(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)
The other day we lightly played off of NHL.com’s crafted All-Massachusetts vs. All-Michigan starting lineups. With very little analysis, Vegas’ Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin led their home state past Michigan and Minnesota in hypothetical matchups. Well, we figured we’d try the same scenario and compare the commonwealth’s starting lineup to All-Canadian province lineups. This mock bracket didn’t go as well for MA. Nothing Eichel or Hanifin can do when several of the world’s best players grew up in the same Canadian regions.
Manitoba Starting Lineup: Mark Stone, Max Domi, Seth Jarvis, Travis Sanheim, Zach Whitecloud, James Reimer
You might as well call Manitoba the Nevada of the North. The Golden Knights have had no shortage of players from MB, including the franchise’s first overall pick and first-ever captain. Like Massachusetts’ starting lineup, Manitoba consists of two veterans from Vegas. Mark Stone leads his Keystone Province teammates offensively, while VGK teammate Zach Whitecloud covers the backend. Bottom line, Manitoba lacks scoring. Their three forwards combined for 58 goals in 2023-24, Eichel, Kreider and Boldy combined for 41 more. That differential is too wide to close. MA wins with ease.
HUGE block by Brayden McNabb. May have saved a goal. pic.twitter.com/bL2Aq5VqXW
— Ryan Quigley (@ryanquigz) May 6, 2018
Saskatchewan: Jordan Eberle, Brayden Schenn, Chandler Stephenson, Brayden McNabb, Luke Schenn, Connor Ingram
Here’s another province with several Golden Knights ties. Former VGK Cup winner Chandler Stephenson compliments Saskatchewan’s offense, while original misfit Brayden McNabb holds down the blue line. Overall, the Breadbasket of Canada has produced many impactful NHLers over the years. Heck, Gordie Howe was born in Floral. Saskatchewan’s starting lineup has enough offense, solid defense and a goaltender coming into his own. This is a close contest, but it comes down to scoring and I can’t imagine the Canadian province keeping up.
Quebec: Jonathan Marchessault, David Perron, Nic Roy, Kris Letang, Thomas Chabot, Marc-Andre Fleury
Okay, it’s starting to heat up. Sure, maybe the Bay state knocks off MB and SK but what about Eastern Canada’s provincial territories? Of course, we had to loosen the rules to fit as many active or former VGK players as possible. However, only carrying one 40-goal scorer hurts the Quebec lineup so Marc-Andre Fleury will need to turn the clocks back to 2021. It’s another tight battle but Massachusetts survives.
Alberta: Taylor Hall, William Nylander, Brayden Point, Cale Makar, Josh Morrissey, Stuart Skinner
The run for Eichel and Hanifin was impressive, but it ends with Alberta. Frankly, their streak would have ended against any of the remaining provinces. AB’s three forwards combined for 87 goals, oh, and Taylor Hall only had two goals in ten games last season. Alberta also dresses Cale Makar and Josh Morrisey on their blueline. Good luck with that.
Nova Scotia: Sidney Crosby, Nate MacKinnon, Brad Marchand, Ryan Graves, Justin Barron, No Active Goalie
Even though they cannot fill their goalie position, Nova Scotia is still better off than most American and Canadian home state/province starting lineups. Crosby, MacKinnon, and Marchand can all score and play both sides of the puck. That alone might be enough to knock off MA. Combined, they totaled 122 goals last season. Any goalie nearby could keep NS into a game. Maybe they can borrow one from PEI.
British Columbia: Connor Bedard, Sam Reinhart, Jamie Benn, Shea Theodore, Devon Toews, Adin Hill
The Western Canadian giant only edges out the much smaller Eastern peninsula because they have a Stanley Cup-winning goaltender dressed in their lineup. Connor Bedard, Sam Reinhart, and Jamie Benn will likely average 100+ goals over a full season and Shea Theodore and Devon Toews will pitch in as well. With Hill in net, it’ll take a special team to defeat British Columbia.
https://twitter.com/NHL/status/1665766684534136833
Ontario: Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner, Steven Stamkos, Drew Doughty, Alex Pietrangelo, Jordan Binnington
Are you surprised a starting lineup mostly based out of Toronto is the best of the bunch? Of course not. Just read the names; Doughty, Marner, McDavid, Pietrangelo, Stamkos. No offense to Jordan Binnington, but you can completely ignore who’s in net. Offensively, Ontario easily reaches 4 or 5 goals a game. Add in two future Hall of Fame defensemen and you have a mismatch for any opponent.
https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/1821947708388585824
So, there you have it. The rich get richer in Ontario but lookout for Bedard’s BC lineup in the future and let me know when Nova Scotia decides to grow a goalie. However, after this light summer exercise, VGK’s two Bay staters made a run for their USD. Based on my loose model, Massachusetts defeated Michigan, Minnesota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Quebec. Not many regional starting lineups can pull that off.
