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Ex-Caps Mike Marson and Bill Riley bask in Devante Smith-Pelly’s Stanley Cup heroics

12 Tuesday Jun 2018

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Mike Marson wasn’t able to make it to D.C. Tuesday to witness the Washington Capitals’ Stanley Cup victory parade with other Caps alumni members –  he was grounded by the ravages of rheumatoid arthritis.

But Marson was hooting and rooting from afar, basking in the glow of a championship won by the team that made him the National Hockey League’s second black player when it drafted him in its inaugural season in 1974.

“They had some tremendous play from (Alex) Ovechkin, Mr. Devante Smith-Pelly, (Braden) Holtby,” Marson told me. “So many guys played well.”

Former Washington Capitals forward Mike Marson is thrilled that his team finally won the Stanley Cup.

He had special praise for Smith-Pelly, a fellow black player from Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, who came up big in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 7 goals and 1 assist in 23 post-season games.

“He was heroic. He scored the most-important goals, I believe,” Marson said. “I take my hat off to Devo. A lot of hard work there, a little bit of rough water occasionally, I think, but good for him. He came out the superstar and was all that he could be.”

Smith-Pelly scored three goals in the final three goals in the final three games against the Vegas Golden Knights, none bigger than the smooth (real smooth, reeaall smooth) Game 5 third-period tally he slid past goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury that tied the game at 3.

Capitals center Lars Eller scored the game-winning goal that secured a 4-3 win and the Cup for the Capitals. But without Smith-Pelly’s acrobatic goal, there’s no go-ahead goal by Eller.

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Actor Denzel Washington may be The Equalizer in movie theaters this summer, but Smith-Pelly nailed the role on ice in Las Vegas last Thursday night, much to Marson’s delight.

Washington Capitals forward Mike Marson, circa 1974-75.

Marson was so thrilled by the right wing’s Game 5 goal that he threw a cushion at his television – an odd family tradition.

“When my dad, myself and my Uncle Romeo used to watch hockey, when something went one way or the other, we would throw out cushions at the TV and laugh, of course,” he said.

After the ceremonial cushion toss, Marson grabbed the phone and called Bill Riley, who became the NHL’s third black player when he joined Marson on the Capitals in 1974-75, to compare notes on what they just witnessed.

Mike Marson scored 16 goals in his rookie season with the Capitals in 1974-75. (Photo/Washington Capitals archives).

Riley, who played right wing, summed up Smith-Pelly’s Game equalizer to me in four emailed words: “Gives me goosebumps. Wicked.”

Marson and Riley take pride in Smith-Pelly’s Stanley Cup success because, like them, he has overcome.

Washington Capitals right wing Devante-Smith Pelly.

He’s overcome the racist ignorance of “fans” who taunted him with chants of “basketball” as he sat in the penalty box in Chicago in February during a game against the Blackhawks.

Marson endured racist taunts and death threats during his four seasons with the Capitals, a turbulent time chronicled in Canadian filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason’s seminal black hockey history documentary, “Soul on Ice: Past, Present and Future.”

Still, Marson managed to score 24 goals and 24 assists in 196 NHL regular season games from 1974-75 to his final three games with the Los Angeles Kings in 1979-80.

Riley still recalls when “fans” in Detroit dismissively referred to him and Marson as “round ball players.” The racist indignities on and off the ice didn’t deter Riley from scoring 31 goals and 30 assists in 139 games with Washington and the Winnipeg Jets from 1974-75 to 1979-80.

Bill Riley and Mike Marson were teammates on the Washington Capitals in the mid-1970s. Both are proud as parents about Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly’s Stanley Cup Final success (Photos/Washington Capitals archives).

Both retired Caps are overjoyed that Smith-Pelly kept on keeping on after being cast aside and doubted by the Anaheim Ducks, the team that drafted him in the second round of the 2010, the Montreal Canadiens, and New Jersey Devils.

A free agent, he signed with the Capitals before the start of the 2017-18 season for the league minimum $650,000. He dutifully played on the Capitals fourth line, a checking line that didn’t get big minutes during the regular season.

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“I was in touch with Devante,” Marson said. “Devo’s a Scarborough guy and this and that. He endured as a player, kept getting better every game, and was playing with confidence.”

