HoosierDaddy

Kucherov scores the first goal of the 2023-2024 season.

If the NHL regular season is an 80% league, then the preseason is a 40% league. We've got guys trying to make a team. They've got guys going through the motions.

No. Unless you mean pregnant with the COVID virus.

ECHL games are a riot. I go to a few Cyclones games a year. The tickets are really cheap, all the seats are close to the ice and there are a lot of fights. I have to go to a game in Indianapolis this year because it's the Fuel's final year at the State Fair Grounds. You know how Canadians call rinks "barns?" That place is an actual barn. Because they hold the livestock shows there during the state fair, there is a faint smell of cow turds that hangs over the place like the odor of stale beer and popcorn used to linger at The Aud. It's a unique experience.

This would all be a lot more interesting if these guys were drafted at 20 instead of 18.

Cincinnati Reds. I loved the Yankees until I moved to Cincinnati. Living in a town with a team is different. I can go to multiple games a year and follow the team all summer. So I dove all the way in. Needless to say, it was a bad decision. Thankfully the Bills are pretty good right now, because other than that my teams are the IU Hoosiers, Pacers, Sabres, Reds, and Leeds United. That’s a lot of losing. It’s enough to make one stop watching sports all together.

This whole situation is nuts. The Coyotes got evicted from an arena after the owners of the venue determined that it would be more profitable to free up the dates for concerts and rodeos than to host a major professional sports team. Then you have Houston begging the NHL to allow their voters the chance to approve a publically-funded area when the Toyota Center is only 19 years old. It's just crazy to me that a team even thinks of asking for a new arena that soon. Even the Texas Rangers got 27 years out of the Ballpark at Arlington and that seemed really short.

I love how the announcer said "he's got a great release" after he shot it.

The Leafs are like the Knicks of the NHL. Because New York is a center of the basketball universe, they get lots of coverage regardless of how good the team is. Same thing with Toronto and Montreal in hockey.

When did Sabres fans start hating the Leafs so much? I left Buffalo in 1997 and I have no great feelings about them one way or the other. Is it the arena takeovers? I hate the Bruins and I hated the Nordique as a kid. The Leafs were just some team that played in the other conference. But then again, I’m unique amongst Buffalo fans in my sports hatred in that I am only mildly annoyed by the Pats but hate the Fins with the force of a thousand suns. I guess my sports hatred is firmly rooted in the mid 80’s.

Here’s my hot take. If the Leafs get out of the first round, they’ll win the whole thing.

Funny that the Cincinnati Cyclones have an actual Japanese player on their roster.

My formative years were the 81-93 Adams Division. Leafs were not in it. Bruins and Nodiques were my most hated teams. I always respected the Habs and the Whale didn’t matter much.

The United States has a severe lack of dudes named Gord.

This is what a rebuild looks like if you actually stay the course and don’t rush it.

Triumph is a band that the further you get from the Canadian border, the less you hear them. I've never heard them once on classic rock radio here in Cincinnati, but they are probably still in regular rotation on 97 rock.

Talent

Is Beck Warm hotter or colder than his brother Luke Warm?

That's it! If I can't smoke a dart between periods, I can't even play. And in Chicago they had a cold 2-4 in the dressing room and we all downed one between periods. Stan and Bobby got two of course. It's in their contracts.

1962 and 20 pushups. Also, golf is a required physical training exercise and all players are required to bring their clubs. https://www.prohockeystrength.com/Toronto_Maple_Leafs_Training_Camp_1962.pdf

How about that time John LeClair got a goal by shooting it through the side of the net. That was fun.

I never understood how Bass Pro was supposed to be an economic engine that would save downtown Buffalo. We have a Bass Pro in Cincinnati that's the anchor tenant in a dead mall. It couldn't even save a single mall, nevertheless a whole city.