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What we’re thankful for in hockey, 2014: Friends of Puck Daddy

(Ed. Note: It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S., a.k.a. “Real Thanksgiving”, which means it’s once again time to reflect on what we’re thankful for in the world of hockey. Here are some of our favorite hockey people from around the ‘web telling you what they’re thankful for; our picks are later. As always, we give thanks to you, the reader, for supporting this blog.)

Barry Petchesky, Deadspin

Scrape: The brief life and merciful death of the dry scrape. It's an example of the NHL being willing to try new things, and to them abandon them if they prove unworkable.

Vladimir Tarasenko: What's a new season without a thrilling young player to get unrealistically excited about? (Tomas Hertl is so last year.)

The long-awaited emergence of the Islanders: Hockey in New York—and around the league-- always seems a little more meaningful when the Isles are good.

The struggles of the Avalanche: There's a difference between confidence and hubris.

Katie Strang, ESPN.com

The Hip Check: Maybe because it is becoming increasingly rare, but few things provide me more joy than watching a perfectly-executed hip check (see Jason Demers re: Jarret Stoll, 11/22/2014). It's one of those beautiful athletic feats I wish I had the skill to pull off (alas, I can barely stand on skates). I feel similarly about the art of pinning a basketball against a backboard, which, as the ladies in my weekly pickup basketball game can attest, I am also unable to perform.

The Carolina Hurricanes Press Meal: You know when players say they circle a certain game on the calendar? This is how I used to feel about my bi-annual trip to Raleigh back when I used to cover the Islanders beat. I would think about it weeks in advance. In the days leading up to my trip, I'd put in a few extra miles on the treadmill in preparation for the long-awaited BBQ binge. Big fan of the vinegar-based sauce. Comfort food at its finest, folks. Honorable mention here goes to the dessert tray at TD Garden, the press box popcorn at Wells Fargo Center, the inimitable hot dogs in Montreal and the divine carrot cake at Madison Square Garden.

My Hockey family: Yes, we are an odd, grizzled assortment of puck-heads and booze hounds, but there is nothing quite like the hockey community. Whether it's the daily interactions on Twitter, the post-game shenanigans at Shale's or the many travel debacles during an eight-week playoff run that is both a test of endurance and sanity, my love for my fellow hockey writers truly has no bounds. Thank you for putting up with me during the gluten-starved days leading up to my wedding last spring. Thank you to all the seasoned veterans who helped me out when I was just a cub reporter, wondering whether I could make a living like this. Thank you for always being there with a kind word, a hilarious joke or a cold beer. You are not just colleagues and co-workers, you are family. I love you all.

Laura Astorian, SB Nation/Puck Drunk Love

The STL Line (and especially Vladimir Tarasenko): This line is the reason why the Blues are (as of me writing this) sitting atop the Central Division. While the secondary scoring is struggling to get going consistently, the line of Jaden Schwartz, Jori Lehtera, and Vladimir Tarasenko are producing nearly every game. They have 64 points as a line so far this season and 27 goals. The rest of the team has 42.

There being an edge of your seat player on the Blues again: This dovetails with number one, but even without his linemates, Tarasenko would be an exciting, dynamic player. Who was the last guy that the Blues had on the team that made you sit on the edge of your seat in anticipation? I like to keep the comparisons to Brett Hull tempered, because I don't think it's fair to place that level of expectation on anyone, especially someone so young, but I do see similarities between the two players, especially how so many shifts with Tarasenko involves a scoring opportunity. His attitude is infectious, to boot.

Resurgent teams: This may sound odd for a fan of neither of these teams to say, but I'm thankful that the Nashville Predators and especially the Calgary Flames have bounced back this season. I love a good story, I like having new competition for playoff position, and I think that fans of every team who have gone through lean years can agree on this: I don't like watching teams lose consistently for years on end. The Preds snapped a downward trend, and the Flames have finally come out of the smoldering wreckage that was once their team.

Your move, Edmonton.

Sean Gentille, Sporting News

Jaromir Jagr: I grew up in Pittsburgh in the 1990s. Now, I periodically get to crowd around Double-J's locker and listen to him tell jokes, stories and answer questions about the teams that made me love hockey in the first place. It's a great reminder of how cool this job can be.

Backup goaltenders: In the last couple years, I've enjoyed talking to Thomas Vokoun, Jeff Zatkoff and Tomas Greiss more than anyone else. Goalies are weird, blah blah, but there's something about those guys. We can lump Ilya Bryzgalov in there, too. Somebody hire him, please.

The Maple Leafs: For making my traffic goals a lot easier to reach.

