Archive for the ‘For Fun’ Category

The name game can be fun with hockey players

Posted by Chris Lund under For Fun on Nov 22, 2012

Jamie McBain plays for the Carolina Hurricanes. The first time I ever heard of him my mind immediately went to the Simpsons and their famous Arnold Schwarzenegger inspired movie series. I’m not sure who plays Mendoza in my mind, but the comparison is definitely there.

As a frequent listener of the PRODcast, I was inspired by a discussion Riley and Ian had about people/bands/athletes whose name sound one way and are completely different in real life. They even went as far as citing Logan Couture as an example. He does not sound like a hockey player. He sounds like something much ritzier.

In what I think should go well, I give you five hockey players who ought to be doing something else with their lives, based on their names.
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BizNasty got punked by Mike Cammalleri at BioSteel camp (video)

Posted by Justin Bourne under For Fun, General Amusement, Mike Cammalleri, Paul Bissonette on Oct 24, 2012

Every summer, NHL players tend to get together in dense pockets around North America and Europe to train together, which makes sense – you can’t get better when you’re playing noon drop-in with a bunch of accountants and lawyers, no offense to those distinguished professions.

One of the more well-known get togethers is sponsored by the sport drink “BioSteel,” which players either love (and by all accounts they do), or are paid to say they love (less likely, from what I hear). Mike Cammalleri is one of their biggest supporters, and Paul Bissonnette isn’t too far behind.

On the first day of camp this year, Cammalleri decided to give Bissonnette a bit of a hard time, so he set up his own mini-version of punked to get the job done. Read the rest of this entry »

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Looking for illegal hits in Don Cherry’s Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em

Posted by Daniel Wagner under For Fun, Opinion on Oct 04, 2012

(Rick Stewart, Getty Images)

I have a metaphorical glass case in my house with a sign that says “Break glass in case of lockout.” It’s filled with stacks of VHS tapes and DVD boxes: I have a fairly extensive collection of hockey movies, shows, and highlights waiting to be busted out when I need to scratch my hockey itch. From classics like Youngblood and Slapshot to more obscure titles like Hockey Mom and Hockey Night, I have plenty of options in case the lack of NHL hockey gets me down.

I even have the first season of CBC’s not-very-good Making the Cut and the complete series of the 70′s Peter Puck animated shorts. And I have a stack of Don Cherry’s Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em VHS tapes. Last night, I needed some hockey. So I popped in the original Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em from 1989.

I did so with a purpose, however. One of the criticisms that has been levelled at Cherry is that he promotes a hardnosed, physical style of hockey because he profits from it, rather than because he actually thinks it’s good for the game. So I turned to the original Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em to see how much of this was true. How many of the hits and bodychecks would be considered dangerous and illegal by today’s standards? How many of the hits that Cherry celebrates are potential concussion-inducing, career-ending checks?

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Experiencing intense hockey withdrawal? Australia might be able to help.

Posted by Daniel Wagner under Australian Ice Hockey League, For Fun on Aug 09, 2012

The summer is rough on hardcore hockey fans, particularly once August comes around. Sure, sports fans have the Olympics to distract them from the summer doldrums and, technically, there is hockey in London, but it’s just field hockey and it’s really not the same. You could turn on the water polo and listen to the hockey commentators try to make sense of the game, but it’s just not a very visually stimulating sport to watch on TV, particularly since the bulk of the physical play takes place below the surface.

It’s only summer, however, in the Northern Hemisphere. Right now, it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere and Australia’s top hockey league is ramping up to a climax, with just a few weeks left in the regular season and the playoffs following shortly after. This weekend, you can get your fix of hockey to tide you over until NHL training camps start.

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Drawing NHL team logos from memory

Posted by Daniel Wagner under Cringe-Worthy, For Fun on Jul 10, 2012

My wife hurt her back a couple years ago while we were moving from our old basement suite to our current basement suite [1]. It was bad enough that she had to take some pretty heavy painkillers, the kind with a muscle relaxant involved. That medication, combined with being completely exhausted from a stressful move, made her pretty loopy that night. She decided that it was time for a challenge.

She decided that she wanted to draw all of the NHL logos from memory. Last night, I did the same. And I deeply, deeply regret it. Read the rest of this entry »

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Mock Draft: Selecting the top 30 prospects based solely on name awesomeness

Posted by Justin Bourne under For Fun, Mock Drafts on Jun 21, 2012

If you haven’t noticed, we’ve been posting bios of the top 30 prospects heading into this year’s NHL draft so you have some idea who’s who when names are being called (all of them will be up by Friday). theScore has also put together this fantastic Draft Tracker, which is also available on theScore’s crazy-awesome app, which if you don’t have by now, it’s time.

BUT ENOUGH with the shill work – I’m here to talk about those names. Those exceptional, awesome, likely foreign names.

While going through the player profiles I was consistently stopped in my tracks by their beauty. I was unaware that non-North American families were forced to name their kids by grabbing a handful of scrabble letters and assembling them into something borderline pronounceable. (By the way, this isn’t to make fun of anyone, it’s more to look on in slack-jawed awe at their seeming randomness.)

So let’s get to it! The top 30 prospects (so sadly, no Martin Frk) from 30 to 1, a mock draft that shows where players would end up if picks were made solely on the awesomeness of their names.

Just missed the cut: Ryan Murray: Sorry dude, but that’s the most generic, kid-from-Canada name of all. Every single one of us played with a one of you.

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An interview with an NHL 13 producer makes the game sound really, really cool

Posted by Chris Lund under For Fun on Jun 09, 2012

The problem with sports video games, and one that will exist forever until there is some sort of conclusive, continuous method developed to fix this, is when you buy a game a new, better one comes out next year. When the game is just a recycled version of last year’s with a more pertinent roster, it’s hard to get excited about it, but the EA team may have hooked me for NHL 13 with the developments here.
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