#ranking nhl teams

[larsnicklas]

[240210 pdx vs. sea] the portland winterhawks congratulate goaltender jan špunar after a win. špunar recently returned to the ice after an injury that took him out of commission for over two months; in the three games since his return, he has gone 3-0-0 while allowing just a single goal in each outing. špunar leads all whl goaltenders in gaa (1.70) and sv% (.934).

[strawberryblondebutch]

it's very weird sometimes to be an unabashed sports fan whose least favorite of the big 4 is the nfl

[allfifaworldcup]

NHL Power Rankings - 1-32 poll, one word describing each team

NHL Power Rankings – 1-32 poll, one word describing each team

The Boston Bruins and New Jersey Devils continue to pile up the points, while the defending Stanley Cup champ Colorado Avalanche suffered a major injury blow this week with the news that Nathan MacKinnon would miss time. Recent additions on the ice and behind the bench have done their fair share to influence their new teams — or have disappointed. And a new class of superstars has emerged, from…

[bocceclub]

the sabres are finally scoring som facking goals !!!

[grantmentis]

2024 Ice Hockey Women's World Championship: A Primer

When: April 3rd to April 14th. The schedule here will tell you when games are taking place both in your local time and venue time.

Where is it taking place?: Utica, New York

Where to watch:

For the first time, we will have ALL games broadcasted in USA and Canada. I am not sure how many games are going to be broadcasted outside North America, but we can reasonably assume they will at least carry their home country games

TSN will carry all games in canada

NHL Network and ESPN+ will carry a mix of the games together. See The Ice Garden's Michelle Jay's tweet for the schedule of which games are where.

SVT (Sweden)

Discovery (Finland)

Czech TV (Czechia)

Magenta (Germany)

TBS (Japan)

Swiss TV (Switzerland)

If you are not in any of these countries, or you are but are struggling to find a way to watch, please feel free to DM me and I will do my best to find you something

What is the tournament format?:

There are two divisions, Division A with the five ranked teams going into the tournament and Division B with the next five. Each division plays a round robin style ranking round, and at the conclusion the bottom two teams in Division B will be relegated, while the rest automatically make the quarterfinals. Quarterfinals will go A1-B3, A2-B2, A3-B1, A4-A5. In addition to the finals for gold that will take place, there will be a bronze medal game and a fifth place game for ranking. Standings will use a three point systems.

Who is in each division?:

Division A: USA, Canada, Czechia, Switzerland, Finland

Division B: Sweden, Japan, Germany, China, Denmark

Who are each teams?

Here is where it gets long. Below the cut I will tell you each teams roster, how they did last year, their reasonable goals, notable roster changes, and three players to watch. I will do my best to keep this informative, but brief.

USA

Roster:

(Text version available here)

2023 Result: Won Gold

2024 goals: Win gold again

Notable roster changes: This team continues to go very very young. Abby Roque is the most notable roster omission here. Top defender Lee Stecklein is also not on this roster, due to her taking a break from the National Team. Amanda Kessel was also left off, but she has not been active within the last year as a player, so not entirely surprising.

Three players to watch: Grace Zumwinkle has been one of the stars of the PWHL so far, and is likely to get more responsibility on the national team than ever before, so keep an eye on her and how she may translate her successful season to the tournament. Rory Guilday may only be 21, but she is heading to her third senior world championships, a long time favorite of the team USA coaching staff with her shutdown defensive skills who they'll hope can take another step this tournament with Lee Stecklein absent. Joy Dunne is the youngest player on this roster, just 18 years old coming off a 24-18-42 season in Ohio and a national championship. This will be her first senior level tournament, and I'd expect her to get ample offensive opportunities.

Canada

Roster

(text version available here)

2023 result: Silver

2024 goals: Gold

Notable roster changes: Micah Zandee-Hart is the most surprising one after being on the roster for a few years. Claire Thompson is absent as is Rebecca Johnston, but that is more expected while Thompson is finishing medical school and Johnston has not played in the past calendar year. Cousins Nicole and Julia Gosling join the team after strong rivalry series showings.

Three players to watch: Natalie Spooner is the front runner for PWHL MVP, so everyone will be watching to see if she continues to score at the rate she has been. Expected number one overall pick in the upcoming PWHL draft, Sarah Fillier, will be playing in her last showing before the draft happens as she finished out her college season. Nicole Gosling was the highest scoring defender in the NCAA this year at Clarkson, going 14-25-39 in 40 regular season games, so seeing how she impacts this blue line is a must watch.

Czechia

Roster

(Text version available here)

2023 result: Bronze

2024 goal: upset their opponent in the semifinals and make the finals

Roster changes: The bad news is top defender Dominika Lásková is out with injury. The good news is star goaltender Klára Peslarová is healthy unlike last year, as is blueline mainstay Tereza Radová. Alena Mills retired from the national team. Kristýna Pátková did not make the team this year, in her place comes Boston University commit Anežka Čabelová who had a stellar U18 worlds. Karolína Kosinová did not make the team, in her place is HV71 assistant captain Klara Seroiszková.

Three players to watch: 17 year old Adéla Šapovalivová was the highest scoring u18 player in the SDHL (Sweden's highest level league) this year and one of their top scorers in general going 11-18-29 in 32 regular season games. She was also a key part of the U18 team that upset Canada in the semifinals to advance to Czechia's first ever u18 final. With Mills retired, she will get more minutes at her third (!!!!) senior worlds. Next up is Klára Peslarová, and if you're not familiar with her game, she is straight up a top five goaltender in the world. She just came off a stellar season with Brynäs IF in Sweden where she had a .935 save percentage in 20 games, and has been consistently stellar on the international stage as well like when she had 55 saves against the united states at the olympics. Kateřina Mrázová is a fantastic playmaker has been a bright spot on a Ottawa tam that has struggled to find itself, and is also one of the most veteran members of this squad. If they win, she'll have to lead the way.

Finland

Roster

Text version available here

2023 finish: Fifth Place

2024 goals: Bronze

Roster changes: Two of their key offensive pieces Elisa Holopainen and Michelle Karvinen, are back and healthy this year! Susanna Tapani is also back on this team. Those are three absolute big pieces that completely change this roster for the better. A few depth roster forwards were left off in their place, most notably Kiira Yrjänen. Defense has more shakeups. Sini Karjalainen is a notable omission and long time defender Rosa Lindstedt retired. Eve Savander, Oona Koukkula, and Siiri Yrjölä slot in.

Three players to watch: I've consistently been a very big Elisa Holopainen fan and I think she's one of the best players in the world and not talked about nearly enough. Just as she began to really shine in the international stage, she got hit with injury, but as she's come back with year she dominated Finland's league going 32-25-57 in 19 games. I think I've put her as a player to watch like every year I've done a preview and I'm going to keep going it. Finland has faced a lot of questions about their goaltending following Räty and the team going their separate ways, but right now, it is Sanni Ahola's crease to lose. She was stellar in the three games she started last year for Finland in the world championship and was solid for st cloud state with a .935 save percentage in 17 starts this year. With Lindstedt's retirement, Krista Parkkonen will see more minutes, coming off a breakout sophomore year in a university of vermont program that's developed a decent amount of international blueliners.

Switzerland

Roster

(Text version here)

2023 result; 4th place

2024 goals: bronze

Roster changes: quite a lot of shake up. no Caroline spies as their mainstay backup, Alexandra Lehmann takes her place. No Sarah Forster, who wore an A and led their defense last time around. She only played 7 games in SWHL this year, so likely injury is at play.

Players to watch: it is, of course, the Alina Müller and Lara Stalder show until it isn’t. So, besides them, the players to watch are Andrea Brändli is another “top five goaltender in the world” to know, sporting a .937 in her first year playing in Sweden post a stellar college career. 18 year old Ivana Marie Wey just had a great year playing pro as Stalder’s teammate and will be important for the next Swiss wave. With no Forster, Lara Christen will take on a lot of the top defensive minutes most likely.

Sweden

Roster

(Text version available here)

2023 results: sixth

2024 hopes: return to group A

Roster changes: no Sarah Grahn which isn’t entirely expected but still a big change, in response Ida Boman gets the call. No Fanny Rask or Olivia Carlsson, who retired.

