#having lots of thoughts about. like. the injury culture in the nhl

[experiencingpenguinshockey]

:/

[neonfretra]

just read your nhl teams opinion post and I'm laughing my head off. sharkies clean sweep <3 <3 <3

COMPLETELY valid reason to dislike the devils, dw 'bout that (though if you ever need an infodump about them I come armed and ready!), but I will just say... macblack my beloved demon shark needle dodger... you are FAR from the only devil who's been stiffed by the terrible medical staff. imagine being sponsored by a hospital and having the worst concussion spotters in the league. radio-for-a-head is sputtering static right now I HATE THE DEVILS MEDSTAFF SO FUCKING MUCH THEY KEEP OBVIOUSLY INJURED PLAYERS IN GAMES AND IN THE LINEUP FOR NO FUCKING REASON AUGHHHHH

but I like how you looked at the entire east and went "who cares, experience shork". I aspire to be like this.

I also wish I could forget the Leafs. I also aspire to be like this.

um. in lieu of any like. actual content have pictures :]

timo mimo......... grabby hands............... it is possible that I named my blåhaj after him..................... they're the same picture your honor!!!

but I like how you looked at the entire east and went "who cares, experience shork". I aspire to be like this.

i need you to know this line has put me in honest to god, genuine tears from laughing. oh my god i didnt even realize. like i have the standings pulled up and goin down the list i literally only care for THREE teams (the bolts, the sens, and the pens) for their proximity to the sharks. INCREDIBLY humbling. read me like an open book. im returning to this ask when im not lightheaded oh my god

ok multiple parts to this response because im goin point by point. i yap a LOT. not sorry, hello <3

the art!

OH... those wings are DELIGHTFUL!!! i love how nicely you simplified them, especially with a pen hell?? very very elegant, i hope you get a major minor obsession with angels ^_^

the devs & injuries in the nhl

how they handle injuries drive me UP THE WALL. like i personally assume teams start actin like this when theyre in hopes of playoffs when in reality its like . BABY. WE ARENT GOIN TO BOSTON. PUT THE STICK DOWN.

to make this about the sharks (you read my rankings, you know im like this) i constantly joke about the sharks being the healthiest team in the league cause all our players are out. like christ we have second most missed games on a per player basis at 459 man games lost to injury, second to vegas!

but i think its straight up because playoffs are SUCH a pipe dream for 19-wins-total san jose sharks that we dont HAVE the same pressure to play with torn muscles or broken bones. there is a reason why mackblack CAN have his 72 hours of purgatory (3 day long fever) out compared to teams who are noted to have locker room wide sickness and still getting in board battles. i think we should expose mackblack to them kinda players before the preseason so he builds an immunity to whatever they got. yeah im basically trying to vaccinate him SORRY i am getting distracted

YES, i will disappointed beyond words when the sharks start gettin better at hockey

and its like that that i cant really say its a DEVS thing now, its tradition to see what horrific injury a player played through in their locker cleanout like a more morbid new years countdown. do not want to imagine the consequences of the culture as perpetuated by both staff and players on long term health. lord. and people get mad about mark stone takin time off.

in the same ravine, different vein, hohhh boy they were NOT joking we have gotta separate leagues and medical care. nothin good has come of a doctor workin in the best interest of your team that wants you on ice ASAP and not in the interest of keeping you healthy and able to play and to live a decent life after playin. league worst concussion spotters is a HIGH bar. lird.

but in the same breath what can you do about a mess of on ice spotters? unless you plan on bringin your family doctor as a plus one. which is an absolute wild thought actually. wag jacket for my medical practitioner <3 rhinestone directly INto my open injury <3

sponsored by a hospital too... irony is rollin in its grave hello a whole rotisserie chicken of it

the devs, but more normal

wait oh god i gotta be SO honest with you when i was raggin on the devs i had you in mind as like. THEE friend of mine that roots for em and debating on how impolite itd be to drag your team. and then i remembered we both root for vgk <3

would you believe me when i say i followed them a bit? yeah i was mostly lookin for kahkonen, i do miss him though id call it a bit bad mannered of me to clearly only root for a team for one player LOL

do NOT look at vgk. or tbl. or dal. dont even look at ME.

does it actually count if im also lookin at timo meier? two players thats gotta count for umm something. two things even? because hes an exshark. yeah. oh god it really is a sharkies clean sweep. beloved stereax you have unwound me like the noble helicase. you got me checked out and in like a library book. you broke me down to my barest components. what do i even do with myself right now???

i will NOT say more lest i embarrass myself more than i have already

LOVE that you named your blahaj after him, thats very cute <3 i am endlessly enamored by the photo you chose of timo mimo, why are you so hat boy!!!

hey isnt a blahaj also a shark

PLEASE feel free to tell me bout the devs, im sure knowin more about the team will not make me itching to throw down with their managements poor decisions any more ^_^

getting a little less normal, a little more embarrassing now

okay i need to be so honest with you. and myself. mostly myself. i was SO surprised to learn media has an eastern conference bias. what the hell is a traditional hockey market.

bringing shame to my family name by discussing the leafs

should i not be tryin to remember them if youre tryin to forget LMAO

you wanna know something more humiliating than regularly forgetting the leafs. i confuse them with MULTIPLE teams when i do remember them. NEAR EVERY BLUE TEAM. the bolts. the nucks. the sabres, when i do remember them. the blues.

I FOLLOW SOMEONE WITH A MITCH MARNER PFP. HOW DO I MANAGE TO FORGET THIS TEAM SO OFTEN???

visibly sweating and shaking as i stare at a wall and try to recall every bit of trivia i know about the leafs RN. if you root for the leafs i probably owe you financial compensation

[suterbuyout2024]

when the poll ends do you mind sharing what you vs your friend thought the key hockey concept was? I'm so curious !

yes !! so skill play ended up winning, but if you combine the two categories of fighting and physical play, they add up to way more. this came up because i'm currently going through a whole emotional journey around violence in sport and the way personal choice, bodily autonomy, and the monolith of sports culture can overlap and conflict. that's not super important but i think more people should think about it because it's a really interesting and tough topic. anyway, i was talking to my friend from rural BC, and we were talking about violence/physicality as an inherent part of hockey or if there was a way to mitigate dangerous injury while still maintaining the spirit of hockey as a sport.

she was of the opinion that physical play, fighting, all of that were essential to hockey, and there was no way to play the same game without them. i'm still working on what my opinion is, but i'm finding that more and more i come down on the side of, hey, all of these injuries are unnecessary and there's no reason for hockey -- contact sport though it may be -- to be this dangerous and injurious. there's a lot of reasons i feel this way, but one of the biggest ones is that when i think of hockey -- when i think of the most important, joyous, exciting moments in hockey, moments that made me genuinely love this sport and the place it holds in my life -- i think almost entirely about skill play. what makes hockey worth watching for me is the speed, the skill, the insane passes and bad-angle goals. kirill kaprizov sidney crosby trick shot type shit. when those players have room to play, i love this sport like nothing else.

my friend, on the other hand, isn't wrong when she says that overall, the impression people have of hockey tends toward violence. even if they haven't thought about it enough to pass judgment, the vast majority of people think first of checks and fights.

the problem i have is that a lot of times, skill players are stifled by physical play. i like puck possession, but checking turns that into an almost irrelevant part of nhl hockey, and i like when superstars have space to do insane things, but if they're injured half the year because every fourth liner in the league pretty much has free reign to headhunt without the refs blowing the whistle, i don't get to see any of that. it's the same reason i'm annoyed with the way kirill's been treated in the league -- he's a phenomenal player who can do unparalleled things on the ice, but his production has been down because he got injured a couple seasons ago and hasn't had the space (or protection from further injuries, looking at you, dops) to heal it fully and get back to form. in what world is that the best that hockey can be? i'd rather every skill player gets long, obnoxious nhl careers than keep fistfights in a sport that really doesn't need them, but i'm aware i'm in the tiny minority there.

[wehaveagathering]

flyers post-coots Captain announcement thoughts under the cut (you will not like what i have to say)

i think this means they're .... looking really, really seriously at tr*ding laughton

up until yesterday when looking at the list of names that could be up at the trade deadline - walker, seeler, staal, ristolainen / frost, laughton - one of the main concerns at least for me was locker room culture and leadership? with laughton as the only letter, if you trade him, you have a serious lack of official leadership roles in the room, and no anchor-point guys to look to. BUT, with an official C and a new A – two clear signs that Coots & TK aren't going ANYwhere – you have a little more leeway with leadership. laughts was already on the chopping block, but his neck was made of gold. now, as cruel and cold as it is, he's far more expendable. at this point, if you're DB and Tortorella, objectively, it's a reasonable decision, and you've set yourself up for as minimal loss to bench & locker room culture as possible. waiting this long as well allowed Coots to establish himself in the room after his return and allowed TK to get used to a different role as well as he matures.

a rather lengthy aside: i think - again i'm new, wasn't here for the giroux era, tho i wish i was - that they learned their lesson about philly sports teams and pressure. from what i know, G didn't respond great to the added pressure of being captain, points production dropped, etc. Bryzgalov as well – the phl media was cruel to him to the point where HIS stats began to drop because of pressure. you need to know that the guy in this new role can HANDLE the pressure of not just the room and the team, but philadelphia, a city that makes sports not just a part of fan culture, but an intrinsic part of its identity as a city. coots, at 31, with a good few years left in him, is a guy that can withstand the pressure. i know a lot of people wanted TK to be captain – i think he's still too young. i think this is a good decision. laughts as the C – i think his frustration and lack of scoring this season would only bog him down as the C, and i think that philadelphia would look critically at that decision. but i think coots is respected in a gritty philly kinda way, been a flyer the whole time, bounced back from injury, etc. idk. great decisions all around if i'm being honest, and i'm glad they took their time.

also, back to my original point – yeah, I know torts said this, but you can't NOT say something about the guy that's captained an NHL team as Not-A-Captain for a year and a half all by himself. of course he's been vital. but that's the thing. he might not be vital anymore.

