TBC: Overtime

As promised, Teebz's Book club is making a triumphant return to HBIC as I want to clear a number of books off the bookcase that are begging to be read. I find that I do my best reading in the summer, but it's hard to find a moment of peace where I can plow through a couple hundred pages. The book featured to the left was hard to put down, making it easy to read from cover to cover. With that being said, Teebz's Book Club is proud to review Overtime, written by Chris Chelios and Kevin Allen and published by HarperCollins Publishers Limited. I'll be honest when I tell you that I had a very narrow view of who Chris Chelios was prior to reading this book. I'll be upfront in telling you that you learn a great deal about the man, his life, his career, and everything in between in Overtime!

I shouldn't need to introduce him, but Chris Chelios was a long-time NHL defenceman who suited up for the Montreal Canadiens, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Detroit Red Wings, and the Atlanta Thrashers. As per the dust jacket of the book, "Chelios spent 26 years in the NHL" and "was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2013." He most recently was seen behind Team USA's bench at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Games, works regularly at his Detroit restaurant Cheli's Chili Bar, and spends as much time with his wife, Tracee, their four daughters, and the rest of his extended family.

Also from the dust jacket, "Kevin Allen has been USA Today's hockey writer since 1986 and is currently president of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. The author of several hockey bios, Allen lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Follow him on Twitter @kausatoday." He has written other hockey books such as Without Fear: The Greatest Goalies of All Time, Why is the Stanley Cup in Mario Lemieux's Pool?, and Mr. & Mrs. Hockey: A Tribute to the Sport's Greatest Couple.

When I first sat down with this book, I had some preconceived notions about Chris Chelios: do anything to win, wouldn't flinch in hurting an opponent, better to be on his team than against him, and a true vocal leader on all the teams for which he played. In Overtime, Chelios didn't really do much to change those notions, but he did provide perspective on them that gave me a greater understanding of why he was like this as a player.

For that that don't know, professional hockey was never a future occupation for teenaged Chris Chelios. As a forward, he was noticed playing in a beer league in San Diego after being cut by the NCAA's US International University by an Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League player named Bobby Parker who suggested that Chelios come north with him to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and suit up for the Canucks. It was there, under the tutelage of a coach named Larry Billows, that Chelios really found his stride as a defenceman despite having played forward all his life. His play in Moose Jaw led to him being recruited to the University of North Dakota before abruptly switching his NCAA commitment to the University of Wisconsin where he played under "Badger" Bob Johnson and Grant Stradbrook, the man who Chelios credits as being the reason why he made the NHL. I won't tell you what made him change his commitment - you'll have to read Overtime to find out!

There are great chapters about his time in Montreal, Chicago, and Detroit, the trades that moved him to Chicago and Detroit, and how through it all he has been more committed to his family thanks to the trades. There is one section during his trade to Chicago that I found rather interesting, and the passage goes as follows:

After going home for a good night's sleep, I was awakened by a call from Serge Savard.
"I guess you heard," I said.
"Heard what?" he asked.
"I was arrested yesterday," I said.
"That's okay," he said, "because I traded you last night."
"Where?" I asked.
"Chicago," he said.
That's when I realized that I had mixed emotions about the deal. I had spent seven fun seasons in Montreal and I was sad about leaving the Canadiens. I told Serge that.
"Well," he said, "I could have really [expletive] you and traded you to Winnipeg for Dale Hawerchuk!"

I'm not going to lie: I think my jaw hit the floor when I read that. Chris Chelios as a Winnipeg Jet? Dale Hawerchuk as a Montreal Canadien and a potential Stanley Cup champion in 1993? No Housley-to-Selanne? The NHL landscape would have changed dramatically had Winnipeg and Montreal made that deal. Of course, Serge Savard could have simply been taking a shot at the team that once employed him, but that's for him to answer. Either way, that could have been huge news!

