General

Vote for Oskar Lindblom for Metro Captain to Support Him in his Battle With Cancer!

Want to support cancer awareness and Oskar’s fight? Here’s a thought: Vote for him to be the captain of the Metro in the All Star game.

Philadelphia Flyers forward Oskar Lindblom has been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. He will miss the rest of the season while he fights this cancer.

You can vote up to 10 times per day until December 20, 2019. Follow this link: https://www.nhl.com/all-star-ballot

Scroll down to the bottom of the Metro column, and search for “Oskar Lindblom”. You will need to pick 3 other captains from the other divisions as well.

Story: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/14/us/oskar-lindblom-ewing-sarcoma-cancer/index.html

Boston Bruins, Historical Hockey, Toronto Maple Leafs

Today is the Anniversary of the First All Star Game and Jersey Retirement.

Sure, it’s Valentine’s Day. But today mark’s the anniversary of the Ace Bailey Benefit Game, and essentially, the first All Star Game. On February 14, 1934 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto in front of 14,074 spectators watched The Toronto Maple Leafs defeat a team comprised of the top players from the rest of the league. The final score was 7-3, for The Leafs.

NHLallstarsbailey

This game was not for league revenue, rather charity. ShoreBailey14Feb1934 Bailey’s career ended due a violent hit by Eddie Shore earlier in the 1933–34 season. Bailey suffered a near fatal skull fracture, but recovered enough to participate in the benefit game by shaking the hands and presenting gifts to all of the participating players. When nearing Shore, the crowd is said to have silenced. Bailey would extend his hand to Shore, and the crowd is said to have burst into a roar of approval.

CaptureDuring the ceremonies, The Maple Leafs stated that no player on the team would wear Bailey’s number 6 again. This marks the first time in NHL history that a team retired a player’s sweater number.

The game generated $20,909 in money for Bailey, and he would subsequently receive an additional $6,000 from the Boston Bruins.

For more information, Wikipedia has an excellent amount of information. Click here.

Here is a short little documentary, as well.

Boston Bruins, Historical Hockey

45 Years Ago, Bobby Orr scored “The Goal”

One of the most iconic images of professional hockey occurred on this day 45 years ago. Bobby Orr would fly through the air.   The Bruins would go on to win their first cup in 39 years as a result of this heroic feat. This is one of the coolest moments in the history of hockey, and we at BHF tip our helmet to it.

You can catch much of the video and audio at Orr’s site. And you should.

But if you must be lazy…

Fred Cusick’s original call of Bobby Orr’s goal 5/10/1970

It’s even NHL ’94-themed desktop wallpaper. (Source: Puck Daddy)

Edmonton Oilers, Historical Hockey

Connor McDavid Goes to Edmonton.

Connor

Connor McDavid will be an Edmonton Oiler. Unless some crazy Eric Lindros trade goes down, it’s a lock. Don’t kid yourselves people. As an Oilers’ fan, I was pretty surprised by this. I expected some kind of conspiracy as such sending said player to Toronto, or even Philadelphia, to go down. We’re looking at an approximate 10% chance to a team that has had a plethora of first round number one picks already.

The NHL has been pretty adamant about transparency lately, and we got that tonight. My social media blew up tonight as many people took to it to tag me and let me know their disgust with this turn of events.

That’s cool. I’m reveling in this outcome. No one wants to see Connor in some irrelevant market. No one will see him as a result. If this kid is as special as we’ve been told, bring him to a popular market. I don’t mean an non-Canadian market, the US has plenty of good spots for the kid. Let’s put him somewhere where people attend games. Places where buying a play-off ticket isn’t easy… you also have to enter a lottery to have the opportunity to watch him play.

I know the Oilers track record has sucked lately. It’s been brutal. I hate the management. I hate the old-boys club. I hope that changes too.

But what I really hope for, is for this kid to thrive and become what we expect him to be. Regardless of the fact that he will be landing on my team next season, if he is indeed a generational player, let’s put him on the main stage.

In all fairness, I would have been completely okay if he landed in Toronto or Buffalo. They love hockey there and would have shown up just to watch them play, even if they continued to suck. Great players are just simply one player on the roster at the end of the day.

Remember all those cups in L.A. and St. Louis with “The Great One”?

The Oilers won their last cup without Gretzky, after all.

Until then, let’s just enjoy the playoffs this year. This post-season has been excellent, and should prove to be going forward. It’s easy to take the cheap road and impulsively go on social media and outrage!!!! OUTRAGE!!!!

In all fairness, my real friends have been fun and tongue-and-cheek with myself. It’s been amusing. I’m as shocked as you. But as a deprived Oilers fan, hell yeah… we’ll take him. Unless some bizarre Lindros trade goes down, he’s an Oiler. Deal with it. And consider this… people will see him play.

Hockey Media

Hockey Night In Canada Marks a New Milestone in it’s Long and Storied History.

Tonight (or tomorrow depending on your time zone) will mark a massive milestone in hockey broadcast history. This will be the debut of Roger’s version of Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC), a sports media staple since November 1931, that broadcasted on the Canadian National Railway radio network. Later of course it would shift to the CRBC, and to television on the CBC.

While the program will continue to air on the CBC, and still feature Ron and Don in Coach’s Corner, it will reset a precedence of hockey-mad Canadians and internet savvy international fans (and some of you US residents on the border).

While I have to work through the early game, and some of the late game (which I will be DVR’ing as it features a nice matchup of the Canucks and Oilers), this will be a first impression for HNIC.

For those watching, note your take on this. Whether predictions or criticisms (positive and negative) of how Roger’s presents this cultural Canadian media phenomenon. Generations of Canadians have spent countless hours enjoying hockey with the CBC. We are upon the doorstep of a new era.

What do you think?

Hockey Media

How To Be A Hockey Player (Beer League).

This excellent video comes in from Hockey Community, and it plays off of the culture of beer league hockey as the title of this post suggests.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KoaMBvw9q8[/youtube]

I sent out a tweet to Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski of “Marek vs Wyshynski” who constantly encourage people who like hockey to start a blog, podcast, or something, to do so. So I’m taking them up on these folk’s behalf. This is a great video, and it’s hard not to enjoy it as a fan.

Tweet the hell out of those four dudes. Get them some attention. This video is solid. Enjoy!