Carl’s Jr. Biscuits with Brownie Video
Player Profile: Left Wing Bill Sweatt
Chicago Wolves Roomies
Goaltender Matt Climie Juggles Hockey, Life and Even a Few Pucks
Matt Climie never operates without a backup plan.
That’s because he’s all too familiar with being the backup.
“It’s been funny,” Climie said. “Honestly, every team I’ve been on since I was IN Pee-Wee, I’ve always gone in as the underdog role. Nothing’s been easy for me. Nothing’s really been given to me. Ever.”
When he played junior hockey for the Kimberley Dynamiters in British Columbia, he wasn’t even the best Climie on the team. His older brother, Chris, was the team’s primary goaltender. Oh, by the way, their team went bankrupt and folded – during the playoffs.
Matt found work the following season with the Bonnyville Pontiacs, but the job stability didn’t get much better. He was traded for $500 shortly before his second season started, so he had to steer his aging Pontiac Sunfire 2,950 miles across Canada (from Alberta to Nova Scotia) in order to report to his new team.
After enjoying two seasons in Nova Scotia and exhausting his junior-league eligibility, Climie signed with Bemidji State University at the age of 20. He wasn’t exactly a hot recruit. “I was pretty much a walk-on,” he said. “I was slated as a third goalie going in. Not much scholarship money at all. Probably the smallest scholarship on the team.”
Sensing a pattern here? Climie certainly did.
That’s why, fearing he’d never earn a professional contract after playing for Bemidji State, Climie wrapped up his college degree in three-and-a-half years and earned his teacher’s license in 2008.
“I student-taught Grade 6,” Climie said. “I was teaching everything. Math, Science, Social Studies. That was my career path. I wanted to get into the whole administration thing. Teach for a couple years, then get my master’s. Principal, vice-principal, one of those. Maybe even athletic director.”
Though Climie has long since outgrown the need to teach in order to make a living – he ranks among the American Hockey League’s top goaltenders this year and rests just one step away from a spot in the National Hockey League – the 29-year-old carries two backup options into this upcoming offseason.
“I’m actually starting my own goalie school in my hometown (Leduc, Alberta),” Climie said. “I want to get into coaching and running hockey schools in the summertime. At the same time, I’m probably going to go back and get my firefighting license. I’d have that to fall back on if I want to go in that direction.”
Climie has buddies who are firefighters, but that’s not what inspires his desire to join their ranks.
“Being a firefighter, it’s kind of like a hockey team,” Climie said. “You’re working together as a team. You’re hanging out a lot. The job in general just kind of fits me. It’s competitive and you’ve got to be in shape.”
The word “competitive” or its variations invariably are used to describe the 6-foot-3, 197-pound Climie – whose perpetual smile contradicts his persistent nature.
“I see a high degree of competitiveness,” said Wolves head coach Craig MacTavish. “He’s a real competitor in the games. He’s a patient, experienced, competitive goalie. He gives us a chance virtually every night. He won us some games early, as did Eddie (Lack), that our team would not or should not have won without their goaltending being at that level.”
Some goalies would have noticed the 23-year-old Lack’s name on the depth chart (he’s the Vancouver Canucks’ top goalie prospect) and opted to sign with another National Hockey League team. Climie noted Lack’s presence on the roster – as well as the Chicago Wolves commitment to winning – and thought it was the ideal opportunity.
“Really, I feel that competition is good,” Climie said. “It’s good to have and obviously Eddie’s a great goalie. I just feel that competition makes you a better individual. It just develops you. I feel I play that much better when I have to earn my ice time. I don’t want to be given anything.”
Lack handled seven of the Wolves first 10 games this season. But after Climie held strong for a 2-1 victory on Nov. 4 at Peoria, he was rewarded with four consecutive starts and he repaid the Wolves with four consecutive wins.
His spree ended because the Canucks called him up for one game due to an injury to Vancouver starter Roberto Luongo. Climie didn’t appear in that game (backup Cory Schneider handled the net), but it wasn’t like he missed out on his first opportunity to appear in a NHL game. Contrary to his traditional career trajectory, Climie reached the NHL with unexpected swiftness after graduating from Bemidji State.
Less than 13 months after playing his final game for Bemidji State, Climie won his NHL debut for the Dallas Stars on April 4, 2009. He leaped straight from Dallas’ East Coast Hockey League affiliate because the Stars didn’t have an AHL team at the time. He stayed for three games and posted two wins.
“It doesn’t happen too often where a guy goes from the East Coast to the NHL,” Climie said. “Such a good experience. I got my puck and obviously the gear that I used in those games. I’ve still got all my equipment.”
But then it was back to fighting for anything he could get in the minors. After his ECHL team was swept in the first round of the playoffs, the AHL’s Houston Aeros picked him up and Climie became part of a four-goalie rotation for a team that reached the 2009 Western Conference Finals.
