So, while I wait for my fat pants to finish in the dryer, here is a list of five hockey-related things we are thankful for, because they just keep giving.

Toews is fun now. Take a moment to remember the Jonathan Toews you met years ago.

I still call my mom for recipes too.

And Jonathan Toews of today.

Cowabunga, dude.

Was it all that exposure to Blackhawks TV that changed him? Time spent with Kaner?Or is it just winning that opened his three-times-too-serious sized heart? It might have been his little dog, too.

The Sidstache. Be honest, you kind of like it! Maybe I am speaking for myself, but it’s not that bad this Movember. It’s still a mustache, and I cannot imagine a world in which I’d support mustaches for no charitable reason, but at least it looks mostly like a real mustache. And hey, it gets a whole month to grow. I am just preparing myself for what Sid will look like a month into the playoffs this season. When the choices are mustache or golf shoes, this mustache is looking pretty sweet.

At least you can tell it’s supposed to be a mustache.

Cabbie Presents… exactly what You were thinking. Cabbie is our spirit animal in the mainstream (okay, Canadian) media world. He takes what we are thinking, saying and even secretly wishing for, and makes it for everyone.  The Sid Selfie? Tavares Man Bun? Endless gems – and exactly the videos we’d make if it were safe for us to be within selfie range.

Please let this escalate into choreographed dancing.

Inside jokes. There are so many hockey references that make me laugh, a few have to do with in-game moments. From Intern Jeff Skinner to thinking “Girls love” every time Malkin is a dork, a lot of our random chatter keeps the game close to our hearts. Maybe Toews is doing a squat in Spanx right now (he would, on Thanksgiving, that overachiever). If Tavares is celebrating American Thanksgiving, I guarantee his fat pants are khakis! And no matter how much you eat, rest assured that Steven Stamkos is definitely thinking, “Hey girl.”

At his induction to the Intern Hall of Fame

YOU. We are thankful for everyone who reads WUYS, and especially the many of you who interact with us and each other both here and on social media. You guys are the funny, smart backbone of this place! You send us the best ideas and carry on inside jokes we would otherwise only have with ourselves. Thanks to all of you this blog is still skating along five (5!) years later.

Okay, a hug from us isn’t this good.

Your turn! Leave your hockey-related gratitude in the comments below. It’ll give us ideas for future posts, and maybe open our eyes to a few things we’ve missed in the first quarter of this season.

Happy Thanksgiving, Americans! And to all our Canadian friends, there is plenty for you too.

Me, circa 7PM tonight.

We here at WUYS hold a few truths to be self-evident:

1) Cabbie for President – of a made-up country we start because he can’t actually be our President, as a Canadian. This is in the fine print somewhere.

2) The Dallas Stars want to be your favorite team.

3) Tyler Seguin is an excellent liar. We assume he only uses this when necessary, but that boy could sell you a bridge.

4) Jamie Benn, not so much.

5) And finally, moms are the best. Every one, every time.

Feel free to cut the end off this video, play it for your own parents and announce, “Meet my fiance!”

But you haven’t actually met him, so…

Thank you to @charlieryan58 for sending this!

Enjoy a throwback Valentine: Cabbie and the Oilers PUPPIES with Actual Puppies

Cabbie Presents on TSN: with Sidney Crosby (Skip to 39 min mark)

Sid just got an iPhone.  Before that he had a flip phone.  I bet he’s like my mom when it rings – total panic attack.  Once she picked up it and threw it, as if it were a bomb about to explode.

Cabbie gets closest to asking some of the questions we’d like asked.  Important, informative topics of discussion like texting and autocorrect.

Left out question: “My fingers often seem too fat for texting.  How do you ever type anything?”

Cabbie makes up for that by asking about Sid’s driver’s license photo.  Brilliant, right?  Then Sid reaches into his pocket.

FULL STOP.

His wallet is in his front pocket.  Even custom made, he can’t get anything but that ass into those pants.  He can barely get the wallet out.  This explains a lot about his hands not fitting.

Sid thinks it looks like he has a mullet.

I WISH.  YOU TEASE.  Only Crosby would think this is not a great photo.  The rest of our licenses look like mug shots from The Best of Dog, The Bounty Hunter and he’s all, “Well, see that shadow by my neck….”

Now, for selfies and fan photos.  Sid is too nice to say, ‘STAY BACK FIVE FEET’ like he’s a fire truck.  He just does the awkward squirm at the mention of anyone getting too close.

And tries to nicely talk his way out of it while giving “please help me” eyes to someone off camera.

Cabbie doesn’t care.  That’s why we love him.  Selfies are taken and we all learn to not ask for one if we ever meet Sid.

Mwahahahaha, ofcourseIwilldothatnow.

Speaking of photos, I couldn’t do justice to James Neal’s sleeve tattoo from my phone the other day.  It’s clearly the full arm in outline.  Previously I’d been hoping for a weird trick of light + arm hair.  I must really not like tattoos to be hoping he had this much arm hair.

The Penguins were at West Point last week for team bonding, communing with nature and handling artillery.

Shoulder-mounted RPG.  Big smile!

James has an “upper body injury” (it’s not the tattoo) and is listed as day-to-day.  No word yet if we’ll see him in tonight’s home opener.

Nisky draws a map to the nearest place to buy hair product.

Beau Bennett upstages the sleeve doing “nervous middle school face” while holding a sniper rifle.

And Nealer playing football in bare feet.  Right before the season starts.  Take it from a girl who broke her toe riding a bike in flip-flops, James.  Safety first.  At least this isn’t how he hurt his upper body.

• Stamkos
• #TeamEbs
• Cabbie
• Coca-Cola

The answer would be zero, but that’s already the name of this campaign.

These two will star in the next “Moment Zero” feature for Coke Zero.  The first brought us Kevin Wheeler, and Ebs’ distractingly perfect and probably autobiographical performance as a guy whose mom drives him to games [link].

What do you think this one is about?

Here’s a Vine from TSN in which Stamkos tries to trade Cabbibe his Ebs action figure for what looks like a bag of Ring Dings.  I love ya, Jordan, but a bag of Ring Dings is a really good offer.

Back to the shoot, which took place on August 8.  How I managed not to see this for 11 days… the internet is full of marvels, people.  FULL.

Steven’s Clark Kent hair.

The idea of hockey players in national ad campaigns, during which people actually recognize them, makes me want to throw this keyboard out the window and walk to Canada.  It’s only 655km, according to Google Maps, which converts all measurements involving Canada to kilometers because it mistakenly assumes only Canadians wants to know the distance.  I want to know!  I don’t understand you!  (Calm and converted – it’s 407 miles.)

The only way this ad could be better is if it were for Mexicola and Intern Jeff Skinner guest-starred.  Then he brought us those Ring Dings.

Tell me again why Cabbie doesn’t host the NHL Awards?  Or even present?

Oh Steven.