Troops get new gear -- featuring Canada's six NHL teams -- to enhance Hockey Night in Afghanistan

Sport Chek is excited to announce the launch of 'Operation: Hockey Night in Afghanistan' this week, in which they plan to courier over a massive shipment of hockey equipment and NHL jerseys to Canadian troops serving overseas.

The goal is to show the troops some good old Canadian appreciation and support by sprucing up their hockey gear.

More than 600 soldiers are currently playing in a 40-team ball hockey league on makeshift rinks at both the Kandahar airfield and Camp Souter in Kabul. The new NHL jerseys, sticks, gloves, nets and goalie equipment will surely be a welcome addition to their standard issue army fatigues.

And facing off for the Kandahar Cup -- a smaller version of the Stanley Cup -- will no doubt be plenty more fun when wearing the six Canadian teams' proper home and away colours.

And, surprise, surprise, that humble guy behind the mask from Hockey Night in Canada is right on board.

After expressing his dream to one day host Hockey Night in Afghanistan, Alberta-born Kelly Hrudey showed his support for Sport Chek's initiative and for the troops yesterday by calling on Calgarians to open their hearts and their Saddledome seats to the soldiers who will be shipping out in the New Year to serve our country overseas.

"We saw what Edmonton fans were able to do last weekend in offering up thousands of game tickets to troops from CFB Edmonton," said Kelly.

"Now we need to see if Flames fans can do the same for the 145 soldiers from Calgary being deployed to Afghanistan in the coming weeks."

Shawna Taylor of the Calgary Military Resource Centre couldn't agree more.

"We have been bombarded with community members who want to help out our soldiers, but are unsure in what capacity.

"We are hoping that we may be able to get tickets and/or boxes donated to the soldiers before their deployment.

"An evening off from training to enjoy a national pastime is a contribution that impacts their lives more than one probably realizes."

Source: Calgary Sun, 11/27/07

'Ice Armor' by Torspo hits hockey dressing rooms across Canada

European hockey equipment manufacturer Torspo has developed an innovative new one-piece hockey protection system for kids called Ice Armor that is now available in Canada. Ice Armor was invented and inspired by Minnesota hockey mom Kristi Harris who was tired of losing stray pieces and struggling to dress her kids in hockey gear.

In 2005 Kristi Harris, a mother of three hockey-playing boys and herself a regular player in a "Chicks with Sticks" league, approached Torspo with the idea and a prototype for a one-piece hockey suit that she coined 'Ice Armor'. Harris created the first suit by sewing all of her son's equipment into a one-piece garment. "It was out of complete necessity that I came up with the idea of Ice Armor," says Harris. "I was fed up with the pre-game dressing room mayhem. It was stressful and costly and I felt there had to be a better way to keep track of the gear."

"We were extremely impressed by Kristi Harris' innovation," says Dave Soderquist, President, Torspo International. "Not only is Ice Armor protective and comfortable for the player, but it adds convenience and simplicity to the process of dressing and reduces the need to shop for individual pieces of equipment."

Containing all the traditional pieces of hockey equipment: shin pads, cup, shoulder pads and elbow pads, Ice Armor zips up the front and each piece is secured into place with Velcro. The one-piece suit extends from the ankles to the handcuffs and neck with straps for attaching gloves. Hockey pants are worn over the suit and are included. Ice Armor contains breathable material that acts as a wick for moisture; the individual pieces can be removed and are machine washable and safe for the dryer. Ice Armor is available for both boys and girls (sizes small, medium and large) and retails for $129.00 at Canadian Tire and select sporting goods stores across Canada.

Torspo Hockey International, Inc. was formed in 2006 to reintroduce TORSPO(R), a high quality, authentic European brand of ice hockey and recreational products. TORSPO(R) originated in Finland in 1970 and developed into one of Europe's most recognizable brands. Torspo provides consumers with innovative, high quality ice hockey products, and has obtained an exclusive license to make and sell K2(R) recreational ice skates.

Source: CNW, 11/13/07

Hockey's new look is all wet

RBK Edge Uniform System is sleeker, but pools moisture in skates, gloves

The clothes are expected to make the man on the ice faster, dryer and reveal his shape better this season.

The Rbk Edge Uniform System, which finished two years of research and testing, became the official, and significantly different, new look of the NHL and its 29 AHL teams this fall.

Jerseys and socks are made with stretch material that hugs the player's body and repels water have lighter pads underneath. The traditional straight bottom on the jersey is replaced by a tailored cut similar to a dress shirt. Pants are scaled-down.

"These aren't sweaters anymore," said Rivermen equipment manager Joel Farnsworth, as he showed the new gear in the team's locker room in late September. "They really are called jerseys now. There's no more cotton in them. It's 100 percent polyester, all man-made material.

"There are some challenges to working with this stuff, but a lot of guys like the feel and the look."

NHL and AHL players, including the Rivermen, are noticing an interesting side effect. Visitors to Peoria's locker room after games will see players draining water/sweat from their skates.

"The water-resistance of the jerseys and socks is truly amazing," Farnsworth said. "But we're seeing something I don't think anyone planned for: water and snow from the ice, and perspiration, is running down the socks and channeling inside the skates now. Same thing with the jersey sleeves. It's running right inside the gloves now. Guys come off the ice, and they turn their skates upside down and water drips out. We're going to have to go to wristbands to reduce that effect with the gloves."

Last weekend the company began shipping modified jerseys that replaced the front panel with the more absorptive material used in the old uniforms.

Other plusses and minuses, according to Farnsworth:

The new jerseys weigh about one-half pound, roughly a 50-percent reduction from the old style.

The old socks, a cotton-polyester weave, were made on a one-of-a-kind machine in Canada as a one-piece unit. The new sock is water resistent polyester, and basically looks like the end of a jersey sleeve cut off. They are ordered in three sizes. Because it is stitched together, it can be produced by cheap labor overseas.

"We're seeing 8-10 socks with holes in them after one day of practice," Farnsworth said. "The old sock cost $7 to replace. These new ones are $25."

The old style game jersey was $125. The new ones are $135. Practice jerseys increased $35 to $115.

Repairs: "The old jerseys, when they tore or got holes in them, were sewn together," Farnsworth said. "The new ones have to be patched differently. If you watch closely, when guys rub hard along the boards - that's how most tears happen with jerseys - the new jerseys get what looks like a burn hole in them. It's the way the new material reacts to friction from the boards."

An Rbk logo now occupies the back of the jersey, at the base of the player's neck. That triggered changes in the nameplates and uniform numbers. With less space to work with the letters on the nameplates are much narrower. And names like Beckford-Tseu and Komadoski and Lemtyugov will have to be reduced to fit.

The uniform numbers on the back of the new jersey are 10 inches high, reduced by two inches to fit in the smaller area.

While the new RBK Edge system includes lighter pads underneath, Farnsworth says most AHL teams are staying with the traditional pads. And the new pants - thigh-hugging, like football pants - are not mandatory. So far, only Charles Linglet is wearing them with the Rivermen. There is debate over whether the new pants contain enough padding in the rear end, where some areas now could be exposed to slapshots or opponents' sticks.

One other thing, not related to RBK. The AHL ordered American flag stickers be placed on players' helmets after 9-11. The 2007-08 season marks a change, as that sticker now will show the American and Canadian flags crossed.

"All things said, the material in the jersey and socks from RBK is amazing," Farnsworth said. "It's light years ahead of what we were using."

Source: PJ Star, 11/03/07

Hockey stick maker outsources

They've scored untold millions of goals on rinks, ponds and streets across the country, but in a few weeks' time workers will lovingly fashion the last of Sher-Wood's signature Quebec-made wooden hockey sticks.

It's yet another sign of changing times: After 58 years, Sherwood-Drolet will, starting in January, farm out the mass production of wooden sticks and concentrate on the increasingly popular – and vastly profitable – business of making composite sticks fashioned from graphite, Kevlar and other synthetics.

"Go and look in any arena in the country. The kids from pee-wee into junior are all playing with composite sticks," said Denis Drolet, president of the Sherbrooke, Que., hockey equipment manufacturer.

