The National Hockey League is very fortunate to have the Ontario Hockey League feeding the pro league with exceptional young hockey players each and every season. At this moment, four of the most promising rising stars in the NHL are alumni of the OHL.

Taylor Hall played with the Windsor Spitfires for three seasons from 2007-08 to 2009-10. With Windsor in his first season, he was awarded the Emms Family Award as the OHL’s top rookie and was also named as the CHL’s rookie of the year. He helped the Spitfires to Memorial Cup victories in 2009 and 2010, both times being named the recipient of the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as the tournament MVP. Hall helped Canada to a silver medal at the 2010 World Junior Championships, tallying 12 points in six games.

Taylor was selected first overall at the 2010 NHL Entry Draft by the Edmonton Oilers. Hall is currently in his second season with Edmonton, where he is the centrepiece of a young and very talented Oilers team.

John Tavares was the first overall pick in 2009, going to the New York Islanders. Tavares starred in the Ontario Hockey League for four seasons from 2005-06 to 2008-09. He mostly played in an Oshawa Generals jersey but finished out his career with the London Knights after being traded at the deadline in his final season.

As with Taylor Hall, John was crowned both the OHL’s and CHL’s rookie of the year for 2005-06. He won the Red Tilson Trophy as MVP in 2006-07 and was the Eddie Powers Trophy winner in 2008-09 as the OHL’s top scorer. Tavares helped Canada to two consecutive gold medals in 2008 and 2009 at the World Juniors. Tavares is in his third year with the lowly New York Islanders and wears the ‘A’ on his jersey.

Tyler Seguin played with the Plymouth Whalers for two seasons, 2008-09 and 2009-10. He competed directly against Taylor Hall in 2009-10, tying him with 106 points and being selected one position below Hall in the NHL Entry Draft. Seguin was awarded the Eddie Powers on total goals and went to the Boston Bruins in the draft. Seguin is in his second seasons with Boston after winning the Stanley Cup with the club in his rookie campaign.

Jeff Skinner was the seventh overall pick at the 2010 NHL Entry Draft after playing just two seasons with the Kitchener Rangers, 2008-09 and 2009-10. The Carolina Hurricanes selected him and he has been with the club since. In his rookie season in the NHL, Skinner was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year.

With Kitchener in 2009-10, Jeff scored 50 goals and totalled 90 points in 64 regular season games. He added 33 more points in 20 playoff games as the Rangers took to Spitfires to the seventh game of the Eastern Conference final before bowing out to the eventual Memorial Cup champions.

How can you give a coach a contract that awards a bonus for being fired? Who was the brains that signed off on that bright idea? There is no way this is standard practice around the league. This type of bonus presents a clear and present conflict of interest. During coach Jacques Martin’s most recent contract his Brossard office had two doors. Behind one of the doors laid 1 million dollars. Behind the other door was the Montreal Canadiens’ dressing room. Every day Jacques Martin had to decide through which door to walk. With our team as it was, as it is, it was only a matter of time before Martin walked through the money door. This was not a question of morality, of honour, this was just a question of time. Professional coaching jobs are relatively well paid but extremely unstable. One day you are contracted to coach one of the most famous teams in sports and the next you are one of hundreds vying for a handful of vacant or soon to be vacant NHL head coaching assignments. Not an ideal market to be working in. Any reasonable man would have walked through the money door. Or maybe Geoff Molson caught him with a toe on the other side and gave him a preemptive push.

Geoff Molson you ask? I am convinced the Habs’ ownership have given up on your beloved team. They replaced the coach with an interim coach for the remainder of the year. The absence of forethought on a permanent replacement would reflect badly on Gauthier if it were his decision. But clearly it was not his decision. Geoff Molson has given himself time to recruit a new GM who will in turn recruit his own permanent head coach in the off season. In the meantime Randy Cunneyworth and his sad troop of UFA’s, coasters, and professionals are just one insignificant petri dish experiment. Insignificant in that they will most definitely not win the Stanley Cup.

So the question isn’t who will be the permanent head coach but who will be the next GM. The answer should be Patrick Roy. The guy won Stanley Cups (plural) in Montreal with surprising rosters, then Stanley Cups (plural) in Colorado. After retiring he bought a part of the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Juniors, where as co-owner, general manager and coach they won the Memorial Cup his first year there. They have been contenders every year since. He knows what it takes to win, the type of rosters that win, the coaches that inspire winning, the atmosphere of a winning dressing room, the players that win, he knows the attitude that wins, the strategies that win and he knows how to adapt to win. Patrick Roy wins. Patrick Roy exists to win, he demands it.

