Malhotra proving he's back where he belongs . . . in the NHL

Forward Manny Malhotra of the Montreal Canadiens has risen above his naysayers.
Hockey is a fast, hard-hitting sport. It is a fun game to play, and a majority of Canadians have a strong passion for it.
That being said, it can be a dangerous game, one that is capable of changing someone's life in a second.
Malhotra was playing for the Vancouver Canucks when his life changed.
There had been debate on whether visors should be mandatory. However, Malhotra wasn't a fan of wearing a visor and wouldn’t wear one, which meant his eyes were left unprotected.
On March 16, 2011, Malhotra, in the second season of a three-year, US$7.5-million contract, learned the consequences of not wearing one.
Vancouver was leading the visiting Colorado Avalanche 2-0 when, at 15:54 of the second period, Canucks defenceman Christian Ehrhoff made what looked like a harmless pass to Malhotra. However, the pass wasn't a clean one, and deflected off Malhotra's stick and struck him on the left eye. With blood gushing from the wound, Malhotra headed for the locker room. His season was over.
Malhotra underwent two surgeries, and was determined to be in the Canucks' lineup for the 2012-13 season, which was shortened to 48 games due to a lockout.
Vancouver management gave him a chance to do so, but with caution. After dressing for nine games, the Canucks decided it wasn’t safe for him to be on the ice. After all, it was believed that he had only regained 70 per cent of his vision.
Vancouver officially announced that Malhotra was placed on the team's injury reserve on Feb. 14 and he was shut down for the season again.
“For me, it's the hardest thing I've done in this job,” Mike Gillis, then the Canucks' general manager, said that day. “Watching what he did to try and recover from that and the difficulty of it, it was a very difficult decision for me to make and one that has been thought about for some time. It wasn't done in the spur of the moment at all. We came to the conclusion that for his long-term health and his long-term safety that it was the best thing we can do.
“I spoke to him at the end of the (2011-12) season, and he felt very strongly that if he had a full summer of training, that there would be improvement in a variety of ways, but most importantly, that he would elevate my fear of his vulnerability on the ice. I agreed that I was going to give him a period of time this season and if things didn't change we would have this conversation with him. I observed and watched. We watched him every day. I didn't feel that there had been a change and I felt that he was at risk.”
This led many observers to believe that Malhotra's career was over.
He would have none of it.
Malhotra signed a 25-game professional tryout contract with the Charlotte Checkers, the AHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes, on Oct. 3, 2013.
It was the start of a comeback.
Four weeks later, he had only played eight games with the Checkers, but the Carolina Hurricanes were happy enough with what they saw to offer him a one-year contract.
He gladly accepted.
The deal would pay him $600,000 if he stayed with the team, and $125,000 if he was sent back to the Checkers.
This time, though, he would need to wear a visor whether he liked it or not. And understandably so.
He played 69 games with the Hurricanes, scoring seven goals, drawing six assists and winning 59.4 per cent of his faceoffs. He was No. 2 in the NHL in the latter category.
Throughout his career, he has been known as one of the best players at taking the draws.
Malhotra's journey earned him the honour of being one of three finalists for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy that season. The trophy is awarded "to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”
Despite having interest in re-signing with the Hurricanes, both sides couldn't get a deal done.
Instead, on July 1, Malhotra signed a one-year contract with the Canadiens. The deal was similar to the one he had signed with Carolina.
Just 10 games into this season, he had proven to be more than a feel-good story.
He was No. 1 in faceoffs, at 63.6 per cent. As well, the Canadiens were 8-2-0, which put them at No. 1 in not just the Eastern Conference, but the entire league.
The Anaheim Ducks were tied with 16 points, but Montreal had played one less game.
However, Malhotra's faceoff percentage would be trimmed after he was 43 per cent in a 3-2 overtime loss to the host Canucks on Thursday. The game-winning goal came from forward Daniel Sedin, whose Canucks watched a 2-0 lead disappear late in the third period.
“You shouldn't give up a 2-0 lead at home,” said Sedin. “It happened, but I think we stuck with our game plan. No panic, nothing. We stayed with our game and it paid off.”
Malhotra, on the other hand, wasn't able to get on the scoresheet, but he did what he does best: take faceoffs.
Despite his vision not being what it once was, it has been apparent that Malhotra has returned to being the player people are accustomed to watching.
His return to the league was no fluke.
NOTES: The Canucks are on a three-game winning streak for the second time this season. . . . Sedin has 310 career goals. . . . The Canucks visit the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. Vancouver will be without F Alex Burrows, who was suspended for three games after a late hit on Montreal D Alexei Emelin.

