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Morning Skate: Last Number for the Chorus

2025-08-04T07:00:00-04:00

Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images

It’s the last day of SBN’s use of Chorus. Let’s sing it out.

Happy Monday! We’re back.

This is very likely the last thing I will ever write using the Chorus software that’s used throughout the SBN-osphere, and set us on our WordPress based future.

Incidentally, all of the sites that survived and went independent? They went WordPress first. Even now in it’s current state, SBN-NHL innovates.

Either way, the Summer Showcase has finished up, and it’s clear; Jimmy Hagens might be the real deal. Will Zellers definitely needs a little extra time and will hopefully find a new groove playing with North Dakota, but that’s fine. Both acquitted themselves marvelously to the summer stage and I hope they both get the chance to go to the World Juniors this year. Canada did in fact got their act together enough to beat the States, and Finland got one over on Sweden in a convincing game. Really not looking forward to Rimpinen being a mainline NHLer in like two or three years.

Away from Boston; USA Today (!!) went and published a wild expose on the overwhelming control the Dallas Stars have lorded over youth hockey in the state of Texas on Friday; the Stars as it turns out have been strongarming players and rink owners for years (if they don’t just own the rinks outright) and have been doing some real shady shit to keep complaints down and have largely stacked the Texas Amateur Hockey Association with employees of the Stars.

This is hardly new; local teams tend to press their thumb on the scales of their local youth programs, and in some cases it’s probably a good shot in the arm for the local NHL, AHL, Major Junior team to try and give a little help for local programs in non-traditional markets; give a little money, pay for some gear, clear some ice time for the Under-10 program, that’s all good; great even. The way some of the western conference squads are going about it where they are essentially thee only game in town? In some cases for an city, or even an entire state? That’s a little newer for the sport. Many of them are often extremely cash-strapped organizations that are competing directly against Football, Baseball, Soccer, and Basketball. The embrace of the local NHL team would, should, and often is a major boon for a great many programs, and if they can set up a network of support across the state? even better. But the minute you become a dictator of icetime, if any criticism is responded to with bans, threats, and not sitting down with the families and hashing shit out because they are your customers in hostile, unfamiliar territory for the sport like the Stars have?

That’s going a step and half too far.

Morning Skate: Heat

2025-07-30T07:30:00-04:00

Photo by Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Man, it’s a hot one.

It is Wednesday, my dudes.

If you’re in the Boston area, you’re in for another hot and humid day today, though not quite as hot as Tuesday.

We’ll be looking for days like this when it’s 10 degrees and somehow still raining six months from now, so...no complaints.

As some of you read the other day, this website will be getting a facelift next week, so enjoy the last few days of the current layout.

From what I’ve seen, the new look is pretty sleek and a lot more modern than the current layout (which I don’t hate, but it can be clunky at times).

There will also be some new options for you, the readers, to create more content on the site by sharing links, videos, etc.

For those of you who remember when FanPosts were a big thing, it will be kind of similar, but a lot less cumbersome.

We’ll feel our way through this process as to how it changes day-to-day business around here, but I’d imagine nothing will change immediately.

Importantly, there should be no changes to user accounts, comment histories, etc.

Join us on this wild ride together!

In Bruins-adjacent news, a few points of discussion for this humid midweek stretch:

Conor Ryan of Boston.com ranks and discusses the B’s top 10 prospects.
Cole Spicer apparently won’t be joining Arizona State after all, as it seems like injuries are a serious problem.
Former Bruin Jakub Zboril had his Czech league contract terminated, making him a free agent.

I hope to be able to set up some forms/voting for our 2024 player/coach/GM rankings this week or early next, just to help make progress on that project.

Other than that, summer business as usual.

What’s on tap for this week?

Morning Skate: Summer Camp

2025-07-28T07:00:00-04:00

Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

The World Juniors Summer Showcase is on!

Welcome to another week of summer!

The World Juniors Summer Showcase, a sort of staging area for the power countries of the sport (USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland) to help decide their rosters for the real thing is currently being held in Minneapolis.

