CategorySports

A Recap of the 2021 NBA Trade Deadline The NBA trade deadline day has always been a nerve-wracking day for NBA fans waiting to see whether their favourite players will be traded. For Raptors fans, this year’s trade deadline had the potential to be franchise-altering with the possibility of trading both franchise star and GROAT (Greatest Raptor of All Time) Kyle Lowry and long-time Raptor Norman...

Staff Writer Luke Giffen Reflects on his NHL Predictions and Takes Us Back Through What’s Been a Truly Bizarre, One-of-a-Kind NHL Season As we move well past the halfway point of this strange NHL season, I thought it would be a good idea to look back on how my predictions stacked up from when the season first began. Also, I’ll recap the multitude of interesting stories that have popped up along...

Boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler passed away on March 13, 2021. He had his name legally changed to “Marvelous” after announcers did not refer to his nickname. He was marvelous in the ring and was considered one of the “Four Kings” of his generation of boxers, which included Thomas Hearns, Roberto Durán, and Sugar Ray Leonard. I love the sport of boxing, and it’s taught me some transferrable skills...

Why we ought to give the future HOFer his flowers while he is still here As the adage goes, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. For a brief moment in time, Raptors fans were given no choice but to stare into the unknown and envision a world without Kyle Lowry. The whirlwind of a nine-game losing streak, talks of a rebuild in the media, and rumours of a frugal real estate transaction...

I have known my friend Mike (real name withheld) for about ten years. We grew up together attending the same summer camp, and then we spent four more years in Montreal completing our undergraduate degrees. For as long as I have known him, Mike has bought, sold, and traded sports cards.  And for as long as he has been collecting, I have been telling him to stop wasting his money. Of course...

When Thomas Tuchel first joined up with a struggling Chelsea squad, he vowed to make them into a team that no one enjoyed playing against. Given their dire form at the time, most probably wrote off this task as one that would have to wait until the following season when Tuchel had come to grips with the rollercoaster nature of Premier League life. However, the rangy German has proved himself to...

The unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic has made 2020 a year to forget for businesses and industries alike. One of the hardest hit by the pandemic seems to be the live sports and entertainment industry. Many professional sports leagues have been postponed or cancelled, and only those with healthy financial resources or lucrative TV broadcasting contracts have survived. For smaller corporations...

March has finally arrived. March has always been my favourite time of the year because of the excitement surrounding the NCAA Basketball March Madness tournament. From a young age, my dad would print out the brackets and we would fill them out by hand. We would then track our success throughout the tournament with red X’s and blue circles. As I grew up, the pen and paper brackets evolved into...

The NHL season is just over twenty games old, and yet you can already make a strong case for certain players to win this year’s Hart Trophy for the NHL’s Most Valuable Player. Some, such as Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid who was crowned League MVP in 2017, are no strangers to this conversation. Other contenders, such as Jonathan Huberdeau, find themselves in uncharted waters. Below is a look...

Chelsea and United’s scoreless draw highlights the lack of fizzle in recent years As Chelsea gritted their way to a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge that saw them share the points with a visiting Manchester United, I was left a little deflated. As a Blues fan myself, I wasn’t happy that we had once again failed to win at home against United— a recurring trend since 2017.  The post-match...

How Mark Messier “guaranteed” himself another victory, this time in Court In a career full of accolades, the greatest moment in hockey legend Mark Messier’s time in the NHL came after a guarantee. As captain of the New York Rangers, Messier “guaranteed” his team would come back and defeat their rival New Jersey Devils in Game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals to tie the series. The man they...

How the Toronto Maple Leafs managed to outdo themselves yet again Last Monday, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators renewed acquaintances for the 150th meeting of the “Battle of Ontario”, with the two teams on polar opposite ends of the NHL Standings. The Maple Leafs entered the game with the league’s best record of 11-3-1, pacing the rest of the NHL with 23 points. They had gotten off to...

