Sports
Baggy nets and blue undershirts: 6 more things I miss from the NHL’s ancient days
Exactly one year ago today, I wrote a column about being old, and the subtle things I miss about what hockey used to be. No big issues, to be clear – we’re talking stuff like how the water bottles used to pop off the nets, and how linesmen used to have to climb the glass to avoid the puck. If I’m being honest, I figured it would be a bit of a throwaway, the kind of midseason filler that’s fun for a day and then fades quickly. Instead, it became one of my more popular columns of the season, and I decided to make it a regular feature.
Then I forgot. Because I am old.
But if there’s anything us old fogies do better than the occasional memory lapse, it’s celebrating the random anniversary of things that weren’t all that important to begin with. So today, one year later, I’m bringing the gimmick back, with a half dozen new items. Well, old ones. You’ll figure it out.
But first, just like last time, a disclaimer: This is all in good fun, and very much not meant to be some whiny screed about how much better things used to be, and how Gary Bettman has ruined everything by dragging the game into the 20th century. If you have strong feelings about that stuff, please take them elsewhere, because I am decrepit and fragile.
Let’s get old.
I miss when the nets were loose and baggy
How it used to be: A player would carry the puck through the neutral zone, with nobody in his way because the trap hadn’t been invented yet. Then he’d skate to the top of the circle and wind up for a slap shot because gap control hadn’t been invented yet. Then he’d rip a howitzer past a terrified tiny man because goaltending hadn’t been invented yet.
And then the puck would stay in the net. Somewhere.
You see, kids, back in the old days the nets were loose and baggy. That made sense to us because their job was to stop the puck when a goal had been scored. So even if you lost track of the puck, which you definitely did thanks to the 14-inch standard-definition TV the whole family was crowded around, you’d see a big bulge in the back of the net and know that goal had been scored.
Why it changed: Presumably because the linesmen complained about having to go elbow-deep in fishing twine to retrieve a puck while everyone else waited for the game to start. And sure, I get that. But at some point, net-tightening technology got out of control, to the point where the things barely seem to have any give at all anymore.
Why I miss it: First of all, because I’m tired of being confused about whether a goal was even scored because the puck goes into the net at 95 mph and comes out at roughly 96, eventually embedding itself in the boards at the opposite end of the rink.
But there was also just something cool about the visual. In last year’s comment section, reader Tom L. once described it as “Like catching a comet in a butterfly net,” at which point he was immediately perma-banned for writing something better than I ever could.
I miss when a team’s three best forwards were on the top line
How it used to be: There was a time when a team’s first line was made up of its best center and its two best wingers. The second line was the next best center and next two best wingers. And not only did this not seem weird, we couldn’t even imagine a different way of doing it.
For the record, this wasn’t a hard and fast rule across the entire league, and you’d occasionally get guys playing higher up the lineup than you’d expect. (This was especially true when somebody like Dave Semenko would get to ride shotgun for Wayne Gretzky, just in case anyone needed to be taken for a canoe ride.) But occasional exceptions aside, it was pretty much the default setting.
That started to shift around the time the cap came in, as teams moved toward spreading their best players across three or even four lines. Often, that meant the top center would have one top winger who’d regularly play with him, and then a rotating cast of depth guys who’d fill out the third spot. Sometimes it clicked, and you’d even occasionally discovered a star-in-the-making like Zach Hyman this way. But loading up the team’s three best forwards on one line for an entire game? These days, it’s rare.
Why it changed: My guess is that two main factors came into play, both of which made balanced lineups more important. The first was the cap, and the parity it forced on the league. It’s one thing to put your three best forwards on the top line, and something else entirely when those are your only three good forwards. We also saw the game evolve to a much higher tempo than we saw back in the olden days, where players took longer shifts and rarely went full speed. With everyone mashing the turbo button at all times these days, you can’t play that top line for 25 or 30 minutes like you could before, so spreading out the offense becomes a priority.
Why I miss it: Because it was just cool to see all that talent on the ice at once, especially when teams matched top lines and there were six all-stars facing off against each other. And it was fun when your team acquired a star player and you’d start mentally shifting the lines around in your head, rather than finding out he’d been slotted in for third-line duty because the top line with the 12-goals-a-year plugger has too much chemistry to disrupt.
