The sweltering heat of the past couple months is now giving way to the cooler temperatures associated with the onset of fall. Before you know it, the leaves will be falling outside, while the sticks and gloves will be dropping in hockey rinks across North America.
While this writer was enjoying the fine Western New York summer weather, he was also neglecting his duties in keeping Buffalo Sabre fans abreast of any new developments with prospects in the Sabre organization. Helping fans get caught up won’t be difficult, however, as there has been little activity of note during the Sabre’s offseason. In the interest of keeping Sabre fans informed (as well as all readers of HF), this article will be devoted to pulling together some of the Sabre moves that have come to pass, as well as provide information regarding events which have yet to take place.
Prospect Signings
Sabre GM Darcy Regier has had his hands full attempting to re-sign several veterans, but he managed to find the time (and money) to sign Sabre prospects Jaroslav Kristek (RW), David Moravec (W) and Luc Theoret (D). Read more»
The Peterborough Petes organization has been highly regarded in the ranks of Major Junior Hockey for many years. It boasts a proud record of sending more graduates into the National Hockey League than any other CHL franchise.
Yet, despite the constant turnover of quality players anually, the Petes have been able to maintain a competitive team each season. The Petes are hoping that this trend will hopefully continue for the ’99-2000 edition of the club. Last season’s fourth place finish was a disappointment for the Petes.
After challenging traditional rivals Oshawa, and the strong Belleville club for second place most of the season, the Petes faltered in the home stretch and then were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Generals. The ’99-2000 season will be a season of “ifs” for Peterborough. IF promising players such as Jason Williams and Preston Mizzi can bring their games up to the next level the Petes will compete for the division lead with Belleville and defending Memorial Cup champions the Ottawa 67′s. IF the Petes also receive strong goaltending from last year’s surprising tandem of Mike Pickard and Joey MacDonald this will also boost the Petes chances. Finally, IF new players in the lineup, such as Steve Montador and Marcel Rodman play as well as they are expected to, the Peterborough Petes may well be on the way to adding another chapter to their proud team history.
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“A rugged defenseman.” That is how D.J. Smith was described by Windsor Director of media relations, Steve Horne. “When he played for us at the major junior level he filled a lot of roles, including a lot of special teams action, but first and foremost he was a ‘rugged’ defenseman.”
Amazingly, D.J. is the last remaining player still on the Leafs, following the controversial Toronto-New York Islanders trade on March 13, 1996 which brought Wendel Clark and Matheiu Schneider to the team as well.
He scored 14 goals and 45 assists in 64 games in 1995-96 for Windsor. He became the team’s captain in 96-97 and increased his offensive productivity to 15 goals and 52 assists in 63 games. “He developed into a good powerplay quarterback for us in those final two seasons”, says Horne. Many scouts felt that he was one of the most improved players in the OHL in 96-97. He was named a second team OHL all-star in 1997 as a result of his good work.
Late in that 96-97 season, D.J. received his first taste of NHL life. He played 8 games with the Leafs late in that season. He was credited with an assist in his first NHL game against San Jose and won his first fight in his 3rd game against Colorado. He did not look out of place on the Leafs’ blueline, despite being beaten in a 1-on-1 rush by Detroit’s Slava Kozlov.
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After making the trades on draft day, the Lightning’s first pick in the 1999 draft was in the second round, the 47th overall pick. With that pick they selected Sheldon Keefe, RW from the Barrie Colts. Although he came with tremendous statistical numbers, 51 goals, 65 asst., 116 pts. in 66 games, he also came with some baggage. Namely Mr. Frost. The agent/representative was rumored to have been advising Sheldon. Whether or not he actually was, is not clear. It is now, and was at the time of the draft, clear that if there was any connection between the two it had been terminated.
Tampa Bay had confidence that the information they got, about there being no ties between the two, was good. They also had heard that some of the other criticism about his attitude and size were mainly sour grapes brought on by the rumors about Mr. Frost. At pick #47, if their information was correct, they had a steal.
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After this game you could say that the team that was more active, won. That’s the simple fact. Kärpät was much faster, and played with great intensity. Luleå players no matter which way they were skating, always had a player in a white suit checking them. That forced Luleå into many mistakes in their own end. After the first three minutes each one of 3011 spectators knew that Kärpät was going to win. By how many points was the only mystery.
Luleå had their chances too. Most of these chance came from mistakes made by Jaako Niskavaara, who made some terrible passes in his own end. Luckily for him though, Markus Korhonen was goaltending perfectly. Luleå had a few break-away’s but still couldn’t manage to score. They had one shot that bounced of the post in 3rd period, when the score was 4-0, but that was when Kärpät wasnt skating full speed anymore. There was a lot of penalties blown by the referee, which turned into two power-play goals and one shorthanded for Kärpät.
1st period:
At time 2.42 Johan Hedström of Luleå took a penalty for high-sticking, and soon after that Martin Bergeron passed the puck from behind the net to team’s captain Jari Laukkanen, who was standing alone in front of the net, and he shot the puck in the top shelf. 1-0.
Kärpät checked hard throughout the first period, and the result was another goal. Niklas Hagman got the pcuk from Kristian Taubert, and passed it to the centre to Juha Joenväärä. He made a brilliant pass back to Hagman who shot the puck in.
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