OF COURSE, if you're me in my feely-weely-weelings, you're not looking at this objectively at ALL, you're climbing into john tortorella's attic and sending your voice echoing through his walls that if he trades scott laughton you will descend upon his house like the plagues of egypt and never again will he rest soundly

anyway let me know ur onions

[idontlikeem]

I went to my first ever NHL game Pens vs Bruins in Boston. I wore my light blue 2008 Winter Classic Crosby jersey. I went down to the glass for warm-ups. A woman in Bruins regalia greeted me with the question, “Does Sidney Crosby really cry a lot?”

I said no, but my thoughts are

(1) Does she honestly think that Sid cries more frequently than most people? or

(2) Was bringing up that reputation simply supposed to be a jab at me as a Pens fan, a way of saying ”Your guy sucks”? and

(3) What if he does? What tf is wrong with crying?? Nothing! It’s healthy to express emotion. Sid’s father doesn’t mind talking about crying when Sid left home. Sid has been interviewed while crying and he has talked about crying, for example at the 1000th game ceremony or his jersey retirement in Rimouski. And it didn’t seem he was saying ”I don’t want people to see me crying,” more that ”I need to be able to get through my speech.”

DUDE THAT IS SO FUCKED???? oh my god the way people ARE about sid, it just consistently blows my mind, i can't believe you literally had someone SAY THAT to you, like you said WHAT was that supposed to achieve, were you supposed to say 'oh my god you're RIGHT!', tear off your crosby jersey, and instantly become a bruins fan??? what was she trying to DO when she said that????

it's like, ok we can't actually criticize his play. he's the best fucking hockey player in the world and you literally cannot say otherwise. so let's talk about how he whines to the refs. oh wait, the CAPTAIN'S JOB is to talk to the refs on behalf of his team, maybe that doesn't quite work...oh well i'll ignore that reality and the fact that MY captain does the exaaaaaact same thing in order to tag him with the 'whiner' tag.

but let's take it a step further! instead of whining, he's crying to the refs. he's a crybaby. he's cindy crosby, because only girls cry and everyone knows the worst thing in the world is to be a girl! i hope that cindy crosby, girl, gets hit so hard he has permanent brain damage and loses his career. i hope that cindy crosby, girl, suffers grievous permanent injury and harm because i don't like that cindy crosby, girl, isn't on my team. i have to feminize him to make him lesser because that's the only way to tear him down, and in my little peabrain being feminized is the ultimate insult AND it makes it ok to have these weird, highly-specific, overly-sexualized wishes of violence and hurt on him.

and yeah WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH CRYING???? literally nothing! having emotions is just fine! he actively said he was having a hard time keeping it together because he saw GENO crying at the 1k game ceremony! geno was out there wiping his eyes in front of god and everyone and you know HE wasn't ashamed of it, and neither was sid!

if the literal manly hockey players these weirdo fans love so much are totally fine and comfortable crying in public, acknowledging that they're crying because they're having big emotions, and NOT being ashamed of it, then why on EARTH are these fans acting like it's some sort of knock to have feelings that aren't 'grr kill win hockey games'??

it drives me insane. the culture surrounding this sport drives me insaaaaaaaaaaaaane.

[princessphilly]

Plain Jane Chapter 2

Word Count: 2391

CW: a mention of P K*ne, allusions to issues with alcohol, references to being in the closet

Tag list:  @newlibrary , @luvsherleafs @spine-buster , @m00nlightdelights @lovethepreds @myhockeyworld87 @Defiant-mouse, @callllumhood @yzas-stuff , @stars-canucks @laurenairay @cutiesara23, @besthockeyfics @hockeyallthetime @tazerass , @markymarkstrom @letsgobaby, @himbos-on-ice @hockeywocs @bloodthedevil @nhlboyshavemyhart88 @whatishockey @dreamer1430 @shelbsatans @no-pucks-given @stlbluesbrat21 @mydarkestsecretlol @t0xickisses2 @heatherawoowoo​

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I’m too damn stubborn for my own good. I admit it; I don’t like to lose or be wrong. I hate being wrong. Well, I hate losing money more than anything else. But I really hate losing or being wrong after that. - Journal 10/12

One year later

Jamila couldn’t help but look at Jonathan Toews as he sat at the table for this charity dinner. He really was more handsome in person than in the pictures. But the guy sitting next to him was just as good looking as him, in her opinion. He was rougher looking with long auburn hair and blue eyes and probably a good decade older than her, just the way that Jamila liked it. The only issue was… Duncs was nice but he wasn’t as exciting as Jonathan Toews. But Jamila told Shan and Mel that she was going to fuck Duncan Keith and she always got her man. Plus, it didn’t help that Jonathan always has something smart to say which made Jamila more dedicated to fucking Duncs. 

But it seemed like that wasn’t going to happen. Jamila was frustrated; she knew she was gorgeous and she was used to getting her way. But Duncs had a preference for blondes and.. Jamila had no desire to dye her hair blonde anytime soon. Plus, she hated the fact that she was going to lose because then Jonathan would hold it over her. 

Normally, Jon wouldn’t give a fuck that a girl wanted Duncs over him. He knew exactly where he stood with the vast majority of women and that he could have anyone he wanted. But he really, for some reason, wanted her. It had been over a year since they met and she was still hung up over Duncs. Granted, during that time, Jon was recovering from an injury and was at home in Winnipeg. Now, he was back and he wanted Jamila, even though she was supposed to be Cizisky’s girl. Jon had pulled the younger defenseman to the side and asked him about her and Cizisky straight up said that she was just going out with him as a friend to events. So Jon knew that Jamila was basically single and available.

Jamila was smiling in Duncs face but whenever he talked to her, she got angry and flustered. Jon knew she really wasn’t that interested in Duncs. He could tell by the way Jamila got closer to him when they argued that she really liked him. But the stubborn woman didn’t want to admit it. 

As the captain, Jon was used to solving problems. But this was a problem that he couldn’t solve and he was becoming frustrated.

**

It wasn’t fair how intense those dark brown eyes were. And they had been focused on her while Jamila attempted to flirt with Duncs. Jamila had to admit she was failing and it was annoying her. He was being polite but she knew she was being brushed off.

She could hear Jonathan; “Duncs isn’t interested. Aren’t you tired of wasting your time?” All of that paired with a mocking look. She was done doing favors for Shan’s cousin. Next time he needed a plus one, he could find someone else.

“Tired of shooting wide?”

“Really, a hockey metaphor?” Jamila rolled her eyes while Jonathan chuckled. He really was tired of watching Jamila flirt with Duncs. She wasn’t his usual type but Jonathan wanted to be her type. Once Duncs made it clear that he wasn’t interested, Jonathan decided it was time to try his luck.

“Good, you’re learning about the game! But are you tired?”

“What do you mean?”

Jonathan was tall enough that while she wore 5-inch heels, Jamila still had to look up at him a bit. He licked his lips and once again, Jamila felt those unwanted shivers. Jonathan smirked before saying, “Stop pretending you’re interested in Duncs when we both know that you really want me.”

“You’re so conceited,” Jamila retorted. A small part of her said he was right but her pride hurt so fuck him.

Jonathan gave her a devilish grin. “Fuck me? We can make that happen.”

Jamila’s eyes grew wide when she realized she said that out loud. “Captain Serious? More like Captain Dickhead!” Jamila rolled her eyes as she gave him a once over.

Then Jon shocked her. “That was a bit too much, I’m sorry,” he said. The earnest look in his eyes told Jamila he was telling the truth. “But seriously, you’re wasting your time.”

Jamila sighed deeply. She knew he was right but her ego didn’t want to let her admit it. Jamila just grimaced before pushing away from Jonathan. 

For the rest of the night, Jamila kept mostly to herself and Alex, nursing her wine. She was tempted to get something stronger, very tempted, but she kept herself to her one glass of wine. It helped that Alex was watching her like a hawk, as if he knew that Jamila was in a mood. As soon as he was able to, Alex made his goodbyes, escorting Jamila out to the valet.

“What happened, Mila?”

Jamila sighed as Alex’s car was brought up. “Nothing, buddy. Nothing.”

Alex wisely didn’t press it as he got his keys from the valet, opening the door for Jamila and closing it after she got in. Once he was in the car and driving away, he said, “You’ve been in a mood since you talked with Tazer. Did he say something that triggered you? I’ll tell him to back off if he��s triggering you, Mila.”

Jamila sighed. “He didn’t say anything that triggered me, per se, but you know I hate being wrong.”

“Yeah, because you’re very wrong about Duncs… I’ve been telling you that for months,” Alex cracked.

