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From the Quiet Ice . . . by Mike Filce In-game Entertainment You can’t help noticing with all of the pundits, talking heads, bloggers, podcasters and assorted Twitter-drunk commentators, some ideas come up again and again, and some of them receive respectful consideration — when they should be squashed like the stink bugs they are. Let’s look at a few. Late in a recent “31 Thoughts” podcast episode, Jeff Marek broached the topic of “pump[ing] up the home team” with in-game music. We’re talking about the practice of silencing the music as the puck drops so fans can hear the sounds of the game. ElliotteRead More →

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Back in September when we all found out that Erik Karlsson was being traded to the San Jose Sharks, every Ottawa Senators fan lost a little piece of themselves. Just like Daniel Alfredsson’s return to Ottawa, Erik Karlsson will be making his first appearance against his former club on December 1st. Embed from Getty Images How the trade has panned out so far When looking at the trade from a fan’s point of view, the Senators fans felt like they could have received so much more in return. Fast forward to present day, that trade is looking better and better by the day. Erik KarlssonRead More →

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Growing up in the 90’s few rivalries in the NHL came anywhere close to matching the Red Wings and Avalanche. It was hockey. They were talented, fast, physical, and most importantly, couldn’t stand the sight of each other. From the infamous Claude Lemieux hit on Chris Draper to Patrick Roy losing the puck after showboating on a save against Steve Yzerman, only to drop it and allow Detroit score, helping to force Game 7, their playoff match ups were the stuff of legend, leaving no shortage of memorable moments. From 1995 to 2002 they won 5 of 8 Stanley Cups, with Detroit losing in theRead More →

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The guys are back and ready to break down the news of the week in the NHL. Todd McLellan was fired by the Edmonton Oilers and Mike Yeo was fired by the St. Louis Blues. Is this the right direction for these organizations or just band-aids to fix a bigger issue? Specifically looking at Edmonton, on the heals of the Ryan Spooner for Ryan Strome deal, the question must be asked, “When will Peter Chiarelli be fired as well?” Carl Hagelin was dealt by the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Los Angeles Kings for Tanner Pearson. Is this the move that will kickstart the Penguins? TheRead More →

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Here at The4thLinePodcast.com, we like a good arbitrary scale to give context to how we’re feeling about something. Now that we’re nearly a quarter of the way through the regular season, I wanted share my thoughts on the Detroit Red Wings’ rebuild and in particular, head coach Jeff Blashill. To this end, I give you the Maxner – Bowman scale. It’s difficult to say who the worst ever coach was. The Red Wings, at times, have scraped the bottom of the proverbial barrel, but I’ve gone with Wayne Maxner. Maxner was behind the bench in the early 1980s, and his team was by no means packed withRead More →

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By Mike Filce, coming to you from the Quiet Ice Imagine for a moment that you were Gary Bettman and you wanted hitting gone from hockey. How would you go about it? For starters, you would have to make players far less interested in hitting, and that’s no easy feat. You have to make the cost of hitting higher than the reward — higher than the great feeling of delivering punishment, higher than the feeling of making statements for your team and higher even than elevating your value through this kind of play. The consequences would have to make it simply not worth it anyRead More →

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From the Quiet Ice . . . Watching the MLB World Series the other night, I had the opportunity to be the outsider — not a fan, other than having grown up rooting for the Dodgers and going to the occasional game at Chavez Ravine. Well, okay, I’m a long-distance Dodger fan. But I watch the equivalent of zero baseball until the postseason, and sometimes not much of that. I lack the attention span for the pace, although I deeply appreciate and respect the game. Not nearly as much as hockey, of course. But sometimes it takes an outsider’s perspective to see the flaws inRead More →

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Known as ‘The Scourge Of Colorado’, Elias Pettersson is setting the league alight with his dazzling play. The Vancouver Canucks’ Swedish rookie has 17 points from 11 games and is easily the early favourite for the Calder Trophy despite already missing a few games due to injury. To put Petterson’s achievement into perspective, he’s only the 5th NHL player ever to score 10 goals in his first 10 games. But how does this compare to previous Calder Trophy winners? Since the lockout there have been 10 offensive players who’ve lifted that silverware. At time of writing, Elias has played 11 games, so we’ll set thatRead More →

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Through the month of October, it is hard to believe that the Buffalo Sabres are 8th in the Eastern Conference. After 13 games last season, they were below .500 (4-7-2) to kick off a last-place finish. Despite selecting a defenseman thought to be generational (Rasmus Dahlin), most have expected growing pains to continue. Truth be told, the blue and gold have had ugly moments. On the other end of the spectrum, Buffalo has had some bright spots. And going into Saturday night’s game vs the Ottawa Senators, the Sabres have a winning record (6-5-2). Embed from Getty Images GM Jason Botterill‘s changes have shown promiseRead More →

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“Quiet Ice is a phrase used to characterize a sliver of playing surface goal-scorers love to find because it’s unguarded by opposing players and can be used to rip off a good, quick shot. It is not, as some had understandably assumed, a reference to any place where Sean Avery isn’t.” (Source, the Hockey News) In the new spirit of NHL gambling, I’m calling this the “over and under” — but instead, the over and underrated. We’re questioning some of the reputed best in the game and shining the light on some who are lurking in the quiet ice throughout the Atlantic Division. So, laceRead More →