Hockey Fight!!!

As John and Brendan prepare to take the rest of the summer off, they join you one last time this season for a recap of all the wild happenings on NHL Free Agency day, including Tony DeAngelo finding a new home, what the best and worst contracts handed out were, and what these very high salaries for defencemen will mean for Quinn Hughes' next contract.

It's a true Fight on the pod this week, as John feels like Arizona got the better of the Canucks in the blockbuster deal they made Friday, where Brendan (mostly) likes it for the Canucks. Plus, Seattle's got a perplexing team and we also dive into the other big perplexing deal this weekend, as Seth Jones gets moved to Chicago where he is expected to sign a massive extension. Speaking of Chicago, we also get into how them and Montreal combined to ruin the first round of the NHL Entry Draft inside of 10 awkward and excruciating minutes.

The Fighters recorded on a very busy Saturday in the NHL, just before a bunch of the expansion protection madness happened and so we got into some of the other wild stuff from this week, particularly the acquisition of Duncan Keith by the Edmonton Oilers. After spending some time commiserating with Oilers fans, we moved on to discuss Pierre McGuire finally getting the front-office job of his dreams and the Twin Cities' twin buyouts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise.

The Stanley Cup Final went the way the Fighters thought it would on last week's episode, as Tampa mercifully finishes off Montreal in 5, and we dissect it all here from what went wrong for Montreal to just how impressive it was for Tampa to win two "COVID Cups". We also dig in to the already-infamous Nikita Kucherov press conference where he appeared shirtless and half-cut and we discuss what excites us most for the rest of July.

They haven't won the Cup yet, but the Fighters can't help but coronate the Tampa Bay Lightning as the Stanley Cup champs, after they take a 3-0 lead on Montreal. We talk about what's been going right for Tampa and more tellingly, what's been going wrong for Montreal as the Lightning look to close out the series this week. We also take a peek at the back half of the NHL Award winners as we ponder the Calder maximum age in the wake of Kirill Kaprizov's win and Marc-André Fleury winning the Vezina without being a true starter. Plus, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins takes a hometown discount and Joel Eriksson Ek gets rich.

The Fighters are back and in perfect time to break down the Stanley Cup Final, as the Islanders fall valiantly to Tampa in a close Game 7 and Montreal manages to beat Vegas, which leaves John wondering if the Leafs were actually....good? We talk about our predictions for the Stanley Cup Final and whether or not we think Montreal can pull it out. Plus, we take a look at some front office moves around the league as the Seattle Kraken have their first Head Coach in Dave Hakstol and the Canucks bring the Sedin Twins into the fold.

It's award season in the NHL, and the Fighters talk about the awards we've seen so far, and decry some of the very weird votes. Plus we take a look at Brendan's Predictor Challenge and talk about the Montreal series lead over Vegas.

The Fight is back and it occurs at the perfect time as there's a break in the NHL schedule between Rounds 2 and 3 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. This allows the Fighters to revisit their playoff predictions and we find that Brendan has so much ground to make up on John that John offers him a deal: go perfect the remainder of the way through the SCF, or bear the punishment on his own. Plus, we recap some of the second round while looking ahead to the third, and we try to envision scenarios where the Habs and Isles can topple the incumbent favourites.

It's a eulogy for another lost season as John's Toronto Maple Leafs are out of the playoffs despite high expectations. He attempts to make sense of it all with Brendan's help as they ponder what the Leafs could do next season from a big trade to smaller UFA moves, and Brendan advocates for a coaching change. In the second half of the show, the Fighters are once again running through a bad hit as Mark Schiefele gets suspended for his hit on Jake Evans.

The Fighters are back this week and recording in advance of an early Saturday morning showtime since they don't want to wake up at 8 am to do the show again. So while they can't report on the Vegas/Minnesota result (though John almost gets it right), they can report on their Saturday predictions for the Bruins/Islanders series and whether or not the Leafs will win Game 6. Plus, we get into what's happening in Edmonton as we ponder a potential Connor McDavid trade request, re-signing Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and what they can do to build a contender.

