Author: Al Daniel
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Why the ’90s were the golden age for American hockey fans
Starting Monday, the NHL will run its last draft combine to feature a pool of prospects primarily born in the 1990s. Every non-expansion pick of the Vegas Golden Knights will have been born in or after the year the Las Vegas Thunder folded. American hockey fans old enough to remember can fondly educate that draft…
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10 greatest combined NHL-AHL playoff runs by one organization
To date, no professional hockey organization has combined for more than seven NHL and AHL playoff series wins in a single spring. The last of three dual Calder Cup-Stanley Cup triumphs occurred one year before the top development circuit first used the full-fledged, four-round, 16-team tournament. Out of the first 20 of those coinciding four-round…
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Kudos to Tomek for shutting out despair, blame
Matej Tomek surprised few, if any, of his followers when he withdrew from the University of North Dakota last week. Although, that lack of surprise simply stems from the fact that his following comes heavily from his hockey endeavors. For his own long-term purposes, the solid sophomore Slovak netminder made the sage choice. He had…
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800 clean words on George Carlin’s 80th birth anniversary
Author’s warning: Though the contents of this column are clean, those of some hyperlinks are NSFW. George Carlin, who lived for seven decades and change and first turned heads through his controversial “Seven Dirty Words” routine, would have been 80 this Friday. Nearly nine years after his death from heart failure at age 71, his…
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10 greatest NHL conference finals of all time
The 35th pair of NHL conference finals commences this weekend, with the Nashville Predators becoming the 28th all-time franchise to participate in at least one such round. Of the first 68 playoff series of this kind, 17 have required a seventh game. Of those 17, all but two have seen each team hold at least…
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Hartford Whalers fans: 20 years of persistence, and counting
This past Saturday marked 20 years since the Hartford Whalers finished a formality. Three-plus weeks after their final game, and after a short-lived attempted intervention by Stephen D. Fish, owner Peter Karmanos resurfaced in Raleigh to unveil the new Carolina Hurricanes brand. Yet the forlorn faithful in and around the Connecticut capital continue to demonstrate…
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Can’t live with or without the college hockey pep band
In terms of the game-day experience, college hockey pep bands all but singlehandedly separate their level of the sport from the rest. They make that separation for the better and the worse in copious quantities. They punctuate the personal aspect of intercollegiate athletics that student and alumni rooters dearly clutch. They flaunt a flair and…
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Shawn Wheeler ‘not so silent’ as an active, adopted Charlottean
As a player, Shawn Wheeler led Charlotte to its finest hockey hour of the last 40 years. As a bench boss, he broke the ECHL’s coaching color barrier. And long after his ice evaporated, he has built on new means of continuing a mutually pleasing relationship with the community. Shawn Wheeler cites the so-called “Bangin…
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Why not explore ‘non-traditional’ sites for NCAA hockey regionals?
The American Hockey Coaches Association is at its annual retreat in Naples, Fla., this weekend. Though the Sunshine State has never housed a varsity program, it is a staple on the almanac through the late-April convention and the Estero-based Florida College Classic. Not to mention, Tampa has hosted two well-received Frozen Fours over the past…
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How Jammin’ in New York holds up 25 years later
In the wee minutes of his Jammin’ in New York standup concert, George Carlin referenced the novel news coverage assets of the time. Fittingly enough, through the show’s structure, he unwittingly built a wise suggestion for ingesting the type of dominant media that would follow and maintain firm root long after his 2008 death. Carlin…