Where Goon meets Glitz, from the Ice to the Armchair, balanced and objective hockey analysis and reporting.
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Dialed in and determined: The Brian Propp story, on and off the ice
Today marks the 45th anniversary of the commencement of a terrific professional ice hockey career, which led to a life well lived – Though not without some arduousness along the way, both during said career and after. Brian Phillip Propp (born February 15th, 1959 in Lanigan, Saskatchewan and raised in Neudorf, Saskatchewan), a terrific minor… Read more
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Hlinka Gretzky Cup, day three/prelim wrap-up: The haves, have nots, and informal superlatives
The necessary work on this article was pushed back due to personal obligations. To make up for the wait, I decided to give this some more thoroughness and make it a grander scale analytical piece that puts the group stage into a broader context and provides some grander evaluations of groups and individual players. Gives… Read more
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Chicago Blackhawks: Losing the Plot
The Chicago Blackhawks, despite the addition of a generational talent in Connor Bedard during the offseason, managed to have a teamwide regression following their disastrous 2022-23 campaign, with a franchise-worst points percentage of 31.7% or 52 standings points on the season. More notable in Chicago’s teamwide regression was their inability to score goals, seen… Read more
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Hlinka Gretzky Cup, day two: Fates being determined
Day two marked the beginning of the results truly starting to matter. Getting off on a bad foot on day one in these “four teams per group” tournaments means your fate can be sealed the next day. We started to see these narratives take shape in the action that went on today. Let’s make some… Read more
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Buffalo Sabres: Making key future choices while going back to the poisoned well
Despite their best efforts, the Buffalo Sabres ended up missing out on the postseason yet again in their 2023-24 campaign, as their league-leading playoff drought continued. General manager Kevyn Adams and the front office opted to relieve head coach Don Granato of duty after yet another failing. The future definitely hangs in the balance for… Read more
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Hlinka Gretzky Cup, day one: A story of overtime and overwhelming performances
I never want my “scouting” work/prospect coverage to let up, especially for guys who are coming up on their draft eligibility, so I’m going to be doing a wrap-up of each day’s worth of action in one of the most important junior tournaments there is (even despite its lack of official sanctioning by the IIHF).… Read more