Doug MacLeod
As an Albertan involved in hockey for 60+ years, I had to Google Hall and Nylander to determine that they were born in Alberta. I would be surprised if anyone you asked would claim either of them to bean Albertan.
VGK fan
How about California:
Austin Matthew’s
Jason Robertson
Thatcher Demko
Jason Zucker
Brisson
Cam York
NAM
Matthews grew up in AZ from the age of 2 months old. Claiming he is from California is a big stretch.
Emmanuel
There was always suspicion he wanted to end up with the Yotes on a HUGE contract.
JB
Man, can’t wait for REAL hockey!
knights fan in minny
it will be here before you know it
knights fan in minny
just watched the Nevada little league game good hitters catcher is cool as a cucumber behind the plate
Donald J Trump
Meanwhile the loonies on left are still at it, after their failed attempt a few short weeks ago.
The Secret Service is investigating a report that a female agent reportedly left her post at a Trump campaign event in North Carolina to go breastfeed.
The Secret Service acknowledged the allegations and issued a statement to Fox News Digital stating that an investigation was underway.
“All employees of the U.S. Secret Service are held to the highest standards. While there was no impact to the North Carolina event, the specifics of this incident are being examined. Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further,” a spokesperson for the agency said.
The incident reportedly happened during Trump’s campaign rally event in Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
RealClearPolitics correspondent Susan Crabtree first reported the allegations and said that a female Secret Service agent had abandoned her post at Trump’s event “to breastfeed with no permission/warning to the event site agent.”
“The site agent went to do one final sweep of the walking route and found the agent breast-feeding her child in a room that is supposed to be set aside for important Secret Service official work, i.e. a potential emergency related to the president,” Crabtree wrote in a post on X.
Crabtree added that a working agent on duty may not bring a child to a protective assignment. She said the agent in question was from the Atlanta Field Office.
This latest incident comes as the agency is facing heightened scrutiny in the wake of the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Trump, prompting more questions and concerns about the agency’s culture and staffing.
Current and former USSS employees have voiced concerns about the agency being plagued by understaffing, even as its budget has increased to $3 billion. USSS leaders are being grilled not only on the failures on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, but also on their handling of their team’s morale and their ability to recruit and retain talent.
Following the assassination attempt on the former president, the ensuing outrage forced ex-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who was appointed by President Biden in 2022, to resign. She was replaced by acting Director Ronald Rowe.
Reports indicated that Trump had been denied requests for added Secret Service security on multiple occasions prior to the July 13 rally. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as a third-party candidate, was also denied Secret Service protection before President Biden ordered the decision reversed days after the rally shooting.
The hockey God
Here’s more on the new and improved AI generated Heels Up Harris: in her own words ” I smoked weed in college and listened to Snoop Dog and Tupac”. Only problem is she went to college in 1986 and Tupac first album came out in 1991 and Snoop Dog’s in 1993. Back to the AI chalk board, Heels up. What a liar.
ThG
knights fan in minny
giggles is a moron
JB
Yea, she is laughing because she now leads in all polls!
