The Red-And-Gold Standard

We've known that the RSEQ women's hockey conference was growing by two teams this season for some time as both Laval and Sherbrooke were joining the fun. Just like with any expansion hockey team, there will be a lot of firsts, an even greater amount of hope, and a few bumps in the road along the way when it comes to the inuagural season, but it seems one of those Quebec universities is trying to get ahead of the curve with an outstanding setup for their locker room. If Laval puts this kind of effort into everything including their play on the ice, they might be a new U SPORTS powerhouse!

This is what the players walked into yesterday when they were invited to check out their new space on campus for the first time.

Pretty nice digs, right? That looks like a great home at the Aréna du PEPS for the new women's team, and they could likely use this dressing room as a selling feature on campus tours for potential recruits. There are lots of U SPORTS programs who have nothing like this, so kudos to Laval University for investing their women!

Circle October 16 on your calendars as they'll play the Montreal Carabins that day in their first official action in the history of the school. Montreal is, of course, one of the teams that always has big seasons in the RSEQ with an appearance at Nationals almost a perennial event, so Laval will have a big test on their hands in that first game as they begin writing chapters into their history. It's said that "for one to be the best, they have to beat the best" so why not welcome the team that established the gold standard for university women's hockey in Quebec? It seems like a good measuring stick!

Of course, the team needs to look good when they step on the ice, so the jerseys should invoke a sense of pride with the design. Will Laval find the right setup? Will they bring a traditional hockey look?

The home jerseys are nearly flawless in their design, and I commend Laval for sticking to a traditional hockey sweater design. The red and white provide excellent contrast, the gold stripe fits nicely, they avoided overusing black, and the design with the shoulder yoke feels like this team has a rich history. The CCM logo above the Laval logo can go, but these jerseys hit all the checkboxes in their design.

Will the road jerseys bring that same excellent design? Let's find out!

This red jersey isn't as good as the white jersey mainly because there's way too much black. It needs more gold since Laval is the Rouge-Et-Or, and the change in the design altogether isn't quite an impactful as they may think it is. A black yoke would work if they brought back the gold stripes on the arms and the hems outlined by black, but these will work. They're clearly not as good as the white jerseys, but they'll work for Laval. I do like the gold outline on the numbers and name on the back, though, as they helps to make the name and number more readable. That's important for broadcasters!

Overall, Laval looks like they're kicking off their women's hockey history on the right foot with an amazing locker room experience and a solid wardrobe of jerseys. Their play on the ice will obviously determine where they finish in the standings, but they're off to a good start when it comes to the aesthetics of the team. Might the RSEQ might be the best-dressed conference in women's hockey?

Best of luck to the Laval Rouge-et-Or on their inaugural season! I'll be watching their progress, but I won't be doing a lot of writing about them or any other university women's team after Canada West made the decision for me to end The Rundown. I am, however, excited to see how well former Winnipeg Ice forward Talia Jones does, so there's definitiely a reason to keep an eye on the Laval Rouge-et-Or!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 727

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, takes over the UMFM studio space once again tonight to talk all things puck. Usually, we have a main story which we want to focus on to explain the nuances that fans should know, but tonight's going to be just a smorgasbord of smaller stories that will fill the hour. There will be discussions on each, but there isn't one main topic that will eat up a half-hour of show time. If you're ready for lots of little stories that need some dissecting, make sure you're ready to roll for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason will rock the hockey world by talking about a number of topics including the Hometown Remix jersey announcement, the Islanders making their third jersey official after the fan voting closed, the Gwinnett Gladiators going back to the future, the NHL allowing a banned jersey number again, the AIHL playoff picture for this weekend, Dublin's ambitious new project, a former NHLer returning to the ECHL, a Stanley Cup winner who will miss the start of the season, a Hall-of-Famer who may have suffered, and anything else that may bounce across our respective desks today! Settle in for some glove-dropping, shot-blocking, stick-swinging, and puck-chucking chatter 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 talk bad jerseys, good colours, fun numbers, Aussie madness, Irish dreams, Russians returning, Danes hurting, saving brains, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: August 27, 2026: Episode 727

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Big Signing Goes Down

Oilers fans are hoping this isn't going to be a common occurrence, but goaltender Frederik Andersen will start the season on the shelf after being injured during an off-season training session. He'll be joined by defenceman Alec Regula and forwards Mattias Janmark and Matt Savoie as players who miss training camp with injuries, but that one-year, $2.8-million contract that Andersen signed to stabilize Edmonton's goaltending will be tested in October as the Oilers are forced to start the season with a netminding tandem that is missing their big catch in free agency.