Sense of history: Example A: Obviously, I knew about Pat Quinn — he coached some good Maple Leafs teams that I watched as a kid, and he … actually, let's not talk about Salt Lake City 2002. Still, I didn't know any real specifics about the kind of guy he was — his heyday hasn't really come up on the job, for me. So, it sucks that it took his death for me to learn more, but my Twitter feed earlier this week was a gift. .

Joe Thornton: Score four in a game, big guy. Bring the house down.

Jen a.k.a. NHL History Girl

(Jen went above and beyond and made a video response. Check it out here.)

Ryan Kennedy, The Hockey News

Connor McDavid vs. Jack Eichel: Scouts are telling me this is the best race for No. 1 in recent history and having seen both players live, I believe them. It's awesome to see these two phenoms make magic on the ice, but it's also great that one is doing it in major junior and the other in college

Arizona State: I've been a proponent of NCAA expansion in the south and west for a while now, so it's cool to see a school actually take up the challenge. The Sun Devils have opened the door for UCLA, Cal, Texas…any number of big-name schools to join the party

Chris Texts Curtis (@Phillipstexts): I know Boring Sean Monahan was first and it's still funny, but the idea of Chris Phillips sending inane texts to Curtis Lazar really tickles me.

The Buffalo Hosting Juggernaut: This one is just plain selfish, because I live only two hours away and don't have to book a hotel room or rent a car, but I love how many events Buffalo hosts these days. All-American Prospects Game, Connor McDavid vs. Niagara, the USA Select 17s festival in the summer, now the draft combine (although that's a bummer because it used to be in Toronto). Any excuse to eat the parmed meatball sandwich at Chef's is a good one.

Steve Lepore, Awful Announcing

Jagr: I am thankful for the continued existence of living legend Jaromir Jagr in our game, and especially on a team that I cover, for both his pursuit of excellence as well as providing me with exchanges like this following a preseason game against the Rangers in early October:

Me: "You know you got credited for a hit tonight?"

Jagr: "[Expletive]! Is the guy in the hospital?"

Katie Brown, District Sports Page

That Stanley Cup-winning moment: Watching really excited, sweaty guys with huge beards smile and cry and raise that big silver trophy before putting their babies in it makes the previous 8 months totally and completely worth it, even if it’s not your team that won.

Hockey twitter: Comprised of probably the most unhinged group of people in the universe, hockey twitter brings me countless hours of joy and despair each day. If hockey twitter were a person, it would be the love child of Patrick Roy and Mike Babock, with even crazier eyes. Keep being you, hockey twitter.

Sidney Crosby: This one’s a gimme, but one day I’ll be able to sit around a roaring fire and tell my grandchildren about what it was like to watch the greatest generational hockey talent of my lifetime.

Bad hockey teams: Bad hockey teams make you appreciate the ones that are actually good. Whenever I’m feeling down, I think of what it would be like to be the Edmonton Oilers or the Buffalo Sabres, and I realize things aren’t that bad. I mean, I could be living in Edmonton and be giving up goals from center ice.

The Royal Half, LA Kings blog

THE WESTERN CONFERENCE: Between the Kings, Ducks and Sharks (and Flames?!?) battling it out in the Pacific to the Blackhawks, Blues and surprisingly good Predators in the Central... the West Conference is easily the Best Conference.

And the Western teams don't even need a stick salute to honor their fans... they just need the East Coast to stay up late to see what they've been missing out on.

THE EDMONTON OILERS: Look, I get it. For a long time my favorite hockey team, the LA Kings, were the nerdy, awkward kid on the NHL playground. But eventually they matured into the popular high school quarterback while the Edmonton Oilers are still playing D&D before 1st Period.

The Edmonton Oilers unite the hockey world from North America to Russia. Their inept management and inability to groom high draft picks give us all something to laugh and point at. And even the local media pundits who scream about a lack of #grit and denounce fancy stats are sometimes more clueless than Kevin Lowe. And that's saying A LOT.

And when they eventually fire their Head Coach and hire Mark Messier... well the modern day Edmonton Oilers might be the greatest thing to happen to hockey... well since the 1980s Edmonton Oilers.

ADVANCED STATS: No, I'm not thankful for stats like CORSI, Fenwick and PDO themselves. Rather I'm extremely grateful for the Mainstream Media Uproar™ that occurs daily over these advanced stats and their implementation into the NHL culture.

Sounding like the last few people who held onto their horse-drawn carriages as the automobile age dawned, these beat writers and columnists and their lazy narratives of the past few years are being challenged daily by advanced stats.

Besides, how can you not be thankful for something that has allowed Steve Simmons to shoot past Gary Bettman as hockey's biggest villain?

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