Hockey Day In America

It's a big Saturday south of the border as the United States of America embraces hockey for one entire day! While I wouldn't quite say that hockey has established itself in the lower 48 states at this point, the fact that NBC is devoting a pile of airtime for hockey and hockey-related stories is quite amazing. Combine that with the Heritage Classic from Calgary, Alberta tonight, and we've got ourselves a pretty solid hockey Sunday! I think what should be kept in mind as you read through this article is that hockey, no matter what people say, is becoming more mainstream again. With the expected lockouts/strikes coming up in both the NBA and NFL, hockey on NBC could be a regular Saturday broadcast over the next calendar year.

We'll start first with the line-up for Hockey Day In America. Thanks to NBC Sports and Versus combining their collective talents, games that NBC was once blocked from carrying thanks to Versus' buy-in for NHL rights are no longer a concern. NBC Sports can now carry those games as part of their line-up, and this will allow more games to reach more people through basic cable. Hockey can now be found on both your regular channels in the US as well as specialty cable channels. Exposure is good.

The early regional games see Washington at Buffalo, Philadelphia at the New York Rangers, and Detroit at Minnesota. The Washington-Buffalo game has Jeff Jackson doing play-by-play. Fomer NHL player Ray Ferraro will be between the benches doing analysis and color commentary. Philadelphia-New York will feature Ken Daniels and Joe Micheletti in the booth. Detroit-Minnesota sees Pat Foley and Darren Pang doing the broadcast. All six men are highly knowledgeable about the sport, and should provide great commentary throughout the early games.

The nationally televised game will be seen after the regional games, so there will be back-to-back hockey on NBC today. The Pittsburgh Penguins will be visiting the Chicago Blackhawks, and the "big guns" from NBC's hockey team will be on-hand. Doc Emrick, Ed Olczyk, and Pierre McGuire will handle the calling of the game and the color commentary while Mike Milbury and Liam McHugh handle the in-studio responsibilities.

Once that game is done, NBC will throw the gauntlet to Versus where they will broadcast the 2011 Heritage Classic featuring the Montreal Canadiens visiting the Calgary Flames at McMahon Stadium. Bill Patrick, Keith Jones, and Jeremy Roenick should make for an interesting studio analysis team while Dave Strader, Andy Brickley and Brian Engblom will in the booth for the play-by-play and color commentary.

I'm not going to say that this is a first on American television airwaves, but this is certainly the first time in a long time that hockey has dominated the telelvision landscape for one network. Not since the NHL playoffs on ESPN a number of years ago has hockey been featured so prominently on one network.

What may be the best part of Hockey Day In America are the features that NBC is working on as part of the broadcast. Some of the stories include:

• Neal Henderson's story. Mr. Henderson "founded the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey program in inner-city Washington, D.C. in 1978 and has helped make a difference in the lives of countless children and young adults ever since".
• A feature on the US Pond Hockey Championships from Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was lucky enough to see this event first-hand last year, and it is an amazing time for both players and spectators.
• A feature on "celebrity hockey" played in Los Angeles where Hollywood folks such as directors, producers, and actors take to the ice to play the game that they love.
• A feature on the Boston Blades, the lone American CWHL team, that will highlight the challenges and rewards that the professional women hockey players face. For more info on the CWHL, check out this article.

Overall, I'm excited for today's events, and I really want to see NBC do well in the ratings with this kind of commitment to hockey. While I can't say that they'll post American Idol numbers or Super Bowl numbers all day, I'm pretty sure that they'll attract a few people who want to see what this fuss over hockey is all about. And those are just the people that we welcome with open arms to the game of hockey.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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Quietly Carving Out A Niche

I was at school the other day, and someone asked me if I had ever heard of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. I have, in fact, heard of the league as I had done a story on the draft that took place to get the inaugural five teams up and running. It was then that I realized that I have seriously neglected the highest professional hockey league that women can compete in against other women. Because of this oversight, today is all about the Canadian Women's Hockey League, how each team is doing, what they are wearing, and where you can catch a game or two if you're interested.

