Kukla's Korner

Inspiring Demers

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

11/12/05 at 02:10 PM ET | Comments (0)

from the NY Times,

Mr. Demers, 61, has lived a life of pain but he is laughing now. A new biography ("Jacques Demers: En Toutes Lettres," which translates roughly as "All Spelled Out") highlighting the abuse he endured from his violent and alcoholic father and the humiliation surrounding his illiteracy has become an instant best seller. His life story - a janitor's son who dropped out of school in the eighth grade to work at a grocery store, drive a Coca-Cola truck and then work his way up in the grueling world of professional hockey - has made him an inspirational figure on television talk shows. Canadian literacy groups hope his example will inspire other illiterate adults.

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Lewis Sees The Same Old Dominator

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

11/12/05 at 12:05 PM ET | Comments (0)

from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,

Dave Lewis has seen Dominik Hasek at his championship best. And, as he watched the Senators goaltender on Thursday night, the former Red Wings coach saw a replica of the guy who backstopped Detroit to a Stanley Cup in 2002. Lewis, an associate coach with the Wings that season, is convinced a healthy Hasek will give the Senators the same opportunity next spring.

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Avery Appealing Diving Fine

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

11/12/05 at 12:01 PM ET | Comments (0)

from the LA Daily News,

This time, it wasn't Sean Avery's mouth that got him in trouble. Avery drew a $1,000 fine from the NHL league office for diving during the Kings' Nov. 3 game at Phoenix. Avery said Friday morning that he would appeal the fine. "There wasn't a penalty called," Avery said about the alleged diving. "I spoke with our (players' union) rep (Mattias Norstrom) and Andy (Murray). It's an issue that I'm not going to let go unnoticed."

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Captain Gagne- Not Yet

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

11/12/05 at 11:55 AM ET | Comments (0)

from the Daily Times,

Want to see Simon Gagne squirm? Then talk to him about being the captain of the Flyers. With Keith Primeau sidelined for days, weeks, months -- who knows? -- Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock asked Gagne recently to don the "C" as team captain in Primeau’s stead until ol’ No. 25 could clear his head and get back on his skate blades. Gagne thought about it. Talked about it with Primeau and former Flyers captain Eric Desjardins and then went back to Hitchcock with his decision. "I don’t feel comfortable because we already have a captain and it’s Keith Primeau," said Gagne. "I told Primeau ‘you’re the captain, I should not wear it.’ The NHL asked us to try and put a captain in place. Hopefully we can stick with three assistant captains."

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The Art Of Goal Scoring Returning

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

11/12/05 at 11:50 AM ET | Comments (0)

from the Toronto Star,

It used to be that virtually every NHL goal looked alike, a four-footer out of a crowd of players jamming the crease against an overstuffed goalie on his knees. Now, solo rushes are plentiful and thrilling, and already this season most fans can rattle off several of their favourites. There was Jason Spezza's spectacular effort around Sheldon Souray in overtime to beat the Habs. Matt Cullen of Carolina created a piece of art to pot a winner against Philly. And the list goes on and on.

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The UAE Skates Into Town

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

11/12/05 at 11:44 AM ET | Comments (0)

from the Globe and Mail,

In a dressing room at the Brampton Centre, members of the United Arab Emirates national hockey team are kneeling on the floor, praying. Their jerseys are laid out beneath them, doubling as prayer rugs. Quietly, the men perform the ritual all Muslims are required to complete five times a day. Afterward, they pick up their jerseys and assemble their equipment, almost all of it ordered over the Internet because it isn't sold back home. These dozen or so men make up possibly the only team of its kind in the Arab world. At home, they are at best the subject of occasional curiosity from their soccer-mad fellow citizens. In Canada, most find it hard to believe a desert country even has a hockey team. But it does, and tonight the members are playing the most exciting game of their lives.

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Pace Yourself

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

11/12/05 at 11:36 AM ET | Comments (0)

from th Edmonton Sun,

-With 16 goals in 15 games, Philly's Simon Gagne is on pace to become the first player since Brett Hull in 1992 to score 50 goals in 50 games. In fact, he's flirting with Wayne Gretzky's seemingly untouchable 50 in 37. Gagne is on pace for 50 in 40 right now. -The Ottawa Senators are on pace for 404 goals, which would make them the only team other than the 1985-86 Oilers (426) to reach 400. The Oilers did it five times in the '80s. Calgary got to 397 in 1987-88. -It's not all good. With two wins in their first 16 games, the St. Louis Blues are on pace to challenge Washington's all-time record for fewest wins in a season (eight in 1974-75).

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Hungover Bolts

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

11/12/05 at 11:26 AM ET | Comments (0)

from the Ledger,

The Lightning headaches can generally be divided into two categories: -Power outage -- Lakeland Electric and its customers can empathize. Even on a team full of proven scorers like Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Vinnie Prospal, Tampa Bay ranked 27th among the 30 teams in the NHL in power-play goals going into last night's game, with a sickly 13.1 percent success rate, just 15 in 17 games. In overall goals, the Bolts are tied for 15th with 50. -Beginning to miss the one big name lost from the title team -- goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, a free agent signed by the Chicago Blackhawks. At first, there seemed realistic hope John Grahame could step in and the Bolts wouldn't miss a beat. As Khabibulin's backup, Grahame's statistics were actually a hair better in 2003-2004.

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NHL Revenue Stabilizing

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

11/11/05 at 10:47 PM ET | Comments (0)

Buried deep in the Globe and Mail blog of Eric Duhatschek, is this interesting bit...

...last week, The Hockey News did the math for all of us and calculated that the average NHL salary this season would be $1.46-million, down from the $1.83 million average in 2003-04. Considering the players accepted a 24 per cent rollback as part of the new CBA, that figure is just about right. Currently, players are also having 12 per cent of their salaries withheld in escrow payments (because under terms of the CBA, their incomes cannot exceed 54 per cent of the NHL's gross annual revenues), but indications are, the amount held in escrow will decline in the second quarter, because revenues appear to be stabilizing, if not actually growing. Under terms of the escrow provision, the players could get some (or all) of the monies withheld in escrow back, depending on where revenues are at the end of the year. An average NHL salary of $1.46-million would be the lowest since 2000-01, when the average was $1.41-million …

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All STATS

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

11/11/05 at 10:35 PM ET | Comments (0)

I am always awaiting the update from the STATS Blog via NHL.com. Today it is all Carolina.

During the Carolina Hurricanes’ current eight-game winning streak, the team has dominated at even strength, and has crushed its opponents in the third period.

The new NHL rules set up to encourage more scoring seem to be working. The goals-per-game average this season is 6.3, a marked rise from the 2003-04 average of 5.1. That 6.3 average is the highest since the NHL mark was 6.3 in 1995-96.

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