When Wayne Gretzky was a child, his grandfather — a Russian immigrant — used to make wine at home in Ontario. “He grew his own grapes, everything,” said Gretzky, who remembers trying it when he was younger. Full Story
Fifteen lucky young Canadians converged in Calgary today to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime hockey clinic with hockey legends Wayne Gretzky and Hayley Wickenheiser.
The Samsung Hockey Camp for Kids kicked off with breakfast and a motivational speech from Wickenheiser, captain of Canada’s Women’s team and two-time Olympic gold medalist. Following breakfast, the day included five on-ice skills clinics and a scrimmage match with Gretzky and Wickenheiser, and off ice training with Hockey Canada Trainers. Winners were also treated to one-on-one meet-and-greet sessions and had their photos taken with the hockey stars.
“At Samsung, we understand that passion for hockey begins at a very young age and we were overjoyed to provide this unique experience to 15 aspiring young hockey stars,” said Benjamin Lee, President and CEO, Samsung Electronics Canada. “The number of entries we received was overwhelming, and while there were many compelling submissions, we feel that the group today were deserving boys and girls that truly exemplify the meaning of sportsmanship, both on and off the ice.”
“I am thrilled to be a part of Team Samsung and to share my passion for hockey with people from across the country,” said Hayley Wickenheiser. “As an aspiring young athlete, I was extremely fortunate to be surrounded by people who provided the much-needed support and encouragement to get me where I am today. It was a real honour to work with some of Canada’s youngest hockey enthusiasts, and I can only hope that my participation today helps inspire these kids to pursue their hopes and dreams.”
A panel of judges from Samsung and Hockey Canada selected the winning entries from hundreds of online submissions on the Samsung Hockey Camp for Kids website. Earlier this fall, parents and guardians were invited to nominate their child (ages seven to 14) and, in 300 words or less, explain how he or she best exemplifies Samsung’s key hockey values – fair play, team work and skills improvement. The winners and one parent/guardian received roundtrip airfare and accommodation in Calgary for the duration of their stay.
Winners were selected from coast-to-coast and include:
Along with the contest, the Samsung Hockey Camp for Kids website collected funds for Hockey Canada’s “Dream Come True” community initiative – a program that funds hockey fees and equipment purchases for underprivileged children across Canada. Samsung matched every dollar donated and a total of $10,000.00 was raised.
The Samsung Hockey Camp for Kids is part of the company’s Team Samsung campaign. Through the campaign, Samsung has partnered with an all-star line-up of hockey’s greatest players, including Wayne Gretzky, Hayley Wickenheiser and Jarome Iginla, to help make hockey more accessible to kids and to build excitement for the sport as the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games approach.
Hockey’s greatest names will drop in daily on the NHL Power Play from Wayne Gretzky’s Restaurant to deliver a fully comprehensive hockey program on radio, and now, television. Hockey fans present at Wayne Gretzky’s Restaurant will have the opportunity to be as much part of the show as they will be listeners and viewers. Read More
I’m pleased that today’s decision by Judge Baum resolves much of the uncertainty surrounding the Phoenix Coyotes. This positive step will now allow the organization to focus all its energy on the current season. I’m confident the team will build on their early successes and renew the loyalty of many hockey fans in the Phoenix area. I know the NHL will now do its utmost to find an excellent owner for the franchise going forward.
I wish for nothing but the best for the Phoenix Coyotes, their fans and the City of Glendale.
- Wayne
Masks have become such an iconic part of a goaltender’s gear that it’s strange to think only 50 years have passed since men manned the pipes without the now required head and face protection.
On November 1, 1959, Montreal Canadiens netminder Jacques Plante wore the first full-face goalie mask in a NHL game after a slapshot from hard-shooting Rangers forward Andy Bathgate pegged Plante square in his mug. While Plante’s now crude-looking mask was born out of his desire to return to the ice, today’s masks are practically works of sports art, in addition to featuring state-of-the-art protection against hockey’s hardest shooters. Masks have become a goaltender’s personal calling card, showcasing everything from a player’s home country to the names of family members to profiles of their hockey heroes or even a fun take on their nickname or team mascot.
WG Authentic is pleased to introduce a framed canvas photo featuring one of the game’s more memorable masks. Signed by Hall-of-Fame goaltender Gerry Cheevers, The Mask features the iconic face guard worn by the Boston Bruins goalie and includes a plaque with quotes from Cheevers recalling the history of how the false stitches on his mask grew out of a humorous attempt to get out of practice.