Three players to know: Ebba Hedqvist is a 17 year old elite center coming off a great performance at worlds and has an eye for playmaking that will be critical for Sweden. Maja Nylén Persson is the #1 defender of team Sweden that has consistently been the top defender by points in the SDHL and won defender of the year in 2022-2023, and she is only 23 years old. Another part of Sweden’s insane center depth is Lina Ljungblom, who will likely play in Montreal next year and had 46 points in 36 regular season games. In the various tournaments/friendlies that Sweden has played leading up to this (ie five nations cup), she has 10 goals in 15 games. These three players are truly some of my favorite in hockey right now

Japan

Roster

(Text version available here)

2023 result: 7th

2024 hopes: return to group A

Roster changes: honestly we mostly running this back. One or two u18 add ins but overall the same as 2023

Players to watch: stop me if you heard this before but Akane Shiga is very good. The PWHL Ottawa player is the only player from Japan to score against the USA, and will continue to be japans biggest threat. Another big player is Haruka Toko, one of the SDHL’s top scorers this year who had established herself as a top talent in the last two years. This year, the 27 year old had 13 goals and 30 assists in 36 games in Sweden this year. She was one of seven players in Japan to play in Sweden this year, a year that saw a new high in Japanese players going overseas to play. That also includes my last player to watch, Yoshino Enomoto, who played in switzerland and still put up around a point per game on a team that struggled (they folded in the offseason then came back and built their roster late and were ultimately relegated, but she was a bright spot in her first season there)

Fun fact: did you know three pairs of sisters play on this team? Akane and Aoi Shiga, Haruka toko and Ayaka Hitosato, and Rio and Riri Noro

Germany

Roster

(text version available here)

2023 Results: Eighth

2024 Goal: Make quarterfinals and avoid relegation

Roster changes: Both goalies behind Abstreiter last year, Chiara Schultes and Johanna May, did not make this roster with Hemmerle and Loist taking their place. The d core remains the same besides Daria Gleissner taking Heidi Strompf's place. National team vet Marie Delarbre is absent with injury, Sonja Weidenfelder did not play hockey this year and her status is uncertain, and Anne Bartsch did not make the roster. In their place we have Emily Nix, Lilli Welcke, and Lucia Schmitz.

Three players to watch: Luisa Welcke was with Germany last year, but has a second season in the NCAA under her belt and a nice depth player performance at Boston University. She will have more chances to show off her offense this tournament than in the NCAA, and I'm excited to see what she can show. Jule Schiefer had a revelation this year in the German league. From last year where she only scored 4 goals in 20 games, this year she scored 22 in 24. Let's see if she can continue this at worlds. Nina Jobst-Smith will play big defensive minutes for Germany after finishing her fourth season at Minnesota Duluth, this time serving as an assistant captain, and was nominated for 2023-24 All-WCHA Third Team. She's a two way defender who will be taking on big responsibility for Germany as she has in the past.

China

Roster

(Text Version available here)

2023 result: Promotion from Division I

2024 goal: Make quarterfinals and avoid relegation

Roster changes: Oh boy. So, like, a lot of people, and here is why: up until this tournament, China allowed dual citizens not born in China to play for them. This includes some players you may know from PWHL/NCAA like Leah Lum, Hannah Miller, Rachel Llanes, and Tia Chan. Going into this tournament, they changed the rules and those players will not be eligible, so it is a significant roster shakeup.

Three player to watch; This team is very young. Yifan Wang is 16 years old, and in her international debut scored 10 goals in 5 games in the WJC-D2A U18. This is obviously a gigantic step up in competition and very hard for a 16 year old to be playing against adults on the highest level stage of women's hockey, so I don't imagine she'll get a TON of ice time, but she is worth looking out for. Xin Fang is the veteran and star of this roster, who had 2 goal and 2 assists in the teams D1A tournament that earned them their promotion. 17 year old Dartmouth commit Grace Zhan is who I expect to be their starting goaltender. Born in Beijing, she spent the past year playing Minnesota High School Hockey and put up top numbers in a league that sees a lot of NCAA recruits.

Denmark

Roster

(Text version here)

2023 Results: Promotion from Division I

2024 hope: Make Quarterfinals and avoid relegation

Roster changes: Long time national team star and centerpiece of the team Josefine Jakobsen will no longer play for Denmark, though she will continue her club career.) Otherwise, despite some depth changes, it is mostly the same lineup.

Three players to watch: Frederikke Foss had a great year at Shattuck St Mary's u19 program and has committed to UMaine, and may be able to spark some offense Denmark will desperately need without Jakobsen. Silke Lave Glud will also be expected to carry the offense after her stellar year in the Tier 2 league in Sweden, and lead the way for younger players as one of the most experienced members of the team. Goaltender Emma-Sofie Nordström's performance at the D1A worlds was a big reason for their promotion, and she is coming off a great sophmore year at st. lawrence university where she had a .931 save percentage in 36 games and 7 shutouts. If Denmark wants to stay in the top division, she will need to steal a game for them.

[corrodedcoffins-blog]

Y/n Doing Media

masterlist

taylor swift x fem!NHL!reader

note: just getting to know yn better!

The woman was walking up the tunnel on her way onto the ice for practice, but seeing the media girl having her phone out and a question, she stopped. Unlike most of the guys, Y/n really liked doing media, and the silly little questions they would get asked.

Today the question was ‘What would your goal song be if you had to pick’ an answer immediately popping into her head the woman quickly says, “The Man by Taylor Swift.” starting to run off as if she did something bad, gaining a laugh from the young media intern.

-

“‘Loudest on the team’?” blowing out a sigh, she thought for a moment before she realised the answer was obvious, “If not me, it has to be Smith.”

-

For the Dads and mentors trip, Y/n’s dad jumped at the opportunity to tell a fun fact about his daughter. He��s always so proud of her, and making her dream come true, he could never shut up about his daughter being the first woman in the NHL

“A fun fact about Y/n is.. When she was 13, she started playing for the boys A hockey team. And she came home after a practice once, when the boys gave her a particularly hard time and she said to me, ‘Dad, I know the boys don’t like me playing with them, and I thought it was because I’m a girl. But I think it’s because I’m better than them.’ And she was right! The next season she was playing for the boys AA team.”

-

Being the only woman on the team, when all the boys were getting asked if they think about the Roman Empire, Y/n was asked what she thinks the female version of the Roman Empire is.

“I think either Princess Diana or Henry VIII’s wives.” “Interesting.” “Thank you!”

-

Y/n was brought into the dressing room to answer some questions for the Devils tiktok page, her first question being one she is very passionate about. Ranking pizza toppings.

“Pineapple.” “Five. Oh my god, an abomination. Too Sweet.”

“Peppers.” “One- well.. If it’s green peppers one, but if it’s red or orange it’s the same problem as the pineapple, it’s too sweet. It like off-sets the pizza’s balance.”

“Sausage.” “Umm.. I would say three. Let's play it safe.”

“Pepperoni.” “Two.”

“Meatball and Onion.” “Safe to say I have never had that as a pizza topping, but I would try it.”

-

“So I just have to say if I think Taylor Swift or Bruce Springsteen said it?” getting a nod of confirmation from the team media girl, Y/n continues reading off the quote, “‘He looks up grinning like a devil, it’s new’ Taylor Swift. Easy. Can I get some harder ones?”

[goaliekisses]

oh 🥺

and flower was there too:

The Pittsburgh Penguins are supposed to be home with their families now, getting some rest following a 10-day road trip, preparing for the Canucks at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday.

They are not.

Instead, they traveled through the middle of the night to Montreal, arriving at 4 a.m. Then, they slept for a brief period of time before attending the funeral of Claude Fouquet, father of Kris Letang.

While the Penguins were on the Western swing of the road trip that took them through Las Vegas and Phoenix, some of the team’s veterans came together with the coaching staff to discuss a mutual desire to attend Fouquet’s funeral in Quebec.

Mike Sullivan was not only on board with the plan but was one of the people who spearheaded the decision.

The Penguins were then set to return home later today, where they won’t have much time to prepare for Tuesday’s game.

But then, for this group, taking care of teammates is more important than obtaining a certain amount of rest before a game.

This is a particularly vivid illustration of how much Letang means to everyone on this team.

“Such a good kid,” former general manager Jim Rutherford said. “He really is. Life seems to hit him harder than most. But he’s tough. He’ll be OK.”

