Links, News, and Notes: Canada Heads to the Finals, Talbot’s Deadpool Mask, Updated All-Star Voting, and More

It’s the first week of the new year! While it’s been an interesting start to the season, this is the time when things really heat up. The trade talks start getting more serious, the unofficial playoff elimination game starts and, for Sens fans, we’re getting a few weeks closer to the exciting news of new ownership. Before we get too far ahead, let’s see what this week had in store for us.

• Team Canada is once again captivating fans with a great tournament performance at the World Juniors. After a shaky start against Czechia, the team found a way to come together and play some dominant hockey. Last night was the big Canada-US showdown in the semi-finals and it did not disappoint. After going down 2-0 early on, Canada came back with an impressive 6-2 win to earn their spot in the gold medal game. It didn’t come without controversy, however, as the Americans will continue to debate goals called back for goalie interference for some time now but that will not take away from Canada’s performance one bit. Connor Bedard started off the scoring for Canada, though on the whole it was a somewhat tame game for him. Luckily for Canada, the team has plenty of talent to make up for that. Canada will face Czechia once again for the Gold Medal tonight at 6:30 ET while Sweden and USA battle for bronze at 2:30 ET.
• Speaking of Team Canada, a large portion of the team’s success has been the result of the generational play of Connor Bedard. Not only did he break Jordan Eberle’s goal record for a single tournament but he also became the leader in career points by a Canadian player, passing Eric Lindros’ record of 31. Even though it seems every play he makes leaves people mesmerized, I don’t think any one of them will top this unbelievable OT goal from the quarterfinals: /

• After something of a tepid start, Alex DeBrincat has been lighting it up of late. Over at the Athletic, Ian Mendes has a nice profile of the Cat. Ian also takes a crack at projecting out what the Sens’ future cap situation might look like. It doesn’t seem that bad, all told!
• Ryan Reynolds captured the hearts, hopes, and dreams of all Sens fans when he announced his interest in purchasing the team. While things have been a bit quiet on his front (assuming it’s part of the process), it seems the Sens want to remind him that they’re very much interested in him becoming one of the big bosses. Our very own Cam Talbot (through design company, Friedesigns) released a new mask design that had everyone talking yesterday, including Deadpool himself. As well awaited Reynolds’ reaction, he more than delivered with the best response we could get:/

Jacques Plante would be proud as hell. https://t.co/lgS6QkQHYe

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) January 4, 2023

• The All-Star games have lost a bit of their luster, fan engagement hasn’t been as high as before and it doesn’t help that many star players haven’t been there in the past few years. The NHL has realized there’s a good fan market they could tap into and that would be none other than Twitter. The NHL will continue its traditional voting platform but will now collect Twitter “votes” when users use certain hashtags attached to the name. It’s not a bad idea and considering how much time hockey fans spend on Twitter, I could see more votes coming in.
• The trauma of war is not something that can easily be healed but a group of Ukrainians in Canada got to have a moment of peace through hockey this week. The Hockey Can’t Stop tour featuring the U-25 Ukrainian hockey team raised $180,000 in Calgary. The Flames were generous enough to donate $150,000 of the 50/50 proceeds and host the team to their first NHL game. /