Islanders' Moulson heeds dad's advice
Strong work ethic helps NHLer gain full-time gig alongside Tavares
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 | 1:04 AM ET
By Tim Wharnsby, Senior Hockey Writer, CBC Sports
Linemates Matt Moulson, left, and John Tavares have on-ice chemistry. They entered Monday's game at Toronto with 18 points and 19 points, respectively in 23 games this season. (Mike Stobe/Getty Images)If 19-year-old John Tavares is the New York Islanders' Butch Cassidy, his older teammate Matt Moulson has played a competent sidekick role of the Sundance Kid.
The two have chemistry. Moulson has helped his teenaged teammate make a seamless transition from junior to pro, and the youngster has helped his 26-year-old linemate become a full-time NHLer after three seasons toiling mostly in the minors.
Islanders general manager Garth Snow deserves credit for sticking with his conviction that Tavares was the better first overall choice than Victor Hedman or Matt Duchene, and trusting a couple of his scouts that Moulson, who played 29 games for the Los Angeles Kings between 2007-09, would be an off-season addition worth the risk.
Moulson was signed as a free agent in a somewhat less heralded manner a week after the ballyhooed Tavares burst onto the Islanders scene at the 2009 NHL entry draft.
Little did the Islanders know that Moulson and Tavares had a history. Moulson's younger brother Chris Moulson, who followed his brother's skate prints to Cornell University, was a teammate of Tavares on an assortment of hockey and lacrosse teams growing up in the Toronto area.
The older Moulson and his brother's chum arrive for their debut performances against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre on Monday on equal footing in terms of production. Performing on the same line, Tavares has checked in with nine goals and 19 points, while Moulson has 10 goals and 18 points in 23 games.
Long journey
But while all eyes will be on Tavares, who bought 40 tickets for the game against the Leafs and estimated that another 60 friends would be in attendance — the underdog Moulson will appreciate the trip back to Toronto more because of his longer journey to become a full-time NHLer.
"We're very proud of him," said Moulson's father Scott, who planned to be among the capacity crowd with his daughter Shannon, a former captain and all-conference defenceman at Niagara University.
On Sunday, Matt Moulson attended a pizza party for the team his dad helps out and addressed a group of nine-year-olds with a message to work hard.
About seven years before the name John Tavares was about to hit the junior hockey landscape, Moulson was having difficulty finding a team to play for. He was a little on the small side and even though he showed well in tryouts, he was cut from several AAA midget teams in the Toronto area.
Then he got a break. He ran into Jimmy Maguire, coach of the Mississauga Braves AA midget team. "I'd love to have those mitts on my team," Maguire told the Moulsons.
The younger Moulson repaid the faith Maguire had in him with a sound season that saw Moulson also attend two different hockey schools on Saturdays in addition to his duties with the Braves.
'Turning point'
"That was a turning point," Scott Moulson said. "He also played for Mount Carmel [high school in Mississauga] that year and that was a positive experience. Then the next summer, he played junior lacrosse against older athletes and he succeeded. It gave him confidence."
Matt Moulson, who eventually grew to six-foot-one, 206 pounds and was drafted by the National Lacrosse League's Rochester Nighthawks, credits his father for his perseverance.
"Just when I thought things were going pretty well for me, he had an ability to point out things I needed to work on and get better at," said Matt Moulson, originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in ninth round of the 2003 draft.
Scott Moulson had read So You Want to Play in the NHL: a guide for young players, a book authored by Jay Bylsma and his son Dan, who, as coach, would win the Stanley Cup with the Penguins last spring. The book is an insider guide to the Bylsmas' experiences of rising through the ranks of amateur and pro hockey.
"It was a life lessons book," Scott Moulson said. "Took three things to succeed: talent, work ethic and perseverance, and talent isn't the most important.
"Matt has always had a strong work ethic. We've always taught our children not to be handed anything. We taught them to work hard and that in order to overcome adversity you have to work hard."
