As many of you may know, the Prince of Wales Trophy was named after Edward, Prince of Wales in the 1920s. Edward would eventually become King of England, and was the last English monarch to abdicate. Canada is a Commonwealth Realm, and nominally, the head of state is the King of England, which is, circuitously, how the Trophy got it's name. The Maple Leafs are finally close to the Prince of Wales, but it is actually a park in Etobicoke. And also, the park was named after the Florida Panthers, current holders of said trophy.
With all the outdoor games that come through now, and all of them ending up at stadiums that seat three times as many fans as an NHL arena, I do commend the Maple Leafs for taking the outdoor concept (as they have done for years) and ACTUALLY returning hockey to its roots, by getting closer to the fans, and playing how a lot of kids are playing - on sheets right next to bleachers and trees and parking lots, with moms and dads watching, both for love of the game and because they need to be vigilant. This is real service for fans, rather than "fan service". Won't say this often, but good job, Toronto.
Listen, I understand that spending a week in January in the Midwest can bring anyone down a bit, so I'm not going to make light about the Canucks fighting some seasonal depression as noted in the headline, but I would like to call out the reverse side of the "West Coast swing". Oh no, we have to stay up late to catch the end of the game against the Ducks? Well, in Vancouver, you better hope the games are on the weekend, because otherwise your kids won't be home from school until the 2nd period if the game is on the East Coast.
A Monday game at 430 in the afternoon is crazy, is all I'm saying.
(Tweet of the Moment is no more, because social media is a hellscape, and not every team is yet on BlueSky. I still like a random, quick peek at hockey online, so now, we are looking at team home "splash" pages and turning that into whatever this is. Welcome to 2025)
Ryan McLeod got his first career hat trick tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes. That is a great achievement for a team that hasn't had many good nights, and against a team that is actually pretty good! Let's enjoy some video of his capstone goal
Oh, do you see what happened there? McLeod scored his first two goals like the quality hockey player he is, and then because the Sabres can't have anything nice as they are a franchise based out of Buffalo, he got the third goal in about as strange a manner as possible.
After the empty net, full length shot rang off the post, McLeod was free and clear for the rebound and ol' Sasquatch Brett Burns did a flying Paul Bunyan maneuver and hacked his stick in half. That is a penalty shot, and given that the 'Canes had already pulled their goalie, it was an awarded goal for Buffalo.
But who goes in the stat book as the goal scorer? We already know that it was McLeod, given that you made it this far in the article, but McLeod never touched the puck. Tage Thompson was the last one to touch it, as he was the one who fired it down the ice in the first place. Ultimately, the scorers decided that, since it would have been McLeod's penalty shot, he should get the resulting goal, voila, hat trick.
Thompson, by ringing the post, wasn't credited with a shot on goal. Nor was McLeod, despite the credit for the goal. And in the third period, neither did anyone wearing a Sabres jersey.
The Sabres' goals outnumbered their shots. Because there were no shots. It was the first time in recorded history that a team scored a goal in a 20 minute period while not recording a shot. Only in Buffalo could you score a game clinching goal and still have universal agreement that the offense needs work.
Congrats to Ryan McLeod though, that's certainly one you will always remember
I'm going to have to workshop that one. It looks like Elon took away the ability to embed Tweets, so until teams start getting on other platforms, I guess we are looking at Facebook posts? I don't have much to say about this, except St. Paul isn't exactly a coffee hot spot. Being back to the grind would be a great pun for the Kraken.
