10 hours ago
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
DU Legend & Campus Lounge Owner Jim Wiste
(above) DU Alum Jim Wiste pictured with Joanie at the Snoopy Senior Hockey Tournament this summer is Santa Rosa, CaliforniaEditor's Note: As a lead-in to the upcoming 60th anniversary celebration of Denver Pioneers hockey, LetsGoDU begins four-part series comprised of stories coming out of last month’s Snoopy Tournament in Santa Rosa, CA in which the DU alumni team successfully defended their Marcie (60A) Division championship.
In this first installment, Jim Wiste (DU '69) shares his insights with Hockeys Future writer D.J. Powers on a variety of topics including playing for the legendary Murray Armstrong, current head coach George Gwozdecky, and how he came to own one of the DU hockey community’s favorite gathering spots, the Campus Lounge. The "Campus" located near DU, is annually ranked as one of the best Neighborhood Bars in Denver by Westword.
Exclusive to LetsGoDU
By DJ Powers
Q: Let’s start off with DU Hockey's upcoming 60th Reunion Celebration. Are you planning to be there and what are some of your thoughts about it?
JW: Oh yes! I think it’s going to be fantastic. It’s 60 years when hockey started in Denver. A guy by the name of Doug McKinnon is going to drop the first puck. He was DU’s first captain. I think there are two players from the original team that I think was in ’49. There were seven coaches and I think there are seven NCAAs (championships). I think it’s going to be great for the university and great for the players to come back. We had a 50-year reunion obviously ten years ago and now this is our 60th year. I don’t know if there’ll ever be another one just because all of the coaches may not be alive much longer that have coached (over the years).
Q: How did you come to play for the University of Denver?
JW: Well, in those days it was really surprising because Murray was the only person that recruited that also coached. He would look in the papers to see who was doing well and then he would maybe make an appointment to see your parents. He made one trip up to Saskatchewan and would come into my living room and sit down. Then he would say to my father “you know, if he were my son this is what I would suggest that he should do.” (Laughs) You know, he kind of hurt the university because his recruiting budget was probably only about 3,4, or 500 dollars and he drove everywhere. Back then it was a handshake. You didn’t sign a Letter of Intent. I didn’t know if I had scholarship until I came down and found out that I was in the dorms and that my books were free. So I thought ‘oh, maybe I have a scholarship.’ But now, it’s like everything else. Now, they make big thing out of a (player) signing with all of the legality of it and other teams trying to get somebody. But back then it wasn’t anything complicated. So it was just Murray saying that he wants a player on his team and he tells him. Other than that, it wasn’t anything fancy.
Q: What was it like playing for Murray?
JW: Well, Murray was kind of a legend in his own time because he had good teams and was the best motivator that I’ve ever seen. I played pro for ten years and I’d never seen a better motivator. Murray could motivate you. He was a salesman in his younger days and he could sell you. He would grab you by the hand as you walked out of the dressing room before a really important game and he would look into your eyes, be spitting into your face and say “good luck to you, son.” Then you would go out there and as we (players) used to say the piss is running down your leg during the national anthem, so you’d better be ready for the game. When Murray motivated you, he was good at motivating you. They only had one coach, so it was hard to teach a lot of players. We worked on fundamentals and did skating drills and different other things, which were really important, but not like it is now. They have film that they can break down everything and they can tell you if your little pinky is out of joint. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but you can back it up.
Murray was also respected. Out of respecting him, you worked hard for him. He was a man’s man. I think he was honest with his players and he worked you hard. Now I think the players have got it so soft. But I think the players today will tell you that they have a broader variety of things to do. They’ll do weight programs and running and so forth, whereas we were just mainly on the ice.
Q: What were some of the best things that Murray had taught you that you were able to take with you and apply to yourself as both a hockey player and as an individual?
JW: I think the integrity for being an honest person. He always used to have this saying that you could look yourself in the mirror in the morning when you’re shaving and you’ve given your best. That’s kind of one of the sayings that he had. There’s a book out that somebody wrote on Murray’s sayings because he always had these sayings. Like if you got hurt, he would always say ‘tape an aspirin to it. It’s a long way from your heart. You’re ok.’ And these were things that we all put into our repertoire and still say to each other. If you had a question, Murray would say ‘honest to God, Jim?’ George (Gwozdecky) has done a great job with the players too, but they’re two different eras. And people try to compare the two and you can’t. George has got to have guys out there looking for new players. He has to have help. Murray couldn’t have done this.
Q: What are some of the similarities do you personally see between Murray and George?
JW: I think George has great respect by his players. He has great character and doesn’t put up with anything if there’s a problem. The team comes first to him, and Murray was like that too. Actually they’re both kind of a lot alike in a way. George has made a name for himself, won some NCAAs (championships), and has been one of the top five coaches (in the NCAA) for about the last four or five years. It’s hard to come into the situation that he did after Murray Armstrong, who was here for 25 years. But George has made his own niche and I think winning those championships were important. So I think George and Murray are lot alike in their characters.
Q: Obviously not any player can play at DU. It takes a special type of player that could not only play at DU but also succeed there. Players who’ve come here such as Rhett Rakhshani and Tyler Ruegsegger, and even recent former players like Gabe Gauthier and Adam Berkhoel had not only the talent, but have (or had) the character that made them fit so well into the DU system. In terms of character, how are these players similar to those that played at DU when you were there?
JW: I’m fortunate to be able to skate with them. I met Rhett Rakshani and can see why he’s the captain. Mark Rycroft when he was here at DU was like him (Rakhshani) too. So they’re no different from the players that played for Murray. The same kind of guys that play for George played for Murray. Both are character people, as well as other guys like J.P. Testwuide. It’s a fraternity and in those guys, you can see that they pick it up. Just looking at their skills on the ice, you can tell that they’re way better than we were. But we never got a chance to meet them through the old-timers hockey. When you look at a player on the ice, they’ve got a helmet on and a mask. And you hardly recognize them until their senior year. And now we get to see them in the dressing room. George has a deal where he’d have alumni come in and talk to the team. You ask him what he wants you to talk and he would say whatever you want. And he’d even open the door up. And we’ve all done that. Alot of the players (that are alumni) have. So I think that’s pretty good on George’s part that he would take the chance on allowing us to talk about anything to the team that we wanted, whether it be what it’s like to be a freshman or anything about hockey or about life. I think the players always enjoyed it because a lot of the older guys would have things to say. And I give George credit because that’s like saying ‘come into my bedroom and you can say what you want.’ He wasn’t afraid to open the door. That shows me that he is self-sufficient with his own operation. When you can say that, you’re not hiding anything because I can walk into the dressing room and say I think this or that. Now George would say ‘say what you want to say. I don’t care what you talk about, just talk about something.’ I’ve had a lot of my other (Snoopy) teammates do it and we’ve all approached it from different angles. Some have approached it on a humorous angle and some have approached it on a serious angle. Well, I think that brings character into it. So I give George credit for that. He’d just look at you and say ‘do what you want to do.’ I’ve talked to them (the team) a couple of times and depending on how well the team is doing or what’s happening, it’s hard to tell them when they’re in first place what they’re doing wrong. Yet when they’re struggling, it’s not my job to tell them what to do right because I’m not their coach, but George has opened up those doors and just told me to say what I want to say.
Q: Let’s shift gears here for a bit and talk about the Campus Lounge. How did that all come about?
JW: Well, when I finished hockey, I had played about ten years, I wanted to do well in something and had no idea. I really hadn’t done anything in ten years, so with my degree I thought it was tough, but I wanted to be my own boss. I’ve always loved the food business, and actually the Whites owned it. John White played for DU and I knew his dad pretty well. One day he skated with us and asked if he ever wanted to sell his business. Each time we skated, I’d talked about it a little more. And the funny thing about it was that I didn’t know a thing about the restaurant business. Maybe it was a good thing because otherwise I probably wouldn’t have bought it. (Laughs) So that’s how I bought it and it’s been 33 years. It’s kind of nice because when I go and watch sports and talk sports, I’m fortunate to do something that I enjoy doing. Sure, there are a lot of tough things, but it’s been good to me. The DU people have been good to me. They’ve frequented my place. The faculty and other sports teams like the Boston Bruins or the Chicago Blackhawks would come in too. So that’s how I got into the business.
Q: I know that you had played professionally for a number of years. So what was it like making that huge jump from college to the pros?
JW: We were probably, and really and truly, the first college players to come out. There were players such as Keith Magnuson, Cliff Koroll, and myself, along with Tony Esposito with Chicago. College players never played in the NHL back then. Now it’s unbelievable. It was good and bad because players would take an extra run at you because you were a “college player” and maybe felt that you weren’t tough enough. They were jealous of you because you had a college education. So we were kind of the pioneers of that. I’m proud of that. Now you look down the roster and there’s I don’t know how many college kids that are in the NHL. It’s unbelievable. But we were really the first to come out. I think college players are more dedicated and I think they have a vision of what they want to do. I’m not downgrading the other guys, but that’s how much college hockey has come along too. Like when DU starts each year, they may have eight freshmen coming in and by the senior year they may have two or three because the rest have all turned pro already. So that shows the quality that they have and things like that. So we were kind of the pioneers on that end. I remember going to Chicago’s camp. We trained before we even went to camp and the other pros didn’t. We were in better shape and focused on what we were doing a little more. Now all of the pros do that. Maybe we helped them in a way that they didn’t know about because it’s an all-year job now. In the old days, you went to camp thinking that you could get into shape in about two or three weeks. Now these guys are practicing all the time.
Q: As an outsider, I have the opportunity to look at how you guys interact with one another both at the rink and away from it. And while all of you are friends and come from different mothers, you’re all brothers too.
JW: Well there’s an old saying that if you can’t be yourself around your friends, then they’re not your friends. If I can’t say what I want to say around my friends, then they’re not my friends. I might say the wrong things, but I can do it. Who else can I do it around? Who will forgive me or who will help me? So a lot of people look at us and say ‘you guys are kind of honest with each other.’ We’ll look at each other and say you’ve got this wrong in a joking way or you might say ‘you’re being an ass.’ (Laughs) So that’s the biggest compliment that you can pay your friends is to be yourself among them. And you know, it doesn’t come overnight. You have to gain that respect or have that respect to give. So I think we’ve done that and it’s carried on. At least I hope it has carried on. There have been a couple of hiccups along the way, but how can you have a program that doesn’t? When you’re on top, there’s nowhere to go but down a little bit. DU has been picked first this year and that’s the kiss of death in a way, but you know what? I’d rather be picked first than last. I think that shows the strength of our program too. We all go to the games and we all support them. The reunion is going to be great. I think it’s always tough too because we’re all at that part in our lives where we’re going to lose a few each year. So that’s tough.
Q: Would you say that “family” is a more generally accurate description of the team, especially in the way you guys support one another?
JW: Oh yeah, and we all are. We’re sitting there tonight, playing in the over-60 group, we all know that we can’t do the things that we used to do, but we’re just sitting there cheering each other on. If a guy gets hurt, we’re all concerned. We’re friends and we’re here because of that. There’s still that competitiveness. You can’t lose that because let’s face it you still want to win. If you can look into mirror and say that I gave it my best, then that’s all that matters. Even when I played pro, I remember one of the older pros that was our goalie say to me after we had been beaten 7-2, “I played the best that I could.” And I thought, he was right. He tried his best and did his best. If don’t play your best, then you’ve got a problem. Maybe you could say that I could’ve been in better shape or more prepared. But those go on in life and in business. So be prepared and be there. Hockey is no different than running a business. You’ve got to be organized and have leadership and do a lot of things, so those things carry on. I think they’re important. I’m fortunate enough to be here talking to you and say that I’m a Pioneer and I’m proud of it.
Q: In your personal opinion, how would define a Denver Pioneers hockey player?
JW: I would like to define him as dedicated, sincere, honest, hard working, and compatible with other people. Maybe we would like to have everything but we can’t. But I think a lot of those qualities are maybe 80 percent of what they are because if he isn’t then all the other guys would give him a hard time. Like maybe we would have a guy that’s a little bit of problem and we would all say ‘c’mon, you have to lighten up.’ (Laughs) We would govern ourselves. We’ve always done that. I think they still do that. So when you bump into a guy and if he’s a Pioneer, then he’s your friend. And if he needs help, you help him. If he needs some advice, then you give him some advice. And I think it’s sincere. So those are the things that you look upon as a Pioneer.
Q: What was the greatest memory that you took from your time at DU?
JW: I think winning an NCAA championship was a great memory. But I don’t like to say that everything is about winning because I know some guys that didn’t win. They always say that you’ve won an NCAA championship. That’s not really it. I think the friendships with guys like Cliff Koroll, Keith Magnuson and the guys that I met that I went to school with is a great memory. And it’s not just in hockey either. The people that I’ve met when my life changed and I couldn’t mention them all was the best thing that I’ve gotten out of it. So if you asked what the biggest thrill from hockey, I’d say winning the NCAA championship. They always say that what you can go back to is priceless, which are the friendships that we formed. And we’re all still good friends.
In this first installment, Jim Wiste (DU '69) shares his insights with Hockeys Future writer D.J. Powers on a variety of topics including playing for the legendary Murray Armstrong, current head coach George Gwozdecky, and how he came to own one of the DU hockey community’s favorite gathering spots, the Campus Lounge. The "Campus" located near DU, is annually ranked as one of the best Neighborhood Bars in Denver by Westword.
Exclusive to LetsGoDU
By DJ Powers
Q: Let’s start off with DU Hockey's upcoming 60th Reunion Celebration. Are you planning to be there and what are some of your thoughts about it?
JW: Oh yes! I think it’s going to be fantastic. It’s 60 years when hockey started in Denver. A guy by the name of Doug McKinnon is going to drop the first puck. He was DU’s first captain. I think there are two players from the original team that I think was in ’49. There were seven coaches and I think there are seven NCAAs (championships). I think it’s going to be great for the university and great for the players to come back. We had a 50-year reunion obviously ten years ago and now this is our 60th year. I don’t know if there’ll ever be another one just because all of the coaches may not be alive much longer that have coached (over the years).
Q: How did you come to play for the University of Denver?
JW: Well, in those days it was really surprising because Murray was the only person that recruited that also coached. He would look in the papers to see who was doing well and then he would maybe make an appointment to see your parents. He made one trip up to Saskatchewan and would come into my living room and sit down. Then he would say to my father “you know, if he were my son this is what I would suggest that he should do.” (Laughs) You know, he kind of hurt the university because his recruiting budget was probably only about 3,4, or 500 dollars and he drove everywhere. Back then it was a handshake. You didn’t sign a Letter of Intent. I didn’t know if I had scholarship until I came down and found out that I was in the dorms and that my books were free. So I thought ‘oh, maybe I have a scholarship.’ But now, it’s like everything else. Now, they make big thing out of a (player) signing with all of the legality of it and other teams trying to get somebody. But back then it wasn’t anything complicated. So it was just Murray saying that he wants a player on his team and he tells him. Other than that, it wasn’t anything fancy.
Q: What was it like playing for Murray?
JW: Well, Murray was kind of a legend in his own time because he had good teams and was the best motivator that I’ve ever seen. I played pro for ten years and I’d never seen a better motivator. Murray could motivate you. He was a salesman in his younger days and he could sell you. He would grab you by the hand as you walked out of the dressing room before a really important game and he would look into your eyes, be spitting into your face and say “good luck to you, son.” Then you would go out there and as we (players) used to say the piss is running down your leg during the national anthem, so you’d better be ready for the game. When Murray motivated you, he was good at motivating you. They only had one coach, so it was hard to teach a lot of players. We worked on fundamentals and did skating drills and different other things, which were really important, but not like it is now. They have film that they can break down everything and they can tell you if your little pinky is out of joint. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but you can back it up.
Murray was also respected. Out of respecting him, you worked hard for him. He was a man’s man. I think he was honest with his players and he worked you hard. Now I think the players have got it so soft. But I think the players today will tell you that they have a broader variety of things to do. They’ll do weight programs and running and so forth, whereas we were just mainly on the ice.
Q: What were some of the best things that Murray had taught you that you were able to take with you and apply to yourself as both a hockey player and as an individual?
JW: I think the integrity for being an honest person. He always used to have this saying that you could look yourself in the mirror in the morning when you’re shaving and you’ve given your best. That’s kind of one of the sayings that he had. There’s a book out that somebody wrote on Murray’s sayings because he always had these sayings. Like if you got hurt, he would always say ‘tape an aspirin to it. It’s a long way from your heart. You’re ok.’ And these were things that we all put into our repertoire and still say to each other. If you had a question, Murray would say ‘honest to God, Jim?’ George (Gwozdecky) has done a great job with the players too, but they’re two different eras. And people try to compare the two and you can’t. George has got to have guys out there looking for new players. He has to have help. Murray couldn’t have done this.
Q: What are some of the similarities do you personally see between Murray and George?
JW: I think George has great respect by his players. He has great character and doesn’t put up with anything if there’s a problem. The team comes first to him, and Murray was like that too. Actually they’re both kind of a lot alike in a way. George has made a name for himself, won some NCAAs (championships), and has been one of the top five coaches (in the NCAA) for about the last four or five years. It’s hard to come into the situation that he did after Murray Armstrong, who was here for 25 years. But George has made his own niche and I think winning those championships were important. So I think George and Murray are lot alike in their characters.
Q: Obviously not any player can play at DU. It takes a special type of player that could not only play at DU but also succeed there. Players who’ve come here such as Rhett Rakhshani and Tyler Ruegsegger, and even recent former players like Gabe Gauthier and Adam Berkhoel had not only the talent, but have (or had) the character that made them fit so well into the DU system. In terms of character, how are these players similar to those that played at DU when you were there?
JW: I’m fortunate to be able to skate with them. I met Rhett Rakshani and can see why he’s the captain. Mark Rycroft when he was here at DU was like him (Rakhshani) too. So they’re no different from the players that played for Murray. The same kind of guys that play for George played for Murray. Both are character people, as well as other guys like J.P. Testwuide. It’s a fraternity and in those guys, you can see that they pick it up. Just looking at their skills on the ice, you can tell that they’re way better than we were. But we never got a chance to meet them through the old-timers hockey. When you look at a player on the ice, they’ve got a helmet on and a mask. And you hardly recognize them until their senior year. And now we get to see them in the dressing room. George has a deal where he’d have alumni come in and talk to the team. You ask him what he wants you to talk and he would say whatever you want. And he’d even open the door up. And we’ve all done that. Alot of the players (that are alumni) have. So I think that’s pretty good on George’s part that he would take the chance on allowing us to talk about anything to the team that we wanted, whether it be what it’s like to be a freshman or anything about hockey or about life. I think the players always enjoyed it because a lot of the older guys would have things to say. And I give George credit because that’s like saying ‘come into my bedroom and you can say what you want.’ He wasn’t afraid to open the door. That shows me that he is self-sufficient with his own operation. When you can say that, you’re not hiding anything because I can walk into the dressing room and say I think this or that. Now George would say ‘say what you want to say. I don’t care what you talk about, just talk about something.’ I’ve had a lot of my other (Snoopy) teammates do it and we’ve all approached it from different angles. Some have approached it on a humorous angle and some have approached it on a serious angle. Well, I think that brings character into it. So I give George credit for that. He’d just look at you and say ‘do what you want to do.’ I’ve talked to them (the team) a couple of times and depending on how well the team is doing or what’s happening, it’s hard to tell them when they’re in first place what they’re doing wrong. Yet when they’re struggling, it’s not my job to tell them what to do right because I’m not their coach, but George has opened up those doors and just told me to say what I want to say.
Q: Let’s shift gears here for a bit and talk about the Campus Lounge. How did that all come about?
JW: Well, when I finished hockey, I had played about ten years, I wanted to do well in something and had no idea. I really hadn’t done anything in ten years, so with my degree I thought it was tough, but I wanted to be my own boss. I’ve always loved the food business, and actually the Whites owned it. John White played for DU and I knew his dad pretty well. One day he skated with us and asked if he ever wanted to sell his business. Each time we skated, I’d talked about it a little more. And the funny thing about it was that I didn’t know a thing about the restaurant business. Maybe it was a good thing because otherwise I probably wouldn’t have bought it. (Laughs) So that’s how I bought it and it’s been 33 years. It’s kind of nice because when I go and watch sports and talk sports, I’m fortunate to do something that I enjoy doing. Sure, there are a lot of tough things, but it’s been good to me. The DU people have been good to me. They’ve frequented my place. The faculty and other sports teams like the Boston Bruins or the Chicago Blackhawks would come in too. So that’s how I got into the business.
Q: I know that you had played professionally for a number of years. So what was it like making that huge jump from college to the pros?
JW: We were probably, and really and truly, the first college players to come out. There were players such as Keith Magnuson, Cliff Koroll, and myself, along with Tony Esposito with Chicago. College players never played in the NHL back then. Now it’s unbelievable. It was good and bad because players would take an extra run at you because you were a “college player” and maybe felt that you weren’t tough enough. They were jealous of you because you had a college education. So we were kind of the pioneers of that. I’m proud of that. Now you look down the roster and there’s I don’t know how many college kids that are in the NHL. It’s unbelievable. But we were really the first to come out. I think college players are more dedicated and I think they have a vision of what they want to do. I’m not downgrading the other guys, but that’s how much college hockey has come along too. Like when DU starts each year, they may have eight freshmen coming in and by the senior year they may have two or three because the rest have all turned pro already. So that shows the quality that they have and things like that. So we were kind of the pioneers on that end. I remember going to Chicago’s camp. We trained before we even went to camp and the other pros didn’t. We were in better shape and focused on what we were doing a little more. Now all of the pros do that. Maybe we helped them in a way that they didn’t know about because it’s an all-year job now. In the old days, you went to camp thinking that you could get into shape in about two or three weeks. Now these guys are practicing all the time.
Q: As an outsider, I have the opportunity to look at how you guys interact with one another both at the rink and away from it. And while all of you are friends and come from different mothers, you’re all brothers too.
JW: Well there’s an old saying that if you can’t be yourself around your friends, then they’re not your friends. If I can’t say what I want to say around my friends, then they’re not my friends. I might say the wrong things, but I can do it. Who else can I do it around? Who will forgive me or who will help me? So a lot of people look at us and say ‘you guys are kind of honest with each other.’ We’ll look at each other and say you’ve got this wrong in a joking way or you might say ‘you’re being an ass.’ (Laughs) So that’s the biggest compliment that you can pay your friends is to be yourself among them. And you know, it doesn’t come overnight. You have to gain that respect or have that respect to give. So I think we’ve done that and it’s carried on. At least I hope it has carried on. There have been a couple of hiccups along the way, but how can you have a program that doesn’t? When you’re on top, there’s nowhere to go but down a little bit. DU has been picked first this year and that’s the kiss of death in a way, but you know what? I’d rather be picked first than last. I think that shows the strength of our program too. We all go to the games and we all support them. The reunion is going to be great. I think it’s always tough too because we’re all at that part in our lives where we’re going to lose a few each year. So that’s tough.
Q: Would you say that “family” is a more generally accurate description of the team, especially in the way you guys support one another?
JW: Oh yeah, and we all are. We’re sitting there tonight, playing in the over-60 group, we all know that we can’t do the things that we used to do, but we’re just sitting there cheering each other on. If a guy gets hurt, we’re all concerned. We’re friends and we’re here because of that. There’s still that competitiveness. You can’t lose that because let’s face it you still want to win. If you can look into mirror and say that I gave it my best, then that’s all that matters. Even when I played pro, I remember one of the older pros that was our goalie say to me after we had been beaten 7-2, “I played the best that I could.” And I thought, he was right. He tried his best and did his best. If don’t play your best, then you’ve got a problem. Maybe you could say that I could’ve been in better shape or more prepared. But those go on in life and in business. So be prepared and be there. Hockey is no different than running a business. You’ve got to be organized and have leadership and do a lot of things, so those things carry on. I think they’re important. I’m fortunate enough to be here talking to you and say that I’m a Pioneer and I’m proud of it.
Q: In your personal opinion, how would define a Denver Pioneers hockey player?
JW: I would like to define him as dedicated, sincere, honest, hard working, and compatible with other people. Maybe we would like to have everything but we can’t. But I think a lot of those qualities are maybe 80 percent of what they are because if he isn’t then all the other guys would give him a hard time. Like maybe we would have a guy that’s a little bit of problem and we would all say ‘c’mon, you have to lighten up.’ (Laughs) We would govern ourselves. We’ve always done that. I think they still do that. So when you bump into a guy and if he’s a Pioneer, then he’s your friend. And if he needs help, you help him. If he needs some advice, then you give him some advice. And I think it’s sincere. So those are the things that you look upon as a Pioneer.
Q: What was the greatest memory that you took from your time at DU?
JW: I think winning an NCAA championship was a great memory. But I don’t like to say that everything is about winning because I know some guys that didn’t win. They always say that you’ve won an NCAA championship. That’s not really it. I think the friendships with guys like Cliff Koroll, Keith Magnuson and the guys that I met that I went to school with is a great memory. And it’s not just in hockey either. The people that I’ve met when my life changed and I couldn’t mention them all was the best thing that I’ve gotten out of it. So if you asked what the biggest thrill from hockey, I’d say winning the NCAA championship. They always say that what you can go back to is priceless, which are the friendships that we formed. And we’re all still good friends.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
DU Women's Golf Wins NCAA East Regional
(above) DU won the NCAA East Regional Championship on Saturday
From: GolfweekWhen Denver got word they were being shipped across the country to the NCAA East Regional, the players didn’t pout or worry that they weren’t getting any respect.
Instead, they held an Ultimate Frisbee draft.
