General posts, including essays and discussions.
Last month, I attended the annual conference of the North American Society for Sport History in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Not surprisingly, with hundreds of sport scholars gathered in a Canadian city, the sport of hockey featured prominently on the program. It was an interesting and intellectually stimulating weekend. One paper was particularly interesting for the…
On Saturday and Sunday, the 5th annual Canadian Sport Film Festival (CSFF) is taking place in Toronto at the TIFF Lightbox. As usual, the festival will feature a variety of sport-related documentaries that cover a range of topics. Notably, this year’s program includes two films that focus on hockey: Lace Bite and The Uluit: Champions…
By Sunil Agnihotri As the Oilers headed into their seventh straight off-season without a playoff appearance, the Edmonton Oilers announced the replacement of General Manager Steve Tambellini with former Oilers captain and coach, Craig MacTavish. At the press conference, John MacKinnon of the Edmonton Journal pointed out that the same management team that was in…
Roundtables are an occasional feature on Hockey in Society. Roundtables will present brief commentaries from Hockey in Society contributors on pressing or timely issues within hockey and its culture, with the aim of presenting a diverse range of critical viewpoints on the topic under discussion. On April 11, the NHL and NHL Player’s Association announced…
Recently Hockey Canada announced that the national women’s team would play their first game of the 2013 World Championships wearing Livestrong inspired jerseys. That’s right, goodbye red and white (for one game) and hello black and yellow. This decision comes from an attempt by Livestrong, Lance Armstrong’s cancer charity, to distance itself from the whole…
It is the NHL’s trade deadline today, an event that not only sees players moved from city to city and team to team but that has also become a major television (and new media) spectacle on Canadian sports networks like TSN and Sportsnet. Hockey in Society writers have written about a number of relevant posts…
By Sunil Agnihotri Social media has naturally integrated into professional hockey. Not only can fans use social media tools to get access to information and to connect with other fans, but they can also play a role in the development of information surrounding the game. For example, fans can get up-to-the-minute injury reports for their…
By Sunil Agnihotri Hockey analytics is an excellent example of fans getting immersed in the game and changing the way they consume professional sports. Along with watching games, and following the narratives that surround teams and players, fans can use various software applications to apply their own ideas and models to analyze the game. Hockey…
Canadian musician “Stompin’ Tom” Connors passed away two days ago, at aged 77. Connors is a legend in Canadian music, releasing 40 albums or compilations career and penning a number of Canadian country music hits. But it is one song that made Connors a household name across Canada and amongst hockey fans around the world:…
Yesterday’s Globe and Mail ran an interesting article by James Mirtle about the Pittsburgh Penguins’ contributions to grassroots hockey in Western Pennsylvania. For the past four years, the Penguins, and in particular captain Sidney Crosby, have been extremely active in promoting hockey amongst Pittsburgh youth by providing free equipment and on-ice instruction. The initiative, while…
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