There is no shortage of opinion on what the NHL can do with its lockout. One particularly interested group of hockey observers are the people running world junior hockey programs. Forgive them if they say a quiet prayer before bedtime each night that the lockout might stay on — at least until wheels touch down in Ufa, Russia.
From a distance, it’s clear Tracey Crabtree is a passionate Ottawa Senators and National Hockey League fan. As she strolled through the busy Bayshore Shopping Centre with her friend Tanya Bruce at lunchtime Wednesday, she was sporting a Senators baseball cap. A closer look revealed a Senators tattoo on her left leg. Crabtree regularly helps out with charity fundraising during games at Scotiabank Place. Her aunt is a season-ticket holder.
By and large, those of us who work in and around hockey are a cheery, hopeful bunch.
Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson insists NHL players are still standing firmly behind players’ association boss Donald Fehr.
Imagine a National Hockey League that started each postseason run with a play-in series for teams on the bubble. Two squads from each conference would duke it out for the right to advance to the NHL’s second season and take their best shot at bringing home a Stanley Cup. It might be a one-game, winner-take-all showdown, or a three-game mini series.
If there were an archetype of the kind of fan the National Hockey League would want to have, he might look something like Sebastien Fortin.
Stand on Little Lake, a slap shot away from Great Bear Lake, and you can’t help but think about infamous Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin. Or, more specifically, about what Franklin might have thought of a simple game evolving into such a complicated, nasty mess.