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 Big season, big summer for Neal

Sunday, June 08, 2008

By Kevin Wey

Last summer, as Dallas Stars training camp 2007 approached, it would not have been entirely unreasonable for Stars fans to expect prospect left winger James Neal to make an impact in training camp and to crack the Dallas line-up if things went very well, and, if not, to at least make an early impact in the American Hockey League with the Iowa Stars. After all, Neal was a second round pick (33rd overall) of the Stars in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft and his final season of major junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League went exceptionally well.

In 2006-07 with the Plymouth Whalers, Neal’s third full season with the team, he scored an impressive 27 goals and 38 assists in 45 regular season games and played for the Western Conference in the OHL All-Star Game. A knee injury suffered in February caused him to miss the end of the regular season, but if there were any concerns for its implications on 2007-08 with the Dallas Stars organization, they were seemingly dispelled when Neal scored 13 goals and 12 assists in 20 games in the 2007 OHL Playoffs, leading the Whalers in playoff scoring and helping Plymouth win the OHL championship.

To top it off, Neal went on to lead all players in goal scoring at the Memorial Cup by tallying 5 goals in 5 games.

With such exploits came such honors and awards as Plymouth Whalers Playoff MVP (for the second year in a row) and OHL First All-Star Team member, as well as recognition in the OHL Western Conference Coaches Poll as the top body checker in the conference.

In addition, earlier in the season, the 19-year-old Whitby, Ontario, native also played for Canada at the 2007 World Junior Championships in late December and early January in Sweden, where Neal and Team Canada won the gold.

So, again, after Neal’s superb 2006-07 season, Dallas fans could have been forgiven for expecting Neal to make an early impact, but that’s not what happened.

Neal did not make Dallas out of training camp. He was instead assigned to Iowa Sept. 26, ten days before the I-Stars’ first regular season game Oct. 6. The 20-year-old left winger did not score in that first game, a 7-1 road loss to the San Antonio Rampage. He was also held pointless in Iowa’s next game on Oct. 12, a 4-3 overtime victory in the team’s home opener, nor did Neal tally in any of Iowa’s next four games. In fact, to end the month of October, Neal had no goals and one assist in 11 games.

That scoring pace was a far cry from the point-per-game-plus that Neal had become accustomed to as an impact player in the OHL, and it was an eye-opener to anyone who thought the transition to the AHL was easy.

“I think he’s really had his eyes opened about how difficult this league is and he’s got to increase his work ethic and consistency,” Iowa Stars Head Coach Dave Allison said of Neal in a late October interview.

A month later in a November 30 interview, Iowa Stars Director of Hockey Operations Scott White echoed Allison’s comments when he said, “I think the adjustment for him between major junior and then Traverse City, Dallas camp, Iowa, is a lot larger than what he thought it might be.”

But, while hinting that Neal had underestimated what it’d take to play pro hockey, White also added a some positive observations.

“I think he’s learned a lot about the mental side of the game and also what it takes to be part of an NHL team and an AHL team from the physical standpoint,” White said of Neal. “I think he’s learning a little bit about structure from our coaches and that’s starting to come.

“The last five, six games, you really recognize him, you really notice him.”

Indeed, Neal’s game began to pick up after his first month in the AHL. In 10 games in November, Neal scored 2 goals and 2 assists, including a goal scored with 0.1 seconds remaining in the second period against the Houston Aeros Nov. 27. After skating into a scrum for the puck in the trapezoid behind the net of Barry Brust, Neal emerged with the puck with less than two seconds remaining, skated out front, took a shot on Brust, and hammered home a rebound after a couple of swats to tie the game 2-2, which Iowa went on to win 3-2. It was the kind of goal the Stars must have expected out of the 6-foot-2, 200-pound power forward when the organization drafted Neal.

Neal’s momentum increased in December with 3 goals and 4 assists in 11 games, including scoring goals in consecutive games Dec. 26 and 28 and tallying two assists Dec. 30 in Peoria.

However, just as Neal was getting on a role, it came to an abrupt halt

“It was two minutes left in the game in Peoria and just a little freak play,” Neal later recalled of the Dec. 30 game. “It was just normal, I was going into the boards, bumped a guy, and he fell, and fell right on my knee and hurt my knee.”

