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Post by mike2005rulz on Oct 8, 2009 12:01:03 GMT -5
Brandon Sugden back in the swing with Hershey Bears
By Tim Leone October 06, 2009, 3:51PM Brandon Sugden still hasn't played his first NHL regular-season game, but an extended training camp stay with the Washington Capitals was a sign that there could be a major-league light at the end of a long road.
The 6-4, 233-pounder, one of the most respected and feared tough guys in the AHL, has put substance-abuse issues, a lifetime ECHL ban, and 2006 retirement in the rear-view mirror.
“Just getting my head on straight and knowing what I want to do with hockey,” Sugden said Tuesday. “I thought I wanted to retire a couple years ago, but my dad's health and my two and half year old son wanted me to play hockey. That's been making me really work a lot harder at it even than I was two years ago.
“When you go from lifetime suspensions to not playing to bouncing in clubs in Chicago to playing in the Quebec gong show league, and back to the American League to the NHL preseason – yeah, it's a great feeling. You keep on going from rags to riches, so to speak.”
Sugden, 31, sobered up after his 2001 ECHL ban, later overturned by an arbitrator, for throwing a stick into the stands. Last season, he clawed back to the AHL with Hartford after spending 2006-08 in the goonie, semi-pro Quebec senior league.
“It's an absolute gong show,” Sugden joked. “We have 17-18 fights in a game sometimes, and some games last four and a half or five hours. But some games they don't have a fight. It's exciting. We sell out the arenas every night.”
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