An Oddly-Coloured Set Of Games

You may recognize the jersey to the left as being one of the Florida Panthers "fashion jerseys" that Starter produced in the late-1990s when they held a handful of NHL merchandise rights. The Panthers never wore anything like this on the ice in their history, of course, but there were other like the red Buffalo Sabres goathead jersey, a very blue Pittsburgh Penguins jersey, and a light blue Colorado Avalanche jersey. There were more of these, but they felt somewhat like where the new Hometown Remix jerseys got their inspiration. What if, however, your favorite team came out wearing the colours of a local rival while those rivals wore your team's colours? It might be hard to stomach, but it's the "a rose by any other name" idea with a hockey twist!

The ECHL announced today that they're going to have four teams participate in an "Impossible Pair" set of games where the rivals will swap jersey colours to throw everyone for loop! As per their announcement, the Florida Everblades and Orlando Solar Bears will swap jersey colours for two games and the Indy Fire and Bloomington Bison will do the same! Make sure you cheer for the right team!

Bloomington and Indy will get things started on November 28 when the Fuel visit the Bisons. The red Bloomington jersey doesn't look all that out of place considering they've worn a red jersey before, but that baby blue Indy Fuel jersey seems all sorts of wrong. Both teams will auction off the jerseys in both games they play to help support charities in those cities, but I'm curious how many Indy Fuel fans will want a Bison-coloured Fuel jersey for their closet. The good news is that the second game goes a month later on December 26 in Fishers, Indiana where these two oddly-coloured teams will square off again! Good charities will benefit, so make sure you get your bids in!

The second two-game set features the panhandle rivalry as the Orlando Solar Bears will visit Estero, Florida for a battle with the Florida Everblades on December 26 with both teams wearing the jerseys to the left. The pink of the Solar Bears logo on the green Everblades jersey colour looks very odd, and I'm not sure I like the orange alligator on the front of the Everblades' jerseys. These are definitely unique and should be fun for both fanbases, and we'll see the second game take place in Orlando on January 11. I'm sure we'll see fans from both cities travel for these games thanks to proximity, and remember to get your bids in to help some very deserving charities!

For those wondering how this idea came about, "[t]he Impossible Pair jersey mash-up is the brainchild of PACT!, a non-partisan organization dedicated to shattering intolerance through gutsy stunts of radical goodness." PACT! has some big goals and they achieve those goals through a variety of means, but the goal in each of their actions is to bring people together, to erase hate, and, specifically in the "Impossible Pair" games, to help some great local charities in these four ECHL cities. That's where I hope ECHL fans chip in to help.

Nothing has been announced as to which local charities will be helped in each city, but the teams have a month to figure out where the money they raise in the jersey auctions go. I know money is tight for a lot of people right now as well, so, if you're planning on bidding on jerseys, please keep to a budget. I know it would be cool to have one of these jerseys, but not paying bills or buying less food and being hungry isn't a way to show your support. Be mindful of that.

We'll see these crazy colour swaps go live at the end of November, so grab tickets today for one of these games! Those two December 26 games would make great Christmas gifts for hockey fans, so that might be a fun day at the rink if you're looking for a unique gift! And if you have the means, help out a local charity by bidding on one of the jerseys. Most of all, have fun cheering for the right team in the wrong jersey on those four Impossible Pair nights this season!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

It's Official!

I'm not one to ever post things to social media. I find the idea of living my life through the approval of others to be an absurd concept, and I certainly never want to be an influencer. Frankly, the idea of celebrating anything online seems vapid to me when those moments should be celebrated with people who have a vested interest in my life. In short, this article already makes me uncomfortable, but today marked the first time that UMFM got called up to the big show!

If you were listening to The Hockey Show on Thursday, you may have heard that Jason and I have been credentialed for the upcoming Heritage Classic game taking place in Winnipeg. The entire idea started out as a lark because we never, in a million years, thought the NHL would consider us as a media outlet like 680 CJOB or CBC Radio One 98.3FM, but the NHL processed our application for access and we were approved for credentials to NHL events moving forward!

Both Jason and I have been credentialed before - we both were in the pressbox for the PWHL Takeover Tour game in Winnipeg - so this isn't like we're getting our first seat on media row. It does mark the first time, however, that UMFM has been invited to an NHL event, and we plan on covering the events this weekend as closely as we did during the PWHL's event. Expect photos and write-ups from both of us!

Today, I went down to Princess Auto Stadium to pick up those credentials in order to be ready for the weekend. I thought the place would be busier, but I was literally the only person there to acquire said credentials. There could have been media inside with NHL executives where they were going over rink dimensions and having questions answered, but I arrived at the pressbox at Princess Auto Stadium and it looked like a ghost town. There were a handful of construction guys working inside the gate and they asked me if was there to work. I had to respectfully decline that work, but one of the guys joked that working on the Heritage Classic venue was the only way he could it in-person. After a few laughs, I left them working on their project, headed back to my car, and sat there for a few moments examining the credentials.

The little yellow square had caught my attention because it gave us access to the players pre-game and post-game! I'll be completely honest in saying that I will not be heading to either locker room at any point on the weekend despite having access because I want to talk about the Heritage Classic experience from a fan's perspective. Fans don't have that kind of unfettered access, so I won't be taking advantage of it either. It's a surreal feeling knowing I could go down and chat with players, but that's not what this blog nor the radio show does unless it's a full interview rather than some quotable press snippets.

In any case, getting the opportunity to cover the Heritage Classic will be a fun experience where Jason and I can go behind the scenes for a major NHL event. We saw how Winnipeg came out and supported the PWHL's Takeover Tour, and it's pretty clear that Winnipeg has been wanting another outdoor game after the Oilers and Jets met here in 2016 and the Oilers prevailed 3-0. The Montreal Canadiens aren't going to be a pushover of any kind with how they're playing, so it should be a great game that features two passionate fanbases!

We'll have more about this on The Hockey Show this week, so make sure you tune in to hear what Jason and I will be doing as the big game approaches on Sunday. We will be going to different parts of the events all weekend, so find out which of us will be where when it comes to the 2026 NHL Heritage Classic in Winnipeg this weekend!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

History Tonight

There were a lot of firsts that happened tonight in Rio Rancho, New Mexico where the ECHL's New Mexico Goatheads took the ice in an ECHL regular season game for the first time. The Goatheads were hosting the Idaho Steelheads in their inaugural game, so there would be first saves, first penalties, first fights, and, hopefully, first goals scored by both teams. I watched the majority of this game with the camera positioned somewhere in the upper deck at the Rio Rancho Events Center, but we'd see history made on this night as the Goatheads took the ice!