Drolet said his company will contract out its entire production of lower-end wood models to makers in such far-flung places as Estonia and China – although some small Quebec suppliers could still get a piece of the action.

He expects wooden sticks will still form the bulk of Sher-Wood sales next year – last year the company sold about 1 million wooden and 350,000 composite models – but his plant had to sacrifice tradition to stay ahead of a shifting market.

"Honestly, I never expected (the switch) to happen this quickly. It's grown surprisingly fast," said Drolet.

Montreal Canadiens legend Guy Lafleur – the word "hero" only begins to describe his importance to much of Quebec – recently recalled using Sher-Wood sticks to pepper goalies with pucks en route to 618 career NHL goals.

"I find it really sad that wood hockey sticks are disappearing. It bothers me," Lafleur told Sherbrooke's La Tribune newspaper in a recent interview.

"The P.M.P. 5030 was the best stick in the world."

Lafleur, a member of hockey's Hall of Fame, derided one-piece composite models as "crap," adding "maybe your shot is harder, but what does an extra 20 miles an hour matter when the puck goes 50 feet wide of the net?"

The swashbuckling forward also lamented what he terms the passing of an era, and fretted over the future of a game where parents are being asked to fork out $200 for a single composite stick.

"It's way too expensive. And to think some fathers and mothers will pay that for kids who are just starting out in hockey," said Lafleur, 56, who for a time also endorsed Koho sticks.

"I can't see the future, but bear in mind that everything that's in fashion falls out of fashion at some point. ... In my eyes, the wood stick still has a place in hockey today."

Lafleur's grumpy traditionalism seems like the manifestation of a fear that a piece of Quebec's hockey-playing heritage is being lost.

Since Sherwood-Drolet was founded in 1949 as Sherbrooke Woodcraft, it has made more than 6 million of its flagship P.M.P. 5030s in an Eastern Townships factory.

Founder Léopold Drolet – the current president's forebear – designed sticks for Lafleur.

The company has armed dozens of other legendary shooters including Raymond Bourque, Paul Coffey, Dale Hawerchuk and, until last year, reigning NHL scoring champ Sidney Crosby.

Drolet, a gruff, plainspoken type who answers his own office phone, stressed the company will continue to make custom wood models for professional players such as Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators.

Spezza is among the estimated 5 per cent of NHL players shunning composite sticks. (Crosby has a rumoured $700,000 endorsement deal for a Reebok composite but it has been reported he recently asked Drolet to send him some stick blades patterned on the ones he began using at age 12).

Sherwood's decision will have more immediate consequences for the stick factory's 80 workers.

The shift to graphite will mean further automation and job losses for roughly 40 people – craftsmen who have been with the company for, on average, 20 years.

Several workers admitted to profound disappointment at the decision, but there was little in the way of ill feelings toward Drolet because, as one said in an interview, "everybody knew it was coming."

Sherwood-Drolet's outsourcing is another bodycheck for Quebec's beleaguered wood product and forestry industry.

Quebec's political parties have been clamouring for federal intervention for months; this week Economic Development Minister Raymond Bachand said the situation has reached crisis proportions.

According to the province, more than 10,000 jobs have been lost in the sector in the past two years.

As markets and profits have dwindled, several sawmills have closed – largely because of declining productivity, aging equipment and currency fluctuations – and many of the industry's traditional players have sought mergers with larger, U.S.-based companies.

Drolet said cost is a major factor in the move; it's simply no longer profitable to mass-produce wooden sticks using Quebec timber.

Though Sherwood lays claim to about 25 per cent of the hockey stick market, other major players including Reebok-CCM continue to manufacture wooden sticks in Quebec.

But smaller companies like Victoriaville-based Scierie Gilles Charland – which has manufactured wood laminates and blades for virtually all the major stick makers, including Sher-Wood – have cut their production by half since 2003.

Benoit Charland, the company's executive director, said in the most recent edition of Wood Focus, an industry magazine, that "the market is saturated, and orders are falling ... the forestry industry hasn't seen the worst of it yet. The transformation is going to continue, and a lot of small companies will disappear."

As a consequence, Charland has shifted its production to hardwood flooring products and parts for humidors and wine chillers.

