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Tag Archives: T.J. Oshie

Pictures tell hockey’s diversity story in Stanley Cup Final Game One

30 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Devane Smith-Pelly, Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, Neal Henderson, Pierre -Edouard Bellemare, Ryan Reaves, T.J. Oshie, Vegas Golden Knights, Washington Capitals

The Stanley Cup Final is only a game old but I already have a favorite picture – one that jubilantly tells the story of diversity in hockey.

It’s a shot of Vegas Golden Knights forwards Ryan Reaves and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare joyfully celebrating the top-shelf goal that Reaves scored in the third period Monday night against the Washington Capitals that tied the game at 4. Vegas won the series opener 6-4, a contest in which players of color had front and center roles.

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Reaves and Bellemare were effective pests on the Golden Knights checking line, giving the Capitals fits and putting the puck in the net.

Capitals forward T.J. Oshie, who is Ojibwe First Nations/Native American, had an assist on the Capitals’ fourth goal, scored by defenseman John Carlson. And Washington forward Devante-Smith Pelly made the most of his 10:04 minutes of ice time, hitting anything that moved that wore gray, gold and red.

Embed from Getty Images

The Stanley Cup Final isn’t the only thing with neat visuals. Voting is underway for the NHL’s Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award, with three finalists to choose from.

And, like any good campaign, supporters of Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club founder and Head Coach Neal Henderson, have put up a video to garner votes.

For those who represent inclusion in hockey @SNChrisSimpson @ColorOfHockey @usahockey welcome community hero NEAL HENDERSON from Washington DC on his nomination for the #NHLOreeAward. A truly special man. Please WATCH the video and VOTE here: https://t.co/DAE7UjZs4K pic.twitter.com/8Yqqb7Hn0G

— Steven Hoffner (@Hoffner_Steven) May 29, 2018

At 40 years old, Washington’s Fort Dupont program is the oldest minority youth hockey program in North America.

The other O’Ree award finalists are Debbie Bland, a long-time girls and women’s hockey advocate in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada, and Humboldt Broncos Coach Darcy Haugan, who was killed in April when the Saskatchewan junior hockey team’s bus collided with a semi-trailer.

Voting closes at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on June 1. Click here to cast your vote.

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

 

 

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More than a dozen players of color are eligible for Vegas in NHL expansion draft

19 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Boston Bruins, Devante Smith-Pelly, Jarome Iginla, Los Angeles Kings, Malcolm Subban, New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, Pierre -Edouard Bellemare, T.J. Oshie, Washington Capitals

Some of the National Hockey League’s players of color are feeling a draft.

At least 17 minority players are among the players left unprotected by the NHL’s 30 teams for Wednesday’s Expansion Draft to help form the inaugural roster for the Vegas Golden Knights.

The players of color made available – a nicer phrase than “unprotected” – include a likely future Hockey Hall of Fame inductee,  three multiple Stanley Cup winners, three Olympians, and a few minor league prospects.

A look at the 2017 Expansion Draft rules https://t.co/lFspa7bG3e via @NHL

— Patrick Frithiof (@Barbabrorsan) April 16, 2017

Here’s a summary of the players available:

ANAHEIM DUCKS

Emerson Etem, left wing. The 29th overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft, Etem has bounced from the Ducks to the New York Rangers to the Vancouver Canucks and back to the Ducks. And he’s boomeranged between Anaheim and its American Hockey League affiliate in San Diego.

He only appeared in three games for the Ducks in 2016-17 and was held scoreless. He does have 22 goals and 24 assists in 173 NHL regular season games and 6 goals and 2 assists in 23 playoff games.

BOSTON BRUINS

Malcolm Subban, a Boston Bruins’ 2012 first-round pick. Could he be Vegas-bound?

Malcolm Subban, goaltender. Subban was 24th player picked in the 2012 NHL Draft but has been unable to secure a spot on a Bruins roster that features Tuuka Rask between the pipes. Rask won the Vezina Trophy in 2013-14 as the NHL’s best goaltender.

The younger brother of Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban, Malcolm Subban appeared in 32 games last season for the Providence Bruins, Boston’s AHL farm team. His stats: 11 wins, 14 losses, a 2.41 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage. He had 2 losses in the AHL playoffs and sported a 2.12 goals-against average and a .937 save percentage.

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

Johnny Oduya, defense. Oduya was a member of the 2013 and 2015 Chicago Stanley Cup teams and the Swedish team that won the Silver Medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics. He had 2 goals and 7 assists in 52 regular season games for the Blackhawks last season. He has 37 goals and 145 assists in 798 career regular season contests and 6 goals and 22 assists in 106 career playoff games.

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Jordin Tootoo, right wing. The diminutive dynamo of Inuit heritage was limited to 2 goals and 1 assist in 50 regular season games in 2016-17. He has 65 goals and 96 assists in 723 games with Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, and the New Jersey Devils.