For Canada, it’s the ground zero for every roster mistake they’ll make come this December and learn absolutely nothing from as they furiously scribble out good prospect after good prospect out of consideration for not attending. It’s very exciting stuff!

Thankfully for all parties involved, the rosters of these teams are all pretty damn good: James Hagens of course has already made his presence felt on Team USA, Will Moore has found a groove if not the back of the net, but they’re just the Bruins-shaped tip of the iceberg. The States came ready to party with a big old roster full of exceptional talent, and they’ll still need to make some painful cuts to keep up with the rest of the rosters once the showcase begins in earnest; a lot of the 2025 draft class is on Canada’s roster (though that may be because they don’t want the notoriously easy to jilt Hockey Canada scribbling them out of consideration for future events), Sweden’s gotten a bunch of killers from their U20 program like Viggo Björck and Nils Bartholdson together, and Finland rounds things out with the ever difficult problem of international Petteri Rimpinen locking down the net for a hardworking group of youngsters like Emil Hemming.

If you happen to have a Team USA TV account (for some reason), you can watch these games directly on their site.

Otherwise, what’s on tap? For me it’s a nice radler and some beach time when the sun hits a certain angle today, but what about you?

A new look coming for Stanley Cup Of Chowder in August

2025-07-24T12:00:00-04:00

Our coverage remains the same but with a new look

In just a couple of weeks, Stanley Cup of Chowder is switching to a new platform as part of SB Nation’s network-wide move to a new publishing platform. This will change the look of the site and also make it faster and more reliable on any device you use. This is an upgrade.

When you land on the site, it will look cleaner – less clunky, with more white space, a better ad experience with faster load times – but will still have all the usual articles, analysis, and news by all the folks you know.

Community discussion and content created by you will be more prominent in the new design. The best comment threads will be easy to find, and staff and commenters alike will be able to start conversations whenever they like with a brand new tool.

We’re planning on an early August reveal, so we wanted to give you a heads up. You’ll hear more from us when it’s almost here. The site will look a little different, feel a little faster, and, most importantly, have a bigger role for you, the community.

So, stick around and check it out!

Boston Fleet: Coaching vacancy filled

2025-07-24T09:00:00-04:00

The Fleet have their Admiral, many questions will have to be answered.

Danielle Marmer has made her choice for the second head coach in Fleet history. Her choice is not without some controversy. Kris Sparre has been tapped to fill the void left when Courtney Kessel abandoned ship to return to the college ranks.

Sparre is a former player who played some minor league hockey before ending his career in Europe. He then moved into coaching, first in the OHL and then went to Europe before returning to North America and landing an AHL role with San Diego before being let go this past April. He has been an assistant at every stage of his coaching career and has never been involved with a women’s program before.

It was clear in the search Marmer was looking for a person with professional experience to make a splash with this hiring. After the difficulties with development the previous coaching staff showed development of players had to be a priority. With many players visibly dissatisfied with their roles and development Sparre should easily be able to make improvements win that area but with the league’s expansion hit will be a steep learning curve to be successful.

Morning Skate: Done

2025-07-23T07:00:00-04:00

Photo by Andy Marlin/NHLI via Getty Images

Happy trails to a few folks.

It is Wednesday, my dudes.

We’ve reached the second-last Wednesday in July, which means August is almost here, which means summer is almost over. Don’t panic.

There hasn’t been a ton happening across the NHL lately, which tracks, considering it’s late July. Dev camps are over, rookie camps are a ways away...you know the drill.

Hockey Canada recently announced that it’ll be bringing its entire Four Nations coaching staff to Milan for the Olympics next year, with Jon Cooper, Bruce Cassidy, Rick Tocchet, Pete DeBoer, and Misha Donskov behind the bench.

Columbus forward Yegor Chinakhov very publicly requested a trade, which at least gave people something to talk about.