I want to preface this article with this statement: if you spend the time telling me that no one cares about women's hockey through comments or email, your comments will not only be denied entry on to this article, but I'll categorically go back and delete any and all comments you have ever made. And any future comments will be denied entry as well. I'm tired of hearing "hockey fans" crap all over women's hockey like it means nothing. If that's the case, your kid's Timbits hockey or any minor hockey in general is just as meaningless. As a true hockey fan, this won't fly with me. Capisce?

First off, there are a lot of recognizable names playing on the five teams in the CWHL. The five teams are based out of Brampton, Burlington, Toronto, Montreal, and the lone American-based team in Boston. These teams were assembled through a draft that happened in early August of 2010, and the teams have been battling since the season started.

If you're a fan of Burlington Barracudas, you want to keep your eyes on Danijela Rundqvist, Becky Kellar, Ashley Riggs, and Shannon Moulson. Burlington has had a rough start in the inaugural CWHL season. They currently sit fifth out of five teams with a 4-17-1 record, including being 1-11-1 away from the friendly confines of the Appleby Ice Centre.

If you cheer for the Brampton Canadettes-Thunder, Jayna Hefford, Gillian Apps, Cherie Piper, and Lori Dupuis are probably household names. Brampton has been on a major tear recently having won eleven straight games, and this streak has propelled them into second-place in the CWHL with a 17-6-0 record! Brampton is pretty consistent when it comes to their play as they are 9-3-0 at the Cassie Campbell Comnmunity Centre and 8-3-0 away from home. Hefford is the CWHL's all-time leading scorer in the previous incarnation of the CWHL, so there's some history there too!

The Toronto Aeros are sitting in fourth-place in the five team CWHL, but trail third-place by only two points at the time of writing. Their 8-12-3 record sees them playing well at home where they are 5-3-0, but Toronto needs to be better on the road with their brutal 3-9-3 record. Jennifer Botterill leads the team in scoring, and she's joined by familiar faces Tessa Bonhomme and Sami Jo Small. The Toronto club is stocked with former NCAA players, so this young squad is coming along nicely as they mature through this season.

The Montreal Stars are the class of the league at this point, leading in wins and points in posting a record of 18-2-2. Caroline Ouellette is dominating the league with 58 points in just 22 games. Joining her on the Montreal squad are Emmanuelle Blais, Julie Chu, Sarah Vaillancourt, and Kim St-Pierre. Montreal is 11-2-1 on home ice at Aréna Étienne-Desarteau, but has yet to lose in regulation on the road with a 7-0-1 record.

The lone American-based team is the Boston Blades, and they currently sit in third-place in the CWHL. Boston is 10-13-1 through 24 games thus far, but are significantly better on American soil. The Blades have a 7-6-1 record at the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore Center Arena, but have struggled to a 3-7-0 record while traveling through Canada. Led by Angela Ruggiero, Caitlyn Cahow, Erika Lawler, and Kacey Bellamy, the American-based team recently put an end to Montreal's undefeated season thanks in large part to a 74-save effort by by goaltender Mandy Cronin!

Just so you're aware, the Blades will play 16 of their 26 games at “home” – six apiece at Harvard and UNH, and single games at Providence College, Kennedy Memorial Rink in Hyannis and Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Essentially, the "New England" Blades are making the tour through the NCAA circuit!

As you can see, some of the best women to ever lace up the skates are playing regularly in the CWHL. This will, of course, make the women's game much better as the women will regularly get to play at a high-level, and I commend the CWHL for its commitment to the teams, cities, and women who are putting their best game forward day in and day out.

In terms of recognizing the teams, there are some clear similarities between the CWHL and a few NHL teams. The first jerseys put forth were clearly designed from NHL templates. As you can see, the Aeros look like the Maple Leafs, the Stars look like the Canadiens, the Thunder are wearing the colours of the Ottawa Senators, and the Barracudas are shown in the colours of the Buffalo Sabres. All of them have the Dallas Stars' treatment on the front in this image.

