#BlaineStoughton

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CANTLON: BLAINE STOUGHTON CHERISHES HIS TIME IN HARTFORD

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - For just the second time in his post-playing career, and the first time at Dunkin' Donuts Park, Blaine Stoughton was back to Hart City, a place he still holds many fond memories of. Dunkin' Donuts Park is the home of the Eastern League Hartford Yard Goats, the affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, Stoughton's first visit was the infamous Whale Bowl outdoor game on a frigid Saturday in 2011. "(His time in Hartford) was the biggest and most successful part of my career. Our kids were born here, and the fans were great to me, and I love coming back here," Stoughton said. STASH Before arriving in Hartford, he was the first seventh overall pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the early 1970s. He was known as 'Stash' in his playing days for his well-manicured hair above his lip. He came out of one of the time's great junior franchises, the Flin Flon (Manitoba) Bombers (WCHL now WHL). His teammates included Bob Clarke and Reggie Leach, whom he played with in his first junior year. "Some of the young guys here don't know my nickname, but my old teammates sure do. I always knew I could score since I was ten years old. I always knew I could score, and you never acted like you were better than everybody else. You can learn from everybody you watch in practice. You can't be jealous of others. To have a Reggie (Leach) there my first year - he had 60 goals (65) - I learned a lot," Stoughton said on a sultry Saturday night. A SPEARING LESSON An ill-advised spear in his second season of juniors cost him a 29-game league suspension. The length and severity of the suspension in the early 1970s hockey taught Stoughton an early and valuable lesson about his stick. He would cross the century mark only once more in his entire hockey career after that. Stoughton blossomed in his third year of junior. He led the league in goals (60) and points (126) and came on also the scout's radars as a WCHL First Team All-Star. In his last year of juniors, he tallied 54 markers and 115 points. He was not only selected by the Penguins but also the Quebec Nordiques of the rabble-rousing, upstart-league, the WHA, in their draft on June 12, 1973. They took him in the second round (#14). That year the league had only twelve teams. His first year in the NHL didn't go as well as expected, and he was sent down to the Hershey Bears (AHL). Stoughton responded to the demotion and answered back quickly. RESPONDING TO A DEMOTION "I was young. We had like only five married guys on the team. I enjoyed the night life, a little too much my first year. We had fun. I learned a lot in those three years though. I promised I would change when I got another crack." And he did. Stoughton was shipped off to the Toronto Maple Leafs just before training camp on September 13, 1974, with future considerations for Rick Kehoe. "I knew this was a business about money and results." Stoughton, who approached his career as a business, got a Ph.D. in mid-70s hockey economics from Maple Leafs' owner Harold Ballard, who was known for his unwillingness to spend money. "He was…" as Stoughton calculated his response, "tough to deal with,. (He was) very controlling, kinds like George Steinbrenner was, but at least he would pay you," quipped the one-time right winger. Ballard's treatment of players and his general business practices were instrumental in creating a need for a player's union. POST BALLARD After two years, Stoughton was low-balled by Ballard and was re-sent to the minors to Oklahoma City in the old Central League. Stoughton responded by taking his talents to the WHA's Cincinnati Stingers. They acquired his rights in the 1976 WHA Expansion Draft, and a memorable bee logo and their yellow uniforms. "It was an easy call. They (Cincinnati) offered me $75,000, and in those days, that was a lot of money and the length of the deal (three years) and no way Ballard was gonna pay me that much to stay or even try to match it and I found the right spot." The junior 'Stash came out in his now hometown his first year. He produced 52 goals and led a hot, young scoring team that featured Richie Leduc, current Florida senior advisor and former Nighthawks coach Rick Dudley, former junior opponent and scorer Dennis Sobchuk, and another WCHL product, Dennis Abgrall. "Off the ice was the biggest change, on the ice I got put with the right people when we were down by a goal, we could put our line out there and score two or three," remarked the former 50-goal scorer who played with Leduc and fellow WHA-NHL draftee, who later played for the Nighthawks and Rangers as well, Claude Larose. Another trio was sometimes formed with Rick Dudley with the humorous line tag-the LSD line. THE LSD LINE He became a financial casualty and frustrated by new coach Jacques Demers's defense-first philosophy in Cincy. He was sent to the Indianapolis Racers with Gilles Marrotte for Byron Baltimore and Hugh Harris in December 1977. He lasted a year in Indy, and in another cash move the Racers dealt him to the Whalers for Dave Inkpen and the cash they badly needed just before the team folded. Stoughton arrived for the last season of the WHA in Hartford. First, he played in the iconic kelly-green uniforms emblazoned with the harpoon Whaler logo. He was living every Canadian boy's dream. He took the ice with legends Dave Keon, Johnny McKenzie (#19), who's retired to the XL Center rafters, Andre Lacroix, the all-time WHA points leader, Bobby Hull, and "Mr. Hockey," Gordie Howe. Three important things happened to him in Hartford. The first