Canadian Clips 10/19

Bernadette Mansur, Gary Meagher, Frank Brown, Greg

Inglis, Mary Kay Wright, Benny Ercolani, David Keon,
to: JHoran, Adam Acone, Mark Fischel, Colin Campbell, Mike
Murphy, Kelley Rosset, Stephen Walkom, John Shannon,
Doug Brooks, Karen Durkin, Nirva Milord

10/19/2006 08:01 AM

Cc: Julie Young

The NHLPA insistsit "supported"member Mike Danton throughthe David Frost debacle
but the facts simplydo not supportthat claim
STEVE SIMMONS, TorontoSun

Would Mike Danton be in prison today had the National Hockey League Players' Association
properly protected his interests by never certifying David Frost as an agent?
Would the former NHL player have found himself the central figure in a clumsy murder-for-hire
plot involving Frost had his agent never been certified to be his agent?
These questions linger unanswered -- still being asked by Danton's parents, still being
wondered about by those within hockey circles -- while Danton remains behind bars in Fort Dix,
N.J., serving a 7 1/2-year sentence while Frost awaits trial on numerous sexual exploitation
charges in Ontario.
Other pertinent questions to consider: Had Frost never been certified, would Danton have found
it necessary to attempt to arrange the murder of his former coach? Had another agent handled
Danton's personal business and been involved more closely would that agent have been strong
enough to have seen how unhealthy the relationship between Danton and Frost had been?
That we'll never know because throughout this entire mess, the PA has shrugged ambivalently
to everything that has been David Frost.
In the summer of 2001, Danton's parents provfeelll t\rliif~PA psychologist Dr. Brian Shaw with
disturbing photographs taken fror.Q, FrosJ's~cottage tbat included one of a young boy naked and
bound to a bed with duct tape and ~.th'kN>~\' poin~ing ."'(ifle at the child.
Dr. Shaw, as obligated by law, turmed
applied for certification.

\1; matter or.~r

ef th~olice. That was before Frost

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But one year and three months after Shaw first saw the photographs in his role with the PA,
Frost was certified by that very same organization.
He remained certified even after Danton, a PA member, had been arrested and charged in the
United States. He remained certified as Danton pied guilty to conspiracy to commit murder.
Ian Penny, the NHLPA's associate counsel, explained the unionis position this way in a written
statement: 'The NHLPA's approach to Mike Danton's legal proceeding and his relationship with
David Frost has been guided by our interest in supporting Mike and doing our part to insure that
Mike obtains the best possible legal outcomes, both legally and personally.'

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When recently asked to elaborate on how, in fact, they 'supported' Danton, Penny and the PA
refused to answer, claiming their previous statement covered off the situation.
When asked if they could provide specific evidence regarding what they did to support Danton
in any way, they again refused to answer.
When asked -- now that Frost compatriot Bob Goodenow no longer is associated with the PA -if in retrospect, knowing what they know now, would they have certified Frost in the first place,
again they refused to answer.
Goodenow, for example, was urged by Chicago Blackhawks president Bill Wirtz to sever ties
with Frost in the best interest of both the NHL and the NHLPA. 'On numerous occasions, I
asked Bob to temporarily suspend David Frostis certification until after the Ontario Provincial
Police had concluded their criminal investigation of him,' Wirtz wrote me in a letter dated Sept.
13.
'Needless to say he did nothing.'
Wirtz also wrote to Goodenowis successor, Ted Saskin, calling the Danton/Frost incident ithe
worst event that I have experienced in fifty years associated with the NHL.'
In his letter of Aug. 23 to Saskin, Wirtz wrote: iln short, I am appalled by the handling of this
time bomb.'
And as the PA was 'supporting' Danton, Frost, the apparent target of the messed-up hit, was
providing legal and moral support for Danton. The conflicts of interest here appear extreme.
The question is who was supporting whom?
There is no evidence, in fact, the PA did anything but cover up for its now former boss and
protect its own name in the process, while hanging out to dry one of its troubled members.
t##t#
Far-reaching NHL dreams: Oilers rookie win~er Patrick Thoresen helping his dad carve

