#WE ARE HOCKEYTOWN

[larkinsboys]

and with that, we set the attendance record for the entire PWHL. that’s hockeytown, folks

[acheronist]

coach getting asked how he feels about the late game start tn because every team in the league is skating as a promo bit.......

“no it's absolutely awful. and I get it-- on the big picture, but I don't know why OUR fans-- who are as loyal as can be, as passionate as can be-- have to come to the rink for a late start. I can guarantee there are families who can't and won't come tonight because it's too late."

[petoskeystones]

back to your regularly scheduled programming (being optimistic about detroit + sports + detroit sports). more games won and more points than last year! 40 win team for the first time since 2016! no playoffs means 88 will likely leave! young guns blossoming + several are in the playoffs in gr! alex lyon YOU are our starter goalie! five years ago we were the worst team in the league and this year we were playoff contenders. and this time next year we will all be making plans to watch the red wings in the first round of the playoffs. in the name of gordie stevie and the spirit of detroit, peace and love in hockeytown, amen.

[morgansyorkie]

forgive me but im new to hockeytown so like what happens now. since cutter wasnt On the team and you can only have so many on the roster right. is someone going to get sent down to make space for jamie or??

first off welcome to the whirlwind that is hockey town, buckle up because it’s something new every single minute, hour, day, month so on and so on. secondly , the flyers had the rights to cutters draft pick, cutter didnt even sign his entry level contract yet so we don’t have to move or send anyone down to make room for jamie. they will most likely sit someone else in order for him to play on d or they could possibly send someone to Lehigh we won’t know until jamie arrives in philly.

[princemick]

kyle i need you to know that your research about sport and art is SO personal to me (from the biggest hockeytown in all of canada where our major hockey team is borderline a religion and i am so fascinated by the overlap of sport/culture/art/religion) anyways best of luck with your research and i love all the little tidbits you give us :D

!! ah this is so cool to hear. this is exactly what I am researching. I think the overlap is massive and something that we don't talk or alknowledge.

my research is also coming down to the question of what is art. I think the word art is to big and to intimidating and I kind of want to give it to fans and what they make. I think it should be talked about like that and acknowledged in that way but we dont because there is so much agression and primal emotions attached to it.

but I think thats what makes it art. as artist we're constantly looking for ways to make our viewers FEEL and nothing makes us feel so primal and unbroken like sports do. we forget about logic and ration and we just feel for those 90 minutes and I think THAT is art.

anyway I'm probably gonna make a google form thats general sport fans just to see more opinions and views bc I wanna knowww

[prismhockey]

New article for paid subscribers about the Red Wings games 6-10. Those eight days were a roller coaster, but I think we learned some things about this team. We'll discuss that along with whether we should be freaking out over Seider and Husso or not.

If you would prefer to read on Patreon, here you go:

If you are a current or future subscriber, and you want to get Red Wings specific articles (they go under the title "Hockeytown Ramblings"), you'll need to opt in, and here's how:

[allysonhood]

My Pa and I went to the Red Wings game last night courtesy of my hubby @offthemike who watched the kiddos and my mom so we could have a night off. They lost in overtime, but we still had fun! #LGRW #littleceasarsarena #hockeytown (at Little Caesars Arena) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpV0NXjpEh8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[kungpowkingshockey]

We will continue to work alongside great organizations and clubs supporting hockey in hong kong! Thanks @powerplayse, @jrtigershockey and @empire.sports.hk for growing the game and giving our youth more opportunities to learn about the game and grow! . . . . . #kpk #kpkhockey #icehockey #hockey #nhl #hockeylife #kungpowkingshockey#hockeygame #hockeyplayer #hockeyislife #hockeyseason #hockeygram #iceskatingcenter #hockeyfan #ice #bauerhockey #ccmhockey #hockeyfamily #hockeylove #nhlhockey #hokej #hockeytime #instahockey #kungpowkings #hockeytown #bauer #ccm #icerink #iceskate #hongkong https://www.instagram.com/p/Co5K4R6S1ja/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[nhlsite]

Detroit Red Wings: We love you, Hockeytown. See you in the Fall. #lgrw...

rawchili.com

[hockeytown-gifs]

FIGHTING~!  -  Wings vs Sharks  -  January 4, 2022

[csykora]

Ooh, ooh. Please tell me all about TJ and how he turned the Caps into a buttsmack-loving, hansy, "babe"-ing team.