There were no reports on what may be ailing Andersen as the start of the season nears, but one has to wonder if the heavy workload he endured through the playoffs had something to do with his current injury. At the time, it was reported as a knee injury, and that should have fans worried as goalies generally need knees that work well.

Of course, this comes on the heels of Andersen missing time in late October 2024 with a lower-body issue which, eventually, required knee surgery in November 2024, and that injury kept him out for roughly three months before returning in January 2025. He practiced for a week with the Hurricanes before the team decided to place him on injured reserve again, limiting him to just 22 games in 2024-25.

Andersen is 36 years-old so he's not getting younger, and repeated "lower-body injuries" that he's had over the course of his career don't heal as fast. I respect that the Oilers saw him as an upgrade to their goaltending situation, but there's a reason why the Hurricanes went with Brandon Bussi over re-signing Frederik Andersen, and a lot of it has to do with being younger, cheaper, and more durable. That's not to say Andersen can't recover and help Edmonton win, but Andersen played just 107 games in the last four seasons for the Hurricanes.

As it stands, the Edmonton Oilers will start the season with Tristan Jarry and Devon Levi as their goaltending tandem, and Frederik Andersen will work to get himself ready for a late-October or early-November debut assuming all goes well. If the Oilers get the Tristan Jarry who sported an .858 save percentage in 19 appearances last year, the month of October could be rough. Devon Levi has yet to prove he can be an NHL goalie, so the Oilers are going to have to hope that Andersen recovers quickly from whatever this injury is.

Even if his recovery gets him back in the lineup by the start of November, he'll need some time to be game-ready as he's scheduled to miss all of training camp and the exhibition games that the Oilers play. With fifteen games in November alone, the Oilers may need all three goalies healthy if they're going to manage each one's minutes.

The Oilers will be on the road from October 31 to November 3 where they play the Islanders and Rangers back-to-back before finishing off the trip against the Devils. They return home for a game against the Ducks on November 5 that starts a four-games-in-seven-days run, and then they hit the road for six games in nine nights between November 14 and 22. If the Oilers or Andersen wanted to be thrown into the fire after his recovery, the November schedule might be that fire.

I don't know who placed the curse on Connor McDavid and/or Leon Draisaitl, but they're going to have to hope that Jarry and Levi can hold the fort while Andersen is on the mend. If the losses start piling up before Andersen's expected return, it may be too deep of a hole to dig out of when it comes to making the playoffs this season.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Return Of Double-Zeroes!

For those that are unaware, there are specific numbers that cannot be worn in the NHL and on specific teams. Most of these are retired numbers that teams no longer keep in circulation, but specific numbers like #99 are retired league-wide so no one can wear that number again. There are two numbers that the NHL demanded be removed from circulation due to their ability to mess with the NHL's early statistical programs, and those numbers are #0, last worn by Neil Sheehy, and #00, last worn by Martin Biron as seen above. However, it seems the NHL has evolved enough that these zeroes are no longer a problem for their stats programs thanks to one team's signing announcement today!

The Minnesota Wild were going about their business today by posting on their website that they had hired Peter Thome as their new Hockey Operations Analyst. Nothing in that seems earth-moving, but they tacked on that Thome will also serve as the Wild's Emergency Backup Goalie (EBUG) this season. As you may recall, every team is required to have an official EBUG under contract this season.

The former NCAA and ECHL netminder and former 2016 Columbus Blue Jackets draft pick had a short career stopping pucks at the professional level, but he's also worked as an analyst in the USHL and as a video coach in the AHL. All of that is fine and dandy for Thome while he's wearing a suit, but there was one line that stuck out about what he'll be wearing as a goaltender for the Wild if he's needed:

"He will wear sweater No. 00 with Minnesota."

How can that be after the league banned the number in 1996 over issues with their player database and the inability to accurately record players using those numbers? Did it take thirty years for the NHL to figure out how to properly enter #00 as a valid number into that database? Will we see all EBUGs wearing #00 this season based on Thome's number? We all have questions that need answers!

