Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: Hockey-Related-Stories

Troubled Times For Gino Odjick

by Paul on 12/04/13 at 08:40 AM ET
Comments (0)

from Brad Ziemer of the Vancouver Sun,

Friends and business associates of former Vancouver Canuck Gino Odjick say they were worried about his mental health in the days leading up to Pavel Bure’s jersey retirement ceremony on Nov. 2 at Rogers Arena.

Odjick, who has spent the past five days in a psychiatric unit at a Gatineau, Que., hospital, was not in a good state prior to Bure’s ceremony, his business manager Kumi Kimura said Tuesday.

Odjick and close friends blame his health problems on concussions suffered while playing hockey and serving as an enforcer who frequently got involved in on-ice fights.

“He was way gone at Pavel’s thing,” Kimura said. “We were walking on eggshells.”

Odjick was admitted to the psychiatric unit at UBC Hospital in early September, but was released after only a few days.

“We wanted him in the hospital until two or three days before Pavel’s event so he would be calm, be rested and get on the regular meds that control his brain,” Kimura said. “Our goal was to get him to Pavel’s retirement. He got there, but he walked out in sneakers and a hat when he should be wearing a suit. He knows better. That just wasn’t him.”

continued

Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: gino+odjick

Video- The Making Of The NHL Trading Card

by Paul on 11/14/13 at 03:18 PM ET
Comments (0)

Pretty interesting video of Panini taking you through the card making process.

A little less than 6 minutes long.

 

Filed in: NHL Teams, Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Final Season

by Paul on 11/12/13 at 10:49 AM ET
Comments (1)

Tom Murray will be writing a feature column on a regular basis for Kukla's Korner this season.

I do hope you enjoy his submissions and to find out more about Tom, click on his name.

---

By Tom Murray,

It finally hits me late last week, after the final cuts have been made and we’re driving home, talking about possible line combinations and the team’s first scrimmage next weekend.

This is going to be Tommy’s last season.

He’s a senior in high school now, just a few months shy of his 18th birthday, a shade under six feet tall but still growing, shoots right but not nearly enough, invariably preferring to make a pass and then heading for the front of the net to pick up a rebound or a deflection. The classic power forward—selfless, fearless and dependable.

And sometime next spring it’ll all be over.

It’s not like he’s never going to play again. He loves it too much. But he knows as well as I that this phase of the game and his life, our lives, is coming to a close. So for me anyway this fall is a time of sweet reflection and of memories I’ll always hold dear.

Continue Reading »

Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, Non-NHL Hockey, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: tom+murray

Former NHLer Tom McCarthy On The Right Path Again

by Paul on 11/09/13 at 05:15 PM ET
Comments (0)

from Tina Comeau of The Vanguard,

Tom McCarthy sat on the bus, shackled and handcuffed, being driven to Leavenworth Penitentiary. The man sitting next to him, a convicted murderer, he only knew from having seen him on the news.

He couldn’t help but think to himself, why had he allowed himself to travel on the wrong path? More significantly, how was he going to handle this?

In his early years, McCarthy had driven on a lot of buses. But none like this particular one.

“I went from being in the NHL and riding buses, to now I’m in the federal system riding a different bus,” he says. “And that was the toughest team I ever played on.”...

McCarthy had gotten to do in life what so many young hockey players dream of. He got to play in the NHL. He was just 18 when he was drafted, surrounded by men in the dressing room, some old enough to be his father. Admittedly it made him grow up faster than he might have otherwise.

Still, he had great success in the years after he had played midget hockey for the Oshawa Generals, where he was one of two midget players drafted ahead of Wayne Gretzky in the 1977 OMJHL midget draft. In the 1979 NHL entry draft he was chosen 10th overall in the first round by the Minnesota North Stars. He also played with the Boston Bruins, played in an NHL all-star game and had two cracks at trying to win a Stanley Cup.

read on

Filed in: NHL Teams, Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: tom+mccarthy

Just Imagine If These Two Were Involved In a Goalie Fight

by Paul on 11/04/13 at 11:39 AM ET
Comments (0)

Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

From Wicked Slap Shot To Long Golf Ball Driver

by Paul on 10/29/13 at 08:50 AM ET
Comments (0)

from Ron Kantowski of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

I met the real Happy Gilmore on Monday afternoon.

His name is Jamie Sadlowski. He’s a 25-year-old former junior hockey player from Alberta, Canada, who can hit a golf ball 475 yards. On Wednesday night, he’ll be trying to win his third RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway....

