Will Oilers band break up of 2006 repeat in 2024?

A Connor McDavid card.

The business of hockey dealt a seemingly cruel blow to Edmonton Oilers fans in 2006.

On June 19 of that year, the Oilers took the ice for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final against the host Carolina Hurricanes at the RBC Centre. The Hurricanes prevailed in the contest 3-1 to win their first Stanley Cup.

The Oilers made the post-season finishing eighth in the NHL’s Western Conference with a 41-28-13 mark. They went on a magical run in the NHL Playoffs making the Stanley Cup final for the first time since last winning the iconic trophy back in 1990.

The run to losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final offered hope of a great new era for Oilers fans. The 2005-06 campaign was the first NHL season played after a lockout that wiped out the entire 2004-05 campaign.

Before the lost 2004-05 campaign, the NHL didn’t have a salary cap, and it was viewed small market teams like the Oilers would only be able to win the Stanley Cup through a miracle run where a goalie steals a number of games. That view was held even though a team like the Oilers had won the Stanley Cup five times in their history.

It was believed Stanley Cup title wins would be left for big market teams with big budgets like the Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs. Often, the Rangers and Leafs would be made fun of for their inability to buy a Stanley Cup win with an expensive roster.

A league wide salary cap leveled the playing field for small market clubs like the Oilers for the start of the 2005-06 campaign. Before the beginning of that season, the Oilers acquired all-world defenceman Chris Pronger from the St. Louis Blues. The Oilers proceeded to sign Pronger to a five-year contract worth $31.25-million US.

The Oilers also acquired star defensive centre Michael Peca in a trade with the New York Islanders before the 2005-06 campaign began.

In the era before the salary cap, the Oilers didn’t make these types of moves. When salaries in the NHL really started to escalate in the 1990s, the Oilers weren’t able to keep talented players, if they became too high priced.

When the salary cap came in after the lockout, the Oilers had new freedom to go out and build a winner. The additions of Pronger and Peca and the exciting long run in the 2006 NHL Playoffs brought out optimism for Oilers fans that their team was in for another golden age bringing back reflections of Wayne Gretzky’s and Mark Messier’s era with the club in the 1980s.

The Edmonton Journal front page from June 20, 2006.

On June 23, 2006 just four days after the Oilers lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final to the Hurricanes, Pronger requested a trade through his agent, Pat Morris, from the Edmonton franchise. Then Oilers general manager Kevin Lowe said the request was for personal reasons, while Edmonton media outlets reported that Pronger’s wife, Lauren, was not happy in Edmonton.

Oilers fans did not take that situation well. Pronger was dubbed by many as “Public Enemy No. 1” in Edmonton, and even to this day, a lot of Oilers fans don’t want to recognize he was ever a member of the team.

Pronger was dealt to the Anaheim Ducks on July 3, 2006. In that first season with the Ducks in 2006-07, Pronger joined star right-winger Teemu Selanne, head coach Randy Carlyle and general manager Brian Burke in helping the Anaheim franchise win a first Stanley Cup in team history.

At that point, Pronger became seen as the poster boy case of the NHL player that didn’t want to play in a Canadian market and looked to leverage his way to a team in the United States when his stock was up. That 2005-06 campaign was the only time Pronger played for a Canadian based team in his NHL career.

I remember dealing with a couple of Edmonton sports media colleagues during the 2006-07 campaign who described Pronger as being an asshole. I don’t know if those feelings have faded with time, but Pronger’s departure from Edmonton was a “don’t let the door hit you on the way out” scenario.

No matter what one thought of Pronger, you have to conclude looking back on video of his play in 2005-06 that he was that damn good. Standing 6-foot-6 and weighing 220 pounds, he had the skill of Ray Bourque and the toughness of Dave Manson.

When he was on the ice, Pronger controlled play when he had the puck, and he was presence whether he had the puck or not. He was in his prime, and if he was in his prime in today’s day and age, he would still be one of the top three defencemen in the NHL. Pronger was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2015.

Pronger’s departure started the “Decade of Darkness” for the Oilers, who would miss the NHL Playoffs for the next 10 straight seasons.

A Leon Draisaitl hockey card.

Along with Pronger, it seemed like a mass exodus followed of players leaving from the Oilers 2005-06 roster. Peca signed as a free agent with the Maple Leafs on July 18, 2006.

By the time the 2006-07 campaign ended, the Oilers were also without all-time fan favourite and hero in left-winger Ryan Smyth. Smyth was playing through the final campaign of his contract, and the Oilers were trying to sign him to an extension before the NHL’s trade deadline.

Unable to negotiate an extension, the Oilers dealt Smyth to the Islanders on February 27, 2007 in order to not lose him for nothing as a free agent.

Looking back at the history of the 2005-2006 team, one wonders if the Oilers squad in the current day could break up as fast as that squad did. The Oilers posted a 49-27-6 mark in the recently completed 2023-24 campaign.

They went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final falling 2-1 this past Monday to the Florida Panthers at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida. 

Supporting a team that contains superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and longtime star Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the excitement Oilers fans had for this post-season matched and maybe even exceeded the run from 2006.

The Oilers almost pulled off the reverse sweep in the Stanley Cup final. After the Panthers took the first three games of the series, the Oilers took Games 4 to 6 to force a series deciding Game 7. In their three wins, the Oilers outscored the Panthers 18-5, and Oilers fans thought the roll would continue in Game 7.

The Panthers rallied to take Game 7. McDavid claimed the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the NHL Playoffs.

With the Oilers down 2-1 with about seven minutes to play in the third period of Game 7, McDavid looked like he was going to net the equalizer. With Panthers star goalie Sergie Bobrovsky sprawled on the ice, McDavid moved the puck to an open left side of the Florida net and was about to pat the puck into the empty side of the goal.

Panthers defenceman Gustav Forsling reacted to make a critical stick check on McDavid that saw the puck drift into the left corner of the Florida zone and preserved the win for the Panthers.

A Ryan Nugent-Hopkins card.

At the moment, Draisaitl has one year remaining on his contract, and McDavid has two seasons left on his current deal. The Oilers have a number of unrestricted free agents coming up including forwards Connor Brown, Adam Henrique, Mattias Janmark, Corey Perry, Warren Foegele and Sam Carrick.

