TheColorOfHockey

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Tag Archives: Toronto Maple Leafs

Players of color help NHL teams replenish, reload, through draft and free agency

04 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

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Anthony Duclair, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Jaden Lindo, Jarome Iginla, Joshua Ho-Sang, Keegan Iverson, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Toronto Maple Leafs, USHL, Windsor Spitfires

Between the 2014 National Hockey League Draft and the start of the NHL’s free agent signing period, some old faces changed places and the league infused itself with new young blood via the draft.

A lot has transpired from the time NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was robustly booed when he first strode onto the stage at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center on June 27 to begin the draft to the last breathless breath of NHL Network, TSN, and NBC Sports Network analysts summing up the hurly-burly of the week’s free agent signing frenzy. Let’s recap:

Hoping for a Rocky Mountain high from a Stanley Cup win, Jarome Iginla signs with Avalanche.

Hoping for a Rocky Mountain high from a Stanley Cup win, Jarome Iginla signs with Avalanche.

Perhaps the biggest free agent catch was landed by the Colorado Avalanche when it inked Jarome Iginla to a three-year, $16 million deal. The former Calgary Flames icon hopes his third NHL team in three seasons – he played for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2012-13 and Boston Bruins last season – will be a charm and deliver the Stanley Cup championship he longs for before he takes residence among the greats in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Iginla’s relocation from Beantown to the Rockies wasn’t an issue of the Bruins not wanting to keep him or the player tiring of the team. It was a matter of dollars and cents, or the Bruins’ lack of it. Boston simply didn’t have the salary cap space to fit Iginla into its budget.

Boston’s misfortune becomes Colorado’s fortune, even though it’s costing the team one. In Iginla, the Avalanche get an aging-but-still-productive player who can provide hard-nose leadership to a rising young team that seeks to leapfrog the loaded Los Angeles Kings, Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference to get a shot at the Cup. Now 37, Iginla scored 30 goals and 31 assists for the Bruins in 78 games.

“In the NHL it’s hard to pick which team is going to win, but you want to be on a contender and I think at this

Manny Malhotra takes his face-off skills to Montreal.

Manny Malhotra takes his face-off skills to Montreal.

stage of my career that is very important,” Iginla told Sportnet. “I know Boston, they have a great shot, they’re a great team and they work very hard and they’re committed. Unfortunately, it didn’t end the way we wanted it to this year in Boston, but they’ll be right back there and have a great shot again and I realize that. But it wasn’t really a full option and Colorado, to me, is a young, dynamic team and they’re just getting better.”

The Montreal Canadiens made a lesser but no less important free agent signing that the team is banking will help them get beyond the Conference Final next season. The Habs inked 34-year-old center Manny Malhotra to a one-year, $850,000 contract.

The Indo-Canadian Malhothra  is a role player, but a very good one. He’s one of the NHL’s best face-off men and provides locker room leadership to a team that saw its captain, Brian Gionta, move on to the Buffalo Sabres. Malhotra is also one of the league’s best feel-good stories. He suffered a horrific left eye injury when he played for the Vancouver Canucks in 2011 that many thought would be career-ending.

With reduced vision, he made the American Hockey League’s Charlotte Checkers on a tryout and was later promoted to the parent club, the NHL’s Carolinia Hurricanes. He had seven goals and six assists for the ‘Canes in the 2013-14 season.

Brandon Montour, left, jumped from 18th-round USHL pick to 2nd-round NHL pick (Photo/Britta Lewis)

Brandon Montour, left, jumped from 18th-round USHL pick to 2nd-round NHL pick (Photo/Britta Lewis)

Feel-good stories were also abundant at the draft. Brandon Montour was all smiles when the Anaheim Ducks selected the defenseman from the United States Hockey League’s Waterloo Black Hawks in the second round with the 55th overall pick.

Montour, who’s Canadian First Nation, was beaming because little more than a year ago he selected by Waterloo in the 18th round of the USHL draft, the league’s 276th overall pick. What happened between the USHL and NHL drafts?  Montour was awarded both the USHL Player of the Year and Defenseman of the Year in 2014.

He tallied 14 goals and 48 assists in 60 games for the Black Hawks, tops among USHL defensemen and ninth overall in the league in scoring. He was sixth among USHL players with a plus-35 rating.