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out a Norwegian niche for hoci<e\

Joanne Ireland, The Edmonton .!Jo1:s1mal

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EDMONTON - The phone rang eight ~zones awa~e Petter Thoresen was about to get
on with another day. He wasn't unduly fuelled by caffeine, not on this morning, as he had
decided to forgo another 4 a.m. wake up.
"I didn't get up again," he confessed, "because I had listened to the game the night before."
But right around 7 a.m., his son called from Edmonton and filled in all the gaps. Still soaked in
sweat, still beaming with satisfaction, Patrick, the Oilers dynamic rookie from Norway, wanted to
talk about the game and, of course, his goal.
Thoresen notched his second NHL marker, the game winner as it turned out, in Tuesday's 2-1
victory over the visiting Vancouver Canucks. Petter fired up the computer and watched the
replay on the Internet.

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"Patrick always had a dream to play hockey in Canada," said the proud papa, who has carved
out his own niche in Norway's hockey annals, sparse as that book might be, given the country's
inherent passion for cross-country skiing, speed skating and ski jumping.
One of only four hockey players to play in five Olympic tournaments, Petter Thoresen retired in
1995 and moved into the coaching ranks.
He has tutored Norway's national team, is the head coach of the Storhamar Dragons, and even
had a role in Hockeyfeber, a 1983 movie about a Norwegian hockey team.
In his spare time, he oversees his bricklaying company.
"This is a big thing in Norway, to have Patrick playing for the Oilers," he said, "but I had to tell
my players they couldn't be up listening to all the games."
Up until five years ago, the only link to the NHL was through printed reports or on Swedish TV.
Games are now showing up on the tube and the Internet has since become an instant link.

Thoresen is adamant that hockey is now the second most popular spectator sport in his
country.
Still, he wants a closer look at the NHL and next month will take a short leave from his duties in
Norway to make the trip to Edmonton.
"After I had played in the Olympics, Boston University was interested, but at that time it was a
long way from home, and I had just started my education as a bricklayer," he said. "So it's good
to see Patrick following his dream."
Toy cars were of no interest to the winger when he was a toddler. He wanted a stick and a ball
and he wanted to accompany his father to the rink. So he did. Patrick and his young brother,
Steffen, were the ones with their noses pressed up against the glass, watching dad go through
his practice paces.
Patrick was just four years old when his-...pad was playing with an up-and-comer by the name of
Epsen Knutsen, the most notable CDf~
the Narwe'grafls 'to tiaweplayed in the NHL. Now there are
a few Oilers banners hanging in a rin .in Harnar dor;i~\at~l~Hq_g Patrick on his journey into the
league.
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"Patrick always had a big interest in hockey," Petter said. "He followed me to practices and
loved to just stand there and watch. And he always dreamed about the National Hockey
League."
"It's a pretty cool story," Oilers teammate Ethan Moreau said, "because if you're a young guy
and you come to this team and look at our roster, it's easy to just say there's not a chance in
hell I'm going to make this lineup. But the best advice I ever had was that if you are good
enough, they'll make room -- and that's what's happened with him.
"He came from nowhere, well, Norway, and has played great."

