Battle of Ontario Should be Worth Waiting For

 In the classic(?) words of the legendary(??) Spice Girls: Tell me what you want, what you really, really want. And here we are. You wanted the provincial gob smacker? You got it. Upon further consideration, if you’re rooting for the Ottawa Senators, you’re more than happy with the card pull.

Schedule and Positioning all in Ottawa’s Favour

 The shoe’s definitely on the other foot this time around and it’s a more-than-comfortable fit. As the team prepares to face off against the Philadelphia Flyers Tuesday night, the Ottawa Senators are swimming in uncharted waters . . . well, uncharted for them, certainly. This kind of unfamiliarity though suits

Questions and queries surround the NHL’s East

 From shakeups to shakedowns, it hasn’t exactly been a quiet summer in the National Hockey League’s Eastern Conference. Your Ottawa Senators added in the way of veteran help (as advertised), your Toronto Maple Leafs shook up that targeted, beleaguered blueline, and your Montreal Canadiens stuck to due diligence on the

NHL Free Agency conjures Questions in Need of Answers

 By mid-afternoon on an unusually bright and sunny Canada Day (doesn’t it always rain on July 1st?), the National Hockey League was zipping along quite nicely as the free agency period opened with a slew of deals and decisions. The price tag was enormous as teams spent more than $1

The Extraordinary Connor McDavid . . . (and other noteworthy observations)

 Back in college and - eventually - university days we had what we called The Gretzky Rule. It was pretty simple: Any playoff hockey pool worth its salt would eliminate any of the participants from having the ability to select Wayne Gretzky. The thinking was equally simple: The gap between

NHL trade deadline a pickle for Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto

 Complex and potentially puzzling are a couple of ways to project the upcoming National Hockey League trade deadline for the three Eastern-based Canadian operations. Take any one of the above descriptions and apply it to your favourite Canadian team around these parts if you want, but you can also and

Are we Already at Make-or-Break?

 I’m pretty sure you’re familiar with the projected math (and what it all can signify) approaching U.S. Thanksgiving: If you’re ‘in,’ come the final days of November, you’re likely ‘in.’ Subsequently, if you’re ‘out,’ you’re likely ‘out,’ come season’s end. In-and-out? The playoffs. Yeah, it happens this early. American Thanksgiving

Dorion’s firing . . . and spinning the wheel on Senators, Habs and Leafs

 Collectively they should be recognized as the Holy Trinity of hockey around these parts. Three entities that swallow the large majority of fan support in the Eastern Ontario region. So in no particular order, here we have Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, and if you’re a hockey follower in the region,

NHL Quiz Show

 What’s up this week? Well, I’ll tell you what’s up this week: questions and answers that potentially could carry great relevance to a 2023-34 National Hockey League season, which opens in less than one month. That’s what’s up. The one caveat here – as it tends to be since we

Who’s tops in an all-Canadian division?

 Last week in this very corner the thought was that an all-Canadian team realignment in the National Hockey League should not only be instituted this coming season but should also be a permanent thing. Great idea? Well, I thought so. To further the discussion, this week’s gripper deals with a