Montour attended the Ducks’ prospects camp last week, but it will be a while before fans see

Mark Friedman hopes to join Montour in NHL after college (Photo/Britta Lewis)

Mark Friedman hopes to join Montour in NHL after college (Photo/Britta Lewis)

him performing in Anaheim. He’s committed to play college hockey at the University of Massachusetts. The USHL is the nation’s top junior league and a prime hockey feeder to American colleges and universities.

“Brandon is truly a special player,” Waterloo Head Coach P.K. O’Handley said on the team’s website. “Even more than his tremendous natural abilities and instincts, our coaching staff, Brandon’s teammates, and certainly Black Hawks fans appreciate the tremendous effort that was evident anytime he was on the ice.”

Montour had company from Waterloo at the draft. Teammate Mark Friedman, a defenseman, was chosen by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 3rd round with the 86th overall pick. He scored 10 goals and 30 assists in 51 games last season for the Black Hawks. Friedman has signed a letter of intent to play hockey for Bowling Green State University, the school that produced former Pittsburgh Penguins Head Coach Dan Bylsma.

Should Friedman reach the NHL after college he’ll be part of a small but growing contingent of Jewish players in the league. Calgary Flames forward Mike Cammalleri, Phoenix Coyotes forward Jeff Halpern, Nashville Predators forward Eric Nystrom, and Toronto Maple Leafs forward Trevor Smith were among the NHL’s Jewish players last season.

Armada's Daniel Walcott hopes to make leap from college club hockey to NHL.

Armada’s Daniel Walcott hopes to make leap from college club hockey to NHL.

The New York Rangers feel they got a diamond in the rough in defenseman Daniel Walcott, a defenseman selected in the fifth round with the 140th overall pick. Like Montour, Walcott, who played last season for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, was an under-the-radar player who took an unusual route to the draft.

Prior to joining Armada, Walcott,  a 19-year-old Ile Perrot, Quebec, native, was playing U.S. college hockey – but not NCAA Division I, II or III. He was playing for Lindenwood University near St. Louis, Mo., a member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association – club hockey.

Founded in 1991, the ACHA has 431 men’s and women’s teams spanning five competition divisions in 49 states. Teams like Navy, Arizona State University, New York University,  Florida Gulf Coast University, and San Jose State University are ACHA members.

Walcott, played organized travel team hockey in Canada when he was younger but stopped to play football and hockey at school. When his parents divorced, Walcott moved to Chicago where he attended high school for a year before accepting a scholarship at Lindenwood.

“They offered me a spot. I decided to take it because it’s university (hockey) and I always wanted to play there. Unfortunately, it’s not high quality. It’s not NCAA hockey, it was just club hockey,” Walcott told Yahoo Sports’ “Buzzing the Net.” “My assistant coach and (Armada coaches) were in contact, and my name came up. They invited to camp. I decided to come here because I live at home, basically. It was one of the major keys to the decision. Also, I wanted to get seen by scouts and here is a much bigger opportunity for that.”

Indeed. The Rangers looked at Walcott’s single season body of work in the QMJHL and decided he was worth drafting. In 67 games, Walcott scored 10 goals and 29 assists.

“I’m a two-way defenseman,” Walcott told “Buzzing the Net.” “I bring a lot of offense and I can play defense, too, and shutdown top lines. I can be in-your-face and physical. I give my heart out every game – a lot of character.”

Rick Zombo, Lindenwood’s hockey head coach and a former St. Louis Blues defenseman, said all Walcott needed was an opportunity to showcase his ability.

“He put all the work in and he got his opportunity, he was prepared and made the most of it,” Zombo said on the university’s website. “I’m very proud of Daniel and I fully expect him to make the most of his new opportunities.”

Walcott attended the Rangers prospects camp this week with fellow 2014 draftee Keegan Iverson, a forward for the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks who was chosen in the 3rd round with the 85th pick by the Blueshirts. Also at camp was Anthony Duclair, a high-scoring forward with the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts. The Rangers chose Duclair in the 3rd round of the 2013 draft with the overall 80th pick. The speedy forward registered 50 goals and 49 assists in 59 games for Quebec in 2013-14.

