Opinion
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Hockey | Elliotte Friedman
Growing pains with Shanahan, plus 30 Thoughts
Pierre-Marc Bouchard's suspension is a small piece of what is making his agent upset. Allan Walsh's missive is part of two larger issues: league-wide reaction to disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan's hammer and the NHLPA's desire to attack the suspension/appeal process.
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Hockey
Hockey
Elliotte Friedman: Friedman: Ovechkin's stock drops, Habs get charitable & 30 thoughts
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Hockey
Hockey
Elliotte Friedman: Kopitar takes high road in Doughty scenario
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Hockey
Hockey
Elliotte Friedman: 30 Thoughts: Hockey's giving spirit, Shanahan's tough gig & what drives Corey Perry
More Opinion
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Elliotte Friedman
On Doughty, Turris & leverage, plus 30 Thoughts
Drew Doughty and the Phoenix Coyotes wield leverage, while Kyle Turris and the Los Angeles Kings don't. It will be interesting to see how long each club and the players themselves, can stick to their line in the contract disputes.
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Elliotte Friedman
The anatomy of a dispute
Marty Turco understands what Drew Doughty is thinking today.
"This is when it hits you," Turco said Friday morning. "Your teammates are in training camp and you're not. It's scary. People start saying things. You hear it, take it personally."
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Elliotte Friedman
30 Thoughts: Jets return, The unsigned 6 & hockey's tragic summer
Going to keep it pretty simple to open the season. No huge preamble. Right into the first 30 Thoughts of 2011-12.
- Elliotte Friedman Hockey deaths deserve study, not speculation Forty-eight hours after Wade Belak's stunning and sad death, we really don't know what happened. There's nothing wrong with asking hard questions, but unfortunately there's been a lot of wild guesswork as well.
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Elliotte Friedman
Crosby can look to Bergeron for inspiration
About a month ago, I ran into one of the Vancouver Canucks at a golf tournament. As much as we both tried to avoid it, the Stanley Cup Final ultimately came up in the conversation. One of his comments: "Obviously, Tim Thomas was great. But Patrice Bergeron also killed us."Think about that when you're considering Sidney Crosby's future
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Elliotte Friedman
Predators in trouble with Weber?
I wasn't in Shea Weber's arbitration hearing on Tuesday, so I don't know what was said.But I can tell you what other teams/agents are saying: For the first time, they think the Predators are really in trouble with Weber. There was always a recognition that dealing with all three of Weber, Ryan Suter and Pekka Rinne was going to be impossible, but, assumed the captain was priority number one.
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Elliotte Friedman
Stamkos, Lightning lock-in, plus 30 thoughts
This is the final 30 Thoughts for the season, with the blog set to return in September. Sorry it's so late, but sometimes life gets in the way (moving is the worst).
Wanted to end things by saying "thank-you" to you, the reader.
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Elliotte Friedman
Stamkos talks cause a frenzy, plus 30 thoughts
So, here we are, days before July 1, and Tampa fans are apoplectic about Steven Stamkos, worrying some other team will swoop in and steal their franchise player with an offer sheet.
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Elliotte Friedman
All eyes on 1 agency, plus 30 thoughts
Around this time of year, I try to look around and figure out who's going to be the biggest newsmaker. It's an exciting point on the calendar - the draft, free agency - and someone usually steps up and grabs the headlines.
This year, many hockey people are watching an agency.
- Elliotte Friedman Desire to win not for faint of heart It is a common complaint from sports fans: "The players don't care about this team as much as I do." What's that Jerry Seinfeld line, again? "When it comes down to it, we're just cheering for laundry." Not this year.
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Elliotte Friedman
NHL sends tough message to Rome
Six days after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stood at a podium and said he wanted to see harsher suspensions for "certain conduct we want out of the game," Mike Murphy unloaded on Vancouver defenceman Aaron Rome.
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Elliotte Friedman
Cramping up Chara's space, plus 30 thoughts
"If you can't make great players work hard on defence, they will kill you on offence."
It's an ample strategy the Vancouver Canucks are using against Boston Bruins all-star defenceman Zdeno Chara through the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final.
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Elliotte Friedman
Crucial off-season awaits Panthers
This is an enormous off-season for the Florida Panthers. Almost 1,000 kilometres
to the North, an NHL franchise is gone. Atlanta's move to Winnipeg
erased one trouble spot, but there are others. Phoenix remains
uncertain, and there are big questions about this situation, too.
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Elliotte Friedman
Front office staff 1st priority in Winnipeg
It's been a near-perfect week for the city of Winnipeg and the province of Manitoba.
The NHL is returning and now that (some) of the hype has subsided, one issue Mark Chipman and the True North ownership group must figure out quickly is the state of the team's front office.
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Elliotte Friedman
Canadian division could get a push, plus 30 thoughts
It was 1992, and the ground was unsteady below baseball commissioner Fay Vincent. He wasn't exactly popular with MLB's owners.
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Elliotte Friedman
Thornton finally growing fangs, plus 30 thoughts
He was the guy who showed up shirtless in interviews, smiled constantly, gave the media everything we needed and wanted to be liked.
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Elliotte Friedman
Thrashers' rollercoaster ride hurtling toward Winnipeg?
Well, here we go.
For a couple of years now, the National Hockey League has told True
North Sports and Entertainment to get everything ready. Get your
financing done, have a ticket plan in place, make some changes to your
building, etc.
But, the warning was strict: "Don't approach any other owner until we
tell you to do so. And we better not see you doing interviews."
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Elliotte Friedman
NHL must be more open about relocation
For the second straight year, Glendale's city councillors pledged $25 million US to cover potential Coyotes' losses. We can argue the intelligence of this decision, but we cannot argue the consequences of saying no. The team was gone. But the situation is far from over. And it's crossing into cruelty. People can only be jerked around for so long before they hit the breaking point.