In case Letang needed their support, his teammates made the decision to sacrifice time with their families to be with him in Montreal.

It wasn’t an easy logistical matter for the organization. A high-ranking member of the Penguins’ front office had to fly to Phoenix on Sunday with a box of necessities: the Penguins’ passports. Their road trip had taken them to Boston, Las Vegas and Phoenix. To enter Canada, however, passports are required.

So, with the documents in hand following Sunday’s game, the Penguins ultimately made the decision to attend the funeral. It wasn’t a choice that came lightly. The Penguins had to consider that funerals are private, emotionally charged experiences. They wanted to be there, yes, but they also wanted to respect the privacy of Letang and his family.

Letang has been teammates with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin since 2006. For 17 years, these three players have been the foundation of the mighty Penguins and, along the way, it’s become clear the friendship these three share is even more powerful than the on-ice magic they still regularly showcase.

They are best friends. When Crosby was honored for playing in 1,000 career NHL games a couple of years back, he remained composed during the ceremony.

Then, the faces of Letang and Malkin flashed on the scoreboard, with each delivering a message. Suddenly, the tears flowed from Crosby’s face.

These are franchise icons, the three players most responsible for a magical time in Pittsburgh sports history. Along the way, they’ve become so close that the idea of playing for any other franchise last summer suddenly seemed absurd. They were brothers for life, on and off the ice.

There were tears in Montreal today, too.

But I’d bet, in what is a horribly sad day for Letang and his family, that the defenseman who has been through so much this season felt a little better, a little more supported, a little more loved and a little more at ease knowing Crosby and Malkin — along with 20 other teammates — were on hand.

Good for the Penguins. Good for ownership for handling the finances of this move. Good for Sullivan and his staff for putting the love of a teammate before previous plans. Good for the players who pushed to be there for their brother.

Good for Letang, too. He lives his life the right way, which is why he is so beloved in that locker room. He lost a member of his family that he loved, and that is a terribly difficult thing to overcome.

But he was surrounded by family in Montreal on Monday. A couple dozen weren’t blood relatives, but are family nonetheless.

from the athletic

[tomtenadia]

Check My Heart - ch 1

Hello all,

well let's ;try this. It might be that the NHL season is currently over and I desperately miss hockey and that's why I started working ion this fic again... I don't know... I have only 8 chapters down and io am still a bit on the stuck side... Not sure if this one is people's cup of tea but it's worth trying.

Rowan is #43 - that is the number of Capt. Quinn Hughes for the Vancouver Canucks, Fen is #35 the same as Thatcher Demko and then Lorcan is #9 the same as J.T Miller... basically my fave hockey players...

TWHL is basically the women's league - the idea taken from the PWHL that debuted this year...

After this foreword I'll leave you to it.

CW: panic attacks, mention of blood.

PROLOGUE

He couldn’t breath. His body was heavy and could not move.

And blood. On his lips he could taste blood. The distinctive irony scent hitting his nostrils.

All around him voices, people shouting his name.

He tried to speak but the sense of suffocation grew stronger when his body refuse to respond to his commands.

Rowan tried to order his body to open his eyes but when the darkness did not leave him he panicked. He was trapped, wanted to scream.

His stomach lurched furiously and then nothing.

Rowan woke up abruptly, sitting on his bed, realising that his t-shirt was soaked through with sweat. His heart raced in his chest. Another dream and always the same. Always the confused dream of him laying on the ice. The panic, the fear and the inability to move. 

His team mates told him that after the hit, he had crashed on the ice and hit it very hard with his head after the helmet snapped at the brutal crash against the boards. He had gained some consciousness but just enough to be sick from the concussion. The blood that he remembers was from the visor that has smashed during the hit and cut his face.

Rowan stood, walking to his drawer to grab a new t-shirt then slowly he padded to Maya’s room and stared at his daughter sleep. He walked in and sat at her side, her scent had the power to relax him. He deposited a gentle kiss on her head and then headed downstairs collapsing heavily on the sofa. Few of Maya’s books lay abandoned on the coffee table. They had been working on her letters just ahead of her starting school in a few week and she had been practising writing her name almost everywhere. A deep chuckle left him as he stored way a few of the colouring pencils. His girl was growing up fast and for her first day of school he had made sure he had no commitments, that was a milestone he was not going to miss. 

Slowly he placed the books of fairytales away and smiled at the library that he and his dad were building for Maya. A corner where they could all go and read and enjoy tranquil evening near the fireplace. 

Maya was his princess and he would do anything for her, to make sure she was happy. He knew that one day he would have to tell her the truth about her biological mother so for now he was trying to give her as many as happy years as he could. The idea of breaking her heart was painful. How could he tell his daughter that her mother gave her up because she was a mistake that had costed her her career. 

He still remembered the night that Lyria told him she was pregnant. She had been furious at him and he was aware that that was the night in which he had lost her. He had tried to discuss the options but Lyria had refused the idea of termination and Rowan would have accepted anything she decided. He had tried, had gone back to Wendlyn whenever he could and was not away for a game. So when Maya finally arrived and he found himself as the sole guardian he had vowed to be the best father he could be. 

Eventually, Rowan grabbed the remote and switched on the tv and on the sports channel he found an interview with Lorcan. They were at the retreat the team used for summer training. His friend was acting captain until he was back full time. He and Lorcan had been good friends since forever and had climbed the ranks together. Rowan was the first one of the two to join the Hawks and Lorcan followed a year later after an outstanding season in Adarlan. Lorcan was also the man that, after Rolfe had pushed him into the boards, had turned, grabbed the man and punched him hard. He had spent time in the sin bin for roughing but Lorcan had no regrets. 

He listened to his team talk about the plans for the new season and when the reported had suggested that Rowan might not make it back, Fenrys had gone all defensive and Gavriel had to push the young goalie aside. Fen had joined them the previous season after the Hawks had snatched him from the Valg in Wendlyn who were trying to get their hand on one of the most promising goalies. 

In annoyance he switched the channels and lazily watched the tv until he felt like sleep was claiming him again. 

When he woke up he had a weight on his chest. Rowan opened his eyes and smiled at seeing the cause of it. Maya was asleep on top of him, her hands fisted in his t-shirt and her face tucked in the crook of his neck.

He smiled and gently caressed her head. A moment later she shifted and green eyes identical to his turned to him.

“Morning, munchkin.”

“Hi dad.”

“How hungry are you?”

“Pancakes?”

Rowan smiled and sat up, while always having a hold on his daughter “let’s go.”

In the kitchen Rowan went to get the utensils to prepare the meal while Maya walked to the counter and started jumping.

“What do you want?”

“Nutella.”

Rowan passed the jar to his daughter and she padded back to the table, climbing on her chair.

“Dad, will you watch me today?”

“Of course, we can go a bit early and we can play together before your class.”

Maya smiled happily and he pushed aside all of his fears.

*

When they arrived at the rink he took Maya in the Hawks changing rooms and helped her get ready. She sat on the bench and Rowan changed her shoes into the skates “Grampa is teaching me to tie my shoes.” She admitted proudly. 

Rowan smiled “I know and you are very good but ice skates are a bit more difficult.”

“Here we go. Sit here while I change too.” He sat at her side and went through the motions of changing footwear and that’s when he noticed his hands shake.

Fuck.

He took a deep breath and once ready he stood, offering a hand to Maya.

She was wearing a hoodie with the Hawks colours: green and silver and at the back she had number 43, his number. 

“Dad, let’s go.” She screamed as they got at the gate that lay open. Maya was waiting for him on the ice just near the boards “Come dada, I want to skate.”

He let out a long ragged breath and then stepped on the ice.

“Show me dad, show me.”

He closed his eyes and then his feet moved automatically in a way that was second nature. he did a quick loop of the rink and then he stopped in front of Maya spraying ice in her face.

The girl laughed and clapped her hands “dad, you are so cool.”

Rowan smiled and then stooped to grab his daughter’s hands and slowly he dragged her skating backwards, showing her how to move her feet “Good.”

Rowan let her go and Maya glided slowly, a satisfied smile on her face. He followed her from behind, ready to catch her but his daughter was steady on her feet.

“Now try to stop.” Maya tried and managed to come to a halt against his legs “Well done, my love.”

“Not only you steal my rink, now you even take my job?”

