hockey
We talk pucks and objects of that kind. We yell, complain, and analyze in the language of hockey fandom. Gretzky can do no wrong.
Avalanche Game 49 Recap: Preparing for the Break
The Colorado Avalanche were coming off a very big win against the Washington Capitals, where Nathan MacKinnon, well, did it again. Another four-goal game for the man leading the way in the Hart Trophy race, and five points over all in the Avs' 6-2 win. MacKinnon left that night as the points leader, but entering this night, he was behind Nikita Kucherov by one point. Seriously, this will be one hell of a race.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 3 months ago in UnbalancedAvalanche Game 48 Recap: The Natural
It's been 11 seasons, and I still can't believe we have such a superstar in Nathan MacKinnon. I remember the tail end of that shortened 2012-2013 season, and Avs fans were talking about the draft. Who would we get? Seth Jones was talked about a lot, but then this Nathan MacKinnon kid became the hot topic. So that was the name we decided to go with. We drafted MacKinnon, and he had quite the rookie year. Got his first taste of the playoffs, had 10 points. Eight of them were assists, three of them were in Game One. Back then, I thought, "We have ourselves a good one here."
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 3 months ago in UnbalancedAvalanche Game 47 Recap: Top Nate Dogg
Saturday saw the Colorado Avalanche's five game road trip come to an end. What a trip, though. Game 1 was the comeback win in Toronto. Game 2 was the heartbreaking loss in Montreal. Game 3 featured another comeback in in Ottawa, and Game 4 was a tough loss in Boston. The fifth and final game of this road trip sees the Avs in Philadelphia against a Flyers team who appears to be playoff bound.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 3 months ago in UnbalancedAvalanche Game 46 Recap: Carb Overload
It's Game Four of the Colorado Avalanche's five game road trip, and after playing three games in Eastern Canada, the boys are back stateside. This time, the Avs are in Boston facing off against the Bruins, with the game taking place on the anniversary of Willie O'Ree breaking the NHL's color barrier. This finishes off the season series, as the first meeting was a 4-3 shootout win for the Avalanche.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 3 months ago in Unbalanced- Top Story - January 2024
A Spirit That Fears Nothing
There are many sound reasons to repudiate professional sport in general and NHL hockey in particular. After all, the game has been as utterly defiled by cynical, avaricious late-stage capitalism as every other aspect of contemporary existence. The ordinary fan is incessantly encouraged by marketers and advertisers to gamble, guzzle alcoholic beverages and devour kilograms of fast food, which is a bald oxymoron if you contemplate it for a moment. Salaries are stratospherically inflated, as are ticket prices, and what passes for discourse generated by the participants in, and commentators upon, the game is so full of cliches and verbal false limbs that Orwell’s ghost will never stop screaming.
D. J. ReddallPublished 3 months ago in Unbalanced Avalanche Game 45 Recap: Still Finding a Way
Fresh off a devastating loss in Montréal, the Colorado Avalanche were off to Canada's capital, Ottawa, for the second and last meeting with the Ottawa Senators. The first meeting was a memorable one, as it saw Nathan MacKinnon score four goals in that outing. Regarding Part 2, the Avs were still looking to keep pace with the red hot Winnipeg Jets in the Central Division standings, as the loss in Montréal kept the Avs from moving past the Jets.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 3 months ago in UnbalancedAvalanche Game 44 Recap: C'est du Hockey
The second leg of the Colorado Avalanche's five-game Eastern road swing sees the team head to Montréal to face off against Les Habitants, the Canadiens. It's amazing. This used to be a provincial rivalry, as the old Quebec Nordiques battled hard against the Canadiens for sixteen seasons before the Nords moved to Denver. Even so, the teams still have a crazy connection, mainly because the Avs have taken some notable names from the Habs, and won Cups with them.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 3 months ago in UnbalancedAvalanche Game 43 Recap: The Comeback Kings
It was a day where the NFL took center stage, as this year's Super Wild Card Weekend was underway. Even so, the NHL had a stacked schedule: all 32 teams were in action. Two of them were the Colorado Avalanche and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and they faced each other. That's a marquee matchup, mainly because it pits two of the NHL's biggest stars against each other: Nathan MacKinnon and Auston Matthews. One's climbing the ladder in the points race, the other is leading the league in goals. Giddy--by God--up!
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 3 months ago in UnbalancedThe History of the Norris Division
Ever since I learned about the old NHL divisions--the Adams, Patrick, Norris, and Smythe, my fascination with them has increased as time passed by. I do love reading about the Adams Division because I'm a Quebec Nordiques fan, and learning about how they fared in that division back in the day was just amazing. The Patrick Division was spectacular due to the geographical aspect, and while the Smythe Division is a story I'll delve into later, it was definitely an impactful division. The subject of this story is the Norris Division. This one was quite amazing, according to what I've read about the Norris.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 3 months ago in UnbalancedAvalanche Game 42 Recap: Impostors
Boy, does this feel good! Entering this night, I had said that the Colorado Avalanche owed the Vegas Golden Knights an ass-whipping, though it was not a few months in the making. The 7-0 drubbing that the Golden Knights gave us was just part of it. We had owed them an ass-kicking ever since the evening of June 10, 2023. What happened on that date, you ask? The Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup. Our Stanley Cup. Granted, that Cup's going to go from team to team, with some lucky teams holding it for two or three years, but still, Vegas should be thanking Seattle for that upstart upset last year.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 3 months ago in UnbalancedThe History of the Patrick Division
As I learned about the National Hockey League's classic divisions, I couldn't help but be fascinated by the Patrick Division. One reason is that while the divisions originally had little to nothing to do with geography, the Patrick Division consistently had East Coast franchises, with the exception of one season of the division's existence. The division was named after Lester Patrick, the longtime player and coach for the New York Rangers, who was also credited for a number of innovations that remain in the current NHL today: the blue line, the penalty shot, and tracking assists, among other things.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 3 months ago in UnbalancedAvalanche Game 41 Recap: The Halfway Point
Seems like yesterday that this season started, yet here it is, Game #41 of the Colorado Avalanche's 2023-24 season. Game #40 did not go well for the Avs, as it saww the Florida Panthers thrash the Avs and put up eight goals on the team. For this game, the Avs were facing the Boston Bruins, a team who the Avs have a very good history with for the last quarter-century.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 3 months ago in Unbalanced