Betting On An End To Our Suffering

No NHL hockey has taken its toll on fans, but the NHL Lockout has also hurt what we like to call the Hockey Vices: drinking and gambling. While we know bars are suffering with no hockey games on their TVs and beer companies are threatening to sue the NHL for financial compensation, you can't forget about the gambling industry. The NHL is their biggest hockey draw and if there's no games to bet on, the industry definitely takes a hit, but they've been coming up with some pretty fun odds for you to place bets on throughout the NHL Lockout.

Around The League In 30 Teams: Players To Watch For At The 2013 World Juniors

Our buddy Ben who is living out in B.C these days chasing West Coast tail sent this our way. 

You might agree with Ben, but if not and you feel the urge to chirp him, shoot him an email

This one's getting rolled out a bit late due to a crazy week and lack of sleep from waking up at 4am most mornings to watch some junior puck.

Hockey Viewing Schedule For The Holidays

I don't know about you, but the holidays and hockey go together pretty damn well. While we will be without NHL hockey these holidays, there is a lot of international hockey to be watched. The 2013 World Junior Hockey Championships will headline the holidays, but don't forget about the Spengler Cup this year that will feature some NHL stars in action.

Old School Hockey Christmas Gifts

It's Christmas Eve and often we sit down and have some beers while talking about past Christmases and gifts. Most of these gifts were hockey-related growing up and we have some fond memories of using the shit out of those old school hockey Christmas gifts. Here are a few of our favourites:

Brett Hull GT Snow Racer

2013 Dirty Dangle World Junior Hockey Pool!

Selection camps are coming to an end and teams are heading to Ufa as the tournament officially gets underway on Boxing Day. This means that it's time for you to pick your squad for the 3rd edition of the 2013 Dirty Dangle World Junior Hockey Pool!

With no NHL hockey to watch over the holidays or fantasy hockey to be played, why not enter a team in the 2013 Dirty Dangle World Junior Hockey Pool? 

The rules are simple:

• Pick one player from each box for a team of 10 skaters and 2 goaltenders
• Goal or Assist = 1 point
• Win = 1 point
• Shutout = 2 points
• All stats are taken from the official IIHF website
• Deadline to enter is December 26th at 4:00am ET before the first tournament game

To enter, simply e-mail your team to dirtydangle@hotmail.ca, tweet your roster to us @dirtydangle or you can drop us a Facebook message.  Make sure you follow us on Twitter and Facebook for daily pool updates.

The Prizes: (remember we make just cents a day on this website)

1st place: A Dirty Dangle hoodie

2nd place: A Dirty Dangle t-shirt

3rd place: A Dirty Dangle t-shirt

Here are the boxes of players to choose from, feel free to make any roster changes up until the 4am December 26th deadline!

Forwards #1		Forwards #2		Forwards #3
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (CAN)		Jonathan Huberdeau (CAN)		Ryan Strome (CAN)
Nail Yakupov (RUS)		Mikhail Grigorenko (RUS)		Teuvo Teravainen (FIN)
Miikka Salomaki (FIN)		Joel Armia (FIN)		Johnny Gaudreau (USA)
J.T. Miller (USA)		Alex Galchenyuk (USA)		Tomas Hertl (CZE)
Radek Faksa (CZE)		Filip Forsberg (SWE)		Maxim Shalunov (RUS)
Forwards #4		Forwards #5		Forwards #6
Mark Scheifele (CAN)		Rickard Rakell (SWE)		Jonathan Drouin (CAN)
Markus Granlund (FIN)		Aleksandr Barkov (FIN)		Victor Rask (SWE)
Tyler Biggs (USA)		Ty Rattie (CAN)		Tomas Mikus (SVK)
Sebastian Collberg (SWE)		Martin Frk (CZE)		Daniil Zharkov (RUS)
Alexander Khokhlachev (RUS)		Nikita Kucherov (RUS)		Brett Ritchie (CAN)
D-men #1		D-men #2		Goalies #1
Dougie Hamilton (CAN)		Morgan Rielly (CAN)		Malcom Subban (CAN)
Nikita Nesterov (RUS)		Olli Maatta (FIN)		Andrei Vasilevski (RUS)
Rasmus Ristolainen (FIN)		Seth Jones (USA)		John Gibson (USA)
Jacob Trouba (USA)		Hampus Lindholm (SWE)		Niklas Lundstrom (SWE)
David Musil (CZE)		Tim Bender (GER)		Joonas Korpisalo (FIN)
Goalies #2		Sleepers		17-Year-Olds
Jordan Binnington (CAN)		Zemgus Girgensons (LAT)		Elias Lindholm (SWE)
Andrei Makarov (RUS)		Tanner Richard (SWI)		Artturi Lehkonen  (FIN)
Oscar Dansk (SWE)		Sven Andrighetto (SWI)		Jakub Vrana (CZE)
Patrik Bartosak (CZE)		Roberts Lipsbergs (LAT)		Leon Draisaitl (GER)
Garret Sparks (USA)		Tobias Rieder (GER)		Nathan MacKinnon (CAN)