Rounding out the 2014 draftees are Joshua Ho-Sang, a forward for the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires, who was taken in the first round with the 28th pick by the New York Islanders, and Jaden Lindo, forward for the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack who was taken in the fourth round with the 173rd overall pick by the Penguins.

 

 

 

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Larry “King” Kwong’s jersey to hang in Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto

07 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Fred Sasaskamoose, Herb Carnegie, Hockey Hall of Fame, Larry Kwong, Montreal Canadiens, Phil Pritchard, Toronto Maple Leafs, Willie O'Ree

Larry Kwong, a Chinese-Canadian player who many believe was the first person of color to reach the National Hockey League, isn’t in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

But his hockey jersey will be.

Larry Kwong with jersey sent to Hockey Hall of Fame.

Larry Kwong with jersey sent to Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Hall recently received a  well-preserved 1942-43 Nanaimo Clippers jersey from Kwong, a diminutive scoring dynamo who made hockey history when he skated a single one-minute shift for the New York Rangers against the Montreal Canadiens during the 1947-48 season.  He accomplished the feat 10 years before forward Willie O’Ree joined the Boston Bruins and became the NHL’s first black player, skating against the Habs, and seven years before Chicago Blackhawks forward Fred Sasaskamoose became the league’s first Native/First Nations player, breaking the barrier against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Kwong, in strong voice at 90 years old, told me recently that it feels “wonderful” knowing that the jersey from his senior amateur team will hang in the Hall in Toronto and hopes that it will inspire more Chinese kids to lace up the skates, take up the game, and aim for the NHL.

“I hope it helps other Chinese players coming up,” said Kwong, who was nicknamed “King Kwong” and the “China Clipper” during his playing days. “When I first started, there was some discrimination and it was hard getting a job – I went to quite a few teams – and there was always some discrimination. I hope that this will start something, a ball rolling, and getting more Chinese boys in on the team.”

As thrilled as Kwong is of having a piece of his hockey legacy in the Hall, the Hall is overjoyed to have an artifact from Kwong’s lengthy playing and coaching career.

Larry Kwong's hockey jersey has a new home in Toronto (Photo/Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame.)

Larry Kwong’s hockey jersey has a new home in Toronto (Photo/Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame.)

“The Larry Kwong Nanaimo Clippers game worn jersey is a great addition to our Hometown Hockey display,” said Phil Pritchard, a vice president and curator at the Hockey Hall of Fame and the white-gloved gentleman who’s the keeper of the Stanley Cup. “Nanaimo has a rich hockey tradition and to have a (jersey) from ‘King Kwong’ adds to the great legacy of the game.”

Kwong’s NHL moment was brief, but the British Columbia native cherishes it as a high point of his playing career.

“I enjoyed it because all my life, when I first started as a youngster, my goal was to play in the NHL,” he said. “At that time I started with the Trail

Kwong back in the day with Nanaimo Clippers.

Kwong back in the day with Nanaimo Clippers.

Smoke Eaters, another senior team, then I went to Nanaimo, and then I went to Vancouver. All my life I wanted to play in the NHL, and then I got that chance.”

The journey of Kwong’s jersey to the Hall of Fame was aided by a 10-year-old boy’s curiosity. Quinn Soon was working on a heritage fair project on the late Herb Carnegie, a black Canadian regarded as one of the best hockey players never to reach the NHL because of his skin color. Quinn interviewed Carnegie’s daughter, Bernice, and Kwong, who played against Carnegie in the Quebec League, for the project.

Quinn remembered unsuccessful attempts to get Carnegie inducted into the Hall of Fame and wondered whether the shrine could make a display to showcase items from Carnegie – and Kwong.

“He realized they would need some memorabilia,” said Chad Soon, Quinn’s father and an educator who has championed long overdue recognition for Kwong. “So he contacted Bernice Carnegie, who agreed to donate Herb’s skates and a bunch of articles and pics. Quinn and I decided to see if we could get Larry in, too. With Bernice’s and Larry’s support, Quinn called Craig Campbell (manager of the Hall’s Resource Centre and archives), who was extremely enthusiastic about the idea.”

