Hockey

The Leaderless Leafs

In the latter half of the 2007-08 NHL season, long-time Toronto Maple Leaf captain Mats Sundin had a couple of opportunities to do right by his hockey club. Depending on what you consider to be noble – standing by your team or gracefully stepping down – Sundin had the chance to do each, but instead, […]

Other Sports

Italian soccer’s rise from shame to triumph

Soccer is known across the globe as “The Beautiful Game.” Twenty-two men position themselves on a grassy field and proceed to complete a stunning arsenal of manoeuvres in an attempt to keep the ball in their possession long enough to find that precise moment where it can be knocked into the opposition’s goal. The world […]

Hockey

Ode to the Red Line

There you sit, center of centers, dividing the playing surface in two. Unlike your cousins, the blue lines, you perform a task ever so critical, a duty that is carried out by no other. You proudly sit in the middle of the cold ice surface, separating it ever so symmetrically into two indistinguishable halves. Skating […]

Hall of Fame

Saku Koivu’s debatable tenure in Montreal

In the summer of 1993, the city of Montreal was busy celebrating their hockey club’s 24th Stanley Cup championship. That same summer, the team drafted 18-year-old Saku Koivu, a promising young Finnish prospect playing for TPS in Finland’s SM-Liiga. After a couple more successful seasons in Europe, the Montreal faithful began to lick their proverbial […]

Hockey

Joe Sakic: 20 Years of Excellence

Many words come to mind when one mentions the name Joe Sakic. Passion, dedication, leadership, loyalty, class, and humility are a small handful of descriptors that characterize the seasoned NHL veteran, but perhaps no word personifies Sakic’s illustrious career in the National Hockey League better than the word excellence. Joseph Steven Sakic was born on […]

Football

Rebuilding a Dynasty in San Francisco

The last time the San Francisco 49ers appeared in the post-season, they achieved the second-greatest comeback in team playoff history. The club rallied behind quarterback Jeff Garcia to overcome a daunting 24-point deficit and squeaked out a breathtaking 39-38 victory over the New York Giants. Unfortunately, this feat took place in 2002, a depressingly lengthy […]

Hockey

Dear Detroit, signed Stanley

Dear the Detroit Red Wings, On the night of Tuesday, June 9th, 2009, I sat in the bowels of Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, awaiting the outcome of Game 6, contemplating what another year with your organization would be like. Since 1997 I have spent four years with you in the state of Michigan, bearing […]

Hockey

Seventh Heaven

It really doesn’t get any better than this. Tomorrow night the Pittsburgh Penguins will square off with the defending champion Detroit Red Wings in the Motor City in a winner-take-all showdown for the most coveted prize in hockey. To the victor go the spoils. To the loser go – well not much. Not much except […]

Other Sports

The Price of Entertainment: Remembering Owen Hart

On the night of May 23, 1999, World Wrestling Entertainment’s “Over The Edge” pay-per-view opened with an ominous montage in which The Undertaker – wrestling’s personal Lord of Darkness – promised fans that, “Tonight, darkness will seize the land” and “destroy all you hold dear.” Little did Mark Calaway vis-a-vis The Undertaker know what an […]

Hockey

Lapierre to the Max

Each and every general manager in the National Hockey League shares the same objective: build a championship-winning team. A GM searches out players high and low with the ultimate goal of orchestrating a winning formula. It goes without saying that such a formula most certainly requires the proper components. While defence and goaltending are obviously […]