Smith-Pelly made the most of his opportunities, notching 7 goals and 9 assists in 75 regular season games. Then came the Playoffs, The Goal, The Cup and The Parade.

“Devo was able to make it happen,” Marson said.

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Devante Smith-Pelly scores his biggest goal, helps power Capitals to Stanley Cup

08 Friday Jun 2018

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It’s like whenever the Washington Capitals needed a third goal, it had Devante Smith-Pelly’s name on it.

Washington Capitals right wing Devante Smith-Pelly.

For the third time in three Stanley Cup Final games, Smith-Pelly scored the Capitals’ third goal of the game Thursday night against the Vegas Golden Knights – and perhaps the biggest one of his career.

The big right wing’s third period tally tied the game at 3. Moments later, Capitals center Lars Eller scored the go-ahead goal, securing Washington’s 4-3 victory and the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship.

“It’s unbelievable, it’s amazing” Smith-Pelly told NBC Sports’ Jeremy Roenick. “I was just trying to do my job.The big guys are going to get their points. Us bottom six guys, we knew if we contributed, those guys were going to score. And if we chipped in, we were going to be successful.”

Smith-Pelly said the Capitals didn’t panic when Vegas held a 3-2 lead in the third period.

“We pushed through that all season long,” he said. “We’ve been doubted all year. We knew we were going to get some looks and we just needed to capitalize, and that’s what we did.”

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Hoisting the Cup and notching the game-tying goal capped a season of redemption for Smith-Pelly, a 2012 Anaheim Ducks second round draft pick who was viewed as an under-achiever after he tallied 5 goals in 12 playoff games for the Ducks in 2013-14.

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He was dealt by the Ducks to the Montreal Canadiens  then moved to the New Jersey Devils before he signed with the Capitals before the 2017-18 season.

Used primarily as a checking forward, Smith-Pelly notched 7 goals and 9 assists in 75 regular season games in Washington.

He recaptured the playoff magic from his Anaheim days, scoring 7 goals and 1 assist in 24 post-season games for the Capitals.

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Thursday’s win ended an eventful  Las Vegas trip for Smith-Pelly. The Scarborough, Ontario, Canada native, one of two black players on the Capitals, intimated that he wouldn’t go to the White House to celebrate the Cup win, if President Donald Trump invites the team.

“The things that he spews are straight-up racist and sexist,” Smith-Pelly told Michael Trakios of Postmedia News Wednesday. “Some of the things he’s said are pretty gross…It hasn’t come up here, but I think I already have made my mind up.”

Smith-Pelly will become the eighth black player to have his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup.

His name will join those of goaltenders Grant Fuhr (Edmonton Oilers – 1984, 1985, 1987, 1998, 1990), Eldon “Pokey” Riddick (Oilers – 1990) and Ray Emery (Chicago Blackhawks – 2013), forwards Dustin Byfuglien(Blackhawks -2013) and  Jamal Mayers (Blackhawks-2013), and defensemen Johnny Oduya (Blackhawks-2013, 2015) and Trevor Daley (Penguins – 2016, 2017).

Capitals rookie defenseman Madison Bowey could get his name on Stanley Cup.

Capitals rookie defenseman Madison Bowey didn’t play a minute in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but he could still get his name on the trophy.

NHL rules state that a player must have at least 41 games played with the team or appear in at least one Stanley Cup Final game to qualify for name inscription. Bowey  played in 51 regular season games for Washington in 2017-18.

Bowey, who was called up from the Hershey Bears, the Capitals’ American Hockey League farm team, didn’t score a goal last season, but he did tally 12 assists in those 51 games.

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Three is a magic number for Capitals’ Devante Smith-Pelly in Stanley Cup Final

05 Tuesday Jun 2018

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Washington Capitals forward Devante-Smith Pelly.

Three seems to be a magic number for Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly.

Smith-Pelly scored the third Capitals goal in the first period against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final Monday, a tally that gave home team Washington a 3-0 lead. The Capitals won the game 6-2.

Smith-Pelly’s performance Monday night wasn’t bad for a guy who got accidentally hit in the face with a puck by a teammate during the Capitals’ morning skate.

Saturday night, Smith-Pelly notched the Capitals third goal, a third-period tally that sealed Washington’s 3-1 win.