Ah, you are asking the NHL’s eternal question:

“Wait, why did the big men just highstick each other in the nuts?”

Ball torture is a big part of a game that’s supposedly played with a puck. 

We can thank the tireless work of the league’s spanking expert, Timothy Lief Oshie (Keeway Gaaboo in Anishinaabemowin, or “TJ”, after a character in 1979’s The Champ, a sports movie that the New York Times once described as “unholy” and “these movies don't mean to deal with the world as it really is, but as it should be, a place where there's no pile-up of emotional garbage too big that it can't be washed clean by a good cry. My problem with 'The Champ' is that I didn't cry. The garbage accumulated."

Clips of the character TJ crying have been found to be “one of the most depressing movies” you can show somebody, and are used in psychological studies. His mom thought Oshie looked like child actor Ricky Schroder, though.)

He is best known as Osh-Babe, like a Pokemon, for the sound he makes.

TJ was born in Everett, Washington, but moved to his father’s hometown of Warroad, Minnesota when he was fifteen to train with his father (Coach Osh) and cousin (Olympian and Red Wings star Henry Boucha).

I have a duty to show hockey tumblr pictures of Coach Henry and Coach Henry’s mustache every year.

He is also cousins with Gary Sargent of the Minnesota North Stars and great-nephew of local legend Max Oshie, because Warroad is a town of 1,700 people who are all cousins and also all Olympians.

For new hockey fans: Warroad is called “Hockeytown USA” because the US men’s team has never won gold without a player from Warroad on the roster. The reason for this is that the town has three rinks (two indoor, one outdoor) and ice time is free. Apparently the only barrier is that sometimes people forget who has the town key to the rink and they have to jimmy the door. 

Little TJ went from having to drive across the Washington/Canada border and paying $20 dollars per hour to skating every day of the year. The first thing Coach Henry did when TJ arrived was make him scrimmage against his local star player. They got so frustrated at not being able to beat each other that they sat down on the ice and burst into tears. The other player is now US Olympic, Boston Pride, and PWHPA star Gigi Marvin.  

Anyway, TJ played college hockey, then for the Blues and for Team USA in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, where he became famous for being a statistical freak and loving his teammates very, very much.

Here he is haring off the ice and all the way down the hall to crush Vladimir Tarasenko after his first career hat trick. After crushing Tarasenko’s Team Russia in 2014, TJ stopped to comfort him.

I don’t have video of TJ’s involvement with Vladimir’s butt, but there were at least a few proto-smacks.

Anyway, that summer TJ was traded away to the Washington Capitals, and the spankings started.

Several people deserve credit for the Washington Capital’s complete lack of personal space before TJ arrived. The first, of course, are Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin, who shared everything from their name through their bubblegum, clothes, and chairs.

The next is Nate Schmidt, who at the time was d-partnered with John Carlson. John Carlson once hugged Nate Schmidt so hard it felt “like getting hit by a linebacker” and “I really felt I was going to eat popcorn with the people in the third row….It was awesome.” Nate Schmidt decided to express his love by composing a Carly Dance, which he would perform for Carlson before every game.

Then backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer told Schmidt he worried Nate was making the Caps’ other senior defenseman, Matt Niskanen, feel less cherished. Together they created a Matty Duet, which they performed at Niskanen while, I assume, the rest of the team had to hold him down.

