Brian Trottier. Photo from the New York Islanders.

The Weekly Links post highlights important or interesting writing from the hockey blogosphere and media. Enjoy!

• We’re starting off with a great article from [The Walrus] on the “puppy mill” that is the Canadian Hockey League. Read about how former Niagara Icedog, Sam Berg, is taking the league to court.
• [Vice Sports] takes a look at the decline in NHL scoring and suggests that reinvention is the only real solution.
• Another good one from [Vice Sports] questioning what we should do if Patrick Kane’s continues to dominate the NHL this season and happens to be an MVP candidate: “What is the right way to go about this? Is there a right way? How should people handle the silliness that is deciding which adult man wins a trophy for being good at sports along with the seriousness of a sexual assault claim and the life of the alleged victim?”
• If you are in Ontario and/or Quebec in the New Year, you might want to check out one of the CWHL’s You Can Play games. [CWHL]
• Read Brian Trottier’s stirring letter to his younger self in [The Player’s Tribune].
• The NHL is getting closer to testing players for cocaine. [Sportsnet]
• Here’s a cool story about a former NCAA player who has now started a women’s soccer league…in Kenya! [Sports Illustrated]
• Check out this slideshow about six ways that women have broken the ice in professional men’s hockey. [Makers]
• If you like numbers, graphs, and hockey, you’ve love this article on how physical players age from [Hockey Graphs].
• Hockey parents continue to be an issue, so the [Globe and Mail] spent some time with one particular hockey mom to find out how she curbs her rinkside behaviour.

Just in case you missed it, this week we were busy at HIS with two new posts:

• Cheryl MacDonald offered reflections on her experiences as a woman in the locker room during the research process. [A lady in the mens’ room]
• And, Courtney Szto provided us with an introductory reflection on the labour and environmental issues that are often ignored in order to make hockey happen. [What is the “true cost” of a goal]