[sureLoss]

http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/me...ff-ice-weapon/

Talk about moving from the penthouse to the basement. And it’s not like Ryan van Asten was kicked out. This summer, he gave up all that Stanley Cup glory and great weather in Los Angeles to come to Calgary and take over a major fixer-upper in one of the most frigid climates on the NHL map.

Now, before you go thinking ‘What the f-bomb was he thinking?’ van Asten did have very good reasons for leaving sunny southern California after three seasons as the Kings’ strength and conditioning coach.

First and foremost, he’d spent most of the past three years living in L.A. while his wife, Jackie, who’s a doctor, remained in Calgary.
Second, Cowtown is van Asten’s adopted home, where he worked for six years and met his wife before taking the job with the Kings.
Third, the guy just loves a good challenge.

“It is intriguing to me to come to a team like this that’s rebuilding and see if I can leave my mark,” van Asten said. “We’re starting from ground zero here, and it’s going to be a long process.

“When I got to L.A., a lot of the pieces were in place, and I did my best to leave my mark there, and I think I did a good job that way. But here, it’s a completely different situation from when I got to L.A., and it’s exciting for me to have this challenge. In this market, if we could win a championship here, it would just be amazing.”

Van Asten, 33, comes to Calgary with an impressive résumé, which includes a physical and health education degree from Queen’s University and a master’s degree in neuromuscular physiology at the University of Calgary. In three seasons with the Kings, he helped them to two Stanley Cups. Prior to that, he worked for Hockey Canada, training the national women’s hockey team, which won gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games.