May 16, 2023 – Breathe. It wasn’t the worst of years for Leafnation. You guys made it to the second round of the playoffs with a flawed team design. The old adage say if you do things the same way why expect a different result? Going into the season yoursContinue Reading
March 4, 2023 – The NHL is in a strange place. While the salary cap has been a success, the structure of seasons now seem to be 60 game seasons with a long 22 game wind down until the playoffs start. While mathematically there are still chances for some teamsContinue Reading
DECEMBER 31, 2022 – This is the last Hockey Crunch for the year. As some of our viewers know yours truly was the first NHL Analytics hire, all the way back in 1995 for the Habs. While things have come a long way since I used an old Sony VHSContinue Reading
October 13, 2022 – It wasn’t a great game, but it was entertaining. The kids were alright except for Slafkovsky who really needs to get to the AHL and play lots of minutes. Mostly he needs to keep his feet moving. Compared to Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, and Arber Xhekaj,Continue Reading
October 12, 2022 – It’s that time! First game of the season when all looks optimistic and the dew is fresh. The big question is can the Leafs shake this first round and out that they’ve been enduring? Did they do enough in the off season? This writer thinks not.Continue Reading
October 10, 2022 – There’s a lot of excitement in la belle province as the season kicks off against The Leafs. The Habs didn’t win a pre season game this year, but this scribbler predicts a pounding of Toronto tonight. It’s not that the team is that much better. It’sContinue Reading
OCTOBER 5, 2022 – The problem with lawyers is that while the great ones can prove in court that elephants just might be able to fly; in the real world, when the issue is heinous enough, it doesn’t really matter if elephants can indeed fly or not. In this situationContinue Reading
July 13, 2022 – As I sit here pondering whether the Habs under new GM Kent Hughes are doing well or not I’m mulling over their core. Clearly the Habs are not addressing the very real factor that the team needs a few francophone players in their core. Right nowContinue Reading
Maple Leafs Are Likely Losing Ilya Mikheyev Ilya Mikheyev is coming off the best season of his young NHL career, but his price tag will likely be too much for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 27-year-old speedster tallied 21 goals and 11 assists in 53 games for the Maple LeafsContinue Reading
May 15, 2022 – For Leaf nation it’s essentially like living in the movie Ground Hog Day. A really good team racking up the points during the regular season and failing for the sixth year in a row to move forward. Frankly Leaf fans deserve better. Connor McDavid put onContinue Reading
January 23, 2022 – Kudos to Geoff Molson. The Jeff Gorton & Kent Hughes hires feel good. As someone that was the Habs first Analytics guy and video statographer back in the 90’s it’s great to see the team finally take some strong steps forward with a clear focus toContinue Reading
JANUARY 7, 2022 – GM Ken Holland has to be feeling the pressure. He gambled with the Duncan Keith trade and the signing of Zach Hyman & Cody Ceci while not truly addressing the team’s goaltending issues. The team jumped out to a great start, but now are 2-6-2 inContinue Reading
NOVEMBER 7, 2021- Hoo boy. First we had that lovely start to the season and now it appears, unless Jake Allen notches a shut out, wins will be infrequent. Carey Price is coming back soon, but he didn’t perform much better statistically than Jake Allen last year during the regularContinue Reading
November 8, 2021 – I was mulling whether to write about the Kyle Beach NHL Sex Scandal or not. After all, what could I add? Well a lot, but did I want to? And then the Aaron Rodgers getting Covid-19 while breaking NFL protocols and putting others at risk happened.Continue Reading
October 28, 2021 – We now know that former 11th overall pick Kyle Beach was John Doe in the sexual assault cover up by Black Hawk management back 2010 that led to other victims before Brad Aldrich, a video coach, was finally charged by police after assaulting a high schoolContinue Reading
September 26, 2021 – It was an amazing finish to a frankly disappointing season last year. Injury to your franchise player, mental health issues for your most expensive forward, dealing with a pandemic, and literally backing into the playoffs in a weakened single season division. Them’s not betting odd conditions.Continue Reading
September 7, 2021 – Cap & asset management are critical in today’s NHL. This week we have seen Habs GM Marc Bergevin lose a 3rd overall pick for a 1st and 3rd round pick. Cleary the drafting and development of KK was an error. A bad pick for #3 overallContinue Reading
AUGUST 26, 2021 – Weird things happen in Hockey. The sad prevailing philosophy of the great franchise known as the Montreal Canadians is to “make the playoffs”. Anything can happen. Well it did happen last year. Through misfortune to opposition that no Vegas odds maker would account for the HabsContinue Reading