Stauber, a Republican who was sworn in as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District on Jan. 3, said Rep. John Katko from New York, who is co-chair of the Congressional Hockey Caucus, started recruiting him to play in the annual hockey game between the Lawmakers and the Lobbyists during his campaign.
“He was my mentor during the campaign,” Stauber said. “He said I have to play in the congressional hockey game, and I’m going to.”
Some might view Stauber as a ringer for this year’s game at Capital One Arena on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET. The 52-year-old from Duluth, Minnesota, was an alternate captain and forward for Lake Superior State when it won its first NCAA men’s hockey championship in 1988 and played three seasons in the Detroit Red Wings system before retiring in 1993.
Though he is the first member of Congress to have won an NCAA hockey title and signed an NHL contract, Stauber said the other players have nothing to worry about. He rarely skates these days.
“I had a full knee replacement, so I kind of have to be careful on that,” he said. “I’ll be just like everybody else.”
Stauber is looking forward to the game because of the good it does. Proceeds will benefit the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, an inner-city youth program in Washington, the USA Warriors Ice Hockey Program, the Capital Beltway Warriors Ice Hockey Program and other hockey-related charities.
“The proceeds go to underserved communities to grow the game of the hockey,” Stauber said. “A young individual should never not have the opportunity to participate because of the cost.”
The Congressional Hockey Challenge will cap a busy 2019 Hockey Day on the Hill on Wednesday. The day begins with a congressional briefing hosted by the Congressional Hockey Caucus on how hockey supports increased interest in and access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning that fuels career exploration among fifth-to-eighth grade students.
Frank Thorp V of NBC News will then moderate a discussion examining the NHL and NHL Players’ Association’s Future Goals program, which has worked to up-skill more than two million students since 2014 across the U.S. A Future Goals demonstration and open house will follow.
“Hockey helps all facets of life, when you join at (age) 4 or 5 right through,” Stauber said. “I’m 52 years old and many times during my life and really on a weekly basis what you did or what happened to you in the game of hockey you can relate it to life and you know you can overcome it. It’s perseverance, hard work, the ups and downs, how to lose, how to win.”
The fourth of six brothers, Stauber grew up a in a hockey family. Younger brother, Robb, a goaltender, played 62 NHL games over five seasons (1989-90 to 1994-95) for the Los Angeles Kings and Buffalo Sabres, and coached the U.S. Women’s National Team from 2017-18.
Stauber and his wife, Jodi, a veteran of the war in Iraq who served 24 years in the Minnesota Air National Guard, have a hockey family of their own with four children, including oldest son, Levi, who plays for Austin in the North American Hockey League and is committed to Michigan Tech.
Stauber never imagined the sport would take him to the House of Representatives. It brought him to the White House after Lake Superior State’s 4-3 overtime win against St. Lawrence University in the 1988 NCAA championship game.
Stauber assisted on the winning goal, with Mark Vermette putting in the rebound of his shot 4:36 into sudden death.
“He was one of those guys who was always in position,” said Jim Dowd, Stauber’s college linemate who won the Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils in 1995. “He was so easy to play with. He was a total team player. He didn’t care who scored, who got the assists, any of that. He was just a guy you’d want on your team. He’d run through a brick wall for you.”
Stauber remembers visiting the White House and meeting President Ronald Reagan with Lake Superior State in May 1988 as a significant moment.
“At the time, I never thought about politics, never wanted to get involved in politics. It never crossed my mind at that point,” he said. “But today I look back and I think we as a team and me as an individual, now a member of congress, it was such a privilege for me to meet a really, really great American and a great president.”
After four years at Lake Superior State, where he earned his degree in criminal justice, Stauber, who was undrafted, had NHL contract offers from the Red Wings and the New York Rangers. He chose the Red Wings and played three seasons with Adirondack in the American Hockey League, plus 25 games with Toledo in the ECHL in 1991-92.
Stauber was selected by the Florida Panthers in the 1993 NHL Expansion Draft but retired because of a neck injury. Rather than lament the end of his NHL dreams, Stauber moved seamlessly into the next stage of his life as an officer in the Duluth Police Department, where he served for 23 years before retiring in August 2017.
“I don’t think there was any hesitation that he was going to go out and create his path and get involved,” Robb Stauber said. “He went to school for criminal justice and he was going to put that to work, and he did. I can’t imagine at that time that he ever thought that was going to lead to where he’s at today, but I think deep down he just enjoys working with people and making a difference.”
Stauber got his start in politics on the city council in Hermantown, Minnesota, where he served for eight years before running for St. Louis County Commissioner in 2012 and unseating a 16-year incumbent. Running for Congress in 2018 was the next step, but not one he expected.
“It wasn’t like that at all,” he said. “I have a passion to serve. I served locally as an elected official. I served as a police officer for 23 years, and my wife served in the military for 24 years and she’s an Iraq war veteran. So, our family is service. This was not the next step, because that next step was never in my [plans].”
Now that he is a congressman, Stauber is grateful for the role hockey played in getting him here.
“The hockey world, the hockey people are awesome,” he said. “I have friends all over the country, and in many parts of Canada, that I can call at a moment’s notice or they can call me, whatever they need. It’s the friendship. It’s the competitiveness in the game. We can compete on the ice, but we will go and have lunch afterwards.
“The game of hockey, there’s so many things one can learn from that and never take it for granted.”
from A Viral Update http://bit.ly/2SdyB1E
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