Low key Matt Niskanen scores a memorable goal

By Larry Wigge

We were reminded of Bobby Orr working his way up the ice so gloriously when we watched Matt Niskanen glide to a goal.

But ... somehow that rink-length rush that gave the Washington Capitals a 3-2 victory over Philadelphia on February 7 ... was more than a retrospective of a goal more than 30 years ago.

The goal, which snapped a 2-2 tie, was more than just a magical mystery tour with just over five minutes into the third period. It was a tribute to an otherise unsung hero.

Niskanen wound up like usual ...

He skated his way out of the Caps zone, through center ice -- looking for passing options. Like a quarterback unable to find a receivers, he looked up at the blue line for an opening and saw that Flyers defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and Michael Del Zotto were out of position, lunging with their sticks as Niskanen dangled the puck through them. What he saw was a clear break in on goaltender Steve Mason, flipping the puck under the goalie's armpit.

"I think all building was surprised," said Alex Ovechin with glee. "It was like back to the 70s with Bobby Orr."

The not-so-flashy Niskanen took it all in.

"It was an accident ... I don't have many moves," Niskanen insisted as he scored his third goal of the season and first since November.

"He had a lane to go right through," said Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby. "I think he looked even surprised when the lane he saw opened like like seas and then he kept going. He put a good finish on it. That's a huge goal from a guy that's known for his defense."

Niskanen, whose best single season was 10 goals with Pittsburgh in 2013-14, has scored a total of 42 goals in 600 NHL games.

One year after finshing his sophomore season at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, the 6 foot, 209 pounder from Virginia, Minnesota is fulfilling his boyhood dreams.

He was playing a regular shift on defense with the Dallas Stars and he's at the All-Star Game in Atlanta rubbing elbows with the game's greats, preparing for the YoungStars skills competition in 2008.

"It's been an unbelievable ride," Niskanen told me. "I'm having a blast. Enjoying every day.

"It was my dream to play in the NHL since I was 5 or 6 and my parents couldn't get me off the rink. But going into training camp I figured I'd be headed for Iowa."

Except for a couple of injuries at the start of the season, this story might have been different. But Niskanen, the Stars first pick, 28th overall, in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft never lacked for skill and confidence.

His plus-12 plus-minus number was eye-popping for rookie or veteran alike. In his three-plus years with the Stars and his three-plus seasons with Pittsburgh and in his second season with Washington his plus-minus totals have been astonishing. In 52 games this season, he is plus-18. His tops came in 2013-14 with plus-33.

During that All-Star Game at Atlanta, former San Jose coach Ron Wilson said of Niskanen.

"We’ve played the Stars six times and while I maybe didn't notice him individually that much the first couple of times I saw him because of the guy he plays alongside most of the time, Sergei Zubov," said Wilson. "But the last few times we've played them you can see him coming and coming with his skating skills jumping into the play and puck skills working the transition game.

"I've always felt that Sergei Zubov is the most underrated skilled defenseman in the game and you can sure tell that he's mentoring Matt the way he's developing."

"Sergei makes it work," Niskanen said emphatically. "He's so good at reading so many things that are happening at fast pace on the ice -- and I'm lucky enough that he's shared some of those little details on what to look for and when to go with the puck that he's simply the master of doing."

Growing up in the Iron Range in Minnesota, Matt was a North Stars fan first and a Pittsburgh Penguins fan second. His favorite players? Mike Modano and Mario Lemieux. I also liked Nicklas Lidstrom. He is the best all-around defenseman of my lifetime. Although I will never reach his level, I still strive to have his attributes (skating, skill, and awareness).

"Yeah, it's funny," Niskanen said, when asked about a defenseman idolizing two star forwards. "I always played defense, but I guess I've always wanted to be a forward."

The decision to leave school and take a chance in professional hockey was very tedious. He and his parents, Chuck and Linda, spent countless hours. But hockey won out over his double major in school of health and physical education.

Now he’s majoring in looking mature beyond his years on the Washington defense -- with the obvious smarts to listen to a pretty good defensive partner.

Niskanen laughs when he talks about growing up, partly because his Stars teammates, particularly goaltender Marty Turco have given him lots of grief over the 2001 Pontiac Sunfire with more than 92,000 miles that he had shipped with him from college.

"We came back from a trip a while back and I got to the parking lot and my car was gone," Niskanen said, sounding a bit perturbed to be the part of one of Turco’s practical jokes. "Marty had the car towed away ... and he had it PIMPED up, detailed with outlandish hub caps and everything."

The forward-thinking youngster learned his lesson. Now he drives a 2008 Chevrolet Silverado. The truck of choice back on the Iron Range in Minnesota.

Why hockey?

"I got into hockey because all the neighbor kids played," Niskanen recalled. "Every kid gives the sport a try and up until you're about a Peewee, you play mostly outdoors which is where I got my start. My dad had a key to the outdoor rink and drove the Zamboni ... so we were lucky to have good outdoor ice almost every time."