“We’re a little unique,” coach Sammie Chergo said, smiling.
With a healthy mix of fun and focus, Denver won the program’s first NCAA regional title Saturday at the University of Florida’s Mark Bostick Golf Course. The sixth-seeded Pioneers posted a 1-under 279 – the only sub-par round of the tournament – to erase an eight-shot deficit and top Alabama, the second seed, by four shots.
Senior Dawn Shockley notched the round of the tournament – a 4-under 66 that included five birdies. Senior Katie Kempter shot 68, and sophomores Sarah Faller and Stephanie Sherlock chipped in with a 72 and 73, respectively.
Any thoughts that the Pioneers couldn’t hang with SEC and ACC powerhouses were squashed. After all, why stress about golf when the day is still young?
“No one on our team ever gets too jacked up about golf,” said Shockley, who was the Colorado high school basketball player of the year as a senior at Estes Park High. “You’ve got to have a balance because golf can be a lot.”
That’s why, instead of pounding range balls after their rounds, the Pioneers drove a half-mile down 2nd Ave. from the Mark Bostick Golf Course to UF’s football facility. There, they put on custom-made T-shirts, marked off the field and played Ultimate Frisbee. Even coach Sammie Chergo suited up.
“It’s very easy for us to leave our games at the course,” said senior Katie Kempter. “That’s a huge part of our team.”
When Chergo started the program from scratch in 1997, she recruited players who were well-rounded in a number of sports. If golf wasn’t pursuit No. 1, that was OK. Her current squad features former softball, soccer, basketball and hockey players. Kempter even admitted to being a “marching band geek” in high school.
It’s a no-nonsense formula that has clicked, especially in the last few years. Denver won five events in the 2006-07 season and received its first regional bid, then followed that season with five team titles and a sixth-place showing at the NCAA Championship last season.
This year, Denver won three times, including its sixth consecutive Sun Belt Conference title.
Now, they’re heading back to the Big Dance knowing they belong.
“To see what’s been building, it’s so rewarding for me,” Chergo said. “But for them, too, for how they’ve grown with this program.”
DU will play in the NCAA Championships held May 19-22 at the Caves Valley Golf Club hosted by Georgetown University.
Instead, they held an Ultimate Frisbee draft.
“We’re a little unique,” coach Sammie Chergo said, smiling.
With a healthy mix of fun and focus, Denver won the program’s first NCAA regional title Saturday at the University of Florida’s Mark Bostick Golf Course. The sixth-seeded Pioneers posted a 1-under 279 – the only sub-par round of the tournament – to erase an eight-shot deficit and top Alabama, the second seed, by four shots.
Senior Dawn Shockley notched the round of the tournament – a 4-under 66 that included five birdies. Senior Katie Kempter shot 68, and sophomores Sarah Faller and Stephanie Sherlock chipped in with a 72 and 73, respectively.
Any thoughts that the Pioneers couldn’t hang with SEC and ACC powerhouses were squashed. After all, why stress about golf when the day is still young?
“No one on our team ever gets too jacked up about golf,” said Shockley, who was the Colorado high school basketball player of the year as a senior at Estes Park High. “You’ve got to have a balance because golf can be a lot.”
That’s why, instead of pounding range balls after their rounds, the Pioneers drove a half-mile down 2nd Ave. from the Mark Bostick Golf Course to UF’s football facility. There, they put on custom-made T-shirts, marked off the field and played Ultimate Frisbee. Even coach Sammie Chergo suited up.
“It’s very easy for us to leave our games at the course,” said senior Katie Kempter. “That’s a huge part of our team.”
When Chergo started the program from scratch in 1997, she recruited players who were well-rounded in a number of sports. If golf wasn’t pursuit No. 1, that was OK. Her current squad features former softball, soccer, basketball and hockey players. Kempter even admitted to being a “marching band geek” in high school.
It’s a no-nonsense formula that has clicked, especially in the last few years. Denver won five events in the 2006-07 season and received its first regional bid, then followed that season with five team titles and a sixth-place showing at the NCAA Championship last season.
This year, Denver won three times, including its sixth consecutive Sun Belt Conference title.
Now, they’re heading back to the Big Dance knowing they belong.
“To see what’s been building, it’s so rewarding for me,” Chergo said. “But for them, too, for how they’ve grown with this program.”
DU will play in the NCAA Championships held May 19-22 at the Caves Valley Golf Club hosted by Georgetown University.
Friday, April 17, 2009
DU Alum Butler Playing Like NHL Veteran
(above) DU Alum Chris Butler was the biggest surprise for the Buffalo Sabres this seasonFrom: Buffalo News
John Vogl
It was clear to anyone watching that Chris Butler was staying in Buffalo. Andrew Peters saw it. So in a gesture of kindness and teammate kinship, Peters plucked the Sabres rookie from his lonely days in a hotel and invited Butler to live with him and his wife.
It didn't take long for Butler to go from house guest to family member. Butler is a smart, thoughtful guy whose etiquette floored his hosts. Whenever Erin Peters would get up from the kitchen table or prepare to leave a room, Butler would rise from his seat in a show of chivalry and respect.
The respect immediately flowed both ways.
"He's as mature as they get for a 22-year-old," Andrew Peters said. "He's a professional in every sense of the word. He treated my wife with the most respect, and that went a long way. That's what I mean by gentleman. He's a really, really good kid. He's like a young brother."
The housing arrangement worked, but it's unlikely to continue next season. Butler may as well start shopping for his own place because he's not going anywhere. The defenseman figures to be a Sabres regular for years.
In a season littered with disappointments, Butler was the Sabres' biggest success story. He was called up in December when injuries thinned the blue line. He played too well to go back to Portland. He finished with 47 games and was second on the Sabres with a plus-11 rating.
"Chris Butler probably surprised all of us with his play," coach Lindy Ruff said. "He put together basically a solid half-season for us. That is a bright spot."
The Sabres sent Butler to Portland this week so he can take part in the American Hockey League playoffs. It's a chance to get a feel for postseason intensity since he is a first-year pro.
But he certainly doesn't play or act like a first-year guy. Peters mentioned Butler's maturity, and it is evident on the ice and in the dressing room. His chats are full of insight, whether he's talking about the overall negativity of mainstream media or what it's like to be on the ice with Teppo Numminen and Craig Rivet.
"If you look at my defense partners from this year, Craig Rivet just played his 800th game, Teppo has played over 1,000 games and is a potential Hall of Famer," Butler said. "The amount of things that I learned from them, the little things from just being around them, made me that much of a better player."
The even better news for Sabres fans is Butler feels he's nowhere close to his potential. He had two goals and four assists, numbers he's planning to boost.
"As you adjust and as you grow more and more confident and comfortable at this level, I think I can start to evolve into the kind of player that I want to be," Butler said. "I'm not even close to where I think I can be at this level. I think I can be more of a two-way defenseman. I think I can do a better job of picking spots and getting up in the rush, do a better job of blocking shots. The goal this summer is to get a lot stronger so I can handle guys down low a lot better.
"I don't know if it's my mind-set that has to change, but I think some games I kept things too simple. I would kind of make a pass and let other guys do the work, whereas I feel I can get up in the rush, I can make plays."
The Sabres are eager to see it. Ruff was impressed by Butler's ability to shake off bad games — he had back-to-back minus showings just once — and sees the University of Denver product growing into a top-pair defenseman.
"His mental makeup is very good for the game, so that overall was a good year for him," Ruff said. "He had a game here or there that he didn't like, but he was able to bounce back and put some games together that were very good for us, too. He's got the mobility for it. He's got the head for it, and he's got good work ethic."
He's also got the drive. He wants to ingrain himself with the Blue and Gold, not just be a guest in someone's home.
"I want to be here for all 82 games next year and make more of a difference instead of just kind of being a role player per se," Butler said. "I kind of look at it as what can I do better and how can I make us a more successful team next year?"
It didn't take long for Butler to go from house guest to family member. Butler is a smart, thoughtful guy whose etiquette floored his hosts. Whenever Erin Peters would get up from the kitchen table or prepare to leave a room, Butler would rise from his seat in a show of chivalry and respect.
The respect immediately flowed both ways.
"He's as mature as they get for a 22-year-old," Andrew Peters said. "He's a professional in every sense of the word. He treated my wife with the most respect, and that went a long way. That's what I mean by gentleman. He's a really, really good kid. He's like a young brother."
The housing arrangement worked, but it's unlikely to continue next season. Butler may as well start shopping for his own place because he's not going anywhere. The defenseman figures to be a Sabres regular for years.
In a season littered with disappointments, Butler was the Sabres' biggest success story. He was called up in December when injuries thinned the blue line. He played too well to go back to Portland. He finished with 47 games and was second on the Sabres with a plus-11 rating.
"Chris Butler probably surprised all of us with his play," coach Lindy Ruff said. "He put together basically a solid half-season for us. That is a bright spot."
The Sabres sent Butler to Portland this week so he can take part in the American Hockey League playoffs. It's a chance to get a feel for postseason intensity since he is a first-year pro.
But he certainly doesn't play or act like a first-year guy. Peters mentioned Butler's maturity, and it is evident on the ice and in the dressing room. His chats are full of insight, whether he's talking about the overall negativity of mainstream media or what it's like to be on the ice with Teppo Numminen and Craig Rivet.
"If you look at my defense partners from this year, Craig Rivet just played his 800th game, Teppo has played over 1,000 games and is a potential Hall of Famer," Butler said. "The amount of things that I learned from them, the little things from just being around them, made me that much of a better player."
The even better news for Sabres fans is Butler feels he's nowhere close to his potential. He had two goals and four assists, numbers he's planning to boost.
"As you adjust and as you grow more and more confident and comfortable at this level, I think I can start to evolve into the kind of player that I want to be," Butler said. "I'm not even close to where I think I can be at this level. I think I can be more of a two-way defenseman. I think I can do a better job of picking spots and getting up in the rush, do a better job of blocking shots. The goal this summer is to get a lot stronger so I can handle guys down low a lot better.
"I don't know if it's my mind-set that has to change, but I think some games I kept things too simple. I would kind of make a pass and let other guys do the work, whereas I feel I can get up in the rush, I can make plays."
The Sabres are eager to see it. Ruff was impressed by Butler's ability to shake off bad games — he had back-to-back minus showings just once — and sees the University of Denver product growing into a top-pair defenseman.
"His mental makeup is very good for the game, so that overall was a good year for him," Ruff said. "He had a game here or there that he didn't like, but he was able to bounce back and put some games together that were very good for us, too. He's got the mobility for it. He's got the head for it, and he's got good work ethic."
He's also got the drive. He wants to ingrain himself with the Blue and Gold, not just be a guest in someone's home.
"I want to be here for all 82 games next year and make more of a difference instead of just kind of being a role player per se," Butler said. "I kind of look at it as what can I do better and how can I make us a more successful team next year?"
Sunday, March 15, 2009
DU Ski Team Wins 20th National Championship
(above) DU Sophomore Antje Maempel overtook CU's Alexa Turzian in the final 50 meters to win the 15K classical race on Saturday
(above) Denver's ski team celebrates DU's 20th NCAA National Championship in Maine on SaturdayFrom: Denver Post
RUMFORD, Maine — Antje Maempel won her second individual NCAA nordic skiing title in three days Saturday, propelling the University of Denver to its second straight NCAA skiing championship and 20th overall.
The Pioneers, who trailed Vermont by two points going into Saturday, got 74 points from its three men and 103 points from its three women to win the team title with 659 points.
It was the second straight year Denver has claimed the team title after not leading going into the final day, a feat that hadn't been accomplished in the 11 years prior to 2008.
Colorado sophomore Vegard Kjoelhamar won the men's 20-kilometer freestyle race to lift the Buffs from fifth place to second with 602.5 points. They finished half a point ahead of third-place New Mexico.
This was the 13th time in the 56-year history of the skiing championships that DU and CU have claimed the top two places.
The University of Alaska-Anchorage took second and third place in the men's 20K, moving from sixth place to fourth with 584 points, and Vermont finished fifth with 573.
"It was an improbable and unlikely win for the team this year," DU coach David Stewart said. "We had a solid team, but I don't think anybody looked at us in the beginning of the year and said, 'They're the team to beat.' A couple other teams are really strong. But the team came here and just performed extremely well, to be honest."
Maempel, a sophomore from Stuelzerbach, Germany, overtook CU's Alexa Turzian in the final 50 meters to win the 15K classical race, two days after claiming first in the 5K freestyle race. Maempel finished in 38:35.0, just half a second ahead of Turzian.
"I was lucky because I wasn't sick or anything all season, so I could continue to practice and race all year, and it kind of worked out for a great season," Maempel said. "We were motivated to win the team title."
Maempel is the first athlete to win both women's nordic races at the championships since CU's Jana Rehemaa in 2006. Rehemaa also pulled off the feat in the same format: a 5K classical race and a 15K freestyle race.
"She's obviously an outstanding skier, and she just peaked at the right time," Stewart said.
The Pioneers, who trailed Vermont by two points going into Saturday, got 74 points from its three men and 103 points from its three women to win the team title with 659 points.
It was the second straight year Denver has claimed the team title after not leading going into the final day, a feat that hadn't been accomplished in the 11 years prior to 2008.
Colorado sophomore Vegard Kjoelhamar won the men's 20-kilometer freestyle race to lift the Buffs from fifth place to second with 602.5 points. They finished half a point ahead of third-place New Mexico.
This was the 13th time in the 56-year history of the skiing championships that DU and CU have claimed the top two places.
The University of Alaska-Anchorage took second and third place in the men's 20K, moving from sixth place to fourth with 584 points, and Vermont finished fifth with 573.
"It was an improbable and unlikely win for the team this year," DU coach David Stewart said. "We had a solid team, but I don't think anybody looked at us in the beginning of the year and said, 'They're the team to beat.' A couple other teams are really strong. But the team came here and just performed extremely well, to be honest."
Maempel, a sophomore from Stuelzerbach, Germany, overtook CU's Alexa Turzian in the final 50 meters to win the 15K classical race, two days after claiming first in the 5K freestyle race. Maempel finished in 38:35.0, just half a second ahead of Turzian.
"I was lucky because I wasn't sick or anything all season, so I could continue to practice and race all year, and it kind of worked out for a great season," Maempel said. "We were motivated to win the team title."
Maempel is the first athlete to win both women's nordic races at the championships since CU's Jana Rehemaa in 2006. Rehemaa also pulled off the feat in the same format: a 5K classical race and a 15K freestyle race.
"She's obviously an outstanding skier, and she just peaked at the right time," Stewart said.
NCAA Team Championships (all sports)
1. USC 73
2. UCLA 71
3. Stanford 58
4. Oklahoma State 48
5. Arkansas 43
6. Michigan 30
7. Penn State 29
8. Denver 27
9. Yale 25
10. Cal 24
Monday, March 9, 2009
Post's Mark Kiszla Says DU-CC Defines Colorado
(above) It was bedlam in the DU Student Section on Saturday nightphoto credit: Lauryn Sprung
LetsGoDU Intro: This may be one of the best articles ever written about the DU-CC Series.
From: Denver Post
by Mark Kiszla
At a time when we all seem to be counting every penny, the best bang for the buck in Colorado sports is the sound of a DU hockey player crunching a CC Tiger against the boards.
It hurts so good. The agony of overtime is delicious. The hitting is relentless.
And, in the end, with voices in the stands screamed hoarse and college athletes with barely enough energy remaining to shake hands at center ice, Denver had tied Colorado College 1-1 on Saturday night.
"I wouldn't expect anything less," Pioneers senior J.P. Testwuide said. "The way this rivalry is, it seems to come down to the last minute, I think, every game we play them."
DU-CC hockey is why we live here.
No matter how long you have called this state home, you have not truly lived in Colorado until you have savored the sweetness of a fresh peach from the Western Slope, gazed at Parry Peak awash in alpenglow or felt bones rattle when the Pioneers collide with the Tigers in hockey.
It could be the middle of July, Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky said, and his blood would still run hot about beating Colorado College.
Broncomaniacs hate Duh Raiders. Buffs talk trash with Rams. But what's the richest, proudest, loudest sports rivalry in Colorado?
Without a doubt, it has to be Tigers-Pioneers hockey.
Magness Arena is where a thousand college students wearing white T-shirts with "Denver" written across the heart will peer over the shoulder of Colorado College goalie Richard Bachman and playfully chant: "DU reject!"
This is the series where brothers Mike and J.P. Testwuide of Vail take the ice and represent by wearing the clashing colors of DU and CC on their sweaters in a game where passion runs deeper than family ties.
If you watched closely enough, you could spy the brothers exchanging winks as they skated past each other on the ice.
"I don't think I'll forget a minute of playing against those guys for as long as I live," said J.P. Testwuide, who promises to still be arguing about every glorious detail at the Thanksgiving table when he's 78 years old. "It's a story I'll carry with me forever. My brother and I talk about it all the time. We know how special it is."
When DU plays CC in hockey, a tie is like kissing your brother.
While the stumbling, bumbling Avalanche cannot give away overpriced NHL tickets to home games, there were 6,128 spectators on the nervous edge of seats when a goal by Colorado College center Chad Rau with 97 seconds remaining in the third period forced the game into overtime.
In a part of the country where college basketball doesn't matter, DU has Tyler Ruegsegger from Lakewood, Luke Salazar from Thornton and John Ryder from Colorado Springs to make the Pioneers our true winter sports heroes from next door.
As we all cover ears to let Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler mope about how new Denver coach Josh McDaniels doesn't like him, there is no whining in college hockey, where egos are small and hearts are huge.
And just when you think it's impossible for anything new in a series with 271 games of history, Colorado College coach Scott Owens pulled his goalie with the score tied.
"It's not the way the game is supposed to be played," Owens graciously admitted. But this was truly desperate hockey, because unlike fifth-ranked Denver, the Tigers must scratch and claw for every point if they are to land a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Never seen a DU-CC hockey game?
Heck, then maybe you also have not yet enjoyed the simple pleasure of washing down a cheeseburger with a blueberry milkshake at the Dairy King in Empire, or experienced the adrenaline rush of standing atop your skis while staring into that gaping canyon of moguls of the Palli run at A-Basin.
Better start a bucket list, Bubba.
In a city where our neighbors all seem to have been born someplace else, nothing in local sports shouts Colorado like the beautiful groan of the crowd when a shot clangs off the post during the heat of a CC-DU game. It is why we live here.
From: Denver Post
by Mark Kiszla
At a time when we all seem to be counting every penny, the best bang for the buck in Colorado sports is the sound of a DU hockey player crunching a CC Tiger against the boards.
It hurts so good. The agony of overtime is delicious. The hitting is relentless.
And, in the end, with voices in the stands screamed hoarse and college athletes with barely enough energy remaining to shake hands at center ice, Denver had tied Colorado College 1-1 on Saturday night.
"I wouldn't expect anything less," Pioneers senior J.P. Testwuide said. "The way this rivalry is, it seems to come down to the last minute, I think, every game we play them."
DU-CC hockey is why we live here.
No matter how long you have called this state home, you have not truly lived in Colorado until you have savored the sweetness of a fresh peach from the Western Slope, gazed at Parry Peak awash in alpenglow or felt bones rattle when the Pioneers collide with the Tigers in hockey.
It could be the middle of July, Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky said, and his blood would still run hot about beating Colorado College.
Broncomaniacs hate Duh Raiders. Buffs talk trash with Rams. But what's the richest, proudest, loudest sports rivalry in Colorado?
Without a doubt, it has to be Tigers-Pioneers hockey.
Magness Arena is where a thousand college students wearing white T-shirts with "Denver" written across the heart will peer over the shoulder of Colorado College goalie Richard Bachman and playfully chant: "DU reject!"
This is the series where brothers Mike and J.P. Testwuide of Vail take the ice and represent by wearing the clashing colors of DU and CC on their sweaters in a game where passion runs deeper than family ties.
If you watched closely enough, you could spy the brothers exchanging winks as they skated past each other on the ice.
"I don't think I'll forget a minute of playing against those guys for as long as I live," said J.P. Testwuide, who promises to still be arguing about every glorious detail at the Thanksgiving table when he's 78 years old. "It's a story I'll carry with me forever. My brother and I talk about it all the time. We know how special it is."
When DU plays CC in hockey, a tie is like kissing your brother.
While the stumbling, bumbling Avalanche cannot give away overpriced NHL tickets to home games, there were 6,128 spectators on the nervous edge of seats when a goal by Colorado College center Chad Rau with 97 seconds remaining in the third period forced the game into overtime.
In a part of the country where college basketball doesn't matter, DU has Tyler Ruegsegger from Lakewood, Luke Salazar from Thornton and John Ryder from Colorado Springs to make the Pioneers our true winter sports heroes from next door.
As we all cover ears to let Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler mope about how new Denver coach Josh McDaniels doesn't like him, there is no whining in college hockey, where egos are small and hearts are huge.
And just when you think it's impossible for anything new in a series with 271 games of history, Colorado College coach Scott Owens pulled his goalie with the score tied.
"It's not the way the game is supposed to be played," Owens graciously admitted. But this was truly desperate hockey, because unlike fifth-ranked Denver, the Tigers must scratch and claw for every point if they are to land a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Never seen a DU-CC hockey game?
Heck, then maybe you also have not yet enjoyed the simple pleasure of washing down a cheeseburger with a blueberry milkshake at the Dairy King in Empire, or experienced the adrenaline rush of standing atop your skis while staring into that gaping canyon of moguls of the Palli run at A-Basin.
Better start a bucket list, Bubba.
In a city where our neighbors all seem to have been born someplace else, nothing in local sports shouts Colorado like the beautiful groan of the crowd when a shot clangs off the post during the heat of a CC-DU game. It is why we live here.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Shagman: The Mind, Body & Soul Of DU Hockey
(left) The self-described "best looking play-by-play voice in the WCHA," Jay StickneySources: The Clarion, Westword, Denver Post
DU hockey players and coaches know him as "The Voice of University of Denver Hockey." But Jay Stickney was once the "Shagman" of the cheesy Denver commercials for Rocky's Autos near Mile High Stadium.
What's a "shagman?" David Rothrock - who founded Rocky's at a corner gas station in 1982 and has built it into one of the region's largest used-car dealerships, including a $100,000 budget for TV and radio spots - has the answer. "It's a name used for people who drive cars back and forth, from coast to coast or locally."
What's a "shagman?" David Rothrock - who founded Rocky's at a corner gas station in 1982 and has built it into one of the region's largest used-car dealerships, including a $100,000 budget for TV and radio spots - has the answer. "It's a name used for people who drive cars back and forth, from coast to coast or locally."
"I guess as strange as the commercials were, it was still fun doing them, being with the crew," Stickney remembers. "The weirdest part was really just meeting the general public. When you're out at the Adam's County Fair -- we went wherever there was dirt -- there'd be people waiting an hour and half to get a hat signed. It was like being a really bad rock star."
These days you can catch him live twice a week at the Ritchie Center as the voice of the University of Denver's Pioneer hockey team on KLZ 560 AM. "It's great being part of a team that's so successful for the past nine years. I get to travel with the team, hanging out with 20 & 21 year-old guys," says the 38-year-old. "I'm more like a coach. I drink a lot of coffee and just follow the puck."
"When I am on the air, I just pretend that I know what I am talking about," said Stickney.
Ask any coach or player to comment on his experiences with Stickney and the response will start with a laugh, smile or shake of the head, every time.
He is referred to by everyone who knows him as the team comic.
"Sometimes my humor will get me in trouble with fans though," said Stickney.
"One time, four or five DU players were called for penalties at the end of a game and a couple guys had to sit on laps in the penalty box because the box only holds about three players at a time. So I made a joke about there being a lap dance going on in the penalty box," said Stickney.
He added, "I got a call from an unhappy listener the next day. That was several years ago and I have not had any upset calls since. Maybe no one is listening to me anymore."
"I was the ninth pick for the job as DU announcer. They said it was because I was just too good looking for radio. I was just excited to be picked," Stickney joked.
Stickney said, "I have worked in many places, but I love working for the DU hockey program."
"Being able to call the games at the Frozen Four in Boston in 2004 was one of the most phenomenal experiences of my life, even if I did lose my voice by the end of the championship game," he said.
Stickney graduated with a degree in journalism and mass communications from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1990.
He currently resides in Littleton with his wife and two kids.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Born a Bearded DU Fanatic in 1969, He's Finally Old Enough to Join the Freshman Class
.
(above) All the photos in this posting appeared in the original 1986 Clarion article
(Above) The Clarion two-page spread included a "Boone Tryout Application"
(above) All the photos in this posting appeared in the original 1986 Clarion articleLetsGoDU: In March of 1986 the DU hockey team advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four for the first time since 1973. Needless to say euphoria swept over DU, and the main beneficiary was Denver Boone.
From: Denver Clarion
October 2, 1986
From: Denver Clarion
October 2, 1986
He stands about five inches tall in his natural state - not very impressive for a legend.
He'll turn 18 years old in April, but he's lived through enough trials and tribulations for two lifetimes.
He was an orphan child, all but forgotten during his infancy in the early 1970's. He made a brief comeback as he entered his teens, but found himself on the verge of extinction in 1984.
He's been walked on, spit at, put aside, shunned and criticized as a wimp by his most loyal friends.
But through it all, Denver Boone endures - with a perpetual smile as wide as the DU Arena and an undying enthusiasm for his university.
There is little question that Boone, the Walt Disney-created successor to Pioneer Pete, has survived some turbulent times at DU.
He has often taken the unnecessary brunt of a university just now recovering from a deeply-rooted image problem. However, Boone has been able to put behind him any controversy to become the symbol of a revived University of Denver.