He was contacted by the media recently and didn’t deny an interest in returning to the Montreal Canadiens as coach. He did deny that he was already contacted by ownership but he added that he would deny it if it were true. But it isn’t the job of coach he really wants and it isn’t the job of coach being offered. With Patrick Roy as GM there are many certainties. The least of which is not signing off on contracts that reward failure.

Women’s ice hockey has come a long way in a relatively short span. In 1987, the first ever Women’s World Hockey Tournament was held. In 1990, the first fully sanctioned IIHF Women’s World Championship was held. In 1992, the International Olympic Committee voted to add women’s hockey to its calendar of Winter Olympic events. In 1998, women’s hockey made its first appearance as a full medal sport in Nagano, Japan.

In Canada, the majority of women’s hockey is played in the CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) represented by 29 schools in four divisions. In the U.S., women’s hockey is primarily played in the NCAA Division I represented by 33 schools in four divisions.

These Canadian and American University and College female hockey programs have produced household hockey names like Hayley Wickenheiser, Cassie Campbell, Angela Ruggiero, and Cammi Granato. Prior to these women, female hockey playing role models were virtually non-existent. Who will be the next generation of trail-blazers?

Hockey Scouts and hockey coaches can now sit back in the comfort of their offices or homes instead of the hard benches at frozen rinks and quickly search for the young lady who will help their hockey team win championships. Whether it’s a young woman who wants to move from midget hockey to high school hockey or a prep school hockey program, or, a young woman who has her sights set on playing in the NCAA or CIS, Now, an online hockey recruiting and scouting service can help them as well as hockey scouts, recruiters, and hockey coaches succeed at the same time.

Taking advantage of Internet technology, a hockey player can now send their very own unique personalized player profile to a database of teams and schools they want to play for, and include individual pictures and videos, to showcase their hockey skills to determine their own hockey-playing futures. It really is that simple.

Women’s hockey in particular suffers from a funding imbalance compared to their male counterparts, placing the scouting of women hockey players at a distinct disadvantage. What is the solution? The concept of an online do it yourself recruiting service not only levels the scouting playing field, but also empowers female hockey players to become the best they can be, playing for the best teams they can play for. Knowing that there is a service that offers a solution to the ‘where do I play now’ and ‘how do I get noticed’ questions, is not only reassuring, but also fills a large void in women’s hockey scouting.

Fighting wasn’t put into hockey. No, certainly there was no external architect in this case. Hockey provides the necessary atmosphere to create a fight on its own. You can’t separate fighting and hockey because there is no distinct line to form this separation. Fighting is organic to hockey, tangled in so deep that it would be easier to create a brand new sport rather than pull fighting out.

“A fast body-contact game played by men with clubs in their hands and knives laced to their feet”, hockey as described by the late sports writer, Paul Gallico.

He didn’t mention the hard rubber puck they zip around at 150km/h. Much more than any other team sport, the risk of serious injury or death is present each time a player steps onto the playing surface. You can be tripped up at full speed into the end boards, cross-checked from behind head first into the boards, you can get a hockey stick in the face, hit blocking a shot with your ankle, your leg, your face, cut from a skate blade, blindsided by an oversized wall of human at top speed – the list of dangers playing hockey is endless, both accidental and deliberate. Hockey is like a steam boiler. There is so much potential explosive violence it requires a safety pressure relief valve. Fighting is hockey’s pressure relief valve.

Recently, the Boston Bruins bullied the Buffalo Sabres on their way to a 6-2 victory. Trailing 1-0, Boston’s Milan Lucic lost the puck up ice towards Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller. Lucic lumbered after the puck but lost the race and continued to roll through Miller with a body check breaking the hockey code that dictates goaltenders are off limits. A crowd quickly gathered around Lucic but the Sabres themselves have admitted their on ice response was weak and that Miller deserved better. Miller continued to play but was soon sidelined with injured pride and concussion like symptoms.

The Habs have suffered from the same mistake repeatedly over the last decade. They haven’t responded appropriately when they are bullied because they lacked the manpower and willpower to stand up for their teammates. I can refer you to Zednik-McLaren, and more recently Pacioretty-Chara, and maybe not coincidentally both involved their division rivals, the Boston Bruins.

Lucic was assessed a minor penalty for being “gutless” but Shanahan, the NHL’s judge and jury, would not suspend Lucic explaining there was no rule, concerning the hit on Miller, that required supplementary discipline. You can expect the Sabres to deliver the correct and measured response the next time these two teams meet and I can assure you diplomacy will not reign.

