Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips September 28, 2016

Columbus Blue Jackets

Cleveland Monsters/Prospects PAGE 02: Columbus Dispatch: Brett Gallant happy to be on ice, protecting prospects PAGE 04: Columbus Dispatch: Shooter's Mentality: Prospect Daniel Zaar Not Passing Up Opportunities NHL/Websites PAGE 06: TSN.CA: World Cup of Hockey trophy gets facelift PAGE 08: Sportsnet.CA: Wayne Gretzky’s warm, formal welcome back to the NHL long overdue

1 http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/stories/2016/09/28/gallant-feature.html

Brett Gallant happy to be on ice, protecting prospects

By Tom Reed – September 28, 2016

The scabs and scars on the knuckles of Brett Gallant tell stories about his profession he sometimes chooses not to reveal.

For instance, he politely declines to discuss the battles in the backyard rink his father built for his three boys on . Like a family of cops, all three kids have grown to become enforcers of a certain distinction in major-junior and minor-league hockey.

Though the 27-year-old Gallant doesn’t like to offer details about what makes him a good teammate, there’s no shortage of Blue Jackets prospects willing to discuss his value to the organization.

“I always felt safe when he was on the ice or in the games,” said defenseman Zach Werenski, who spent time with Gallant last season on the Calder Cup champion Lake Erie Monsters.

“He’s just a great guy,” forward Josh Anderson said. “He’s the guy who looks out for his teammates. He’ll do anything for you.”

Many in the organization are happy to see the 6-foot, 194-pounder in Blue Jackets training camp before eventually returning to Cleveland for the start of the Monsters’ season.

Last April, there was no guarantee the tough guy would play again let alone lift the Calder Cup trophy in June. Gallant collapsed on the bench during a game against the Toronto Marlies and had to be taken from the ice on a stretcher. A day later, Cleveland Clinic doctors diagnosed Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which according to the Mayo Clinic website is an extra electrical pathway between the heart’s upper and lower chamber that causes a rapid heartbeat.

Hockey has had its share of similar scares -- the Blue Jackets had a 2014 game in Dallas postponed after the heart of Stars forward Rich Peverley stopped beating for two minutes.

Gallant considers himself extremely fortunate. He had the defect, which usually isn’t life threatening but can cause serious heart problems, surgically repaired two days after the episode.

“I was so lucky to be playing for Cleveland when it happened,” said Gallant, no relation to former Blue Jackets coach Gerard Gallant. “They have such good doctors, heart specialists, and they caught the (problem) in my heart. They got it fixed, and I feel better than ever.”

Gallant had dealt with a rapid heartbeat for some time but figured he could control it by eliminating caffeine in his diet. He passed physicals and routine checkups, the condition never being detected.

His wife was comfortable enough with the doctors’ prognosis to let him return to the game. Within two months, the father of two was back on the ice, registering an assist in Game 3 of the Monsters’ championship series.

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“I got a chance to get in the lineup, and it was real special,” Gallant said of his only playoff appearance last season. “To be part of that game was unbelievable. ... To win the trophy for whatever league you are in is an awesome feeling. It was such a good team and close team.”

A physician is the only one who would ever question Gallant’s heart.

He followed his older brother, Bradley, playing for their hometown team, the Summerside Western Capitals, of the Maritime Junior Hockey League. The family’s youngest, Alex, 23, is in the San Jose Sharks system. All the boys learned their toughness from their dad, Mike, who also played the game.

Brett Gallant has accumulated 1,347 penalty minutes since 2009 while protecting teammates and generating sparks for his minor-league clubs. He’s appeared in four NHL games for the New York Islanders in 2014.

Anderson experienced Gallant’s fury two years ago while playing for the Jackets’ old farm team in Springfield, Massachusetts.

“In my first year pro, I hit a kid in middle of ice and all of a sudden I heard Gally from the bench screaming, ‘I’m coming after you’” Anderson recalled. “I had no idea who he was. Afterwards, people were telling me, ‘You just fought the toughest guy in the league.’ I said, ‘No way’ and my phone started blowing up. Friends were saying, ‘Oh my God, what were you thinking?’”

The two players won a title together last season in Cleveland and have become close friends.

Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen was thankful to have Gallent in the Monsters lineup to keep watch over his group of talented prospects. Gallant, Anderson and towering defenseman Oleg Yevenko all amassed 100-plus penalty minutes last season.

“We had a very young team there, and Brett kept other teams honest,” Kekalainen said. “You see a big difference with the other teams when he’s in the lineup and when he isn’t in the lineup. Brett is more than just a fighter. He can think the game well, too, but like I said he keeps opponents honest when he’s out there.”

Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella is getting to know Gallant and appreciates his selfless commitment. He dressed the winger in the home exhibition opener, and Gallant buckled the knees of St. Louis’ tough guy Jacob Doty in a first-period scrap.

“The job he does and the role he has to fill -- not too many people can do that,” Tortorella said. “Those guys there are easy guys to pull for. I look at him (Sunday) night and he’s just standing in there. You can’t help but like the guy, the willingness.”

Brett Gallant is good at what he does. Just don’t expect him to talk about it.

3 http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/blogs/puck-rakers/2016/09/shooters-mentality-prospect- daniel-zaar-not-passing-up-opportunities.html

Shooter's Mentality: Prospect Daniel Zaar Not Passing Up Opportunities By Tom Reed – September 28, 2016

In a consummate team sport, John Tortorella hopes Daniel Zaar’s selfishness with the puck becomes contagious.

It might be the only thing the 22-year-old Swede passes on to teammates.

Zaar’s willingness to shoot first and eschew the extra pass in the offensive zone is endearing him to the Blue Jackets’ coaching staff. The winger scored a goal Monday night on a nice feed from Sam Gagner in a 3-2 exhibition win over the Bruins in Boston and he fired a bevy of shots during Tuesday’s scrimmage that produced a goal and an assist.

“The thing I like about him is he doesn’t look to pass,” Tortorella said. “He looks to shoot and he has a good shot. He’s looking to score goals. I really like that mental approach. He’s not passing the puck, he’s shooting and I think other need to be more like that.”

Zaar led the Lake Erie Monsters in goal scoring last season with 21 and added seven more in the post- season run to the Calder Cup. He didn’t enter training camp among the group of prospects expected to push veteran forwards for roster spots, and there’s a strong chance he opens the year in Cleveland.

The 5-foot-11, 175-pounder is conceding nothing, however, after a summer spent building his frame and strengthening his legs.

“Of course my goal is to make the team otherwise why would I be here?” said Zaar. “If don’t do that right away I’ll just keep working on my game in Cleveland and hopefully get a chance later.”

Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said Zaar’s shot-first mentality makes him atypical among Scandinavian players. The youngster is not looking to become the next Henrik Sedin, although the Jackets would certainly take it.

“I really like the way Steven Stamkos plays,” he said of the Tampa Bay Lightning sniper.

Last season was Zaar’s first in North America. The kid with the quick release noted the switch from larger European ice surfaces has been a boon for his game.

“You can take shots from almost everywhere in the offensive zone and I think that helped me,” Zaar said.

Tortorella believes center Alexander Wennberg could benefit from watching his fellow countryman.

“Wenny wants to pass it into the net and he has a bomb of a shot,” the coach said.

Side dishes

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--- Tortorella plans to make his first round of cuts Thursday prior to the exhibition game against Nashville. The club is off Friday and the coach wants to thin the roster to between 35 and 40 players when it resumes practice on Saturday. The Jackets opened camp with 66 players, including those competing at the World Cup.

--- The Jackets lost defenseman Dillon Heatherington on Tuesday to an undisclosed injury during practice. His group was doing conditioning drills when he crashed heavily into the end boards and needed assistance to get to the bench. Tortorella acknowledged the 21-year-old will miss time.

--- Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky returned to Nationwide Arena on Tuesday after helping Team Russia reach the World Cup semifinals in Toronto. Tortorella said the goalie will practice Wednesday. The coach said forward Jarret Stoll (death in the family) is expected in town Wednesday night and on the ice Thursday morning.