A female voice reached him and he froze.

“Miss G!” Maya started to skate to the woman but tripped on the ice and got up quickly again.“Dada, she is Miss G, my teacher.”

Rowan looked up.

“Hi Maya.”

“Hi miss G, dad was teaching me to skate.”

The woman looked at Rowan with curiosity while he ruffled his daughter’s head “so you teach my daughter?”

“Yes, any issues?”

“Dada, she is good too.” Maya’s words were a whisper.

“Hm.” A kiss on her head “be good and listen to her, I will be here to watch you.”

He let Maya go with the woman and he moved to the benches and attentively followed the training. He was smiling at Maya shouting in joy when someone sat at his side. His turned and saw a heavily pregnant Elide smiling at him “hi stranger.”

“Hi fatso! Have they let you loose?”

Elide gently punched his shoulder “I am meeting Aelin after the training, but considering how long it takes me to move, I came a bit earlier.”

Rowan looked at her confused “Who’s Aelin?”

Elide rolled her eyes and pointed at the woman in the rink gathering the kids together “I swear you boys only pay attention to hockey. Any other sport you are oblivious.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look her up: Aelin Galathynius. Then you will stop having that worried face at her looking after your daughter.”

Rowan brushed the bump “little one, your mum is evil.”

“So, how are you? Ready to go back on the ice?”

He stared at the training in the distance and nodded lightly avoiding Elide’s gaze.

“How do you know Aelin?”

“Rowan, I am the PR manager for you guys and I know a lot, plus she is my friend.” A smirk “she is also Aedion’s cousin.”

Rowan turned in shock “She is the mysterious cousin he always talks about?”

“That she is,” explained Elide “Aelin does not like hockey so never come to games and such.”

Rowan stared at the woman with hair like the sun. She was demonstrating something to the kids and the way she moved on the ice screamed pro. 

“Maya seem to have fun.”

“Yes, she loves it and she is a quick study too.”

Elide laughed “I can see her play in the WTHL.”

Rowan sighed. He was going to let her take her own path. As long as she was happy he would be a proud father. 

“Whatever she wants.” He added quietly.

“Lorcan has a onesie customised for our boy with his number on and the Hawks colours.”

A laugh left Rowan’s lips “you really did a number on him,” he added “before you, he loved to use his THL career to sleep his way through the female population of Orynth. I mean he collected puck bunnies right and left and centre. He and Fen had some sort of competition on.”

Elide groaned “I know, but now he knows what happen if he even thinks about a woman in a way that is even remotely sexual.”

“Just don’t break him, please, he is a great D-man.”

Maya’s voice reached him and he watched his daughter skate freely on the ice and then crash against the board to stop herself. A chuckle. They really had to work on stopping.

*

After the training for the beginners had finished, Aelin had retreated to the changing rooms. She had spotted Elide on the seats and Rowan at her side. They seemed close and that should not surprise her. Elide was the PR manager for the Hawks after all. She was the one who refused to hear anything hockey related. Even with Aedion, they had an agreement that he would not talk about the sport in her presence. That probably made her a horrible person since her cousin had tried and attend all of her competitions while she was still actively skating. She just could not understand the hype about hockey, she had watched one game on tv with Aedion after he pushed and she right away she could not care less. She hated as well the obsession over them. The fact that at times she had to go and train at the university ice rink because the hockey team had taken over the premises. And the egos, boosted by the constant adorations from the fans and the never ending line of puck bunnies. Nope, she did not want anything to do with that world.

Once ready, she exited the changing room and found Elide just outside. A sigh of relief at seeing her alone.

“Hi El,” a hug and a caress on her friend’s ever growing bump “hello little one.”

“So, how was training with the kids?”

“I love it so much.”

Elide smiled as they walked towards the car “you have a VIP kid this year.”

Aelin fell silent.

“Oh yeah, the obnoxious captain.”

“Ae, don’t judge him too soon. And don’t take it on Maya.”

Aelin sighed as she sat in the driver’s seat “Never, that kid is a wonderful little thing.” A moment of silence “she definitely skates better than her father.”

Elide sighed deeply “Aelin, look him up and then you might regret your comment. Rowan is an amazing player.”

“Of course you say that, you married one of them.”

Elide groaned “you really are stubborn.”

A chuckle from Aelin “one of my best trait.”

In response Elide shook her head “come on miss G, you promised me an afternoon of shopping and junk food.”

Aelin laughed and turned the engine on and while driving she thought about her friend’s words.

Now all of a sudden she was curious about the captain.

taglist

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[annieqattheperipheral]

hockey according to Johnny Hockey. the crazy stats, awards and achievements. never underestimate.

...

He was 5-foot-6, 137 pounds when the Calgary Flames selected him in the fourth round (No. 104) in the 2011 NHL Draft. Among the 211 players taken that year, he was tied for the shortest. He was the lightest by 13 pounds.

...

His coach -- Jim Montgomery, then of Dubuque of the United States Hockey League, now of the Boston Bruins -- told the Calgary Herald after the draft that it was “a brave pick.”

Gaudreau told the newspaper that his team had allowed fans to watch tryouts the previous year.

“My mom was sitting in the stands behind these two older guys who thought they knew a whole bunch about hockey,” Gaudreau said then. “They were like, ‘Ah, look at that little kid! He’s never going to make it!’ And my mom was getting so mad.”

Even last season, his 11th in the NHL, Gaudreau, all grown up, was all of 5-9, 163. Among the 1,022 players who appeared in the League, only 15 were shorter. Only five were lighter.

...

Gaudreau was the USHL rookie of the year and helped Dubuque win the Clark Cup in 2010-11. The next season, he led NCAA freshmen with 44 points (21 goals, 23 assists) in 44 games, was most valuable player of the Beanpot tournament and helped Boston College win a national title.

...

Gaudreau led the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship in goals (seven in seven games) and helped the United States win gold, while leading the NCAA in points per game (1.45), helping Boston College win the Beanpot again and being named Hockey East player of the year as a sophomore.

He came back to Boston College for his junior year instead of going pro.

One of the main reasons: to play with Matthew.

Gaudreau won the Hobey Baker Award as the NCAA’s top player after leading the nation in goals (36), assists (44) and points (80) in 40 games, and he signed with Calgary the same day, April 11, 2014. Two days later, he made his NHL debut and scored on his first shot.

...

Gaudreau never played a game in the minors. In 2014-15, he tied for the rookie lead with 64 points (24 goals, 40 assists) in 80 games and was a finalist for the Calder Trophy, which goes to the NHL rookie of the year. Two years later, he won the Lady Byng Trophy, which goes to the player voted to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship, gentlemanly conduct and playing ability. He had 61 points (18 goals, 43 assists) in 72 games with only four penalty minutes.

Two years after that, he finished fourth in the voting for the Hart Trophy, which goes to the NHL most valuable player.

And three years after that, he set NHL career highs in goals (40), assists (75) and points (115) in 82 games, tying for second in the NHL in scoring and earning another fourth place in the Hart voting. He scored from a bad angle in overtime of Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round against the Dallas Stars, sending the Flames to the second round for the first time in seven years

...

Gaudreau ranks fifth in Flames history in assists (399) and points (609).

...

The little guy leaves a huge hole.

[try-set-me-on-fire]

Bleeding through the bandages...oh hello what is this 👁️ 👁️

That’s a bad things happen prompt hehe it’s the vague buddie hockey au thats probably going to have very little hockey in it sdfghj homophobia/biphobia warning on this one! The concept: A few years ago Buck (a fantastic player who a lot of people had their eyes on) got drafted to [a made up Pennsylvania hockey team] and during the press tour accidentally came out as bi, which goes kind of disastrously. Lots of fan uproar and press nastiness, team management is unsupportive, and he ends up not playing a lot during his opening season and no one will say its because of that but its definitely because of that. He gets traded away as soon as they can to [made up LA hockey team] where he’s been working himself ragged (pushing through a gnarly leg injury his second year) to prove that he’s a good player worthy of being here in the NHL through all the scrutiny that’s still aimed at him from the old “scandal.”

Eddie played on a Texas team for awhile, got in trouble for fighting too much on the ice and realized he didn’t want to be that angry all the time so took an extended leave/basically retired, and when he decided he wanted to come back his team was like cool but we dont really want you anymore and traded him to LA.

