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‘Making Coco’ documentary goes behind the mask of Hall of Fame goalie Grant Fuhr

03 Monday Sep 2018

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Grant Fuhr was a man of few words during his National Hockey League career.

“Back then, five words was a long conversation for me,” Fuhr told me recently.

Grant Fuhr was Edmonton’s first-round draft pick in 1981.

Fuhr preferred to let his play in goal do the talking, winning five Stanley Cup championships with the Edmonton Oilers from 1984 to 1990, capturing the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender in 1988, being named one of the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players, and becoming the first black player to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003.

“The Great One,” Hall of Fame center Wayne Gretzky,  also vouched for his former Oilers teammate, calling him “the greatest goalie that ever lived.”

Fuhr tells his story with the help of Gretzky and other NHL legends in Making Coco: The Grant Fuhr Story,” a Sportsnet documentary that goes behind the mask of one of the league’s most acrobatic, dominating, and enigmatic goaltenders.

“I think the biggest thing is it’s a chance for people to see what my life was actually like,” said Fuhr, who was nicknamed “Coco” during his playing days. “There has always been speculation, guessing and such, and everybody thinks that the world is glamorous all of the time.”

Audiences will get a first glimpse of the film at a private screening in Toronto during the Toronto Film Festival on Tuesday, September 11. The documentary will have its world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival on Saturday, September 29, as part of the festival’s closing gala.

“Making Coco” will be televised in December on Sportsnet in Canada. The film’s producer says he’s still working on when and where it will be shown in the United States and elsewhere.

“Grant’s often forgotten on those great Oliers team because there were so many great players,” said Adam Scorgie, producer of the documentary directed by Don Metz. “You had arguably one of the greatest players to ever play (Gretzky), one of the greatest leaders in Mark Messier and you forget how good Grant Fuhr was backstopping that team and all the boundaries he broke within the NHL.  He was the first black superstar, the first to win the Stanley Cup and the first black to be inducted in the Hall of Fame.”

The Oilers teams of Fuhr’s era were known for their offensive prowess, not their defensive skill. Yes, they had a Hall of Famer in smooth-skating offensive-minded defensman Paul Coffey, who states flatly in “Making Coco” that “I don’t block shots.”

The Oilers’ defense was its offense, which often left Fuhr to fend for himself at the other end of the rink.

“I licked my chops every time we were going to play them ’cause I knew I was going to get three or four two-on-ones guaranteed,” Tony McKegney, the NHL’s first black player to score 40 goals in a season, told me recently. “Well, we did and we would lose out there 7 to 4 or something like that. During those games, Grant would make five or seven spectacular saves. Obviously, Wayne and Messier and Glenn Anderson were the story, but if you asked them today they would admit they had four guys up the ice all the time to score knowing Grant was back there.”

Grant Fuhr won five Stanley Cups during 10 seasons with the offensively-gifted Edmonton Oilers. On many nights, the netminder nicknamed “Coco” had little help defensively.

Because of Edmonton’s go-go offense and gone-gone defense, Fuhr has a career goals-against average of 3.38 – the highest among all Hall of Fame goaltenders.

Other Hall inductees with regular season GAA’s over 3.00? Georges Vezina (3.28) – yeah, the trophy guy- and the New York Islanders’ Billy Smith (3.17), who has four Stanley Cup rings to Fuhr’s five.

Fuhr compiled a 403-295-114 (ties) record and posted 25 shutouts in 868 regular season games with Edmonton, the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames from 1981-82 to 1999-2000. He had a 92-50 record in 150 Stanley Cup playoff games, including six shutouts.

And Fuhr wouldn’t be a true Oiler if he didn’t provide some offense. His 46 points – all assists – that places him third among NHL goalies behind Tom Barrasso’s 48 points and soon-to-be Hall of Fame inductee Martin Brodeur’s 47 points. Three of Brodeur’s points are goals that he actually scored or was given credit for.

Fuhr’s accomplishments aren’t bad for a player who many hockey experts thought was overweight, broken-down, and washed up when the Blues signed him in 1995-96.

He revived his career in St. Louis, thanks in large part to training with Bob Kersee, a world-class African-American track coach and husband of U.S. Olympic track Gold Medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

After appearing in only 49 games for three different teams in 1993-94 and 1994-95, Fuhr played in a whopping 79 games in 1995-96 and 73 contests in 1996-97 for the Blues and posted a 63-55-27 record in those two seasons.

Grant Fuhr shows off the bling from five Stanley Cup championship rings won with the Edmonton Oilers (Photo/Derek Heisler/www.derekheisler.com).

“It saved my body, it got my body through a lot,” Fuhr said of the training. “The body was good, but it became so much better. And I got a better understanding of it, what I was capable of, and how I could play around certain injuries.”

Fuhr’s legacy and longevity captivated another goaltender of color, Fred Brathwaite, who became a teammate in Fuhr’s final NHL season in Calgary.

Growing up in Ottawa, Brathwaite so idolized Fuhr that he put up a poster of the veteran goaltender in his bedroom at his mother’s house, where it still hangs today.

“Just the way he could raise his game to the level it could be,” said Brathwaite, a Hockey Canada goalie coach who was the New York Islanders’ goalie coach last season. “He might let in a goal or two, but when it came down the final thing, he’d raise his game up to help his team win Stanley Cups, or Canada Cups, and all those other things. I was very fortunate, very lucky, to play with him in his last year of hockey.”

Former NHL goalie Fred Brathwaite is such a Grant Fuhr fan that he keeps a poster of the five-time Stanley Cup winner in the bedroom of his boyhood home in Ottawa. The two became teammates on the Calgary Flames in Fuhr’s final NHL season in 1999-2000 (Photo/Fred Brathwaite).

Fuhr considers considers himself lucky, despite the ups and downs he experienced in his life and career.

The child of black and white biological parents, he was adopted by a white family in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada, and was lured to the net by all the neat gear that goaltenders wear.

Small town Spruce Grove and Western Canada served as an incubator of sorts for Fuhr in the early stages of his career.

He said he never really experienced racial hostility on or off the ice the way players like forwards Devante Smith-Pelly of the Washington Capitals,  Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers and Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban have endured in recent seasons.

“The Great One,” former Edmonton Oilers center Wayne Gretzky, calls Grant Fuhr the greatest goalie ever in “Making Coco: The Grant Fuhr Story.”

Fuhr thinks that the NHL’s first generation of black players – forwards Willie O’Ree, Mike Marson, Bill Riley, Val James, and McKegney ran that gauntlet for him.

“Some of the (minority) guys that played in the minors in the states, they did all the heavy lifting,” Fuhr said. “Guys like Val James, Bill Riley, Mike Marson, they did the heavy lifting, they went through all the abuse.”

He said he didn’t feel or sense racism’s sting until he was traded to the Sabres in 1992-93 and after a suburban country club where other Sabres players and team officials were members initially denied him membership.

Retired Calgary Flames captain Jarome Iginla being interviewed about what it was like being an opponent and later a teammate of Grant Fuhr in “Making Coco: The Grant Fuhr Story).

“The more you traveled in the states, the more you could see it (racism). You live in an element where race matters a little bit and people have some pointed views on it,” he said.  “You would think that as time progresses and as history progresses that it would get better. And, if anything, in the last for or five years, it has taken steps backwards.”

Fuhr doesn’t shy away in the film from discussing perhaps the lowest point in his career – a one-year suspension by the NHL in 1990 after he admitted that he abused cocaine from 1983 to 1989. The league reinstated him after he served five months of the penalty.

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“I went to the school of life and, unfortunately, not everything runs as smoothly as it’s supposed to. You make mistakes along the way, and there’s a great price to pay,” he said. “I think the biggest thing is that I lived life – good, bad and otherwise.

“I wasn’t sheltered from anything. I didn’t protect myself from anything. So, yeah, you can make mistakes and still have a positive life out of it,” he added. “There are things in school that they don’t teach you. The only way to learn ’em is by falling on your own. Yeah, I tripped and fell on my face a few times.”

But from the falls, Fuhr said he’s now able to teach others on how to avoid stumbling.

