Faxes from Uncle Dale

Recent Posts

  • Fall On Your Sword, Ajax

    Dear NHLPA,

    I write this to you, knowing you’ll never see it, in the wake of your latest failed meetings with the NHL and on the precipice of losing regular-season games. And a bunch of them at that. While it comes as no surprise, the reality of it being here still stings me and every other fan. Again, we’re well aware that we don’t matter and I’m not here to ask you to “do it for us,” even though I’m sure some of you will run for that cover to justify your stances and actions. That’s fine, we’re used to it.

    But over the years, and decades, you the hockey players have gotten a lot of mileage out of the perception that hockey players are different. You’ve actively promoted this about yourselves many times. You extoll your virtue about how much you love your game, how much more or differently you love it than other athletes. You’re just a simple Canadian kid, right? The time has come to prove that.

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  • The Indignities Never Cease

    The Indignities Never Cease

    With word today coming out that ESPN3 will broadcast KHL games, if fans didn’t feel manipulated and used as leverage in this idiotic lockout, they should now. I know I do. Something about this just feels more unseemly than the usual press conference posturing of Donald Fehr and Gary Bettman.

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  • 10/2 Morning Links

    10/2 Morning Links

    Hello Friends..

    You may remember me from such names as ChelisChili7 from SCH. Well since he has officially passed another DeutschBank test and I felt like using my real name, here I am.  I also used to be Ken Oda’s bitch for a now-defunct Junior Hockey team. Which involved a lot of unnecessary stat keeping and keeping the Jameson stocked.

    The Great One is optimistic:(TSN)

    Is the NHL Naive on steroids?(SN)

    Hockee Night Puckcast:(HN)

    Can Pat LaFontaine save hockey on the Island?:(TSUN)

    Oiler fans weren’t considered:(GnM)

    ESPN will broadcast hockey after all:(PD)

    Ryan Kesler is far behind in his recovery:(PHT)

    The latest round of CBA negotiations:(DGB)

  • The Mighty Pigs At First Glance

    The Mighty Pigs At First Glance

    Because I’m a desperate soul, and because I don’t have much else to do, I was perusing the Rockford Icehogs roster at the moment. Of course we’ll give you more of a breakdown next week when we really have to kick the lockout filler into high-gear, but this is a start.

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  • The Committed Idonije – Bears v. Cowboys is now out!

    The Committed Idonije – Bears v. Cowboys is now out!

    Get yours now by hitting the button up top there!

  • 10/1 Morning Links

    10/1 Morning Links

    So yeah I’m the new links guy, I’ll try not to suck.  I was a life long Chicago guy, until six weeks ago when I moved to Minot, North Dakota to work for a junior team. I miss 5 a.m. bars… oh and my family.

    I’m just shocked the kid’s parents aren’t trying to sue… (PD)

    Zawzer takes a look at Barch’s drunken twitter poetry (RLD)

    Because the lockout needs a Robin Hood figure? (PHT)

    Daley and Fehr speak (NHL.com)

    Oh yeah and something good for Hawks fans that has to do with hockey that is actually being played (BTN)

  • Your Weekend Viewing Guide

    Your Weekend Viewing Guide

    That time again. Not that you’re technically missing out on hockey this weekend, but there would have been a preseason game to peruse and discuss. Now there’s not. Just men in suits in a conference room, where I’m pretty sure nothing will happen. But anyway…

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  • Feeling So Small

    Feeling So Small

    A lot of people, mostly outside our strange little world, were trying to draw connections between the NHL lockout and that of the NFL referees. However, the issues were very different. The refs were locked out over disputes over pensions and job security. In that sense, the NFL referee lockout was much closer to the teachers’ strike than it was the NHL Lockout.

    But the furor over it this week and the resolution last night was an excellent demonstration of why it sometimes hurts to be a cult/niche sport, even though that’s part of the attraction for a lot of us.

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  • Hey, The Kids Are Playing!

    While we stare at people having a staring contest waiting for one of them to blink so we can have something to talk about again, some of the Hawks prospects have actually strapped on the skates in anger. I know, it’s a reach here. But we might as well check in with some of the kiddies.

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  • Knights Of The Roundtable

    Knights Of The Roundtable

    It feels like it’s been years since we last did one of these. Probably because it has been. But with the new digs it felt like the right time to bring it back. We got the best and brightest….well, we got the Hawks bloggers who talk to us to discuss the issues of the day. Jeff Bartl from Cheer The Anthem.com, Forklift And Cieslak from Hockeenight.com, Chris Block from The Third Man In.com came out of his Fortress-like lair to chip in (if you’ve seen Fortress, this is a very funny image. Random intestination!), and we even somehow located The Fifth Feather. Let’s see what the boys have to say.

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