DALLAS STARS

Forward Gemel Smith, the Dallas Stars’ 2012 fourth-round pick..

Gemel Smith, center. The Stars took the 23-year-old in the fourth round with the 104th overall pick of the 2012 NHL Draft. He hasn’t seen much time in Big D.  He scored 3 goals and 3 assists in 17 regular season games for Dallas in 2016-17.

His younger brother, forward Giavani Smith, was taken by the Detroit Red Wings in the second round with the 46th overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft.

EDMONTON OILERS

Jujhar Khaira, center. Khaira was one of the feel-good stories of the 2016-17 season when he scored his first NHL goal –  a source of pride for North America’s South Asian community. The Oilers took Khaira in the third round with the 63rd overall pick of the 2012 NHL Draft. His one goal and 2 assists were his only points in 10 games for the Oilers in 2016-17.

LOS ANGELES KINGS 

Jarome Iginla, right wing.  Iginla, 39, is one of hockey’s most-decorated players. He’s a two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner, and a recipient of the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the NHL’s leading goal scorer in 2002 and 2004 and the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading scorer in 2002. He won the Lester B. Pearson Award – the most valuable player award voted by the players – in 2002.

Iginla, a sure-fire Hall of Famer when he retires, had 14 goals and 13 assists in 80 games for the Kings in 2016-17.

Jordan Nolan, center. A proud member of the Ojibwe Nation, Nolan played for the Kings’ Stanley Cup championship teams in 2012 and 2014. Nolan, the son of former Buffalo Sabres Head Coach Ted Nolan, appeared in only 46 games for the Kings last season and tallied 4 goals and 4 assists.

MINNESOTA WILD

Matt Dumba, defense.  Of Filipino heritage, Dumba posted a career-best 11 goals and 23 assists in 76 games. His plus/minus – an indicator of defensive responsibility – improved from plus-1 in 2015-16 to plus-15 in 2016-17.

MONTREAL CANADIENS

Al Montoya, goaltender, Montreal Canadiens

Al Montoya, goaltender. The well-traveled Cuban-American goaltender could be on the move again. A 2004 first-round of the Rangers,  Montoya has strapped on the pads for the New York Islanders, Florida Panthers,  Phoenix Coyotes, and Winnipeg Jets before he seemingly settled in as Carey Price’s backup in Montreal.

Montoya appeared in 19 games for the Habs, posted an 8-6-4 record with a 2.67 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

Devante Smith-Pelly, right wing. Devo is coming off a down season in New Jersey, his third team since the Ducks chose him with in the second round with the 42nd overall pick in the 2010 draft. He scored only 4 goals and 5 assists in 50 games.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS

Christopher Gibson, goaltender. The black Finn didn’t play a minute in Brooklyn in 2016-17 and had a short season with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Isles’ AHL team. There, he appeared in seven games and won 6. He had a 2.52 goals-against average and .912 save percentage.

Gibson played in four NHL games in 2015-16, posted a 1-1-1 record with a 3.40 goals-against average and an .882 save percentage.

Embed from Getty Images

 

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

Philadelphia Flyers LW Pierre Edouard Bellemare

Pierre-Edourard Bellemare, left wing. The French player probably enjoyed his most memorable season in 2016-17. It started with the World Cup of Hockey, where the fourth-line Flyers player became a key contributor for Team Europe and ended with him playing before his countrymen at the 2017 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in Paris.

In between, Bellemare had a solid enough year for the Flyers that the team re-signed him to a two-year deal at $1.45 million per year and made him an assistant captain. The 32-year-old checking line forward scored 4 goals and 4 assists in 82 regular season games. He has 17 goals and 17 assists in 237 career NHL games.

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Trevor Daley, defense. Daley is experiencing the cruel business side of hockey. Win a Stanley Cup one week, get exposed to the expansion draft the next.  The 33-year-old offensively-talented and defensively-responsible player began his NHL career with the Dallas Stars in 2003-04. Daley reached the 20-point mark seven times during his tenure with Dallas.

Embed from Getty Images

He had 5 goals and 15 assists in 56 games for the Penguins in 2016-17 and tallied 1 goal and 4 assists in 21 playoff games that ended with him winning a second Stanley Cup. Daley 78 goals and 200 assists in 894 career NHL regular season games.

SAN JOSE SHARKS

Joel Ward, right wing.  Injuries in 2016-17 hampered the 36-year-old wing who earned a reputation as a clutch playoff performer during his NHL career. He scored 10 goals and 19 assists in 78 regular season games and 1 goal and 3 assists in six playoff games.