The move away from wooden hockey sticks – and increased outsourcing of components to overseas manufacturers – is indisputably an industry trend.

Sports equipment giant Nike shut its Bauer Nike hockey stick factory in Hespeler, Ont., in 2004. The plant was later bought by former employees who continue to make sticks for the company's label.

A perusal of the Nike website shows that three of 12 main models are wood, and Reebok has a similar offering (including wood blades and some fibreglass/wood hybrids). Easton, which helped launch the aluminum stick revolution, counts a half-dozen wooden sticks – but four times as many composite models.

Drolet indicated that he expects his competitors to follow Sher-Wood's lead as demand grows for sticks made of stiffer materials.

Not that he necessarily approves of the new stick fad.

"For me, the real revolution was the 5030, I'll never play with anything else," he said.

Source: Toronto Star, 11/05/07

Student dies after puck strikes chest

A 22-year-old University of New Haven student playing in a recreational league hockey game died after being hit in the chest by a puck with just three seconds left in the game.

Nathan Crowell of Portsmouth, R.I., was wearing a chest protector, but the puck apparently hit an unprotected part of his torso just below the pad.

"This is a terrible, terrible tragedy," said Howard Saffan, owner of SportsCenter of Connecticut on River Road, where Crowell was playing.

Saffan said one of the players on the ice Thursday night was a doctor, who immediately began performing CPR on Crowell and kept him alive until medical personnel arrived. Crowell was later pronounced dead at Bridgeport Hospital that night.

The incident occurred after Crowell "slid on the ice to block a shot and got hit in the chest by a puck," police Detective Thomas Federowicz said.

Police and emergency medical personnel were called at 10:52 p.m. Thursday for a report of an unresponsive male hockey player, Federowicz said.

When they arrived, there were several people trying to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Crowell, Federowicz said.

"An investigation is ongoing, but all factors indicate that this death was nothing more than a tragic accident," police said.

Saffan, who is also president of the American Hockey League's Bridgeport Sound Tigers, said, "The two teams were just devastated. This is just so tragic."

SportsCenter of Connecticut, near Sikorsky Aircraft, opened in January 2004. It is a large recreational facility that has an ice rink facility called The Rinks.

It is the only ice facility in Connecticut with rinks on two floors stacked one above the other. It has a year-round amateur hockey league for male or female players ages 21 and older.

There is no "checking" in the league and players are required to wear full protective gear, including chest protectors. Pucks fly around at high speed and there is often incidental contact, but serious injuries are infrequent and no one has ever been killed at The Rinks.

All players are required to sign a release of liability and assumption of risk form. The stated risks include "permanent paralysis, disability and death."

The league is divided into three tiers, depending on ability. Crowell played in the middle tier for a team called the Chiefs.

Crowell and his teammates played the 9:30 p.m. game on the upper rink against the Kamco Lumberjacks.

The third period was about to end when a Kamco player took a slapshot and Crowell positioned himself to block the puck, a routine play during most games.

"There was three seconds left and he went down to block a shot. The shot hit him right below his (chest) pad," Saffan said.

Crowell immediately collapsed and the players on the ice figured he had the wind knocked out of him, Saffan said.

Players turned Crowell over, saw his face was turning blue and realized something was terribly wrong.

"There was an ER doctor on the ice. He got to him within 30 seconds. He was able to keep him alive, and (EMS crews) got him to Bridgeport Hospital, but he died at the hospital," Saffan said.

Police Detective Ben Trabka said he was unaware of anyone in the area dying while playing hockey, but noted there are a few deaths nationwide each year. Similar fatal injuries are more common in youth baseball, when an unprotected player is hit in the chest by a ball and the blow stops the heart.

A similar incident occurred during an NHL hockey game in 1998 when St. Louis Blues defenseman Chris Pronger suffered an acute heart attack after being hit the chest during a Stanley Cup playoff game. He recovered quickly, but was sidelined for a few games.

Julie Winkel, director of media relations at the University of New Haven, issued a statement Friday night.

"A Rhode Island native, Nathan Crowell, 22, died Thursday night while playing his favorite sport, ice hockey. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Nathan's family and friends. UNH's Counseling Center and the dean of students will provide counseling services," Winkel said.

