Politics And Hockey

The skates to the left are what Alexander Ovechkin wore for warm-up for one game back in 2017 while skating with the Capitals. Obviously, that was before the war in Ukraine began and there was still a modicum of goodwill towards Ovechkin in Washington hockey circles, but things have changed in the last decade to help the world see that Russia is a villain on the world's stage. Every player and his or her team's marketing department is very aware of that player's public image, so you'd think Ovechkin would be distancing himself from Russia's leadership to remain as neutral as possible, right?

Ovechkin has always walked his own path in the NHL, though, and it seems he's found a way to change his image once again. Watch below.
What you just saw was a campaign ad for the United Russia party which supports Russian president Vladimir Putin, meaning that Alexander Ovechkin is clearly supporting Russia's violent visit inside Ukraine. I was hoping the "keep politics out of sports" people would jump all over this, but it seems that the anti-war and anti-Russia crowdsa are currently doing a solid job at tearing down Ovechkin's public image right now. Frankly, he deserves all the vitriol.

As per The Guardian's Robert Mackey and Tom Lutz, "Russian business newspaper Vedomosti published images of the Washington Capitals star alongside pro-Putin figures such as Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, the leading parliamentary candidate on United Russia's list, and Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the propaganda network RT." Clearly, no one is advising Ovechkin on his image during the offseason if these are the people with whom he's associating.

It's no secret that Ovechkin and Putin have long been acquaintences if not colleagues. The Capitals star has never denied being a pro-Putin Russian, praising the Russian president at times and helping to raise support for him. With the war still raging in Ukraine, however, this little charade of letting Ovechkin do and say whatever he wants should come to a quick ending. Canada, who has backed Ukraine since the start of the invasion, should stop Ovechkin from entering the country under Immigration and Refugee Protection Act rules for being a key and vocal supporter of the current Russian regime.

If Ovechkin wants to play stupid games, these are the consequences of his actions. There's no right for him to play or work in Canada, so Canada doesn't need to honour his political choices. He made a conscious decision to appear in that campaign ad, and now would be a good time to show him the fallout from that stupid decision.

Of course, Canada won't do that because it would create a slippery slope and look vengeful, but I'd love to see someone put Ovechkin in his place over his political beliefs. Hockey is his profession, but there's a bigger world out there where being on the right side of history - even if he previously spoke out in favour of Putin - plays a role in how people are remembered once their star's shine begins to fade. I was never an Ovechkin fan which I've stated before, but this is yet another reason why I'm no longer supporting the NHL: they said a lot of words about and threw some money at helping the people of Ukraine, but they do nothing to back those words up with actions.

I'll tip my cap to players like Nikita Zadorov, Artemi Panarin, and Dominik Hasek who have spoken out about Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the atrocities associated with the war. A lot of players won't as part of them and their team's marketing department protecting their public images, but these three men have spoken out bravely in the face of a Russian tyrant in Vladimir Putin. It's a shame that one of Russia's biggest stars can't have some influence on the country's leadership personalities after cozying up to them.

He may have more than 900 goals in the NHL, but I won't be surprised if Ovechkin is booed every time he touches the puck this season over his support of warmongering idiots who think Soviet-era Russia still exists. He's welcome to stand behind whomever he likes politically, but it doesn't mean that we can't remind him of Ukraine's sovereignty and independence at every opportunity. Add in "support of tyrants" to the morally-reprehensible list of alleged bigots, racists, domestic abusers, and rapists that play in the NHL. Again, that's why I'm out.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

25 Away From 7K

After today's article, we stand 25 posts from hitting 7000. Back in June, I had postulated that October 9 would be my last day posting if I continued to add one article per day, and that appears to be the date where HBIC will stop worrying about adding a daily post as I've committed far too much time and energy here when it could be spent doing other things. I've had a few people tell me that I should keep posting on a more relaxed schedule and that's the plan moving forward, but hitting 7000 individual articles is a goal that's now easily within reach. And while I don't normally talk about HBIC's future when there's other news, a reminder was needed today.

I say that because The Hockey Show has already committed to a number of things where I'll need a place to post a preview. These shows will feature interviews and chatter, and that also eats into a lot of my free time where I would normally be posting here. With the radio show taking a more active approach in getting out into the community this season, there will still be posts here about all that we're doing so you can drop by and say hello to us if you like.