Well, there were a few teams that stuck with those similarities, but one team decided to stick with their original colours and their original logo that they wore in a previous league. I have to say that there are very few images of CWHL players in comparison to other leagues. In saying that, here are how the teams look today.

Toronto is definitely blue at home and white on the road. The roster photos shown on their roster page have the players in this mock-up, but I have not seen this uniform used in any picture where the players are playing. I also have yet to see the alternate uniform proposed above, so I'm on the hunt for some of those images still.

Montreal proudly wears red at home and white on the road. Again, no sign of the alternate uniform, and I'm thinking this may be a cost-saving measure. Why create a third uniform in your first year of existence? Or when your uniforms look extremely sharp already?

Montreal should go down in the CWHL as the first team to wear a promotional jersey as well as the team wore pink jerseys on February 1 to help promote breast cancer awareness and to raise funds for the Fondation du cancer du sein du Québec to battle the disease. After the game, the Stars and their moms took to the ice for a photo! The Stars raised over $5000 for the charity on the night! Good on the Stars for helping this charity, especially since it hits close to home for a number of women playing in the game!

The Boston Blades look very familiar as they wear black with yellow at home and white on the road. Much like the Stars and Aeros, I have yet to see a third yellow jersey being worn by Boston, but I am still looking.

The Brampton Canadettes-Thunder have gone opposite to the norm, adopting the black third jersey as their home jersey while wearing white on the road. Instead of going red like the Senators do, the Canadettes-Thunder are wearing black. For a five-team league, you would think that Brampton could choose a different colour, but I'm not going to rain on their parade.

Burlington is the wild card in this five-team league as they decided to go with the template of the New York Islanders instead of the Buffalo Sabres. This may have been due to the fact that they wore orange and navy blue in their previous seasons, so this keeps their colour scheme intact. As you can see, the Barracudas wear white on the road while going navy at home. As you can see, Burlington has opted to keep their logo as they display it proudly across the front of their jerseys.

So there's your introduction to the Canadian Women's Hockey League. I'll be following these teams and players as the season progresses, and we'll have a full run-down of how well each team did at the end of the regular season along with a synopsis of how the players did in the race to win the scoring title!

I'd just like to point out that some of these amazing photographs were taken by Pasquale Stalteri and used with his permission. Please respect the copyright this amazing photographer has done, and I encourage you to check out his website or his blog where all of his amazing photography can be seen. I am truly thankful for the work Monsieur Stalteri has done with the CWHL, and for his generosity in allowing me to use some of his fantastic photography! A link to his site can be found on the menu to the right!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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Tuesday Hodgepodge

Occasionally, I need to clean my desktop off when it has a number of images, stories, and emails sitting on it that have yet to be addressed. Today is one of those days as I find myself with a lot of images, stories, and emails that should be posted, but have yet to be posted. So I'll post them. I'll clean out the old file cabinet of stuff and miscellaneous items, and we'll take a look at my thoughts on each of them. There are a couple of historical pictures, there are definitely several jersey pictures, there's an "oops" picture, and there's my commentary. The pictures will certainly be more entertaining that my comments, but I'll also throw in a few emails that I've received just for good measure so that you're not overwhelmed by my sardonic outlook today. You've probably had enough babbling from me already, so let's get started.