We'll get a few easy historical moments out of the way as #88 Dakota Seaman recorded the first shot in Goatheads history 2:44 into the game. Idaho's Jaxon Fuder was turned away by #40 Isaiah Saville in the New Mexico net just 57 seconds in to record the first save in franchise history. #27 Lynden Breen was called for hooking at 4:54 of the first period as he was the first Goatheads player to visit the sin bin, and Idaho's #11 Angus MacDonell was the first person to light the lamp behind Saville at the 15:19 mark of the first period as MacDonell scored the first goal on the Goatheads. It was a busy opening frame.

Idaho would add a pair of goals in the second period to lead 3-0 after forty minutes, and there was some trepidation that the Goatheads may not solve Jake Barczewski on this night. However, we'd see the Goatheads make a push in the third period where this moment was captured and posted on the New Mexico Goatheads' Twitter account!
The very first Goatheads goal in the ECHL belongs to #18 Cameron Buhl who found room past Barczewski at 7:34 of the third period while on the power-play to cut the Idaho lead to 3-1 as #27 Lynden Breen and #12 Saige Weinstein collected the first primary and secondary assists, respectively, in franchise history! Idaho's Charlie Dodero was in the penalty box for the goal after being called for interference at 6:11. Clearly, Buhl's goal was a big moment in the franchise's history, but there was still hockey to be played as points were on the line as the Goatheads looked to rally for a win!

Unfortunately for the Goatheads and their fans, Idaho was in a stingy mood as they shut the door after that goal. Mason Nevers would score an empty-netter with eight seconds remaining, and the Steelheads downed the Goatheads by a 4-1 score in New Mexico's inaugural game. In watching this game, I wanted to see New Mexico put more pucks on net as they were outshot 35-25, but had multiple opportunities to send pucks to the net with players heading towards the crease. I'll let head coach Zack Stortini sort that out, though.

While the fans may have left disappointed in the result tonight, the Goatheads sold out tonight's inaugural game and there are a limited number of tickets available for tomorrow's rematch. No one should be celebrating this expansion as an unquestionable success just yet, but two sellouts against a division rival to start the season is a good way to impress the ECHL brass. Here's hoping the fans keep coming back!

Winning would certainly help, and the Goatheads will go into Saturday 0-1-0 after a spirited, but unsuccessful, first game. Can they bounce back and win the back-half of the two-game set against the Steelheads? We'll find out tomorrow when Idaho and New Mexico meet again at the Rio Rancho Events Center at 7pm MDT!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 734

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back with our two usual gunslingers as Sophie is already booked as she tries to take over the world. That leaves our two opinionated hosts to discuss a number of hockey topics from this past week, and they may even chat about something fun as well! What may that be, you ask? Well, you're going to have to find a seat, a radio or internet-connected device, and tune into The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason will look at what seems to be a "canary in the coalmine" situation when it comes to the Vegas Golden Knights' sellout streak ending. There are lots of reasons for it, but the comments on one blog along with comments collected by the author might surprise you when it comes to why Vegas saw a pile of empty seats last Thursday. Beyond that, our hosts will chat about a coaching being dismissed, the continued misuse of public funds to help billionaires, a significant drop in fans in one market, and something big happening in the Winnipeg market near the end of October! It's going to be a busy show with lots of chatter, so make sure you're ready for the discussion on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason examine a harsh reality, a vacant job, misappropriation of funds, empty seats, a fun event, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

A Fun Side Quest

I don't normally spend a lot of time pouring over the transaction list in hockey, but I do keep an eye on the ECHL transactions during this time of year to see if any U SPORTS players have been added or released. One name on the list jumped out to me on October 10, and I decided to look into this person because I don't know many men named "Colleen" who play hockey. Might we be seeing the Stingrays with a female goalie?

Before we get into this, let's just remember that an EBUG in the ECHL is a contract that guarantees nothing more than a few days of working in practices. They are vitally important, though, because they fill in when goalies are moving between leagues or when a netminder gets injured. We saw how important the EBUG was to the Fort Wayne Komets back in 2002 as they earned a win with EBUG Joe Franke between the pipes! Clearly, EBUGs serve an important role.

With ECHL teams currently running through training camps and preseason games, EBUGs become important as teams wait for goalies to arrive from AHL clubs or release goalies who may not be ready for ECHL action. There have been a handful signed in the last week as teams sort out their rosters, and the South Carolina Stingrays appeared to need one on Saturday as they tapped into their local Charleston Youth Hockey Association where Colleen Jacoby was working as the association's goalie coach! The Muskegon, Michigan native last played competitive hockey in 2015-16 for the ACHA Division II University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, but she was on the ice this weekend stopping pucks in an ECHL crease as she broke out the pads and mask for the Stingrays! How cool is that?

It should be noted that Colleen Jacoby wasn't likely looking for an ECHL job as she currently works as an attorney at Tecklenburg, Jenkins & Jacoby. She keeps her skills sharp through coaching and playing adult hockey around Charleston, though, so it's not like the Stingrays were throwing an untrained, unprepared player in the crease. She's still a Red Wings fan in terms of her hockey love, and her goaltending numbers at both Gustavus Adolphus College and the University of Minnesota-Duluth shows she knows how to stop pucks!

Jacoby was splitting goaltending duties over the weekend with Ben Kraws who played with the Idaho Steelheads last season, and it's expected that there will be a goaltender sent to them eventually by the Hershey Bears as they're currently carrying three goaltenders on their roster. Until they do, though, it seems that Colleen Jacoby will be wearing a Stingrays jersey! For how long is the big question.

South Carolina doesn't play a game until Friday when they travel to Jacksonville to meet the Icemen to open the 2026-27 ECHL season. On Saturday, October 17, they'll be back in Charleston for their home opener against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, and I'll be keeping my eye on the transactions records for the next few days to see if Colleen remains with the club. It's very likely that she'll be released before the team travels on Thursday, but any injury in Hershey or Washington may change those plans. Such is the nature of hockey.

