Former NHLer Akim Aliu's revealed another racist incident he was subjected to during his pro career.
In 2011, as one of the newer members of the ECHL's Colorado Eagles, the Nigerian-born Aliu was invited to the team's Halloween party, but he was told to "come a little bit later" - an instruction he didn't think too much about at the time, Aliu told The Wall Street Journal's Andrew Beaton.
Aliu said he arrived at the party to find Tony Deynzer, the team's head equipment manager, in blackface while wearing an Afro-style wig and an Eagles jersey with Aliu's No. 78 and nickname - "Dreamer" - stitched on the back.
Those attending the party - including Aliu's teammates, staff members, management, and some of their families - encouraged the two to take a picture together, which Aliu shared with Beaton:
The Wall Street Journal
"Guys just started laughing," Aliu said. "All I can do is tell my story."
Aliu, who said he didn't see anyone else at the party who was black, posed for the picture because he didn't want to cause a scene. He said he felt trapped and in shock, and then called his brother immediately afterward.
"I didn’t even grasp the idea of how vicious of a thing that is to do," Aliu said.
The Wall Street Journal
Aliu played only 10 games for the Eagles. He requested a trade, which was eventually granted, and wound up in the Calgary Flames organization before making his NHL debut in 2012.
Deynzer remains the equipment manager of the Eagles, who were the Winnipeg Jets' ECHL team in 2011 but are now affiliated with the Colorado Avalanche. Deynzer, who's been with the club since 2003, didn't respond to requests from Beaton for his story.
The Eagles said in a statement they "had absolutely no knowledge of this event, therefore we feel it would be premature to comment at this time," according to Beaton.
Aliu revealed more than two weeks ago that Flames head coach Bill Peters directed the N-word toward him several times while the two were with the AHL's Rockford IceHogs a decade ago. Peters ultimately resigned from his position with Calgary.
Last week, Aliu met with NHL officials, including commissioner Gary Bettman, to confront racial and conduct issues in hockey. In that meeting, he told them about the blackface incident. On Monday, the NHL announced it will institute a mandatory annual program focused on counseling, consciousness-raising, education, and training on diversity and inclusion.
"They need to accept the fact that there is a problem," Aliu said. "That’s the only way you start."
"Dr. Keith Richardson, the treating physician from the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), indicated that the cancer is located at the base of the tongue. Lapointe will begin his treatments in the coming weeks. This form of cancer has a high cure rate.
"The family wishes to thank the personnel at the MUHC as well as all hockey fans and asks for respect of their privacy as they face this challenge."
Lapointe won six Stanley Cups with the Habs. In 14 seasons with the club, the blue-liner recorded 572 points in 777 regular season games. He enjoyed brief stints with the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins before his retirement in 1984.
He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Habs retired his No. 5 in 2014. The 71-year-old is currently employed by the Minnesota Wild as an amateur scout.
Weber was asked postgame if it was his first wraparound goal.
"Since I played NHL '95, probably," he told the assembled media, including Sportsnet, with a smile.
The 34-year-old took a pass at the offensive zone blue line, flew in around the Penguins' net, and tucked it in on the backhand late in the second period.
Sportsnet's Eric Engels, whose question elicited Weber's original response, also revealed that his classic video-game reference was lost on his younger teammates.
Weber said he cracked this joke in the room between periods and all the kids on the team had no clue what he was talking about.
The Boston Bruins forward sits comfortably atop the NHL's goal leaderboard with 25 through just 31 games, putting him on pace for 66 this season. The last player to reach that mark was Mario Lemieux in 1995-96.
If Pastrnak can continue scoring at this rate, he'll unquestionably win the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy in a landslide after opening the season at 25-1 odds. However, the jury is out on whether he's capable of continuing his historic output, and the underlying numbers suggest he isn't.
Pastrnak's 12 power-play goals are a huge reason he's No. 1 in the league, and perhaps the greatest contributor to his success is the fact that he's converting on 34.2% of his shots on the man advantage, which is nearly double his 18% average from the last three seasons. It's hard to imagine that number doesn't come down significantly during the remainder of the season.
At five-on-five, his shooting percentage is a more sustainable 16.7%, though that's still a significant improvement from the past three years - 10.4%, 12.6%, and 13.6%. There's room for regression across the board.
That's reflected in his expected goals count (ixG), which sits at 11.7 - eighth in the NHL below the likes of Alex Ovechkin (15.8), Leon Draisaitl (12.8), and Connor McDavid (11.8). His ixG at five-on-five is just 5.86, which ranks 26th in the NHL.