was he met his wife, Cindy. The second was being taken in the expansion draft away from the hated Toronto Maple Leafs, who still owned his NHL rights, by the Whalers as part of the terms of the merger. He also got hooked up with a former WCHL top scorer and centerman, Mike Rogers (Calgary). It was a match made for him as the Whaler duo proved the NHL thinking of the day that WHA players couldn't hack it in the NHL was wrong. SECOND CHANCES In his second crack in the NHL, Stoughton collected 100 points, second to Rogers 105 that first year. Rogers equaled the mark the following year, and Stoughton, two years later, eclipsed the 50-goal mark again and led the team in scoring. "The biggest thing? That was meeting Cindy. It changed my lifestyle. We're still together and had two great kids. (I) stopped going out as much and now have four grandchildren, and hooking up with Mike and then Ronnie (Francis) were two very important elements of my success." He had his secret formula. "I always kept my secret to myself, didn't tell anyone, even my teammates. I drove some of my coaches crazy, but I could weave my game to what the coaches wanted. The secret was to get open, and somebody feeds you the puck. Mike could do that. "We developed some good chemistry together." Stoughton, Rogers, and Pat Boutette formed the Dash, Bash, and Stash line in an era where line nicknames were common. Stoughton led the NHL along with Danny Gare (Buffalo) and Charlie Simmer (Los Angeles) from its famed "Kings Triple Crown Line" with 56 goals and won the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy as the NHL's top goal scorer. He's in the record books with Hull as the ONLY two players to score 50 goals in the NHL and WHA. Nope, not even Gretzky did that. ROGERS-STOUGHTON As a pair, Rogers-Stoughton was right up there with Gretzky-Kurri, Trottier-Bossy, and Lemaire-Lafleur as one of the premier dynamic duos of the NHL in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He started a four-year run of 40-plus goals as he would lead the Whalers in goal scoring and be in the top five in points. He went to his only NHL All-Star game in LA in the 1981-82 season. In the entire Whaler time of 25 years, the mark of Rogers 105 and Stoughton's 56 still stand as team records. Mark Howe set the WHA—NHL mark of 107 in the last year of the WHA. Only two other players in the WHA surpassed 100 points for the Whalers. They are all-time WHA Whalers points leader, the late Tom "Hawkeye" Webster (103) and Terry Caffrey (100) in the first season in Boston. The only other player to come close in points was NHL Hall of Famer Seattle GM Ron Francis (101) in his last full season in Hartford before his infamous trade to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Eric Staal had 100 in Carolina's 2005 Stanley Cup win with the Hurricanes. In his only season in Hartford, Toronto Maple Leafs' Team President Brendan Shanahan came the closest to Stoughton's mark with 44 in 1995-96. Geoff Sanderson came close twice with 46 and 41. REUNITED WITH ROGERS When the magic was leaving Stoughton's stick, and with the Whalers fading, he was traded to the New York Rangers for Scot Kleinendorst. There he was reunited with Rogers at MSG. "I never complained. I had some back issues at that time that impacted my game, and it wasn't an operational situation. The Rangers were very good to me and my wife, and we realized we were at the end of the line." It was a short-lived ride, and when his NHL career ended after 546 games with nearly a point-a-game average (449), Stoughton proved he could play in the NHL. He ended the North American portion of his playing career with the New Haven Nighthawks. He played sixty games at the old New Haven Coliseum, potting 20 goals. He took off a year and finished overseas with then HC Asiago in Italy. After his career ended, he was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame. "We had so much fun over there (Italy). It was a lot of fun. The hockey was very different over there." LAWLESS He dabbled in coaching in his post-playing career. Stoughton was an assistant coach for the Cincinnati Cyclones (IHL) in the league's first year and during the last two years in the ECHL. That tenure saw the memorable signing of a former teammate in Hartford, Paul Lawless, from the woe begotten New Haven Senators (AHL). Lawless basically released himself by getting tossed in his last game of a 20-game PTO. The ejection came just 37 seconds into that game. Lawless called the referee every name in the book and skedaddled to Cincinnati, where Stoughton had an excellent IHL deal waiting for him. The pair went into ownership and management for five years in the old independent minor league WPHL along the I-5 corridor in the American Southwest with the first edition of hockey in the Texas capital with the remarkable logo of the Austin (TX) Ice Bats. They were co-owners, GM, and the coach at various times. HARTFORD WOLF PACK HOME Read the full article

