Entries with the tag: nhl

How to Start a War.  And End One.

by Alanah McGinley on 08/04/08 at 02:05 PM
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Earlier today, John Glennon at The Tennessean noted that the International Ice Hockey Federation will determine the status of the Nashville Predators’ Alexander Radulov in the next two weeks.

If the IIHF finds that the KHL acted improperly, Glennon also noted some possible outcomes:

• the IIHF could pressure the KHL to void Radulov’s Russian contract
• the IIHF could choose to “red flag’’ Radulov, which would lead to sanctions against Radulov and/or his team.
  

Sanctions? Like what?

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Baltimore a Long Shot for NHL Franchise

by Alanah McGinley on 07/25/08 at 11:18 AM
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From Childs Walker at the Baltimore Sun,

A new arena is a poor risk for Baltimore if the city is counting on attracting an NHL or NBA franchise, sports business experts say, but some agree with city leaders that a proposed 18,500-seat venue could be profitable without such an anchor tenant.

Neither the NBA nor the NHL offers many relocation or expansion prospects, analysts said, and the presence of basketball and hockey teams in Washington make the odds even longer for Baltimore. [...]

NHL spokesman Frank Brown said the league has no plans for expansion or relocation, though several cities have expressed interest. He said questions about the Capitals’ sharing a market with another team are “way too hypothetical for me to answer.

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International Hockey Chess Match

by Alanah McGinley on 07/24/08 at 02:33 PM
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From Charlie Teljeur at The Hockey News,

What would be a good analogy to describe the current state of Euro-NHL relations?

Maybe a chess match, in which one side – the NHL – has three Queens, five Knights, 12 Rooks and an infinite number of pawns. Europe is represented by a pair of rogue, but nicely dressed Bishops who feel they can move any direction they damn well please.

The National League – they’re the white side – have been hungrily swallowing up unlimited European talent since it was discovered Inge Hammerstrom wasn’t female and that she, er he, had a nice backhand.

Europe – playing the evil black role – occasionally jumps a pawn or two or sign a broken-down seen-better-days Queen (sorry, Jaromir) and waves said contract in the face of the “shocked” NHL, something akin to a pirate who steals your spare set of car keys.

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Back in the Men’s Game

by Alanah McGinley on 07/22/08 at 02:50 PM
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The Canadian Press reports that Hayley Wickenheiser—the all-time leading scorer of Canadian women’s hockey and widely considered one the best female players to ever set foot on the ice—has made the cut for men’s professional hockey again. 

A Swedish third-tier team, Eskilstuna Linden, has reportedly signed her for the 2008-09 season. The last time Wickenheiser played men’s pro hockey was a short stint in the Finnish Second Division, and her signing was met with mixed reviews, but there’s no doubting the impact she’s had on professional hockey culture.

A few words from Jamie Fitzpatrick on the issues faced in the past:

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Gary Bettman’s NHL

by Alanah McGinley on 01/31/08 at 06:22 PM
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From Jim Kelley at Sports Illustrated,

GB has done one heck of a job. Costs, for the most part, are capped. Revenue is up. Attendance is stable though lower than annually reported since the NHL came off the second of Bettman’s forced lockouts. And—this is most important and dear to every owner’s heart—the value of franchises has risen dramatically on his watch

Example: the expected sale of the Edmonton Oilers. The struggling franchise in what is arguably the NHL’s smallest city is expected to change hands for upwards of $200 million. Compare that to the $50 million cost of an expansion franchise (Ottawa and Anaheim) the day before Bettman was anointed in Palm Beach, Fla. in February 1993. Even with inflation, the increase is staggering—not nearly the value of an NFL or Major League franchise or even one in the NBA (which is hard to gauge because there haven’t been nearly as many in bankruptcy or for sale), but in the NHL, it’s a noteworthy achievement.

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*related: an earlier article considering Bettman’s tenure posted on KK today.

Update 6:32pm ET: Pierre LeBrun at the CP flashes back on Bettman’s legacy today as well.

Is THIS the Year?

by Alanah McGinley on 01/30/08 at 01:04 AM
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With thanks to Greg Wyshynski at AOL Sports, I came across this cynical little video parodying the NHL’s advertisement theme, “Is This The Year?”

I actually like those ads just fine, but what the hell—I enjoy cynical-obnoxiousness as much as the next guy. (or more) But even more importantly, I could probably listen to this screwball interpretation of Sidney Crosby’s voice all day.