Source: New Haven Register, 10/27/07

Players warm to idea of using heated skate blades

More than 30 NHL players have volunteered to be guinea pigs for the latest innovation in hockey equipment — gear that requires batteries.

For now, the league is limiting the use of the Thermablade, a heated blade that reduces friction while skating, to 10 players in practice. But the NHL's senior manager of hockey operations, Kris King, says if all goes well, the blades could be found on NHL players' soles "sooner rather than later."

"We want to make sure it's strong enough," King said. "Since there's a battery floating around inside, we want to make sure everything is going to stay in one piece on a 100 mph slap shot."

Source: USA Today, 10/19/07

Canada-based Therma Blade Inc. is developing a list of players, with the approval of the NHL and NHL Players Association, who will get a crack at testing its new product. The NHL will then query those players to evaluate how the Thermablade performed before the blade wins approval.

"It's really no different than any other equipment company looking to get a product approved," King said.

Much has changed since King retired from the NHL six seasons ago. The use of expensive one-piece composite sticks has become commonplace among skaters. All 30 teams are sporting new, form-fitting Reebok jerseys, meant to decrease drag and water absorption, this season.

"The Thermablade is just another idea NHL players may be interested in," King said.

Like the other innovations, King says there probably will be a trickle-down effect if many of the NHL's top players adopt the blade.

Therma Blade, which counts Wayne Gretzky among its 150 investors, will begin marketing the blade to the public by December for $399.99, a $300 premium over most replacement blades currently available. It can be attached to the boot of many existing skates, which already can cost several hundred dollars.

"We're not trying to cripple the parents who have a 4-year-old playing hockey," said Sam McCoubrey, Therma Blade's vice president of sales and marketing. "We aren't forcing parents to buy it because it's only available in adult sizes. But we spent $300,000 on market research and found there is a significant market for this.

"I think there's going to be interest from the most competitive players to old-timers wishing they were a little bit faster."

For Phoenix Coyotes equipment manager Stan Wilson, the use of the Thermablade won't change his job much.

"We're changing blades on a pretty regular basis anyway," he said. "It's just one more thing that we are going to have to do. We'll just have to get used to the whole battery changing thing."

Nike abandons hockey

Nike just couldn't do it.

Thirteen years after it skated into the hockey industry with its purchase of the world's largest hockey company, Nike is abandoning Canada's national game.

Last week, the iconic sports company whose simple swoosh logo is among the world's most recognized, said it was putting on the block its flagging hockey division, known as NikeBauer.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

In 1994, the year Nike bought Montreal's Canstar Sports, maker of the popular Bauer skates and other equipment, hockey was surging.

The NHL had just added four expansion teams in the U.S. Sunbelt and relocated the Stars franchise to Dallas from Minnesota. Wayne Gretzky was starring for the Los Angeles Kings, and broadcaster ABC was airing NHL playoff games on U.S. network television for the first time since 1980.

Hockey's amateur and minor leagues were making similar strides.

By 1993-94, some 303,000 amateur players were registered with USA Hockey, the sport's governing body in the U.S., up 55 per cent from 1990-91. The sport had generated such a buzz that media company Walt Disney was even investing in hockey overseas, buying a stake in Russia's famed Central Army team.

"I remember (Nike CEO) Phil Knight saying at the time that hockey was North America's fourth-most culturally-significant sport," said John Collins, a former senior executive in Nike's hockey division. "He wanted in."

Nike would wind up paying a frothy $395 million (U.S.) for Canstar, a 50 per cent premium above the level its shares were trading in prior months.

Industry executives now say even though a number of suitors will probably emerge for NikeBauer, it's doubtful the division will sell for more than $150 million – less than half what Nike originally paid for it.

Nike said its hockey unit posted sales of about $160 million a year ago, and several industry officials said they estimate the division generated a profit of $20 million. (Sports-equipment companies these days are valued at roughly six or seven times their annual profits, executives say.)

While Nike maintains it's the leading company in the hockey equipment business with 35 per cent of a market some estimate is worth $480 million, several retailers, distributors and competitors said Nike has nevertheless struggled to navigate many obstacles during its tenure in the hockey business.

