One Man's Journey From Zionsville To Denver
1/15/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Jan. 15, 2004
Oct. 16, 2002 - Spent senior season with Michigan State attending classes and preparing for the upcoming weekend series at Northern Michigan.
Oct. 16, 2003 - Registered first career NHL goal with the Colorado Avalanche in front of a nationally televised audience in St. Paul, Minn.
This cannot be the same player. Venturing straight out of the collegiate ranks and into an NHL uniform just does not happen to your average hockey player. The odds are even slimmer when he is forced into an organization filled with some of the world's best athletes.
But then again there has never been anyone quite like John-Michael Liles.
Growing up in small suburb of Indianapolis, the Zionsville native made a name for himself before he took his first strides in East Lansing, Mich. Liles enjoyed two seasons with the U.S. Under-18 Team from 1997 to 1999 and was selected to play with the U.S. National Junior Team in 2000. During those campaigns, he also helped capture a gold medal in the 1999 USA Hockey Summer Challenge by posting three assists in two games.
No wonder why he evolved into a Hobey Baker finalist in 2002-03 and a fixture in the CCHA's post-season awards. As a senior alone he racked up, along with the Hobey Baker accolade, First-Team All-America honors, CCHA Best Offensive Defenseman and All-CCHA First-Team honors as well as a spot on the Great Lakes Invitational All-Tournament Team.
"Going into Michigan State, I was an offensive defenseman and I knew I had a lot to learn and work on in the defensive zone," said Liles, who turned 23 at the end of November. "Every year I went in and tried to improve all aspects of my game, but at the same time I tried to get better defensively and get stronger. I knew that I had to work on other aspects of my game that could make up for my lack of height. But it worked out pretty well. Everybody involved with the program helped me tremendously."
Liles, who stands at a mere 5-10, wasted no time after completing his eligibility with the Spartans to pursue life in professional hockey. Only 10 days following his final game in a Green and White uniform, he suited up with the Hershey Bears of the AHL to take on the Griffins in Grand Rapids, Mich. Although he was left off the scoresheet, he eventually tallied his first career point with an assist April 14 in Philadelphia and went on to play in a total of 10 games, five of which came in the playoffs. The stage was now set for the NHL to welcome a 185-pound blueliner into the league.
Or was it?
Liles' rights belonged to the Colorado Avalanche after they selected him in the fifth round of the 2000 entry draft. Tough luck, kid. Maybe he should settle down and buy a house in Hershey because it could be years before a roster spot opened up in Denver. The only thing he could do was try to make a name for himself in front of head coach Tony Granato and his coaching staff at Liles' first official NHL training camp before the 2003-04 season. It is safe to say he did just that.
Even though The Hockey News' season preview failed to list him as one of Colorado's top-10 defensemen, Liles developed into one of the camp's top surprises and won the battle for the sixth slot in the Avs lineup.
"I was just going into camp looking to try and make a good impression," recalled Liles. "Hopefully if I played well enough, it would make them think twice about sending me down. I definitely never dreamed I would be here right out of college. It's unbelievable.
"The guys back at school are always asking me, 'What is it like and how many dreams are you going to live in one year?' But it's a great experience and I love it."
Liles credits a lot of his success to remaining with MSU and not leaving early.
"My four years at Michigan State prepared me quite a bit," said Liles, the only two-time winner of the CCHA's Best Offensive Defenseman award. "Not just with hockey but with maturing and becoming a better person as well. The coaching I had at Michigan State was terrific in Ron Mason, Rick Comley, Tom Newton and Dave McAuliffe. All four of those guys were very big in my development and learning how to play at both ends of the rink."
 John-Michel Liles is the only two-time winner of the CCHA's Best Offensive Defenseman Award.  | |
Now that Liles' has managed to secure a locker in the Pepsi Center, he somehow quickly overcame the fact that he belonged on the same ice as future Hockey Hall of Famers and NHL All-Stars.
"I was a tad awestruck when I first got here," admitted Liles. "It's kind of hard not to be. You walk into the locker room and you're like, 'Holy crap, I can't believe I'm here with these guys.' But now you're in awe of the plays they make. They are tremendous players. When you see some of the plays they make; you wonder how the heck they do it. I know I'm not the only one on the team that thinks that either.
"They are great players to learn from and great players to help make you better. I'm basically learning from everybody. The guys on this team, Rob Blake, Adam Foote, Derek Morris, are three great examples of excellent defensemen. I couldn't ask for better guys to learn from. In practice, I'm soaking up everything they tell me.
"At the same time, the forwards on this team are amazing: Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, and Paul Kariya. There's nobody better in this league so playing against them in practice helps me so much. When you play against them and then go into a game, it actually seems a step slower."
Perhaps Liles' practices assisted in him reading a play that resulted in his first NHL goal, a game-winner in a 5-2 victory over the Wild.
 | "The game was on ESPN2 and I had about 12 messages after the game from all the MSU boys and my family and friends. That was pretty cool to do it on national television where people can see it. But I was kind of in a trance afterwards. I couldn't believe I had just scored my first goal. A lot of my teammates were telling me, 'Way to go in you're third game. It took me about 30 games.' But they gave me the puck, put tape around it and wrote, 'Game-winning goal. Minnesota. First goal.' That one's in my room here in Colorado. They grabbed another puck from Minnesota and made a plaque of it for my family. That one is back home in the basement with all the other trophies." John-Michael Liles on scoring his first NHL goal. |
"It was my third game and it was at Minnesota," remembered Liles. "We dumped the puck in and Bates Battaglia (who eventually was traded to Washington) went in on a fore-check. He hit one of their defensemen and took the puck. I saw him make that play so I kind of broke in backdoor and that forward who was supposed to be covering me wasn't around. You don't get many opportunities like that. So Bates came in from the corner with the puck, I broke in screaming my head off and he fed it right onto my stick. It didn't get much easier as it was pretty much an empty net goal.
