One-third of the way into the shortened NHL season, there has hardly been a lack of surprise and excitement. The Chicago Blackhawks have yet to lose in regulation, the Buffalo Sabres fired Lindy Ruff after 16 years, and all three Eastern Canada teams are currently in playoff positions. Individually, the season has been very interesting ...
The New York Rangers missed out on getting some of the game’s best players in the last decade of drafts, but their biggest miss came much longer ago, in Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe.
“I’d never before seen a player leave the bench and go into the medical room in the middle of a game unless he was injured and needed immediate attention … [it was] a watershed moment in the history of the franchise.” Thus opens Hockeytown Doc, the newly published memoirs of Dr. John Finley, a man ...
The Lives of Conn Smythe: From the Battlefield to Maple Leaf Gardens: A Hockey Icon’s Story . By Kelly McParland. (2011, Toronto: FENN/McClelland & Stewart Ltd. Hardcover. Pp. 370. $32.99. ISBN 978-0-7710-5683-3.) Once upon a time, there was a hockey club called the Toronto St. Patricks. Then Conn Smythe came along. The rest, as ...
Listening to local sports radio the day after the Penguins lost another game seven at home, it was clear that Pittsburgh’s fans were in self-righteous midseason form. A few calls for Fleury’s head. A couple of yinzers suggesting that Dan Bylsma should be replaced. Nothing out of the usual. The biggest target was winger Alexei ...
The playoffs are less than a month away, and playoff-bound teams are beginning to separate themselves from the pack, if only a little bit. Some teams have stuck at or near the top of the standings for most of the season, while others have had to dig their way out of early season holes back ...
This past week, Calgary Herald columnist George Johnson penned an interesting column. A long-time critic of (now-former) Flames general manager Darryl Sutter, Johnson’s latest had a slightly different bent to it. He praised the efforts of Darryl’s brother, Flames head coach Brent Sutter, and recommended he be considered for the NHL’s Jack Adams Award ...
The Memorial Aud, Buffalo, December 7th, 2009. The excitement in Doc Emery’s voice on Versus is palpable. “One minute left in the game… THIRTY SECONDS … TEN SECONDS … AND THE DEVILS WIN. MARTY BRODEUR HAS TIED TERRY SAWCHUCK’S ALL-TIME SHUTOUT RECORD FOR THE NHL AT 103.” Even though you know it’s coming, that any ...
