Meanwhile, at the developmental level, the news is big and bold and boundless: great young hockey players are coming from all across the country, including two Californians tabbed in the first round the the NHL Entry Draft this past June.  A couple of years ago I was seated next to an NHL scout up in Hershey at a Bears’ game, and this scout — a Canadian — told me that if the U.S. ever expanded its talent base to population-rich, athlete-generating factory locales like California and Texas, all bets at the biggest international tourneys would be off. Late this summer I’m wondering: are we at that dawning?

More: two new clubs are debuting this fall in the United States Hockey League, the Dubuque Fighting Saints and the Muskegon Lumberjacks. That brings the 9-year-old Tier I league up to 16 teams, scattered throughout the heartland, each playing 60 games through fall and winter. Last season, the 14-team league boasted nearly 250 players already committed to NCAA Division I  schools, with 35 NHL draft picks on league rosters. It’s where the United States National Development Team Program showcases our country’s best under-20 players. The USHL is the nation’s foremost producer of junior hockey talent, and it’s growing in size and prestige.

Christopher Heimerman is the brand new communications director and broadcaster for the Lumberjacks, and earlier this summer he reached out to us with some kind words for the blog and an interest in sharing the startup team’s terrific story. Muskegon, long a home to minor-minor pro hockey, is set to host a big upgrade in the quality of on-ice product.  Take a look at what the Muskegon Chronicle reported about a tryout camp the team hosted back in June:

“Mike Hastings has been so impressed by what he’s seen the first two days of the Muskegon Lumberjacks’ tryout camp, he just might alter his travel plans to stay one more day. Hastings, an associated head coach at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, would like to stick around for the all-star game at 8 p.m. today. After three days of scrimmaging, the 104 players will be pared down to about 40.

“Out of all the camps I’ve seen so far, this has been the most impressive as far as talent,” Hastings said.

Muskegon, located at about the knuckle of your pinky in the left hand’s acknowledgment of the state’s layout, has a rich hockey heritage. Pro hockey has been played there for 50 years, since 1960, until the IHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks disbanded earlier this year, in the IHL’s merger with the Central Hockey League.  To honor minor pro hockey’s 50-year history in Muskegon, Josh Mervis, the owner of the new USHL club in town, decided his franchise would retain the Lumberjacks’ team name, which honors the huge number of sawmills that characterized the city back when it was known as the ‘Lumber Queen of the World.’  The Lumberjacks represent the first Michigan franchise in the USHL.  They’ll be coached by Kevin Patrick, a former defenseman and captain of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The team will play in L.C. Walker Arena, an old-school bowl of a building perfect for puck, built in the 1950s, placing patrons right on top of the action. The rink holds 5,000-plus for this community of 40,000 and has been home to all of Muskegon’s hockey teams over the years — the Zephyrs, the Mohawks, the Lumberjacks, the Fury, and then the Lumberjacks again. The Lumberjacks name has emerged as the durable tribute to the town. Ownership and management of the USHL club are taking pains to make the transition of teams as seamless as possible. Heimerman told me that the USHL team’s uniforms will bear a striking resemblance to its predecessor.

“This community has had teams come and go, and the hockey fans here are understandably resistant to change,” Heimerman told me. “Beginning next month the quality of product they’ll see on the ice will be fantastic. We very much want a familiar look and feel in the building and in the colors and crest our players wear.”

Heimerman also stressed the involvement his players will have in the Muskegon community. The players began arriving in town for fall camp this past weekend. All of the players will be attending Muskegon Community College or Grand Valley State University, and they’ll be conspicuous in their presence in the community. “They are going to be role models here,” Heimerman told me. “They’ll be treated like stars, but they’ll oblige every request for autographs.”

And they’ll have a special coming out party. The team’s first-ever game, in the preseason, will take place September 12 in Detroit, at Joe Louis Arena, when the Lumberjacks square off against the Chicago Steel.

