Breaking: NHLPA Board Agrees with NHL on 24-Team Playoff Setup for 2020 | On the Forecheck
Well, it’s…hockey, I guess, at least.
NHLPA vote first of many big steps before NHL can return to play | Sportsnet.ca
Here are some details on some of the rest.
Picking a winner, loser and dark horse in NHL’s proposed 24-team playoff | Sportsnet.ca
I foresee some joy around here over Berkshire’s pick for the team that’s in the worst spot.
Jets’ Laine on hockey’s return: ‘My game is probably gonna look terrible’ | Sportsnet.ca
And That Would Be Terrible
(He has a good point, though.)
Other News & Notes
An NWHL design “expert” grades the new Toronto Six name, colors, and logo | The Ice Garden
I agree about almost all the reasons that “The Toronto Six” is a cool team name, but for me that’s overridden by how much I dislike the singular-noun name format. The Avalanche kind of get away with it for me because an avalanche is at least a countable noun. The Lightning, ehhhh, no, but their tesla-coil aesthetic is really cool. The Wild? A wild isn’t even a noun unless you’re a human child in a nineteenth-century poem going away to the waters and the wild, with a faery hand in hand, for the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
But you can easily refer, at least, to “the Lightning player” or “the Avalanche player” or (sigh) “the Wild player,” even if the last runs the risk of suggesting that someone on the ice has gone feral. Referring to “the Six player” looks like a grammatical error and sounds like either an accent or a speech impediment, depending on where you’re from. For me that overrides all the coolness of the name.
The Deafening Silence | Arctic Ice Hockey
The NHL’s biggest stars don’t talk about the problems with hockey culture–in this case, racism–and that is definitely a problem with hockey culture, itself. Anything else I have to say here is just repeating what Cara says in her editorial.
Roundtable: Which non-playoff team has the brightest future? | ProHockeyTalk | NBC Sports
People keep saying the Devils are about to be good, but I’m starting to lose faith.
Devils fans, feel free to screenshot this one and gloat as soon as they do turn around (which, well, parity).
Toronto’s offense already looks dangerous | The Ice Garden
Ah, the Toronto mood.
NHL agent poll hits topics including lockout | ProHockeyTalk | NBC Sports
The idea of Gary Bettman successfully avoiding a lockout is a bizarre one. Also, Calle Jarnkrok’s contract makes an appearance.
World Cup of Hockey Watch Party: Re-live epic North America vs. Sweden clash | Sportsnet.ca
It still blows my mind that their coach didn’t tell them they had to win in regulation to advance. What an incredibly irresponsible coaching job there.
Have a safe and happy long weekend, everyone.
(And if you’re wondering, the poem is WB Yeats’s “The Stolen Child”.)