The Pride of Scituate: Conor Garland

Very rarely is someone known as the pride of a certain town, for our little south shore town that is Conor Garland. The 19-year-old has played in the QMJHL for the Moncton Wildcats for the past four season. Garland has improved rapidly since his first season in the QMJHL. Garland left Shattuck-Saint Mary's in 2011 and returned back home to play for the Boston Junior Bruins in the Empire Junior Hockey League. Garland started the next with the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the USHL, and committed to Penn State University. But Conor decided to forego his NCAA eligibility and join the Wildcats of the QMJHL. 

The Year After: A Hockey Story

Every athlete knows that the end of their career is always right around the corner. With each passing year it becomes more and more apparent that you won't play forever. It's gets harder and harder to make teams, and less and less of your friends are on those teams. For most athletes that final year is your senior year of high school, by that time if you don't have an offer to go somewhere you probably aren't playing sports. It's all about closing out your high school career with a championship season, we all dream about going out on top and for some that’s a reality. But for most of us it ends when the season ends whether that means playoffs or not.

Why Patrick Kane's incredible early season performance should surprise no one

June 15th 2015 was night of celebration for Patrick Kane and the Chicago Blackhawks who had just won their third Stanley Cup in six years. The Blackhawks had cemented themselves as legitament dynasty and have knocked off some of the leagues best along the way. But that would be the start of one of the most trying summers of Patrick Kane's life. Kane had been on his best behavior since 2010 when he fought a cabby over a few bucks. He was showing signs of growing up and had just signed a huge contract along with fellow teammate Jonathan Toews for eight years and 84 million. The big contact showed that the Blackhawks had faith in Kane and believed he was a changed man. Flash forward to early August 2015, when a story broke that had a women accusing Kane of raping her at his house during a party. In the days following and more and more information came out it sounded pretty bad for Kane. Public perception had turned against him and with each new news story it just made the situation sound worse for the Blackhawks star. 

The light at the end of the tunnel: It looks like the Oilers rebuild is finally coming to an end

It has been a long and difficult road for the Edmonton Oilers, it all started nine seasons ago when the Edmonton Oilers lost in the Stanley Cup final to the Carolina Hurricanes. Since that season the Oilers have struggled to even sniff around eighth place in the Western Conference. It is the longest drought in the NHL currently, and since that season the Oilers haven't been able to find the right combination of veterans and their young talent. They have been a joke of hockey fans everywhere, and have always been at the top of the draft lottery. The Oilers in eight of the past nine season the Oilers have picked in the top ten of the first round, and four out of the last five years they have picked first overall. It would seem that the Oilers would be trending in the right direction with all of these top level picks, but they just haven't surrounded them with the right pieces to help them grow and develop.

My very first article: Will Henrik Lundqvist & The Rangers be able to bounce back after losing in game six of the Stanley Cup

                                   
Last year we saw Henrik Lundqvist carry the New York Rangers to game six of the Stanley Cup final, until being heart broken by Alex Martinez and the Los Angeles Kings on their way to their second Stanley Cup in two years. So what now for the king he has had a shortened summer to re-tool his game and get healthy after a long Stanley Cup run. If he was able to get a full summers work then he should be able to play just as well if not better than he was last year during the playoffs. There is absolutely no doubt that Henrik Lundqvist is one of the best and most consistent goalie year-in-year-out, he struggled a little at the beginning of the preseason but started to look like himself after a few starts and that is to be expected. 

A great end to a great career: Congratulations to Kimmo Timonen

Last night saw the Chicago Blackhawks win their third cup in six seasons and cement their dynasty as one of the best teams in the past decade. The game saw Duncan Kieth and Patrick Kane score in the 2-0 victory in games six. But there was a bigger story in this game 40 year old Blackhawks defense man Kimmo Timonen won his first and only Stanley cup, as he is set to retire now that the season is over. Back on August 5th 2014, Flyers GM Ron Hextall came to a press conference and announced "Kimmo Timonen has been diagnosed with blood clots in his lower right leg and in both lungs. Kimmo is currently being treated for this disorder back in his home country of Finland. His return to play is yet to be determined". It was an injury that many though would be the end of Timonen, when it was first reported many believed that he would just retire because of it. 

My new blog

Hi all,
My name is James McGowan and I am currently a writer for Fantasypros.com, I cover the New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles for fantasy baseball news. I formerly wrote for sportsinjuryalert.com until they were sold to Fantasypros and I covered the NHL's injury's. I love hockey and baseball, and it has been my dream to be a sports writer and I am currently working on a deal with thehockeydesk.com, to be a contributor to their magizine and their website. I will also be the director of social media, I invite you to follow me on Twitter @J3sports3 that is where I put out all of my articles. In this blog I will be covering some hockey things as we get into the off season, and some baseball things that I would otherwise not be able to cover. Thank you for reading and thank you for the support as I try and get my name out in the world of sports writing.