And thus Neal injured his right knee and missed Iowa’s next 15 games, missing the final game of December, all of January, and the first two games of February.

However, through it all, the injury may have been a blessing in disguise.

“I think that when he got injured, we were fortunate to have Manny [Hernando] down, and Paul Jerrard worked with him a lot, and he really focused on his core strength and got stronger and stronger and was allowed mentally to sort of watch the game and see that he’s good enough to play, number one, and he’s good enough to play real well, as long as he stays within the team structure and uses it to his benefit,” Allison said of Neal’s time out of the line-up.

Some of the specifics of Neal’s rehabilitation included hard rides on the stationary bike, running while utilizing resistance bands down the hallway outside the Iowa Stars’ locker room at Wells Fargo Arena, and significant work with medicine balls to strengthen his core. On the ice, after Neal was cleared to return to skating, Jerrard led the young forward through hard skates after the rest of the team had practiced, helping getting his skating legs back under him. As any experienced hockey player knows, no amount of weight training, bike riding, running, plyometrics, and agility training can perfectly prepare a player to return to the ice in game shape, it requires skating and skating hard, and skate hard Neal did.

Able to watch Neal rehab under Hernando and Jerrard, Allison came away impressed with what he saw.

“He worked as hard as, honestly, he worked as hard as anybody I’ve ever seen work,” Allison said.

And in that hard work, Allison also saw Neal begin to truly understand the importance of improving every day as a young player in professional hockey.

“He realized it (the importance of day-to-day improvement), and working hard was fun then,” Allison said of Neal. “He came, he had a purpose, he saw the rewards of that purpose, and then it became fun for him”

The purpose was to get back on the ice, and the reward was getting back into the line-up, and the rewards on the ice began to come in earnest after his return to the line-up. Neal still looked a little rusty in his first two games back Feb. 8 and Feb. 9, but he scored 4 goals and 2 assists in his next 8 games to pick up where he left off in late December, and then he took it to the next level to end February and begin March

The Iowa Stars played their second game of a six-game road trip Feb. 29 against Hamilton and decimated the Bulldogs 6-0, a game in which Neal scored a goal and added two assists. The next night, against the Toronto Marlies, Neal added an assist and scored the game-tying goal with 39 seconds left in regulation and then scored two goals in a seven-round shootout to give Iowa the 5-4 victory. Those performances were the highlights of Toronto-area native’s season both statistically and personally.

“That was pretty special, because it was close to home and family was there,” Neal said of his exploits in Hamilton and Toronto, “Aunts, uncles, friends, everybody was there.”

Close behind those highlights, though, were back-to-back two-goal games to begin the month of April.

Skating on a line with center Marty Sertich and recently-added power forward Raymond Sawada from Cornell University, Neal scored two goals against the Quad City Flames April 1 and fired 12 of Iowa’s 29 shots that night. Although Neal wasn’t happy with the 4-3 loss in overtime that night, the game did mark the first multi-goal game of his professional career. He backed it up April 4 with two more goals in a 5-3 victory over the Peoria Rivermen, which extended Neal’s point streak to four games after tallying an assist each March 29 and 30 against the Rockford Ice Hogs.

Neal had his point streak broken after being held without a point in a 2-1 loss to Quad City April 5, but his hot hand continued with an assist in each of Iowa’s final four games of the season, which gave him his third four-game points streak of the season.

At the conclusion of the AHL regular season, Neal’s Midas touch to end the season had resulted in the rookie scoring 9 goals and 10 assists in the final 20 games of the I-Stars’ season, tops amongst all Iowa players during that stretch. His total offensive exploits after returning from injury, 13 goals and 12 assists in 30 games, also held up well to all expectations and were especially important in helping Neal earn the Iowa Stars’ Rookie of the Year at the team’s awards banquet April 9.

That strong play to end the season also earned Neal “black ace” status as a recall to Dallas April 14 to practice with the Stars during the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, a sign that Dallas expects Neal to be among the competitors for two or three spots on the big club in 2008-09.

One reason Neal’s stock increased so much was because toward the end of the season the Iowa Stars were getting what they had been working toward extracting from the young power forward the entire season: a consistent performer.

“In a development setting, from a management perspective, his game is really coming along and we just want consistency, and we’ve told him that we just want each shift, each shift is what we look for, each shift being consistent,” White said of Neal’s development in an early March interview.