Bernice Carnegie says she’s still talking with Hall officials about her father’s artifacts. She believes having items from Kwong, her dad, and other players of color in the Hall is important in order for hockey to visually tell an under-told story.

Kwong's jersey joins Willie O'Ree's stick in Hall of Fame (Photo/Hockey Hall of Fame.)

Kwong’s jersey joins Willie O’Ree’s stick in Hall of Fame (Photo/Hockey Hall of Fame.)

“There are so many people who think they know all about the sport, but they are not really informed about all aspects of the sport and how difficult it actually was for people who were not like everybody else to open those doors,” she told me recently. “I think that actually just having something there to say ‘Here is another part of that wonderful sport’ that people might actually be surprised to know that there were minorities that were good enough to have played there (in the NHL) but just didn’t have that chance.”

These days, Kwong is enjoying accolades. Powered by efforts by Chad Soon and some of his students, Kwong was inducted last September into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame. And his jersey adds to the Hockey Hall of Fame’s collection of minority hockey artifacts – memorabilia that includes a game-used O’Ree stick from the 1960-61 season; Hall of Fame goaltender Grant Fuhr’s equipment from his stints with the Edmonton Oilers, Buffalo Sabres and St. Louis Blues; and a stick and Washington Capitals jersey from Reggie Savage, a black player who was the first NHL player to score on a penalty shot in his first game. The Hall would love to have more, Pritchard said.

“The Hockey Hall of Fame is always looking for artifacts…equipment, original slides, video, etc.,” he said. “Let us know.”

 

 

 

 

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Berube and Nolan make NHL history

22 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

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Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, Craig Berube, Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, Ted Nolan, Toronto Maple Leafs

Philadelphia Flyers Head Coach Craig Berube and Buffalo Sabres  Interim Head Coach Ted Nolan made hockey history Thursday night when they became the first Native/First Nations members to coach against each other in a National Hockey League game.

The Flyers defeated the Sabres 4-1 in Philadelphia. But the real winners Thursday were Native American and Canadian First Nations youngsters who got a glimpse of the modern-day possibilities for advancement in a game that their ancestors helped create hundreds of years ago.

Sabres coach Ted Nolan, left, and Flyers' coach Craig Berube before their teams squared off (Philadelphia Flyers photo).

Sabres coach Ted Nolan, left, and Flyers’ coach Craig Berube before their teams squared off (Philadelphia Flyers photo).

“It’s huge,” Nolan told Philadelphia Daily News columnist Marcus Hayes before Thursday’s game. “The significance of it is not really what it means to me, or Craig Berube, but what it means when you think of what our ancestors went through.”

Nolan is Ojibwe. Berube is part Cree. Nolan took over the Sabres after Head Coach Ron Ralston was fired earlier this month. Berube landed the Flyers job when Head Coach Peter Laviolette was canned in October.

The Flyers coach, nicknamed “Chief” during his two-fisted playing days, succinctly summed up the significance of the two men being bench bosses at the same time.

“It’s pretty cool,” he told Hayes.

Allan Muir of Sports Illustrated Muir reported that George Armstrong was the first First Nations member to coach in the NHL when he piloted the Toronto Maple Leafs for 47 games during the 1988-89 season. Former New York Islanders scoring machine Bryan Trottier followed when he coached the New York Rangers during the 2002-03 season.

“These coaches are real trailblazers in sport, especially in the NHL, Peter Dinsdale, chief executive officer of the Assembly of First Nations, told The Philadelphia Daily News. “It’s remarkable given all the barriers that exist for First Nations peoples.”

The rise of Berube and Nolan as coaches coincides with the 60th anniversary of Fred Sasaskamoose becoming the first First Nations member to play in the NHL. He joined the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1953-54 season.

He paved the way a generation of players that includes Trottier, former Philadelphia Flyers sniper Reggie Leach, Henry Boucha, Dale McCourt, Stan Jonathan, Gino Odjick, Bobby Taylor, and Chris Simon.

Current NHL players of Native/First Nations heritage include Carey Price and Rene Bourque of the Montreal Canadiens, Vernon Fiddler of the Dallas Stars, T.J. Oshie of the St. Louis Blues, Dwight King of the Los Angeles Kings, D.J. King, and Cody McCommick of the Sabres. Jordan Nolan, Ted Nolan’s son, is a forward with the Kings.