Rolling her eyes, Jamila replied, “Jonathan basically said the same thing. Then he hit on me, again.”

“I thought you enjoyed verbally sparring with him. It’s entertaining as fuck.”

“Fuck you too, Alex!”

Alex snorted as he said, “I would if I liked pussy.”

“Talking about that, have you thought of coming out,” Jamila asked. 

Alex looked at the road as he thought about his words. Then he said, “I could but I feel the same ones who talk about ‘You Can Play’ and all of that aren’t as accepting as they pretend to be. I mean, Tazer would be supportive, probably Duncs, maybe Kaner, Brinks, Murph, but the rest of the guys… I don’t want to risk it right now.”

Jamila reached over, placing a hand on her friend’s shoulder. That was a lot to have to deal with. “People fucking suck, man.”

“I know. Thanks for being my plus-one, Mila. I will always support you, even when people are asking me to call you names when you finally get with the captain.”

Jamila laughed, tears forming in her eyes at the idea of dating Jonathan. “That was very funny, Alex, you should become a comedian.”

Smirking, Alex turned into the parking lot of the building that they lived in. They had separate units, Jamila’s bigger and more expensive, but it was still home. “Jamila, your eyes still follow Tazer everywhere he goes when you two are at the same place. It’s a matter of time, well, it’s a matter of how stubborn you are about it.”

**

As Jamila walked into her condo, she thought about Alex and his words. She felt a bit bad for him; locker room culture was real and it sucked that Alex couldn’t fully be himself yet. At the same time, Jamila wasn’t fully open about her own sexuality. If she wanted attention, she could easily come out as pansexual but Jamila didn’t want her life to become a circus. Add on the fact that she enjoyed bdsm and was a submissive…. It would be a hot mess, she thought. However, Jamila knew that she didn’t have to worry about the potential reactions of a bunch of other people if she did decide to come out. 

One thing Jamila did have to worry about was her thesis. It was finished, turned in, it was just a matter of finding out when she would have to defend it. Since she was graduating with her PhD this December, Jamila knew it would be before then. Not knowing the exact date was just irritating to her. Maybe once she had it, her dad would respect her more. 

Jamila sighed as she looked out at the Chicago skyline. It didn’t matter anyway. He wouldn’t really care. The only ones who would were Nina, Marisa, Ms. Tracey and Mr. Vernon, Siobhan, Lauren, maybe Karesha and Desiree. Sighing again, Jamila decided it was time to go to sleep for the night.

**

Jon looked at his computer screen as he looked at his budget for the month. Coming back this season has had it’s ups and down so far. The travel and other rhythms of the season were familiar but at the same time, Jon had enjoyed being at home. For over a decade, Jon had lived under the grind of the NHL season plus the playoffs. There was something nice about being a home, not a hotel room every couple of weeks. The hotels were all the same, they stayed at the same places in the same cities every year. But staying in his own bed night after night had it’s own appeal. 

At the same time, Jon wanted a 4th cup. It still irritated him that the team had decided to rebuild without even asking if the boys wanted to rebuild. Last season, Jon appreciated that the boys didn’t give up and tank even though the front office would have preferred that they did. Odds were stacked against them this season but Jon believed that they could make it. Once the playoffs started, it was anyone’s chance to get the Cup. 

Jon sighed as he opened the Netflix app. He was starting to really feel his age this year. He was only 33 but he could feel every hit now. Plus, coming home to this new place with no one waiting for him was getting very old. “Maybe that’s why you like that girl so much,” Jon muttered to himself. He felt dumb; every time he talked to Jamila, he felt like he put his foot in his mouth. But then, it seemed like she was just looking for an excuse to tell him no. 

As he mindlessly scrolled through shows, Jon felt super frustrated and ready to give up. He didn’t want to continue asking her out if she kept saying no. Jon blanched as the idea that maybe he was making Jamila uncomfortable came in his mind. As he clicked on watching Brooklyn 911, Jon decided that he was going to leave Jamila alone.

**

Jamila felt weird. It was two weeks since the last time she saw Jon and he was keeping his distance from her. All night, all he had done was say hi and wave when she greeted him. Jamila felt strangely bereft. Unconsciously, Jamila’s eyes drifted towards Jon more often than not during the charity auction. His black suit fit him like a glove, the crisp white shirt setting off his remaining tan. Of course, Jon didn’t wear a tie and it made him look absolutely delicious. Jamila inwardly scowled as she looked down at her water. 

Jamila was attempting to be good by sticking to water instead of any of the myriad alcoholic options tonight. The last time she had wine, she had to resist the urge to down the whole bottle. Jamila sighed; she thought she could try to have a bit of alcohol but now, she was sure that was impossible. Her sobriety was worth more than trying to fit in. 

The auction went pretty quickly, all things considered. Jamila made a couple small bids, there wasn’t really anything that caught her eye. Then the auctioneer said, “For our last, and surprise, auction item tonight, a date with the captain, Jonathan Toews. The winner gets to have one night with Captain Toews, at a place of your choice. Mr. Toews is a gentleman so it will be on him. Bidding starts at five hundred.”

One woman yelled, “One thousand!”

There were a flurry of bids and Jamila knew she had a screwface as she listened. One of the bidders was that bitch Frances and it looked like she was going to have the winning bid. The bids went up to six thousand before it started to slow. The auctioneer called out, “sixty-five hundred, do I hear sixty-six hundred?”

He waited for a couple of moments for additional bids. Jamila looked at her hands as the auctioneer said, “Sixty-five hundred, sixty-five hundred, going once-”

“Seventy-five hundred,” Jamila called out, raising her placard. 

There was a hush as people turned towards her. Jamila smirked as Jonathan raised an eyebrow.

“Seventy-five hundred, do I hear seventy-six hundred?”

Jamila waited as she sipped her water. Frances called out, “Eighty-five hundred,” frustration laced in her voice. Jamila smirked; this was time for payback.

The eyes turned towards her and Jamila looked down at her phone. There was a message from Alex: have u lost ur mind?????

“Ten-thousand,” Jamila called out. 

Jon let out a whoo, pursing his lips. This night had turned out in a way he hadn’t expected. The auctioneer called out, “Ten-thousand, ten-thousand, going once, going twice, sold, to number 53.”

Jamila rifled through her purse, looking for her wallet. She hoped she could just put it on her black card instead of needing a check. The money wasn’t a problem; the way of paying could be. One of the team’s interns came to Jamila. “Miss, come this way to pay.”

Following the intern, Jamila gave Frances a wide smile when she passed her. Luckily, Jamila was able to use her card to pay for her bid. 

“This wasn’t expected,” a deep voice said to her side. 

Jamila smiled. “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

“I’m a tool for revenge? I feel like shit,” Jonathan joked. 

Jamila shrugged. “I’ll let you know if I ever want that date.”

Tossing her hair over her shoulder, Jamila walked away. She still felt some satisfaction winning the bid over that bitch, but something told her she made a crucial decision in some way.

[dawson-mercer]

I’m in my feelings about Jack Hughes rn, excuse me. He’s dumb, right. Like objectively. But also, I watched his media day interview where he was asked about olympics and he listed the ages at which he’d be Olympic eligible (24, 28, 32) in a way that made it clear he’d thought about it, and he also made a point of clarifying whether Tatar’s age was 30 or 32; then there was the podcast interview where he talked about UFA age and how getting drafted to the same team gives him and Luke 5 or 6 extra years. Anyways long story short, I now have it in my head that he’s obsessed with/terrified of aging and mortality and growing up.

i mean idk jack hughes’s brain (and i really don’t want to understand the inner workings of any nhler’s mind) but like. this actually seems to be pretty common in the nhl and that makes sense

most hockey players retire mid30s. for the sake of easy math, let’s assume the average age is 38 and that every career starts at 18 (the reality is that the range is usually shorter, closer to a decade than two, but we’re going with the more conservative estimation here).

the “retirement” age in the US (we’re going by when social security happens because retirement here is uhhhhh a joke) is 67. that’s somewhere around 40-50 years for a career, depending on when you start and the industry.

professional athletes have an incredibly narrow window of time in which to accomplish career goals. regardless of what they do post retirement, it’s a career shift and they’re people with an incredibly niche set of skills. to them, especially the ones who have given their entire childhood to hockey, the end of their (short) careers probably feels like the end of the world. like, what do you do when the thing you’ve dedicated your life to is over?

and this is ignoring the potential for injury or decline in play. lots of players don’t even make it a decade, and lots of players don’t even spend most of their careers in the nhl. look at beau bennet-he retired this year at 29 and he played a couple years of college, so he got what, 9 seasons total spent scattered across the nhl and ahl and i think he was in the khl for a minute?

there’s also a really big media narrative around older players-the way the league and sports journalist and honestly even fans talk about players over 30? absolutely batshit. they’re talking like these players have one foot in the grave the second they’re out of their 20s and like-yeah they work a physically demanding job that can really have an impact on their body (perhaps if the nhl allowed for better medical care it would be different but maybe i’m just mad about the eichel thing lmao)

uhhh anyway the point of this is that hockey players have really condensed lives (i think it’s why so many of them get married and have babies so young, but that could also just be conservative culture. i’m in my mid20s and married and that’s not really typical for my friends and peers) and that’s got some implications ig!