I miss when all the players wore the same light blue undershirts for some reason
How it used to be: I don’t know why or when it started, but when I was growing up, every NHL player wore the same light blue undershirt. (OK, yes, except for Rob Ray.)
If you looked closely, you could see them peaking out from beneath the jersey pretty much all the time. But you really got a good look under two sets of circumstances: Any time a player was interviewed in the dressing room, or whenever a guy got into a fight and had his jersey pulled off.
A significantly rarer third option that nonetheless helps illustrate our point: When players were forced to take part in intermission comedy sketches.
Why it changed: I have no idea, although I’m going to assume that somebody invented a better moisture-absorbing material that was lighter and/or more comfortable, and the modern generation adopted that because they are soft.
Relatedly, I have no idea when this changed. I know those shirts were everywhere in like 1993, and they’re not around now, but you could tell me that they disappeared gradually or in some specific year in between there and I would have no choice but to believe you.
Why I miss it: I have no idea. My brain may be broken.
I miss when referees would announce the result of goal review with a dramatic point
How it used to be: A goal would be scored, or maybe it wouldn’t, and nobody would be quite sure. So we’d go to replay review, which always worked great and everybody loved, to try to figure it out. That meant the referee would have to skate over to the penalty box area, where they’d try to hand him a beige phone with a comically long extension chord through a little hole in the glass, which was always peak comedy. He’d listen, somebody somewhere would watch a replay, and we’d all wait as the suspense mounted.
And then, the decision would arrive – at which point the ref would nod solemnly, return the phone, and then take a few confident strides toward center ice before either pointing to the faceoff dot (for a goal) or waving his arms (for no goal). It was emphatic, decisive, and the only way that made sense.
Why it changed: Because the NHL realized that the NFL had its officials actually announce their calls into microphones and thought, “Hey, I bet our guys could do that too.” Spoiler alert: No they could not.
Why I miss it: First are foremost, because today’s NHL microphones seldom work. And on the rare occasions that they do, every referee who isn’t Wes McCauley clearly hates having to do the announcement and rush through the entire thing like a scared third-grader getting his public speaking presentation out of the way. Half the time the crowd is just confused about what the ref is even trying to tell us, especially since a lot of these guys don’t know how to just get to the point and say goal or no goal. It’s a mess.
But even beyond that, the point-or-wave dynamic was just better. It was more dramatic. What’s that old saying when it comes to screenwriting, show don’t tell? The NHL was better when they’d show us with an emphatic motion instead of telling us with rambling expository dialog.
One bit of good news: Unlike just about all of the other items I complain about in this column, where there’s no reasonable path back to how it used to be, we could fix this one at any time. Just call up the referees union and tell them the broken mics are history, and we’re back to pointing. I’m pretty sure they’d be thrilled. All we’d need to do is provide a little bit of training to remind them how it’s done. Maybe Auston Matthews could volunteer.
I miss when cool moments were punctuated with flashbulbs going off
How it used to be: Some key moment would come along, especially around the net, and the darkened arena would explode with camera flashbulbs.
If you’ve ever wondered why those “ol’ hockey pictures” looked so cool, here’s how they did it:
I slowed down the Mahovlich goal from ‘72. You can see the flash bulbs mounted on the glass going off simultaneously to take the pic. The resulting pic is in the thread BELOW.. pic.twitter.com/VVXQK3ctn6
— Old Hockey Cards (@oldhockeycards) December 2, 2023
It was like a mini-fireworks show, one that you came to associate with “something very important just happened.”
Why it changed: I don’t know enough about photography to say for sure, but I’d assume that better camera technology is to blame here, as well as better lightning in arenas.
Why I miss it: Because flashbulbs automatically increase the drama of a given sports moment by roughly 300 percent.
This isn’t an NHL-specific issue, by the way. Other sports have also lost their bulbs, with nighttime baseball and football being especially affected. If you’re feeling generous with your definitions, it’s possible that no “sport” has suffered more here than pro wrestling. But hockey had its moment too, and I miss them. Photography was just better back then. With one notable exception.