“I love playing in the playoffs. It’s fun,” Smith-Pelly told NBC Sports. “It just happens maybe I’m scoring goals at the right time. I don’t know. I love playing in the playoffs. That’s really the only way I can explain it.”

The goals Monday and Saturday further enhance Smith-Pelly’s reputation as a playoff performer. He now has 6 goals in 23 playoff games. He notched 7 goals in 75 regular season games in 2017-18.

As a member of the Anaheim Ducks, Smith-Pelly scored 5 goals during the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

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

30 Wednesday May 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Heroics by Reaves and Bellemare propel Golden Knights to Stanley Cup Final

20 Sunday May 2018

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Pierre Edouard-Bellemare, Ryan Reaves and Malcolm Subban are cashing in on the chips of fate that took them to Las Vegas.

The three black players are members of the Vegas Golden Knights, the first-year National Hockey League team that’s made an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final.

Forward Ryan Reaves thought he’d be helping the Penguins win the Stanley Cup. He got traded to Vegas instead.

Forwards Reaves and Bellemare played pivotal roles Sunday in the Golden Knights’ series-clinching 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets that put them to the Stanley Cup Final.

Reaves, a Winnipeg native and son of a former Canadian Football League star, scored the game-winning goal, a second-period tip in shot. The man who proclaimed himself the strongest player in the NHL showed soft hands on the goal.

The Golden Knights dispatched the Jets in five games and now await the winner of the Washington Capitals-Tampa Bay Lightning Eastern Conference Final.

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Bellemare, a native of Le Blanc-Mesnil, France, didn’t register a point Sunday. But he made his presence felt by centering a fourth line – that included Reaves – pressured and frustrated Winnipeg’s offensive players.

The playoff contributions by Reaves, Bellemare and regular season heroics by Subban are notable because they, like most of the players on the Golden Knights’ roster, are cast-offs – dispatched to the desert by other NHL teams.

Bellemare and Subban probably didn’t envision playing for hockey’s Holy Grail when the 2017-18 season began in October. Reaves thought he’d be competing for the Cup on a different team.

They each took a different path to Vegas.

Bellemare’s was more direct. He’s an original Golden Knight, chosen in last June’s expansion draft – a smorgasbord of  hand-me-down players served up by the NHL’s 30 other teams. He was plucked from the Philadelphia Flyers.

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He quickly established himself as a key part of Golden Knights, earning the assistant captain’s “A” for his jersey.  He tallied 6 goals and 10 assists in 72 regular season games in 2017-18.

Bellemare has no goals and 1 assist in 15 playoff contests. But the beauty of Bellemare is what he does defensively, making the opposition work for offensive opportunities. He also is a top-notch penalty killer.

Subban wasn’t even on the Golden Knights roster – or even in the NHL -when the 2017-18 season started.

Placed on waivers by the Boston Bruins, goalie Malcolm Subban found a home in Vegas.

The younger brother of Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban, was tending goal in the minor leagues for the Providence Bruins, the American Hockey League farm team of the Boston Bruins.

Boston, frustrated by Subban’s progress after selecting him in the first round of 2012 NHL draft, placed him on waivers in October 2017. The Golden Knights quickly claimed the athletic, acrobatic goaltender.

Subban played a pivotal role in Vegas’ improbable season, filling in for an injured Marc-Andre Fleury. He earned his first NHL victory against the Bruins, the team that dispatched him. In December, Subban had a 41-save, 4-3 win against Nashville and big brother P.K.

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He finished the regular season with 13-4-2 record in 22 games with a 2.68 goals-against average.

Reaves expected to be chasing the Stanley Cup – for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Reaves, one of the NHL’s most-feared tough guys, was acquired by the Eastern Conference Penguins from the Western Conference St. Louis Blues before the 2017-18 season began.

His mission was to add muscle and on-ice protection for high-scoring forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel. But the Pens shipped Reaves back west to Vegas in February for a 2018 fourth-round draft pick.

“Out West, every team seems to have a little bit of physicality to them. I like playing that game,” Reaves told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in February. “I like to play a little heavier.”

He relished the role of the heavy against his hometown Jets. Reaves proclaimed himself the strongest player in the NHL, a title usually associated with Dustin Byfuglien, Winnipeg’s physically-imposing, offensively-talented defenseman.

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Reaves appeared in 58 regular season games for the Penguins and 21 contests for the Golden Knights. He had 4 goals, 6 assists and 94 penalty minutes between the two teams. His game-winning goal Sunday was his first point in six  playoff games.