[samgirard]

Do you think Wilson’s comments were misinterpreted? I’m not saying he’s homophobic, but do you think he just said the wrong thing at the wrong time.

here’s an article by my friend hils on mhs on it that i think takes a thoughtful, nuanced look at the whole situation

for my piece, i think that colin’s comments aren’t homophobic rather than party to the larger culture of hegemonic cisgender straight white dude monoculture that is the team-before-individual mentality of the nhl. breaking it down though, colin said that while he likes “everyone can play tape,” and thinks it is “a dope style,” that he wouldn’t want to wear them for a whole game for fear of the combined chirping of the other team and his own team, which, while a particularly weak and milquetoast excuse; is probably not wrong in that any difference on the ice is probably mercilessly picked at. kurtis gabriel, the one player who has consistently worn pride tape on the ice, says he hasn’t gotten any flack for it, so that might be heartening for the actual reality of wearing pride tape for more than just warm-ups. 

now, and keeping my bias in mind here, i’m pretty sure a lot of colin’s answer here is informed by the reality of colin’s experience and place in the league. he’s the ycp ambassador--an almost entirely symbolic role that depends on what the individual player does with it--but for the two years he was the ycp ambassador, he was too injured to play, so keep in mind that he’s only participated in one pride/hife night in colorado and most of his experience is informed by his time with nashville. additionally--and this is pure speculation based on his injury history, contract status, and the rest of his conduct in the interview, referring to his career in the past tense, etc--there’s a not insignificant chance that he may never play again, and the excuse that he would get chirped is a more palatable interview answer than acknowledging that he’ll never get the chance to wear pride tape during a game. 

putting that aside, however, there’s a lot of symbolic weight to pride tape that colin as an ally acknowledges, but doesn’t really understand. to him, it’s just colored tape, and being made fun of for wearing colored tape is just a matter of course. it’s not a big deal for him, and it should be more of one, because pride tape in the face of ridicule is, to us, a clear way to show his support. this whole episode, in essence, was very disappointing. even the people we trust the most to understand and come from the best places aren’t always going to completely understand and have their own work to do, and that is disappointing, and they should be called out on it so they can learn and grow the conversation. the reality of the insular culture of the sport we love is disappointing, and defensive reactions against people who were hurt and disappointed in journalism are combative and unproductive. similarly, calling colin a coward and painting him as homophobic is also combative and unproductive. 

i think in situations like these, it’s important to remember that something can be disappointing without being offensive, and that a situation can be regrettable and worth talking about, without there being any hostility from the parties involved. 

short answer, though? i think that even if colin’s comments were misinterpreted, the misinterpretation hits at important issues to the hockey community, and that it’s better for him and us that he was challenged for them, even if the way that challenge was presented seemed disproportionate to the weight of them. 

[blessedbywaggle]

NHLWAM S8E2 with Tuukka Rask

Tuukka was featured on the second episode of the current NHL Without a Map season. I translated most of his interview if anyone wants to read it. It’s not exactly word for word because Finnish is weird.

In the NHLWAM two hosts travel to meet Finnish NHLers and interview them, usually asking fan questions and usually having a challenge for them. For this season they rented a camper and are road tripping to the different destinations.

The episode starts with the hosts driving from San Diego to Phoenix. During the interview with Tuukka they are walking to a restaurant for dinner. They talk about the origins of Pekka Rinne’s nickname Sauna-Peksi, playing in the NHL, the culture in Boston and how Tuukka was at school.

4:35 Host: We have also found a Finnish goaltender, but unlike you all thought, it is not Antti Raanta, it’s Tuukka Rask, how’s it going?

Tuukka: Hi, good, we’re going for dinner.

H: (joking) I guess you also came here to play a little ice hockey

T: (joking) Aaa oh yeah we have a game tomorrow, that’s true. But fortunately I have a day off so we can go get a good steak dinner.

H: If you were playing tomorrow, would you have a different dinner?

T: Not necessarily, I can eat about anything, I’ve been here long enough, so I know what I can eat, just need to mind what I drink.

They then discuss how some Finnish players have said that they avoid drinking too much during the season i.e. not drinking so much that they would have a hangover and Tuukka agrees that he doesn’t really drink like that during the season, just a beer or two with a meal or after sauna.

6:02 H: You mentioned sauna, so let’s remember back to season 3 when we asked you to come up with a question for Peksi (Pekka Rinne) and you came up with this amazing question.

—

Flashback T: I’m building a new house here in Boston and I’m meaning to build a sauna there. You are a well known sauna and bath goer. So a question: which one is better, electric or wood operating sauna stove/heater?

Pekka: I don’t myself have a sauna here, so I don’t know where this rumour has begun if it’s known all the way in Boston that I go to the sauna a lot.

H: Word is on the streets

P: Yes

H: Sauna-Peksi

—

6:53 H: Did you just randomly come up with that question or how did this come about?

T: You put me in a difficult situation, like ‘come up with a good question for Pekka’ and I didn’t have any questions in mind, but as a person having lived in Tampere for half my life, and I’ve watched Kummeli (well known comedy sketch show, the creators are from Tampere) so I thought ‘let’s ask a legendary Kummeli style question’. And that’s where it began. Apparently it has grown into some kind of legend. And that’s good. Pekka likes to go to the sauna, we all know that.

7:30 H: We are also going to see Pekka during this trip, so would you have a new question for him?

T: Pressure, pressure to have a good question

H: If you can come up with that good of a question…

T: Well I don’t know about that but you could ask if he’s planning on playing forever because he just signed a new deal and the guy is closing on 40. So I’m starting to think myself how long I still have to play

H: Yeah I was also thinking about how you’ve both been here in this league for a very long time but the truth is that Pekka is 5 years older than you.

T: Yeah, yeah I think he came here 2 or 3 years before me, I think we played against each other in the AHL for one game. But I think Pekka got into the NHL a year or two before me

H: I guess he has a couple of games more played than you

T: Yeah I’m sure of that. I’m reaching 500 in the next couple of weeks.

H: Is your goal, now that you mentioned whether he’s going to play forever, that you would beat Peksi’s number of games played.

T: Well that’s what I’m thinking, He’s trying to play so much that nobody can beat him (I’m assuming Tuukka is talking about Finnish goalies). But hell yeah I’ll play until I’m 50 if needed so I can pass Peksi in games played.

8:54 T: If I get to go out on my own terms, there’s so many players who have retired because they’ve been kicked the hell out of the league or because of injuries, that would be a big deal for me to retire when/how I want.

Host mentions that Boston has done well almost every year and that Tuukka has played for the same team his whole career. He asks, if Tuukka went to a different team, would that success help to bring young guys some advice/support etc.

9:27 T: Well, you can always help and advise, but creating a culture for an organisation takes a lot. Our team has had such an amazing situation that we’ve had the same core group, 7-8 guys, for over 10 years, and through that we’ve created the culture. Nobody can go to a new team and create that culture alone. It starts from the grass root level. But yeah, in the end it’s up to those small things in the deciding games, it’s a bounce there and a bounce here, and that’s that, it’s hockey.

After that the other host asks what Tuukka’s grade average was when finishing compulsory education in 9th grade. Tuukka says he thinks that it was around 7.9 (on a scale of fail 4 to 10 excellent, 7 is satisfactory and 8 is good, so he was a pretty average student). Tuukka says that you should never be too good or too bad, you should stay in that invisible zone and they all agree that that’s good so not to draw too much attention to yourself. The host then asks about school subjects.

10:46 T: I never liked maths, history was back then always boring and also Finnish classes and all of those kinds. I liked languages and music, I was on a music emphasised class for all of elementary school, and then in lower secondary school involved with music a lot, and then sports class. Those were the most interesting ones.

They have then arrived at the restaurant and the host says jokingly that Tuukka has now revealed that he plans on playing 1,000 games. Tuukka then says that he was told the year before that for goalies 500 games is the same as 1,000 for skaters, so in a way he is about to reach 1,000 games.

