Welcome to Hockey in Society’s Weekly Links post. This feature highlights articles or blog entries that are related to Hockey in Society’s areas of interest and that may be of interest to the site’s readers.
Hockey Links
- ESPN caused a furor amongst hockey fans by not including any hockey players on its tribute to sport figures who passed away in 2011. During its Year in Review Sports Center program, ESPN failed to mention the deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, Wade Belak, or the KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team. Greg Wyshynski had a good reaction to the ESPN program. [Puck Daddy]
- As did Travis Hughes, who also examines the relative lack of US mainstream media attention given to hockey in contrast with the thriving hockey blogosphere. [SB Nation]
- Meanwhile, a fan post on Broad Street Hockey, the Philadelphia Flyers’ SBN blog, has become an unofficial online tribute to all the hockey figures who passed away in 2011. Hockey fans contributed their individual knowledge to produce this collective and comprehensive tribute. [Broad Street Hockey]
- It sounds like ESPN heard the complaints: Pierre LeBrun reported on Twitter that an updated version of the program will be aired and will include hockey players in its tribute. [@Real_ESPNLeBrun]
- Good story on the challenges facing the Canadian Women’s Hockey League as it struggles to attract fans. Obviously this is a topic that Courtney and I both feel strongly about. [Globe and Mail]
- Bruce Arthur with a terrific, but worrisome, post about Sidney Crosby: “Sidney Crosby played just 10 games in 2011. . . . And we were left to wonder if Sidney Crosby would ever be quite the same again.” [National Post]
- Ryan Lambert with a good post about the reporting of hockey concussions, in reaction to Brian Burke’s admission that Colby Armstrong should not have hidden his concussion and continued to play. [Backhand Shelf]
- Bruce Dowbiggen’s list of 2011’s biggest stories contains some interesting analysis on the sale of MLSE to Bell/Rogers, Sidney Crosby’s concussion, the emergence of long-form sports reporting such as that on Grantland, and other interesting sports media tidbits. [Globe and Mail]
- This is a few months old, but still interesting: in his forward to Paul Henderson’s book How Hockey Explains Canada
, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is very forthcoming about his hockey fandom and experience. Hockey has, at times, been featured in Conservative Party adverts or other PR. [Vancouver Sun]
- The IIHF World Junior Championships is projected to bring $80 million into the host cities of Calgary and Edmonton. Take this with a grain of salt as, for a variety of reasons, economic impact assessments of large sports events are often overly optimistic about the revenue generated. [Globe and Mail]
- Eric Lindros, who retired because of concussions, believes that the speed of the game due to post-lockout rule changes has made hockey more dangerous. [SLAM! Sports]
- Stu Hackel reports on the NHL’s “awful month” for concussions. So far this season 64 players have suffered concussions. [SI.com]
- The corporate sponsorship of NHL jerseys inches closer to reality, as the Montreal Canadiens become the latest team to place adverts on their practice jerseys. [Puck Daddy]
- The Torontoist names hockey homophobia as one of its “Villains of 2011.” The article gives a brief overview of the various ways in which homophobia intersected with hockey in the past calendar year. [Torontoist, via @HockeyAgainstH8]
General Sport Links
- Fantastic article about Venus With Muscles, a new book by David L. Chapman and Patricia Vertinsky that examines historical popular portrayals of muscular women. [Brain Pickings]
- Interesting post about Twitter is reshaping media, including sports media, and opening up new opportunities for writers. [Outkick the Coverage, via Puck Daddy]
Hockey in Society / Hockey dans la société 