It's a worrisome episode this week as John talks about the John Tavares incident and whether or not he's worried about the Leafs after a big Game 1 loss to the Canadiens. Meanwhile, Brendan talks Canucks fan worries about the season-ending Canucks press conference and the decision to keep Jim Benning through next year. Plus, we talk "The Code" again after Nick Foligno fights Corey Perry.

The Fighters are forced into an early timeslot on Sportsnet 650 due to the Canucks playing some meaningless games, and so we give the best morning versions of ourselves we can, as we break down the NHL Playoffs by making predictions for each series. We also get into the latest Eugene Melnyk lawsuit, and are asking you, the listener, to decide how the loser of the Playoff Prediction contest gets punished!

It was a big week in the NHL, but not for the reasons we want it to be, as Tom Wilson's latest chicanery causes a firestorm across the league. We run through the whole situation while also touching on the firing in the Rangers' front office, and John explains why he thinks the NHL should ban open-ice hits.

Things get heated this week as John takes umbrage with the Vancouver media's treatment of Wayne Simmonds and the Leafs in the wake of the Alex Edler fight, and Brendan and John discuss the "code" in hockey and whether it was properly served here. We also discuss the new Turner Sports deal with the NHL, and what we'd like to see from hockey coverage moving forward.

After the Vancouver Canucks make their triumphant return following the team's bout with COVID-19 by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs twice, the Fighters wonder if Toronto's goaltending will prove to be a problem in the playoffs. We also discuss whether we'd keep the North Division around or if we're tired of this format, and we ponder the future for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

We're about 6 days and a few games removed from the trade deadline, so the Fighters are here to break down the biggest moves, with our main focus on the Taylor Hall deal that saw him go from Buffalo to Boston for a modest return. We also talk Nick Foligno, and the Canucks' reticence to be active in acquiring draft picks throughout Jim Benning's tenure. And for a show that tried never to talk about COVID, the Canucks force our hand once again, as J.T. Miller's comments help reflect what the players have gone and are going through, and we talk through what the rest of the season for the North Division will look like.

The Fighters are back this week with another topical edition of the show after last week's nostalgia episode, and we fully dig into the Canucks COVID situation over a week removed from the start, as Brendan talks about what he's hearing and we wonder about the rest of the season for the team. Plus, we cover some of the early trade deadline action, the Tanner Pearson signing, we look ahead to Monday's deadline, and Brendan is a new dad!

The Fighters truly drop their gloves this week, as they put them all the way aside to bond over loving hockey as kids and trying to remember what makes the game special for both of them. With all of the talk about COVID and the game lately, we figure we could use a break.   We talk about some of our minor hockey experiences before launching into a discussion about the things that made hockey so vital to us growing up: hockey video games, hockey cards, logos, jerseys, the All-Star Game, and right on down to hockey-related items given out by fast food restaurants. It's a fun trip down memory lane and we hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did.

It was a wild week in the NHL as the Canadian government cut the mandatory quarantine time for athletes in half, leaving some to believe the Trade Deadline will be busier than usual, and Tim Peel got caught red-handed. The Fighters discuss which teams might be sellers and which might be buyers, who we think is most likely to move, and what the cost might be for Taylor Hall. Then, as two former referees, we debate about what the Tim Peel situation means for the league moving forward and we both imagine a better-called game.

After getting a few questions about it in last week's Mailbag, the Fighters devote a long segment to the suffering in Buffalo, as the team's long winless streak continues and they fire head coach Ralph Krueger. We talk about the bad contracts, the bad front office decisions, and whether or not they'll trade Jack Eichel. We find some time in the second half of the show to talk NHL Awards at midseason, as John makes his case for Auston Matthews to win the Hart (not really) and we wonder who might be in contention for the Norris with no clear front-runner outside of Victor Hedman.

It's our first big anniversary here on HF!!!, as we get to episode 10 and celebrate with a listener mailbag. First, the Fighters get into the new TV deal with ESPN, and then answer YOUR questions about Seattle, new fans of the game, and professional wrestling.