[petals42]

how do you feel about trans girl kent parson b/c... i love her

huh... tbh i have not met her before! (are there posts out there that i am missing??)

but that doesn’t mean i don’t love her! STREAM OF CONSCIOUS TIME!

let’s see... does she transition after finishing up in the NHL? let’s go... yes. in fact, lets go Kent didn’t know she was trans until after the NHL. like i know this isn’t the more popular “a part of her always knew” trans headcanon (at least i see it on my dash in relation to other people) but lets just say kent was so worried about being attracted to dudes and people finding out about that that she never actually considered her gender identity all that much. it was more... she would see fun dresses and think “wow that would be fun to wear” and wander sephora sometimes and think “dude, wearing all this must be awesome” even though she was supposed to be in there to get cologne and obviously dresses and makeup don’t equal = woman so kent thought “well okay” and left it at that. while in the nhl, she had other things to worry about. and no time to really worry about anything. (she made herself not have time, it was easier that way). 

it’s only after (career ending injury at only 32... one of the most gruesome things seen on the ice... always knew his size was risky, steve... still, you had to see it happen, you hate to see it happen) that kent has the time to really think about this because suddenly she has time on time to look at youtube and she starts with coming out videos but those “recommended vids” lead her to trans youtubers talking about their transitions and kent...

kent has always liked her body, really. it can do some pretty awesome shit (well... it used to be able to). and she has always liked that her height makes her shorter than most of the guys she knows and her face is pretty delicate for a dude so its not exactly that she hates being a guy, it’s just that one day she is watching more of her youtubers (really perhaps that should have been her first clue, that she was so obsessed with these stories) and she thinks “well. yeah. being a girl would be better. that.... that makes more sense. i would like that.”

as always, kent’s first instinct is to stomp down on that thought because NHL and press and drama and-- well wait. she doesn’t have any of that anymore. hasn’t in over a year. and yeah, she was hella famous at one time and, sure, this will be news but... but fuck it. she is still ungodly rich and she’d given years to the NHL and its ridiculous standards and cultures and fuck, her knee doesn’t bend right anymore so... no more. They don’t get to dictate anymore of her choices. Fuck it. 

she is nervous to tell her friends-- scraps and troy and picket, the small community she built up as a player that has lasted in the year since and from what shes read online, kent knows you are supposed to like... have the idea for a while and turn it over and be sure and have picked a new name maybe before you go telling other people but years of NHL training for her mean that nerves = action and so she is not really that ready at all (it’s been like.... maaybe a week since that first thought) when she has the boys over and says “yo, dudes, i think im a girl actually.”

her good friend scraps is a big old dummy so his eyes go wide and he starts to say something like “you just... realized this?? but how did no one--” all while sort of staring at kent’s crotch but luckily troy slaps a hand over scraps mouth and manages to nod semi-serenely before kent dies laughing. 

seriously. eventually pickett and troy join in and there is just laughter on laughter and kent manages to explain eventually while scraps blushes and tries to fumble his way out of his mistake because he always tries to do that when he says something exceptionally stupid and then the four of them get a little drunk and kent admits that she has not thought all these things true and they all end up in a Grand Debate about what her new name should be.

“Kent... Kent.. Kate?” “Nah, bro, you can’t be a Kate-- I dated a Kate once. She was fucking crazy.” “Didn’t she break up with you and you cried for like two months after??” “shut up.” “K... Kramy?” “Scraps. That’s not even a name.” “KIT!!” “Picket, I am not naming myself after my own cat.” “Let’s go off Parser... Petunia!” “bro. the fuck.” 

It is not a productive conversation and for now, Kent just decides to stick with Kent. She also sticks to her old wardrobe for the most part (because damn even as a dude, she had fucking style, bro)-- she gets rid of the most masculine shirts but really the main change is that she buys women’s tank tops and starts wearing her flannels unbuttoned with those swoopy tanks underneath. She goes and drops like 3k at Sephora. And because she is done dealing with shit in private, she has the boys over and they watch makeup youtube videos and all try to put on makeup even though scraps complains his scar makes this all impossible and picket has a full beard. none of them look particularly good upon their first attempt. But they keep at it. And Kent gets better. Actually, all of them get better. Troy gets so good at blending eyeshadow colors that actually, Kent will have him do his makeup for all major events in the future. Picket becomes the lipstick expert (probably cuz he has to be. with that beard.) and, look, i’m not saying Kent parson can contour a cheekbone to cut glass but also thats exactly what im saying. 

ALRIGHT, there is obvious a lot more story to tell here but i’d like to leave it at that: Kent Parson with her three best friends, giggling over makeup videos in her mansion while drinking beer and watching scraps’ put together list of “girl classic movies” like clueless, mean girls, and the notebook (their makeup all runs cuz they all cry so much). 

the end.

[brandoncarlo]

when I steal the NHL from Gary Bettman and rewrite the suspension rules I will also rewrite the masterton guidelines so it's the guy who it seems like the universe was cool overall w but really did NOT want him to play hockey, not the guy who the universe has a vendetta against in general. like, someone who has defied the odds, not "here are three guys who have experienced the worst things any person could"

The masterton is written and meant to go to a player who has perservered. Through injury, or aging. Someone like fucking Zdeno Chara probably or like, yeah, out of these Nominees, Roberto Luongo is the best choice if you take the trophy the way it’s supposed to. But there is no human being out there who would feel good about themselves for picking Luongon when Boyle and Staal are nominated. And then it’s a fucking tragedy olympics. 

I don’t think it’s an NHL or bettman fucking up thing. It’s a human thing. There’s a lot of struggle in this world, and sometimes it effects NHL players. and people are good, inherently, so we see these struggles and i don’t know who makse the decisions on nominees. But they go, you know who deserves recognition? The guys who went through the absolute worse. Because it’s human instinct to want to say ‘hey look at how strong and amazing these men are’ because they are. But they forget it’s a fucking AWARD and you have to COMPETE to win it. and no one wants to fucking point out it’s messed up because then what? are you saying Boyle and Staal don’t deserve recognition? Because it sucks. the whole thing sucks.

When Devan Dubnyk won it, or Jaromir Jagr won it that’s when the award was at it’s core what it was supposed to be. But people hated it. Fucking pens fans rioted because Letang didn’t win after he almost died. But DUbnyk literally went from being a nobody to being one of the best goaltenders in the NHL. that’s what this award is about. He never gave up. He kept pushing for it. He played through shitty teams and shitty seasons until the universe awraded him for it. Letang had a stroke. A very serious and very terrifying thing. AND he came back from it. LIke if you really sit down and think about it, how are we supposed to call them role models if we’re showing kids “even if you have a fucking stroke you don’t get a day off.” When i brought this up Pens fans were so mad at me because they thought i meant that LEtang didn’t deserve recognition for what he did. Letang DOES deserve recognition but they seem to forget he didn’t get the recognition. 

BEcause tis isn’t the fucking tragedy olympics it’s an award about just loving hockey a whole bunch. There’s nothing healthy about the love of hockey and a person who faces great tragedy or health risk and puts hockey first. Is it admirable? sure. Do i love these players? Yes, a whole lot. Do i want them to have everything they could in the world? yes. But Jordan Staal missed 3 game after his child died. THe NHL is saying this is a good thing. His KID died and he only got three games off and we’re going “oh yes what a strong man.” That’s a mourning man who in no way had a chance to overcome what he went through. 

THe award was never written to be about this. But we’re people. and we feel for these guys. We love these guys. we want them to be awarded and get recognition. The porblem is they don’t need to compete with each other. and there’s a surrounding culture that awards men for putting hockey before way more important things. 

[axiomsofice]

Mid Season Check In: Central

Tb

Even without Kucherov this is the class of the league. I’m not sure how many would be able to survive the absence of a Hart trophy winner, but alas here we are.

Car

Mrazek/Reimer/Nedeljkovic is a bit of a three headed monster, and like most spots on Carolina’s depth chart stocked with futures. Trocheck has fit in nicely. Necas is quietly having a breakout season, he really has all the tools to keep ascending as well. He might be the Hurricane’s most dynamically skilled forward? That may be blasphemous but at least the style points are there.

Fla

So tough to see Ekblad go down. He’s had some injuries in the past, and some tough years in Sunrise, but everything was really coming together for a Norris candidate level season. I was kind of hoping they would give (local kid?) Gostisbehere a shot. Hopefully they can find a way to keep winning, a series against Carolina might be imminent.

Dal

This might be a bit generous to the Stars but between a delayed start to their season and key injuries there’s been struggles. This last playoff spot is very much up for grabs, so getting healthy and getting continued contributions from Hintz, Robertson, and other young players is vital. Pavelski has been great. We’ve seen Nashville and San Jose sink after finals appearances, so Dallas will be looking to avoid a similar fate and will need the younger generation to start taking on larger roles.

Chi

I really wish Chicago would change their logo, maybe work with Indigenous artists to create something new and exciting and not a caricature of a person. Turn a negative into a positive? We saw something similar in Braden Holtby’s new mask in Vancouver, ultimately realizing that it’s much more empowering to give deserving artists of an oppressed culture authorship over works of art meant to celebrate said culture. Plus just look at the Winnipeg WASAC jerseys! Ridiculously good and definitely wish it was used more. The fans give the teams meaning, and sports being a vessel for positive change is when it is at its best. Maybe the NHL’s best attempts at this are somewhere between milk toast and unacceptable, but even to use their own branding; what if every team had a Skate For jersey? Imagine the Sharks donning their Black History Month jerseys.

Anyway, Chicago’s a bit ahead of schedule? Boqvist has looked pretty promising, and as more defence prospects become players this team will continue to return to its winning ways. Losing Toews is definitely a blow, and I don’t know anything about what’s going on with him but I hope he’s able to live as happy and healthy a life as possible (I also wish this for almost everyone but still). Dach is really good and should not be forgotten about moving forward. I’ve said it before but there’s definitely some good Central European scouting going on here. Kurashev, Kubalik, Suter, all looking very strong. I’d be remised not to mention Kevin Lankinen in net. They have the talent up front.

Nsh

It’s been a tough year and a bit(?) And the long term outlook does seem a little bleak with long expensive deals with some of their forwards, but there’s things to work with here. As of late they’ve gone on a bit of a run, Tolvanen has breathed some life into the offence. There’s rumours they might ship out a core piece, but I could see them keeping the likes of Ekholm, Ellis, Josi, and Forsberg.

