BHN Puck Links: Goodbye To A Loyal Friend To Hockey, Alex Trebek

Who didn’t love Alex Trebek?

It was a sad weekend that goes right in line with the rest of 2020 when the world learned that 80-year-old Alex Trebek had ended his courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. Trebek was a proud Canadian from Sudbury, Ontario, a massive hockey fan and avid player and one of those iconic people in our everyday lives as the host of Jeopardy over the last 36 years.

True to his hockey nature, Trebek played hurt all the way to the end continuing to host Jeopardy through his terminal diagnosis right up until the very end of his life. It created some beautiful moments with contestants showing their love and appreciation for the warm, dry-humored host, and Trebek introducing Ottawa Senators first round pick Tim Stuetzle in the 2020 NHL Draft was the highlight of the entire night.

But this will forever be my favorite Trebek memory along with the many, many nights of watching Jeopardy with my whole family while growing up.

RIP to Jeopardy host 🐐 and proud Canadian Alex Trebek at 80 years old. His intro of Senators 1st round pick Tim Stuetzle was great NHL theater, but this remains my favorite Trebek moment of all-time pic.twitter.com/9712xyvQRu

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) November 8, 2020

We would keep score right along with the contests to see who would win every night after dinner. Those were great days and that tradition continued on with many, many other families all over America over the last three plus decades.

The good news is that there will be new episodes of Jeopardy with Trebek running through this Christmas, so we’ll have a long goodbye with our favorite game show host.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Trebek.

Now on to the links:

*Would you bet on the Pittsburgh Penguins? The Las Vegas oddsmakers have chimed in and the Penguins are still high up in the Stanley Cup odds. (Pittsburgh Hockey Now)

*The Boston Bruins were ranked tops in the NHL when it comes to contract efficiency. How much credit does Don Sweeney deserve for that? (Boston Hockey Now)

*The Florida Panthers have named Ulf Samuelsson as an assistant coach to their NHL club. Cam Neely couldn’t be reached for comment, but I just like to imagine the colorful language he would use to describe his longtime adversary. (Florida Panthers)

*The Montreal Canadiens fans are lining up united in support of Habs GM Marc Bergevin after a big offseason when they traded for Josh Anderson and really toughened up their NHL roster. The Habs are going to be a tough, tough team to play when the puck is dropped. (The Hockey Writers)

*Here’s the latest on the top-20 UFAs that are still out there on the free agent market. The Bruins are still in the running for Mike Hoffman at this point. (Sportsnet)

*Congrats to UMass and NHL alum Greg Mauldin, who becomes the first black hockey coach in the history of the US National Development Team Program. A great guy and an excellent player for UMass back in the day too. (NHL.com)

*For something completely different: McDonald’s is trying to come up with some kind of chicken sandwich that’s going to challenge Chick-Fil-A for chicken sandwich supremacy. Ummm, that isn’t going to happen. (NBC10)