(Dickson Liong is Taking Note’s Vancouver correspondent. Follow him on Twitter at @DLLiong.)

Bozon out of hospital, but long road ahead and costs are escalating

TIM BOZON

There is concern in WHL circles that people are going to see Kootenay Ice F Tim Bozon up and about, now that he has been released from Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, and come to the conclusion that all is well and that his family doesn’t need financial aid.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Because Bozon’s situation wasn’t due to a hockey-related injury, Hockey Canada’s insurance doesn’t cover any of it.
When it comes to healthcare, each WHL team will buy insurance for each of its European players. In Bozon’s case, he had a policy that was taken out by the Kamloops Blazers, his original team, and transferred to the Ice when he was traded to Kootenay on Oct. 22.
Unfortunately, that policy expired on March 13, while Bozon was in hospital.
(There is no standardization in the healthcare policies taken out for European players. For example, one team might have a $25,000 policy, while another may go for $100,000. One WHL team official told me Friday that there almost definitely will be standardization of some sort brought in following what has happened with Bozon.)
One source has told me that the WHL and the Ice are pursuing all avenues in attempts to find financial help and/or relief for the Bozon family.
I also was told that Saskatchewan has the highest ICU rates in Canada. Combine that with the cost of rehabilitation and, before all of this is dealt with, the tab is going to be well into six figures.
“There is a big-time cost to this . . . big-time costs,” the source said. “They are escalating and we have a long way to go.”

In a photo from the Saskatoon Blades' Twitter feed,
Dr. Gary Hunter (left), Tim Bozon and Philippe
Bozon address a news conference
in Saskatoon on Friday.