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When he was 17, Patrick made his way to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, where he
spent two seasons. It was then that he realized he needed to work on his skating and that's
what he continued to do when he was playing in the Swedish Elite League.
He was manning an offensive line with Djurgardens when the Oilers signed him to a free-agent
contract.
"He's finding a way to get things done. He's built a lot of reliability into his game," head coach
Craig MacTavish said of his fourth-line winger. "I have no reservations about putting him out
there in any situation right now -- and he's done that with very limited ice time."
t##t#

New Balance gets foot in door of hockey market

MIKE KING, The Montreal Gazette
A Montreal sports product development consultant has helped usher New Balance Athletic
Shoe Inc. into the hot hockey market.
Frederik Aird designed an arsenal of equipment to arm Warrior Hockey, New Balance's
year-old hockey division.
The 34-year-old founding president of Aird Sports Design in St. Laurent signed an exclusive
deal with Warrior in August 2005 to develop an entire line of hockey gear - everything except
sticks and helmets - to hit hockey specialty retail stores in 200"Z.
Neither Aird nor Warrior marketing director Neil Wensley will disclose the monetary value of the
deal.
Aird earned his reputation designing ice skates during stints at CCM/Sport Maska Inc. from
1994 to 1998 and Mission Hockey in 2001 before starting Aird Sports in April 2002.
"We approached Frederik because he's one o,f the best designers I ever came across in 12
years," Wensley, who worked with Aird at CCM, said in a ~none interview from Los Angeles last
week.
"His agency is ideal for us."

~~, ~\1\rs

He pointed to Aird's work in other sports fields and said it matches what Warrior is looking to
achieve.
"Consumers are looking for a new, exciting brand (of hockey equipment), and we're edgy, not
traditional at all."
Even though only Warrior hockey bags are currently available to the public, the gloves designed
by Aird are being used by more than 100 National Hockey League players for the second
straight season.
One convert is Montreal Canadiens forward and fan favourite Alex Kovalev.

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"That's very visible advertising," Aird noted.

While the Warrior deal prohibits Aird from designing hockey gear for anyone else until the
contract expires, he's looking to diversify into year-round markets.
Hockey to date has accounted for 70 per cent of business for the private firm, which has had
annual sales of about $250,000 since launching and anticipates doubling that figure for 2006.
Aird has already made inroads into other sports, including:
Baseball gloves for Easton Sports, a leading manufacturer of sporting goods equipment
Snowboards for Pelican International Inc., an industry leader in the building of recreational
watercraft
Ski gloves for Reusch
Considered an expert in protective athletic gear, Aird said he is looking at extreme sports as a
growing and lucrative niche market, listing BMX, motocross and paint-ball as examples.
He and his team of three full-time employees and four freelancers are already developing ideas
for those areas.
They do all the research and development, but don't do any manufacturing except for
prototypes.
t##t#

Russian club close to filing lawsuit;

NHL not worriedabout Metallurg's effortto bar Malkin from playing for Pens
Canadian Press

Russian club Metallurg Magnitogorsk was on tfie vergie of f.i'ling a lawsuit against the Pittsburgh
Penguins hoping to bar prized prespect-Evqenl Malkin from playing in the National Hockey
League.

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"We haven't filed it yet but it's immi1Jeni:\1aw;r Al':X~te@rkovich, who represents
Metallurg, told The Canadian Press yesterday. "But it's coming very soon."
Malkin scored a goal in his NHL debut with the Penguins last night, in their 2-1 loss to the New
Jersey Devils after recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in the preseason.
The lawsuit from Magnitogorsk has long been expected by the NHL after Malkin's controversial
departure from Russia this summer. The NHL remains confident Malkin will be able to stay with
the Penguins.
Earlier this week Berkovich also filed a lawsuit on behalf of Russian club Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.
The lawsuit claimed that Andrei Taratukhin of the Calgary Flames and Alexei Mikhnov of the
Edmonton Oilers are under contract with Yaroslavl for the 2006-07 season and should not be

NHL0069936

allowed to play for any other club in the world. It asked the U.S. federal court for a temporary
injunction barring the two players from skating for the two NHL teams.
Much the same argument will be contained in the Malkin lawsuit.
"Yes, that's correct, the lawsuit will be based on the same principles," Berkovich said.
Malkin, 20, a 6-foot-4 centre, left Russia in August after signing a one-year deal with
Magnitogorsk, a contract he says he signed under duress.
Malkin's NHL debut was delayed nearly a month by a dislocated left shoulder that occurred
when he and teammate John LeClair collided behind the net during a Sept. 20 exhibition game.
Malkin's recovery time was slightly faster than expected, and the Penguins have gone 2-2
without him. However, the Penguins are cautious about Malkin's return until he shows he can
take hits on his left shoulder without reinjuring it.
t##t#