Officially, we have committed to broadcasting the 2026 Female World Sport School Challenge once again as Balmoral Hall will host the event at the Hockey For All Centre in west Winnipeg from November 12-15 this winter. The roster of teams this year is far more diverse than last year's tournament as we'll see teams from Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Manitoba come together for four days of incredible hockey action! There's a good chance we'll see a second skills competition as players show off their immense talents, and scouts will be watching from a myriad of post-secondary institutions as they look for their next stars! Circle those November dates now!

Of course, our involvement with the tournament means that we'll need to have members of the Blazers in-studio for a chat once again, so that's another fun show that is being planned. As you have heard a couple of weeks ago when we were at the Hockey For All Centre, Winnipeg Ice head coach Eugene Kaminsky said the Ice would be willing to come in and talk about their season and defending their back-to-back FWSSC championships, so we'll have a few fun shows with players and coaches chatting about the upcoming event too!

We're also very proud to work with Sledge Hockey Manitoba once again as they look to build on the successes they had last season both at the developmental stages and with the provincial team. The people leading the charge at Sledge Hockey Manitoba are incredibly dedicated to the players and programs they run, and they deserve to be highlighted and given the spotlight. The Hockey Show is proud to do that, so we'll sit down with members of Sledge Hockey Manitoba soon and hear about everything happening in the sledge world!

Of course, we already have a number of other irons in the fire when it comes to events around Winnipeg, so The Hockey Show may end up taking a serious priority when it comes to my available free time. You already know that we'll be chatting with Fiona Quinn about the Fort Wayne Komets at some point, Survivor: NHL Playoffs will return, we'll cover the big stories and have some laughs, and there will undoubtedly be more surprises as we press forward in Season 15.

I'll still use HBIC to promote episodes of The Hockey Show and write longer pieces where examinations are needed, but posting daily for twenty years for fun is nearing its conclusion. Being that there's no news that caught my attention today, you get this countdown article because there's only 25 articles to go. Possibly. In theory. Who knows?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Some Good From A Lot Of Bad

It isn't often that professional hockey teams fold in the middle of a season, but the team with the jersey to the left - the UHL's Mohawk Valley Prowlers - were one of the few pro teams who did fold midway through their campaign. The team only lasted in Utica, New York from 1998 to 2001, so it's not like they had a massive impact on the community in their short existence. However, there are a few notes to examine when it comes to the Prowlers calling Utica home for parts of three seasons. Let's look at the Prowlers announcing their financial issues and what happened from there.

According to a report from The Associated Press on February 8, 2001, the Prowlers sought bankruptcy protection, depending on who you believe, sometime between Friday, February 2 through Tuesday, February 6 after telling a judge that the team was "spending more than 40 percent than it takes in". Citing total assets of $1.7 million and liabilities of $3.94 million, it's not hard to see why the team was suffering as it was spending $1.40 for every dollar made.

With the announcement, the players on the Prowlers' roster voted to strike in knowing that they likely weren't going to be paid until the bankruptcy matter was resolved. Rumours of missed salary payments totalling $40,000 and missed rent payments forcing players to be evicted from their apartments gave the players all the necessary motivation they needed not to play, and the team had no way of borrowing money to make their payroll while under bankruptcy protection despite owner Jack Tompkins saying that the players were owed only $5667 due to creditor protection. As a result of the team being unable to honour their contractual obligations to the players, the entire roster was declared as creditors owed money. Would ever get the money owed?

As the headline from the Syracuse Herald American stated, the Prowlers were forced to use replacement players for their scheduled game on February 11, 2001 against the BC Icemen. For those wondering, the "BC" stands for Broome County as the Icemen called Binghamton, New York home, but they took the ice against a Prowlers team that literally was made up of whoever the Prowlers could find who wasn't under contract. The end result was an 18-4 blowout by the Icemen, and Prowlers' management vowed that Wednesday's game against the Icemen would also see replacement players take the ice in Prowlers uniforms. Based on those results from Sunday, it would appear that their Prowlers needed professional players back.

It seems that Mohawk Valley wasn't done dealing their contracted players, though, as the Prowlers traded 12-goal, 35-point centerman Harold Hersh to Quad City on Monday, February 12. That's one way to satisfy one creditor as Hersh would finish the season in Quad City where he'd score 16 points in 19 games before adding six points in 11 games en route to a UHL championship!