Nike initially viewed Canstar as a springboard into the rollerblade business, which was sizzling in the mid-1990s.

Canstar's Bauer brand had started selling in-line skates in 1990 and within two years, they accounted for a fifth of the company's $133 million in sales.

By 1994, at least 14 companies were battling for a piece of the $300 million in-line-skate market. One company, First Team Sports, signed up as pitchmen the likes of NHL stars Gretzky and Brett Hull and some in the industry predicted the in-line-skate market would blossom into a $1 billion business.

Rollerblade president John Hetterick said of Nike's purchase of Canstar: "Nike will ... help us get in-line speed skating and roller hockey into the Olympics. This sport will surpass ice hockey in a few years."

That's not what happened.

Within five years, sales of in-line skates were beginning to slip, and companies were either folding or looking to see off their rollerblade assets. (In 2004, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association said there were 17 million in-line skaters, compared with 32 million in 1998.)

"It really went south," said Jim Rennie, who published Jim Rennie's Sports Letter, a widely read sporting goods newsletter, from 1977 to 2002.

"Skateboarding came on in popularity and they just marketed in-line skating wrong," Rennie said. "They were too focused on the extreme rollerblader who was doing jumps and everything, not the average skater."

It was no easier on the ice for Nike.

After buying Canstar, Nike decided to allow the Canadian company to operate independently. While Canstar factories churned out Bauer and Cooper branded skates, facilities in the U.S. and overseas produced a separate Nike line.

There were immediate setbacks.

Retailers were returning an inordinate number of skates to Nike because they didn't fit comfortably. The company's top NHL endorsement agent, Detroit Red Wings high-octane star forward Sergei Fedorov, reportedly cut ties with Nike over similar concerns.

Nike subsequently merged the two hockey divisions. Last year, it combined all of its hockey offerings under the NikeBauer brand.

NikeBauer president Mark Duggan said even though Nike may be quitting hockey, there's reason for optimism.

"We've done nothing wrong," Duggan said. "This company has never performed better. Some markets like Eastern Europe and Russia are positioned to grow," Duggan said, adding that because Russia will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, the country will probably try to bolster its amateur programs.

Ice Hockey Federation of Russia executive director Sergey Arutyunyan said in an interview there are roughly 200,000 players in his country's amateur program. Russian television shows about 300 games from the country's top pro hockey league, Arutyunyan said, and some teams have budgets of $60 million – more than some NHL clubs.

"The main obstacle is a poor number of ice rinks," he said. "However, this problem is actively being resolved."

Duggan also said that even though Reebok has an exclusive agreement to provide hockey jerseys to the NHL – a move that has dramatically bolstered its exposure – Nike has ties to some of the sport's top young stars, like Carolina Hurricanes star forward Eric Staal and his three brothers.

Still, Rennie is less sure about NikeBauer's prospects.

"The reality is hockey's a declining market in the U.S.," he said.

Indeed, USA Hockey figures show that in 2005-06, the most recent year for which statistics are available, there were 442,077 registered players in the U.S., down from 445,245 in 2004-05 – the second-straight year of decline.

By contrast, Hockey Canada had 545,363 registered players in 2006-07, down slightly from the previous year's 552,040.

One unlikely factor in hockey's drop-off in the U.S. may be aging baby boomers, Rennie said.

"Old-timers hockey is key to the business. If you're a dentist playing old-timers, you're going to spend money on good equipment."

Trouble is, many old-timer league players quit the sport for good when they reach their early 60s, Rennie said.

Firenzo Arcadi, who owns Toronto sporting goods store Toronto Hockey Repair Ltd., has another theory about why the hockey business has swooned.

"It's the $900 skate," Arcadi said, referring to NikeBauer's latest offering, a sleek silver, black and blue skate called the Supreme one90 that retails at some stores for $899.

"These companies like Nike are pricing themselves right out of the market," said Arcadi, whose store sells about $2.5 million worth of equipment each year, down from $3 million just four years ago.

"It's at a point where families are having to decide whether they want to pay a $1,100 mortgage or buy skates," he said.

Source: Toronto Star, 10/9/07