Travel hopefully in life.

So, hockey is back. Or, they're doing exhibition games, anyway, with the intent to be back for real come Saturday. I'm still torn about it and kind of worried that it's a bad idea that's going to blow up in some way or another, but at the same time I'm excited to be watching again.

I'm not really sure how this whole situation is going to go for us, because our GM, who I really liked, just fucking quit in a fit of pique or something, so now we're going into a potential playoff situation with an interim guy who is, admittedly, very experienced, so everything will probably be fine, but ANYWAY. It seemed like a good moment to revisit that time earlier this season when Wonder Goalie Darcy Kuemper ^TM threw a man to the ice and kicked off a full-line fight between my darling Coyotes and the Calgary Flames.

Watch on YouTube

It's not super violent but it is very delightful, if you're into that sort of thing. Plus you get to see Johnny Hockey be a mad little baby, which is very satisfying if you get any amount of satisfaction out of seeing the Flames be whiny brats, which I do.

Seattle announced the name/logo/color scheme of their new NHL franchise today, and I am such a happy puppy about the whole thing. I'm so delighted that I don't even mind (much) that the Coyotes are getting shunted into the Central Division to make room for Seattle team. (Hopefully it'll wind up working out in my favor, since the Coyotes in Central should mean they'll be playing more regularly against the Stars, which means I'll get to go see my boys in person way more often.) Anyway back to the matter at hand! Despite its general popularity, I really wasn't convinced the Powers That Be ^TM would go for the Kraken, because it's kind of a weird one, but they did! And boy howdy did their design team do it up right, too. I mean, look at this:





What tremendously sleek and subtle design work. Really well done. They'll also be playing in an arena that's pushing to be the first net zero carbon emissions arena in the world (or at least the US) and aims to "revolutionize sustainable stadium design." I'm not sure what the actual environmental impact will be in terms of architecture and practices, but it's cool that they're trying, even so. Though, Amazon is involved, so I'm cautiously pessimistic about the whole thing.

The NHL's revised pandemic playoffs start on August 1. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Actually, that's not entirely true. I think it's probably a bad idea and I'm afraid it's going to backfire in a big way that nobody right now expects or anticipates, but maybe I'm just borrowing trouble. I'm going to watch anyway. And the part of me that rubbernecks at car wrecks sort of wants to buy one of the mildly tasteless "Drop the Puck 2020" shirts the NHL is peddling to celebrate the return of the season, in case it does backfire.

Anyway, apologies to everyone once August circles back around and I start screaming about sports again. Will tag appropriately so you can avoid it if that's not to your taste.