Remembering Rick Rypien – The Tragic End of a Troubled Soul

First off, let me start by saying I should have written this article a while ago.  This article will deal with some very important issues and I don’t plan on holding back from anything.  This article will help you see into the mind of a very troubled person whose life came to an abrupt end on August 15, 2011. 

Rick Rypien should have had it all.  Rick was an NHL player hailing from the tiny prairie town of Crowsnest Pass, Alberta.  He had played seven seasons for The Vancouver Canucks, and signed with The Winnipeg Jets in July for the 2011/2012 NHL season.  He wasn’t a star, but he still made much more than the average person does a year.  He was an enforcer and was seen as one of the toughest players in the league.  Yes, Rick looked like he had it all from the outside, but inside he was an extremely troubled person.  Rick was going through a major battle with depression (10 years) that was beginning to take its toll.  The leading cause of Rick’s depression stemmed from an incident when he was playing junior hockey for The Regina Pats of the WHL.  His girlfriend at the time died in a car accident on her way to Regina to watch Rick play.  This was the start of Rick’s downhill journey through life.  As time went on Rick’s troubles began to show; he left The Canucks on separate occasions to deal with his personal issues.  He even got into an altercation with a fan after getting ejected from a game against the Minnesota Wild.  Two weeks ago Rick committed suicide and his father Wes found him dead at his home in Crowsnest Pass.  Rick was 27 years old.

Think about that.  Do you think any father wants to find his son’s dead body?  Do you think anybody should take their own life at 27 years of age?  Of course not, but depression is serious business.  In Rick’s situation there were going to be no winners.  Depression is a silent killer.  Some people view depression as a sign of weakness but it’s simply not true.  Depression can be fought and beaten.  If you think you are depressed seek help, it’s never too late to turn things around.  Suicide is not the answer.  Rick Rypien always stuck up for his teammates on the ice, but in the end he could not stick up for himself. 

R.I.P. Rick Rypien. 

-Scampbell

Winnipeg Jets Unveil New Logos

True North Sports and Entertainment have unveiled the logos that The Winnipeg Jets will use in theupcoming hockey season. The main logo features the famous Avro Arrow fit into a larger maple leaf with white and blue circles surrounding it.  The secondary logo that will go on the shoulder of the jersey features a pair of hockey sticks crossed with a maple leaf and wings on the side with the team name on the top and bottom.  The alternate logo shows a fancier JETS style with Winnipeg on the top and a maple leaf between the T and S.

I am a big fan of these logos because of the classic, vintage look.  True North has said they drew inspiration from Manitoba’s close involvement in the Royal Canadian Air Force for the design.  Jerseys for The Jets will be revealed in the next month.

What do you think?  Are you a fan of the new logos?  Leave a comment below!

-Scampbell

NHL Free Agency Winners and Losers

The dust has settled on the madness that is the NHL’s free agent frenzy.  This was an off season with no real stars available (minus Brad Richards) so most teams grossly overpayed for moderate talent.  Keep in mind that while creating this list I factored in trades as well.  Here is my NHL free agency winners and losers:

Winners

Washington Capitals – The Caps got the best goalie available in Tomas Vokoun for a bargain price at $1.5 Mill on a 1 year contract.  The Capitals have been a team that has disappeared in the playoffs the past few seasons so hopefully Vokoun can provide some stability in net.  Washington also sent disgruntled goaltender Semyon Varlamov to Colorado for a 1st and 2nd round pick next year, a solid return.  They also signed former UPEI grad Joel Ward to a 4 year, 13 Mill contract.  Ward had an outstanding playoffs with Nashville and the Caps are counting on him for secondary scoring.

Minnesota Wild – The Wild, normally a cheap team not prone to blockbuster trades, completed 2 in a week acquiring Devon Setoguchi and Dany Heatley from the San Jose Sharks.  The offensively starved Wild needed a boost up front and received just that in the pair of San Jose snipers and should be an exciting team next season.

Buffalo Sabres – The Sabres look like a much better team now than they did at the end of last season.  New owner Terry Pegula is eager to boast a competitive team this season and instructed GM Darcy Regier to do whatever it took to do that.  Regeir traded for steady penalty kill specialist Robyn Regehr from Calgary, while also signing power play quarterback Christian Ehrhoff to a long term deal.  Regier signed promising forward Ville Leino as well.  Look for Buffalo to ice a dangerous team when the puck drops in October.

