by Adam Proteau - January 5, 2012 2:35 PM EST
Brendan Shanahan was supposed to usher in a new era of justice, but as the season has moved along, it has proven to be the same as it ever was.
When the NHL replaced chief disciplinarian Colin Campbell with Brendan Shanahan last spring and gave him the reassuring title of senior vice-president, player safety, I really wanted to believe things were going to change.
by Adam Proteau - December 28, 2011 10:19 AM EST
It's been a year to remember with plenty of eye-opening moments. Here's a handful of them, ranked into convenient top fives for your reading pleasure!
The end of the calendar year always brings with it the temptation to write best-of type lists and this year I’m offering no defense when facing that temptation.
by Adam Proteau - December 22, 2011 12:59 PM EST
After hopping on Washington's wagon in the summer, this writer thinks a new team has taken charge of the NHL.
When The Hockey News editorial team gathered last summer and picked the Washington Capitals as our choice for this season’s Stanley Cup winner, I was fully on board with the selection.
by Adam Proteau - December 15, 2011 2:01 PM EST
Instead of going back to the old coaching well, teams in search of help should explore the Marlies coach as an option.
Seventeen years ago, the Quebec Nordiques, a year away from becoming the Colorado Avalanche, had a tough decision to make. The organization, which was chock-full of emerging young stars, had just fired veteran coach Pierre Page and very easily could have replaced him with any number of experienced bench bosses.
by Adam Proteau - December 8, 2011 11:17 AM EST
Before the lockout, rookies and sophomores faced reasonable expectations. Now they enter the pro ranks with unprecedented security.
When the Sedin twins arrived in the NHL in 2000, they were hailed as the future of Vancouver’s Stanley Cup hopes. However, it took many years, many more defeats and countless stalls and sideway lurches for them to ascend to the pinnacle of the hockey world (and even then, they and their teammates fell one game short of a championship last season).
by Adam Proteau - December 1, 2011 12:54 PM EST
When you have the coaching resume the new Ducks boss has, it doesn't usually take long to find another job.
In approximately 67 hours, Bruce Boudreau went from being a dead duck in Washington to the head Duck in Anaheim. Boudreau’s transition from team-to-team is the quickest in NHL history and proves that if you do solid work behind a bench in the league and haven’t been riding the coaching carousel for decades, some team will be in sufficiently dire straights to snap you up quickly enough.
by Adam Proteau - November 28, 2011 2:40 PM EST
Stanley Cup hopes are heavy in Washington and recent struggles meant something had to give. That something was Bruce Boudreau.
Alex Ovechkin made a commercial last year that involved his disconnected head in various locations, including the top of a high school gym locker and the inside of a bowling ball bag.
by Adam Proteau - November 24, 2011 12:35 PM EST
The players' union recently sent doctors to speak to all 30 NHL teams about the seriousness of concussions and the importance of reporting them.
While it’s debatable whether hockey is doing enough to pin down and overcome the scourge of concussions, you can’t say the NHL Players’ Association isn’t doing more to bring NHLers up to speed on the dangers of head injuries.
by Adam Proteau - November 17, 2011 11:25 AM EST
While Quebec City and a few other places have been mentioned in relocation talk, Hartford is an under-the-radar market.
If the NHL can return a franchise to Winnipeg – and be poised to bring one back to les gens merveilleux of Quebec City – is a return to another former World Hockey Association city possible?
In the cases of Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Indianapolis, Baltimore, San Diego, Birmingham and San Francisco, probably not.
by Adam Proteau - November 15, 2011 5:35 PM EST
A lot of talking is done at the GM meetings, but nothing ever seems to happen.
A typical NHL GM meeting takes place in the beige, nondescript conference room bubble of an airport hotel. And the typical result of the six or seven hours of discussions on current issues usually feels just as artificial.
by Adam Proteau - November 10, 2011 3:09 PM EST
It's become clear after another horrific start that it's time for the Blue Jackets and Rick Nash to part ways.
In professional sports parlance, trade requests made by athletes are the equivalent of Marie Antoinette’s “let them eat cake” dismissal of her royal subjects.
by Adam Proteau - November 3, 2011 3:42 PM EDT
It's been debated for the past year, but if the Flames don't blow it up now, it'll be a tougher road in the long run.
I hope you’re sitting down, because the following sentence may blow out your kneecaps as well as your mind: It’s time to blow up the Calgary Flames.
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This Week - Subscribe NowWhich team will win Game 4 of the Boston-New York series?
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"Probably not. Their depth and our play right now...it doesn't look too good."
- Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, when asked if his team could come back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
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