Author: Al Daniel
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Best unlikely Christmas song origin stories
This author finished this column in a location where the day’s forecasted high breached the 70s. A Christmas song is thus all the more crucial to salvaging any semblance of a holiday atmosphere. Even when spring- or summer-esque air comes expectedly, people seek relief via Christmas tunes. A slew of noteworthy Christmas song origin stories…
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10 greatest Christmastime traditions in the hockey world
We can forgive hockey fans for their misgivings about sideshows at their games. Little or none of this sport’s exceptionally proud fan base is built on the equivalent of football halftime shows or minor-league baseball giveaways. But this is Christmastime. Surely we can reason with those who expect the rink to be a refuge from…
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Best Modern Family Christmas plots
This season bucked a trend where a new Modern Family Christmas episode premiered every odd-numbered year. A bona fide holiday-heavy episode marked the midway points of the first, third, fifth and seventh seasons. The eighth season had “Snow Ball” closing out 2016, but was more of a normal episode featuring a winter dance. The ABC sitcom will…
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Greatest defunct minor-league hockey brands
You know Slap Shot speaks a stranger-than-fiction truth when minor-league hockey teams win a title and vanish in one year. It really happens, and for an end-to-end range of reasons. As this site recently recalled, one defending IHL champion had its banner night usurped by a relocated NHL squad’s debut. Similarly, in 1970, an AHL franchise treated…
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Paul Dini’s brainchild perfect for a hockey/Xmas film
Jingle Belle Kringle — a unique take on Santa’s teenage daughter — is, shall we say, a niche Christmas character. She is the brainchild of veteran comic-book author Paul Dini, who also helped give rise to Harley Quinn. (Once you know that and have perused enough of each character’s stories, it explains a lot.) But…
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10 best-timed releases of American Christmas movies
Did anyone else notice how the hype for A Bad Moms Christmas fizzled before Thanksgiving? At the other extreme, who else remembered that this Monday marks 25 years since The Muppet Christmas Carol hit theaters? Namely two weeks before Christmas of that year? Forget the debate over entertainment value. The two aforementioned American Christmas movies…
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Greatest post-service NHL careers of WWII vets
The United States entered World War II two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Canada had declared war on each Axis power as long as 27 months and as short as two days prior. In Boston, an assembly of citizens of both countries heard U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt’s Dec. 9, 1941 declaration. The…
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Best ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ covers that actually rock
With all due respect to the late Bobby Helms, “Jingle Bell Rock” had ample evolution ahead when he introduced it. Maybe it was a mark of the era, but hardly anything about Helms’ original 1957 recording matches the title. His suggestion “to rock the night away” comes closer to evoking visuals of sleeping in a…
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Rachel, Brandon Kisker taking stock in civic endorsement
Even before he saw them in action, Brandon Kisker favored the Rough and Ready Islanders uniforms. The ECHL’s Stockton Thunder were to assume a temporary persona Feb. 7 and 8, 2014. It was the front office’s choice of costume for the league’s answer to a masquerade ball. As the Alaska Aces’ guests when Anchorage observed…
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Best actors from ECHL Mountain Division cities
Editor’s note: This is the final installment of a series in which a Pucks and Rec writer will select the top contemporary entertainment citizen of every city in a select minor-league hockey division. The seven markets comprising the ECHL Mountain Division are this week’s focus. All filmography and award information is courtesy of the Internet…