American kids, playing great hockey in a hockey town, making up a big chunk of the town’s fall and winter entertainment. A few of them will make careers of hockey. All will get a college education out of the arrangement. What’s not to like?

A very winning culture on the farm

Barely a month ago, the town of Hershey was ensconced in celebration.  Again. A fitting conclusion to the best season in AHL history — and arguably one of the greatest in all of hockey — the Bears hoisted the club’s 11^th Calder Cup.

But the revelry was short-lived.  Just days after the boys in Chocolate and White captured the AHL crown, the team quietly dispersed, its members scattering to their respective hometowns.  Shortly thereafter, the mood in Chocolatetown shifted to one of anxiety and anticipation.  No secret: there would be notable graduations from this championship Bears’ club to the parent in Washington. And with free agency looming a mere two weeks away, Hershey braced itself for the inevitable depletion of its roster.

Last year’s squad saw 19 members of the 2009 championship team return, including its captain, top two scorers, and starting goaltender.  Despite the expected turnover of players as is customary in minor league affiliates, Hershey’s roster remained largely intact.  The Bears did not escape unscathed this offseason, however.

The first casualty came well before the start of free agency, as European sources reported that playoff MVP Chris Bourque had signed with HK Atlant of the KHL on June 23.  Although Bourque called the claims “premature” at the time, he failed to sign his qualifying offer from Washington prior to the July 15 deadline.  The Russia-bound 24-year-old was the only member of the team to earn a Calder Cup ring in each of the Bears’ last three Cup runs.  One skater does not a winning team make, but the loss does strike a significant blow to the Hershey offense, especially the power play.

Next to depart was centerman Kyle Wilson, who inked a two-way deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets on July 2.

The following day the Bears’ offense was further crippled when goal scorer extraordinaire Alexandre Giroux signed a one-way contract with the Edmonton Oilers.  In the past two seasons Giroux potted 139 goals and added 113 helpers en route to Hershey’s consecutive Calder Cups.  He and linemate Keith Aucoin sat atop the AHL in points the past two seasons, with each claiming a league scoring title—Giroux in 2009, Aucoin in 2010.

With Giroux moving on and East Division foe Wilkes-Barre/Scranton already overflowing with big-ticket players courtesy of parent  Pittsburgh, the Bears appeared to be in trouble.  By early July the only player acquired was veteran goaltender Dany Sabourin, and the lack of moves early in the free agency period left many questioning the resolve of the organization. A couple of weeks later, not so much.

John Walton, voice of the Bears and communications guru, assured the skeptics that management was not idle while the rest of the league appeared busy.

On July 7, the team announced that left wing Kyle Greentree and defenseman Brian Fahey had both signed with Washington.  Both proven performers at the AHL level, Greentree is expected to provide offensive prowess, while Fahey boasts better than 400 AHL games (regular season and playoffs combined) in his career, as well as a Calder Cup with Chicago in 2008.

The Chocolate and White bolstered the blueline the following day, as Lawrence Nycholat signed with the Bears.  An integral part of Hershey’s Calder Cup run in 2006, Nycholat returns after stints with Binghamton and Manitoba.  Via Tim Leone of the Patriot-News, Head Coach Mark French was pleased with the acquisition.

“Anytime you can add a guy with strong character and experience, especially winning a championship, it benefits your team,” the coach said.

Defenseman Bryan Helmer was not re-signed by the Bears.  Bereft of its captain and lacking veteran leadership, Hershey continued to reload to fill the void.  The club inked former Bear (and Capital) Brian Willsie to a two-way contract on July 14.  He skated in 284 games with the Chocolate and White between 1998-99 and 2002-03, amassing 96 goals and 108 assists in that time.

Walton commended the return of Nycholat and Willsie, saying “[They] are among the best character guys I’ve been around in my nine years here, so to have them back here to help this team win is an incredible boost to our chances next season.”