Defenceman Vincent Desharnais also needs a new contract.

With his contract expiring, general manager Ken Holland and Oilers announced on Thursday they were parting ways. CEO of hockey operations Jeff Jackson assumed the role of interim general manager.

Holland, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2020, is 68-years-old and won four Stanley Cups as an executive with the Detroit Red Wings. If he doesn’t retire and takes another job in hockey, odds are high that could be the last job he holds in the game due to his age.

Is Holland’s departure the first sign the band is breaking up?

Time will tell if the lasting effects of the appearance in the Stanley Cup final in 2024 is as fleeting for the Oilers as the one in 2006.

Tigers roar at NHL Entry Draft, other notes

Cayden Lindstrom (#28) take part in a goal celey in Nov. 2022.

The Medicine Hat Tigers had a banner two days at the NHL Entry Draft.

The legacy major junior franchise didn’t need any luck at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada, leading the WHL having four players selected in the drafts seven round that were held on Friday and Saturday. That marked the first time since 2005 the Tigers have had four players selected in the NHL Entry Draft.

That development wasn’t that much of a surprise considering the Tigers had a breakout campaign with a relatively younger roster finishing seventh overall in the WHL with a 37-23-6-3 mark. The NHL Entry Draft selections were deserved.

Tigers 18-year-old centre Cayden Lindstrom was the first player from the WHL to be taken in the draft going fourth overall in the first round to the Columbus Blue Jackets. On June 1, he was named the winner of the CHL Top Draft Prospect award.

In 32 regular season games in 2023-24 with the Tigers, Lindstrom, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 213 pounds, piled up 27 goals and 19 assists to go with a plus-12 rating in the plus-minus department. A disc herniation in his back saw his participation in the regular season come to an end on December 16, 2023.

Lindstrom returned to play in four of the Tigers five games in the 2024 WHL Playoffs recording one goal and one assist after his extend layoff where he was recovering from his injury. The best is still to come from the Chetwynd, B.C., product who has a tremendous upside.

Tigers left-winger Andrew Basha, who will turn 19-years-old in November, went in the second round and 41^st overall to his hometown Calgary Flames. Basha, who stands 6-feet and weighs 187 pounds, recorded 30 goals, 55 assists and a plus-six rating in 63 regular season games with the Tigers. He has a tonne of potential to be a hometown hero with the Flames one day.

Tigers skilled 18-year-old centre Tomas Mrsic was selected in the fourth round and 113^th overall by the St. Louis Blues. Mrsic, who stands 6-feet and weighs 170 pounds, had a solid sophomore season with the Tigers recording 23 goals, 39 assists and an even rating in 63 regular season games.

Andrew Basha was taken by the Flames in the NHL Entry Draft.

The Surrey, B.C., product will likely get to be part of potentially strong Tigers teams over the next two seasons, which will further help him make the jump to the professional ranks.

Tigers 19-year-old left-winger Hunter St. Martin was the last player from Medicine Hat to be selected in the NHL Entry Draft. The Edmonton product went in the sixth round and 193^rd overall to the recently crowned Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

St. Martin, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 175 pounds, had a breakout campaign for the Tigers in 2023-24 posting 24 goals, 28 assists and a plus-14 rating playing in all the club’s 68 regular season contests. St. Martin has all the potential to one day show the Panthers they got a gem with his late in the draft selection.

Prince Albert Raiders star right-winger Ryder Ritchie, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 177 pounds, went in the second round and 45^th overall to the Minnesota Wild. Ritchie was limited to 47 regular season games in 2023-24 after being injured on a knee-on-knee hit by Kelowna Rockets left-winger Max Graham in a Raiders 4-3 loss at home on December 15, 2023.

Ritchie, who will turn 18-years-old in August, still recorded 19 goals, 25 assists and a minus-one rating in those 47 regular season games.

Saskatoon Blades netminder Evan Gardner, who had a breakout rookie season in 2023-24, was picked in the second round and 60^th overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets. In 30 appearances in the regular season with the Blades in 2023-24, Gardner posted a 21-5-2 record, a 1.91 goals against average, a .927 save percentage and four shutouts.

In the WHL Playoffs, Gardner, who is 18-years-old, played a key role in helping the Blades make it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Championship Series, where they dropped a 3-2 decision in overtime to the eventual WHL champion Moose Jaw Warriors. Gardner appeared in 15 games in the WHL Playoffs posting a 10-4 record, 2.33 goals against average, a .910 save percentage and one shutout.

Hunter St. Martin was picked by the Panthers in the NHL Entry Draft.

Gardner stands 6-feet and weighs 175 pounds, so it was nice to see he wasn’t overlooked due to the fact he wasn’t at least 6-foot-3 in height.

As expected, 18-year-old centre Macklin Celebrini went first overall to the San Jose Sharks. Celebrini played last season as a 17-year-old with the Boston University Terriers in the NCAA Division I ranks.

He had 32 goals, 32 assists and a plus-25 rating in 38 overall games with the Terriers.

Saskatoon product and skilled centre Berkly Catton was chosen in the first round and eighth overall by the Seattle Kraken. The 18-year-old has a sensational campaign in 2023-24 with the Spokane Chiefs.

Catton finished fourth in the WHL regular season scoring with 116 points coming off 54 goals and 62 assists to go with a plus 15 rating appearing in all of the Chiefs 68 games. In 140 career regular season games in the WHL, Catton has posted 78 goals and 97 assists.

He has strong potential to make the Kraken’s roster as an 18-year-old rookie.

