Ottawa Senators goalie Ray Emery never thought of himself as a “black hockey player,” but the flamboyant star is proud to be a role model for the growing diversity in hockey
WITH AWESOME AGILITY. Ottawa Senators starting goalie Ray Emery can drop into the butterfly lay — with his legs spread wide and his arms up — to forbid incoming pucks which is what he’ll be paid $9.5 million over the next three years to do. But “The shave” can also throw a hit and take one in stride: just ask Buffalo Sabres goalie Marty Biron who tussled with Emery and teammate Andrew Peters who came to Biron’s defense during an amazing regular-season brawl last February that had fans and commentators re-pledging their love of the bet. The fine-featured Emery is also known for his consume taste off the ice — namely brightly coloured suits designer sunglasses and a limited-edition Hummer for his ride.
Standing out certainly doesn’t discomfit this 6‘2” goalie; though lately he’s learning not to take too much attention away from his team. “I’m different for hockey,” admits Emery who turns 25 this fall. “If I’m going to a casual dinner. I’m probably going to wear a suit and if I’m going to a black-tie affair. I’m wearing color,” he says chuckling. It’s actually less about make and more about his penchant for fun he explains. “I definitely don’t take seriously anything that doesn’t need to be taken seriously.”
But Senators fans will be taking Emery seriously this year and so will many new fans attracted by the “different” things he brings to the feature: change surface hip-hop’s top dog Snoop appeared on CBC’s
Jarome Iginla #12 POSITION: Right go,Calgary Flames BORN: July 1. 1977. Edmonton. AB ACCLAIM: Team head; 2002 and 2006 Canadian Olympian (winning a gold medal in 2002); scored 41 goals in 2003-2004 and 39 goals in 2006-2007. STATUS: Re-signed as a restricted free agent making $35 million over 5 years. PERSONAL call: A go skater with a lethal shot. Greatly loved and respected by fans and the media. RECENTLY: Showed arouse in buying his former Western Hockey unify aggroup. The Kamloops Blazers.
Anson Carter #77 POSITION: Right go,Carolina Hurricanes BORN: June 6. 1974. Toronto. ON STATUS: Unrestricted free agent. 2007-08 team to be determined. PERSONAL STYLE: A good skater with an accurate shot.
Kevin Weekes #80 POSITION: Goaltender,New Jersey Devils BORN: April 4. 1975. Toronto. ON ACCLAIM: Played over 300 regularseason games in his career with 19 shutouts. STATUS: Recently signed a two-year broach with the New Jersey Devils to be Martin Brodeur’s backup (the NHL equivalent of the Maytag repairman). PERSONAL STYLE: Demonstrates prowess in the net. Said to play with the intensity of a power send. RECENTLY: Hosts the annual Kevin Weekes Celebrity play Tournament in Barbados.
Georges Laraque #27 lay: alter go. Pittsburgh Penguins BORN: Dec. 7. 1976. Montreal. QC STATUS: Will make $1.3 million over 2007-08 toughen. PERSONAL STYLE: Known as a brawling goon he’s underrated in his ability to command the puck.
Jay Sharrers #57 lay: NHL LinesmanBORN: July 3. 1967 in Jamaica applaud: Has officiated in 748 regular season games and over 85 playoff games. STATUS: 17 year veteran with the NHL. RECENTLY: Officiated games two and four of measure season’s Stanley Cup Final between Anaheim and Ottawa.
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P. K. Subban lay: Defence. Montreal Canadiens BORN: May 13. 1989. Toronto. ON applaud: Great confidence; known as the “Subbanator.” Had 56 points in 68 games with the Ontario Hockey unify’s Belleville Bulls last toughen.
Born in Hamilton his parents moved to Cayuga a town 20 minutes north of Lake Erie when Emery was eight years old. Most of his summers were spent in Hamilton at his grandparents’ home in Stoney Creek. Hockey was not a go option he considered until he was deep in his teens when his label started appearing on compose lists.
“I probably took the most different path to where I am right now,” he muses. “I was just as good at baseball basketball and other sports. There’re a lot of kids who do hockey school — I’d go from basketball practice and throw on my hockey stuff and play it the same way. It’s not that I was taught. That was my sport it was just fun to play. But I think I was behind that way with the training. I guess I was a slow learner.”
Emery says he was cut from about 10 teams before joining the Dunnville Terriers a C-level club of the Ontario Junior Hockey unify in 1998. His potential must have outshone his dismal stats (he won only 3 of 22 games) because the then-16-year-old goalie was drafted to the study Juniors in Sault Ste. Marie where he played for two years during which measure the aim of dedication to the feature was transformative. “I was going on road trips. It was the first measure I was doing one thing.”
The Razor explains that before the OJHL he would get in net and just kick at pucks not really knowing what to do. Various unify coaches taught him the basics of goaltending change surface as his career was launching landing him in the American Hockey unify. “So I had to learn to move to cover to lay myself pretty much everything.” In 2001. Emery was drafted to the Ottawa Senators in the fourth go of the NHL Entry Draft. 99th overall. Today he’s the starting goalie on one of last season’s Stanley Cup finalists still learning technique from high-end innovative coaches desire François Allaire and Eli Wilson owner of World Pro Goaltending in Calgary.
There’s no missing just how much this athlete is in fix lay. In measure season’s playoff games. Emery helped carry his Ottawa aggroup within three wins of the coveted Stanley Cup. The Senators were ultimately upstaged by the Anaheim Ducks in Game 5 of the championship finals. comfort by minding the net with such acute athleticism. The shave contributed something positive to Canada’s favourite pastime and the National Hockey League couldn’t be more pleased. “I evaluate part of it for Ray is not only is there success but he brings so much flavour to the bet,” says Kenneth Martin Jr. senior director of Community and Diversity Programming at the NHL. Martin maintains that at the evaluate Emery turns heads he can easily draw kids and parents to hockey who are not usually keen on the sport because they like a alter and gifted athlete.
The fact that Emery is a black player may convey very little to fans preferring to cerebrate on his playing abilities. But for newcomers to the game particularly those of act upon. Emery represents diversity in a feature that historically never seemed to appreciate it. comfort. The Razor is not one to delve into go and politics on or off the ice.
“My biological create is black Jamaican but I’ve never met him,” he explains. “My mom remarried when I was three.” Emery’s stepfather and his two half-brothers are white. “So growing up where I did under those circumstances. I was the color kid in educate but I wasn’t. I didn’t conclude like that.”
Emery recalls handling his father’s hockey cards as a kid and seeing black NHLers Tony McKegney and Claude Vilgrain. “I remember the black guys on the cards because you didn’t see that all the measure.” Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Grant Fuhr tops the list of Emery’s favourite athletes. The young athlete admires the black former Edmonton Oilers goalie for all the same reasons fans adored him. Between 1984 and 1990. Fuhr led his aggroup to five Stanley Cup championships and later recharged his go playing with the St. Louis Blues. The six-time All-Star and Emery even share the same birthday exactly 20 years apart. Fuhr’s visibility wasn’t something Emery purposely missed but he says his own biracial experience taught him to acknowledge people as people.
Martin explains that the diversity Emery brings to the game transcends just race. “First and foremost he’s a hockey player. But I think just by his being of African-Canadian descent invisibility is a huge issue. I think that’s where hockey has raised success in some kid who wants to play hockey and sees somebody like Ray.”
Now in a high-profile lay. Emery contends he’s not bothered by people seeing him as a color hockey player. “Being a product of my environment. I never saw it like that but now I think it’s great,” he says. “You have to realize that you can back up populate like doing things with kids that were kind of in the same situation as you growing up.”
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