Bozon was admitted to RUH in Saskatoon on March 1. He was diagnosed with Neisseria meningitis, a disease that involves inflammation around the brain and spine that can be fatal. Bozon was placed in a medically induced coma as doctors worked to slow the disease’s advance.
For much of the past four weeks, he was in critical condition in RUH’s intensive care unit. Last week, doctors brought him slowly out of the coma and his condition soon was upgraded to stable. He was well enough to appear at a news conference at the hospital on Friday, just before being discharged.
"I'm doing good, I've been through a lot," Bozon said at the news conference that was streamed by Global News. "It's been about a month and I've improved a lot and I'm feeling better now. As you can tell, my voice is not 100 per cent recovered, but I'm feeling better. I'm excited to leave the hospital.”
Bozon, who turned 20 on Monday, is 6-foot-1 and plays at about 195 pounds. On Friday, he appeared much thinner than that, and he also has a raspy voice, the result of having spent much of the last four weeks on a feeding tube.
“From what I have learned since coming out of the coma, the people here at the Royal University Hospital went to amazing lengths to save my life. To them, first and foremost, my heartfelt thanks. But I must also extend gratitude to everyone who sent me their thoughts and prayers, especially my parents, who rushed here from France to be by my side."
His parents, Helene and Philippe, arrived from their home in France on March 2. Tim’s younger brother, Kevin, flew over from Switzerland last week, once his junior hockey team in Lugano had completed its season.
"I want to say from my wife and I how proud we are of you Timmy, for fighting like this,” Philippe said during the news conference. “I know it was a tough fight and I know you are still fighting, and I will always have faith in you.”
Bozon was in the Ice’s lineup on Feb. 28, scoring his 33rd goal of the season in a 4-2 victory. He apparently doesn’t remember scoring that goal, or much about that game, although he remembers going to a concert by the Goo Goo Dolls on Feb. 27. He began to feel ill following the game and that got progressively worse through the night. Athletic trainer Cory Cameron made the decision that Bozon had something worse than the flu and was going to have to go to hospital, and he got him there around 8:45 a.m.
Philippe, who played in the NHL with the St. Louis Blues (1991-95), credits Cameron with having saved Tim’s life.
"(Cameron) reacted really well when things happened that night, really quick after the game," Philippe said. "It was amazing. In three hours, Tim went from being a healthy man. Cory did the right thing by bringing him to the hospital. He probably saved his life and I'm really thankful for him."
Cameron visited the Bozons in Saskatoon during the few day before the playoffs began and, since returning to the Ice, has been in twice-daily contact with Philippe. They have spoken each morning and again at night.
Dr. Gary Hunter, a neurologist at RUH who treated Tim, told the news conference that getting prompt medical attention was key to the recovery process.
"Any bacterial meningitis is a serious problem, and he certainly was very sick, but he received excellent care," Dr. Hunter said. “Because he's a young, tough kid he was able to pull through. His progress since he left the ICU has been really amazing. So I think his prognosis is really excellent.
“He's really motivated. He's got an amazing family that kept me calm most of the time in the ICU. He's a tough guy and he's really motivated so I think he's going to do really well.”
Dr. Hunter admitted that the medical community hasn’t any idea how Bozon contacted the disease.
"Bacterial meningitis in young people (who) are young and healthy is uncommon, in the first place,” he explained. “This particular bug is even more uncommon. We don't have a good reason for why he contracted it besides bad luck, really.”
As for looking into Bozon’s future, Dr. Hunter said: “It's very difficult to speculate exactly on his long-term neurological prognosis, but his early progress has been so tremendous and he's such a healthy guy that I'm very optimistic about (his playing hockey again)."
Bozon and his parents are scheduled to arrive in Cranbrook, B.C., this morning and are to attend tonight’s playoff game between the Ice and Calgary Hitmen. Kootenay, the Eastern Conference’s No. 6 seed, leads the No. 3 Hitmen, 3-2 in games, and can end the series tonight. Tim will take part in a ceremonial faceoff.
Later, the Bozons will journey to Montreal where Tim, a third-round selection by the Canadiens in the NHL’s 2012 draft, will meet with that team’s medical staff. He also will have a dental appointment or two, as he needs to get some damage repaired after being injured -- the Ice thought at the time that he had a broken jaw -- during one of his last games. Bozon has signed a three-year entry-level NHL contract with the Habs.
Eventually, the Bozons will end up at home in France and Tim will settle into the rehabilitation process at a clinic in Capbreton.
The Bozons have been blown away by the way the hockey community has responded to their son’s situation.
"It's been an unbelievable month for us," an emotional Philippe said. "Obviously, there was the tough part, but some nice things have happened to our family. Everyone, from all the people in hockey to the doctors to the people on the sixth floor helping with the physiotherapy, have been unbelievable to us . . . I can't believe how much support we've had from all over the world."
---
A trust fund has been established to assist the Bozon family with medical- and rehabilitation-related costs.
You are able to make a donation at any BMO Bank of Montreal branch in Western Canada.
Should you live outside of that area and want to donate, please mail donations to:
Western Hockey League
c/o Tim Bozon
Father David Bauer Arena
2424 University Drive NW
Calgary AB
T2N 3Y9

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Blazers' line fuelled by chemistry

Tim Bozon (left), Colin Smith and J.C. Lipon give Kamloops one
of the WHL's premier forward lines.
(Murray Mitchell / Kamloops Daily News)

