Where Goon meets Glitz, from the Ice to the Armchair, balanced and objective hockey analysis and reporting.
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Carolina Hurricanes: By necessity, the launch of a transformative era
For the third consecutive year, the Carolina Hurricanes had upwards of 50 wins in 2023–24. They finished second in both the Eastern Conference and the Metropolitan Division behind only their rivals the New York Rangers, who would eventually end their season in round two in six games. Just eight days after the last game of… Read more
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Hlinka Gretzky Cup, final day: Those who stood tall at the end of the climb
It all came to a close today/yesterday. This meant things capped off at a reasonable hour and I could finally write about just two games. Let’s knock ’em out and do some final reflections on what we learned about some of the personalities involved in this tournament’s proceedings. Bronze medal game: Sweden 6–3 USA The… Read more
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Colorado Avalanche: Standing Pat because of the Cap
The Colorado Avalanche were a regular season juggernaut for the 5th consecutive season, posting a PTS% greater than 65% once again. Despite this, in year where they recorded 107 points, they were the third seed in the Central Division during the postseason, where they were eliminated (Surprisingly) at home in game 6 by the… Read more
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Hlinka Gretzky Cup, day four: Placements and pursuits of glory
We entered the winding down phase today/yesterday, with playoffs to determine the remaining spots and semifinals occurring. More narratives played themselves out for individual players and we had one last look at teams’ strengths before we get into the true high stakes matchups and one final examination of the squads who had their tournaments come… Read more
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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