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This week in the NHL November 18, 2023
Every NHL season is partially soundtracked by a surprising amount of static and bellowing from British Columbia. Perhaps no team in the four major sports has more outsized and disproportionate noise surrounding it from its media and fans than the Vancouver Canucks. Leafs Nations may make more noise ...
This week in the locker November 18, 2023
I and many other Chicagoans used to sit in our simple Midwestern homes, huddled by the coal stove or whatever people picture us doing in the winter (it’s not that far off, it’s just huddled at the bar), and have a good chuckle at how New Yorkers were sentenced to a life with James Dolan. Here was a ...
The Canucks are making the right kind of noise
Every NHL season is partially soundtracked by a surprising amount of static and bellowing from British Columbia. Perhaps no team in the four major sports has more outsized and disproportionate noise surrounding it from its media and fans than the Vancouver Canucks. Leafs Nations may make more noise ...
The NHL is going to screw with OT again, even though it’s already a joke
Whenever any discussion of changes the NHL wants to make to its standings system or points system, it has to be remembered that the league has no interest in finding ways to separate the good teams from the bad. The league likes it that very few teams are ever actually under .500 (only 10 of the 32 ...
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...
Fine, you want a prediction? The New Jersey Devils will win the Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup picks in October are dumb. We have no idea who will be hurt, what the trade deadline will do, what goalie will have an existential crisis (Jakob Markstrom), or what goalie will channel the Arc Of The Covenant and turn their also-ran into a threat (Igor Shesterkin). It’s a long goddamn se...
Michigan TV network fires sports director for Mel Tucker ‘analysis’ that read more like PR work
Last Thursday, sports reporter Audrey Dahlgren had a very bad day, by journalistic standards. After attorneys for Mel Tucker, the recently fired head football coach at Michigan State, released 98 pages worth of text messages sent by Brenda Tracy — an anti-rape advocate who filed a Title IX complaint...
Behold the Skate Men — NHL Season Preview: Western Conference
Let’s keep it rolling. You can see our Eastern Conference preview from yesterday here....
The NHL has a new slogan: Gay is not OK
Another NHL season is upon us, and the NHL wasted no time in being the NHL:...
Behold The Skate Men: NHL Eastern Conference Preview
Like the college kids who crash through the side door into a party with a goofy, boozed-up look on their face, here comes the NHL season as a surprise....
MLB got what it deserves with its wild-card round
MLB and Rob Manfred don’t really have to care what happens in the wildcard round. Their only aim was to provide more playoff baseball, good or not, because its mere existence netted them more TV cash. So the fact that MLB will get no Game 3s, no interesting storylines, and barely any drama, followin...
No one does goodbyes, or hellos, like baseball
The MLB playoffs start tomorrow, which still gives us a day to reflect on the season gone. MLB more and more would like its fans to focus on only October so they can demean, and hence pay less for, the regular season. But that’s not how the game works, it’s not how baseball fandom works, and there i...
There's a pretty good chance of Lightning crashing this season in Tampa
Whatever happens to the Tampa Bay Lightning this upcoming season, it’ll all have been worth it. ...
Barcelona might prove every fan’s conspiracy theory to be true
You’ve heard that guy at the other end of the bar. It’s impossible to miss, given the volume, and sincerity with which that particular message is always delivered. It’s always along the lines of, “These refs are in the bag!” Here in Chicago, it’s pronounced more like, “Dese jagbag refs are in da baa...
The Washington Capitals only exist for one reason now
The NHL spent a good decade trying to revolve their league around a Pittsburgh Penguins-Washington Capitals rivalry, and more to the point, a Sidney Crosby-Alex Ovechkin one. Unable to come up with any original ideas, because it’s the NHL, it did its best to copy the Bird-Magic dynamic from the NBA ...
Coming soon to a city near you: MLB expansion
It’s always been the mantra of Rob Manfred that MLB wouldn’t look towards expansion until the stadium situations for the A’s and Rays were settled. After all, anywhere they’d award an expansion team could still be used as leverage for those teams to wrangle all the tax giveaways and government hando...
Connor Bedard's most recent highlights prove he is going to be even better than everyone thinks
I’ll throw out all the caveats first, because that’s what every hockey fan outside of Chicago wants. ...
Mike Babcock sets a land speed record for being fired for being Mike Babcock
It has to be asked what did the Columbus Blue Jackets think they were going to get by hiring Mike Babcock? ...
Mike Babcock is seemingly at it again, though it's surprising he knows how to use AirPlay
Hockey doesn’t even need to start to be stupid, especially when it comes to a needlessly recycled coach like Mike Babcock. If you don’t recall Babcock since he got fired from the Leafs, you may remember him from such episodes as making Johan Franzen’s life an utter hell or tricking Mitch Marner into...
Bill Peters is why hockey players grow up to be douchebags
Hockey’s culture problem is easily explained. One, the sport doesn’t have much interest in changing, because it’s always been, and is happiest, when it’s insular. Say anything about it, and the response will automatically be, “You just don’t get it because you’ve never been in the room.” Two, that i...