“The loss of Giroux is a big one, but the addition of Kyle Greentree (a non-vet) and now Willsie makes up for a whole lot of offense,” he added.

“There’s no reason to think that Hershey won’t be at the very top of the league in goal production again next season.”

Concerns for the upcoming season were further eased when five Bears accepted deals with the Capitals on July 15.  Andrew Gordon, Patrick McNeill, Zach Miskovic and Jay Beagle all signed qualifying offers, while Andrew Joudrey earned a two-way deal after playing on a Hershey contract last season.  Miskovic claims a spot on the Bears’ blueline after totaling six goals and 26 points in his rookie year; each of his counterparts is entering his fourth professional season.

Also still under contract through the 2010-11 season are reigning AHL scoring champion Keith Aucoin, Steve Pinizzotto, Mathieu Perreault, Francois Bouchard and defensemen Sean Collins and Patrick Wellar.

Despite the carnage of free agency this offseason, the Bears have responded by once again assembling an enviable array of talent and character.  In addition, there looks to be another infusion of high-end and impact young Capitals’ talents headed Hershey’s way this fall — the likes of perhaps Marcus Johansson, Stefan Della Rovere, Dmitry Kugryshev, and Joe Finley. Come fall, the most storied franchise in the AHL will look to extend its dominance over the league.  Like the New York Yankees the Hershey Bears win and then reload; the juggernaut looks poised to defend its back-to-back championships and will be a formidable force as it contends for the three-peat.

Jess Mikula is a statistician and web writer for the Hershey Bears. She files for OFB intermittently, most especially when we offer her free beer.

Trailing 2-0 well into period three Saturday, Hershey confronted the very real possibility of losing game 6 and facing Jonathon Bernier, one of the best young goaltenders on the planet, in an all-deciding game 7.

Squandered opportunity to eliminate an upstart underdog on home ice. Uber-talented and white hot netminder at the other end of the ice. Skaters in front of him, line after line, committed to playing a collapsing, shot-blocking umbrella in front of their goalie, caring little about attacking at the other end. A huge upset in the brewing. Where have we seen this postseason script before?

Making matters worse, a healthy contingent of Washington media was clogging the Giant Center press box Saturday night, bringing with them very bad playoff Mojo. Consider: Hershey entered play Saturday night boasting a tidy 36-1 record their past 37 games at Giant Center. Nearing the midway mark of the final frame Saturday, the Bears had a goose egg on the scoreboard. I was making plans to follow Sunday’s game 7 in the Giant Center parking lot, via John Walton’s radio call. Hockey friendships can only endure so much bad luck in spring.

But overtime, this postseason, belongs to the Bears. Saturday night marked the eighth time this postseason Hershey had to work overtime. They’ve now won seven of them, thanks to Boyd Kane’s heroics 7:06 into the extra session, his first score of the 2010 postseason. The Bears’ seventh triumph in OT this postseason established a new American League record.

“We play with a different swagger in overtime,” Bears bench boss Mark French said afterward. “I don’t say much to them [in the room awaiting OT]. They seem to know what they’re doing.”

Kane, who’d replaced injured Andrew Gordon on the top Bears’ line, was dropped off it in game 6 in favor of Jay Beagle. It was startling to see the Hershey first unit struggle mightily all night, after spending so much of the past two seasons terrorizing the American League in near 100-points-apiece fashion. Earlier this season a number of writers covering the ‘A’ attributed Gordon’s eye-popping production this season (37 goals, 34 assists) to his feeding like a pilot fish hovering about two Great Whites. To watch Keith Aucoin and Alexandre Giroux Saturday night, however, was to suspect that Gordon was very much the missing cog on the top line.

The Bears skated with discipline Saturday night — they didn’t take a single penalty in any of the four frames. But they did not quite skate with a sense of urgency through 40 minutes. Manchester suffocated and frustrated.  The Bears managed just four shots in the first period, two of them coming in the final 90 seconds.

