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The American Hockey League, the top developmental pro hockey league in the world, has announced that former Buffalo Sabres captain Danny Briere and current Sabres assistant coach Terry Murray will serve as the honorary captains for the 2017 AHL All-Star Classic to be held January 29-30 in Allentown, PA., in the home barn of the Philadelphia Flyers' AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Every year, All-Star Classic honorary captains join the participating teams in their locker rooms and on thire benches during the event. This season, Briere and Murray will be recognized for their contributions to the game and for their very successful careers. Briere and Murray will be honored at the annual AHL Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremony.
Drafted by the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996, Danny Briere spent the majority of his first four professional seasons in THe A, skating in 169 games with the Springfield Falcons and winning the Dudley “Red” Garrett Memorial Award as the AHL’s outstanding rookie in 1997-98. Briere, who later had a brief stint with the Philadelphia Phantoms in 2008-09, would play in 973 regular-season games and 124 Stanley Cup Playoff contests in the NHL with Phoenix, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Montreal and Colorado. Briere retired in 2015 and is now living in the Philadelphia area. These days, Danny spends time watching his three boys play hockey. Briere is a two-time NHL All-Star also participated in the 1998 AHL All-Star Classic.
Terry Murray was a two-time winner of the Eddie Shore Award as the outstanding defenseman in the AHL, capturing the honor in both 1977-78 and 1978-79 while a Philadelphia Flyers prospect with the back-to-back Calder Cup champion Maine Mariners. Murray, who played 363 regular-season games in the AHL, was named a First Team AHL All-Star three times before moving behind the bench in 1983. He has since spent 15 seasons as an NHL head coach and 11 more as an assistant, and he won 150 games as an AHL head coach with the Baltimore Skipjacks (1988-90) and the Adirondack/Lehigh Valley Phantoms (2012-15). Today, under Murray's tutelage and mentorship, Rasmus Ristolainen, Jake McCabe, Zach Bogosian, Brendan Guhle ahave evolved into highly respected NHL defensemen.
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Sometimes you hit the NHL rookie wall.
Sometimes the NHL rookie wall falls on you.
When you least expect it, expect it.
It can hurt when a kid slams into it.
Jack Eichel hit the rookie wall in the middle of his rookie season. Eichel, then a 19 year old rookie phenom made his bones in college hockey at Boston University. College hockey life is where the players are typically older than they are in major junior and the seasons are much shorter because teams play fewer games.
Scoring has come easy for Eichel, who scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game against Ottawa on October 8, 2015. Eichel scored four goals in his first month of professional hockey, never going more than four games between lighting the lamp. Eichel experienced a bit of turbulence in November 2015 when he scored four goals but suffered a six game goal drought in the process.
Then the obligatory fatigue and exhaustion set in.
In his third month of NHL action, Eichel scored just two goals. For the first time in his hockey career, Eichel appeared to be running on fumes.
Understandably, he looked tired. Eichel summoned the strength to practice hard and keep his nutrition level high. Eichel went seven games between goals scored in his third month of NHL service. On December 6, 2015, Eichel scored against Edmonton and would not score again until his homecoming to Boston. On Boxing Day 2015 (December 26 to the uninitiated), Eichel lit up his boyhood favorite team the Boston Bruins for two goals and two assists. Talk about a memorable homecoming. That night, Eichel stole the show in a Buffalo win over Boston. After the game, Eichel admitted that he was out of physical and emotional fuel heading into the NHL Christmas break. The Sabres played the Chicago Blackhawks on December 19th. Eichel wasn't the only Sabre feeling the ill effects of the 34 game grind of games played between October 8 and December 19.
Looking back, it''s elementary that Eichel struggled to acclimate to the NHL lifestyle while trying to maintain his rest and recovery.
These days, 18 and 19 year olds are bypassing the AHL and are jumping straight into the NHL from their major junior and college hockey teams. Youngsters are left to have to gather their NHL experience while learning on the job. How far can you puch your body and mind? There's only one way to find out. Push yourself to your physical and psychological edge by playing five games in eight nights then rest for two days and doing four games in six nights with a couple of back-to-backers thrown in for good measure. When you're not playing, you are in the coaches office watching game tape or in a cold tub or on the chiropractor's table. All the while you are ingesting calories, monitoring your sleep, swallowing electrolytes and calories like they are going out of style.