He’s tallied 22 goals and 30 assists in 83 playoff games for San Jose, Nashville, and the Washington Capitals.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

J.T. Brown, right wing. A tough player who isn’t afraid to speak his mind on social issues, Brown had 3 goals and 3 assists for the Lightning last season. He has 18 goals and 39 assists in 262 NHL regular season games.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS

T.J. Oshie, right wing. Why in the world would the Capitals expose a player who notched 33 goals and 23 assists in 68 games last season? Our friends at the Russian Machine Never Breaks Capitals fan site break it down to money and uncertainty. Oshie needs a new contract and the NHL currently isn’t sure what the league salary cap will be next season. And Oshie could become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.  All that might be enough for the Golden Knights to pass on him, leaving the Caps to move forward with a new deal once the 2017-18 salary cap is set.

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Lights out for the shootout in championship games?

07 Saturday Jan 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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2014 Winter Olympics, IIHF, International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, shootouts, T.J. Oshie

There’s still an afterglow on this side of the border following the United States’ dramatic 5-4 comeback win over Canada in one of the greatest International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship gold medal games ever played.

But there’s still also a bitter taste – even among some Team USA  fans – that such a thrilling, entertaining, dramatic, and excellently-played championship game was decided by a five-round shootout after an overtime session.

Embed from Getty Images

 

From 1980 U.S. hockey Miracle on Ice Gold Medal Olympian Mike Eruzione to newly-forged hockey fan Tony X  deciding a championship game with a duel between a shooter and a goaltender was about as satisfying as the final episodes of “The Sopranos,” HBO’s “The Night Of,” or the Bobby Ewing dream sequence on “Dallas” in the 1980s.

@MERUZIONE sorry I hate the shootout to win a gold-medal let the players play

— MIKE ERUZIONE (@MERUZIONE) January 6, 2017

gg Canada…. sucks it had to comedown to a shootout for the gold.

— Tony X. (@soIoucity) January 6, 2017

Shootout alternatives: pic.twitter.com/CxKizi8xQ5

— James Mirtle (@mirtle) January 6, 2017

Still time to file for an emergency IIHF rule change for another OT instead of a shootout? #WorldJuniors

— Scouting The Refs (@ScoutingTheRefs) January 6, 2017

Great games should be played out. Not end in a SO 😠. #WJC2017 pic.twitter.com/03QflffwJh

— Hilary Knight (@Hilary_Knight) January 6, 2017

We interrupt this excellent hockey game to bring you a trash shootout to decide a championship! #CANvsUSA

— Cory Smith (@CorySmith1980) January 6, 2017

Junior World Championship game had been unreal I hate the winner to be determined by a shootout

— Lou Nanne (@lou_nanne) January 6, 2017

Of course, some folks say that complaints about Thursday night’s shootout are merely sour grapes from fans who didn’t like the outcome of the game.

Max Pacioretty: I didn't hear so many people complaining about the (world junior) shootout when Price and Toews won.

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) January 6, 2017

I have mixed feelings about shootouts. I don’t think any championship in any sport should be decided by any sort of shootout.

Can you imagine the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Caveliers deciding an NBA championship series on free throw or three-point shootouts?  Or a deadlocked Super Bowl being settled by a field goal kickers duel from 50-yards out?  Or a tied World Series baseball game being won or loss in a home run derby after the traditional nine innings?

Still, I understand the excitement that hockey shootouts can produce. I was at the U.S.-Russia game at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi when Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie scored four shootout goals in an unbelievable, pressure-filled exhibition of skill.

The National Hockey League started using the shootout for regular season games in the 2005-06. But the league doesn’t use it for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The IIHF has used the shootout to decide deadlocked world championship and Olympic games since 1992.

What do you think? Should the shootout stay or go in championship games?

 

 

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Flyers’ Wayne Simmonds in a Toronto Blue Jays cap? don’t hate, Philly, it’s for love

19 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins., Sidney Crosby, St. Louis Blues, T.J. Oshie, Wayne Simmonds

Flyers' Wayne Simmonds.

Flyers’ Wayne Simmonds.

Yo, Philadelphia, if you see Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds wearing a Toronto Blue Jays baseball cap, cut him some slack.

Sure, that blue lid with the bird head and red maple leaf on it brings back bad flashbacks of Toronto’s Joe Carter smashing a Mitch Williams fastball into SkyDome’s left field bullpen for a ninth-inning, walk-off three-run homer in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series and announcer Tom Cheek screaming “Touch ’em all Joe” as your Philadelphia Phillies dejectedly trudge off the field.

But for Simmonds, the Blue Jays brim brings back a different memory – of his Nana, grandmother Catherine Mercury. He tells a touching first-person story on SI.com as part of the National Hockey League’s Hockey Fights Cancer initiative.

Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds fights cancer for his late grandmother.

Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds fights cancer for his late grandmother.

Simmonds is in a 30-second television ad for the campaign that features NHL stars like the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, T.J. Oshie of the St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche’s Gabriel Landeskog, and Flyers’ captain Claude Giroux.