Cbj

In some ways the Blue Jackets were similar to the Islanders coming into the year, but that is no longer the case. Years of losing their best players has finally caught up with them. The defence has not been as dominant as in the recent past. It’s hard not to imagine there will be changes, but I feel they will ride out the rest of the year before making them. Torts has been magic for the past few years, and authored a great career arc years after I thought he might not get another chance. Jarmo has stood by him but it really does seem like a lot of players could use a fresh start.

Det

Hey there’s been some bright spots. Fabbri, Merrill, Seider. Probably better served waiting till draft conversations to go too in depth here.

[bomberlandia]

Bombers Weekend: All the Reasons the McKenna Fallout Was a Disaster

It finally happened.

The AFL had its first positive test for COVID-19. It was Conor McKenna from Essendon. Also newsflash: AFL is the most COVID-19 friendly sport in the world. It was bound to happen. Things have moved quickly since Saturday.

The Melbourne game got postponed. The AFL went into chaos. We spent our time refreshing our digital feeds for the latest updates on what the AFL was going to do, where McKenna got the virus from, how he got the virus, did McKenna break protocol, whether or not Essendon would forfeit their points, and are other players impacted. The entire football community went insane in the space of 72 hours. And then sometime Tuesday afternoon we all learned that McKenna tested negative, along with the entire Essendon Football Club.

This was a dream outcome for Essendon. Whatever thoughts you had about McKenna were gone with that negative test. The Melbourne game will be rescheduled after round six. And apart from James Stewart, the rest of the Essendon squad are free and healthy to play this weekend against Carlton. Everything – sort of – went back to normal.

*

It’s hard to fully appreciate what happened since Saturday but after absorbing it all a few things stood out. Below is more on that and everything else that went wrong this week surrounding Conor McKenna.

David King and Cam Mooney both said inflammatory and damaging things about McKenna

King fired these bullets this week:

“I have no sympathy for Conor and he’s got to face what comes but what it does to the game is disastrous really. The protocols are there for everyone and he’s clearly gone outside of those. We may never see him play a game in the AFL.” – North Melbourne great, David King, SEN.

Then Cam Mooney joined the party with:  “I’m a little bit dirty on him and I think we all should be a little bit dirty on him.”

They didn’t have to say those things. McKenna felt like garbage already. Imagine being McKenna, testing positive for COVID-19, and then the knives come out. All this before verifying the positive result with another test. All this before verifying whether or not he broke the AFL’s protocols – which he didn’t.  The AFL is more aware of mental health issues of coaches and players now than ever before. King and Mooney were reaching for reactions on low hanging fruit which is the lowest form of media.

Troll culture in full force

The pitchforks were out demanding blue hell. Some of the vitriol was expected but the level of vitriol was at extreme levels between Saturday and Tuesday midday. “Call the season off and suspend Essendon FC for 2 years,” one comment read on the Herald Sun.  “We expelled Essendon once before and our heads didn’t explode. Do it again,” said another. “I am afraid, back to Ireland for this young man never to be seen again,” wrote another. “He needs to be fined and deregistered for breaking clear advice,” wrote another.

Calling the season off was never going to happen. A two-year club suspension for McKenna’s positive test is longer than the ASADA ban. Geez. The deportation message, send McKenna back to Ireland, also extreme (FYI: there’s only two ways you can be deported from Australia and what happened to McKenna isn’t one of them). The themes among the trollers were aimed at penalizing the club, aimed at McKenna and aimed at suspending the Bombers for the year. I must of read 80 comments on Twitter and there’s a lot of pent up aggression out there. McKenna’s positive test, without much support from the AFL, made it easy to troll. Also, too, opposition fans don’t care that we’re living through a pandemic. They’re as vocal as ever before. No empathy. Isn’t that weird?

AFL has adopted a name and shame culture through this pandemic

The AFL clearly have no problems dragging a player and football club through the mud when it comes to naming publicly who has tested positive for COVID-19. This should concern football clubs moving forward. I think the best way to handle this is what the NHL have done.

The key part of the NHL’s statement:

“The NHL will provide a weekly update on the number of tests administered to players and the results of those tests. The league will not be providing information on the identity of the players or their clubs.”

In the AFL, why does the public need to know who tests positive? Those players would be sent home to quarantine anyway. No-one needs to know about it. Naming and shaming invites trolls and would be hard for those players to deal with if they’re already suffering from private mental health issues. It begs the question: why aren’t health records not private anymore? COVID-19 has the potential to kill and it spreads like wildfire. It’s different to gastro or an ankle injury. The AFL need to stop treating it like the normal flu because it’s not the normal flu.

McKenna’s footage of the act of spitting had everyone gasping

The video showing McKenna spitting on the ground at training had football fans appalled. I mean, it’s gross. But, that’s what happens at training and in games, at every club. T.V stations made a point of replaying the vision below multiple times. In. Slow. Motion. It prompted one Blues fan to write “No way it’s safe to play against this group,” on Twitter. Another fan wrote “It’s one of the reasons this State is losing the battle against COVID-19.” What I learned: Football fans are scared about a one-second farmer’s nose blow but are ok with 36 players tackling each other for 100 minutes.

The AFL’s inconsistencies and hypocrisies are being exposed

Had the AFL ruled out visiting house inspections, that would’ve made McKenna’s case  more clear cut. But the protocol for moving house is vague. How can you move house if you can’t buy or rent your future house? These are some of the holes that have been exposed in the AFL’s COVID-19 blueprint this week. Now, there’s no tackling at training because of McKenna, but there’s still in-game tackling? Football goes against social distancing practises. The same rules you abide by going to get groceries. The same rules enforced by government health officials. We’re living in weird times.

[andrewuttaro]

Is the Stanley Cup worthless?

Let’s start out with some disclaimers. For one, the Stanley Cup certainly isn’t worthless to the hundreds of players who fight through two months of grueling hockey for it. Those guys often play through injury and sacrifice their long-term health just for the chance to lift the Stanley Cup. Their meaning vested in the Stanley Cup is thoroughly established and that is almost an entirely different topic. Another disclaimer: this is not about my team’s inability to accomplish the feat of winning a Stanley Cup. I am not here to complain about the Playoff format, the seeding or even the Sabres inability to make the playoffs the last eight years. This question has nothing to do with any of those problems. No, this question is actually remarkably difficult to answer because it’s a question about the fundamental makeup of the highest-skill hockey league in the world.

I openly asked this question on twitter as the first round of the 2019 edition of the Stanley Cup Playoffs drew to a close. I got the answers you’d expect. You’re a cry baby, it’s about grit, its tradition, and my personal favorite: It’s the randomness that makes it worthwhile! There were actually some decent answers toward the end, but I’ll admit there was some venting going on about my bracket getting absolutely demolished by the postseason of upsets in the first round. The root of this is simple: We all venerate and remember who wins the Stanley Cup. That’s where the lore and honor of the NHL game comes from: but why? If it is a tournament of randomness and chance then the team that survives is just the luckiest survivor, no? Twitter was tough on me, but I guess one expects that from social media. Lucky for us, real experts have addressed the question and tried to come up with answers of their own.

Sean McIndoe (Down Goes Brown) at The Athletic wrote a smart piece on it. It’s called “The 2019 playoffs are total chaos. Is that good? It depends on your door.” You should absolutely go read this article. The paywall for The Athletic is a pretty short wall if you have any kind of income and I’m not going to spoil their paid content in my free content. The basic idea however is that we generally look at the Stanley Cup Playoffs two ways: Door One and Door Two. Door One is the best team always wins the Stanley Cup no matter what. Door Two is the best team may not win the Stanley Cup but its fun and that’s all that really matters. Read the article for the full breath of McIndoe’s analysis. It’s very good. These two doors are the convenient and most common ways we look at the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Before we go on here we have to note that many NHL professional writers, those who make a living off of analyzing this league, don’t even want to bother with the middle question here: Is the playoff chaos, particularly in this 2019 go-around, good for hockey? The why there I think is pretty straight forward: its nonsense. Individual things are good or bad for hockey. Whether this incredible Tampa team wins a Cup before it is blown up is ultimately secondary to real stuff like… I don’t know… is the league going to get real about long term head trauma and damage to its players or any number of actually meaningful problems that will be touched on in the next collective bargaining agreement? Those are the real problems and phrasing what we’re talking about today as a big issue is ultimately unhelpful for those dealing with the real problems with this league. There are many. Knowing NHL writers don’t care for the middle question answers part of my question: the way we judge the worthwhileness of the Stanley Cup for fans and Front Offices is more a theoretical question about what we want out of our sport than what actually matters in the politics of the league. Until we have that conversation the folks selling us the NHL product will continue to tell us the same thing about the playoffs.

The NHL says the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in sports for a few reasons: for one, its great marketing. Two, a cursory look over the playoff format compared to the other major North American Sports will seem to reveal with some degree of objectivity that it is in fact very hard to win. Once again, I’m not diminishing the players or coaches’ sacrifices; that stuff is very real indeed. But even if the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win by the playoff structure, does that mean it goes to the best team when it is finally hoisted in the air? In the McIndoe visual of two doors I took Door Two. In my opinion the Stanley Cup simply does not go to the most skilled, complete NHL team at the end of the postseason. If it doesn’t go to the best team than is it actually worth anything to us Cup-hungry fans? If its not worth anything, why are fans and front offices judging teams, historically and present, based on winning it?