Pastrnak is a remarkable player and has fully established himself as one of the league's premier talents, but it's too much to expect him to continue this rate of production. The "Rocket" Richard race isn't settled in December, so don't start cashing those tickets just yet.
Player
Odds
Goals
David Pastrnak
5-2
25
Connor McDavid
7-2
19
Alex Ovechkin
7-2
21
Leon Draisaitl
4-1
19
Auston Matthews
7-1
18
Brad Marchand
8-1
18
Nathan MacKinnon
12-1
19
Jack Eichel
50-1
18
Patrick Kane
50-1
14
Jake Guentzel
100-1
16
Connor McDavid (7-2)
McDavid is on pace for a career-best 49 goals thanks, in large part, to a significant uptick in power-play production. His eight markers with the man advantage through 32 games is one shy of his career best of nine, which he potted in 78 games last season.
The Edmonton Oilers superstar has done so with a 27.6% shooting percentage, which is well above his career average. However, unlike Pastrnak, McDavid is shooting more than he has in the past.
He has 29 power-play shots in 32 games after averaging 45 during the last three seasons. It'll be tough for him to sustain his shooting percentage, but even keeping it above 20% puts him on pace for another nine goals on the man advantage.
His five-on-five shooting percentage is right in line with his career average and he's firing pucks on net at the same rate as he has in the past, so there shouldn't be much of a downtick in production there.
McDavid is on pace to add another 18 tallies at even strength, which would put him at 46 for the season when combined with his power-play projections. It might be tough for him to reach 50 unless he can maintain that 27.6% power-play shooting percentage - which isn't out of the question for the best player in the world - and muster some goals at four-on-four or when shorthanded.
Alex Ovechkin (7-2)
It wouldn't be a proper "Rocket" Richard race without Ovechkin in the thick of it. The Washington Capitals sniper has won the award in six of the past seven seasons and remains Pastrnak's closest competitor with 21 goals through 32 games.
It's been a fairly standard season thus far from Ovechkin, whose power-play numbers are right in line with his career averages. His five-on-five shooting percentage is a tad low, sitting at 10% - he's been above 12.8 in each of the last two seasons - but otherwise, he's again meeting expectations.
Ovechkin's on pace for 54 goals right now and it's entirely realistic to expect him to reach that number. If so, it would be his best mark since amassing 56 tallies in 2008-09. Whether or not that's enough to best Pastrnak depends entirely on how much the Bruins forward regresses.
Auston Matthews (7-1)
Matthews endured a slow November following a scorching-hot October, leaving him seven goals back of Pastrnak for the scoring lead.
Like Ovechkin, Matthews' numbers are generally in line with his career averages. However, he is getting significantly more power-play shots this season, averaging just over one per game - a significant increase from the 0.63 he managed through his first three campaigns. The Maple Leafs want him shooting more, which suggests this jump is intentional.
The one area that's slightly down for Matthews is his power-play shooting percentage, which sits at 15.6% on the season, nearly 3% below his career average of 18.4. If Matthews can reverse that trend, he could be in for a monster second half of the campaign. Working in his favor is the Leafs' power play under head coach Sheldon Keefe. The team has converted 41.7% of its opportunities with the man advantage under Keefe, compared to just 17.6% of its power-play chances under Mike Babcock. Now it's just a question of whether or not Matthews has dug himself too big of a hole to climb out of.
Alex Moretto is a sports betting writer for theScore. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, is too impatient for futures, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman eliminated the possibility of a potential World Cup of Hockey in 2021, saying Tuesday there isn't enough time to get it done, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.
In the offseason, deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the league was "cautiously optimistic" about the NHL and NHLPA being able to coordinate a World Cup based on successful CBA negotiations.
The proposed tournament was supposed to occur in February 2021, with the league taking a break in order to stage the event.
Bettman added Tuesday that the NHL does want to host a World Cup as soon as possible, but that a timeline is unclear, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun.
The NHL had originally targeted a World Cup for the fall of 2020, but that possibility was abandoned in January.
The international focus will now shift to the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, China. NHL players didn't suit up for the 2018 games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Olympic participation is still a contentious issue between the players' association and league owners.
The World Cup of Hockey debuted in 1996 and had another installment in 2004 before making a return in 2016. The most recent version was won by Team Canada, and it also garnered plenty of praise for the implementation of Team North America - a band of Under-23 superstars who took the tournament by storm with a relentlessly entertaining style of play.
The NHL hasn't gathered for a best-on-best tournament since the 2016 event.
