#Ontario hockey league

[wisteriasabloom]

oh 🥹 good things (and today i learned keanu reeves plays goalie!)

[papimatthews34]

[ziggyplayedguitar96]

Tonya Harding (Hockey Edition)

[lukesvangelista]

what is going on with the ohl???

[ghostlymemories]

Letters from an OHL Camera Operator

I am a volunteer. I work the equivalent to a 9-5 job at my place of volunteering employment. I work weird hours at my paid job. My 9-5 is a 2-10 (all PM hours). I set up the equipment, I test the equipment, I eat the same Pizza Hut pizza I’ve been eating for the past 2 years and I’m happy.

I follow players around the ice. Certain ones that is- I get told two to three numbers right after O Canada. Last year was 14, 16 and 26 (or 86). Year before was 14, 90 and again 86. This year just started but I’m following 23. I figured I’d be following 3, since Canada won the Halinka Gretzky cup this year.

I wake up at 11 am these days. I eat breakfast, grab some fruit bars and a juice box. I walk the dog and then I catch the bus towards downtown- to make it to the ice for 2:00 pm.

We take the equipment out of the brand new truck, lug it into the building and hope to the hockey gods (or whom ever you pray to) that the freight elevator isn’t broken. It was last week. We put our stuff on the small carts they have and pull them into the elevator and eventually into the media box.

The local radio guy is already there- he goes live at 3:00 pm so we tend to stay quiet during set up, just incase. The away team radio eventually funnels in as we put our cases cleanly against the wall, out of the way enough. Clean. Tidy. I set up commentators, the mics, the headsets, the back up mics, the monitors, the commentator camera, the talk back boxes, their lights- the list goes on.

Sometimes I ask the others why they still do this. One’s been here for 10 years. She does it because she loves broadcasting, as this is her last connection to the sports industry. Another does it to hopefully get an eventual job in the field- but she’s happy at Toys-R-Us for now. Both do camera with me.

Another does it because he enjoys the sports and wanted to see a different side to the game- he’s an electrician who is definitely in his 60s (I’ve never asked). Another does it as he’s interested in the sports but could never play- he’s got free time so he’s here. Our Graphics guy and I went to college together. He graduated, I didn’t. He works nightshifts at McDonald’s, gets about 2-4 hours of sleep but keeps coming back to us.

Our replay wizard, she works a retail job, is married to our CCU guy (our technical producer) and is genuinely one of the hardest working people I know. Our audio technician is my best friend. She and I attended high school together, we went to college together (I was a year ahead). She graduated and has worked on a bunch of side projects- really making a name for herself.

4 women on crew, 3 men on crew (volunteers)- the other two are paid. They work for the company. All of us together is 4 women, 5 men. We work hard. We don't get paid.

The local university and college are shocked that we aren't paid. Local business owners are as well. The company I do the volunteer work for has mare than enough money to pay us, but then again - why would they right?

[nylanderbunting]

Guelph Storm @ Kitchener Rangers (3/7/2023)

I had the incredible opportunity to get a full behind the scenes tour of the Aud (Kitchener Memorial Auditorium) as part of one of my jobs. Pictured below is the Center ice view from the tv press box, Montreal Canadiens’ 2022 1st round pick Filip Mešár’s stall, and an image of the scoreboard mid game.

My tour was led by COO Joe Birch, who is a very kind and wise man. I also met Alex Witherspoon (Digital Marketing Manager), Megan Wymenga (Retail Manager), Dominic Hennig (Director of Communications and Hockey Operations), Zach Foss (Director of Ticketing), and last but not least, Patrice Whiffen (In-Game Host and Game Operations Manager).

As a female, I am very fortunate to have been able to attend the International Women’s Day Game and see all the recognition and appreciation first hand. Truly a special experience

[significant-narratives]

i need to hear more about this natemac wanting to kidnap mitchy at any possible moment

nate wanting to kidnap mitch comes from this interview excerpt from when they went to worlds together in 2017:

you can read the full article here

there's also this post that has some more moments of the two of them interacting, if you're curious!

[3416]

watching people overhype easton cowan is driving me nuts. like he's doing so well, just leave him alone and cut the expectations, jfc. will never understand or respect the overinvestment in the teenage levels of this sport.

[rabbitcruiser]

The National Hockey League’s first United States-based franchise, the Boston Bruins, played their first game in league play at home on December 1, 1924, at the still-extant Boston Arena indoor hockey facility.  

[muirneach]

lol @ this hockey academic's surname being ohl

[wallpapers4screen]

[saucingitup]

It hasn’t been easy for many who have come before them. Twenty-six years ago in Nagano when women’s hockey debuted as an official Olympic sport, some media coverage focused more on the sexual orientation of the players than the competition.

But relationships among athletes are slowly gaining a normality in women’s pro sports. In 2021, married couple Allie Quigley and Courtney Vandersloot won a WNBA championship with the Chicago Sky, and they are just one of many couples in the league. 

Women’s sports is undergoing a transformative expansion — new leagues, more money and investment, increased media coverage — and the story of teammates as couples is only going to become more common.

“I've always been the hockey player. But I have a wife and I can be myself. People are coming to the rink and saying thank you for allowing me to be myself,” Poulin says. 