A month later, when asked in what areas Neal had improved the most and what had helped him contribute on a regular basis, White said, “I think his attention to details of the game and playing within the team structure, that’s been the most beneficial for him, and just understanding what it is to be a pro, and as soon as all those elements took place, his game moved forward and he’s become a consistent performer for us.”

For Neal, those details meant being smart with the puck, making plays when there are plays to be made, but also making sure that if there was no play to be made that he got the puck into the next zone, be it out of the defensive zone, through the neutral zone, or into the offensive zone. In Neal’s words, it meant “just being in control and playing a system and being able to play both ends of the ice, not only all-go on offense.”

“I’m able to come back and play in my own end and that’ll create more offense for myself,” Neal added.

Another part of Neal’s improvement came in becoming familiar with a new team, new teammates, new coaches, and new systems, as Neal noted in an early November interview with McKeen’s Hockey.

“In major junior you get accustomed to a team where I had played for three years and accustomed to a coach and you get kind of back to square to one, but you get through things like that,” Neal said of his early season adjustment.

But part of Neal’s adjustment also came in learning what and how much it takes to succeed in the American Hockey League, and it’s something Allison has seen young players from all levels underestimate.

“I think that any young person coming here, it doesn’t matter what league, you have expectations that you’re going to play in the National Hockey League, and the majority of guys, 90, 95 percent of the guys, have to experience the American Hockey League, and the American Hockey League is a very demanding and tough league to play in,” Allison said. “I think when you’ve come from, you’re the top dog, whether it be Europe, or college, or junior, you start to learn how to be a pro, and they call this professional for a reason.

“You learn some structure and you balance the positives of your game with what the team and organization needs and once you move along and blend those, you start to have success. I think it always takes kids, they’re caught by surprise right off the bat about, really, how hard you have to work and how consistently hard you have to work, and once they accept that and basically dig in, they start to have success, and that was what James did this year.”

Neal’s on-ice success also came with learning to manage his time as a pro. After four years of living with a billet family between his season with the Bowmanville Eagles of the Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League and his three seasons with Plymouth, Neal no longer had a second family cooking meals for him, making sure his laundry was done, and helping him keep busy. As a professional, when the team was at home, his schedule generally consisted of getting to the rink around 9:00, skating in practice, working out some after practice and getting any needed treatment, and then leaving the rink around 12:30, with time on his hands. For Neal, that meant earnestly eliminating distractions.

“You’re living on your own, you’re doing you own thing, you’ve got all your own time,” Neal said. “You’ve got to really wrap yourself around hockey and you’ve got to always be thinking about what’s going on at the rink.

“You’ve got to eat, sleep, and play hockey, really, is what you’ve got to do.”

Thankfully for Neal, he had 25-year-old Marty Sertich as a roommate during the season. Sertich, a second-year pro who had also played four seasons of college hockey at Colorado College and who was accustomed to taking care of himself and getting things done with minimal supervision. Sertich did not always wear a letter on the ice, but his leadership and example proved invaluable in Neal’s development.

“He’s an unbelievable guy and just helps me with everything, from making meals to paying bills to coming to the rink every day,” Neal said of Sertich. “He’s great, and he’s probably one of the hardest working guys on the team, so you know he’s always getting me in the weight room with him and always doing little things.”

In that regard, the Iowa Stars did a great job putting the youthful Neal with the elder and more experienced Sertich, to help ease the transition to life as a professional hockey player. However, during that maturation, Neal did not abandon all of his youthful enthusiasm, which was a trait made him popular among the team.

“I think he enjoys being around the rink, enjoys being around the locker room, he’s easy to talk to, he jokes around, good character, just young,” White said of Neal. “He hasn’t lived some of the experiences that some of his teammates have, and I think there’s a little bit of innocence there or naivety, I guess, and that’s just being 20.

“I think that’s a likable trait.”

Neal’s relative inexperience, both on the ice and in life, made him not only one of the most well-liked players on the team, but also the target of the practical joking typical around hockey teams. The most public example was when the Iowa Stars had their “Pink in the Rink” drive where fans could put money in a jar designated for each I-Star rookie to raise funds for the John Stoddard Cancer Center. The rookie with the most contributions in their jar would have his hair dyed pink for the game March 15. After the money donated by the Iowa fans was tabulated, it was apparent that Tommy Wandell was going to have his do done in pink, but the veterans ponied up the money to make sure Neal’s jar equaled Wandell’s and that Neal would have to dye his hockey hair dyed pink, too.

