It was a great way to start.
Auston Matthews, 19, made history on Oct. 12 by scoring four goals in his first game in the National Hockey League.
No one in the history of the NHL has ever done that before.
Tag: NHL
Turning Over New Leafs
Canada is a hockey nation and arguably, nowhere is a hockey team more beloved by fans than in Toronto. The Toronto Maple Leafs’ fans are incredibly loyal.
Hockey Players Suing NHL Over Concussions
Some former professional hockey players are suing the National Hockey League.
In this case, it means they are asking the NHL to pay them money.
Two hundred former players say the NHL didn’t do enough to protect them from concussions.
They say they have brain injuries because hockey is so rough, and they want the NHL to pay for their medical treatment.
The players say they should have been told how dangerous repeated brain injuries are.
They say the NHL waited until 1997 to put a “concussion program” in place, but the league should have known long before that how dangerous concussions are.
The players say the league should have changed the rules of hockey to make it less likely that players would get concussions.
University of Toronto Goalie’s Hockey Dreams Come True
Many young Canadians play hockey. They dream of one day playing in the NHL on a professional team.
Last week, that dream came true for University of Toronto goalie Brett Willows.
One minute he was about to eat dinner with his friends at a restaurant called Noodle Bowl on Spadina Ave. in Toronto. The next, he was suited up as a Toronto Maple Leaf goalie, waiting to go in and play in a professional game.
Willows never got to play in the game, but for a little while, he was a Leaf.
When the Leafs’ goalie, James Reimer, got injured, they put in their other goalie, Jonathan Bernier.
But Bernier would need a backup, and that backup was Brett Willows.
So they called him. Willows ditched the Montreal Canadiens cap he was wearing, threw a $20 bill on the table to pay for the few bites of soup he’d eaten, and ran to gather his goalie gear.
Then he raced to the Air Canada Centre.
NHL Season (Finally!) Begins This Saturday
The National Hockey League season is finally beginning.
After 113 days, the dispute between the owners and the players is over.
Fans have been without hockey since Sept. 15; that’s when the NHL season was supposed to have started.
After months of negotiations, players voted in favour of a new “collective agreement” to end the lockout.
Then to officially end the lockout, representatives for both the owners and players signed a document saying they agree to the proposal.
The 30 hockey teams that make up the NHL started training camps on Jan. 13.
There are seven Canadian teams in the NHL: the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens, the Calgary Flames, the Edmonton Oilers, the Winnipeg Jets, the Ottawa Senators and the Vancouver Canucks.
Training camp is a time for teams to put together their roster.
It also gives teams a chance to prepare for the upcoming season in hopes of winning the Stanley Cup.
This camp will be shorter than usual as there is a rush to get the season started. As a result there will be no pre-season games.
Stanley Cup Playoffs Update
With the beginning of each National Hockey League (NHL) regular season, teams dream of winning The Stanley Cup.
The Stanley Cup is the NHL’s ultimate prize. It is a trophy awarded each year to the team that wins the playoffs.
The playoffs are composed of the top 16 teams from the regular season.
In the playoffs teams embark on a best-of-seven series in hopes of winning The Cup. The team to win four games first wins the series.
Each series win brings a team one step closer to raising The Stanley Cup as champion.
Last year the Boston Bruins were champions and won The Cup.
This year the Bruins lost in round one in a thrilling series against the Washington Capitals.
A Great Time To Be A Sports Fan
There are exciting things happening in baseball, hockey, basketball, golf and soccer.
Major League Baseball (MLB) is just getting underway.
Every team is hoping to make it to the World Series in October.
But that’s about 150 games away.
The Blue Jays have a real shot at it this year, and that has some of the American teams nervous.
Will a Canadian team win against the Americans in “their” sport?
It’s happened before—in 1992 and 1993 when the Jays won the World Series. You never know!
Toronto Maple Leafs Get A New Coach
It’s not every day you have to fire an old college roommate, but this week Brian Burke, General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, did just that.
After a six game losing streak, Burke made a tough decision.
To remove Leafs coach Ron Wilson, a friend of Burke’s for nearly 40 years, and replace him with Randy Carlyle.
Burke has also known and worked with Carlyle before.
In fact, Burke and Carlyle won a Stanley Cup together in 2007 when they both worked for the Anaheim Ducks hockey team.
(The Stanley Cup is hockey’s championship trophy.)
Maple Leafs, Red Wings To Square Off In Winter Classic
It’ll be the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. the Detroit Red Wings out in the fresh air on New Year’s Day.
It’s called the Winter Classic, and it’s an annual outdoor hockey game that features NHL teams playing on an outdoor rink.
Today, the NHL announced which teams will be playing in the special game. The game counts as a regular-season game.
Although it’s still 11 months away—the next Winter Classic will be held on Jan. 1, 2013—fans are excited. Because it’s outdoors, things like snow, rain and glare from the sun can affect the game, which makes it all the more interesting for spectators.
