Hockey romance novels are booming, and readers are bringing the cheeky spirit to NHL playoffs: ‘It's a book girl thing'
Gauthier is not a real NHL star but the protagonist of romance author Tessa Bailey's bestselling 'Big Shots' series, which chronicles the world of hockey with the same breathless enthusiasm as any play-by-play announcer, though most of the, uh, stickhandling happens off ice.
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Globe and Mail
8 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Plans for new downtown Ottawa NHL arena move ahead as Senators, NCC finalize land deal
Plans for a new National Hockey League arena and events centre in downtown Ottawa have taken a major step forward with the National Capital Commission announcing that it will sell off 4.5 hectares of land in the city's LeBreton Flats area. The NCC and Capital Sports Development Inc. (CSDI), a group led by the NHL's Ottawa Senators, released a joint statement Monday on an agreement in the long-running effort to develop a stadium to replace the 29-year-old Canadian Tire Centre. The Senators have played at the facility, located about 20 kilometres west of downtown Ottawa, since 1996. The site central to Monday's agreement is located at LeBreton Flats, just west of Parliament Hill. The flats is a largely vacant area that was once the site of a working-class community and is now managed by the NCC. Parts of the area are occupied by the National Holocaust Monument and the Canadian War Museum. There are two light-rail stations in the area. The NCC is a federal Crown corporation that manages about 11 per cent of the land in the national capital region, and owns more than 1,600 properties, including six official residences in the capital. Cyril Leeder, president and chief executive officer of the Ottawa Senators, said the club was pleased to reach the agreement. Now, he said it's time to move on to the next steps of the process in developing the project. According to the NCC website, these steps will include zoning, design and approvals as well as decontamination of the land parcels to prepare for construction. 'There are still many more hurdles to clear,' Mr. Leeder said in a statement. 'We look forward to working with the NCC and other stakeholders to achieve our shared vision of creating an event centre at LeBreton Flats that can be enjoyed by our Ottawa-Gatineau community.' Meanwhile, the head of the NCC, said the project will be a plus for Ontario's second most populous city after Toronto. 'The promise of a major events centre will provide a lively and convenient attraction for residents and visitors, inject new energy and excitement into the core of the Nation's Capital and further catalyze the development of LeBreton Flats,' said Tobi Nussbaum, NCC chief executive officer, in a statement. He said that Monday's agreement builds on a pair of previous real estate transactions completed by the NCC since 2002 on a project to see more than 2,000 new housing units along with new retail and commercial spaces built on site. In 2022, the NCC announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with CSDI.
Edmonton Journal
13 hours ago
- Edmonton Journal
'Skill and talent': NHL stats analysts with high praise for Oilers defencemen
This in from TSN stats analyst and hockey writer Travis Yost, his ranking of NHL defences, where he places the Edmonton Oilers in the top tier. Article content Said Yost of the Oilers: 'The goaltending can terrify you on any given night but a key reason why the Oilers have emerged as perennial Stanley Cup contenders – OK, setting aside the two-headed monster of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl – is a deepening of skill and talent on the blueline. You need puck movers capable of igniting an attack with this collection of forwards, and Edmonton has that in spades – now featuring one of the best trade deadline acquisitions of the 2024-25 season in Jake Walman.' Article content Article content Other teams in Yost's Top Tier include Colorado, Carolina, Dallas and Ottawa. Article content Article content Yost analysis follows the work of another strong stats analyst Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic, who recently did valuations of players on all 32 NHL teams (essentially translating each player's individual performance into a dollar amount) and found that the Oilers have the most high-performing and valuable d-man unit in the entire NHL. Article content Of the Top 60 highest performing d-men in the NHL, the Oilers had four, as per Luszczyszyn's model, with Evan Bouchard ranked seventh, Mattias Ekholm 16th, Jake Walman 29th and Darnell Nurse 52nd. Top ranked was Colorado's Cale Makar at $15.4 million. Article content Edmonton's Top 6 d-men were valued, on average at $7.2 million each, with the next most valuable d-men on Montreal, $6.7 million, Colorado, $6.5 million. (For the Habs, I had to estimate Lane Hutson's value, as Luszczyszyn does not rate Entry Level Contracts in this post on contract efficiency). Article content Article content Luszczyszyn values Bouchard at $12.8 million, Ekholm, $9.8 million, Walman, $7.9 million, Nurse, $6.5 million, Kulak, $3.9 million and Ty Emberson at $2.5 million. Article content My take Article content 1. For the many wretched years of the Decade of Darkness-plus, the Oilers defence was the blackest of holes, with iffy players like Mark Fayne, Corey Potter, Cam Barker, Theo Peckham, Martin Marincin, Kurtis Foster and Nikita Nikitin often thrust into Top 4 roles at even strength. Especially lacking during those darkest times were d-men who could move the puck. But now almost every Oilers d-man is above average-to-top tier when it comes to puck moving. Article content 2. The Oilers d-men still make a significant number of mistakes on defence, but their passing ability has shot up since the last rancid season of that horrible decade, 2017-18. Article content As recently as the 2021-22 season, the d-men averaged as a group 0.9 major contributions to Grade A shots per 15 minutes of play. This past season, 2024-25, that average was at 1.3 major contributions per 15.
CTV News
14 hours ago
- CTV News
Peguis First Nation celebrates draft pick Carter Bear
Winnipeg Watch Peguis First Nation honoured NHL First Round Draft Pick Carter Bear with a community celebration.