Of course, there are chapters on the international play that Chelios was involved in, and he does an excellent job at explaining the unfortunate "trashed hotel room" in Nagano, the US's World Cup of Hockey victory in 1996, his Olympic experience in 1984, and his time at the Canada Cup. Through it all, we get to understand the psyche of Chris Chelios in how he simply was neither going to be outworked nor allow an opponent get the better of him. While some of his play would fall into the "dirty" category, it was quite common for that era of hockey so I can't really fault him. After all, as one of his chapters is titled, "Winning is a Habit".

It's amazing to read his thoughts on the coaches and management for whom he played. Legends such as Scotty Bowman, Mike Keenan, and Jacques Lemaire were some of his coaches, and you can tell he holds them in high respect. While family comes first, he also holds his friends to the same level of respect, talking admirably about people like Kid Rock, John Cusack, Michael Jordan, Tony Danza, John McEnroe, and Wayne Gretzky. Honestly, the more I read Overtime, the more apparent it became that Chris Chelios is a stand-up guy who would do anything for his friends and family, not to mention teammates and coaches who expected greatness out of him.

Overall, Overtime was a fantastic read that kept me wanting to read further. Learning about the ups and downs about Chris Chelios' life was something far more interesting than I would have probably given it credit if I was judging a book by its cover, and I'm very glad I didn't do that. For all appearances, he seems like a great guy with some incredible stories, a few heartbreaks, and a general zest for life. Overtime was a fantastic read, and it certainly deserves the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!

Find Overtime at your local bookstore or library today! Due to a few choice words in the story, I'd recommend this book for adolescents and up, but it would make for a great Father's Day gift this year!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Moving Upstairs

It was just last year on The Hockey Show where I joked with Sami Jo Small, goaltender for the Toronto Furies, about becoming the general manager of a Winnipeg-based professional women's hockey team. She enthusiastically played along, stating she would move back to her hometown to fill that role. Fast forward to June 11, 2018, and she didn't quite move home to Winnipeg, but she has accepted to fill the general manager vacancy for her adopted city's professional women's team as Sami Jo Small was named as the general manager of the Toronto Furies today! For a woman as accomplished and successful as she has been in hockey, this move to the front office seems only natural to me, and I think Sami is going to be an outstanding GM for the Furies!

There literally is nothing on the ice that Sami Jo Small hasn't done. She played with the Stanford Cardinal men's team, earning PAC-8 MVP honours, while attending college on track and field scholarship to throw the discus and javelin where she earned a mechanical engineering degree. She has attended three Olympic Games, winning gold in Nagano, Salt Lake City, and Turin. She is a five-time IIHF Women's World Championships gold medalist. She has twice earned the Directorate Award as Best Goalie at the World Championships in 1999 and 2000. She was a member of the 2014 Clarkson Cup champion Toronto Furies. She was the first professional women's hockey goaltender to accumulate 60 career wins, done against the Boston Blades on February 9, 2014, and currently holds the Canadian professional women's league's record for career starts and wins.

Honestly, her list of accomplishments above speaks for itself.

What makes this announcement hard to digest is that all of my favorite goalies seem to be hanging up the skates this season. Calgary's Delayne Brian made the announcement a few weeks ago that she was retiring. Swiss goaltender Florence Schelling was the next to announce that she was moving on from hockey. And now Sami Jo Small will most likely trade in the skates for a briefcase as she transitions to a life off the ice.

It's not easy being a fan of these sensational goalies right now.

I do see this move as a major positive for the Furies. After Nicole Letreille didn't have her contract renewed by the Furies for reasons unknown at this time, Small was the face of the Furies since 2011 after being claimed by the Furies when the Mississauga Chiefs were contracted at the end of the 2010 season. Small is also involved with her league's Player's Association, and has been a member of the lague's Board of Directors since the founding of the league. She knows the ins and outs of the league and its affairs, and that makes her an ideal candidate to be in some sort of management capacity.

Perhaps more than anything, Small knows the current players all too well, and has a generally amazing personality and drive that should make playing for her rather easy for players looking to break into the league via the draft or through free agency. She constantly wears the world's biggest smile, she might be the most positive and cheerful person I know, and she generally wants the best for every individual she encounters. While she'll have a salary cap in with which to build the Furies, don't be surprised if there are more than a few players asking if they can play for Sami.

