Professional athletes train hard. They often endure brutal conditions and workout routines in an attempt to fine tune their bodies for physically demanding sports. They’ll put everything on the line to succeed and be their best. But which sport is the most physically demanding? Some rely heavily on an optimized cardiovascular system. Others rely on
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Some of the National Hockey League’s best talent has always been at center. The position is expected to play a defensively responsible game while also being the primary generator of offense. Some believe that having an elite top line center is the single most important element a team needs to win a Stanley Cup. The
The 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens? The 1984-85 Edmonton Oilers? Perhaps a more recent team, like the 2001-02 Detroit Red Wings? These three teams are among the first that come to mind in a discussion of the best teams in NHL history. Here at The Hockey Writers, our goal is to find out what the best team
When the Chicago Blackhawks look back on the 2020-21 season, they’ll be left wondering what could have been if they had successfully leveraged that impressive start to their rebuild. Whereas, now, they only have themselves to blame for failing to push it even further along. Chicago started this year’s story strategically, by setting expectations well
Welcome to a THW GameDay Live, posted so fans could comment and interact during and after the game. We give you a little background on the game, and have the comments open below. Enjoy! The St. Louis Blues and the Vegas Golden Knights square off tonight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the
As the Arizona Coyotes approach their final six games of the season, hope is pretty much all but over. The team currently sits in fifth place with a mark of 21-24-5 for 47 points and is five points behind the recently red hot St. Louis Blues, who are on a four-game winning streak. With the
Every season, the NHL is hard to predict, and the 2020-21 season has been no exception. Many teams or players have overachieved, and likewise, we have seen some teams fail to live up to expectations. Fans and experts alike entered this season with preconceived theories or predictions for what the season would look like, and
After Monday night’s horn fiasco during the first period in Detroit and considering some of the high-scoring affairs this season that set off goal horns at an almost calculated pace, it ultimately became necessary to rank the goal horns of all 31 teams and consider the expansion sounds of the Seattle Kraken. There are certainly
When the Vancouver Canucks acquired defenceman Nate Schmidt from the Vegas Golden Knights, they seemingly bolstered their defence core by a wide margin, as he was coming off his third straight season with 30 or more points and a fifth-straight without recording a minus in the plus-minus column. He was a definite upgrade to the
Geography is the big divider for NHL teams ever since the 1980s. Rivalries form in the east and west where teams in their conferences see each other far more than in the other. Teams play within their conferences throughout the entire playoffs until the Stanley Cup Final, where the conference champions meet up for a
With the pandemic altering all aspects of life, the 2020-21 NHL season has had to adapt as well. Part of the adjustment includes a division realignment, which has placed all Canadian teams in the North Division. These changes have also influenced the Stanley Cup Playoff format. Sixteen teams will still make the playoffs, but the
The new divisions for the 2020-21 NHL season will each feature their own “personality.” It’s easy to think of the North Division as “The Canadian Division,” but one could also call it the “Division of really long road trips.” The West Division might be called the “Division with only three good teams.” The East? Perhaps
The 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs were the most unprecedented in league history. COVID-19 drastically altered the entire format to hold a fair end to an unforeseen, premature regular season conclusion. The playoff format featured scenarios never seen before or ones unused in decades. Twenty-four teams went into the Edmonton and Toronto bubbles with Stanley Cup
For as long as professional athletes have played the sport of hockey, a battle has been raging, an ongoing arms-race pitting performance against safety. And with injuries to players last season, like Bryan Little of the Winnipeg Jets and the New York Islanders’ Johnny Boychuk looking to be of the career-ending variety, it’s becoming clear
I’ll just say it. Overall, I don’t like the Adidas “Reverse Retro” jerseys. I don’t like how cartoonish most of them look, and I don’t like the fact that this is obviously another cash grab for both the National Hockey League and Adidas. The NHL is one of the most financially stable sports leagues in
Defense wins championships. It’s a saying as old as hockey itself, but there is truth to this wisdom. A stout defense can both limit the opponent’s scoring chances while placing additional pressure on them in the offensive zone. When a defense is playing near perfection, it also helps ease some of the burdens on both
That was a fun offseason project — ranking the NHL teams by position. Fun and enlightening, yet challenging since the league’s parity is so prevalent on paper. There were tiers at every position that opened the door to much debate, with the slightest of margins separating several teams. That made for difficult decisions from top
Last but not least, the forwards — the guys who get most the goals and thus most the glory. If you can’t score, you can’t win, so this position is as important as any. It’s also as difficult to rank as any since there are 12 forwards in the lineup compared to just six defencemen