mike-smith - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The stars come out in the NHL
Hockey followers love to taut that not only is hockey the ultimate team game — everyone gets a shift after all — but that the playoffs highlight this. It’s somewhat true, though it’s usually a top-end player or goalie taking home the Conn Smythe as the playoff’s most valuable player when all is said...
Please, please no more John Buccigross songs
The only thing worse than having to listen to Gus Johnson these days, and he’s been a real chore for years now, is having to listen to someone trying to be Gus Johnson....
Seriously, how did Ken Holland win those Stanley Cups?
Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz is a headline-chaser. He wants to win the press conference, get the attention, and that might be priority No. 1 for him most of the time. I mean, look at this fucking guy. This is someone who wants to be fawned over....
Darkness has fallen upon the Edmonton Oilers once again
The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars. Though apparently if you’re covering the Edmonton Oilers or a fan of them, that’s the going theme. Perhaps after years and years of the same problem, Oilers observers are just tired of complaining about the same things, so they’re looking for things tha...
Your regular reminder that Connor McDavid is magic
On the night that Edmonton retired Kevin Lowe’s number 4, the Oilers and Rangers paid tribute the best way they could, by reviving the 1980s with an 11-goal thriller....
This is what the Blackhawks have always been
It’s probably a story that you’ve heard a million times by now if you have any sports leanings, but it needs emphasizing. In the spring of 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks were the center of Chicago. Not just Chicago sports, but Chicago. It was a meteoric and shocking rise, simply because three years be...
Maybe it’s about Connor Hellebuyck, not Connor McDavid
The reflex is to point and laugh at the Edmonton Oilers once again. It’s combined with frustration that the game’s best player is leashed to such a clown car of an organization, one of the most brilliant individual seasons going completely to waste. And if you’re a long-term hockey writer or analyst...
Connor McDavid is skating with giants
It’s hardly news that Connor McDavid is the best player in the NHL. And perhaps it shouldn’t be news that McDavid is one of the greatest players of all time. And yet, due to his being tucked away in Edmonton, and hockey’s general struggle to cut out a foothold in the general sporting consciousness, ...
The NHL trade deadline, and the Maple Leafs in particular, continue to be really weird
There’s nothing like the NHL trade deadline to warp what you thought you knew about teams’ priorities and how players are valued. GMs alternate between desperation to chase the Cup and desperation to get anything for players who can’t wait to high-tail it out of town at the season’s end. The process...
The Flames Are A Different Team If Mike Smith Gets Hot
The Flames led the West with 107 points and yet are not what anyone would call favorites to come out of the conference. That’s perhaps unfair, perhaps unwise, but a team as explosive as the Flames still tends to amount to nothing much if it doesn’t have competent goaltending. One game is just one ga...
Mike Smith Flopped So Hard His Mask Flew Off
Calgary Flames goalie Mike Smith is no stranger to the fine art of flopping, but when you really want a call to go your way, you can’t just flail your arms and hope an official notices. Sometimes, you have to up your game and add some practical effects, like Smith did towards the end of Saturday’s g...
The Flames Can't Keep Winning Like This, But It's Going To Be Fun To Watch Them Try
The Calgary Flames are not hard to figure out. A young, explosive team that will go only so far as its goaltending will take it—which, in any half-logical outcome, is not very far. But inexplicably, old man Mike Smith has been red-hot over the last month, and unheralded backup David Rittich red-hot ...