Simmonds’ involvement in the campaign reflects his stature as one of the NHL’s rising stars, a trajectory that began last season when he led the Flyers with 29 goals. Kick in 31 assists, and Simmonds finished third on the team in scoring in 2013-14 with 60 points. He’s scored seven goals and five assists for 12 points in 16 games so far in the 2014-15 season.

Since coming to the Flyers in a 2011 trade from the Los Angeles Kings, Simmonds has become a fan favorite for his scoring and physical play. Nothing says love more in Philadelphia than notching two Gordie Howe hat tricks – a goal, an assist, and a fight – in one season, which Simmonds accomplished in 2013.

But for Simmonds, nothing says love more than wearing a Toronto Blue Jays baseball cap.

 

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With T.J. Oshie in Sochi

16 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Alexander Ovechkin, Chicago Blackhawks, Chippewa, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dan Bylsma, Jonathan Quick, Ojibwe, Patrick Kane, Pittsburgh Penguins., Sergei Bobrovsky, St. Louis Blues, T.J. Oshie, Washington Capitals

SOCHI, Russia _ After the United States beat Russia 3-2 Saturday in an instant classic of a hockey game, a Russian journalist asked me in broken English: “What’s a T.J. Oshie?”

After Team USA's shootout win, everyone in Russia knows T.J. Oshie's name.

After Team USA’s shootout win, everyone in Russia knows T.J. Oshie’s name.

If Oshie, a forward for the St. Louis Blues, wasn’t a household name in Sochi, Moscow, St. Petersburg, or anywhere else in Russia, he certainly is now. Team USA Coach Dan Bylsma made what seemed like a strange decision to use Oshie over and over again in the shootout that gave the American squad the victory.

Oshie responded by scoring four times over eight rounds, including the decisive goal past Russian and Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, last season’s Vezina Trophy winner as the National Hockey League’s best goalie.

Oshie, who is part Ojibwe (Chippewa) Native/First Nations, was a little surprised about his shootout encores  and a tad nervous about repeatedly going up against Bobrovsky in front of Russian President Vladimir Putin and more than 11,000 decidedly pro-Russian fans inside the Winter Games’ Bolshoy Ice Dome.

“It was pretty nerve-racking out there,” Oshie told reporters afterwards. “I did (feel pressure) a little bit, but then the puck hits your stick and you start staking. It’s just you and the goalie. I was fortunate to keep (Bobrovsky) guessing and Quickie (USA goaltender Jonathan Quick) did his job great.”

If Saturday’s game was a National Hockey League contest, Bylsma couldn’t have called Oshie’s number so many times. Under NHL rules, a player can only be used once in a shootout. In international hockey, a player can be used as often as the coach desires.

Still, Bylsma’s shootout strategy seemed odd given the offensive firepower and creativity on the U.S. bench. Shifty Chicago Blackhawks sniper Patrick Kane was sitting there. And slick Toronto Maple Leafs forward Phil Kessel can pick a corner or two.

But Bylsma, coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Team USA’s brain trust knew something about Oshie: he’s an absolute shootout assassin. He’s never scored more than 19 goals a year in his six NHL seasons. But he’s 25 for 46 in shootouts in his career and boasts a 54.3 career shootout percentage, second among active NHL players with at least 20 attempts.

 T.J. Oshie became Team USA's  designated shooter against Russia.

T.J. Oshie became Team USA’s designated shooter against Russia.

“T.J. has been exceptional in the shootout this year and throughout his career,” Bylsma said. “Once we got to the fourth shooter, and just the quality moves he had even when he did miss, we were going to ride him out.”

Oshie was reportedly picked for the US team in part because of his shootout success. American League baseball teams have designated hitters. Team USA wanted a designated shooter, and Oshie is it.

“I was just nervous for him. At some point you think ‘Does he have any moves left?'” said Team USA captain Zach Parise, a forward for the Minnesota Wild. “But he did a good job. He always went in the same way from right to left and maybe that started getting into the goalie’s head a little bit. For someone to keep scoring in a shootout like that, it’s pretty impressive.”

Shootouts aren’t everyone’s bowl of borsht. Some of the best NHL scorers, for whatever reason, don’t like participating in them. New Jersey Devils forward Jaromir Jagr, who’s playing for his native Czech Republic in Sochi, eschews shootouts.

Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin sometimes passes on them, too. He was on the Russian bench as forward Pavel Datsuyk of the Detroit Red Wings and former NHLer Ilya Kovalchuk faced the Los Angeles Kings’ Quick in the shootout.

“Of course it was hard to pick the players for the shootout because we have players like (Carolina Hurricanes’ Alexander) Semin, who shoots well, and (Alexander) Radulov, but overall, I think that both Datsuyk and Kovalchuk were good enough and had confidence,” Team Russia Head Coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov said after the game.

