Kunze-IT » intentionally wrecking another competitor.

The Toronto Maple Leafs "stumbled on" Connor Brown a few years ago and are pleased with their discovery. The Erie Otters captain was named the Ontario Hockey Leagues most outstanding player for 2013-14 on Tuesday. Brown led the league in scoring and set a franchise record with 45 goals and 83 assists in 68 games. Chosen near the bottom of both his OHL and NHL drafts, the 20-year-old Toronto forward has played himself into a strong pro prospect. He was the 251st pick out of 301 players four years ago in the OHL draft. The Leafs chose him in the sixth round, 156th overall, in 2012. His buddy Matt Finn, captain of the Guelph Storm and a fellow Leafs prospect, recently said "With Connor, its always been about proving people wrong." But Brown says his motivation is more about the pursuit of his dream than spite. "I definitely dont think much has come easy, being late picks in both drafts," he acknowledged during a conference call. "Its just more incentive to work hard. "I think I wanted to work hard not to prove people wrong, but I know I needed to work harder to have a shot at signing an NHL contract and having a shot at making the NHL one day." Brown has signed a three-year, entry level contract with the Leafs. He caught their eye in 2011 when scouts went to Erie, Pa., to evaluate Leafs prospect Sondre Olden. "Each time we went down to watch this Maple Leaf pick, wed stumble on Connor Brown," Leafs director of player Jim Hughes said. "Erie was having a difficult year and the scores, the deficits, never changed Connors desire, never changed his moods during the course of the game. "He was always focused and it didnt matter if he was winning 5-1 or losing 5-1, his personality never changed. He always played for the love of the game. He always played with passion. We obviously have big plans for Connor moving forward." Brown led Erie to the best season in its 18-year history with 52 wins and 106 points. The Otters lost this years Western Conference final to Guelph in five games. Brown had eight goals and 10 assists in 14 playoff games. The five-foot-11 170-pound right-winger is currently practising with Torontos American Hockey League team -- the Marlies -- at the MasterCard Centre. He intends to spend most of the summer there building strength and working on his skating skills with former Canadian pairs figure skater Barb Underhill. Hughes says Brown needs time to develop "man-strength." "Come September, I think my game and my physical state, I think Ill be ready to play with better and stronger players," Brown said. Brown is the first Otter to win the OHL scoring title and the second to earn the Red Tilson Trophy as league MVP after Brad Boyes in both 2001 and 2002. The trophy is named in honour of Albert (Red) Tilson, who was a former Oshawa General killed in action during the Second World War. Brown led the league in power-play points with 54 and carried a plus-minus of plus-44 through the regular season. In a poll of Western Conference coaches, he was voted the best in a shootout, second in penalty killing and third in the smartest player category. "Whoever is preparing to play hockey anywhere, will not outwork Connor Brown and his will to prepare," Otters general manager Sherry Bassin said. "Whatever work ethic is necessary, whatever that measurement is, hell do more." Media members vote on the award and Brown was the clear winner with 321 points tabulated from 80 ballots. Oshawa Generals centre Scott Laughton was the runner-up with 120 points and top NHL draft prospect Sam Bennett of the Kingston Frontenacs was third with 68. Previous winners include New York Islanders forward John Tavares (Oshawa, 2007), Nashville Predators defenceman Ryan Ellis (Windsor, 2011) and Florida Panthers defenceman Brian Campbell (Ottawa, 1999). Vincent Trochek, the centre who won the award last year with the Plymouth Whalers, split this past season between the Panthers and their AHL team in San Antonio, Texas. Brown is the OHLs candidate for the Canadian Hockey Leagues player of the year. Hell be up against Sam Reinhart of the Western Hockey Leagues Kootenay Ice and Anthony Mantha of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey Leagues Val-dOr Foreurs. The winner will be announced May 24 during the MasterCard Memorial Cup in London, Ont. Darius Leonard Jersey . Or how his team has defended Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Or just about anything that has happened on the court in the first-round playoff series. Instead, Rivers and his players spent Saturday talking about how they would respond to an audio recording of a man identified as Clippers owner Donald Sterling telling his girlfriend not to bring black people to games. Andrew Luck Jersey . Team spokesman Donald Beauchamp said there was no new information on the 80-year-old Hall of Famers condition. The family has requested privacy. http://www.officialindianapoliscoltspro.com/Marvin-harrison-colts-jersey/ . Off-Season Game Plan looks at the Capitals possible summer plans, with the understanding that its tough to plot a direction without a general manager or head coach around which to set those expectations. Peyton Manning Jersey . The Earthquakes (6-9-7) were coming off a 5-0 loss at home last Saturday to FC Dallas. Even with the draw, the Sounders (13-7-3) climbed back into a tie for both the Western Conference and overall top spot in MLS. Seattle, West co-leader Real Salt Lake and East leader Sporting Kansas City all have 42 points. Marshall Faulk Jersey .Ryan Anderson had 14 points for the Pelicans, who trailed 78-63 after three periods before trimming the deficit to 86-83. Jrue Holiday had 13 points and Eric Gordon added 12 for New Orleans.Mike Scott and Jeff Teague each had 11 points for Atlanta.JOLIET, Ill. -- Facing the biggest credibility crisis in its long history, NASCAR issued a stern warning to its drivers and teams Saturday and said it wont tolerate any more attempts to alter the outcome of races. After a scandal-filled week spent investigating teams and undoing attempts to manipulate its championship field, NASCAR came forward with a series of rules that will change the way teams have called races for years. NASCAR Chairman Brian France told teams he expects them "to give 100 per cent" at all times, meeting with them for nearly 20 minutes at Chicagoland Speedway on the eve of the opening race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. "I think we wanted