You might be thinking that the Stingrays would be taking it easy on our lawyer-turned-pro-goalie, but it looks like Jacoby is holding her own in camp to the delight of her new teammates and coaches!
It's always awesome to see head coach Jesse Kallechy and the team's starting netminder and Jacoby's goaltending partner Ben Kraws excited about how she's been playing in camp, and that will only extend her stay with the Stingrays. Again, I'm not saying she'll be on the opening night roster or anything, but the fact that she can hang with ECHL shooters shows she has the talents to be in their camp.

I love stories like this and I'm glad that Jacoby's getting her chance to shine. She's a successful lawyer who clearly loves the game, but it seems she's living a dream this week as she's in a professional training camp with the ECHL's South Carolina Stingrays. Even if she is released by the team, she showed she can do the job if needed. Perhaps there's some room on the Stingrays' payroll for an EBUG who is skilled enough to negotiate her own professional hockey contract?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

***UPDATE: Colleen Jacoby was released as the EBUG with Hershey assigning Garin Bjorklund to South Carolina late on October 12. As a result, Jacoby will not be on the Stingray's official roster for this week's opening games in Jacksonville and against Greenville.***

Just Dumb Scheduling

I know this seems like I'm already breaking my plan of not posting daily, but I did something last night that I haven't done in a while: I watched a hockey game without looking for a story angle. Being that I was switching into fan mode for the first time in a long time, I decided to tap into my roots by watching the Dallas Stars and Pittsburgh Penguins. I grew up a Penguins fan and I still quietly cheer for the team, but last night was where I just wanted to watch Crosby, Malkin, and Letang potentially play together for one final season. Instead, play-by-play announcer Josh Getzoff dropped some peculiar news during the broadcast that left me scratching my head when it comes an oft-heard reason for ticket pricing and playoff format from the NHL's head honchos. And quite honestly, it doesn't make much sense from a fan's point of view.

The NHL has claimed over and over that the reason for not seeding playoff teams from one through eight is due to developing the natural rivalries between teams. By having stornger local rivalries, the NHL believes that more people will buy tickets to see games in-person, thereby justifying the supply-and-demand angle of raising ticket prices, specifically for certain games. After all, a rivalry between two teams generally gets the blood pumping in those fanbases.

In saying that, it left me wondering who was designing the NHL's schedule because Getzoff, during a discussion of Igor Shesterkin's season-ending injury, mentioned that the Penguins will not play the New York Rangers this season until January 29, 2027! How on earth in this age of the NHL do two divisional rivals not see each other in the first three months of the season? Who came up with this idea?

The catch, though, is that it's not just the New York Rangers. The Penguins have a deep-rooted rivalry with their Pennsylvania cousins in the Philadelphia Flyers. The Penguins opened the season by laying a 7-0 beating on the Flyers which will surely amp up the rivalry for this season when the two teams meet again, right? Except that doesn't happen until January 31, 2027 - exactly four months after that season-opening game! Does anyone feel like that 7-0 score, which helps to fuel the rivalry, won't be as fresh in anyone's mind?

The New York Islanders, who share a long and storied rivalry with the Penguins, won't see the Steel City team until January 13, 2027 this season either. And while I get that playoff races are more fun with in-division games later in the season, there's also a chance that one of these four teams will not make the playoffs nor be in a playoff race at the end of the season. I'm not here to speculate on which team(s) that might be, but one team just lost a world-class goaltender for the season and another has only scored seven goals in six games.

If the NHL wants rivalries within divisions to grow, sprinkle in the hatred throughout the season more. I want the bad blood, the hurt pride, and the general dislike to carry over week to week so that when that logo pops up on the calendar, both teams' blood starts to boil. I want the chirping and the face-washing and the slashes across the back of the legs to be a way of life when two divisional rivals meet. I want fanbases that breathe fire towards the other city.

That doesn't happen if teams don't play each other in meaningful games. No players are willing to put life and limb on the line if there's no chance of playing in the postseason. Alternatively, there might be more reason for players to take cheap shots against good players if those players aren't heading towards the postseason because the race already doesn't matter if he gets suspended. That will develop bad blood between teams, but that's not how one fosters a burning rivalry. That's why playoffs SHOULD feature rivalries.

The Penguins will play the Rangers three times between January 29 and April 6, and those games may not matter if they can't find decent goaltending to replace Shesterkin. They'll play the Islanders three times between January 13 and April 1, and those games could potentially be interesting if both the Penguins and Islanders stay healthy. And they'll play the Flyers three times between January 31 and April 3, and those games may not matter if the Flyers continue to struggle to score. That's not how to build rivalries between teams.

I clearly don't understand what goes into scheduling the entire NHL season because rivalries should be built and cultivated with games more often than the last three months of the season. Right now as a Penguins fan, the Rangers and Islanders are just two teams in the division. There isn't a rivalry there because there's nothing between the teams that would foster any sort of dislike other than past games and transgressions. After a summer apart, though, I need something to spark that hate again. Waiting until January isn't that spark.

Like a fire, you have to feed it fuel and stoke it every once in a while to have it burn hot. The NHL, it seems, believes that pouring gasoline onto a fire will make it burn hotter which is true, but only for short periods of time until that fuel is burned. That's the problem with how the NHL is treating these rivalries - it's a long-burning fire that requires fuel and stoking rather than an immediate, flammable fuel source. Unless that flammable fuel source is being used to re-ignite a long-burning fire that already existed, there's nothing there to stoke.

Penguins and Flyers fans will still dislike the other's team. Rangers and Islanders fans will never mix like oil and water. But the rivalry between the Penguins and Islanders won't get better or run deeper without playing one another more often. The same goes for the Rangers and, to some extent, the Flyers, yet the NHL will tell you that these rivalries have never been stronger at any time in history.

It's just not true, though, and their scheduling is part of the problem because I don't hate the Islanders like I did in 1993 when David Volek ended the Penguins' shot at a three-peat. That hatred doesn't exist with Bo Horvat, Matthew Schaefer, or Ilya Sorokin like it did with Volek, Rich Pilon, and Darius Kasparaitis. And squeezing three games into three months won't re-ignite that hatred for the Islanders in me.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

HBIC's New Direction

As we got closer to the number shown in the picture to the left, it's hard to believe that I've written this many articles here on HBIC. I often wonder how I've attracted 22 million hits on this page, but it seems like I've written a few articles that were read by people on this planet and that's not lost on me as I write this final daily entry. I'm one of the few independent bloggers who is still writing on a daily basis, but all good things do come to an end. HBIC will persist, but it will exist in a new format beyond today.

