NHL Notebook: Recchi discusses his upcoming Hall of Fame induction

On Nov. 13, Mark Recchi will officially become a member of Hockey’s Hall of Fame.

Currently the assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Recchi, 49, attended the Prospects Challenge this weekend at HarborCenter. Time and again, hockey personnel congratulated him on upcoming induction.

Recchi received the news on June 26 when he received the phone call from Hall of Famer Lanny McDonald.



“It’s the highest honor, obviously,” Recchi said. “It was incredible. I have great respect for Lanny. I loved watching him and got to know him a little bit over the years. He’s a great person and it was nice to get that call from him as well.”

It was a moment that he actually thought might not happen.

“Yeah, it was,” he said. “I didn’t know which way it was going to go – I had no idea. Fortunately, they felt it was my time and I’m thankful they did.”

Recchi, who is the NHL’s 12^th all-time leading scorer with 1,533 points in 1,652 games, won three Stanley Cup championships during his 22-year career with the Penguins, Hurricanes and Bruins. He has won two more as a member of the Penguins’ front office.

He played for seven different teams – Flyers, Penguins, Canadiens, Hurricanes, Lightning, Thrashers and Bruins – and finished his career in Boston. He helped the Bruins win their first Cup in 39 years in 2011.

“It was incredible,” he said of his three seasons in Boston. “To bring the Cup back after 40 years, and just the history of hockey with an Original Six team, and it’s wonderful city. It was great way to finish my career. It was a special time and I’ve got some great friends there and it’s awesome.”

When asked if he’s started working on his induction speech, Recchi said: “I have not. Billy (Guerin) asked me the same thing. I’ll have to start Goggling Hall of Fame speeches.”

------

As camp is about to begin, Anton Khudobin is the favorite, at least on paper, to serve as the Bruins' backup. He’s also not thinking about last season. He’s filed it away because it was a disappointment. He posted a dismal 7-6-1 record, along with a .264 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage in 16 games (14 starts) as Tuukka Rask’s backup.

Khudobin did finish strong with a six-game winning streak, but had two stints with the P-Bruins in January in order to find his game.

His performance will be crucial to the Bruins’ success this season. He needs to play at least 25 games to spell Rask when needed because the starter can’t play 65 games again.

“It’s really important that I have (a strong) start and (play) the same I finished last season,” he said. “It’s important for the team and important for me too. I’m looking forward to doing that.”

After a recent captains’ practice at Warrior Ice Arena, he said he doesn’t have a certain number of games in mind.

“I just have to focus on my job. I can’t control what I can’t, so I’m going to control what I can,” he said. “I can control my preparation, my game and my practices.

“I’ve always said, for goalies, it’s really important to play more in they are in a rhythm. But my job is a little different, so I have to stay sharp.”

He missed 15 games early last season due to a wrist injury and he claims he’s 100 percent entering training camp.

-----

In the past, rookie camps or tournaments would always be filled with fights as young players attempted to make their mark. Fighting is on the decline throughout the sport, but fans still like the occasional fisticuff. There have been a few matches during the Prospects Challenge this weekend at HarborCenter. Given the intimacy of Key Bank Rink, fans were on their feet whenever players would drop their gloves. On a few occasions you could actually hear bone on flesh. During Boston’s 7-4 loss to the Sabres on Saturday, Bruins prospect Jake DeBrusk was forced to drop the gloves after Buffalo undrafted defenseman Arvin Atwal landed nearly a half dozen punches before DeBrusk responded. It shouldn’t have reached that point because the non-NHL officials failed to jump in. Speaking of referees and linesmen, if the league wants organizations to hold these types of showcases for fans then it should provided proper officiating, simply for the safety of the players.

After Saturday’s game, DeBrusk explained the few times he’s needed to drop the gloves in his young career. He actually fought current teammate Jesse Gabrielle when both were playing junior hockey. DeBrusk said he won the fight, but a few minutes later Gabrielle was asked about it and he responded: “Of course I won. If he thinks (that), because I hurt my hand on his helmet and couldn’t hold anything for a month, then yeah, but I won.”

-------

Since some of our subscribers coach hockey at different levels, I’m going to add the Drill of the Week every Sunday. Coaches are always stealing practice plans and drills from other coaches at every level of the sport, so it’ll be fun to pick one from NHL teams each week and post it here.

P-Bruins coach Jay Leach had a great one during a recent practice. It’s a full-ice 2-on-1 drill.

You put two cones on each blue line and red line about the length of the faceoff dots. Station one defenseman on each the blue, red and blue lines. The two forwards begin at the top of the faceoff circles and must attempt to posses the puck through the neutral zone and break in 2-on-0 on the goalie at the other end. If one of the defensemen breaks up the play, or the puck goes outside the cones, the play is dead.