Your father drove the Zamboni, eh?

Your high school team went to the finals.

"We had cheered for teams ahead of us to make it when we were younger, but when we were seniors we finally put it together," he remembered. "We had a good playoff run and reached our goal. That was a big deal for our town and our school and to do it with a lot of my friends was pretty cool."

Alex Goligoski and Matt Niskanen grew up about 40 miles apart in northern Minnesota, so there's a little bit of irony in the fact the two defensemen were traded for each other.

"I probably played against him since I was 12 or 13," Niskanen said. "Bantams, high school, college. We saw a lot of each other."

Matt Niskanen signed as a free agent with Washington. He inked a seven-year deal worth $40.25 million at an annual cap hit of $5.75 million.

Todd Reirden was the defensive coach at Pittsburgh, so he knew Niskanen very well.

"The relationship I have with him has really grown over the last four years," Reirden said. "We came up with a plan when he first walked into my office about how to rebuild his game and get it back to where it was.

"Certainly Matt really stepped up, showing a lot about his leadership and his ability to help young players. He's a righthand shot who can play on your first power play. He was able to increase his level of quality of competition, which again was one of our goals."

No one could have ever come up with a Matt Niskanen-Bobby Orr comarison for a key goal.

Brad Marchand ... He hustles, he scores and he's good

By Larry Wigge

Brad Marchand took a deep breath before consideration the situation he had been put in. He was thinking of a fast move also a slow one.

A man of contradiction.

The 5-9, 183 pound forward was all alone at center ice. Alone. No Boston Bruin had ever scored on a penalty shot in overtime.

The Halifax, Nova Scotia was given the free shot after being grabbed by Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen while skating in alone 2:32 into overtime February 6. The referee whistled. Down the ice, the tiny Marchand cleanly beat goaltender Robin Lehner with a roofed backhander that finished off a 2-1 victory.

Marchand is fearless and confident as he scored his ninth goal in 10 games.

"It's kind of a mental state," Marchand explaine, still shaking his head. "When things are going well and the bounces are going your way, you feel like you can try those things.

"When they're not, then you don't feel the same comfort level to do it."

Said Bruins coach Claude Julien, "He's been a great player for us, coming up big in those situations.

"He’s, in my mind, one of the best players, if not the best, at being on those pucks in the offensive zone and battling hard to take the puck away from. He's slippery, he's shifty."

Marchand, who has never scored more than 28 goals in a season in his six NHL seasons, is now on pace to flirt with 40.

His shot, his speed and his nose for the net would be going to waste if he didn’t have the confidence. Whether he's crashing the crease or blowing past four or five defenders, Marchand is being fueled by self-belief.

Some of that confidence could be traced back to this summer, when he met this former UFC fighter during workouts at his gym.

"He said something that stuck with me -- that the ceiling is what you make it. If you believe that you can hit a certain point then that's what you're going to hit," said Marchand. "If you believe there's no ceiling then you can only improve. So that's what I've been trying to do. Hopefully it will continue."

That Little Ball of Hate is one of just 11 players in NHL history to have scored 2-or-more goals in a Stanley Cup Final game 7. That came in the Bruins Stanley Cup clinching victory over Vancouver in 2011.

Marchand set a record for playoff goals by a Boston rookie and tied Jeremy Roenick for the second-most in NHL history, 11, during the Cup run.

Skating, shooting, stickhandling, checking, signing ... even at 11 he wanted to be the whole package. But ... try as he might ... he had to first harness his temper.

A funny thing happened as the Bruins were visiting the White House after they won the Cup.

Barack Obama asked Marchand, "What's up with that nickname, man?"

"The play doesn't end with the whistle," Marchand replied, with a toothy smile.

Jeff Marchand, Brad's father, had been a bigger ball of hate during his playing career at Halifax or for the Bridgewater Lumberjacks. He was a regular in the principal's office in middle school in suburban Halifax, visits made more awkward because his mother, Lynn, taught there.

"My mom would hear my name on the P.A., 'Brad Marchand, report to the principal's office,' and you could hear the clatter of her high heels coming down the hallway a mile away," he recalls.

"He's a good brat when he stays within the rules and disrupts the other team," said Julien. "He's a bad brat when he takes bad penalties and hurts our team."

Marchand takes pride in irritating the other side.

"Being an agitator just comes out of me at times," Marchand replied. "I don't even mean to do it. It's just how I am. It's reactionary. It's tough to get away from it at times. Because the refs are on me and watching me, I can't really do anything even if there have been times when guys come at me.

"The kind of player I want to be is strong defensively and be accountable. I want the coach to know he can count on me to be put into the game at any time. I want to be physical. Basically, I want the ability to play on any line up and down the lineup. I want to be counted on for energy, to be physical and to score goals is the role I want to play. I just want to be able to do all that."

When you're a little guy and you're battling guys in front who are 6-foot-3. It's tough.

If you want to know where Brad Marchand gets his competitive attitude, you only have to go to the family tree.

