The color pink is always a welcomed sight in any rink; even more so during the month of October. For those that may be unaware, October is national breast cancer awareness month. Over the past few seasons, many teams have taken the opportunity to support the cause in various ways, raising money for foundations across the country. Dying the ice pink, pink jerseys, and pink rally towels are just a few of the game night alterations made to show support. “Pink In The Rink” nights take place throughout the season, and not just during October. One team that will show support specifically this month, the Providence Bruins. On October 26th, the Bruins will take on breast cancer, with a portion of ticket sales to benefit the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation. The American Hockey League has a strong history of supporting it’s communities and charities. A website which has listed many cancer- related AHL promotional events for the upcoming season is listed here. While the NHL is locked out, the AHL is an avid supporter in locking out cancer this season.
(Photo: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Though he is only 17 years old, Nathan MacKinnon has been fielding comparisons to Sidney Crosby for years, but it’s not just the similarity in their playing style that has everyone talking.
Like the Pittsburgh Penguins captain, MacKinnon grew up in the small Nova Scotia town of Cole Harbour. He too played Bantam AAA for the Cole Harbour Red Wings (with seasons of 110 and 145 points respectively), and at age 15 – the same age as Crosby – MacKinnon enrolled in the famed hockey program at Shattuck-Saint Mary’s Boarding School in Faribault, Minnesota.
Following in the superstar’s footsteps, Nathan MacKinnon also opted to play in the Québec Major Junior Hockey League with the Halifax Mooseheads over playing college hockey, and is heading into his sophomore season with his first Team Canada gold medal (won at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial U18 tournament this August) under his belt and the tournament scoring title in hand.
There is one more – almost eerie – similarity between Crosby and MacKinnon; they are both lockout prospects. Sidney Crosby was drafted at the tail end of the NHL’s last labour stoppage in 2005 and if the NHL and the NHLPA don’t come to an agreement in a timely manner, Nathan MacKinnon – who is eligible for the draft in 2013 and is already predicted to go first over all – can too regretfully check off that stepping stone from Crosby’s path to success.
As of today, the game we love, is not going to happen. We will sit in front of our empty TV screens, staring into hockey games long past.
I was going to write about Gary Bettman. There was an article about him and I was going to use it as a base for an article. I decided to change the article a bit. This column is a bit about Mr. Bettman, but it is mostly about my pet peeve, hockey teams in the southern states.
Mr. Bettman came from the NBA in 1993, to become the first commissioner of the NHL. He was one of many who pushed for the NHL expansion in the southern U.S. markets.
This is where I start to freeze up with cold sweat, its the same when I start to shovel the snow off the driveway. To me, a hockey team should not be in a city where they don’t get: A. cold weather B. snow from the heavens C. where they don’t know what long-johns are, no it is not a danish type pastry!
The southern states like Florida, San Jose, Phoenix and such have other sports like basketball, all year football and other warm weather outdoor sports. We don’t. Sometimes us northern places only get two or three summer days, not enough for any sports!
The northern U.S. and Canada usually doesn’t have a long and warm summer season for outdoor sports. We rely on winter sports to thrill us, engage us and make us feel like one. Hockey was started and a league was made in cities which housed their own heaven made snow and ice.
Today October 2nd, marks the 20th anniversary of The Mighty Ducks hitting the ice, well on the big screen at least. The movie eventually carved the way for the actual NHL franchise Mighty Ducks, now named the Anaheim Ducks.
It might seem silly to be writing a post about such a trivial date, but it’s a lockout, what else do we have to celebrate? Nothing is quite like the original and 20 years later the first movie is still the Stanley Cup of the trilogy. The Mighty Ducks were a group of kids that anyone could relate to. Coach Bombay led the way, skates first into the hearts of hockey fans of all ages.
With an ever growing list of hockey movies, the Ducks have been tried and true for two decades. It’s safe to say the Mighty Ducks will not only hold a place in hockey fans hearts, but their DVD shelves too!
So tonight, grab some friends, form that ever famous flying V and quack, quack, quack all the way to your couch. Don’t own it, you can watch it online through Disney On Demand for $1.99. Celebrate the big 2-0 with Coach Bombay, Charlie and the gang, but remember to keep it non nonalcoholic, the team doesn’t hit 21 until next season.
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Forget Europe, Alaska is the newest lockout destination. The Alaska Aces of the ECHL have added four NHL players to their roster, Nathan Thompson (TBL), Joey Crabb (WSH), Brandon Dubinsky (CBJ) and Scott Gomez (MTL) will hit the ice this season. With an abundance of players heading overseas, it might seem a bit odd to have four players signing with one team; in the ECHL no less. The decision to play with the Aces comes as a logical choice, as all four players hail from Anchorage, Alaska.
An oldie but an appreciated goodie for female hockey players everywhere:
Nowadays, it seems like everyone is using Twitter. It’s almost an expectation to have an “@” attached to your name, all while your musings are tweeted out in 140 characters or less. Some NHL favorites are busy tweeting pictures of foreign ice rinks; or not tweeting at all. Follow the boys who are already prepping for this season, here on North American soil. Quite a few AHL players have become avid tweeters off the ice… We’ll try to give you a twitter roster by the team, this week it’s the Worcester Sharks.
It looks like a good portion of the @WorcesterSharks are in the tweeting game, follow your Shark favorites:
The American Hockey League isn’t locked out and players across the league hit the ice on Friday to begin the fight for a spot on the roster. With a widespread “lockout” depression taking over the hearts of hockey fans, it’s easy to forget that other leagues exist. Sure, you have college hockey, but it doesn’t hit the same levels of excitement that a professional player brings to the ice. American Hockey League games are the place to be this NHL off-season.
With 6 teams within 1.5 hours of Boston, trying to pick a team to cheer for can be a daunting task. For New Englanders, the obvious choice would be to continue seeing black and gold and cheer on the Providence Bruins (Boston affiliate). But with Providence a bit of a hike down one of our MA highways, having a Shark attack could be a better option for some.
The Worcester Sharks (San Jose affiliate) are skating their camp at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, MA, with pre-season games at Holy Cross and skating regular season games at the DCU Center. Perfect locations for the large amount of “western” MA hockey fans.
The NHL lockout “cons” far outweigh the “pros” from a fan perspective. The major one being no season, it’s messing up fantasy hockey leagues, the sky is falling, the world is ending and 2012 is an icicle to the heart. Okay, yes, that’s a bit dramatic. However, “pros” do exist, for example, the AHL offers fans a chance to see quality hockey, with a variety of teams, for a reasonable cost. Take this chance to love a new player that you may have overlooked had the NHL been in session. It’s possible that your new AHL favorite could be roughing it up in the NHL next season; you’ll have the memory of “I remember when player X had a breakout year.” It’s an opportunity to see the stars of tomorrow today.
Why go teal? For hockey fans west of Boston, east of Springfield, north of Providence, etc. the Sharks offer a promising group of guys to rely on this upcoming season. Like any team, the Sharks boast a strong Canadian contingent of players. Although, 11 Americans are currently on the training camp roster, 3 of which are Massachusetts natives (John McCarthy, Alex Tuckerman and Edwin Shea).
While hockey might not be back and playing at the NHL level, quality talent is hitting the ice and fans should be hitting the arenas to cheer them on. So, fire up the zamboni, it’s full steam ahead.
Boston Bruin Andrew Ference and You Can Play Project co-founder Patrick Burke hit the stairs at Harvard University for the November Project.
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Rumors and confirmations. If you’re curious to see which of your favorite players are heading overseas during the lockout, Elite Prospects has a pretty good glove on the situation.
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