The AHL's Lowell Lock Monsters would pick up a player from the Prowlers as well as they added noted bruiser Andre Payette from Mohawk Valley. Tye 6'2", 205-pound Payette had already made a name for himself in the UHL, scoring nine goals and 18 assists while racking up 244 PIMs in 45 games. Lowell added Payette to their lineup to replace noted pugilist Kip Brennan who returned to the OHL's Sudbury Wolves after it was discovered he still had junior hockey eligibility.

Apparently, business continued as if nothing ever changed for the Prowlers as they waived Quintin Brickley who never even played for them while claiming John Dowd from New Haven. On the other side, former leading scorer Jay Mazur, who was delcared a free agent following the bankruptcy filing, signed with New Haven to strengthen their lineup. Clearly, things were starting to crumble in Mohawk Valley, so it seemed like the inevitable was on the horizon.

On February 22, the final nail in the coffin was hammered as the Mohawk Valley Prowlers closed their doors on the season and on the franchise. With the team officially in bankruptcy proceedings, trustee Michael Balanoff oversaw the proceedings of how the team would repay its creditors which, as the article states, included over 1000 season-ticket holders. Of course, players were also included in the list of creditors, but any players still under contract and on the Prowlers payroll were officially made free agents by the UHL and were able to sign with any team of their choosing. Most players went on to find a new team by the start of the following season, but there was one replacement player whose statistics caught my attention as I was researching another story. Depending on when, he may have been part of the 18-4 loss against the BC Icemen back on February 11.

This young man is Terry Craven. In this picture taken on February 21 as the Prowlers cleared out their lockers following the announcement of the team folding, the 24 year-old had played a total of seven professional minutes of UHL hockey - one with the Asheville Smoke and six with the Mohawk Valley Prowlers. He had 24 NCAA games to his name with the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts where his GAA and save percentage weren't going to get him scouted by NHL personnel, but he could be a decent goalie with a little seasoning in the UHL.

I'm not here to bring down Terry Craven in any way because he clearly got stuck in an untenable situation. Playing for the Prowlers while the franchise crumbles is not one that any player would want, but Craven's numbers are hard to ignore. Consider the following:

In his six minutes of standing in the blue paint for the Prowlers, he surrendered five goals on 11 shots and suffered his only professional loss at the UHL level or above in terms of his professional career. That is heartbreaking to read for a kid just trying to find his way into pro hockey, but Craven's record will show his Prowlers time with an 0-1-0 record, a 46.75 GAA, and a .545 save percentage. Just brutal!

There is a bright spot, though: Craven did get picked up as a goaltender for the ECHL's Lexington Men O'War in 2003. He spent two minutes on the ice in the ECHL with Lexington and made one save, but the Men O'War clearly saw something in Craven by bringing him in as an EBUG after spending nearly two years out of hockey!

Terry Craven's story won't be a 30-For-30 on ESPN or a Netflix special, but he did get nine minutes of professional hockey under his belt. Two-thirds of that time came in a Prowlers jersey where he was thrown to the wolves, but Craven did spend two minutes in an ECHL game where he officially made one save and finished with a 0.00 GAA and a 1.000 save percentage. The Prowlers franchise may have died in 2001, gone for good, but Terry Craven wasn't quite done.

Sometimes, out of the worst situations, good things happen. While Terry Craven never had a long or propserous professional hockey career, he did stop one puck in the ECHL with the Lexington Man O'War which is more than a lot of other good goaltenders can say they did. Who knows if that would have happened had it not been for the UHL's Mohawk Valley Prowlers franchise hemorrhaging money.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

And I'm Out

There comes a time in every person's life where one walks away from something that simply cannot be saved. I'm not trying to impose any savior complex or white knight complex on anyone, but the NHL is broken. Whether it be ticket prices that are no longer affordable, TV contracts that make watching impossible, or signing players whose reputations shouldn't allow them any sort of privilege, it seems the NHL simply no longer has a place for morals and ethics. Like Mark Cuban above, because of this, I'm out on the NHL.

In the last couple of weeks, we've seen the cost of watching the game at home escalate to a point where many people are simply not going to watch any longer, and the Edmonton Oilers decided to pile on top of those problems by signing mediocre forward Alex Formenton whose name was last mentioned in North America at the Hockey Canada trial where he was one of the defendants.

The fact that the Oilers decided that Formenton was a player they needed is laughable after not playing NHL hockey for five years, but the kicker is that the Oilers seem to want ill-reputed individuals from all walks of life as part of the organization. Whether it be Carter Hart (who they looked at), Stan Bowman, or Mike Babcock, the Oilers are doing their best to be the most radioactive team in the NHL. And both McDavid and Draisaitl seem fine with this outcome.

