Are the Av's Dead?

I think reports of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.



With young talent like Wolski, Statsny, Richardson, Svatos, Leopold, Liles, Budaj, etc. coming on strong the Av's are in a good position to surprise a lot of naysayers.

Besides, the Av's have the force behind them...



You can't fight the force.

Hockey Erotica

The Five Hole: Stories of Sex and Hockey

Dave Bidini, gutarist with the canadian band, The Rheostatics, and author of such acclaimed hockey books as, The Tropic of Hockey, and The Best Game You Can Name, has a new book coming out called... The Five Hole. It's a collection of six stories all about the wild days of 1970's hockey, sex and debauchery.

What a combo, eh?

The story was a sexual awakening of sorts for Bidini, who tells me "the time has come for sex and hockey to come together."

It’s a side of hockey that hasn’t been talked about, he explains, "except under the low lights of the Tavern or bar."

Or in jokes, like: Why do Montrealers do it Doggie Style? So they can watch the game.

Or, when players are behaving badly, and sexually assaulting women, or when coaches are assaulting their young players.

But there’s a more innocent sexy side to hockey, says Bidini. Heck, when you’ve got a bunch of guys skating around with big sticks, shooting and scoring, how can there not be?

Sticks and dicks

Especially during its heyday in the ’70s, a "real wild-and-swinging-guy era for hockey, with the tight trousers and the long hair," says Bidini.

It was swinging, quite literally, in come cases.

"It was public knowledge that Bob Nevin and another player were wife swapping," says Bidini.

And back then, before hockey players were micro-managed and heavily marketed, that fast-and-hard lifestyle was more celebrated, he adds.

"There was a bit of that sweet, naïve, hoser-star hockey player enjoying the banquet of life," he laments. "I just think it’s an amusing era to look at in terms of sexuality."

Yes indeed, it was a very amusing era... for both hockey and sex.

The Five Hole: Stories of Sex and Hockey, goes on sale sometime in November, look for it.

Puck Pilgrims

Now this sounds like a lot of fun to me...

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. - The final leg of an international tour stopped at Cambria County War Memorial Arena on Saturday night.

But no big-name rock star was in town.

No monster truck show or Disney on Ice production, either.

Instead, four hardcore hockey fans from Norway parked a RV a few blocks from the arena and marched into the building where "Slap Shot" was filmed.

These guys came for the Johnstown Chiefs' ECHL game against the Cincinnati Cyclones. But of perhaps greater significance, "The Do It Right or Don't Do It At All Tour" concluded in the Flood City after 14 days and approximately 3,200 miles at a cost of about $3,000 per man.

"It's usually 10 days, but this time it's 14 days and we decided to try to see as many leagues as possible," said Jon Manum of Sarpsborg, Norway. "Sometimes we try to do as many NHL teams as possible. This time we switched it around a little bit and this is the last game."

This fall's tour opened on Oct. 18 at Madison Square Garden as the NHL's New York Rangers played the Nashville Predators.

There were visits to cities with teams in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League, Central Hockey League and American Hockey League.

Read >>> more.

The NHL's Worst Dressed

Here's a look at the baddest of the bad... when it comes to uniforms, past and present, in the NHL.

Today, ugly jerseys run rampant in the NHL, and with honourable mention to every European billboard jersey that comes out every spring with the Spangler Cup, and the horrific striped jerseys that Chicago and Detroit broke out in the early ’90s that featured prominently on our Pro Set hockey cards, here are the Gateway’s picks for worst NHL uniforms.

Complete article >>> here.

Looongest Hockey Fight Ever

Well, at least the looongest one I've ever seen...



...also this marathon tussle had the classiest move I've ever seen in a hockey fight happen at the very end.

Study Blasts the Drafting of Europeans

The findings by the International Ice Hockey Federation suggest both the Europeans leagues who are being drained of players and North American players who are being squeezed out of jobs here are suffering unnecessarily.

The majority of Europeans drafted by National Hockey League clubs between 2000 and 2006 didn't make an impact either at the professional or minor-pro level, and those jobs could have been filled by Canadians and Americans, a study conducted by the International Ice Hockey Federation found.