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Josh Ho-Sang – a diverse star in the making

25 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

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Detroit Red Wings, Doug Gilmour, Hockeytown, NHL Winter Classic, OHL, Toronto Maple Leafs, University of Michigan

If you’re searching for diversity in hockey look no further than Windsor Spitfires right wing Josh Ho-Sang – a skating United Nations.

The Canadian-born 17-year-old’s  father is a black Jamaican of Chinese descent, his mother is Chilean with Russian and Swedish bloodlines, and is Jewish. It’s not unusual to hear Spanish spoken in the Ho-Sang household, where Chanukah and Christmas are celebrated.

“I’m kind of a jack of all trades,” he told me recently.

 Josh Ho-Sang (left) celebrates a goal.  (Photo: Tim Cornett, WindsorSpitfires.com)

Josh Ho-Sang (left) celebrates a goal.
(Photo: Tim Cornett, WindsorSpitfires.com)

Ho-Sang’s family roots are intriguing but his hockey potential is fascinating.Gifted with a dangerous blend of blinding speed and sick soft hands, Ho-Sang is a natural goal-scorer who scored an “A” rating among North American skaters on the NHL Central Scouting’s preliminary “Ones to Watch” list ahead of the 2014 draft.

He’s scored 8 goals and 7 assist for 15 points in 12 games this season for the Ontario Hockey League Spitfires, a pace that assures he’ll surpass last season’s 14 goals, 30 assists for 44 points in 63 games. More important, he’s improved his plus/minus from -23 last season to a +5 thus far this season.

Ho-Sang isn’t a household name in the United States yet, largely because the OHL only has three U.S.-based teams – Pennsylvania’s Erie Otters, and the Saginaw Spirit and Plymouth Whalers, both Michigan franchises.

But more U.S. hockey fans will likely get a glimpse of him when the Spitfires play the Spirit Dec. 29 outdoors at Detroit’s Comerica Park – home of Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers – as part of the NHL Winter Classic festivities in Hockeytown leading to the main event: a New Year’s Day tilt between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs at the University of Michigan’s massive football stadium in Ann Arbor.

Ho-Sang is “very proud” of his diverse background, but says its only a part of who he is.

“I obviously try not to make it a race thing,” he told me recently. “But the biggest thing for me is the amount of kids I have the ability to inspire. Even around the rink, one of our Zamboni guys is of color and, I think, it was two weeks ago I had a really rough game. After the game he came up to me and said ‘You know, you’re doing us proud.'”

“Little things like that, and seeing little coloured kids, more kids coming to the game, that’s kind of what you play for,” Ho-Sang added. “I don’t just want to inspire kids of race. I want to inspire everyone.”

Ho-Sang is learning that it takes more than raw talent to succeed.

Ho-Sang is learning that it takes more than raw talent to succeed.

And the way Ho-Sang plays might inspire some NHL team to make him a high pick in 2014, according to Cyril Bollers, coach and president of Skillz Hockey, a Toronto-area-based youth hockey training and development program.

Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers, Joel Ward of the Washington Capitals, Chris Stewart of the St. Louis Blues, and NHLers-turned broadcasters Kevin Weekes, Anson Carter and Jamal Mayers are all Skillz alums.

Ho-Sang played on predominately-minority hockey teams coached by Bollers for several summers.

“Josh should be a first-rounder,” Bollers told me. “I think he’s one of the most gifted and talented kids in the entry draft. He’s very skilled with the puck, very talented with it. He stick handles the puck and doesn’t lose speed.”

When Ho-Sang played AAA minor midget hockey for the Toronto Marlies, former Toronto Maple Leafs legend Doug Gilmour, general manager of the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs, told The Toronto Star in 2011 that the youngster was “the elite of the elite.”

Former NHLer Warren Rychel, the Spitfires’ general manager, told The Star that Ho-Sang “gets you out of your seat.”

“I think of all the guys since I’ve been here – (Tampa Bay Lightning’s Steven) Stamkos, (Edmonton Oilers’ Taylor) Hall, (New York Islanders John) Tavares – he’s the deadliest I’ve ever seen one-on-one with a goalie. He puts pucks away like nobody I’ve ever seen at that age.”