The answer to the first question is that it’s worth approximately 20K purely by its silver content if the market is booming. That was a joke, don’t @ me. Let it be clear that I love the Stanley Cup. I have some of my fondest memories with my father watching the Stanley Cup playoffs back in High School. I was not born and bred into hockey, I’m not a good olde Canadian boy, I’m not even Canadian; but the last decade of my life has been very enriched for having had it in my life. I care about NHL Hockey and the survival and growth of the sport if for no other reason than entertainment and sentiment. The reality is the affection is deep. I write fan fiction about that hunk of metal. I’m not kidding. I would love for there to be some secret history of the Stanley Cup connecting it to the Last Supper so I could venerate it like a religious relic and call it the Holy Grail with a seriously face. That trophy is my jam.

Then again, what about the Vancouver Canucks? I’m not a Canucks fan but that 2011 Stanley Cup Final is seared into my memory. The Canucks of that season and the one after were the best team in the league and yet that organization and all those fans will remain relegated to the ranks of teams without Stanley Cups just because the Final didn’t bounce their way. The unfairness there is palpable. They did get their trophy, the President’s Trophy for the best regular season team. The Lightning got it this year before getting swept in round one by a wild card team. However, the point remains those guys don’t deserve to be thought of as less than just because they weren’t lucky enough between April and June. How many other clubs are similarly cheated out of the status in the hockey history books they deserve? There is a whole rabbit hole I can go into about deserving. The good-old-boy culture of hockey will always respond to this “deserving” argument with the old adage: “The Stanley Cup is earned, not deserved.” God bless you, but the deeper question remains: why are fans judging teams, historically and present, being on winning it?

“Well, what do you prefer instead, Mr. Hockey-Philosopher who never even played the game?” I hear you. I don’t want the NBA postseason. I cannot imagine cheering on a basketball team in a league that has so little variance in who takes home titles. The higher seeded teams in that league are far more likely to win it all and upsets are far rarer. Let me be clear: I don’t want the Stanley Cup title to be a forgone conclusion in April. I am also not advocating for the Soccer world’s solution of not having playoffs at all. The answer to the problem I’m posing is not one we’ll find anywhere else in sports right now. The answer, again, is more about what we want as hockey fans.

The President’s Trophy is essentially the soccer solution. You get that trophy for being the best team of the regular season. Nowadays we talk about the trophy being a curse. In recent years the winner of that trophy fails to obtain the Stanley Cup far more often than not. It was however, instituted in the mid-1980s. If you know anything about hockey in the 1980s you know it was time dominated by high-scoring dynasties. Two teams won 70% of the Stanley Cup titles that decade. The league had to reward all the folks who weren’t the Edmonton Oilers or the New York Islanders who were relative Nuclear Superpowers compared to the rest of the league. Hockey of the NHL variety is not like it was in the 1980s in many ways; most notably there is enough parity in this league that, while there are still dynasties (probably), the variation of teams winning the Stanley Cup or getting close is a lot wider. So, what’s your problem then, you ask? If Stanley Cup titles are more equally distributed than ever and you even have a President’s Trophy to reward regular season greats, what’s the problem? Well outside of the President’s Trophy being viewed as a cursed object you don’t want to win, my problem is really with how we judge the clubs and players in our sport based on luck between April and June.

Before Alexander Ovechkin won the Stanley Cup in 2018 he was on track to be viewed as the greatest player ever to not win the Cup. He was getting gray in the beard and the media was beginning to roast him for it like the memes had been doing for over a decade. The articles written on him read like think pieces on what a trade would look like. Winning trophies is the prime focus of any real sports franchise. If you don’t do that, well maybe we should trade you! You can’t trade fans and the endless merry-go-round of front office ineptitude in Edmonton these days leads one to believe its fairly hard to successfully organize a winning Front Office as well. If you look at teams with the highest salary cap commitments it was all the lower ranked teams winning playoff series this year. The rich aren’t getting richer, it’s more like everyone is poor. And yet, we as fans demand our clubs bring us pride in the form of Stanley Cup banners! We value the Stanley Cup so much in an environment where no matter how much money our team’s decision makers throw at the roster problems we’re no more likely to get one of those oh so valuable Stanley Cup titles than had we done nothing and lucked into a few wins and fortuitous bounces in the Spring.

Clearly the Stanley Cup isn’t worthless. I’ll admit click-bait when I do it. But the reality is us NHL fans need to chill the F out about the Stanley Cup if we want to have any semblance of peace-of-mind. It’s not easy to win and its not supposed to be but its also not a measure of the overall quality of your franchise in the big picture. It isn’t the end-all-be-all of franchise success, it’s a measure of playoff success and that’s really it. Winning is what matters in this league and it should stay that way; but us fans need to reset the way we look at the Stanley Cup if this postseason chaos is going to become the new norm. We’re not prepared for this chaos now but we can be if we start thinking reasonably about what the Stanley Cup is worth.

[judefan833-blog]

the morning coaching a summer camp

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Eventually, Marcus Samuel retired and passed the business to his son, Sam. Yes, Marcus Samuel turned over control of Shell, his shell business, to his son, Samuel Samuel. (Proof that not all successful businessmen are geniuses.) Sam and his brother, Marcus Jr., thought that oil was starting to look like a nfl jerseys promising new investment, and the rest was a bunch of boring business history.

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The boy prince wears his cap backwards and his sleeves rolled to the shoulders. He's spent the morning coaching a summer camp and the last hour signing his name. Big C, big K, long line. By the time of the Clinton administration, the gay civil rights movement was ready to spring ahead after 12 years of hostile Republican rule. And spring it did. Gay people were energized by the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and more and more positive and stronger media portrayals from television to Hollywood..

In what could be deja vu from 2013, Eden Gardens will again host Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI), who will lock horns for the most coveted domestic prize, the Indian Premier League (IPL) title here on Sunday.While CSK wholesale jerseys from china have won the title twice, MI had clinched it once two years earlier. However, the road to the final was not easy for either of the two teams. Mumbai had a disastrous start to their campaign as they lost all wholesale jerseys of their first four matches.But just when things looked bleak for the Rohit Sharma led outfit, the Cheap Jerseys free shipping team bounced back with some panache as it won seven of its last nine group games to make it to the title round.

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20 Fantasy Hockey Thoughts

Every Sunday, we'll share 20 Fantasy Thoughts from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week's ‘Daily Ramblings’.

Writers: Michael Clifford, Ian Gooding, Cam Robinson, and Dobber

  1. It’s been a rough year for almost everyone in St. Louis, eh. Besides Vladimir Tarasenko, injuries have hit some key players like Jaden Schwartz and Alex Pietrangelo, the coach was fired, the forwards brought in haven’t seemed to mesh together, and the goaltending has been inconsistent. Ryan O’Reilly is having a pretty good season, but he’s about the only one.

What jumps out immediately, of course, is Tarasenko’s shooting percentage. He sits at 8.4 percent for the season, having never had a year below 10.7 percent, and a three-year average of 12.7 percent. Were he to be at 12.7 percent for the year instead of 8.8 percent, you could add five goals to his current total and he’d be on pace for nearly 40 goals. If that happens, we’re not having this conversation.

There’s always the possibility he has one of *those* seasons were he just doesn’t break out of his funk, but I’ll bet on talent and opportunity over randomness and Tarasenko has both. (dec27)

  2. Blackhawks’ Collin Delia was having an amazing AHL season, where he had a great second half a year ago. The concern with Delia as a keeper for my fantasy league(s), however, is the upcoming free agent market.

Considering Corey Crawford’s concussion troubles and that his contract is running out in two seasons, I’m wondering if the Blackhawks sign one of Brian Elliott, Mike Smith, Sergei Bobrovsky, Cam Talbot, or Semyon Varlamov in the offseason?

I can’t go all-in on Delia just yet due to that uncertainty but he has leapfrogged Ivan Nalimov in terms of potential keeper league value.  (dec24)

  3. The Leafs have to figure out a way to keep Kasperi Kapanen, who is set to become a restricted free agent this summer and will probably make over $5 million in his next contract (if he keeps up his 30-goal, 55-point pace at only 22 years of age).

Kapanen is not better than William Nylander but to me he is more versatile, and he’s clutch. And those are attributes that the team will need over the next few years as opposed to those that Nylander brings and of which they already have in abundance. If the Leafs trade Kapanen and keep Nylander, they would regret it. Not only would Nylander’s return be better, but I really think they would be better off.  (dec24)

  4. Isles’ Mathew Barzal now has three-point games on back-to-back nights with points in four consecutive games. As a follower noted on Twitter, Barzal has been shooting the puck more. He had taken only 34 shots (less than two per game) over his first 19 contests, but 52 over his last 18 (nearly three shots per game).

Or, to put it another way, Barzal scored just three goals prior to December 15. Since then, he has rattled off seven goals in seven games, while taking 24 shots (over three per game). Yes, the buy-low window has slammed shut. (dec30)

  5. In case you haven’t noticed, Barzal’s goaltending teammate, Robin Lehner is on a roll. He has wins on back-to-back nights and has now won four consecutive games. Over those four wins, he has allowed just two goals (granted, Friday’s win was in relief).

