On Tuesday, January 18, 2011, Mark Messier turns 50 years old.
Mark Messier turns 50 this week. His playing career was a testimony to skill and toughness.
I can think of a lot of tough athletes I’ve ever seen strap ’em up. Pete Rose. Mike Singletary. Jack Lambert. Bob Probert. And probably 50 other guys I’m forgetting right now. But, without a doubt, Mark Messier is the out-and-out meanest hombre I have ever watched play professional sports. (more…)
These days, it’s fun for you youthful hockey fans to believe Sidney Crosby is the greatest player in NHL history – mere games from becoming the on-ice equal of Number 99.
With two goals v. Toronto on Wednesday, Sidney Crosby extended his point streak to 17 games, and reached 50 points on the season
You will excuse me for a moment, won’t you, while I lose my lunch. The only way “Crosby” and “Gretzky” should be used in the same sentence is if you follow “Crosby” with “is not even close to both the skill and leadership level of.” We’re not going to dissect the stats to death (because Gretzky wins that battle hands-down against, well, everyone). It’s about the players and how they work on the ice. (more…)
If you are an Edmonton Oilers fan – and I’ll admit I am – today’s 23rd anniversary of the day Glen ‘Slats’ Sather sent Paul Coffey to the Pittsburgh Penguins brings back a very strong flood of memories.
Not since Bobby Orr had the NHL seen such an offensively explosive defenceman as Paul Coffey
Memories of what a magnificent player Coffey was. Memories of a day that revealed the first crack in the Oilers’ dynasty. And memories of what was, arguably, the greatest hockey team in the history of the NHL. (more…)
There are six Canadian teams in the NHL, but only two will be worth watching this season – the Edmonton Oilers and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Watching rookie Taylor Hall play this season might make Edmonton fans forget the last four, long years AP Photo/Reed Saxon
You can throw a sack over the other four and, maybe, check on them next year. That doesn’t mean that the Oilers and Maple Leafs will light the world on fire, make the Stanley Cup Playoffs and still be playing in June. It means that, of Canada’s six, Edmonton and Toronto will be the most entertaining – on and off the ice. (more…)
Edmonton's Rexall Place was modelled after Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver
Hey, Winnipeg, see if this statement sounds at all familiar – The NHL’s Edmonton Oilers will not play at Rexall Place, even if it’s renovated, after their current lease expires in 2014. That’s what Oilers’ owner Daryl Katz, and his cronies, told Edmonton city council this week. The Katz Group then denied that there was any implied threat to move the team. (That thud was me falling off my chair, laughing) Ringing any bells, Winnipeg? Have any advice for Edmonton? I bet you do. And I bet you’d be advising Edmonton to do whatever Katz demands, right? Because, if you had done that Winnipeg, and built a new rink in the mid-1990s, you’d still have the Jets. (more…)
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