There's no question that Sami Jo Small has some work to do in getting the Furies back on track. She has an outstanding goaltender with whom she worked alongside last season in Amanda Makela; solid defenders in Michelle Saunders, Sydney Kidd, Shannon Moulson, and Katie Gaskin; and, hard-working, skilled forwards in Carolyne Prevost, Jenna Dingeldein, Hayley Williams, and Emily Fulton. If they can add Canadian Olympians Natalie Spooner and Renata Fast back into the lineup and find a few solid picks plus a free agent or two, this Furies team could be vying for the Clarkson Cup, let alone just a playoff spot.

Sami Jo Small will be a large part of the talent attracted to Toronto this summer. She'll have her work cut out for her, but she's never been afraid to accept a challenge. Perhaps she can follow Inferno GM Kristen Hagg as another Clarkson Cup-winning player who successfully transferred to the front office? Or, more importantly, perhaps Small can become the first person to win the Clarkson Cup as both a player and a general manager?

Now that's a challenge that I can see Sami Jo Small accepting! Congratulations on the appointment, Sami, and I'm confident this will be the best move the Toronto Furies ever made!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Summer Hobby

I announced some time ago that my summer is going to be filled with more reading as I have a number of books to work through that are piling up on my bookcase. I'm actually quite excited to read these books as there are a number of tomes that should give me new insight on the game and players. What I do know before I even crack any spines on these books is that I need to average about one per week to make my way through all of them by the time that the regular season starts up again.

Among the many books that need reading are several biographies and autobiographies. I'm very excited for Overtime by Chris Chelios, Quinn by Dan Robson, and Father Bauer by Greg Oliver. I find the hockey biographies and autobiographies to encapsulate the mind as I get to know the players and people a little better than what I had known about them through the media. I'm looking forward to these books already!

There are a handful of other books that will give better insight on some interesting situations. Chill Factor by David Paitson and Craig Merz is all about the successful minor-hockey league team that kicked off a love of hockey in Columbus, Ohio. Bench Bosses by Matthew DiBiase is a look at a number of famous hockey coaches and their careers. Ice Time by Scott Russell is a cross-Canada tour of some of the devoted people who make the game of hockey so good. These stories should ignite the passion for the game in me over the summer.

I have a few other books to go through as well, so it's not like I've listed all of the literature above. I'm also open to suggestions if you have any. If there's one thing that we, as a society, does less in today's high-speed world, it's reading an old-fashioned book - turning pages between two solid covers while absorbing the words and ideas from those turning pages.

As it stands, one of the listed books is already being read, and I'll have that review posted this week. With the Calder Cup coming to an end, the NHL Draft about to take place, and NHL Free Agency on the horizon, there should be some solid free time on my part that I can fill with reading! Toss any book recommendations you have in the comments, and I'll see if I can locate the books in my local library or bookstore!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Fly Like An Eagle

The Colorado Eagles and Florida Everblades met in Game Seven of the Kelly Cup Final last night to determine who would be the ECHL champions for this season. The Eagles entered the game as the reigning Kelly Cup champions, so there was a lot on the line as they looked to defend their title. They also have the distinction of playing in their final ECHL game as the franchise is being elevated to the AHL level next season as the AHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche. The Everblades won the Kelly Cup once before in 2011-12, so they were looking to write a new chapter into their history. Only one could prevail, and the lede photo and the title of this article should tell you who rose above the other in this Game Seven of the Kelly Cup Championship!

The Eagles, based in Loveland, Colorado, haven't been around the ECHL's membership for decades like some teams. They started in the Central Hockey League in 2003 where they won a CHL championship in 2004-05 and in 2006-07 before being accepted into the ECHL as an expansion team in 2011, winning the Kelly Cup last season for the first time. They were affiliated with the Winnipeg Jets from 2011-13, the Calgary Flames in the 2014-15 season, and have been affiliated with the Avalanche since 2016. There's your brief history on Colorado's brief history thus far!