“Kids that I help out now, talk to and such, I get a little bit of credibility because of having been through it instead of someone telling them ‘Hey, this is how it has to be’ having never been through it.  Having been though it, and been through it in a public way, I get a little more credibility from them.”

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

 

 

 

 

 

Minority hockey program helps Featherstone reach the skies in the U.S. Marine Corps

18 Sunday Mar 2018

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Before he flew in U.S. Marine Corps fighter jets, Ralph Featherstone took flight inside a run-down ice skating rink on Ely Place Southeast in Washington, D.C.

Before he became a ramrod straight lieutenant colonel, Featherstone was a Fort Dupont Cannon, an African-American teenager in the 1990s learning how to play hockey in the oldest minority youth hockey program in North America.

His sense of duty and love of hockey converged when he attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis and joined the school’s hockey club.

U.S. Marine Corps Let. Col. Ralph Featherstone.

Like a plebe, he rose through the ranks, advancing from a seldom-used second-unit penalty kill specialist on the team to become the first African-American team captain in Navy hockey club history.

“The biggest attribute that I learned at Fort Dupont was persistence,” Featherstone told me. “That’s been one of the main things in my life, in my career, my personal life. Being  persistent will make up for a load of shortcomings.”

The academy and the National Hockey League honored Featherstone last month – Black History Month – with a moving video scoreboard salute between periods of the Washington Capitals–Toronto Maple Leafs game played outdside at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

He also participated in a ceremonial puck drop last month when the Capitals paid tribute to the Fort Dupont Cannons, Founder/Coach Neal Henderson and his staff, before a game against the Buffalo Sabres at Washington’s Capital One Arena.

“I got a standing O from the Navy/Marine Corps crowd, which was awesome,” Featherstone said of the outdoor game salute. “Hockey has done me right.”

So has the Marine Corps. Featherstone is a desk officer for the FB-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Office in suburban Washington. This summer, he’ll move to San Diego and Marine Corps Air Station Mirimar to become the commanding officer of the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 225,  also known as the Vikings, next year.

For Featherstone, 40, it all goes back to hockey and the lessons taught by tough-love Coach Neal inside the Fort Dupont Ice Arena on Ely Place Southeast.

“He did it by making you overcome obstacles, not handing out things, not allowing you to feel that you’re entitled to play, entitled to ice time,” Featherstone said of Henderson. “Everything is based on your performance and you earning those things. You realize after hard work, after the effort and dedication, that you’ll achieve those things that you want. Those are some of the early life lessons in the game of hockey that are analogous to things that occur throughout life.”

A lesson learned quickly when Featherstone visited Annapolis at the end of his junior in high school junior to observe what freshman life at the Naval Academy was like.

“I did a one-week camp there and on the last day, they treat you like a plebe, like a freshman,” Featherstone recalled. “I was looking around, these kids are crying from the intensity of getting turned up. And I was, like, ‘This is nothing. Come out to Fort Dupont, I’ll show you what getting yelled at feels like. This is easy.'”

While Featherstone loved his four years at Annapolis, his tenure there also had its challenges. A top player at Fort Dupont, he was anything but on the Midshipmen hockey club.

That led him to question his talent and to feel somewhat isolated as the only black player on the team and in the Eastern College Hockey Association at the time.

“I honestly questioned whether or not I was good at the sport, I questioned whether I loved hockey or loved being at Fort Dupont with my friends,” he recalled. “I was very much down on myself and wondering, ‘Hey I don’t know if this is really for me at this level.'”

From Anacostia to Annapolis. Ralph Featherstone, an alum of Washington, D.C.,’s Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, was the first African-American to captain the U.S. Naval Academy’s ice hockey club (Photo/Courtesy Ralph Featherstone).

Those doubts were gone by his senior year when he became the Midshipmen’s starting center and his teammates voted to give him the captain’s “C,” the symbol of being the squad’s undisputed leader.

“It was awesome, it was probably one of the biggest accomplishments in my life up to that point,” Featherstone recalled. “Making that transition, that journey from penalty kill-2 to team captain was something that I was really proud of.”

He had the respect of his teammates, but not from some of the opponents that he faced. Featherstone recalled the sting of being called a racial slur on the ice during one game in the 1997-98 season. He reached back to lessons ingrained at Fort Dupont and at home.

A call to duty and a love of hockey combined for Ralph Featherstone at the U.S. Naval Academy (Photo/Courtesy of Ralph Featherstone).

“In playing for Coach Neal, you can’t allow that to bother you,” Featherstone said. “And having a frank discussion with my dad, he was, like, ‘You’re in a different realm. You’re in a world that if that bothers you, maybe you shouldn’t play, maybe you shouldn’t be in that environment.”

“With dad and Coach Neal taking that stance, I kind of saw that as a challenge to rise above that type of thing, when you know someone is doing it only to manipulate you and get you off your game,”  Featherstone added.

Featherstone also applied lessons learned at Dupont  to help get him through aviation training in Pensacola, Florida.

He suffered from air sickness, not an unusual malady for new aviators. But his lasted 15 months, an unusually long and potentially career-crippling amount of time.

“I would puke two to three times a week when I would go fly – it was like a Pavlovian response of getting in an aircraft,” he recalled. “Within 15 minutes I’m getting queasy and about another 10 minutes later, I’m vomiting and trying to hang on.”

Ralph Featherstone’s U.S. Naval Academy hockey teammates voted him team captain in his senior year (Photo/Courtesy of Ralph Featherstone).

Determined to make it through flight training, Featherstone remembered what Coach Neal and his dad taught him about dealing with racially uncomfortable situations.

“‘Hey, if you can’t deal with the discomfort, someone calling you a name, you have to reconcile for yourself that this is not going to bother you or maybe you need to think about something else to do,'” Featherstone said. “Same thing with the flying. ‘Okay, you need to reconcile that you’re probably going to get sick and either you’re going to gut this out and still perform or maybe you need to go in there and tell them that this is not for you,’ which was not an option for me.”

U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Ralph Featherstone is flying high after overcoming a severe bout of air sickness in aviation training, applying lessons learned playing hockey for the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club (Photo/Courtesy Ralph Featherstone).

Today, jets are a major part of the lieutenant colonel’s life. So if Fort Dupont. Featherstone is a volunteer coach with the Cannons and his  9-year-old son, also named Ralph, plays for the team.

“It’s great having him out there – we can tell Coach Neal stories,” Featherstone said. “Coach’s nuances and his catch phrases haven’t changed in 40 years.”

For all that Fort Dupont has done for Featherstone, he said he didn’t realize his impact on the program until Duante Abercrombie, another Cannons alum, posted a thank you tribute to him on Facebook a few years ago after meeting him.

After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy where he played ice hockey, Ralph Featherstone went into the U.S. Marine Corps. A lieutenant colonel, he’ll command an air squadron next year (Photo/Courtesy Ralph Featherstone).

“Ralph made my dreams tangible. I knew zero about his journey, but what I did know was that he looked like me and played where I played and hockey took him places, places other than Ely Place Southeast,” said Abercrombie, 31, who played professional hockey in the U.S. and New Zealand and is currently seeking collegiate hockey coaching opportunities.

“I still remember sitting in that old meeting room upstairs (at Fort Dupont) when Ralph presented Coach Neal with his college jersey,” Abercrombie added. “I don’t remember what was said in his speech, but that moment single-handedly set me on the path I’m still on today.”

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Meet the 2016-17 Color of Hockey All-Star team

07 Wednesday Jun 2017

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A friend recently presented me with a challenge: pick a 2016-17 Color of Hockey All-Star team.

Challenge accepted! But it wasn’t easy. Several players of color had really good 2016-17 seasons, enough to spark lively bar debates over who’s worthy of being a first-team all-star and who’s not.

Toronto Maple Leafs’ center Auston Matthews.

So here are my picks. Weigh in with your choices via the Color of Hockey Facebook page or Twitter @ColorOfHockey. Without further ado:

Auston Matthews, center, Toronto Maple Leafs. The 19-year-old Mexican-American from Arizona terrorized NHL goalies in his rookie year and returned the Leafs to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Matthews led the team in scoring with 40 goals and 29 assists while playing in all 82 regular season games. His 40 goals tied him for second in the NHL with Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov. Matthews’ 69 points were tops among NHL rookies and 20th among all NHL players.