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From Russia, with love at the 2014 Winter Olympics

31 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, Jamaican Bobsled Team, Lolo Jones, Michael Martinez, Montreal Canadiens, P.K. Subban, Shani Davis, T.J. Oshie, Ted Nolan

You can escape Washington, but not Alex Ovechkin - not in Sochi anyway.

You can escape Washington, but not Alex Ovechkin – not in Sochi anyway.

Greetings from Sochi, Russia, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The National Hockey League temporarily shutters its 2013-14 season next week to enable its players to represent their countries in Sochi, a subtropical seaside city with snowcapped mountains about an hour’s train ride away. Several of  the medal-seeking countries have diverse rosters. Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban,  the son of Caribbean immigrants, and goaltender Carey Price, whose mother is a former Ulkatcho First Nations chief, are playing for Canada. Their Montreal teammate Raphael Diaz, a defenseman who’s part Spanish, is representing Switzerland. Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Johnny Oduya who’s of partial Kenyan descent, is skating for his native Sweden; St. Louis Blues forward T.J. Oshie, who is part Ojibwe is on Team U.S.A.; and Buffalo Sabres Head Coach Ted Nolan, Ojibwe/First Nations, is the Latvian Olympic hockey team’s bench boss.

Ted Nolan trades Buffalo blue for Latvia's maroon at Winter Olympics (Bill Wippert, Buffalo Sabres).

Ted Nolan trades Buffalo blue for Latvia’s maroon at Winter Olympics (Bill Wippert, Buffalo Sabres).

Coaching Latvia is just another highlight in a comeback season for Nolan, who was an NHL coaching outcast for 16 years before the team that fired him brought him back. Latvia asked him to be the national team’s coach in 2011. “The first thing I mentioned to (national team representatives) was whether I could coach Latvia in the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games,” Nolan told the Olympic News Service. “I’m no different than most people in that I want to be in the NHL, but I wanted to coach Latvia and fulfill my obligation.” Hockey won’t be the only diverse sport in Sochi. The Winter Olympics has a rich tradition of athletes of color excelling in sports wrongly perceived as exclusively white. From 1988 Bronze Medal-winning American figure skater Debi Thomas, to 1992 Gold Medal-winning American figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, to bobsledder Vonetta Flowers, who in 2002 became the first African-American athlete to win a Winter Olympics Gold Medal, people of color have shown the mettle at the Winter Games.

Expect more of the same at Sochi.

American Speed skater Shani Davis is back for another Winter Olympics, hoping to add to the Gold and Silver medals he collected in Turin, Italy in 2006, and Vancouver, Canada in 2010.

Davis presents an interesting profile: Someone who’s part of the U.S. speed skating team yet apart from it. The system works for both parties.

Shani Davis is  hunting for more Olympic hardware in Sochi. (Harry E. Walker/MCT)

Shani Davis is hunting for more Olympic hardware in Sochi. (Harry E. Walker/MCT)

“This is how I like to do things,” Davis told Olympic News Service. “Sometimes you will see me (training) on my own and sometimes with the team. It depends. I am an individual athlete. For me, competing is winning and I’ve made it a long way.” For the most diverse sport at the Winter Games, look no further than the bobsled competition. Bobsled teams looking for muscle and power to help launch the vehicle down the icy course have increasingly turned to track and field athletes to serve as pushers. The U.S. women’s bobsled team features five women of color – Elana Meyers, Aja

USA Bobsled team member Aja Evans.

USA Bobsled team member Aja Evans.

Evans, Lolo Jones, Jazmine Fenlator and Lauryn Williams. Track stars Jones and Williams are the ninth and tenth Americans to participate in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Other black bobsledders in Sochi include Joel Fearon  and Lamin Deen of Great Britain and Bryan Barnett of Canada. Then there’s The Jamaican Bobsled Team, back after a 12-year Winter Olympics absence. The JamBob boys, whose 1988 Olympic debut inspired the Disney movie “Cool Runnings,” qualified for the two-man bobsled competition in Sochi and are out to prove that they’re more than a novelty. “We’re pretty good,” 46-year bobsled driver Winston Watts and Winter Olympics veteran told the Associated Press. “We’re not there with the rest of the world, of course. But if we had some more sources for funding, we’d have a better chance.”

Who needs Bolt? Jamaica's back on the bobsled track.

Who needs Bolt? Jamaica’s back on the bobsled track.

The world responded to Watt’s plea by donating $80,000 to help get him and teammate Marvin Dixon to Sochi.

Michael Martinez is a young man of many firsts. He was the first Olympic figure skater to hit the practice rink in Sochi this week. He’s the first-ever Olympic figure skater to represent the Philippines. And at 17, he’s the youngest figure-skating competitor at the Winter Games. As the Philippines’ only athlete in Sochi, Martinez will carry his country’s flag in the Games’ opening ceremony.

