Saturday, September 29, 2007
Sports
A new ice age
Todd White looks to bolster Thrashers’ offense
Ilya Kovalchuk
CREDIT: Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images |
ATLANTA THRASHERS VS. WASHINGTON CAPITALS
Friday, Oct. 5
Philips Arena
404-249-6400
thrashers.nhl.com |
Sidney Crosby
CREDIT: Dave Sandford |
By Earle McDonald
“Kozlov to Hossa, he shoots …GOOOOOOOOOAL!” That was a common phrase last season at Philips Arena, with Slava Kozlov and Marion Hossa part of a tremendously productive line for the Atlanta Thrashers. But the chemistry those veterans enjoyed didn’t extend to the team’s other über-talented goal scorer, Ilya Kovalchuk.
True, Kovy had a great season and was a big part of the team’s success, which included the team’s first-ever division title. But if he’d had someone feeding him great opportunities like Kozlov did for Hossa, who knows how far Atlanta could have gone? Instead, the Thrashers flopped in the playoffs, swept out in four games by the New York Rangers.
Enter center Todd White, who left the Minnesota Wild to sign a four-year contract worth $9.5 million during the off-season. His new job? Setting up goals for the Thrashers’ lightning-fast Russian star. “I’m excited about playing with Kovalchuk,” White tells The Sunday Paper. “So far it’s been sterling, and I’m real happy about the prospects for the line.”
But due to a pair of medical issues during his time at Clarkston University in upstate New York, the Kanata, Ontario native almost lost his chance to skate in the National Hockey League. “After my second season of college hockey, I was diagnosed with cataracts,” he recalls. “I had to have surgery, and I couldn’t exercise for two months.”
For a player who hadn’t yet performed well enough to warrant NHL attention, that kind of setback could have put professional hockey dreams out of reach. To make matters worse, White’s vision wasn’t the only sense starting to fail him.
“When I finally started back to working out, I went running, and these hives appeared on my arm and my ears started to ring,” he remembers. “Five days later I had gone completely deaf in my left ear.”
The last thing a potential NHL prospect needs is for scouts to view his vision and hearing as question marks. “I saw a lot of doctors that summer and wanted to get my hearing back,” White says.
White never did find a doctor who could diagnose what happened; to this day, he still doesn’t know what caused it. Fortunately, his hearing did return, almost completely. “The doctors tell me I’ll never be a concert pianist,” he says with a smile. “I still can’t hear real high-pitched sounds, but for everything else, it’s normal.”
After two seasons of average statistics in college, White missed months of not just practice, but nearly all physical activity. His NHL aspirations were looking bleak, but the threat of losing his vision and hearing only made him work harder at the game he loved. “I made the decision to focus on training and physical fitness,” he says. “I knew I had to come from so far behind to even play that year. Now, my physical fitness is a critical part of my game.”
When White commits to something, he gets results. In his first two seasons at Clarkson, he tallied only 51 points in 67 games. In his junior and senior seasons, he combined for 146 points in 75 games, completing his eligibility in 1997. Since then, he’s appeared in 414 career NHL games with Chicago, Philadelphia, Ottawa and Minnesota, recording 243 points (97 goals, 146 assists) and a plus-52 rating.
The addition of the highly competitive White on board gives the Thrashers two potentially unstoppable lines. With Kozlov feeding Hossa and White setting up Kovalchuk, last season’s division championship and brief playoff appearance should be only the beginning. SP
Nursing the hangover
NHL’s third post-lockout season underway
By David White
The NHL dropped the puck on its 90th season last weekend with a pair of games between the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings at London’s state-of-the-art O2 Arena. It marked the earliest starting date in league history and the first regular season game ever to be played on European ice.
Apart from that Newcastle-soaked London premiere, the defending Stanley Cup champions may have a tough road ahead. With major questions looming in the locker room regarding the return of Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne, fans and players are wondering what this season holds in store. Both were integral to the Ducks’ championship run, but with each undecided about retirement, the team may find it difficult to get into a groove. The dreaded Stanley Cup hangover is another point of concern: Because of “days with the Cup” and promotional appearances, etc., a team will often struggle to convalesce following a championship season.
The Carolina Hurricanes are a perfect example. Following their Stanley Cup victory in 2006, they never seemed to recover from nagging injuries and fatigue, becoming just the third team in NHL history to miss the playoffs after a Stanley Cup win. However, with the re-signing of a trimmer Cam Ward at goal and the return of Matt Cullen from the Rangers, Carolina fans are optimistic about the team’s chances this season.
What else can we expect? Well, for one, Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby will continue to be a stud; the Capitals’ Alexander Ovechkin, the Flames’ Dion Phaneuf and the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist should dominate as well. It’s a make-or-break season for the Nashville Predators on a number of fronts. And on a lighter note, the Penguins and Sabres will ring in the New Year with an outdoor game in front of 72,000-plus fans in Buffalo. SP