He would be a top player for the United States on its 2018 Winter Olympics hockey team. But the National Hockey League insists that its not sending it’s  players to PyeongChang, South Korea.

 

Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds.

Wayne Simmonds, right wing, Philadelphia Flyers. Simmonds won the Most Valuable Player award at the NHL All-Star Game in Los Angeles in January. He also played for Silver Medal-winning  Team Canada at the 2017 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in Paris and Cologne in May.

The Wayne Train led the Flyers in goals with 31. He was fourth on the team in scoring with 54 points – the combination of 31 goals and 23 assists. He also was the Flyers’ toughest customer, leading the team with 122 penalty minutes.

 

Brandon Saad, F, Columbus Blue Jackets

Brandon Saad, left wing, Columbus Blue Jackets. The U.S.-born son of a Syrian immigrant, Saad was the Blue Jackets’ third-leading scorer with 24 goals and 29 assists in 82 games He was the 18th-leading scorer among the league’s left wings, a group that includes Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, Artemi Panarin of the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Boston Bruins’ Brad Marchand.

Dustin Byfuglien, defense, Winnipeg Jets. Big shot. Big hits. Big man. Big Buff, at 6-foot-5, 260-pounds, was fifth among NHL defensemen in scoring with 13 goals and 39 assists in 80 games. He was fifth on the Jets in scoring with 52 points.

USA Hockey’s brain trust left him off the 2014 U.S. Olympic team and his use by Blue Jackets Head Coach John Tortorella as bench of the U.S. team in September’s World Cup of Hockey was curious. But Byfuglien probably  would have gotten a hard look for the 2018 Winter Games

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Seth Jones, D, Columbus Blue Jackets

Seth Jones, D, Columbus Blue Jackets. What? No P.K. Subban? Let the arguments begin. Jones, the son of former National Basketball Association player Popeye Jones, was Columbus’ seventh-leading scorer with 12 goals and 30 assists in 75 regular season games.

He was 19th among NHL defensemen in scoring. Subban, the Nashville Predators’ D-man, was 22nd among the league’s blue-liners with 10 goals and 30 assists in 66 games.

Jones would be a lock for Team USA at the 2018 Winter Games in February if NHLers were going.

 

 

 

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Carey Price, goaltender, Montreal Canadiens. Price rebounded from an injury-shortened 2015-16 season to finish fifth among NHL goalies with a 30-20-5 record and a 2.23 goals-against average. Price, whose mother is a former Ulkatcho First Nation chief, had three shutouts during the 2016-17 season.

Price was an Olympian in 2014 and would be in the mix to be Canada’s top netminder for the 2018 Winter Games if the NHL were sending its players.

SECOND TEAM

Nazem Kadri, F, Toronto Maple Leafs

Nazem Kadri, center, Toronto Maple Leafs. Kadri had a breakout year with Toronto, scoring 32 goals and 29 assists in 82 games. The son of a Lebanese Muslim father,  the London, Ontario-born Kadri finished 15th in scoring among centers, an elite group that includes the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid and the Capitals’ Nicklas Backstrom.

Evander Kane, left wing, Buffalo Sabres. Talented on the ice and sometimes trying off it, Kane tallied 28 goals and 15 assists in 70 games for Buffalo. He was sixth on the Sabres in scoring and 35th among the NHL’s left wings.

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T.J. Oshie, F, Washington Capitals

T.J. Oshie, right wing, Washington Capitals. Of Ojibwe heritage, Oshie enjoyed a stellar second season with the Capitals. He finished fifth on the team in scoring with 33 goals and 23 assists in 68 games. Four of those goals were game-winners.

A shootist remembered for his stunning display of moves during a dramatic U.S.-Russia shootout at the 2014 Olympics, Oshie would surely be under consideration for the 2018 U.S. Olympic squad.

P.K. Subban, defense, Nashville Predators. Adjusting to a new team, new town, and coping with injuries, Subban’s still manged to score 40 points on 10 goals and 30 assists. He’ll forever be linked to defenseman Shea Weber for whom he was swapped in the stunning trade last summer between Nashville and the Canadiens.

 

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So how did Weber do in 2016-17? He had 17 goals and 25 assists – 42 points – in 78 games. Weber’s Canadiens were ousted from the playoffs in the first round by the New York Rangers. Subban and the Predators are playing in the Cup Final against the defending champion Penguins.

Matt Dumba, D, Minnesota Wild

Matt Dumba, defense, Minnesota Wild. The fourth-year NHLer 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.

Charles Williams, goaltender, Canisius College. Sure, he’s not in the NHL but that doesn’t diminish the amazing 2016-17 season Williams had. He helped guide Canisius’ Golden Griffins to an Atlantic Hockey regular season title and was named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, presented to the top NCAA Division I men’s hockey player.

Canisius College goalie Charles Williams signed a contact with the ECHL’s Manchester Monarchs in March ( (Photo/Canisius College).

Williams posted a 15-6-4 record and helped backstop Canisius to a 17-game unbeaten streak. He led all Division I goalies with a .946 save percentage during the regular season. He was tied for first with 5 shutouts and second in the nation with a 1.83 goals-against average.

Williams, who was a fifth-year transfer student, signed a standard player contract in March with the Manchester Monarchs, the Los Angeles Kings’ ECHL farm team.

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Springtime means hockey is in full bloom

15 Saturday Apr 2017

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For a winter sport, ice hockey is pretty darn busy in the spring.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are in full swing; the International Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 World Championship is underway in Slovakia; the IIHF’s World Championship kicks off in Paris and Cologne, Germany, May 5; USA Hockey begins evaluating players for the 2018 Winter Olympics women’s hockey team; and National Hockey League teams are making their lists and checking them twice ahead of the 2017 NHL Draft in Chicago in June.

Auston Matthews leads the Maple Leafs to the playoffs in his rookie year.

And players of color are in the thick of all these events. Of the 16 teams in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, all but four –  the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, Calgary Flames and Anaheim Ducks – have minority players.

And two of those teams have minority coaches. Sudarshan Maharaj,  a Trinidadian raised in Toronto, is the goaltender coach for the Ducks and Paul Jerrard is an assistant coach for the Flames.

So who is playing in what series? Washington Capitals vs. Toronto Maple Leafs: forward T.J. Oshie for Washington. Forwards Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri for the Leafs.

Montreal Canadiens vs. New York Rangers: forward Mika Zibanejad for the Rangers. Goalies Carey Price and Al Montoya and forward Andreas Martinsen for Montreal.

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Columbus Blue Jackets: defenseman Trevor Daley for the Penguins. Defenseman Seth Jones and forward Brandon Saad for the Blue Jackets.

Chicago Blackhawks vs. Nashville Predators: Defenseman Johnny Oduya for Chicago. Defenseman P.K. Subban skates for the Preds.

St. Louis Blues vs. Minnesota Wild: Forward Chris Stewart and defenseman Matt Dumba for the Wild. Forward Ryan Reaves for St. Louis.

Edmonton Oilers vs. San Jose Sharks: Defenseman Darnell Nurse and forward Juhjar Khaira for Edmonton. Forward Joel Ward for the Sharks.

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While NHLers battle for the Stanley Cup, teenagers from 10 North American and European nations are fighting for international bragging rights at the IIHF U18 World Championship.

Akil Thomas, a rookie forward with the Niagara Ice Dogs, is playing for Canada. The son of a Canadian career minor league hockey player and a mother from suburban Washington, D.C., Thomas had 21 goals and 27 assists in 61 games for the Ontario Hockey League team.

Forward Akil Thomas joined Team Canada for the IIHF U18 World Championship after his strong rookie season with the OHL’s Niagara Ice Dogs (Photo/Matthew Murnaghan/Hockey Canada Images).

He’s joined on Team Canada’s by another major junior rookie, defenseman Jett Woo of the Western Hockey League’s Moose Jaw Warriors. Woo collected 5 goals and 17 assists in 65 games with the Warriors.