Hardcore sportshosts soon won't have to watch their language

WILLIAM HOUSTON, Globe and Mail
Once in a blue moon - and we use the word blue for good reason - sports broadcasting heads
off in a new direction.
The destination, in this case, is a place where sports talk on the radio will include four-letter
words.
In January, Sirius Canada's Hardcore Sports Radio, a news and information satellite radio
channel produced by the Score Television Network, will relaunch by adding a talk component.
The faint of heart may need to cover their ears.
Richard Garner, a former producer at Rogers S1::1ortsnet and now executive producer of
Hardcore, calls it edgy but smart talk. And it will ir;icluae profanity.
"There will be a level of intelligen~'t~ til~coffi!er~ati~n,'7Garrler said. "I guarantee you that. It
has to be, because the fact you can at~p an f~bo~blti'l(~e ahd there doesn't guarantee
success."
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Sports talk, fair and foul, is Garner's vision. But to execute the vision he hired away from The
Fan 590 in Toronto perhaps the best sports-radio producer in the country.
Mike Gentile has taken his Rolodex and left Bob McCown's afternoon drive to become
supervising producer of Hardcore, with special attention to a new afternoon-drive show.
Hosts and guests will be free to use four-letter words, because satellite radio isn't controlled by
all federal broadcasting guidelines. But Garner insists the goal is authenticity, not shock.
"It won't be gratuitous or exploitive," he said. "The hosts will speak the way they would if they
were in a bar with their buddies or just sitting around having a conversation.

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"Nobody says Terrell Owens is a malcontent or that a game was uneventful. Guys don't talk
that way.
"So, we'll have the ability to tell it like it is, as Howard Cosell used to say 30 years ago. Thirty
years later, we truly can."
One of the Cosell disciples will be the Score's Steve Kouleas, who will be host of a new show
called Hardcore Hockey Talk. Garner said Kouleas's energy makes him perfect for the new
format.
"Steve's passion is crazy, almost pathological, "Garner said. "You put that guy, unleashed, on a
service that allows for complete freedom, and you just wind him up and let him go."
The revamped Hardcore channel will be carried not only by Sirius Canada, but also the U.S.
Sirius service. More on this later.
Contentious move
The hiring of an American to be head of production for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic host
broadcast came under fire from critics who felt the job should have gone to a producer in this
country.
Canadians, after all, have an excellent reputation worldwide for producing Winter Games
content.
Sports TV executives interviewed yesterday gave a mixed reaction to the International Olympic
Committee's decision to hire Brian Douglas as director of production for the Vancouver host
broadcast.
Douglas did the same job at Salt Lake in 2002 and Turin in 2006, and, therefore, has a working
relationship with Manolo Romero, the all-important Spanish head of the IOC host broadcast
operation.
J~hn Shannon, the National Hoc~y Leaeue's senieF viee-president of b~oadcasting, w~~ked
with_ Douglas on the host broadcast~ th'j 99~ '\agano~~(m~s and believes he's qualified for
the job,

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"This is the era of free trade and the global village, and yoh-go out and get the best people,"
Shannon said. "Brian has a huge amount of Olympic experience. I don't think you can discount
that. And quite frankly, he knows how Manolo works."
But a broadcaster, requesting anonymity, said that eight or nine Canadian producers could do
the job as well or better than Douglas.
"He did an average job at Salt Lake and in Italy," he said. "It's not like he blew the doors off and
is a must-have. He's doing average to normal work. So, why wouldn't you, for a number of
reasons, hire a Canadian?"
A call to Nancy Lee, who will be Douglas's boss and Romero's No. 2 at Vancouver, was not