Raymond Marchand, Brad's grandfather, was a couple of inches smaller than the Bruins forward, but that never kept him from making his presence felt, either on the hockey rink or in the boxing ring.

"He was only 5-7, but he was tough as nails. It didn't matter how big a person was, if you challenged him, you were going down."

The Bruins found Marchand, thanks to Don Matheson, who died in December 2008, was Boston's Canadian Maritimes amateur scout. He was also Moncton's director of recruiting, where Brad was playing at the time. During weekly conference calls, Matheson reminded Scott Bradley, then the Bruins director of amateur scouting, that Marchand was a can't-miss player.

Early in 2006, Bradley traveled to Halifax to interview Marchand.

"When Donnie and I met him, I could see he had something," said Bradley. "It was in the way he conducted himself in the interview. His on-ice play. All that stuff.

"He never quit. I'd watch him in the playoffs. He never quit. He'd go down swinging. That's a quality you can't teach."

At the draft, under the watch of Bradley and interim general manager Jeff Gorton, the Bruins executed a home run trade. On June 24, 2006, they swapped their fourth- and fifth-round picks to the New York Islanders for the 71st overall selection, which they used to nab Marchand.

It was almost a robbery that the Bruins were able to get Marchand with the 71st pick in 2006.

Patrice Bergeron is a Brad Marchand fan.

"He seems to have a knack to come up with some timely goals or hits or he just generates energy and chances with his skating," Bergeron said. "He hustles and gives his all on every shift."

Thinking back to his mom's being called to the principal's office. Marchand had a tattoo on the right side of his torso after the Bruins won the Cup.

"Mine originally was misspelled," he said. "Instead of saying Stanley Cup Champions, it said Stanley Cup Champians. I don't even know how that happened..."

The boys were having a little fun, drinking and ...

"After I got it, I came in the room and someone was like it says champians ... with an a. So I went back and the tattoo guy fixed it after that. It's fixed now. It's Stanley. They obviously knew how to spell Stanley Cup. The only thing that was wrong with it was an a and he turned it into an o for champions."

Brad Marchand ... one in a million ... someone you will never forget.

Dion Phaneuf: Always fiery leader for the Maple Leafs

By Larry Wigge

In the big games against the best players, he takes no prisoners. His mindset is fierce.

We've seen the focus of Dion Phaneuf it's all impact, the leadership and the confidence.

On February 4, the Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman set up the game-tying goal with less than three minutes to play against New Jersey -- leading up to a 3-2 victory.

"I think he's playing great," coach Mike Babcock said. "He's been great all year long. As a leader. As a person. The way he helps our young guys. The way he pushes people. He's been great."

Babcock is a button pusher. He's a coach who gets players to do things his way ... or else.

This particular game represented the 1,000 game in the NHL as a coach for Babcock. It also was the 800th game in the NHL for Phaneuf.

"It does go fast, you've got to enjoy it," explained Phaneuf, now 30.

It's been six full seasons since he has been with the Maple Leafs. He was traded by Calgary with forward Fredrick Sjostrom and defenseman Keith Aulie January 31, 2010 for forwards Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman and Jamal Mayers and defenseman Ian White.

He was drafted by the Flames, ninth overall, in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

Phaneuf has always been an active player from defense. After 50 games, he has three goals and 20 assists.

Team President and alternate governer Brendan Shanahan said, "I would like to challenge Dion to continue to evolve."

"I have to be better ... and I will be," says Phaneuf.

Dion Phaneuf's vocal, but not boisterous. He's a rah-rah guy who wants to win.

And there is a clear sense that the 6-foot-3, 215-pound defenseman has been climbing the walls trying to live up to the expectations.

"He's always got energy and it's infectious for us," explained Iginla. "He's trying to run over everyone he can and he's in everyone's face. He doesn't back down."

Making an impact. Proving he can lead. Showing he's a winner. Those items are all on Dion's agenda.

Phoenix captain Shane Doan was on that Team Canada squad that won the gold medal in the summer of 2008.

"It's the important times when you see the great players show they are winners," Doan said. "Dion was a tower of strength for us in that tournament last May.

I'll never forget a warm day in late June 2003 arriving at the airport, expecting to make the short flight from St. Louis to Nashville for the draft alone ... until I saw a friendly face ... then-Flames GM/coach Darryl Sutter, on a layover from San Jose, where his daughter, Jessie, had just graduated from high school. He was beaming like a true proud father when I asked about his daughter and the ceremony.

During the course of our 45-minute wait and the next couple of hours before we walked into the same hotel in Nashville, Darryl Sutter touched on all sorts of subjects concerning the Flames. One, of course, was what his team wanted to do in the draft.

He spoke of the three defensemen at the top of everyone's draft list: Ryan Suter, Braydon Coburn and Phaneuf. He told me what he liked about each of these youngsters. But when he began to analyze Phaneuf, I swear I saw the same proud look on his face as I did when he was talking about his daughter's graduation.