*****
Way back in 1910, DU's sports teams came to be known as the "Pioneers," and with the new nickname came the school's first mascot - Pioneer Pete.
Pete was little more than a cheerleader with a beard and a coonskin cap. His character portrayed a trapper, revived from Colorado's early pioneer days.
DU was trying to get into "big-time" football and Pioneer Pete was one of several additions to the sport's image. The same year the size of the marching band band was increased from 40 to 120.
Pete flourished with the success of the school and although every effort was made to let him work with all varsity sports, he became the symbol of the football program.
At the outset of the 1960's, DU's football program fizzled, and with it went the Pioneer Pete mascot.
*****
Hockey interest built at a break-neck speed at DU during the 1960's, and the school began its search for a mascot for the hockey program. Surprisingly, DU's new mascot was the brainchild of a basketball coach.
The coach was Stan Albeck, who coached DU during the late '60's and went on to become the head coach of the ABA Denver Rockets, and NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, New Jersey Nets and Chicago Bulls.
Albeck was inspired by Walt Disney characters and got in touch with a Disney artist through a DU contact.
Disney Studios drew up the designs for DU (the only group licensed to use the Boone character) and give it to the Theatre Department, which developed the first costume.
The next task was naming the new mascot.
The Special Events Committee held a contest in the fall of 1968 to find a nickname for the new Pioneer Pete.
Steve Kiley, then a junior mass communications major, won the contest with the "Denver Boone" title. According to a Clarion account of the story, Kiley thought of the name "while exercising his elbow and looking at the bottom end of a glass."
Doug Hirsh volunteered to help out the effort and soon became the first in a long line of Denver Boones.
*****
Since 1969, Boone has been the official mascot of the sports program and, specifically, the hockey team. Many of DU's sports uniforms during the 1970's and very early '80's depicted the Boone on the front.
However, Boone's very existence nearly came to a tragic end in during the 1983-84 school year as a somewhat insecure student body rejected the "wimpy" Boone and strove for a more masculine prototype.
Efforts to replace Boone, which included a contest sponsored by the Clarion, proved unsuccessful as very few alternative mascots were developed.
Then in 1985 and '86 as the hockey team rose back to power, insecurities turned back into pride. A poll among students showed that a vast majority were not ready to get rid of their lovable mascot after all. Boone has weathered the storm, once again.
It was now officially time to reintroduce Boone to the DU public and Lamda Chi president Pete Castro came to the forefront to become DU's latest skating mascot.
Castro had little skating experience but made up for it with an intense drive to see Boone survive and flourish.
After passing out flyers at hockey games explaining why DU should save Boone, Castro took it upon himself to haul the decrepit Boone head out of storage, give it a fresh paint job and continue a long standing Pioneer mascot tradition.
Castro is gone, having graduated with the class of 1986, but DU students will have a chance to take his place when Boone tryouts are held Monday, Oct. 6 and Tuesday, Oct. 7.
For one lucky student, it will be the chance of a lifetime - to be an identity for the university, a source of enthusiasm for the student body and a hero to hundreds of wide-eyed children.
For Denver Boone, it will be an opportunity to once again return to where he belongs - at center ice of the DU Arena, sharing a smile with 5,000 of his closest friends.
(Above) The Clarion two-page spread included a "Boone Tryout Application"Peter Mannino Writes Letter Supporting Boone
(above) Peter Mannino sent LetsGoDU a letter supporting the Boone mascot and what it means to him to be a DU PioneerTo all Pioneers,
Throughout my career as a student-athlete at the University of Denver, I had the opportunity to meet a lot of students, alumni and DU fans. I met people from a lot of backgrounds and almost everyone was a big DU sports fan.
After my freshman year and all of the national championship ceremonies with alumni and fans, I also learned how passionate that people are about our proud school history and the mascot Boone. In arenas around the country, you’d see or meet people wearing Boone stuff or holding signs cheering us on. Including many people that I hadn’t met before.
It inspired me to research the history of the University and learn more about Boone, Pioneer Pete and the history of DU mascots. I learned a great deal from the University and alumni.
I learned that the original art came from Walt Disney studios.
I learned that the image doesn’t represent Daniel Boone or, for that matter, have any connection to Daniel Boone. It was a cartoon figure Disney Studios created in 1968 and called “Pioneer” since that was the name of DU’s sports teams.
I saw how it brought so many generations of Pioneers together. Once I learned the great tradition, I proudly wore the cartoon on my game equipment and still wear it today in professional hockey. It’s a character that connects a lot of people together- including me and all of those same people who I had the chance to see cheer on DU around the country.
During my senior season, more and more students began connecting with our history and the story of Boone’s Disney past. I joined with other student-athletes and student leaders to work on a committee that surveyed students and explored bringing Boone back as our official mascot.
We worked hard to be fair, survey everyone and share the data. Our results were overwhelmingly supportive and my fellow seniors were excited for all of the returning student-athletes since it sounded pretty positive that we were going to be able to bring our proud mascot back.
Things have changed and I just heard that the university has said no to the students’ request to bring back Boone as a formal mascot. I also know that so many students and alumni identify with the cartoon the same way Duke fans identify with the Blue Devil or the Oregon fans identify with the Duck.
We’re Pioneers and Boone’s our guy.
It’d be too bad if this impacts our school spirit and student or alumni support. I hope the students can rally together to be heard. It would be great if my teammates could experience the same student passion that I did during my four years at DU. The electricity of the student section at hockey games was always one of my favorite things about game days.
I’m proud to have been a Pioneer and Boone will always remind me of a place and time in my life when I went on my own new journey and learned what it meant to be a true DU Pioneer.
Go Boone!
PM, Class of 2008
Peter Mannino
Throughout my career as a student-athlete at the University of Denver, I had the opportunity to meet a lot of students, alumni and DU fans. I met people from a lot of backgrounds and almost everyone was a big DU sports fan.
After my freshman year and all of the national championship ceremonies with alumni and fans, I also learned how passionate that people are about our proud school history and the mascot Boone. In arenas around the country, you’d see or meet people wearing Boone stuff or holding signs cheering us on. Including many people that I hadn’t met before.
It inspired me to research the history of the University and learn more about Boone, Pioneer Pete and the history of DU mascots. I learned a great deal from the University and alumni.
I learned that the original art came from Walt Disney studios.
I learned that the image doesn’t represent Daniel Boone or, for that matter, have any connection to Daniel Boone. It was a cartoon figure Disney Studios created in 1968 and called “Pioneer” since that was the name of DU’s sports teams.
I saw how it brought so many generations of Pioneers together. Once I learned the great tradition, I proudly wore the cartoon on my game equipment and still wear it today in professional hockey. It’s a character that connects a lot of people together- including me and all of those same people who I had the chance to see cheer on DU around the country.
During my senior season, more and more students began connecting with our history and the story of Boone’s Disney past. I joined with other student-athletes and student leaders to work on a committee that surveyed students and explored bringing Boone back as our official mascot.
We worked hard to be fair, survey everyone and share the data. Our results were overwhelmingly supportive and my fellow seniors were excited for all of the returning student-athletes since it sounded pretty positive that we were going to be able to bring our proud mascot back.
Things have changed and I just heard that the university has said no to the students’ request to bring back Boone as a formal mascot. I also know that so many students and alumni identify with the cartoon the same way Duke fans identify with the Blue Devil or the Oregon fans identify with the Duck.
We’re Pioneers and Boone’s our guy.
It’d be too bad if this impacts our school spirit and student or alumni support. I hope the students can rally together to be heard. It would be great if my teammates could experience the same student passion that I did during my four years at DU. The electricity of the student section at hockey games was always one of my favorite things about game days.
I’m proud to have been a Pioneer and Boone will always remind me of a place and time in my life when I went on my own new journey and learned what it meant to be a true DU Pioneer.
Go Boone!
PM, Class of 2008
Peter Mannino
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Puck Swami Describes Halloween In Boonetown
(above) Boonetown proved to be a dangerous place for Tigers on Halloween NightLetsGoDU: Longtime Denver hockey fan Puck Swami wrote this essay for LetsGoDU on the festivities and atmosphere in the DU student section Friday night. He also writes a blog entitled Puck Swami's Know Your Foe which is updated every Thursday.
It's building.
It started with the smell of grilled bratwurst, and the sound of hockey sticks battering Tiger piñatas just outside Magness Arena at the DU Grilling Society Pregame Party.
And inside, 30 minutes before Friday's game. there were 300 DU students standing in the south end. Usually there are 10 or 12 until almost the faceoff.
By game time, there were 500. And by the second period, there were 800 of them filling out the south end.
This was big.
The usual cell phones, Abercrombie shirts and nonchalance were nowhere to be seen. They had been replaced by Halloween Costumes. Posters. Full Body paint. Stuffed tigers hanging from nooses. Cleavage. Boone on Togas. You couldn't take your eyes off them.
Cowbells. Drums. Chants. Sweet Caroline. 1957. CC sucks. Cheering Chevy. Jeering Bachman. You couldn't hear yourself talk to your neighbor.
But more than anything, you could feel it. Something else was going on. This was more than just a rivalry game. This was different.
A crowd known for only cheering shots, goals and saves was now outright roaring on good shifts, forechecks and penalty kills.
The DU pep band was right in the center of it, students and alumni playing the DU fight song together at double speed, while students shouted the words and pumped their fist at every "Rah".
They were were together as one student body in a way I haven't seen DU students in 20 years.
And all across Magness Arena, the rest of the fans were grinning, cheering, and enjoying the collegiate spirit.
A night where they didn't just sit around and socialize, but a night where they shouted, sang and embraced the true college experience.
Most importantly, the team noticed. They hit harder. They worked harder. They outplayed the #1 team in the country and outshot them by 17.
Even coach Gwozdecky, who is usually wound as tight as the gears of a Swiss watch on gameday, commented that the student section and the pep band made a difference.
Because they did.
They cared.
They brought it.
And it mattered.
Magness is becoming a home ice advantage.
People are engaged.
Pumped up. Into it.
Let's keep it going.
It's building.
It started with the smell of grilled bratwurst, and the sound of hockey sticks battering Tiger piñatas just outside Magness Arena at the DU Grilling Society Pregame Party.
And inside, 30 minutes before Friday's game. there were 300 DU students standing in the south end. Usually there are 10 or 12 until almost the faceoff.
By game time, there were 500. And by the second period, there were 800 of them filling out the south end.
This was big.
The usual cell phones, Abercrombie shirts and nonchalance were nowhere to be seen. They had been replaced by Halloween Costumes. Posters. Full Body paint. Stuffed tigers hanging from nooses. Cleavage. Boone on Togas. You couldn't take your eyes off them.
Cowbells. Drums. Chants. Sweet Caroline. 1957. CC sucks. Cheering Chevy. Jeering Bachman. You couldn't hear yourself talk to your neighbor.
But more than anything, you could feel it. Something else was going on. This was more than just a rivalry game. This was different.
A crowd known for only cheering shots, goals and saves was now outright roaring on good shifts, forechecks and penalty kills.
The DU pep band was right in the center of it, students and alumni playing the DU fight song together at double speed, while students shouted the words and pumped their fist at every "Rah".
They were were together as one student body in a way I haven't seen DU students in 20 years.
And all across Magness Arena, the rest of the fans were grinning, cheering, and enjoying the collegiate spirit.
A night where they didn't just sit around and socialize, but a night where they shouted, sang and embraced the true college experience.
Most importantly, the team noticed. They hit harder. They worked harder. They outplayed the #1 team in the country and outshot them by 17.
Even coach Gwozdecky, who is usually wound as tight as the gears of a Swiss watch on gameday, commented that the student section and the pep band made a difference.
Because they did.
They cared.
They brought it.
And it mattered.
Magness is becoming a home ice advantage.
People are engaged.
Pumped up. Into it.
Let's keep it going.
NHL.com Looks At DU Alum Traded For A Bus
(above) DU Alum Tom Martin played in 92 games in the NHL in the '80sTom "Bussey" Martin recalls strange trade
From: NHL.com
By Evan Weiner - NHL.com Correspondent
DU Alum Tom Martin was one of those players who seemed to bounce between the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League on an annual basis throughout the 1980s. He was good enough to be in the NHL but his career stats were pretty much non-descript. He played in 92 games for Winnipeg, Minnesota and Hartford between 1984 and 1990, scored 12 goals and assisted on 11 others. Martin was also a tough guy who rang up 249 penalty minutes in his NHL days, but many others could make that claim as well. But Martin holds one distinction that no one in the NHL, and maybe the entire sports world, could claim about his playing days.
Martin, who was a fourth-round draft pick by the Winnipeg Jets in 1982, was traded for a bus -- a used bus. That puts Martin in the same category as one-time major-league pitcher Keith Comstock, who was traded for a box of used baseballs as a minor-leaguer, independent league baseball player John Odom, who in May 2008 was traded by the Calgary Vipers of the Golden Baseball League to the Laredo Broncos of the United League for 10 bats, and Fred Roberts, who was traded by the NBA's Utah Jazz to Boston in 1986 in exchange for two preseason games in which Boston would play Utah.
On January 19, 1983, the Western Hockey League's Seattle Breakers dealt Martin to Victoria for a used bus and future considerations. Martin never played for the Breakers and decided to give the University of Denver a try instead. The left wing had played for the Kelowna Buckaroos of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League in 1980-81 and 1981-82 and ended up on the Breakers' reserve list. Martin decided he wanted to play hockey and get a college education at the same time so it was unlikely he would ever perform for Seattle. Breakers management was looking for a deal to get something of value for an asset it would never use.
Seattle was also looking for a team bus, and Victoria had an extra one. The Cougars management bought the vehicle after the WHL's Spokane Flyers suspended operations after 26 games in the 1981-82 season, but the Cougars could not use the bus that was sitting in Spokane because team management did not want to pay the taxes and duties to register the vehicle in Canada.
Each side got something they needed for unusable parts. Martin, a Victoria native, would play in Victoria in 1983-84, and Seattle got new wheels. Seattle needed the bus after its bus blew its engine on a trip to Kelowna.
"I was at the library that night, it was in the middle of the week and the season was going pretty good there in Denver," Martin said. "But I wanted to go back and play junior the next year. The team that had my rights, Seattle, they could not offer me any education. So I asked to be traded.
"You know Kevin (Dineen) was there, he was with me, we didn't think that much of it at first," Martin said. "You know, I went to bed that night but the next morning, the phone started going crazy and it ended up being a bigger thing than I thought and I got a lot of media at the time, phone calls from all the papers around the county and a few TV things. It was a pretty funny thing, I guess."
Martin, with his tongue firmly implanted in his cheek, took some exception to the characterization that he was traded for a "used" bus. But the bus did have some mileage on it.
"Well, it was used, but it was a fairly recently used. It was a fairly new bus," said Martin.
"I know it had bunks on it and it was definitely a team oriented bus. In the Western Hockey League they travel a lot and they need a good bus. Maybe it had better wheels than I did."
Martin left the University of Denver and played for the Victoria Cougars in 1983-84, but never laid eyes on the bus even though Victoria did play Seattle that season. Martin really wanted to eyeball the vehicle, but there was a problem. Seattle didn't have the bus when the Breakers played the Cougars in Victoria.
"I know it had bunks on it and it was definitely a team oriented bus. In the Western Hockey League they travel a lot and they need a good bus. Maybe it had better wheels than I did." -- Tom Martin
"I never saw the bus," said Martin. "I saw a picture of it. I got a picture sent to me once, they painted it all up and put Seattle Breakers on the side. Hopefully, it was a real nice bus. I didn't even see the bus that year because they (the Breakers) lost it. They had a kid from Europe on their team and he didn't have a visa and they tried to cross the border and they ended up confiscating the bus for six months that season."
Martin turned pro with the American Hockey League's Sherbrooke Jets at the end of the 1983-84 season and started his pro career thinking he left his tale of being traded for a bus behind. But he found out, quickly, that everyone knew the story. Martin picked up a nickname that stayed with him throughout his professional hockey career.
Bussey.
"I guess that's my handle," Martin said with a laugh. "That sticks with me with every team I go to and I everywhere I've been, I have been Bussey."
Martin ended his career with the AHL's New Haven Nighthawks in 1991. Martin is the only player in Western Hockey League history ever to be traded for a bus and that overshadows his accomplishments as a player, which included being named a first team AHL All-Star in 1988.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Chancellor Coombe's Email To Students Regarding Denver Boone Mascot
The Chancellor told Universty of Denver students in an email today that, "The Denver Boone figure (above) is one that does not reflect the broad diversity of the DU community and is not an image that many of today's women, persons of color, international students and faculty, and others can easily relate to as defining the pioneering spirit"
Sent Monday, October 20, 2008 9:10 am
Dear Students,Last year a number of students and alumni began to advocate for bringing back Boone as the University's mascot. The Boone image was created for DU in 1968 in response to a perceived need to update the closely related Pioneer Pete figure used in the preceding decades. For similar reasons, Boone was replaced in 1998 by our current mascot Ruckus, the red-tailed hawk figure we adopted when we built the Ritchie Center and moved back to Division I athletics. The response to Ruckus among the University Community has been generally ambivalent, and in recent years there has been considerable underground activity in Boone images and memorabilia. This ultimately led to the students' efforts last year to resurrect Boone as our official mascot. I subsequently asked Vice Chancellor Peg Bradley Doppes to chair a committee that would consider this matter in a more direct manner and move it toward a resolution based on broad discussion. As the committee was formed, its charge was expanded to cover more generally the history and traditions of the University with the objective of developing greater awareness and pride among the University community.
The committee's initial efforts indicated a groundswell of support for Boone. Over time, though, the responses became more polarized, a growing number suggesting that the Boone image of the 1970s was simply not reflective of either the DU or America of today, still less of the future. From this perspective, the old Boone figure is one that does not reflect the broad diversity of the DU community and is not an image that many of today's women, persons of color, international students and faculty, and others can easily relate to as defining the pioneering spirit. Certainly, this runs counter to our commitment to build a diverse and inclusive campus community as a fundamental element of excellence. While there was some discussion among the committee members of the possibility of modernizing the Boone image, this generated little enthusiasm.
Opinion on campus concerning this matter is now quite polarized, and a resolution is needed. We need to move on. Consequently, I have decided that Boone will not become the official mascot of the University. While I certainly appreciate the genuine enthusiasm behind the "bring back Boone" movement, the University simply cannot adopt an official mascot that has a divisive rather than unifying influence on our community. The image will not be used in any official manner by the University, nor will we provide financial support for its use by others. That being said, Boone is a part of our history, one that is treasured by many alumni and friends as a symbol of the University they knew three and four decades ago, and we are certainly an institution that honors its past. Hence it seems reasonable that students and alumni be allowed to use the image as a celebration of that past, to the extent that they may choose.
This entire matter begs the question of what sort of image or figure should be the official "mascot" of the University, or indeed whether we need one at all. Our major symbol is the "arched Denver" logo that is now ubiquitous across the campus and in the media. One thing is certain--we will always be the Pioneers. I'd suggest that what we do need is a community-wide discussion of what it means to be a Pioneer, for today and the future, and I ask that the history and traditions committee and our student and alumni organizations take up this question with a view to building community and clarifying our identity.
Robert Coombe, Chancellor
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Writer Recalls DU's First National Championship
(above) Jim Brown & Murray Massier were two of the best players on DU's first National Championship team in 1958Exclusive To LetsGoDU
by Dick Hilker (Denver Post Hockey Writer 1956-60)
A half-century after the 1957-58 team captured the University of Denver’s first NCAA hockey championship, those warriors of old are to be exalted once more.
Deservedly, the entire squad will be inducted into the School’s Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 23 at a banquet in downtown Denver.
To this one-time sports writer who chronicled that club’s unlikely climb to the apex of college hockey, the most single memorable game, of course, came on a frigid Saturday night in Minneapolis when those determined lands in crimson sweaters stunned the Sioux of North Dakota 6-2 in the title game.
But a two-game NCAA tournament did not make a season. Several important things about that team and that season still remain in my mind.
One was the fact that no one—not even Coach Murray Armstrong (left)—had expected that band of Pioneers to achieve what it did. Certainly, everyone correctly figured that “The Chief” eventually would turn Denver into a national power. But, after all, 1957-58 was only the second season of what was considered to be a formidable building project.
One-third of the player roster in Year Two was still comprised of pre-Armstrong recruits. Freshmen were not eligible for varsity play in those days and a half-dozen future Pioneer stars—including four all-Americas-to-be, Bill Masterton, George Konik, Grant Munro and Marty Howe—were enrolled in school but skating only during practice.
Yet, amazingly, the men who achieved The Fabulous First somehow turned the “future” into “now.”
(left) Bruce Walker, Murray Massier and Walt Dingwall were just three of Armstrong's elite forwards
Second, as impossible as it seems today, those Pioneers accomplished their feat with only 17 players on the varsity roster—including a back-up goalie who never saw a second of playing time and a versatile “utility” player who didn’t get ice time in 13 of DU’s 46 games.
College rosters generally were smaller then than they are today. But Denver had so few able bodies that stamina was a key ingredient in the season.
Remarkably, DU played the entire season with a rotation of only three defensemen—all- America senior Ed Zemrau, senior Blair Livingstone and Wayne Klinck, who had played for Armstrong’s successful Junior club in Regina, Saskatchewan. When Zemrau had to sit out five games with an injury, Al Barnhill came off the bench to fill in.
It should also be noted that a shortage of manpower wasn’t limited to playing personnel. The coach had no backup either. Armstrong had no assistant coaches or support staff except for a student manager. In fact, he didn’t hire as assistant coach until his 11th season at DU. But, given his ability to coach and recruit talent, why enlarge the payroll?
(left) DU's first line in the 1957-58 season comprised of Con Collie, Barry Sharp & Jim Brown
The third significant thing about that magical season was a six-game stretch between Dec. 17 and 31, 1957. After splitting the first two league games with Colorado College, the Pioneers were faced with four tough contests on the road against powerhouse Michigan and Michigan State, followed by two home games against Michigan Tech.
Those were the only games against those three teams that year and under the rules of the seven-team Western Intercollegiate Hockey League, they would count double in the point standings—two points for the winner instead of one.
In six previous games at Michigan, the Pioneers had only managed one victory and a tie and were solid underdogs going into Ann Arbor in 1957. Yet they pulled out two dramatic one-goal victories that were an omen of things to come.
Before moving on to East Lansing to face the Spartans, the traveling party spent Sunday night in Detroit. And since Armstrong had once skated for the Red Wings, he prevailed upon his old coach, the legendary Jack Adams, for tickets to watch the Wings and Gordie Howe play Toronto. It was a nice bonus.
Against Michigan State, the Pioneers had it a bit easier, winning 5-1 and 4-2, but given the hostile environment, the visitors had to work for both victories.
When the team’s plane arrived at Stapleton Airport, the triumphant icers were greeted by a couple of dozen fans and school officials, including Don Smith, DU’s sports information director who had not made the trip. Smith told me he considered the four-game sweep the most important event in the school’s hockey history—then in its ninth season.
I would have ranked the wise hiring of Armstrong as numero uno, but certainly that march through Michigan was a close second. The wins energized fan interest in the program and pumped up the crowds at the old DU Arena the rest of the season.
Hockey on the Hilltop was hardly a financial success in those days.
Attendance averaged only 2,756 (half of the arena capacity) in 1955-56 and was only slightly higher in Armstrong’s first season. But when all the ticket stubs were counted in 1957-58, the average crowd was just shy of 4,000. The significance of that was not lost on those of us who were hoping college hockey could be a profitable venture in Denver.
That road sweep was a turning point.
A week later, after the Pioneers swept Tech, 3-0 and 6-2, they were assured of a winning league record based on points in the standings. The 12-point sweep gave them 13 points, and although they won once four more games in league play, it was good enough for a second-place finish and a berth in the four-team NCAA field.
Still, few figured they would capture the grand prize. After all, the league champion Sioux had won three of the four games with the Pioneers, including a 9-0 pasting in Grand Forks in February.
Little wonder that a large contingent of Nodak fans was traumatized in Williams Arena in Minneapolis as the Pioneers skated into history—and the University of Denver Sports Hall of Fame.
An upset? Not really. As one of the DU players explained to me afterward, “Never count out Murray Armstrong in a big game.”
How true.
by Dick Hilker (Denver Post Hockey Writer 1956-60)
A half-century after the 1957-58 team captured the University of Denver’s first NCAA hockey championship, those warriors of old are to be exalted once more.
Deservedly, the entire squad will be inducted into the School’s Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 23 at a banquet in downtown Denver.
To this one-time sports writer who chronicled that club’s unlikely climb to the apex of college hockey, the most single memorable game, of course, came on a frigid Saturday night in Minneapolis when those determined lands in crimson sweaters stunned the Sioux of North Dakota 6-2 in the title game.
But a two-game NCAA tournament did not make a season. Several important things about that team and that season still remain in my mind.
One was the fact that no one—not even Coach Murray Armstrong (left)—had expected that band of Pioneers to achieve what it did. Certainly, everyone correctly figured that “The Chief” eventually would turn Denver into a national power. But, after all, 1957-58 was only the second season of what was considered to be a formidable building project.One-third of the player roster in Year Two was still comprised of pre-Armstrong recruits. Freshmen were not eligible for varsity play in those days and a half-dozen future Pioneer stars—including four all-Americas-to-be, Bill Masterton, George Konik, Grant Munro and Marty Howe—were enrolled in school but skating only during practice.
Yet, amazingly, the men who achieved The Fabulous First somehow turned the “future” into “now.”