NHL0069938

returned.
Rick Chisholm, senior vice-president of programming and production for TSN, felt that
Douglas's Olympic experience was the clincher.
"It would be nice to have a Canadian in the job, but if I was Manolo, I would probably have
made the same decision," Chisholm said. "I don't think it's a slight. All things being equal, there
are certainly a number of Canadians who are qualified to do that position. But you weigh the
size of the job and it's awful hard to turn your back on that experience."
t##t#

Calgary's Regehr hits a big nerve: Like it or not, bodychecksare integral to game
Mark Spector, National Post

What if NASCAR outlawed car wrecks because too many drivers were getting injured? Would
racing fans still flock to the track, or tune in on TV to watch a bunch of drivers make their way
politely around the track, trying not to scratch the paint job?
What if whiplash cases began to add up, and the football leagues outlawed blind-side hits on
the quarterback? Or if defensive backs had to refrain from contact until the receiver had both
feet on the ground, lest another Darryl Stingley -- paralyzed on a vicious hit by the Raiders' Jack
Tatum in 1978 -- occur?
Wednesday morning, as the highlight of Calgary defenceman Robyn Regehr's textbook body
check on Montreal's Aaron Downey played over and over on the morning reels, so too did the
aftermath, Parts I and 11.
On TV was Part I: Downey, his Betty Rubble eyes staring into nowhere, fully concussed and
making his way to a waiting ambulance. He might play again next week. He might never play
again. Who knows?
Part 11 played out at National Hockey League He~tlquaiiers, as the elephant in the boardroom
shuffled his feet, and the question was raised once again: What are we going to do about hits
to the head?
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"The question has come up at Board of (?overnor liJle~t.ingLWhere are we on this right now
... ?"admits NHL vice president Colin Campbell. He has also spoken with David Branch, head of
Canadian junior hockey, about the evolution of this year's rule change in the Ontario Hockey
League, where any hit that strikes an opponent's head is being penalized.

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There are some obvious cases where hits to the head are unnecessary. Leaving one's feet, or
sticking out an elbow, glove or stick to get to an opponent's head are all obvious examples.
But the Regehr hit? What would you have him do differently, other than not throw it at all?
The fashionable comparison is being made to football, where shots to a quarterback's head
have been banned. That analogy doesn't work however, as a football and a hockey hit are
planets apart.

NHL0069939

In football a tackler aims to bury his shoulder into the thigh, hips or belly of the ball carrier and
grab on with both arms. Ask Bryan Marchment how that gridiron tenet "get low" worked for him.
And as for grabbing on, well, you get two minutes these days for a two-hand touch.
In football, the ball carrier spends little concentration on controlling the ball. It's in his hands,
and not a going concern. In hockey, control of the object is more precarious. It's out in front of
the puck carrier, bouncing along some five or six feet away at the end of his stick. That's why
the head of a 6-foot-4 Lindros is often about five feet off the ice when he's reaching for a puck,
why sometimes players have their heads down, and why the head leads the body to become
the first body part that big Scott Stevens runs into.
It's simply not like that in football.
You can play hockey without ever having a hit like the one Regehr threw, but you will forfeit the
big open-ice hits that make the game special. And there will be residual effects of eliminating
that part of the game, which is where Campbell comes in again. He gets paid not only to
suggest rule changes, but to correctly forecast the ripple effect they will have on the product.
In a league that has seen its star fade in the U.S. the way the NHL has, this potato is far hotter
than mandatory visors or the curvature of a stick blade.
"It's entertainment for the fans, and for the guy who is delivering the hit," said Campbell.
"Obviously, it's not entertaining for the guy being hit, but it's like a goal. It's part of the
entertainment package of our game."
The game is not like it used to be however. Bigger men are skating faster, wearing larger, more
sturdy equipment.
Bobby Baun was 5-foot-9, 180 pounds, and he hit with his hips. Regehr is 6-foot-3 and 225. He
hits with his shoulder, generating enough force to stamp a licence plate.
"What's too late? What's fair? What's right?" <;ampbell said. "Do you put headgear on all
heavyweight fighters? Do you limit F-1 cars to 11 e> miles peli hour? If you're going to get rid of
blows to the head, then you have o get~1id of figfitin teo, right? How can you not? It would be
hypocritical."