Ho-Sang has an athletic pedigree: his dad, Wayne Ho-Sang, is a highly-regarded tennis pro in Canada. When Josh was a toddler, Wayne and Erika Ho-Sang gave him a tennis racquet and a ball, thinking he would someday follow in his father’s footsteps.

“He’d put the ball on the ground, take the racquet and stickhandle…I guess hockey made more sense to him than tennis,” Wayne Ho-Sang told The Star.

Josh Ho-Sang chuckles when he recounts the story.

“When they put hockey on (TV), it was the only time of the day I would sit still for three hours,” he told me. “They said when they put me on the ice, I didn’t want any help, I didn’t need any help. I don’t remember all of that, but from the stories that they told me, it seems like I was made to do it.”

Ho-Sang said that raw hockey talent helped him make a meteoric rise through the hockey ranks. But he realizes that it will take more than talent for him to succeed in the OHL and beyond. He understands that he’s still a work in progress.

“I have to learn how to use my gifts in the right spots,” he said. “When I was playing minor hockey, the hockey was more one-on-one, right? I would come up the ice faster than everyone, I was even stronger than the guys I was playing against, so I would just take it to the net and do my thing. But now you’re coming up the ice and they have two defensemen back or three guys back. So it’s pull up and make plays. I’ve had double coverage on me…you have to learn how to adapt.”

And Ho-Sang has had to learn to adapt off the ice, too. The life of a major junior hockey player is complicated. Players drafted by OHL teams move away from home and live with billet families during the hockey season.

In between home games, road games, practices, meetings and other team obligations, major junior players also attend school.

“I had a little bit of a tough time at school last year because the school I go to is difficult and it’s really different from the Toronto school,” he said. “Little things like balancing homework and hockey, and all that stuff, and trying to stay away from the stress on top of that. You have three assignments to do, and you have practice, and you didn’t play well the last game.”

He says he’s balancing school work and hockey work better in his second OHL season, thanks in part to sage advice from his general manager and his mom.

“One of the most important things my general manager said to me was ‘Josh, if you do well off the ice and around the ice, the ice will become easier,'” he told me. “Something my mom said to me, too: ‘If your mind is clouded with all the stuff around you, it’s hard to see on the ice.’ It’s so true. The more calm I am about everything going on outside the rink, the way better I see the ice.”

And that could be bad news for OHL goaltenders.

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NHLers wait – and hope – for spots on U.S. Olympic ice hockey team

27 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Barclays Center, Brooklyn, Chicago Blackhawks, Dustin Byfuglien, New York Islanders, Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, Seth Jones, Toronto Maple Leafs

New York Islanders forward Kyle Okposo spends a lot of time these days  waiting- and it never felt so good for the Minnesota native.

Okposo and his wife are expecting the birth of their first child in January. He’s waiting for the Islanders 2015 move from Long Island to suddenly hip downtown Brooklyn and the Barclays Center And he’s waiting to learn whether he’ll make the cut and play for the United States men’s hockey team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in February.

Kyle Okposo awaits birth of first child and berth on U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Kyle Okposo awaits birth of first child and berth on U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Okposo was all smiles Monday as he joined 47 other professional hockey players who were invited to attend USA Hockey’s two-day pre-Olympics orientation camp at the Washington Capitals’ practice facility in Arlington, Va.

“It would be awesome, pretty special to represent my country,” Okposo said. “I’ve represented my country at a lot of different events, but never the Olympics. It was definitely nice to be invited to this camp.”

While he’s waiting for good things, Okposo admits that – to borrow a line from a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song – the waiting is the hardest part when it comes to whether or not he’ll be selected for Sochi.

The final decision on the team won’t be made until the weeks before the Olympics. The U.S. national team, piloted by Pittsburgh Penguins Head Coach Dan Bylsma, will pick talent based on how the invitees to this week camp perform for their NHL or minor league teams in the opening months of the season.

“This is going to be in the back of your mind, the Olympics,” Okposo said. “That being said, what’s going to dictate you being on the team is how you play on the ice for your NHL team. So that has to be your first and foremost thought. You have to play well and do everything for your own team in order to make this one.”