Should the Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup, Bellemare would be the latest black player to have his name engraved on trophy.

His name would join those of goaltenders Grant Fuhr (Edmonton Oilers – 1984, 1985, 1987, 1998, 1990), Eldon “Pokey” Riddick (Oilers – 1990) and Ray Emery (Chicago Blackhawks – 2013), forwards Dustin Byfuglien (Blackhawks -2013) and  Jamal Mayers (Blackhawks-2013), and defensemen Johnny Oduya (Blackhawks-2013, 2015) and Trevor Daley (Penguins – 2016, 2017).

Reaves and Subban are currently ineligible to have their names engraved.  NHL rules state that a player has to appear in at least 41 games with the team playing for the Cup or appear in at least one Stanley Cup Final contest.

Given his game-winning heroics Sunday, Reaves will likely be in the Vegas lineup in the Final against Washington or Tampa Bay.

Subban is a different matter. He didn’t play a minute in the playoffs. He’s not likely to see action in the Final unless Fleury – a leading contender for the Conn Smythe Trophy as the league’s most valuable post-season player – is injured or is replaced because of a poor performance.

If Subban doesn’t play in the Final, the Golden Knights could petition the league to have his name added to the Cup.

The Blackhawks successfully petitioned to have Mayers name engraved after he appeared in only 19 regular season games and no playoff contests during the team’s 2012-13 Cup-winning season.

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Ang, Suzuki and Yamamoto compete for spots on U.S. and Canadian WJC teams

10 Sunday Dec 2017

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Three players of Asian heritage are vying for spots on the U.S. and Canadian teams that will compete at the 2018 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship.

Forwards Jonathan Ang and Nick Suzuki were among 32 players Hockey Canada selected last week to participate in the selection camp to determine Canada’s 22-player roster for the eight-team WJC tournament to be played Dec, 26-Jan.5 in Buffalo, New York.

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Ang, a center for the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League, and Suzuki, a center for the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack, begin their quest for roster spots Monday at Hockey Canada’s four-day camp in St. Catharines, Ontario.

“It’s an honor to be given the opportunity to attend selection camp,” Ang said. “Growing up and watching the World Juniors every year, it’s an unbelievable feeling to be considered for this year’s National Junior Team and to be given a chance to represent our country.”

Peterborough Petes forward Jonathan Ang hopes he’ll don Team Canada’s jersey at the 2018 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Buffalo, New York Dec. 26-Jan. 5 (Photo/ Matthew Murnaghan/Hockey Canada Images).

Kailer Yamamoto, a right wing for the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League, was chosen for the United States’ preliminary WJC roster. He’ll be among 23 U.S. players who’ll attend USA Hockey’s training camp Dec. 15-19 at Nationwide Arena and OhioHealth Ice Haus in Columbus, Ohio.

If Yamamoto, makes the cut, he’ll attend an additional camp in Jamestown, New York, Dec. 20-23.

Suzuki, whose great-great grandparents immigrated to Canada from Japan in the early 1900s, was the 13th overall pick in the 2017 National Hockey League Draft, chosen by the expansion Vegas Golden Knights.

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He leads the Attack, a major junior team, in scoring with 17 goals and 27 assists in 26 games. He said he’s looking forward to Canada’s World Juniors camp.

“It’s been on my mind since the summer. I definitely want to make that team,”  he told the Owen Sound Sun Times. “I think I can PK (penalty kill), or be on the power play, or maybe even be a lower-line guy and just build energy for the top line…I think I could do any role for the team.”

Ang, 19, became the first player of Malaysian heritage to be drafted by an NHL team when the Florida Panthers, chose him in the fourth round of the 2016 draft. He signed a three-year entry level contract with the NHL team in November.

Ang is the Petes’ top scorer this season with 15 goals and 20 assists in 31 games.

Yamamoto, 19, was taken by the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the 2017 draft with the 22nd overall pick.

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He appeared in nine games for the Oilers this season, collecting 3 assists before being reassigned to Spokane. He has 1 goal and 9 assists in 12 games since returning to Washington State.

A Spokane native of Japanese and Hawaiian heritage, Yamamoto led the Chiefs in scoring in 2016-17 with 42 goals and 47 assists in 65 games.

