We are now into the third week of the season and already some teams have already been turning heads and make splashes around the league. The San Jose Sharks have come flying out of the gate having gone 6-0-0 to start the season and taking over the number one spot in the NHL Power Rankings. In Colorado the Avalanche are off to a 6-0-0 start with their new bench boss Patrick Roy at the helm. Meanwhile, the Calgary Flames, despite the overwhelming doubt heading into this season, have put up a very
Saturday night Leaf fans saw the boys in blue and white pull off a very impressive comeback win in the battle of Ontario in their tilt against the Ottawa Senators. What the fans may also have seen is a glimpse as to how the team may look for a very large portion of the season. This may have been the game that saw Jonathan Bernier steal the net from James Reimer. On Saturday night Reimer got the start in net against the Senators having had quite a track record against their Ontario rivals where h
It was a big day for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday as they took on the Montreal Canadiens in the first game of the 2013-2014 season, coming out with a 4-3 victory in front of a full house at the Bell Centre. However, earlier in the day the Leafs were making other news when they announced that superstar winger Phil Kessel had signed an 8 year extension with the buds. Kessel and Leafs management agreed to an 8 year $64 million deal that will kick in next season. Speculation on an extension ha
The NHL preseason wrapped up on Sunday night and with that hockey fans and players alike now wait for the official opening to the regular season this Tuesday. After a shortened season brought on by the lockout teams will be happy to get a full 82 games season in and a fresh start. One team that will really be hoping to have a fresh start is the Florida Panthers and with some interesting offseason transactions the Panthers may surprise. No doubt the most intriguing signing the Panthers have made
Just days after announcing the signing of winger Mason Raymond, the Maple Leafs finally came to terms with restricted free agent defenseman Cody Franson on Thursday. The contract is a one year $2 million dollar deal which seems to have come somewhere in the middle from what both Franson and Nonis had been looking for. Throughout the contract stalemate, it was made public that Nonis and the Leafs management were very adamant about signing Franson to a multi-year due to the fact that in this upcom
The Toronto Maple Leafs made more news on top of all the mayhem that has been surrounding them after Sunday’s bloodfest, by signing left winger Mason Raymond to a one year one million dollar contract. The signing came as no surprise after the great camp that Raymond has had. Raymond came into camp after signing a professional tryout with the Leafs the day before the opening of training camp. The former Vancouver Canuck went the entire summer without being signed by anyone, but seems to have foun
It’s been a pretty busy past couple weeks for the Calgary Flames, the organization said hello to their new President of Hockey Operations, Brian Burke and goodbye to long-time goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff. With these two big changes to the club we could see some drastic changes coming for the Flames and after coming off their worst season in over a decade this past season, this should come as good news to Flames fans. With the departure of the franchise all-time leader in wins, filling the gap in
Heading into next season there is a lot of things to be excited about. For one we will see a full 82 game schedule, we will see a new realignment and new playoff structure, and we will also a lot of teams that have had a face-lift. However, as Michael Jackson proved, getting a face-lift doesn't mean you’re going to look better. One example of this, this upcoming season will be the New Jersey Devils. Now for the Devils this face-lift is a couple years in the making. Ever since they fell to the L.
Although it may still be about 6 months until the winter Olympics get under way in Sochi, Russia, speculation about who will be suiting up for team Canada this time has already began as Team Canada wrapped up its orientation camp Wednesday. Looking forward it is already clear that Canada will have to make sure that they do not make the same mistake they made in 2006 in Turin, Italy. Canada made a mistake when they tried to replicate the same team that had won during the previous games in Salt La
On Sunday August 11th Nazem Kadri hosted his first ever charity golf tournament just outside his hometown of London, ON. Of course with the media all over the event, questions about his current contract negotiations with Dave Nonis and company arose. With just weeks until training camp opens up and teams get ready for the 2013-14 season, Kadri remains a restricted free agent and it seems that the two sides may not be as close as he would like. Just weeks ago Kadri made it public that he was not
We are now into the conference finals and so far we have seen some great playoff performances from players that have really stepped up their game for the post season when it means the most. Players like David Krejci, Nathan Horton, and Pascal Dupuis have elevated their game and are playing some of their best hockey.. The playoffs can be a showcase of what players can bring to the table when everything is on the line and players like the three above and many others have definitely showed that whe
The 2013 IIHF World Hockey Championship wrapped up a couple weeks ago in Sweden and Finland with this year’s winner being the host Sweden team. This year the tournament had its fair share of interesting story lines from the amazing place of the Switzerland team to France pulling off one of the biggest upsets in the tournament’s history. So, with the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games just around the corner there might be some early signs of what’s to come in Russia when the world’s elite will play
