Category: Life After Hockey
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Dogged defense still key to Luongo’s job
The popular Old Western attitude toward scarce territory rarely applies around the Olde Towne of New England. Even when it does, it is not liable to spark much conflict. Certainly not in any parts of Boston where you can find Nicki Luongo. As compact as the city is at 48.3 square miles, it is plenty big…
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Muskegon Fury dynasty lives on at the dealership
The Muskegon Fury employed one or more of Rob Melanson, Robin Bouchard and Todd Robinson for 15 of their 16 seasons. The three contributed to one or more of the brand’s championships, combining for eight rings between them. Now they service Muskegonites as teammates – and as bona fide townspeople themselves – once again. Muskegon’s…
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Kelsie Fralick seizing new days with Old World tongues
Attende, quaeso. Nunc goaltending pro superbia Boston: una numero, Kelsie Fralick. (Your attention, please. Now goaltending for the Boston Pride: No. 1, Kelsie Fralick.) Fralick terminatur ad tres salvet ad tres shots ad eius debut in superbia. (Fralick finishes with three saves on three shots in her debut for the Pride.) Kelsie Fralick and John…
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Present-focused Deeth centers ND’s past-to-future line
Theoretically, Kevin Deeth can walk past Touchdown Jesus or the Golden Dome at will. He can soak in the spectacle of Division I athletics from any one of the 20 Fighting Irish teams. He can do so in an admiring, reflective role that he rarely could in a prior Notre Dame life. And he can…
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Miracle’s West: ‘It all started with Mighty Ducks 2’
Long before he played through a bruise on the leg as Rob McClanahan, goaltending prodigy Nathan West launched his acting endeavors by taking a bruise on the palm. Before he fought a rival-turned-teammate in character as McClanahan, he briefly brawled with Ken Wu. And before he reenacted an historic Olympic gold-medal clincher, he surrendered a…
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Shawn Wheeler ‘not so silent’ as an active, adopted Charlottean
As a player, Shawn Wheeler led Charlotte to its finest hockey hour of the last 40 years. As a bench boss, he broke the ECHL’s coaching color barrier. And long after his ice evaporated, he has built on new means of continuing a mutually pleasing relationship with the community. Shawn Wheeler cites the so-called “Bangin…
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Philadelphia Flyers of the ’80s united in spite of tragedy
On Wednesday, April 5, Philadelphia Flyers fans of a certain age once again felt the familiar and discomfiting jolt of sadness surrounding the death of a popular former player. Ilkka Sinisalo, at just 58 years old, died in his native Finland following a prolonged battle with prostate cancer. “Ilkka was a true friend and loyal member…
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Kirk McCaskill, master baseball convert, savors hockey’s desert deluge
Kirk McCaskill was reached this past Saturday in the wake of his fifth season opener as the Torrey Pines High School baseball coach in San Diego. A 9-1 romp over Murrieta Valley was the cathartic culmination of a wet and windy week that prompted painstaking efforts to remedy the field. Had the Canadian-American dual citizen…
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Karen Thatcher reaching delayed grad-ification in physical therapy
Karen Thatcher does not hesitate to initiate a change of course if she sees the need. She transferred from one Division I hockey program to another in both her playing and coaching endeavors. In between, she modified her preferred landing spot in the healthcare sphere on the fly. So when, at age 26, the 2010…
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Life After Hockey? Play in Philadelphia, and Hockey Is Life
Much has been made in Philadelphia Flyers franchise lore — too much if you ask some, after 41 years without a third Stanley Cup parade as the onslaught of history threatens to bury any appreciation of great years which followed — of head coach Fred Shero’s famous blackboard proclamation prior to Game 6 of the…