NHL Notebook: Brett Hull Heads to the Hall of Fame

Saturday, November 7, 2009

By Tim Panaccio
CSNPhilly.com

Outside of a modest challenge from Jeremy Roenick, no one in the modern history of the National Hockey League was more opinionated than hockey’s original bad boy himself, Brett Hull.

Then again, Hull had a reasonable excuse for being the jerk he often was: He was Bobby Hull’s son. And it’s hard being the son of one of hockey’s Original Six Apostles.

Hull is among an impressive 2009 Hockey Hall of Fame class that also includes Steve Yzerman, Brian Leetch, Luc Robitaille and Lou Lamoriello. All will be inducted into the Hall this month.

Every scorer who has played the game has something that makes him unique. In Hull’s case, it was his patented wrist shot from the circle.

How ironic that his father possessed one of the hardest slapshots known to man, yet his son went the other way in developing one of the game’s deadliest wristers.

“When I was younger, all the kids, my brothers, my dad really stressed the wrist shot,” Hull said this week during a conference call. “I think it was a different game obviously, because I think we were of the age where he could actually talk to us about it, and we could understand when he was in Winnipeg.

“The game was obviously different. There was tons of room. He could take slapshots.
Also Bob Berry was our assistant coach, with Brian Sutter in St. Louis. Every day after practice, he would line me up on the right wing and make me go down the boards. He'd throw pucks to me, make me take wrist shots off the right wing.

“That's really when I learned that, if you're going to score goals in the NHL, you've got to be able to take a quick wrist shot with a quick release. Goalies are so good, the defensemen are so quick and big, there's not time when you're in those tight spaces to wind up.

“I worked on the wrist shot a lot. I'm glad I did because, you know, I scored more goals with that shot than the slapper.”

Hull played 20 seasons in the NHL (1,269 games), scoring 741 goals – which makes him third all-time – with 650 assists for 1,391 career points. That’s good enough for 21st on the all-time points list.

He was a pivotal force on Ken Hitchcock’s 1999 Stanley Cup champion Dallas Stars, and in 2002 under Scotty Bowman in Detroit, when he won his second Cup.

Between Hitchcock and Bowman, Hull says the latter was special.

“To play for Scotty, I kind of put it this way: I was lucky enough to kind of feel what it was like to be an old New York Yankee,” Hull said. “I got to play with the Babe Ruth of hockey, and become one of his good friends.

“I got to play for Casey Stengel, one of the greatest coaches that ever walked the earth. I had more fun in the one year of playing for Scotty, than I did my whole career. We just seemed to have the same philosophy. We thought the game the same way. Like you said, to play on that team with him coaching, it felt, looking back, like you were on a team with Mantle and Lou Gehrig, Yogi Berra, all those great players, it's scary.”

In 1990-91, Hull scored a career-high 86 goals. Since then, only two players have come close to that mark: Alexander Mogilny and Teemu Selanne. Both scored 76 goals in 1992-93. Can anyone score 86 goals in today’s game?
 
“I don't know,” Hull said. “If anybody can, Ovechkin can. I mean, he's bigger, faster, stronger, shoots harder than I ever dreamed of being. I don't know if it's the game and the goalies' equipment that might not let him, but he can do it. I know that.”

By the way – Ovechkin scored 67 goals in 2007-08.

Next Olympics for JVR?
Barring serious injuries to veterans ahead of him, Flyers rookie James van Riemsdyk will have to wait until 2014 in Russia to make the U.S. Olympic squad.

That is, assuming the NHLPA muscles the owners (they will) during the next CBA to keep Olympic participation alive. Team USA general manager Brian Burke builds his teams with size, muscle and snarl. JVR is young and growing. He has size, but not muscle size combined with snarl, and this is his first year in the NHL. JVR also doesn’t have the goal-scoring ability – yet – to make this team. He needs developmental time.

We talked to Burke this week about this subject, and he was non-committal. The deadline for Olympic rosters is New Year’s Day. JVR has skill. What Burke covets, however, are hard-nosed players to ruffle Team Canada. Van Riemsdyk needs some grooming there.

Yeah, you could make a case that he’d be a nice roster addition for injury, but unless his skill portfolio is such he can crack the top six and bump a Zack Parise or Phil Kessel or Scott Gomez or Patrick Kane – you get the picture – JVR doesn’t figure to make the Vancouver squad.

Team USA doesn’t have the depth of Team Canada. That’s why Burke will take a U.S. squad to Vancouver that is more checking-laden.

“Every American player is under consideration,” Burke told us. “We’re watching them all. And we’re certainly watching James van Riemsdyk. But he’d have to knock some pretty good players out of the box to get there.”

He’s four years away.

The mask
It celebrated its 50th anniversary on Nov. 1. That day in 1959 was the day Jacques Plante began wearing one, after the Rangers’ Andy Bathgate cut Plante badly from his mouth to his nose with a shot.

Plante told Toronto coach Toe Blake he would not re-enter the game without a Plexiglass facemask as protection. The rest is NHL history, as they say.

Charlie Hodge was Plante’s back-up. He recalled that Blake was furious with Plante for wearing the mask.

“He was from the old-school. Let’s face it,” Hodge told the Sporting News. “Jacques put it on and Blake screamed a lot about it but Jacques put it on anyway. That was where that was at.”

Many years later, the Flyers’ Bernie Parent asked Plante for advice about masks.  

“Go buy one,” Plante told Parent.

Former goalie Wendell Young says he tells kids, “The puck comes in at 100 mph and that their parents drive the highways at only about 60 mph, and it was my job to get in front of those pucks. I must have faced a million shots, and a good 5,000 times I was hit in the head. But the puck never broke the mask.”

