At the Rink: Clarke MacArthur

On my way down to the rink last night, I had two players that I wanted to keep an eye on; Clarke MacArthur and Scott Hartnell. MacArthur made an appearance in a previous ICU article, so I was excited for the opportunity to witness his game in person. I am not that familiar with him, but I was interested to see if he could live up to early numbers he is producing. Hartnell, on the other hand, is off to a slow start, registering only one assist and no goals going into Saturday night’s game. Hartnell’s line is slowly rebuilding the chemistry they found during last years playoff run, but Ville Leino’s off season surgery appears to be hampering Ville production. Mainly I just wanted to see how Hartnell would play after his first haircut in over three years. 

It didn’t take Clarke MacArthur long to impress me. Two minutes into the game MacArthur, on his first shift of the game, was on the ice with the Leafs second power play unit when he took a shot from the top of the right circle that was blocked, he chased down the rebound and then made a nice pass around Darroll Powe at the blue line that set up a nice slap shot from Luke Schenn. Less than 30 seconds later, MacArthur forced Brian Boucher, who was attempting to play the puck behind his net, into a turn over and almost banked the puck into the net off of Matt Carle. 

Hartnell got off to a sluggish start with a few ill-advised passes at center ice that should have been dumped into the zone. As the game progressed, Hartnell and his line, got into a rhythm. They began to have success at cycling the puck in their zone which lead to shots on goal; Hartnell and Leino had three shots a piece while Danny Briere lead the team with five shots on goal. Although the line was unable to pick up a goal from their aggressive cycling and fore checking, Briere scored a goal on a break away and Hartnell scored on an odd man rush. As the game progressed, it was obvious that this line was the best line from either team. 

MacArthur’s game appears to be a pretty simple one, hustle your ass off and take advantage of opportunities. Even though he was leveled by Mike Richards late in the first period, it didn’t stop MacArthur from chasing down pucks and going to the tough areas of the ice to fight for pucks and score goals. MacArthur was able to pick up a goal late in the second period by going to the front of the net and scoring off a rebound. He showed off his hands by backhanding a pass to himself to ensure himself the easy goal around a sprawling Boucher. 

I don’t expect MacArthur to produce too many highlight goals this season, but I do believe that he will continue to be rewarded for his style of play and could easily have a career year in Toronto this season. His most productive year was for the Sabres in 08-09 when he scored 17 goals and registered 31 points in 71 games, and he already has six goals and eight points through seven games. 

Although Hartnell might not have a career year, I think he will play a pivotal role in the Flyers’ success this season. He appears to be returning to the style that produced a 30 goal 30 assist campaign back in 08-09, the same style that is working wonders for MacArthur’s point production. His line looks poised to regain the chemistry they enjoyed in the playoffs last year, which is great for the Flyers. 

As the season unfolds, I will be interested to see if Hartnell can prove that his 30 goal season wasn’t an anomaly and to see if MacArthur can continue his hot streak and prove to the Thrashers that they should have resigned him.

So who do you think will end the season with more points, MacArthur or Hartnell?

How I found myself in the ICU

Hello, I am the "non traditional market" hockey fan that lured the NHL to the deserts of Arizona and the humidity soaked Florida peninsula. I was born in Florida a decade before any franchise found a home there, and I moved to Carolina five years before the Whalers had the same idea. I never even knew hockey existed until I was twelve years old, and even after I accidentally discovered the sport I did not know a single person that liked, watched, or knew a damn thing about it. Even with all those factors working against the NHL, I still fell in love with hockey.

Growing up in Florida you either played football or baseball, and I was on the diamond before I was in grade school. I spent my afternoons in the backyard with the neighborhood kids pitching a tennis ball at a trash can trying to strike out the Braves starting line-up. My love of playing sports was easily transposed into a love of watching sports. My earliest allegiance was pledged to the Florida State Seminoles, which turned out to be a great decision once I moved to North Carolina just in time to enjoy a decade of football dominance over the rest of the ACC. Later in that decade, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gained my allegiance after they drafted Warrick Dunn. When it came to baseball I was a Braves' fan for a brief moment, thanks to Ted Turner's evil empire it was easy to like a team you have easy access to. Later I witnessed Frank Thomas destroy a baseball and switched my allegiance to White Sox, but that came to an end when the strike of 94' cut the season short.

Later that year I was home alone on a Wednesday night flipping through the channels on my TV when I stumbled across Wednesday Night Hockey on ESPN. It was the first moment that I had ever witnessed hockey. The Devils were playing the Flyers and I was in awe. I had no idea what was happening; play stopped for unknown reasons, everyone had a stick, and they were all chasing a foreign object around the ice. The game was constantly in motion and at such a fast pace but still extremely physical, but it all appeared to require an amazing amount of skill. I knew instantly that I had discovered my new favorite sport.

Within minutes of turning the game on I was a Flyers' fan. I loved the orange and black colors flying around the ice. Their aggressive style reminded me of the Florida State Defense in its prime, but the Flyers appeared to be a little more ill-tempered. The idea of a goaltender was appealing to me because I was a pitcher from the first season we were allowed to pitch. I knew absolutely nothing about the sport, but I knew instantly that I loved it and that I was a Flyers' fan. Although it would take me years to fully grasp my hatred, a part of me knew then that I hated the Devils.

The rest of the 90's passed with a minimal amount of hockey in my life. I was only able to watch the Flyers games when they were on ESPN, but no one in the family liked hockey, so I only watched on rare occasions. I was awake to watch Keith Primeau net his 5 OT winner, but hockey was still scarce. It was not until I moved to Raleigh in 2002 that I was able to watch hockey on a regular basis. There I found Blinco's, probably the only bar in the city that was owned by a hockey fan and had 2 bartenders that were Flyers fans. I lived the next 2 years of my life in Blinco's watching every Flyers game, as well as every other televised sporting event. I also made friends that owned season tickets with the Canes and was able to see the Flyers live for the first time.

Since then I have moved to Philly, attended over 100 hockey games, and up until this past season I never missed more than five games a year, and now I am coauthoring a hockey blog. So that's the story of how the NHL turned a kid from the South into a die hard hockey fan.


So thanks for reading and feel free to share the story of how you became a hockey fan.