I've seen a few websites indicate that all EBUGs this season will be assigned #00, and that may very well happen. However, there is no language in the NHL-NHLPA CBA Memorandum of Understanding filed last season that speaks to this number assignment and that includes Attachment 87 that speaks directly to the new EBUG rules that teams are required to follow. Logically, however, that would make sense.

Whatever the case may be for the other 31 teams, there will be one player who has #00 as his assigned jersey number next season. Congratulations to Peter Thome not only on his hiring today with the Minnesota Wild, but for becoming the answer to an NHL trivia question one day! Will #0 be the next number to be reinstated?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

MSG In Dublin?

Dubbed "The World's Most Famous Arena", there aren't many shows nor events that pass up the opportunity to work in Madison Square Garden. Located in Manhatten, "the Garden" is officially the second-busiest music arena in the world in terms of ticket sales, the oldest arena to host an NBA team, and the oldest arena to host an NHL team. There have been three other Madison Square Garden that have been demolished since the original opened in 1879, but the current building standing between Seventh and Eighth avenues in New York City is the one that has garnered the most attention as the arena that hosts around 320 events a year including sports, concerts, and other major events!

I'm not here to talk about New York's arena, however, because Dermot Rigley, founder and CEO of Prime Arena Holdings, made a bold proclamation today with the announcement of a new two-rink facility being proposed for the neighbourhood of Cherrywood inside Dublin, Ireland! According to his statement today, "Rigley has described the proposed project as one that will bring the Madison Square Garden experience" to Ireland's largest and most populous city!

I'm not here to take the wind out of Rigley's sails by any means, but Prime Arena Holdings stepped forward as the company behind this ambitious project, showing off initial renderings that included CGI images and flythrough videos by Populous, the same architects behind the Sphere in Las Vegas, Yankee Stadium in New York, and the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. It should be noted that Prime Arena Holdings has NOT formally submitted a planning application for this project yet.

The details state that the building will have two Olympic-sized ice rinks and an 8000-capacity arena, expandable to 10,500 for major events and concerts. It's hoped that this new facility will be ready to open by 2029 or 2030, but Brendan O'Brien of the Irish Examiner notes in his article, "The Olympic Federation of Ireland has backed a project which will serve as a hub for its winter sports programme and one where an ice hockey team akin to the Belfast Giants at the O2 will serve as anchor tenants and play in the British league."

Might we see an EIHL team in the heart of Dublin, Ireland?

"The design for Prime Arena will bring the ice hockey spectators close to the action and create an incredible atmosphere and fan experience," Marian Moravek, design lead at Populous, described to O'Brien, "while the warm, layered facade and public plaza will give the arena a distinct identity as a focus for Cherrywood."

As you know, this blog is against public funding of arenas that will be used by billionaires, but we know that EIHL teams are setup somewhat differently. Initial estimates for this new "Madison Square Dublin" were around €190 million ($222 million USD), but final totals could fetch upwards of €250 million ($292 million USD). Reports suggest that "several US and Canadian ice hockey stars, including former Stanley Cup winners, recently emerged as investors in the project," but it seems some public monies will go into the project.

Estimates see the new arena attracting "over 1.5 million visitors annually", and, as reported by Eoin Burke-Kennedy in The Irish Times, "Mary Rose Burke, Dublin Chamber of Commerce chief executive, said the project would 'deliver a significant and lasting boost to Dublin's economy, supporting businesses across hospitality, tourism, retail and local services' while Tourism Ireland chief Alice Mansergh said it 'would offer opportunities to attract visitors from overseas'."

Allow me to "wet blanket" this growing excitement for the arena by suggesting that Prime Arena Holdings should get its application submitted ASAP and start lining up investors for that 2029 opening date. Even if they open in 2030, a Dublin EIHL team will also need some time to get off the ground. And assuming this mixed-use complex works for everyone where public skating can happen while an EIHL team practices, perhaps we'll see Irish-born and Irish-trained hockey players find their way into leagues across the globe one day!

We're a long way from those moments, and I'll be the first to say that building a €250-million arena is the last thing an emerging hockey country should do, but Dublin, Ireland seems to have its heart set on welcoming its first EIHL team in the city's history to inspire more young Irishmen and Irishwomen to hit the ice! Maybe it will happen with a little of that Irish luck, but "an lao ite i mbolg na bó"!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!