Moose Jaw Warriors defenseman Jett Woo has been making waves at the IIHF U18 World championship with his solid play (Photo/ Matthew Murnaghan/Hockey Canada Images).

Team USA’s Tyler Inamoto (Photo/Len Redkoles).

Tyler Inamoto, a defenseman for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program is patrolling the blue line for Team USA in Slovakia.

The 6-foot-2 NHL draft-eligible defenseman skates for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program and is ranked as the 68th-best North American skater by the NHL’s Central Scouting.

Inamoto tallied 2 goals and 9 assists in 42 games for the U.S.’s Under-18 team in 2016-17. He had 2 goals and 5 assists in 17 games for Team USA in the United States Hockey League.

If Inamoto is drafted, the NHL will have to wait. He’s committed to play hockey in the fall for the University of Wisconsin Badgers.

“Inamoto is a predator,” Badgers Head Coach Tony Granato said in November. “He is a physical, hungry, intimidating player. He is a great athlete. He’s big, strong, and has a mean streak…He’ll be a physical impact player right away next year. He’s strong enough already to play a physical game at the college level.”

USA defenseman Tyler Inamoto is ranked as the 68th best draft-eligible North American skater by NHL Central Scouting (Photo/Len Redkoles).

While the Under-18 championship is going on, 16 countries are finalizing their rosters for next month’s IIHF World Championship, a tourney that will feature some NHL players whose teams didn’t make the Stanley Cup Playoffs or were eliminated in the early rounds.

Team Canada quickly snapped up forward Wayne Simmonds, who led the Philadelphia Flyers‘ in goals with 31 in 82 games.

Team USA named Boston University massive forward Jordan Greenway  to its squad. Greenway, a 2015 Wild second-round draft choice, was a 6-foot-5, 230-pound force in January, powering the U.S. to a Gold Medal at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship in Toronto and Montreal.

Greenway scored three goals and five assists in seven games for the U.S. and was the team’s second-leading scorer. Two of his three goals were game-winners. He was BU’s fifth-leading scorer in 2016-17 with 10 goals and 21 assists in 37 games for the Terriers.

Despite his impressive season, Greenway has elected to return to BU for his junior year instead of trying to make the leap to the NHL.

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“I have a great time here with my teammates, and BU has just been great to me,” Greenway told Boston Hockey Blog’s Jonathan Sigal. “I want to win a couple more championships here, so definitely one more year is what I’m going to do.”

I haven’t seen co-host country France’s roster yet for the Worlds, but you can bet that it will include Flyers forward Pierre Edouard Bellemare, who has become one of the best French-born players to skate in the NHL.

Pierre Edouard Bellemare is pumped about World Championship being in his home country, France.

A late bloomer, the 32-year-old defensive specialist tallied 4 goals and 4 assists in 82 games. The Flyers liked Bellemare’s grit and grace enough that they re-signed him for two years at $1.45 million per year and added him to the team’s leadership, making him an assistant team captain.

He’s as pumped about the prospect of playing in his home country during the World Championship as he was getting the new contract and the ‘A’ from the Flyers. France, whose men’s team is ranked 14th in the world, opens the tournament May 6 against Norway in Paris.

“I think it’s going to be incredible,” Bellemare, a member of the French national team since 2004, told IIHF’s Lucas Akryod. “It is the first Worlds in France. I hope we will get a lot of fans for all the games, and that hockey will continue to develop in France.

And let’s not forget women’s international hockey. USA Hockey recently invited 42 players – including all 23 members of the 2017 Gold Medal-winning world championship team – for a selection camp April 30 to May 4 in suburban Tampa, Florida.

Kelsey Koelzer (Photo/Nancie Battaglia)

The camp is a prelude to developing  a final U.S. a roster for the 2018 Winter Games in PyeyongChang, South Korea.

Kelsey Koelzer, a senior defenseman for Princeton University and the 2016 first overall pick of the

National Women’s Hockey League (by the New York Riveters), is a selection camp invitee. She tallied 8 goals and 23 assists in 33 games for the Tigers.

Hockey’s busy spring rolls into summer when the brain trusts from the NHL’s 30 teams convene inside Chicago’s United Center for the draft June 23-24.

The NHL’s Central Scouting released its final player rankings earlier this month and there are several players of color to watch in addition to Inamoto.

There’s Nick Suzuki, a 5-foot-10 center for the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. Central Scouting ranks the London, Ontario, Canada native as the 10th-best North American skater. He was the Attack’s second-leading scorer with 45 goals and 51 assists in 65 games.

Owen Sound’s Nick Suzuki is ranked as the 10th-best North American skater eligible for the 2017 NHL Draft (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

Then there’s Jason Robertson, a 6-foot-2 left wing for the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs. Central Scouting ranks the Michigan native as the 14th-best North American skater. He led the Frontenacs in scoring in 2016-17 with 42 goals and 39 assists in 68 games.

Kingston Frontenacs left wing Jason Robertson jumped from 34th in NHL Central Scouting’s midterm rankings to 14th in its final listing before June’s NHL Draft (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Pierre-Olivier Joseph, a defenseman for the Charlottetown Islanders of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He’s ranked as the 27th-best North American skater by Central Scouting.

The 6-foot-2, 161-pound 18-year-old notched 6 goals and 33 assists in 62 games for the Charlottetown.

Joseph is the younger brother of forward Mathieu Joseph,  a  sniper for the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs and a 2015 fourth-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He signed an entry level contract with the ‘Bolts prior to playing for Canada in the 2017 World Juniors.

Another potential 2017 draftee is Cole Purboo, a forward for the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League. He’s ranked as the 189th-best North American skater. The 6-foot-3 Oakville, Ontario, Canada native scored 11 goals and 6 assists in 68 games for the Spitfires.

“I was hoping (to be) a little higher, but it’s alright,” Purboo told The Windsor Star last week of his Central Scouting rank. “It’s just people making a list…The same thing happened with the OHL draft. I don’t pay too much attention to them.”

 

Cole Purboo of the Windsor Spitfires (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Standing on the outside of top North American skaters on Central Scouting’s list is Elijah Roberts, a defenseman for the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers.

Elijah Roberts of the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

The 5-foot-8, 159-pound blue-liner, slipped from  208th in Central Scouting’s midterm list. He scored 4 goals and 14 assists in 65 games with the Rangers in 2016-17.

He’s considered undersized by today’s NHL standards, but his height hasn’t stopped him from excelling on ice. He was a major contributor for Team Canada in the World Under-17 hockey challenge.

“He’s a fast skater, very mobile, very aggressive on the ice,” one scout told Canada’s Sportsnet. “He’s been aggressive at the OHL level, too. He’s just a good kid; he skates hard and he works hard.”

Some NHL teams have drafted small D-men. The Vancouver Canucks took Jordan Subban, P.K. Subban’s 5-foot-9 younger brother, in the fourth round in 2013.

The diminutive defenseman was the sixth-leading scorer for the Utica Comets, the Canucks’ American Hockey League farm team, in 2016-17 with 16 goals and 20 assists in 64 games.

 

Jordan Greenway stars as U.S. beats Latvia 6-1 at World Juniors

27 Tuesday Dec 2016

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Boston University forward Jordan Greenway made his presence felt in the United States’ 6-1 victory over Latvia in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship Monday night.

The 6-foot-5, 230-pound sophomore capped the U.S. squad’s night, scoring the team’s sixth goal against a scrappy but outgunned Latvia team. He led Team USA with seven shots on goal, most of them close to beleaguered Latvian goaltender Marek Mitens.

Team USA's Erik Foley, left, and Jordan Greenway stand during the playing of U.S. national anthem during preliminary round action at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship. (Photo/ Matt Zambonin/HHOF-IIHF Images).

Team USA’s Erik Foley, left, and Jordan Greenway stand during the playing of U.S. national anthem during preliminary round action at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship. (Photo/ Matt Zambonin/HHOF-IIHF Images).

Greenway, the Minnesota Wild’s  2015 second-round draft pick, was named Team USA’s best player after the game for his offensive display and his intimidating physical play.

