Sugar Boo? Fishy? The Springfield Rifle? It's another weird nickname quiz

 Big Dumper, we hardly knew ye.

Yes, I know I’m a hockey columnist, and we’ll get to that. But the big news up in Canada these days is all about baseball, with the Blue Jays dramatic Game 7 win over the Mariners on Monday sending them to the World Series, which starts tonight in Toronto.

It won’t shock you to learn that I’m a Blue Jays fan and have been since I was a little kid, so I’m obviously thrilled to see the team make it back to the top of the mountain after three decades. But I have to admit that part of me was sad to it happen at the expense of the Mariners, a team that entered the league alongside the expansion Jays way back in 1977 and has never made it to World Series. A long and agonizing championship drought, you say? It's possible that some of us up here can relate.

But there’s another reason to love the Mariners: Their nicknames. I’ve always loved a good nickname, and baseball is unquestionably the greatest nickname sport that there is, with the Mariners having had plenty of near-perfect ones. Ken Griffey Jr. as “The Kid”. Randy Johnson as “The Big Unit”. Felix Hernandez as “King Felix”. They even had a guy nicknamed “Death to Flying Things”, which was admittedly recycled by is still an all-timer.

And then there’s arguably the best of them all: Cal “Big Dumper” Raleigh, their slugging catcher who earned the nickname because… well, you can probably figure it out. As far as widely used nicknames go, is “Big Dumper” better than anything the NHL has to offer today? I’m pretty sure that it is.

Of course, you caught that “widely used” qualifier, which brings us to today’s quiz. Yes, as I find myself on the verge of being overwhelmed with envy for Raleigh’s Big Dumper, I think it’s time for another round of “ridiculous nicknames that you’ve probably never heard of but that hockey-reference insists are real”. The go-to site for hockey research added nicknames a few years ago, and let’s just say they’re not especially picky. If a nickname is famous, like The Great One or Mr. Hockey, they use it. If it’s something nobody has ever actually used, like calling Sidney Crosby “Darryl”, they still use it.

We had some fun with this two years ago, with current players. Last year, we were back at it with some historical greats, including the immortal Satan’s Wallpaper that made its way to an episode of Jeopardy. Today, we’re back to the present, with 20 more current stars.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)

The 24 Wikipedia pages for NHL rivalries, ranked by their single wildest passage

I love a good hockey rivalry. The sport has been blessed by some absolute beauties over the years, and there’s nothing quite like watching two teams square off in a matchup soaked in history, trash talk, and bad blood.

I also love a good Wikipedia entry, which I’ll admit is an odd thing to say. But if you go deep enough down the rabbit hole, you can usually find some weird stuff that some agitated editor has managed to slip into the record, quite possibly after months of debate with a different agitated editor. That’s my favorite part.

Today, let’s combine these two passions by reviving an old gimmick: finding the single weirdest sentence on hockey-related Wikipedia pages. I’ve tried this before, with NHL team and NHL arenas. Today we’re going to try NHL rivalries, which has a main page here which then links off to two dozen that have been granted the honor of having their own page.

Yes, there are 24 rivalries that have earned their own Wikipedia page. That simultaneously feels like too many, and also not enough, because some solid matchups like Habs/Sens, Sabres/Leafs and Sharks/Golden Knights don’t make the cut. If this bothers you, and you’re someone who has figured out how to edit Wikipedia, then you know what to do.

I’ve gone through each of our 24 options and pulled out a single passage that really captures the spirit of the thing. Then I ranked them from least to most weird, because sports lists that aren’t ranked are the  coward’s playground. Let’s do this.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)

NHL weekend rankings: Five surprising early stories I'm not buying quite yet

You have to love the early weeks of an NHL season. One week ago, in our first rankings of the year, we had the Panthers in the top spot because they were 3-0-0, were wondering if anyone could beat the Bruins, and were trying to figure out if the Sabres would ever score again.

Things can change quickly, you might say. And every night of NHL action is trying to tell us something. The question is how much of it is real, and how much we should ignore. This week, let’s use our bonus five to plant a few flags in that latter territory.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)

DGB Mailbag: The worst and most perfect metaphor for being a Leafs fan, and more

We’re two weeks into the season, and it’s too early. Too early for panic, too early for trades, too early for rankings, too early for conclusions. In fact, it’s too early for everything but a Friday mailbag that will distract you from doing work you weren’t going to do anyway. Let’s do this.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)

William Nylander was a fluke and the Jets are weird: Prediction contest lessons

We run a prediction contest for our readers right before every regular season, and it results in two of my favorite posts of the year.

My very favorite comes at the end of the season, where I reveal the final results and laugh at you for being wrong. (This is not to be confused with my weekly power rankings, which run all season long and result in you laughing at me for being wrong.) But my second favorite is this one, where we dig into your answers and try to see what they tell us about what the hockey world’s smartest fans – i.e. my readers – are thinking about the coming season.

If you missed the contest post, you can find it here. The contest involves 10 simple questions, covering everything from team success to coaching and front office hot seats to individual awards. This year, we also worked in an Olympic question. And of course, there’s the all-or-nothing bonus questions, which gives you the chance to risk your entire entry for the extra points that might push your entry into the winner's circle.

We had well over 1,100 entries this year. This isn’t a poll with a random sample size, of course, and contest strategy could in theory result in some incentives for weird picks. But we can still learn some interesting things from who was named in your entries, and who wasn't. let’s dive in.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)