There was also Tom Wilson, who also hits people very hard. After his first season Alexander Ovechkin was so impressed with Wilson that he nicknamed him “Destroyer”. Tom Wilson I guess blushed and said “No, you!” because started calling Ovechkin “Destroyer” right back. It’s since been shortened to “D”, so if you’re listening to pregame or bench chatter and hear someone yelling that it means either of them.

Since his arrival, TJ has adopted and escalated Schmidt’s pregame dances into elaborate dance-handshakes.

First, and this isn’t directly relevant but it kind of is, TJ is a really big fan of electrotherapy and brought it with him from St. Louis. So before games he and John Carlson like to go into a dark training room and stick electrodes on each other. TJ especially likes putting them on his face. 

(via the Washington Post)

(He uses an Accelerated Recovery Performance machine, or ARP, which is just a TENS unit you can get at CVS. I quite like TENS for pain and it can be very relaxing, so I think it does help him in that sense, but the company selling it as ARP for training purposes is some vintage 19th century snake oil. At one point TJ also stuck electrodes on long-suffering family dog Jay Beagle, who was gracious to his face but concluded, “I just don’t know if it actually works. I don’t like doing things that don’t help, you know what I mean?”)

Emerging from his electric dungeon, TJ has a unique dance-handshake with every member of the team. Each one is based on a joke or something he’s noticed about them, and they are expected to perform it with him in order before every game.

After that, they break out into secondary traditions as TJ supervises: Wilson and Ovechkin bodyslam and scream “D!” onto each other’s faces, during the playoffs John and Ovi square up and hit each other in the jock a ritual number of times, and so on.

...in retrospect maybe I should have pinned John Carlson for more of this, or at least that the Washington Capitals like it when John Carlson humiliates them physically. John Carlson now thinks he can demand his D-partners dance for him, much to Kempny’s confusion.

Anyway then they go out to the ice, where Kempny gamely tows TJ into position for Tom Wilson to whale on his ass and/or balls with his stick. The force and placement of blows vary depending how they’re feeling tonight. TJ returns the favor until they fall to the ice in fake or sometimes maybe not so fake agony. 

When TJ recovers enough he’ll sneak over and steal a spank of the plushest and most precious hockey butt of all: goalie butt.

According to Lars Eller, “it’s little things we have fun with. We don’t do it for anybody else, but for us as a group…just a good way for us to start practice off with a laugh and smile.”

[acheronist]

actually can you say more things about the octopus in detroit I have never understood it ._.

come here nonnie... let me spin u a yarn.... IMAGINE: the year is 1952 and these are our boys. noteable skaters include terry sawchuk (perhaps the nhl's most bonkers ass off the shits goalie of all time) as well as one of the most famous scoring player combinations, The Production Line (gordie howe / sid abel / ted lindsay)

nhl playoffs were two best-of-seven games series to win the cup, so the red wings needed to win eight games to win the cup (spoiler: they do win) but to support the team, and to represent the eight games necessary to win, two fans (who were brothers & also business owners in eastern market-- detroit's largest outdoors farmer's and grocer's market--) brought a dead octopus into the arena and tossed it onto the ice of olympia arena (which has since been demolished. rip.) for good luck with the series.

and, somehow, either by magic or coincidence or sheer ferocious dedication to their sport, the red wings end up completely shutting out the montreal canadiens during the second 4 game series and winning the cup. (2 games were shutouts, and 2 games only allowed one goal, which in and of itself was record breaking stuff for the league at the time). and then they also won the stanley cup again in the next year as well.