Greg suggests that Crosby sounds like “Emo"… and I agree, but would just like to add that Emo sounds a wee bit wasted…

Video:

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Fashionable Hockey

by Alanah McGinley on 01/25/08 at 04:24 PM
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If you’re not going to check out the ASG for the hockey, how about the designer clothes?  From Nedra Rhone’s “Shop Talk” in the AJC:

Even if you’re not a total hockey head, NHL all-star weekend isn’t a complete bust.

Alyssa Milano (seen lately on My Name is Earl) is making an appearance in Atlanta this weekend at Rockin’ Skate 2008 to launch her new clothing line for female hockey fans who are into fashion.

Touch, available in early spring at shop.nhl.com, will include outerwear, denim, dresses and more. Clearly a sports lover, Milano also designed a Major League Baseball line.

I have no doubt there’s a market for it—and that baseball line of hers has certainly worked out well— but I’ll be sticking to my Luongo jersey, thanks.

But for the more chic hockey chick, here’s something for the LA Kings fan:

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Where the Money Goes

by Alanah McGinley on 01/15/08 at 01:38 PM
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The sport of hockey always seems to be involved in some charitable cause or another.  On a league-wide level, for instance, Hockey Fights Cancer is an NHL and NHLPA project which has raised around $7 million to support related projects.  And on a community level, most (if not all) teams go to bat for various causes in their community. (*such as Canuck Place, being a well known one in Vancouver)

But while these causes collect money to help people, we seldom—unless we personally benefit from those charities—actually see where the money ends up.  So here’s one small-scale example of how, when you throw a buck or some of your time towards your favorite hockey-related charitable cause, you are making a difference.

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Bigger, Stronger, Faster: Is it Necessarily Better?

by Alanah McGinley on 01/08/08 at 11:58 AM
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I’ve been known to berate the programming of Canucks TV (and corresponding $12.95-a-game fee to watch it) but they did come up with something interesting recently—a new round-table show featuring local media discussing a variety of current issues in the NHL.

The video below is from last week sometime I believe, but I hadn’t had a chance to watch it till last night. Still, I thought it was an interesting (and sort of odd) question to bring up, so I decided to throw it on Youtube in case others were interested.

The panel features Vancouver broadcaster Barry MacDonald, former NHLer Cliff Ronning, writers Ed Willes of The Province and Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun.

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Mike Ricci Hotness

by Alanah McGinley on 12/27/07 at 02:41 PM
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Well, Christmas is over, so apparently it’s a good time to get down to being obnoxious and mean-spirited.  From ESPN’s Page 2:

There are athletes like David Beckham, Tom Brady and Michael Jordan who rise to fame behind their talent and good looks. And then there are those like Otis Nixon, Sam Cassell and Gheorghe Muresan, who become known for being horribly, horribly, horribly ugly.

Ricci fell into the latter camp. Although that association besmirches the likes of Nixon, Cassell and Muresan. Ricci was uglier. Much uglier.

In fact, if you created a person out of the worst genes of those three, raised it in a kennel, beat it about the face every night with a hockey stick and never washed its hair, you’d get Mike Ricci on the day of his high school senior picture.

Poor Mike… although admittedly, he really doesn’t take great photos.

*photo in this post found on TSN

Monday Top Ten

by Alanah McGinley on 12/10/07 at 03:29 PM
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Top 10 Reasons Why Hockey is Better
Than Other Major League Sports


10. No one notices when you have a labor stoppage.

People say that it’s particularly bad for the NHL, of all sports, when they go off the air for an extended period of time. Well, that’s rubbish.  The only people that even know about NHL labor stoppages are hockey fans themselves. But if NFL goes on strike? People are liable to get genuinely freaked out about that.

The NHL is much better at keeping such things under wraps…

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Hockey Player Trivia

by Alanah McGinley on 11/29/07 at 04:05 PM
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Today, Neil Stevens at the Canadian Press ran down a selection of trivia found in the NHL media guides.  For instance:

Chicago defenceman Brent Seabrook loves yogurt covered peanuts, Carolina captain Rod Brind’Amour can’t get enough Red Vines licorice and Los Angeles defenceman Tom Preissing says his favourite food is bacon.

Philadelphia goalie Martin Biron has horses named Mel and Mad Dog, teammate Mike Knuble has a leopard gecko named Flames and San Jose centre Joe Thornton owns cats named Lenny and Indy.