This year's squad has shown that they're no stranger to adversity, winning the final two series of the playoffs in Game-Seven situations. They needed all seven games to oust the Fort Wayne Komets who tied the series after being down 3-2 with a 3-2 win on the road in Colorado before the Eagles closed out the series on home ice with a 4-3 win in overtime in Game Seven. That's about as close as a team can get to going home, but Ryan Olsen prevented that from happening as the defending champs moved on with his goal at 10:34 of the extra period on the power-play.

In the Kelly Cup Final, the Florida Everblades gave the Colorado Eagles everything they could handle. The Eagles found themselves in a 3-2 hole heading home on Wednesday where they laid down a 4-2 win on the strength of a pair of Michael Joly goals. It should have been a 4-1 win with Joly's second goal finding the empty net, but a late Florida goal made the game closer than it appeared. After surviving that game, they traveled back to Florida for Game Seven where it was winner-takes-all in the final ECHL game of the season!

"One game to win a championship," Eagles head coach Aaron Schneekloth told Loveland Reporter-Herald's Cris Tiller. "We'll take it."

A crowd of 7701 fans packed Florida's Germain Arena for the final game, and they were treated to an excellent game between two talented teams. The home crowd got into the game early when Spencer Smallman broke into the Colorado zone, curled towards the net, and unleashed a howitzer that beat Joe Cannata to put the Everblades up 1-0! Florida continued to play some dizzying hockey through the last half of the period and almost scored a second goal late during a goalmouth scramble, but they'd go to the intermission up 1-0 and leading 12-9 in shots!

The second period saw the two teams trade chances, but it would the Eagles who found the back of the net. Michael Joly picked off an errant pass and was off to the races from his own end. He went to the backhand and shelved a shot past Martin Ouellette with 5:41 remaining in the middle frame. It seemed as though the Everblades had taken the lead late in the period when Michael Kirkpatrick appeared to roof the puck behind Cannata just under the bar, but the goal was waved off by the official. The goal judge had signaled a goal, but it was determined that the knob of Cannata's stick was what everyone had seen, and the officials moved on. The two teams would fire nine shots apiece at the opposing goaltenders, but it was Colorado who scored the all-important tying goal to send this game into the second intermission at 1-1.

As a note, the ECHL does not use video replay for its officials, so, with there being a reason to check the tape in a Game Seven of the Kelly Cup Championship, the fact that there is no tape to check is rather astounding to me. In this day and age, professional hockey seems to have video replay everywhere, but the ECHL does not. As several of the players and coaches stated after the game, this needs to be rectified starting next season so that there are no debates over what is and isn't a good goal. I am in agreement, especially when it came to a play of this magnitude, but I digress.

The third period saw Florida get the break they needed when a three-on-one for Eagles was turned into a two-on-one the other way after Everblades defenceman Matt Mackenzie broke up a pass right on Ouellette's doorstep. Mackenzie threw the outlet pass up to Sam Warning who, with John McCarron, fed McCarron with a cross-ice pass, and McCarron's shot beat a sliding Cannata for the 2-1 lead at 6:15. The Eagles would respond five minutes later when Travis Barron picked off an unsuccessful clearing attempt by the Everblades, and he stepped into the face-off circle and zipped a shot past Ouellette on the short-side at 10:45 to knot this game up at 2-2.

Michael Joly, who was a key cog in the Eagles' offence this postseason, drew a holding penalty with his speed at the 14:53 mark when Derek Sheppard illegally slowed him up, but Joly made an almost-incomprehensible mistake less than a minute later. After being called for an offside while on the power-play, Joly slammed his stick so hard down onto the ice that he snapped the twig into two pieces. The officials would have none of that behavior and assessed him a slashing penalty for his indiscretion - a correct call by the rule book - and sent him off for two minutes, negating the Colorado power-play and eventually guaranteeing Florida a 42-second power-play at the end of Sheppard's time-out. Boneheaded? I'd say yes.