If fighting was severely punished, the Buffalo Sabres only recourse will be to react in a manner that is similarly obscure as Lucic’s hit on Miller, but at least as violent. Fighting, however, is not severely punished because it can diffuse the tension in a tidier and less dangerous fashion and because the majority of the fans paying for tickets enjoy the entertainment of this game within a game.

Players will always be looking for an edge on the competition and the physical nature of the game allows room for players who bully and cheap shot and players who defend and protect their teammates. Every team is a mosaic of talents born of grit and skill. Hockey’s popularity is owed to its beautiful ebb and flow of grit versus skill.

Hockey by virtue of its speed and body contact is violent and you can’t control the violence with regulation alone unless you take all body contact out of the game. Body contact provides the potential for unpredictable, explosive violence. Allowing players to fight offers them some measure of control, some measure to make the violence predictable and controlled, some measure to police themselves. Some would counter that fighting is not a tool to control the violence but is a sign that the violence is out of control. But how injured can you really get during a fight. The worst case scenario is a concussion or broken nose, and while not rare, not frequent. Non fighting violence in hockey, however, can be very dangerous and threaten a player’s career. So is the issue really fighting or is it the general nature of hockey itself?

I’m not a fan of an artificially created fight, two goons fighting just to make themselves appear useful. I enjoy the fights born from an escalation of physical play for position or puck. Or fights of retribution for past misdeeds. And you know you have seen an epic hockey game when the opposing goaltenders go to battle, a symbolic fight mostly – all for one, one for all – that occurs during a line brawl. And maybe I shouldn’t mention my favourite, bench clearing brawls. This perfect storm only happens when both teams are playing at the same level of passion and will. Some are legendary and have been given names to secure their legendary status. Remember “The Punch-up In Piestany” during hockey’s “cold war”? The stage was the World Junior Championship where, ironically, fighting was banned. This one brawl launched commentator Don Cherry’s career and took this tournament out of obscurity and made it the sports highlight of a Canadian’s Christmas holiday season. The Russians, out of medal contention, and the Canadians, who had a chance to win gold, were kicked out of the tournament for the disgrace. But Canadians were not ashamed of their team but seemed more proud of their boys and their fight for honour than if they had come home with the gold.

We all have the potential for violence within us. Violence is part of our definition. What sport is more beautiful than that which celebrates the entire human condition? Hockey is a microcosm of a microcosm. Capitalism on top of Darwinism. May the best teams win and let the fans enjoy the strategy, skill and fight they employ to get there.

Ice sports are a popular form of exercise and a great way of getting fit – and they’re not just for winter. If you’re interested in giving ice sports a go I have some tips.

Ice sports have a host of health and fitness benefits. Skating helps improve co-ordination and balance, burning 450-600 calories an hour – or 950 if you’re speed skating. Leg strength is helped by regular ice skating and, according to a study in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, taking up regular ice hockey can increase bone density.

Which ice sport is right for you?

There are lots of different sports that involve ice, each with their own unique benefits. Some of the options include:

Ice skating – a form of skating exercise performed on ice.
Speed skating – a high-adrenaline, fast-paced sport involving skating at speed on ice.
Figure skating – similar to ballroom dancing but on ice. Individuals or couples perform ice skating routines and moves to music.
Curling – similar to boules, curling involves skill and strategy, as two teams of four players slide heavy polished granite stones across the ice to a circular target.
Ice hockey – the game of hockey, but adapted for ice.

How to get started with ice sports

If you’re keen to take up an ice sport, it’s a good idea to find a reputable instructor or course to give you access to all the equipment and training you need.
You can get a taster for ice skating at seasonal ice rinks but, to find permanent rinks or various types of ice skating lessons, the National Ice Skating Association is a good place to start.

To find an ice hockey team or club in your area, the English Ice Hockey Association Recreational Section can help.

If you’re tempted to try curling, the English Curling Association has information about curling lessons.

Getting started

Ice skating requires leg strength, as well as a combination of co-ordination, balance and flexibility.

Without the specific muscle and balance training, you will not only progress at a slower rate, but also run the risk of injury. Good leg strength is also important for other ice sports, such as ice hockey and curling.

In order to build leg strength, try sitting against a wall with your knees at a 90 degree angle, holding on for as long as possible. At first, you may only be able to hold this position for less than a minute but, with regular practice, you will be able to hold on for much longer.

Getting the right Ice skates

Ice skates are, by design, meant to fit when they are laced up. As the boot is laced, the foot will draw into the back of the skate. Ice skates that ultimately fits properly will, more often then not feel small when the foot is placed in the boot prior to lacing it. So when you put the skate on, be sure to give your heel a good kick into the back of the boot and then lace it up.