Losers

Montreal Canadiens – The Habs lost defenseman James Wisniewski and Roman Hamrlik, while also seeing steady centre Jeff Halpern bolt to Washington.  Their big acquisition?  Erik Cole, at 4 years/18 Mill which seems like a vast overpayment.  The Habs have a solid team which will continue to progress, but they could have done much more to improve the team right now.

Florida Panthers – The Panthers were in an odd situation coming into free agency.  They were well below the salary cap floor required that all NHL teams meet at 48.3 Mill and needed to do some spending just to reach it.  They did just that, dishing out huge contracts and overpaying for mediocre players like Scottie Upshall, Jose Theodore, Tomas Fleischmann and Sean Bergenheim.  Florida also traded for defenseman Brian Campbell, who has possibly the worst contract in the NHL right now at an annual cap hit of 7.1 Mill/season.  The dagger in all of this?  Losing quality goaltender Tomas Vokoun to Washington.  Look for the tough times to continue in South Beach.

Nashville Predators – The Preds did very little in free agency, losing quality players like Joel Ward and Steve Sullivan while not signing much to replace them in LW Niclas Bergfors.  Perhaps the biggest problem could be the contract of captain Shea Weber, as he is due for free agency soon and the two sides are rumored to be far apart on an extension.

-Scampbell

2011 NHL Entry Draft Roundup

The 2011 NHL Entry Draft weekend is over and a lot of teams look much different now than they did a few days ago.  Here is list of who went where in the first round last night:

#	Player	Nationality	NHL Team	College/Junior/Club Team
1	Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (C)	Canada	Edmonton Oilers	Red Deer Rebels (WHL)
2	Gabriel Landeskog (RW)	Sweden	Colorado Avalanche	Kitchener Rangers (OHL)
3	Jonathan Huberdeau (C)	Canada	Florida Panthers	Saint John Sea Dogs (QMJHL)
4	Adam Larsson (D)	Sweden	New Jersey Devils	Skellefteå AIK (SEL)
5	Ryan Strome (C)	Canada	New York Islanders	Niagara IceDogs (OHL)
6	Mika Zibanejad (C)	Sweden	Ottawa Senators	Djurgårdens IF Hockey (SEL)
7	Mark Scheifele (C)	Canada	Winnipeg Jets	Barrie Colts (OHL)
8	Sean Couturier (C)	Canada	Philadelphia Flyers (from Columbus)	Drummondville Voltigeurs (QMJHL)
9	Dougie Hamilton (D)	Canada	Boston Bruins (from Toronto)	Niagara IceDogs (OHL)
10	Jonas Brodin (D)	Sweden	Minnesota Wild	Färjestads BK (SEL)
11	Duncan Siemens (D)	Canada	Colorado Avalanche (from St. Louis)	Saskatoon Blades (WHL)
12	Ryan Murphy (D)	Canada	Carolina Hurricanes	Kitchener Rangers (OHL)
13	Sven Bartschi (LW)	Switzerland	Calgary Flames	Portland Winterhawks (WHL)
14	Jamie Oleksiak (D)	Canada	Dallas Stars	Northeastern Huskies (Hockey East)
15	J. T. Miller (LW)	United States	New York Rangers	US NTDP (USHL)
16	Joel Armia (RW)	Finland	Buffalo Sabres	Ässät (SM-liiga)
17	Nathan Beaulieu (D)	Canada	Montreal Canadiens	Saint John Sea Dogs (QMJHL)
18	Mark McNeill (C)	Canada	Chicago Blackhawks	Prince Albert Raiders (WHL)
19	Oscar Klefbom (D)	Sweden	Edmonton Oilers (from Los Angeles)	Färjestads BK (SEL)
20	Connor Murphy (D)	United States	Phoenix Coyotes	US NTDP (USHL)
21	Stefan Noesen (RW)	United States	Ottawa Senators (from Nashville)	Plymouth Whalers (OHL)
22	Tyler Biggs (RW)	United States	Toronto Maple Leafs (from Anaheim)	US NTDP (USHL)
23	Joe Morrow (D)	Canada	Pittsburgh Penguins	Portland Winterhawks (WHL)
24	Matt Puempel (LW)	Canada	Ottawa Senators (from Detroit)	Peterborough Petes (OHL)
25	Stuart Percy (D)	Canada	Toronto Maple Leafs (from Philadelphia)	Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors (OHL)
26	Phillip Danault (LW)	Canada	Chicago Blackhawks (from Washington)	Victoriaville Tigres (QMJHL)
27	Vladislav Namestnikov (C)	Russia	Tampa Bay Lightning	London Knights (OHL)
28	Zack Phillips (C)	Canada	Minnesota Wild (from San Jose)	Saint John Sea Dogs (QMJHL)
29	Nicklas Jensen (LW)	Denmark	Vancouver Canucks	Oshawa Generals (OHL)
30	Rickard Rakell (RW)	Sweden	Anaheim Ducks (from Boston via Toronto)	Plymouth Whalers (OHL)