Eichel learned his lessons by listening to his trainers and his veteran teammates who had been there, done that and bought the t-shirt to prove it.
Eichel hit the wall. Then, he recovered quickly and continued to blaze new trails.
The second overall selection in the 2015 NHL Draft had played a ton of hockey in the calendar year 2015: His BU season, the World Juniors, the Beanpot tourney, the NCAA playoffs, the championship game, rookie development camp, his NHL exhibition season, and then his first career NHL games. Sandwiched in between were media responsibilities, the NHL Combine, NHL Draft and dozens of other obligations. Like all A-listNHL gneerational prospects, Eichel had been stuck on a non-stop merry-go-round of on and off ice media commitments that seemingly lasted for a full year of his life.
The grind no doubt took it's toll on the kid. But it didn't keep him down for long.
What helped him to rest and recover from the whirlwind of exhaustion?
Spending Christmas 2015 with his parents and sister in suburban Boston really seemed to reinvigorate Eichel. For one solid week, there was no hockey. No media. No outside noise. Just rest and relaxation. He got to sleep in hi sold bed and enjoy the time spent at home with family and friends.
R-n-R. It does a man a lot of good.
In 81 games, Eichel scored 24 goals and 32 assists his rookie year.
Eichel was a better player in the second half of the marathon for having struggled to keep up to thedemading and exhausting NHL pace for the first ninety days of his rookie season.
Recently, Eichel mentored his close friend Auston Matthews in how to survive slamming headlong into the rookie wall. Matthews, the first overall pick at teh NHL Draft had gone 13 games without scoring a goal. Matthews set the bar high for himself when he scored four gaiols in his first ever NHL game. Matthews, like Eichel, has learned trhat after the lift comes the inevitable let down.
Jack and Auston were teammates on USA Hockey's U-18 NTDP team in 2013-14. They played together for Team USA at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship. Recently, Eichel told NHL.com that he and Matthews still keep in touch with one another. Their friendship runs deeper than the hatred and vitriole associated with the 46 year old Buffalo Sabres-Toronto Maple Leafs feud.
Eichel has put aside his disdain for Toronto to help his buddy maneuver through the NHL rookie season gauntlet.
"I know people were jumping on him when he went into that little drought and I talked to him earlier in the year when he was hot and told him he's going to go through games where everything hits the stick and you're getting points every night and feeling good about yourself, and then you'll go through lulls where you think you're playing well but have nothing to show for it," Eichel said. "He's playing in a tough market in Toronto and he's doing a great job."
Matthews sought out advice from Eichel, who had a lot of fre time on his hands as he nursed his high ankle sprain. Eichel missed Buffalo's first 20 games while he reovered from his ankle ailment that he suffered in practice, the day before the season opener against Montreal.
"I didn't give him a pep talk or anything like that," Eichel said. "I just want to talk and be his buddy. In terms of advice, the only thing I told him was to enjoy every day. You're playing hockey in Toronto for a living and don't get caught up in what everyone else is saying."
Eichel's conversation with Matthews just so happened to coincide with Matthews ending his own personal 13-game goal scoring drought.
Matthews has scored six goals and seven points in the past eight games.
Say it ain't so! Is this the Eichel Effect at work for the Toronto Maple Leafs?
"I think sometimes it's a little bit lost that we're all people and more than anything he's a friend of mine," Eichel said. "A lot of times it's not even us talking to them about hockey; it's talking about everything else in life. I guess that's part of playing in the NHL and being a professional hockey player. You're so checked into your job, so much time is given to hockey and you're so focused. When we talk, it's just trying to get your mind off of it and relax a bit because you know what a stress and grind it is."
The bext time Maple Leafs fans want to boo Eichel, they should first consider what a great friend he is to Auston Matthews.
The Eichel Effect is paying dividends in Buffalo and Toronto these days.
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