If Poulin has helped make Stacey a better hockey player, Stacey has assisted Poulin in living her most authentic life. 

And in a lot of ways, they have become bigger than the game.

Their late-September wedding at Le Peaches and Cream in Low, Que., is described by many of the 192 family members and friends who were in attendance as the perfect day. Poulin and Stacey both call it “the best day of their lives” — an epic celebration of life and love, the culmination of a relationship that began in 2017 when they locked eyes while swimming at a Team Canada event at Blue Mountain in southern Ontario.

Stacey had just competed in her first world championship, Poulin a decorated champion many times over. They were teammates, but they didn’t really know a lot about one another. 

“A few of us decided to go skinny dipping in the pool at 2 a.m.” Stacey says. “The two of us looked up into the sky at the same time and we saw a shooting star. Our eyes met and we asked each other if we just saw that. Nobody else in the pool saw it or knew what was going on but we saw it. For the rest of that night it was a weird feeling. I had a feeling.

“We always go back to that moment. Even in my wedding vows, that was the thing —that she was the wish I had always dreamed of and I didn’t realize it until now.”

and they were linemates... everybody stop drop and read this article on laura stacey and marie philip-poulin

[mitchbeck]

KEVIN DINEEN THINKS CT HAS ALWAYS BEEN HOME

By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT – Kevin Dineen returned to Connecticut to participate in the Hartford Yard Goats celebration of Hartford Whalers Day at Dunk Donuts Park last week. “I have always looked at my time with the Whalers as very special. Everything has to have a beginning. Hartford was that for me. It really made for some very fond memories for me and my family. Meeting my wife…

[maytheskitty]

To be fair, as a Montréaler I wouldn’t say we don’t give a shit about the leafs because there definitely is a strong Hab-Leafs rivalry, it’s just that we hate the Bruins more.

Alberta is hilarious, most hated team is one of their two hockey teams. I guess everyone does hate Calgary, after Toronto of course

Most Hated Team - All Sports including NCAA

[intheupside]

That year, the NHL was embroiled in one of its periodic work stoppages, this one a lockout.Players were allowed at practice facilities, but team officials were not.

Crosby took on the role of media relations director. A day in advance, he’d tell the media what time Penguins players — usually around a dozen — would be working out. One time, in a particularly endearing moment, players canceled the next day’s workout. So, Crosby called me and asked me to tell the rest of the media not to show up. It was a very strange time for hockey and especially for Crosby, who had just lost 100 games in his prime due to a concussion. Now, he was missing more time in his prime because of a lockout.

Also because of the lockout, Crosby had plenty of time for introspection along with his hockey player and media relations duties. He had time to pay close attention to the rest of the hockey world, too, a privilege he typically isn’t afforded in October.

Two hours north of Pittsburgh, a 15-year-old sensation had arrived in Erie, Pa. — Connor McDavid was taking the Ontario Hockey League by storm. I had decided to travel to Erie with Penguins broadcaster Paul Steigerwald on Saturday, the night of McDavid’s second home game, when the Erie Otters were taking on the London Knights.

On the game’s first shift, McDavid split defensemen Olli Määttä and Scott Harrington and then scored to finish off a highlight reel goal.

Dan Bylsma, then coaching the Penguins, was there. Following the game, he chewed out Määttä and Harrington, a couple of Penguins draft picks, for allowing that goal on the game’s first shift. After seeing the interaction, I joked to Bylsma, something along the lines of, “I don’t know, that McDavid kid is kinda good.”

Bylsma looked at me and said: “He’s 15. They shouldn’t be getting split like that.”

I relayed this story to Crosby, who asked if Bylsma really said that. Then he took my side.

“Doesn’t matter how old he is. He’s different,” Crosby said.

Oh?

Crosby always politely answers questions about players, but he doesn’t typically go out of his way like that.

Then it occurred to me that Erie Otters games aren’t televised in Pittsburgh. I had assumed that Crosby had never seen McDavid play.

“Got some time on my hands these days,” Crosby said with a smile. “I’ve seen him. I’ve seen highlights of him.”

The greatest player in the world is checking out YouTube highlights of a 15-year-old hockey player?

“Yep,” Crosby said.

Then he said something I’ll never forget. Sensing that he saw something in McDavid that was different, I asked him if McDavid reminded him of anyone. In a non-arrogant way, Crosby quietly said, “He reminds me of me.”

Make no mistake, he admired all of the players who were compared to him. He once told me that, if he could shoot the puck like Alex Ovechkin, he wouldn’t pass as much as he does. I once saw him shake his head when he watched Patrick Kane stickhandle around an opponent on TV.

But he never anointed other players, even if he would marvel.

With McDavid, stylistically, Crosby saw himself. And he saw talent that was out of this world.

Crosby didn’t feel threatened. He understood that someone else always comes along.

from the athletic

[hugheses]

GEORGETOWN, ON - APR 22, 2017: Ontario Junior Hockey League, Championship Series. Georgetown Raiders vs the Trenton Golden Hawks in Game 5 of the Buckland Cup Final. (Photo by Tim Bates / OJHL Images)