Okposo hopes he’ll have a better start to the upcoming season that he did during the labor dispute-shortened, 48-game, 2012-13 season. Last season, the right wing only registered only 4 goals and 20 assists.

But he turned things around in the second half on the season. He scored three goals and one assists in six games in the Stanley Cup playoffs opening round against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Islanders lost the series.

His numbers pale compared to those of Chicago Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane, Toronto Maple Leafs forwards James van Reimsdyk and Phil Kessel, and other players invited to the pre-Olympics camp. But he has intangibles that the U.S. national team covets.

Okposo has experience playing on larger ice surfaces like the one in Sochi. Most rinks international rinks are 200-by-100 feet, which increases the importance of skating ability. NHL rinks are 200-by-85 feet. Okposo spent his college career playing on the University of Minnesota’s international-size ice surface.

Both the U.S. and Canada are so concerned about the larger ice surface, which they believe contributed to poor Olympic performances off North American soil, that Canada Head Coach Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings held ball hockey walkthroughs with his prospective players in Calgary Monday in an arena with a melted international-sized rink surface.

“Skating is magnified more so on the Olympic sheet. To have a team that can move is definitely going to be a factor,” Okposo said. “All the guys in the NHL are going to have an adjustment the first time they get on (international-sized) ice.”

Defenseman Seth Jones, who the Nashville Predators selected with the fourth pick in June’s NHL draft, has experience on the big rink from playing on the U.S. junior national team that won the gold medal at the 2013 World Championship last December in Ufa, Russia.

Though he’s yet to play a minute in the NHL, Jones said he’s setting his sights on Sochi.

Seth Jones hopes to make the Nashville Predators - then the Olympic team.

Seth Jones hopes to make the Nashville Predators – then the Olympic team.

“It feels unbelievable to be invited here with all these great players and being thought of in the same category with some of these guys,” Jones said. “Obviously there are a lot of great defenseman here and they’re very deep, but we’ll see. I’ve got to make Nashville first, and I’ll have to have a pretty good start to the year to make it. But that’s definitely my goal.”

Brian Burke, the U.S. national team’s director of player personnel and former general manager of the Maple Leafs, said it’s not beyond the realm of possibility for  Jones to wear the U.S. red, white and blue come February.

“It might be a steep hill for Seth, but he’s always exceeded expectations to this point and I can see him doing it again very easily,” Burke said.

Jones, a Plano, Texas, native said he has to factor in earning an Olympics slot while adjusting to the NHL and its grueling 82-game season. He estimated that he logged 94 or 95 games during the 2012-13 season playing major juniors for the Canadian Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks, playing in Russia with the U.S. junior national team, and playing for Portland in the Memorial Cup final.

He said he “didn’t do anything for two weeks or three weeks, maybe,” after the Winterhawks lost to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Halifax Mooseheads in the final.

“It definitely felt like a 12-year – er, 12-month season this year. It’s definitely a big step, but I think I’m capable of making it this year.”

Winnipeg's Dustin Byfuglien wants trifecta: Stanley Cup, All-Star berth, Olympic Gold Medal.

Winnipeg’s Dustin Byfuglien wants trifecta: Stanley Cup, All-Star berth, Olympic Gold Medal.

One of Jones’ competitors for a defense spot on Team USA is Dustin Byfuglien of the Winnipeg Jets. For him, making the U.S. team and winning a Gold Medal would be a trifecta. He’s already been named an NHL All-Star and won a Stanley Cup in the 2009-10 season with the Blackhawks.

Byfuglien – a massive man with a massive slap shot, nimble skating ability, and the skill to play either defense or left wing – beamed when asked about the possibility of playing for the U.S. hockey team.

“It would mean a lot to me and my family just to get the opportunity to go over there and be part of the Olympics,” Byfuglien, a Minnesota native. “This is a fun thing to be part of. Any time you can put on a U.S. jersey and represent your country it means a lot.

Burke called Byfuglien a potential game-changing force on the ice.

“He can play forward, he can play defense, he’s got a cannon for a shot,” Burke told me. “On the big ice, is he the answer? I don’t know that depends on how he plays and on the coaches. But the one thing he can do is change the game.”

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