“I turned to Frosty Forristall, our trainer, and said, ‘Frosty, paint a stitch mark or two on the mask,’” Cheevers recalled. “So he painted this big gouge over the right eye and it got a laugh. We started to paint stitches every time I got hit. Frosty would calculate where it would have been and how many stitches it would have taken.”
For more information on this canvas piece, please visit the online store at Gretzky.com/shop.
Canadian baseball hero, Justin Morneau and wife, Krista made a surprise visit to Wayne’s winery located in Vineland, Ontario this week. Justin and Krista visited for an hour enjoying No. 99 Estate whites and No. 99 Estate reds. Both talked about their own private wine cellar and how they enjoyed drinking our wines with Wayne and Janet. Justin especially appreciated the Wayne Gretzky Estate Shiraz Ice Wine. A great ending to Justin and Krista’s visit was meeting winemaker Craig McDonald. Click here to learn more about Wayne Gretzky Estate Wines.
Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s
Back in those (mostly) innocent days when I was a kid, one sports story that worked its way through my Grade Four classroom was the sordid tale of a couple of New York Yankees pitchers that swapped their entire families. Not just their wives, but also their kids and their dogs. No word if the furniture was thrown in, or if there was a set-of-dishes to be named later.
Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson were solid pitchers for the Yankees, but to a bunch of nine-year-old growing up in suburban Edmonton, these guys were as famous as Reggie Jackson or Catfish Hunter.
It was just plain weird what the southpaws did, never mind what your personal morals may be. Sure, it was the early 70′s, and the hangover from the technicolour Sixties was upon us, but this went beyond wife swapping. To this day, I still scratch my head at the notion.
Hockey, being a mostly conservative sport in almost every aspect of that definition, has never publicly had the same arrangement, though you hear stuff sometimes you can’t repeat, though no doubt someone is squirreling it all away for a future tell-all book.
So it comes as a complete shock to me that former Edmonton Oilers’ owner Peter Pocklington reveals in, what else, his new book, that at one point during the early 1980′s, two National Hockey League teams almost went all Kekich/Peterson, and pulled off the most outrageous trade in the history of sports.
Having obviously squirreled away a ton of inside stories over the years, along with a map of where all the bodies are buried, Peter Puck has grabbed the attention for his new book he hoped he would by revealing that he worked out a deal with Toronto Maple Leafs’ legendary owner Harold Ballard that would have seen the two men swap teams.
Swap teams. Completely. Which means the fine folk of Edmonton would have been saddled with the complete roster of the early 80′s Maple Leafs, just in time to watch the young guns of the Oilers emege as one of the greatest teams in NHL history. The trouble is, those young bucks would have been hoisting all those Stanley Cups dressed in Maple Leaf blue. Worse, the city of Edmonton would have had Ballard within their city borders.
Apparently, for whatever reason, Ballard changed his mind and the entire thing was scuttled.
The mind is boggled at the implications of such a wholesale trade, if it had been allowed to proceed. Since such a possibility reads like science fiction, let’s put on the Spock ears and follow the changes that would have occurred to our timeline, if that deal had actually gone forward.
It should be noted that the pebble in the pond, check that, the giant boulder in the pond that the Oilers-Leafs swap would have been to the rest of the NHL would have had far-reaching implications, that would still be felt to this day.
The Edmonton Oilers would have moved years ago, if that deal had materialized. Most likely, the Houston Oilers would have had to wait until the death of Ballard, and the battle over his diminished estate had been settled, before they could finally concentrate on the business of hockey, and during the 1995-96 season, Houston would win the Stanley Cup.
The Quebec Nordiques would still be in the league, though they never would have ended up with goaltender Patrick Roy, and thus, to this day, the Nordiques still would not have won the Stanley Cup, and there are still concerns about building a new arena. There are whispers the team may move to Kansas City.
Roy would remain with the Montreal Canadiens, though head coach Mario Tremblay would have lost his job as a result. The Canadiens would make the Cup Final in 1998, losing to the Detroit Red Wings.
The Nordiques would not have been in position to draft Eric Lindros first overall in 1991; that honour went to the Edmonton Oilers, who had earlier traded the rights to the New Jersey Devils for Tom Kurvers, and it was the Devils who took Lindros first that year.
Lindros would thrive in the Swamp, and he never suffered a concussion from that devastating Scott Stevens open-ice hit, as they were on the same team. Lindros would retire as a member of the Devils, having won three Stanley Cups, in 2000, 2001 and 2003.
A young Peter Forsberg would captain the Philadelphia Flyers to the 1995 Cup.