“It was kind of a crazy deal, but I just took it for what it was and enjoyed the process,” Climie said.
Climie moved to the Texas Stars in 2010 and sparked them to the Calder Cup Finals (he helped knock out the Wolves in the West Division Finals) before posting 26 wins and a 2.64 goals against average last season with the San Antonio Rampage.
In each of those seasons, Climie appeared in one NHL game. Like everyone else wearing a Wolves uniform, he’d like to move to the NHL to stay – and he has done nothing but improve his chances while with the Wolves.
“I knew Matt was a really good goalie, especially because he single-handedly defeated us in that series a couple years ago,” said Wolves general manager Wendell Young. “But even with all that said and how confident I was in him when he signed this year, he has exceeded expectations even above that.
“He is a student of the game. He is a competitor. Since I started watching him in the American League, his positioning is way better. He’s a lot more under control.”
Through the games of Feb. 15, Climie owned a 15-7-0 record with a 2.39 GAA and a .927 save percentage. The latter number ranks third in the AHL. His success presents a bit of a dilemma for the Wolves. Climie has a two-way contract with Vancouver this season, but a one-way deal with the Wolves next year. That means he’ll return to Chicago in 2012-13 unless he gets a one-way deal with an NHL team.
Young jokes that he wants Climie to be really good, but not THAT good, before turning serious.
“No, we want our guys to succeed,” Young said. “That’s what we want. We’re excited as an organization that they go up. It speaks well of our organization. If players keep going up to the NHL, it speaks to what we’ve done. If he can succeed somewhere else next year, then we did our job.”
Wolves Left Wing Bill Sweatt Knows There’s More Than One Route to Making it Big in the World.
The week before Bill Sweatt made his National Hockey League debut on Dec. 9 for the Vancouver Canucks in Montreal, the Chicago Wolves forward underwent another serious test in a less-hostile environment: the comfort of his own home.
Sweatt wrapped up the final exam in his 800-level Contemporary Managerial Accounting class – his first step toward earning an MBA in Finance via the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s online program.
If you can’t figure out why a 23-year-old with a bright hockey future feels the need to pursue a master’s degree in his spare time, then you need to understand how the Sweatt family operates.
Long before the Chicago Blackhawks made Sweatt their second-round choice in the 2007 NHL entry draft, Walter and Dottie Sweatt made sure their two sons knew that excellence must be pursued with equal fervor on the ice and in the classroom.
“It’s something our parents instilled in us,” Bill said. “You’ve got to be the best at both. You can’t just slack off in school and just try to be a hockey player – or the other way around. You’ve got to do both.”
Bill and his brother, Lee, learned these lessons while growing up in west suburban Lombard and Elburn. They spent their early years in a townhouse across the street from Yorktown Mall in Lombard, but their burgeoning passion for hockey forced them to find a new address.
“They didn’t have a place to shoot,” Dottie said. “I looked for a house that had a full basement. Basically, that was our criteria. We had to have a full basement where the furnace wasn’t in the middle of the room.”
Dottie’s long search finally led her to Elburn, where the Sweatt boys could have a 10-foot-high ceiling and everything else they needed for training.
Dottie, who grew up in Rhode Island and went to the Boston Garden every Sunday to watch Bobby Orr play for the Bruins, insisted on going to Canada to purchase NHL-regulation nets for the basement. Walter, who was a standout defensive back for Wofford College in the early 1960s, insisted on installing an 80-pound punching bag.
“That’s where our father taught us how to hit,” Lee said. “We practiced our checking on that. And we had 200 or so pucks. We’d be in the basement on roller blades working out and shooting.”
When the Sweatts started to play on travel teams, there weren’t any rinks close to Elburn. Bill starred for the Glen Ellyn Flames, Oak Park Eagles, Highland Park Falcons, Chicago Young Americans and Team Illinois over the course of 10 years.
Kenny McCudden, the Wolves skating and skills coach, tutored the Sweatt boys during their time with the Flames. “You knew at that age (they would be special),” McCudden said. “You could see the drive, the desire. They were the only two guys I had to try to put the reins on because they were hitting guys during the skill sessions. Yeah, they were taking guys out.”
“That sounds like Lee,” Bill said. “That doesn’t sound like me.”
“That is definitely true,” Lee said.
As the boys climbed the hockey ladder, they required increasingly longer trips in order to practice and play. Dottie says the family wore out three minivans on their treks, which makes sense considering it’s a 130-mile roundtrip from Elburn to the north suburbs and there were at least two practices and two games each week.
Because they had to depart immediately after school and didn’t return home until 9 or 10 p.m., the Sweatts had to get their homework done in the van – and they had to do it before they could play video games or watch movies.