Fic will be like… moody, vibey… Buck practicing before everyone shows up and after everyone leaves, blisters and callouses and intense blue eyes, and the team kind of closes ranks around him because they love their guy and have seen the shit that's been thrown at him over the years so Eddie has to prove he's trustworthy before he's let in. And Buck's so focused and cold on the ice but he's so good with Chris when he meets him, he's so warm with coach Bobby, the first time he smiles at Eddie it's breathtaking! And they work So good together on the ice, really it's no wonder Eddie falls in love! Eddie finally kissing him and Buck asking him if it's a joke, if he's going to run for the press, Eddie having to spend ages convincing him that it's real, and then another age convincing him that he wants it despite the circus Buck warns him his life could become (maybe Eddie saying something like "it's not even as big a deal as it used to be, isnt Tommy Kinard married now?" just to name another not straight hockey player but Buck's face gets all tight and Eddie's like ....Ah.) but they work it out sort of they're together as privately as they can possibly be it's fine it's going okay

and maybe Buck gets hurt and Eddie doesn't even think about throwing down his gloves and it doesn't feel like a set back at all because he's doing it for Buck.... And when Buck's back from Hen checking him out and Eddie's out of the penalty box they're both bleeding onto the ice but they make eye contact and know that now and always they'll be doing it together

[sergeifyodorov]

POLL RESULTS JUST DROPPED!!

My hockeyblr experiences are largely catered to my own personal tastes -- mostly Leafs, a little Penguins and Stars, one or two who post about Stevie Y and Sergei Fedorov. These are obviously not the only teams out there.

This study was designed to survey as much of hockeyblr as it possibly could, gathering data on which teams people like and to what degrees. There were five questions and a free space -- my attempt to ask people to rank the teams they enjoyed in three levels, from religiously followed to casually affectionate, and an additional couple of questions on love for players versus team. I received over 500 responses. Here are the results.

Yeah, yeah, you all want to know: The most popular team is the Penguins, by a long shot, then the Leafs.

Because my sample size (n = 523) is actually fairly small compared to the number of NHL teams there are, I find definitive rankings tend to be difficult. It’s also worth noting that, as a mainly Leafs blog, my numbers are definitely going to be skewed a little in favour of the Leafs.

Your Guys

These are the teams closest to your heart: the ship you go down with, metaphorically or, depending on how married your old men are, literally. For me, I picked just the Leafs.

The average respondent had 1.9 teams in this category. The most popular, by far, was the Pittsburgh Penguins. Below is a table of teams, arranged roughly into tiers by the number of respondents. Each team has the number of respondents in brackets next to their three-letter code.

I allowed people to pick as many teams as they would like; the average person picked 1.9 teams, but here’s a distribution of how many teams they picked:

4 people picked 0 “your guys” teams, and 2 people picked seven, nine, or ten each teams. Just about half of people had one main team.

I then wondered: what teams were people most likely to only follow? That is, if you hold [x] team in the closest part of your heart, are you more or less likely to also hold any other teams? Almost exactly 25% of picks were solo; I wondered if there was any correlation at all.

Only a little bit! Of the samples large enough to actually consider (so: nothing in that cluster at the bottom left, who all received fewer than 10 picks total, and a few of whom -- CGY, CHI, NSH -- received zero solo pickers), the most devoted fans chose the Sharks, the Bruins, and the Leafs. The fans who liked the most other teams chose the Avs, the Kraken, the Canucks, Panthers, Sens, and Ducks.

Probably a next step would be to look for correlations: if people are a fan of one team, are they more likely to be fans of another? THAT BEING SAID that’s a lot of regressions. Maybe keep an eye on that for the future, but I don’t know!!

Objects of Enjoyment, and Generally Nice

These two were successive tiers meant to distinguish teams that people like from the ones in the category above. I admit I probably could have phrased the questions better; I received several comments saying that they’d watch any hockey when they wanted to put a game on. The dynamics between Your Guys versus Objects of Enjoyment versus Generally Nice would best be described as devoted fan of versus casual fan of versus favourable opinion towards. 

As I said a few paragraphs back, people picked 1.9 “devoted fan” teams on average. Again on average, they picked 4.7 “casual fan” teams and 6.5 “favourable opinion” teams. Not all ratios are equal, though! Some teams had significantly more casual than devoted fans, and others still were much more liked generally than average.

I gave each team’s “devoted” count an index number of 1 and measured their casual and favourable count as a ratio against the index number. The teams assembled themselves into a few groups.

No Commitment

Arizona and Anaheim have decided to be soulbonded (Excel refuses to let them have different-coloured dots) and it took me three hundred million years to attempt to (and unsuccessfully) fix, so let’s ignore that. These teams all have a fairly high slope of interest -- a range of casual interest at about five times the pace of fervent interest, and good opinion at about ten times fervent interest. The Calgary Flames are an outlier on the entire graph, not just here. 

Casual Interest

I gave up on trying to colour teams according to their real colours shortly after the Anaheim/Arizona debacle. Please employ the legend. Nashville is included on all five graphs for reference. These teams all have a casual interest factor of about 3, and a favourable opinion factor of around 5; the same ratio as the casual fans of the teams in the first category to their fervent fans.

Saturated Market

These teams have a much lower ratio of hardcore:casual:favourable fans, at about 1:2:3. 

We Get It, Those Are Your Guys

Pittsburgh and Toronto; these teams have an almost equal ratio of all three categories.

...Whatever This Is

Every other category is defined by its ratios; this category is defined by its shape. While all teams have their rate of hardcore fandom set as 1, the other two tend to increase in a roughly linear form, without too much significant difference between the first interval and the second interval.

These teams, though (again, Nashville is for scale) don’t do that: they have a set increase between hardcore and casual, and a significantly smaller increase (or, in a couple cases, a decrease) between casual and favourable. This suggests perhaps some kind of divisiveness; if you’re not already in there, do you really want to get in further? Either that, or it’s something closer to what the Leafs and Penguins have: that is, a devotion. Like you’re in or you’re out.

Taking these values together

Because the casual:hardcore ratios are measured as indexes and not absolute values, they say nothing about the actual popularity of the team in question -- Calgary is one of the least popular, which is why I assume it’s so weirdly high up; small sample sizes lead to higher error values!

But we do have the absolute values, so we can measure them against each other.

If we consider the “In or Out” to be a category of its own while the other four are along more of a continuum, then we can absolutely see a correlation here -- larger fandoms tend to have more involved fanbases.

Players or Teams?

I also asked participants if their guys tended to be players or teams -- and if those they liked at a more casual level tended to be players or teams.

The results are… not particularly surprising.

On a hardcore level, people tended to prefer teams, although the variability was pretty slight. On a casual level, individual players were much more popular.

I also wondered if people who chose more teams in the hardcore fan question tended to do that because they prefer players.

On average, people who picked players on their hardcore level chose 2.1 teams. People who picked teams chose 1.7 teams. That’s definitely a difference!

Fun Shtuff

I got way more write-in responses on the hardcore player/team question than on the casual question, including this:

Three separate people answered “Minnesota Wild” for their guys and chose no other teams on any level. Hell yes. (One person also did this for the Kings.)

It took about 300 responses before the first Flames fan (at the hardcore level.)

On all three levels, the Seattle Kraken are really popular -- they’re in the top five in each.

What's Next?

If I were to update this survey, I would probably include a question about where all of you are from -- some people (like me) follow their hometown team, while some people most certainly don't (shoutout to the one person from Edmonton who dislikes the Oilers) and others still don't have a hometown team (shoutout to my brasilian + european + etc mutuals and everyone else!!)

Feel free to shoot me an ask if you want me to do anything else with this data -- examine a specific team, give actual casual fan/etc counts and total aggregate rankings, anything else!

[dowderadorer]

hockey players satosugu brainrot is happening.....

and if they played on a team in japan together and split because they both wanted different things ?? and if they ended badly because of their teenaged emotions and the fact that satoru wouldn't stay with suguru for just a little bit longer after graduation because after all, he is the greatest prospect in decades ?? and if after years of satoru succeeding as an nhl player, moving up the ranks of his team and becoming alternate captain, he ends up with suguru on his team... but not the suguru he knew ?? this suguru hits hard, skates fast, and takes his place on the ice with force. satoru is, to be frank, a little scared. where do they go ??????

n knee ways gonna write this fic lemme know if y'all wanna see the process :)

[3416]

How Auston Matthews came from the unlikeliest place and rose to hockey stardom

By Jonas Siegel | 02.21.2024 | The Athletic

PHOENIX — Zac Larraza was the first player to be drafted into the NHL from the untraditional hockey system in Arizona.