Joly, however, was bailed out by his teammates as they not only killed off the short power-play, but actually took the lead! Defenceman Gabriel Verpaelst fired a wrist shot from the left-side circle after receiving a pass as the trailer on a three-on-two, and Verpaelst's shorthanded goal at 17:31 silenced the stunned crowd at Germain Arena. According to Sean Star of the Loveland Reporter-Herald,

Verpaelst skated to center ice with his both hands on his head, falling to one knee in disbelief. He then turned around and rose to both feet, swarmed by his three other teammates on the ice for celebratory bear hug.

Not bad for a defenceman who was never drafted and has played for five different ECHL teams over the last four seasons! Joe Cannata held the Everblades off the scoresheet for the final 2:39 of the game, and the Eagles captured their second-straight Kelly Cup and, possibly, the last one in their history as they'll move to the AHL for next season. Michael Joly was named as the Most Valuable Player of the 2018 Kelly Cup Playoffs, racking up 29 points — 13 goals and 16 assists — in just 24 games, including four goals and five assists in the Kelly Cup Final.

The Eagles will go out as champions in the ECHL, and there will be a new Kelly Cup champion next season. It's been a great run for Colorado, but the real work begins as they move up a level to the AHL. Can they keep the magic rolling? We'll know next season! Congratulations to the 2018 ECHL Kelly Cup Champions in the Colorado Eagles!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Capital W

There have been a number of opportunities in the past where it was expected that the Washington Capitals would ascend to the apex of the NHL mountain. Led by Alexander Ovechkin, they won President's Trophies, they played incredible inspired offence, and they had great goaltending, but they always seemed to fall short for some reason. Most times, it was Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and the Pittsburgh Penguins, but 2018 saw the Capitals exorcise those demons en route to Washington's first-ever Stanley Cup victory!

As a Penguins fan, you never want to see one of your arch-rivals not only oust your team from the playoffs, but go on to win the sport's biggest prize, but I have to hand it to the Capitals as they seemed to get better with every round. They started slowly in the Columbus series before making a goaltender change that saw Holtby begin his incredible run. They outskated and overpowered the Penguins in their annual spring meeting. They outhit, wore down, and disrupted the Lightning at every turn. And then they out-Vegased the Vegas Golden Knights in forcing turnovers and scoring off those rushes. In every sense, the Capitals were the best team for the last three months.

Alex Ovechkin became the first Russian-born player to captain a Stanley Cup-winning team. The Capitals erased 43 years of "almost", "next year", and "so close" with their victory last night, and they saw Ovechkin win the Conn Smythe Trophy after he set the franchise record for goals in one postseason with 15.

"It's just like a dream," Ovechkin said.

The Capitals set a record for most roads wins in a postseason with ten. Each of their series wins came on the road, and they were a perfect 4-0 in those games. Lars Eller became the first Danish-born player to win the Stanley Cup, and he had a big goal last night as he scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal at 12:23 of the third period on a rebound past Marc-Andre Fleury to help the Capitals claim their spot among the champions.

"He was so far out I couldn't get in front of him, which is usually where the rebound comes," Eller told NHL.com's Dan Rosen. "So I got behind him and the puck just squeaks through. Usually, Connolly shoots between the legs, and it was just at the right place at the right moment."

Here's Alex Ovechkin on winning the Stanley Cup.

I'm happy for Alex Ovechkin. He's long-suffered the catcalls of not being as good as Crosby to whom he is often compared due to Washington not having won a Stanley Cup. He's had to endure a decade of questions of "what went wrong" when the Capitals fell short. He's always been a professional in answering those questions and never ducking from them, so he earned the right to enjoy this victory after leading the Capitals to the promised land.

You have to wonder, though, if this would have been the end result had Ovechkin and the NHL players gone to the Olympics as Ovechkin had promised to do. We'll never know that answer nor is it important at this time, but it's always going to be one of those unanswered "what ifs" to which we'll never be privy.

In any case, my congratulations go out tonight to the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals who rightfully earned this Stanley Cup victory. A big shout-out to Manitoba's Barry Trotz who will hopefully bring the Silver Chalice back to the Keystone Province, and a stick-tap to Chandler Stevenson who stated that his celebration will take place in Humboldt, Saskatchewan.

The Washington Capitals: your 2018 Stanley Cup Champions!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!