• Right-winger Reggie Leach of the Philadelphia Flyers in 1976 and Flyers netminder Ron Hextall in 1987 both won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the NHL Playoffs. Both played on the team that lost the Stanley Cup final. The award presentation was done away from the ice surface for both players. If a player from the team that loses the Stanley Cup final is named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner in the future, they should go back to making that presentation away from the ice surface. That way you don’t get a situation like this past Monday where Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid didn’t come out to accept the award after his team fell 2-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final to the host Florida Panthers.
• Since the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1993, Canadian based NHL teams have lost seven straight games when they’ve had the opportunity to win the Stanley Cup. The Vancouver Canucks have been part of three of those losses including one in 1994 and two in 2011. The Calgary Flames had two chances to clinch a Stanley Cup win in 2004. The Oilers dropped a pair of chances to capture the Stanley Cup with one chance coming in 2006 and the other this past Monday.
• Doesn’t it seem that with each passing day the social media line Platform-X, which is formerly known as Twitter, gets more and more toxic? It feels like any time spent on that social media line is wasted time.
• The Kelowna Rockets, who are working in partnership with the City of Kelowna, and Brandon Wheat Kings, who are working in partnership with the Keystone Centre, have declared their intentions to big on the 2026 Memorial Cup, which is the next time the WHL gets to host the CHL championship tournament. The Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL will host the Memorial Cup in 2025.
• The under-18 AAA level of the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League is an under-appreciated circuit. On Sunday at Cairns Field, the Saskatoon Diamondback and Saskatoon Cubs played a fantastic game. Trailing 4-1, the Diamondbacks scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning to pull out a 5-4 victory.
• The defending Grey Cup champion Montreal Alouettes (4-0) and the Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-0) are the remaining undefeated teams in the CFL. They are slated to meet on Thursday, July 25 in Montreal. One also wonders when excitement for the Roughriders hits high level heights in Saskatchewan, or if a knee injury to quarterback Trevor Harris throws cold water on a possible excitement burst.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Lightning are the team to beat in the NHL

Expect Stanley Cup to reside in Tampa Bay once again

A Victor Hedman card.

All players and staffers with the Tampa Bay Lightning can do the Ric Flair strut followed by the trademark, “Woo!”

Of course, the Lightning players and staffers handle things in more of a classic humble manner traditionally expected winners in professional hockey that is without bravado and swagger. Flair does attend Lightning games, so maybe that is the team’s way of bringing in bravado and swagger.

Still when it comes to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, to be the team you have to beat the team.

As the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, the Lightning are the team. It feels like it is going to take a supernatural effort to pry the Stanley Cup away from Tampa Bay’s grasp.

On Wednesday, the best-of-seven Stanley Cup final starts in Denver, Colorado, with Game 1 (6 p.m., CBC). The host Colorado Avalanche, who finished second overall in NHL’s regular season standings with a 56-19-7 record, face the Lightning, who finished eighth overall with a solid 51-23-8 mark.

The Avalanche won the NHL’s Western Conference title, and they are the team on the rise that has seemingly arrived.

The Lightning won the NHL’s Eastern Conference crown, and they are chasing history as the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.

A Steven Stamkos card.

Tampa Bay is trying to win the Stanley Cup for a third consecutive year, which is something that hasn’t happened since the New York Islanders won the Stanley Cup four straight years from 1980 to 1983. Those storied Islanders squads were going for a fifth straight title before grudgingly giving way to the revered Edmonton Oilers in 1984 and the start of their dynasty run.

The Lightning are still in their prime. They have a dependable core of players who are used to willing their club to victory in Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn, Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat, Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev, Patrick Maroon, Ryan McDouagh and Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Through three rounds of the playoffs, the Lightning made seemingly all the extra effort plays when it comes to blocking shots or winning one-on-one battles for the puck. Those extra effort plays are added in addition to the fact they play the game on a systems front seamlessly and often flawlessly.

On top of that, the Lightning have gotten Hockey Hall of Fame level goaltending from Vasilevskiy.

Teams that get all those things inevitably win Stanley Cups.

In the Lightning’s case, the fact they’ve won the last two Stanley Cup titles, and they go all out in the shot blocking department and winning one-on-one puck battles can create “shock and awe” doubt in opponents.

An Andrei Vasilevskiy card.

When opponents see the effort the Lightning still put out after having won the Stanley Cup in each of the past two years, opposing teams have to question themselves in where they are in the “how bad do you want it” department.

You begin to see why the Lightning are the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions and the other 31 teams in the NHL are not.

Veteran Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois and long time head coach Jon Cooper have built a team for sustained success and not to be a one-year wonder club.

If the Lightning knock off the Avalanche to win a third straight Stanley Cup, BriseBois and Cooper have to be locks for the Hockey Hall of Fame.

If the Lightning capture a third straight Stanley Cup title, the debate begins on which players from their team will be locks for the Hockey Hall of Fame. Stamkos, Hedman and Vasilevskiy have to be the non-debatable locks for the Hockey Hall of Fame, if the Lightning win a third straight Stanley Cup.

Had Stamkos, Hedman and Vasilevskiy played on a NHL Canadian team their entire careers, they would be talked about like hockey royalty.

Put it this way, Avalanche 23-year-old star Cale Makar has been mentioned quite a bit among Canadian mainstream media as the best all-around defenceman in the NHL. The graduate of the junior A Alberta-based powerhouse Brooks Bandits is deserving of big praise.

A Nikita Kucherov card.

The best all-around defenceman praise came after the Avalanche swept away Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Championship Series.

However, it can be argued the 31-year-old Hedman is a better all-around defenceman than Makar. To be honest, Hedman might be the best all-around defenceman in the NHL.

With Hedman playing his entire NHL career dating back to his first season in 2009-10 with the Lightning, he hasn’t received much attention from Canadian mainstream media outlets until the Lightning reach the Stanley Cup final.

When the Lightning play in the Stanley Cup Final, an acknowledgement is made of, “Wow! I didn’t realize Victor Hedman was that good.”

Actually had Hedman played his entire career for the Toronto Maple Leafs, you could almost see Toronto media outlets making the case that Hedman was the greatest defenceman to ever play in the NHL.

That leads to another intangible the Lightning have. They don’t get phased when things go south for a game or adversity rises up.

Back in the first round of the current NHL Playoffs, the Lightning lost Game 1 of their best-of-seven series to the Maple Leafs 5-0 in Toronto. There was talk that the Lightning were finished and the Maple Leafs would be Stanley Cup champions.

An Alex Killorn card.

The Lightning seemingly had the collective confidence and calm knowing that was only one game and the Stanley Cup is not won in the first game of an opening round series. The Lightning took out the Maple Leafs in seven games claiming Game 6 by a 4-3 score in overtime in Tampa Bay and prevailing 2-1 in Game 7 in Toronto.

