Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
The dust has settled and the 2021 trade deadline is behind us. Two major trades occurred during the deadline in addition to a plethora of other smaller deals that will surely pay dividends come playoff time. Other than the deadline, last week we saw three NHLers play in their 1,000th game, the Frozen Four champion was crowned, and the Memorial Cup was canceled. Read all about it here.
Happy Monday!
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: Big Moves at the Trade Deadline”
This week’s column is much more upbeat than week’s past. I’ll highlight one of hockey’s best stories unfolding in Toronto, as well as our first big trade before the deadline.
My other takes involve two top prospects and my favorite goalie mask I’ve ever seen.
Happy Monday!
Happy Monday all! It’s a very big week because my birthday is tomorrow. If anyone wants to tell me how much they love me and my writing, Tuesday would be the perfect day. Just shoot me a DM on Twitter. I also accept gifts.
In all seriousness, while I’m very excited to be turning 26, you all want to read about hockey. This week, my takes include COVID running rampant in the NHL, some historic moments for one team, and two of my favorite videos and soundbites of the last few weeks.
Happy birthday to me!
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: COVID Hits Multiple NHL Teams”
This was a fun week to write about. We had a strange scenario where a referee was caught with a hot mic and was banned from officiating games forever. But this week was full of positives. The hockey community saw huge progress in regard to race in the sport. That was my favorite thing to write about this week.
I’ll also highlight one of my favorite goals of the season as well as one of the coolest uniform designs I’ve seen.
Happy Monday and happy spring!
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: Ref Caught on Hot Mic Gets Fired”
There were hockey storylines last week, but they weren’t positive. I’ll report on firings, injuries, and sadly, a tragic loss in the hockey community. There’s no way to sugarcoat this week’s takes. The one glimmer of light is a great highlight from this week.
Happy Monday!
This week was fun to write about. The big news was that the NHL and ESPN agreed to a new broadcast deal bringing NHL games back to ESPN. In addition to my take on the new broadcast deal, I’ll weigh in on a contract that I predicted a few years ago, as well as my all-time favorite hockey/music collaboration.
Happy Monday!
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: The NHL Partners with ESPN for New TV Rights”
Another exciting week in the NHL. Unfortunately, there was some sad news as Brent Seabrook decided to retire due to injury. I’ll provide some context and honor him as he deserves to be honred. I’ll also touch on a few other important honors as well as a horribly tone-deaf coaching hire.
Happy Monday!
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: Brent Seabrook Hangs Up the Skates”
One Saturday night back in December, I was doing two of my favorite things: watching TV and opening packs of hockey cards. However, one box came up a pack short. Fortunately, Upper Deck’s Customer Service came through for me — and then some!
Last week was an eventful one in the NHL. The only hard thing for me to do was to chose which five topics I wanted to cover. I tried my best to touch on a variety of things. Perhaps the two most important stories were Patrick Kane scoring his 400th career goal and the drama surrounding Artemi Panarin.
Happy Monday!
Last week was perhaps the most exciting week of the NHL season. The league hosted two outdoor games at Lake Tahoe. The broadcast was incredible and the league might have created one of the most-attractive made-for-TV sporting experiences we’ve seen yet. I’ll share my thoughts on the Lake Tahoe experiment in this week’s column.
In addition to the outdoor games, the past week wasn’t short for headlines. New Jersey named their newest captain and a few other milestones were achieved. As usual, I’ll also share with you one of my favorite plays of the week.
Happy Monday!
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: Outdoor Games at Lake Tahoe”
