

Carolina Hurricanes center Manny Malhotra is currently the only Indo-Canadian player in the National Hockey League. But a next generation of players could be on the way in the near future, fueled by an interest in hockey that’s grown so large within Canada’s South Asia community that CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada” airs broadcasts in Punjabi.

HNIC Punjabi's crew. Left to right: Analyst Bhola Singh Chauhan, analyst Inderpreet Cumo and play-by-play man Harnarayan Singh.

HNIC Punjabi’s crew. Left to right: Analyst Bhola Singh Chauhan, analyst Inderpreet Cumo and play-by-play man Harnarayan Singh.

“This broadcast has really helped the Punjabi community to connect with the sport,” Harbs Bains, president of the Surrey (British Columbia) Minor Hockey Association, told The New York Times last April. “It allows someone whose first language is not English to connect with the sport and between generations.”

Hockey is even slowly gaining a foothold in cricket-crazed India. A member of the International Ice Hockey Federation since 1989, the country of more than 1.2 billion people has more than 900 hockey players. In March 2012, India captured its first international ice hockey victory, a 5-1 over Macau at the IIHF’s Challenge Cup of Asia tournament.

Tyler Sandhu in action. (Photo: Christopher Mast/Everett Silvertips)

Tyler Sandhu in action. (Photo: Christopher Mast/Everett Silvertips)

Hayer, 20, began playing hockey as a child because his older brother did. But Hayer never played with another Indian player in a game until Silvertips Head Coach and former NHL bench boss Kevin Constantine put him on a line with Sandhu in Everett two seasons ago.

“It’s been a different experience, I’ve never played with another East Indian player my whole life on any of my teams,” he told me recently. “It’s kind of cool just to be playing on his line. I think it kind of makes history – I don’t think it’s ever been done before, so it’s kind of cool.”

Hayer, Sandhu and Khaira were brought together in Everett, a city of 104,000 about 30 miles north of Seattle, by coincidence. Sandhu was among four prospects the Silvertips obtained in a May 2012 trade with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks in exchange for the rights to defenseman Seth Jones. Jones, a Nashville Predators rookie this season, was the fourth overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft.

Khaira, who’s seventh on the Silvertips in scoring with 10 goals and 11 assists in 30 games, played 37 games for Michigan Tech during the 2012-13 season. He exited college with three years of NCAA eligibility left after signing with the Oilers. He came to the Silvertips in a May 2012 trade from the WHL’s Prince George Cougars

Jujhar Kharia, a 2012 Edmonton Oilers 3rd-round pick (Photo/Christopher Mast/Everett Silvertips).

Jujhar Kharia, a 2012 Edmonton Oilers 3rd-round pick (Photo/Christopher Mast/Everett Silvertips).

“It was a lot of fun, it was probably one of the best years of my life,” Khaira said of his time at Tech. “The style of play is completely different. In college, you’re playing against older guys who are 23-24 years old and here you’re playing against guys who are 16, 17 so there’s a big difference in age.”

As for his future with the Oilers, the 19-year-old said “I’m going to focus on this season and develop my game as best as possible, and then try to make an impression at (the Oilers) camp next year and see where it goes from there.”

Hayer was scouted and signed by the Silvertips in the 2010-11 season.

The three have never played on a line together during a WHL game, but have during practices. Would they like to join the ranks of the 1970s Buffalo Sabres all-French-Canadian “French Connection” led by Gilbert Perreault ,” the Boston Bruins’ German-Canadian “Kraut Line” of the 1940s that featured Milt Schmidt, or the famed “Black Aces,” an all-black minor league line in the 1940s headlined by Herb Carnegie?

“It would be cool, but at the same time Kevin Constantine knows what he’s doing and what he needs in a line,” Khaira said. “So I’m really confident in him and what he has for us.”

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