--- Tortorella on the play of center Sam Gagner, who has a goal and three assists (and a shootout winner) in two exhibitions: “He keeps on making a case for himself. It looks like he’s handling the speed (well). Last night, (in Boston) was a much quicker game than our games against St. Louis. He made some good plays, made a nice play to Zaar and scored just a beautiful goal in the shootout.”

--- Blue Jackets analyst Bill Davidge accompanied three fans to Boston last night as part of his fundraiser to combat multiple myeloma. The announcer, who's been battling cancer for two years, helped raise $15,000 at his second annual golf outing last month. The Boston trip was part of an auction that two fans won with a bid of $5,000. The fans flew on the team charter, went to dinner with Blue Jackets' personnel and attended the game.

5 http://www.tsn.ca/world-cup-of-hockey-trophy-gets-facelift-1.574820

World Cup of Hockey trophy gets facelift

By Frank Seravalli – September 28, 2016

His memory of that whole night is a blur now, but Jay Bouwmeester can clearly remember his reaction when organizers presented the World Cup of Hockey trophy to Team captain Mario Lemieux in 2004.

In a moment of pure exuberance, it was a feeling of bewilderment.

“I remember when they brought it out, everyone was like ‘What is that thing?’” Bouwmeester said Tuesday morning. “That was everyone’s reaction.

“It looked like a flower pot.”

Twelve years later, one of the strangest awards in pro sports is somehow back. It has been tweaked and re-designed — but only slightly. Renowned Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry, the man who designed the original trophy, was again commissioned by the NHL and NHLPA. Neither organizing party provided insight into why the designer of a trophy so widely panned was brought back for another run.

The joint press release stated only Gehry was “specially commissioned” by the NHL and NHLPA “due, in part, to his lifelong passion for hockey” and that it was a “labour of love.”

This year’s version is an entirely new piece of hardware — one meant to be used from now on. The 1996 and 2004 World Cup of Hockey trophies are on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame, along with the original trophy, curator and keeper of the Stanley Cup Phil Pritchard said in an email Tuesday.

This edition of the 32-pound stainless steel and solid cast acrylic World Cup is more transparent than its opaque predecessor. The Toronto Star still labelled it the “weird cup of hockey.” It looks vaguely more curvy and modern, though the original design was contemporary anyway. The names of the 1996 and 2004 World Cup of Hockey champions from the United States and Canada are laser etched on the inside. It has room for up to 10 championship rosters.

Gehry Partners described the new World Cup as one that “seeks to capture both the toughness and the elegance of the sport, with a design that embodies the exceptional skill, commitment, and fortitude required of a winning team.”

Bouwmeester and Joe Thornton are two of the five holdovers from the 2004 World Cup who skated in this year’s tournament.

Thornton said last week that the glow of winning presented the 2004 World Cup trophy in a different light, maybe one that only the victors could appreciate.

“I remember it being beautiful,” Thornton said, smiling.

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Brent Burns liked the original 1996 World Cup trophy with dueling red and blue skaters better.

“I actually loved that logo back in the day with the little red and blue guys,” Burns said. “I used to collect the logos from McDonalds.”

The World Cup of Hockey trophies have not evoked warm and fuzzy feelings. No player kissed the World Cup of Hockey on the ice in 2004 and it doesn’t have nearly the same feel or reverence as the Stanley Cup.

Then again, it is impossible to compare the World Cup to the best trophy in sports. There is almost zero tradition with the World Cup of Hockey. The tournament has only been played three times, without any regularity, and the format is different this time around with a decidedly less international feel with Canada taking on Team Europe in the final.

The World Cup isn’t about the hardware, though. Burns said Canada is playing to win because “everyone in this country watching hockey wants us to win.” He likened it to the Sharks’ pre-game soccer warm-up competitions in the bowels of arenas — the only award is the ball and the satisfaction of being that day’s champion.

“In our game, the only trophy you chase is the Stanley Cup,” Bouwmeester said. “The Olympics is a different thing — you get a gold medal. There are not a lot of people that can say that. As an athlete, that’s a pretty big deal. Beyond that, it’s about being part of the team and playing for your country.”