“If you’re going to do your best in hockey, do your best in your studies as well,” Dottie said. “If you don’t make it in hockey, what do you fall back on? You can’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
Lee, who graduated from Kaneland High School in 2003, received a scholarship to play at Colorado College, where he graduated with a 3.8 GPA in Mathematical Economics. He’s also expecting to wrap up his work for three master’s degrees (in finance, technology management, and project management) in May.
Bill spent his freshman year at Kaneland before moving to Ann Arbor, Mich., in 2004 to join USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program. In addition to picking up a pair of gold medals for his hockey prowess – he was voted “Top Forward” at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Under-18 World Championships in 2006 – he finished his final three years of high school in two years so he could play with Lee for a season at Colorado College.
After his freshman year at Colorado College, the Blackhawks made Bill the 38th overall selection in the 2007 draft. He opted not to accept the Blackhawks’ offer and returned to school. He could have reversed his decision after each college season, but never considered leaving.
“My agent asked me every summer,” Bill said. “I never wanted to go. I always wanted to stay and get my (Mathematical Economics) degree because hockey is a short life. It doesn’t last forever.”
If you think that’s lip service, consider Lee’s unlikely choice this summer. A 26-year-old defenseman, Lee played in 3 games for the Vancouver Canucks last season and signed a free-agent deal with the Ottawa Senators in July. But a month later – before training camp began – Lee retired in order to become a financial advisor in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“I made a good decision,” said Lee, who wants to help young professional hockey players manage their bonuses. “I’m happy now. I’m really enjoying what I’m doing. I watch guys blow their money all the time. Just the power of saving a portion of that money is incredible. I don’t really miss it at all.”
That having been said, Lee couldn’t get to Montreal quickly enough to witness his brother’s NHL debut on Dec. 9.
“We are exceptionally competitive when it comes to all things,” Lee said the day before the game. “We do very similar things and compete in a lot of areas. It’s a nice compliment that he’s following a little bit in my footsteps – and he’s successful at it.
“I had one remaining bragging right on him: playing in the NHL. That’s going to go by the wayside – and I couldn’t be happier.”
Dottie, on the other hand, could be a little bit happier. The self-described hockey fanatic thinks Bill’s rate of progress on the ice is great, but she’d like to see him pick up the pace on his MBA.
“Now that he’s got his feet wet, I’d like to see him take two courses now,” Dottie said. “That’d be great.”
Say Hello to Krys Barch, New Florida Panthers Enforcer
Everybody loves their team’s enforcer.
In the Florida Panthers’ case, they’d been without one this season in the post-Darcy Hordichuk era until the recent arrival of Krys Barch from the Dallas Stars.
Through his first four games with the Panthers, Barch has already been in three fights.
Outstanding work, lad!
I’d also invite you to share your suggestions for a nickname for the Panthers’ top line of Kris Versteeg, Tomas Fleishmann and Stephen Weiss, which is tearing up the league.
I wrote in today’s Sun Sentinel about this team’s somewhat troubling reliance on them and even trotted out a nickname of my own: VFW Line.
Remember the Veterans of Foreign Wars?
OK, maybe not. I trust in you readers to do better.
Here’s your chance. Best nickname gets a blog post in its honor in this very spot.
We’ll keep the polls open all weekend and pick a winner on Monday. How’s that?
A few more, and we’ll be calling him Krys Crumple — just in time for the holiday season.
See what Barch has to say about his new team — and his former situation — in the attached video.
Cam Janssen vs Krys Barch
American hockey Wife Spearheads Support for Lokomotiv Families
The ice hockey world is still reeling from the plane crash which took the lives of the entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team this autumn. One woman whose husband is a prominent KHL defenseman has been reaching out to the families of the victims.
It was the biggest tragedy ever to hit the sport of ice hockey – 250 kilometers from Moscow, on September 7, a plane crash killed 44 of the 45 people on board, 37 of whom were from the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl club.
An entire team wiped out in an instant. The world watched as pictures emerged from the wreckage, the news getting worse as the days passed.
Next came the funerals and the grief-stricken images of wives and children left without their husbands and fathers – left without a breadwinner. It was that thought which spurred Stacy Dallman into action.
Stacy is married to Kevin Dallman, former a NHL player and current defenseman for the Kazakh team Barys Astana in the Kontinental Hockey League. She is also mother to two young children.
Though her days at her Kazakh home are kept busy with Ava and Noah, the American was determined to find the time to help those directly affected by the Lokomotiv plane crash.
Now, she is doing just that. Establishing a charity fund in North America or Europe is a relatively straightforward process as it is easy to get help from those who have done it before.
But in Kazakhstan, there is no such luxury and Stacy would have to start from scratch.
