Pre-game video that makes you question loyalties.

I LIED. BEARDS ALWAYS.

Did anyone know about this? I’m glad you didn’t warn me. #TeamEbs turning up in November looking like he might if the Oilers ever made the playoffs is a revolution. He missed the first 13 games with a shoulder injury sustained on September 29. He obviously spent this time very, very well.

Post-game, the beard was still there. Thank heaven, because if I were going to hallucinate something, it would definitely look like this. The Oilers locker room has really nice lighting, no?

Post-game video that needs a hug.

Bonus: Jordan Eberle Halloween commercial.

Oilers side note: The PUPPIES have a social media campaign about PUPPIES. Okay, other animals are eligible but they are clearly reading @alisonsykora‘s Tweets.

This is so meta.

Since it’s Monday, and Jordan Eberle & Mike Green train together in the off-season [What is this machine and how do I get a job making sure they use it properly?], I feel compelled to report that this is still amazing.

Post-game video that is now wash-and-go.

Ugh, Capitals. You will never be the same.

“I wonder what Piglet is doing,” thought Pooh. “I wish I were there to be doing it, too.”

Then yesterday I opened the WUYS Twitter and saw 17 notifications. Either Jonathan Toews did a ceremonial face off against his tiny dog, or…

Aaron Ekblad’s humbeTweet

Yup. Everyone is demanding Aaron Ekblad be carbon-dated to prove his age. Which is 19, I’m probably legally required to remind you. Thanks to @ErinMiHaley for this one.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t include Chris Higgins in the beard post. He is just back from a foot injury and, well, you can’t flash your abs on every play.

Post-game video that hates losing with :16 left.

Last, but not least, nothing has changed for our favorite Gingerbeard down in Nashville: still rocking the scruff, still getting into trouble.

“Details of your incompetence do not interest me.” – Miranda Priestly

On Thursday, James Neal took out Zach Parise. You could take Yahoo‘s headline opinion (quoted from Wild coach Suter), that hit was “dangerous, reckless”, or go with CBS Sports‘ feeling that the hit “doesn’t look dirty on Neal’s part.” You be the judge:

To me it’s clean enough, though awkward and ill-timed. From another player, I don’t know that this hit would be a conversation piece. At least Nashville seems to have had the sense not to let James speak to media post-game. Zach is week-to-week, after scoring 7 G in 12 games, so we hope he’s back on the ice soon.

With a beard.

Who else is sporting an excellent early-season pelt? Send them my way before they shave down to 1970’s cop-style Movember ‘staches.

UPDATE: Patrick Roy’s beard is perfect. For every time you just want to lose your $%&@ and scream at someone, think of this and feel zen.

Submitted by Henriikkax!

Foxy Friday: Aaron Ekblad

BeardWatch: Rookie of the Year

It’s not easy to surprise us with foxiness around the NHL – so vigilant is our endless search – and if you get past us, surely our eagle-eyed readers Tweet of a worthy candidate we somehow missed.

Not this time.

The new guy

Aaron Ekblad walked on stage the ASG Draft and threw our work right out the window.

21st Century fact-finding mission

It’s a lucky thing Aaron was selected for the All-Star Game, or we may have never seen him. I mean never, because that’s how likely I am to watch a Panthers game. Well, never is a long time for him, so maybe someday. But we probably would have missed this hair:

Never a selfie-stick around when you need one.

(Object not, Panthers-fan friends, for my lack of attention to your team probably means they will beat my team in the playoffs. You’re welcome. Love, Karma)

In addition to the perfect boyband bangswave, Aaron is 6’4″, 216 lbs… and was born in 1996. Just a reminder! He was drafted first overall in 2014. Usually, draft photos are what we pull up eight years later to laugh about. Where is whoever writes this blog in 2023 going to get her comedy material?

Stop. Let me get a good look at it.

Aaron had 4 assists for the victorious Team Toews in the All-Star Game.  Not surprising, as he’s got 21A on the season and a total of 28 points. Who else has 28 points this season? James Neal.

Not bad, Aaron.

The Cutting Edge pre-dates Aaron by four years.

In case you momentarily forgot Aaron is 18, one of his favorite movies is “That Awkward Moment” – which is an awkward moment when someone’s favorite movie stars Zac Efron. Not knocking Zac, just admiring the bottomless chasm of age difference. [ More favorites here and here/video.] You know that Saved By the Bell Jimmy Fallon thing everyone is talking about? I bet Aaron’s never heard of Zack Morris.

No running in boat shoes.

The @FLAPanthers (which always reads “Flap Antlers” to me) are, by all accounts, in much better shape this year than last.

Florida Department of Tourism Meeting

I mean on the ice, you guys. They are currently 9th in the East with 56 points – ahead of the Flyers (52), trailing the Bruins (61). Still plenty of time left for everything to go right or wrong.

First year playoff hopes

Ekblad, along with his ASG mates Filip Forsberg (who the Caps traded away for nothing) and Johnny Gaudreau (who I will never, ever call “Johnny Hockey”), are frontrunners for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year. [Intern Jeff Skinner just harrumphed and walked out.] With half this season left to go, it’s safe to say that Aaron is our pick. After all, he didn’t go to Boston College.

Follow Aaron on Twitter (@Ekblad5FLA), Instagram (aaronekblad5) and his website that is really a Tumblr in thing disguise: aaronekblad.ca.

Look at that part.

Foxy Friday: Erik Gudbranson

My, how big your hands are…

Erik is a 21-year old defenseman for the Floria Panthers. (I accidentally typed 12-year old defenseman.  My brain loves Damn You, Autocorrect!)