For those watching the world juniors – and it’s great viewing to see the next generation of NHL players – Greenway is easily found. He’s the man-mountain parked in front of the opposing net casting an imposing shadow over the goalie.

BU hockey Head Coach Dave Quinn has described Greenway, a Canton, N.Y. native, as a highly-skilled hockey player with the football body of “a five-star tight end at Alabama or Notre Dame.”

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Greenway plays a game similar to Philadelphia Flyers high-scoring forward Wayne Simmonds: screen the goalie, try for tip-in shots, and fight for rebounds.

Greenway is making a name for himself at the IIHF tourney in Toronto and Montreal and in Boston. He’s BU’s second-leading scorer with 6 goals and 10 assists in 16 games.

 

The 2016 NHL Draft, a diversity recap

27 Monday Jun 2016

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Once the whirlwind of the two-day, seven-round 2016 National Hockey League Draft was complete, five players of color or minority ethnic heritage were selected, including the Number One overall pick.

Here’s a Color of Hockey snapshot of the five player chosen.

The Toronto Maple Leafs surprised no one and took forward Auston Matthews with the first pick. You want diversity? Matthews is it. The son of a Mexican mother and a California dad, Matthews began playing hockey in Arizona, a state that is slowly gaining a reputation for the sport beyond the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes.

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“I think it’s been great not only for Arizona, but the whole southwestern region,” said of his selection. “It’s continuing to grow, and it’s just cool to be a part of it.”

Matthews is supposed to be The Next One, a can’t miss superstar a la Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, and Sidney Crosby.

That’s a heavy burden for a 18-year-old to carry, especially in the hockey pressure-cooker that is Toronto. But at 6-foot-2, 216 pounds, Matthews can shoulder the load.

He already has pro hockey experience, having played last season for the ZSC Lions in Switzerland’s top league.  He scored 24 goals and 22 assists in 36 games regular season games for the Lions and had 3 assists in four playoff games.

Matthews also played for the United States in 2015-16, tallying 7 goals and 4 assists in 7 games of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Junior Championship and 6 goals and 3 assists in the IIHF World Championship.

The Detroit Red Wings took right wing Givani Smith of the Ontario Hockey League’s Guelph Storm in the draft’s second round with the 46th overall pick. The 6-foot-1, 216-pound forward was second on the Storm in scoring in 2015-16 with 23 goals and 19 assists in 65 regular season games.

Detroit Red Wings 2016 draftee Givani Smith (center) patterns his game after Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

Detroit Red Wings 2016 draftee Givani Smith (center) patterns his game after Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

Smith said his game is similar to the way rugged Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds plays.

“The way he plays his game, he a force on the ice,” Smith said. “He scores goals right in front of the net, and that’s where I like to score. He’s a good skater, he finishes checks, and he’s not scared to fight.”

Right wing Cliff Pu of the OHL’s London Knights didn’t have to go far to check out the facilities and offices of the team that drafted him. He was taken by the Buffalo Sabres, host of this year’s draft, in the third round with the 69th overall pick.

On a London Knights team filled with stars, forward Cliff Pu's all-around game impressed the Buffalo Sabres (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

On a London Knights team filled with stars, forward Cliff Pu’s all-around game impressed the Buffalo Sabres (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

On a star-studded team Knights team, Pu scored 12 goals and 19 assists in 63 regular season games. However, the 6-foot-1, 185-forward was a scoring machine in the OHL playoffs with 8 goals and 5 assists in 18 games.

Pu said he’s proud to be drafted by the Sabres, but he’s even prouder of his parents who moved to Canada from China. Pu’s father, Jun, arrived when he was 25. His wife joined him a year later.

“Coming over from a different country isn’t easy, and he came over with a few hundred bucks in his pocket,” Cliff Pu told reporters. “I’m really proud of him.”

The Sabres have been one of the NHL’s more aggressive teams when it comes to drafting or signing minority players. They drafted right wing Justin Bailey – second round, 52nd overall – and right wing Nick Baptiste – third round, 69th overall – in 2013. The organization  signed left wing Evan Rodrigues, a former Boston University star, in 2015.

The Maple Leafs nabbed U.S.-born defenseman James “J.D.” Greenway in the draft’s third round with the 72nd overall pick.  A member of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program, the 18-year-old 6-foot-4, 205-pound New York native had 5 goals and 23 assists in 68 games for the U.S. National Under-18 team.

Toronto Maple Leafs draftee James Greenway will play for U of Wisconsin this winter..

Toronto Maple Leafs draftee James Greenway will play for U of Wisconsin this winter..

Greenway is the newest member of the NHL Draft’s black brothers brotherhood. His older brother, Jordan Greenway, was a second-round, 50th overall pick of the Minnesota Wild in 2015.

In addition, there’s the Smith brothers – Givani, who was drafted earlier on Saturday, and Gemel, a 2012 Dallas Stars fourth round pick,  the 104th overall.

And the Jones boys – Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones, first round, 4th overall in 2013 by the Nashville Predators; defenseman Caleb Jones, fourth round, 117th overall by the Edmonton Oilers in 2015.

And, of course, there’s the Subban clan  – defenseman P.K, Montreal Canadiens, second round, 43rd overall in 2007; goaltender Malcolm,  Boston Bruins, first round, 24th overall in 2012; and defenseman Jordan, Vancouver Canucks, fourth round, 115th overall in 2013.

Peterborough Petes center Jonathan Ang admitted that he didn’t actually hear his name called when the Florida Panthers took him in the fourth round with the 94th overall pick. He was taking a bathroom break at the time.

But that didn’t diminish the thrill of being picked or the history he likely made. Ang is probably the first player of Malaysian heritage to be drafted by an NHL team.

Florida Panthers draftee Jonathan Ang (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Florida Panthers draftee Jonathan Ang (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

He finished fourth on the OHL  Petes in scoring in 2015-16 with 21 goals and 28 assists in 68 games.

The 5-11, 160-pound Ang led the Petes in playoff scoring, tallying 3 goals and 6 assists in seven games with one playoff game-winning goal.

Coach John Brophy paid it forward, helped black hockey players in their careers

25 Wednesday May 2016

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When a lot of hockey people didn’t think Val James had the wherewithal to be a professional player, John Brophy did.

John Brophy (Photo/ Robert Shaver/Hockey Hall of Fame)

John Brophy (Photo/ Robert Shaver/Hockey Hall of Fame)

Brophy knew James had a hockey hunger because he saw it up close when Brophy was a fiery player for the Long Island Ducks and James was a youngster whose dad worked maintenance for the Long Island Arena, the barn where old Eastern Hockey League team played in the 1970s.

James’ dad had the keys to the arena, so young Val could skate whenever he liked. Brophy would watch James and his friends play in a local league at the arena and give them a little coaching.

“He thought I had the right stuff,” James told me recently. “I was just starting out so I wasn’t that much of a skater, or even a hockey player, for that matter. But he stuck with me and taught me a lot of things that did lead, eventually, to me going out and getting to where I got in hockey.”

John Duncan Brophy, a colorful career minor-league player who went on to become North America’s second winningest professional hockey coach, passed away earlier this week at the age of 83 following a lengthy illness.

Brophy is hockey history.  His 1,027 wins is second only to Hockey Hall of Fame Coach Scotty Bowman’s 1,224 victories. He accumulated a record 3,822 penalty minutes in an EHL playing career that spanned from 1955 to 1973.

He’s the only ECHL coach to lead a team, the Hampton Road Admirals, to three championships.

The two-fisted Brophy was dubbed as the “Godfather of  Goonery” and was thought to be Paul Newman’s inspiration for the goon-it-up player/coach Reggie Dunlop in the seminal hockey movie “Slap Shot.”

But Brophy is also black hockey history. He helped steer the careers of James, a tough-guy forward who became the National Hockey League’s first U.S.-born black player, and Bill Riley, who was the NHL’s third black player behind Willie O’Ree and Mike Marson.

Forward Val James, who became the NHL's first U.S.-born black player when he joined the Buffalo Sabres in 1981-82, said John Brophy treated him like a son.

