Author: Al Daniel
-
Best actors from AHL Central Division cities
Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a four-part 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 AHL Central Division are this week’s focus. All filmography and award information is courtesy of the…
-
Present-focused Deeth centers ND’s past-to-future line
Theoretically, Kevin Deeth can walk past Touchdown Jesus or the Golden Dome at will. He can soak in the spectacle of Division I athletics from any one of the 20 Fighting Irish teams. He can do so in an admiring, reflective role that he rarely could in a prior Notre Dame life. And he can…
-
Best TV/movie actor from AHL North Division cities
Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a four-part 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 AHL North Division are this week’s focus. All filmography and award information is courtesy of the Internet…
-
Is there any future for fanimation, other crowd contribution?
Bob’s Burgers basically exercised its seniority privilege with what some dub its “fanimation” experiment for its eighth-season premiere. This decade’s defining primetime cartoon handed the drawing board to its audience and presented the work of 62 lucky viewers. As one should expect, not everyone was game for the one-off deviation in the “Brunchsquatch” episode. The…
-
Announcer/milliner Schultz sports several hats in Bemidji
Kelly Schultz had a friend who had a good problem to have. With that said, it was still a problem. Karin Housley, a Minnesota State Senator, had hoped to attend the 2017 Kentucky Derby. But her husband, NHL veteran-turned-assistant coach Phil Housley, had commitments south of the state border. Phil’s Nashville Predators were on a…
-
Best TV/movie actors from AHL Atlantic cities
Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a four-part 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 eight markets comprising the AHL Atlantic Division are this week’s focus. All filmography and award information is courtesy of the…
-
Anthem-booing fans complicate NHL kneeling debate
P.K. Subban spent seven seasons serving the NHL’s most notorious national anthem-booing fan base. His current coach, Nashville’s Peter Laviolette, witnessed one of that base’s most polarizing episodes. Fairly or unfairly, Montreal embodies a dynamic of North American nationalism that permeates no other major sport. Its beloved Canadiens are a non-U.S., non-Toronto franchise in a…
-
Explaining (at least some of) the Mighty Ducks movie flaws
Consider this an intramural debate among Mighty Ducks movie nerds. It is natural that Disney’s kid-targeted hockey trilogy stretches the truth. While that fact does not constitute grounds for chastising the nitpickers, there is nothing wrong with underlining the alleged blemishes that are not necessarily blemishes at all. Hockey purists should be free to explain…
-
Jake Gyllenhaal vs. Joshua Jackson
You win some, you lose some. And if you’re like Jake Gyllenhaal, you win some, only to have them revoked. Conversely, if you’re like Joshua Jackson, you win some that your Gyllenhaal counterpart won first, only to involuntarily lose. And if you are like either actor, you lose some big ones to suave, versatile British…
-
10 NCAA arenas that should host NHL preseason
The Chicago Blackhawks devoted four days of preseason practice at the University of Notre Dame this past week. It was their third time in four years spending a portion of training camp in Indiana. On Sept. 17, the Colorado Avalanche kept up an established custom with their intramural exhibition at Denver’s Magness Arena. And the…