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The past couple of days has seen a big hullabaloo in Canada over stories that the Calgary Flames and the Toronto Maple Leafs players and staff have skipped ahead of the queue and received shots against the H1N1 virus.  People are up in arms because the health of athletes seems to have taken precedent over the health of other high risk groups.  Politicians in Ontario

One month into the 2009-2010 season and the overwhelming storyline is the rash of injuries hitting almost every team.  It seems that every night a player will go down and be out of the line up for an undetermined period of time.  And we are not talking about 4th line role players but the go-to guys and stars of the squad. The Penguins are without

Going to see Metallica tonight at the Air Canada Centre.  I am pretty excited and not only because this concert completes the list of Heavy Metal bands I wanted to see since I was a kid, but there will be people actually cheering in that building tonight.  Just imagine….people enjoying themselves at the ACC.  Such an event was thought to be a myth. Detroit fans have

In all due respect to the TV drama Dr Quinn Medicine Woman that aired in the 90′s starring the eye-catching British actress Jane Seymour, coach Pat Quinn seems to be just what the doctor ordered for the Edmonton Oilers.  The brash, no nonsense, old-time hockey coach has the Oilers playing exciting hockey and is making this team work where others have failed. In recent seasons the Oilers have fallen on hard

This season is hardly 3 weeks old and we have already seen some key players go down with long term injuries.  What will be interesting to watch unfold is how teams cope with their star players going down.  The Canadiens have lost All-Star blueliner Andrei Markov for 4-6 months and they are struggling out of the gate with a 3 wins -5 losses  record.  Montreal is a much better team with Markov

With the plight of the Maple Leafs disastrous start to the season there have been a few other teams that have been escaping the limelight for their uninspired efforts.  If you take a look at the overall league standings you find a few teams that are having their own struggles to string a few wins together. Sitting with one win a piece in five games, both the Florida Panthers and the Minnesota

I am pleased to announce that this weeks honors have been awarded to an entire team, the Toronto Maple Leafs.  This is not just because the Leafs have gone 0-5-1 in the first 6 games.  Rather, it is because of the way they have lost each game that earns the entire team all 3 of this weeks titles. All teams will have a losing streak during the season, thats a given.  And a poor

When I got home yesterday after a long day toiling in front of the computer I was pleased to find a new Hockey News Collector’s issue waiting for me.  This issue is dedicated to the history of the old-time hockey sweater to the modern jerseys in use today.  It interviews Phil, the Keeper of the Cup from the Hockey Hall of Fame, gives detailed accounts of rare collectors items, the history of

Welcome to a new feature on PuckDrop: Greener’s Goats, Goons and Buffoons!  One week into the season and we already have worthy recipients of these prestigious titles. Goat of the Week:  Nikolai Khabibulin of the Edmonton Oilers. The Bulin Wall showed a few cracks this week when on opening night in a tied game entering the last minute of the third period,  he gave the puck away to the Flames

A few years ago I would often lament to anyone within earshot how I hated the trend in team colours in the NHL.  The bean-counters and the marketing departments had decided that it was more important to sell as many jerseys as economically possible rather than adhering to tradition.  To accomplish their budgetary demands, teams decided to go with what was hot, and that was the colour black.  There was also