Forward Val James, who became the NHL’s first U.S.-born black player when he joined the Buffalo Sabres in 1981-82, said John Brophy treated him like a son.

“Broph, he didn’t see color,” James said. “As a matter of fact, he and my dad were friends. To see them talk to each other, you’d swear they were enemies, but they were actually really good friends. Broph was always swearing – he couldn’t talk without swearing. My dad would be swearing back. You’d look at them and you’d say, ‘man, these guys are about to go’ and then they’d be laughing it up.”

Val James and Brophy also struck up a friendship rooted in mutual respect. When he coached in the American Hockey League, Brophy didn’t hesitate in sending out his enforcer to battle James, who was regarded as one of hockey’s most-feared fighters.

He also thought highly enough of James to add him to his St. Catharines Saints AHL squad in 1985-86. James rewarded Brophy’s faith with 3 assists and 162 penalty minutes in 80 games.

When Brophy coached the Toronto Maple Leafs for 2 1/2 seasons, he called James up from the minors for four games in 1986-87 to add toughness to the team. He responded with 14 penalty minutes in those games.

When James was working on his autobiography, “Black Ice: The Val James Story,” he sought out Brophy in 2013 for his recollections.

“He said to me ‘All the years you played with me, for me, against me, I had nothing but the best in mind for you and, you know what,  you performed better than I ever expected,'”  James told me. “‘I just wanted to let you know that you are one of my boys.’ I was very emotionally overtaken by that. He treated me like a son.”

Many players viewed Brophy as a tyrant –  a white-haired, red-face temperamental task-master with a fondness for bag skates and yelling until he was hoarse.

But James saw Brophy’s rough ways as tough love from one of hockey’s best teachers. Still, he was an acquired taste: Think Bobby Knight in basketball or Billy Martin in baseball.

“He made sure I did things right,” James said. “If I didn’t get things right, he’d explain it to me, maybe not the way a regular person would – he’d be screaming a lot – but that’s  ‘Broph.'”

Bill Riley, the NHL's third black player, had his pro career extended when John Brophy got him a contract to play for Nova Scotia in the AHL.

Bill Riley, the NHL’s third black player, had his pro career extended when John Brophy got him a contract to play for Nova Scotia in the AHL.

Riley, who was a forward for the Washington Capitals in the 1970s, skated for Brophy’s Voyageurs toward the end of his playing career in 1983-84. Brophy made Riley team captain and the player responded with 24 goals and 24 assists in 78 AHL games.

“Not only did he give me a contract, he paid me $5,000 more than what I was making in Moncton and he didn’t have to do that,” Riley said at a 2013 event in Amherst, Nova Scotia honoring his hockey accomplishments. “He really, really took care of me.”

Riley went into coaching and found himself going up against Brophy in a crucial minor league contest.

“We needed one point to clinch first place overall, and John didn’t give us anything. He played us hard, right to the wire,” Riley recalled. “I think the game ended up 3-3. When I got the point and the game was over, John looked over at me and saluted me.  I considered that one of the greatest honors in hockey.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diversity abounds in 2016 NHL Draft class, from top to bottom

15 Sunday May 2016

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You don’t have to look very hard to gauge the depth of diversity in the 2016 National Hockey League Draft.

Players of color populate NHL Central Scouting’s  list of talented skaters eligible for the June 24-25 draft at the First Niagara Center, home of the Buffalo Sabres, from top to bottom.

Let’s start at the top with forward Auston Matthews, the draft’s presumptive  first overall pick – unless the Toronto Maple Leafs shock the hockey world.

Auston Matthews is poised to go from Arizona to Zurich to the NHL Number One draft pick.

Auston Matthews is poised to go from Arizona to Zurich to the NHL Number One draft pick.

Matthews embodies hockey’s  growing diversity – both racially and geographically. His mother, Ema, is from Mexico, and his father, Brian, from California.

Born and raised in Arizona, Matthews  got hooked on hockey watching the NHL Arizona Coyotes play. He hails from a non-traditional market and will reach the NHL via an unconventional route for a North American teenager.

After playing two seasons for the  USA Hockey National Team Development Program, Matthews skated for the ZSC Lions in Switzerland’s professional National League A in the 2015-16 season, reportedly earning $400,000.

He scored 24 goals and 22 assists in 46 regular season games for the Lions and tallied 3 assists for the Zurich-based team in four playoff games.

Matthews also suited up for United States at the International Ice Hockey Federation 2016 World Junior Championship in Helsinki, Finland in December and January. He tied for the tournament lead in goals with 7 and finished fourth overall in points with 11 in powering the U.S.to a Bronze Medal.

He’s currently playing for the U.S. at the IIHF World Championship in Russia and has 3 goals and 3 assists in seven games.

The 6-foot-2, 194-pound Matthews is a “trailblazer, in all forms of the word,” his agent, Pat Brisson, told USA Hockey Magazine. “He’s an 18-year-old who’s ready to play in the NHL.”

California-born and Arizona-raised, Auston Matthews represented the U.S. twice this season in international tournaments.

California-born and Arizona-raised, Auston Matthews represented the U.S. twice this season in international tournaments.

Givani Smith, a right wing for the Ontario Hockey League’s Guelph Storm, is ranked as the 54th-best North American skater by Central Scouting. He’s hoping to follow in the skates of his older brother, center Gemel Smith, who was drafted by the Dallas Stars in 2012 in the fourth round with the 104th overall pick.

Givani  tallied 23 goals, 19 assists, and 146 penalty minutes in 65 games for Guelph in 2015-16. Gemel had 13 goals, 13 assists, and 24 penalty minutes in 65 games for the Texas Stars, Dallas’ American Hockey League farm team.

Big brother Gemel has offered some sage advice to Givani ahead of June’s draft: “Don’t believe the hype – good or bad.”

Guelph Storm forward Givani Smith looks to join older brother Gemel Smith in the pros (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

Guelph Storm forward Givani Smith looks to join older brother Gemel Smith in the pros (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

“Most of his advice has been ‘Don’t go on social media and read what people are writing about you,'” Givani told the website Hockey’s Future. “Play your game; and if you play a good game, you’ll be rewarded in the end…I have a Twitter account and I know what’s going on, but I try not to pay too much attention to it.”

Fans at OHL London Knights home playoff games weren’t showering a player with boos. They were chanting of “Puuu,” paying homage to Knights forward Cliff Pu, ranked the 75th-best North American skater by Central Scouting.

“At first, I didn’t know they were doing it,” Pu said of the special cheer to The Hockey News. “It’s pretty funny – and it’s better than them booing, so it’s all fun and games.”

The 6-foot-1, 188-pound 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.

Size, speed, and desire are keys to London Knights' Cliff Pu's game - and path to the NHL (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Size, speed, and desire are keys to London Knights’ Cliff Pu’s game – and path to the NHL (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

“I like to use my speed and find my teammates,” Pu told The Hockey News. “But it’s all about the team and whatever I need to do, I’m down for it.”

Pu , whose parents came to Canada from China, gained a lot of attention in January by celebrating a goal in an unusual fashion in today’s game – with a handshake.

Peterborough Petes center Jonathan Ang is North America’s 95th-best skater, according to Central Scouting, up from 137 in the mid-term rankings. A  Canadian of Malaysian descent, he finished fourth on the Petes in scoring in 2015-16 with 21 goals and 28 assists in 68 games.

Jonathan Ang of the Peterborough Petes (Photo/ Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Jonathan Ang of the Peterborough Petes (Photo/ Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Ang led the Petes in playoff scoring, tallying 3 goals and 6 assists in seven games with one playoff  game-winning goal. In an OHL coach’s poll in March, Ang tied for second as the league’s best skater.

Like Ang,  defenseman James “J.D.” Greenway has moved up in the draft rankings – from 128 at mid-term to 121 in Central Scouting’s final report.

A member of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program Under-18 squad that competes against United States Hockey League, collegiate, and international teams, Greenway scored 5 goals and 23 assists in 64 games.

J.D. Greenway wants to play in the NHL - after college.

J.D. Greenway wants to play in the NHL – after college.

