TJ Eason in 03' with his Memorial Cup winning team the Kitchener Rangers

If you didn’t catch the 1st edition of “where are they now”, we caught up with ex-imports Cam Kuzyk and Lanny Ramage not to worry. You can find the article in the Ice Dogs Blog section.

This edition we flashback to 2006 when import Mike Tobin entered the Australian Ice Hockey League for the Dogs halfway through 2006 and made twice the impact. Notorious as an ice hockey heavyweight not to be messed with, he definitely gave the Ice Dogs room to move, leadership and his time back to the ice hockey community.

Mike Tobin playing for the Ice Dogs in 06' at Ice Dogs old home venue the Blacktown Ice Arena

But best of all, he was a class act and despite his ability to make a mess of opponents if he wanted to, he didn’t run around like a maniac as other heavyweights who have come to Australia to play ice hockey have.

Mike Tobin’s pro hockey career began back in 1997 with the El Paso Buzzards of the WPHL.  Notable stints at the Oklahoma City Blazers of the CHL in 1998 where he recorded 4 goals and 33 assists and 177  PIMs in 78 games played, as well as, The Flint Generals of the United Hockey League where Tobin notched 2 goals 17 assists and 129 penalty minutes in 79 games played in 2004.

A few of the Ice Dogs bumped into Mike at their Australian team camp in Ontario back in April this year where he had just finished playing a tournament and was on his way back home.   “Mike really enjoyed his time in Australia and is interested in coming back and playing for the Ice Dogs again one day, so we will have to wait and see” tells Captain Anthony Wilson.

Speaking of Ontario that brings us to T.J Eason.  Eason played 4 season’s of Major Junior in the OHL, starting in Peterborough before being moved to the Kitchener Rangers  in a trade that exchanged  fellow Ice Dog import and friend Jimmy Gagnon to Peterborough.  In 2003, he won the Memorial Cup with the Kitchener Rangers on a team that boasted  many NHLers such as Derek Roy (Buffalo), Steve Eminger (Anaheim), Mike Richards ( Philadelphia’s current captain) and David Clarkson (New Jersey).

Can you spot TJ in this picture. A few clues are he sported a moustahce and is number 26

From there T.J secured a scholarship with the Acadia Axeman which his where he teamed up with Jimmy Gagnon as well as where he met their goalie Lanny Ramage.   “T.J really moved the puck up ice well and had a great on and off ice presence” explains coach Stephenson.  “He also had pretty wide and flattened shin pads, which was for shot blocking…something that made me laugh but when you think about it is very handy on defence” continues defenceman Tomas Manco. 

After the Ice Dogs T.J took his impressive resume to the CHL in 2007-2008 where he played for the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees where he put up 5 points and 87 PIMs during the season in his rookie CHL year. 

T.J and Jimmy Gagnon also visited some of the Ice Dogs at their Australian Team training camp in Orangeville Ontario at the start of 2009 as both are back living at home in Canada pursuing their careers.

“I think we had more stories to tell that year than we have any other..those guys were a hoot” says Wilson with a smile on his face.  ”We wish them all the best and hope to bump into them one day soon”.

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Counting down the top 10 ways so far we had at:

number 10 flexibility
number 9 Bodyweight squats
number 8 nutrition
number 7 watch NHL every chance you get;

and now :

Number 6: Sprints 

Sprints are great for ice hockey as they assist you in building explosiveness in skating when starting as well as the added cardio benefits and fitness. A park down the road with a level field of grass is perfect for sprint training.  Jogging to the park is actually a great way to warm up for your sprints.  Take 5 markers or something that can be used to identify where to run to and place one at your starting point.  Then every ten metres place down a marker til you have reached 40 metres.  Simply take ten large steps and you should have roughly ten metres mapped out.  See first diagram. 

Quick sprint workout:

Exercise 1:
Sprint to the first marker(10m) and walk back
As soon as you get back to the start sprint to the second marker(20m); walk back
Sprint to the 3rd marker(30m) and then walk back;
Sprint to the 4th marker(40m) and then walk back
Rest for 1 minute
Repeat 3 times

Exercise 2:

Sprint 40 metres and walk back x 3
Rest for 1 minute
Repeat 2 times

Exercise 3:
Sprint to 1st marker backward sprint back to start
Then sprint to 2nd marker and backward sprint back 10 metres back to first marker
Then sprint to the 3rd marker; backward sprint to the 2nd marker;
Then sprint to the 4th marker; backward sprint to the 3rd marker and sprint back to the 4th marker
Rest 2-3 minutes
Repeat once

Exercise 4:
Sprint from start to first marker and back continuously for 20 seconds all forwards
1 minute rest
Repeat 3 times

Exercise 5:
Warm down by jogging to 4th marker and walking back
Then full body stretch

If you have any good ones you would like to add as there are plenty more out there please feel free to comment below.  Remember to warm-up with some light jogging before sprinting for at least 5 minutes and to warm down as above with some jogging and a really good stretch.