(left) Bruce Walker, Murray Massier and Walt Dingwall were just three of Armstrong's elite forwardsSecond, as impossible as it seems today, those Pioneers accomplished their feat with only 17 players on the varsity roster—including a back-up goalie who never saw a second of playing time and a versatile “utility” player who didn’t get ice time in 13 of DU’s 46 games.
College rosters generally were smaller then than they are today. But Denver had so few able bodies that stamina was a key ingredient in the season.
Remarkably, DU played the entire season with a rotation of only three defensemen—all- America senior Ed Zemrau, senior Blair Livingstone and Wayne Klinck, who had played for Armstrong’s successful Junior club in Regina, Saskatchewan. When Zemrau had to sit out five games with an injury, Al Barnhill came off the bench to fill in.
It should also be noted that a shortage of manpower wasn’t limited to playing personnel. The coach had no backup either. Armstrong had no assistant coaches or support staff except for a student manager. In fact, he didn’t hire as assistant coach until his 11th season at DU. But, given his ability to coach and recruit talent, why enlarge the payroll?
The third significant thing about that magical season was a six-game stretch between Dec. 17 and 31, 1957. After splitting the first two league games with Colorado College, the Pioneers were faced with four tough contests on the road against powerhouse Michigan and Michigan State, followed by two home games against Michigan Tech.
Those were the only games against those three teams that year and under the rules of the seven-team Western Intercollegiate Hockey League, they would count double in the point standings—two points for the winner instead of one.
In six previous games at Michigan, the Pioneers had only managed one victory and a tie and were solid underdogs going into Ann Arbor in 1957. Yet they pulled out two dramatic one-goal victories that were an omen of things to come.
Before moving on to East Lansing to face the Spartans, the traveling party spent Sunday night in Detroit. And since Armstrong had once skated for the Red Wings, he prevailed upon his old coach, the legendary Jack Adams, for tickets to watch the Wings and Gordie Howe play Toronto. It was a nice bonus.
Against Michigan State, the Pioneers had it a bit easier, winning 5-1 and 4-2, but given the hostile environment, the visitors had to work for both victories.
When the team’s plane arrived at Stapleton Airport, the triumphant icers were greeted by a couple of dozen fans and school officials, including Don Smith, DU’s sports information director who had not made the trip. Smith told me he considered the four-game sweep the most important event in the school’s hockey history—then in its ninth season.
I would have ranked the wise hiring of Armstrong as numero uno, but certainly that march through Michigan was a close second. The wins energized fan interest in the program and pumped up the crowds at the old DU Arena the rest of the season.
Hockey on the Hilltop was hardly a financial success in those days.
Attendance averaged only 2,756 (half of the arena capacity) in 1955-56 and was only slightly higher in Armstrong’s first season. But when all the ticket stubs were counted in 1957-58, the average crowd was just shy of 4,000. The significance of that was not lost on those of us who were hoping college hockey could be a profitable venture in Denver.
That road sweep was a turning point.
A week later, after the Pioneers swept Tech, 3-0 and 6-2, they were assured of a winning league record based on points in the standings. The 12-point sweep gave them 13 points, and although they won once four more games in league play, it was good enough for a second-place finish and a berth in the four-team NCAA field.
Still, few figured they would capture the grand prize. After all, the league champion Sioux had won three of the four games with the Pioneers, including a 9-0 pasting in Grand Forks in February.
Little wonder that a large contingent of Nodak fans was traumatized in Williams Arena in Minneapolis as the Pioneers skated into history—and the University of Denver Sports Hall of Fame.
An upset? Not really. As one of the DU players explained to me afterward, “Never count out Murray Armstrong in a big game.”
How true.
The members of the “Seventeen Blocks of Granite" (a nickname coined 50 years later)(left) Dennis Slinn and Al Barnhill
Al Barnhill (So) - Defense and forward. “Barney” filled in well when called upon. Had played only juvenile-level hockey in Alberta, a couple of steps below Junior A brand played by most of his teammates.
Jim Brown (Jr) wing - Could really put the biscuit in the basket. Calgary native scored 53 goals in two seasons. Made all-tournament team.
Alan Cook (G) - If memory serves, he was also the team’s manager, but would have gone into goal in an emergency.
Con Collie (So) wing - Nicknamed “Dogger.” Played for Armstrong with the Regina Pats. If he went into the corner to get a puck, he usually came out with it, although he didn’t weigh more than 150.
Gordon Cresswell (Jr) wing - Toronto native played in 24 games. Wasn’t flashy, but dependable.
Walt Dingwall (Jr) wing - Scored only 12 goals for title team, but one of them—plus an assist—came in championship game. A valuable fore-checker and back-checker.
John Godfrey (Jr) wing - Played in every game and the Vancouver native was another of the good-checking forwards.
Wayne Klinck (Jr) defense - Teammates called him “Klincker.” He personified what this team was all about: guts. Playing with only three defensemen, this team gave up only 3.1 goals per game.
Blair Livingstone (Sr) defense - Blair was a defenseman in a wingman’s body, but he missed only one game. Solid and dependable. His most notable statistic of the season: Only seven penalties for 14 minutes. That was big considering his two defensive mates combined for 130 minutes in the sin bin.
Murray MacDonald (So) wing - Another ex-Regina Pat, who toiled on the third line. His forte was his checking ability. Wound up lettering for three seasons.
John MacMillan (So) wing - Not sure if DU has ever had a faster skater than Johnny Mac. Scored 19 goals and was named to al-tourney second team. Played a half-dozen years in the pros after graduating.
Murray Massier (Jr) center - “Muzz” was another of Armstrong’s Regina Pat imports. A wonderful stick-handler and playmaker. Was named the MVP of the NCAA tourney.
Rodney Schneck (Jr) goalie - He wasn’t highly touted when he came to DU from Wetaskwin, Alberta. But he turned out to be a stalwart in the nets, playing in every game for three seasons. Played in 94 games and the Pioneers won 58 of them. Usually came up big in the big games.
Barry Sharp (Sr) center - Big and strong, Barry provided the muscle up front. Tied for third in scoring on the team with 43 points in 37 games. In November of 1959 Barry was tragically killed during a pick-up hockey game at DU Arena when struck in the head by an errant puck.
Dennis Slinn (So) wing - Played with the Regina Pats juvenile level team and improved greatly as the season wore on, earning a regular turn on the third line. Scored a goal in tourney finals.
Bruce Walker (S0) wing - “Rooster” scored 18 goals and worked well with Massier. Recruited by Armstrong from the Prince Albert Mintos, a junior club in Saskatchewan. Solid player for three seasons.
Ed Zemrau (Sr) defense - Had a legitimate all-America year during championship season. A tough, hard-hitting two-way player who dealt out a lot of punishment.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Why Did NHL Scouts Miss The Boat On Stastny
(above) 43 players were drafted ahead of DU Alum Paul Stastny in the 2005 NHL DraftIts not very often that we post comments from Message Boards, but the comment below was so interesting, I thought we'd pass it along.
From: How Does Stastny Slip To The 2nd round?
Site: Hockey's Future Message Board
Posted By: bleedgreen
"I watched him live quite a bit at the University of Denver and to be honest, he never looked like a stud prospect. He wasn't fast, he never went end to end, he rarely beat goalies with a shot further away than ten feet, he didn't dangle anyone.
Most players in the NCAA who go on to be at Stastny's level in the NHL, were far more dominant individual players in college. He got points for sure, but not very often through highlight reel individual efforts. I'm sure the scouts thought he was too slow and not dominant enough for his game to translate.
Why he did is because of one thing, smarts. He is the closest player I've ever seen to Ronnie Francis. He is always in the right place at the right time, and that translated, as well as his vision and awesome passing. He makes exactly the same plays he made in college, and they're the kind of plays that work at any level.
Scouts couldn't have known that, as I'm sure a lot of guys look like that at lower levels. Stastny is the rare case of a guy being smart enough to fit in with anyone at any level, the better the players around him the more it all works.
I'm curious to see his transition to #1 center continue as the players around him have helped out. As Sakic moves on and the team becomes more his, I wonder if at any point he can become more individually dominant if he is needed to. Hopefully the Avs keep enough skill around him to not worry about it.
After watching him live quite a bit, I didn't think he would ever be more than a third liner, despite him racking points and being a very good player at DU. He just didn't look he was dominant enough. Ironically guys like TJ Hensick [University of Michigan] are the ones who look like studs in college and don't reach the same levels. Hensick is a guy who relies on his skill and speed to get him there; it may not be enough. Whereas Stastny relied on brains and sound instincts.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Former DU Player Traded For A Bus
In the early 80's Denver had a player, Tom Martin, who left school after his Freshman year to play Major Junior hockey in Canada. While at DU he was traded to another team for a bus..
Martin was playing for the University of Denver during the 1982-83 season, the Seattle Breakers traded his WHL rights to Victoria with cash for a used team bus and future considerations. In fact, the deal was really just Martin straight-up in lieu of Seattle having to make a down payment on Victoria's spare bus. The unconventional deal was made in mid-January 1983.
"Our old bus blew its engine on a road trip to Kelowna," Seattle owner John Hamilton explained to a reporter from The Hockey News. "Victoria had a bus they couldn't use and we had a player we couldn't use. Bingo."
DU Library Digitallizing Classic Hockey Photos
(above) Legendary DU Coach Murray Armstrong won five National Championships
(above) A Russian player is helped to the locker room during DU's famous 2-2 tie game in 1960
(above) The DU ice hockey team poses for a group portrait around a Packard automobile at Reed Auto Sales on 5901 E. Colfax Ave in Denver, Colorado. All team members wear uniforms that read: "Tom Reed Auto Sales."
(above) Craig Patrick, Tom Miller, Keith Magnuson & Tim Gould celebrate DU's second straight National Championship in 1969The University of Denver's Penrose Library is is in the process of digitizing its old hockey photos in the Special Collections Department for use on the internet. Check out the link to see dozens more photos.
Needless to say this is going to be a "Boone" to DU and college hockey buffs.
Note – a lot of the attributions are vague and/or wrong, but many of the captions can probably be updated with the help of the DU Media Guide and other sources.
Needless to say this is going to be a "Boone" to DU and college hockey buffs.
Note – a lot of the attributions are vague and/or wrong, but many of the captions can probably be updated with the help of the DU Media Guide and other sources.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Johnny Mac Still Bringing Home Hardware For DU
(above) Johnny MacMillan and his wife, Jolene at last week's Snoopy's Senior World Hockey Tournament in Santa Rosa, CA. Johnny Mac won two National Championships at DU ('58 & '60) and two Stanley Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs ('62 & '63)
LetsGoDU: This may be the best article we've ever published in LetsGoDU. MacMillan recalls his years at DU, Denver's legendary coach Murray Armstrong, his days in the NHL, his thoughts on Coach Gwozdecky and one memorable day with the Stanley Cup in 2005. Thanks to D.J. & Johnny Mac for sharing this fantastic story with us.
The Incredible Journey Of A DU Hockey Legend
Exclusive to LetsGoDU
By DJ Powers
Staff Writer - NCAA
Hockey's Future (http://www.hockeysfuture.com)
Future Considerations (http://www.futureconsiderations.ca)
Some call him “Mr. Two Rings”, but most people around the DU hockey program know him simply as “Johnny Mac."
John MacMillan played for the University of Denver from 1957 to 1960, and was a member of DU’s 1958 and 1960 National Championship teams, the latter of which he served as team captain. In three seasons with DU he scored 65 goals and added 62 assists. During his Denver career DU went 74-19-6, won two National Championships and drew 270,000 paid admissions in the DU Ice Arena.
He went on to play professionally for ten years from 1960 to 1971 that included the better part of five years in the National Hockey League with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings. MacMillan was a member of the Maple Leafs’ Stanley Cup winning teams in 1962 and 1963. Most recently, he worked as a color commentator and rinkside reporter for the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads.
MacMillan holds the distinction of being the only former DU Pioneer to have won both a National Championship and a Stanley Cup.
And he’s done it twice.
He, along with the rest of the Pioneers 1958 National Championship team will be inducted into the University of Denver’s Sports Hall of Fame on the weekend of Oct. 24.
Today, MacMillan still plays for the Denver Pioneers – in the annual Snoopy’s Senior World Hockey Tournament in Santa Rosa, CA. [The Denver Pioneers won the 60A Division Championship]
“I think the first time that I came to this tournament was in 2000. I missed 2006 and 2007,” said MacMillan. “I had to go to a family reunion in 2006, and in 2007 I hurt my elbow, so I didn’t make it. So that makes it six of them that I’ve been to. Jack Smith got me started, so that’s pretty exciting.”
MacMillan recalls a reunion that took place at Copper Mountain in 2003 when teammate Don “Cammy” Cameron, the driving force behind the Pioneers tournament team, got up to make a speech with the tournament trophy.
“I hauled it over to Copper Mountain. I took it in and Cammy got up and put the trophy up there, and said ‘you guys all need to put your skates back on because this thing (Snoopy Tournament) goes on. Here’s the fun we had, and here’s our trophy for winning it.’ I think some of them might have kind of taken it to heart.”
The Pioneers won their division at this year’s tournament when they defeated their tournament nemesis the University of Michigan 3-2 on Sunday.
And yes, they got to take home another trophy too.
John MacMillan was born in 1935 in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Today, he and his wife, Jolene make their home in Boise, Idaho. He spent part of his childhood growing up in Grand Prairie, just north of Edmonton before moving back to southern Alberta, settling in small town called Milk River near the U.S. border. His mother was a teacher and his father was a grain elevator operator. He has a sister who is a golf enthusiast, and two brothers, who also played hockey though not professionally. His brother Keith’s two sons however did play professionally.
Many who follow college hockey know MacMillan’s nephew Tavis from his days at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks as both a player and a coach. Tavis MacMillan is now a scout with the Atlanta Thrashers organization. MacMillan’s other nephew, Bradley will be joining the defending Turner Cup Champion Fort Wayne Komets (IHL) this fall.
While MacMillan’s own sons, or “my boys” as he proudly refers to them, did not follow in their father’s footsteps into pro hockey, they do share his love of sports. His boys’ sport of choice is baseball.
“I have one boy that coaches baseball at the high school level in Tennessee. He loves it,” MacMillan glowingly said. “My other boy, Rob lives in California and went to school in Phoenix where you learn all of the fundamentals to be a scout. So he could go to San Diego, watch a high school team play and critique a boy, if he was asked to by a (MLB) club. Which has never happened. I’m sure he would be very excited if it did. And I think it would be a good thing for him.”
So just how did Johnny Mac come to play for the University of Denver? The tale behind it is probably one of the funniest and best recruiting stories you’ll ever hear or read about.
“Well, I was playing in Lethbridge and Murray Armstrong was the coach in Regina. I wanted to go to university and I wanted to play hockey. When I was playing in Lethbridge, we came to Denver and played an exhibition game against DU. Armstrong wasn’t there yet. Later, I heard that Armstrong had been hired as the new coach at DU. So I wrote him a letter in 1956. My dad was dying and he died that year. I was through with juniors and I was supposed to go to New York Rangers organization. The (Lethbridge Native Suns belonged Rangers). At that time, if you played for an NHL-sponsored team, and they thought enough of you, they’d invite you to a camp. I was supposed to go to the camp in Winnipeg with the Saskatoon Quakers of the old Western Canada Hockey League, but instead I wrote to Armstrong and said that I wanted to come to DU. Murray wrote back, in his glorified terms ‘Why John, you’re just the type of boy that we’d like to have at DU’. The whole malarkey that he had and still has I’m sure. (Laughs). I was accepted (into the school) and it was a great four years.”
As MacMillan explains Armstrong was a very unique coach and the experience of playing for him was unlike that of any other coach, pro or otherwise.
“He wanted the best from you and he didn’t put up with a lot of shenanigans on the ice. I don’t think that he had to reprimand or maybe he had to go to bat for someone of us at some point as far as our grades and what not."
Once I left DU and then went to play pro, Murray became a whole different individual. I think over time Murray changed. Some of the guys in the classes that came through after mine, because we were the first ones with Murray, would say ‘well he changed this and he changed that’, but I felt that he was always someone that you could talk to. You’d always go to talk to Murray and he’d say ‘Is that right? Honest to God, is that a fact?’ And you knew that Murray was no more listening to you than the man on the moon, but what he was trying to get across to you was that he was listening but he was also thinking about something else. So, you’d be in there with your little problem and he could probably handle it, but he would say ‘Honest to God, John is that a fact?’ At that point, you kind of knew that it was over. He understands your problem, so you didn’t talk anymore. You can listen to all of the guys here at the tournament and we’d all make fun of him. (Laughs) You’d be talking and someone would say ‘is that a fact?’ You’d know right away that Murray said that all the time.
In each pre-game speech, Murray would try to put a new word into your vocabulary. He’d have this speech and then out would come this word, and then you could see everybody look around and go ‘what was that?’ He used that word and he’d never used that word before. Then either after practice or the next day, we’d all be asking each other ‘do you know what that word was? Do you know what it means?’ We’d all try and figure out what that word meant. The word that stuck with me was “inveigle”. That was the one word from all of those years that I could remember. I know what it means now. I’ve heard used, but not a lot.”
MacMillan sees many similarities between Armstrong and current Pioneers head coach George Gwozdecky, not the least of which is a building a winner at the University of Denver.
“I think the two of them are really quality individuals. I would say that George is a little more intense than Murray was. I haven’t been around George that much. I’ve watched him on TV and have talked with him. But, the level of play when I was there and the level of play that George has to contend with now probably merits that. He has to be there with that. He's really a very commendable representative for the University of Denver. He carries himself very, very assuredly. He’s used to being a winner, he knows what it takes to be a winner and I think he carries himself that way."
"Murray represented that as well. He was so used to winning in Regina, and he had a system set up that continually replenished his talent pool. He had the pee-wees, midgets and juveniles programs feeding his team. He was successful at it too. Hell, I don’t know how often he went to the Memorial Cup playoffs or won Western Canada Junior Hockey, but he was a successful coach and a winner. And he exuded that.”
(left) MacMillan was the Captain of the 1960 National Championship team
One of MacMillan’s greatest memories from his years at the University of Denver was guiding the Pioneers to the 1960 National Championship by defeating the John MacInnes-coached Michigan Tech Huskies in Boston. MacMillan had scored two goals in the final minute that led the Pioneers’ 5-3 win, including the game-winner. A now-famous story that emerged from the victory has to do with MacMillan getting the game-winning puck. But as MacMillan explains, a National Championship title and the puck weren’t the only things that he took home from that memorable event.
“I had the game-winning goal and I had another goal in the last minute. One won the game and the other one was an empty netter. I think it was someone from Denver ended up with the puck somehow. I do still have that puck, although I can't remember who saved the puck. Bob Martin, who did the radio for Denver for years, got a letter from somebody saying that they had recorded the game over the radio. I still have a tape at home of the recording of the whole game that somebody gave me, so that was pretty awesome to get it. But again, it was a Denver fan that had recorded it and gave it to me.”
After leaving DU in 1960, MacMillan went on to play in both the NHL and the AHL. At the time, his rights were held by the New York Rangers. But a bit of luck and the prejudices against U.S. collegiate players at the time would play crucial roles in MacMillan ending up with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“Earlier in the season when I was at DU in 1959-60, we went up to play at Michigan Tech, and Bob Davidson, who was the head scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs, came down to watch a game. We were sitting around eating breakfast one morning and he came over and said ‘my name is Bob Davidson and I’d like to talk to you.’ So I went over and talked to him for a little while, and I didn’t think much about it.
When I decided to go to DU, the Rangers released me. They didn’t want any part of me anymore, so they dropped me from their "Protected List”. Any professional club who thought that was I worth a hoot could pick me up. The Leafs put me on their List after Davidson had talked to me. Thank God, Connie (Conn Smythe) had moved on by the time I was Protected by Toronto because he didn't think much of U.S. college players. Ol’ Connie would basically say ‘we don’t want any of those candy-ass collegiate kids in our league or on our club.’ Davidson came to the game when we played Tech because Louie Angotti, who played for Tech, had been with the Toronto Marlboros before he went to Michigan Tech. I think Louie was pretty highly regarded. He called Davidson and told him that he should have a look at me. Eventually I received a letter from Toronto inviting me to their camp and the rest is history.”
MacMillan spent roughly three and a half years with the Toronto Maple Leafs, winning two Stanley Cups with them. MacMillan’s teammates on those Maple Leaf teams read like a Hockey Hall of Fame Who’s Who. But it was playing for the legendary George “Punch” Imlach that he remembers most fondly about his time in Toronto.
“When I was in Toronto, Imlach had acquired Al (Arbour) from Chicago. And we were sort of like in a farm system. Back then a farm system would have maybe have a defenseman, a goaltender, and a forward that would go back and forth (from the big club). Imlach was good to me. I mean they’ve got all these Marlies that I was playing with in Rochester, but I was the kid that Punch chose to run back and forth. That was good for me. Al was the defenseman, and I was like the tenth forward. So when you’re doing that, you feel like you’re a part of the team, but you also don’t feel like you’re a part of the team. You get to do that a little bit and you work hard to stay there. A lot of the players with Toronto at that time had come up through the Marlies organization. And Punch just came in and worked his magic with all of the personalities. He had a real feel for being able to get more out of people than probably a lot of other people could. Some guys didn’t like him, and some people had bad things to say about him. He brings up Johnny Bower, who was something like 40 years old, and gets five, six great years out of him. You would hear the names (Frank) Mahovlich, Red Kelly, Tim Horton, Bobby Baun, Carl Brewer and all of those guys. Wow! You want to try to break into a tough lineup? Try and get into that lineup! So when I hear those names, I get all choked up from just having been around them.
Punch was always honest with me and he gave me every opportunity to try to get me to do what he wanted to me to do. I was playing pro for, oh maybe one or two years and I remember Bobby Kromm was coaching in Trail (BC), and Trail had won the Allen Cup and would be going to the World Hockey Championships. It was in ’61, ’62 somewhere in there. At the time, the Allen Cup in Canada used to be symbolic of the team that would go to the World Championships, and then later they changed all of that. So I called Kromm and I told him who I was and where I was. He said ‘I know who you are.’ So I said ‘Well, I’ve got my degree in Engineering and I’d love to go to Europe with you.’ I’ve always wanted to go to Europe, just to play and see it. So he said ‘if you can get your Amateur Card, then you’re here.’ So I went to camp, worked hard and never said a word to anybody. I was still with the Leafs and then it came time for me to go talk to Punch. It wasn’t a helluva lot of fun, but you had to go talk to Punch. (Laughs) So I talked to Punch and we got to talking, then I said ‘I want to tell you that I called Bobby Kromm and this is what I’d really like to do.’ Then Punch said ‘I won’t do that for you, simply because Eddie Shore will pick you up.’ And then he said ‘ If you don’t go play for him, you’ll never play hockey again because he won’t release you. He’ll just hang on to you and that would be the end of anything that you’d ever want to do.’ So I didn’t get my Amateur Card and I didn’t go to Europe.”
In today’s NHL, each member of the Stanley Cup winning team gets to spend a day with Lord Stanley’s Cup. For MacMillan, his day came one summer day in August of 2005. While his time with the Cup in Milk River is well documented, an equally entertaining, if not more hilarious story was that of his travels with it to the border town of Sweetgrass, Montana.
“One day, I think it was Friday or Saturday, we were all sitting around and Mike (Mike Bolt, one of the keepers of Lord Stanley’s Cup) said, ‘I’d really like to take the Cup to Montana because there’s no reason that it’ll ever go there, but it’s been in all these states and I’d like to think someday that it’s been in every state in the United States.’ So I said, ‘hell, it’s only 13 miles from Milk River to Sweetgrass. So let’s go.’ So he says ‘what we’ll do is throw in the back (of the truck), we’ll just go down there and we’ll take a picture.’ He wanted to go down there, hold the Cup under the “Welcome to Montana” sign and take a picture. Then he says ‘I don’t want to report that I have the Cup.’ And I said ‘if you go through there (the border) and coming back they decide that they want to search you and you can’t sell them on the fact that you don’t have what you shouldn’t have at the border, and they find that Cup, then you’re going to spend hours there explaining why you have the Stanley Cup. So we convinced him that he should stop and tell them that he has the Cup and what he’s going to do. So we go through towards the American side. He pulls up (at the border), rolls down his window, and the guy begins asking him all the questions. So then he sticks his head out the window and asks the guy ‘do you know what the Stanley Cup is?’ The guy looked at him like “what do you think, I’m stupid or something?’ And then Mike says ‘I’ve got it in the back’ Then the guy says ‘you’ve got the Stanley Cup in the back of that SUV?’ Mike says ‘yeah’. Then the guy says ‘pull over and bring it in.’
So we parked out in front and brought it in. By that time, the guy had already left the window, gone inside and everyone in the place knows that the Stanley Cup is coming through the front door. So we come in and then he says to us “c’mon, we’ve got a plan.” So we all got onto an elevator, went up to the second floor and there’s a balcony in the U.S. Customs area in Sweetgrass, Montana that you could stand with one leg in Canada and one leg in the U.S. So they sit the Cup so it splits the line there and then all these U.S. immigration people are up there taking their pictures with the Cup. And they’re no different than a class of ten-year-olds getting their pictures taken with the Stanley Cup. Plus, they get on the phone and you can see this balcony from the Canadian side. And they holler out at the guys over there and said ‘take a look out the window and see what we’ve got’. You could see the Stanley Cup up there (in the balcony). So all of a sudden, here come all of these Canadians running towards the border. I don’t know how long we spent there with everyone getting their pictures taken. Finally that was all done. Then we drove out of Sweetgrass and started up the hill and there’s the sign that says, “Welcome to Montana”. So we pulled over to the side of the road. We pop the lid of the box that the Cup is in and get it out. We walked through this knee-high grass, through the ditch and up on the edge. Then Mike says ‘take my picture first.’ So he’s holding the Cup under the sign and we take his picture. Then he says “Now John you take a hold of it and get under there and we’ll take your picture.’ So as we’re doing all of this, this big 18-wheeler goes by and his (the driver’s) head turns and he sees the Cup. Well then, here comes another big 18-wheeler, and he just pulls over to the side of the road and stops maybe four feet from us. Then the guy jumps out and asks ‘is that the Stanley Cup?’ then Mike says ‘yeah’. Right away this guys asks ‘can I hold it? Can I get my picture taken with it?’ Of course Mike’s very accommodating. So here’s this guy standing in front of his truck holding the Stanley Cup getting his picture taken. He was just beside himself with excitement that this has happened. So we had a great time with it. We really did. It was fun to have it there.”