The Potsdam, N.Y., native is hoping to continue the family draft tradition. His brother, Boston University left wing Jordan Greenway, was chosen by the Minnesota Wild last year in the second round with the 50th overall pick.

Like his brother, J.D. is going the NCAA Division I route before turning pro. The 6-foot-4, 205-pound D-man recently committed to play for the University of Wisconsin.

It looks like Yushiro Hirano’s decision last year to pay his own way to travel from hometown Sapporo, Japan to Youngstown, Ohio, is paying off. Hirano, a 20-year-old right wing for the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms is ranked as the 184th-best draft-eligible player in North America.

Hirano – whose first name is sometimes spelled Yushiroh – came to the U.S.to catch the eyes of professional scouts. The 6-foot, 200-pound winger scored  24 goals and 22 assists 54 regular season games in 2015-16.

“I hope to grow the game in Japan and make everybody proud,” Hirano told me last year in an email exchange. “I also want to play well enough to get to the professional ranks here in the United States.”

Yushiro Hirano's decision to relocate from Japan to Ohio to play hockey might pay off at June's NHL Draft (Photo/Bill Paterson).

Yushiro Hirano’s decision to relocate from Japan to Ohio to play hockey might pay off at June’s NHL Draft (Photo/Bill Paterson).

Right wing Daniel Muzito-Bagenda is another import, from the land of Volvos and Saabs. The Swedish Muzito-Bagenda is a high-scoring forward for the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads and the 205th-ranked player in North America available for the draft.

He had 20 goals and 17 assists in 63 regular season games for the Steelheads and 6 goals and 4 assists in seven OHL playoff games.

A product of Sweden's storied Modo hockey program, Mississauga Steelheads' Daniel Muzito-Bagenda hopes to hear his name called at the NHL Draft (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

A product of Sweden’s storied Modo hockey program, Mississauga Steelheads’ Daniel Muzito-Bagenda hopes to hear his name called at the NHL Draft (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

One player who didn’t make Central Scouting’s cut but still could draw interest in later rounds is defenseman Jalen Smereck of the OHL’s Oshawa Generals. Born in Detroit, Smereck  was the 299th overall pick of the 2013 OHL draft.

He signed with Oshawa in summer 2015 and was pressed into heavy minutes on the Generals’ blue line throughout the 2015-16 season. He responded by scoring 5 goals and 20 assists in 63 regular season games and 1 goal and 4 assists in five playoff contests.

“For a team that was certainly rebuilding, he was a stalwart on defense,” hockey blogger and researcher Margann Laurissa told me recently. “Jalen played in all situations for the Gennies and there is no reason why the Detroit native should not get consideration.”

Oshawa's Jalen Smereck isn't ranked by Central Scouting but some hockey folks think he has the skills to crash the NHL draft party Photo/(Ian Goodall/Goodall Media Inc.)

Oshawa’s Jalen Smereck isn’t ranked by Central Scouting but some hockey folks think he has the skills to crash the NHL draft party Photo/(Ian Goodall/Goodall Media Inc.)

The hockey blog OHL Prospects wrote that Smereck made a pretty seamless transition into Oshawa’s Top 4 defense rotation.

“With his average size, the development of his offensive game will be key to him becoming a serious NHL prospect,” according to the blog which concludes that “he could be worth a look.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OHL’s Taylor Davis works to join cast of Jersey Boys in National Hockey League

08 Sunday Mar 2015

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A bridge that connects Pennsylvania and New Jersey has the slogan “Trenton Makes The World Takes” in huge neon-lit letters posted across its span- a tribute to the Garden State capital’s manufacturing and industrial heritage.

Taylor Davis wants to be Trenton’s next big export, and he’s working far from the shadows of the Lower Trenton Toll Supported Bridge that carries his hometown’s motto in hopes of making his hockey dreams come true.

Hockey has taken Davis from N.J. capital to Canada's (Photo/Valerie Wutti/Blitzenphotography.com)

Hockey has taken Davis from N.J. capital to Canada’s (Photo/Valerie Wutti/Blitzenphotography.com)

Davis first put on a pair of skates at Mercer County’s Ice Land when he was three years old after he watched a hockey game on television and told his mother “Mommy, I want to do that.”

Today, Davis is a 19-year-old defenseman for the Ontario Hockey League’s Ottawa 67’s, and he’s on a mission to join fellow Jersey Boys like Calgary Flames left wing Johnny Gaudreau and Toronto Maple Leafs left wing James van Riemsdyk in the National Hockey League.

“That’s the goal,” Davis said.

Gaudreau was a fourth-round draft pick in 2011. Van Riemsdyk was the second overall pick in the 2007 draft, taken behind Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane.

While “Johnny Hockey” and JVR burst onto the hockey scene as heralded draft picks, Davis has had to barge his way into the consciousness of the hockey world.

Taylor Davis went from walk-on to defensive standout for the OHL's Ottawa 67's (Photo/Valerie Wutti/Blitzenphotography.com).

Taylor Davis went from walk-on to defensive standout for the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s (Photo/Valerie Wutti/Blitzenphotography.com).

He wasn’t drafted by any Canadian major junior hockey team despite helping Western New York’s Kenmore East High School win the New York State Division II (Small School) championship in 2012 and despite having a solid 2011-12 season with the Buffalo Blades, a Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League team that counts Patrick Kane and former NHLer Todd Marchant among its alums.

Davis joined 67’s basically as a walk-on after being recommended to team officials

Scout Truman Dumel recommended Davis to 67"s.

Scout Truman Dumel recommended Davis to 67″s.

by Truman Dumel, a bird-dog scout who never actually saw Davis play but knew of his hockey pedigree and commitment to the game.

“I kept in touch with their head scout, who was Joe Rowley at the time, and he asks me if I know of any guys,” Dumel recalled. “I go to him, ‘Yeah, I know this kid from New Jersey.'”

Dumel’s recommendation earned Davis an invite to Ottawa’s rookie camp. His performance there garnered an invitation to the 67’s main camp and a roster spot on the team in 2012-13.

He’s been a mainstay on the blue line ever since, though he admits it was a challenge in the beginning of his OHL career.

“I had ups and downs in my first year, going against guys in practice like (Sean)Monahan, who’s in the NHL with the Calgary Flames now,” Davis told me recently. “It was a total shock coming from where you were the man and now you’re a fish in the big sea. It was pretty tough, but it’s been a nice adjustment for me.”

Taylor Davis has skated his way from New Jersey's capital to Canada's capital (Photo/Valerie Wutti/Blitzenphotography.com).

Taylor Davis has skated his way from New Jersey’s capital to Canada’s capital (Photo/Valerie Wutti/Blitzenphotography.com).

Nice indeed. This season, the 5-foot-11, 216-pound Davis has 2 goals and 11 assists in 47 games for the 67’s. He’s turned around a rookie-year plus/minus of minus-10 to a plus-11 this season.

“He has all the talent,” Dumel said. “He’s determined. He knows he has to prove himself, which is what he’s doing. He’s been playing hockey since he was three. He’s trying to go as far as he can.”

Trying to get far in hockey has kept Davis far from home in the off-season. He spent last summer in Venice Beach, California, working out with fitness maven T.R. Goodman,  who’s trained Anaheim Ducks forward Emerson Etem and retired NHL stars Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick, and Alan May.

“He’s very good, definitely knows his stuff,” Davis said of Goodman. “When I was there, Emerson Etem was there. Mike Tyson was there in the mornings and you’d see Lou Ferrigno walking around Gold’s Gym all the time.”

When he wasn’t pumping iron, Davis would chat with actor Ray Liotta, another Jersey Boy and regular at Goodman’s gym.

“Ray Liotta was always in there,” Davis said. “I always talked to him – he’s a really funny guy.”

 

 

 

Val James, the NHL’s first African-American player, tells story in new book

30 Friday Jan 2015

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Hockey wasn’t easy for Val James – from picking up the game as a young Long Island rink rat, to literally fighting his way through the minor leagues, to trading punches with some of the toughest enforcers in the National Hockey League.

But for James, the NHL’s first American-born black player, the roughest opponents often weren’t on the ice. They were in the stands.