If Pocklington had ended up with his young team in Toronto, he would have most likely made a ton of cash over what he realized in Northern Alberta. Even with his business problems that existed in other industries he ran (Gainers Foods), Peter Puck would have not needed to cash in his depreciating asset known as Wayne Gretzky. Even if he later broke up the Boys On The Bus, odds are Bruce McNall would have been exposed as a charlatan by then, which means the Great One doesn’t end up in L.A, after winning five Cups with Toronto.
Let’s say, instead, Gretzky is traded by the Leafs to the Rangers. It is he, in 1994, that hoists the Stanley Cup over his head, as the Broadway Blueshirts end their 54-year drought.
As for the Kings, they continue to flounder, though the NHL props them up financially. As a result, there isn’t a mad rush to pan fool’s gold in the U.S. south, meaning that the likes of the Anaheim Ducks and Florida Panthers never come-to-be.
The NHL still would expand to Ottawa and Tampa, though the Lightning are moved to Minnesota, and that’s where they win the Stanley Cup in 2004 over the Flyers.
The Thrashers and Predators never see the light-of-day, though Penguins’ owner Mario Lemieux threatens to move his team to Nashville if he doesn’t get a sweetheart arena deal from the city of Pittsburgh.
The league is impressed with the Nashville bid, and promises to consider expansion to Tennessee, and Kansas City, in the near future. Canadian billionaire businessman Jim Balsillie, by now a personal friend of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, is often mentioned as the owner of a Nashville NHL franchise.
No-one ever hears about William Boots Del Biaggio.
The Islanders still need a new arena, and threaten to move to Hamilton, which Pocklington blocks.
The Winnipeg Jets still move to Phoenix, as the NHL is emboldened by the relative success of the Houston Oilers and Dallas Stars, though even in this alternative timeline, the Coyotes still lose a ton of money.
The North Stars have moved to Dallas, setting up a great rivalry with Houston, but overall, the NHL have dipped a tentative toe into the expansion waters, instead of diving in headfirst, and ending up with the fractured neck they have now.
Which only goes to prove that in every scenario, no matter how bleak, no matter how wacky, there is always a sliver of hope.
Makes me wish Ballard didn’t get cold feet.
- Mick Kern
Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s
Winners will attend one-day clinic with Gretzky & Wickenheiser
MISSISSAUGA, ON., October 8, 2009 —In Canada, hockey is not simply a sport; it lies at the very heart of what it means to be Canadian. As a long-time supporter of hockey and to help build excitement around Canada’s quest for gold in February, Samsung is about to give 15 youth (ages seven to 14) from across the country the opportunity to attend a one-day hockey clinic with Wayne Gretzky and Hayley Wickenheiser.
The Samsung Hockey Camp for Kids, will be held in Calgary in November and will give some of Canada’s young hockey fans the opportunity to spend a day with two of the game’s greats. The 15 hockey fanatics plus one parent chaperone will win an expense-paid trip to Calgary to enjoy a day of skills and drills run by Wickenheiser, Gretzky and Hockey Canada coaches. While full details about the prize package are available on the contest website, it will also include a welcome gift, breakfast and a motivational speech from Wickenheiser and many additional elements.
“Samsung is thrilled to offer this once-in-a-lifetime experience for 15 deserving young hockey fans,” said Benjamin Lee, President and CEO, Samsung Electronics Canada. “Samsung has a long-standing commitment to hockey through our relationship with Hockey Canada, Wayne and Hayley and as excitement grows leading into 2010, we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate our favourite winter sport.”
Samsung today launched a website (www.samsung.com/laceup) where parents/legal guardians can go online and, in 300 words or less, explain why their child deserves one of the 15 coveted slots. A panel of judges from Samsung and Hockey Canada will review the entries to determine the players that best exemplify Samsung’s key hockey values – fair play, team work and skills improvement.
“I’m excited to be teaming with Samsung and Wayne to create this great opportunity for a group of young hockey enthusiasts,” said Hayley Wickenheiser. “My involvement in and passion for the sport have offered me so many incredible opportunities, not the least of which has been representing my country on the world stage. I hope my involvement in this camp will help spark that competitive fire and desire to lead in the next generation of Canadian hockey stars.”
Along with the contest, the Samsung Hockey Camp for Kids website will strive to make hockey more accessible to unprivileged youth. Visitors to the site are encouraged to click and donate, with funds raised going to Hockey Canada’s “Dream Come True” community initiative. Through this program, underprivileged kids across Canada will be able to discover the excitement of the game by receiving a fully-funded season of hockey, complete with new equipment from head to toe. For every dollar donated during the entry portion of the contest, Samsung will match the amount, to a maximum of $10,000.
