Hard in the Corner

Done round one, and we actually get some time before the next begins. That's nice. Or irrelevant, if your team was one of the 1st rounds losers. So what went wrong... Boston Bruins Really, it's about time for the Bruins to be taking this turn. Chara is old and slow , Rask is one the wrong side of his prime, Bergeron can't carry a team on his own and neither can Marchand when he isn't playing like a rat. The rest of the team might be better at home playing in the AHL playoffs, where most of them spent time this year or last. Really, it's just time for Boston to hit this stage. So I don't know that anything went wrong in terms of playoff performance, but short-term, they've hit their wall. Columbus Blue Jackets They have a terrible coach and were a statistical anomaly all year. Goaltending averaged out, shooting % averaged out, and it turns out, like many assumed, they aren't that good of a team. Big surprise to the 5th line though.  Tor...

The NHL has announced Adidas will be taking over jerseys for the 2017-2018 season. That means a few things for the league... First off, there will be no alternate jerseys for the first season. I get that, new jerseys mean some potential redesigns and they don't want the consumer to have too many new jerseys to choose from. There will be plenty of time for that in the following years. But this also means that some NHL teams have an opportunity to mulligan what they've currently got going on. New color, new stripe, new logo, heck, why not a new name. So here is a look ahead at some 2017-2018 NHL teams.....rebranded. 1. Chicago Stanley Cup Champions This is basically just done out of pure laziness. Why bother having to say the Chicago Blackhawks, Stanley Cup Champions. Just cut the shit and get down to business, I don't have all day.  2. Las Vegas Golden Showers This is so stupid. What are you doing putting another hockey team in the desert? Did Phoenix Ar...

Alrighty, the playoffs are here. Exciting times. Times where defense wins, refs don't call shit and coaches single-handedly destroy the watchability of hockey. So, let's take a look at this yea'rs post-season coaches and rank them from best to worst. 1. Joel Quenneville (Chicago Blackhawks) This guy is just so obviously the best. Say what you want about the Blackhawks and how tiresome it's become to know who will win the cup every other year, but this guy gets. it. done. Teams usually go through a cycle. The cycle goes like this: A team drafts young players, starts to develop them, they become elite, then they become old, and then you start from scratch. The Blackhawks operate on a different cycle... Always be good. So they are. And Joel Quenneville is one of the most important factors in that. Career Playoff Coaching Record: 117-93 (.557) 2. Mike Babcock (Toronto Maple Leafs) The cock. What more do you need to say? He's got 1 cup, 3 finals...

Ok, new feature. Gary Bettman is a hopeless, evil, little weasel and we should all hate him (and the owners he represents). Gary Bettman denies that there is a link between CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and concussions. Now, granted, part of this is because the league is having their tits sued off by former players in a concussion lawsuit that could surpass the one the NFL just got hosed in, but the bigger part of this is basic human decency. When money is at play, especially a billion real dollars (potentially) it's easy to see how someone could be persuaded to tell some lies to make everything look ok. But it's not, and concussions aren't the laughing matter they once were made out to be. People get them, people suffer from them, people get very sick from them and occasionally people shoot themselves in the chest so their brain can be studied from them. Clarke MacArthur just came back to the Ottawa Senators after an 18 month leave due to concussion sympto...