There was a lot of attention paid to Colton Orr in January. Did he deserve a place on the Leafs 23-man roster? Was there room for someone like him? Someone who wasn’t able to prove himself at the NHL level last season? Someone who had sat out for the majority of the 2010-11 season recovering from a concussion suffered in a battle gone wrong?

Indeed, following the 2011 fight with George Parros which ended with him landing face first on the ice underneath his opponent, he had sat out for 244 days before starting the 2011-12 season. He had been cleared by doctors, he was ready to go. But he didn’t get too much of a chance to prove it at the NHL level before being sent down to the Toronto Marlies and coach Dallas Eakins.

“Even though it was probably a great disappointment for him to be sent to the American League, it was almost a necessary thing to happen for him because it let us basically pull down that reset button for 10 seconds and this hockey player restarted himself and a new guy popped out,” Marlies head coach Dallas Eakins told TSN.” (tsn.ca)

Indeed, Orr’s reset button was flipped and by the start of training camp this past January he looked like an entirely different hockey player.

» Continue reading “Friday Fisticuffs: Colton Orr Is Persistence Personified”

You may remember me from such fights as:

• Jay Rosehill vs Mike Rupp on October 10, 2009
• Jay Rosehill vs Brandon Prust on December 5, 2011
• Jay Rosehill vs Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblonde on April 15, 2012
• Jay Rosehill vs Chris Thorburn on April 6, 2013

Oh, you get the idea. Rosie is pretty fantastic. If he’s been on your team you know how hard it is not to love him. When he returns as a member of the opposition, say with the Flyers, and winds up scrapping with one of your team’s heavyweights, say Colton Orr, you know it even more with all the tugging that suddenly starts happening to your heartstrings. Did I mention how fantastic he is?

» Continue reading “The Hawt Trophy: Jay Rosehill”

You’d think that an invention as game changing as the Zamboni Ice Rink Resurfacer would get at least a little bit recognition in hockey card sets from time-to-time. Given there are subsets featuring players doing any number of ridiculous things off the ice, trophy cards, checklist cards, this card, that card, why not salute the on-ice masterpiece that is the Zamboni? Throw the odd Zamboni trivia card in, make things interesting, maybe even exciting? Exhilarating? After all, isn’t that what Zambonis are?

Season after season, rink rats work to fine tune their mean machines. Do you notice when the Zambonis at your favourite barn hit the ice and have undergone some sort of magical transformation? (Alright, I do.) From undercarriage neon lighting, to strapping on apparatus to enable a little go-go dancing during intermission, to simply providing the perfect flood for the game, the job is thankless but also one that enables minds to wander free with Zamboni creativity.

» Continue reading “Hump Day Hockey Cards: Z Is For Zamboni”

What does this man have to do with today’s tweets? Keep reading to find out! (Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

Today we have tweets from all over the spectrum. The best we saw was a conversation between Ryan Kesler, Roberto Luongo and Kevin Bieska of the Vancouver Canucks last night regarding two of them apparently looking alike and hair gel (I kid you not). Since conversations are difficult to screenshot (especially since this one was all over the place), you can check it out here, here and here.

So what other tweets do we have for you?

» Continue reading “They Said WHAT?!? – Great Points + Confused Hockey Players”

Who loves you enough to bring you two Friday fights for the price of one? That’s right. Aerys NHL delivers.

The best part of these bouts may be the slow, simmering build up to the show downs. Patrick Kaleta goes down faster than free beer at a frat party. The officials try to keep the two sides apart. Especially when Colton Orr arrives.

Frazer McLaren and John Scott pair off immediately after the face off. Orr goes in search of Kaleta and they drop ‘em too. Tandem fights! Glorious!

» Continue reading “Friday Fisticuffs: Double Shot! Sabres vs. Leafs”

Tomas Kundratek and Steve Olesky are proud puck bearers and public enemy number one.

When you see a player smiling ear-to-ear and proudly holding up a puck for all to see, does it matter what team he’s on? There’s a lot more going on than just another snazzy photo op. From personal achievement and overcoming obstacles to a supportive family and hockey community to maybe a little luck on the ice and sometimes a little bit of sass in his smile, we should just be pleased for him that he’s having success as he launches into his NHL career, right? Maybe.

Let’s be real. At the end of the day, did he assist on or score the goal that helped his team clinch the OT win against your team? Yes? Then it does matter. It matters a lot.

I’m looking at you, Tomas Kundratek.

» Continue reading “The Hawt Trophy: Show Us Your Pucks!”

He da man.

After a few months of stacking small piles of hockey cards all over my apartment, I finally had the chance to spend some time to properly organizing overthinking my card binder. Rather than coming up with a specific plan or actually putting any cards into the binder, I decided to look at Marty Turco cards on eBay because TurcoMania still runs wild in my heart.

It was then that I stumbled upon the “You Da Man” Marty Turco card pictured above. I had somehow forgotten about the 60 card Sidelines subset that made its appearance in the 2009-10 Upper Deck Be a Player Signature Series set. When the set was released, Sidelines cards weren’t anything new for hockey card fans or collectors with or without a sense of humour.

The 1992-93 Pinnacle Sidelines Subset (which I will get to at some point) was very informative. How would I have ever known that Luke Richardson was a rocket builder? And other cards popped up here and there with news about what players were doing off the ice, many of them related to the sport of golf.

Let’s relax, unwind and take some time to enjoy a few of the anecdotes and guffaw inducing moments brought to you by a handful of the 2009-10 UD BAP Sidelines cards.

» Continue reading “Hump Day Hockey Cards: You Da Man, Marty Turco”

Colton Orr and Deryk Engelland have most definitely danced before. And by danced, we mean punched each other with their fists. Their story got a new chapter on Wednesday evening when the Pittsburgh Penguins hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs.

What happened? Punches galore.

» Continue reading “Friday Fisticuffs: Colton Orr vs. Deryk Engelland”

Secret’s out, Gill

The NHL is back! Yay! But with that, we’re probably going to see a lot less tweets by hockey players. Sad face. So here’s a bunch of tweets that made us laugh this week during training camp.

» Continue reading “They Said WHAT- Training Camp Edition”

Reports of the opening games of the NHL season have been slowly making their way around the interwebs, and according to John Shannon of Sportsnet, the Canadiens will face off at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, January 19th. The time of the game has not been announced, however it will likely end up in the 7/7:30 PM Saturday night timeslot for Hockey Night in Canada.

More will be posted regarding the schedule when all games are confirmed by the Canadiens and the NHL. Only 10 more days!