37 Stories About Karlis

I came across this tweet from @GirtsMataleao about a new hockey book in Latvia about the late Karlis Skrastins.

The book is called 37 Stories About Karlis and appears to only be available in Latvian. I have no idea if an English release is in the works or if this book will ever make it's way to North America.

Skrastins of course is a former NHL defenseman who lost his life along with the rest of his teammates and coaches when the plane carrying Russian hockey league team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl crashed a year ago.

The book's website is also in Latvian. Using Google Translate here is what I've learned about the book.

Journalist Guntis Keisels compiled by legendary hockey Charles Skrastiņa family and friends telling stories of the book "37 stories of Karl." 

Karlis Skrastins will remain eternally 37 years old, which he had filled with great events, emotions, loved ones and, of course, his great love - hockey. This book has many authors. Both the Charles family and friends, teammates and coaches who shared their memories and sports journalists who wrote these stories. 

"37 stories of Karl" is a monument to Latvian boy who found his early call for the ability to reach your goal and left themselves so many good atmiņu.Grāmatā much a human story that will be interesting and any good hockey fan, as well as those who Karl heard the news broadcasts. 

Number "3" and "7" Charles Skrastiņa - Iron Man - fate was significant. He was destined to live for saturated and purposeful life 37 years to become one of the most prominent and effective Latvian hockey players. The figures were on the hockey shirts, car and phone numbers. He had three daughters. All evil on 7 July. September at three in the afternoon. 

Involved in producing a book - Wife Zane Skrastiņa, Mom Eve Skrastiņa, brother Atis Skrastins, coach Leonid Beresņevs and Oleg Znaroks, team members Rodrigo avalanches, Girts Ankipāns, friends Maris Akmentins, Aija Steel, Robert Štelmahere, journalists Mariss Anderson, Dainis Āzens, Ingmar Jurisons Guntis Keisels, John Matulis, Ilze Pole, Armand owls, Mr. Zemberga and many others. 

Book issued by the publishing house "Penguin Books," and from 5. September it will be available in bookstores across Latvia.

Remembering Karlis Skrastins

Not too many people can say this, but Karlis Skrastins was one of my favorite NHL players.

I have always had a soft spot for underrated players, and I often felt the Latvian was one of the NHL's best kept secrets in his time. Over a 12 year NHL career he was a hard working, unheralded defensive defenseman. He was noted for his shot blocking, and for his durability.  In fact, he broke Tim Horton's NHL record for consecutive games played by a defenseman, playing 495 games in a row.

In total he played 832 NHL games, most notably with Nashville and Colorado, but also with Florida and Dallas. He just left the NHL in 2011, joining the doomed team in Yaroslavl, Russia. On the team's first road trip of the 2011-12 season, a plane crashed claimed the lives of all but one of the members of the team.

Honouring Iron Men, Housley

Terry Frei of ESPN.com has a nice article remembering hockey's great iron men. Doug Jarvis, Garry Unger, Steve Larmer, Craig Ramsay, Tim Horton, Rod Brind'Amour, and of course Glenn Hall all get mentioned. But hey, he forgot about "Handy Andy" Hebenton, hockey's original iron man.

Why this piece at this time? Because Karlis Skrastins is about to break Tim Horton's record for most consecutive games played by a NHL defensemen (487 games).

Skrastins is a no-name defenseman that I have the highest respect for. I've always felt he was one of the NHL's best kept secrets, and probably remains so despite the current spotlight. Alan Maki of the Globe and Mail has a good write up on just who is the man known as Skratch.

James Mirtle has an interesting observation about the defenseman's record vs. Doug Jarvis' all time record of 964 consecutive games.

It's unreal how pronounced the difference between the overall record and that for defencemen. Playing on an NHL blueline is undoubtedly more of a physical grind than the role of a forward, but one would think that over time at least one defenceman would have managed to crack the Top 10.

Housley Honoured

The Buffalo Sabres will honour Phil Housley on Wednesday night. They won't be retiring his jersey per se, but will be inducting him into the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame.

Here's a Phil Housley profile I wrote for SabresAlumni.com back in 2001.

More On Vernon

As I posted yesterday, Mike Vernon had his jersey #30 retired by the Calgary Flames. Today's newspaper clips include a Calgary Herald interview with Stan Smyl, the man who is forever intertwined in Vernon's hockey immortality.

I also enjoyed the Herald's One Kidd And Plenty Of Goats story looking back, through the eyes of long time Flames executive Al MacNeil, at all the other Flames goalies outside of Vernon and Miikka Kiprusoff.

Here's an excerpt.

"(Pat) Riggin was a guy who had the skills, but he just wasn't committed enough to the game. He was always down at the racetrack or off doing something else. Later, I thought the same of Trefilov. You look at his numbers in the minors, and you think 'This guy can't miss.' ''

Well, he did. Miss, that is.

"After Riggin, we had Reggie (Lemelin). Good team guy. Good enough goalie. But not a great one. And the Oilers were loaded at that time, with Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, Coffey, Anderson. We needed great goaltending to beat the Oilers and he just couldn't seem to do that.''

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