With all of his success, John MacMillan remains humble and grounded. He is genuine with a gentle humor. And he is also one of the most personable individuals that you could ever meet. Now approaching his mid-70’s, MacMillan is still as passionate and enthusiastic about hockey as he probably was the first time he ever laced up a pair of skates. Whether it’s stories and recollections about his wonderful family or the game that he loves, he will always share them with a smile.
Johnny Mac often describes his life experiences as incredible.
Well, Johnny Mac himself is pretty incredible too.
John MacMillan played for the University of Denver from 1957 to 1960, and was a member of DU’s 1958 and 1960 National Championship teams, the latter of which he served as team captain. In three seasons with DU he scored 65 goals and added 62 assists. During his Denver career DU went 74-19-6, won two National Championships and drew 270,000 paid admissions in the DU Ice Arena.
He went on to play professionally for ten years from 1960 to 1971 that included the better part of five years in the National Hockey League with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings. MacMillan was a member of the Maple Leafs’ Stanley Cup winning teams in 1962 and 1963. Most recently, he worked as a color commentator and rinkside reporter for the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads.
MacMillan holds the distinction of being the only former DU Pioneer to have won both a National Championship and a Stanley Cup.
And he’s done it twice.
He, along with the rest of the Pioneers 1958 National Championship team will be inducted into the University of Denver’s Sports Hall of Fame on the weekend of Oct. 24.
Today, MacMillan still plays for the Denver Pioneers – in the annual Snoopy’s Senior World Hockey Tournament in Santa Rosa, CA. [The Denver Pioneers won the 60A Division Championship]
“I think the first time that I came to this tournament was in 2000. I missed 2006 and 2007,” said MacMillan. “I had to go to a family reunion in 2006, and in 2007 I hurt my elbow, so I didn’t make it. So that makes it six of them that I’ve been to. Jack Smith got me started, so that’s pretty exciting.”
MacMillan recalls a reunion that took place at Copper Mountain in 2003 when teammate Don “Cammy” Cameron, the driving force behind the Pioneers tournament team, got up to make a speech with the tournament trophy.
“I hauled it over to Copper Mountain. I took it in and Cammy got up and put the trophy up there, and said ‘you guys all need to put your skates back on because this thing (Snoopy Tournament) goes on. Here’s the fun we had, and here’s our trophy for winning it.’ I think some of them might have kind of taken it to heart.”
The Pioneers won their division at this year’s tournament when they defeated their tournament nemesis the University of Michigan 3-2 on Sunday.
And yes, they got to take home another trophy too.
John MacMillan was born in 1935 in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Today, he and his wife, Jolene make their home in Boise, Idaho. He spent part of his childhood growing up in Grand Prairie, just north of Edmonton before moving back to southern Alberta, settling in small town called Milk River near the U.S. border. His mother was a teacher and his father was a grain elevator operator. He has a sister who is a golf enthusiast, and two brothers, who also played hockey though not professionally. His brother Keith’s two sons however did play professionally.
Many who follow college hockey know MacMillan’s nephew Tavis from his days at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks as both a player and a coach. Tavis MacMillan is now a scout with the Atlanta Thrashers organization. MacMillan’s other nephew, Bradley will be joining the defending Turner Cup Champion Fort Wayne Komets (IHL) this fall.
While MacMillan’s own sons, or “my boys” as he proudly refers to them, did not follow in their father’s footsteps into pro hockey, they do share his love of sports. His boys’ sport of choice is baseball.
“I have one boy that coaches baseball at the high school level in Tennessee. He loves it,” MacMillan glowingly said. “My other boy, Rob lives in California and went to school in Phoenix where you learn all of the fundamentals to be a scout. So he could go to San Diego, watch a high school team play and critique a boy, if he was asked to by a (MLB) club. Which has never happened. I’m sure he would be very excited if it did. And I think it would be a good thing for him.”
So just how did Johnny Mac come to play for the University of Denver? The tale behind it is probably one of the funniest and best recruiting stories you’ll ever hear or read about.
“Well, I was playing in Lethbridge and Murray Armstrong was the coach in Regina. I wanted to go to university and I wanted to play hockey. When I was playing in Lethbridge, we came to Denver and played an exhibition game against DU. Armstrong wasn’t there yet. Later, I heard that Armstrong had been hired as the new coach at DU. So I wrote him a letter in 1956. My dad was dying and he died that year. I was through with juniors and I was supposed to go to New York Rangers organization. The (Lethbridge Native Suns belonged Rangers). At that time, if you played for an NHL-sponsored team, and they thought enough of you, they’d invite you to a camp. I was supposed to go to the camp in Winnipeg with the Saskatoon Quakers of the old Western Canada Hockey League, but instead I wrote to Armstrong and said that I wanted to come to DU. Murray wrote back, in his glorified terms ‘Why John, you’re just the type of boy that we’d like to have at DU’. The whole malarkey that he had and still has I’m sure. (Laughs). I was accepted (into the school) and it was a great four years.”
As MacMillan explains Armstrong was a very unique coach and the experience of playing for him was unlike that of any other coach, pro or otherwise.
“He wanted the best from you and he didn’t put up with a lot of shenanigans on the ice. I don’t think that he had to reprimand or maybe he had to go to bat for someone of us at some point as far as our grades and what not."
Once I left DU and then went to play pro, Murray became a whole different individual. I think over time Murray changed. Some of the guys in the classes that came through after mine, because we were the first ones with Murray, would say ‘well he changed this and he changed that’, but I felt that he was always someone that you could talk to. You’d always go to talk to Murray and he’d say ‘Is that right? Honest to God, is that a fact?’ And you knew that Murray was no more listening to you than the man on the moon, but what he was trying to get across to you was that he was listening but he was also thinking about something else. So, you’d be in there with your little problem and he could probably handle it, but he would say ‘Honest to God, John is that a fact?’ At that point, you kind of knew that it was over. He understands your problem, so you didn’t talk anymore. You can listen to all of the guys here at the tournament and we’d all make fun of him. (Laughs) You’d be talking and someone would say ‘is that a fact?’ You’d know right away that Murray said that all the time.
In each pre-game speech, Murray would try to put a new word into your vocabulary. He’d have this speech and then out would come this word, and then you could see everybody look around and go ‘what was that?’ He used that word and he’d never used that word before. Then either after practice or the next day, we’d all be asking each other ‘do you know what that word was? Do you know what it means?’ We’d all try and figure out what that word meant. The word that stuck with me was “inveigle”. That was the one word from all of those years that I could remember. I know what it means now. I’ve heard used, but not a lot.”
MacMillan sees many similarities between Armstrong and current Pioneers head coach George Gwozdecky, not the least of which is a building a winner at the University of Denver.
“I think the two of them are really quality individuals. I would say that George is a little more intense than Murray was. I haven’t been around George that much. I’ve watched him on TV and have talked with him. But, the level of play when I was there and the level of play that George has to contend with now probably merits that. He has to be there with that. He's really a very commendable representative for the University of Denver. He carries himself very, very assuredly. He’s used to being a winner, he knows what it takes to be a winner and I think he carries himself that way."
"Murray represented that as well. He was so used to winning in Regina, and he had a system set up that continually replenished his talent pool. He had the pee-wees, midgets and juveniles programs feeding his team. He was successful at it too. Hell, I don’t know how often he went to the Memorial Cup playoffs or won Western Canada Junior Hockey, but he was a successful coach and a winner. And he exuded that.”
(left) MacMillan was the Captain of the 1960 National Championship teamOne of MacMillan’s greatest memories from his years at the University of Denver was guiding the Pioneers to the 1960 National Championship by defeating the John MacInnes-coached Michigan Tech Huskies in Boston. MacMillan had scored two goals in the final minute that led the Pioneers’ 5-3 win, including the game-winner. A now-famous story that emerged from the victory has to do with MacMillan getting the game-winning puck. But as MacMillan explains, a National Championship title and the puck weren’t the only things that he took home from that memorable event.
“I had the game-winning goal and I had another goal in the last minute. One won the game and the other one was an empty netter. I think it was someone from Denver ended up with the puck somehow. I do still have that puck, although I can't remember who saved the puck. Bob Martin, who did the radio for Denver for years, got a letter from somebody saying that they had recorded the game over the radio. I still have a tape at home of the recording of the whole game that somebody gave me, so that was pretty awesome to get it. But again, it was a Denver fan that had recorded it and gave it to me.”
After leaving DU in 1960, MacMillan went on to play in both the NHL and the AHL. At the time, his rights were held by the New York Rangers. But a bit of luck and the prejudices against U.S. collegiate players at the time would play crucial roles in MacMillan ending up with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“Earlier in the season when I was at DU in 1959-60, we went up to play at Michigan Tech, and Bob Davidson, who was the head scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs, came down to watch a game. We were sitting around eating breakfast one morning and he came over and said ‘my name is Bob Davidson and I’d like to talk to you.’ So I went over and talked to him for a little while, and I didn’t think much about it.
When I decided to go to DU, the Rangers released me. They didn’t want any part of me anymore, so they dropped me from their "Protected List”. Any professional club who thought that was I worth a hoot could pick me up. The Leafs put me on their List after Davidson had talked to me. Thank God, Connie (Conn Smythe) had moved on by the time I was Protected by Toronto because he didn't think much of U.S. college players. Ol’ Connie would basically say ‘we don’t want any of those candy-ass collegiate kids in our league or on our club.’ Davidson came to the game when we played Tech because Louie Angotti, who played for Tech, had been with the Toronto Marlboros before he went to Michigan Tech. I think Louie was pretty highly regarded. He called Davidson and told him that he should have a look at me. Eventually I received a letter from Toronto inviting me to their camp and the rest is history.”
MacMillan spent roughly three and a half years with the Toronto Maple Leafs, winning two Stanley Cups with them. MacMillan’s teammates on those Maple Leaf teams read like a Hockey Hall of Fame Who’s Who. But it was playing for the legendary George “Punch” Imlach that he remembers most fondly about his time in Toronto.
“When I was in Toronto, Imlach had acquired Al (Arbour) from Chicago. And we were sort of like in a farm system. Back then a farm system would have maybe have a defenseman, a goaltender, and a forward that would go back and forth (from the big club). Imlach was good to me. I mean they’ve got all these Marlies that I was playing with in Rochester, but I was the kid that Punch chose to run back and forth. That was good for me. Al was the defenseman, and I was like the tenth forward. So when you’re doing that, you feel like you’re a part of the team, but you also don’t feel like you’re a part of the team. You get to do that a little bit and you work hard to stay there. A lot of the players with Toronto at that time had come up through the Marlies organization. And Punch just came in and worked his magic with all of the personalities. He had a real feel for being able to get more out of people than probably a lot of other people could. Some guys didn’t like him, and some people had bad things to say about him. He brings up Johnny Bower, who was something like 40 years old, and gets five, six great years out of him. You would hear the names (Frank) Mahovlich, Red Kelly, Tim Horton, Bobby Baun, Carl Brewer and all of those guys. Wow! You want to try to break into a tough lineup? Try and get into that lineup! So when I hear those names, I get all choked up from just having been around them.
Punch was always honest with me and he gave me every opportunity to try to get me to do what he wanted to me to do. I was playing pro for, oh maybe one or two years and I remember Bobby Kromm was coaching in Trail (BC), and Trail had won the Allen Cup and would be going to the World Hockey Championships. It was in ’61, ’62 somewhere in there. At the time, the Allen Cup in Canada used to be symbolic of the team that would go to the World Championships, and then later they changed all of that. So I called Kromm and I told him who I was and where I was. He said ‘I know who you are.’ So I said ‘Well, I’ve got my degree in Engineering and I’d love to go to Europe with you.’ I’ve always wanted to go to Europe, just to play and see it. So he said ‘if you can get your Amateur Card, then you’re here.’ So I went to camp, worked hard and never said a word to anybody. I was still with the Leafs and then it came time for me to go talk to Punch. It wasn’t a helluva lot of fun, but you had to go talk to Punch. (Laughs) So I talked to Punch and we got to talking, then I said ‘I want to tell you that I called Bobby Kromm and this is what I’d really like to do.’ Then Punch said ‘I won’t do that for you, simply because Eddie Shore will pick you up.’ And then he said ‘ If you don’t go play for him, you’ll never play hockey again because he won’t release you. He’ll just hang on to you and that would be the end of anything that you’d ever want to do.’ So I didn’t get my Amateur Card and I didn’t go to Europe.”
In today’s NHL, each member of the Stanley Cup winning team gets to spend a day with Lord Stanley’s Cup. For MacMillan, his day came one summer day in August of 2005. While his time with the Cup in Milk River is well documented, an equally entertaining, if not more hilarious story was that of his travels with it to the border town of Sweetgrass, Montana.
“One day, I think it was Friday or Saturday, we were all sitting around and Mike (Mike Bolt, one of the keepers of Lord Stanley’s Cup) said, ‘I’d really like to take the Cup to Montana because there’s no reason that it’ll ever go there, but it’s been in all these states and I’d like to think someday that it’s been in every state in the United States.’ So I said, ‘hell, it’s only 13 miles from Milk River to Sweetgrass. So let’s go.’ So he says ‘what we’ll do is throw in the back (of the truck), we’ll just go down there and we’ll take a picture.’ He wanted to go down there, hold the Cup under the “Welcome to Montana” sign and take a picture. Then he says ‘I don’t want to report that I have the Cup.’ And I said ‘if you go through there (the border) and coming back they decide that they want to search you and you can’t sell them on the fact that you don’t have what you shouldn’t have at the border, and they find that Cup, then you’re going to spend hours there explaining why you have the Stanley Cup. So we convinced him that he should stop and tell them that he has the Cup and what he’s going to do. So we go through towards the American side. He pulls up (at the border), rolls down his window, and the guy begins asking him all the questions. So then he sticks his head out the window and asks the guy ‘do you know what the Stanley Cup is?’ The guy looked at him like “what do you think, I’m stupid or something?’ And then Mike says ‘I’ve got it in the back’ Then the guy says ‘you’ve got the Stanley Cup in the back of that SUV?’ Mike says ‘yeah’. Then the guy says ‘pull over and bring it in.’
So we parked out in front and brought it in. By that time, the guy had already left the window, gone inside and everyone in the place knows that the Stanley Cup is coming through the front door. So we come in and then he says to us “c’mon, we’ve got a plan.” So we all got onto an elevator, went up to the second floor and there’s a balcony in the U.S. Customs area in Sweetgrass, Montana that you could stand with one leg in Canada and one leg in the U.S. So they sit the Cup so it splits the line there and then all these U.S. immigration people are up there taking their pictures with the Cup. And they’re no different than a class of ten-year-olds getting their pictures taken with the Stanley Cup. Plus, they get on the phone and you can see this balcony from the Canadian side. And they holler out at the guys over there and said ‘take a look out the window and see what we’ve got’. You could see the Stanley Cup up there (in the balcony). So all of a sudden, here come all of these Canadians running towards the border. I don’t know how long we spent there with everyone getting their pictures taken. Finally that was all done. Then we drove out of Sweetgrass and started up the hill and there’s the sign that says, “Welcome to Montana”. So we pulled over to the side of the road. We pop the lid of the box that the Cup is in and get it out. We walked through this knee-high grass, through the ditch and up on the edge. Then Mike says ‘take my picture first.’ So he’s holding the Cup under the sign and we take his picture. Then he says “Now John you take a hold of it and get under there and we’ll take your picture.’ So as we’re doing all of this, this big 18-wheeler goes by and his (the driver’s) head turns and he sees the Cup. Well then, here comes another big 18-wheeler, and he just pulls over to the side of the road and stops maybe four feet from us. Then the guy jumps out and asks ‘is that the Stanley Cup?’ then Mike says ‘yeah’. Right away this guys asks ‘can I hold it? Can I get my picture taken with it?’ Of course Mike’s very accommodating. So here’s this guy standing in front of his truck holding the Stanley Cup getting his picture taken. He was just beside himself with excitement that this has happened. So we had a great time with it. We really did. It was fun to have it there.”
With all of his success, John MacMillan remains humble and grounded. He is genuine with a gentle humor. And he is also one of the most personable individuals that you could ever meet. Now approaching his mid-70’s, MacMillan is still as passionate and enthusiastic about hockey as he probably was the first time he ever laced up a pair of skates. Whether it’s stories and recollections about his wonderful family or the game that he loves, he will always share them with a smile.
Johnny Mac often describes his life experiences as incredible.
Well, Johnny Mac himself is pretty incredible too.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Heart Condition Ends David Carle's Career
From: Denver Post by Mike Chambers
(left) David Carle was at the NHL Combine where it was first learned that he might have issues related to his heart
Incoming University of Denver freshman defenseman David Carle, brother of former DU star Matt Carle of the San Jose Sharks, withdrew from the NHL draft after being told by doctors Thursday that he has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart that has been linked to sudden death for athletes.
"I'm really quite fortunate they were able to find it before it was too late," Carle said. "It's tough, but I'm just trying to focus on the positives."
Carle was expected to be taken in the first two rounds of the draft. Matt Carle, who in 2006 became DU's first Hobey Baker Award winner, was selected in the second round (47th) of the 2003 draft by San Jose.
Matt Carle said in January that his brother is "better than me."
David Carle, 18, still plans to attend DU. Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky told Carle his scholarship would be honored.
"I'm grateful to NHL doctors for discovering it and very happy with the University of Denver for honoring my scholarship and still treating me like part of the family," Carle said.
Gwozdecky won't get the chance to coach Carle, but knows life isn't all about hockey, either.
"We are so grateful for David's long-term health," Gwozdecky said. "(Not being able to play hockey is) very disappointing for David, his family and, obviously, our program. But we are still very grateful to have him at the University of Denver."
Carle's disease is different from the one that forced former Avalanche forward Steve Konowalchuk to retire in 2006. Konowalchuk has Long QT Syndrome, a genetic disease involving electrical conduction that can lead to irregular heart rhythms.
"The first thing is, he's going to have to worry about quality of life. 'What can I do with my life? And am I an immediate threat?' " Konowalchuk said of Carle. "If he keeps his heart rate under control, phase two is he's going to be missing out on his whole career.
"I was upset and felt like I got shafted out of a couple years of playing, but fortunate that I did get to play as long as I did. He could live his whole life like, 'What if?' That's unfortunate. A kid like that, the NHL is his dream."
Agent Kurt Overhardt, whose clients include Matt Carle, is David Carle's adviser and informed all NHL teams Friday that David's career was over.
On Saturday, however, the Tampa Bay Lightning selected Carle in the seventh round (203rd overall).
Incoming Lightning owner Oren Koules pushed for the team to select Carle.
"The kid worked his whole life to be drafted in the NHL, and I didn't see a reason he shouldn't be," Koules said on the club's website.
Carle has spent the past two days studying about his disease, and he has learned a solid diet and only light exercise will give him a chance for a normal life.
He is motivated to help other athletes who don't know they have it.
"The awareness of the disease is not out there," he said. "I would like to stress to others that I didn't show any symptoms, and I encourage all athletes to get tested because usually your first symptom is cardiac arrest, so it's your last symptom."
Carle said his heart condition was first detected at the recent NHL combine and confirmed Thursday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
"Once I got my results, I got back and read about the disease online," he said. "I was real conscious and paid attention to it, and I did notice some chest pains. But nothing in my workouts, on or off the ice, did I ever feel like something was wrong."
Athlete Fatalities
Athletes who died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy while playing their sport:
Greg Menton: The 20-year-old swimmer at the University of Massachusetts collapsed and died about 10 minutes after swimming the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyles in a meet Jan. 11, 1996.
Reggie Lewis: Boston Celtics star player died July 27, 1993, at age 27 after shooting baskets during an informal practice.
Eric "Hank" Gathers: Basketball player for Loyola Marymount died March 4, 1990, during a West Coast Conference Tournament game against the University of Portland, about three months after he first collapsed while playing basketball. He was 23.
Sergei Grinkov: The Olympic and world figure skating champion died Nov. 20, 1995, at age 28 after collapsing in Lake Placid, N.Y., while practicing pairs skating with wife Ekaterina Gordeeva.
"I'm really quite fortunate they were able to find it before it was too late," Carle said. "It's tough, but I'm just trying to focus on the positives."
Carle was expected to be taken in the first two rounds of the draft. Matt Carle, who in 2006 became DU's first Hobey Baker Award winner, was selected in the second round (47th) of the 2003 draft by San Jose.
Matt Carle said in January that his brother is "better than me."
David Carle, 18, still plans to attend DU. Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky told Carle his scholarship would be honored.
"I'm grateful to NHL doctors for discovering it and very happy with the University of Denver for honoring my scholarship and still treating me like part of the family," Carle said.
Gwozdecky won't get the chance to coach Carle, but knows life isn't all about hockey, either.
"We are so grateful for David's long-term health," Gwozdecky said. "(Not being able to play hockey is) very disappointing for David, his family and, obviously, our program. But we are still very grateful to have him at the University of Denver."
Carle's disease is different from the one that forced former Avalanche forward Steve Konowalchuk to retire in 2006. Konowalchuk has Long QT Syndrome, a genetic disease involving electrical conduction that can lead to irregular heart rhythms.
"The first thing is, he's going to have to worry about quality of life. 'What can I do with my life? And am I an immediate threat?' " Konowalchuk said of Carle. "If he keeps his heart rate under control, phase two is he's going to be missing out on his whole career.
"I was upset and felt like I got shafted out of a couple years of playing, but fortunate that I did get to play as long as I did. He could live his whole life like, 'What if?' That's unfortunate. A kid like that, the NHL is his dream."
Agent Kurt Overhardt, whose clients include Matt Carle, is David Carle's adviser and informed all NHL teams Friday that David's career was over.
On Saturday, however, the Tampa Bay Lightning selected Carle in the seventh round (203rd overall).
Incoming Lightning owner Oren Koules pushed for the team to select Carle.
"The kid worked his whole life to be drafted in the NHL, and I didn't see a reason he shouldn't be," Koules said on the club's website.
Carle has spent the past two days studying about his disease, and he has learned a solid diet and only light exercise will give him a chance for a normal life.
He is motivated to help other athletes who don't know they have it.
"The awareness of the disease is not out there," he said. "I would like to stress to others that I didn't show any symptoms, and I encourage all athletes to get tested because usually your first symptom is cardiac arrest, so it's your last symptom."
Carle said his heart condition was first detected at the recent NHL combine and confirmed Thursday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
"Once I got my results, I got back and read about the disease online," he said. "I was real conscious and paid attention to it, and I did notice some chest pains. But nothing in my workouts, on or off the ice, did I ever feel like something was wrong."
Athlete Fatalities
Athletes who died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy while playing their sport:
Greg Menton: The 20-year-old swimmer at the University of Massachusetts collapsed and died about 10 minutes after swimming the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyles in a meet Jan. 11, 1996.
Reggie Lewis: Boston Celtics star player died July 27, 1993, at age 27 after shooting baskets during an informal practice.
Eric "Hank" Gathers: Basketball player for Loyola Marymount died March 4, 1990, during a West Coast Conference Tournament game against the University of Portland, about three months after he first collapsed while playing basketball. He was 23.
Sergei Grinkov: The Olympic and world figure skating champion died Nov. 20, 1995, at age 28 after collapsing in Lake Placid, N.Y., while practicing pairs skating with wife Ekaterina Gordeeva.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
DU Alum Glenn Anderson Battled With Media
(above) Today you're more likely to find former DU hockey player Glenn Anderson helping six year olds to their feet than hoisting the Stanley Cup, which he won six times, above his headToday former DU player Glenn Anderson will hear his fate from the Hockey Hall of Fame Committee. His career numbers, playoff stats and six Stanley Cups would suggest he's a shoo-in, but a contentious relationship with the media and some highly publicized off the ice incidents, including the death of his best friend, have blocked his induction in the past.
Anderson only played one season at the University of Denver (1978-79) but he recorded 26 goals, 29 assists in 41 games. He was selected by the Edmontion Oilers in the 4th round of the 1979 Draft.
This excellent article from the Edmonton Journal documents Anderson's often rocky relatiship with the media.
Anderson only played one season at the University of Denver (1978-79) but he recorded 26 goals, 29 assists in 41 games. He was selected by the Edmontion Oilers in the 4th round of the 1979 Draft.
This excellent article from the Edmonton Journal documents Anderson's often rocky relatiship with the media.
Glenn Anderson's Hall of Fame numbers should speak for themselves, but his Hall of Fame friends have felt the need to lobby on his behalf for ages.
Because until now two equally influential factors have conspired to bar the former Oiler from the shrine to hockey greatness.