Blocking off free time to commit to writing HBIC was something that I always tried to do, and I'm grateful that people took the time to read the articles I've written to an extent that I cannot say "thank you" enough. I'm not here to do a top-ten list or anything, but I'm proud of the research and collaboration that went into articles like "Where The Shirts Have No Names", "Benny, Mick E., and Icy?", and other articles where good people like Rob Ullman and Fiona Quinn have given me story ideas. Not everything comes from this writer's noggin.

I certainly haven't avoided trouble when it came to what I wrote as I was threatened by a handful of organizations with some sort of legal action for what I wrote, but, thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and the threat of lawsuits remained as threats. The University of Lethbridge was none too pleased about my "Extinction Of The Pronghorns" article nor the "Hiding The Real Message" follow-up article, but they seemed to get over their anger. There were things said during negotations between the Manitoba Bisons and UMFM that ended a partnership in "The Art Of Negotiation?", and The Hockey Show and UMFM were threatened with a lawsuit if we reported about a major incident that happened on campus that we investigated.

Speaking of The Hockey Show, that will continue and I'll still post show previews here on HBIC as we push forward with some fun radio opportunities. Teebz's Book Club will take advantage of having more time when it comes to reading hockey literature, and there are a ton of books that I want to cross off the "To Read" list. More than anything, though, I want to get out to rinks more often and watch hockey. I honestly don't care if it's TimBits hockey or NHL hockey, live hockey is certainly better when one is watching in the arena.

On that note, expect us to have a lot of fun calling games at the Female World Sport School Challenge this November, we'll get out to call a handful of sledge hockey games alongside the great people from Sledge Hockey Manitoba, and we'll work with the Balmoral Hall Blazers to schedule a few broadcasts of their games as well. We're always looking for fun games and events to call, so feel free to reach out if you want UMFM at your event! We'll try to make it happen!

I want to be clear: HBIC isn't going away. There just won't be daily posts any longer. I'll still have a voice on here when it comes to covering big stories, looking at hockey history, and posting fun articles like "Musicians in Jerseys", but I want to use my time more effectively for me. Besides, there are 7000 articles on this site, and I don't know if anyone has read them all. For all the ones you have read, though, thank you. You made the last two decades worth it.

This isn't good-bye as much as it is "see you soon". Whenever that is.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 733

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, returns tonight with a full house in the UMFM studios! It's always good to have fun guests join us who have a lot to talk about, and we have that tonight with two guests who are joining us. However, we also will add another voice to the fun as we welcome a young lady who wants a future in broadcasting to sit in with us for this show and, possibly, more in the future. In short, the studio's chairs will all be full tonight as we hit the air, so get ready and take your seat tonight for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason and Sophie welcome back two of the people making a difference in Manitoba as Shay and Les from Sledge Hockey Manitoba are back to chat about everything happening on the development side of things! We'll chat with them about summer developments, tournament results from last season, growth of the programs, making new connections, bringing home hardware, and the always-persistent challenges that they face in trying to grow sledge hockey enrolment and participation in Manitoba! It should be another very interesting show with lots of news from two of Sledge Hockey Manitoba's most important people in Shay and Les, so we'll get into everything happening on the sledge hockey scene tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason and Sophie chat with Shay and Les from Sledge Hockey Manitoba about summer fun, growing numbers, winning hardware, having fun, attracting talent, making connections, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: October 8, 2026: Episode 733

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Another Idea Blows Up

I'm not one to celebrate failure because I often see the importance of learning from one's mistakes, but I will celebrate another failure by the NHL when it comes to capturing popular culture in a marketing campaign. The NHL certainly brands itself as being modern and hip, so seeing it follow a trend that it once held in such contempt makes this failure all the better. After all, if the NHL had wanted to make inroads with this specific marketing effort, they could do so by being a better organization morally and ethically. Since that seems like too much work to do when it comes to simply making money, the NHL opted to go in a different direction that ended with this idea blowing up in their faces once again. That quiet sound you hear in the background is me screaming "I told you so."

On October 2, the NHL decided it was going to publish romance novel-inspired short stories starring the league's players on audiobook platforms as part of their new "Hot For Hockey" marketing campaign. The first set of stories that made it onto audio platforms like Spotify featured players like Philadelphia Flyers' Trevor Zegras, the Carolina Hurricanes' Sebastian Aho, and the Las Vegas Golden Knights' Jack Eichel. If you're reading this and already thinking this is a bad idea, you're only seeing the tip of the iceberg sticking out of the water.

The NHL decided to collaborate with popular hockey romance writers on this project who could "romanticize" the players with these stories. The stories were then hyped in 60- or 90-second ads that appeared to be nothing more than bids to get people to watch the actual games, and the stories themselves were nothing close to hockey romance stories as the players weren't paired with romantic partners. The story arc for Trevor Zegras is as follows:

"Trevor Zegras came to Philly looking for a fresh start. But after battling with Pittsburgh in the playoffs last year, he found out how gritty things could get. One heated summer later, Philly's pretty boy is looking a whole lot grittier."

There is A LOT to unpack in that short paragraph, and none of it even has to do with Gritty, the Flyers' mascot. If you downloaded the story thinking you were getting the NHL's version of Heated Rivalry, you signed up for the wrong set of stories, but there's a large chunk of ignorance shown by the NHL's infinite big brains in floating this idea.

For a league whose rosters currently feature three men named in an alleged criminal case for sexual assault, romanticizing players in the league is definitive proof that the NHL is completely out of touch with its fanbase. Two prominent hockey romance writers, Emily Rath and Chelsea Curto, both declined participating in the project with Rath posting on her social media, "Yes, the NHL contacted me to participate. And I have never turned down an offer so fast."

Lacey Conine, the founder of Double Hockey Stix, a business that makes a clothing line for underrepresented hockey fans, says she initially thought news of the NHL's romance-centric audiobook campaign was satire, telling Wired's Kate Taylor, "I had so many comments of people just being like, 'This is disgusting. We hate this. What is this? How is the NHL this tone deaf?'" And she's right.

With the Dallas Stars announcing that they were cancelling Pride Night this season, it seems entirely disingenuous of the NHL to try and ride the coattails of Heated Rivalry's momentum. Using the romance-in-hockey theme is something that can be done by people not associated with the NHL in terms of writing fiction, but adding real players to the mix opens up a can of worms that no one wants.

In 2023, Alexander Wennberg, and his wife, Felicia, posted on social media about an influx of "predatory and exploiting" comments after the Kraken posted content aimed at TikTik's BookTok scene. Earlier this summer, there was an alleged inappropriate relationship between a billet mom and a teenaged player in the OHL. Of course, there was also the online abuse to which Connor Hellebuyck and his wife, Andrea, were subjected as one of his reasons for his trade demands out of Canada. This kind of behaviour cannot be glorified through the romanticism of young NHL players, and the NHL was insane for even trying to capitalize on that. Someone had to see this coming, right?

Well, fast forward to today, just four days after the NHL's marketing wizards launched the audiobook stories, and this campaign has been shelved by the NHL. In full spin mode, the NHL said "the episodes were meant to be a limited-time offering" in their reason for removing them from audio platforms. In what has to be the biggest "yeah, we didn't think this one through," the NHL's four-day campaign might be the most limited of limited-time offers they've ever done.

That didn't stop NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman from celebrating an opportunity, stating, "I will tell you the data was overwhelming in terms of new fans that we acquired last year who were first introduced to hockey either through 'Off Campus' or 'Heated Rivalry.' And if new people want to come and be a part of game, we’re thrilled to have them."

Again, open your eyes, Gary. While both TNT and ESPN spouting off about female viewership being up 66% and 106%, respectively, the NHL celebrating "Heated Rivalry", which is about two gay hockey players, becomes laughable when the NHL is seeing teams cancel Pride Games and having players openly refuse to wear LGBTQ+-inspired clothing. "Off Campus" might be the one the NHL can support because of their lack of concern towards promiscuity, fighting, and domestic abuse, but that might be giving them credit where it simply isn't due. They didn't earn these fans through any effort on their own.

"If the NHL is trying to reach the female fan base, which is obviously what this is an attempt to do, there are so many better and stronger ways to do that," The IX Sports PWHL senior writer Melissa Burgess told the AP. "Honestly, it's the best thing the NHL could do is scrap it, put it in the past and make it a distant memory."

At the end of the day, imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but there wasn't one person asking for the NHL to do this. Like any business, the NHL always wants to expand its market share to capture the largest amount of female fans it can, but marketing itself and its players as some sort of romantic heroes in hyperbolized scenarios is only going to attract ridicule. This was one area of hockey into which the NHL didn't need to wander, yet someone in their offices pitched this idea well enough to make others go, "We can profit off of this."

Four days is all the "Hot For Hockey" audiobook campaign lasted. That was literally 96 hours too long, but at least the NHL came to its senses quickly before they "found out how gritty things could get".

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Tour May Continue?

Back on August 10, I wrote an article about Russian star Evgeny Kuznetsov signing with Sibir Novosibirsk where I joked that he could "suit up for every team by age 44 if he keeps up his current pace" of switching teams. I'm completely in the camp that Kuznetsov doesn't read HBIC, but it feels a little coincidental that Kuznetsov left Novosibirsk after just eight games yesterday. According to several posts on Instagram, it appears that Kuznetsov's father's health is behind his sudden and surprising departure from the team, but that will mark the fifth KHL team he's skated for in his career. Will he reappear elsewhere?

I take nothing away from Kuznetsov if he is spending time with his father during this time. Kuznetsov doesn't need the money that the KHL pays, and having him play with his father's health weighing on him likely wouldn't have been good for Sibir Novosibirsk who needed him at his best. My hope is that his father recovers because no one needs that kind of dark cloud, so here's hoping he's back on his feet soon and Kuznetsov can get back to playing hockey somewhere.

Assuming his father lives in Chelyabinsk where Kuznetsov was born, Kuznetsov could sign a deal with Traktor Chelyabinsk once his father recovers in order to remain closer to him. Kuznetsov got his start with Traktor Chelyabinsk back in 2009, so it would be a homecoming of sorts for the once-prolific scorer. Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg is three hours to the north of Chelyabinsk as well while both Ufa and Magnitogorsk are just over three hours away. The last two teams, however, have already had Kuznetsov on their rosters last season.

In short, the 34 year-old is running out of options quickly if he wants to remain close to home to be near his father for health reasons.

Others, meanwhile, have suggested that Kuznetsov's departure from Sibir might have something to do with the fact that Sibir is a bad team. Currently, Sibir sits with a 3-7-0-2 record for eight points which puts them at 11th out of 11 teams in the KHL's Eastern Conference. They've surrendered the most goals in the Eastern Conference and the third-most in the KHL, and have only scored more than two goals in three of their 12 games thus far. It's been a rough start so far.

I'm not here to suggest that Kuznetsov gave up on Sibir Novosibirsk, but winning once in their last five games when they were tied or led going into the third period certainly isn't a selling feature to a guy like Kuznetsov. The lede photo is of him in street clothes early in the second period of an October 29, 2025 game between Ak Bars Kazan and Metallurg Magnitogorsk after Metallurg head coach Andrei Razin benched him for poor play after the first period. I'm not saying these situations are the same, but Kuznetsov doesn't do himself any favours when he leaves a team without a clear explanation for his departure.

Whatever the reason is for him leaving Sibir Novosibirsk, Evgeny Kuznetsov is, once again, a free agent. With five out of 22 KHL teams off his list, will he add a sixth team this season or will he return to one of his previous teams? If his father's health doesn't improve, will he return at all? Here's hoping the elder Kuznetsov's health recovers so we see Evgeny Kuznetsov back on the ice somewhere in Russia.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Major Uniform History Day

Imagine for a moment that it's the fall of 1974. Colours are changing on the trees, leaves are beginning to fall, and the fashion world is wearing earth tones and flared- and wide-leg pants. There were design changes to the Ford Mustang and Pontiac Firebirds, Lamborghini introduced the world to the Countach, Richard Nixon had just resigned as President of the United States due to the Watergate scandal, and the UPC Barcode to scan products at stores was still in its infancy. The world was a different place 50 years ago as Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's career home run record, People magazine first appeared on newsstands, and Chinese farmers discovered the Terracotta Army.

We're going to focus on fashion, though, and specifically on the NHL because October 4, 1974 is a day where something happened in a preseason game that maked a major moment in uniform history as per a social media account called KingsUniHistory. As per that account, the LA Kings "wore their gold home uniform with forum blue pants for the first time in 4 years in a preseason game against the Golden Seals". I know that a lot of people will read that and think, "That's not very significant," but it was because the Kings began wearing gold pants at the start of the 1970-71 season with their gold jerseys, meaning that the "forum blue" pants were used exclusively with their purple road jerseys throughout the decade!

If you know anything about me, I much prefer hockey uniforms to have contrasting pants colours to break up the monochrome look that happens when pants and jerseys match. The Kings actually wore that contrasting uniform style from their first time on the ice until the end of the 1969-70 season as shown to the right, and that looks all sorts of correct compared to the single-colour gold choice they opted to wear in 1970-71 and beyond. Make no mistake that there were some questionable uniform decisions made in the 1970s by a handful of teams, but gold-over-gold by the Kings is a head-scratcher.

The gold-over-purple combination would only be worn on October 4, though, as the Kings continued to use their gold pants throughout that season. As the KingsUniHistory account describes, "It was the only time this uniform faced California's all teal 1974-76 road uniform," meaning that every other date between 1974 and 1976 featured the all-gold Kings versus the all-teal California Seals! Finding any sort of record of these games is next to impossible, however, but we'll go with KingsUniHistory's knowledge that the gold-over-purple only saw the all-teal Seals once in the preseason on October 4, 1974.

The other major note is that the Seals' all-teal look also debuted in this game as the California Seals went from their Oakland Athletics-inspired kelly-green-and-gold look in 1973-74 to their uniform their new look for the 1974-75 season. With Charlie Finley selling the team in 1974, the colours were swapped to a more traditional west coast feel by the NHL who owned the franchise. That all-teal look debuted on October, 1974 in the preseason game against the Kings as well, so there were two major uniform events that on occurred that day!

You might be asking if the Kings, in their first gold-over-purple game in four years, won the game against the Seals, and they did not. They didn't lose either, though, as the game ended as a 1-1 tie. As shown to the left, Mike Murphy opened the scoring for the Kings before Seals' rookie Wayne King scored off a rebound to square the score, and the final score would be recorded as a 1-1 preseason tie. Just for fun, the California Seals found a way to break through for a win two days later as they downed the Kings by a 5-2 score on October 6, 1974.

The rivalry was already starting to simmer between these California rivals as they battled for west coast surpemacy, and the weird part was they weren't even in the same division in 1974! The California Golden Seals would play in the Adams Division that season with Boston, Buffalo, and Toronto while Los Angeles was in the Norris Division with Montreal, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Washington. Both the Adams and Norris Division played in the Prince of Wales Conference that season. The NHL cared not for your geography lessons.

I searched everywhere for reasons as to why the Kings wore their purple pants on October 4, 1974, and I can't find any site or newspaper article with a reason for that uniform decision. I will say it's the right one, though, because the gold-over-gold uniform was a bad look, even for the disco era. As for the Seals, they wouldn't last past 1976 so they never saw the Kings in purple pants again.

How often do we get a uniform debut for one team and a one-game uniform note for the other in the same game? Not very often, and that's why October 4, 1974 was a major uniform history day!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Two Touchdowns Is Enough, Right?

Being that this is a Sunday, any other season would see The Rundown make an appearance in this spot. With HBIC only a few articles away from hitting 7000 on this blog and because I'm a man of my word, that's not appearing here today despite us being one week out from the Canada West regular season beginning. I do want to rekindle one thing from The Rundown, though, and that's my dislike of teams running up scores. I know that coaches don't want teams to develop bad habits by letting up, but being up two converted touchdowns on a team should be a sign that one has scored enough to win a hockey game, right?

Pictured above is Boston College and Stonehill who met this weekend for Stonehill University's home opener. The Skyhawks came into the came with an 0-2 record after dropping both games against Syracuse in western New York by a combined score of 7-1, so the Skyhawks were looking to bounce back at home against one of the best teams on the east coast in the Boston College Eagles who were kicking off their season with a game at Warrior Ice Arena yesterday.

Again, I cannot stress this enough, but running up a score against an opponent just makes good teams look bad. Setting a program record for goals scored would be fun if the game was close in score, but Boston College not only set a program record, but an NCAA record for the largest goal differential in NCAA women's hockey history on Saturday. I already have a sour taste in my mouth about this game.

Prior to this season, Boston College and Stonehill had only met once for a regular season game, and the Eagles came away with a 5-1 win on September 28, 2024 which was the game from where the lede image above was taken. Lily Geist scored Stonehill's lone goal that day which tied the game at 1-1 just 4:14 into the first period, but that would be as close as the Skyhawks got in that September game.

Saturday saw Boston College score early, score often, and score a lot more than just five goals on the Skyhawks. In fact, it took the Eagles just 12:13 to score five times in this game as they took a 7-0 lead into the first intermission, a 10-0 lead into the second intermission, and they'd retire to their locker room after the game's final horn with the scoreboard showing the score to the right. So I have to ask what would possess Boston College to run up the score like this in a non-conference game against a clearly weaker opponent? What exactly did this score prove other than Boston College is in a different tier of hockey teams than Stonehill is? Is Boston College proud of this score? How does this blowout help them be better?

Boston College used three goaltenders in this game as Avah Sedore stopped five shots in the first period, Bailey Callaway was the busiest of the Eagles' goalies with nine stops in the middle frame, and Bella Pomarico stopped six shots in the third period to keep Stonehill off the scoreboard. In contrast, Stonehill's Nicole Schumm stopped 11 of 16 shots she faced before being pulled after the fifth Boston College goal at 12:13, and Maria Duffer was thrown to the wolves as she made 32 stops on 44 shots. Again, how does this help either team?

If you believe in karma and that kind of stuff, know that the "Hockey Gods" frown on this sort of score and that Boston College likely has some sort comeuppance awaiting them down the line. I'm not wishing any player harm in any manner, but you know that Boston College will be in a tight game at some point where they need a goal and the puck simply won't bounce their way. Don't say I didn't warn you when the Eagles need a win in the Beanpot or the NCAA National Championship and some weird bounce leads to a goal against them.

Stonehill opens their NEWHA Conference schedule against Saint Michael's College this weekend, and they'll likely play with a little snarl after yesterday's game. Boston College will be in Worcester, Massachusetts for a game against Holy Cross where they'll find stiffer competition. Both teams will likely forget about yesterday's game in quick fashion for different reasons, but you have to wonder if this blowout will have an effect in future years when it comes to having these teams play again. If Boston College is just going to beat up Stonehill, why would the Skyhawks agree to play the Eagles?

Blowout scores do nothing for either program when it comes to tactics, strategies, and positives to build on as the season begins. Stonehill will likely watch a lot of video to see where things went wrong while Boston College will go back to work full of false confidence after posting two converted touchdowns and a field goal.

For outsiders, though, this is a bad look for the NCAA when it comes to how far apart these teams may be in terms of talent, recruiting, and execution. I never expected to be talking about a 17-goal difference between two teams in a single game, and I assure you that I never want to be talking about that kind of disparity again.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

I'm Booked Today

My whirlwind start to October will continue today as I am booked for the entire day. The image to the left is related to the reason I'm booked as I'll be emceeing a wedding today that features two people who are genuinely awesome. Neither are Boston Bruins fans nor are they even big hockey fans, but the wedding cake to the left is pretty amazing in terms of how it looks. I know weddings are mainly about the bride, so I'm assumning the bride who had this cake is a huge fan of the Bruins. In any case, I'll be running the music during the ceremony in the early afternoon before keeping everyone on time at the reception as the master of ceremonies. I'm honoured to have been asked to be part of this day, and I'll deliver my best.

Wedding chatter aside for a moment, I did want to draw attention to the list of EBUGs that the NHL published yesterday. Feel free to read through that list if you like, but I want to point out two of the goalies on that list who have U SPORTS experience! It's pretty awesome to see a couple of guys who played at the Canadian university level getting a chance to sign a contract with an NHL team, and no, it doesn't matter that it's an EBUG contract. It's still a valid NHL deal.

We'll start out in Calgary where the Flames signed former Mount Royal Cougars netminder Dustin (Dusty) Nickel! Nickel actually joined the Cougars in 2011-12 for their final ACAC season where he played in one game, but he was on the roster for the 2012-13 season when Mount Royal made the jump to the Canada West Conference! He was listed as one of four goalies on the Cougars' roster that season and didn't get into any Canada West games in that season.

His 2013-14 season would end early thanks to Nickel suffering a knee injury in training camp. That knee injury would require him to miss the entire season in his third year of eligibility, and his fourth year was spent in the pressbox as well. Nickel never actually got to wear his #32 jersey on the ice in a regular season game for Mount Royal which seems cruel. He did graduate, however, with his business degree from Mount Royal University, and he's putting that to good use today as he owns his own construction business and works as a senior coach for Apex Goaltending! Not bad for a guy who missed time!

What makes this story cooler, though, is that Nickel's name should ring a bell for Flames fans as he was the team's old EBUG before the new rules went into place! Back on November 27, 2023, he nearly got his shot to stop pucks for the Flames after Jacob Markstrom was deemed to ill to play after the daily transaction period had passed, leaving Calgary with only Dan Vladar as a goalie. The Flames quickly signed Nickel to an Amateur Tryout Contract, and all eyes were on #40 after Vladar was bowled over by Golden Knights forward William Carrier minutes into the game! Would Nickel get his chance to shine?

"There was so much going through my head at that point," Nickel told the assembled media post-game. "I was hoping he would get up... especially when you look up and there's 55 minutes left in the game."

Vladar would recover, though, and the Flames went on to win 2-1 that night, but Nickel had been a mainstay with the Flames for some time before his night as the backup goalie as he was practising with both the Flames and the AHL Wranglers. In fact, he suffered a torn groin in 2022 while stopping pucks during a shooter's drill, but the Flames organization never asked anyone else to be the EBUG once Nickel was healthy again, bringing Nickel back for 2023 and beyond.

"The guys love Dusty," head coach Ryan Huska said. "Dusty comes out with us a fair bit whenever we need to rest a goalie, or if we have someone that needs some extra time. They love having him around."

The other guy who will do his best to not be pressed into action, but be ready if he is needed, is former Nipissing Lakers and former MacEwan Griffins netminder Brett Epp! The Edmonton-born Epp was signed by the Edmonton Oilers this season after serving as an unofficial EBUG over the last couple of seasons. Epp, however, actually got his university career started south of the border with the Nichols College Bison in Dudley, Massachusetts where he was 10-16-3!

After transferring to Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario, he spent two years at Nipissing where, unfortunately, the COVID pandemic limited him to six games where he went 4-2-0 with a 2.78 GAA and a .915 save percentage before he signed with the ECHL's Newfoundland Growlers. Epp would bounce around the SPHL and a few lower leagues, but he'd resurface back in Alberta in 2024-25!

Epp would use his final year of eligibility to play with his hometown MacEwan Griffins where Epp would make a little history. His regular season wasn't all that great with the Griffins as he went 3-9-1 with a 3.90 GAA and an .888 save percentage, but he did record the program's first Canada West playoff win with a 41-save effort in a 3-2 overtime win over UBC on February 21, 2025! UBC would win the next two games to eliminate MacEwan that season, but Epp's name went into the record books for picking up that win for the program!

Epp has yet to play a single minute for either of the Oilers or the AHL's Bakersfield Condors, but he'll be listed on their roster this season as the official EBUG! And, despite his lack of experience, he seems to be the right guy for the job as Edmonton goalie coach Peter Aubry told Janson Duench of The Athletic, "The big reason he’s here is the guys like him. Fortunately, we had a free peek last year where Brett had come out and done a few practices with us, so that was a good thing and gives everyone a little bit more comfort."

What makes both of these stories even better is that, as per the NHL's mandate, both men will wear #00 on their jerseys if they ever are pressed into action or to backup one of the everyday NHL netminders. On that note, Epp had an even cooler story that he told to the Edmonton Journal's Gerry Moddejonge on Thursday, saying, "My grandma had her birthday last week, and we went out and got a double-zero jersey made for her, so that was pretty cool."

While a handful of teams have yet to have an EBUG on NHL.com's list, the fact that both Alberta NHL teams have local kids who played for a university in their repsective cities as their EBUGs is pretty cool. Frankly, it would be awesome if Montreal and Vancouver signed local guys who played for universities in their cities, so I'll hold onto the hope that the Canucks find a UBC or Trinity Western goalie while Montreal looks at a Concordia or McGill netminder for their EBUG.

As for me, the only letters I'll wear today are M and C. I'm definitely not qualified to be an EBUG in any capacity, but I don't think a wedding needs nor have I ever heard of an Emergency Backup Groom either. I'll let the couple who have been preparing and rehearsing for this day handle those responsibilities while I make announcements. An an wedding emcee, that's the kind of pressure I can handle.

I'm off to get things organized, so enjoy your day, folks. I know mine will be fantastic as I witness two people wed in a beautiful union that will last forever because they're awesome and make a heckuva team!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

It Took Three Days

I will fully admit that I have not been watching a lot of hockey thanks to life being one event after another right now. For as much as I need and want some time to relax, it seems I'm just as busy as I was through the summer. Of course, my drive to watch NHL hockey has been low as I already admitted that I was already disappointed in the NHL in many ways which doesn't help, but being busy virtually every night hasn't allowed me to settle down in front of a broadcast and watch. Last night, though, the NHL delivered one of the things I absolutely enjoy seeing in any season, and all it took was three days into the 2026-27 season for someone to add his name to the NHL history books last night.

The Tampa Bay Lightning were in Manhattan to play the New York Rangers last night, and things weren't going well as they trailed 4-1 late in the game. Lightning head coach Jon Cooper rolled the dice and pulled his goalie for an extra attacker to close the gap, and that gave Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin the opportunity he wanted.
Igor Shesterkin becomes the 18th NHL goaltender to be credited with a goal as he netted the fifth Rangers goal in a 5-1 victory over Tampa Bay! He also becomes the first New York Rangers goaltender to accomplish the feat while making 24 saves to help New York pick up its first win of the season! That's a solid night by any measure!

What's even crazier is that Shesterkin didn't see the puck slide into the yawning Lightning cage, telling reporters, "I didn't see the puck land so I didn't know can I celebrate or not." Celebrate he did, though, as he was mobbed by his teammates after scoring the 21st goalie goal in NHL history. Officially, Shesterkin's first NHL goal came at 17:26 of the third period to put the Rangers up 5-1. With a goal and a win under his belt tonight, he joins a long list of NHL goalies who have celebrated scoring a goal in a game. They include:

• Billy Smith, NY Islanders – Nov. 28, 1979 at Colorado
• Ron Hextall, Philadelphia – Dec. 8, 1987 vs. Boston
• Ron Hextall, Philadelphia – Apr. 11, 1989 at Washington*
• Chris Osgood, Detroit – Mar. 6, 1996 at Hartford
• Martin Brodeur, New Jersey – Apr. 17, 1997 vs. Montreal
• Damian Rhodes, Ottawa – Jan 2, 1999 vs. New Jersey
• Martin Brodeur, New Jersey – Feb. 15, 2000 vs. Philadelphia**
• Jose Theodore, Montreal – Jan. 2, 2001 at NY Islanders
• Evgeni Nabokov, San Jose – Mar. 10, 2002 at Vancouver***
• Mika Noronen, Buffalo – Feb. 14, 2004 at Toronto
• Chris Mason, Nashville – Apr. 15, 2006 vs Phoenix
• Cam Ward, Carolina – Dec. 26, 2011 vs. New Jersey
• Martin Brodeur, New Jersey – Mar. 21, 2013 at Carolina***
• Mike Smith, Phoenix – Oct. 19, 2013 vs. Detroit
• Pekka Rinne, Nashville - Jan. 9, 2020 at Chicago
• Linus Ullmark, Boston - Feb. 25, 2023 at Vancouver
• Tristan Jarry, Pittsburgh - Nov. 30, 2023 at Tampa Bay
• Filip Gustavsson, Minnesota - Oct. 15, 2024 at St. Louis***
• Alex Nedeljkovic, Pittsburgh - January 17, 2025 at Buffalo
• Ilya Sorokin, NY Islanders - March 1, 2025 vs Nashville
• Igor Shesterkin, NY Rangers - October 1, 2026 vs Tampa Bay

Some quick notes: the italicized goals above were scored in the playoffs. The single asterisk denotes a shorthanded goal, the double-asterisk goal denotes a game-winning goal, and the triple-asterisk goals were scored on the power-play. The Islanders, Pittsburgh, and Nashville have had two different goalies score for them in NHL history. Brodeur and Hextall have scored more than once.

If you're scanning that list, Shesterkin's goal last night was also the earliest goalie goal scored in any season, beating Minnesota's Filip Gustavsson by two weeks! It should also be noted that Shesterkin reportedly scored while playing for Spartak Moscow in the MHL in Russia when he was 17 way back on October 31, 2013. It marked the first time that any goalie had scored in the MHL, and it helped Spartak Moscow down Red Bull Salzburg by a 4-1 score that night.

Now at age 30, the netminder can officially add a second puck to his trophy case to commemorate his first professional hockey goal!

Congratulations to Igor Shesterkin for his historic goal last night, and let me just reiterate that goalie goals at any level are awesome. That's one in the books for the 2026-27 season; how many more will be scored by goalies this year? I'm hoping we get a pile more!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 732

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back in the UMFM studio tonight as we get set for another big show. This one will have our hosts looking at one main topic that likely needs some explaining with all the circumstances and details that surround the story, so be prepared for a lot of examination with fine-toothed combs tonight. There will be a handful of other smaller stories for those looking to avoid the elephant in the room, so make sure you find a seat near an audio device for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason are going to tackle the big story in hockey right now as they'll break down the last month of news coming out of Arizona State University and the myriad of problems that institution faces with respect to Matthew Mayich. Assuming we get through that discussion, we'll also chat about something that hasn't happened for nearly forty years, the new NHL equipment rules and Trevor Zegras' tuck, the new NHL Board of Governors leadership, an NHL player with some artistic talent, and how CBC can make the PWHL better by doing what it always did best. There's going to be a lot to discuss and break down in that ASU conversation, though, so make sure you're ready to go for all the chatter tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat Arizona State University, a missing piece, equipment rule enforcement, new leadership, arts and crafts, rediscovering talent, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: October 1, 2026: Episode 732

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!