The Phoenix Coyotes, appropriately enough, selected Larraza with a seventh-round pick in the 2011 draft. Larraza never made it to the NHL, but while he was on the rise and playing for the University of Denver, he invited a promising youngster he knew from his hometown to skate with him.

That kid was Auston Matthews.

Matthews was about to turn 16 and join the same U.S. National Team Development Program Larraza had left a couple years earlier.

He was younger than everyone else skating that day. But, right away, they all knew: He was different.

It was the way he skated. How he caught passes. It was his hands and how he carried himself: Confident, but cool about it.

“There’s some people that are just — they found what they were born to do,” Larraza said. “Shohei Ohtani: He was born to be a baseball player. Steve Jobs was born to invent. Thirty-four was born to play hockey.”

But before No. 34, no one from Arizona had ever become an NHL superstar, let alone one of the greatest goal-scorers in the history of the league. No one had ever made it big like that. Not even close.

Auston Matthews is a unicorn in more ways than one. He’s forged a path for the next wave of young players from the desert to follow.

Thirty-four jerseys are ubiquitous here for a reason. Matthews has made it possible to dream and dream big. The next generation has a reason to believe and someone to believe in.

Call it The Auston Matthews Effect.

It’s also a reason to believe hockey in Arizona will persist with or without the long-troubled Coyotes.

As Shane Doan, formerly the face for hockey in Arizona, put it: “Auston is the flag that everyone in Arizona holds their hat on and says, ‘Someone not only made it and played here and grew up and always comes back here, but also excelled.’”

“That gave everyone hope.”

–––

‘The number 34, you see it all over the place’

You can still feel Doan’s presence here. There’s a Shane Doan rink inside the Ice Den in Scottsdale, where the Coyotes practice.

Doan grew up in Alberta, however. Daniel Briere, another one-time Coyotes star, was also Canadian. Keith Tkachuk and Jeremy Roenick, two more franchise icons, both hailed from Massachusetts.

Matthews could dream of playing hockey in the NHL, could dream of being Doan, but still had no yellow brick road to follow. Matthews had to forge his own path, one that the next generation is now following.

Josh Doan, Shane’s 22-year-old son and a promising prospect in the Coyotes’ farm system, can recite Matthews’ story by heart.

“He came up through the ranks of minor hockey in Arizona and he had done it all and he stuck around till his U16 year,” Josh Doan said. “And then he made the national development program and turned pro at 18 years old to play in Switzerland and then went right into the NHL and had an amazing first year.”

Doan was 14 when Matthews potted 40 goals as a rookie for the Maple Leafs.

“It was really just a sign of hope for a lot of the kids in the area that it was possible,” he said, “not only just to make it but to be a superstar.”

Where once little hockey players here wore Shane Doan’s No. 19, now it’s all No. 34. At least one on every team — and usually the best player.

“He’s an icon,” Marc Fritsche, the director of tier hockey with the Coyotes Amateur Hockey Association said. “Kids know him. They know Auston Matthews. The number 34, you see it all over the place.”

Hundreds of Matthews’ Toronto Maple Leafs jerseys … in the desert.

“There was a guy who I went to school with who played hockey growing up here,” said Coyotes forward Alex Kerfoot, “and he was talking a little bit about how he played hockey with Auston Matthews. I think everyone here just knows Auston … and that’s cool.”

“Everybody back home asks me if I know (Matthews),” said Mark Kastelic, a 24-year-old Ottawa Senators forward from Arizona. “It’s cool to just be in the same world as him.”

On the October night in 2016 when Matthews made history in his NHL debut, Shane Doan was coaching Josh’s 14-year-old squad (which included future Maple Leaf Matthew Knies). Word filtered down to the ice that Matthews had registered a hat trick in less than 22 minutes.

The team rushed down to the lobby to watch him become the first player in league history to score four in his first game.

What could be more inspiring for young Arizona hockey players than that?

Larraza likes to point to his younger pal as a shining light, an example for the kids he coaches to emulate.

If Matthews did it, why can’t they?

“It hits home way more now that there’s a kid that was born and raised here, that they have somebody to look up to,” Larraza said. “I use Auston as an example all the time when I talk to the kids about work ethic. ‘I know 34 is working harder than anybody in my life. What gives you the reason not to work as hard as that?’”

Arizona hockey has grown “exponentially” since Matthews came on the scene, in Fritsche’s estimation.

USA Hockey lists 9,716 total players in Arizona in its 2022-23 report. That’s up from 7,781 players in 2017, a 25 percent increase. More importantly, at the eight-and-under level, there were 795 registered players in 2023 — a 45 percent increase from the 2017 report.

One thing that’s helped is all the ex-pros who have stuck around. “Even guys who didn’t play for the Coyotes have homes here and live here and come here in the offseasons,” said Mike DeAngelis, a Kamloops, B.C., native who arrived in 1999 to play minor pro and now works as the director of hockey operations with the Coyotes Amateur Hockey Association.

What do those former NHLers do? They coach. Steve Sullivan took his Arizona team to the final of a recent tournament in Calgary. His assistant coach was Derek Morris, who ended his long NHL career with the Coyotes.

Then there’s Dallas Drake. Keith Carney. Ray Whitney. Former NHLers are everywhere.

“Not only are they involved, they’re coaching, they’re involved in the programs,” Fritsche said. “And having that wealth of knowledge to bring down to those players and those kids and those families, it’s just so valuable.”

The lack of rinks is a problem. The Coyotes’ uncertain future has also again bubbled to the surface. All anybody can talk about around town, besides Matthews, is the future of the Coyotes, who are now playing on the campus of Arizona State University.

The Coyotes may end up leaving, but the path Matthews laid will remain. Kids will continue to play hockey here and dare to dream because of him.

Kerfoot has been a Coyote for only a little while now and lived at Matthews’ house in Paradise Valley when he first arrived last summer. He’s seen it, too.

“It doesn’t seem foreign to walk on the street and see kids playing with a hockey stick or see kids who are involved in hockey. It doesn’t feel too much different being out in Arizona,” he said. “Auston’s had a huge impact on that. You hear kids at our games even talking about Auston.”

“People see him, and it’s not just this fairytale myth,” Larraza said. “He’s here. He’s a human that’s from Phoenix, Arizona, that’s made it to where he has.”

–––

‘Elite of the elite’

Larraza had played alongside future NHLers like J.T. Miller and Seth Jones coming up the ranks of U.S. hockey, but teenage Auston Matthews was unlike anyone he had ever seen before. The “elite of the elite” were different like that.

You know it when you see it.

“You just go, ‘OK, we’re all pretty good players, but this is different, what’s going on right here,’” Larraza said.

Every year, by late summer, Coyotes players trickled back into town ahead of training camp. They invited Larraza and his pals to come out and join them. That included Auston, who had become close with Larraza, and Doan, who took notice immediately, asking who Auston was and where he was from.

While the Coyotes had, and continue to have existential problems, if they hadn’t come to town in 1996, it’s possible there would be no Auston Matthews, NHL superstar.

It might have been Auston Matthews, MLB superstar. Auston’s father, Brian, had encouraged Auston’s early adoration for hockey, but he and Auston’s grandfather also hoped he would pursue baseball. Auston liked the action of hockey, though. And he liked scoring goals, especially.

There were no ponds for young Auston Matthews to play shinny on in the desert, though, and very few rinks.

One of the few that does exist, Arcadia Ice Arena, sits in the shadow of a giant Walmart in Phoenix’s sprawl. This is hockey in Arizona. If not for the giant white hockey stick poking out of an otherwise bland building, you wouldn’t know this was an arena, let alone the place where Matthews grew up learning to play the game.

Arcadia isn’t much. One sheet of ice in an otherwise shabby structure but better than nothing in a community where ice is hard to come by. It’s one of the things locals in the hockey community bemoan. There just aren’t many places to lace up the skates and play.

For Matthews, it was Arcadia and the Ice Den, where he returns to skate alongside Coyotes like Clayton Keller every summer.

