Ah, the joys of another trade deadline day. That one day of the year where every hockey fan watches and anticipates their team making a move, that will improve their team’s playoff’s chances, or in the case of Tim Murray, improve their chances of drafting Connor McDavid.
But what is it about this day, that gets Canadian TV stations dedicate an entire day to it? Even ESPN had a segment on deadline day! It made their headlines on Sportscenter. (Then again, the next headline after that was ‘What does LeBron James have in common with an automatic transmission?), but still, it means Barry Melrose actually got some TV time.

Here’s Barry Melrose on ESPN’s SportsCenter, with something that Americans have no idea what he is holding. However, 43% of Americans say that it’s the America’s Cup. Picture courtesy of ESPN.

Trade deadline day, is the only day on the hockey calendar, where you know that a trade will happen, outside of the draft. You don’t know who, you don’t know when and you don’t know where they’ll end up , but it’s this thinking that gets hockey fans waiting in anticipation to see exactly what will happen. Whether it’s a big name player getting traded, if a player on your team gets traded, or if Down Goes Brown trolls Joffrey Lupul into thinking he’s a New York Islander.

What all that in mind, here are Bored Hockey Fan’s most significant actions that happened during the 2015 NHL Trade Deadline Day.

– TSN deciding to not let Down Goes Brown have all the fun, and posting a tweet about the only reason Joffrey Lupul hasn’t been traded from Toronto..

Picture courtesy of @DontBeSaad20 on Twitter.

Yep, because according to this tweet, Lupul once banged Dion Phaneuf’s wife, Elisha Cuthbert. TSN shouldn’t of put it on air, and soon after this, they stopped airing live tweets during their broadcast.

– Tim Murray trading away Goaltender Michal Neuvirth, to the New York Islanders. Presumably because Neuvirth was winning games, which is against the philosophy of the Buffalo Sabres this season.

– Mark Giordano needing season-ending surgery to repair a torn biceps. A tear so bad that it’s a tendon tear, so he’ll be out 4-5 months. A massive blow for the Flames, as they push for playoff action, and a blow for Giordano’s possible Hart or Norris Trophy chances.

– Marek Zidlicky gets traded from New Jersey to Detroit.Wait.. you mean the Devils have traded away half of their aging Czechs? First Jagr and now Zidlicky. It’s a good thing they still have 11 players over the age of 32, including two Czechs (Patrik Elias and Martin Havlat).

– James Wisniewski becomes a Duck in what is arguably the biggest trade of deadline day. Unless you include Toronto trading Olli Jokinen to the St. Louis Blues, then it’s the second biggest trade of the day. Speaking of Olli Jokinen, here’s a tribute to his time as a Maple Leaf, as uploaded by YouTube user, Hockey_Montages.

– Dallas recall Patrik Nemeth from their AHL-affiliate Texas Stars. After the injury Nemeth suffered in October, suffering a severe laceration to his arm, it’s good to see that his recovery didn’t take as long as expected and that he will return on ice for the Stars this season. Which is good news not just for Stars fans, but for the league.

– Chris Stewart being traded out of Buffalo, comes to no surprise to no-one ever, as Tim Murray completes the clean out in Buffalo and only leaves those willing to fight the good fight. The good fight being winning the draft lottery.

– All the main trades happened before deadline day. Antoine Vermette from Arizona to Chicago, Keith Yandle from Arizona to the New York Hockey Rangers, Kimmo Timonen from Philadelphia to Chicago, and finally, Toronto and Columbus swapping horrible contracts, with Toronto getting Nathan Horton, due to Columbus not paying for any insurance on his contract, and Columbus getting a horrible contract on their cap, because the contract belongs to David Clarkson.

There you have it, Bored Hockey Fan’s roundup of the 2015 NHL Trade Deadline Day. So until next year, you stay classy with what tweets you show on line TV, TSN.

You can follow me on Twitter if you like, it’s @ThatDamnDoubleC. Or you can e-mail me at thatdamndoublec@hotmail.com.

The opening video is copyrighted by Disney/Pixar, and comes courtesy of Disney/Pixar.

