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Tag Archives: NHL draft

Cliff Pu shuffles off to Buffalo Sabres in 2016 NHL Draft

25 Saturday Jun 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Buffalo Sabres, Cliff Pu, London Knights, NHL draft

 Cliff Pu, the hustling Ontario Hockey League center with the firm handshake, was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the third round of the 2016 NHL Draft in Buffalo. The selection, the 69th overall, drew loud cheers from fans in the arena.

“It’s pretty cool,” he told the Color of Hockey after donning a hometown Sabres jersey. “I didn’t really expect it, to hear them cheer. It’s pretty cool.”

Cliff Pu's combination of speed, grit, and hockey smarts was an irresistible package for the Buffalo Sabres (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

Cliff Pu’s combination of speed, grit, and hockey smarts was an irresistible package for the Buffalo Sabres (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

Pu, the son of a Chinese couple who moved to Canada, excelled for the London Knights on a swift-skating line with Max Jones, drafted in the first round, by the Anaheim Ducks.

The Knights, helped by Pu’s grit and speed, won the Memorial Cup as the best Canadian junior team in 2016. Pu will return for another season in London, and he hopes Jones will, too.

Asked if it was particularly special day given his heritage, he noted that there haven’t been many Asian players and he hoped to be one of the first to make a mark in the NHL.

“I like to use my speed to my advantage — forecheck, backcheck — it’s one of my best attributes,” said Pu, a rangy 6-foot-1 and 188 pounds.

ISS Hockey identified Pu as a prime sleeper pick. “Like this kid more every time we see him,” the ISS reported. “One of the most improved players in the OHL. Really like his size, speed and hockey sense. Does all the little things that win games.”

Pu notched 12 goals, 19 assists, and 24 penalty minutes in 63 regular season games for the Knights. He became a beast in the OHL playoffs, tallying 8 goals and 5 assists in 18 games. His line provided speed and relentless forechecking that took away time and space from opposing defenses.

Pu gained attention in January by celebrating a goal in an unusual fashion in today’s game – with a handshake. Killing a penalty against Flint, Pu followed Jones up ice and tucked a rebound into the net. Then he went off the map, taking off a glove and offering his linemate a shake. Just to mix things up, he said.

Another handshake this season? He grinned. “We’ll see.”

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

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Darnell Nurse sent back to the Soo

25 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Darnell Nurse, Edmonton Oilers, NHL draft, Seth Jones

The Edmonton Oilers sent first-round draft pick Darnell Nurse back to Sault Ste. Marie. (James Egan Photography)

The Edmonton Oilers sent first-round draft pick Darnell Nurse back to Sault Ste. Marie. (James Egan Photography)

He had a good run and turned a lot of heads, but defenseman Darnell Nurse was cut from the Edmonton Oilers training camp Tuesday night and returned to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, his junior team.

Nurse, the seventh pick in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft, was reassigned shortly after the Oilers’ 5-3 victory over the New York Rangers in Edmonton Tuesday night.

The 18-year-old nephew of retired Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb wasn’t expected to make the Oilers when training camp started. But he turned heads with his sometimes strong and aggressive play, particularly in a preseason game against the Vancouver Canucks last week.

Asked about how he felt when learning he was cut, a downcast Nurse told reporters “it sucks.”

“If anyone tells you it feels good to get cut, they’re lying to you,” he told reporters. “It sucks, there’s nothing fun about it, but they have the best plan for me in my development. I’m going to go back and dominate my league and hope I have an opportunity to play in the World Juniors.”

“I gave everything I had,” Nurse continued. “I came in as prepared as I could be. I was really fueled by the fact that so many people said I wasn’t good enough to keep up at this level. I think I proved a few people wrong over the course of this camp, but I still have a lot of room to grow as a player.”

Of the eight players of color taken in the 2013 draft, only defenseman Seth Jones remains in the training camp of the team that selected him. Jones, the fourth player picked in the draft, looks likely to make the Nashville Predators roster.

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“Not in the right sport?”

22 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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black hockey players, NHL draft, Powerade, Seth Jones, Toronto Globe and Mail

The main goal of a television commercial is to inspire – inspire the viewer to buy the product being advertised.

I don’t know how Coca-Cola’s Powerade is doing in its battle for supremacy against Gatorade and the rest of the crowded sports drink field. But whether it translated into additional sales or not, Powerade certainly succeeded in generating a lot of buzz in the hockey world with an ad campaign it in unveiled last March.

In the 31-second spot, cameras quick-cut to athletes seemingly cast against type: a smallish basketball player driving to the hoop through a field of giants; a slow defensive football player on a search-and-destroy mission for someone to hit; a female wrestler preparing to do battle; a black hockey player skating with his teammates.

http://www.youtube.com/user/PoweradeUS?feature=watch

The basketball player starts the conversation: “I know what you think you’re looking at,” he says. “Someone who’s too small?”

“Too slow,” the football player continues.

“Not in the right sport?” the black hockey player asks.

“In the wrong body?’ the woman wrestler says.

The hockey player’s presence and speaking lines struck a chord on the Internet and at ice rinks. Many viewers and hockey players of color saw it as an “Aha” moment, a recognition by the mainstream media – or at least Madison Avenue (actually, a Portland, Ore., advertising firm developed the ad) –  of the growth of minority participation and interest in hockey.

Poking the eyes of athletic stereotypes was the theme of Powerade's ad campaign.

Poking the eyes of athletic stereotypes was the theme of Powerade’s ad campaign.

“Perhaps through market research and focus groups, the ad people have seen the future and it looks like (Seth) Jones,” writer Joe Lapointe penned in The Toronto Globe and Mail, referring to the Nashville Predators’ first-round draft pick. Jones was taken  fourth overall in the NHL draft last month, the highest an Afircan-American player has ever been chosen.

Some people expressed racial discomfort with the ad. And some less enlightened folks  – practitioners of  “keyboard courage,” to borrow a phrase from Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis – took to the Internet and Twitter to crudely proclaim the ad a fraud. After all, black people don’t play hockey, several tweets and blog posts insisted in much stronger language.

“Hockey’s own Jackie Robinson impersonator,” was one of the few printable takes from a review of the ad from the web site castefootball.us.

The ad provoked a lot of thought and generated a lot of talk. Just what the people at Coca-Cola, the maker of Powerade, had hoped for.

“In this campaign, Powerade confronts those preconceptions and challenges the conventional wisdom that your size, your gender or the color of your skin defines what sports you get to succeed in,” Lauren Thompson, a Coca-Cola spokeswoman told me recently in an email Q&A about the ad. “The hockey scene within the spot helped tell this story. We believe the campaign to be inspirational and celebratory of all those who power through adversity, shatter stereotypes, and disprove pre-conceived notions.”

Thompson said the commercial was shot at an ice rink in Los Angeles, home of the then-Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings, with actors who had the on-ice skills to keep it real.

“We were looking for authenticity from all the cast members, and we were particularly impressed with his skating,” Thompson said of the unnamed actor in the hockey scene. “Yes, he does play hockey.”

When the ad premiered last March, Coca-Cola officials were encouraged by the initial response to it

“When we posted the campaign online we saw a lot of likes and shares,” Thompson said. “We wanted to disrupt the status quo, and we believe we accomplished that with this campaign.”

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