Are goons back?

Fighting has always existed in hockey but in this day and age its been largely phased out (sadly). Enter Matt Rempe who has taken the league by force….Literally. Rempe has played 7 total games in the big show and has a goal an assist and 37 Penalty minutes. Hes mostly fought teams big guys and most recently squared off against Ryan Reaves of the Maple leafs. Do you wish there was more fighting in Hockey? Let us know on the socials!

A look at F1’s “Free agency”

In formula one teams battle more off the track than on it and one example of this is when one team tries to sign their rivals top driver. The drama of watching spoiled rich kids complain about miniscule things while sitting on a stack of cash that would make heath ledger smile (think Lando Norris in the newest season of DTS) is something that keeps me just as entertained as the racing itself. drivers team principles and others navigating a conversation with their former co workers is like watching the most awkward parts of exes being forced to talk and it has me reaching for popcorn everytime, drinking in the second hand embarrassment. If you’re like me and got into formula one pretty recently, a driver move like Fred Vasseur and Ferrari snatching Lewis from Toto’s clutches makes me want to go back and review some of the other earth shattering moves in F1’s fascinating past.

Since Lewis moving to Ferrari was my motivation for writing this article i figured i would start there. It goes without saying Lewis is the best driver of his generation. With a record 7 world titles the only other driver to share that claim is the great Michael Schumacher who also made his own monumental move to Ferrari from a championship winning Benetton team. Will Buxton has already claimed the signing of Hamilton to the biggest in F1 history. No matter if he stayed at Mercedes or moved to Ferrari there’s still a significant gap between the Red Bull Car and the rest of the field. will this move be what allows Lewis to stand alone in the record books or will it be another year in the shadow of Verstappen?

You’re gonna notice most of these involve Ferrari in someway and i want to take a min to talk about Sebastian Vettel (who hasn’t ruled out a return for the empty Mercedes seat in 2025) and his move from Red Bull to Ferrari. This is one that seems eerily similar to the Hamilton move imo. Seb won 4 consecutive titles with Red Bull and had two more competitive seasons with the Austrian juggernaut before he donned the red and black for the Scuderia. At the time he was expected to compete for titles and maybe try to catch another famed Ferrari driver, however his move came in the midst of Lewis and Mercedes’ dominance and a decline in Ferrari after his first two campaigns with the team. He was never able to capture his 5th title with Ferrari and eventually moved on to Aston Martin before announcing his retirement but we’re all hoping to see the youngest champion in the history of the sport make one more “swap”.

I’d be remiss if i didn’t touch on the amount of drivers Williams racing has built up over the years just i have them leave at their apex due to the silly season of Formula One. Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet, Damon Hill and Alain Prost were all championship drivers for Williams at one point in their careers, another similarity they all share is they all LEFT Williams shortly after those aforementioned titles. Each one of those drivers deserves their own section on jumping ship and some found success in their careers after the moves like Prost and Mansell and others like Damon Hill found themselves in the doldrums of championship contention.

There is one driver who has MASTERED the art of swapping teams, slithering through the paddock from team to team finding success at just about every stop along the way. Fernando. Alsonso. The two time world champion is one of the most prestigious names in all of motor sports but he’s never been synonymous with one team. He won both of his titles with Renault back in ‘05 and ‘06  but he’s driven with McLaren, Ferrari, Alpine, and Aston Martin over a nearly 20 year career at the top of the sport. With McLaren he competed for titles with Lewis Hamilton and others before finding success with Ferrari as well. Alonso had 3 second place finishes in the drivers championship trailing Sebastian Vettel each time while he was a member of The Prancing Horses. He once more returned to McLaren but to much less success and this seemed to be the end of Fernando as he announced his retirement. However after  two year sabbatical and a one year stint with alpine he was back on the podium for Aston Martin and they’re going to be looking for more of that same success in 2024. Knowing Alonso they’re going to need it because he’s going to be on whatever team gives him the best chance to capture his third title. 

Do you have a driver move that sticks out to you that i didn’t cover? Do you think Lewis Hamilton moving to Ferrari is the biggest in the history of the sport before he’s even driven a lap for them? Will it bring him his elusive 8th championship or will he suffer the same fate as Sebastian Vettel? Let us know on the socials or tell us in the comments of the Ocho on Wednesday night!

NHL DFS!

There are some powerhouse tilts going on tonight in the NHL including Boston vs Toronto and Florida vs New York (the Rangers) but I am not looking at either of those games for my favourite stacks (though totally would get stacking Matthews). My #1 stack is one of the late games The Colorado Avalanche are taking on the Hawks. Mackinnon, Drouin and Lehkonen with Annunen in Goal is where im starting to build my line ups. Those are some pricey picks so lets look for some Value in the Flyers vs Blues game. Laughton, Foerster and Farabee all sitting at the sub $5K price point. Ill close out my line up with some diversity taking Larsson and Forsling from the Kraken and Panthers.

And thats all for todays edition dont forget to catch us Wednesday at 8pm eastern over on youtube!