Gym exercises for ice sports

The following exercises are also beneficial for ice skating and other ice sports. They are probably best undertaken at a gym unless you have a weights bar, dumb-bells, gym ball and wobble board at home.

To help strength and speed
Do three sets of 10 thigh squats with a weights bar across the back of your shoulders.
Lower your knees to a 90 degree angle, lifting up to a standing position.
Do one set at a slow speed, the second faster and the third faster still.
Perform this twice daily, three days a week.

To help strengthen leg and knee muscles
Do four sets of 20 knee lunges, alternating between legs.
Step forwards, lowering each knee down to 90 degrees. To make it more difficult, hold a dumb-bell in either hand.
Perform this once a day, three times a week.

To tune the core abdominal, pelvic and back muscles needed for balance
Sit on a gym ball and lift one leg off the ground, whilst using the other to roll the ball back and forwards. Change leg and repeat four times.
Follow this with standing on a wobble board, or on one leg with your knee partially bent, whilst swaying and trying to maintain your balance until you get tired.
Once you become skilled at this, add in flexing and extending your hip whilst balancing on the opposite leg. To promote suppleness and reduce the risk of injury

Always stretch after exercising, ice skating or other ice sports. Stretch all the tendons around the legs and lower back.

Sit on the floor and stretch your hamstrings by reaching for one foot at a time with your legs out straight.

Lean against a wall and stretch your Achilles tendons by pushing your heel to the floor with your knee straight, while the opposite knee is bent.

Just because you are a forward does not mean that you can disregard playing defense. Playing defense includes the backcheck, the breakout, and defending on a penalty kill. When playing winger and you are in your own zone, you want to stay on the defenseman at the point. If both wingers are on the defenders on the points, then your own defensemen and centerman can take care of their forwards down low, in the corners, and in front of the net. You just want to keep the defenseman on the point within reach so that you can break up any pass that goes to him or block any shot he may take from the point. When your team gains possession of the puck in your zone is when you want to skate to the boards to wait for a breakout pass. Your defenders will usually ring the puck around the boards for you to settle the pass, and then you want to look up ice to hit your centerman with a pass who is breaking out up through your zone. When you’re defending on the penalty kill however, your defensive role changes. When the team has the puck in your zone then the 2 forwards and 2 defensemen want to form a box in front of the net. The team on the power play will likely be cycling the puck around the net and your “box” trying to get you to pinch, but don’t pinch. When you chase you leave an opening for them to make a pass to a player who can then skate to the prime shooting area in front of the net, and your goal is to keep them out of good scoring position by boxing them out, so don’t pinch or chase. When or if you do get ahold of the puck, you want to dump it all the way down to the other end because it kills time on the penalty and you won’t be charged with icing since you are on the penalty kill. The other defensive aspect is the backcheck. Backcheck is when, let’s say, your team has the puck in the other team’s zone trying to score. You may be down low trying to score or pickup a rebound but it is important to remember that turnovers happen quick and in a second play can be moving the other way. When this happens you want to skate back into your zone as hard and fast as possible, either picking up one of their wingers entering your zone who is waiting for a pass or catch up to the guy breaking into your zone and give him a sticklift or a few jabs to make him cough it up. If you can execute all of these things then you can make for a great winger who realizes both sides to the game and one who does not rely solely on the defensemen and goalie to do all the defensive work.

However, in order to be really good you of course must play and think offensively as well as be aggressive. One of the offensive things you need to know is how to play the forecheck. Often times coaches like to run a team to play dump and chase hockey. Under this strategy, the forward with the puck wants to dump the puck into the other teams zone as soon as they cross the red line. Then, if you are a winger and see that your teammate is going to dump it, you want to skate as hard as you can into the zone (not before the puck crosses the blue line however because then it would be offsides) and beat their defender who will be racing to the corner to collect the puck. Your objective is to “forecheck” by pressuring him and scaring him by being aggressive in the corners to make him cough up the puck so you can start cycling the puck with your team to get some offense moving.

If the coach is not encouraging dump and chase hockey then he is probably focusing on the rush. The rush can be a number of situations but the best are odd man rushes. An odd man rush may be a 2 on 1 or a 3 on 2. When you are a part of the rush you want to spread out, be open for a pass with your stick on the ice at all times, take a shot when you get a good look at the net, and crash the net when you notice your teammate is taking a shot to try and pick up a rebound.