Elsewhere, James Hagens recently attended the premier of Happy Gilmore 2, where he met the guy who drafted him back in June.

Lastly, there have been a handful of retirements so far this summer, and three former Bruins officially hung up their skates within the past week: Blake Wheeler, Riley Nash, and Jaroslav Halak.

Wheeler’s time with the Bruins is probably a blip on the radar for many younger fans around these parts, but Halak and Nash both had nice runs with the B’s relatively recently.

Frustratingly for Halak, he retired just five regular season wins short of 300 for his impressive career.

(He did have 17 playoff wins too though, so maybe we can give him the 300+ nod.)

If you’d like something to argue about, The Athletic recently did an engagement-generating piece on each team’s best and worst jersey.

As chosen by Fluto Shinzawa, the Bruins’ best was the all gold Lake Tahoe jersey, and the worst was the original Pooh jersey.

As a proud member of #TeamPooh, I cannot agree with his choice, though the Lake Tahoe gold was pretty sweet.

What’s on tap for today?

Morning Skate: Relief

2025-07-18T07:00:00-04:00

Photo by Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

A little, at least.

“Finally, a new Morning Skate,” you say.

Yes, I entered summer vacation mode a little too comfortably this week, so apologies for having you all pile into one thread.

Today, a fresh thread awaits.

Friday has given us a little relief from the humidity in the Boston area, as today’s 80º somehow feels 25º cooler than yesterday’s 85º.

Thank you for attending my weather seminar.

The big news from the past week was the release of the Bruins’ 2025-2026 schedule, giving you a good idea of what days/nights you need to reserve for the foreseeable future.

In keeping with Happy Gilmore’s announcement of the James Hagens pick, the B’s used Bill Burr to share some schedule highlights.

I won’t post the entire schedule here, but the Bruins will open the season on October 8 in Washington, followed by the home opener a night later against the Blackhawks.

Two things:

It seems completely unnecessary to open the season with a back-to-back.
I don’t have data to back this up, but I feel like the Bruins open just about every season playing either the Capitals or Blackhawks. Don’t fact check.

Other highlights include the outdoor game against Tampa on February 1 and Brad Marchand returning to Boston with the Panthers on October 21.

Elsewhere, the P-Bruins released their schedule as well. Like the big club, the P-B’s will open the season with a back-to-back: on the road in Bridgeport on October 11, then at home vs. Charlotte on October 12.

The AHL’s lopsided schedule is always a contrast to the NHL’s, but it’s funny to see it put in writing that the P-Bruins will face either Bridgeport, Springfield, or Hartford in 34 of the season’s 72 games.

Other than that and the re-signing of John Farinacci, we remain firmly in offseason mode.

What’s on tap for today?

Morning Skate: The Heat Goes On

2025-07-14T07:35:00-04:00

Photo by Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Well, it’s Monday.

Good morning! Welcome to another uhhh...nice...ish...day...in Boston.

The offseason has slowed mostly to a crawl, with only the Penguins trying to make anything happen by getting Arturs Silovs from the Canucks in exchange for Chase Stillman and a 4th rounder. Given how bad Pittsburgh’s goaltending has been over the past couple of years, he may end up being asked to play a game or two, and it likely saves him time on a potential trip to the Olympics, as he’s almost certainly on the short list for the Latvian team after a successful AHL campaign.

As for us B’s fans? Eh. The most you could say is some people have reported potential trades that never happened, like Swayman going to the Oilers or something like that, or the usual spin of people trying to work themselves up into believing the bottom six will somehow allow this team to be better. Can’t be much worse than it already was, so let’s let them be optimistic.

There was some noise about Jordan Kyrou potentially, but it appears the Blues have elected to hang onto him and his NMC has kicked in. A wise decision, in my opinion; Kyrou is damn good. Hasn’t stopped fansites from trying to trade him, though. For what purpose? Impossible to say.

Anyway, it’s a bit of a less than ideal day, but it’ll clear up by the weekend, so that’s always fun. What’s on tap for you this week?