During the Game 7 win over the Maple Leafs, the Lightning lost Point to a lower-body injury. Without their high-scoring centre, who plays a strong two-way game, the Lightning swept the Florida Panthers, who finished first overall in the NHL regular season standings with a 58-18-6 record, in a second round series and took out the New York Rangers in six games in the Eastern Conference Championship Series.

In Game 1 against the Rangers in New York, the Lightning fell 6-2. The Rangers followed up by posting a 3-2 victory in Game 2 to take a 2-0 lead in the series to once again start banter that the Lightning were dead.

Four straight wins later by Tampa Bay, and the Rangers were making plans for which golf courses they would hit in the off-season. 

After the Lightning took Game 5 in New York by a 3-1 score, numerous Rangers fans were waving white flags on social media channels.

Regarding Point, the Lightning say they expect him to return to action in the Stanley Cup final.

A Brayden Point card.

The Avalanche will provide a stiff challenge to the Lightning. With players like Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Andre Burakovsky, Gabriel Landeskog, Devon Toews, Valeri Nichushkin, Erik Johnson, Josh Manson, Darren Helm, Pavel Francouz and Darcy Kuemper, maybe the Avalanche will be the answer to the Lightning like the Oilers were to the Islanders back in 1984. If the injured Nazem Kadri makes it back, the Avalanche will be even more of a challenge to deal with.

In this round between the Lightning and Avalanche, it feels like experience is going to matter, and it will play out like the 1983 Stanley Cup final where the Islanders swept the Oilers providing a big learning experience for the Edmonton side.

If the Lightning did sweep the Avalanche, that would be a surprise. At the moment, the Lightning are the two-time defending champs, and it is hard to envision them getting knocked off. They are far from being old and done.

The Lightning will be the favourites to win the Stanley Cup until someone indeed knocks them off. Look out Avalanche, because the champs are here.

Oilers playoff run was fun entertainment, other notes

A Connor McDavid card.

For the casual hockey fan, nothing beat the Edmonton Oilers running it back to the fire wagon days of the 1980s in the NHL Playoffs.

The Oilers finished 11^th overall in the NHL’s regular season standings with a 49-27-6 record, and in the post-season, they attempted to emulate their all-time great clubs from the 1980s by piling up the goals. They went on a run that saw them make the Western Conference Championship Series for the first time since 2006, when the Oilers advanced to the Stanley Cup final and fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games.

Edmonton’s venture through the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs came to an end on June 6 with a 6-5 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche that was highly entertaining. While the Avalanche to the Western Conference Championship Series in a sweep, the Oilers legitimately could have won Games 1, 3 or 4 of the series.

The Oilers run had lots of nostalgia points too.

With the Oilers being blessed with two of hockey’s best players in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, it was easy to follow the team’s exploits. In 16 post-season games, McDavid piled up 33 points coming off 10 goals and 23 assists to go with a plus-15 rating in the plus-minus department.

Draisaitl also appeared in all of the Oilers 16 post-season outings piling up 32 points coming off seven goals and 25 assists to go with a plus-four rating.

That allowed fans to dream back to the 1980s, when Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and company were putting up insane offensive numbers for the Oilers.

The Oilers took out the Los Angeles Kings in a first round series that went the distance to seven games, where the Oilers took the deciding contest 2-0. That brought memories of the playoff encounters the two sides had in the 1980s and early 1990s.

In the second round, we had Battle of Alberta for the first time since 1991 between the Oilers and Calgary Flames. The Oilers took the series in five games with storylines jumping around all over the place as much as the offence.

The rivalry had a bit of snark in it too. The Flames took the first game in Calgary 9-6, before the Oilers rolled off four straight wins. Edmonton’s victories in Games 2 and 4 of the series came by respective 5-3 final scores.

The Oilers clinched the series with a 5-4 win in Game 5 in overtime with Draisaitl setting up McDavid for the winner.

A lot of nostalgia surfaced during that series between the Oilers and Flames as fans recalled their playoff meetings in 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1991.

A Leon Draisaitl card.

In the Western Conference Championship Series, the Oilers weren’t able to outgun an Avalanche team that also has lots of offensive talent in Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Nazem Kadri.

The series began with an 8-6 victory by the Avalanche in Game 1 in Denver before Colorado closed things out with their 6-5 overtime win in Game 4.

The post-season run seemed to take heat off Oilers standout general manager Ken Holland, who faced criticism because his Oilers teams hadn’t made a long playoff run like his old Detroit Red Wings teams used to do including four Stanley Cup title wins.

Midway through the 2021-22 campaign, the Oilers made a coaching change, which seemed to spark their run to making the playoffs. Dave Tippett was out as head coach and Jim Playfair was out as associate coach, and Jay Woodcroft was in as head coach and Dave Manson became an assistant coach.

Obviously, Woodcroft and Manson have done enough that they need to be retained.

The Oilers need to get a little bit better on defence and find a way to improve their goaltending situation. In goal, the Oilers got all they could get from 40-year-old Mike Smith, but he had way too many shaky and error prone moments.

The Oilers other goaltender in Mikko Koskinen signed a two-year contract with play with Switzerland’s Hockey Club Lugano on Monday.

Edmonton has to decide if 23-year-old local product Stuart Skinner, who was a WHL star with the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Swift Current Broncos, is their goaltender of the present or do they have to acquire another puck stopper.

Unfortunately across the NHL, there aren’t many goalies to go after that would be an upgrade and are sure things. Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

Sure thing upgrades are left to desperate measures like sending five first round draft selections to the Winnipeg Jets for Connor Hellebuyck.

Despite what the Oilers need to do to more forward, it was refreshing to see them make a long playoff run once again.

