Another NHL season is in the books, many thanks to my TSN colleagues who make this such a joy. And most of all, thanks to you, the audience. You’re why we put so much into it. Next stop: Switzerland and the World Hockey Championship in May.
Occupational requirement.
My flight from Tor to NY was just on final approach to LGA when we pulled up suddenly prior to touchdown. The explanation we were given was that “there was a lot of traffic.” We circled around and landed safely. I’m not a nervous flier, but traveling in and and out of US airports puts me on edge.
I just re-upped with TSN, I feel good, I like what I do and I really like the people I work with. Looks like you’re stuck with me for the next few years at least.
Every now and then 😉
I’ll disclose a long-running secret code: for years my daughter gave me a word to say during a broadcast to say hello/goodnight to her. If you’re wondering why things like “kaleidoscope” “platypus” “hippopotamus” “explorer” or other random words popped up, that was me sending her a secret message.
That was a little message to Ray Ferraro, who had texted me a few minutes earlier that he was watching the game and wanted to see some goals 😂
Our hotel in San Jose is right down the street from Zoom’s head office. I’m tempted to stand outside and shout “Thanks for taking the conference call and making it infinitely worse, you f*****s!”
A stick tap to our United Airlines pilot on our flight this morning from Fort Lauderdale who announced before takeoff that due to incoming weather, we would be sitting out a ground hold of at least three hours.
He paused and followed it up with “April Fools.” Most—but not all—of us laughed.
There will be talk in Toronto that the Leafs need an experienced General Manager, but it’s also worth pointing out that some of most successful GM’s in recent years (Julien BriseBois-TB, Kent Hughes-MTL, Kelly McCrimmon-VGK, Chris McFarlane-COL, Pat Verbeek-ANA and Bill Zito—FLA) are first time GMs.
On his 73rd birthday, IIHF president Luc Tardif announces that he will not be seeking another term. He guided the IIHF through the challenges of Covid and the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with a steady hand, while also successfully negotiating the return of NHL players to the Olympics.
No Nikita Kucherov or Nick Paul in the warmup for Tampa as the Lightning play host to the Senators at 1pm et.
I don’t think he could hear me 😊
Sincere condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the two Air Canada pilots who were tragically killed last night in the crash at NY’s LaGuardia Airport. If you’re traveling in the near future, keep in mind that Air Canada employees are working with heavy hearts.
The @iihf runs 40+ men’s and women’s tournaments over the course of a season in various divisions, like the recently completed MU18 Div IIIB in Hong Kong. They don’t get noticed a lot and they generate very little revenue but they’re a big part of supporting and growing the game globally.
Troy captained Canada to its’ first ever World Junior Championship in 1982, was a heart and soul NHL player, a terrific broadcaster and an absolute joy to be around. RIP 🙏
Ranked by Pts %, Edmonton is currently 9th in the Western Conference standings:
Central
1. COL .762
2. DAL .694
3. MIN .667
Pacific
1. ANA .589
2. VGK .571
3. SEA .549
Wild Card
1. UTA .565
2. SJS .542
———————
3. EDM .540
4. LAK .525
5. NSH .516
As we mark the 4th anniversary of the full scale invasion of Ukraine, the people there remain defiant and strong. I was proud to partner with the Canada/Ukraine Foundation to raise funds to send 125 parahockey sleds to Ukraine to help men and women of all ages continue their rehabilitation journey.
Correction: Canada played in three of the four Gold Medal Game Shootouts, Sweden defeated Switzerland at the 2018 Men’s worlds.
There were fears of multiple OT periods, which would cause trouble for international broadcast partners and in the case of the Olympics,overlap with the closing ceremony. The IIHF decided to adopt the NHL's 3 on 3 OT format, which makes multiple OT periods highly unlikely. 3/3
Canada played in all four of those games, and led the push to have gold medal game OT's continue until a winning goal was scored, the feeling being that shootouts are a bad way for GMGs to end. 2/3
Here’s how the IIHF's 3 on 3 OT format in gold medal games came to be. Prior to 2019, tied gold medal games had one full sudden death period of 4 on 4 and then a shootout. The gold medal games of the 2017 WJC, the 2018 MWC, the 2018 WOG and the 2019 WWC were all settled in shootouts. 1/3
Tomorrow everyone will be asking: when will the Russo-Ukrainian war end? The right question is: what can we do to make the Russian invasion fail?
The charter flights carrying the Canadian and American NHL players back to North America were originally scheduled to fly from Milan to JFK airport in NY Monday morning, but they’ve been diverted to Miami due to the storm hitting the east coast. The players will disperse from there.
QF and SF games have 10 min OTs and a shootout if necessary, gold medal games are played until there’s a winner, so there is an intermission before OT starts.
Well, no lower seeds won today, but 3 of the 4 QF games did go to OT 😊
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 35+ years covering @iihf.bsky.social events, it’s that in a four game quarterfinal format, at least one lower seed will beat a higher seed in the QFs.
Greatest female player of all time.