The locals love that about Matthews. Not only is he one of their own, but he comes back. They see him in the flesh and are reminded of the remarkable path he forged.

And Matthews and his family didn’t do what other hockey parents in the desert might have. He didn’t move to a traditional hockey market to play against tougher competition or increase his visibility.

Matthews’ father, Brian, grew up in Scottsdale. He would ensure his son had every opportunity to fulfill his dream in Arizona.

That meant rigorous training with Boris Dorozhenko, a skating coach who moved to Arizona from Ukraine and even lived in the Matthews’ home. It meant playing for NHL alumnus Claude Lemieux’s team, the Phoenix Roadrunners, among others. It meant spending hours on a now-shuttered three-on-three rink where the quarters were tight and slick puckhandling was mandatory.

“Auston was allowed to skate there as much as he wanted,” DeAngelis said. “And he’d just wheel around and play three-on-three or skate by himself.”

Matthews had incredible skill even then when he was just a kid.

That chuckling you hear in the background? That’s Shane Doan.

Matthews always had a mind for the game, too. His decision-making was strong for his age. His hands were exceptional.

And he was determined.

Dorozhenko remembers Auston struggling with one drill in particular. For 40 minutes, he just couldn’t get it right. He was crying. But Matthews wouldn’t give up and go home until he got it right. With tears in his eyes, he insisted they keep going.

“He never stops on something,” Dorozhenko said. “He wants to be better.”

Dorozhenko proudly describes Auston as a “pioneer” for hockey in Arizona, but no one knew back then that he would become this. How could they? One of the greatest scorers the NHL has ever seen — from Arizona? Get real.

But they knew something was different, especially as he crept closer to the NHL.

“He was a flat-out stud, that’s for sure,” said Keller, the Coyotes star who first met Matthews in 2015 while teammates with the USNTDP under-18 squad.

Keller and Matthews sat next to each other in history class as teenagers in Ann Arbor, Mich. Their nightly ritual: EA Sports’ NHL video games.

“There were like five of us that would play every single night, probably a little too late,” Keller said.

Matthews was Arizona chill — “super laid back” in Keller’s estimation — but maniacal about hockey, even as a teenager.

“You can tell that there’s a purpose to every rep, every shot,” said Keller, who skates with Matthews in the summer. “He’s never going through the motions.”

Larraza sees it firsthand when Matthews makes his annual return home to Arizona in the offseason.

“Like 80 percent of his day is focused on working and getting better, whether it’s on the ice, off the ice, taking care of his body, eating right — having a chef come cook him meals at his house, taking care of himself so that he is in the best possible position to succeed when the season starts,” Larraza said.

For other players, playing hockey is a job that they punch in and out of, Larraza said. “They work hard at it, they want to take care of themselves, but they’re also having fun and they’re golfing and they’re going on all these trips. (Matthews) knows he’s got a short career. I mean, 20 years is a short time in your life. He’s got 20 years to really prove who he is, make the money that he deserves to make, and carry his legacy.”

How much of Matthews is a byproduct of where he came from? Does he have what Kerfoot describes as “internal confidence” because he never had reason to think otherwise, because he towered over everyone in Arizona from the beginning? Is he laid back and chill because he was raised in the desert where the pace is slow and the sun shines almost constantly?

Kerfoot believes it’s just more about who Matthews is than his environment.

He was born for this but shaped nonetheless by where he came from.

“If you grow up in Toronto, or you grow up in a hockey family, you kind of are in the world,” said Kerfoot, a West Vancouver native. “Your parents know the other hockey parents. You’ve kinda got a path that’s all laid out for you. It’s just every day — there is like a hockey world. And he’s kinda carving his own path coming from a non-traditional hockey market.

“Because of that, I think he does things his own way.”

Now his way has become the way for others in Arizona to follow.

[oeldeservesthenorris]

I absolutely despise that know-it-all blowhard Thomas Drance, so I rarely acknowledge his "insight", but for once he got it right and as an FYI so, enjoy this copy and paste article from The Athletic cause I really don't like to give them any more $$ than I have to:

Drance: Why Quinn Hughes has something to prove — ‘A lot of guys don’t watch the West’

SUNRISE, Fla. — There’s a quiet intensity to Quinn Hughes. It’s always been there, simmering a bit beneath the surface.

When it comes out, at least in terms of his public commentary, it’s expressed with almost stunning clarity.

Hughes lives hockey. His family lives hockey. There’s a reason he’s one of the smartest defenders in the game today, and it’s because he knows this sport inside and out. He tracks obscure records, he’s aware of the statistics and the conversation around the league, and yes, he noticed where he stood in recent lists of the best players in the NHL compiled both by ESPN and The Athletic.

“Oh yeah, I saw the lists, but I’m not going to comment on it,” Hughes said Saturday after playing his best game of the season, and perhaps the most complete single game of his career, in the Vancouver Canucks’ 5-3 victory over the Florida Panthers. “Maybe at the end of the year.”

Regardless of where Hughes ranked in the preseason lists, two things are certain moving forward. The first is that the Canucks’ first-year captain is clearly out to prove something this season: that he’s among the NHL’s best defensemen and that he can lead this team to the playoffs.

The second is that if he plays like this consistently, and if this team succeeds on his back the way they did on Saturday night, Hughes’ two-way play and his standing as a dominant blueliner will be completely undeniable.

Hughes, after all, was dominant on Saturday. In a game that featured a legitimate MVP candidate in Matthew Tkachuk, a perennial Selke nominee in Aleksander Barkov and Vancouver’s two near-40-goal scorers in Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko — who broke the game open in multiple instances — Hughes was the best player on the ice. And it wasn’t close.

He had the game on a string and dictated the pace in all phases of the contest.

When the Canucks built their lead in the second period, it was Hughes who kept the puck alive on a Panthers clearing attempt, then walked the line when he retrieved the puck and uncorked a shot through multiple layers of the Panthers defense. His shot caused chaos in the Panthers crease and Florida took a penalty. Soon after, Vancouver took the lead.

Then as the Panthers pressed, dominating play in the third period, it was Hughes who proved capable of calming down the game. On multiple occasions he got in on the hands of Panthers wingers Carter Verhaeghe, Evan Rodrigues and Sam Reinhart along the wall, cleanly stripping them of the puck and turning play in the other direction.

It wasn’t perfect, and as the Panthers cranked up the pressure on Vancouver, Hughes was on the ice for a goal against. It was the first goal against that Hughes had been on the ice for all season. He’d logged 115:40 of total ice time in all situations to open the campaign before an opponent scored against the Canucks while he was on.

That may seem like an obscure stat, but it’s another one Hughes was aware of and tracking.

“Do you know that was the first goal against you were on the ice for this season?” I asked him postgame.

“Yeah, I was keeping track of that. By myself. I wanted to see how long I could go with that one,” Hughes admitted.

“Do you know how long you went?”

“Well, I know I went four games, 25 minutes a game, so that would be 100 … oh but wait, it’s only five-on-five …”

“Oh, I have the number for everything.”

“Whatever. OK, I was only tracking five-on-five. You counting everything?”

“Yeah, it’s 115:40.”

“Oh man, I was going to guess 118.”

“Pretty close, so you’re all over it.”

“Of course, I mean, I always hear it,” Hughes responded thoughtfully, that old chip on the shoulder beginning to show. “Y’know how it is. ‘He’s an offensive defenseman, but he’s not good at defending.’ And I’ve been plus the last two years, and playing big minutes. So for me, the stereotype is there. A lot of guys don’t watch the West, but I’m out here trying to do the best I can.”

Obviously, Hughes’ best is sensational, and not just offensively. Even traditional plus-minus — which dings a player with Hughes’ offensive profile given that he eats fake dashes for short-handed goals against and empty net goals deposited against Vancouver when it’s trailing — underrates his contributions. The simple fact of the matter is that last season when Hughes was on the ice five-on-five, the Canucks outscored their opponents 81 to 61 — for an on-ice goal differential of plus-20 (a far better statistic since it doesn’t arbitrarily mix game stats). When Hughes was taking a breather, Vancouver was outscored 88 to 131.