“Think about going on the ice, 40 games a year on the road, and every three seconds of a 60-minute game, you’re getting a racial slur thrown at you over a 10-year period,” he told me recently.

Val James writes about the bitter and the sweet in his hockey career (Photo/Kwame Damon Mason)

Val James writes about the bitter and the sweet in his hockey career (Photo/Kwame Damon Mason)

James and co-author John Gallagher recount the hostility he endured and the good times the left wing experienced in hockey during the 1970s and 80s in his book, “Black Ice: The Val James Story,” which goes on sale Feb. 1.

He writes honestly about his career as an enforcer – not a goon – whose punching power instilled fear in opponents. He unflinchingly describes the racial abuse he endured during a professional career that spanned from 1978-79 with the Erie Blades of the old North Eastern Hockey League to 1987-88 with the Flint Spirits of the International Hockey League.

“You’d  get  depressed every now and then over it, thinking ‘why are these people doing this, they don’t know me.’ I’m just out to entertain them, to give them a night out with their families, their girlfriends, whoever,” he told  me. “It can  work on your psyche if you let it. I was lucky enough to have a lot of good people around me. My teammates supported me totally.”

James, the NHL's first African-American player, appropriately played for the AHL's Rochester Americans (Photo/Rochester Americans).

James, the NHL’s first African-American player, appropriately played for the AHL’s Rochester Americans (Photo/Rochester Americans).

Canadian-born Willie O’Ree became the NHL’s first black player when he debuted with the Boston Bruins in 1958. James, 57, was the league’s first U.S.-born black player and probably the only NHLer born in Ocala, Florida.

His path to hockey started when his family moved to New York and his jack-of-all-trades father took a job at the Long Island Arena.

“He started out being a night watchman there, fixing things when they needed to be fixed,” James told me. “Then he ended up getting into the operations of it all.”

With dad working in the arena, young Val James got freebies for every major 1970s rock & roll act when they played the Island – the Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Burton Cummings.

He also regularly watched the EHL Long Island Ducks play and practice at the arena, fascinated by the speed and aggressiveness of the game. When James got his first pair of ice skates at 13, and with his dad owning a key to the stadium, the Long Island Arena became his practice facility.

“I’d grown up watching the Canadian men play hockey for the Long Island Ducks skate on this same ice,” James and Gallagher wrote. “I imagined myself as one of them.”

James developed into a good enough hockey player to be a 16th-round draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 1977, though he never played for the team. He cracked the Buffalo Sabres’ roster in 1981-82 after signing as an unrestricted free agent.

He appeared in seven games for Buffalo that season and found it hard getting a lot of ice time with a Sabres lineup that featured tough guys like defensemen Lindy Ruff and Larry Playfair.

“The top guy was Larry Playfair. He was a heavyweight, I was a heavyweight. So that spot was already filled,” James said. “The second line was Lindy Ruff. They all had multi-year contracts at the time because they never expected a guy like me to come along.”

After five seasons in the American Hockey League with the Rochester Americans

James enjoyed NHL tours with Buffalo and the Toronto Maple Leafs (Photo/Graig Abel).

James enjoyed NHL tours with Buffalo and the Toronto Maple Leafs (Photo/Graig Abel).

and the St. Catharines Saints, James returned to the NHL for four games with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1986-87.

His NHL career stat line:  No goals, no assists and 30 penalty minutes. But it’s the minor leagues where James had his greatest impact. He played in 630 games, tallied  45 goals, 77 assists and accumulated more than 1,175 penalty minutes – most of them with the AHL Americans.

A lot of those minutes were fives for fighting.

“It was something I was really good at,” James said.

Mike Stothers, head coach of the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs, can attest to that. He and James fought 13 times during a seven-game playoff series when Stothers was a defenseman  for the Hershey Bears and James a winger for the St. Catharines.

“He was  very good, probably one of the toughest at the time in the American Hockey League. He might have been the toughest ever in the American Hockey League,” Stothers told me. “He was a big man, very strong.”

Stothers paid James the highest compliment one enforcer can give another: “He was an honest fighter.”

Mike Stothers fought James 13 times in one AHL playoff series (Photo/Philadelphia Flyers)

Mike Stothers fought James 13 times in one AHL playoff series (Photo/Philadelphia Flyers)

“There was never any extra stuff: no cheap shots or stick work involved,” he  added. “He never took liberties on skilled players.”

But that never stopped  so-called “fans” from taking liberties on James. Objects and racist taunts were routinely thrown his way.

“At that point in time when I was coming up, it was always bananas, pictures of people from Africa with the bone in their nose, spear in their hands, the shields,” James told me. “People would make 8-foot, 9-foot signs like that and display them. At that time, there was no governing of behavior, players or fans, by the leagues.”

It was so bad that when CBS followed James  in 1981 for a segment for “CBS News Sunday Morning,” the public address announcer at the Salem-Roanoke County Civic Center felt compelled to remind game attendees that use of offensive language was prohibited – something he’d never done before.

“Either way, neither the announcement nor the presence of the news cameras could stop the slurs and, as usual, not a single soul got tossed out for playing the racist fool,” James and co-author Gallagher wrote.

But there were times when people took stands against the abuse aimed at James. When two Richmond Rifles fans cast a fishing line with a toy monkey tied to it into the penalty box where James was sitting, referee Patrick Meehan stopped the EHL game and demanded the ejection of the offending fans.

“He did something that could have possibly at that point got him killed or lynched after the game,” James said. “But, nonetheless, he stood up for something, and that means a lot to me.”

Meehan, now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, said he wasn’t trying to make a statement. He just trying to stop something that was “fundamentally wrong.”

“That’s not something that’s ‘fans just being fans.’ That can’t be tolerated,” Meehan

Former hockey referee-turned U.S. Congressman Patrick Meehan threatened to stop an EHL game to halt abuse aimed at James.

Former hockey referee-turned U.S. Congressman Patrick Meehan threatened to stop an EHL game to halt abuse aimed at James.

told me recently. “I did blow the whistle and skated over to the penalty box and I told (Richmond Rifles officials) that if those fans weren’t ejected from the game, I wouldn’t continue officiating that game and that game would be done.”

“I remember the owner came down and he was like ‘What are you doing?'” Meehan added. “I looked at him and said ‘That’s wrong.’ He said ‘You can’t do it.’ I said ‘Whether I can or can’t, I am because I will not skate in a game that condones that activity, so you make a choice.'”

The fans were ejected and the game went on.

On most nights, James took racial justice in his own hands – taking out his anger at the crowd on an opposing player.

“Since I couldn’t act on my fantasy of shoving a hockey puck down the throat of every big-mouthed racist, one acceptable way for me to respond to these attacks was to turn up my physical play,” James and Gallagher wrote. “If I could knock one of their hometown players into next week, then some of my anger might fade.”

James said he’s pleased to see the growth of players of color in hockey, from youth leagues to the pros.

He thought the sport had put its racial woes behind it until some Boston Bruins “fans” unleashed online racist tirades against Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward for scoring a game-winning overtime goal that eliminated the Bruins from the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2012 and Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban for scoring a double-overtime game-winning goal against Boston in last season’s  playoffs.

“It  tells me that the state of hockey has advanced but hasn’t advanced, all in the same breath,” he said. “Those Boston incidents, they might be the same relatives of the people that  tried to get me back in the 80s, right?”

Since hanging up his skates, James has traded hard ice for soft water. He works as a water park mechanic in Niagara Falls, Ontario, a short drive from Rochester and Buffalo – homes of his hockey glory days.

Rochester fans remember James not only for his fisticuffs but also for scoring the game-winning goal for the Americans in the deciding game of the 1983 Calder Cup championship against the Maine Mariners.

The Americans are holding a “Val James Legends Night” on Feb. 13 – the day before his birthday – at Rochester’s Blue Cross Arena. In Buffalo, he’s been invited to speak to the kids of Hasek’s Heroes, an inner-city hockey program founded by former Sabres goaltender Dominik Hasek.

James hopes the attention from the book will lead to opportunities to get back into organized hockey, perhaps in the coaching ranks.

“I think I can help the sport out more than I have,” he said.