to be very clear and we wanted to reinforce the cornerstone of NASCAR, which is giving your all," France said. "We addressed team rules, a variety of other things, all designed to do what our fans expect, and that means that their driver and their team give 100 per cent to finish as high up in a given race as possible. We were very clear about that. Thats our expectations." The warning came after an unprecedented week for NASCAR, which has been rocked by allegations of race-fixing since Clint Bowyer spun his car with seven laps remaining last Saturday night at Richmond, the race that completed the 12-driver field for the Chase. NASCAR was forced to investigate when it became clear that Bowyer spun in an attempt to stop leader Ryan Newman from winning and give teammate Martin Truex Jr. one last chance to earn a Chase berth. The investigation uncovered at least three instances of race manipulations and led to severe sanctions against Michael Waltrip Racing and the removal of unwitting participant Truex from the Chase in favour of Newman. The central piece of evidence was radio communications, and the penalties against MWR set off a chain of events NASCAR never anticipated. Next came allegations of a scheme to sell track position and it triggered a new investigation involving deep-pocketed Penske Racing and tiny Front Row Motorsports. It culminated Friday with Frances stunning decision to expand the Chase field to 13 drivers to accommodate Jeff Gordon, who had been bumped out of the Chase by the shenanigans of three drivers. Gordon was pleased with the ruling, but uncomfortable with the way the week developed. "The integrity of the sport has been put at question," Gordon admitted. "I think we have one of the greatest sports that exists. To see our integrity questioned is very upsetting to me, and I think we, along with NASCAR, have to solve this. I wish it had not happened under these circumstances." NASCAR ultimately decided it couldnt prove Bowyer spun on purpose, but did find that MWR manipulated the race to help Truex by having Bowyer and Brian Vickers pit late in the race. The idea was that Joey Logano would bump Gordon out of a Chase spot, and Truex would get in through a wild card. But in singling out the MWR cars for pitting to help Truex, NASCAR threw into question the long-accepted practice of deal-making between teams. That brought to light a late race conversation between Front Row team members, who were willing to have David Gilliland move aside for Logano in exchange for something it had previously asked for from Penske Racing. When told to relay that information to Loganos spotter, the crew chief is told the request for track position is coming from the "whole committee." "Weve got the big dog and all of his cronies," the spotter said in an apparent reference to team owner Roger Penske and other team employees. NASCAR has tightened many of the areas that allowed the manipulations to occur in a series of new rules that were outlined for the teams and will begin Sunday.dddddddddddd Among them: --No more deals, no offering a position in exchange for a favour or material benefit, no altering the finish, no intentionally causing a caution, no intentionally pitting to gain advantage for another competitor or intentionally wrecking another competitor. The list of things not allowed is a work in progress, NASCAR President Mike Helton said. Penalties can include suspension. --Only one spotter per team will be allowed on the spotter stand. It means Roger Penske can no longer watch the race from his preferred perch on the roof, and NASCAR will install a camera atop every roof to monitor things. --Digital radios are now banned on the spotter stand, meaning spotters can no longer communicate on a private channel with a team. Spotters will also be limited to two analog radios, scanners and a handheld fan device. All communications from the spotter stand to the team can be monitored by the public. --NASCAR said it will address new restart rules Sunday. Some drivers have complained about inconsistency on how restarts have been policed all season, and fans complained winner Carl Edwards jumped early last week past leader Paul Menard. Its been overshadowed in the Chase controversy, and will apparently be addressed before Sundays race. Gordon had hoped the meeting would lead to positive changes for the sport. "This has probably been coming for a couple years now and needed to change sooner," Gordon said. "I like the fact that some things are going to change because all we all want to do is race our guts out every single lap. None of us want to go out there and give up a spot or race somebody different because our teammate is running for a championship. We want to go out there racing for every position, every lap, as hard as we can." France said he didnt speak to any drivers after the meeting, but sensed a redefining of the rules was overdue. "This is what they want. They want to have clarity and they dont like team rules, and they dont like some of the things that have gone on in the past," France said. "Theyre never pleased when we call them to a meeting. But I also believe that they understand what we want to get back to -- its to not worry about anything but winning races and doing your best." Paul Wolfe, crew chief for defending series champion Brad Keselowski, said NASCAR was clear in its meeting. "I think it got everyones attention," Wolfe said. "I think everyone should have a pretty clear understanding ... if you go out there and run 100 per cent to your ability and run a normal race, then everything will be fine." Seven-time champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty believes none of the events at Richmond differed from what occurred a week earlier at Atlanta. But because of the stakes -- 10 drivers vying for five Chase berths -- he said the actions of a few were magnified and NASCAR had to act. "If it had happened at Atlanta, nobody would have paid any attention to it," Petty said. "But, it was a perfect storm (at Richmond). Thats what makes such a big deal out of it." For NASCAR, the next step is getting back on track on Sunday and putting on a good, clean race. "Circumstances happen that are unhelpful in the credibility category, theres no doubt about that," France said. "You go back to what youre about, and what were about is the best racing in the world with the best drivers giving 100 per cent of their ability." 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