“They’re very committed defensively,” French noted. “They didn’t care what they generated offensively. If you’re picking a strategy to play against us it’s a pretty good one.”

“When things don’t go our way we seem to get frustrated.”

Part of Hershey’s frustration was self-inflicted: they appeared to over-respect Bernier, passing up wide open shots from prime range in favor of pretty passes seeking sweet scores. In playoff hockey, however, ugly scoring usually wins the beauty contest. The Bears generated no traffic in front of Bernier while skating scoreless through the first two periods. Then came a desperation third period, bringing with it a lunch pail ethos and dirty nose drive and determination.

Giroux got Hershey on the board at 7:37 of the final frame, knocking in a reboound while stationed right in front of Bernier. Patrick McNeill knotted the game up at 2 at 14:09 with a seeing-eye shot from the point — but with Francois Bouchard performing pest-work in front of the Monarchs’ netminder. And in OT, Kane banged home a centering feed from Kyle Wilson from about three feet in front of Bernier. Three goals, all aided by sacrifice and grunt work in front of the crease.

How are great goalies most often beaten in big playoff games? With dirty-nose drive directed at chaos-making about the crease. The Bears on Saturday night needed to endure 40-plus minutes of frightening frustration before they warmed to the workman-like task.

And Hershey’s star performers did what stars must do in tough times. Giroux got the home club ignited. Michal Neuvirth held the fort when it was 2-0 Monarchs and a third Manchester goal could have been lights out. John Carlson and Karl Alzner again shined as Mark French’s top blueline pairing.

“I thought Alex [Giroux] struggled tonight,” French acknowledged. “But great players have the ability to rise at important times.”

Boyd Kane picked a very important time to notch his first goal in these playoffs. A Giant center throng in excess of 10,000, provided with noisemakers upon their arrival, needed none of them to shake the Center roof as Kane’s teammates mobbed him at center ice, yet another Eastern conference title secured.

The French Connection poses with its parking lot posse

If you had his game you could wear this suit too

The series-winning goalie signs . . . and signs . . . and signs

. . . and signs

Lamoriello: “The first thing I want to mention is, under no circumstances did we ever feel that he should not get suspended for an action that he took. If I felt that he should not get suspended, then I deserve any criticism that was put that way. The question that was asked, in my interpretation, was did I think any criminal action should be involved, and I said no. Did I think that any will come about, and I said no again, which I think turned to suspension. So I want to get that clear in every way here, because this is where it was, in my opinion, taken out of context.”

A bit defensive, no? The reality is that most reasonable people reacted to the Cormier attack in a way much different from Lamoriello: with unqualified disgust. No matter what the GM believed was the initial line of inquiry directed at him last week, the moment was too important for his sport for him to pose in an Old Guard kind of way, which is what came across. It wasn’t a moment to slice and dice between league suspensions and a possible role for provincial law enforcement. And even now he’s merely offering qualifiers when hockey needs new leadership on the issue of outbursts of life-threatening violence.

Worse, Lamoriello is coming to the character defense of Cormier.

“In no way do we feel that this incident was indicative of the character of Patrice Cormier. We’ve had him in summer camp, we’ve had him in training camp. His character is not something that he tries to go out and do these things. It’s an unfortunate incident . . . “

Unfortunate indeed. This player is a repeat offender, and with his single worst act on the ice to date, of which there have been many, he expressed no remorse. That’s the only character that counts.

What gives me hope for hockey going forward are the reactions shared here throughout yesterday, by OFB readers. They were typically poignant and deeply reflective, appropriately outraged, and as such gave me a sense that Lamoriello’s was a posture very much out of step with mainstream opinion in this all too important matter. I want to share excerpts of a few of them, the first from a youth league referee, Eric:

“This is one of the things that continually damages the sport. I’ve been reffing for a number of years now and I’ve seen it start to trickle down into younger levels of play. I’ve broken up fights between 6-7 year olds, seen kids the same age retaliate for a “cheap shot”, and also start protecting their goalie.

