Cleary’s intent on playing again
Seward hopes to bring Calder Cup to city; what a night in senior softball
Danny Cleary is saying his summer the same thing that he said this spring, that he plans to be playing hockey this fall.
You might remember back in midMay when Cleary spoke to The Telegram’s Robin Short about his 2015-16 season with the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins — his first AHL experience since 2000 — and how he enjoyed his role as an unofficial playing coach ,and hoped it might eventually to a role behind the bench or as part of a team’s hockey operations.
However, the 37-year-old from Riverhead, Harbour Grace said he wasn’t ready for such a move right away, and he reiterated the same to the Detroit News earlier this week.
“I really enjoyed what I did last season, being in that role (with Grand Rapids), helping the young kids grow into future Red Wings,” Cleary told the News. “I’m training to do that (playing).
“It was a lot of fun, and I still want to play. The thing is, though, is can this body hold up over the course of a season? But I feel I can help mentor young players, and show them what it takes to play in the NHL.”
Cleary had three goals and 12 assists in 35 games for Grand Rapids, which made it as far as the AHL Western Conference final before losing to the eventual Calder Cup champion Lake Erie Monsters.
Staying with the Monsters, their video coach is Lewisporte native Darryl Seward, and Seward, who lives in Paradise during the off-season, recently told the Lewisporte Pilot he hopes to bring the Calder Cup to Newfoundland this off-season
“Hopefully, later this summer, we’ll get it to St. John’s and make some rounds with it,” he told the Pilot.
Seward, a graduate of Memorial University, worked as an assistant coach with the Moncton Beavers of the Maritime junior A league and Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League before moving on to the AHL, first with the Syracuse Crunch and then to Columbus Blue Jackets’ affiliates in Springfield and Cleveland-based Lake Erie. One more AHL note. A name on the Canadian Open leaderboard might seem familiar to folks who’ve taken in St. John’s IceCaps games at Mile One Centre. That’s Garrett Rank, who split last season working as a referee in the NHL and AHL.
Rank was a good enough hockey player to have once competed collegiately with the University of Waterloo, but golfing was his first sports love and he’s obviously good at it.
The 28-year-old from Elmira, Ont., who is the two-time defending Canadian mid-amateur (25-and-over) champion, had the second-best score amongst all Canadians in the Open’s first round.
But even if Rank didn’t have the sidebar as a pro hockey official, he’d still be quite a story since he’s a cancer survivor, having successfully undergone surgery for testicular cancer five years ago.
There were plenty of great performances in St. John’s senior softball Thursday night at Lions Park.
Jason Hill threw a five-inning, one-hit shutout; hit a three-run homer and drove in five runs while teammate Kyle Ezekiel had six RBIs on a two-run homer and a grand slam as the league-leading Dance Academy Dodgers blasted The Bigs 19-0.
And Kenny Gosse went five-for-five at the plate, hit a three-run home and drove in four runs as the NTV Hitmen downed the Kelly’s Pub Junior Canadians 7-4.
However, the most interesting story might have been Eddy McDonald’s first career pitching win in the senior league as he took to the mound for the Hitmen.
McDonald played 16 years as an infielder in the senior circuit from 1993-2010, making only two pitching appearances during that time, both in relief.
McDonald, who has been playing and pitching in the C.B.C. men’s fastpitch league the last number of seasons, scattered eight hits, struck out six and walked four in a complete-game showing Thursday.