mcdavid Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The NHL is pawing at international competition again
While admitting I’m completely clueless as to the detailed logistics of constructing an international hockey tournament, the overall idea of it isn’t complicated. While the actual hockey is probably better before the NHL season when players are fresh and teams have a chance to practice and shape the...
The Oilers season is already slipping away
One month into an NHL season isn’t probably the time to panic — unless you’re the Edmonton Oilers and the pressure cooker started a couple years ago. A 3-9-1 start has already left the Oil with something close to a Sisyphian climb. Sure, there’s 69 games left, but we’re just a week from Thanksgivin...
The Penguins power play will be a doomsday device, just not yet
The Penguins might be the most-watched team in the league this season. When you trade for the reigning Norris Trophy winner, surefire Hall of Famer, and d-man who changed how the position is viewed in Erik Karlsson, to add to your collection of three Hall of Famers already, fans are going to want to...
Now I can die peacefully as I’ve seen a Kenny Omega masterpiece live
Every sports fan has a checklist of things they have to see in person. These days it probably involves Shohei Ohtani. Maybe Connor McDavid turning some poor schmuck on a third pairing into unrecognizable goo (I saw him do it to Duncan Keith). LeBron in person maybe. The timeless ones are seeing a ga...
The off-putting history of Spencer Strider, and the incredible weirdness of the NHL Awards
I won’t pretend what follows makes any sense. It is simply a matter of taste, and my tastes have warped and mutated often into a territory I can no longer explain. If you’re an Atlanta baseball fan, Spencer Strider is a titan walking among men. Cobb County probably has dubbed it “Strider Day,” a gam...
Jack Eichel beat Connor McDavid to a Stanley Cup
Sometimes, you just wear it:...
Life after greatness: What happens when a sport loses its GOAT?
There’s no denying that GOATs are great for a sport when they’re still active. Michael Jordan, Tony Hawk, and other best-to-ever-do-its pushed their sports to popularity not seen since, but led to fans coming down off a trip so perfect that they were left fiending for the next fix of greatness perso...
Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn does everything you’re not supposed to
Other than the New York Yankees for some reason, no sport really gives a flying fuck about having a captain. The NFL will occasionally pay lip service to it, but then coaches pass around that designation like a joint to reward whoever went longest at practice without drinking water or whatever. I as...
Joel Embiid’s play in Game 7 said more than all the pressers in the world
There isn’t really anything Joel Embiid could have said after his Game 7 beer belch that would have made up for it. He could have laid out all the mea culpas in the world, and Sixers fans are going to be pretty sharp-eyed and tongued (pardon for making you think about Philadelphian tongues) come nex...
Which sport has a clear-cut GOAT?
It’s a conversation that’ll lead to a fight over drinks and is a common one among sports fans. Who is the greatest of all time in their given sport? But which sport has the easiest GOAT to figure out isn’t discussed nearly as much. As far as I’m concerned, there are two options: Hockey and horse rac...
It’s not supposed to be that easy, Connor
The NHL playoffs like to revel in its celebration of depth and the unsung. Everyone gets a shift, so everyone had better do a job or more, and the puck can bounce onto anyone’s stick or off anyone’s ass to change a game, a series, a whole spring. It is not always a stage for the leading men to provi...
The Stanley Cup will be lifted by the Oilers-Golden Knights victor
Among a final eight that feels like a changing of the guard in hockey more than most years, with old standbys proving their age by exiting the ice until the fall, the duo of the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Edmonton Oilers stand out like a sore thumb. Not necessarily because they don’t also repr...
The beginning of the end starts for the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight
In the latest exhibit that the hockey gods come with a wicked sense of humor, the Toronto Maple Leafs are now tied for the longest streak of making the playoffs in the league. Thanks to the Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Nashville Predators all heading for the cottage of the damned th...
Wanna raise a future NHL star? Name him Connor
Connor McDavid has recently surpassed his career high for points in a season and has continued to climb, with over 140 points (60+ goals, 80+ assists) on the season. Many in the hockey world already regard the 26-year-old center as one of the best to ever play the game. He is explosive, deceptive wi...
Connor McDavid isn’t going to get a better chance
Every generationally great player, or every player that can safely say they’re one of the five best of all time, eventually bores the public with their greatness. Or at least fails to spike the EKG when news of their latest heroics crosses the wires. Connor McDavid is there. ...
You can’t script baseball, but sometimes it can seem like it
What they tell you about baseball a lot, is that because everyone gets a turn, you can’t guarantee that your best player will get to the plate with the game on the line. Sometimes it’s your second baseman with no concept of the strike zone who wets himself at the sight of any fastball over 96 MPH. S...
Real Madrid simply cannot be destroyed
Most every time it’s happened, when Liverpool are up 2-0 at Anfield within a game’s first 15 minutes, especially on a European night, and the stadium is coming loose with noise and the team is swarming, teams tend to fold. That kind of atmosphere once folded Lionel Messi’s Barcelona not so long ago....
![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...
MLB cares more about middle relievers — and money — than the fans
No one comes up with a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist quite like MLB. It’s their specialty....
The NHL will always be a niche sport — and that’s fine
There is no fanbase that can whipsaw from beseeching the masses to watch their sport to getting pissed off at any mainstream coverage or attention quite like hockey fans. Any discussion of hockey’s ratings and popularity always includes a collection of the same reasons it’s not more popular, along w...