Team USA Olympic hopeful Craig Conroy hopes his early success with the Kings this season won't get overlooked.

Kings' Conroy has big aspirations
By John McGourty | NHL.com | Oct. 27, 2005

Los Angeles Kings center Craig Conroy wants to represent the United States at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Team USA General Manager Don Waddell and coach Peter Laviolette have made it clear that success in the NHL this season will be an important factor when it comes time to select the team.

Conroy took important strides toward his goal in recent weeks. He was named the NHL Offensive Player of the Week for the period ending Oct. 23 after he tallied seven points on two goals and five assists in three games, including the game-winning goal, three assists and a plus-3 rating in a 5-4 road victory against the Colorado Avalanche last Wednesday. Conroy also had a goal, two assists and a plus-3 rating in a 7-2 victory at Dallas the next night.

"Everybody would like a chance to play for their country," said Conroy, a member of Team USA at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey. "There are so many good guys and good players to pick from. It's a long ways from now until then but if you can make it harder on them, it helps your cause."

The history of U.S. Olympic teams includes a battle between the hockey centers of Massachusetts and Minnesota, a conflict alluded to in the movie, Miracle, in the fight between Boston's Jack O'Callahan and St. Paul's Rob McClanahan.

Conroy leads a phalanx of New Yorkers who could eradicate that East-West fixation. Robert Esche, Tim Connolly, Brian Gionta, Matt Murley, Eric Nystrom, Mathieu Schneider, Mike Komisarek, Todd Marchant, Aaron Miller, Marty Reasoner, Francis Bouillon, Erik Cole, Dustin Brown, Chris Higgins and Rory Fitzpatrick all hail from New York. And while they are not all candidates for this Olympic team, they comprise an impressive influx of players from what had hitherto been a dry well.

Conroy, a 34-year-old native of Potsdam, N.Y., has been a fine NHL player for 11 seasons, starting with the Montreal Canadiens, who drafted him with their seventh pick, 123rd overall, in the 1990 Entry Draft. Entering this season, Conroy had 118 goals and 222 assists in 609 NHL games. He had three goals and six assists in the first 10 games this year.

The Canadiens traded Conroy, Pierre Turgeon and Fitzpatrick to the St. Louis Blues in late October 1996 for Shayne Corson, Murray Baron and a draft pick. He had some of his best years in St. Louis, scoring 57 goals and adding 84 assists in parts of five seasons before the Blues dealt him to Calgary in 2001 with a late-draft pick for forward Cory Stillman.

Conroy had three terrific seasons in Calgary, centering mostly for Jarome Iginla who won the 2001-02 Art Ross Trophy with 96 points and the Rocket Richard Trophy with 52 goals. Iginla again won a piece of the Richard Trophy in 2003-04 when his 41 goals were tied with fellow League-leaders Rick Nash and Ilya Kovalchuk.

Conroy was very enthusiastic about the Kings this week in a nationwide media conference conducted by the NHL. He likes playing for coach Andy Murray, is very happy with his teammates and likes the Southern California weather. There is a downside to playing in Lotus land, he said.

"Los Angeles is very different," Conroy said. "In Alberta, everything is about hockey. You've got Calgary vs. Edmonton in the Battle of Alberta all the time. The Kings have a different rivalry, playing Anaheim, but it's nothing like the Battle of Alberta. To play in a market where you fight tooth and nail for every bit of publicity to get the fans is definitely a different feeling."

The Kings parted ways with some of their top forwards, like Ziggy Palffy, Adam Deadmarsh and Jason Allison, and brought in new leaders like Conroy and Jeremy Roenick, their top two centers. Conroy, who can talk hockey all night and day, laughed when asked if he could get a word in edgewise in "Roenick's dressing room."

Conroy, who represented Team USA in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, has his sights on cracking a roster spot on the 2006 Olympic team.

"He monopolizes it. That's his room," Conroy kidded. "As much as I like to talk, he's got all of the one-liners. He's heard them all, said them all. Between him and (Sean) Avery, it's hard to get in with the media around here."

Conroy said there's good and bad to that situation.

"When you're winning, everyone wants to talk," Conroy said. "If we were losing, maybe we don't want to, but he's awesome. J.R. is such a good teammate. It's hard to believe. I think sometimes you see him on TV and everything, but just for the team, the camaraderie, he brings everybody together.

"That's one thing that you need, you need guys that come in here, a lot of new players that try to get together and he's been a lot of fun. From dancing in Vegas to being on TV everywhere here. So it's great for us and it's great for the L.A. Kings to have him kind of put in the spotlight."

Conroy helped lead the Flames to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2004, when he was the team's second-leading scorer in the Playoffs with six goals and 11 assists. The Kings signed him as a free-agent within a few weeks of winning the Stanley Cup. Conroy had offers from other teams. He was asked how much the Kings' "Clarkson connection" influenced his decision.

Conroy, you see, was a "local boy who made good" long before most people who follow the NHL knew about him. He grew up in the northern Adirondack town of Potsdam, home of Clarkson University. His dad, Tom, and uncles Terry Conroy and Tom Taylor all played for the Golden Knights, as did Kings General Manager Dave Taylor and Kings Director of Player Personnel Bill O'Flaherty.

Craig Conroy finished second in the Hobey Baker Award balloting in 1993 after a star-studded four-year run that saw him lead Clarkson to the NCAA Final Four in 1991, two ECAC conference championships, an ECAC scoring title and a first-team All-America selection. Clarkson was 91-30-13 as Conroy scored 63 goals and added 104 assists for 167 points to rank among the Golden Knights all-time heroes.

"For sure. My uncle, Terry Conroy, played with Dave Taylor for three years at Clarkson," Craig said. "So, I was fortunate enough to get to know him a little bit, I mean, more of a little kid looking at someone and saying, 'Wow.' Whenever they would come back for alumni stuff and you would see (Dave Taylor), it was always exciting, because Dave Taylor, all-time leading scorer, and Bill O'Flaherty were great friends with my aunt and uncle and the whole family.

"I knew Bill since I was very young. I used to play with his daughters. It's one of those things where I think over time, when you're unrestricted and you get a phone call, you just feel comfortable with somebody. You know, Dave is a very honest guy, and talking to Bill, too, I just felt like it was going to be a good fit for me here in L.A. I looked up to those guys. I think I have a Dave Taylor (Clarkson) jersey and I have a picture of him, signed for my father-in-law. So, maybe in some weird way it was all going to come about that I was going to play in L.A. some day."