“They don’t even know where the line is. They’ll go after people who aren’t even close to the goalie, and still call it protecting the goalie. There was one time where the goalie covered the puck by one post, and a player took a run at another kid on the other post, six feet away.

“It’s incidents like this that corrupt the sport, and I don’t see any reason that it’s going to get better. I was very happy to see the league hand down a harsh suspension.”

And from another reader this:

“I was one of the few people who hadn’t seen the clip, mostly because I’ve been avoiding it. All the coverage I’d heard pointed towards the injury contributing substantially to the outrage. I finally watched the clip, intent on judging the hockey play, not the aftermath.

“And this is as cut-and-dry a hit as I’ve seen. Had Tam skated away from this without a scratch, you’d still hear me joining the voices calling for a season-long suspension. Vicious, premeditated head-hunting.

“Where do these kids learn that kind of crap?

In a moment as important as this hockey needs to come together as a community and police itself when its leaders won’t. Outrage enough can deliver the change that’s needed. A tough suspension ought to be merely the starting point for addressing Patrice Cormier and, sadly, behavior that to varying degrees is now replicated throughout youth hockey, if we’re to believe the testimony of officials out on the ice today. I think one merely needs to visit YouTube for corroboration.

So I remain sad and outraged and concerned. But at least I know I’m not alone.

Cormer. a 2008 second-round selection of the New Jersey Devils, is said to “play with an edge,” but what he did to Tam, lining up his opponent in most premeditated fashion, his elbow extended like a battering ram, is no “edginess.” It’s the act of an outlaw, and one who has little other redeeming quality. Hockey as we know it can survive without players like Patrice Cormier in it; I’m not sure it can however with them.

To be clear: we are quite lucky Tam is not dead. What if Cormier had been skating at full speed when he attacked? And if acts of brutality like Cormier’s continue to be met with shocking status quo sentiments like those of Devils’ GM Lou Lamoriello, such violence will continue and even worse — perhaps even fatal — results will follow. Lamoriello is very much part of hockey’s problem here. His indifference to this malignancy on our sport is another form of violence against it.

Hockey I think has at last arrived at a moment where extreme violence can no longer be excused away as a hazard of the trade, or a teaching moment, for we aren’t taking the lessons very well.

I thought Greg Wyshynski hit the framing chord just right in the lead of his discussion of this incident last week:

“It happens during every flashpoint moment of violence in hockey: Shock at the actions, concern for the injured, anger — and some character witness sympathy from peers — aimed at the aggressor, anticipation of a banishment and then either celebration or repudiation of a governing body’s determined punishment for the crime. Rinse and repeat.”

If you’re one of the few who follow the sport who hasn’t seen the attack, there are three brief replays of it in this TSN video. Be advised that the aftermath of Cormier’s crime, which leaves Tam convulsing on the ice, is especially difficult to watch.

We can’t treat Cormier’s crime — against hockey, a fellow hockey player, and civil society — like any other act of senseless violence in our sport. Cormier’s thuggery occurs fairly hard on the heels of another CHL act of neaderthalism: last week the Ontario Hockey League announced a 20-game suspension for Zach Kassian, who drove the head of Windsor’s Matt Kennedy into the boards.

Cormier is a repeat filthy aggressor: he sullies his sport with regularity, embarrassing it in the league he plays and while wearing the sweater of his country. Maybe he’s extreme acting on an ethos hockey has winked and nodded at for 50 or 70 years. Maybe he’s a genuinely unstable individual. It matters not. Hockey must now act to reign in a level of violence that is skating horrifically close to the lethal.

