Before I begin my kvetching, I feel I should make one thing clear: EA has made some really impressive strides (no pun intended) in recreating the physics of a hockey game played on ice. The revamped skating in NHL 13 is, for example, more true to the way that players actually move about the rink,…
With the NHL season in limbo, it’s only natural that many of us have been breaking more and more frequently with reality. That is, we’re opting for a virtual reality over the one we’re being presented by Gary Bettman, Donald Fehr, and their muppet minions. Alas, I don’t enjoy EA Sports’ NHL 13 the way…
Brandon Convery’s story is one that many other former NHL draft picks share. After being a high, first-round selection (8th overall for the Leafs in 1992), his career never quite hit high gear at the highest level of competition. Of course, there is no single explanation as to why, but for Convery, it’s clear that…
By all accounts, Gary Bettman is, and has been throughout his career, a very successful, intelligent, and hardworking individual, who, if his salary is any indication, commands great respect amongst the NHL’s owners. He is an ivy-league graduate (Cornell) in Industrial and Labour Relations, and has his J.D. from New York University Law. Under his…
We’ve heard a lot of complaints—the loudest of them from Don Cherry—about Brian Burke’s affinity for drafting players born and raised in the United States. Now, it’s no secret that Burke prefers to build his teams with North American players. Sure, Nikolai Kulemin and Mikhail Grabovski are important cogs in his team, but, even looking…
"Everybody but the people who run teams base performance on how many points you get [or] how many goals. Well, we don’t. If he gets goals, that helps, but you have to look at the overall contribution to the team. Martin [Lapointe]’s a character person. He comes to play every night. He came from a…
McKegg warms up for Team Irish wearing number 74. Saturday afternoon, I caught up with Greg McKegg in Lucan, Ontario, where he was playing in a charity game for Lucan Minor Hockey. The event was spearheaded by Logan Couture, and brought together a mix of hockey players from across North America.
I was only six years old when the NHL saw its first significant labour disruption in 1992, and to be honest, I had forgotten that it had happened at all. Having read Bruce Dowbiggin’s Money Players, however, the story seems suddenly relevant.
No, I mean besides anyone who has been traded to Columbus. Fans are often quick to dismiss a player’s role on a team, and suggest that the player be sent to an AHL affiliate in order to free the NHL team of the cap hit. Fans of teams in larger markets are assuredly the biggest…
After the NHL’s recent offer to its players, many pundits have begun to predict that a lockout looms in the league’s future. It may not be another full-season lost (I’m preparing my will, because that might be the death of me), but we may go a number of months without hockey. It’s hard to predict…
Not every hockey player is superstitious, but they are almost all creatures of habit. Myself, I have a certain way of taping the knob at the end of my stick, certain types of socks I like to wear under skates, and I almost never wash the shirts I wear under my shoulder pads. There are plenty…
Photo source: hockeyfans.ch At first blush, this idea made all the sense in the world to me; I felt that it had the potential to fix so many of the NHL’s current woes. Maybe the league wouldn’t have to be constantly changing rules if it could just increase the ice surface. I know what you’re…