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All week long we've been treated to rep'l,Ys of Dio~ P\~n~

hellacious check on Ottawa's

Denis Hamel. Hamel flew up in the air, landed on his back, then got up and skated after the
puck. Two games later, it's Regehr's turn for the Play of the Day, and the fans love it. "You'll
see those hits on your phone within 30 seconds of the hit," Campbell said.
But no one likes to see Downey -- or R.J. Umberger, or Rob DiMaio, or Paul Kariya, or Eric
Lindros -- in the first stages of would could be a serious brain injury, live in HD. But you can't
have one every night, without the other occurring now and again as well.
"This is only my opinion, and I haven't brought it up with Gary, or Bill Daly, the Board of
Governors or the GMs -- yet," Campbell said. "You can't take hitting out of our game without
totally changing the way the game is played.

NHL0069940

"If Regehr lets up, Downey runs over him."

They sped the game up, and nearly everyone loves it. What they didn't see coming, however,
was that the reduced time in which to make decisions and survey one's surroundings would
result in players who simply don't see the train coming the way they once did.
Now, there's talk of eliminating the hits altogether, which will have residual effects of its own.
The league's problem is, a lot of hockey fans won't stick around a hitless NHL long enough to
find out.
t##t#

Bramptonhonoursone of its daughters

Chris Zelkovich,TorontoStar

Four days after breaking ground in broadcasting, Cassie Campbell was breaking ground at a
community centre that will bear her name.
Technically it was a ceremonial faceoff, capping off a wild week for the former Team Canada
hockey captain and two-time Olympic champion.
"It's been very hectic," Campbell said under a temporary tent set up on the site of what will be
the 165,000-square-foot, $58 million Cassie Campbell Community Centre in northwest
Brampton.
While the week may have been hectic, it was a breeze compared with Saturday when Campbell
became the first woman to work as a TV analyst in a major men's professional sport. Campbell
showed up for work Saturday morning expecting to start her second game as a rinkside
reporter for Hockey Night In Canada.
Ten hours later, with regular analyst Harry Neple snowed in at his Buffalo-area home, Campbell
was making history.
She hasn't even had time to check tl>le ~~e~df~lier\perrmance,
which have been mainly
positive, or to listen to the calls that tia~ domi~at\dlt e, st.5s phone-in shows this week.
"I haven't had a chance," said Campbell, who will return to her reporting duties this Saturday at
the Air Canada Centre.
Reaction to Campbell's debut has been mixed. Many callers supported her performance while
others said she lacked credibility because she had never played in the NHL. But Edmonton
Oilers analyst Ray Ferraro, in an appearance on Rogers Sportsnet yesterday, praised her
performance and said that many analysts are put on the air with little or no training.
While Campbell is a star across the country, she's an A-list celebrity in her home town of
Brampton. City councillor John Hutton, who has known Campbell since she was a child, said all
of Brampton shared in her big night.

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"We were so proud when Cassie broke the glass ceiling Saturday night," Hutton said. "She
didn't just do a good job, she did a great job. She even told us how the Leafs were going to
score a goal and they did."
Brampton Mayor Susan Fennell said she had long sought a way to honour Campbell.
"I approached Cassie a while back and said we need to honour you because you're such a
great Bramptonian," she said.
"If you know Cassie you know she seeks nothing for herself and is always trying to advance the
game and the people she plays with and works with, and she said, 'Just a little street name
would be good.'
"I said we're not going to name a street after you. I've got bigger and better things, something
more worthy of an international hero."
t##t#

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