The Canadian Cup

It's A Small Hockey World After All


The Canadian Multicultural Hockey League (CMHL) will be holding a tournament this December in Toronto that will bring many of the traditionally non-hockey playing communities of Canada together to compete for the Canadian Cup and multicultural hockey glory.

The CMHL is motivating those communities, would-be players and spectators alike, to fully appreciate one of Canada's biggest legacies—the game of hockey!

...Teams include; Hellenic Lightning, Italian Gladiators, Portuguese Sea Wolves, Nubian Kings, First Nation Thunder, Chinese Ice Dragons, Serbian White Eagles, South Asian Vipers, Croatian Knights, Macedonian Lions, Polish Hussars, Russian Kremlins, Finnish Sisu, Irish Shamrocks, and the Japanese Arashi.

With all these different ethnic backgrounds participating you may ask why there is no Canadian team? The CMHL promptly answers: Because we are all Canadians! This is not about country versus country. This is about Canadians playing against other Canadians.

I'm pulling for the Irish Shamrocks.

If your interested in more info on the tournament go >>> here.

In other Puck News:

NHL Fan Demand Causes Shortages

Owners Get Together

Hockey History on the Block

Gretz says "hair is OK"

Hockey Rockers... The Zamboni's

Police Blotter Hockey:

Hockey dad charged with attacking player in an act of rink rage.


Hockey Quote for the Day:

"All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity."

Gordie Howe

Penguin Exodus

Where o where will they end up ???

Whatever you do don't worry about them because lots of places would love to give them a good home.

Mario Lemieux has hammered the For Sale sign into the Pittsburgh Penguins' proverbial front lawn and speculation has already started.

Could the "Return of the Winnipeg Jets Campaign" finally bear fruit? Would the Penguins move from one Steeltown to another? Does the NHL adore Quebec City? And what about new possibilities on the NHL map, places like Houston, Las Vegas and Kansas City?

Well, while they look for that new home they're searching for maybe they'll be able to catch and devour that RED HERRING the NHLPA just released.

Trent Klatt, a former Los Angeles Kings forward and a onetime NHLPA vice-president who is among more than 100 players who have contested Saskin's hiring, said the announcement that the league is increasing revenue is designed to take the attention away from the controversy.

"It's a red herring," Klatt said yesterday. "Revenue has nothing to do with why we're here. We need to tell the players the truth and the (player) agents are another tool we can use to get that information to them."

By what I understand Penguins LOVE to eat Red Herrring and hopefully they'll make short work of this one.

Meanwhile...

In another development related to the dispute over Saskin's hiring, prominent NHL agent Mike Liut, a former goalie who was a member of the players' committee that originally hired former NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow, contends Saskin has the support of less than half the league's 700-some players, and that several hundred players may consider mounting a bid to decertify the union because of the controversy.

Now there's an idea maybe worth looking at... union decertification.


********* PENGUIN EXODUS NEWS UPDATE *********
Deal possibly in place to save the Pitt. Pens

Just days after Mario Lemieux struck fear in the hearts of Pittsburgh hockey fans, suggesting it may be too late to keep his team in town, KDKA Investigator Andy Sheehan has learned about a new deal that could keep the Pens here for a long time.

Under an "agreement of terms" reached yesterday with city and county leaders, the Penguins will get development rights to the current Mellon Arena site if the team can come up with $300 million to build a new arena.

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BUZZING THE NET:

Canada Looking for Leaders

Fighting Words

The NHL cure for Insomnia

Size Doesn't Matter... anymore

Lost in TV Land

And finally...

YOU KNOW YOUR A HOCKEY FAN IF...

You punish your kids with "minors," "majors," and "misconducts."

NOT Your Typical Hockey Player

I love seeing "characters" make it in the NHL. Players who express and/or conduct themselves a little differently than the norm, true individuals who walk their own path. The NHL has a long tradition of having "characters" playing in their league and here's a new one who in addition to definitely skating to the beat of his own drummer also happened to set a NHL record recently.

(he).. is wearing a shockingly bright white track suit, drawing attention to the diamond stud earring flashing from his right ear lobe. The look is in stark contrast to the standard jeans-sweatshirt-ball cap outfit favoured by most NHL players on practice days.