"The game was on ESPN2 and I had about 12 messages after the game from all the MSU boys and my family and friends. That was pretty cool to do it on national television where people can see it. But I was kind of in a trance afterwards. I couldn't believe I had just scored my first goal. A lot of my teammates were telling me, 'Way to go in you're third game. It took me about 30 games.' But they gave me the puck, put tape around it and wrote, 'Game-winning goal. Minnesota. First goal.' That one's in my room here in Colorado. They grabbed another puck from Minnesota and made a plaque of it for my family. That one is back home in the basement with all the other trophies."
Even if the Liles family continues to add awards to the John-Michael collection, seeing him play in person has been another story.
"It has been tough," said Liles. "My family has been out to Denver a couple of times and when we played in Chicago they were there for that game. Other than that they bought the NHL Center Ice package and they watch pretty much every game on TV. I'm half the country away and some of my friends haven't seen me play in person. It's always hard but I try to stay in contact as much as possible to make it a little easier."
Although most of the Avalanche games are shown just throughout the Rockies or through the Center Ice program, many more appearances across the continent would highlight the opening months for Liles. None were more famous then Hockey Night in Canada, where he netted a game-tying goal in his second game on CBC at Calgary Dec. 13.
"To get a chance to play on Hockey Night in Canada, it doesn't matter where you're from, that's a big deal," said Liles, whose first appearance came Oct. 18 at Edmonton. "Especially being up in East Lansing because we had CBC and always caught that second game of the doubleheader."
All of this and Liles has not even reached the mid-way point of the season. However, it is not all glitz and glamour as an NHL rookie. He has had to learn quickly to grow eyes on the back of his helmet.
"The guys are much bigger," described Liles. "Bigger, faster, stronger. In college, there are only one or two guys that are 6-4 on every team. Here, half of the teams are 6-4 or 6-5. If they get a hold of you, you're going to be hurting for a bit. But I'm just trying to learn in every game, read the plays better and see the hits coming."
Besides the bumps and bruises he takes from opposing veterans during each game, the man who led Michigan State in scoring his final two seasons in East Lansing can reminisce with many former Spartans who are scattered about North America.
Jim Cummins joins Liles as MSU alums in Colorado while Anson Carter (N.Y. Rangers), Adam Hall (Nashville), Shawn Horcoff (Edmonton), Andrew Hutchinson (Nashville), Ryan Miller (Buffalo), Rem Murray (Nashville), Mike York (Edmonton) and many others have been making their marks across NHL arenas.
"You see those guys and talk to them after the game a lot," said Liles, whose 2000-01 squad advanced all the way to the NCAA Frozen Four. "It's always good to see some fellow Spartans out on the ice. It's good because you get to talk to them and catch up a bit."
There has been one former collegian, though, that Liles has looked up to throughout his playing days: Brian Leetch. The former Boston College Eagle and Liles previously met off the ice, but the two finally battled each other this season with Colorado claiming one-goal victories in both contests.
"I was able to meet him during my freshman year when I was with the World Junior team," Liles explained. "We were training in New York and we went down to a game in Madison Square Garden. It was also Mike York's first year in the league so we talked to him and he introduced us to some of the guys. Leetch came up and talked to us afterwards. But it was a big thrill to play against him this year because I grew up watching him and tried to model my game after his."
Since Liles has now seen the defensive likes of Leetch, Martin Brodeur, Ed Jovanovski and Tomas Vokoun stand between him and stat-sheet stardom, finding a more exciting match-up as big as Michigan-Michigan State has been just as difficult. Nonetheless, things might change once Detroit crawls into Denver Feb. 5 for what has arguably become one of professional sports' most intense meetings.
"We played Vancouver and that is a pretty good rivalry that's developing," said Liles. "They are a really, really good team. They skate well and have that line of Todd Bertuzzi, Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison which is one of the top lines in the NHL. There are always some good games, though, between the Wings and us and I'm looking forward to being a part of it.
"But nothing compares to college rivalries. Michigan and Michigan State is definitely up there. The environments are totally different between college and the NHL. You have the bands playing and it's a more personal because you know a lot of the fans. Whereas here there are 20,000 people every night and there's not a lot that travel with you all the time."
So has Liles had the opportunity to check out his former team this year?
"I actually watched them at my house when they played Michigan on Fox Sports Net," said Liles, whose Spartans went 8-6-3 against the Wolverines during his tenure at State. "I was bummed because they lost. But I talked to the guys and told them if I could count how many times Michigan scored on a face-off play against me in my four years it would be in the double-digits that's for sure. They played pretty well and there's nothing to be ashamed of and they came back the next night and got a win over them. I just wish I would have been able to see that victory on television.
"I definitely miss that whole atmosphere of college hockey. The biggest difference is all the friends I made over the four years at State and that I miss those guys a lot."
J-M's college experience may be complete, but Michigan State will never forget how one of the good guys in life made it so far in so little time.
By Brian Ormiston, MSU Sports Information