• I never noticed it before, but I was looking through the Classic Auctions website once again and I came across an auction for a Neal Broten jersey from the Minnesota North Stars. What caught my attention was how the number is cut. Notice the top right corner is angled downward to the right? I had never noticed that about the North Stars' font before.
• Also from the Classic Auctions website, there's a good look at the Babe Pratt patch worn by the Vancouver Canucks in the 1988-89 season. Pratt was the goodwill ambassador for the Vancouver Canucks before succumbing to a heart attack on December 16, 1988. As a tribute, the Canucks honoured him with a patch for the remainder of that season. Very classy move by the Canucks.
• Speaking of classy, the New Jersey Devils took to the ice last night wearing a new patch on their jerseys. With the passing of Pat Burns, there were a couple of teams who honoured the fallen coach, and I'm glad to see a man like Pat Burns getting this kind of reaction. I completely support the Devils in their honouring Pat Burns, and they look good doing it.
• The other team that took the ice with a memorial for Pat Burns was the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, unlike the Devils, the Leafs wore their tribute on their helmets. Check out the back of Colton Orr's helmet for the "PB" sticker as he punches out Krys Barch. Another classy tribute by a hockey team, and I fully support it.
• There was a grand unveiling on Facebook today as the AHL's Connecticut Whale showed off their new green uniforms. I still think the logo is far too cartoonish and minor-league to be a professional team's logo, but that's clearly in the past and will not be changed now. Apparently, Reebok couldn't come up with jerseys in time, so they contracted SP Apparel, to make the Whale's uniforms. The Whale will wear the green uniforms both at home and on the road until mid-December when the new white and blue uniforms arrive. So just like their name, the Whale's uniforms are becoming a major debacle.
• I was going through Bleacher Report's slideshow of "The 100 Worst Decisions in Sports History", and I was entertained by some of their choices. It's a pretty good slideshow with lots of info in it, but I was bothered by one picture in particular. On slide 79, they highlight Brett Hull's 1999 Stanley Cup-winning goal where he had his foot in Dominik Hasek's crease. As you remember, the NHL rule said absolutely no player could be in the crease as a goal was scored, yet Hull's goal was allowed to stand as the series winner. However, slide 79 shows Hull's foot in Patrick Roy's crease as the Stars played the Colorado Avalanche! Every other slide in the series has the correct photo with it except this one. Oops!
• Sports Illustrated had a great shot of a very young Steve Nash in British Columbia dressed in hockey gear! Nash was an accomplished soccer player, is one heckuva basketball player, and now he has hockey on his resumé as well! How cool is that?
• I received a pretty interesting email from Benny who works on behalf of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. The press release states that the CWHL and Bauer Hockey have partnered to bring the women in the CWHL elite hockey equipment from Bauer! This is a great announcement as all the women will now have top-of-the-line gear to play in, and this gives the CWHL a very credible hockey partner. "Bauer Hockey is committed to growing the sport and as a company, we have always supported women’s hockey," said Kevin Davis, chief executive officer and president of Bauer Hockey. "We’re excited to partner with the CWHL and do our part to help move the women’s game forward." I, for one, think this is an excellent announcement. Congratulations to both the CWHL and to Bauer for their commitment to the women's game!

There's the hodgepodge for Tuesday. Antler Banter returns tomorrow, and I'll have a full run-down of the Columbus Blue Jackets' new alternate uniform on Thursday as they unveil their newest design tomorrow evening. Lots of stuff coming up, so stay tuned!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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Girls Being Drafted

This is not going to be an article about women in the military, although I would like to point out that HBIC is a big supporter of equality. That being said, the very first draft was held on Thursday evening at the Hockey Hall of Fame for the newly-founded Canadian Women's Hockey League. While only three of the five teams took part in the draft, it was seen as a success for the fledgling league as they look to break new ground in women's professional hockey.

The idea behind the draft was to create better parity in the league. Normally, teams fill out their rosters with the best layers they can find, and player movement within the league is minimal at best. In order to shake the teams up and create some parity for the newer expansion teams in Toronto and Boston, the CWHL decided to employ a draft to move players around. The only catch was that each team could protect five players from the draft.

"In other professional leagues, people get place on different teams and people get traded and we in women's hockey have never really experienced that," goaltender Sami Jo Small explained to The Canadian Press. "It's been your choice as to where you want to go.

"Now you go where you are drafted and you have to make it work there and you really have to work hard to make it work."