The IIHF concluded that 62.5 per cent of the 621 players drafted in the six-year period were either marginal NHL players who were frequent "healthy scratches" or were non-impact players on minor-league teams.

The IIHF said those players should have remained in Europe to develop their skills before coming to North America [...]

Fasel has long complained that NHL clubs are draining European leagues of talent, while the federations have cried foul over losing players to the NHL and minor-pro leagues, such as the American Hockey League and ECHL.

Fasel has long urged NHL clubs to let Europeans develop at home for a longer period before they join NHL organizations.

Read more >>> here.

Shades of Mario

The Legend of "Geno" begins.

More to come... much more.

The Hand

Hockey first... last... and everything in between.

The Lonely End Of The Rink

The Tragically Hip

At the lonely end of the rink, you and me

Oh to join the rush
as the season builds

I hear your voice ‘cross a frozen lake
a voice from the end of a leaf
saying, ‘you won’t die of a thousand fakes
or be beaten by the sweetest of dekes’

It's Hip to love hockey
by Jody Vance...

Sunday evening, my day job took me to the Phoenix in Toronto to see the Hip meet hockey, with cameras rolling.

We were shooting a feature about how the Tragically Hip have become synonymous with the game of hockey -- so we took Leafs' Andrew Raycroft, Brendan Bell, Jay Harrison and Matt Stajan for an all-access soundcheck visit with the ultimate Canadian band.

Enigmatic frontman Gord Downie, who is typically quite camera shy, became a kid in a candy store at the sight of Andrew Raycroft [...]

Downie made it abundantly clear that he was meeting one of his hockey idols and the look on Raycroft's face said it was mutual admiration.

Raycroft and Downie could have talked all night if not for the matter of the "little show," another sellout, that needed to go on in a matter of an hour.

Hip guitarists Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker joined us for a quick chat with the whole group before we wrapped. Growing up in Kingston, the band members played hockey on any patch of ice they could find, but as they tour they always carry gear and pick up games in every town they can [...]

The band's new album, "World Container," has "The Lonely End of the Rink" as its ever-present hockey song. Here to stay is the bond between the Hip and hockey.

And so another song gets added to... The List.

Jump into the Rush

Power Rankings

This week's PROTRADE NHL rankings theme is... early surprises.

Surprises indeed...

1) (Last Week: 3) Buffalo Sabres (8-0-0, 16 points)
Thomas Vanek leads the league in +/-. Chris Drury leads in goals. Maxim Afinogenov leads in points. And Buffalo leads the league in goals by 10(!) after only 8 games.

2) (1) Dallas Stars (7-1-0, 14 points)
Brendan Morrow never struck me as the point-per-game type. That said, he is just entering his prime.

3) (2) Minnesota Wild (7-1-0, 14 points)
Minnesota's stats look exactly like Dallas', except they played more home games and scored one fewer goal. Pierre-Marc Bouchard looks like he's about to have a breakout season with that +5 and a nearly point-per-game rate.

4) (8) Anaheim Ducks (6-0-2, 14 points)
I still don't think the average Anaheim resident could tell you the Ducks two top goalscorers are Kunitz and Perry. I mean, the average Anaheim resident might not know that Kariya isn't there anymore either, but...

5) (5) Atlanta Thrashers (6-1-1, 13 points)
Does Lehtonen count as a surprise? Probably not, but maybe to some of you.

6) (4) San Jose Sharks (6-2-0, 12 points)
Who is Matthew Carle?

7) (6) Edmonton Oilers (5-2-0, 10 points)
Didn't a whole bunch of people say the Oilers D was toast after losing Pronger? They have given up the third-fewest goals in the league. They really have no breakout players, so I'll just put down Petr Sykora.

8) (9) Montreal Canadiens (4-1-2, 10 points)
That they're ranked 8th in these power rankings is a surprise in itself, but surely Chris Higgins deserves a mention.

9) (10) Vancouver Canucks (5-3-1, 11 points)
Of the Canucks first 11 games, only 2 are/were at home. As for the surprise, Naslund gets my vote for proving he still knows how to score. Maybe Bertuzzi was depressing him.

10) (14) Colorado Avalanche (3-3-2, 8 points)
Ian Laperriere, a career -40, leads the team with a +3 rating after 8 games.

Complete rankings >>> here.