“I feel like, oh my gosh, all the hard work has paid off. I’m here,” he told Olympic News Service. “I am happy and proud to have made it. It means a lot to me. I put every effort and sacrifice into the sport.” Martinez knows he won’t win any medals. He’s just thrilled to be here.

So is Dachhiri Sherpa, a cross country skier from Nepal who’s brutally frank about how he’ll do in his competition.

“I think there is a very good chance I will finish last,” the 44-year-old Sherpa told Olympic News Service. “But the placing is not important if I can teach young people in Nepal about the Olympic spirit. The spirit is in my heart.”

Some folks wish that spirit extended to South Africa’s national Olympic committee. It decided not to send 18-year-old Sive Speelman, a black South African skier, to Sochi to compete in the slalom event even though he met qualifying standards under Olympic rules.

But South Africa’s national Olympic committee said Speelman failed to “meet minimum requirements” for them.

The organization told the BBC that it has an obligation to use only its best sportspeople in international competition.

“What a sad day. Sive Speelman qualified to compete at the Winter Olympics Games in Sochi, but SACOC has denied him the opportunity to race and raise South Africa’s flag,” Alex Heath, a three-time Winter Olympian from South Africa and Speelman’s coach wrote on Facebook. “It is an embarrassment to sport and the Olympic ideals.”

Peter Pilz, president of Snow Sport SA, told the Associated Press: “It’s actually a dream story that’s come true and is just what South Africa needs at this point in time. And it’s just sad.”

Note: For interesting and insightful news, features, sports, and entertainment stories and multimedia presentations throughout the 2014 Winter Olympics, visit McClatchy Newspapers at www.mcclatchydc.com.

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Pre-Olympics camps highlight NHL’s diversity

18 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Carey Price, Chicago Blackhawks, First Nations, Hockey Canada, NHL, Ojibwe, Olympics, P.K. Subban, Patrick Kane, Sochi, T.J. Oshie, USA Hockey

When Team USA and Team Canada prospects gather for pre-Olympics orientation camps next week, some of the National Hockey League’s best players of color and Native heritage will be in the mix to represent their countries in Sochi, Russia in February 2014.

Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien.
Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien.

Three players of color were among the 48 invitees to the U.S. camp: Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, from Roseau. Minn.; New York Islanders forward Kyle Okposo, a St. Paul, Minn., native; and Nashville Predators rookie defenseman Seth Jones, born in Plano, Texas. USA Hockey will hold its orientation camp Aug. 26-27 at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, Va., the practice facility for the Washington Capitals.

Two players of Native heritage players received camp invites. St. Louis Blues forward T.J. Oshie, who is part Ojibwe (Chippewa), will join the U.S. invitees at the Kettler facility. Montreal Canadiens star goaltender Carey Price, whose mother is a former chief of the Ulkatcho First Nations, will attend Team Canada’s orientation camp.

Blues' T.J. Oshie hopes to be in Sochi in February.

Blues’ T.J. Oshie hopes to be in Sochi in February.

The U.S. camp boasts an offensively potent roster that mixes youth, talent, and international experience with forwards Oshie, Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks, and Paul Statsny of the Colorado Avalanche. The defensive corps has size and nastiness with the likes of Byfuglien, Jack Johnson of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Keith Yandle of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban headlines a deep  47-player Team Canada orientation camp roster that includes Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby, Tampa Bay Lightning sniper Steven Stamkos, Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp and the Brothers Staal: forwards Eric and Jordan of the Carolina Hurricanes and defenseman Marc of the New York Rangers. Team Canada will hold its camp August 25-28 in Calgary.

Montreal's P.K. Subban

Montreal’s P.K. Subban

Among the other international teams participating in the Winter Games, Team Sweden invited Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Johnny Oduya to its camp.

With teams able to pick from the best hockey players in the world, some highly-talented NHL skaters didn’t receive camp invites. Notably absent for Team Canada were Winnipeg Jets high-scoring forward Evander Kane and Nazem Kadri, the Toronto Maple Leafs forward who had a breakout year last season that helped the Leafs end a long playoff appearance drought.The start of the camps begins the biggest mystery for both teams: who will be the goalies going to Sochi?  Team USA invited six netminders: Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings, Cory Schneider of the New Jersey Devils, Jimmy Howard of the Detroit Red Wings, Craig Anderson of the Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres’ Ryan Miller, who backstopped the U.S. team to a Silver Medal at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.But the most intriguing competitor for one of the Team USA three goaltender slots is John Gibson, the 20-year-old Anaheim Ducks draftee who played last season for the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League.

Seth Jones (Photo: USA Hockey).

Seth Jones (Photo: USA Hockey).

Johnny Oduya hopes to represent Sweden in Sochi.

Johnny Oduya hopes to represent Sweden in Sochi.