The Samsung Hockey Camp for Kids contest website is currently accepting entries. The contest closes on November 2, 2009 at 11:59:59 ET. The winners and one parent/guardian will be flown to Calgary where the camp will take place in late November. For additional contest rules and regulations, please visit www.samsung.com/laceup.
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About Samsung Electronics Canada Inc.
Samsung Electronics Canada, Inc. (SECA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., markets a broad range of award-winning digital consumer electronics, information systems, telecommunications and home appliance products.
SECA upholds Samsung’s mission to provide consumers with innovative digital convergence products that possess exceptional technology, quality, features, performance and value. The company oversees the Canadian operations of Samsung’s consumer electronics and home appliance division, as well as its wireless terminals and information technology division.
Samsung has been a global TOP sponsor of the Olympic Games since 1997 and has been a presenting sponsor of the Olympic Torch Relay from 2004 to 2008. Also through Samsung’s Four Seasons of Hope charity, Samsung helps athletes and celebrities raise funds for their respective charities, including the Wayne Gretzky Foundation in Canada. Samsung is also a proud sponsor of Hockey Canada, Stars on Ice, Toronto Football Club and is the official HDTV sponsor of the NFL.
For customer service inquiries, please call 1-800-SAMSUNG (1-800-726-7864), and for more information, please visit www.samsung.com.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Phoenix, Ariz.) — Wayne Gretzky announced today that he is stepping down as Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations of the Phoenix Coyotes Hockey Club, effective immediately. “This was a difficult decision that I’ve thought long and hard about,” said Gretzky. “We all hoped there would be a resolution earlier this month to the Coyotes ownership situation, but the decision is taking longer than expected. Since both remaining bidders have made it clear that I don’t fit into their future plans, I approached General Manger Don Maloney and suggested he begin looking for someone to replace me as coach. Don has worked hard and explored many options. I think he has made an excellent choice, and so now it’s time for me to step aside.”
“The Coyotes scouting staff has put together a great group of young and talented players who are going to improve tremendously over the next few years,” continued Gretzky. “I’m proud of the team we’ve assembled, the organization with which I’ve been associated and the thousands of dedicated fans who have never wavered in their support of this young team. I’m confident that the best is yet to come for hockey in Phoenix.”
“I want to thank every staff member of the Phoenix Coyotes, past and present. It was a real pleasure to work with each and every one of you. I’ve always said that Phoenix is a great sports city and deserves nothing but the best. I still believe that. As a young boy, I learned to play hockey in Southern Ontario, and I know what great fans they have there. It’s my hope they too will have an NHL franchise in the not too distant future.”
“I often said it was the greatest honor and privilege I could imagine to be able to play in the National Hockey League. I feel the same way about being an NHL coach. I’ve loved the four years I spent coaching the Coyotes. Not a day went by when I took it for granted, and I will miss the competition of the NHL dearly. It was an honor to hold the position, and I will always consider myself especially fortunate to have had this opportunity.”
Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s
Instead of coming up with a semi-accurate, half-hearted definition of what constitutes a superstar, let’s consult a dictionary. Since it’s 2009, let’s thumb through an on-line edition.
Superstar, according to Merriam-Webster Online:
1 : a star (as in sports or the movies) who is considered extremely talented, has great public appeal, and can usually command a high salary
2 : one that is very prominent or is a prime attraction <a diplomatic superstar>
When the Dany Heatley trade to San Jose was finally completed over the weekend, a number of sports news services identified Heatley as being a superstar.
A superstar? Really? Sure, only two other NHL players have scored more goals since the lockout than Heatley, but does he meet all the qualifications required in order to wear the superstar crown?
From my vantage point, a superstar in any milieu transcends their surroundings. In other words, even your dear Aunt Gertie that doesn’t like sports knows who, say, Alexander Ovechkin is, and probably has an opinion about him. Don’t get her going on the hot stick celebration.
Following that line of thinking, I propose that there are currently only two NHL players that are bigger than the sport.
Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. The ying and the yang. The Beatles and the Stones. Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky.
Evgeni Malkin should be considered, if only because his on-ice talents are so immense, and only getting stronger, but I haven’t seen any tangible evidence that supports his inclusion into the select club of superstars. If on-ice talent were the only yardstick being applied, then Pavel Datsyuk or Ilya Kovalchuk, and maybe Dany Heatley, would have to be included.
Where these gentlemen fall short for serious consideration of being called a superstar is this section of the definition:
has great public appeal
Keep-in-mind every individual franchise has a player or two that is held very close to the bosom of the local fanbase, and as such, their respective values are usually inflated. For instance, Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets can be one of the most exciting players in the league today. His YouTube-ready goals, where he dekes through half the team, and some of the guys up in the press box, are a beauty to behold, and understandably, the faithful in Ohio would clamour that Nash is a superstar.
