central-division Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Avalanche have gone full Freddie Four Fingers
The NHL trade deadline has gotten into high gear a couple days before Friday afternoon’s deadline, so let’s roll through the highlights of what’s already gone down....
Finally time for the Winnipeg Jets?; Let's hand out some NHL awards; Remember Wayne Gretzky as a Blue?
The Winnipeg Jets are in first place. The Jets have a legitimate shot at the Stanley Cup. They have the league’s best goalie, they have depth scoring. They can win a track meet if opponents want to play that way. They can grind out chances along the boards and in the corners if that’s what’s asked. ...
Are we doing this with the Winnipeg Jets again?
The Winnipeg Jets are in first place. The Jets have a legitimate shot at the Stanley Cup. They have the league’s best goalie, they have depth scoring. They can win a track meet if opponents want to play that way. They can grind out chances along the boards and in the corners if that’s what’s asked. ...
Tristan Thompson gets 25-game PED suspension
Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson was hit with a 25-game PED suspension, according to reports. ...
Devon Toews is not pleased with his Avalanche teammates
Last week, the Colorado Avalanche showed off that despite their warts and occasional hiccup, they still have a gear that few if any other teams can reach (Look at this now!). It looked as if the Avs were kind of picking their way through the regular season and hitting their stride in the spring. Aft...
This week in the NHL: Edmonton's red hot under their new coach; Avs like to make things difficult for themselves;
That dull roar you hear in the distance would be the momentum of the Edmonton Oilers. They’re kind of out there, admittedly, which is why your house isn’t shaking. Only so much a team can do from the hinterlands of Alberta. - Sam Fels Read More...
The Bucks-Pacers rivalry is now spectacular. Thank you, NBA's In-Season Tournament
The NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament has been worth it for all involved. For the Los Angeles Lakers, many men who could use a $500,000 direct deposit got it. Tyrese Haliburton emerged from the tourney as the newest NBA superstar. Also, a real inter-division rivalry is budding. The Indiana Pacers...
The Avalanche can still make it look easy. The problem is, they don't often seem to want to
It hasn’t been the smoothest season for the Colorado Avalanche. They still lead the Central Division, because the Central is the division where everyone has mittens pinned to their jackets year round. There’s the Dallas Stars, sort of, and then a bunch of teams trying to figure out how doorknobs wo...
What the hell is going on with Corey Perry?
(UPDATE): According to reports, the Blackhawks have said Corey Perry was released because of an incident involving a team employee. No further details were provided by the team....
Where are the Arizona Coyotes going?
The only thing more exciting to hockey fans than a player in free agency is an entire franchise going into free agency, which it now feels like the Arizona Coyotes have just done. And they certainly don’t mind treading all over the feelings of whatever Coyotes fans are left. It’s a cruel world, but ...
Gabriel ThreeYaksAndADog will miss all of next season, and the Colorado Avalanche era may already be over
In the salary-capped NHL, you get one, or two shots with one roster, and then you basically have to reshuffle everything around your core stars, and hope that new hand still produces a flush. It’s a constant game of draw poker. ...
The Chicago Blackhawks, the worst team you know, got all the luck
Tanking isn’t a plan, at least in leagues with a lottery. It’s a wager. A GM or front office or owner isn’t putting up money, other than the lack of tickets and merch they’ll sell while their team is shit. They’re putting up a season or many of complete haplessness with rosters devoid of useful play...
Playoff hockey is stupid anyway
The NHL Playoffs gets its jollies from defying logic or explanation, and reveling in its unpredictability. That doesn’t mean it’s always a free-for-all, as hockey and its fans would have you believe. But it delves into the chaos and silliness more often than its brethren, that’s for sure....
Tampa Bay summons losing culture with return of creamsicle uniforms
If you’re a fan of throwback jerseys and nostalgia, we’ve got a treat for you. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are bringing back their swashbuckling uniforms from the early days, when they seemingly did nothing but lose. That’s right, you can call this a comeback because those wonderful creamsicle uniforms...
If only the NHL had a leader
It is yelling at the rain to lament that commissioners in any league aren’t stewards of the sport anymore. Look at Roger Goodell’s face and wonder if you’d trust that man to steer a fucking tricycle. But there comes a point where the commissioner is the only one who can steer a league out of a skid ...
![And now for the NHL trade deadline, which is much more boring than the NBA's [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/850fb66a9734c1d7a647e4a05bbf391e.jpg)
And now for the NHL trade deadline, which is much more boring than the NBA's [Updated]
The NBA can shift its entire axis in a trade deadline — like Brooklyn shipping Kyrie Irving to Dallas and Kevin Durant to Phoenix — or in free agency. The NFL is starting to put more jazz into both its deadline and offseason. MLB could if any owner wanted to actually spend money outside of Queens. T...
Tony La Russa was every bit the human gallstone you thought he was
It could end up being the pacemaker that saved Chicago, going down in history along with other objects we revere like a lamp next to a cow, disco records, and all the dirt we moved to reverse the flow of the Chicago River to send our shit to St. Louis (where it belongs and they deserve) to name a fe...
The waiting is the hardest part
The Colorado Avalanche are waiting. And waiting for a Stanley Cup Finals opponent hasn’t treated those favorably in returning from mini-vacations in the past. We’re finishing up the 35th NHL postseason in which first-round games are contested as a best of seven, starting in 1987 and featured every y...
Connor Ingram goes from third string goalie to Nashville’s best bet at an upset
It may have been an impossible task after all. What more could Connor Ingram have done to stop the Colorado Avalanche other than grow a third arm or leg? In his second-ever NHL start, and first in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Ingram went from Nashville’s No. 3 goaltender to Patrick Roy overnight. He’ll...
Farewell to my first and last
The generations of sports fans who grew up learning and loving a sport and team through the radio are disappearing these days. Another one came to a close on Thursday night in Chicago, though this one was a little different. We were a group out of place and time, which we came to identify ourselves ...