Category: The National

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…

Editor’s note: It goes without saying that the Pucks and Recreation staff, like the rest of America, works, eats and sleeps with heavy hearts as we follow Puerto Rico’s recovery effort after Hurricane Maria. We pray for the day our fellow citizens clear the hurdle back to a sense of normalcy. And as the hockey…

The NHL China Games, conducted this past Thursday and Saturday, come two years after Andong Song broke ice at the 2015 draft. The People’s Republic has sent one of its talents to an NHL prospect pipeline in its history. And now it has savored a weekend-long return package with the Los Angeles Kings-Vancouver Canucks contests…

The Videotron Centre clearly does not want to just be for the Quebec Remparts. That was how its shuttered predecessor, Colisee Pepsi, rode out its final seasons. This month marks the five-year anniversary of the groundbreaking for Quebec City’s bigger, newer and improved arena. The who’s who of ex-Nordiques in attendance all but self-explained the…

Before any forms of the Mighty Ducks were conceived, Southern California novelist T Jefferson Parker established an authoritative distinction between the neighboring Los Angeles and Orange Counties. A childhood transplant from L.A., Parker invoked the expression “Orange Curtain” in a 1990 column for the Los Angeles Times. Favoring his longer-serving locale, he pulled no punches,…

For their inaugural TV broadcast tandem, the Vegas Golden Knights tabbed a play-by-play announcer whose NHL tenure began in the same year of the league’s last two expansion teams. In the 17-season interim since the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets debuted, two full-length American presidencies, plus a few months of two others, have elapsed.…

With the release of the 2017-18 NHL-NBC schedule, both for the main network and the subsidiary NBCSN, there were few surprises. It is clear that the NHL’s higher-ups know who they can rely on to keep viewership high. Traditional markets like Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Detroit have a lion’s share of the nationally televised games, with…

Brain injuries have been at the forefront of all contact sports as more as more findings link long-term brain damage to concussions and other violent head trauma. The newest data from Boston University’s ongoing NFL CTE study initiative have all but reached the ceiling for concern, as 110 out of 111 brains of pro football…

Few players in any sport will have a career as long and fulfilling as Jaromir Jagr. In his 27-year pro hockey career, Jagr has seemingly done it all. From being in the Triple Gold Club (winning Olympic gold, the Stanley Cup and the IIHF World Championship) to taking multiple scoring titles and MVP honors, there are…