Or to put it simply, for those in the Eastern time zone: When Hughes was on the ice five-on-five over roughly 1,500 minutes, the Canucks outscored their opponents at a rate comparable to (and actually better than) what the Vegas Golden Knights accomplished as a team last season. When Hughes wasn’t on the ice five-on-five, Vancouver was outscored at a rate comparable to what the Anaheim Ducks accomplished as a team last season.

“He does some stuff though that’s world class,” said Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet postgame. “And when he defends, he defends with quickness. And that’s OK — he can still win a Norris defending with quickness, you don’t have to kill a guy in the corner.

“I think Huggy, he’s got a little chip on his shoulder about (the idea) that he can’t defend,” Tocchet added later in his postgame briefing. “About the idea that he’s just an offensive defenseman and no, he can defend. And I like that.”

Honestly, it’s past time for Hughes’ savvy, well-rounded, two-way game to begin to garner the respect it’s due.

Of course, it also speaks to the extent to which Hughes’ control of the proceedings in Sunrise on Saturday night jumped right off of the ice sheet that we’ve yet to mention his goal — his first of the season — which opened the scoring.

The goal came after Hughes made one of the most preposterous keep-ins at the blue line that I’ve ever witnessed live; an absolute marvel of hand-eye coordination on which the broadcast angle on the play — which still captured how impressive the play was — did the degree of difficulty zero justice.

Later in the shift, Hughes received a pass from J.T. Miller, changed the angle on the wrist shot and stepped into that first goal.

“Walking the blue line and shooting, he’s got a couple of moves that he worked on this summer,” Tocchet said when asked about how dominant Hughes was on Saturday night in South Florida. “Man, he worked a lot, I don’t know if people realize how much he worked. I don’t want to tell you what he does, I’m not going to give the other team a pre-scout.

“I’m not trying to put pressure on him, but his capability of walking the blue line is outstanding.”

Hughes’ newfound shooting mentality has been one of the most noticeable evolutions in his game in the early going this season. Through five games, Hughes is averaging north of three shots per game and nearly an additional shot-and-a-half per contest above his career average going into this season.

“I’m shooting more for sure, but it’s more about putting myself in spots where I can beat a guy and then shoot,” Hughes said. “Connecting my feet and my hands, beating a guy. In the past when I’d beat a guy, I wouldn’t be in a position to shoot it. I’m focused in on that now.”

Of course, there’s a balance. Hughes’ best skill is his passing and on a team loaded with world-class finishers, there’s a balance he has to strike in terms of distributing the puck. Of course, that’s a balance that comes naturally to a signal caller of Hughes’ calibre.

“I think the more I shoot, the more will open up,” Hughes said when I asked him if his new shooting mentality could open up additional passing lanes. “It’s more than my shot, it’s rebounds and tips. But on the power play, pre-scout, if I’m shooting a bit more they have to worry about that.

“That said, I have to be aware. Like would you rather my shot or Petey’s slap shot? It’s going to be Petey’s slap shot every time. And his slap shot opens up my shot, and when that happens, I’m going to try and use it.”

While Hughes managed to beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a point blast for his first of the year, his evolution as a shooter is about more than just his goal on Saturday. It’s that, in truth, he could have two or three already in this young season.

“Honestly, I think I could’ve scored in every game,” Hughes said. “I know the exact plays, too. I could’ve scored in Philly, I should’ve scored in Edmonton, I hit the post in Philly, but I also had a mini breakaway and should’ve just tried to go five-hole. I know I’m getting my looks so I know it’s going to come. And I’m getting more looks because of my mindset.”

Getting his first goal of the year was also something of a weight off of his shoulders. It took him until Dec. 27 last season to score his first of the campaign.

When he finally scored, he was nearing an ignominious record. It was a milestone Hughes was aware of, though it received little meaningful media coverage as it approached.

“It feels good (to score my first), I mean obviously I almost broke the record last year,” Hughes said when asked how he viewed his first goal.

“Huh, what record?” I interrupted, confused.

“Most games by a guy scoring a point per game without a goal.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. No, I think I was two or three games away, and that’s not a record you want to break.”

“Wait, were you tracking that?”

“No, but the trainers were busting my balls about it.”

There will be no ignominious goal-less milestones for Hughes to sidestep this season. And no ignoring Hughes’ dominance — on offence and in his own end, too — if he keeps playing like this.

[9116]

Mitchell Marner, RW, Toronto Maple Leafs Marner led the NHL in takeaways with 104, becoming one of just seven players to reach the century mark since the statistic was introduced in 1997-98, as the Maple Leafs improved to seventh League-wide in team defense (2.68 goals-against per game). The team had finished 19th overall in 2021-22 at 3.07. Only four NHL forwards received more ice time than Marner, who logged a career-high 1702:06 (21:17 per game). Notable in that ice time was duty on the Maple Leafs' top penalty-killing unit; he ranked second among Toronto forwards and 13th among all NHL forwards in total shorthanded time (182:59). In the 25 years ice time has been officially tracked, the only players with 99+ points and that amount of total shorthanded time in a season are Marner and Paul Kariya (Anaheim, 1998-99). Marner, a first time NHL Awards finalist, is vying to become the second Maple Leafs player to win the Selke exactly 30 years after franchise legend Doug Gilmour (1992-93) became the first.

[himbeaux-on-ice]

some new non-comprehensive thoughts on Pride and the meaning of warmup jerseys

(the following is drawn largely from my twitter thread)

honestly, i think the Panthers have like the Sharks taken the best route you can in a bad situation. and there's relief for me in that.

don't cave and undermine all the planning and work you did in order to cover for a few homophobic players. let it land on them. do not stop for their sake. thank you.

idk, personally the teams that backtrack on the jerseys entirely to cover for homophobes in their ranks leave me feeling way more angry and disillusioned than the ones where 90% of the guys are still out there in those jerseys and just one or two dipshits loudly sat out. i would have been way more disappointed by an entire organization making the decision to coddle and shelter homophobes than i am by the revelation that 2/18 players suck but the rest of them got with the program.

maybe that's a low bar. but yeah, i'm weirdly relieved that the jerseys made it to the ice at all. that so many chose to wear them.

it's like. at least some people cared enough to stick by us and not be cowards, y'know? even though dipping out was an option, somebody answered in the affirmative when asked if they'd stand with us. several somebodies did, actually.

when teams pull back entirely, we don't even get that much.

people talk about the "epidemic" of homophobia in the NHL and whether it should change how/if teams do Pride nights, but i would take an epidemic of 1-2 idiots per team sitting out of warmups over having an epidemic of all teams deciding not to do Pride at all because of those few. i would, genuinely.

are they "hijacking the events" or "taking away from the meaning of them"? idk man. these days bigots show up where queerness is visible to spout their bigot shit regardless. i have two pride flags in my hockey twitter display name, trust me, i know. at least when it happens like this, there's also people and an organization supporting us instead of just leaving us to deal with it alone.

does finding out some guys are homophobes suck? yeah. but we always knew these people existed. they're just showing themselves out loud.

and that blows. and it hurts.

but also, the entire rest of the team and the organization showed who they are tonight by not protecting or accommodating them, too.

i'm seeing so many people feel hurt by the two dumbasses who wouldn't stand beside them rather than encouraged by *every* other member of the team who *chose* not to cop out. and like. i get your hurt. but everyone else CHOSE to stand with us.

think about that for a second. sitting out was clearly an option here, if they put up enough of a stink. and yeah, two guys took that out. but *every other player* DID NOT. on the Sharks and Flyers, all but *one* guy apiece got with the program. some of them even did really meaningful community work!!

and the Panthers franchise decision-makers stood by their choice to do this, loudly and with meaningful activism attached, in FLORIDA, even when two of their own players pulled the religious protest card and copped out.

i extremely, massively respect that. i really do.

maybe i'm just a terminal optimist by nature, but. to me, what we are seeing is that when given the choice, so far the vast majority of players on these teams are still choosing to participate when given the option. when it's not taken out of their hands entirely by people upstairs.

the outliers suck, but they are just that. outliers. and i hope they feel like it.

personally, i'm not leaving this sport i love just because it's got a stubborn lingering jackass infestation. they can't have it. no, *you* move.

also, shoutout to the guys who extremely voluntarily opt-in even though it's not even their team's Pride night. genuinely means something

people vocally being asshats is discouraging. yeah. it always is. it stings.

but all is not lost. not by far. keep your head up. and stay loud. 💜