Some years, it was all about the competition; too many automatics like Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Scott Stevens and Al Macinnis. But more often, Anderson's failure to garner enough support was related to an unflattering public persona, one shaped by the dark and negative headlines that followed him around the National Hockey League from Edmonton to Toronto, New York, St. Louis and even into retirement.
The problem will disappear forever today if at least 12 of the 16 selection committee voters agree that 1,099 points and six Stanley Cup rings amount to an admittance fee paid in full. Up to four players can get the nod and competition isn't stiff - Doug Gilmour, Steve Larmer, Adam Oates, Igor Larionov and Pavel Bure. The timing seems right. But just in case he needed to tip the scales, Anderson has been working on perception, reaching out to suggest his problem with the media has been rooted in misunderstanding.
We didn't understand him, he said, because we didn't take the time. I would counter that he wouldn't give us the time of day, or a thoughtful answer to most of our questions, and his standoffish attitude was detrimental.
What cannot be argued is the fact his relationship with the media went sideways and every negative headline played a role, however small, in keeping him on the outside of the Hall looking in at teammates Jari Kurri, Grant Fuhr, Paul Coffey, Gretzky and Messier. Though only five committee members are from the media, a larger consensus suggests Anderson has been left wanting with regard to the off-ice component of the voting.
He contends the negative media coverage has never told the real story of his personal life.
"Back then, I don't think they really knew who I was," he said of the Edmonton media. "They only wanted the story. I was categorized as a person before I was even interviewed. It was already determined and I was hung out to dry.
"That's not the individual I was. As years went by, we developed relationships. It changed. We finally came to a very civilized balance."
It didn't happen quite that easily. The bridge was burned in Edmonton and is only now being rebuilt. He returns phone calls, entertains questions, gives thoughtful answers.
For those who knew Anderson as cool, distant and occasionally antagonistic, his recent evolution can be traced to media courses he took in a continuing effort to educate himself and establish a healthy life after hockey. He has gained an appreciation for the role of the media and has been busily re-establishing relationships with sports writers he came to view as irritants; people who wouldn't look past the wacky grin and outlandish statements for any deeper meaning.
Anderson said he didn't want to think outside the box, he wanted to saw through it, and believes that oblique focus was misconstrued and he was written off.
But his larger problem with the Edmonton media can be traced to 1988 when his friend George Varvis died after collapsing in Anderson's pool.
"In Edmonton there were some things that were really blown out of proportion, especially when my very good friend died. I ended up getting death threats and hate mail. Everyone knew where I lived because the pictures of my house were on the front page. Every week I got a different letter in a different colour in an envelope. In Latin. Whoever was sending it was threatening to kill me.
"If it weren't for the media reports they wouldn't have had my address. I thought, 'Geez you guys have no idea what you opened up.' Then there was all the innuendo and false accusations of what transpired. I thought, 'Guys, do a little research. Find out what happened because that's not what went down.'
"Not only did I lose my best friend, but I'm getting wounded by all this other stuff."
He said the manner in which his friend died was misconstrued.
"I dove in to the pool and revived him by giving him mouth-to-mouth. He walked out of the house with paramedics and went to the hospital, where he had a relapse. People said he died right there (in the pool). Not true.
"It just showed me that I got treated unfairly. It snowballed from there and I'd always had to have my guard up.
"Now, I'm over it. I forgave and forgot. Life goes on. I'm not holding a grudge. Life is too short for that."
LAUGHTER COMES EASILY
He is 47, living in New York with wife Susan and five-year-old daughter Autumn. He said he has resolved a contentious child support issue regarding a teenager from a previous relationship and continues to make regular payments, even though he still considers them too large because his income has been drastically reduced from that of his playing days. He runs a fantasy camp, plays in charity and oldtimers games and operates a hockey school in Connecticut, his wife is in the real estate industry and his daughter has done some acting.
"She makes more money than me now, because she's in commercials," he chuckled.
The laughter usually came easily to Anderson when he was an Oiler. He was, as he still states today, a free spirit. I bumped into him in Quebec City during the world hockey championship and sensed he is trying hard to engage. Skeptics would point to the timing, but I don't think he's simply shilling for votes.
"I feel way more comfortable talking to the media now, especially the guys I had been around for years," he said. "I respect them for what they have to do."
What they and other committee members ought to do now is put him in the Hall of Fame. His numbers say he belongs there and if voters embrace
Anderson's new persona, it's a slam dunk. After years of shrugging off disappointing results with an ambivalent tone, as if to deny the media any satisfaction, Anderson admitted to nervousness on Monday.
"For the first time," he said. "I don't know if we'd celebrate like we did after a Stanley Cup.
"But we'll be pretty happy. And if it doesn't happen this year, it's going to be pretty tough because of the players coming up and eligible for next year (Steve Yzerman, Brian Leetch, Luc Robitaille and Brett Hull). I know that.
"If it happens, great. If not, who knows what happens down the road."
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Vail Celebrates Testwuide's Captaincy At DU
From: Vail Dailyby Chris Freud
(left) From the "Golden Pond" to Magness Arena for new DU Captain J.P. Testwuide
Happy Mother’s Day, Janet.
“I usually get my mom some flowers or a card,” Vail’s J.P. Testwuide said. “I try to take her out for dinner or something fun.”
Known as J.P. or Jon Paul locally, Testwuide, a soon-to-be senior defenseman at Denver University changed up his Mother’s Day routine this year. There’s no word on whether Janet got flowers, but her son told her that he had just been named the captain for the Pioneers, the defending Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff champions, for the upcoming 2008-09 season.
“She really couldn’t believe it,” J.P. said. “She was so happy.”
Not only was Mom floored, but it was a bit of history for DU’s storied program, which has won seven NCAA titles. Testwuide is the going to be the first native Coloradan to wear the captain’s C on his sweater.
“I didn’t really realize that until someone said it,” Testwuide said. “A school reporter e-mailed me, ‘How does it feel to be the first Coloradan to be DU’s captain?’ I didn’t know what she was talking about. Once I realized that I was the first, I was like, ‘Wow.’ That astounded me. There have been a lot of good players from Colorado who have played at DU. I didn’t expect that at all.”
And so the Testwuide brothers continue add letters to their respective sweaters. J.P.’s younger brother, Mike, a junior-to-be come fall, plays forward for DU’s archrival, Colorado College, and has the assistant captain’s A on his black-and-gold jersey.
“It’s fun,” J.P. said. “He got (assistant captain) before I did. He worked so hard. He deserves it.”
The announcement from DU coach George Gwozdecky that Testwuide would wear the C for the Pioneers led to some deservedly proud local reaction.
“I really think it’s an incredible honor,” said Jim Meehan, who coached both Testwuide boys when they played for the Vail Junior Hockey Association. “It shows the amount of confidence his team has in him. I’m not surprised. I thought he had an exceptional year last year. It shows the respect the team has for him as a player and a person.”
Big Role
Testwuide replaces graduating senior Andrew Thomas as the Pioneers’ captain. Like Thomas, Testwuide is a rugged defenseman. In fact, the Vail native is the ninth-straight blueliner to wear or share in the team’s captaincy.
“J.P. is the first Coloradan to serve as team captain in the 60 years of DU hockey,” Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky said in a statement issued on the university’s Web site. “J.P. has really established himself as leader with his tremendous work ethic and passion for the Denver hockey program. He is a tough competitor that will demand a lot from himself and his teammates for our team to reach its goals next season.”
Expectations will be high Magness Arena come the fall. The Pioneers finished third in the WCHA during the regular season behind regular-season champion, Colorado College, and North Dakota. But DU swept Minnesota-Duluth in the first round of the WCHA playoffs and won the conference’s postseason tournament by knocking off North Dakota and Minnesota at the Xcell Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., for a berth in the NCAA playoffs.
“We definitely played well during the last part of the season,” Testwuide said. “We came together as a team. Put it this way, whenever you go into Minnesota and beat Minnesota, it’s a lot of fun.”
Testwuide had a hunch he might be inheriting the captaincy after serving as an assistant last year. Nevertheless, actually getting tabbed is another thing.
“I’m pretty much honored just to be the captain. It’s going to be exciting,” he said. “I think I still have to play my style of hockey. I don’t want to change anything up. You’re the player the team looks up to. You just have to be yourself.”
Trick or Treat?
Testwuide started with hockey just as most local kids do with a bit of ice time and a chair to keep upright at Dobson Arena.
“Probably my fondest memory of Vail was when I started skating,” Testwuide said. “It was with the chairs and it was on Halloween. I didn’t want to leave the ice. I can’t believe I wanted to skate over Halloween.”
Passing on the annual haul of candy that year was just the beginning. J.P. and Mike both played on the Golden family’s pond. Kirk Golden’s father, Paul, would flood his back yard each winter and the Testwuides, young Golden, Colin Kingston and Spencer Ellis and others competed in mythical Game 7s of the Stanley Cup Finals for hours on end.
Meehan coached J.P. from Mini-Mites through Squirts, and even then could tell there was something special about both brothers.
“I think you can tell who is a gifted player, even at a young age,” Meehan said. “The gist of it is that it’s not only good players with certain skills, but players who have a love of the sport that shines through. Both J.P. and Mikey were always that way, terrific players.”
J.P. played one year at the Midget (high school age) level in Vail before heading to the Northwood School in Lake Placid, N.Y. And yes, his home rink was the site of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice.”
Testwuide then spent two years with the Waterloo Black Hawks of the United States Hockey League, the American equivalent of Canadian Juniors before DU came calling.
After the tough transition from Juniors to big-time Division I hockey, Testwuide got his spot and hasn’t looked back since.
The Rivalry
As J.P. assumes the role of captain at DU, while Mike continues at Colorado College, the rivalry becomes more fierce than it already is. By all accounts, J.P. and Mike are the first set of brothers to play on opposite sides of the rivalry.
Within the Testwuide family, it’s been a good-news/bad-news scenario. Mike and the Tigers hold a 6-1-1 advantage over J.P. and the Pioneers during the two years the brothers have suited up. (For the record, Janet wears halves of DU and CC sweatshirt sewn together to the rivalry games in the interests of impartiality.)
Looking ahead to the schedule, DU opens against NCAA runner-up Notre Dame Oct. 11. Next are two games at Magness against Wisconsin, the team that eliminated DU in the first round of the NCAA playoffs. Two weeks later, J.P. and DU and Mike and CC meet in the first of two-home-and-home sets.
“It’s such a fun rivalry,” J.P. said. “I think both teams will be the teams to beat (in the WCHA). I can’t say anything about CC because it’s not good karma. Whenever the two teams play, it definitely a battle. Both teams bring their best to the table. I wouldn’t expect anything less.
“We’ve pretty much played against each other our whole lives. It just makes it that much better. We’re pretty much best friends off the ice, but we love to battle each other.”
“I usually get my mom some flowers or a card,” Vail’s J.P. Testwuide said. “I try to take her out for dinner or something fun.”
Known as J.P. or Jon Paul locally, Testwuide, a soon-to-be senior defenseman at Denver University changed up his Mother’s Day routine this year. There’s no word on whether Janet got flowers, but her son told her that he had just been named the captain for the Pioneers, the defending Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff champions, for the upcoming 2008-09 season.
“She really couldn’t believe it,” J.P. said. “She was so happy.”
Not only was Mom floored, but it was a bit of history for DU’s storied program, which has won seven NCAA titles. Testwuide is the going to be the first native Coloradan to wear the captain’s C on his sweater.
“I didn’t really realize that until someone said it,” Testwuide said. “A school reporter e-mailed me, ‘How does it feel to be the first Coloradan to be DU’s captain?’ I didn’t know what she was talking about. Once I realized that I was the first, I was like, ‘Wow.’ That astounded me. There have been a lot of good players from Colorado who have played at DU. I didn’t expect that at all.”
And so the Testwuide brothers continue add letters to their respective sweaters. J.P.’s younger brother, Mike, a junior-to-be come fall, plays forward for DU’s archrival, Colorado College, and has the assistant captain’s A on his black-and-gold jersey.
“It’s fun,” J.P. said. “He got (assistant captain) before I did. He worked so hard. He deserves it.”
The announcement from DU coach George Gwozdecky that Testwuide would wear the C for the Pioneers led to some deservedly proud local reaction.
“I really think it’s an incredible honor,” said Jim Meehan, who coached both Testwuide boys when they played for the Vail Junior Hockey Association. “It shows the amount of confidence his team has in him. I’m not surprised. I thought he had an exceptional year last year. It shows the respect the team has for him as a player and a person.”
Big Role
Testwuide replaces graduating senior Andrew Thomas as the Pioneers’ captain. Like Thomas, Testwuide is a rugged defenseman. In fact, the Vail native is the ninth-straight blueliner to wear or share in the team’s captaincy.
“J.P. is the first Coloradan to serve as team captain in the 60 years of DU hockey,” Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky said in a statement issued on the university’s Web site. “J.P. has really established himself as leader with his tremendous work ethic and passion for the Denver hockey program. He is a tough competitor that will demand a lot from himself and his teammates for our team to reach its goals next season.”
Expectations will be high Magness Arena come the fall. The Pioneers finished third in the WCHA during the regular season behind regular-season champion, Colorado College, and North Dakota. But DU swept Minnesota-Duluth in the first round of the WCHA playoffs and won the conference’s postseason tournament by knocking off North Dakota and Minnesota at the Xcell Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., for a berth in the NCAA playoffs.
“We definitely played well during the last part of the season,” Testwuide said. “We came together as a team. Put it this way, whenever you go into Minnesota and beat Minnesota, it’s a lot of fun.”
Testwuide had a hunch he might be inheriting the captaincy after serving as an assistant last year. Nevertheless, actually getting tabbed is another thing.
“I’m pretty much honored just to be the captain. It’s going to be exciting,” he said. “I think I still have to play my style of hockey. I don’t want to change anything up. You’re the player the team looks up to. You just have to be yourself.”
Trick or Treat?
Testwuide started with hockey just as most local kids do with a bit of ice time and a chair to keep upright at Dobson Arena.
“Probably my fondest memory of Vail was when I started skating,” Testwuide said. “It was with the chairs and it was on Halloween. I didn’t want to leave the ice. I can’t believe I wanted to skate over Halloween.”
Passing on the annual haul of candy that year was just the beginning. J.P. and Mike both played on the Golden family’s pond. Kirk Golden’s father, Paul, would flood his back yard each winter and the Testwuides, young Golden, Colin Kingston and Spencer Ellis and others competed in mythical Game 7s of the Stanley Cup Finals for hours on end.
Meehan coached J.P. from Mini-Mites through Squirts, and even then could tell there was something special about both brothers.
“I think you can tell who is a gifted player, even at a young age,” Meehan said. “The gist of it is that it’s not only good players with certain skills, but players who have a love of the sport that shines through. Both J.P. and Mikey were always that way, terrific players.”
J.P. played one year at the Midget (high school age) level in Vail before heading to the Northwood School in Lake Placid, N.Y. And yes, his home rink was the site of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice.”
Testwuide then spent two years with the Waterloo Black Hawks of the United States Hockey League, the American equivalent of Canadian Juniors before DU came calling.
After the tough transition from Juniors to big-time Division I hockey, Testwuide got his spot and hasn’t looked back since.
The Rivalry
As J.P. assumes the role of captain at DU, while Mike continues at Colorado College, the rivalry becomes more fierce than it already is. By all accounts, J.P. and Mike are the first set of brothers to play on opposite sides of the rivalry.
Within the Testwuide family, it’s been a good-news/bad-news scenario. Mike and the Tigers hold a 6-1-1 advantage over J.P. and the Pioneers during the two years the brothers have suited up. (For the record, Janet wears halves of DU and CC sweatshirt sewn together to the rivalry games in the interests of impartiality.)
Looking ahead to the schedule, DU opens against NCAA runner-up Notre Dame Oct. 11. Next are two games at Magness against Wisconsin, the team that eliminated DU in the first round of the NCAA playoffs. Two weeks later, J.P. and DU and Mike and CC meet in the first of two-home-and-home sets.
“It’s such a fun rivalry,” J.P. said. “I think both teams will be the teams to beat (in the WCHA). I can’t say anything about CC because it’s not good karma. Whenever the two teams play, it definitely a battle. Both teams bring their best to the table. I wouldn’t expect anything less.
“We’ve pretty much played against each other our whole lives. It just makes it that much better. We’re pretty much best friends off the ice, but we love to battle each other.”
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
WCHA Coaches Catfight Over Verbal Commitments
(left) George Gwozdecky & Gophers Coach Don Lucia don't see eye to eye on the issue of verbal commitmentsFrom: Grand Forks Herald
by Brad Schlossman
There was a time not long ago when a player would verbally commit to a college hockey program, and soon after he would be pressured by other coaches to rethink it.
“Yeah that happened. Absolutely. I’d just have to go back as far as Zach Parise,” Denver coach George Gwozdecky said, referring to the former UND player who played from 2002-04.
And there are some coaches who believe those days may return.
At the American Hockey Coaches Association meetings last week in Florida, a small group of coaches pushed eliminate the “gentleman’s agreement” that was put in place a few years ago.
The gentleman’s agreement is that coaches will stop contacting a player once he makes a verbal commitment. This agreement is not bound by NCAA rules — coaches are technically allowed to recruit until a player signs a letter of intent, which can’t happen until an athlete is a high school senior.
But in the last four years, recruiting has become younger and younger. A handful of 14-year-olds have made verbal commitments. Fifteen- and 16-year-olds committing is the new norm. And this trend is a concern to almost all coaches.
Some believe the way to curtail the current trend is to ignore verbal commitments. Others feel that recruiting committed players would lead college hockey down the wrong path.
While it appears that the gentlemen’s agreement will remain in place this year, it might not stay that way for long.
“It’s kind of a mess right now,” Western Collegiate Hockey Association commissioner Bruce McLeod said. “It’s a highly debated topic. Emotions are pretty strong about it.”
Minnesota’s Don Lucia is one coach who has publicly stated that he wants to do away with verbal commitments.
“And he’s got a few allies,” McLeod said. “It’s not a majority. But the problem is that the three or four guys talking about (recruiting committed players) are the leaders, the more veteran coaches. That’s what has caused a commotion more than anything.”
Lucia said that some Hockey East schools pushed a new gentleman’s agreement that would allow schools to contact verbally committed players until May 1 of their junior year. The thinking is that the recruiting age would go back up under this type of system.
“The whole issue here is ninth- and 10th-graders,” Lucia said. “What’s going on right now is not good for the players, colleges or anybody. It shouldn’t be a race to see who can first discover and get a ninth-grader.”
Gwozdecky, the most veteran coach in the WCHA, is on the other side of the issue. He says he’d hate to see the day when coaches are recruiting committed players.
“I don’t want our sport to become like basketball or football,” Gwozdecky said, “where once a young man decides to verbally commit, that’s when the recruiting starts. I strongly feel that once a young man and a school have made a verbal agreement. . . . that is recognized by me as something that is an obligation both parties have to respect.”
UND coach Dave Hakstol says there were very good talks on the subject, but he’d like for the gentleman’s agreement to remain in place for now.
“It’s been something that’s unique to the hockey world,” Hakstol said. “I think it’s served us well. Are there ways to change it and make it better while still honoring the verbal commitment? I think that’s something we’ll talk about over the next year or two.”
There were two incidents in the past season where a coach contacted a committed player and asked if the athlete was content with his commitment, McLeod said.
“Both young men were true to their word,” McLeod said. “It was one phone call, that’s it. And it’s not like they were sneaking around. I know in one case, for sure, the coach called the other coach in advance and told him he was going to do it.”
That might be the norm in a few years.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen right now,” Lucia said, “but we’re not far away from it. I think we’ll be able to make some type of compromise.”
“Yeah that happened. Absolutely. I’d just have to go back as far as Zach Parise,” Denver coach George Gwozdecky said, referring to the former UND player who played from 2002-04.
And there are some coaches who believe those days may return.
At the American Hockey Coaches Association meetings last week in Florida, a small group of coaches pushed eliminate the “gentleman’s agreement” that was put in place a few years ago.
The gentleman’s agreement is that coaches will stop contacting a player once he makes a verbal commitment. This agreement is not bound by NCAA rules — coaches are technically allowed to recruit until a player signs a letter of intent, which can’t happen until an athlete is a high school senior.
But in the last four years, recruiting has become younger and younger. A handful of 14-year-olds have made verbal commitments. Fifteen- and 16-year-olds committing is the new norm. And this trend is a concern to almost all coaches.
Some believe the way to curtail the current trend is to ignore verbal commitments. Others feel that recruiting committed players would lead college hockey down the wrong path.
While it appears that the gentlemen’s agreement will remain in place this year, it might not stay that way for long.
“It’s kind of a mess right now,” Western Collegiate Hockey Association commissioner Bruce McLeod said. “It’s a highly debated topic. Emotions are pretty strong about it.”
Minnesota’s Don Lucia is one coach who has publicly stated that he wants to do away with verbal commitments.
“And he’s got a few allies,” McLeod said. “It’s not a majority. But the problem is that the three or four guys talking about (recruiting committed players) are the leaders, the more veteran coaches. That’s what has caused a commotion more than anything.”
Lucia said that some Hockey East schools pushed a new gentleman’s agreement that would allow schools to contact verbally committed players until May 1 of their junior year. The thinking is that the recruiting age would go back up under this type of system.
“The whole issue here is ninth- and 10th-graders,” Lucia said. “What’s going on right now is not good for the players, colleges or anybody. It shouldn’t be a race to see who can first discover and get a ninth-grader.”
Gwozdecky, the most veteran coach in the WCHA, is on the other side of the issue. He says he’d hate to see the day when coaches are recruiting committed players.
“I don’t want our sport to become like basketball or football,” Gwozdecky said, “where once a young man decides to verbally commit, that’s when the recruiting starts. I strongly feel that once a young man and a school have made a verbal agreement. . . . that is recognized by me as something that is an obligation both parties have to respect.”
UND coach Dave Hakstol says there were very good talks on the subject, but he’d like for the gentleman’s agreement to remain in place for now.
“It’s been something that’s unique to the hockey world,” Hakstol said. “I think it’s served us well. Are there ways to change it and make it better while still honoring the verbal commitment? I think that’s something we’ll talk about over the next year or two.”
There were two incidents in the past season where a coach contacted a committed player and asked if the athlete was content with his commitment, McLeod said.
“Both young men were true to their word,” McLeod said. “It was one phone call, that’s it. And it’s not like they were sneaking around. I know in one case, for sure, the coach called the other coach in advance and told him he was going to do it.”
That might be the norm in a few years.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen right now,” Lucia said, “but we’re not far away from it. I think we’ll be able to make some type of compromise.”
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
DU Assistants Hit The Road To Recruit Players
From: DU Clarion by Brooks Kirchheimer
Life as an assistant coach is no easy job. You don't just sit next to the coach on the bench and help lead the team.
The job of involves much more than coaching. It is scheduling practices, keeping tabs on student's grades and classes, breaking down game video, organizing and scheduling trips and, most importantly, time-consuming recruiting. It is the 365-day job that surrounds every coach.
Recruiting in college is what helps bring in talented and successful athletes year after year. Recruiting is more than just showing up at high school or, in hockey's case, junior hockey games and picking an athlete you like.
Recruiting is about making connections with high school and club coaches, building a solid program that athletes will want to join and having a facility that an athlete will want to practice and compete in.
For the DU hockey program, assistant coaches Steve Miller and Derek Lalonde spend hundreds of hours a season traveling the globe looking for the athletes that will be the right fit as a Pioneer.
"It's a 365-day process that starts years in advance of when the kid shows up on campus and sees us travel to many places," said Lalonde.
The NHL collective bargaining agreement, which is a contract between team owners and the players association and was most recently agreed to on July 13, 2005 after the cancellation of the 2004-05 NHL season, greatly affected college hockey and recruiting.
The agreement reduced the age of unrestricted free agency in the NHL to 27, which forced teams to start signing players at a much younger age so they had more time to develop them.
This greatly affected college hockey and has seen in recent years numerous players leave college earlier. Most notable for DU are Paul Stastny and Matt Carle who are both currently playing in the NHL along with Ryan Dingle, Geoff Paukovich and Brock Trotter who spent the season in the minors.
"I think the NHL teams are more determined than ever before to get the players out of college as early as possible and get them into their organization and see what kind of players they are and give them a chance to develop," said Head Coach George Gwozdecky. "You are a free agent at the age of 27, and the more you stay in college, the less the team has to develop you."
With more and more players leaving early, recruiting is starting at a much younger age.
"Nowadays you start looking at players when they are 14, 15 or 16. Coach (Gwozdecky) and I went to look at the top 15-year olds in the country a day after the WCHA championships and already got a couple verbal commitments," said Lalonde.
After and during every season these days it is almost becoming a norm to see at least one or two players forgo the rest of their college careers to pursue their dream, the NHL.
"I don't think they know. I think many times they don't want to leave, but then they are convinced to leave by a family member or the team that wants to sign them, and then there are other times when they want to leave because they are ready, it varies," said Gwozdecky about why players are leaving.
With the collective bargaining agreement came a change in the salary cap, allowing teams to sign players for much less than they used to receive.
"The money is not as big as it used to be. Prior to the new collective bargaining agreement money was millions; now, it is only hundreds of thousands. It is a lot of money to us but not a lot of money to a professional franchise," said Gwozdecky.
It is money that might have lured Dingle and Paukovich away from the college game and has seen them play a full season in the dreaded minors.
"I have talked to both of the guys, and they are not really happy with their situation. I have heard from many of the guys that have left or graduated and they say playing minor league hockey is not a lot of fun," said Gwozdecky about Paukovich and Dingle.
Dingle spent the season up and down between the Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate, Portland Pirates and the ECHL affiliate Augusta Lynx, while Paukovich spent the season with the Stockton Thunder of the ECHL.