I asked about the inside track he had into the tangible and intangibles he had on Phaneuf because Darryl Sutter's brother, Brent, was Phaneuf's junior coach with Red Deer in the Western Hockey league.

"Obviously, Brent's my brother," Darryl said, looking me squarely in the eyes. "But you can tell when he puts Dion on the ice, it's against the other team's best player. To me, that's more important than asking Brent what he thinks of him."

Then ... he said.

"Dion's got an edge to his game," Sutter said. "People aren't sure about him. I think that's why some people have compared him to such a scary defender as Scott Stevens.

"But he's more than that. He's a heart-and-soul player. He's smart, knowing when to take a chance on offense and when he can make a big hit and not hurt the team on defense."

Phaneuf had some good models to follow when he was growing up in Edmonton and going to games with his dad, Paul, and rooting for the, uh, Oilers, Calgary's hated rival in The Battle of Alberta.

"All of that stopped a few years ago," Phaneuf said of his Oilers rooting interests. "First I went south from Edmonton to Red Deer and then even further south to Calgary."

Then he lets the real side ...

It was at Red Deer that Phaneuf found a way to manage his time and tension off the ice when he met Dan Johnson, a woodworking expert and hockey fan.

Phaneuf may tear into opposing players with his open-ice hits, but give him a carpenter's tool, and it's a different story. His hands are skilled.

"I learned I could get away from the game while working with wood," Phaneuf told me, sounding surprised to hear that anyone knew that he could do more than shoot and pass and fight with his hands. "I made some chairs and then I got ambitious and finished an entertainment center for the mom and dad's big-screen TV."

On-ice creativity for Phaneuf comes from the fire in his eyes. It manifests itself with his aggressive posture when defending and, when on offense, in his howitzer of a shot from the point.

"I can't be a guy who's a fancy player," Phaneuf said. "I have to be a guy that plays the body. Whether they give you a shot here or there ... I play my game. I take pride in other teams hating to play against me."

Clearly, the only real dark side to Phaneuf is the dark mahogany wood he likes to work with in pursuing his hobby.

Dion Phaneuf is already an in-your-face, intimidating factor, using his size, muscle and skills to make a difference.

Joe Pavelski ... that never give up feeling

By Larry Wigge

He was always told he wasn't fast enough. He wasn't skilled enough. Or he wasn't big enough.

Still, Joe Pavelski won a junior Championship at Waterloo and he won at the University of Wisconsin. The 5-11, 190 pound center from Plover, Wisconsin, was always getting overlooked.

He has always been a winner and is carving a remarkable career with the San Jose Sharks.

"For a guy that isn't an overly large  man, he's got a lot of courage to go to the right spots," former San Jose coach Todd McLellan now Edmonton coach said. "I think his sense of timing and his hand-eye-foot coordination are exceptional."

He did it again February 4 in a 3-1 victory over St. Louis, when Pavelski flipped a backhand pass into the offensive zone to Joonas Donskoi and later spotted Joe Thornton with a cross-ice pass in the second period less than four minutes apart in the second period.

"He's a finisher," Thornton explained. "Probably within that 10 to 15 foot range, he just knows what to do with the puck."

The assists put Pavelski's production this season to 25 goals and 26 assists in 50 games. He finished last season with 41 goals, 10 more than his previous best.

"There's certainly no one in the league better at scoring timely goals, finding quiet ice, playing under the radar," Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said.

Said Nashville GM David Poile, "It's his persistence ... and he's getting better all the time. He was a little bit of an underdog. Not a high draft pick, not the biggest guy. You can pick apart and have things to say why he wasn't going to make it. But a lot of us would like a do-over again with that draft."

Pavelski was just barely on the Sharks' radar when they made him a seventh round draft choice, the 205th, in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, arguably the biggest draft-day steal in the 25-year history of the Sharks organization. Today he is part of an offensive nucleus that includes Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Logan Couture, all top-10 picks.

In that 2003 draft at Nashville, Pavelski was selected in featured several key NHL players chosen within the first two rounds that still play huge roles in the NHL to this day. Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf were selected by the Anaheim Ducks. Eric Staal went to the Carolina Hurricanes. Zach Parise to the New Jersey Devils. Players like Patrice Bergeron and Shea Weber fell to the second round.

But no one, except for the Sharks, had Pavelski on their radar. But despite several notable players selected well before him, Pavelski still finds himself well ahead of several players in production. Pavelski has the sixth-most goals at 252 in that draft class and he has the eight-most points with 273.

Pavelski is the very definition of an underdog hitting it big.

But his competitive zeal, which includes golf, baseball and hunting and fishing, has led to a standout NHL career that's lasted nine-plus seasons.

"I started watching the draft that year," Pavelski recalled. "But some friends came by my house ... and we played some baseball.

"It wasn't until I got home that I found out I was drafted by the Sharks."

His first feelings about being drafted were: "I was excited. Seventh round, I knew it was going to be a long road. I wasn't worried about that ..."