...Over the years, the culture of hockey has created a "one for all and all for one" mantra as a necessary part of teamwork. That has tended to breed conservatism in players away from the ice. With a few exceptions, players generally dress, walk and talk from the same playbook.

Then there's Emery.

I think the NHL would help itself greatly if it would do more to highlight and promote the various characters like Ray Emery that are and have always been so much a part of the game of hockey.

OTHER PUCK NEWS:

Pens to leave Pittsburgh ?

OLN... The NHL's Remote Outpost

Tweaking the Rules

Panthers - Luongo to Part Ways ?

Lets Get Physical

And last but not least... Everything you always wanted to know about driving a Zamboni but were afraid to ask.

Now ever since I was young it's been my dream
That I might drive a Zamboni machine
I'd get the ice just as slick as could be
And all the kids would look up to me

I want to drive the Zamboni...hey
I want to drive the Zamboni...Yes I do!

- Gear Daddies, "The Zamboni Song,"

It's ALL about the F-U-N !!!

OR...

How I learned to stop worrying and love the... Shootout.

Think about that shootout game between the Rangers and Capitals a few weeks ago. Did you see Marek Malik's unbelievable goal to win it? Talk about F-U-N! Here's a 6-foot-6 defenseman, who up until that point hadn't really shown an iota of offensive skill in the NHL, and he scores a highlight reel goal that I'm pretty sure brought Jagr to climax. Seriously, it was so good that, for about 15 minutes, the sports talk stations in New York actually stopped discussing the Mets' pitching rotation to talk about hockey.

Never mind the fact that the 15 rounds of shootout could have instead been a prolonged 4-on-4 sudden death overtime under goal-friendly "new" NHL rules. And never mind that Malik's goal is no different that a jaw-dropping move in the NBA's slam dunk exhibition: an athletic feat that could never be repeated in an actual competition because it's flashy sideshow garbage.

It was super duper candy-coated F-U-N!

Straight out of Kazakhstan... a new shootout star is born.

OTHER PUCK NEWS:

Creative Hockey is BACK

Original Six Mystique... fading

Offensive Explosions have Died Down

Gretzky Goes for the Three-peat

Junior Hockeys' Dirty Little Secrets

Police Blotter Hockey:

Bavis and Head-Butt

and finally...

YOU KNOW YOUR A HOCKEY FAN IF...

You went into a bank because it advertised "Free Checking"....and walked out disappointed.

U.S. Super Squad

Gets Ready for World Tournament

The American Junior team may have the greatest collection of talent ever assembled as it heads north to Canada with high expectations of winning a World Championship.

...it is here, at the U-20 level, where the first real bumper crop of talent is ready to be harvested. The 22-man American squad will feature 18 NHL draft picks, four 2006 eligibles, and previously unimaginable depth across the board.

"Our talent is so much deeper than before," Kyle said in a telephone press conference. "We had to cut a number of [NHL] first-rounders from this team. That's never happened before."

It's also a team that's properly motivated. The stands at last year's tournament in Grand Forks, N.D., were filled with red and white sweaters, the rink becoming an extension of Canadian soil as the Canadians celebrated a gold-medal win over Russia, while the U.S. squad failed to medal. Gaining revenge in Vancouver is clearly a priority for the U.S.

"We're going up there to defend something we lost last year," says Jim Johansson, USA Hockey's senior director of hockey operations.

Good Luck Boys.

Buzzing the net:

For the first time in nearly two decades all the Canadian teams could end up in the playoffs.

Hockey tales from a simpler time and place.

I just love all the various mutations of the sport that people have come up with to compete at including… Sled Hockey.

Some think although it's down now eventually we’ll see more fighting in the NHL as the season progress with it’s rival intense schedule.

Guess what’s sneaking back into the game… The Trap.... YIKES!

Police Blotter Hockey:

Team foils bar holdup.

Breaking... "The Code"

Just Don't Do It

Even though this is the New NHL with it's New Rules it's good to see that some of the games traditional laws never change, nor should they... especially the unwritten ones.