Payback
Suffice to say, Dany Heatley will never curry another favor from any citizen in Ottawa, least of all, Senators owner Eugene Melnyk. The owner filed a grievance to have Heatley return the $4 million bonus he had to give him when Heatley refused to accept a trade to Edmonton last July 1.

The Ottawa Sun says Melnyk doesn’t expect to win this fight, but given he forked out $14 million in just one year to Heatley, he wants to cause the spoiled forward a little aggravation in San Jose, as if that’s possible.

One league executive told the newspaper that Melnyk “doesn't like to lose. He's going to have to be patient here because this could take a while and there is some merit to his case. Something like this could take two years to be worked out. I'm not sure this will bother Heatley, though.”

It won’t.

Rookie of month
That would be Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto, who scored 12 points in 14 games. His eight assists were tops among rookies in October. You know he’s still a kid when Del Zotto came into the Rangers’ locker room on Halloween dressed as Super Mario.

“We kind of had a 19-year-old moment the other day when I came in with a costume and the coaching staff got a giggle out of it,” Del Zotto said. “I wanted to see what their reaction was going to be. The guys got a good laugh out of it.”

Del Zotto was the club’s 20th pick overall in the 2008 NHL Draft. Rangers coach John Tortorella told NHL.com, “Forget about his skill and all the points he's put on the board, but it's the way he handles himself. I don't think he's afraid to make mistakes so it allows him to try to make a difference. That's pretty unique for a 19-year-old guy playing the toughest position in the game.”

Del Zotto is the youngest Rangers’ d-man in club history.

Quotable I
Anaheim goalie J-S Giguere on playing goal without a mask back in the day:

“It’s actually crazy. I’m sure the shots weren’t the same, the sticks weren’t the same, but still crazy. Stupid crazy.”

Quotable II
The Capitals’ Alexander Semin on carrying the torch while Alex Ovechkin recovers from a left shoulder injury:

“I welcome [the extra pressure] because that means I will have more tests and probably more ice time,” Semin told reporters through an interpreter. “I look forward to that. I would love to see Alex still playing, and it is unfortunate, but we have to deal with it. I will run with the situation that is presented.”

Ovie’s left shoulder
What’s up with Caps coach Bruce Boudreau? He was actually upset the Columbus Blue Jackets were “targeting” Ovechkin, who finished a 5-4 overtime loss with that left shoulder injury, courtesy of a hit from Jason Chimera, who got rocked earlier in the game by Ovie.

Now here’s the thing. Ovechkin has a reputation for throwing some of the meanest, borderline checks in the game. The kind of checks that would get others suspended. His name allows him to get away with things.

“I think the game plan was, every time Alex touches the puck, that somebody run or hit him,” Boudreau said. “That's what it looked like to me.”  

Gimme a break, Bruce. That’s what the game is supposed to be.

“It was just a moment of the game,” Ovechkin said of the hit on him. “Nothing happened. He just hit me. I hit him. There was a little battle there. Nothing happened.”

Ovie was OK with the hit, but Boudreau wasn’t, especially after Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock offered his two cents. Asked if his team was “targeting” Ovechkin, Hitchcock replied, “That would be correct. That's the name of the game. Why, is that against the rules now?”

Boudreau said the Blue Jackets were practicing “hit and run” on Ovie. To which Hitch replied, “Run, chase, hunt down, hit, whatever word you want to use that would be correct.”

Loose pucks
• Now that the NHL has finally seized control of the Phoenix Coyotes, all 30 teams will be making yearly contributions to keep it afloat. It’s unconscionable that the league may stiff The Great One for the $8.2 million he’s owed. What does it say that the NHL doesn’t take care of its greatest spokesman? Whether you agreed with Wayne Gretzky’s stand in not going behind the bench during this bankruptcy mess, the fact remains, he deserves his money. More so than the Nashvilles of the world deserve their annual check from the Flyers in revenue sharing.

• Caps owner Ted Leonsis: Alexander Semin has been in the NHL for how many years? Five? And he still needs an interpreter? Maybe it’s time to get him Rosetta Stone.

• Lots of people in Calgary have been complaining to the Flames and medical authorities that the team was given swine flu vaccinations ahead of high-risk groups in Alberta. “For us as a group of players, we were following the medical protocol given to us,” said Jarome Iginla. “Today, we can see...that they’re stopping [the inoculations] and that there’s a shortage. So yeah, we can understand why people might be upset.” Ya think?

• First time on the ice for Phil Kessel as a Toronto Maple Leaf and he has 10 shots. Guessed he missed hockey during his shoulder surgery rehab.

• Good to see that Antero Niittymaki is finding life comfortable in Tampa Bay in the nets. He had his chance as a Flyer to unseat Marty Biron and grab the starter’s job but always failed after a couple of games. “He's winning, so you keep playing him,” Lighting coach Rick Tocchet said of Niitty.

• Finally, while the Flyers are scouting Peter Forsberg, we are told there is no serious interest in him. Some say he’ll end up in Russia. Nyet! Foppa was never into Russian women. We think he’ll end up in Colorado. Hey, if the skate fits, wear it.

This story contains material from the, Associated Press, Canadian Press, Chicago Sun-Times, CBS Columbus Dispatch, Sportsline.com, ESPN.com, NBCsports.com  New York Post, Newsday, Ottawa Sun, Sportsnet.ca, St. Pete Times,  The Star Ledger, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star,  TSN.ca, Washington Post, Washington Times and other news services.

E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net