"It is a struggle because you have guys that come from different environments, you have a mixture of guys that have a whole different agenda," said Gwozdecky about minor league hockey.
The recruiting process is becoming a win-loss situation for the Pioneers.
Instead of signing players and thinking they will play for four years, the top athletes are quickly leaving for the NHL even if that means time in the minor leagues.
With the collective bargaining agreement came more work for Lalonde and Miller who are now at task to find last minute recruits to fill the spaces of Pioneers who decide to make the step to the NHL.
It is a recruiting process that includes trips like Lalonde took during his time as a coach at Ferris State, where on a four-hour drive to Northern Canada only one radio program was available, bingo.
As more and more players leave college early the recruiting process becomes more important than ever for assistant coaches everywhere.
The job of involves much more than coaching. It is scheduling practices, keeping tabs on student's grades and classes, breaking down game video, organizing and scheduling trips and, most importantly, time-consuming recruiting. It is the 365-day job that surrounds every coach.
Recruiting in college is what helps bring in talented and successful athletes year after year. Recruiting is more than just showing up at high school or, in hockey's case, junior hockey games and picking an athlete you like.
Recruiting is about making connections with high school and club coaches, building a solid program that athletes will want to join and having a facility that an athlete will want to practice and compete in.
For the DU hockey program, assistant coaches Steve Miller and Derek Lalonde spend hundreds of hours a season traveling the globe looking for the athletes that will be the right fit as a Pioneer.
"It's a 365-day process that starts years in advance of when the kid shows up on campus and sees us travel to many places," said Lalonde.
The NHL collective bargaining agreement, which is a contract between team owners and the players association and was most recently agreed to on July 13, 2005 after the cancellation of the 2004-05 NHL season, greatly affected college hockey and recruiting.
The agreement reduced the age of unrestricted free agency in the NHL to 27, which forced teams to start signing players at a much younger age so they had more time to develop them.
This greatly affected college hockey and has seen in recent years numerous players leave college earlier. Most notable for DU are Paul Stastny and Matt Carle who are both currently playing in the NHL along with Ryan Dingle, Geoff Paukovich and Brock Trotter who spent the season in the minors.
"I think the NHL teams are more determined than ever before to get the players out of college as early as possible and get them into their organization and see what kind of players they are and give them a chance to develop," said Head Coach George Gwozdecky. "You are a free agent at the age of 27, and the more you stay in college, the less the team has to develop you."
With more and more players leaving early, recruiting is starting at a much younger age.
"Nowadays you start looking at players when they are 14, 15 or 16. Coach (Gwozdecky) and I went to look at the top 15-year olds in the country a day after the WCHA championships and already got a couple verbal commitments," said Lalonde.After and during every season these days it is almost becoming a norm to see at least one or two players forgo the rest of their college careers to pursue their dream, the NHL.
"I don't think they know. I think many times they don't want to leave, but then they are convinced to leave by a family member or the team that wants to sign them, and then there are other times when they want to leave because they are ready, it varies," said Gwozdecky about why players are leaving.
With the collective bargaining agreement came a change in the salary cap, allowing teams to sign players for much less than they used to receive.
"The money is not as big as it used to be. Prior to the new collective bargaining agreement money was millions; now, it is only hundreds of thousands. It is a lot of money to us but not a lot of money to a professional franchise," said Gwozdecky.
It is money that might have lured Dingle and Paukovich away from the college game and has seen them play a full season in the dreaded minors.
"I have talked to both of the guys, and they are not really happy with their situation. I have heard from many of the guys that have left or graduated and they say playing minor league hockey is not a lot of fun," said Gwozdecky about Paukovich and Dingle.
Dingle spent the season up and down between the Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate, Portland Pirates and the ECHL affiliate Augusta Lynx, while Paukovich spent the season with the Stockton Thunder of the ECHL.
"It is a struggle because you have guys that come from different environments, you have a mixture of guys that have a whole different agenda," said Gwozdecky about minor league hockey.
The recruiting process is becoming a win-loss situation for the Pioneers.
Instead of signing players and thinking they will play for four years, the top athletes are quickly leaving for the NHL even if that means time in the minor leagues.
With the collective bargaining agreement came more work for Lalonde and Miller who are now at task to find last minute recruits to fill the spaces of Pioneers who decide to make the step to the NHL.
It is a recruiting process that includes trips like Lalonde took during his time as a coach at Ferris State, where on a four-hour drive to Northern Canada only one radio program was available, bingo.
As more and more players leave college early the recruiting process becomes more important than ever for assistant coaches everywhere.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
DU Recruit Is Excelling On Ice & In Classroom
Joe Colborne is every hockey parent's dream.
Touted as a first-round pick in this year's NHL draft, the Camrose Kodiaks forward is loaded with talent and potential. In fact, when the Kodiaks battle the host Fort McMurray Oil Barons tonight in the third game of the AJHL league final, Colborne could easily take over the tilt and score the winner.
But as good as the 18-year-old centre can be on the ice, he's arguably a better student.
"Anything less than 95 (per cent) is a disappointment for him," said Camrose assistant coach Miles Walsh, who is also the club's educational liaison.
"Nobody (in Kodiaks' history) will have ever touched those (high school) marks."
And as the kicker to this story, Colborne comes from a remarkable family - in athletics and business.
But you would never know it.
Humble. Polite. Respectful. Talented. Brilliant.
All of those words describe this rare teenager.
THE PLAYER
Rated 30th among North American skaters by the NHL Central Scouting Rankings in January, Colborne's stock has climbed ever since.
After finishing with 90 points in 55 games in the AJHL regular season - good for second in league scoring - the six-foot-four and 195-pound forward has NHL scouts drooling.
"He's big, skilled and smart - something NHL teams need and want," said one NHL scout before Game 2 in the AJHL playoff final on Sunday night in Camrose.
"He's probably as close to a Joe Thornton clone (as you can be) at this level. His upside is phenomenal.
"He wins a lot of board battles and can turn on a dime and make a great pass."
Tied for second in league playoff scoring with 15 points, Colborne plays in every situation - centres the top line, kills penalties and is on the power play.
There were an estimated 20 NHL scouts to watch Game 1 of the AJHL final last weekend and there are scouts that have been religiously following this phenom for weeks.
Granted, there are some naysayers. Some scouts question his skating ability.
"His downside is the league he plays in - that's the perception of some scouts," said a scout, referring to the fact the Calgary native dominates Junior A, but is not in the WHL.
But the latest projections from multiple sources on where Colborne could be taken in this NHL draft range from 8th-20th overall to anywhere from 11th spot downward.
THE STUDENT
It's not uncommon for this quiet blond-haired youngster to get home from a road game at 1:30 a.m. and be in school the next morning by 9 a.m.
"He does phenomenally well in all areas (of school)," said Camrose trainer Brent Sawchuk, who's also an instructor at Colborne's unique school.
"He is a model student. He sets a fine example of what it takes to be successful in this busy world. He is a terrific writer, but the sciences and maths are stronger."
Colborne is a student at Battle River Online high school - an institution housed within Camrose Composite High School.
He takes Math 31 - essentially a university-level calculus class - by video conferencing.
The Grade 12 chemistry class he's mastering is taken through correspondence using print material.
A 90-to-95% student, Colborne had college hockey recruiters salivating.
"He could have chosen any school in the United States (for college)," added Walsh.
Harvard and Yale made offers to the power forward.
But the University of Denver won the sweepstakes because of a strong hockey team and top-10 business program.
Colborne will be off to college next fall with dreams of the NHL - first as a player and ultimately as a general manager.
THE PERSON
"(He's) the kind of kid that if you had a daughter, you'd want her to bring him home - plain and simple," stated Walsh of Colborne.
Is there a better endorsement from your billet and the vice principal of the Camrose junior high school?
No.
"My wife is going to be teary-eyed when the time comes (for him to leave), there is no doubt about it," Walsh continued.
As a human being, Colborne actually seems to be too good to be true. There is no ego. There is no arrogance.
"Right from when I was little my parents always taught me to try to be the best at everything you do," said Colborne. "You have to go to school - you might as well do your best.
"I try to get 100 (per cent) every time."
As parents, Janice and Paul have raised four athletic children.
Lauren played basketball for the U of A.
Melissa is a star bball player at Yale.
And Claire might be the most gifted of the sisters, just winning the 3A provincial high school basketball title in Calgary.
But Joe gets the headlines.
"We're very proud of Joe," said Paul, a lawyer and owner of his own oil/gas company.
"But I'm most proud of the team (in Camrose) and how Boris (Rybalka, the head coach) has moulded them.
"And Boris has made Joe a much more complete player."
According to Colborne, there are lots of areas to improve on. First and foremost, he needs to put weight on his lanky frame.
"It's not like I'm a hall-of-famer - pretty much every aspect of my game could be improved quite a bit," he remarked.
"My parents always taught that you have to improve all the time and when you start thinking you are pretty good you'll fall."
Nobody is betting that Colborne will fall on his face.
"He's going to be in the NHL," said a scout.
The only question is which team is going to be so fortunate to draft him.
Touted as a first-round pick in this year's NHL draft, the Camrose Kodiaks forward is loaded with talent and potential. In fact, when the Kodiaks battle the host Fort McMurray Oil Barons tonight in the third game of the AJHL league final, Colborne could easily take over the tilt and score the winner.
But as good as the 18-year-old centre can be on the ice, he's arguably a better student.
"Anything less than 95 (per cent) is a disappointment for him," said Camrose assistant coach Miles Walsh, who is also the club's educational liaison.
"Nobody (in Kodiaks' history) will have ever touched those (high school) marks."
And as the kicker to this story, Colborne comes from a remarkable family - in athletics and business.
But you would never know it.
Humble. Polite. Respectful. Talented. Brilliant.
All of those words describe this rare teenager.
THE PLAYER
Rated 30th among North American skaters by the NHL Central Scouting Rankings in January, Colborne's stock has climbed ever since.
After finishing with 90 points in 55 games in the AJHL regular season - good for second in league scoring - the six-foot-four and 195-pound forward has NHL scouts drooling.
"He's big, skilled and smart - something NHL teams need and want," said one NHL scout before Game 2 in the AJHL playoff final on Sunday night in Camrose.
"He's probably as close to a Joe Thornton clone (as you can be) at this level. His upside is phenomenal.
"He wins a lot of board battles and can turn on a dime and make a great pass."
Tied for second in league playoff scoring with 15 points, Colborne plays in every situation - centres the top line, kills penalties and is on the power play.
There were an estimated 20 NHL scouts to watch Game 1 of the AJHL final last weekend and there are scouts that have been religiously following this phenom for weeks.
Granted, there are some naysayers. Some scouts question his skating ability.
"His downside is the league he plays in - that's the perception of some scouts," said a scout, referring to the fact the Calgary native dominates Junior A, but is not in the WHL.
But the latest projections from multiple sources on where Colborne could be taken in this NHL draft range from 8th-20th overall to anywhere from 11th spot downward.
THE STUDENT
It's not uncommon for this quiet blond-haired youngster to get home from a road game at 1:30 a.m. and be in school the next morning by 9 a.m.
"He does phenomenally well in all areas (of school)," said Camrose trainer Brent Sawchuk, who's also an instructor at Colborne's unique school.
"He is a model student. He sets a fine example of what it takes to be successful in this busy world. He is a terrific writer, but the sciences and maths are stronger."
Colborne is a student at Battle River Online high school - an institution housed within Camrose Composite High School.
He takes Math 31 - essentially a university-level calculus class - by video conferencing.
The Grade 12 chemistry class he's mastering is taken through correspondence using print material.
A 90-to-95% student, Colborne had college hockey recruiters salivating.
"He could have chosen any school in the United States (for college)," added Walsh.
Harvard and Yale made offers to the power forward.
But the University of Denver won the sweepstakes because of a strong hockey team and top-10 business program.
Colborne will be off to college next fall with dreams of the NHL - first as a player and ultimately as a general manager.
THE PERSON
"(He's) the kind of kid that if you had a daughter, you'd want her to bring him home - plain and simple," stated Walsh of Colborne.
Is there a better endorsement from your billet and the vice principal of the Camrose junior high school?
No.
"My wife is going to be teary-eyed when the time comes (for him to leave), there is no doubt about it," Walsh continued.
As a human being, Colborne actually seems to be too good to be true. There is no ego. There is no arrogance.
"Right from when I was little my parents always taught me to try to be the best at everything you do," said Colborne. "You have to go to school - you might as well do your best.
"I try to get 100 (per cent) every time."
As parents, Janice and Paul have raised four athletic children.
Lauren played basketball for the U of A.
Melissa is a star bball player at Yale.
And Claire might be the most gifted of the sisters, just winning the 3A provincial high school basketball title in Calgary.
But Joe gets the headlines.
"We're very proud of Joe," said Paul, a lawyer and owner of his own oil/gas company.
"But I'm most proud of the team (in Camrose) and how Boris (Rybalka, the head coach) has moulded them.
"And Boris has made Joe a much more complete player."
According to Colborne, there are lots of areas to improve on. First and foremost, he needs to put weight on his lanky frame.
"It's not like I'm a hall-of-famer - pretty much every aspect of my game could be improved quite a bit," he remarked.
"My parents always taught that you have to improve all the time and when you start thinking you are pretty good you'll fall."
Nobody is betting that Colborne will fall on his face.
"He's going to be in the NHL," said a scout.
The only question is which team is going to be so fortunate to draft him.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Brookwell Finally Has A Puck For "The Plaque"
(above) DU's Cody Brookwell (#12) takes down UND's Matt Watkins earlier this seasonFrom: Mike Chamber's Blog
When a son scores his first career goal, sometimes it creates enough emotion for a proud father to weep.
Just reading this story might create tears in your eyes.
DU sophomore Cody Brookwell scored his first goal March 14 in a 6-3 playoff-series-opening victory over Minnesota-Duluth. Brookwell, the Pioneers’ biggest player at 6-foot-4 and 200-pounds, is a proud defensive-defenseman whose complete focus is protecting his own net.
And he does it well. But with every hockey player, scoring a goal is the fun part, and it had taken Brookwell far too long to get his first.
Fittingly, his big opportunity came when being released from the penalty box and accepting a breakaway pass, with a clear route to the opponent’s net.
So what did he do? He looked like a true sniper, firing a hard backhander that landed top-shelf to rattle the goalie’s water bottle.
So what did Kevin Brookwell, Cody’s father, do after hearing about the goal in his Calgary home?
“I was jumping around the house like an idiot and didn’t know what to do,” Kevin said. “I, like Cody, have been waiting two years for this and I enjoyed every moment with my boy.”
Kevin and Cody enjoy each other’s company before every DU game. It’s a ritual that every father would cherish and every son would appreciate. It’s true love, father-son style.
It’s the bagel talk.
“Prior to every game Cody gives me a call. It’s part of his pre-game routine. We call it the “bagel call” and he goes up into the stands, home or away, and has a pre-game coffee and either a bagel or banana,” Kevin said. “Sometimes we chat about nothing, sometimes we chat about the game, but he hasn’t missed a call since starting with Denver. I’ve excused myself from some pretty important meetings to take that call and I’ll never miss it.”
So what do they talk about?
“We joke about the nice plaque I have for his first NCAA goal. Every call I tell him I’m taking the plaque out of his room and putting in on the coffee table for the game. Every game I ask him if he’s getting me that goal so I can mount the puck on the plaque.
“Of course, every game he says he will and after every game, when he calls home, I sadly, but jokingly, tell him I’m putting the plaque back in his room. He knew how big this was for me and he was so proud to make the call (after the goal).”
Cody’s teammates know about his bond with his father. They know about the pregame phone call, and that Kevin is Cody’s No. 1 fan.
“He must have passed the story on to his teammates at some point, because they were telling him how happy Mr. B was going to be and that Cody should call home to make sure I wasn’t lying on the floor with a stroke,” Kevin said.
“No stroke . . . just a really proud mom and dad.”
Just reading this story might create tears in your eyes.
DU sophomore Cody Brookwell scored his first goal March 14 in a 6-3 playoff-series-opening victory over Minnesota-Duluth. Brookwell, the Pioneers’ biggest player at 6-foot-4 and 200-pounds, is a proud defensive-defenseman whose complete focus is protecting his own net.
And he does it well. But with every hockey player, scoring a goal is the fun part, and it had taken Brookwell far too long to get his first.
Fittingly, his big opportunity came when being released from the penalty box and accepting a breakaway pass, with a clear route to the opponent’s net.
So what did he do? He looked like a true sniper, firing a hard backhander that landed top-shelf to rattle the goalie’s water bottle.
So what did Kevin Brookwell, Cody’s father, do after hearing about the goal in his Calgary home?
“I was jumping around the house like an idiot and didn’t know what to do,” Kevin said. “I, like Cody, have been waiting two years for this and I enjoyed every moment with my boy.”
Kevin and Cody enjoy each other’s company before every DU game. It’s a ritual that every father would cherish and every son would appreciate. It’s true love, father-son style.
It’s the bagel talk.
“Prior to every game Cody gives me a call. It’s part of his pre-game routine. We call it the “bagel call” and he goes up into the stands, home or away, and has a pre-game coffee and either a bagel or banana,” Kevin said. “Sometimes we chat about nothing, sometimes we chat about the game, but he hasn’t missed a call since starting with Denver. I’ve excused myself from some pretty important meetings to take that call and I’ll never miss it.”
So what do they talk about?
“We joke about the nice plaque I have for his first NCAA goal. Every call I tell him I’m taking the plaque out of his room and putting in on the coffee table for the game. Every game I ask him if he’s getting me that goal so I can mount the puck on the plaque.
“Of course, every game he says he will and after every game, when he calls home, I sadly, but jokingly, tell him I’m putting the plaque back in his room. He knew how big this was for me and he was so proud to make the call (after the goal).”
Cody’s teammates know about his bond with his father. They know about the pregame phone call, and that Kevin is Cody’s No. 1 fan.
“He must have passed the story on to his teammates at some point, because they were telling him how happy Mr. B was going to be and that Cody should call home to make sure I wasn’t lying on the floor with a stroke,” Kevin said.
“No stroke . . . just a really proud mom and dad.”
Saturday, March 22, 2008
DU Wins Final Five Over Minnesota
(above) Senior Tom May scored the game winner Saturday nightby Mike Chambers
ST. PAUL, Minn. — When hockey's NCAA Tournament pairings are revealed this morning, the University of Denver Pioneers will be flying high, loaded with confidence no matter where they play or who they face.
The Pioneers, who will take a four-game winning streak into the national tournament, are playoff champions of America's toughest amateur conference. DU captured its record 15th WCHA Final Five championship Saturday night, defeating Minnesota 2-1 in the Broadmoor Trophy game before 17,907 partisan fans at the Xcel Energy Center.
An NCAA-record six teams from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association are pegged to make today's 16- team field.
DU coach George Gwozdecky said the victory proved his team can be a factor in the NCAA Tournament. The win proves "our ability to play big games on the big stage," he said. "It doesn't get any bigger than this."
Nothing seems to rattle senior goalie Peter Mannino, who as a freshman was named 2005 Frozen Four MVP. He has allowed just five goals in DU's four conference playoff games, all victories.
Mannino was brilliant Saturday, making 34 saves. Senior Tom May, from nearby Eagan, Minn., scored the winner on a semi-breakaway late in the second period.
In January, DU began a 5-9-1 slide. Now, the Pioneers appear as good as any team in the NCAA.
"We've faced a heck of a lot of adversity since the middle of the season, with injuries and departures and stuff like that, but hopefully we're hitting our stride," DU captain Andrew Thomas said.
The Pioneers (26-13-1) always play well in the Final Five since it moved to the Xcel Energy Center in 2001. And they have won the Broadmoor Trophy in four of the past nine years.
"We've had different type of teams that have won it different ways," said Gwozdecky, who previously guided DU to the 1999, 2002 and 2005 playoff crowns. "It's one of the events in every student-athlete's career that he remembers for a lifetime."
"Different guys, same hardware," Mannino said. "It's just as nice."
Minnesota, which was playing in its sixth playoff game in nine nights, was trying to become the first team to win the Final Five from the Thursday play-in game.
"Almost all weekend, we were running on adrenaline," Gophers forward Ben Gordon said.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
DU's Newest Recruit Is A Classic Late Bloomer
(above) Wichita forward Luke Salazar (10) skates into the offensive zonePhoto Credit: Jason Palmer/Times Record
From: Wichita Falls Time-Record by Zach Duncan
DU's newest recruit Luke Salazar wasn't considered by many to be a legitimate Division I prospect. Before the season began, even Salazar would have considered you crazy for even suggesting it.
The Wichita Falls Wildcats (NAHL) forward willingly admits no one could have forecasted the kind of season he’s enjoying right now.
“If someone told me I would score 30 goals all year, I would have thought I was dreaming,” the NAHL’s second-leading goal scorer said. “And 50 points all year? I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Salazar has turned heads across the junior hockey landscape, blossoming into one of the league’s most dangerous sharpshooters in his second season with the Wildcats. His 32 goals trail only St. Louis’ Kyle O’Kane (34) for the league lead, and Salazar is also third in points.
“I knew he had it in him,” said Wildcats captain Adam Cardwell, who centers a line with Grant Everett and Salazar. “He just needed the confidence and another year under his belt, and he’d take off.”
Cardwell and Wichita Falls coach John Bowkus both agreed the biggest difference in Salazar’s game this season isn’t any drastic improvement in skill, but more self-assurance in his ability.
A year ago, he played in all but one game with the Wildcats, scoring 10 goals and amassing 23 points while showing flashes of brilliance.
But that’s nothing compared to the 2007-08 season, as the 19-year-old has already tripled his production with 14 games to spare.
“He’s got a lot more confidence,” Cardwell said. “He makes good decisions, and he’s looking to shoot and score more goals.”
Bowkus adds that Salazar uses his quickness and speed well, and that his vision and puck-handling abilities are superb.
While his growth on the ice is one reason for his breakout campaign, the Thornton, Colo., native also acknowledges that his success stems from his linemates, who form the most potent trio in the NAHL.
Initially, Cardwell and Everett were paired together with another forward, but Bowkus added Salazar to the top line in the preseason after watching the three develop on the power-play unit.
Salazar had played with Everett on a line together last year before Everett was injured, which hastened the transition.
“That definitely helped because you know what type of player Everett is,” said Salazar, who also calls Cardwell one of, if not the best player in the league. “Grant’s so good in the corners with the puck. I knew that beforehand, so I could take risks.”
Salazar is the smallest guy on the Wildcats, weighing in at 155 pounds and standing 5-7. But that hasn’t stopped him from getting to the right places to score goals.
“His stature hasn’t hindered him whatsoever,” Bowkus said. “I’m sure he’d like to be taller, but he’s a legitimate Division I talent.”
From fourth line winger to top league prospect — not so unbelievable after all.
The Wichita Falls Wildcats (NAHL) forward willingly admits no one could have forecasted the kind of season he’s enjoying right now.
“If someone told me I would score 30 goals all year, I would have thought I was dreaming,” the NAHL’s second-leading goal scorer said. “And 50 points all year? I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Salazar has turned heads across the junior hockey landscape, blossoming into one of the league’s most dangerous sharpshooters in his second season with the Wildcats. His 32 goals trail only St. Louis’ Kyle O’Kane (34) for the league lead, and Salazar is also third in points.
“I knew he had it in him,” said Wildcats captain Adam Cardwell, who centers a line with Grant Everett and Salazar. “He just needed the confidence and another year under his belt, and he’d take off.”
Cardwell and Wichita Falls coach John Bowkus both agreed the biggest difference in Salazar’s game this season isn’t any drastic improvement in skill, but more self-assurance in his ability.
A year ago, he played in all but one game with the Wildcats, scoring 10 goals and amassing 23 points while showing flashes of brilliance.
But that’s nothing compared to the 2007-08 season, as the 19-year-old has already tripled his production with 14 games to spare.
“He’s got a lot more confidence,” Cardwell said. “He makes good decisions, and he’s looking to shoot and score more goals.”
Bowkus adds that Salazar uses his quickness and speed well, and that his vision and puck-handling abilities are superb.
While his growth on the ice is one reason for his breakout campaign, the Thornton, Colo., native also acknowledges that his success stems from his linemates, who form the most potent trio in the NAHL.
Initially, Cardwell and Everett were paired together with another forward, but Bowkus added Salazar to the top line in the preseason after watching the three develop on the power-play unit.
Salazar had played with Everett on a line together last year before Everett was injured, which hastened the transition.
“That definitely helped because you know what type of player Everett is,” said Salazar, who also calls Cardwell one of, if not the best player in the league. “Grant’s so good in the corners with the puck. I knew that beforehand, so I could take risks.”
Salazar is the smallest guy on the Wildcats, weighing in at 155 pounds and standing 5-7. But that hasn’t stopped him from getting to the right places to score goals.
“His stature hasn’t hindered him whatsoever,” Bowkus said. “I’m sure he’d like to be taller, but he’s a legitimate Division I talent.”
From fourth line winger to top league prospect — not so unbelievable after all.
Friday, March 7, 2008
The Escalating College Hockey Arms Race
From: USCHO.comby Gerald Skoning
The rosters of Division I college hockey teams consist almost entirely of players who have spent a year or two playing for “junior” hockey clubs. Only a very few players on these Division I clubs have entered college directly out of high school. As a result, the quality of college hockey has been enhanced, but this improvement has had a negative impact on the “student” part of the vaunted student-athlete experience.