One aspect of the NHL game that the penalty crackdown will not be able to deter is "The Code" an unwritten rule that, once broken, comes with a violent, underlying message: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

Certainly, those watching the Ottawa Senators-Los Angeles Kings game Friday night at the Corel Centre saw "The Code " broken more than a few times and the consequences for doing so subsequently delivered.

Meanwhile Ottawa's Chara has no regrets.

Today's Puck Buffet:

Carnival Cattle Call

Recipe for Ideal Defensemen

NHL looking at Hiring Euro-Refs

Hockey's Red-Light District

NHL... SkillJam ?

Oddman's Odd Blog Pick of the Week:

It's a Sports Groupies Gone Wild With Webcams kind of place that's good for a few chuckles and isn't that what we all need a little more of now days... chuckles.

Enjoy.

Famous Canadian Quote for the Day:

It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees

Neil Young

Puck Trip

I've fantasized for along time about being able to take a hockey vacation like the one Ben Sturtevant was fortunate enough to take recently.

I studied the NHL schedule and a road map and discovered it would be fairly easy to hit several NHL cities in a week. I informed my friend, Josh, an equally demented pucks fan, of my plan and he was quickly on board. The plan was to go to games in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Detroit. The trip would allow us to see three Original 6 teams (the Montreal Canadiens, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings) in three hockey-crazed cities, and possibly the NHL's best all-around squad in the Ottawa Senators, who also happened to have one my favorite all-time players, 40-year-old Dominik Hasek, in goal. Since the trip would take us through Toronto, we'd also be able to hit the Hockey Hall of Fame. It was the ultimate pucks pilgrimage.

Best of all, we'd be free to act like little boys again.

Read more about >>> Ben and Josh's excellent puck adventure.

If I ever get the chance to fulfill my fantasy puck vacation it would go something like this...

Montreal... watching games from the Bell on CentreIce is incredible, the crowds are just so totally into the games from beginning to end, chanting, singing, booing, cheering... LOUD. No nuance of the game escapes their attention or appreciation in Montreal. It's just a totally immersive hockey atmosphere bordering on worship that I just GOT to go and experience someday. Plus it's got all that history.

Laval... Ever since seeing the movie Les Chiefs I just have to make a pilgrimage to this Montreal suburb and experience the primal and crazed hockey sub-culture of the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey... the infamous LNAH. Maybe even visit the apt. under the bleachers where the enforcers live.

Toronto... Not so much to catch a Leafs game (which would be cool) but really more to visit all the rinks, bars and other haunts of Dave Bidini's great book "The Best Game You Can Name" which is set in this city which arguably is the most hockey fanatical of them all. The Best Game... is a great hockey book that I've really fallen in love with and I highly recommend as a great X-mas present.

Calgary... Another place with a super highly charged hockey atmosphere that I think would be a lot of fun to experience especially a night on the Red Mile after a Flames win.

Vancouver... Any city voted the Most Livable Place on Earth ...AND... has all kinds of hockey played in it's incredibly beautiful surroundings is definitely on my must visit list.

Well, that's my fantasy road trip through Puck World. What's yours ?

Other News:

Young Gun Era of U.S. Hockey ?

"All HELL Broke Loose"

Stranger in a Strange Land

No Canadian Expansion Any Time Soon

Yet another NHL2K6 4 XBOX 360 Review

Quote for the Day:

I'm sitting on my watch so that I'll be on time.

Bob Dylan

Les Chiefs de Laval

Are you looking for a hockey gift for that special puckhead on your X-mas list that has a interest in and a fascination for the fighting aspect of the sport ? Well if you are let me suggest...

LES CHIEFS

"The Chiefs!" is a 75-minutes documentary film that digs its fingernails into a truly bizarre sub-section of Canada's National Sport. The LHSPQ is the NHL's perverted little cousin. Here you may see 10 fights in a single period, or a bench-clearing brawl in the warm up. Coaches beat on each other. Goalies go at it. And players hike through the stands to slug it out with fans. Welcome to Laval, Quebec, home of The Chiefs de Laval, the toughest team in the Quebec Semi-Pro Hockey League. The story begins underneath the bleachers in the back of an old arena. Once a ramshackle storage area, it is now a ramshackle apartment, home to several of the team's tough guys. Although it is cold, noisy, and a fire exit on game days, it is rent free and the players don't seem to mind scaling the fire escape, or climbing through second-story windows to get in and out of their home.