There were also a few major trades made during the course of the draft:

-Philadelphia started things off early on Friday, shipping off veteran winger Jeff Carter to Columbus for Jakub Voracek and Columbus’ 1st and 3rd round picks in this years draft.
-Shortly after the Carter trade Philadelphia dealt captain Mike Richards to Los Angeles for Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn and a 2nd round pick in the draft.
-Philly then used the cap space from the above trades to sign goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine-year $51 million contract.
-The Toronto Maple Leafs aquired defenseman John-Michael Liles from Colorado for The Leafs’ 2012 2nd round pick.
-San Jose traded LW Devin Setoguchi, Charlie Coyle and their 2011 1st round pick to Minnesota for defenseman Brent Burns
-Chicago rid themselves of Brian Campbell’s enormous contract, sending him to Florida for winger Rostislav Olesz.
-Calgary traded 11 year NHL veteran Robyn Regehr, Ales Kotalik and their 2012 2nd round pick to The Buffalo Sabres for Paul Byron, Chris Butler and Buffalo’s 2nd rounder.
-Columbus sent disgruntled Russian winger Nikita Filitov to Ottawa for a 3rd rounder.  The talented winger never panned out in Columbus and was looking for a fresh start from another NHL team.

That concludes an exciting draft weekend.  Stay tuned for next week’s installment to Scampbell Sports where I preview the NHL’s free agent frenzy that begins July 1st.

-Scampbell

2011 NHL Mock Draft

The NHL Entry Draft is on Friday, June 24th and I’ve decided to make my own personal mock draft to see how it stacks up with the real thing.  I have always loved watching the draft because it is an incredibly important part of the NHL, as the stars of tomorrow are assigned a team.  Here’s how I think it will go down: (keep in mind this is the original draft order and many teams will trade their picks on draft day).

1. Edmonton Oilers: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, C (Reed Deer Rebels, WHL)
The Oil are continuing their rebuild and are gathering an impressive display of young talent.  The addition of Nugent-Hopkins will compliment last year’s #1 Taylor Hall very well and will solidify the Oilers up front.

2. Colorado Avalanche: Adam Larsson, D (Skelleftea AIK, SWE)
The Avalanche are thin on the back end and Larsson is the type of player who can contribute right away.  Larsson is a big, physical defenseman who should thrive in Denver.

3. Florida Panthers: Sean Couturier, C (Drummondville, QMJHL)
The Bathurst, NB native struggled a bit this season and saw his stock drop.  He was projected as the #1 pick by many back in September but he is no slouch.  Couturier is blessed with incredible speed and will be a solid 1st or 2nd line centre.

4. New Jersey Devils: Gabriel Landeskog, C/LW (Kitchener, OHL)
Landeskog is an incredible talent who is seen as a future captain of whoever drafts him.  I believe he will have the best career out of anyone chosen in the draft this year.  The hardworking Swede is viewed as the safest pick in the draft.

5. New York Islanders: Jonathan Huberdeau, C/LW (Saint John, QMJHL)
Huberdeau, a member of the Memorial Cup winning Saint John Sea Dogs is considered one of the top two-way players in the draft.  The Isles could use a steady center like that as soon as possible.

6. Ottawa Senators: Ryan Strome, D (Niagra, OHL)
Strome is a promising offensive defenseman that would be an excellent fit in the Senators lineup.  He enjoyed a 106 point season for Niagra last year.

7. Winnipeg ….?: Dougie Hamilton, D (Niagra, OHL)
Hamilton is a steady, stay at home defensemen with great instincts.  He sees the ice very well and is a solid skater.  Hamilton would be an excellent choice for Winnipeg’s new franchise.

8. Columbus Blue Jackets: Mika Zibanejad, C (Djurgarden, SWE)
Zibanejad is projected as a solid, two way center who won’t blow you away in any area but does all the right things.  When the game is on the line that is what counts, and Columbus seems to be lacking some key players like him.