The mother of a freshman hockey star for an ECAC team candidly expressed her dismay after watching her son’s team lose to another perennial ECAC powerhouse by a score of 3-2. Her concern wasn’t over the team’s loss on the ice, but rather over her son’s academic difficulties.
I had asked her how he was doing in the classroom his first term in college. She sighed, “Unfortunately, he’s really struggling. He was an ‘A’ student in high school, graduating near the top his class. We were so proud of his academic success. But, then he was away from the classroom for a whole year while he played 75 games in Juniors for the Flin Flon Bombers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. He’s a better hockey player for it, but he is really rusty with the books.”
It’s a familiar story for many families of kids who aspire to Division I hockey. The rosters of most every Division I hockey program are filled with kids who played in Alberta (AJHL), Ontario (CJHL), Sioux City, Iowa (USHL), or British Columbia (BCHL). They range from 20- or 21-year-old freshmen to 24-year-old seniors who are stronger, faster, smarter and much older hockey players than those who just graduated from high school.
They play a year or two in juniors in the hopes of improving their recruitment opportunities and perhaps landing full-ride scholarships at one of the traditional college hockey powerhouses like North Dakota, Wisconsin, or Michigan. Most likely, their dreams also include a high NHL draft position, based in part on their experience in juniors.
Junior programs are a Canadian tradition as iconic as the Mounties or the Maple Leaf. Long before college hockey teams in the U.S. began recruiting heavily out of juniors, those programs attracted Canadian players with NHL aspirations. Juniors rivalries provided a live hockey entertainment alternative to the infamous “Hockey Night in Canada” broadcasts on CBC on long winter nights in small towns dotting the frozen tundra of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.
Today, college hockey coaches love the junior programs. They recruit players who are battle-tested, and whose skills have been polished beyond the rough-edged talent seen in high school hockey. To college coaches, it’s like having a farm team system from which to draw a talented roster. College coaches regularly tell talented high school recruits to defer admission for a year or two for some seasoning and development in the juniors. A ready-made farm system.
Also, the pervasive junior program makes recruiting college hockey players much easier for coaches. Instead of screening hockey recruits from hundreds of high schools scattered across the United States and Canada, college hockey coaches have a ready-made, pre-screened pool of candidates. This cuts down on recruiting travel and expense … one-stop shopping in the USHL, AJHL, BCHL, and so on.
On so many levels this system is hard to argue with. Of course, parents love the juniors as well. To them, it may save the family a staggering tuition bill of up to $45 thousand per year. For them, delaying college for a year or even two is well worth the personal sacrifice their kids make in playing a 70- to 80-game season (or two) in remote regions of the Canadian wilderness.
The number of players on a college hockey roster who have come directly from high school has dwindled to a precious few. The two or three who do play varsity Division I hockey have become mere tokens, for all intents and purposes. But they are players for whom the academic challenges of higher education will be less daunting since they were enrolled in school the entire year before entering college.
How did we get to this point? When did this new, higher level of professionalism creep into the wonderful game of college hockey? Other major college sports like football, basketball and baseball have no such junior programs to groom their athletes. There are no “junior” football or basketball programs to develop and burnish young talent (although some may claim junior colleges occasionally serve that purpose). Yet the quality of play on college gridirons and basketball courts in the United States is remarkably strong. Why is ice hockey different?
Maybe it relates to the NHL aspirations of the hockey player or the hockey parents, or both. Or, perhaps it’s the lure of full-ride athletic scholarships that motivates the kids to make this enormous personal sacrifice.
One wonders if it is possible to “unring the bell” and return to recruitment of student-athletes for college hockey directly out of high school. Of course, no college hockey coach is likely to be the first unilaterally to spurn recruiting those hot junior hockey prospects. Such a move would be wildly unpopular with alumni, fans, current players looking for talented freshmen to bolster championship prospects, and students who long for a national championship.
A coach refusing to recruit junior hockey prospects would be as unpopular as a U.S. president deciding unilaterally to eliminate our country’s nuclear arsenal. The coach who unilaterally decides it’s important to the student-athlete to return to recruiting directly out of high school would be summarily fired and ridden out of town on a rail.
The issue is worthy of attention by the entire college hockey community. Colleges and universities that recruit predominantly from various junior hockey programs should recognize the academic sacrifices their recruiting practices perpetuate.
The NCAA should study the issue of the increasing dominance of junior hockey recruiting to determine whether it would be feasible to impose a uniform nationwide stand-down in this increasingly competitive juniors arms race, and return to recruiting athletes directly out of high school. This might go a long way toward putting the “student” back in the student-athlete equation.
Mr. Skoning is a Chicago attorney who specializes in labor and employment law. He was captain of the 1964 Princeton University hockey team (which did not win the Ivy League championship, as this year’s team did for the first time in 55 years). While attending the University of Michigan Law School, he was assistant captain of a team sponsored by Jiffy Mix Company, consisting of several Michigan players from their 1963 NCAA championship team. The Jiffy team, which played in the International Metro League based in Southern Ontario, won the Michigan State Amateur Championship in 1966 and the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1967. After service as an officer in the U.S. Navy, he played for 10 years with the Chicago Cardinals of the Continental Hockey League.
The mother of a freshman hockey star for an ECAC team candidly expressed her dismay after watching her son’s team lose to another perennial ECAC powerhouse by a score of 3-2. Her concern wasn’t over the team’s loss on the ice, but rather over her son’s academic difficulties.
I had asked her how he was doing in the classroom his first term in college. She sighed, “Unfortunately, he’s really struggling. He was an ‘A’ student in high school, graduating near the top his class. We were so proud of his academic success. But, then he was away from the classroom for a whole year while he played 75 games in Juniors for the Flin Flon Bombers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. He’s a better hockey player for it, but he is really rusty with the books.”
It’s a familiar story for many families of kids who aspire to Division I hockey. The rosters of most every Division I hockey program are filled with kids who played in Alberta (AJHL), Ontario (CJHL), Sioux City, Iowa (USHL), or British Columbia (BCHL). They range from 20- or 21-year-old freshmen to 24-year-old seniors who are stronger, faster, smarter and much older hockey players than those who just graduated from high school.
They play a year or two in juniors in the hopes of improving their recruitment opportunities and perhaps landing full-ride scholarships at one of the traditional college hockey powerhouses like North Dakota, Wisconsin, or Michigan. Most likely, their dreams also include a high NHL draft position, based in part on their experience in juniors.
Junior programs are a Canadian tradition as iconic as the Mounties or the Maple Leaf. Long before college hockey teams in the U.S. began recruiting heavily out of juniors, those programs attracted Canadian players with NHL aspirations. Juniors rivalries provided a live hockey entertainment alternative to the infamous “Hockey Night in Canada” broadcasts on CBC on long winter nights in small towns dotting the frozen tundra of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.
Today, college hockey coaches love the junior programs. They recruit players who are battle-tested, and whose skills have been polished beyond the rough-edged talent seen in high school hockey. To college coaches, it’s like having a farm team system from which to draw a talented roster. College coaches regularly tell talented high school recruits to defer admission for a year or two for some seasoning and development in the juniors. A ready-made farm system.
Also, the pervasive junior program makes recruiting college hockey players much easier for coaches. Instead of screening hockey recruits from hundreds of high schools scattered across the United States and Canada, college hockey coaches have a ready-made, pre-screened pool of candidates. This cuts down on recruiting travel and expense … one-stop shopping in the USHL, AJHL, BCHL, and so on.
On so many levels this system is hard to argue with. Of course, parents love the juniors as well. To them, it may save the family a staggering tuition bill of up to $45 thousand per year. For them, delaying college for a year or even two is well worth the personal sacrifice their kids make in playing a 70- to 80-game season (or two) in remote regions of the Canadian wilderness.
The number of players on a college hockey roster who have come directly from high school has dwindled to a precious few. The two or three who do play varsity Division I hockey have become mere tokens, for all intents and purposes. But they are players for whom the academic challenges of higher education will be less daunting since they were enrolled in school the entire year before entering college.
How did we get to this point? When did this new, higher level of professionalism creep into the wonderful game of college hockey? Other major college sports like football, basketball and baseball have no such junior programs to groom their athletes. There are no “junior” football or basketball programs to develop and burnish young talent (although some may claim junior colleges occasionally serve that purpose). Yet the quality of play on college gridirons and basketball courts in the United States is remarkably strong. Why is ice hockey different?
Maybe it relates to the NHL aspirations of the hockey player or the hockey parents, or both. Or, perhaps it’s the lure of full-ride athletic scholarships that motivates the kids to make this enormous personal sacrifice.
One wonders if it is possible to “unring the bell” and return to recruitment of student-athletes for college hockey directly out of high school. Of course, no college hockey coach is likely to be the first unilaterally to spurn recruiting those hot junior hockey prospects. Such a move would be wildly unpopular with alumni, fans, current players looking for talented freshmen to bolster championship prospects, and students who long for a national championship.
A coach refusing to recruit junior hockey prospects would be as unpopular as a U.S. president deciding unilaterally to eliminate our country’s nuclear arsenal. The coach who unilaterally decides it’s important to the student-athlete to return to recruiting directly out of high school would be summarily fired and ridden out of town on a rail.
The issue is worthy of attention by the entire college hockey community. Colleges and universities that recruit predominantly from various junior hockey programs should recognize the academic sacrifices their recruiting practices perpetuate.
The NCAA should study the issue of the increasing dominance of junior hockey recruiting to determine whether it would be feasible to impose a uniform nationwide stand-down in this increasingly competitive juniors arms race, and return to recruiting athletes directly out of high school. This might go a long way toward putting the “student” back in the student-athlete equation.
Mr. Skoning is a Chicago attorney who specializes in labor and employment law. He was captain of the 1964 Princeton University hockey team (which did not win the Ivy League championship, as this year’s team did for the first time in 55 years). While attending the University of Michigan Law School, he was assistant captain of a team sponsored by Jiffy Mix Company, consisting of several Michigan players from their 1963 NCAA championship team. The Jiffy team, which played in the International Metro League based in Southern Ontario, won the Michigan State Amateur Championship in 1966 and the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1967. After service as an officer in the U.S. Navy, he played for 10 years with the Chicago Cardinals of the Continental Hockey League.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
The Good Olde Daze
(left) You'd think that one DU student would be able to figure out how to throw a rubber chicken on the ice without getting caught this weekend for old times sakeFrom: Colorado Springs Gazette
by David Ramsey
Once, not so long ago, players who battled in the Colorado College-University of Denver hockey series dodged animals, dead and alive.
These were good times, at least in the view of Cal Sandbeck.
He was blessed with a great view of the insane era of the CC-DU hockey series. He served as a tough defenseman for DU from 1974 to 1978.
On one visit to The Broadmoor Arena, Sandbeck swears he saw a black swan, greased pigs and rats tossed on the ice. All were alive. Three fights broke out, and a referee was knocked groggy trying to restore peace.
All in one night. And, yes, CC and DU somehow managed to play a hockey game amid the anarchy.
The Tigers and Pioneers tangle Friday night at DU and travel to World Arena for Saturday’s regular-season finale. Friday marks the 266th meeting in a wild, wonderful series that stretches back to 1950.
The ridiculous, borderline criminal flavor of the series is gone. Fans still shout mean, at times obscene, words, but decline to toss beasts on the ice.
“I don’t think the rivalry is quite the same,” Sandbeck said, regret in his voice.
He now enjoys a peaceful life as owner of the Dog Bar and Grill in Cuchara, nestled two hours south of Colorado Springs in the Spanish Peaks.
Yet he enjoys returning to the nights when students didn’t travel to the arena to watch a game. They came to party.
“It wasn’t so much about the hockey, but the atmosphere,” Sandbeck said. “But, oh, I loved it. The more fans were involved, the more fun it was as a player. It was just part of having fun.”
CC coach Scott Owens isn’t quite as nostalgic as Sandbeck, which makes sense. Getting hit in the shoulder by a frozen chicken can leave a mental tattoo on any man.
During the 1978-79 season, CC goaltender Owens stood in front of the net at the old DU Arena, which closely resembled a barn.
He was minding his own business, when some bright light in the DU student section tossed a chicken that crashed into Owens’ shoulder.
Owens looked around, saw a chicken with its head, another without its head and a fish with a beady eye that kept staring at him. He wasn’t even surprised by the carnage.
Just another mad night in the CC-DU series.
“It wasn’t a deal that you would throw your stick in the air and start howling,” Owens said. “There was a lot of that stuff going on.”
Owens wants to make one thing clear. He doesn’t want to see animals, dead or alive, on the ice this weekend. Still, he’s not sure he would change the past.
“Sure, it was borderline idiotic,” he said from his office at World Arena, “but, ah, I don’t know. It’s a fine line between borderline idiotic and humorous.”
Owens insists he no longer seethes with hatred for all things DU. He takes care to mention his “respect” for the Pioneers.
This word inspires laughter from Dave Delich, CC’s all-time leading scorer. Delich roomed with Owens at CC and remains a close friend. They eat lunch several times a month.
“Respect?” Delich said, chuckling. “Oh, sure. I’m sure Scott has a distant respect for them.” He placed heavy emphasis on the word “distant.”
He clearly remembers a moment from the 1975-76 season. CC goaltender Eddie Mio was briefly knocked silly at DU by — what else? — a frozen chicken tossed from the student bleachers.
Delich helped carry a mumbling Mio to the CC bench. He skated along, dodging dead animals, listening to jeers from the crowd that supported his enemy.
He hasn’t forgotten. He never will.
“It’s that one special place,” Delich said. “I will never feel comfortable on that campus.”
Delich looks forward to watching Saturday’s game at World Arena.
Friday night at DU?
For some reason, he can’t quite bring himself to make the trip.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Stastny Featured In ESPN Magazine Article
From: ESPN The Magazineby Jeff Bradley
The old man is tough, but he could have been a lot tougher.
You think you have it bad? You grew up in big houses in St. Louis and the New Jersey suburbs; I shared a one-bedroom apartment with four brothers and a sister. You gripe about cell phone reception; I worried about my phone calls being wiretapped! You complain, period. I wasn't allowed to complain until I escaped Czechoslovakia 27 years ago!
Paul Stastny, budding NHL star, hasn't heard these exact words from his dad, but that doesn't mean that Peter Stastny, legendary NHL star, isn't paying attention. Peter, after all, is a Hall of Fame forward renowned as much for focus and attention to detail over 15 NHL seasons as for his 450 goals, 789 assists and daring 1980 defection. In many ways, Peter's decision to leave home and country cleared the ice for an era of Eastern European stars in the NHL. But his escape also allowed his talented son to grow up playing the game as it should be played—for fun. Turns out, that may be the way to set up Gen Next for a shot at greatness.
Twenty-two sons of NHL Hall of Famers have gone on to skate in the bigs, but only a handful developed into stars. In fact, most sons of greatness are more Pete Rose Jr. than Sr.
Maybe it's those famous names on their backs (and, in Paul's case, the same number). Maybe it's a lack of talent or drive. Maybe it's the unrealistic expectations. Or maybe it's just the heckling from fans jealous of the multiply blessed. "You've got to try to block it out," says Paul, a laid-back 22-year-old. "But it's not always easy."
Paul learned early how to filter out taunts and other harsh comments, which served him nicely while he learned the game under the pointed guidance of his father—who still calls when he sees the kid lose the puck or spectate on the penalty kill—and later when he first skated into an NHL arena. And just as Paul can block out the tone of Peter's voice so he can concentrate on the wisdom, so too can he laugh off a coach's tirade and trust his own talent.
Yes, that talent. Paul does not possess jaw-dropping moves or blazing speed, but he's preternaturally economical when he traverses the ice. Somehow he gets there, before fans or foes think he will. That efficiency earned him serious time on the Avs penalty kill and man advantage. The game's movements, the split-second decisions about where to be and when to get there, are second nature to him. (Avs coach Joel Quenneville marvels at how "the puck just finds him.") And those who saw Peter watch Paul and say, "We know where that came from."
Joe Sakic, who called himself "officially old" when he became the first to play with both Peter (on the 1988-89 Nordiques) and Paul, is amazed at the similarities. "They're built the same," the Avs captain says. "Both are powerful skaters. And they look the same. Paul wears the same type of skates his dad wore, all beat-up and old-school, and uses the same old wood stick."
Peter says the resemblance goes deeper, that the game is in his son's blood. He sees instinct in Paul's effortless ability to ghost himself into the play, in the angles of his passes and the paths he takes when he plays without the puck. Says Dad: "I don't like to boast, but when I watch Paul, it's like watching myself." Peter also believes his son was born to be a center. "You have to have those instincts and qualities to anticipate and to know how to react," he says. "You cannot teach what he has." Will Paul ever be as good as his father? "I think he will be better," says Peter.
He's definitely different, at least in one key way: Paul says he'll never match Peter's intensity, and that may be another reason he's succeeded where other sons have failed. "My dad is the kind of guy who can't live with mistakes," says Paul. "He'll beat himself up over the smallest error. I can't play well unless I'm having fun. My dad loved to play hockey, but it became a job for him at a young age. For me, there's more to life than hockey."
These days, that goes for the father as well as the son. Peter is out of hockey now. Since 2004 he has represented Slovakia in the European Parliament and lives in his hometown of Bratislava. Some 18 years after communism's fall, Peter is trying to help the country he left—and never stopped loving—find its democratic footing. He's got a lot going on in his life, and a lot of stories to tell. About how he, his wife and his brother sneaked out a side door of the Innsbruck Holiday Inn in the middle of the night, hopped into a Mercedes driven by a representative of the Nordiques and sped toward Vienna and the Canadian embassy. About how he taught himself to speak French (the language of Quebec City) and English (the language of the locker room) within a couple of years of arriving in the NHL. About how he responded to any player who dared call him a "commie" without a ref's seeing the payback. The man who scored more points in the 1980s than any other player not named Gretzky can tell how he was asked to carry Slovakia's flag at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics and could not contain his tears, then scored five goals in eight games for his country.
Still, the best story is what's happening on the ice in Denver (and St. Louis, where 25-year-old Yan Stastny just got a call-up to the Blues). The Avs are fighting for a playoff spot, and Paul leads the team in scoring with 50 points in 47 games. The kid has been benched recently by an emergency surgery (appendix) and a groin pull, but Peter likes the direction the boy's career is heading. "Leaving Czechoslovakia was the best decision in my life," he says. "The hardest, but also the best. And the biggest beneficiaries are my children. Watching them is my greatest thrill."
Paul smiles when told that, exposing a gaping hole where a tooth once lived. "Believe me," the son says. "He's not too thrilled when I play like garbage. He can be tough."
But he could have been a lot tougher.
You think you have it bad? You grew up in big houses in St. Louis and the New Jersey suburbs; I shared a one-bedroom apartment with four brothers and a sister. You gripe about cell phone reception; I worried about my phone calls being wiretapped! You complain, period. I wasn't allowed to complain until I escaped Czechoslovakia 27 years ago!
Paul Stastny, budding NHL star, hasn't heard these exact words from his dad, but that doesn't mean that Peter Stastny, legendary NHL star, isn't paying attention. Peter, after all, is a Hall of Fame forward renowned as much for focus and attention to detail over 15 NHL seasons as for his 450 goals, 789 assists and daring 1980 defection. In many ways, Peter's decision to leave home and country cleared the ice for an era of Eastern European stars in the NHL. But his escape also allowed his talented son to grow up playing the game as it should be played—for fun. Turns out, that may be the way to set up Gen Next for a shot at greatness.
Twenty-two sons of NHL Hall of Famers have gone on to skate in the bigs, but only a handful developed into stars. In fact, most sons of greatness are more Pete Rose Jr. than Sr.
Maybe it's those famous names on their backs (and, in Paul's case, the same number). Maybe it's a lack of talent or drive. Maybe it's the unrealistic expectations. Or maybe it's just the heckling from fans jealous of the multiply blessed. "You've got to try to block it out," says Paul, a laid-back 22-year-old. "But it's not always easy."
Paul learned early how to filter out taunts and other harsh comments, which served him nicely while he learned the game under the pointed guidance of his father—who still calls when he sees the kid lose the puck or spectate on the penalty kill—and later when he first skated into an NHL arena. And just as Paul can block out the tone of Peter's voice so he can concentrate on the wisdom, so too can he laugh off a coach's tirade and trust his own talent.
Yes, that talent. Paul does not possess jaw-dropping moves or blazing speed, but he's preternaturally economical when he traverses the ice. Somehow he gets there, before fans or foes think he will. That efficiency earned him serious time on the Avs penalty kill and man advantage. The game's movements, the split-second decisions about where to be and when to get there, are second nature to him. (Avs coach Joel Quenneville marvels at how "the puck just finds him.") And those who saw Peter watch Paul and say, "We know where that came from."
Joe Sakic, who called himself "officially old" when he became the first to play with both Peter (on the 1988-89 Nordiques) and Paul, is amazed at the similarities. "They're built the same," the Avs captain says. "Both are powerful skaters. And they look the same. Paul wears the same type of skates his dad wore, all beat-up and old-school, and uses the same old wood stick."
Peter says the resemblance goes deeper, that the game is in his son's blood. He sees instinct in Paul's effortless ability to ghost himself into the play, in the angles of his passes and the paths he takes when he plays without the puck. Says Dad: "I don't like to boast, but when I watch Paul, it's like watching myself." Peter also believes his son was born to be a center. "You have to have those instincts and qualities to anticipate and to know how to react," he says. "You cannot teach what he has." Will Paul ever be as good as his father? "I think he will be better," says Peter.
He's definitely different, at least in one key way: Paul says he'll never match Peter's intensity, and that may be another reason he's succeeded where other sons have failed. "My dad is the kind of guy who can't live with mistakes," says Paul. "He'll beat himself up over the smallest error. I can't play well unless I'm having fun. My dad loved to play hockey, but it became a job for him at a young age. For me, there's more to life than hockey."
These days, that goes for the father as well as the son. Peter is out of hockey now. Since 2004 he has represented Slovakia in the European Parliament and lives in his hometown of Bratislava. Some 18 years after communism's fall, Peter is trying to help the country he left—and never stopped loving—find its democratic footing. He's got a lot going on in his life, and a lot of stories to tell. About how he, his wife and his brother sneaked out a side door of the Innsbruck Holiday Inn in the middle of the night, hopped into a Mercedes driven by a representative of the Nordiques and sped toward Vienna and the Canadian embassy. About how he taught himself to speak French (the language of Quebec City) and English (the language of the locker room) within a couple of years of arriving in the NHL. About how he responded to any player who dared call him a "commie" without a ref's seeing the payback. The man who scored more points in the 1980s than any other player not named Gretzky can tell how he was asked to carry Slovakia's flag at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics and could not contain his tears, then scored five goals in eight games for his country.
Still, the best story is what's happening on the ice in Denver (and St. Louis, where 25-year-old Yan Stastny just got a call-up to the Blues). The Avs are fighting for a playoff spot, and Paul leads the team in scoring with 50 points in 47 games. The kid has been benched recently by an emergency surgery (appendix) and a groin pull, but Peter likes the direction the boy's career is heading. "Leaving Czechoslovakia was the best decision in my life," he says. "The hardest, but also the best. And the biggest beneficiaries are my children. Watching them is my greatest thrill."
Paul smiles when told that, exposing a gaping hole where a tooth once lived. "Believe me," the son says. "He's not too thrilled when I play like garbage. He can be tough."
But he could have been a lot tougher.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
DU Alum Goes From The Supermarket To The NHL
(above) DU Alum Connor James is congratulated by teammates after scoring his first NHL goalVideo of Connor's First NHL Goal
From: Pittsburgh Post Gazette
by Dave Molinari
DU Alum Connor James scored his first NHL goal last night for the Pittsburgh Penguins after being called up from the AHL earlier in the day. His goal made it 4-1 Pittsburgh, with 3:02 left in the game.
The Penguins had summoned forwards Connor James and Nathan Smith from their minor-league team in Wilkes-Barre so they could field a 20-man lineup, but those two did not arrive until the middle of the second period.
Mind you, it was worth the trip for James, who scored his first career NHL goal just hours after getting his promotion to the NHL over a supermarket intercom.
Turns out his cell phone had broken earlier in the day and James, just back in northeast Pennsylvania after a brief stint with the Penguins, was grocery shopping when the team got word he was being recalled.
He was checking out steaks when Baby Penguins coach Todd Richards contacted the store and had James paged on the public-address system so he could tell him that he had 20 minutes to get ready for a trip to Long Island.
"It was kind of weird," James said.
Yeah, just a bit.
James and Smith were driven to the game by Baby Penguins executive Jeff Barrett but, because of heavy traffic and foul weather, didn't reach the arena until the first intermission, and did not make it onto the ice until the game was half over.
The Penguins defeated the New York Islanders, 4-2.
The Penguins had summoned forwards Connor James and Nathan Smith from their minor-league team in Wilkes-Barre so they could field a 20-man lineup, but those two did not arrive until the middle of the second period.
Mind you, it was worth the trip for James, who scored his first career NHL goal just hours after getting his promotion to the NHL over a supermarket intercom.
Turns out his cell phone had broken earlier in the day and James, just back in northeast Pennsylvania after a brief stint with the Penguins, was grocery shopping when the team got word he was being recalled.
He was checking out steaks when Baby Penguins coach Todd Richards contacted the store and had James paged on the public-address system so he could tell him that he had 20 minutes to get ready for a trip to Long Island.
"It was kind of weird," James said.
Yeah, just a bit.
James and Smith were driven to the game by Baby Penguins executive Jeff Barrett but, because of heavy traffic and foul weather, didn't reach the arena until the first intermission, and did not make it onto the ice until the game was half over.
The Penguins defeated the New York Islanders, 4-2.
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