The Spengler Cup Is Stacked This Year

The holidays for us are all about eating, binge drinking, and hockey. The World Juniors occupy most of our hockey watching, but there is also another tournament going on that catches our eye - the Spengler Cup. It's one of the oldest hockey tourneys in the world and has some solid history worth checking out. With the NHL Lockout still going strong, the Spengler Cup is going to have one its best tournaments ever with more than a few familiar names participating in the tournament this year.

Evander Kane Is Not A Smart Guy

"Evander counts all the money he has saved from skipping out on tabs"

Evander Kane is living it up in Vegas while a lot of people have lost their jobs because of this lockout and have stacks of bills to pay, not stacks of cash to show off. Kane posted this picture to his Twitter account this morning in a tweet sent to boxing champ, Floyd Mayweather. While it is a pretty funny picture, the timing of this couldn't come at a worse time with the NHL still locked out and fan outrage growing daily. The NHLPA surely won't like this picture, as Kane appears to be living it up in Vegas despite not playing hockey.

NHL Lockout: End Of Some Great Careers?

The lockout is still dragging on and fans are growing old with all this CBA talk over money, but they aren't the only ones growing old. Some NHL players are aging on the sidelines wondering if they will ever play in the NHL again as their careers were winding down before the Lockout even started. There is still time to get a half-ass season in and we hope that we do see some NHL hockey soon, but if this lockout goes the full season there are some NHL veterans who might retire and we may never get to give them a proper goodbye.

What Was Going On In The NHL One Year Ago?

Way back in 2011 on December 11th, there was a hockey league called the NHL. It showcased the best hockey players in the world and every year they would compete for the Stanley Cup. It was a great league with many fans attending games and buying up all the jerseys and merchandise they could get their hands on. Parents would bring their kids to see their first NHL games and those children would become lifelong fans with a passionate love for the sport. The league was thriving and everybody was happy, or so we thought... Well today is December 11th and the NHL remains in Lockout mode as the NHL and NHLPA fight over how much of the fans money they should get.

Ways To Make It Right With The Fans

This stupid NHL lockout continues to drag on and hockey fans have been showing more support to junior hockey and minor leaguers in the AHL, but nothing compares to the elite. There's a lot of talk about the NHL taking fans for granted and how some fans might not return to the NHL as they did after the 2004-05 NHL Lockout. A simply apology and painting "Thank You Fans" inside the bluelines won't suffice this year, the NHL will need to step it up to get the casual fan to return. We know we'll be back, but we probably won't by buying anything to support the league for a little while.

World Junior Team Preview: Sweden

Our buddy Benny sent this over. He's pretty excited for the World Juniors this year (aren't we all) and will be doing some team previews for us leading up to the start of the tournament.

Over the next few weeks I'll be previewing the ten teams competing at this years World Junior Hockey Championships in Ufa, Russia. Starting with last years gold medal winners and recent news makers - Sweden. The big news out of Sweden is that the Ottawa Senators organization won’t let the 2012 WJC OT hero, Mika Zibanejad, go to Russia for the World Juniors. The Sens say it will take away from his ability to translate to the North American style of the game and staying with the Baby Sens is the best way to progress his way to becoming an impact player. This sucks for the team and WJC fans, however the Swedes will still have lots of talent at the tourney.