A podcast with Buffalo Hockey Beat’s Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald on covering a chaotic team like the Sabres, the “tank” season of 2014-15 and Ryan O’Reilly’s Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy:
News
Wild, Maple Leafs win 2016-17 Dillman Award
The Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) has named the Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs as recipients for the 2016-17 Dick Dillman Award for their respective conferences.
The award recognizes public relation staffs which go to extra lengths to help promote and cover their teams as well as the NHL.
Anderson, Cogliano, Ryan named Masterton finalists
Ottawa Senators goaltender Craig Anderson, Anaheim Ducks left winger Andrew Cogliano and Carolina Hurricanes center Derek Ryan have been named finalists for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.
Members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) vote on the trophy which is awarded “to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey,”
Tributes for a writing legend
Like he has so many times before in his copy, one line from Cam Cole left our jaws dropped.
“Since someone spilled the beans: My last day at Postmedia is Dec. 16. Man, 41 years went fast,” Cam announced on Twitter.
With that, the tributes poured in.
Paula Duhatschek wins inaugural Jim Kelley Memorial Scholarship
The Professional Hockey Writers Association is proud to announce Paula Duhatschek as inaugural recipient of the Jim Kelley Memorial Scholarship.
Duhatschek is the daughter of PHWA member and Globe and Mail columnist Eric Duhatschek. This particular award means a great deal to the Duhatschek family since Kelley was chosen to introduce Eric Duhatschek as the 2001 winner of the Elmer Ferguson Award at the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Paula Duhatschek met Kelley that day when she attended the luncheon in Toronto as an 8-year-old – but she was awarded this scholarship on blind merit. Duhatschek’s scholarship essay was voted the winner by a panel of six PHWA members; all names and identifiable references were redacted from submissions.
Member profiles: Guillaume Lefrançois
Working in the NHL’s only two-language market, La Presse hockey writer Guillaume Lefrançois wanted to find out if that was why he found it difficult to extract information from Canadiens management.
It turns out, he wasn’t the only one.
“I spoke to Pierre LeBrun, Bob McKenzie and Elliotte Friedman,” Lefrançois said this week. “What I learned and what they told me was it wasn’t just us from Montreal, it was everybody across the league finding it hard to get information out of the Montreal market.”
Flames, Panthers named winners of Dillman Award
The Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) is delighted to announce that the Florida Panthers and the Calgary Flames are the recipients of the Dick Dillman Award, given each season to the top public relations department in each conference.
This is Florida’s first Dillman award, and it’s no coincidence that it coincides with the arrival of Chris Wojcik, who left the Arizona Coyotes and joined the Panthers this season. Kudos to Chris and his staff – media relations coordinator Michael Lewis, Director of Digital Media Addie Biedenback and public relations coordinator Chrissy Parente – for their diligence and cooperation.
A farewell to the daily miracle
At the end, the personal effects from my desk and a filing cabinet fit into two banker’s boxes, neither bulging at the seams.
The memories, if they weren’t abstract, would have filled a moving van.
After almost 30 years spent during two stops, after several thousand bylined stories and a few million words, I took my leave from the Montreal Gazette mid-afternoon last Friday.
Amid lengthening shadows stretching down Ste. Catherine St., the city’s decades-ago “usual-route” Stanley Cup parade path, I considered my new writing home two blocks to the east and one to the north – the 26th-floor Montreal offices of the National Hockey League.
Voting totals from the 2015 NHL Awards
Check out the final tallies for the NHL Awards as voted by the PHWA
McKenzie honored with 2015 Elmer Ferguson
Hockey Hall Of Fame announces NHL Media Awards
Scott Burnside, President of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, and Chuck Kaiton, President of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association, announced today that Bob McKenzie will receive the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award for excellence in hockey journalism and Nick Nickson will receive the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster.