There is evidence that with Don Cherry gone and Maclean playing Goodbye Mr. Chips that a sea change is occurring on at least two fronts at HNIC. One is the emergence of former Canuck Kevin Bieksa as the new tone-setter of the editorial. The other is the embrace of betting on the show.

But now a Connor McDavid can sign an NIL contract at 14 years old, play in the NCAA and— rich already— still be drafted No. 1 overall. Yes, college hockey has a lower profile and fewer opportunities for endorsements. Some will want the CHL’s experience. But a McDavid-type player would be a prize catch for an equipment company or a video game manufacturer. Or even as an influencer. All things currently not allowed in the CHL.

The SI Swimsuit edition was created in the 1960s to defeat a stereotype that fit sportswomen were tomboys, unattractive and vaguely butch. In their own way, the early SI models destroyed those stereotypes while pleasuring hetero men. They convinced women that muscles aren’t a bringdown. The 2022 edition is not that.

Whether the NHL can see beyond its cherished myths of grinders and role players to admit it has a goalie problem is the question. A question that, as long as Gary Bettman is commissioner, will likely never be answered.

In the coming years we will learn— despite the strenuous efforts of the guilty— that elected officials and drug manufacturers hid far worse outcomes about their vaccines. They’ll reluctantly do this because all vaccine users signed off on their products as experimental. They can’t be sued— government saw to that.

The West stands at the precipice of a major disaster in Ukraine. North Americans are perplexed that it’s gotten this far. It might best if they could instead be like the Poles at the hockey game in Tychy. Generous and welcoming to people in distress. But ever wary of strangers bearing narratives.

What’s just as interesting as the Canadian Cup chase will be the contest for the Hart Trophy as the most valuable player to his team. In the years since Patrick Roy led the Habs to the 1993 championship, going 10-0 in OT games, there has not been a year with a trio of Canadian-based players like this. Toronto’s Auston Matthews. Edmonton’s Connor McDavid. Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau.. They’re key reasons why their teams have a chance at the Cup.

The MLB season is just two weeks old, and already baseball’s pig-headed decision not to use virtual technology to call balls/ strikes is looking like a massive blunder. While it jimmied with the DH rules and promised to use a pitch clock next season, MLB leaves the single greatest threat to the sport’s integrity unchanged.

Live audio has always been the final frontier of sports broadcasting. Lip reading is the best we could hope for. And here it was; the Joey Votto conversation was akin to hearing The Jazz Singer in 1927.

The excitement for this World Cup and the 2026 World Cup— which Canada is to co-host with the U.S. and Mexico— is making some people see dollar signs. Specifically, the politicians in the Canadian cities interested in hosting a sliver of the WC 2026 are seeing the huge price tags for two weeks of excitement.

There are truisms. Never eat at a place called Mom’s. Never play cards with a guy whose name is the same as a president. And don’t try to fake goaltending in hockey.

Many saw last week’s controversial performance by transgendered University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas as simply a swimming contest. In reality it was yet another political show trial for progressive corporate, media and political overlords who now want to add sports to their quiver. There are lessons to be learned. Just not the ones you think.

Imagine there are two banks across the street from each other. One bank left the door to its vault open. The other— with twice much money inside— had a sophisticated lock on its vault. But bank robbers only wanted to rob the bank with the larger payday, not the easier target. Ladies and gentlemen: The Shift in MLB.

In our new book Inexact Science, my son Evan and I recall how the Detroit Red Wings, under chief scout Neil Smith, cracked the bias against Soviet (Russian) players in the historic 1989 draft as they poached a Hall of Fame defence man from Sweden and two Russian stars— Sergei Fedorov and Vladimir Konstantinov, in the middle rounds of that draft. And how it could have been much greater with a third Russian who got away.

Getting Phil Mickelson to front your dream league was like having Tiger Woods give driving lessons. No player in his right mind will now go near his pipe dream for a long time. The only upside is that the Tour has been nudged into giving larger purses to the stars of the sport. But that’s better than what’s happening to Roman Abramovich at Chelsea.

One might think that, in times fraught with Covid-19, civil unrest and schism politics, the people entrusted with diverting the population for a while might put aside their differences to supply a little entertainment. If you think this you have not met the people in Major League Baseball.

We should just be seeing the raw footage of the events, like CPAC, without the gloss or the hype being adorned on the Communists PR coup. And when the last Canadian has competed? Fold the tent and go home without a farewell parade of nations. Leave this rotten corpse to stink in Xi’s back yard.

I remember Sam came back in the room and said ‘If I make this deal, could it be another Beliveau and Geoffrion for ten years?’ But nobody would stand up and say yes. So he didn’t make the deal— because that’s how Sam worked. If there were five people in the room, he would never do anything until he talked all five people into doing what he wanted to do.”

This current reductio ad absurdum is corrupt. Why should writers create news and impose their bias on the vote? If MLB wants a body to adjudicate these choices it needs to find non-journalists who can reflect MLB’s wishes. The NHL does this. Although the process overflows with bias and pandering the blame at least falls win the NHL, not the people in the fourth estate who need to be seen as neutral.

Many young women athletes see themselves representing the hopes of many when they compete. They often put themselves after a range of family, friends, sponsors and media trolls. Witness Andreescu’s comment that “I felt like I was carrying the world on my shoulders.” This burden is real, and is often why these women often have an existential crisis when they reach the top. Having satisfied everyone around them they find their own experience hollow.