Like growing up.

When you talk about the size of the fight in the dog, Little Joe has a heart the size of the Pacific Ocean -- and that makes him man in motion and a man of action every year when the playoff season comes around.

Pavelski, you see, has the knack of winning over everyone eventually.

Big game, big player?

"He's just a hockey rat," Sharks GM Doug Wilson observed. "He's highly competitive, passionate and plays to win. He's in on every play at both ends of the rink, which is exactly what we look for -- players who can be used in all situations.

"It doesn't take long for you to see that he's a leader, a competitor. I remember going to see him at Madison (U. of Wisconsin) for the first time and it was clear to me that he was the heartbeat of that team."

Joe Pavelski learned about hockey by watching his dad, Mike, a wall paperer and painter in Plover play, as well as his older brother, Jerry, who is into home improvement. Mom, Sandy, works the books and runs the office for the company that the Pavelski's all work for.

"I don't know what it is about this game, but I've always loved to practice, loved to shoot pucks and loved to play in our driveway," he said, laughing at the fact that there was this Sharks mini-stick at the house. He didn't know who it belonged to. It was just there.

On his driveway, Joe tried moves like his favorites -- Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull and Steve Yzerman. He played for the Flames when he was really young. Later, it was the Blues, because he was enamored with Brett Hull's one-timer.

"I loved winners," Pavelski laughed. "I liked Detroit, Colorado -- they were always battling, always fun to watch. They would bring it every night, could connect the dots, pass, snap the puck around, score goals and win a championship. That's kind of fun. I grew up liking the Dallas Cowboys. I would jump on the bandwagon, I guess you could say. But there's something about winning that draws me to it."

Still, Pavelski knew that his dream of playing in the NHL was a long, long way off.

"It was always my size and strength," he said of the obstacles he had to overcome to get to this level. "When I got to the USHL, my goal was to get to college and get my education. But I also began to see players I was playing against making their way to the NHL. Same thing at the University of Wisconsin. That's when I began to say to myself, 'He's there. Can I do this?' "

And we all know that this go-forward-and-take-no-prisoners approach that got him to the NHL won't stop because of the pedigree he's established in big games leading up to this year's playoffs.

"I always looked at those game, those tournaments as my Stanley Cup," he said, looking me straight in the eyes.

Serious. Confident without being cocky.

"Before I got here, I had been the go-to guy the last few years," he said. "It's funny but I think the more you play in big games the better you are going to get. Playing in those big-time moments, you take so much away and put it in your back pocket. Being on a winning team, knowing what it takes to win, knowing that nothing comes easy."

Said Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves, "He may be one of the best pros I've ever seen because he plays to his strengths, works on his areas of improvement, and he's gotten better each and every year. Those six inches between his ears make up for any deficiency that he may have physically, and even then, he's working on those."

Pavelski added, "When you have to fight the obstacles and perceptions I have over the years, you learn to never give up."

Todd McLellan takes it one step further. "If I was part of some of those playoff office pools and drafts, he would be one of my picks."

Leadership and inspiration are key to Sean Monahan

By Larry Wigge

The traits you want most when you are looking for in a hockey player is leadership, experience and inspiration.

Funny thing about Sean Monahan is that he has all three.

Monahan is kind of a prototype. NHL scouts usually want all the things that Monahan brings -- good size (6-2, 198 pounds), good hands and good instincts. The problem with prototypes is often, the physical attributes don't necessarily translate into a complete on-ice package. With Monahan, they do.

"It always makes me laugh -- a young coach cannot coach in the NHL because he has no experience. A young player cannot play in the NHL because he has no experience," explained Calgary coach Bob Hartley. "If you don't play him, you can't go to Walgreens and buy experience off the shelf or call your doctor for a prescription ... experience is a combination of success and failures."

Still, Monahan didn't bowl every scout over. He wasn't picke until sixth overall in the first round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

But he stepped right into the NHL with the Flames and excelled. He scored 22 goals as a rookie and then followed that up with 31 goals and 31 assists in 2014-15.

It wasn't until this year's All-Star break that he felt failure in his game. A slump. He had two goals and two assists in the last 16 games since December 16.

Until ...

The third-year center had a goal and three assists for his first career four-point game to lead the Flames to a 4-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes February 3.

"It can get frustrating when you're getting chances and they're not going in," said Monahan. "But I try to focus on the little things and when I'm playing my best, I'm winning faceoffs, playing well in my own zone and that's when you generate the most offense."

The output gave him 15 goals and 18 assists for 49 points.

"You can always trust him," Hartley said. "He's always going to be on time, always ready, he wants to be in critical situations on the ice. Despite his young age, he's a great young role model for young kids."

Monahan pointed to one man as his inspiration.

"When it comes down to it, the guy who made me who I am today is my dad," he said. "I want to follow in his footsteps. It kind of helped me get where I am today."

John Monahan is a retired sheet metal work in construction. His mom's name is Cathy.