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Most comedians are known for a line.
“Take my wife,” muttered Henny Youngman. “Please.”
“I went to a fight the other night,” said Rodney Dangerfield, “and a hockey game broke out.”
“A house is just a place to keep your stuff,” said George Carlin, “while you go out and get more stuff.”
The Kamloops Blazers have a line, too. They just don’t expect the opposition to find it at all funny.
Colin Smith centres Tim Bozon and J.C. Lipon. A 19-year-old from Edmonton who gets around in a Hummer H3. An 18-year-old left winger who was born in St. Louis, speaks English, French, Italian and German, lives in Switzerland, and plays internationally for France. A 19-year-old right winger from Regina who is a national-calibre wakeboarder.
Together, they put up 221 points, including 90 goals, last season.
Chemistry? The Nutty Professor should have had such chemistry.
It all began with the second game of last season. The Blazers had lost their season-opening game “then we got put together,” says Smith.
“The first game was against Vancouver and I think we had a couple of goals,” Smith says, referring to a 6-2 Kamloops victory in which he scored once and the other two combined for five assists. “The next game was against Victoria and it was kind of our coming out party, if you want to put it that way.”
The Blazers buried the Royals 8-2 in that one, with Lipon scoring twice and setting up two others, Smith getting a goal and three assists, and Bozon picking up one of each.
They only got better as the season went on, too.
“When we really started to have good chemistry was in the second half,” says Bozon, who was honoured as the Western Conference’s rookie of the year and later found himself being selected by the Montreal Canadiens in the third round of the NHL’s 2012 draft. (Smith was taken by the Colorado Avalanche in the seventh round; the undrafted Lipon later signed a tryout deal with the Avalanche.)
They also learned that a hockey season is much like a ride on a roller-coaster.
Lipon: “When you are playing together for so long, you can go into little droughts. But we always ended up back together.”
Smith: “It’s good, too, if one guy is having an off night, the other two guys kind of pick him up. We have that sense of confidence in each other.”
Bozon: “We know if one of us is weak one game, we aren’t going to change the lines. We are going to be back together the next game.”
Put all of that together and what do you have?
“It’s confidence,” Smith explained. “For a long time, whatever the reasons were, we had some down years, but the bar was raised last season. It’s almost like a standard . . . We want to win and that’s our goal.
“In the past, it was kind of ‘we’ll see what happens’ and unfortunately we were on the wrong side of a lot of games. Now it’s ‘we want to win’ and that’s our expectation.”
“Going into a game now,” Lipon says, “you have it in the back of your mind that we’re going to win this game.”
Then, referencing a 5-4 overtime victory over the Vancouver Giants on Sept. 7, in which he scored the winner, Lipon added, “The other night we were down 4-1 in the third period, and it was ‘We’re not going to lose this game.’ ”
It would seem that Lipon benefited more than anyone from this alliance. After all, he topped out at three goals in each of his first two seasons with the Blazers. Last season, he scored 19 times and finished with 65 points.
What happened?
“I changed my curve,” Lipon says, exhibiting a dry wit that is far beyond his years.
Seriously, after getting four points against Victoria in that 8-2 victory, he realized he could still score.
“But,” he adds, “I still think my goal on the line is to take the body.”
If a successful line has a hitman, a playmaker and a shooter, Lipon would fill the former role, with Smith as the assist man — he had 35 goals and 50 assists — and Bozon the one who loves to shoot and score.
And there may not be a line in the WHL that cycles the puck in the offensive zone the way these guys do. They love to get the puck deep and work over the other team’s defencemen.
“That’s probably our biggest asset,” Smith says. “In the league now, it’s tough to get a whole lot off the rush. We try to use the whole zone and each other.
“Our whole team, we practise it a lot. As a team identity, we try to thrive off the cycle.”
And now, coming off the successes of last season, Bozon, Smith and Lipon are prepared to lead their teammates into another winter.
“You want the puck and you want to be out there in key situations,” Smith says. “It’s awesome having two guys that you feel confident with out there with you.”
They know, too, that they will have targets on their backs. After running with the big dogs last season, the Blazers won’t be sneaking up on anyone.
“Last season, in meetings with coaches,” Bozon says, “they said to be ready for next season because everybody knows us now.
“It’ll be a challenge.”


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