I kind of miss when random fans would jump on the ice to celebrate with the players
How it used to be: You’d be sitting at home, watching your team win the Stanley Cup. The final buzzer would count down, and the bench would empty in an explosion of joy and relief, as the superstar forward and stud defenseman raced down the ice pile onto the starting goalie. And then you’d look up and Gord from accounting would be there too.
Why it changed: Because it was one of the stupidest things ever, and I can’t believe there was a time when we let this happen in pretty much every sport.
Why I miss it: I know I shouldn’t because it was dumb and also legitimately dangerous. It was also unfailingly hilarious, and it only gets funnier with time, since you get to enjoy those wonderful ’70s and ’80s fashions.
The whole thing is fascinating to me as an introvert who doesn’t enjoy making eye contact with my own children. I can’t get inside the head of somebody who sees their team celebrating a huge win and thinks, “You know what I bet would make this even better? Me. Hold my popcorn, I’ll be back in a bit…”
Today, anyone who tries to jump on the ice at the final horn would be immediately tackled, arrested, and barred from the arena for life. And for the record, I have no issue with that, other than we should do it to the glass-bangers too. But there was a weird time when we all just accepted it, and I kind of miss it.
(Top photo of Wayne Gretzky with the Stanley Cup: David E. Klutho /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
Sports
London descends into disorder as Morocco fans flood streets after World Cup elimination by France
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Public unrest began in parts of London late Thursday night, and it appears Morocco’s exit from the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the hands of France is the reason.
France took down Morocco 2-0, eliminating the African country for the second consecutive tournament, this time in a quarterfinal match.
As a result, many feared Paris would erupt into riots, especially after the chaos that followed Paris Saint-Germain’s UEFA Champions League victory over Arsenal in May.
Instead, images and videos from Edgware Road in northwest London showed police clashing with large crowds as smoke billowed through the streets and debris littered the roadway.
A police vehicle is parked in a road as people from pro-Palestinian activist groups gather near the Edgware United Synagogue during a demonstration against the “Great Israeli Real Estate Event” organized by real-estate agency My Home in Israel, which markets property in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in London, Britain, June 14, 2026. (Toby Shepheard)
Riot police, equipped with shields and body armor, tried to contain the crowds as they clashed with people launching fireworks and throwing debris. One video also appeared to show an officer down.
KYLIAN MBAPPÉ, OUSMANE DEMBÉLÉ FIRE FRANCE INTO WORLD CUP SEMIFINALS WITH WIN OVER MOROCCO
It’s unknown what happened to the officer who was down on the asphalt or how he was injured.
Fans waved Moroccan flags in the middle of the streets, which held up traffic. Some even jumped on top of vehicles trying to get through the area.
Moroccan fans in the stands before a FIFA World Cup 2026 quarterfinal match between France and Morocco at Boston Stadium July 9, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (Richard Sellers/SportsphotoAllstar)
Similar scenes unfolded after Egypt’s World Cup exit, when Argentina rallied for a controversial 3-2 victory that featured several disputed officiating decisions.
Paris, on the other hand, looked more like a city celebrating than one on the brink of a riot. Supporters of both France and Morocco flooded the streets, slowing traffic in several parts of the city.
One video showed horns blasting from cars with French and Moroccan flags out the windows on the L’avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Supporters on the side of the road, waving their own flags, joined in on the celebration.
France’s Kylian Mbappé scored his eighth goal of this World Cup, which ties him for the most with Argentina’s Lionel Messi. Ousmane Dembélé also scored in the second half for France in the 2-0 win over Morocco.
It’s the third straight semifinal appearance for France, while Morocco still made World Cup history despite the loss. After becoming the first African country to reach the quarterfinals and semifinals in World Cup history in 2022, Morocco added to that by becoming the first-ever African nation to reach more than one quarterfinal.
Moroccan fans react while attending a watch party for the World Cup round of 8 match between France and Morocco in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 2026. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP)
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Morocco’s exit means there are no more African nations alive in the World Cup. France will be taking on the winner of Spain and Belgium, while England and Norway and Argentina and Switzerland face off in the quarterfinals.
