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.

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.

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 head

Today 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.

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."

Vail Celebrates Testwuide's Captaincy At DU

From: Vail Daily
by 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.”

WCHA Coaches Catfight Over Verbal Commitments

(left) George Gwozdecky & Gophers Coach Don Lucia don't see eye to eye on the issue of verbal commitments

From: 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.”

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.

Denver Frozen Four Begins Today

(above) BC practices at the Pepsi Center yesterday

DU Recruit Is Excelling On Ice & In Classroom

(above) Joe Colborne (#12) has NHL scouts drooling

From: Edmonton Sunby Jonathan Huntington

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.

Brookwell Finally Has A Puck For "The Plaque"

(above) DU's Cody Brookwell (#12) takes down UND's Matt Watkins earlier this season

From: 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.”

DU Wins Final Five Over Minnesota

(above) Senior Tom May scored the game winner Saturday night

From: Denver Post
by 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.

DU's Newest Recruit Is A Classic Late Bloomer

(above) Wichita forward Luke Salazar (10) skates into the offensive zone

Photo 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 Escalating College Hockey Arms Race

From: USCHO.com
by 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 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 sake

From: 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.

Stastny Featured In ESPN Magazine Article

From: ESPN The Magazine
by 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.

DU Alum Goes From The Supermarket To The NHL

(above) DU Alum Connor James is congratulated by teammates after scoring his first NHL goal

Video 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.