7 http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/wayne-gretzkys-warm-formal-welcome-back-nhl-long-overdue/

Wayne Gretzky’s warm, formal welcome back to the NHL long overdue

By Chris Johnston – September 28, 2016

TORONTO – Wayne Gretzky walks into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

He’s pulled a hat low over his eyes so as not to raise attention and paid the admission for he and son Tristan. They spend two hours perusing the exhibits in anonymity before eventually coming upon the interactive section where you can take shots at a screen.

Tristan, aged 11 or 12, steps up.

“He goes four for five and he says ‘OK, Dad, try it,”’ Gretzky recalled Tuesday “I said ‘OK’ and I got up there and missed the first three shots I took. And the young man who was taking care of the line came over to me and said: ‘Sir, if you move your hand down the stick a little bit…’

“I lifted my hat up and I said ‘Go get me one of those pucks that are in there. There’s 802 of them in there.”’

By now Gretzky is laughing from deep down in his belly – as is everyone else in the audience. It is a nice moment, the kind we haven’t seen enough of at a NHL-sanctioned event in recent years.

Thankfully, this will soon change after Gretzky was named the official ambassador of the league’s centennial celebrations in 2017.

It means the “Great One” will be in attendance at the Jan. 2 Winter Classic game in St. Louis and the Jan. 28-29 all-star weekend in Los Angeles, where the NHL’s top-100 players of all-time will be revealed. There will be other appearances as well.

That should allow for more sessions like the one we had at Air Canada Centre on Tuesday afternoon, where Gretzky told stories and shared opinions on the state of the league after officially being unveiled as the centennial ambassador.

It is both a natural fit and a long time coming.

“Everything I have in my life is because of the Hockey League and the game of hockey,” said Gretzky. “When the commissioner called me a couple months ago and asked if I wanted to be involved, I said ‘absolutely.’ … I’m probably at all of the events anyway.

“So for them to ask me to be part of it, and be part of the National Hockey League, it’s a great thrill for me.”

WHEN THE GREAT ONE LEAVES YOU A PRE-GAME NOTE. #WCH2016 PIC.TWITTER.COM/UGLMYCHKNK

— TEAM EUROPE (@TEAMEUR_WCH) SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

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That Gretzky has had no official role in hockey since stepping down as coach of the Phoenix Coyotes in September 2009 is tough to fathom. He’s remained somewhat in the public eye through various corporate sponsorships, and continued to follow the sport closely, but he’s ostensibly been distant from the NHL since becoming collateral damage in the Coyotes bankruptcy case.

The league ended up paying him the $7- to $8-million he was owed from that situation in 2013, and Gretzky was front and centre at the Dodger Stadium outdoor game in January 2014.

But seeing him take a formal position with the NHL is a major step forward, especially at the outset of a season as exciting as this one. The 2017 centennial will provide an opportunity to celebrate where the sport has been and where it’s going.

And it will do so with a man who is as much historian as living legend.

“I have nothing but the utmost regard, respect and awe for Wayne,” said commissioner Gary Bettman. “I know his love of the game and I also know his respect for the history and traditions of the game. It didn’t take a lot of discussion, there was no arm-twisting. The concept was laid out and then it was just a question of his troops and mine working out the logistics.

“This was really easy.”

On Tuesday, Gretzky fondly recalled attending his first NHL game at Maple Leaf Gardens and sitting last row greys with his grandmother. He said his fondest personal highlights included taking an opening faceoff against Stan Mikita at Chicago Stadium in his first NHL game, and lifting the Stanley Cup for the first time.

He listed Sidney Crosby as the game’s best current player and said he’ll be there to support Alex Ovechkin if he ever breaks his record for goals.

Asked for his personal all-time NHL all-star team, he rhymed off a list that included his own heroes and contemporaries: “I would go with Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, Mark Messier, Jean Beliveau and Gordie Howe. The goalie? Grant Fuhr. He had no defence; we were mostly an offensive team. If he would have played somewhere else, he probably would have had a really good goals-against average. A lot of 6-5 games in Edmonton.”

Then there was the fantastic anecdote about one of the game’s all-time greats wandering around the Hockey Hall of Fame in secrecy.

“My son killed himself laughing and I got out of there,” said Gretzky. “But I love every part of the Hall of Fame. It’s just heaven to me. I love it.”

It’s good to have him back.

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