Kukla's Korner Hockey
Category: Hockey-Related-Stories
Skating Through Nature
by Paul on 01/14/22 at 08:02 AM ET
Comments (0)
from Ken Warren of the Ottawa Sun,
Stepping down from the Zamboni, yet another flood complete, former Ottawa Senators winger Chris Neil looks out at the tree-lined ice dream that has been carved out of the wilderness just outside Stittsville.
“We’ve talked about it, with two partners (Jarrett Gibbons and Steve Beck), for about four years,” said Neil, who has exchanged his Senators equipment for heavy-duty outdoor gear in advance of Friday’s official opening of the Icelynd Skating Trails. “We started getting ready at the end of September and there were no roads in here. We did a lot in a short period of time.”
Neil bought 90 acres of land off Fernbank Road years ago, while still playing with the Senators, and tossed around different ideas on how to eventually develop it.
Somehow, it only makes sense that the resulting project would revolve around ice.
Family and friends have chipped in with time, machinery and electrical know-how.
The venture open to the public includes a well-lit, two-kilometre skating loop through the pines, cedars and poplars, with bonfires and benches set up for breaks along the way. Another three-kilometre stretch should be open within the next couple of weeks.
Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
A Tragic Accident
by Paul on 01/08/22 at 01:48 PM ET
Comments (2)
from CBS NewYork,
A young hockey player in Connecticut has died after a collision between two players on the ice during a school game.
Outside of St. Luke’s School in New Canaan, the mood was somber Friday as students and parents gathered to mourn the loss of 10th grader Teddy Balkind.
“It’s horrible. It’s really bad,” said an 18-year-old student named Calvin. “I feel like it’s just like an outreach of, I don’t know, sympathy.”
As CBS2’s Kiran Dhillon reports, police say Teddy died after a Thursday evening junior varsity hockey game between high school students from St. Luke’s and Brunswick School.
As the two private school teams faced off at Brunswick’s rink in Greenwich, it’s believed Teddy fell to the ice. Another player who was near him was unable to stop, and the two collided.
According to a statement sent to students from Brunswick, Teddy’s neck was accidentally cut by a skate.
I did tweet this a day or two ago too....
Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
On The Road To Recovery
by Paul on 01/08/22 at 11:57 AM ET
Comments (1)
from Dan Fumano of the Calgary Herald,
Before Brady Leavold’s life took a nightmarish turn, he had the same dream as a lot of Canadian kids. Now he has a new dream.
Leavold grew up in Port Coquitlam wanting to be a hockey player and made it to the mid-level pro leagues.
But his career was derailed by escalating drug use as he attempted to numb secret pain. Within a few years, the once-promising right winger went from skating alongside future NHL all-stars to sleeping in tents and alleys in the Downtown Eastside, robbing people to support his worsening dependence on a deadly drug that had just hit the streets.
He was injecting fentanyl a dozen times a day, no longer wanting to live. Now, at age 34, he figures the only thing that stopped him from dying was jail.
Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tracking Hockey Players At All Levels
by Paul on 10/21/21 at 09:00 AM ET
Comments (0)
from Matt Larkin of The Hockey News,
How many of us retired hockey players romanticize the idea that we could’ve made it in the pros with a bit more luck? If only that hardnosed bantam coach hadn’t overlooked us, ignored us because we were too small or because the coach wanted to play their own kid. If only we could’ve been seen for all the little things we did well on the ice.
What if, in the near future, nothing players did at the minor or senior hockey levels went unnoticed? What if coaches could track, in real time, how fast players were skating, how long they held the puck, how effective their zone entries were…in the middle of a game, right after their shifts? That idea doesn’t represent some far-off future in a world with flying cars. It’s the present. The advent of player tracking is already in the process of making instant analysis a reality at the NHL level, but it’s also about to start happening at much lower levels thanks to breakthroughs made by a company called Drive Hockey Analytics. Forget the classic trope of parents driving their kids home after games, doling out advice on how they needed to hustle more or finish their checks. Thanks to readily available information on a Drive Hockey app minutes after a game, Mom and Dad might be pointing how their kid’s peak skating speed dipped from last week or how their average shift length increased.
So how did Drive Hockey Analytics, a Vancouver-based company incorporated in 2018, make a foray into player-tracking technology?
Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Video- Erin Andrews On Her Start In Broadcasting
by Paul on 10/20/21 at 09:53 PM ET
Comments (2)
via Sportsnet's YouTube page,
Before Erin Andrews became the sports broadcasting stalwart she is today, she cut her teeth as a rinkside reporter with the Tampa Bay Lighting. Christine Simpson sits down with Erin Andrews to discuss her big break during her time with the Bolts.
Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Using Artificial Intelligence To Analyze Hockey Games
by Paul on 10/04/21 at 07:33 AM ET
Comments (2)
via a press release from the University of Waterloo,
Researchers have made a key advancement in the development of technology to automatically analyze video of hockey games using artificial intelligence.
Engineers at the University of Waterloo combined two existing deep-learning AI techniques to identify players by their sweater numbers with 90-per-cent accuracy.
“That is significant because the only major cue you have to identify a particular player in a hockey video is jersey number,” said Kanav Vats, a PhD student in systems design engineering who led the project. “Players on a team otherwise appear very similar because of their helmets and uniforms.”
Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Wayne Gretzky Will Be The Recipient Of The 2021 Stan Musial Lifetime Achievement Award
by Paul on 09/15/21 at 06:27 AM ET
Comments (1)
from NHL.com,
Wayne Gretzky and his wife Janet will receive the 2021 Stan Musial Lifetime Achievement Award on Nov. 20.
The Musial Awards celebrate athletes who demonstrate sportsmanship and exemplify class and character, and the Lifetime Achievement Award honors those who had those qualities for which Baseball Hall of Famer Stan Musial was known. The ceremony will take place in St. Louis, where Musial played all 22 of his MLB seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and where Gretzky played 18 games for the St. Louis Blues in the 1995-96 NHL season.
"Knowing how beloved Stan was and the way he carried himself on and off the field, it is tremendously humbling to receive an award named for him," Wayne Gretzky said.
Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Former NHL Player Files Lawsuit Against Airline After Claiming Battery By A Flight Attendant
by Paul on 09/12/21 at 09:35 AM ET
Comments (2)
from Mateusz Maszczynski of Paddle Your Own Kanoo,
A former professional NHL ice hockey player has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court claiming an “out-of-control” flight attendant subjected him to an unprovoked battery before throwing him off a recent flight from Kansas City to Phoenix. Jean-Francois Jomphe, 48, of Ladera Ranch, California is claiming as much as $100,000 in damages against American Airlines for battery and emotional distress.
In the late 1990s, Jomphe played for the NHL’s Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Phoenix Coyotes, as well as the Montreal Canadiens before finishing his hockey-playing career playing in various minor leagues. Now retired, Jomphe is an “established businessman” and has corporate headquarters based in Phoenix.
On July 22, 2021, Jomphe was traveling to Phoenix on business as a passenger on American Airlines flight AA2005 from Kansas City. Sat at a bulkhead, Jomphe says he rested his foot on the bulkhead partition because he is recovering from recent leg surgery and needed to elevate his leg.
As a frequent flyer who always sits in the same seat, he says he has rested his leg on the bulkhead without incident on a weekly basis. In fact, Jomphe claims he has flown with American Airlines around 66 times in 2021 alone and has never had problems resting his feet on the bulkhead wall.
But while the plane was still at the gate, Jomphe says he was subjected to an “unprovoked battery” when a flight attendant hit him “very hard” on the left shoulder and told him to remove his feet from the bulkhead.
Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
The “Bad Boys Of Hockey”
by Paul on 08/31/21 at 06:46 AM ET
Comments (0)
from Sammi Silber of WSH Hockey Now,
Back in 2004, on April Fool’s Day, “the real Tony Soprano” bought his hockey-loving son his very own pro team. It wasn’t a prank.
That’s just the beginning of the journey of James “Jimmy” Galante and his son, AJ Galante. Netflix shares the story of the family in the latest installment of the Untold docuseries titled “Crime & Penalties.” It takes a closer look at the mafia, hockey and the short-lived Danbury Trashers hockey club that established itself as the “bad boys of hockey” in the UHL, an affiliate of the NHL at the time.
“It was just such a surreal experience for me and my father,” AJ said of the film, which the Way Brothers reached out to him about in late 2018. “To see yourself on TV is definitely weird in a way. I knew it would be a great production.”
It’s exciting, gripping and catches you from the very first minute. Featuring interviews with Jimmy and AJ., as well as former members of the Danbury Trashers like Rumun Ndur and brothers Drew and Mike Omicioli (the epitome of brotherly love) and even UHL commissioner Richard Brosal, who delivers a message that resonates deeply with the narrative.
Now available on Netflix.
Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, Non-NHL Hockey, Minor League, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Video- A Netflix Series You May Have Interest In
by Paul on 08/27/21 at 12:19 PM ET
Comments (1)
Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
About Kukla's Korner Hockey
Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.
From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.
Email Paul anytime at pk@kuklaskorner.com
