M MacDonald Hall

Joined about 1 year ago

• 35 articles written
• 180 comments posted
• 7 articles of the day
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M's Bio

M (Mac) is a freelance hockey analyst, and writes previews, trivia, game recaps, trade and roster information, gear reviews, analysis, etc. for B/R, CBSSports, FoxSports, and other sources, including syndication.

An avid hockey and sport fan, Mac's writing is rooted in a deep love of the game. A Canadian from an English/Scottish family, M consequently has sporting tastes which run the gamut from football (soccer), hockey, basketball, cricket, CFL/NFL football, baseball etc. Baseball and footy were early favourites as M spent hours outdoors playing and practising in the yard, or finding neighbourhood kids to play ball with in the street. At school in Calgary, Mac found mates who played hockey and began a love affair with the Canadian game. Once out of primary school M started playing colligate (middle and grade 10/11) basketball, eventually winning a few championships and earning the "Guard of the Year".

Defence or goaltending have always been M's preferred positions when playing any sport. Hockey/sports nicknames earned over the years include Red, Big Mac, Big Mac-D, Mac, Mego, and Doc.
Mac uses writing to facilitate a positive sport encounter for others. Everyone has his or her own personal connection to the sports they love, and the appetite for knowledge can be insatiable. Sport is for everyone, and if B/R can help another feed that need, that's the aim!

NOTES: Stay tuned for more gear reviews...composite sticks are next, followed by safety gear. Check out the B/R-CBSSports article from Sept '08-'09 to see how the NHL Northwest darkhorse picks did.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to everyone for reading and for all the fantastic feedback. Your reads, comments, criticisms, and Picks of the Day are always gratefully appreciated.

If anyone has any suggestions, opinions, or constructive criticisms of my articles, please feel free to share. OR if anyone ever wants a hand with editing, please feel free to ask.

Mostly, thanks to the Bleacher Report creators, staff, and members, all of whom make this a true community, and to my family for their unwavering support.

CONTACT INFO: (See link below in M's Short List) If anyone has a topic they would like covered, please feel free to mention it. I also cover non-sport subjects for other publications.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Bleacher Report Awards AND "Pick of the Day" Awards (as voted by the Bleacher Report community [Thanks guys and gals!]; B/R Awards compiled by Alan Bass [Thanks Alan!])
PoD Awards - Seven (7) in total, including "By the Numbers: Parts 1 & 2", "A Touch of Class....", "A Hockey Night In Canada....", and others (see archive).
B/R Award, September 2008 - BEST SERIES (Honourable Mention): MacHall's Bleacher Creature Hockey Trivia 1-9 (see archive)

M's Recent Articles

2008 NHL Recap & Review: Snapshots of a Puck-Scuffed Year

Published 6 months ago
274 reads 8 comments

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Hockey Gear Review: A New Kind Of Blade Tape, and a Contest For B/R Hockey Fans!

Published 6 months ago
883 reads 15 comments

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The Much Beleaguered Avery Incident: Why We're Still Talking About It

Published 7 months ago
741 reads 20 comments

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NHL Northwest: Ups, Downs, Unknowns of the League's "Toughest Division"

Published 9 months ago
2140 reads 25 comments

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See 31 more of M's articles »

M Writes About

• NHL (34),
• Calgary Flames (28),
• Hockey (22),
• NHL Northwest (22),
• NHL Western Conference (14),
• Opinion (11),
• Jarome Iginla (11),
• 2008 NHL Playoffs (10)

The Short List What M thinks about sport's most pressing questions

• Favorite Athletes

  Jarome Iginla, Miikka Kiprusoff, Andrew Ference, Craig MacDonald, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, Kirk Muller, Doug Gilmour, Stephane Yelle, Joe Thorton, Martin Brodeur, Joe Carter, Fred Brathwaite, Will Clark, and o so many more. Sometimes a guy shows you something in one specific instance and is now "noticable", even if he isn't really. I like to watch those guys too.

• Favorite Sports Teams

  Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Calgary Roughnecks, Saint John Sea Dogs, Calgary Hitmen, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, Calgary Stampeders, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Team Canada (any event/sport), Guilford Flames, England's National Football team, Scotland's National Football team, Exeter City, Glasgow Rangers, Toronto FC, Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtic, Seattle Seahawks. Basically, put a hockey game in front of me, and if I don't absolutely hate a team or a specific player, I'll cheer!

• All Time Sports Moment

  2004 Calgary Flames Stanley Cup Playoff run. So many memories, so much energy and faith invested! It may not have ended perfectly, but they sure gave their poor fans a great show after such a long post-season drought. Also the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics... fantastic to see the men AND women win gold!

• Most Memorable Game Attended

  Calgary vs San Jose 2 December 2003. My first NHL live, successful penalty shot, courtesy of Shean Donovan. Miikka Kiprusoff's first game against his old team. Later that year we would see the Flames take the Western Conference Championship from the Sharks at the 'Dome. Simple but fantastic hockey. First time in years I saw more wins than losses when I went to the Saddledome.

• Most Unbreakable Sports Record

  Toughie... Gretzky's various records, longest game streak, Wilt Chamberlain's multiples perhaps, Hall's consecutive-game streak? There's a few!

• Ruth or Mays?

  Willie Mays. Not to take anything from Ruth, but Mays was a better all-around player in a League that posed him more challenges and competition.

• Unitas or Montana?

  Montana, because of the memories and his impact on my interest in the game

• Jordan or Russell?

  Michael Jordan. Grew up watching the man, had his poster on my wall (in a trio, with Gretzky and Roberto Alomar) and really dug what he brought to the game. Re-revived basketball.

• Gretzky or Orr?

  Bobby Orr. The obvious answer is Wayne, and the numbers don't lie. But when it comes down to it, Bobby was THE all-around player, and had his recurrent knee problems not been an issue there would be a lot less debate on this matter. Also, I play defence by nature, and having seen what he COULD have done had his body not given out, I'll go with Orr. He was my kind of player, and he really brought it all to the ice like no other since. It's almost another apples and oranges question though, considering the time frames, different positions, and length of career, etc.

• Pele or Maradona?

  Hook the imaginary Football-Manager-me up with a good, all-around squad every day of the week over any induvidual diva-esque star. In other words, take your pick!

• Federer or Sampras?

  I'm going with Sampras for the jokes about him on Sports Night!

• Tiger or Nicklaus?

  Give it to them both for making a televised non-event like golf exciting and popular. I'm not saying it doesn't require skill and isn't impressive, but why watch a golf-carting hole to hole for about one minute of "action"! Most of them are anything but "athletic". It's fun to play golf, but how much coverage does this "sport" need? And for those of you who can watch a tiny white ball sail past clouds AND still want or need the FoxTrax puck, don't talk to me...seriously.

• Petty or Earnhardt?

  I care about NASCAR even less than I do about Formula One or televised golf! Seriously, how can I feel any empathy?

• Schumacher or Senna?

  Again, seriously? Either/or, but Senna came from a less-likely place (who'd have ever thought a German would like cars? Then again, the old and infamous Brasil/Germany connection might be legit even today!)

• Pac 10, Big 12, Big 10, SEC, ACC, or Big East?

  I'm with B/T...if you mean Air Canada Centre, I've made my call. Otherwise, why should Canadians care?

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