The other key offensive aspect of the game is working the power play. On the power play you want to stay down low near the corner of the boards as a right winger. You want to cycle the puck with your teammates around the other team’s imaginary box that they are defending. You may sometimes tease the defender to chase you, and hopefully your teammate will see that and break to the opening where you can hit him with a pass and he can take a shot. You can also use your body in front of the net and cause a screen in front of the goalie to blind him from seeing the shots, and also try to redirect the puck in.

All of these things are important to understand and be able to execute as a successful winger. When you play a strong defensive and offensive style then you are surely to be rewarded whether it be many goals, assists, or extra ice time for all the hard effort.

Many people also consider everything that they pack into the field so they make sure that they have the right type of gear available so that they can do so successfully. This usually requires a larger backpack or perhaps even multiple packs that will help you to not only carry everything that is needed, it will help you to keep it separated as is needed as well. Finally, you want to make sure that when you do have a successful hunt, you have a Havalon Piranta skinning knife or something that is comparable so that you are able to easily take care of dressing out the game.

             As the growth of sports today, the amount of fanatic supporter for each team of sport games has also increased. The sport team’s fans often play betting to support their favorite team. In the other side, in many countries, sports betting have become illegal activity. But now a day, as the growth of internet, there are many website that offer betting sport tournament games. This online game is legal. Besides you can support your favorite team, by playing this game you will be able to earn some money. often this site offer additional features to see the chance of every team to win the tournament. So, you can apply that features, bet wisely, and win your bet smartly.

The two cities I have called home since I left Michigan three years ago, are not filled with Red Wings sympathizers. Quite to the contrary. They are filled with the most poisonous of Wings haters. I hung my hat in The Windy City for two, very long years, and listening to the opinions of uninformed, and rather bitter Hawks fans, not only tried my patience (which is not one of my virtues), but also probably took a few years off my life. It was beyond a stressful experience. A welcomed twist of then fate pointed me in Denver’s direction, which is where I reside today. A move to San Jose would complete this “Axis of Wings-Hate”, but I don’t see that happening. Let me tell you a bit what it’s like to be a Wings fanatic behind enemy lines.

Chicago has a rich hockey history, both recent and distant, and few people there seem to know or care much about it. The local dive bar I frequented there was home base to a bit of an older crowd. I became a regular and quite friendly with both the staff and the patrons. Living just down the street from Wrigley Field, I was constantly inundated with Cubs chatter. Being that baseball is my LEAST favorite sport, I jumped at every opportunity to change the subject to hockey. A pleasant, rather lonely seeming older man, enjoyed imparting the stories of his life to me on a regular basis, oblivious to whether I was interested or not (I was not). When the talk turned to hockey, he gave me his Bobby Hull story. “Ok, this guy has been a fan for a while. Maybe he knows his stuff.” This thought quickly vanished when his next statement hit my ears: “I’ve never been able to understand the offsides rule.” Chicago is a gorgeous, intoxicating place. It’s filled with with millions of very busy people with very busy lives. It is a magnet for young professionals, a category I don’t care to be put in. I’ve heard it said about tempers that a man is only as big as the things he gets angry over. I’ve also heard it said, that a temper is a guys way of showing his intolerance for what he finds intolerable. I’m butchering both of these quotes, but you get the picture. Point being, Hawks fans made me absolutely furious. Chants of “Detroit Sucks” and that seizure inducing goal song that is played at their home games, are two things I will not miss, to put it mildly. Am I being childish and petty, or a stalwart and courageous? You can decide. I did not think it could get worse in terms of Wings hatred until I moved to Denver.

Now Denver, is obviously very different than Chicago. It’s a smaller, quieter town, filled with some very interesting characters who seem to be more experience driven than career driven, as opposed to the Chicago crowd. The friends I have here, most of them fellow Michiganders, made it very clear to me that Avalanche fans still have great animus towards the winged wheel. “Still? Don’t they know this rivalry ended almost ten years ago?” No, they don’t. They still hate us passionately. Now of course, I understand why we are hated, and I point this out to my antagonists whenever the debate begins. “You hate us because we have been crushing you, along with every other team, with relative ease for a long time. We are the best.” As you can guess, the other side does not like hearing this. But facts can be irritating things, and I feel it is my role as a fan, to defend my team against these attacks. The laid back attitude that is prevalent in Denver, completely disappears when the Wings are mentioned, and is replaced with a deep seeded aggression and hostility. It’s actually a rather fascinating transformation to watch happen in real time. So, my friends, know that there is a Wings fanatic, fighting the good fight, and doing it deep inside enemy territory. I also quite like it here in The Mile High City, so rest assured, the fight will go on and as always, we will win.