As expected, this New York goalie battle with Thomas Greiss has been a seesaw, with Lehner holding the upper hand at the moment. If Lehner can stay healthy, then he is a goalie worth owning (only 38 percent owned in Yahoo leagues). Especially if the now over-.500 (and by over-.500 I mean real .500, where OT/SO losses are considered losses and not ties) Islanders are serious about winning. (dec30)

  6. Hey, why not pre-order your Midseason Guide here? DobberHockey staff are working on this feverishly so it’ll be available for you on January 11. You’ll find second-half projections, sleepers, advanced stats, historical trends, prospects, and more.

I’m currently working on the goaltending piece. So, which goalie could be in danger of overuse? Marc-Andre Fleury is your league leader with 35 games played. As much as his fantasy owners have been able to count on him for starts and wins, he’s one of the league’s older goalies at 34. He missed two months with a concussion last season and also suffered two concussions in 2015-16, which is something for you to keep in the back of your mind … Follow the link for more >> (dec29)

  7. Erik Karlsson was listed in the most recent Cage Match Tournament on underachievers – players who will never reach a certain point total again. I probably spent more time thinking about whether Karlsson would reach 70-plus points again than I did about any other player possibly not reaching another ‘never again’ level. In the end, I elected not to ‘vote’ for Karlsson, meaning that I think he could reach 70 again in his career.

But in spite of the four-point effort on Saturday and the nine-game points streak, I don’t think Karlsson will reach 70 points this season. Not with the Sharks, anyway. I think it could still happen with a different team next season – the right team where he would be the only defenseman on PP1. But Karlsson has the momentum and ability to prove me wrong with a strong second half, so this prediction is by no means a lead pipe lock. Karlsson currently has 30 points in 38 games, which puts him on pace for 65 points. (dec30)

  8. I’m sure we’ll find out more about Dustin Byfuglien’s injury in the coming days, but I also seem to remember that Josh Morrissey’s icetime took off when Big Buff was out of the lineup earlier this season. At the time, Morrissey’s Yahoo ownership was somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 percent (if I remember correctly), yet now it is up to 67 percent. Even though Morrissey has been held without a point over his last four games and his power-play time hasn’t been great recently, he’s someone you’ll want in your starting lineup if Byfuglien misses time.

More unfortunate injury news but at least this is the kind we can plan around: Thomas Chabot is expected to be out for the next three weeks with an upper-body injury from Friday’s game. The Sens had only one power-play opportunity and, as expected, Maxime Lajoie received the first-unit minutes. Recent callup Christian Wolanin also received minutes and might be worth keeping an eye on (18 points in 26 AHL games). (dec30)

  9. Habs’ Tomas Tatar has now recorded multiple points in three consecutive games after being held without a point in his previous six games. Despite the recent slump, Tatar has exceeded expectations in Montreal and is on pace for the 30 goals and 60 points plateaus. (dec29)

  10. I don’t read about these types of comments in hockey as often as in other professional sports – maybe because of the more polite nature of hockey culture. Yet, as we saw on Friday, Stars’ CEO Jim Lites ripped into Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin with a few choice words. Benn’s $9.5 million cap hit is within the league’s top 10 at the moment; while Seguin will move into that group starting next season, which is when his new contract with a $9.85 million cap hit kicks in.

How this affects Benn’s or Seguin’s production remains to be seen, but the contract amounts, terms, and no-movement clauses will not make them easy players to trade if it turns out they are not happy with Lites’ criticism and want to get the H-E-double hockey sticks out of Big D. (dec29)

  11. Over the last 4-5 years, I’ve personally gotten more involved in auction leagues in fantasy baseball. Let me tell you this much: I absolutely love them. It makes a lot of sense when you realize that traditional snake drafts inhibit how a player can construct their team.

If a fantasy owner is playing in three leagues and happens to be drafting outside the top-3 in all three leagues, that person has no chance at drafting Connor McDavid. If that person drafted outside the top-5 in all three leagues, that person had no chance at drafting McDavid or Nikita Kucherov, and on and on it goes.

Also, if someone is at a wheel pick (first or last), they’re not at risk of missing out on runs of goaltenders or defensemen. It also creates fun rivalries within the fantasy league before the season even starts because of bidding wars.

I understand a lot of people don’t want auction leagues because of how involved owners need to be. You need to evaluate each player within the parameters of your league, you need to have discipline to not overspend on ‘your’ guys, and the drafts themselves can take hours. It all depends how much time a league’s members want to put in. All the same, I think fantasy hockey owners, especially Industry Leagues, should start using more auction formats. (dec28)

  12. Ottawa has recalled goaltender Marcus Hogberg from the AHL, an indication that Craig Anderson probably won’t be playing in the next few days at least due to a concussion. Let’s hope it’s nothing serious or lingering for the elder statesman of the Sens. Fantasy owners will have to make other arrangements for the time being. I’m not sure Mike McKenna is the answer, either. (dec28)

  13. Morgan Frost’s skills are on display at the World Juniors: soft hands, quick release, and nice vision. It figures he’ll be on the Flyers roster to start the 2019-2020 season. He’s ready. (dec27)

  14. One Swiss player who really stood out at the WJC, and much of my Twitter timeline seemed to agree, was Nando Eggenberger, a winger for the Oshawa Generals. He went undrafted in 2018 but you couldn’t tell by watching his game. He looked like an old school power forward at times, being able to drive wide using his size and reach to create chances. Keep an eye on him. (dec27)

  15. Either I possess incredible fortune-telling skills, or I jinxed Frederik Andersen (Saturday Ramblings). Whatever it is, the well-used Leafs’ starting goalie is now day-to-day with a groin injury. Because Saturday callup Kasimir Kaskisuo is clearly not NHL ready (.866 SV% in the AHL), the Leafs acquired veteran backup Michael Hutchinson from the Panthers for a 2020 fifth-round pick.

This is a small price to pay for the Leafs, who badly needed a goalie for the AHL Marlies. If Andersen is out for more than a few days, expect Hutchinson to be called up right away. Although Hutchinson isn’t having a spectacular year in the AHL (.906 SV%), he had a stellar campaign for the Manitoba Moose last season (2.08 GAA, .935 SV%).

When you add in the kind of game Garret Sparks had on Saturday (four goals allowed on 24 shots), I could see Hutchinson competing for starts on the big club if Andersen isn’t back soon. Sparks was playing his second game on back-to-back nights, but by no means has he solidified himself as a goalie who can carry a team at the NHL level. (dec30)

  16. We all know that Jeff Carter, as an aging player, is in decline. At the age of 34 (well, he’ll be 34 on New Year’s day) and with over 1000 games under his belt, that’s not in dispute.

Second, we know the team around him is very bad and not likely to get much better. Third, outside deeper leagues, Carter is likely available on the waiver wire, so it’s a matter of who he’d be replacing. Carter would be a guy to stash on benches, not someone to roster and start immediately.

I’m always willing to bet on talent. Carter scored at least 20 goals in every season but one from 2005 through 2017 (he was injured last year). The problem right now is, largely, shooting percentages. He’s shooting just 7.3 percent, the lowest for him since 2006-2007, coming off a three-year average of 12 percent.  

Again, looking to grab Carter off the wire is probably only for deeper leagues, or at least 14 teams. He’s not drawing penalties and he’s not shooting near as much as he used to, and those are to big red flags for me. But that doesn’t mean Carter is a 10-15 goal guy now. Expect a much better second half from him, even on that team. (dec27)

  17. I was asked for my thoughts on Canes’ Dougie Hamilton — do I still feel that the cream will rise to the top?

I still stand firm that Hamilton is far more talented than Justin Faulk and I honestly don’t understand how he hasn’t just powered his way to become the best on that team, but for one reason or another it’s not happening. Maybe he doesn’t work hard enough for Rod Brind’Amour’s liking.

I don’t like the situation and I don’t see a quick or easy resolution. I’m ready to write off the year for Dougie but I’m still very high on him in keepers so rebuilding teams may want to kick tires. (dec26)

  18. Conor Garland, a 5-10, 165-pound small, skilled player, who as I noted above will take extra time to get going, has finally broken out at the AHL level and is now taking advantage of his NHL stint. He has points in four straight games, including the first two of his career. I think he’ll finish off the year as an AHL star and will make the team next year – which he’ll have to because starting in 2019-20 he has to clear waivers to be sent down.  (dec24)

  19. Why put pressure on Carter Hart? While Hart’s first two games were great, they were a little over-hyped. In his debut, the team came together before him like no other – and then he was gifted the game’s First Star in what I suspect was a ploy by the home team Flyers to boost his confidence, because he was not the First Star. In the second game, it was different, though. He played great and stole one from the Predators. I’d have him back in the AHL while his confidence is high.  (dec24)

  20. One prospect I hyped up in the Fantasy Prospects Report three summers ago was Florida’s Jayce Hawryluk. But he ran into injury troubles early on and played somewhat poorly when healthy, even seeing some ECHL time last season. He had since fallen off the radar.

However, whatever training he did this past offseason sure worked. He’s been flying, posting 28 points in 25 games for Springfield and adding some of the leadership that he had in junior hockey. The Panthers gave him his first recall a recently and he scored the first two goals of his NHL career earlier this week.

I’m sticking him back on my radar because even if his upside is limited, this team has a ton of top-six talent and, as a complementary winger on one of those scoring lines in the future, he would really pay dividends.  (dec24)

  Have a good week, folks!!

  from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/20-fantasy-hockey-thoughts/20-fantasy-hockey-thoughts-56/