Mom's advice? Soak it in.

"I said, 'This doesn't happen to many people so enjoy every moment you're there, every minute you're on the ice,' " Cathy said. "Every little boy dreams to be in the NHL. Anything to do with hockey we watch it and, to actually be sitting here watching my son with a Calgary jersey on ... I had tears in my eyes. It's a crazy feeling."

Brian Burke didn't have tears rolling down his face ...

"Not flashy, just good at everything, a true 200-foot player. He's a really reliable player in his own end and he scores -- but he’s not flashy," Flames President said in talking about Monahan in hyperbole. "He's way more mature than a kid that's 20 years old. He acts like’s he's 25. And his teammates love him because he keeps his mouth shut and works."

Back in the fall of 2013, Monahan was one of the catalysts of the Flames’ rebuild. Sean is the first big center that the Flames have developed internally since the Hall of Famer Joe Nieuwendyk. As did Nieuwendyk, Monahan played a lot of lacrosse growing up, a skill set he believes translates well into hockey.

"Rolling off checks in lacrosse and hand-to-eye coordination and stuff like that, it all relates," Monahan said.

His favorite player growing up was either Joe Sakic or Steve Yzerman. He like comparing himself to Jordan Staal and Jonathan Toews. They are could be playing that strong two-way game or winning face-offs or just making sure the whole team is ready to go.

At age three, the boy wanted to play. Hockey and lacrosse sticks were always in his hand. Good luck trying to get him to use a train set or building blocks. Birthday parties were always hockey- or sports-themed; the Monahans either rented ice surfaces or organized a road hockey game with the entire team.

Summers were spent at the family cottage at Sauble Beach, two and a half hours north of their home. The last three winters have been spent travelling between Brampton and the nation's capital.

Sean Monahan had a hockey stick in his hand at an early age -- age two, to be exact. At age 10 shooting pucks on the family driveway, spending hours out there shooting buckets of pucks.

As for Monahan, the 18-year-old, he likes country music (interesting, so does everyone in Calgary for 10 days every Stampede week), and is incredibly close with his family. A razor-sharp wit, a wickedly sarcastic sense of humour, and a joker with his friends, Monahan also has a quiet side.

"If he turned left, we would say, 'Hey, he's gonna learn' and 'It's a great learning experience for him,' " Hartley agreed. "But with Mony, it seems that he's always one page ahead in the book. If he makes a mistake, you teach him -- you show him once and, gosh, it's sculpted in stone. This guy has hockey IQ to a level that I've rarely seen or I've probably never seen."

Listen to Monahan.

"Everything ramps up, obviously. The games are faster and everyone is bearing down that much more," he said. "So this opportunity right now, at my age, I think it's huge for me.

"Obviously, you dream of playing in the NHL and, as a kid, you dream of lifting the Stanley Cup. I guess it's a little bit of a reality check coming out on the ice for these types of games ... but the dream is to win the Stanley Cup."

The good part of Sean Monahan is even if he doesn't score, even if he doesn’t get his name on the scoresheet, he still gives you a chance to win games.

Said Hartley, "It's all about team. He's a special kid."

Brandon Saad: The man-child starts again with Columbus

By Larry Wigge

In the evolution of sports, there are trends and upswings. This was supposed to be a breakout season for Brandon Saad.

After helping the Chicago Blackhawks to two Stanley Cups in his first three full seasons in the NHL, the Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, native, looked to yet another run.

But ...

Saad watched as his contract ran out and with Chicago battling the salary cap, he became yet another victim. He was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets with prospects Michael Palotta and Alex Broadhurst for Artem Anisimov, Jeremy Morin, Corey Tropp and Marko Dano on June 30.

The 6-1, 202 pounder never saw that coming.

On a team that boasts superstars up and down the lineup -- Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Patrick Sharp, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson, Saad was starting all over in Columbus.

With the Blue Jackets, Saad has put together 19 goals and 16 assists  at the All-Star break, which would surpass his previous career high of 52 points set last season.

"With all those guys in Chicago, I wasn't likely to get picked," Saad said rather reluctantly. "You always think that one day you'll get to go and experience it for yourself. I’m fortunate it came this quick."

There have been years of promise growing up in Pittsburgh ... and playing in Chicago.

"The year I was born, the Penguins won the Stanley Cup," Saad said of Pittsburgh victory over four-game sweep of the Blackhawks in 1992. "I watched a lot of Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. They were fun to watch."

Brandon Saad didn't have his room growing up pasted with Lemieux posters.

"Not my whole room, but I was definitely a fan," he recalled.

Now this is where the real evolution began.

George Saad, Brandon's dad, was an industrial engineer and former soccer player in Syria. He earned a degree at Columbia University, then furthered his education at the University of Pittsburgh.

"Dad is my idol," says Saad. "He came to the United States with no money, alone, didn't speak English. He worked hard to build a career and is very good at his profession: industrial engineering, buying and selling commercial real estate. He pursued his dream—to come to America and start a new life. My thought was that if the hockey thing doesn't work out, I can always get an education. He was behind me all the way ... and still is."