SO SINCE then, the tradition has evolved and grown and the octopus has become an unofficial mascot for the team, while also acting as a good luck token, and also as a martyred sacrifice to invoke the hockey gods' will to change the fate of the red wings when things look dismal, or we need a wholehearted change.

in the late 1990s when the team was a fucking dynasty of unbeatable freaks, the head zamboni driver was in charge of going out onto the ice and collecting the octopi corpses, and in a hyping-up-the-crowd move, he invented the Octopus Twirl wherein he would pick it up and twirl it over his head in a circle, which is objectively very gross and kinda eehhh :-/ by todays standards, but was cool and very fun at the time. so the nhl had to shut it down because there would be little bits of octopi corpse debris scattered and schlopped around the ice and it was technically a danger for the skaters. anyways people loved this bit though and so the unofficial octopus mascot was thusly named Al, after the zamboni driver, and we had this fucking thang ⬇️ that descended down from the ceilings during playoffs just so nobody ever forgot THIS IS FUCKING HOCKEYTOWN BABEEEEYYYYYY

also notably, when the joe louis arena (the team's long term arena after the olympia had been demolished) was next on the chopping block after decades of being the latest winning roster's home away from home, 35 octopi were tossed onto the ice during the last game as a farewell but also a promise that better things would come for the team. since the JLA was demolished tho, the teams luck tanked a lot and we have not been even remotely good for quite a few years due to UM, A LOT OF THINGS, WHICH IS ANOTHER ESSAY I CAN WRITE FOR YOU, but finally the team is getting genuinely competitive and fun to watch again. but regardless of this flop era behavior, there have still definitely been octopi getting tossed onto the ice because well... we love the team despite it all and always want the best for them !

🥅🏒🐙

hope this helps mwah mwah mwah

[petoskeystones]

anniversary of the '37 and '52 stanley cups. octopus day (should be a state holiday but they won't return my calls). we beat the habs in the cup final 72 years ago today. fish birthday (not exactly an omen but he's special). on this day eight years ago dylan got his first playoff goal. narratives are narrativing in hockeytown

[fishsports]

January 14th, 2021 NHL Recap

NEW YORK, NY. (Fish Sports) - January 14th, 2021, marked the second night of the 2021 NHL season. On the ballot tonight, were 10 games. The eleventh game was between the Dallas Stars and Florida Panthers but was postponed due to multiple Stars personnel testing positive for COVID-19.

First up, was the Minnesota Wild visiting the Los Angeles Kings. The Wild won the game in overtime with the final score being 4 to 3. Minnesota received 2 points for the win, while the Kings received 1. LA's Dustin Brown was the game's 3rd star with a goal on the day, Minnesota's Jonas Brodin was the 2nd star with a goal, and Minnesota's Kirill Kaprizov was the game's 1st star with 1 goal, the game-winning goal in overtime, and 2 assists.  

The Anaheim Ducks visited the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas won the game with a commanding 5 to 2 win. Newly acquired Alex Pietrangelo was the 3rd star of the game with his first assist as a Golden Knight, the 2nd star went to Max Pacioretty who had a goal, and the 1st star of the game went to Mark Stone, who was just named to be the first captain in Vegas Golden Knight team history, who had a goal and an assist.

The Edmonton Oilers were at home for a second straight night and had the Vancouver Canucks as their opponent once again. Edmonton made up for their loss last night with a 5 to 2 win. The game's 3rd star was Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who had 2 goals and an assist, followed by the 2nd star, Leon Draisaitl who had 4 assists on the night, and the 1st star went to Connor McDavid who had 3 goals, the first hat-trick of the season as well as an assist on the night.

Another overtime thrill was between the Calgary Flames who visited the Winnipeg Jets. Winnipeg won 4 to 3 in the extra frame. Calgary's Elias Lindholm was the 3rd star with a goal and an assist on the night, the 2nd star went to Winnipeg's Mark Scheifele who had a goal on the night and the 1st star went to Patrik Laine who had 2 goals and an assist to start the 2021 campaign.