“I felt really obligated to do something for them because I knew how it felt,” Stacy Dallman told RT. “I lost my own father in a car accident. I was 27 when that happened. So I remember how my mom felt, being a widow with no income coming into the family anymore.”
With a little help from her friends and support from spouses of other hockey players, the Lokomotiv Wives Fund was launched.
“The idea just hit me – I could make a Facebook page and people could donate if they wanted,” she said. “It took off. I have 2,000 fans among family members and followers. And people donate as much money or as little money as they can. It’s really been an eye-opening experience, seeing how people can pull together.”
Previously, Stacy’s computer was used mainly for keeping in touch with relatives back home. Now, it is kept busy running a web store.
The main aim of the site is to collect donations, but plans are afoot to sell jerseys and other items such as bracelets, and even to host KHL and NHL product auctions.
Every last cent, penny and rouble will go to the families of the deceased Lokomotiv players and coaches.
The page, which now has the support of 800-plus women, has grown into something even greater – the United Hockey Wives Fund, whose mission is to “improve the lives of ice hockey families and their associates through relief, education and opportunity.”
It brings together wives from all over the world committed to helping their sisters whose lives were changed forever that September day.
“It was decided that maybe we should make a hockey wives foundation, so if anything like this would ever happen again or any hockey family needed help, we would already be together,” Stacy explained. “And we’d just pull together really quickly to help them – whereas now it’s taking some time.”
United in vision, and determined never to forget those left behind. Stacy Dallman is the person who made it all happen – an American living in Kazakhstan giving hope to a Russian ice hockey team.
It’s an unlikely story, but it is proof that even out of unspeakable tragedy, hope can still emerge.
Dustin Brown Wins 2011 NHL Foundation Award
LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Kings captain/forward Dustin Brown tonight received the 13th Annual NHL Foundation Player Award as part of the 2011 NHL Awards from the Pearl Concert Theater inside the Palms Hotel Las Vegas.
Brown is the first Kings player to win the award, which applies the core values of hockey – commitment, perseverance and teamwork – to enrich the lives of people in his community. This year also marked the third consecutive year Brown has been nominated for the award.
Tonight’s event was televised on VERSUS. Check back to LAKings.com soon to see a special Kings Vision video featuring Brown, who has won the Kings Community Award the last four seasons, at the Awards Show. Yesterday, he participated in a media event in Las Vegas where he talked about the award nomination, rule changes and the state of the Kings.
Said Kings President, Business Operations Luc Robitaille: “This award is a great honor for Dustin, his wife Nicole, the Kings Care Foundation and the entire LA Kings organization. We are proud of the way Dustin and his family continue to represent our hockey club and our community.”
The Kings’ 26-year-old captain received this year’s NHL Foundation Award in recognition of his continued tireless involvement in countless community-benefiting endeavors. This season, Brown donated $50 for each of his 300 hits to contribute a total of $15,000 to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ Newborn and Infant Critical Care Unit. Two seasons ago, as part of the program he and his wife Nicole launched with KaBOOM!, a non-profit organization that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America, Brown’s per-hit donation plan raised $70,000 to build a new playground in Carson that now hosts more than 100 kids per day.
In mid-December, through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Brown hosted an unforgettable day behind the scenes at STAPLES Center and then the following night at the Kings-Wild game for Will McCloud, a six-year-old boy who was battling leukemia. Brown also again served as the team spokesman for the Children’s Cancer Research Fund, an organization dedicated to providing support for clinical research in pediatric cancer, while improving the medical environment for all children. And he volunteered to be the spokesman for the Club’s Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Night. In addition to adopting a local family over the holiday season as part of the Kings’ Adopt-a-Family program, Brown and his wife independently adopted a large family with a child currently being treated at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He led extensive team participation in the Kings Community Corner, a ticket-donation program that has enabled more than 15,000 Los Angeles youth and military members to experience Kings hockey live at STAPLES Center.
And through his budding engagement with social media, Brown has raised awareness for Make My Day Monday, which promotes committing random acts of kindness each Monday, and raised funds for Japanese earthquake relief, donating $1 for each of the 9,425 new followers he attracted on Twitter during a one-week period in March.
Named the 15th captain in Kings history on October 8, 2009, Brown is also the youngest captain in Kings history and the first American-born captain in Kings history. Brown was originally selected by the Kings in the first-round (13th overall) in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. He has 305 points (141-164=305) in 513 career regular season games with the Kings.
Washington Capitals defenseman Mike Green and Vancouver Canucks forwards Daniel and Henrik Sedin were the other finalists for this year’s award. NHL Clubs submitted nominations for the NHL Foundation Player Award and the finalists were selected by a judging panel. The NHL Foundation presents $25,000 to the chosen charitable organization of this year’s recipient. Brown was officially nominated by the NHL on May 2.