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CANTLON'S CORNER: KNOBLAUCH NAMED NEW HARTFORD WOLF PACK BENCH BOSS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The New York Rangers finally named a new head coach, on Monday after a 15-week search to replace the fired Keith McCambridge. Kris Knoblauch becomes the seventh coach in team history, but no assistant coaches were named. Also, no quotes were released in the statement from either Pack GM Chris Drury, Rangers GM Jeff Gorton, or Team President, John Davidson, regarding the hire, which comes off as a bit unusual. Knoblauch, 40, joins the Rangers organization after being released by the Philadelphia Flyers after two years (2017-19) as an assistant coach as part of the team's organizational purge. Knoblauch’s 13 seasons of coaching experience have been primarily in Canadian major junior hockey. His specialty is running the offense according to a very knowledgeable NHL scout. “He is an offensive-orientated coach with strong work on the power play side of the game.” He was the Head Coach for seven consecutive seasons in Canadian major junior hockey. His first was with the Kootenay Ice (Cranbrook, BC) of the Western Hockey League (WHL) from 2010 till 2012. He also served as the top dog with the Erie Otters (OHL) for parts of five seasons from (2012-2017). Knoblauch’s seven seasons as a head coach with these two teams earned himself a record of 298-130-16-13 in 457 regular-season games (.684 points percentage). In his first season with the Kootenay Ice (which just relocated to Winnipeg) in the 2010-11 season, Knoblauch guided the team to 46-21-1-4 (97 points) in the Central Division. They finished third behind Red Deer and Medicine Hat and saw the team win the WHL Championship knocking off Portland (OR) Winter Hawks in five games. The Ice won 16 of their 19 WHL playoff games. The following season the team finished fourth behind Edmonton, Calgary, and Medicine Hat and lost in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual Memorial Cup champions, the Edmonton Oil Kings. He is the second Wolf Pack head coach to come from the Kootenay program. The other was the Wolf Pack’s third coach, Ryan McGill. He was in Hartford for three years (2002-2005). Ironically, Knoblauch played for McGill in Edmonton, and Kootenay (which relocated from Edmonton) while McGill succeeded Knoblauch in his second tour of duty in Kootenay when Knoblauch left for the OHL. McGill is currently an assistant coach with the Vegas Golden Knights. Knoblauch would then have four full seasons with the Erie Otters (2013-2017) who posted a 204-58-7-3 record (.768 winning percentage) while he was there. Erie went on to win at least 50 games in all four seasons, thus becoming the first team in the history of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL is comprised of the Ontario Hockey League, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and Western Hockey League) to post four consecutive 50-win seasons.

He first arrived in Erie in 2012-13 replacing former New Haven Nighthawk player and head coach, Robbie Ftorek. The team finished dead-last in the OHL before they had those four consecutive fantastic campaigns. The following season the Otters finished third in the OHL Midwest Division before falling to Guelph in the OHL semifinals. In 2014-15 Erie won the Midwest Division with a record of 50-14-2-2 with Connor McDavid, Dylan Strome, and Alex DeBrincat on the team. They would go on to lose to Oshawa four-games-to-one in the semis. In 2015-16, they fashioned 52-14-1-0 record yet lost to the Dale Hunter coached London Knights in the semifinals. His last junior campaign in the 2016-17 season he had current Wolf Pack player, Darren Raddysh, on the team. The Otters won the OHL title beating the Mississauga Steelheads four-games-to-one to capture the John Robertson Cup but they lost in the Memorial Cup Final to the host Windsor Spitfires 4-3. Knoblauch received the Matt Leyden Trophy as the OHL’s Coach of the Year in 2015-16, and he was named to the OHL’s Second All-Star Team coach in 2013-14. He won the Hamilton Spectator Trophy for having the OHL’s best regular-season record in back-to-back seasons (2015-16 and 2016-17). Over those seven junior seasons he was responsible for developing a lot of high end young talent in the NHL, including Connor McDavid (Edmonton), Alex DeBrincat (Chicago), Sam Reinhart (Buffalo), Dylan Strome (Chicago), Andre Burakovsky (Colorado), Anthony Cirelli (Tampa Bay), Erik Cernak (Tampa Bay), Connor Brown (Ottawa), and Travis Dermott (Toronto). Knoblauch is a native of Imperial, Saskatchewan. He was Assistant Coach with Kootenay for three seasons (2007– 2010) before being elevated to their head coach. He began his coaching career as an Assistant Coach with the Prince Albert Raiders (WHL) for one season in 2006-07. In addition, Knoblauch has coached in several international tournaments. He served as an Assistant Coach with Team Canada at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship, helping the Canadians earn a silver medal. Knoblauch also served as the Head Coach for Canada-Red at the 2015 World U-17 Hockey Challenge. Knoblauch was selected by the New York Islanders in the seventh round, (166th overall), in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft. He played parts of four seasons of major junior hockey in the WHL (1995-1999) with the Red Deer Rebels, Edmonton/Kootenay Ice, and Lethbridge Hurricanes, where his head coach was former New England Whaler, Bryan Maxwell. He followed that with five seasons (1999-2004) of Canadian college hockey at the University of Alberta (CWUAA). Knoblauch, a forward, registered 117 points (38 goals, 79 assists) in 102 games with the Golden Bears as he helped the school win a CIAU National Championship in his first season in 1999-00 beating the University of Moncton 6-2 to win the David Johnston University Cup. He played just one year of minor pro hockey in 2004-06 with the defunct Central Hockey League, Austin Ice Bats. The team that was started and co-owned originally by ex-Whalers, Paul Lawless, and Blaine Stoughton when it was in the now-defunct Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL) that merged with the Central Hockey League in 2001. He also played four playoff games for the defunct Asheville (NC) Smoke (UHL) after his last junior season. (Portions of a Rangers press release were used in the formation of this story) Read the full article