Plus we look at the performance of Adam Henrique since being traded to Anaheim. Let’s be honest, it’s approximately 85% Ducks chat – with honourable mention to the Junior Ice Blacks who are currently in Bulgaria for the IIHF Under-20 Division 3 World Championship.

Puck Yeah is a weekly hockey podcast produced in Auckland, New Zealand. Subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, or with your favourite podcast app to get every episode free.

Tickets for the 2018 Ice Hockey Classic are now available at Ticketmaster for Auckland and Ticketek for Wellington and Queenstown.

0:00 – Hockey at the Winter Olympics: Rosters are getting announced but do we really care about the men’s tournament without NHL players?

06:16 – How can we get a more diverse range of hockey nations competing at the Winter Olympics?

09:31 – Poor Team USA and what could’ve been according to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski.

14:40 – Resorting to watching the World Juniors tournament illegally because apparently no one cares outsides of North America or Europe and isn’t broadcasted on New Zealand TV.

18:47 – The 2018 NHL All-Star roster selections and our frustrations with the league’s ‘need’ to have every team to be represented that leaves out much better players.

29:12 – Joe’s crazy concept for a new event at the NHL All-Star skills competition.

29:55 – An update on the Puck Yeah fantasy hockey league.

33:45 – The quality of hockey commentators for the Winter Olympics

35:48 – A short ‘rusty’ story of Logan trying to get his Sky TV signal fixed.

38:28 – A quick wrap of what we did over the Christmas/New Years break.

40:58 – New Zealand’s Secret Santa that’s done through Twitter and the amazing gift Logan got.

44:30 – The death of all other hockey podcasts is here, we welcome the arrival of 31 Thoughts: The Podcast with Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek – just don’t forget about us!

(Main photo: Chung Sung-Jun, IOC)

One way or another I’ve been working in New Zealand sports media for the past five years, trying to get hockey on the 6pm bulletins whenever I could. Of course being a rugby-mad nation, that’s not always easy.

I’m sure I’ve annoyed a few producers along the way by suggesting we cover certain events like the Stanley Cup Finals, the Winter Classic, or the NZIHL – but they’d threw me a bone from time to time that would keep me going. My personal favourite remains hanging out with Chris Belanger at Camorra Hockey School and highlighting his great character for a feature that aired on 3News back in 2013.

I learnt a lot about storytelling from those experiences and decided to launch Puck Yeah Podcast as a way of creating a platform for ice hockey in New Zealand. After a quick search, my co-host Joe Durie came onboard and we’ve been having fun talking puck ever since.

From covering the NZIHL’s axing of Slapshot Productions, to the Ice Blacks at the IIHF World Champs in Auckland, and interviewing great people about their own hockey journeys, 2017 has been unreal. In a few short months, the website has grown from strength to strength, while Joe and I continue to improve as podcast hosts.

There are so many interesting people around New Zealand’s hockey community that we are yet to feature. I can’t wait to share their stories to the rest of the hockey world come 2018. Bring it on!

A WORD FROM JOE:

Logan and I had never met, but over a lunch of Mexican we decided to tie the knot professionally and start this little podcast.

We bonded over the Steve Dangle Podcast and within the first 365 days we had Steve Dangle as a guest on our podcast!

From Mock Expansion Drafts to lost episodes, to breaking news stories and international guests – I’m so proud to be a part of Puck Yeah, which has become the exclusive home of hockey news and information for fans and players in New Zealand.

Bring on Year 2!

Thank you for all the support! Be safe this holiday season and enjoy your time with family & friends. We’ll be back next year.

We dedicate this week’s podcast to co-host Logan’s incredibly generous Secret Santa. If you don’t know, in New Zealand a nationwide Secret Santa is done via Twitter and it’s the most amazing thing ever!

If you didn’t get involved this year, don’t miss out in 2018 – it’s a heap of fun plus the kindness of strangers can really surprise you.

(Main photo: Skycity Stampede / Source: Facebook)

Of course last week we were on location at Paradice Avondale covering an amazing weekend of beer league hockey at the BHL Holiday Classic tournament. There’s some great characters involved with the Backyard Hockey League who are incredibly passionate about growing and improving hockey in New Zealand, so make sure to catch up on that episode on SoundCloud, iTunes, or on this website.

We know that we’ve taken a couple breaks over the course of our first year – so there hasn’t been as many episodes of Puck Yeah Podcast as we would’ve liked, but in 2018 we’re aiming to have one out every week! Expect a lot from us when the NZIHL season rolls around too.

If you were wondering where we were, well… Joe has been in Memphis for work as Radio Hauraki’s resident Instagram husband (hence why there’s no photos of him in this post), while Logan was traveling around LA, Toronto and Nashville with his now fiancée – more on that later.

Puck Yeah 31 does have hockey talk and yes, it’s mostly about the Toronto Maple Leafs and we are sorry (not sorry), but we also compare in-game experiences between Toronto and three other NHL franchises. On top of that, we talk about the Linkin Park & Friends concert that the band put on at the Hollywood Bowl as a way of celebrating the life of Chester Bennington with fans from all around the world.