• On Monday, Sage Watson, who is a star 400-metre hurdler on Canada’s National Women’s Track and Field Team, announced she is taking the upcoming season off to allow her body to recover from various lingering injuries. The 27-year-old from Seven Persons, Alberta, which is just southwest of Medicine Hat, has represented Canada at the last two Summer Olympics.
• On Monday, the Saskatoon Blades announced they signed 15-year-old forward Hudson Kibblewhite to a WHL Standard Player Agreement. The Blades selected the Vernon, B.C., product in the second round and 35^th overall in the WHL Prospects Draft held this past May 19. Last season with Rink Hockey Academy Kelowna’s under-15 prep team, Kibblewhite piled up 61 points coming off 19 goals and 42 assists.
• On Monday, Softball Canada announced 19-year-old right-handed pitcher Jorde Chartrand, who is from Weyburn, Sask., was one of 20 athletes named to the Women’s National Team roster for the organization’s 2022 Celebration Tour and the Canada Cup International Softball Championship, which runs June 20-26 in Surrey, B.C. The Celebration Tour helps commemorate the bronze medal win by Canada’s women’s team at the 2020 Olympics, which were actually held last year in Tokyo, Japan. The tour includes a stop at Bob Van Impe Stadium on July 1 for a doubleheader against Czechia starting at 1 p.m. Chartrand, who has played and trained in Saskatoon, is coming off her first season playing for the University of Central Arkansas Bears women’s team in the NCAA Division I ranks.
• On Monday in Madison, Wisconsin, Canada downed the United States 3-2 in the gold medal game of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Women’s World Championship tournament. Canada built a 3-0 lead and held on for the one-goal win at the LaBahn Arena. Ava Murphy had a goal and an assist for Canada, while Jocelyn Amos scored the winner. Mari Pietersen made 29 saves to pick up the win in goal for Canada.
• A hidden gem in Saskatchewan might be the action in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League. The play at all levels in that league is strong. The action in the under-18 AAA division is stellar. On Wednesday in the under-18 AAA division, the Saskatoon Cubs (10-2) will face the Saskatoon Diamondbacks (8-4) on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Cairns Field in what should be a really good game. If you want to check out a contest from a curiosity standpoint, that would be a great contest to check out.
• Last Thursday, I had new content appear on the Howe Happenings blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a feature story on track and field stars Michelle Harrison and Nicole Ostertag taking on busy outdoor seasons. The piece on Harrison and Ostertag can be found by clicking right here. I also created a new photo roundup that can be found by clicking right here.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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NHL’s Battle of Alberta is great sports entertainment

Oilers, Flames run it back in “old school” series

Hockey cards of Connor McDavid and Matthew Tkachuk.

After two games of the Battle of Alberta, we’ve learned Connor McDavid can skate on water and Matthew Tkachuk is working his way to sainthood.

On the ice, McDavid, who is the captain of the Edmonton Oilers, seemingly has the ability to turn water into wine filling highlight reels with the two goals and four assists he has collected in two outings. Tkachuk, who is the high-scoring agitator of the Calgary Flames, showed he does have a heart of gold during a hat trick performance offering to give Oilers pest Evander Kane a few bucks after hearing Kane might be having some money problems.

In an era of sports where rivalries are really lackluster and just rivalries in name only, the Oilers and Flames are seemingly turning back the clock to the 1980s with their best-of-seven NHL Western Conference semifinal series.

Over the first two games of the set at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, the Oilers and Flames have done their best to shoot out the lights on the scoreboard. The Flames took a wild Game 1 on Wednesday by a 9-6 final and the Oilers rebounded with 5-3 come-from-behind victory in Game 2 on Friday.

The two sides combined for 23 goals and were one tally shy of equaling the NHL record for most combined goals in the first two games of a playoff series at 24 set in the 1981 post-season by the Boston Bruins and Minnesota North Stars in a first round tilt.

There have been four other post-season series that have opened with a combined 23 goals in the first two games, and all of those sets were played in the 1980s with Wayne Gretzky’s high-octane Oilers being involved in three of those series.

There have been hard hits, scrums, heated exchanges and one-on-one personal rivalries are developing right before the eyes of all onlookers.

With Oilers and Flames meeting in the NHL post-season for the first time since 1991, fans of both teams were hoping to get a rivalry series that lived up to the five playoff encounters the teams had between 1983 and 1991, but there was probably a guarded expectation of realism that likely wouldn’t happen. To the surprise of supporters of both teams, the Oilers and Flames are giving them a Christmas gift in May.

Game 1 of the series has the feeling of chaos. The Flames built a 6-2 advantage only for the Oilers to even the score a 6-6 early in the third period.

A Johnny Gaudreau card.

Calgary closed things out scoring the final three goals of that contest, which included Tkachuk scoring his team’s eighth and ninth tallies to complete a hat trick night. Flames star left-winger Johnny Gaudreau had three assists in the win as well.

On top of the goals, Game 1 of the series had so many side plots happening you could miss something with a blink of an eye.

One of those included Tkachuk trying to get under Kane’s skin regarding reported money troubles the Oilers’ left-winger was facing. In January of 2021, Kane filed for bankruptcy after accruing more that US$26-million in debt.

In Game 2, the Flames took a 3-1 lead early in the second before the Oilers closed the contest scoring four straight goals. McDavid had a goal and an assist, while his high-scoring partner in centre Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists.

Like McDavid, Draisaitl has two goals and four assists after the first two games of this series.

In the Game 2 win, the Oilers received a key goal by veteran defenceman Duncan Keith and timely singles from defenceman Evan Bouchard and left-winger Zach Hyman.

As far as personal battles go, Tkachuk is having his aforementioned clash with Kane. Power forwards Zack Kassian of the Oilers and Milan Lucic of the Flames appear to like crossing paths and exchanging pleasantries.

Lucic played for the Oilers before being traded to the Flames before the start of the 2019-20 campaign.

Kane also appeared to have his with issues Lucic too. Near the end of the first period of Game 1, Lucic laid a massive hit on McDavid, and Kane immediately skated in to confront the Flames aggressor.

Overall, this series has been the overall tonic needed to pull in the casual fans. Even here in Saskatoon, the Oilers and Flames jerseys are seemingly popping up everywhere as closet fans continue to emerge.

Often those fans will be sporting jerseys that done of the names of Oilers and Flames players from years gone by.

So far, the Oilers and Flames are delivering great “sports entertainment,” and their games have become must watch television. Concerns for normal strategies and tactics of the game have been thrown out the window.

