Hockey Rambling

Over in the Canucks Twitter universe, there’s a March Madness-style bracket going on that pits a variety of who’s who from the Vancouver media, former-pros, and fan sphere. I was happy with a run to the Sweet Sixteen before bowing out to The Athletic's, Wyatt Arndt, aka The Stanchion. Now, here’s where it gets fun. [...]

One bit of news from the NHL, reported by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, is that the NHL has at least floated the idea of finishing the 2019-20 season in North Dakota. Every game in North Dakota. There would obviously be a lot of logistics to figure out – hotels, travel, testing, quarantining away from family [...]

The only active defensemen to ever reach 80 points in a season are Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns. Kris Letang could have made it, but he was too prone to injury and now the window has passed him by. But I put together a list of players who ‘could’ get there, and honestly a few [...]

US President Donald Trump met with the commissioners of the various sports leagues on Saturday, which of course included NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Trump said he hopes that fans will be back in stadiums by August and September, and he believes that the NFL could start on time in September. All I can say is [...]

Hope you’re doing well and staying safe. Earlier this week when the City of Toronto placed a ban on public events until June 30, that ban did not include sporting events. However, on Friday the mayor of Calgary placed his own ban on public events, which happens to include sporting events. The feeling I’ve been [...]

Hello again, and hope you’re managing well during this uneasy time. With this pause likely to be measured in months and not weeks, there are many ideas floating around as for how the 2019-20 NHL season might resume. Here’s one interesting one, which is derived from an NBA idea.   https://twitter.com/PierreVLeBrun/status/1245714964012244992 I don’t like to [...]

  There are benchmarks in any type of fantasy league that people strive for. In football, it’s usually something like 1000 yards from scrimmage or double-digit touchdowns. In baseball, it can be something like a .300 season, or a 20/20 home run/steal season. In hockey, we have things like 20-goal campaigns, 30-win seasons, and the [...]

The NHL has extended the teams' self-quarantine until April 15. The league is breaking off section in two-week chunks. And with the way the US is trending, we’ll be seeing that period extended a few more times.   No surprise the NHL has again pushed back the period of self-quarantine to April 15. Bill Daly [...]

  Every year, some players don’t perform to expectations. It’s just the nature of sport; sometimes players will exceed their talent levels, and some will underperform them. It’s not a straight shot for everyone with regards to explanations, though. It’s not as if we can just point to a number and exclaim that is the [...]

The NHL is heading for a return…at some point. They seem to think June is a remote possibility, with each month that follows having increased odds as the likely date. Myself, I think August or possibly September. Regardless, even a return in mid-June is going to see a crap-load of players coming back to play [...]