Gibson supplanted Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in Helsinki and Stockholm last May and guided the U.S. team to a Bronze Medal. He has a solid international pedigree, having guided U.S. under-20 teams to Gold Medals at the IIHF Junior World Championships in 2013 and 2011.

Montreal's Carey Price vies in a crowded net for Olympic spot.

Montreal’s Carey Price vies in a crowded net for Olympic spot.

Canada also must untangle its net. Hockey Canada’s brain trust will have to choose from the Chicago Blackhawks’ Corey Crawford, Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals, Montreal’s Price, Mike Smith of the Phoenix Coyotes, and Vancouver Canucks’ Roberto Luongo, who was the winning goaltender in the Gold Medal game against the United States at the Vancouver Games.

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Black sports agents scoring in NHL

06 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, Boston College, Chicago Blackhawks, Finland, Kevin Weekes, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues, Sweden, T.J. Oshie, Tuuka Rask, University of Miami of Ohio, Wayne Simmonds

Hockey has taken Eustace King from bucolic Evanston, Ill., to the bright lights of Los Angeles and from between the pipes to the thick of the business end of the game. It’s taken Brett Peterson on a full-circle journey from Boston and back.

Their separate trips have made King, a former Miami University of Ohio goaltender, and Peterson, a former standout defenseman at Boston College, the rarest of a rare breed: African-American sports agents who represent professional hockey players.

As a managing partner for O2K Worldwide Management Group, King is an agent of change of sorts. He represents several of the growing number of players of color who are gradually changing the face of the National Hockey League.

Peterson, the Boston-based director of hockey operations for Acme World Sports, has a client list that includes Tuukka Rask, the superstar Finnish goaltender for the Boston Bruins, and Alex Broadhurst, the talented young center for the Chicago Blackhawks.

King’s clients include Philadelphia Flyers right wing Wayne Simmonds; St. Louis Blues right wing Chris Stewart and his free agent brother, right wing Anthony Stewart; Anaheim Ducks right wings Emerson Etem and Devante Smith-Pelly; and San Jose Sharks left wing Raffi Torres, a Canadian of Mexican heritage.

He also represents Blues right wing T.J. Oshie; Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon, and Buffalo Sabres defenseman Tyler Ennis.

Sports agent Eustace King (right) with client Emerson Etem of the Anaheim Ducks.

Sports agent Eustace King (right) with client Emerson Etem of the Anaheim Ducks.

King helped negotiate former NHL goaltender Kevin Weekes’ first television contract with NHL Network and he represents Willie O’Ree, who became the NHL’s first black player in 1958 and now serves as the league’s director for youth development and diversity ambassador.

Philadelphia Flyers' Wayne Simmonds, a King client.

Philadelphia Flyers’ Wayne Simmonds, a King client.

“I don’t have these athletes who happen to be minorities because I’m black,” King told me recently. “It’s because I’m highly capable and I happen to be black. One critical point is I understand their history and background, being West Indian or being African-American, and being able to relate to them. That’s the piece that makes the bond that we have so much greater and we’ve been able to accomplish the things we’ve been able to do.”

Peterson said breaking into representation end of hockey wasn’t difficult because of the welcoming nature of the hockey community.

“I played hockey since I was two years old,” Peterson told me recently. “Obviously being an African-American hockey player – it was always rare. But the hockey community is one of the best communities that I know, and it was so welcoming to me. It’s such a tight-knit community that I don’t think, for the most part, anybody really judged it as a black-white thing. You’re judged on your work and your ability to have relationships with people.”

Sports agent Brett Peterson.

Sports agent Brett Peterson.

Still, making it as a black sports agent isn’t easy. In the four major sports – even the predominately black NBA and NFL – only a few dozen top athletes have black representation while “hundreds of others continue to turn to white agents and attorneys to handle the finer points of negotiation on contracts with teams and corporations seeking their endorsements,” ESPN.com’s David Aldridge wrote last February.

“To say that you’re only a black agent and you’re trying to be extremely pro-black in a non-black environment is challenging, I’ll be honest with you, in hockey,” King said. “It’s not that people are going to be necessarily racist or they don’t want to listen to us. It’s just because sometimes they don’t understand us, or understand the experiences that we’ve had to go through.”For example, when some in the hockey establishment expressed concern about Mark Owuya, a black Swedish goaltender now in the Toronto Maple Leafs farm system, after he performed rap songs on his country’s version of “American Idol” when he was 16 in 2006, King questioned the musical tastes of his client’s detractors.

“If he was a country singer, or he was singing rock and roll or something more relevant to the audience he was trying to showcase his (hockey) skills to, I think maybe it wouldn’t have been a big deal,” King told the Toronto Star newspaper.

King said he’s been able to thrive in the sometimes cut-throat representation business because of his hockey-playing experience and the bond he shares with several of his minority clients – like Simmonds, the Stewart brothers and Weekes – who have Caribbean roots.