It is the most prestigious race in history, yet considering its importance, the America’s Cup is transpiring in New Zealand with remarkably little media attention. Known as “The Billionaire Death Race,” the America’s Cup was first contested in 1851 when the yacht America, racing for the New York Yacht Club, sailed to the Royal Yacht Squadron on the Isle of Wight. There, on the 22nd of August in...

Thomas Tuchel’s mid-season appointment comes as no surprise at Stamford Bridge When Frank Lampard began his second full season in charge of Chelsea FC, many supporters assumed that he would be allowed at least the full season to show signs of progress before the board sought a replacement. However, given the massive expenditure that the club underwent this summer to bring in Timo Werner, Kai...

Mario Lofranco continues his essay on ending the stigma surrounding doping in Sports In the first part of this article series, I refuted the three common arguments for maintaining the prohibition on doping in sport: (1) naturalness; (2) unfair advantage; and (3) the spirit of sport. In this article, I discuss the most common argument in favour of the prohibition against doping – harm – and argue...

How the Leafs Budding Young Stars Performed at the World Juniors On January 5, 2021, the United States, led by promising goaltender Spencer Knight (FLA), blanked Canada 2-0 in the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC) final, capturing their 5th title. The WJC is a fan favourite and every Boxing Day marks the beginning of an exciting tournament for both the young players and NHL front offices...

With the pandemic creating an All-Canadian NHL Division this season, we’re due for a hockey war up North Well, after a tumultuous 2020 on and off the ice, Canadian hockey fans are in store for an incredible NHL season. With that in mind, let’s tackle the newly formed Scotia™ NHL™ North Division. This division is undoubtedly a return to the NHL’s roots, as you’d have to harken all the way back to...

Welcome back to NBA basketball! The NBA regular season has started once again a mere two months after the end of the 2019-2020 season, this time on a shortened 72 game schedule due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While the NBA may have returned, the Raptors appear to remain on “vacation mode” as they begin their season with a losing record of 2-7 (at the time of writing), currently the second...

Why the right decision is seldom well-received in the NFL In their penultimate game of the 2020 season, Philadelphia Eagles’ (now former) head coach Doug Pederson made a decision that nearly sparked a revolt amongst the Eagles’ roster, cost the New York Giants a playoff spot, and left the NFL community at large in a state of moral panic. The decision under trial was the choice to bench emerging...

Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Ben Johnson are just a few of the many decorated athletes known to have used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). These athletes are now considered “cheaters”, shunned for the use of PEDs to achieve a chemical advantage in their respective sports. They violated the rules, the trust of their fans and colleagues, and the spirit of sport. Over recent...

Last week, the glass ceiling was shattered by a baseball. The Miami Marlins announced they would be hiring Kim Ng as their general manager, making her the first woman in men’s professional sports to hold the title. The decision was showered with praise across the sports world (including congratulations from Michelle Obama), as it’s a move that some may have never seen coming and simultaneously...

Why the Ontario Government’s Body-Checking Ban in Hockey for 2021 Does More Harm Than Good Ontario’s Minister of Sport Lisa MacLeod announced earlier this week that in order for the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) to have a 2020-2021 season, body checking will not be allowed. Just days earlier, the OHL had formally announced its return-to-play plan for a shortened 2021 season beginning February 4th...

Sports have a storied history of hazing, bullying, and the “boys will be boys” mentality. Some consider it a rite of passage in sport, leading to stronger individuals and better people in the global community moving forward. But what happens when this isn’t the case? More often than not, the person who is being bullied will have no recourse and is left wondering what is wrong with them and why...

An interview with lawyer and Assistant General Manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Josh Flynn Jon Cooper, Brian Burke, Laurence Gilman, and Josh Flynn. What do these people have in common? For one, they all hold, or formerly held (sorry Brian), high-level positions within NHL organizations. However, there’s something else that links these men. Jon Cooper, Stanley Cup Champion and head coach of...