Out of the public eye, Neal had to keep one eye over his shoulder to keep track of his wardrobe, especially from the clutches of a particular veteran winger.

“[B.J.] Crombeen seems to think, seems to be the biggest joker,” Neal said of the third-year pro. “Starting off, I was always finding my socks, toes cut out of them, ice cubes in my shoes, and I go to put my shoes on and they’re all soaked, and then couldn’t find my pants, my jeans would be in the ice machine.”

Such is life as a rookie, be it in junior hockey, a freshman in college, or a rookie on a pro hockey team. As the saying goes, don’t get mad, just get even. However, as a rookie, Neal had to be careful about how he got even. As movie buffs might know, Neal had to eliminate the motive.

“I’ve got to be sneaky if I do it,” Neal explained. “It’s kind of hard, because they kind of know it’s coming, so I’ve got to work around what I can do here and maybe get someone else to get ‘em for me.”

After life as a rookie in 2007-08, Neal could face it all again in 2008-09, but not in the AHL, rather in the NHL. After the improvements he made during the 2007-08 season and how he finished the season, Neal now enters the summer as a legitimate contender to make Dallas’s roster in 2008-09, especially because the 6-foot-2, 207-pound Neal gives the Stars something every team wants.

“I think that he’s the full package,” Allison said of Neal. “He’s a big, strong guy that can skate, he’s got real good hands, he is physical, can battle, and he’s the full package.

“He’s a guy that every team is looking for, because he’s going to score goals in any circumstance.”

To help ensure he puts his best skate forward in camp in September, Neal’s primary goal over the summer is to “just get quicker.”

“I’m a bigger guy, so I’ve got to get fast,” Neal said.

Neal got a head start last season when he added a fair amount of speed and quickness thanks to agility drills off the ice and developing the habit of jumping on the puck quickly in practice, which translated over into his game play.

He also wants to add additional bulk, perhaps up to 215, to help make him ready for that jump and to continue to play his physical forechecking game in the NHL and be a physical presence around the net at the highest level.

To make it happen, Neal will have to work hard in the summer, and there will be no shortcuts.

“I think that he’s on his way and I think it’s a maturation process,” Allison said of Neal and his development. “You can quicken the process, but you can’t hurry it and lose steps.”

With that statement of caution noted, Allison is also fairly certain Neal will do what it takes in the off-season and put himself in a position to impress if he stays level-headed in the specter of playing in the NHL.

“He’s a guy with a lot of upside, and I’m totally confident that he’s going to put a good summer in and then as long as he doesn’t put too much pressure on himself and he defends and just plays and gains the respect of the coaching staff there, he’s going to get an opportunity to play, and from there he’s going to be able to produce.”

If Neal has his way, he’ll be able to follow in the footsteps of another famous Whitby native that helped Neal when he was younger, one Gary Roberts.

“He took me in and I started training, he had a gym in Toronto, and started working out there and he really took me under his wing and he’d always help me out in the gym all the time,” Neal recalled of Roberts’ mentoring. “He was always one of my favorite players, coming from my hometown of Whitby, we always heard about him playing for the Leafs, so he was a player I tried to model my game after.”

The 6-foot-2, 212-pound Roberts, now 42 years old, has played 1195 NHL regular season games and has scored 434 goals and 469 assists in his impressive career, which this past season included helping the Pittsburgh Penguins advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. If Neal can approach Roberts’ storied career (sans the injuries the veteran power forward has endured), Dallas will be very fortunate indeed. First, though, Neal has to focus on this summer and work to separate himself from half a dozen other Stars prospects likely to battle for a limited number of spots on a team that made the Western Conference Finals.

“I have to have a big summer and come into camp and try to earn a spot,” Neal said. “There’s obviously going to be some good guys there and guys that I played with here (in Iowa) that I’ll be fighting for a spot with, but we’ll see what happens.”

Neal had a big season in 2007-08, now he has to have a bigger summer.

Kevin Wey is a correspondent with McKeen’s Hockey that scouts/covers that American Hockey League and the United States Hockey League.