Smashville is the sight of our next matchup, where the Columbus Blue Jackets visited the Nashville Predators. To keep the tradition alive, the ice crew in Nashville threw a catfish on the ice, before the game with a little bit of a twist this year, it was wearing a mask. Nashville was victorious with a 3-1 win over Columbus. The 3rd star of the game went to Goaltender Juuse Saros who had 29 saves on 30 shots, posting a .967 save percentage to start the season. The 2nd star of the game went to Luke Kunin who had a goal, and the 1st star of the matchup was Filip Forsberg with a goal to start the season.

Heading to Hockeytown, the Carolina Hurricanes visited the Detroit Red Wings. Carolina was victorious with a 3 to 0 win over the Red Wings. The 3rd star of the game was former Red Wing, Goaltender Petr Mrazek who received the shut-out, stopping all 14 shots he was faced with. The 2nd star of the game went to former New York Islanders goalie, Thomas Greiss. Greiss saved 40 pucks out of the 43 that were thrown on him. The 3rd star of the game went to Carolina's Nino Niederreiter who scored a goal.

Now in the big apple, the New York Islanders visited the New York Rangers. First overall draft pick, Alexis Lafreniere made his NHL debut with a shot on net which was turned away by former Colorado Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who gained the shut-out. The 3rd star of the game belonged to Matthew Barzal who had a goal. The 2nd star of the game went to Anders Lee who had 2 goals, and the 1st star went to the goalie, Semyon Varlamov who saved all 24 shots against him tonight.

We stay in the East where the New Jersey Devils hosted the Boston Bruins. Boston without their long-time captain Zdeno Chara, who joined the Washington Capitals in free agency this year. New Jersey's own goalie, long-time Chicago Blackhawk, Corey Crawford retired earlier this week putting Mackenzie Blackwood into the starter position. Boston won the game 3 to 2 in the season's first shoot-out. The first star of the game went to Ty Smith of New Jersey who scored a goal. The 2nd star went to Mackenzie Blackwood who had 35 saves on the night, with a .946 save percentage. The 1st star of the game went to Brad Marchand who had a goal and an assist on the night.

Heading to Buffalo, we had the Washington Capitals visiting the Buffalo Sabres. Long-time Boston Bruin, Zdeno Chara made his Washington Capital debut tonight, he was on the ice for 2 goals tonight (+2), and registered a shot on goal. The Capitals won the game 6-4 over Buffalo. The 3rd star of the game went to Alex Ovechkin who had 2 assists on the night. The 2nd star went to Nicklas Backstrom who had a goal and an assist, and the 1st star of the game went to T.J. Oshie who had a goal and 2 assists on the night.

Heading to Arizona, we had the San Jose Sharks, visiting the Arizona Coyotes. The Sharks won in the shoot-out 4 to 3 over the Coyotes. The 3rd star of the game went to Arizona's Conor Garland who had a goal and an assist. The 2nd star of the game went to Evander Kane, who has had some off-ice issues within the last week, Kane had a goal and 2 assists. The 1st star of the game went to Tomas Hertl who scored 2 goals along with an assist on the night.

It has been a great start to the 2021 NHL season and we look forward to seeing you back here! 

[jxmieoleksiaks]

14, 22, 29, 30, 50

14: cried because of a team-I have, I think I’ve cried over the wings, I also cried over the preds bc they got out the same day as my grandma’s funeral and i needed something good whoops.

22. hockey city-I have to say Detroit, we’re not hockeytown for no reason!

29. Player on your least favorite team- Probably Crosby, I don’t like the pens but you can’t lie, he’s talented 30. Color combination of a hockey team-Probably red and white or green white

50.  Which NHL team Will be a surprise next year, either good or bad- I’m hoping the wings, but you know we don’t know

[wherearemyglassesbro]

How was your year?

My year was amazing! I traveled a lot! I went to Chicago, D.C., Vegas and Hollywood! We got amazing deals on our flights so we got to go for cheap! I did a lot with my friends, got my drivers license, made new friends and faced my fear of heights (kinda)

This year has been a great year for me, I hope 2019 is just as promising ❤️❤️❤️

Happy New Year from Hockeytown!!