Archive for the ‘For Fun’ Category

Hockey Ughs: second round sadness and sorrow

Posted by Daniel Wagner under For Fun on May 30, 2013

Leafs fans - Toronto Star

Hockey Ughs is the cynical sister to Puck Daddy’s Hockey Hugs, a feature written by my same-sex blog-partner Harrison Mooney from Pass it to Bulis. While Hockey Hugs highlights the joy of scoring a goal and celebrating it with your bestest buds, Hockey Ughs highlights the agony of the other team’s fans right behind the glass, watching those hugs.

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The above image made the rounds a couple weeks ago when the Bruins made their improbable comeback in the third period of Game 7 against the Leafs. It perfectly encapsulates the shock, disgust, and despair that is the Hockey Ugh, but I just can’t bring myself to poke fun at the fans in this picture. The pain is just too stark and raw and it still somehow feels too soon.

Fortunately, the second round of the playoffs gave us plenty of other Hockey Ughs, as the stakes got higher and, with them, the potential for disappointment. Read the rest of this entry »

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Hockey Ughs: pouting Penguin, despairing Duck, and befuddled Blackhawk

Posted by Daniel Wagner under For Fun on May 07, 2013

Hockey Ughs is the cynical sister to Puck Daddy’s Hockey Hugs, a feature written by my same-sex blog-partner Harrison Mooney from Pass it to Bulis. While Hockey Hugs highlights the joy of scoring a goal and celebrating it with your bestest buds, Hockey Ughs highlights the agony of the other team’s fans right behind the glass, watching those hugs.

Aw dang. (Hannah Foslien, Getty Images)

(Hannah Foslien, Getty Images)

Buying a ticket to a playoff game is a massive gamble. Sure, the atmosphere is electric, the hockey is at its most passionate, and seeing your favourite team win in the playoffs is incredibly emotional, but you’re also setting yourself up for a potential heartbreaking experience.

Just imagine the Leafs fans who paid premium prices to see the first playoff game in Toronto in nine years, only to see the Bruins thump the Leafs 5-2. Or consider the Canucks fans who travelled all the way down to San Jose to see game three and watch the team collapse in the third period and lose by that same 5-2 score. If you were given the odds of your team winning a particular and were asked to place a bet equivalent to the price of going to that game, you’d most likely pass.

But this is what being a fan is all about. You take a risk supporting your team, knowing that at any given moment you could experience euphoria or misery. There’s plenty of time to focus on the joy of being a hockey fan; let’s have some fun with the sorrow for a little while.

Here are the best Hockey Ughs of the first round of the playoffs so far.

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The Backhand Shelf guide to keeping your sanity during the NHL Playoffs

Posted by Jake Goldsbie under 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Backhand Shelf Guide, For Fun on Apr 30, 2013

Not pictured: mental stability, dignity

Not pictured: mental stability, dignity

The NHL playoffs can be a stressful and scary time. The nature of hockey allows things to change in an instant. Change is scary. Then there’s the unpredictability of the NHL playoffs (see: Kings, Los Angeles). The unknown is scary. Then you have overtime which is literally called “sudden death” which, I mean, come on.

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Some NHL sonnets because I’m lonely and sad

Posted by Jake Goldsbie under For Fun, General Idiocy, I Dunno on Feb 14, 2013

Love you.

Love you.

Ah, Valentine’s Day. The day that separates the men from the people who don’t know how to use an apostrophe. Also the happy from the sad. It’s the day that we go home to our loved ones and spend some quality time with them for all they do for us year ’round (see you soon, bourbon). We’ve been having some fun at The Score this week with some sports themed cards but I am terrible at Photoshop so I had to change the game up a little bit. So, I bring you some sonnets of love for my three favorite NHL people.

Oh my dear God I hope I remember what a sonnet is. This could backfire horribly, so, for all you Shakespeare students out there and to attempt to seem like I paid attention in university…uh, these are modern sonnets. Yeah. Screw iambic pentameter. Deal with it.

Yes, I am aware this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. On the blog, anyway. I should probably just kill myself. (Editor’s note: Jake once wrote this.)

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Ranking all 67 goalies according to the Montoya Line

Posted by Jake Goldsbie under For Fun, Lists on Feb 13, 2013

Pictured: Mediocrity

Pictured: Mediocrity

Before the season, on this thing called the Backhand Shelf Podcast (which you should totally listen to because we’re awesome), I predicted that Al Montoya would be the Winnipeg Jets starting goaltender by the end of the season because I needed something random and arbitrary and I think Ondrej Pavelec is terrible. On Saturday, Montoya got a shutout. On Monday, amongst Montoya discussion, our little podcast gang determined that Montoya was the definition of an “average” goaltender and, thus, the Montoya Line was born. Basically, if Montoya is the standard for being average, a goalie can rank above or below the Montoya Line. It’s a complicated system.

Today I had the thought Bourne told me to rank all the goalies in the NHL on the Montoya Line. I created a three-point system on either side. Basically, a goalie can rank anywhere from 1 to 3 points either below or above the line. Sometimes higher, though. And sometimes I just ranked goalies wherever I felt like it. Keep in mind this is entirely my opinion based on a rating system that I made up. YOLO, etc.

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Exclusive: a screenshot of Roberto Luongo’s Gmail inbox

Posted by Justin Bourne under For Fun on Jan 17, 2013

The good folks over at The Whistle have been hard at work trying to figure out just where Roberto Luongo is going to end up this week, or at the very least, what’s going on the goaltender’s head. They even went as far as to hack into his Gmail inbox and grab a screenshot of what they saw. I’m grateful to report that they passed it on to us, and now we’re proud to share with you what they found: Read the rest of this entry »

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Kings continue winning streak as Bailey the lion beats Dwight Howard in a shooting competition

Posted by Justin Bourne under For Fun, Hey Sweet on Dec 03, 2012

A rare crossover post with theScore’s blog “The Basketball Jones.” Check out the LA Kings mascot beating Dwight Howard of the Lakers in a shooting competition. Mad swag, yo.

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