Sandra, his mom, is a typical stay-at-home mother, who used to drive Brandon and his older brother George to hockey practice.

There's more. At an early age, Brandon wanted to become a goaltender. Not so fast.

Said Sandra, "We said Brandon, 'You can't be a goalie, you have too much speed, nobody can catch you.' "

His mom grew up with football. Gil Mace, Sandra father, was an NFL official, who worked Super Bowl XVIII in 1984 as a back judge and Super Bowl XXI in 1987 as a side judge.

Brandon and football?

"Growing up, especially being in Pittsburgh with how well the Steelers did in the past, I was always a fan of the game," he said. "I played a lot of sports growing up and football was fun for me, too, but I always had the most fun with hockey. So by the time I hit high school, that's the career I chose. I had a lot of success at it as a kid ... and so that's part of why I picked it."

That leaves the one question: Why wasn't Saad a first-round pick? He was chosen the second-round, 43rd overall, in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.

He had a groin injury stall his production. But ...

"His talent is there and we're the beneficiaries of it," Chicago GM Stan Bowman once said. "He's 18 years old and he plays a pro game already. We're just fortunate to be able to add him when we did."

Saad became the first NHL player since Colorado center Ryan O'Reilly in 2009 to be selected outside the first round and make an NHL opening-night roster in his draft year. The only other one was Patrice Bergeron to make such an imprint on the NHL roster hadn't been done since 2003-04.

When last we visited Brandon Saad, it was after Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning and it was as if he was waiting to show Chicago and the rest of the hockey world his best yet.

"I loved his game tonight," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "Great power move to the net. Gives us speed. Use him in all situations. He's fast, he's big, he's strong, he's dangerous. Very good performance."

Saad walked out of the corner and bullied his way to the front of the net where his backhand beat rookie goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy five-hole along the ice 6 minutes, 22 seconds into the third period.

It was Saad's fourth goal in his past six games and fifth in his past eight games.

Another former Blackhawk Patrick Sharp, now with Dallas, raves about Saad.

"He's one of those players that he doesn't really need to show up on the scoresheet to be effective," Sharp said. "He's such a powerful skater, plays well defensively, creates loose pucks."

Saad can't explain where that hockey sense came from, but he's thrilled to have it in his arsenal.

"I'm not sure how it developed," Saad said. "You can't exactly work on that, so being born with that quality has been a big help for me."

There are certain talents and skills that Brandon Saad has.

"He's physically fearless," Toews said. "He can go in and get the puck and come out when he has two guys draped on him. It looks like he's going to fall over, but he doesn't give up and he stays on his feet to battle his way out. His confidence has been rising and the skill set he already has is pretty amazing."

Toews looks at Saad and marvels.

"He looks like he's 35 years old ... but he's 20," Toews answers, smiling. "He plays like he's a lot older than he is, too."

Clearly, Brandon Saad, this man-child, just has to start his career all over with the Blue Jackets.

"It's a little motivation, but I try not to worry about the past too much," Saad said. "It's a fresh start here and it's only the beginning."

Clearly the big stage doesn't challenge Saad. Game after game, he is still a dominant, consistent force.

Braden Holtby stops pucks for a living

By Larry Wigge

You learn about good, old-fashioned down home country values when you interview Braden Holtby. Go through his answers and ...

Well, there's  nothing like where he stops pucks for a living and Washington D.C.?

"Absolutely none," Holtby laughs. "Marshall, Saskatchewan, is about 500 people. We have one paved road, one stop sign. No lights. We have a school, a post office and one convenience store. I grew up on a farm close to there."

Then, you ask him about the number he wears on the back of his uniform. No. 70. Not the usual No. 1 or No. 30. Listen to what significance he has to wearing No. 70.

"No, they just gave it to me at my first camp," he says. "I got a surprise call-up my first year, played a few games and people started to buy the jersey. And I felt too bad to change it ... after I'd seen a couple of people pay money for the jersey, so I stuck with it."

How many people would take time out to think what he would be costing them if he would change his number? Not a lot.

Braden Holtby is athletic. He stands 6-2 and weigh 203 pounds and he stops pucks coming at him going more than 100 mph. And he does it quite well as his 30 victories in 39 stars at the All-Star break attest, not to his 2.07 goals-against average. The Washington Capitals netminder has lost only once since October 16, going 20-0-2 during one stretch. Holtby's streak ended one short of the franchise record of 23 games (20-0-3) set by Jose Theodore in 2009-10.

What Holtby has become this season is a legitimate Vezina Trophy candidate.

"I've never been that goalie that has come up with the most amount of natural skill," Holtby said. "I was a late pick, I was never really a Team Canada goalie or anything like that. I knew that if I worked hard enough and tried to get the most out of myself, I'd be happy at the end of the day if I was better than I was the day before."

