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In: Pacific Division, Playoffs
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While other NHL teams are still thrashing it out, the Vegas Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks have already seen off their first round opposition and will meet in the second round of the playoffs. Vegas thumped the LA Kings, while the Sharks circled and devoured the Anaheim Ducks. How did we get here? Both teams swept the first series but by virtue of scheduling, Vegas were the first to progress. Despite winning all four games, the series wasn’t exactly a classic with just a total of 10 goals scored by both teams. The Golden Knights arrived at the playoffs on the heels of theRead More →

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In: Central Division
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The Colorado Avalanche roster has seen better days. With season ending injuries to goalie Semyon Varlamov, and defenceman Erik Johnson; the Avs’ playoff hopes now rest on the young shoulders of Nathan Mackinnon and slighty less young Jonathan Bernier. This has some Avs fans in a panic: Great. Awesome. It's over https://t.co/pcsJ4JBbha — Carl Landra (@CarlLandra) March 31, 2018 Is it over, Carl? Is it? With just a handful of games left in the regular season, the Avs are still in the fight for the playoffs, but only just. Colorado, St. Louis and Anaheim are separated by just a few points and the difference betweenRead More →

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In: Atlantic Division
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Dark times are on the horizon for the Detroit Red Wings. Take it from someone who has ended up supporting bad teams in different sports, it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. In the last 25 joyful, playoff making seasons, our Red Wings have made the finals six times and won the Stanley Cup in four of those finals. It’s safe to say that we’ve been spoiled. The problem is that once a team starts to perform poorly, trying to escape without making big, dramatic changes is like trying to escape a whirlpool while paddling a surfboard.  And the surfboard is onRead More →

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In: NWHL
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The NWHL’s playoffs are here and they’re set to be awesome. All four teams are in contention to lift the Isobel Cup. Here’s your preview this weekend’s semi-final. Each match-up is one game only so each team will have to play the best game they can to progress to the final.   Boston Pride vs Buffalo Beauts   When? Puck drops at 1730 on Saturday Where? HarborCenter in Buffalo   The second and third seeded Pride and Beauts meet for the first time in a semi-final, having been finalists and winners in both previous NWHL seasons. The Beauts have the strongest regular season record, havingRead More →

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In: Olympics
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The Olympics are but a memory, all the medals have been handed out and the grandstands have been dismantled. That’s it for another four years. We’ll see you in Beijing in 2022. But will we see NHL players? Does it matter if we don’t? Cards on the table: I’ve already said on this website that the NHL should take a break so its players can represent at the Winter Olympics. My position hasn’t changed. The fear, when the decision was announced, was that teams would be hamstrung by the denial of top talent. This concern was mostly North American-centric, understandable given that 70.7% of NHLersRead More →

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In: Atlantic Division
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Chris Osgood, Dominik Hasek, Manny Legace, Ty Conklin, Jonas Gustavsson, Joey MacDonald and now Petr Mrazek. All have tended net in Detroit alongside Jimmy Howard. But with the trade of Mrazek to the Philadelphia Flyers, there’s no question about who’s top dog now for the Red Wings. As soon as Mrazek was left exposed in the 2017 expansion draft, the writing was on the wall. The Czech goalie, drafted 141st overall by Detroit in 2010 was on the market and available to the highest bidder. With a dire goalie injury situation, the Flyers offered a conditional 4th round 2018 pick and a conditional 3rd rounderRead More →

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In: Olympics
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The men’s round robin part of the hockey tournament has just finished, and the women’s competition is well into the knockout stages. It’s time to step back and reflect on some of the lessons learned in the first rounds at Pyongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. It’s OAR’s World, We Just Live In It It’s no hot take to say the Olympic Athletes of Russia team are good. Despite restrictions on NHL players, the OAR coaches had the pick of the KHL’s finest, a lot of whom have considerable NHL experience, including two-time Stanley Cup winners Slava Voynov and Pavel Datsyuk, also zero-time cup winner Ilya Kovalchuk.Read More →

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In: NHL
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We’ve known for some time that, thanks to some serious Bettman-ing, NHL players aren’t allowed to take part in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. But there are plenty of former NHLers who’ll be appearing in the games. Here’s a breakdown of some names you might recognize who’ll be playing in the tournament. The men’s games start on February 14th with the gold medal game on February 25th. Until then, there’s plenty of good women’s hockey (the Swiss team won their first game 8-0), gnarly snowboarding and lunatics on luges.  Group A Canada For a roster made up of players who are either too oldRead More →

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In: Atlantic Division
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While The Detroit Red Wings are struggling, the team’s AHL affiliates, the Grand Rapids Griffins have gone from strength to strength, winning the Calder Cup twice in recent years. Given the challenges currently faced by the Wings, is it time to look west to Grand Rapids and see if their season’s savior is waiting in the wings (bad pun)? Let’s take a look at the available talent sat waiting in the Van Andel Arena and play a little bit of Fantasy GM by moving some pieces around at every level, starting at the top, remember this is a just a bit of fun: Head CoachRead More →

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In: Atlantic Division
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The Boston Bruins winger and professional agitator Brad Marchand has been banned for five games following his elbow to the face of New Jersey’s Marcus Johansson. Seems the age-old defense of ‘I didn’t want him to hit me so I hit him first’ doesn’t get the charges dropped. Here’s the NHL’s Department of Inconsistent Decisions’ ruling. Now the length of the ban isn’t what’s annoyed me here (for once), it’s that the ban doesn’t include the All-Star Game this weekend, the NHL’s annual fundraiser/distraction. This feels like further reinforcement that the NHL has lost touch and is pandering to the dollar before its own integrity.Read More →