Lemaire You Know: Let’s Talk
Hello. Let’s have a quick talk before the downhill sprint to the season begins at the end of this week with the Wild participating in the Traverse City Prospects Tournament. Then it’s training camp. Then it’s pre-season. Then it’s opening night. You don’t have to watch football for very long (or at all if you’re a Steve Almond fan).
There’s a great piece on sexism in hockey and why it’s important that we keep discussing it, over at Hockey Wilderness. It’s by ReinaDeLaIsla and is called We Need to Talk About Sexist Hockey Culture, And Keep Talking About It and you should go read it right now.
It’d be great this season if everyone could, instead of being defensive or creating straw man arguments about “ice girls” any time someone mentions sexism, decide to make hockey (all sports really, please) a welcome space for people who are not white and male. Spend your season calling out people on their bullshit when you see it. Talk about it, let people you’re not ok with sexism in hockey when you see something happening. That’s the only way things start to change.
There’s no excuse for being an ass.
In other news, I saw the Chuck Jones exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, NY and it’s awesome. It made me want to watch lots Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. The exhibit has lots of great sketches and backgrounds, full cartoons, oral histories, and lots more. It reminded me of that piece by Mark Cousins during the summer in The Guardian. The museum, well that exhibit in the museum, felt very alive and not as forbidding as museums tend to be by design. There were people laughing, young kids watching cartoons, people feeling a little more relaxed, skipping around to whatever caught their attention. Also, it seemed to me that many of those kids were seeing these cartoons for the very first time. I wish I could watch “What’s Opera, Doc” or “Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century” for the first time again.
I assume most GPW readers aren’t in New York, but this exhibit is going to be traveling. I’m not sure where it’s headed, but if it gets near you, go.
Also, Aphex Twin, huh?
Minnesota Wild News
The Wild need to improve on the road this season. Man, they were bad on the road last season and the stats here show it to be even worse than I remember.
Ger Devine uses some #FancyStats to determine who should be in the Wild’s top D pairing for the 2014-15 season.
Jason Zucker is ready to “perform” at camp.
The real reason Josh Harding’s numbers were so great last season.
Around the GPW Universe this week
Four Minnesota Wild players who need to have a bounce-back season this year. I’ll give you a hint on one of the names here. It rhymes with Bryle Kodziak.
Six Minnesota Wild players who could be the team’s breakout player this season. Jason Zucker appears for a third straight season. (That’s only true in my heart.)
Should the Wild try to trade for Boston’s Johnny Boychuk? Boston fans say no.
Hockey’s Future has done it’s annual ranking of the Top 20 Wild Prospects. Guess who is #1 for the second straight year?
If there was an expansion draft this year, who would the Wild protect? Do you disagree with me? I bet you do.
We’re getting to the end of our “every goal from last season” series. Here’s what we hit since last we talked:
Ryan Suter
Clayton Stoner
Jared Spurgeon
Marco Scandella
Around the League
The Pink Puck calls out EA Sports for making fun of female fans in their NHL 15 trailer.
Ryan Johansen and the Blue Jackets are very far apart on contract negotiations. This is a nice piece by Pierre LeBrun for ESPN about what this contract battle actually means for the team when (and if) they get Johansen in on a new deal.
Everyone appears to love Chicago’s signing of Brad Richards, but what are they going to do if it doesn’t work out? Someone give a Finnish center some love.
An interesting look at the zone entries of the San Jose Sharks.
Justin Bourne looks at a unique chunk of ice that the Red Wings use as a strategy.
Bourne also looks at three traits of successful neutral zone teams.
A close evaluation of what Corey Crawford offers Chicago.
Four reasons the Hurricanes are playoff contenders.
Does your city deserve a NHL team? from The Hockey Writers.
I haven’t spent a ton of time here yet, but there’s a new advanced stats site called Progressive Hockey. They’re doing some interesting things there and re-imagining relative stats. There are a few other new sites as well, none have the nice UI Extra Skater had yet (RIP Extra Skate), but we’ll maybe get those rounded up for you before the start of the season.
Outside the NHL
Kyle Rau will be the captain for the U of M Golden Gophers men’s hockey team this season.
Nick Seeler, a Wild prospect who left the University of Nebraska-Omaha unexpectedly this summer, will play for the Golden Gophers starting in the 2015-16 season.
Wild prospect Reid Duke has reached an agreement with the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Western Hockey League and has returned to play after being a hold out from camp. If you remember, earlier this summer Duke didn’t report to Lethbridge camp and was placed on the Waterloo Blackhawks of the USHL’s protected list.
Wild prospect Pavel Jenys will now officially spend the season with the Sudbury Wolves.
Gordie Roberts talks about the debate between playing high school hockey vs. Juniors over at Let’s Play Hockey.
On Minnesota
State Tournament locations for the 2015 state tournaments in hockey have been announced.
Minnesota Hockey Magazine launches a multi-part series on players to watch during recruiting season.
Because
Aphex Twin – minipops 67
Nick Cave & the Bad Seed – “Give Us a Kiss”
TV on the Radio – “Happy Idiot”
Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band – “Sure ‘Nuff Yes I Do”
Fucked Up – “The Art of Patrons”
Mastodon w/ Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers) – “ATLANTA”
Iceage – “Forever”
Cake – “Mexico”
Jack White Take Away Show
There you go. Lemaire You Know or something.