On Friday the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that their nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy this year is goaltender James Reimer. Reimer was given the nod after he had a very mediocre 2011-2012 season due largely impart because of a concussion he faced in the sixth game of the season when Montreal forward Brian Gionta collided into the Toronto netminder. Reimer missed 19 games of the 2011-2012 season from what was first called whiplash symptoms, but later identified as a concussion. Th
On Wednesday March 20th, the NHL held meetings in Toronto to discuss among many things the lack of goals in the NHL this year. The number one reason many believe this problem exists is because of the size of both goaltender’s equipment and the size of the nets. The NHL is contemplating either reducing the size of goaltender’s equipment or to increase the size of the NHL nets. Goal scoring has always been viewed as an issue in hockey as it seems the NHL believes more goal scoring will please the
With seven games now under their belt it seems like there might be no stopping the San Jose Sharks, but is this year’s team a real contender or is history likely to repeat itself. The Sharks have started off the season a league best 7-0-0, a franchise record, but although this may be the best start the Sharks have had don’t hold your breath just yet. The Sharks have been no stranger to strong seasons or even post-season play, but as history as shown, it is once they make the playoffs that things
Much of the hockey world is still in shock with the recent and very sudden firing of Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke. Burke took the job back in November of 2008 and after failing to get the Toronto Maple Leafs into the playoffs, the newly appointed owners of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Bell and Rogers decided that they had enough with Burke and made the decision to fire him. Now many reasons for the firing have been suggested including some belief that Burke was no longer intereste
With the World Junior Championships about to get underway in Ufa, Russia one NHL team seeing some of its future stars in action is the Edmonton Oilers. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for Team Canada and Nail Yakupov for Team Russia are both suiting up for their respective teams and captaining them as well. In recent years the Oilers have had a large representation at the tournament. The likes of Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Sam Gagner, and Magnus Paajarvi have all represented their fellow countries, all out
Over the past week we have the seen the likes of Ian White and now, Kris Versteeg voice their displeasure not just with the lockout, but also with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. White and Versteeg have both stated that they believe that the NHL has gone down hill with Bettman at the helm. So, this has brought up the question, when the lockout finally comes to an end will we see the end to the Bettman era? Since Bettman first took the reigns of the NHL back in 1993 the NHL has seen the players ge
This past Monday saw the induction of another 4 of the greatest players to ever play the game into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Hall saw the likes of Mats Sundin, Joe Sakic, Adam Oates, and Pavel Bure take their spot among the game's greats. Now with that in mind lets take a look at some of the players who may get their call come next year. Brendan Shanahan (HFD/DET/NJ/STL/NYR) Brendan Shanahan was a dominate force on the ice and in his prime was one of the most dangerous goal scorers in t
This week has been full of optimism from everyone still following the on-going battle to see a resolution to the NHL lockout. The lockout that has now claimed the first month of the season. This week the NHLPA and the NHL met four times and for the first time in weeks it seems that for once both sides were actually negotiating rather than giving each other ultimatums. However, after the negotiations that lasted nearly 20 hours, through Tuesday-Thursday ,showed much promise the meeting that laste
This past Thursday was supposed to mark the start to the 2012-2013 season, but of course thanks to the lockout we wait until a deal is reached. Now in the past few weeks some players have voiced their optimism of a new deal coming together before the entire season is wiped out, while others continue to believe there is no deal in sight. So, why is this? Sidney Crosby this week was one of the few players who made it clear that he thinks the entire season won't be lost. Crosby stated, "I can't see
So far the NHL has cancelled games up until October 24th so most of the season could still be played out and games that have already been cancelled could still be tacked on to the end of the season, barring a deal is finally reached. However, assuming this doesn't come to light, certain players may be more impacted than others. One name that comes to mind is all-star goaltender and future hall-of-famer Martin Brodeur. At the end of last season rumours swirled all over that Brodeur may be playing
With the lockout still underway we have seen players take to playing elsewhere, I guess when you grow up loving the game and playing it for a living you will do whatever you can to keep playing. However, is this necessarily the best decision for players? This week we have seen the likes of players such as Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk, and Ilya Kovalchuck put up good numbers for the clubs they have been playing with over in the KHL, but is this the best use of their time off from the NHL? Rangers
It has been a very busy last week and a half with many more NHLers flocking to Europe to find somewhere to play some hockey. In this past week alone Danny Briere, Claude Giroux, Joe Pavelski, Gabriel Landeskog, Andrei Markov, Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, Jamie Benn, and Matt Duchene have all packed their bags and headed to Europe. Now with news coming from sports outlets such as ESPN and recently Sportsnet that they will now be broadcasting some KHL games this season this may give a little hop