Alex Formenton was playing hockey as a middle-six forward for Ambri-Piotta in the Swiss National League, and he was hardly close to being the best player on his own team, let alone in Switzerland. After finishing in 82nd-place in Swiss Leafue scoring, however, the Oilers saw value in the once-blossoming forward who is now 26 years-old with 33 goals and 19 assists in his last five years of hockey. Let's not forget that he also has one massive black mark on his record where he was charged with, and eventually acquitted of, sexual assault.

It's almost like the Oilers don't care about what their fans think after either kicking tires on or signing people like Jake Virtanan, Evander Kane, the aforementioned Hart, Zack Kassian, Milan Lucic, Corey Perry, Stan Bowman, and Mike Babcock. And I'll be the first to say that people deserve a second chance on the condition that those chances are granted if there is evidence that those seeking another chance have put in the work to improve one's character with receipts being clearly visible. Alex Formenton has done none of that.

The Oilers lost one major fan today when Mary Loewen, aka Mama Stanley, walked away from the team following the Formenton signing, explaining her decision by saying, "Although he was acquitted in court, I cannot ignore my conscience or what this decision represents to me. As a sexual assault survivor, I must stand by my morals and stand with the woman at the centre of this case."

Not surprisingly, the Oilers won't lose sleep over Mary's defection, but I commend Mary for her stance. Writer Nitya Prakash stated, "If you can abandon your principles for convenience, or social acceptability, then they are not your principles. They are your costume," and Mary Loewen, who has worn a number of costumes as Mama Stanley, isn't playing dress-up when it comes to her character. I stand with her.

In fact, let me go one step further: I support Mary's decision, and I'm walking away as well. From all of it. The NHL, for all its perceived good, cannot stand by and abandon whatever shreds of morals and ethics it has because five players think they deserve NHL jobs. When they allow its member teams to employ alleged bigots, racists, domestic abusers, and rapists, the NHL could be mistaken for Riker's Island rather than the best hockey league on the planet.

In saying that, today is the day where I draw the line in the sand: I will not buy tickets or merchandise, I will not pay for a cable package or streaming subscription, and I will not attend NHL events because my support indirectly justifies the behaviour of the Oilers and other teams who employ these people. I'll hit the NHL where it hurts the most by not spending money on their product. If you feel the same way about how the NHL and its member teams have behaved, feel free to join me and Mama Stanley in opting out of supporting them.

I'll still write about the important stories here on HBIC and we'll discuss them on The Hockey Show, but I will not spend one cent on the NHL moving forward. Again, no one at the NHL is going to lose sleep over one person walking away, but, if enough of us walk away, changes will have to be made. Between Rogers Communications destroying hockey broadcasts for all Canadians and the NHL being a haven for all types of criminals, I'm better off without them.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 729

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, remains out of the studio for another week, albeit for an entirely different reason. We had fun at the Hockey For All Centre last week as we chatted with Winnipeg Ice head coach Eugene Kaminsky, and this week sees us chatting with another incredible hockey mind and awesome person as we tackle a subject most seem to avoid! Who did we chat with and what's the subject? All that is answered tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat with author Daniel Gawthrop about his new book, Cutting Edge: Hockey as Queer Culture, and all of the topics he covered while getting his thoughts and a better understanding from his experiences about how the hockey world can be better place for everyone. They look at a very famous, historical hockey player whose past seems to indicate that he was the first gay hockey superstar, chat about making the game better for the LGBTQ+ community and for kids so that more people can be included in the "hockey is for everyone" statement, and discuss some of the ongoing realities that all of Daniel, the Cutting Edges Hockey team and association, and hockey in general faces with respect to making everyone feel welcome. It was an incredible chat with Daniel that gave Teebs and Jason new perspectives, and we need to thank Daniel for being so open and honest with us! Thanks again, Daniel!

On top of that, the interview ran for about 75 minutes, meaning that we had to cut some topics out of the interview just to fit into the time window, but Daniel kept giving us such interesting thoughts that it was hard not learn more from him! We'll post an hour of the chat tonight in giving you all of the best parts of the interview, so open your mind and tune into 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 with author Daniel Gawthrop about Cutting Edge: Hockey as Queer Culture, ways to fix the game, making the game more inclusive, Don Cherry, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: September 10, 2026: Episode 729

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!