Chris Kunitz's Journey To NHL Success

on top, it makes it difficult to compare him to Sidney Crosby. But, since the evolution of hockey

This selection convention is typical throughout the world and is how the best of the best eventually make their way into professional sports such as hockey, soccer, and the Olympics. The idea that a person’s individual merit is the sole reason behind his or her success is challenged. An interesting connection is realized in the birth month of star hockey players; it is discovered that more hockey players have birth months in January, February, and March than in any other month of the year. The reason is found in the January 1st cutoff date for acceptance into age classed hockey leagues. The advantage of being 9-11 months older than other players yields advantages that build upon themselves as players’ skills progress. Similar correlations were found in other types of sports and in academics. Hard work, consistency, and motivation were undoubtedly involved in the successes of those analyzed, however, attention is drawn to a very important notion; in order to find out what makes a person successful, you also need to know where they come from.

This seemingly small advantage in most cases tends to give the older kids an advantage over the younger players because they get more playing time, get placed on better teams, receive better coaching, and in turn become more skilled hockey players. Obviously those who go on to succeed must have innate talent, but that is not the primary factor deciding whether they succeed or fail at the sport. The primary factor in how good they become at hockey is the better opportunities they received because of their age. When applying Gladwell’s Outlier theory “The outliers in a particular field reached their lofty status through a combination of ability, opportunity, and utterly arbitrary advantage” (37) the birth date of the hockey players serves a crucial role and is just an arbitrary advantage. The coaches should not place the same expectations on the younger players or the younger players should be put in a younger league more suitable for them so they too can be given a chance to become great like those born in the earlier months. Since this doesn’t happen though those born earlier are much more likely to become great, which provides a solid backing of Gladwell’s Outlier theory.

Coach Steve Rocker is one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in Kentucky’s history. Coach Rocker was very successful in previous years. Strangely, this year was very different for him. For the first time in his professional life, he is falling short of his expectations, the community expectations, and the team’s expectations. His team lost a lot of games, but most importantly the boys had no motivation or desire to bring the team out of the rut they found themselves. His players have lost their will to win, their love for their teammates, and their passion to play. Coach Rocker’s motivational methods that have always worked before and resulted in success are now failing, and he doesn’t know why. He argues that his players have become selfish and bored with winning because they have been so successful in previous years. “And there’s no question that my guys have lost their drive to win because they’ve won so much in the past. Now all they want is individual ‘wins’…which just doesn’t cut it on a team” (Gongwer, 2010, p. 17).

Hockey, a sport who’s premier league is the NHL. The NHL, over time has had its fair share of players who dominated the game. Some of these players were just “too good”. Examples of this are Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, and the Great one, Wayne Gretzky. Today, there are a lot of great players in the league, sadly to go down in history in any sport you need to be at the top of your time. In current days we see plenty of good, young players, who really contribute to the league but some of the older players who have established their name to everyone are the only ones who have really put themselves in the history books. Today I’m writing this article to talk about two players, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. The two players are considered the

Another one of the most influential hockey players of all time is Bobby Orr. Orr was born in 1948 in Parry Sound, Canada (Orr). Bucko McDonald, a former NHL defenseman in the 30's and 40's, coached the young Bobby. He believed he could be a great defenseman with lots of speed and high stick skills as well. This turned out to be one of the beet moves for Bobby's career, as Orr played ten seasons in the NHL. He played nine years with the Bruins, and his final year in Chicago. He wished to play longer if it wasn't for his knees giving out on him, as he injured them both early in his NHL career. Nevertheless, Orr was arguably called the greatest defenseman of all time for what he did in both sides of the ice.

He shoots he scores! The history of hockey has changed over time. There are many good players that wouldn't be as good if these changes wouldn't have changed.

It seems like Tiki and Ronde’s hard work payed off. Do you think that Tiki could have been able to win the game for his team if he had only practiced by himself? Do you think it is important to work with other people to stay motivated to work hard, or do you think working hard by yourself is enough? Why?”

A rookie NHL All-Star, the number one overall pick, an 18 year old from Arizona, and the future of the NHL, number 34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews is fifth overall in total goals this season. Auston Matthews was born in San Ramon, California on September 17, 1997 and at two months old, moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. To start, his Uncle had season tickets to then, Phoenix Coyotes games, now Arizona Coyotes, where Auston went to his first hockey game when he was three years old and fell in love with the sport. He first started hockey at age five and was once better at baseball than he was at hockey. He was good baseball because he had good eye-hand coordination and hitting was his strength. Anyhow, there weren't

1. (Outliers) Page 19-20: Biologists often talk about the “ecology” of an organism: the tallest oak in the forest is the tallest not just because it grew from the hardiest acorn; it is the tallest also because no other trees blocked its sunlight, the soil around it was deep and rich, no rabbit chewed through its bark as a sapling, and no lumberjack cut it down before it matured. 2. (Outliers) Page 17: If you have ability, the vast network of hockey scouts and talent spotters will find you, and if you are willing to work to develop that ability, the system will reward you. Success in hockey is based on individual merit—and both of those words are important. Players are judged on their own performance, not on

Born in Floral, Saskatchewan, Gordon “Gordie” Howe is seemingly born to play hockey. At 15, Howe was offered a tryout for the New York Rangers. He attended their training camp in Winnipeg until he got homesick and returned home. The next year, he was offered a spot on the Detroit Red Wings by Coach and Manager Jack Adams. He impressed Adams at a workout, with his sharp shot from the left wing.

Patrick Kane was drafted fast and to a good team. He was the number one draft pick in 2007. He knew most of his teammates from the Blackhawks from

This was because his 40-year-old body was starting to catch up with his NHL career. He could not keep up with the speed of the “new NHL.” Also, he was dealing with atrial fibrillation, an irregular and often rapid heart rate than can increase your risk of stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications. Even though he was scoring at a rate that a lot of NHL forwards would love to be scoring at he said, “I can no longer play at a level I was accustomed to in the

As my age increased, I fell down less, and I began to play in full ice hockey games. With age became an the fact that hockey kept becoming more and more important to me. I was

With so many people in the world there’s so many different experiences especially between parents and their children. In high school my mom didn’t have the best social life she more or less had acquaintances. I on the other hand am a very social Person. I like to hang out with my friends. Another major difference between my mom and I is how our free time was spent. In my mom’s free time she would volunteer at many different places as much as she could because, she loved giving back. I haven't volunteered. I like helping people I just love golf much more. I guess my mom and I are a little more different then I