Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: Non-NHL-Hockey

Outdoors in Red Square

by Alanah McGinley on 12/12/07 at 05:45 PM ET
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From Dan Rosen at NHL.com,

“All the stories I heard about (Russia) weren’t true,” Smith told NHL.com. “I guess back 10 to 15 years ago I remember some of the guys that played on those Canada Cup teams were saying the food was no good, this and that. Even the interpreter that was with us was saying if you were in Russia three years ago you would not believe it was the same place. The people couldn’t believe how much it had changed.

“I went there and was like, ‘Holy Geez, why did everyone lie to me?’ ”
 
Like the country itself, the game played in Red Square on Dec. 9, 2006 was a must-see-it-to-believe-it spectacle.

Conceived by former CSKA Moscow and Soviet national team stars Slava Fetisov and Igor Larionov, the outdoor game—the first of its kind in Russia’s most spectacular setting—was put on to benefit for former Russian players who have fallen on hard times.

more reflections from Billy Smith and Scotty Bowman

Filed in: Non-NHL Hockey, International Hockey, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: billy+smith, russia, scotty+bowman

Russia An Adventure For Barry Smith

by Paul on 12/11/07 at 11:46 PM ET
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from Slap Shot at the New York Times,

Here are more excerpts from the interview SKA St. Petersburg coach Barry Smith gave the Russian TV network Sportelekanal.

Q: If we recognize that the Superliga lags considerably behind the NHL, then is it right to say that your coming to Russia is a step backward?

A: No. If this was true, then I never would have come. Russia is a test, an adventure. Before coming to SKA I worked in Phoenix with Wayne Gretzky. And I will not say that it was the best time in my career. We didn’t have a good roster of players, and the organization was not at the proper level. And it was time-consuming just getting everything with the club into synch.

more from Barry…

Filed in: Non-NHL Hockey, International Hockey, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: barry+smith

Scandinavian Showdown

by Alanah McGinley on 12/11/07 at 05:35 PM ET
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From Ken Campbell at THN,

European federations have no problem losing their best young players to the NHL; they’ve grown to accept that as a fact of life. But what they’re finally fed up with is losing top young players and seeing them play in the American Leauge. This season, for example, 64 European players signed their first NHL contracts, but only seven of them are playing in the NHL.

That’s why the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation recently reported it is likely going to pull out of the IIHF’s agreement with the NHL and the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation will probably follow suit. Under the terms of the four-year agreement reached last spring, individual European federations have the right to terminate their portions of the agreement prior to Dec. 31 of this year.

Should the Swedes and Finns pull out of the agreement, it will leave it in shambles. The Russian federation has already opted out of the deal and losing two more federations would make it worthless.

more

Filed in: NHL Talk, Non-NHL Hockey, International Hockey, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: finland, iihf, sweden

Minor Hockey Coach Gets 3 Year Suspension

by Alanah McGinley on 12/10/07 at 07:04 PM ET
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From CBC,

An assistant coach has been suspended three years for his involvement in a bench-clearing hockey brawl between two teams of eight-year-old players.

Randy Brant of the Niagara Falls Thunder will not be allowed to coach or be involved in minor hockey in any way after leaving the bench during the melee in a tournament in Guelph, Ont., on Nov. 23.

The suspension was handed down by the Ontario Minor Hockey Association over the weekend.

continued…

Filed in: Non-NHL Hockey, Minor League, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: fighting, ontario+minor+hockey+association

America’s Next Wave

by Steve on 12/10/07 at 03:35 PM ET
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One of many complaints that casual sports fans have about hockey is that there are too many “foreigners” in our league.  Which, by the way, is utter bunk because they support the NBA’s European and Asian outreach, and the Major Leagues are now making Hispanic players the norm. 

But, they do have a point.  The NFL, a league with 99.9999999% Americans in it, is the man in the United States right now.  The NHL needs some new and talented red, white and blue blood.

Continue Reading »

Filed in: NHL Talk, Non-NHL Hockey, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: dustin+byfuglien, erik+johnson, patrick+kane, phil+kessel, usa+hockey, zach+parise

With The First Pick Of The 2016 NHL Draft…

by Paul on 12/08/07 at 09:29 PM ET
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...the team selects Max Gerlach…

Filed in: Non-NHL Hockey, Youth Hockey, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

IIHF Agreement On Shaky Ground

by Paul on 12/08/07 at 08:55 AM ET
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from Rick Westhead of the Toronto Star,

Sweden’s hockey federation voted last night to formally sever ties to the IIHF agreement. Finnish Ice Hockey Federation managing director Heikki Hietanen says a similar discussion will take place Wednesday in Helsinki. Hietanen says Finnish teams are similarly vexed over losing young players to North American junior teams. He says Finnish teams also aren’t pleased the agreement sees them receive U.S. dollars as compensation. Euros would be a more appropriate currency, Hietanen says.

It’s troubling news for the NHL because free agency in countries like Russia, particularly, could prove elusive.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see every young NHL-calibre player basically forced to sign a long-term contract and never win the right to free agency,” says one NHL player agent with several Russian clients.

more

Filed in: NHL Talk, Non-NHL Hockey, International Hockey, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Could We Be Seeing More Of This?

by Paul on 12/07/07 at 11:42 AM ET
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from Capitals Insider,

Hershey Bears defenseman Jame Pollock has left the team and signed with CSKA Moscow of the Russian Super League.

The Bears/Capitals immediately suspended him without pay, but that’s probably all the organization will be able to do because Russia isn’t covered by the IIHF’s transfer agreement.

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, Washington Capitals, Non-NHL Hockey, Minor League, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: russian+hockey

Patrick Roy Coaching Incident

by Alanah McGinley on 12/07/07 at 12:53 AM ET
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From the Canadian Press,

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey league fined the Quebec Remparts $2,000 Thursday following an incident involving head coach Patrick Roy.

Roy, the NHL’s all-time leader in wins by a goaltender, earned an extreme game misconduct penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct after confronting the officials following Sunday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

Roy was not suspended for the incident.

 

Filed in: Non-NHL Hockey, Minor League, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: patrick+roy, qmjhl

Another Accident

by Paul on 11/30/07 at 09:58 PM ET
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from the Sports Ticker via Yahoo,

One day after the team bus of the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals crashed, three members of the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs were involved in an incident with a vehicle in Windsor, Ontario on Friday morning.

Defenseman Jonathan Sciacca, backup goaltender Anthony Peters and assistant trainer Kurt Pearson were injured while taking a walk at approximately 11 a.m. The Frontenacs still were in Windsor after facing the Spitfires on Thursday night.

The injuries were described as non-life threatening, but all three men were taken to the hospital and treated.

continued

Filed in: Non-NHL Hockey, Minor League, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

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