Some Reads

The last we heard from Andrew Ebbett was via Twitter, a heartfelt thanks to everyone the diminutive centre crossed paths with in Vancouver before his long 40-hour drive back to Michigan last week. That’s Ebbett, a serviceable little man in a big man’s game and even a better person. A broken collarbone on just his third shift during an epic win at Boston on Jan. 7 didn’t kill his spirit or drive to survive a sizeable setback to his career. In the end, he had five goals in 18 games, understood his depth role and was on the top line for the final game of the regular season in the absence of the concussed Daniel Sedin and also centred the fourth line in the second game of the playoffs.

However, Ebbett’s next tweet could be from Europe because as a 29-year-old unrestricted free agent, his best options are probably elsewhere. A $525,000 US low-maintenance depth forward who can play centre or the wing and help the second power-play unit, is always a great value. That could afford Ebbett a look as the 13th forward, but the Canucks have more pressing needs. A third-line centre has become even more of a priority because Ryan Kesler is sidelined six months by shoulder surgery and somebody is going to have to eat up his minutes until the Selke Trophy winner returns in November.

Brown lisps. He has lisped for as long as he can remember, although the speech therapy he went through as a fifth-grader helped him learn to control it. (The lisp tends to return when he is engaged in casual conversation or after, say, a puck has given him a fat lip.) But in dressing rooms where razzing is the lingua franca, the lisp made him an easy target early in his career. Sean Avery, an occasional linemate of Brown’s from 2003 to ‘07, would insert the needle. “This was bullying, like you might see in high school,” says Ian Laperrière, the former Kings forward who now mentors young players in the Flyers organization.

The analogy is apt; Brown was still a teenager at the time. According to L.A. players and coaches from that era, Brown’s lisp was not Avery’s primary target. Avery also zeroed in on Brown’s girlfriend—now his wife—a slender, fresh-faced girl-next-door-type from their hometown of Ithaca, N.Y. Apparently Avery didn’t think she was glamorous enough to be the girlfriend of a hockey player in Hollywood. “I am not a trophy wife,” says Nicole Brown, who has been with her husband for almost a dozen years (and married to him for five). “By any means.”

With the score 7-0 for the Oceanic early in the third period of Game 5 of the QMJHL semifinal, a frustrated MacKinnon threw down his gloves to fight Pelletier, but the Oceanic 20-year-old declined the invitation. Pelletier, who had cross-checked MacKinnon several times, went off for holding and MacKinnon for roughing.

The 16-year-old MacKinnon did not return to the game and was held without a point for just the third time in the QMJHL post-season.

“He just reacted — he had enough,” Mooseheads head coach Dominique Ducharme said. “At the same time, that’s the reason why we kept him out (for the rest of the game), so guys wouldn’t be going after him.”

Corey Perry, Duncan Keith, Patrick Sharp and Marc-Edouard Vlasic are scheduled to arrive Saturday and Ryan Getzlaf, due to a family commitment, will join the team next week in Helsinki.

John Tavares and Ryan O’Reilly joined the team Friday as did Luke Schenn, but his equipment bag did not.

I’m not sure what I’ll do after my career. I’ll be sticking around here, most likely. I don’t really know what I’ll get into. Who knows where it will take me? I’d like to get in the media, maybe. I’ve been doing a weekly show on Comcast for a couple of years now and trying to improve at it just in case that’s one of my options. I’m good friends with Shane Hnidy, who used to play here. He’s been doing radio and TV for the Winnipeg Jets and he seems to really, really enjoy it. I know we have fairly similar personalities and similar likes and dislikes, so it’s something I’m definitely interested in.

The degenerative neurological disease is sometimes genetic, but it can also form after repeated brain trauma. Ludzik received his share while playing 424 NHL games from 1981 to 1990, mostly with the Chicago Blackhawks, plus hundreds of games in junior, the minors and Europe.

He figures he suffered six concussions throughout his career, though none were ever diagnosed.

“It was, ‘Boy, I’ve had a headache for a week, no appetite, and I’m miserable,’ ” Ludzik said. “You know your body more than anyone else.”

When thinking about professional hockey powerhouse cities you probably think about Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Detroit or Boston, the Original Six. But what would it take to add Los Angeles, Raleigh (NC) and Miami to this list? These warm weather destinations have all reached the Stanley Cup Finals in the last 20 years at least once, and in three consecutive seasons, teams from areas better known for golf and surfing, than ice hockey, took home the championship trophy (Tampa Bay Lightning in 2005, Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 and Anaheim Ducks in 2007). How have these teams managed to become competitive hockey teams while playing in non-traditional hockey markets? These franchises have carved out a market position both locally and nationally, with their fans and the league, in order to be successful on the ice and in the marketplace.

But in the physical, grinding series this spring, role players are often playing a hero’s role. At Madison Square Garden last Thursday, Neil, a third-line winger and fighter, seemed the perfect overtime scorer in a punishing Game 2 against the Rangers.

Carkner, who scored one of the most famous playoff goals in Senators history, the triple-OT thriller in Pittsburgh two years ago, believes the tight checking and physical play in the spring produces a wider variety of heroes.

“On any given day, it can be anyone doing those kinds of things,” Carkner says. “You see guys step up here and there. It’s just the intensity of it, everyone’s working so hard trying to claw their way to the net. And you never know who’s going to score that big goal.”

Do you remember his hockey career?
I remember the Canada Cup at Copps Coliseum. Second period, overtime, against the Russians. Wayne went over centre ice, over the Russian blueline, turned to the right in the left corner, passed it back to Mario Lemieux and Mario Lemieux one-timed it over Tretiak’s shoulder to win the Canada Cup. And I have the ring to prove it. That’s all I remember, from all those games. (On his right hand there is a modest ring, studded with four diamonds, with “W. Gretzky” inscribed on the inside of a silver band. He has me try it on, saying, ‘There, now you can say you have worn Gretzky’s ring.’)

But it’s not just the Flyers fans, who have a reputation for especially loving the rough stuff, that loved what they saw: fans across the NHL tuned in to see what will surely become one of the most talked-about hockey games in years. That game drew the best television ratings for a non-final game in a decade.

And it’s not just the Flyers – Pens series that is seeing an above-average amount of fighting, with fan support to match.