The argument is all context. Within the world of the Blue Jackets, Nash is the face of the franchise, thus he is a superstar. Within the expanded world of the National Hockey League, Nash is one of the young stars that make the game so exciting to watch. You could make a credible argument that Nash is an NHL superstar.
You would have to work awfully hard to convince me that Nash, or Heatley or Datsyuk or Roberto Luongo, are true superstars. They do not transcend the game of hockey. Within the hockey world, they are larger-than-life. Outside of those cozy borders, they would be lost, unrecognizable to the average person walking down the street of any American city. For that matter, the majority of non-hockey fans in Canada wouldn’t recognize them either.
Put Ovechkin or Crosby in downtown Manhattan (without the Zamboni in Ovechkin’s case), or on Manhattan Beach in Southern California, or in surburban St. Louis or at the Steak ‘n Shake in Battle Creek, Michigan, and most likely both of these dudes would be recognized.
For a variety of reasons, Ovechkin and Crosby are currently bigger than the game of hockey.
That doesn’t mean they’re better or smarter. That doesn’t mean we should all bow down and praise them (though maybe we should for all the attention they bring to the game). That doesn’t mean that their opinons are sacrosanct. So before the mouthbreathing bloggers of the cyberworld get their shorts all in a knot, keep this sobering thought in mind. Most likely your favourite player is a nobody outside of the world of hockey. That’s not the case with Ovechkin and Crosby.
Why these two? Well, we’ve already listed awesome on-ice talent as one major factor, but they have to have more than that. Both young men have been marketed very successfully, in particular Crosby, who became the face of the NHL as it emerged from the 2004-05 lockout.
Ovechkin basically elbowed his way onto the marquee, and his fun-loving flair that he paints everything he touches with cannot be denied.
The camera likes both of these guys, for different reasons. The media likes both of these guys, for different reasons. Hockey fans are drawn to these two guys, for different reasons. Love them or hate them, you’re talking about them.
Thus it comes as no real surprise that the sports media sought out Crosby and Ovechkin to get their opinions on the recent firing of NHLPA head Paul Kelly. Some hockey fans ridiculed the need to ask these two particular players their personal opinions. Where did they get off thinking they were bigger and better than the game?
Well, they don’t think that. Neither player put out a press release saying “come and talk to me about Paul Kelly”. It was only natural for the media to beat a path to their doors, because when these two young men speak, people listen.
Much like when a young Wayne Gretzky, after another blowout win over the woeful New Jersey Devils, called the Devils a Mickey Mouse organization. No truth to the rumour that’s what got Michael Eisner interested in hockey.
Much like when a younger Mario Lemieux, tired of carrying a couple of clutching-and-grabbing defencemen on his back almost every time he broke into the offensive zone, openly questioned the NHL about their lack of enforcement of their own rule book.
The hockey, and sports world, listened. And yes, some people complained then that Gretzky and Lemieux should just shut up and play the game. What makes these whippersnappers think they’re bigger than the game?
(There are reactionaries everywhere).
Both players were right. Bang on. And both were right to speak out.
So when Ovechkin tells espn.com that even if the NHL decides not to participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics, he still plans to go…well folks, that’s news. Washington Capitals’ owner Ted Leonsis, one of the more progressive owners in the league, did his best to downplay the comments, but the desired effect was already achieved. It got people, and no doubt the players, thinking about the issue.
Once again, Ovechkin elbowed his way in.
With all due respect, Dany Heatley does not have that same ability. Nor has he asked for it; if anything, he seems rather happy not to be in the spotlight. Ovechkin craves it, while Crosby understands he’s been thrust into it since an early age. Both men handle the spotlight differently, and they handle it well.
Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby are the only two true superstars in the league today. Now what remains to be seen is if they can transcend North American popular culture. Arguably, only two NHL players have ever reached those lofty heights.
Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky.
Particularly Wayne Gretzky. The Great One is still the face of hockey for most of the world.
We tend to throw around words carelessly. The word great has been mostly stripped of its power. Anyone that is in the public eye is a star. In the sports media, we have also devalued the word superstar. I am trying to reclaim it for those few worthy enough to wear the crown.
Ovechkin and Crosby.
If you don’t like it, deal with it. You might want to start by shunning all popular media in North America. No doubt you’ll be seeing the faces of these two men plastered all over television, and magazines, and posters, and websites for the better part of the next decade.
- Mick Kern
Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s