He was a fourth-round pick, 93rd overall, in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, who took over under emergency condition in the playoffs of 2011-12 after Tomas Vokoun and Michal Neuvirth were both sidelined with injuries and Holtby was called. He went 7-7 with a 1.95 goals-against average.

Holtby stopped 44 shots in a first-round series against Boston -- Ken Dryden made 46 stops for Montreal in a 4-2 win against Boston on April 16, 1971.

"He makes it very calm for the rest of us," said forward Brooks Laich, after the 44-shot barrage. "If we gave up a shot, we know Holtz if gonna cover. When he does leave a rebound, and I didn't see many tonight, we know guys are gonna clear it.

"When you have a goaltender playing well, it really, really settles your team down. He was a leader for us tonight."

"He's played well, you know? Under extreme pressure, he had to go up against Tim Thomas, you know, Stanley Cup winner and now Henrik Lundqvist, who could be MVP of the league," former Capitals coach Dale Hunter said. "He battled tooth-and-nail even with them. I'm proud of him."

Said Holtby, "My type of fun is intensity, is big games, big moments. I might not show it on my face, but that's the way I've always been. I've always had the most fun when I'm battling and competing."

Goaltenders are a strange breed. Really strange sometimes. Well ...

In fact, Holtby credits that decision, made by his father, Greg, for developing many of the skills that led him to the NHL and this summer’s big pay day. His father played for the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League in the mid-1980s. As a product of the pre-butterfly era that meant a strong emphasis on skating at a young age for his son.

So rather than send Braden to position-specific schools at an early age, Greg insisted his son also play out as long as he could. As a result, the younger Holtby was still splitting time between forward and goal until he was 12.

"He really encouraged me to play as a forward and a goaltender until I was forced by the team to make a decision, so I played both up until peewee, which really helped develop my skating, helped develop my puck handling, all those other things you wouldn’t really get by choosing to be just a goaltender at a really young age," he said and then added, "I was always confused back then why he wanted me to keep playing both when all I really wanted to be was a goaltender. But now it's one of my biggest benefits."

But growing up wanting to like his dad wasn't enough for Holtby. At 16, he was sent for meet with John Stevenson, a goaltender coach.

Said Holtby, "I reached a level where dad didn't know enough about any more with the technical stuff and he was learning at the same stage I was."

"The thing with Braden was just consistency. That was the thing we were worried about: Could he do it night in and night out? What really impressed me most about him in the playoffs is his resiliency," Olie Kolzig said. "Whether he gives up a bad goal or has a bad game, hell come back and make that next big save or hell come back and win the next game. The mental toughness, the resiliency and the calmness, its been impressive to watch.

"I just think he's playing in the moment. He's not looking in the past, he's not looking too far ahead."

Dave Prior, Kolzig and Arturs Irbe, the goalie coaches at Washington were nothing compared to what Mitch Korn put him through after Korn came in with coach Barry Trotz at the start of the 2014-15 season.

Holtby answered his new mentor with skeptism, but the results were simply amazing. A 41 win season, plus nine shutouts and a 2.32 goals-against average.

Holtby claims that Korn sees the game better than anyone he's ever met -- even with the same quirky props: miniature pucks, white pucks and screen boards that Stevenson first showed him.

Korn has done wonders for Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne, so his credentials are obvious. You don't often see the video work between them. But the give and take are essential.

"I always dealt with nerves and trying to do too much and I always fought with myself in my mind," Holtby explained. "I experimented with some mental exercises. Some of it didn't work for me ... and some of it does.

"It's still hard to find that balance. Not all nerves are bad, but you want to be calm and bring your heart rate down so you don't wear yourself out."

Korn noticed that Holtby avoided getting hit with the puck in practice by making saves in a way he wouldn't during a game. Korn wanted Holtby to focus on stopping the puck instead of handling it.

"The changes he was trying to adjust to and make are like trying to change the engine in your car during the Indianapolis 500," Korn said. "You can change your tires, but you can't change the engine and yet, that's what we were asking him to do.

"He was trying to change things as he was playing in season. At the same time, it was really good for me, because it provided me with the footage and the examples we needed to correct."

Korn said Holtby was reaching to make saves. What Korn wanted Holtby to learn was body control, for his limbs to work together as a unit. That started to make even the tough saves look easy.

Holtby and Korn have a lot in common other than the puck-stopping position. They share the same birthdate.

Standing tall in goal. Twirling the stick, watching the droplets shot from a water bottle, shuffling around the top of the goal crease, that thing where his eyes track back and forth looking out on an empty ice surface. His habits might make good television, but not everyone loves to watch them. Doing deep breathing exercise training and visualization exercises help take him to a place of serenity.

"It could be a beach or I could be skating on a pond back home as a kid," explained Holtby. "It brings you back down to earth and relaxes you."

Goaltending is a position really unlike anything in sports. You have to let things come to you.

Braden Holtby is learning that in a nutshell every day he comes to the rink.