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Jordan Subban traded as P.K. and Malcolm Subban face each other for the first time in the NHL

08 Friday Dec 2017

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Change has been good for two Subbans. Will it be good for a third?

Defenseman Jordan Subban goes from Canucks to Kings.

Defenseman Jordan Subban, who was a Vancouver Canucks, 2013 fourth-round draft pick, was traded to the Los Angeles Kings Friday for forward Nic Dowd.

Jordan, an undersized blue’liner at 5-foot-9, 185-pounds, had spent most of the last three seasons playing for the Utica Comets, the Canuck’s American Hockey League affiliate. He tallied 5 assists in 16 games for the Comets.

He was an offensive dynamo for Utica last season, finishing sixth on the team in scoring with 16 goals and 20 assists in 65 games. He was seventeenth in scoring among all AHL defensemen.

Overall, Subban has totaled 27 goals, 50 assists and 87 penalty minutes in 148 regular season games in the AHL.

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Jordan becomes the second Subban brother to relocate in the 2017-18 hockey season. Goaltender Malcolm Subban,  a Boston Bruins 2014 first-round draft pick, was snatched up by the Vegas Golden Knights after the Bruins placed him on waivers in October.

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Before the move, Malcolm was viewed by some as a player with unfulfilled potential. He appeared in 32 games for the Providence Bruins, Boston’s AHL farm team, and posted an 11-14-1 record with a 2.41 goals-against average and .917 save percentage.

Since his shift to the desert, Malcolm has become an integral part of the feel-good story that is the Golden Knights inaugural season.  He’s filled in admirably  since after starter Marc-Andre Fleury suffered an injury.

The acrobatic Subban has a 6-2 record in eight games with a 2.27 goals-against average – 10th-best among NHL goalies – and a .923 save percentage.

The NHL rookie netminder faced one his biggest tests Friday night – older brother P.K. Subban and his Nashville Predators. Malcolm made 41 saves and registered a shootout shut out against Nashville in a dramatic 4-3 Golden Knights win.

The contest at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena was the first time the brothers played against each other in an NHL regular season game. Proud papa Karl Subban, was in attendance.

The hockey world was stunned when P.K., a Norris Trophy-winning defenseman, was traded from the Montreal Canadiens to the Predators in June 2016 for Nashville defenseman Shea Weber.

Montreal’s brain trust felt Weber was a more-reliable blue-liner and a missing piece to their Stanley Cup Final puzzle than the flashier Subban.

Nashville went on to play the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Stanley Cup last season while the Canadiens lost to the New York Rangers in six games in the playoff’s Eastern Conference quarter final.

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P.K. is the Predators’ sixth-leading scorer with 4 goals and 14 assists in 28 games so far this season. He’s 15th in scoring among NHL defensemen. Weber is 22nd among the league’s blue-liners with 6 goals and 10 assists in 23 games.

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Bellemare says ‘au revoir’ to Flyers and ‘viva Las Vegas’ to Golden Knights

22 Thursday Jun 2017

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Can a Frenchman find a good cheesesteak in Las Vegas?

Former Philadelphia Flyers LW Pierre-Edouard Bellemare

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is about to find out. The Philadelphia Flyers left wing was chosen by the Vegas Golden Knights to fill out its inaugural roster for the 2017-18 season.

The Flyers left Bellemare, a fourth-line forward and penalty kill specialist who scored 4 goals and 4 assists in 82 games, exposed to the draft and the Golden Knights happily plucked him for their roster Wednesday night.

He’s tallied 17 goals and 17 assists in 237 National Hockey League regular season games and 1 assist in five Stanley Cup Playoffs contests.

Bellemare, the ninth NHL player born in France, had a memorable 2016-17 season that began with him playing a key role on Team Europe in September’s World Cup of Hockey and ended with him being a catalyst on the French national team at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship played in Paris and Cologne in May.

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The Flyers didn’t make the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season but the team rewarded Bellemare, 32, for his play by re-signing him to a two-year deal at $1.45 million per year and by making him an assistant captain, sharing the honor with high-scoring right wing Wayne Simmonds.

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Bellemare was the only player of color chosen by the Golden knights out of 17 minority players that were draft-available. They were among a host of forwards, defensemen and goaltenders exposed to the draft by the NHL’s 30 teams.