NHL coverage is getting awful in most places… there are too many fluff articles and not much analysis… even paid subscriptions don’t necessarily get you much… comment down below 👇 your best and worst sites/blogs to find NHL news!

Top-5 Worst NHL Sites
1. ESPN (they have sports you haven’t heard of getting prime time slots over the NHL playoffs and their insiders have never broken a piece of news in their lives…
2. NHL.com/NHL Network (they have to cover every team so I’m not expecting a lot but I don’t want to watch segments about stupid power rankings that every rational fan disagrees with and interviews with third pairing defensemen with no personality…
3. Daily Faceoff (Seravalli’s intel is skewed by his personal bias… he kept saying that Pittsburgh wasn’t going to get Karlsson then they did)
4. SB Nation/SI (not everything is terrible otherwise they would be higher on the list but most of it is) it’s those fanboys I’ll reference later on
5. The Athletic (a couple decent enough writers, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t get nearly enough quality reading to make a subscription worth it.


Top-5 Best NHL Sites
1. National Hockey Now network (some sites not as good as others, but it’s a lot more realistic and interesting to read than the stupid fanboy bloggers that keep dreaming up stupid pie in the sky ideas that are next to impossible…
2. TSN (they are must see for any important days like free agency or trade deadline and somehow have managed to hoard almost all the best insiders)
3. Sportsnet (nuff said)
4. The Fourth Period (David Pagnotta is the only reason for this. Can’t wait till he gets snatched up and ruined by a major network)
5. NBC (sorry had to our this one in bc I’ll never forget watching the 16-17 playoffs and PIT cups and the broadcasts were unforgettable)

HockeyBuzz? NHLRumors? There are far worse sites that you aren't even thinking of.

Daily Faceoff is fine when Seravalli is covering teams he is connected with. He has almost zero connections with San Jose or Pittsburgh so pointing a finger at the Karlsson trade specifically is not really a compelling argument.

Also the Athletic is fine, your dislike for a subscription does not take away from their inside knowledge on teams. Their subscription service means there are zero ads on the site, really not that different from listening to like 32 thoughts on Spotify premium

Surprised hockey feed isn’t on this list for worst. Their headlines are soooooooo 🤬. Absolutely hate it. And it’s not like the articles are anything good anyways. Absolute trash

***Not sponsored***

The only respectable writer on the Athletic is LeBrun. Outside of him, it's a bunch of calculators that have never put on a pair of skates before and think you can win a cup on an excel spreadsheet

I think it was either Mirtle or Seigel that said that the Leafs got worse because the team shifted away from Dubas and his analytics into a team that uses the eye test

the day after bennett gave knies a concussion, lebrun had a puff piece article about him. was what convinced me to unsub from the athletic

TSN is fairly brutal overall. To them, there are only 7 teams in the NHL. And really, just the Leafs. But they have some good reporters.

The Athletic is quite solid. Their Devils coverage is brutal (they have a Ranger fan covering us), but I like following other team’s beat writers.

Hockey Buzz is the worst.

Athletic subscribers have to deal with ads now. The running of that site has turned into a **** show since it was sold.

Daily Faceoff is number one, anything else you say is blasphemy.

Ok...I may or may not be currently employed by them...

I should have clarified obnoxious ads. I have a subscription and any ads on their app are pretty unnoticeable

I definitely forgot a couple lol 😂

Employed in what way lol 😂

I'm a news writer for Daily Faceoff.

^This^

The same can be said for Sportsnet.

I mean, I understand they're Canadian based companies. But it's absolutely mind-numbing how they always seem to forget that there's hockey south of the Canadian border. Even ESPN manages to provide more hockey based coverage for the rest of the 25 teams in the league then they manage to do so.

Umm... Russo? Smith? Mendes? Rutherford? And Wheeler and Pronman for their prospect coverage? Or Salvian and Lazarus for their comprehensive coverage of everything that's wrong with hockey culture these days and in the past 30 years?

But then, just because beat-writers didn't lace up the skates they can't know or understand hockey. Nevermind that some of them have been around the sport and have had inside connections with various organizations for 10-20 years as a sports journalist.

You may not like analytics, or reporters like Dom L., Or Dayal. But they're the first to always say it's not the end all be all, but meant to be used as a supplemental method to go along with the eye test.

I may not agree with everything that's ever posted or written there. But I can at least acknowledge and accept them as respectable writers. The Athletic is at worst, very solid in its coverage. Even if it's not as good as it used to be.

It's worse on PC, but obnoxious or not they promised no ads to paid subscribers and then just threw that out the window. Plus, they're raising renewal prices while offering new subscribers $1 subscriptions. And of course, choppinf beat writers left and right. Like I said, a total **** show. A ka the standard corporate takeover.

I certainly agree there's more than one good scribe there, but let's be real: Dom acts like he's the pope. And a dickish one, at that. Meanwhile, it's a constant dead giveaway that he only "watches" non -Leafs hockey from a stat sheet. As for the Leafs, he's majestically homer-ific. I'm fairly sure he thumbs the scale on his model for them.

I mean, yeah. I can't say I disagree. And I largely prefer Dayal to Dom's stuff too. Analytically speaking.

But, tbf... Dom HAS stated multiple times now that his model for whatever reason doesn't like the Blues to the point that even HE disagrees with it at times. He's at least honest about his model not being perfect. However, despite that, Dom's attitude and general *dickishness* about the Blues typically stems from the fact that given his run ins with Blues fans in general over the last couple of years because of his model it's soured his own biases in regards to that fanbase as a whole. His dislike about the Blues isn't the team in general, but it's fanbase. Yet people still want to harp on him saying he doesn't like the team. Blues fans decided to treat him and act like ****, because of something he has in the past tried to fix and take better accountability about to no cigar, but the end result of the back and forth was Dom saying F'it and just be a dickhead back. Fire with fire style.

While I can't say I agree with that decision, I certainly can't fault him either. Both parties are guilty of the escalation that brought things to the current point. Just my opinion on things, anyway.

As for only watching the Leafs. I would say he's open about being a Leafs fan given he's from Toronto, but watches other teams whenever possible when he's got money on the games being played. Not just the Leafs. He's open about that too.

After all, his model is specifically designed to be utilized as a betting aid. He's stated as much from the beginning. It's another reason why I prefer Dayal's work to Dom's.

Rather large point of order: Dom definitely hates the Blues team, and he has stated several times that it's because they lost him a lot of bets (ya know, because his model is built to reward teams like the Leafs instead of championship caliber teams). Along the way, Blues fans would critique the model, and Dom would get pissy at them, even if they were as polite about it as could be. Then, AFTER that, he started shirking any attempt at doing his job analyzing their play to troll Blues fans. For like a year and a half. Then, AFTER that, Blues fans started giving him crap for spurning his actual job to be a jackass.

This whole line he now gives about him solely reacting to Blues fans to explain his unprofessional behavior is retcon bull**** of the highest order. And I can all but promise you the editors told him to cut the crap with the Blues and Blues fans, which is why he's returned to mostly attempting to analyze them objectively instead of making it all about him being criticized.