Welcome to My Mind

It is no secret to anyone that I am a die-hard Carolina Hurricanes fan and have been for most of my life. Through the highs, like the '06 Cup win and ECF runs in '09 and '19, and the lows, like the decade long playoff drought, I've seen many players come and go. The task I have given myself is to put together my 23-man roster that represents the best the Hurricanes organization has to offer. The roster will be comprised of four centers, eight wingers, six defensemen, two goalies, three extras (a forward, a defenseman, and a goalie), and a head coach. The choices have been made by myself, so there is a bit of bias in some of my picks, but I tried to make my decisions based on their numbers with the team as the main criteria. There will be some notable exceptions seeing as everyone can't make the final list. It is also worth noting that this does not take into account the history of the Hartford Whalers. This is purely from 1997 onward once they moved to North Carolin...

One of the many things that have been discussed with the NHL being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic is a 24-team playoff. In this, I want to discuss briefly my opinion on the idea of a 24-team playoff, then spend a majority of this blog talking about how I think it would work and who I think would be crowned Stanley Cup champions once it is all said and done. First, I'm not a huge fan of a 24-team playoff based solely on the thought that 24-teams is way too many. You're giving too many teams towards the bottom of the standings a chance to play for the Stanley Cup and awarding mediocrity, for lack of a better term. The usual playoff is 16 teams and this year the fight for the last few spots, especially in the Eastern Conference, has been amazing. Now, you are adding teams that haven't sniffed a playoff spot in months, while those that have been firmly in position for all this time are forced to play in a far more diluted field. That sounds extremely whiny of me, bu...

Last year, I made some outlandish predictions on how I thought the 2019 MLB season would play out. I made 19 predictions and almost none of them happened. So, in the spirit of making outlandish predictions, I'm going to do it again, but this time with 20 predictions. I should preface this by saying I am a Rays fan, but my predictions are as free of bias as I can make them. In my predictions, I'll be picking who I think will lead certain statistical categories and moments I think could take place throughout the season. Afterward, I'll give my predictions for the standings, the playoffs, and how the award season will transpire. Warning: Anything negative I say about a team or player is not meant to be malicious and, more importantly than that, these are just my opinions and aren't set in stone. 20 Predictions 1. The season will begin by June and will be a full 162-game season. With the coronavirus delaying the season for at least eight weeks, I have reason to be skepti...

I have been a Canes fan since 2006. The first game I ever attended was Game 2 of the opening round of the 2006 NHL Playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens, or, as I have grown to remember it over the years, Cam Ward's Welcoming Party. During that playoff run, I attended four more games, Games 1 and 2 against the New Jersey Devils and Games 5 and 7 against the Edmonton Oilers in the final. Game 7 of the Edmonton series and watching the team win it all has been burned in my mind and remains the single-greatest sporting memory that I've ever witnessed. 8-year-old me stood the entire game and yelled as loud as I could from the upper deck. That was almost 14 years ago, and the times have changed. In those 14 years, the Canes have only made the playoffs twice, advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals each time, and fell into a pit of mediocrity. Despite this, I've continued watching. After making the playoffs for the first time in a decade, there was a lot of buzz surrounding t...