Sadlowski thinks he can hit a golf ball from here to Saskatoon mostly because he played the point on the power play for the Bonnyville Pontiacs of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

He played the off side, so when the Pontiacs reversed the puck, he would crank up these vicious one-timers. Most of the time, they were nowhere close to the net; the most goals he scored in three seasons with the Pontiacs was four in 2006-07.

But sometimes his shots broke the Plexiglas, or the Zamboni, and once in a while they would clang off the post, like missiles. And then the goalies for the Fort McMurray Oil Barons and the Okotoks Oilers wouldn’t be in such a hurry to cut down the angle the next time Bonnyville was on the power play.

more

Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: jamie+sadlowski

Steven Stamkos Talks Acting

by Paul on 10/27/13 at 08:31 AM ET
Comments (2)

from Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune,

In the short film, which lasts around two minutes, Stamkos portrays fictional hockey player Shawn Warford, who gets traded by his father/coach and goes on to score five goals with his dad on the opposing bench. The film also features Edmonton’s Jordan Eberle — who did his own Moment Zero ad portraying Kevin Walker — and TSN television personality Bob McKenzie.

Being in that situation gave Stamkos a new appreciation for actors and those involved with filming movies and television.

“It’s amazing that it’s that long of a process,’’ he said of the 8½-hour day to shoot two commercials. “There’s a lot of sitting around, a lot of waiting, moving of camera angles and stuff like that and for (90 seconds) of actual video. So I have a lot of respect for actors and what they have to go through to make a movie and that’s a two-hour movie.

“It’s an unbelievably long and sometimes painful process, but in the end the professionals that edit it, they make it look good.’’

read on

You can watch the video below...

Continue Reading »

Filed in: NHL Teams, Tampa Bay Lightning, Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: steven+stamkos

Competition For The Zamboni?

by Paul on 10/25/13 at 07:34 PM ET
Comments (0)

from Zackharia DeBeaussaert of The Farm Club,

Zamboni is the common vernacular for the behemoth driving around on the ice.  It’s actually an ice resurfacer. Commonly, tissues get called Kleenex, but Kleenex is a brand, not the actual object.  It’s the same for Zamboni.

The Zamboni company has an internationally registered trademark that has vaulted them from a product producing company, to their own word in the dictionary. Since 1950 the Zamboni company has had a stranglehold on the ice resurfacing market, because lets face it “I wanna drive the ice resurfacer” doesn’t exactly carry the tune.

There’s a new company that’s coming in to challenge Zamboni’s dominance on the ice resurfacing market. In Grand Blanc, Mich. the machine known as the Icecat looks to be the new standard of ice surface maintenance all across the globe.

“Our tagline is ‘built like a sports car, shaves like a razor’ because of it’s premium features and aerodynamic design” said Tyler Moncreiff, Sales and Brand manager for Icecat North America. The Icecat is the product of UKKO a manufacturing company based in Finland. Moncreiff says that the move to sell in North America was to gain prominence in the biggest ice resurfacer market in the world.

continued

Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

The Shnarped Hockey App

by Paul on 10/23/13 at 08:59 AM ET
Comments (0)

There’s a great hockey app on the market called “Shnarped” that was developed by two teammates from Princeton; Kyle Hagel (currently with the Portland Pirates) and Dustin Sproat (formerly of the Cincinnati Cyclones).  We recently caught up with Dustin to discuss the Shnarped Hockey App…

Q: First off, what is Shnarped?

A: Shnarped is a hockey app designed to be a social network for the hockey community.  It connects players, fans, agents, coaches, and managers of the sport we all love while providing them with the most relevant player stats, news and highlights.  The most unique feature of Shnarped is “the pound” which is like sending  a virtual fist-bump or tap on the shin pads to a player for a great game.  If you send a pound to one of our over 300 verified pro players, they can send one back.

Q: Where did the idea for Shnarped come from?

A: It grew out of a charity I was doing with my co-founder Kyle Hagel called Hockey Players 4 Kids.  We saw first hand how valuable player-fan engagement could be but we also faced a lot of challenges keeping up with all the players.  We knew there had to be a better way to stay connected and track how our buddies were doing.  That’s where the original idea for Shnarped came from and it’s grown into this fully featured hockey app.

Continue Reading »

Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: shnarped

Video- It Lasts Forever

by Paul on 10/20/13 at 09:21 AM ET
Comments (2)

Although this video is almost five years old, this is the first time I have seen it.

Enjoy and you may have to watch it a few times.

 

Filed in: Hockey Related Stories, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

 1 2 3 >  Last ›      Next »