CHICAGO — The impostor took the ice, his face concealed, and kept his head down. He did all he could to blend in.
At a closed N.H.L. skate, a tuneup scrimmage during the lockout of 2004, some two dozen players glided about the rink in the training facility of the Chicago Blackhawks. The pros didn’t know it, but someone else had crashed their practice.
His name was Nello Ferrara, and back then, in hockey circles, that did not mean much. Thirteen years ago, Ferrara was still just a wannabe in the sport, a 27-year-old bruiser with but a handful of junior and minor league games on his résumé.