Merry Christmas 2018

P4a 2018

Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic Takes on NHL Trade Deadline Day 2017

This year's Trade deadline day started off in the wee hours of Tuesday Feb. 28th with the Canucks starting their sell-off by sending the Jannik Hansen to the San Jose Sharks. It's still pretty taboo among teams and general managers to trade within the division. This will come into play later on in the afternoon.

There were a few trades that happened before the last 24 hours window, I think that pretty much set the market as far as who could get moved.

There were only two transactions this year where salary had to be retained Jarome Iginlas' was one of those transactions. The Avalanche are going to retain 50% of his salary. Could it be the best last chance of the Iginla Cup-chasing dream? The Kings are hoping so - after all it is an odd numbered year.

Then a rather shocking development happened within the last hour of the trade deadline show. The local team Pittsburgh Penguins have made a bold move by turning the valued defenceman Mark Streit, who was constantly burning the rival teams with goals, into one of theirs by acquiring him from Tampa Bay. I don't know if this was planned by the Lightning and Penguins, but it sure messes with the Flyers who probably didn't want a player of that caliber on a rival team.

I made a video of the day's highlights because I expected a rather dull day with plenty of wasted minutes just waiting for the reports and the tweets to come through with the news.
So, what do you think about the Trade deals made today and this week? Let me know in the comment box below.

Canada Day Cup 2015

As the tradition continues to grow, the long historical Canada Day Cup Tournament will now be played live on the website (via Twitch). I had originally planned to do this last year, but thanks to my previous misfortunes with my latest laptop, I wasn't able to broadcast it. This year however, I was able to get things done in a more entertaining way.

I also did some preliminary matches with Team Canada and Team USA prior to the tournament. It got out of hand right away and Team USA won that one. We'll see if maybe Team Canada gets some revenge on July 4.

If you're not too familiar with the series, the tournament works like this. Each year, I hold a simulated tournament with each of the 8 Canadian NHL franchises. From there, I go through a match-up with the Provincial rivalries like TOR-OTT and MON-QUE with VAN-WPG and EDM-CGY. Of course it's quite an exciting breakdown and I keep up to date with the way that the Free Agent Frenzy on opening day plays out so that the teams are all square.

This years results were seen on Twitch and then later uploaded to YouTube where you can watch on the video below.

Since I've been doing it for 13 years, it's also one of the longest running traditions here on the Confession of a Hockey Fanatic weblog. I'm hoping to spin this off into a "matchup of the week" type video series were I upload a bunch of games to youtube for your enjoyment.


So, Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian readers! Please party safe and responsibly.









Previous Canada Day Champions
2002: Toronto Maple Leafs
2003: Edmonton Oilers
2004: Quebec Nordiques
2005: Montreal Canadians
2006: Montreal Canadians
2007: Winnipeg Jets
2008: Calgary Flames
2009: Vancouver Canucks
2010: Toronto Maple Leafs
2011: Quebec Nordiques
2012: Edmonton Oilers
2013: Ottawa Senators
2014: Montreal Canadians
2015:

Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic 13th Anniversary

Well, we've made it again for another great year for our 13th anniversary blog post. I want to thank each and every one of my readers who have stopped by to read my blogs and to comment on my work. But it is certainly no time to get nostalgic - but a time to continue to be the first hockey blog and the most innovative content. Yes, not only was I the first of my kind, but I was also the first to integrate audio, video and live-streaming podcasts as complimentary content.

I've had plenty of new things around here recently with the addition of the sponsors, the Insticator trivia app, and the live look at my NHL 15 games via Twitch. Be sure to stop by more frequently and play around with the new social media installed on the website.

I've also planned some new content with the youtube vlog where I'll be doing some live video game streaming, kind of like a "game of the week" thing. If you'd like to sponsor it on upcoming videos, please check with me in the regular social media channels.

But here is my newest video that I've made and debuting here for the 13th anniversary. I've had seen these chips around in the grocery stores locally and wanted to let you all know about them. I've seen some other taste testing videos and wanted to try doing something like that on my channel. On the back, I noticed that the Penguins were merely looking for more income for their main charity Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation, but it's not the first time that the Penguins have put their logo on food going all the way back to Fleury Flakes or City of Champions (with Max Talbot). If you also look around, you'll find the other endorsements of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and Co-advertising Snapple/Sheetz. For the Penguins, it's boldly entering a new era of revenue. I don't remember when the last time the Penguins had done this. (The Mario bun bar and the Jagr Peanut Butter were straight up player endorsements.) Is this sort of thing common among other teams in NHL markets?


(Special thanks to Cheeky Tam for the inspiration to try a video like this one!)

Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic Takes on NHL Deadline Day 2014

What always feels like a great big national holiday, the NHL trade deadline is met with a lot of hype and anticipation from every hockey fan in North America. Any trade could make or break a team. In my opinion, the cascading result is going to focus onto some of the teams that are on the bubble (just out of the playoffs looking for a boost back in the playoff hunt). Toronto, Detroit, Minnesota, Dallas,.. I'm looking to each team to make a blockbuster deal at the 3pm.

As Penguins fans now know through learning the hard way, the way to build a championship team is through avoiding messing with team chemistry. They have been mentioned a couple of times linked with several

Let's take a look at the trades that have led up to this trading deadline thus far:

To the Florida Panthers goes goaltender Roberto Luongo (aka "strombone" for his twitter handle) for young prospect Markstrom.

To the St. Louis Blues goaltender Ryan Miller and Steve Ott for goaltender Jaro Halak and...