Throughout the season, the arena dwellers fight their way to celebrity status but when the playoffs begin, the Chiefs find themselves in a viable position to win it all and the goons end up watching from the bench. As the team progresses closer to the championship game, the battles once fought on the ice become battles within themselves. Am I a hockey player or a circus clown? The plot turns even more on end, when an underground boxing promoter surfaces with an offer that seems too good to be true.

With characters like a crazed ex-military strong man, a six foot seven, 320-pounds giant, and a French Canadian superfan who believes that hockey is religion and The Chiefs are gods, "The Chiefs" has all the makings of a cult classic.

oddmanrush gives Les Chiefs DVD a 3 out of 5 pucks rating, I bump that up to 4 out of 5 pucks when considering the DVD extras in the overall rating like the directors cut commentary, the fight club highlights and the cut scenes which are all excellent. I highly recommend this DVD and I too think Les Chiefs is destined to become a hockey cult classic. You can get this DVD through amazon.ca

In other Puck News:

Speaking of the Devil

More U.S. fans watching TV hockey

...but NOT on OLN

Black Hockey Hero Inspires Others

More on the movie... "The Rocket"

Enforcer in Exile Update

Play by Play... in Print

Police Blotter Hockey:

The continuing sad and strange saga of Mike Danton.

Hockey Quote for the Day:

"Ice hockey is a form of disorderly conduct in which the score is kept."

Doug Larson

Little BIG Man Hockey

With the games this season being played under new rules fourteen of the thirty NHL teams have players UNDER 6' tall leading their clubs in scoring.

The list of little guys making a big impact crosses the National Hockey League's generational divide. From Camille Henry and Henri Richard to Denis Savard and Theo Fleury, there was always a smallish dervish that defied expectation and put up big scoring numbers, against all odds.

Even the last year before the NHL lockout, the MVP and scoring leader was a 5-foot-9, 185-pound winger named Martin St. Louis.

However, in the new NHL -- with its crackdown on obstruction and its emphasis on skill and speed over brawn and bulk -- it looks as though the trend toward smaller players is taking hold.

Of all the major sports ONLY Hockey has the rules and the conditions that allow a lot of athletes of normal or even smaller stature to compete and even dominate. It's another one of the many reasons I love this sport so much.

From the Wide World of Pucks:

The Trap makes a comeback

Beer Tanker Truck Hits Hockey Bus

Home-ice advantage in NHL is melting

Sid and Dion go head to head tonight

and finally...

.......

Click the Pic for another ^ NHL2K6XBOX360 Review

Today's Hockey Joke:

St. Peter and Satan were having an argument one day about hockey. Satan proposed a game to be played on neutral grounds between a select team from the heavenly host and his own hand-picked boys.
"Very well," said the gatekeeper of Heaven. "But you realize, I hope, that we've got all the good players and the best coaches."
"I know, and that's all right," Satan answered. "We've got all the Referees!!!"

Man, ain't that the truth.

Are Goalies Different ?

I would think any fan of the game would know the answer to that question.

To the long list of marginalized segments of society, be sure to include a group of athletes that is widely misunderstood, and often ridiculed. Decked in cumbersome pads and colorful masks, hockey goalies are derided as an eccentric breed, a group whose very existence is defined by a willingness to ignore a basic human impulse

Most of us see an object hurtling in our direction at speeds of 100 mph and think, "Duck." A goalie wants only to get in the way.

"We're looked at as psychos," said Tom Natoli...
..."People don't understand. They say, 'Why do you do that? Why do you stand in front of those things?' "

Why ?

Well, if you haven't figured it out by now the answer is because goalies are different.... Very different.

BUZZING AROUND THE NET:

NHL sets ANOTHER Attendance record

Annus Horribilis

The best rookie NOT named Sidney, Alex or Dion

NHL no longer on thin Ice

And last but not least it's...

TABLE HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA

Bumper Sticker Quote of the Day:

My Hockey Mom Can Beat Up Your Soccer Mom.

That certainly was true of my mom.