hockey
We talk pucks and objects of that kind. We yell, complain, and analyze in the language of hockey fandom. Gretzky can do no wrong.
Which Canadian Team Has the Best Chance to Win the Stanley Cup in 2023?
A brand new NHL season has arrived, and it's hit with the same question fans in Canada have asked for so long: is this finally the year? We all know about Canada's cup drought, which will reach an even three decades if none of the seven teams capture Lord Stanley's Cup this season. When the Montréal Canadiens defeated the Los Angeles Kings in the 1993 Stanley Cup Final, it was not only the franchise's 24th Cup, it was also the last Cup won by a Canadian team. When the drought began, there were eight teams in Canada: the Vancouver Canucks, the Edmonton Oilers, the Calgary Flames, the Winnipeg Jets, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Ottawa Senators, the Quebec Nordiques, and the Montréal Canadiens.
By Clyde E. Dawkins12 months ago in Unbalanced
Is Auston Matthews the NHL's Next Great Scorer?
The 2015-16 NHL season was the lowest point for Canada's franchises, as all seven teams missed the playoffs. The worst of Canada's teams just happened to be the Toronto Maple Leafs, who went 29-42-11 with 69 points, the worst record in the entire league. However, that season, as terrible as it was, was all by design. The Leafs tanked to get the #1 pick, doing so after the team developed a knack for giving away their top first round. This time it worked out, as the Maple Leafs used their top pick in the 2016 draft to select their next big star: Auston Matthews.
By Clyde E. Dawkins12 months ago in Unbalanced
A Look at the 2010-11 Boston Bruins
The early 2000s saw a sports uprising in the town of Boston, beginning with the New England Patriots winning Super Bowl XXXVI. They added two more Super Bowl wins later on, and in baseball, the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years, and won another championship three years later in 2007. The Boston Celtics won the NBA Championship in 2008, but regarding hockey, the Boston Bruins had to wait a bit to join the Boston Ring Party--as if they hadn't been waiting long enough as it is.
By Clyde E. Dawkins12 months ago in Unbalanced
A Look at the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks
I can't believe it. This upcoming season will mark the 30th anniversary of the debut of the then-named Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. I was eight years old when the team debuted, I was barely getting into hockey as a whole, but I definitely remember the buzz over the Mighty Ducks. A year prior, Disney's Mighty Ducks film hit theaters, and it was due to the big box office numbers that the team came to fruition. I've lived in Southern California since I was three years old; at the time, I was attending elementary school in Anaheim, and I fondly remember the Mighty Ducks' NHL debut being a huge moment for the city--a key part of the league's expansion wave in the 1990s.
By Clyde E. Dawkins12 months ago in Unbalanced
The Marvelous Career of Nathan MacKinnon (So Far)
I cannot believe that this upcoming NHL season will be Nathan MacKinnon's tenth in the league. Tenth. It doesn't seem like it's been that long. I still remember the buzz surrounding MacKinnon near the tail end of the shortened 2012-13 season, which ended without a postseason berth for the Colorado Avalanche. At first, it was believed that the Avs would draft Seth Jones, but then the team's interest shifted to MacKinnon. I watched that year's draft, because the Avalanche had the #1 overall pick in the draft, and of course, we decided to draft Nathan Raymond MacKinnon, born in the Nova Scotian capital of Halifax on September 1, 1995, but served as one half of the NHL's Cole Harbour duo with the Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby.
By Clyde E. Dawkins12 months ago in Unbalanced
A Look at the 2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes
After the Tampa Bay Lightning won their first Stanley Cup, hockey fans such as myself ended up going over a year without our favorite sport. I've been a hockey fan since I was a little kid, but to be honest, the moment I loved hockey the most was that 2004-05 season...because there wasn't one. I've experienced lockouts in other sports, but this was different. When hockey was gone, it felt like something was missing. It felt too quiet. It felt like a piece of myself was missing. WWE helped fill that void, but even so, with hockey gone, it was still too quiet for my liking.