The NHL, predictably, shied away from showing leadership in this moment. Its silence on Cormier is deafening. All of its sanctimony about care for the health of its players must be tempered when juxtaposed by its silence in this matter; after all, the CHL is its lead development pipeline. So we await the sanctions from Q League commissioner Gilles Corteau and hope that leadership arrives from below.

Rigorous infractions reform must be the one good that comes out of this incident. Men who govern our game but who do not represent the old way of doing things (read, Lamoriello) must convene a summit and from it issue a decree against aggressor acts targeting players’ heads that is abided by all levels of development hockey. There is a reason that elbowing is a penalty while shouldering is not. The elbow is a sharp and blunt weapon, not unlike a stick,  that can fairly impale players. Its use is devastating when directed at rib cages, but at heads it can be lethal, and it simply must not be tolerated.

Going forward, there needs to be a rigorous reorientation over players’ use of elbows, or we simply cannot take anything hockey says about concern for head injuries seriously. Elbowing needs to be a 5-minute major in general; its use against heads a first-instance act prescriptive of lengthy suspension. A second, banishment.

Hockey can have beautiful violence. But it cannot have Patrice Comier’s kind.

“It was 108 in the shade Monday — and the Wranglers were getting ready to play another hockey game.
One hundred and eight degrees. Hockey.
That had to be the strangest convergence of diametric entities since Julia Roberts married Lyle Lovett.”

One of the Wranglers told Kantowski that before arriving in Vegas he’d never shot a puck in triple digit temps. Turns out, this is the first time in the history of pro hockey here that a team has played for a championship. The defunct Las Vegas Thunder of the defunct International League never made it to the Turner Cup finals.
In Friday’s newspapers there was talk of how a Wrangler Kelly Cup triumph wouldn’t likely occasion the outpouring of community enthusiasm that UNLV’s national championship winning golf team did a few years back. I know that this is a desert and all, and that golf thrives in warm weather climates, but a parade and screaming locals for a golf team? Did they parade down the Strip in golf carts?
The Wranglers are a Calgary Flames affiliate. Former Caps’ farmhand Chris Ferraro is rostered with the Wranglers, although he’s been out of action since a March 1 cheapshot-punch to the head.
The ‘E’ is 20 years old, and known mostly for its development of tough guys during that time. Still, it’s sent more than 350 players to the NHL. And things may be looking up for the league — NHL teams today are sending well regarded draft picks to develop there.
It was nice to see the local media cover the minor pro hockey team with the enthusiasm it has this week, and it made me wonder about the prospects of bigger things puck here. Las Vegas, after all, is a name you hear associated with a new NHL team. It is a sports-loving city — well, it’s at least a city that follows sports scores very closely!
Boxing of course reigned supreme here until about 1990, then that sport whithered. This made me think: could big-league hockey fill a bit of that sporting void?
There was a story in Thursday’s Sun about three minutes of silence observed Monday afternoon by the Wynn and MGM Grand casinos, in remembrance of the Sichuan earthquake. The memorial pause, it’s estimated, cost the casinos between one and two million dollars in revenue.
In a nook of the Green Valley Ranch’s sprawling and luxurious recreation area sits a secluded enclave known as the Pond. We’ll call it Area 69. It’s shrouded in nearly as much secrecy and intrigue. It’s a layout, a lair, for libertines. It’s where the free-spirited sunbathe sans a full compliment of swimwear. It’s partitioned off from the resort’s larger paradisical pursuits by thick shrubbery, a preponderance of palms, and angled cabana paneling that affords tantalizing glimpses of the overexposed within. Its organization and aura — from fancy waterfall to stylized seclusion to massage mattresses — fairly screams orgy at all hours.
Cursed cool temperatures!
I peered through Area 69′s peeping portals on each stroll past the bacchanalia, not because I’m a voyeur (in the strict technical sense) but rather because of the parlor’s novelty and allure relative to my typical business lodgings.
So Sin City has at least one frozen pond and one filthy one. They seem to coexist just fine.
So let’s talk about expansion.