Instead, we are getting jokes from Flames fans about how difficult it is for Oilers fans to count to nine with regards to Calgary goals scored in Game 1, and Oilers fans joking back they are surprised Flames fans can count past one referencing how many Stanley Cups the Calgary side has won. The Oilers have won the Stanley Cup on five different occasions.

A Leon Draisaitl card.

Now the series shifts to Rogers Place in Edmonton for Game 3 on Sunday, which will on CBC at 6 p.m. Saskatchewan time.

Even people that don’t cheer for either team are going to be tuning in to see what happens next.

In the current day, the Oilers and Flames are showing sports rivalries can still be fun and colourful. That is important to remember, because too many people involved with professional sports forget that pro sports are a part of the entertainment industry.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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NHL post-season brings much needed fun and entertainment

A Matthew Tkachuk card.

    It feels so great to be hooked into the NHL hockey world now more than ever.

    On July 28, the NHL resumed its 2019-20 campaign after being on pause since March 12 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic with three exhibition tilts. Skating in the hub cities of Edmonton and Toronto with no fans in either building, NHL teams played a short exhibition schedule to prepare for post-season action.

    On Aug. 1, the NHL post-season opened in those hub cities with 16 teams taking part in a qualifying round that consisted of eight series that were best-of-five in length.
    As those games went on, eight clubs that comprised the top four overall spots in the regular season standings in the Eastern and Western Conferences played round robin games for seeding.

    The eight qualifying round series gave fans the NHL playoff fix they needed in spades. It was so easy to get wrapped up in storylines.

    Calgary Flames left-winger Matthew Tkachuk shined as the punk type pest as the Flames took out the Winnipeg Jets in four games in Edmonton.

    The Jets came unglued in the first game of the series, when their star centre Mark Scheifele was injured on a hit attempt from Tkachuk.

A Mark Scheifele card.

    Tkachuk was trying to finish a check and Scheifele turned awkwardly, avoided most of the contact and was lost for the rest of the series with an Achilles injury.

    After the Flames won Game 1 by a 4-1 score, Jets head coach Paul Maurice went off on Tkachuk saying the Flames forward tried to kick at Scheifele’s Achilles.
    Maurice was pulling classic gamesmanship, because even though Tkachuk is a punk, it is hard to imagine he would have time to even think about intentionally injuring Scheifele on that play with a kick.

    The posturing by Maurice led to the Jets pulling out a 3-2 win in Game 2. However, it seemed the Jets continued to be too distracted by Tkachuk and combined with the injuries piling up on the Winnipeg side, the Flames sealed the series with respective 6-2 and 4-0 victories.

    What makes Tkachuk more infuriating to play against is he puts up good statistics on top of being an agitator. He had a goal and an assist and was a plus-three in the plus-minus department in four games against the Jets.

    Tkachuk appeared in 69 regular season games with the Flames in 2019-20 piling up 28 goals and 38 assists.

A Connor McDavid card.

    The time off the NHL had from March to July provided some unpredictability when the post-season got underway too. That resulted in two of the NHL’s biggest names in Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby getting eliminated in the qualifying round.

    In McDavid’s case, you also expected deep down the superstar centre would have a good series, but his Edmonton Oilers would still get knocked out of the playoffs.

    The Oilers proved they are the modern day “weak-kneed wimps” and couldn’t be saves by McDavid piling up five goals and four assists. They were eliminated by the 12-seeded Chicago Blackhawks in four games.

    In a normal season, the Blackhawks, who were the final Western Conference team placed in the post-season, wouldn’t have a sniff of the playoffs. Still, they had been improving during a reloading year with steady star veterans and young guns that were ready to take off.

    On the veteran side, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane showed a pedigree that allowed the Blackhawks to win three Stanley Cup titles in the 2010s. Chicago netminder Corey Crawford rounded back into his post-season best form.
    Young 19-year-old centre Kirby Dach established that he could be a force with the Blackhawks piling up four assists and a plus-three rating. 

A Sidney Crosby Card.

    The graduate of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades threw some big hits and executed tough defensive assignments against the Oilers biggest stars.

    Crosby and his Pittsburgh Penguins were done in by a tough goalie in Montreal Canadiens netminder Carey Price.

    Price stopped 126-of-133 shots fired his way for a .947 save percentage as the Canadiens, who were the 12^th seed in the Eastern Conference, took out the Penguins in four games.

    Crosby did collect a pair of goals and an assist for the Penguins in the series loss.
    Then there was the Toronto Maple Leafs. Loaded with young stars, they still couldn’t find a way to produce a long playoff run playing a back-and-forth qualifying series with the Columbus Blue Jackets that went to a series deciding Game 5.

    The Maple Leafs series with the Blue Jackets was the only qualifying series to go the distance. In that Game 5 that was played Sunday in Toronto, Blue Jackets netminder Joonas Korpisalo made 33 saves in his team’s 3-0 shutout win to take the series 3-2.

    For haters of the Maple Leafs, Sunday was an annual day of joy and celebration.

    Overall, the qualifying round of the NHL playoffs allowed the mind for a few hours to get immersed in the familiar ritual of following hockey playoffs.

    No matter who you follow, it was fun to have that back in life again, and here is to the rest of the NHL playoffs going off without a hook.

Hurricanes are good for the NHL playoffs, other notes

We the North Carolina pic.twitter.com/qxiwgkg2t8

— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) August 5, 2020

    It is so great to have the Carolina Hurricanes in the NHL playoffs.

    The staffers that work in their communications, social media and marking departments are the best. The Hurricanes swept the New York Rangers 3-0 in a best-of-five qualifying series. Before taking Game 3 of the set 4-1 on Aug. 4, the Hurricanes put up a beauty tweet on Twitter.

    Playing in the hub city of Toronto, the Hurricanes on Aug. 4 walked past the lighted up sign of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors to get to the ice surface. The Raptors won last year’s NBA title.

    Hurricanes Twitter showed video of their players walking by that Raptors sign and put up the caption, “We the North Carolina.”

    It was funny.

    Of course, it played off the Raptors slogan, “We the North.”

    Still, it is those type of little things from Hurricanes Twitter that make the NHL playoffs that much more fun.

The Hurricanes made David Ayres famous.

