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Lake Placid, New York at night | www.lakeplacid.com

The Village of Lake Placid is so humble it makes Tim Tebow look arrogant.

Nestled in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York lies a small town that plays home to fewer than 3,000 people – 5,000 fewer than the seated capacity of the Olympic Center’s Herb Brooks Arena.

There aren’t enough egos in the village for the village to have an ego of its own. Yet, if any town has earned bragging rights, it’s Lake Placid. At least if we’re talking sports.

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Danny Watkins is a 27-year-old ex-hockey-playing Canadian firefighter. But he’s taking a break from all that to play offensive line for the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. Go figure.

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Single-digit-aged mite players everywhere are shrugging their shoulders and rolling their eyes every time coach says it: “Win the one-on-one battles.”

Sorry, kids. Coach is right. You’ll have plenty of time to grasp the fact when you’re writing about it instead of playing.

The amount of times a player beats an opponent to a puck, comes out of the corner with it or gets around the defender for a clean break at the goaltender isn’t measured by stats, but we know how important each of those things are.

There is, however, a one-on-one battle that shows up on the sheet, and it’s maybe the most decisive element of all.

Win more faceoffs, win more games.
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The struggling New York Islanders were certain to get schooled Saturday night by the defending champion Boston Bruins, and Rick DiPietro had an unlikely opportunity to make a statement. Somehow DiPietro was the only healthy Islanders goalie that night; usually it’s the other way around.

So the first overall pick of the 2000 entry draft set up shop in the crease. As expected, the Bruins completely dominated the neutral zone and, in turn, dominated puck possession.

Thanks to DiPietro, they also dominated the scoreboard.
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