It’s almost old news now, but Los Angeles defencemen Slava Voynov, was arrested and released on $50,000 bail, on the suspicion of domestic violence, just one month after the National Football League’s debacle, which saw Baltimore Ravens running back, Ray Rice, suspended firstly for two games, then indefinitely, when video footage was released involving Rice assaulting his fiance, then dragging her out of an elevator.

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The FIFA World Cup shows us exactly how an International Hockey tournament should be. 32 teams from all around the world compete for one prize. Not the best 32 teams, but 32 teams, going throuhg rigourous qualifying through groups designated by continent, because there are currently 209 countries recognized by FIFA. The IIHF on the other hand, as of their last ranking update, has 49, separated into 6 divisions. Championship, Division I A, Division I B, Division II A, Division II B and Division III.

Having six divisions is fine, as they work the same way they do in football, where the winner of each division gets relegated, and last place gets relegated, and the rankings are determined by a country’s performance by the last four IIHF World Championships, and the last Winter Olympics.

But this also leads to the first thing that is broken, as only 12 teams qualify for the Winter Olympics,w ith the top 9 teams in the IIHF rankings getting automatic qualification. Meaning that you will see those same 9 teams participating in every Winter Olympics. The last 3 spots are determined by a series of tournaments. Starting from a 4 team tournament with countries ranked 30 to 33.

The winner advancing to another tournament consisting of three groups of three, and the countries involved being ranked 19th to 29th, plus the winner of the first tournament. Then, the winners of the three groups, go on to play in ANOTHER tournament, consisting of three groups of three again, but with the countries ranked 10th to 18th, plus the three group winners from the second tournament, with the three group winners of the final tournament, advancing to the Winter Olympics. So it takes THREE tournaments, just to determine three qualifying spots in the Winter Olympics, meaning that if you have a bad IIHF World Championship one year, your chances of making the Olympics are slim and none.

The second thing that is broken, is that the Olympics is the major tournament for International Ice Hockey. Now I agree, the Winter Olympics without Ice Hockey wouldn’t be the same, but they play football (or soccer if you’re in the US or New Zealand) in the Olympics too! The rules of football at the Summer Olympics is that players must be the age of 23 or under, with each country allowed to have three players aged 24 or over in their squads, meaning that the teams are more equal, and the best countries in the world, don’t necessarily win the Gold Medal.

Hockey needs a tournament of it’s own. They have the IIHF World Championships, but that is split up, with no opportunity for the lower-ranked countries to play against the best in the world, meaning they have little opportunity to expose themselves to the best players in the world. A tournament where the lower ranked teams play the best in the world, would not only give those lower ranked more exposure against the top countries, but also grow the sport of Hockey around the world, uncover hidden talent, and who knows, you might even see an upset or two.

Now if only there was a Hockey version of the FIFA World Cup. Somewhere where minnows can play and challenge the absolute best. A Hockey World Cup if you will..

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/tretiak-world-cup-hockey-set-comeback-2016-214335953.html (Courtesy of Yahoo! Sports)

That’s right. The World Cup of Hockey is set to return in 2016! Is this the savior for International Hockey? Will Hockey finally have a stand-alone tournament ready to capitvae audiences all around the world like the FIFA World Cup does every four years? Well no.

It seems the World Cup of Hockey is nothing more than a money grab by the NHL, and to deter it’s players from playing Hockey from participating at the Winter Olympics. The World Cup of Hockey will consist of 8 countries, with 6 of those countries already secured (United States, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Finland and the Czech Republic), with the 2 remaining teams to be determined by how many NHLers they have, as well as their IIHF ranking.

This concept doesn’t really add much to the world of International Hockey, as this is just an 8-team tournament to be held every two years before the NHL season. If the World Cup of Hockey became a 24 or 32-country tournament, similar to the FIFA World Cup, then maybe it will have some merit, but until then, International Hockey won’t mean as much as it really deserves to be.

You can follow me on Twitter if you like, it’s @ThatDamnDoubleC. Or you can e-mail me at thatdamndoublec@hotmail.com.