    The Hurricanes have hit a few homers in the last couple of years. They made emergency backup goalie David Ayres famous after he dressed for the Hurricanes on Feb. 22 and entered their regular season game after both regular Carolina netminders went down with injury.

    The 42-year-old Ayres turned away eight of 10 shots sent his way picking up a regular season win as the Hurricanes beat the host Maple Leafs in Toronto 6-3.

    Following that contest, Ayres went on seemingly a hero’s tour across North America.

    Last season, the Hurricanes advanced to the Eastern Conference Championship series and sold a tonne of T-shirts with a “bunch of jerks” written on them after long time hockey commentator Don Cherry used that line to describe that hockey club.

    As the playoffs move along, you wonder what the Hurricanes office crew will come up with next.

• Phase 2 of the confusing 2020 NHL Draft Lottery goes Monday at the NHL Network studios in Secaucus, N.J. The first overall pick for the NHL Entry Draft tentatively scheduled for Oct. 9 and 10 is still up for grabs. Left-winger Alexis Lafreniere of the QMJHL’s Rimouski Oceanic is expected to be the first overall selection.
• On Friday, the NHL’s Washington Capitals loaned centre Aliaksei Protas to Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League to start the 2020-21 campaign. Last season, Protas topped the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders in scoring with 31 goals and 59 assists for 80 points in 58 regular season games. He had a plus-37 rating in the plus-minus department. Protas is eligible to return to the Raiders for his 19-year-old season. The start of the WHL’s regular season has been pushed back to Dec. 4 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Protas is expected to be recalled when activities start for the 2020-21 season in the NHL or WHL.
• I had a pair of stories appear on the newly created Howe Happenings blog that was created for the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. The post “Aiming for new future heights building on a storied past” about the evolution of the Gordie Howe Sports Complex Management Corporation can be found by clicking right here. The story “McCullough’s day at Bob Van Impe” about Devon McCullough’s glorious win at softball worlds in 2015 can be found by clicking right here.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Oilers will always have a big following in Saskatchewan

The Oilers mingle at their bench during a timeout.

    The Edmonton Oilers will always have a sizable following in Saskatchewan.

    During Wednesday’s 4-0 NHL pre-season victory over the Carolina Hurricanes, a large gathering of 10,387 spectators were on hand at the SaskTel to see captain Connor McDavid and his Edmonton bunch. The Oilers star attraction didn’t disappoint netting a pair of goals and an assist to send almost all of a partisan crowd, who were mostly decked out in Oilers gear, home happy.

    The Oilers following in Saskatchewan has been entrenched for a few decades. The team build a huge fanbase during the 1980s and early 1990s, when the Oilers captured the Stanley Cup five times in seven years from 1984 to 1990.

    During that time, the Oilers were often labeled Western Canada’s team. Due to hitting the ice with players the likes of hockey icons Wayne Gretzky, who was part of the Oilers first four Stanley Cup wins, and Mark Messier, it was easy to identify with the team that was on television on a regular basis every April and May thanks to those championship playoff runs.

    Oilers netminder Laurent Brossoit enjoyed seeing the support his team gets from Alberta’s eastern provincial neighbour.

    “That is nice to have a couple of provinces that considers us their home team,” said Brossoit. “It is definitely a nice feeling. It is a lot of support for us.”

    Saskatoon product and rugged defensive defenceman Eric Gryba has always enjoyed his homecomings during his NHL career, and he noted there is a bit of an extra attachment when he returns home as a member of the Oilers.

    “Any time I come home and play in my hometown (before) a lot of friends and family is always a special thing,” said Gryba. “Obviously, the crowd is excited to have the Oilers in town.”

The Oilers and Hurricanes get set for a faceoff.

    While the Oilers haven’t won a Stanley Cup title in 27 years, a lot of fans in Saskatchewan still have an attachment to the team’s glory days. When the club is in a down stretch, the jerseys will sometimes be placed in the closet, but they are always ready to be brought out for that next memorable playoff run.

    Oilers fever hit a high pitch in the province in 2006, when the team advanced to the Stanley Cup finals only to fall 3-1 in a series deciding Game 7 to the Hurricanes. During that playoff run, many fans that weren’t alive to see the Oilers 1990 victory got to indulge in what appeared to be a team of destiny out of nowhere run.

    Edmonton proceeded to miss the post-season for the next 10 straight years.

    Last season, the Oilers returned to the playoffs posting a 47-26-9 record in the regular season. They eliminated the San Jose Sharks 4-2 in a best-of-seven first round series and fell 2-1 in a series deciding Game 7 to the Anaheim Ducks in the second round.

    Thanks to that run where they came up a win short of qualifying for the NHL’s Western Conference championship series, the support for the Oilers is gaining momentum again. With McDavid under contract for the next nine years, hope is high the new cast of characters that make up the current Oilers can bring home another Stanley Cup championship win.

    During a public autograph session that was part of the Royal University Hospital Foundation’s Celebrity Golf Classic last June, the players that received the most autograph requests were Gryba and Oilers starting netminder Cam Talbot. You could tell the run in the 2017 NHL playoffs was fresh on the minds of the fans.

    In Saskatchewan, there will always be strong followings for the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs due to the NHL’s historic Original Six days.

    Thanks to the Stanley Cup runs from 1984 to 1990 and the sprinkling of playoff marches that have occurred since, the Oiler will always have a big backing locked down too in “the Wheat Province” too.

Other thoughts from Wednesday’s NHL stop in Saskatoon

The Oilers skate off the ice after saluting the fans at the SaskTel Centre.

    The fans that attended Wednesday’s NHL pre-season game at the SaskTel Centre got to see a good show.

    While a 4-0 score in favour of the Edmonton Oilers might say otherwise, the Carolina Hurricanes had a number of solid chances to score. After outshooting the Oilers 13-4 in the second period, Carolina looked poised to rally from a 2-0 deficit. Connor McDavid scored twice inside of the final 10 minutes of the third to seal Edmonton’s victory.

    I have seen the NHL pre-season games that have been held in Saskatoon annually for the last four years. Last year’s game that saw the Ottawa Senators down the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime was the most exciting of the four.