It was yet another busy week in the world of the Scotiabank North Division Presented by Scotiabank, as the Canucks take two games off of the Leafs sandwiching another bizarre Jim Benning press conference, and the Flames fire head coach Geoff Ward and return to an old hand in Darryl Sutter to take the helm.   Plus our Fighters take some time to get into the latest episode in the Tom Wilson Bad Hit Files, and we have another Beer League Bozo where Brendan introduces a brand-new verb into the hockey lexicon: javelining.

The Fighters are ready to do battle against the establishment again this week, as two of the Old Boys Club are back in the spotlight. Claude Julien loses his job in Montreal and the guys wonder how Dominique Ducharme will fare as he moves into the head coaching spot. We also ponder what led to the Julien firing in the first place, and it leads to a discussion of celebrity sightings.  From there, we talk about the Official Mike Babcock Image Restoration Tour, why he's being encouraged to do it by the media, and whether or not we'll see him back in the NHL anytime soon.

The Fighters are back once again this week as we take on the Arizona Coyotes perilous front office situation after Katie Strang's article in The Athletic this week, and wonder what the future holds for that organization. Then we spend the second half of the show indulging in our fancy sides, as we talk about the Reverse Retro jerseys now that most teams have debuted them.

After a COVID exposure, Brendan is forced to isolate from his wife and thus, records this whole episode in a new "studio": the cupboard underneath his stairs. This week, the Fighters get into COVID exposures at home and in the NHL and what that's going to look like moving forward, the loss of Team 1040, and Brian Burke's appointment as the President of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Plus, we have the craziest Beer League Bozo story yet!

It's Tony D time here on Hockey Fight!!!, as our beloved Fighters, Brendan Batchelor and John Cullen, go in on former New York Rangers defenceman Tony DeAngelo. We get into his sordid past, his potential future, and the NHL's continued inability to break free from its conservative ways and acknowledge the progression happening in the world around us.   And as you might guess, the second half of the show deals with the first two games of the season between the Vancouver Canucks and the Toronto Maple Leafs, as the Canucks continue to stumble and Auston Matthews cements himself as one of the league's top players.

Jim Rutherford abruptly retires and leaves a trail of GM candidates in his wake, including former Canucks' head honcho Mike Gillis, whose son conveniently leaks his 30-page job application on Twitter. We dissect what's next for the Penguins, the Old Boys Club, and ponder just how much of an accident the "leak" really was.    On the other side of the show, we get into the Tkachuk brothers' antics this week, from Matthew's outburst against the Leafs to his younger brother Brady's glass punch against the Canucks.

The boys drop the gloves as we dissect the biggest news of the week with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Patrik Laine getting traded out of their respective situations and the Canucks continuing to struggle to get out of the blocks in the Scotia North division. We also chat about the Tyler Myers hit and John Tortorella's act wearing thin.

Brendan Batchelor and John Cullen return with an evaluation of the first two games of the season and we look at three fanbases currently overreacting: the Vancouver Canucks with Nils Hoglander, the Toronto Maple Leafs with Wayne Simmonds, and Adam Larsson continues to be a media scapegoat in Edmonton. Plus, we take a focus on Brendan's career as he gives listeners the skinny on what it's like to broadcast hockey games during a pandemic.

It's the first episode of Hockey Fight!!!, the weekly show where professional broadcaster Brendan Batchelor and deranged fan John Cullen debate the hottest hockey topics of the week. This week, we discuss whether or not the World Juniors have jumped the shark, who is gonna win the new North division, and it's our first-ever edition of Barrel Chat. Plus, we introduce Beer League Bozo/Minor League Maroon, the segment where you send us your craziest stories from the local rink. Tune in for a HOCKEY FIGHT!!!

Welcome to the brand-new podcast from Sportsnet 650's Voice of the Canucks, Brendan Batchelor, and deranged hockey fan/professional comedian John Cullen. These two are going to give you a look inside the hockey world like you've never seen before, combining insider knowledge with humour and debate as they tackle two of hockey's hottest topics every week. It'll appear both in podcast form everywhere you get your podcasts, and on Saturday afternoons on Sportsnet 650 Radio in Vancouver. Take a listen to this teaser and get ready for a Hockey Fight!!!