Fascinating? Well… cherry-picking the CP article a bit, perhaps there are some other odds and ends you’re desperate to know.  Starting with the Leafs:

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What Starts In Pittsburgh & Ends In Montreal?

by Paul on 11/28/07 at 07:19 AM
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How about a road trip that hits every NHL, AHL and ECHL arena…

An Interview with Gare Joyce

by Alanah McGinley on 11/26/07 at 12:28 PM
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Gare Joyce’s new book Future Greats and Heartbreaks* is an education in the workings of the NHL draft and hockey scouting itself.  It was a riveting read that also had me comparing his observations to old draft guides, and looking up the current stats of the many players he met at an earlier time in their development. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

After reading the book, I had a chance to ask Joyce a few questions about his experiences.  That interview is below, as well as a few more details about the book.

About the author:

Gare Joyce is a writer on the masthead of ESPN The Magazine. He is also a regular contributor to Christian Science Monitor, Canadian Geographic, Maclean’s, and The Walrus. Joyce has won three National Magazine Awards and is the author of three previous books, Sidney Crosby: Taking the Game by Storm, The Only Ticket Off the Island: Baseball in the Dominican Republic and When the Lights Went Out.

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Ranking The Original 6

by Paul on 11/26/07 at 12:15 PM
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from Damien Cox at ESPN,

Today, it’s fair to say the majority of NHL fans are far more familiar with the Original 21. Or the Original 30 ("You mean Nashville hasn’t always had a team, Grandpa?").

Still, the Red Wings might well be the league’s most popular team on a city-by-city basis, with the Rangers not that far behind.

So, to some, there is a special allure to those six franchises. In Canada, the Leafs and Habs always will be viewed through a different telescope than the Canucks, Senators, Oilers and Flames.

You could argue, however, that the league has spent more time promoting all of its new franchises than protecting the integrity and status of the so-called Original Six.

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Hockey Or Football

by Paul on 11/25/07 at 10:22 AM
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from Erin Nicks at the Ottawa Sun,

I can’t choose between the NFL and NHL.

I know you’re thinking that any sports fan would never be pressured to decide. Honestly, I thought it was a non-issue as well, until I had to deal with the Denver Broncos and Senators playing simultaneously on Monday night. The two teams I follow the most with respective opponents of their own (Tennessee and Montreal), yet I was forced to pit them against each other—eyeglasses perched on the tip of my nose as I feebly attempted to magnify the television’s picture-in-picture

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There’s No Business Like NHL Business…

by Alanah McGinley on 10/01/07 at 01:28 PM
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It’s definitely not a boring week in the hockey business when the very league we love—despite all the ways it drives us nuts—receives notification of a lawsuit filed against it by one of it’s own member teams, MSG and the New York Rangers. 

The lawsuit alleges that the NHL monopolizes control over team promotion.  The Rangers appear to be the only team left in the league that hasn’t handed over their website, as everyone else has followed the new standards. And that hasn’t sat well with the NHL:

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Nothing Says “I Heart You” Like a $100,000 Car

by Alanah McGinley on 09/22/07 at 12:14 PM
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From GossipGirls.com (...because apparently I have no shame):

What do you get for the girl who has everything?  No, really, when you’re buying for Hilary Duff, that question must ring especially true.  And her boyfriend decided to take a trip to the Mercedes dealer to celebrate her birthday.

And oh what a present he got her!  Duff’s boyfriend, Mike Comrie, called her up to say that he’d purchased an early 20th birthday present.  “I hope you like them,” he told her, faking her out totally.  The singer/actress told press she was thinking, “Okay, it’s shoes or something.” But when she went to her sisters house to get the gift, she was awestruck.

Rather than shoes or earrings, or matching hockey pucks with their names on them (Comrie is an NHL player) she found a $100,000+ Mercedes Benz G-class SUV with a big red bow on top.

You know what my coolest birthday present was this year? A book, Canucks Legends, by Jeff Rud.  And it’s great, but perhaps dating Mike Comrie is a better idea than I had previously considered.

Meanwhile, these maniacs have only been dating for 2 months. Imagine what Christmas will be like.

Distorting Reality with the Leafs

by Alanah McGinley on 09/21/07 at 02:42 PM
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William Houston at the Globe & Mail takes note of the pre-season cheerleading going on in Leafs Land this week, and takes a few shots at Greg Millen:

Millen went as far as to describe Raycroft’s 2006-07 season as “excellent.” Excellent? Is that why the team rushed out to acquire another starting goalie? What is he talking about?
Millen makes himself look foolish by making these sorts of remarks and he also undermines the credibility of the channel. Why listen to Millen and his fellow housemen dish pap when you can get real commentary, sometimes hard-hitting, from TSN, Rogers Sportsnet and the Score?

But as Houston himself points out, it’s not just Millen, it’s the flavor of Toronto… particularly at Leafs TV:

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