The Masterton, German Hockey, the mailbag, sidling, and other stories from a plane
Greetings from the airplane, I'm on my way to the Frozen Four.
Greetings from an airplane somewhere between Detroit and Las Vegas.
It’s been kind of a chaotic day for me, so I’m going to take a bit of a chaotic approach to this piece, and hopefully we’ll hit on a couple things you’ll find interesting.
Firstly, Robert Tiffin and I recorded Episode 2 today of Algorithmically Incorrect. You might have watched it live here or on YouTube, while it’s also now been uploaded now to your favorite audio platform.
It’s a lengthy show, this week covered two hours and 30 minutes, but I’m pretty happy with it and we had two pretty awesome guests and sharp hockey minds in Jack Han and Rick Bowness.
Han is the author of the must-read Hockey Tactics 2026 and former AHL video coach. He’s also one of the smartest hockey minds I know and really enjoy how he tackles unique topics, including this really interesting piece about what Elite NHLers won’t tell you.
Bowness is the head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets and has coached more games than anyone in NHL history. I’ve known him pretty well since I covered him in Dallas and he was able to join us on an off-day between vital playoff stretch games against the Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres.
There’s a ton to take from both these interviews, and the conversation Robert and I have separately is also pretty good, so I highly encourage you to check the show out. I typically haven’t always been a fan of extra-long podcasts, but with a weekly format and with my rapport with Robert, it honestly doesn’t feel like that long of a show to me when we record.
And if you missed the first episode, you can still go back and watch it here:
On Dominik Shine and the Masterton
Earlier in the day it was revealed that Dominik Shine was the Detroit Chapter of the PHWA’s nomination for the Masterton Award, which “is awarded annually to the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. It is named after Bill Masterton, the only player in NHL history to die as a direct result of injuries suffered during a game.”
The Masterton isn’t a comeback player of the year award and it’s the only award that all PHWA members get to vote on. It’s a story-based award and often times it feels a bit odd that there’s a “winner” when many of the 32 nominees would be worthy of the trophy.
I will have a vote to cast, but I did want to take some time to talk about Shine and why I think he was a pretty strong nominee.
Shine wasn’t just a career AHLer, he was about to be out of hockey completely. During the 2019-20 season, when COVID started to shutdown the world he heavily considered retiring from the sport. It was a pragmatic decision, Shine was making around $60,000 per season that year in the AHL, but was about to have his salary slashed by 40 percent during the 2020-21 season because of the COVID impacts.
Shine said he heavily considered retiring and going into medical sales, joining his wife in that field, before she told him to stick with it and try it for one more season in Grand Rapids, a decision made easier because they still hadn’t had any children to support.
And that 2020-21 AHL season was wonky, there were long quarantine periods and close-contact protocols, teams commonly played with less than 18 skaters and Shine often had games where he played both defense and forward. That experience laid the groundwork for more AHL deals with the Grand Rapids Griffins and eventually, last season, he got the surprise call-up to the NHL and signed an NHL deal on a day he was planning on just buying his son his first pair of skates.
It’s one of my favorite stories I wrote last season, so it’s worth sharing again.
Also here’s an excerpt, and I’m happy to say I’ve since gotten to know Shine a lot better since I wrote this:
I was really close to being in the same camp as Red Wings coach Todd McLellan, who admitted that as of 12 hours ago he had no idea Dominik Shine even existed3.
So I don’t know Shine well, and I can’t give the best version of his story. But I can connect with his journey on Monday.
While we were waiting for players to enter the room for interviews, my wife texted me that my 4-year-old son was still up and missing me, asking me if I could send a quick picture or FaceTime with him to make him smile.
One of the things about working in sports, especially if you travel for the job, is there are times you feel like an absent father, a degenerate that’s leaving before dinner to go cover a frivolous game. “I miss you dad,” is one of the most wonderful and heartbreaking things you hear at the same time.
Shine has since played 24 more NHL games, he’s scored his first career NHL goal and at 32, he’s not taking anything for granted.
To me that’s a pretty good embodiment of what the Masterton should be about.
On German Hockey, Dallas Eakins, and passion
Another story I wanted to highlight today was from Craig Morgan, who has covered hockey in Arizona better than anyone and it’s a damn shame that he’s no longer doing it in a full-time capacity.