Speaking of in-game experiences, as mentioned in this episode, ‘Maple Leafs Forever’ is one of the best sports montages around today. Brilliantly edited by Tim Thompson; it covers so much Toronto Maple Leafs history while looking towards the rather hopeful future. The team currently use it as one of their three hype videos that play before the puck is dropped for another period of hockey at the Air Canada Centre.

While in Toronto, Logan proposed to Sarah, his girlfriend of over six-years, on the waterfront of Lake Ontario with a personalised hockey jersey – there’s a good story behind the meaning of that jersey, which we get into on the podcast.

There is more to tell, but you’ll have to listen to this week’s episode for all the details.

A lot happened on our separate trips, so much so that we ran out of time to mention everything – otherwise this podcast could have been really long. Like Steve Dangle long. We might save that for next week, but for now, we hope you enjoy Puck Yeah 31.

– Logan & Joe

5:34 – Interview with Cam Green, BHL co-founder.
20:23 – Logan interviews a member of Les Castors (it may be Joe).
32:09 – Interview with Cam Belworthy, forward for the Wellington Seals, whom played their first competitive games as a hockey club at the tournament.
40:02 – The man with many hats in New Zealand’s ice hockey community, Justin Daigle makes his long awaited debut on the podcast to talk about the Holiday Classic and the those all-important beer runs.

Our recently launched website will still run the occasional hockey news, including the naming of the wider Ice Blacks training squad later tonight, but there will be no new episodes until the end of November.

We’re lining up a few exciting guests including Ice Fernz captain Helen Murray and New Zealand under-20s head coach Justin Daigle – so there’s plenty to look forward to in the coming months but until then, the podcast is on the bench charting shots (likely Tequila).

0:00 – Introducing Chris Aylward, director of ‘The Hockey Film’ and talking hockey with Canadians, our favourite pastime.
3:56 – How Chris came to meet BHL President Cam Green, who both grew up in St Catharines, ON but had never met before
6:21 – The beginnings of ‘The Hockey Film’

8:12 – Chris getting his childhood hero Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Alan Bester involved with the documentary
14:55 – The long road of development and production for a documentary while also working a full-time job
19:10 – The one goal for ‘The Hockey Film’ and aiming for Toronto International Film Festival
20:20 – The variety of people who feature in the documentary, including New Zealand’s Backyard Hockey League
24:25 – Pond hockey in New Zealand, it is a thing!
25:50 – Interviewing Walter Gretzky, father to The Great One

28:10 – Actually small-talking about the weather and how it’s affected the documentary’s production
31:13 – Chris growing up near Buffalo, NY as a Leafs and Oilers fan
33:07 – The community of St Catharines and the Niagara Ice Dogs
36:22 – The original working title of ‘The Hockey Film’ and why Chris changed it
38:13 – Intertwining all the different people into the documentary that will tell the story of ‘The Hockey Film’ and how Chris plans on doing that
39:08 – Other hockey documentaries that have inspired Chris
40:24 – Chris dreams of coming down to New Zealand to play hockey outdoors at Lake Tekapo
42:00 – Including the NZIHL’s West Auckland Admirals into the documentary
43:19 – Facing setbacks and the current status of production
50:19 – When will the film’s production see Chris shooting in New Zealand?

53:22 – Chris’ epic story of creating his own POV camera for his goalie mask to film his games before GoPros were invented
1:02:49 – If the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup before ‘The Hockey Film’ has finished production, would Chris include the victory parade in his documentary?
1:09:20 – The narrative structure of ‘The Hockey Film’ and finding the right balance for personal storytelling and the documentary’s characters
1:15:30 – Release plans for ‘The Hockey Film’ in New Zealand, Canada, and other film festivals
1:23:05 –  We say goodbye to Chris Aylward and quickly wrap things up

For more information check out THE HOCKEY FILM online. Photos provided by Chris Aylward.

0:00 – Introducing this week’s guest, Steve Dangle, and his favourite moments creating the Leafs Fan Reaction videos.
2:31 – The Blue Room where the videos are filmed
3:33 – Late nights producing a same-day video of the latest game
5:23 – When Steve makes innocent mistakes in his videos
6:28 – Does Steve take more joy out of the Leafs being actually good or the Canadiens being terrible?
7:41 – Is it easier to make videos about the Maple Leafs now?
9:25 – Working for Sportsnet

13:00 – Creating the many different voices and characters that show up in the LFR videos, including the famous Mike Babcock impression
14:20 – Would Steve ever consider doing colour commentary for hockey broadcasts or another role in the future?
16:45 – What happens when Ron and Don retire from Hockey Night In Canada?
18:25 – The many different career paths for getting into today’s sports media
22:40 – Was the NHL debut of Australian Nathan Walker a big deal for Canadian hockey media?
24:04 – Steve Dangle gets his oil change and we say goodbye before slowly wrapping up another great episode. Perhaps our greatest yet?

Below are a few of Steve’s classic videos – the thumbnails really make you want to click, don’t they? Enjoy!