TW: Discussions about SA and SV
Despite early forecasts, your local neighborhood haters are not having the Hot Girl Summer they thought they would. Between global climate disasters, the general state of western politics, and our own looming deadlines that we set on ourselves because of our chronic inability to chill, we’ve been stuck in front of our computers way more than we expected. Leo season is upon us, though, and we got Plans! And hey, there’s always Other Thoughts.
The Matthew Tkachuk/Jonathan Huberdeau & others trade
On July 22nd, we witnessed one of the biggest trades during the offseason in recent history.
Matthew Tkachuk asked and got his wish by getting signed and traded to the Florida Panthers. In return, Calgary Flames got forward Jonathan Huberdeau, defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, forward prospect Cole Schwindt, and a conditional first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
Tkachuk’s extension in FLA is $1M/year in salary and the rest ($68M) in bonuses.
As someone (Perrye) who has been following both teams in recent years, I’m happy that I don’t need to add a new team to my roster even though, as the latest member of “hockey media,” I’m supposed to be neutral.
However, I haven’t been entirely sold on the trade from the Panthers’ side. People are speculating that Matthew will be on a line with Barkov, which would make sense, but trading Huberdeau is a significant loss for them. He was so good that he was driving his own line, which gave the Panthers depth in their line combinations! Also, with Anthony Duclair on LTIR, they have big shoes to fill up their depth during (at least) the first half of the season. Who will make Sam Bennett shine now? Are we back to Flames Bennett? Who knows! The division is so competitive, and they will have to fight for a spot in the playoffs. And unfortunately for me, I’m going to be in the front row to witness it all.
Hockey Canada
This week, Hockey Canada faced its second round of questioning from the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. On the second day of the hearings, Scott Smith and other Hockey Canada executives were slightly more prepared than the first time, but the answers remained profoundly unsatisfactory. One of the most notable things was Scott Smith’s assertion that he believed that he was the person to lead Hockey Canada out of this despite MPs calling for new leadership multiple times. It was admirable only because it was startlingly shameless and without an ounce of awareness of the gravity of the situation. It was an insight into the minds of Hockey Men™, who are confident they’ll get away with doing what they want. Smith’s been involved with Hockey Canada since 1995. He’s not the one to change hockey culture; he’s one of the main perpetrators of enforcing said culture.
Other lowlights included:
Hockey Canada has settled 21 cases related to sexual violence since 1989 for a total of $8.9 million. $7.6 Million of that came from National Equity Fund (aka their slush fund)
The CHL stated that hazing was a thing of the past, prompting a statement from Dan Carcillo. Carcillo is currently leading a class action lawsuit against the CHL for the violence he and others faced during their time in juniors.
On his way out of the hearings, Scott Smith answered questions and said that the latest settlement was not part of the $7.6 Million used for other settlements.
Hockey Canada apparently has a terrible practice of keeping minutes, and there are no minutes for the Board Meeting in which the 2018 settlement was approved. Anyone who has ever sat on a board or worked in a non-profit will tell you that it is not actual practice. The approval of minutes is usually your first or second thing on the agenda, and even when there’s a closed session, it’s noted. Sneakily convenient for an organization in turmoil.
There were indications that another hearing may take place in September. With allegations of another horrific assault at the 2003 Juniors, we don’t expect this to be over any time soon.
ICYMI:
Nova Scotia Strikes Again
Brad Marchand decided to expose himself, and that noise you hear in the background is Gaby screaming “vindication!!”
It’s ironic that Brad Marchand went out of his way this season to tell Tony DeAngelo that he was racist and then turned around and said the same racist shit 200 Hockey Men have been spouting for ages.
TLDR: There is a long-standing history of hockey men using all forms of coded racist language to invalidate predominantly Black sports. Every time you hear about how much more “classy” hockey players are? Yeah, that’s coded language, baby.
Marchand is also straight up wrong and isn’t up to date with the concept of load management. Hockey, like most sports, is already doing load management! Many playoff teams sit their star players for the last couple of games of the regular season. Older players (ex: Thornton) often get healthy scratched, not to be overused.
We get that it’s just an Instagram comment, but it’s such an ignorant thing to do with literally everything happening in hockey right now. Lately, every other story in hockey is about the toxic culture and, specifically, toxic masculinity in the sport. Like hello, what’s not clicking? Didn’t y’all have some Great Awakening during 2020? To avoid annoying the shit out of us, at least get some better PR training - or better yet, get off social media.
Some Happy Shit
Last night while we were trying to figure out what to include today, we realized that the past three off-seasons have been incredibly depressing. As such, we’re gonna try to end on a more cheerful note moving forward. Here are things that made us happy this week:
Perrye celebrated three years of being cancer free!
Gaby’s baby brother’s (he’s 6ft tall) surprise visit from LA. They’ve already argued 3 times :)
Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce becoming the first person to win five (5!!) world titles in an individual running event and also just being great all-around.
This Twitter thread on Dabke
The One That Got Away on Amazon
The Joy Drop on CBC from our friend Shireen Ahmed.
Finally, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, Renaissance is coming tomorrow!!! We do not apologize for the people we’re about to become.
Shoutout to the BeyHive.
With love and see y’all next week,
Gaby and Perrye