He also attributes his success to hard work, good fortune, and to a small village of mentors who’ve helped him almost every step of the way in his professional and personal life. It’s a formula he tries to instill in his young hockey-playing clients.

“I really believe that a young man needs anywhere from a minimum 4 to 6 mentors in his life,” King said. “It’s going to be his parents, his coaches, it’s also going to be friends…the ones that are positive.”

And King relies on minority NHL players past and present to pay it forward and mentor the new generation of players of color.

“Kevin Weekes, for example, used to mentor Chris Stewart and Wayne Simmonds,” King told me. “Now I’ve got Chris Stewart and Wayne Simmonds mentoring Devante Smith-Pelly and Emerson Etem. ”

Boston Bruins' Tuukka Rask, a Peterson client.

Boston Bruins’ Tuukka Rask, a Peterson client.

The son of Jamaican immigrants, King grew up in Evanston, Ill. where his father was a veterinary assistant and construction worker and his mother a nurse. Hockey served as a de facto baby-sitter for King: practices at the local recreation center rink were in the afternoon –  times when child care was either too pricey for his parents or too hard to find.”It started off me watching Northwestern University hockey games, Northwestern had a club hockey team,” King told me. “I could barely see over the boards and eventually the coach said ‘Hey, do you want to play?’ I started that way.”Fate intervened at age 7 when the goalie on King’s youth team failed to show up for one game and the team’s coach asked King to strap on the pads.

“They put me in there and I got a shutout,” he recalled. “At that point, my coach back then put out a little carrot for me that they would help me with my hockey – pay for it, kind of scholarship me – which led to me saying ‘Hey, I could play goal.’ The first four or five games, I gave up three goals. So I was pretty pumped about that. I was getting my hockey pretty much subsidized, because my family didn’t really have a lot of money to be able to pay for that, so it worked out.”

His goaltending skill led to a scholarship at the University of Miami of Ohio. There, he compiled a record of 5 wins, 6 losses, 2 ties and a 3.90 goals-against average in his senior year in 1995-96 – stats that hardly screamed “draft pick” to NHL scouts.

“I never really got to be the starter and be the guy until my senior year, at that point I didn’t have the resume I needed to,” he said. “But I did have offers to play pro hockey and I could have played and gotten a contract from, at the time, a team called the Dayton Ice Bandits who were in the (Colonial Hockey League), and I was going to do that.”

King in his college playing days.

King in his college playing days.

But King said a close friend’s father “talked me into the real world.” So he took his Miami of Ohio degree in communications into the advertising world.

From there, connections and mentorships took over. Bryant McBride, an entrepreneur and hockey enthusiast, joined the NHL and became one of the league’s highest-ranking black executives. McBride created the NHL Diversity Task Force – the forerunner of the league’s current “Hockey is for Everyone” program – and brought O’Ree into the fold to help with diversity efforts. O’Ree had been monitoring King’s on-ice and off-ice career and encouraged him to work for the NHL.

“He said ‘Hey Eustace, you’re not playing anymore, you’ve got a great background, we want someone like you to come over to the NHL,'” King recalled. “So I went there and started working in the marketing and business development area.”

As King progressed at NHL headquarters, McBride left the league offices to become a sports agent. He helped Jason Allison secure a $20 million contract with the Los Angeles Kings in 2001.

McBride decided to get out of the representation business about the time King and his partners launched 02K in 2004. Their first client? Jason Allison.

“Really, this whole thing in hockey, in my whole experience, it’s all about relationships and mentors that bring people to the next stop,” King said. “It’s almost like a pay it forward in our group. We have a mindset in our group where everyone from the NHL down to the younger guys, they’re  all interconnected and we make sure that they all have access to each other.”

Peterson started playing hockey at such a young age that he barely remember when he wasn’t on skates. A Massachusetts native, he was a smooth-skating defenseman on the 2001 Boston College NCAA championship hockey team.

Brett Peterson in his smooth-skating Boston College days.

Brett Peterson in his smooth-skating Boston College days.

After college, he had a solid minor league hockey career, playing for the East Coast Hockey League’s Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies, Johnstown Chiefs, Florida Everblades and Phoenix Roadrunners.  He also spent time in the American Hockey League with the Albany River Rats before hanging up his skates with the AHL’s Grand Rapid Griffins in the 2008-09 season.

Like King, Peterson made the leap into sports representations through past hockey connections.

“I met with a group that represented a bunch of my roommates when I played at BC, kind of formed a relationship with them. The sports agency business was something I always wanted to get into,” Peterson told me. “It just kind of fit that along the time I was thinking about stopping playing hockey they wanted me to come on and work with them.”

“It’s one of the rare cases that it kind of worked right from the start,” Peterson added. “It’s been unbelievable ever since.”

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