9. Boston Bruins: Ryan Murphy, D (Kitchener, OHL)
It seems ridiculous for Boston to be picking here but they acquired three 1st round draft picks from Toronto in the Phil Kessel deal.  Murphy is a strong offensive defensemen who will quarterback Boston’s power play in 3-4 years.

10. Minnesota Wild: Jonas Brodin, D (Farjestad, SWE)
Brodin is perceived as one of the best young Swedish defenseman to come around in a long time.  He is a top 2 future defenseman who can play well in both ends and doesn’t mind physicality either.

11. Colorado Avalanche: Nathan Beaulieu, D (Saint John, QMJHL)
12. Carolina Hurricanes: Duncan Siemens, D (Saskatoon, WHL)
13. Calgary Flames: Joel Armia, RW (Assat, FIN)
14. Dallas Stars: Mark Scheifele, C (Barrie, OHL)
15. New York Rangers: Tyler Biggs, RW (USHL)
16. Buffalo Sabres: Sven Bartschi, LW (Portland, WHL)
17. Montreal Canadiens: Jamie Oleksiak, D (Northeastern, H-EAST)
18. Chicago Blackhawks: Joseph Morrow, D (Portland, WHL)
19. Edmonton Oilers: Mark McNeail, C (Prince Albert, WHL)
20. Phoenix Coyotes: J.T Miller, C (USHL)
21. Ottawa Senators: Boone Jenner (Oshawa, OHL)
22. Anaheim Ducks: Oscar Klefbom, D (Farjestad, SWE)
23. Pittsburgh Penguins: Nicklas Jensen, LW/RW (Oshawa, OHL)
24. Detroit Red Wings: Brandon Saad, LW (Saginaw, OHL)
25. Toronto Maple Leafs: Rocco Grimaldi, C (USHL)
26. Washington Capitals: Matt Puempel, LW (Peterborough, OHL)
27. Tampa Bay Lightning: Ty Rattie, RW (Portland, WHL)
28. San Jose Sharks: Zack Phillips, C (Saint John, QMJHL)
29. Vancouver Canucks: Connor Murphy, D (USHL)
30. Toronto Maple Leafs: Tomas Jurco, RW (Saint John, QMJHL)

That’s my 2011 NHL mock draft.  Tune in to the draft on Friday to see who goes where!

-Scampbell

The Boston Bruins are the 2010/2011 Stanley Cup Champions!

The Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 last night in game 7 to capture Lord Stanley’s Cup.  The Bruins had a miraculous cup run and easily finished off Vancouver to earn their place in history.  With stellar efforts from Tim Thomas (also the Conn Smythe winner for playoff MVP) and Patrice Bergeron the Bruins never let The Canucks into the game, dominating on both ends of the ice.  This is Boston’s first Stanley Cup since 1972 and 6th in team history.  They overcame many obstacles to capture hockey’s Holy Grail, having to win three game sevens.

Boston is a great sports city and the Bruins faithful have finally been rewarded after a near 40 year wait.  This caps one of the most exciting playoffs in recent memory for hockey fans as almost every series was close.  The Bruins can rejoice knowing they own a piece of hockey history now.  Cornwall P.E.I. native Adam McQuaid is bringing the cup back to the Island so that is extremely exciting for Islanders such as myself.

If you’re new to this site you may not have seen my pre-playoff predictions but I correctly picked the Bruins would beat the Canucks to win the cup in game 7 (http://scampbellsports.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/nhl-playoff-predictions/).  Not to brag, but that is a pretty damn good guess if I do say so myself!  Now that the hockey season is done I will turn my attention to the upcoming NHL Entry Draft and post a mock draft a few days before the actual draft takes place.  Free agency is after the draft so check back for that as well.  I will also be posting a 1/4 point summary of the MLB season next week.

Congrats Boston!  You deserve it.

-Scampbell

Scampbell Sports Has Hit 2000 Views!

Last night I passed 2000 views on my blog and I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for helping me achieve this.  I still plan on posting regularly (2-3 times a week) and I appreciate the support.  Remember, if you are a regular viewer of my website and aren’t subscribed you can get instant email updates whenever I post something new if you sign up.

About 4 months ago I made Scampbell Sports to have as an example of my writing and I have thoroughly enjoyed posting ever since.  My love of writing and sports eventually merged into this website you could say.  My grades in school also picked up since I was writing on a much more frequent basis.  I’m currently planning on making some changes to the site to make it bigger in the next few months so be on the lookout for that.  Thanks to my loyal followers and the people who just found out about my site.  Spread the word and we will see how fast we can get to 3000!

-Scampbell