ThG
B J
The only pole Heels Up knows is Willie Brown, the married man she was doing. At time mayor of San Fransicko, and Willie repeated promoted because of her positions, mainly on her back, with legs and heels up. Willie was gettin “some of da good thing”, while whore harris was using him to get her DEI. Didn’t earn it. Unless giving Willie a piece of her “identify as black ” a$$ counts as “earning it”
TS
Thq, do you hate ALL Women, or just the ones with VOCAL CHORDS?? We’re you rejected by women because you’re such a DICK to them, ESPECIALLY the SMART ONES? Is that why you’re so VENOUS toward me and my sisters- in- spirit??
knights fan in minny
stop dreaming loser
Donald J Trump
Election 2024: Trump 49%, Harris 45%
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Former President Donald Trump continues to lead Vice President Kamala Harris, although the Democrat has slightly narrowed the margin.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that, in a two-way matchup, 49% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for Trump, while 45% would vote for Harris. Three percent (3%) say they’d vote for some other candidate and two percent (2%) are undecided. These findings are just slightly changed from a week ago, when Trump led by five points, with 49% to Harris’s 44%. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
This is a real poll, not fake ones made up of 60% “likely voters with 70/30 mix of D/R ratio” that you see in fake “news” media, aka far left leaning polls.
Emmanuel
Yeah but whos got 98% of the overnight vote……
Top Dog
Stay out of SoCal people !!!
SoCal’s String Of Strong Quakes May Mean More Big Ones Are Likely
When the rate of seismic activity goes up, the chances of bigger quakes go up too, seismologists warn.
Emmanuel
Or it may mean pressure is being displaced….
Ive been thru about a dozen…. “Best” one was
On a 2nd floor on a recliner, it was like Star Tours!
Top Dog
Dang EM
I was in Long Beach in ten story building when a 5.0 hit. The whole building was rocking and rolling for two minutes. People were screaming stay away from the windows . The building was all glass windows from top to bottom. Then I heard shattering of glass. After it was over, everyone looked for where the sound emanated. It was in corner office where the big boss sat. No one was in the office. But on the floor glass statute lie in piece, it had fallen off the desk, glass shards all over the place. The whole situation was unsettling. Someone in building had a heart attack. ER units were screaming eee AAA eee AAA eee AAA in the streets. It was terrible. You have this helpless feeling , people were shouting STOP . Not knowing when it was going to end. The building was like a rubber ban going back and forth. It was a rolling quake. Not a jarring one.
ThG
Some people here use the term Nazi or Fascist, but they don’t know shit about what they are talking about. Mush brains, like their leader, is what they are.
Here is what neoFascism is. And it’s the woke broke, far left, ESPN that is at center of this controversy. And don’t start whining that there is no politics in sports. This is yet another in long line of examples of this bull shit.
BREAKING
ESPN fires Sam Ponder, who spoke up about trans inclusion in women’s sports, and analyst Robert Griffin III
Griffin, Ponder had been with network for several years.
ESPN fired Samantha Ponder and Robert Griffin III on Thursday.
The Athletic first reported the shake-up and ESPN confirmed the news to Fox News Digital. Ponder was anchor on “Sunday NFL Countdown” and Griffin was an analyst who appeared on multiple shows.
Ponder didn’t immediately comment on the decision. Griffin joked on X about getting fired on his day off, using a clip from the movie “Friday.”
The decision to fire Ponder sparked most of the outrage on social media. Riley Gaines, the host of OutKick’s “Gaines for Girls” podcast, and former ESPN anchor Sage Steele were among those to defend Ponder.
Riley Gaines
@Riley_Gaines_
So ESPN fires
@samponder
, the only woman at the network who was publicly said men don’t belong in women’s sports. 3 weeks before football season?
Sam is one of the most beautiful, genuine women I’ve ever met along with
@sagesteele
who had a similar fate….not a coincidence.
Ponder was among the tiny group of personalities who called for fairness in women’s sports amid the ongoing debate over transgender inclusion in women’s sports. She also defended Kansas City Chiefs’ Harrison Butker for his faith-based speech at Benedictine College.
A source familiar with Ponder and Griffin’s firings told Fox News Digital they were “business decisions”–umm sure they were, like Hamas killing jews because well, they are jews and media then bashing Israel because, well most of the woke broke Dem party base consists of anti Israeli fascist , like the squad, etc.
Griffin was off of “Monday Night Countdown” in favor of the network’s new hire, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, and was still going to receive his full salary for a low-profile college football show. Ponder’s lone show was “Sunday NFL Countdown.”
The source added that Ponder and Griffin will still get what they are owed in their contracts.
Ponder joined ESPN’s Longhorn Network in July 2011 and moved up the ranks as the host of one of the company’s top NFL shows.
ThG
Anand
I want to fuck her so bad!!!