With that knowledge, the woman pictured above, Tessa Bonhomme, was selected by Toronto as the very first CWHL draft pick. The former Ohio State Buckeye captain will suit up on the blueline for the as-yet-unnamed Toronto squad alongside current and former Canadian National Team members such as Sami Jo Small and Jennifer Botterill. Both of those players were on Toronto's five-player protected list.

Bonhomme is a self-described "offensive defenceman", and that should prove to be valuable in the new league when trying to attract fans to games. The 24 year-old's hockey skill has provided her opportunities with Team Canada, so you know she has the skill to back-up the lofty draft position.

The second overall pick went to Burlington, and they chose forward Ashley Riggs. Riggs was a member of the Niagara University Purple Eagles, and was a dynamic scorer for the school. Riggs holds the single-season school records at Niagara for points (51), goals (29), shorthanded goals (6), plus-minus (+29), and hat tricks (4). She's third all-time in scoring for Niagara, so Burlington is getting a very accomplished scorer in Ashley Riggs. Burlington protected four-time Olympic defenceman Becky Kellar to strengthen their squad.

The third overall pick went to Toronto again, and they opted to choose Brittney Smith. I have no information on Miss Smith, but I'm going to go ahead and assume she's a fantastic hockey player. That seems safe.

There is absolutely no news on the results of the draft results anywhere on the Internet, so I can't tell you who Brampton chose with their first selection. I can tell you that Brampton protected Olympians Cherie Piper, Jayna Hefford and Gillian Apps on their roster, so they'll start with an excellent foundation of experienced players.

Montreal and Boston did not participate in the draft due to costs of having players travel and potentially move to a new city to play hockey. The league felt that they were not in a position to tell the women where to play based on the fact that players in the CWHL are not paid a salary to play. Travel costs and ice-time during the season are covered by the league and teams, but the players receive no pay to play. To compensate Montreal and Boston, those two teams are able to recruit and sign players from their respective regions.

"We're not paying enough money to make a woman move from [Toronto] to Boston," CWHL executive director Brenda Andress said from Toronto. "It's not feasible or logical at this point."

Essentially, it's like the NHL circa-1920 for the CWHL where players from various regions are recruited and play for their local teams. To ensure that the players from the Greater Toronto Area are spread out evenly, the draft was devised to create parity amongst the southern Ontario teams.

The CWHL is smaller by one team this year. Last season, the league featured the Mississauga Chiefs, Brampton Canadette-Thunder, Burlington Barracudas, Vaughn Flames, Montreal Stars and Ottawa Senators. While Montreal, Burlington, and Brampton were retained as teams for the 2010-11 season, there were a few losses.

Ottawa was having problems drawing enough elite players to compete with Montreal and the Toronto-based teams in the CWHL, so they withdrew from the league. The league made an executive decision to shut down the Vaughn team in order to prevent a "watering-down" of talent amongst the GTA teams.

In their places are a team based in Toronto and the first non-Canadian team in Boston. The Boston team has already committed to practicing at Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington, and to play their home games in the greater Boston area.

Boston has already announced that American Olympians Kacey Bellamy (UNH), Caitlin Cahow (Harvard), Angela Ruggiero (Harvard), Erika Lawler, Karen Thatcher (Providence College) and Molly Engstrom will be a part of their team. Tryouts have been extended to defenceman Cherie Hendrickson, former UNH standouts Micaela Long and Sam Faber, and former Boston University goalie Melissa Haber. Hendrickson suited up for Brampton last season, so her experience will be counted on for this expansion season.

Canadian Olympians Caroline Ouellette, Kim St. Pierre and Sarah Vaillancourt have announced that they will play for Montreal next season.

For more information on which players were protected by each team, please click this link that will take you to the CWHL website.

Pretty cool idea in the CWHL, and I'm happy to see that the league is starting to gain ground. The "fantasy draft" is a very novel idea in the world of hockey, and it may prove to be the best way for this league to survive. Well done, ladies, and good luck in the upcoming season!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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