    The games that have been held each of the past two years were far better than the ones I saw in 2014 and 2015. The contests the past two years were held late in the pre-season, and teams hit the ice with lineups that more resembled the ones that would be used in the regular season.

    The games in 2014 and 2015 definitely weren’t worth paying ticket prices ranging from $59.50 to $112 including fees to go see.

·         Hurricanes defenceman Haydn Fleury looked like an all-world player during his WHL days with the Red Deer Rebels, which wrapped up following the 2015-16 campaign. The sophomore pro looked ordinary trying to defend McDavid on a one-on-one rush on the Oilers fourth goal on Wednesday. McDavid seemed to toy with Fleury and cause the rearguard to move into position where he screened netminder Cam Ward. Fleury isn’t the first and won’t be the last player to look ordinary going against McDavid.

·         Wednesday’s attendance of 10,387 was quite a bit higher than the 7,541 that saw the Oilers play in Saskatoon in 2015. McDavid suited up for that 2015 contest, picking up an assist in a 3-0 win over the Minnesota Wild. Back then, McDavid was going through the paces of his rookie campaign.

·         Defenceman Eric Gryba of the Oilers and Trevor Carrick of the Hurricanes engaged in a late third period fight. Carrick managed to get some decent shots in, but the bout ended quickly after it started when the pair slipped down to ice.

·         Way less media from Edmonton attended Wednesday’s game compared to past years, when the Oilers came to Saskatoon. Outside of the crew putting together contest for the Oilers website, only one Edmonton based reporter was present during post-game interviews. In past years, a number of members from the Edmonton media were on hand. There were no appearances this year by legendary Edmonton sportswriters Jim Matheson and Terry Jones, who are both first class guys. It was another sign of Canada’s worse than skeleton crew media cut era. On the bright side, all of Saskatoon’s local outlets were represented.

·         I covered Wednesday’s game for The Canadian Press. My story for that wire service can be found right here.

Anthem protests didn’t have to happen

Some fans have burned their NFL gear over anthem protests.

    The sports world, especially the professional sports world, has been overwhelmed with protests regarding the United States national anthem, and the recent wave didn’t need to happen.

    A year ago, Colin Kaepernick, who was then the quarterback of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, at first sat and later kneeled during the playing of the U.S. national anthem to protest social injustice – primarily inequality and police violence against blacks. Issues involving race have always been a huge elephant in the room in the United States. Canada has its racial issues too, but arguably, they are not as wedge oriented as those in the United States.

    A number of other players joined Kaepernick when he started doing his protest, but the story really died down to the point it was pretty much off the radar at the start of the current NFL season.

    That changed last Friday, when U.S. President Donald Trump made a speech to supporters in Huntsville, Ala., and attacked players who kneeled in protest of the U.S. national anthem.

    Trump said, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’”

    He followed with a storm of inflammatory tweets. When NFL games rolled around on Sunday, there were massive protests that included over 200 players sitting or kneeling during the U.S. national anthem. Most teams locked arms in standing for the U.S. national anthem.

    In the CFL on Sunday, the Saskatchewan Roughriders locked arms during the Canadian national anthem before their 15-9 loss to the Calgary Stampeders at Mosaic Stadium as a show of support to the NFL players in the U.S.

    Since Trump’s speech last Friday, the anthem protest story seems to rise again with each passing hour with another story containing a different angle. It really feels like this is a story that is out of control. Had Trump not said what he said last Friday, life in the professional sports world and the overall sports would have gone on as normal.

    Now, you have two camps. You have those that kneel and lock arms to peacefully protest during the U.S. national anthem for Kaepernick’s original cause of protesting social injustice and police violence against minorities.

    You have the other camp that believe the peaceful protests during the U.S. national anthem show disrespect for the United States flag and military. The peaceful anthem protests were never about the United States flag or military.

    That same scenario goes for Canada and the Canadian flag and military.

    The two sides seem to keep escalating each other up, where you have fans burning jerseys or other team gear. The fact Trump, who started all this in the first place, keeps stoking the fire on this subject also doesn’t help.

    For myself, I will support anyone that feels moved to the point they believe it is necessary to make a peaceful protest during the national anthem in the United States or Canada like what has happened in the last five days. If someone wants to just stand at attention during the national anthem in the United States or Canada, I support that action too. Freedom of expression is a right in both countries.

    In the amateur sports world, I know a large number of teams who are serious when it comes to standing at attention for the national anthem, and it has become part of something those teams have always done. If they do anything else, it feels weird. Those teams should feel free to continue what they have always done.

    Had Trump not stoked the subject up last Friday, the divisiveness that followed would not have happened.

RIP Hugh Hefner (1926-2017)

A 2010 documentary on Hugh Hefner.

    On Wednesday, Hugh Hefner, who was the founder of Playboy magazine, died at the age of 91 at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California.

    Due to Hefner’s age, his passing isn’t a shock. It still feels surreal due to the impact he had on culture in North America and the world during his life. It seems everyone likes to relive the joke that they checked out Playboy for the articles as opposed to the naked female centerfolds, but Hefner’s life impact expanded beyond that publication.

    Before Playboy was published, talking about sex in North America was locked in the puritan sense in that you didn’t talk about or acknowledge it at all. He helped society break free from that where the attitude toward sex became more free.

    What often doesn’t get discussed is that Hefner had a huge impact in advocating for free speech, civils rights and social justice causes, and he was way ahead of his time in advocating for those things on a number of fronts.

    Back in 2010, filmmaker Brigitte Berman produced the documentary entitled, “Hugh Hefner Playboy, Activist and Rebel.”

    The film does a fantastic job of telling the story of Hefner’s life. The majority of the interviews are with his supporters, but there are also interviews from his detractors and went into detail about the adversities he faced.

    Hefner spoke freely about his adversities. His supporters note Hefner always carried himself like a gentleman.

    The best part of the film was it was shot when Hefner was in his mid-80s, and he was still really vibrant. Judging from social media posts from people that were close to him, age finally caught up to Hefner on the health front in recent years. If you find a copy of Berman’s documentary, it is a must to check out in my opinion.

    I believe Hefner made the world a better place and did a great job in living life to the fullest.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.