These are strange days for Toronto Maple Leafs fans. A quarter of the way through the season, the Leafs are near the top of their division and boast the NHL’s leading scorer in Phil Kessel. And most of this was done with top goalie James Reimer out with “concussion-like symptoms.” Still, if you’re a long-suffering Leaf fan like I am, you’re not getting overly excited just yet. After all, this is a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since the […]
Author Archive
The Viewfinder: Scott Weiland’s “Winter Wonderland”
This is to be expected, I suppose. Thanksgiving is less than a week away, which means any number of Christmas albums are hitting the market. The Biebs got a head start, but now here’s erstwhile Stone Temple Pilots/Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland taking the holiday plunge with a new album of Christmas tunes, “Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” In the first video from the album, Weiland takes a stab at the old chestnut “Winter Wonderland,” trying to give off […]
Cold As Ice: Too Much of a Good Thing?
Nearly every NHL game ever played has taken place in a hockey arena, which makes the annual Winter Classic outdoor game such a big deal. Ever since the league first held the Winter Classic in 2008 (five years after staging an outdoor game in Edmonton) between Pittsburgh and Buffalo, the New Year’s Day event has been a ratings and headline grabber. This year’s game will take place on January 2 (avoiding a conflict with NFL games on 1/1) at Philadelphia’s […]
Spin Cycle: Lou Reed and Metallica’s “Lulu”
A meeting of iconic minds: “Lulu” brings Metallica and Lou Reed together. How exactly does this work? Check out our review!
Cold as Ice: Suffer for Fashion
There are many things I love about hockey: The speed, the power, the skill. But another aspect that I really dig is the hockey jersey. It’s the coolest uniform in sports, without a doubt. It’s not that I don’t like gear from the other big team sports, but the hockey jersey (or sweater, if you’re old school) has it all over them. There’s just something inherently impressive about the look of a jersey, whether it’s that game-worn Steve Yzerman one […]
Cold As Ice 01: Shaken, Not Stirred
Cold as Ice is Popblerd’s new weekly hockey column, authored by Jay Kumar and Stephen Mapes. This week, Jay takes a look at the NHL’s plans for realignment. Now that the new NHL season is underway, it’s a great time to look ahead to next season. Specifically, the 30-team league plans to realign its divisions next year. Currently, the league is split into two conferences with three divisions each. The move of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg happened too late […]
2011-12 NHL Preview, Part 1: To Hell and Back
Editor’s note: Popblerd is happy to present its initial foray into hockey coverage with this weekly column, authored by Jay Kumar and Stephen Mapes. In the first of a two-part series, Jay looks back at the NHL’s brutal summer and previews the Eastern Conference. The NHL regular season kicked off last night with some marquee matchups, including Boston vs. Philadelphia and Toronto vs. Montreal. Usually, the offseason is a quiet time for the NHL other than the draft and free […]
Spin Cycle: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks’ “Mirror Traffic”
The Indie Rock ‘Splosion of the 1990s brought us plenty of great music, and Pavement was at the forefront. After the band’s acrimonious split in 1999, frontman Stephen Malkmus wasted little time staking out his solo identity: his first solo album was released in 2001 and three more followed in quick succession before the band improbably reunited last year to cash in on the reunion fever that swept the alt-rock world. But the Pavement reunion was limited to touring. Malkmus […]