By Clyde E. Dawkins12 months ago in Unbalanced
A Look at the 2003-04 Tampa Bay Lightning
I remember the 2003-04 NHL season very vividly; for positive reasons and for a negative reason. The season started a few months after I graduated from high school, and I remember being elated and stunned when Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne joined the Colorado Avalanche. As an Avalanche fan, I was salivating, but unfortunately, the acquisitions didn't help the team get over the hump and get back to that glory that they achieved three seasons prior. The negative reason was a big one, the dreaded "l" word was looming: lockout. There were talks of a lockout coming after that season, but I tried my best not to dwell on that. As I've done for my whole life, I focused on the positives, and one of them was the sudden rise of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
By Clyde E. Dawkins12 months ago in Unbalanced
A Look at the 1995-96 and 2000-01 Colorado Avalanche
You know, I've been writing stories on Vocal for a little over a year, and it's hard to believe that this is my 500th story. What isn't hard to believe is the subject that #500 would be about. Something near and dear to me as a hockey fan: the Colorado Avalanche's first two Stanley Cups. First, a history lesson. Before playing in Denver, the Avalanche played their first 16 NHL seasons as the Quebec Nordiques, who were actually one of four teams who moved from the World Hockey Association to the NHL (the other three being the Edmonton Oilers, the Hartford Whalers, and the Winnipeg Jets). The Nordiques didn't have a lot of success in the NHL; in fact, they only reached the Conference Finals twice (1982 and 1985). Their only Adams Division championship came in the 1985-86 season, and in their final season in Quebec, the Nordiques would win the renamed Northeast Division, but both division titles resulted in first round exits.
By Clyde E. Dawkins12 months ago in Unbalanced
A Look at the 1993-94 New York Rangers
Long before the Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans were reminded about 1967, the New York Rangers and their fans were constantly reminded about 1940. At that time, 1940 was the last time that the Rangers captured the Stanley Cup, and their attempts to win one during that span were met with dead ends every time. Entering the 1993-94 season, the Rangers hadn't reached the Conference Finals since 1986, which saw them defeated by the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Montréal Canadiens. Then on October 4, 1991, the Rangers received Mark Messier, a five-time Stanley Cup Champion, from the Edmonton Oilers in a trade. That would normally be the thing that propels a team to glory, but the road hit a bit of a snag: after losing in the Elite Eight in the 1992 playoffs, they completely missed out in the 1992-93 season--the first time that Messier missed the playoffs in his hallowed career.
By Clyde E. Dawkins12 months ago in Unbalanced
Thank You, Nazem Kadri
Well, the Nazem Kadri offseason saga has finally come to an end. The news broke on Thursday, August 18, 2022, that Nazem Kadri signed with the Calgary Flames, a seven-year contract worth $49 million ($7M/year). This past season was a contract year for Kadri; it was his third with the Colorado Avalanche after so many years with the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was also a career year for Kadri: 28 goals, 59 assists, 87 points, all highs for him. The questions had been up there for months. Would the Avs keep Kadri? Could they afford to keep him? Would he end up somewhere else? In the time that passed since the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup on June 26, 2022, the team had kept some of their pieces under new deals, and lost some others, but Kadri remained a UFA for almost two months.
By Clyde E. Dawkins12 months ago in Unbalanced
A Look at the 1992-93 Montréal Canadiens
The Montréal Canadiens are, without question, the most storied franchise in the history of the National Hockey League. No team has won more Stanley Cups than the Canadiens, who have won 24 in their history. In fact, they were the most successful franchise in any of the main sports leagues in North America until 1999, when the New York Yankees won their 25th World Series, and have since added two more championships in 2000 and 2009. However, the Canadiens' road to #24 was a long one. Their 23rd came in 1986, and though they returned to the Stanley Cup Final in 1989, they were defeated in six games by the Calgary Flames. The Canadiens would spend next three seasons running into the same roadblock: the Boston Bruins in the second round, and not getting past them.
By Clyde E. Dawkins12 months ago in Unbalanced
A Look at the 1988-89 Calgary Flames
The Calgary Flames' road to the Stanley Cup in 1989 was quite a rocky one. The team began play in Atlanta in 1972, playing there for eight seasons with very little success. It was in 1980 that they moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Calgary, Alberta, Canada; remaining in the Patrick Division (when it was part of the Campbell Conference) before being permanently placed in the Smythe Division beginning in the 1981-82 season. That was the year that the began their contentious rivalry with their provincial foes, the Edmonton Oilers.
By Clyde E. Dawkins12 months ago in Unbalanced