I think he should also be their mascot, because tickets to Saturday’s game vs. Tampa Bay are $11 on StubHub.  That’s $11 to see this:

Though he’ll probably wear a shirt.  Is there a $15 ticket package where he doesn’t?  I will mail you $5 – you can tuck the last dollar into his hockey shorts.

If you were going to choose a place to professionally play your favorite sport, you could do worse than Florida.  Yesterday I had to scrape the ice off my car door with a credit card just to get to the ice scraper inside.

Erik doesn’t have that problem.  He probably drives a Jeep with no doors on it while wearing flip flops and a really tan left arm.

Erik made his sophomore season debut with the Panthers just last week.  He missed the first 9 games of the year recovering from a September wakeboarding crash, which he admitted to his team.

Since the injury was non-hockey related, he was suspended – and thus unpaid – for the duration of the lockout.  His honesty about the event seems to have gone a long way with his teammates and the press [link].

Honest, charming… go ahead and sigh.

Does that make you want to give him a hug?

Now Erik is back in the lineup and earning his way to full ice time [link].  Last season he had 2G/6A in 72 games.

Gudbranson was selected 3rd overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.  I couldn’t see him over the screaming for Taylor Hall (#1) and Tyler Seguin (#2), so it’s taken me a while to get to Erik.  Still not sure how this escaped my attention.

.gif by stu-bickel.tumblr.com

He was the 2010 OHL Scholastic Player of the Year, for the athlete who “best combines high standards of play and academic excellence.” [link]  If they had an award for holding babies, he’d have won that too.

Erik does a lot of charity work for cancer fundraising – even shaving his head to benefit St. Baldrick’s in February 2012 [video].  His youngest brother Dennis is a leukemia survivor.

The start:

The finish:

That’s pretty foxy… or literally Fox-y.  Fox-esque?

Honestly, what are the chances you’re still reading the words on this page?

Here’s Erik talking junior hockey.  Enjoy it while you plan the rest of your life around the Panthers schedule and following Erik on Twitter – @Guddy44.

PS: A while back, someone suggested Erik for Foxy Friday.  I had *just* seen him in the Gongshow catalog the day before.  Thanks to whoever that was for reminding me!

Carcillo is a repeat offender (and a goon) – he was suspended 2 games for this hit on Carolina’s Pittkanen on 10/28. Guest Starring Rob Blake!!

Calgary’s Rene Bourque got a 5-game ban [link] and a lifetime spot on my s&%$ list for his elbow to the precious face of Nicklas Backstrom.  You all saw it, and I don’t want to watch it again.  As mentioned yesterday, Bourque is also a repeat offender for this hit on Chicago’s Brent Seabrook in December that got him suspended for two.

Dale Hunter gave no conclusive update on Backstrom yesterday, but his brother posted an update to Twitter:

This was obviously not team-sanctioned news and was quickly taken down.  Silly people with inside info, you are not publicists!  But no worries, because Nicky participated in a full practice this morning and is expected to make the Caps trip to San Jose today, for the game Saturday.

It’s not just elbows and knees getting people into trouble.  The Panthers’ Krys Barch has been suspended 1 game for an alleged racial slur against PK Subban.  The remark was overhead by a linesman during Saturday’s game and Barch was ejected [link].  There are a lot of things we’d like to say to PK Subban, but none of them are that.  And all of them come after, “Can we have Stamkos’ number?”  I’m sure there’s a lot of hearsay in this case, but this argument is looking pretty valid:

And Rangers’ coach John Tortorella was fined by the NHL after some pretty inflammatory comments following Monday’s Winter Classic:

“I’m not sure if NBC got together with the refs or what to turn this into an overtime game,” Tortorella said Monday. “For two good refs, I thought the game was reffed horribly. I’m not sure what happened there.”Maybe they wanted to get into overtime. I’m not sure if they had meetings about that or what. But we stood in there. I don’t want to … because they are good guys. I just thought it was, in that third period, it was disgusting.” [link]

Torts apologized and will fork over $30k for the outburst.  New Yorkers will love him more.

Hey! I'm walking here!

So, anyone else want to have a go today?  Got some leftover 2011 aggro hanging around?  Let it go, it’s a new year.

Daniel gave me this new suckie on the first day of training!

Mike Duco formerly of the Florida Panthers got traded to Vancouver. If you were him – you’d think JACK POT – right? Going from a basement dwelling team – well – before they spent a boat load of cash and made some mad trades – to an almost Stanley Cup winning team. Not a bad place to be traded too – right?

Now consider that fact that you may have tweeted some of the following things during the play-offs:

Can't send a 'please ignore' out after that one!

He also posted one that said, “HA … solid night Luongo.”

So it’s your first day at training camp with all your new friends. What’s a boy to do? I bet he didn’t write the book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” But I would guess he needs a copy of that stat because Luongo wasn’t too kind to Kesler after the Olympics but he did forgive him. He kind of had too. Kesler is way too hot not too.

It may not be charm, but it might work!

But Duco? Let’s hope he has charm coming out his ass. He’ll need it. Good luck buddy on your first day. I hear the Sedin’s have a wicked sense of humor.

Now you see me, in a second, you won't.

What would have happened if GM GM would have traded one of his most valuable ass-ets? We know he can’t trade first Sasha but thank the hockey gods he didn’t trade second Sasha and instead got everyone some awesome support. Now GM GM, WHERE’S MY GOALIE – because sweet Neuvy took it in the face tonight and Varly has been suspiciously absent – no complaint here about that but Holtby isn’t exactly who we need in right now. Just sayin’.

Because from rubbing Poe’s belly, I’m prognosticating something shiny, silver, tall and a lord for the Caps come June-ish if things keep going this way.