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LONDON — A local boy sleeps in his own bed, plays in front of a king and queen and makes a Cinderella run to the Wimbledon semifinals. Sounds like a Hollywood script that might never see the silver screen.
But it’s no fairy tale — it’s Arthur Fery’s out-of-nowhere performance over the last 10 days.
Fery, a virtually unknown British wild card with a triple-digit ranking, has become the emotional heartbeat of Wimbledon while legitimately diverting some national attention from England’s World Cup quest.
The royal treatment at his matches across the All England Club has come in more ways than one.
Fery, who grew up five minutes from Wimbledon and is staying at home during the tournament, first played before grass-court king Roger Federer, Wimbledon’s eight-time singles champion, during Monday’s fourth-round victory. Two days later, he beat No. 9 seed and French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli of Italy in the quarterfinals 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0 in front of Queen Camilla.
Ranked 114th, Fery had never reached the semifinals of an ATP Tour event, let alone a major, before his brief chat with the queen following the match.
“She just said, ‘Congratulations, keep going,’” 23-year-old Fery told reporters later. “I told her it was my birthday on Sunday, so it would be great to play the Wimbledon final on my birthday.”
That’s still a match away. To get there, Fery will have to get past one of the hottest players on tour: No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev, who is fresh off his first Grand Slam title at the French Open. Looming on the other side of the draw is a highly anticipated showdown between defending champion Jannik Sinner against 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic.
If Fery can continue his magical run to the end, he would become the first British wild card to win a Wimbledon title.
Arthur Fery reacts after defeating Flavio Cobolli in the Wimbledon quarterfinals on Wednesday.
(Maja Smiejkowska / Associated Press)
Born in France, Fery’s family moved to Wimbledon when he was an infant. His mother played professional tennis. He was a top British junior but chose to sharpen his game for three years in the U.S. collegiate system at Stanford, as many of his compatriots have done.
“I came out with a lot of hunger coming out of that, and I was ready to attack the pro circuit,” Fery said.
After struggling with bone bruising in his arm that limited him to playing mostly on the lower-tier Challenger circuit in recent years, Fery is finally healthy and playing consistently.
His path to the last four in London has been a masterclass in clutch come-from-behind performances. The Brit has stared down near-certain elimination in multiple matches, repeatedly breaking his opponents’ momentum with Houdini-like on-court acts.
At 5-foot-9, Fery possesses a skill set perfectly suited for low-bounding grass.
His compact strokes, low center of gravity, and elite movement allow him to hug the baseline, take time away from opponents, and confidently execute delicate volleys at the net, according to ESPN analyst Chris Eubanks.
“He defends well,” said Eubanks, a 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinalist. “He can scrap. He can claw. He can dig his way back into points. And when he ventures forward, he’s very, very comfortable at the net. This is a picture-perfect example of someone whose game is built for the surface.”
Still, it’s hard to fathom the multitude of milestones for Fery, who briefly reached the No. 1 ranking in college and earned 2023 Pac-12 Singles Player of the Year honors before leaving early to pursue a pro career.
He arrived at Wimbledon with just one main-draw victory at a major, a losing record as a professional, and only one previous ATP quarterfinal, at Queen’s Club last month. He’s now 11-8, won his first two five-set matches, and is the first British wild card to reach the Wimbledon men’s semifinals in the Open Era. The only other men’s wild-card semifinalist was Goran Ivanisevic, who won the title as a wild card in 2001.
Fery, who started the season ranked No. 185 and will climb to at least No. 36 after the tournament, said there were a “lot of first times” as he reflected on his unprecedented run. “First five-setter, longest match that I’ve ever played, first time breaking into the top 100, first second week in a slam, all at home, five minutes from where I grew up. It’s a great story for me,” he said.
The gap with his fellow semifinalists is understandably massive.
Entering Wimbledon, Djokovic, Sinner and Zverev’s combined records include 29 Grand Slam titles, 2,088 match wins and 155 tour-level titles. Fery was 6-8 in tour-level matches with zero titles.
But he has singlehandedly lifted the tournament for locals. With top hopes Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu withdrawing before the tournament and the rest of Britain’s singles prospects falling one by one — 18 men and women were eliminated by the third round — Fery became the nation’s last knight standing.
If his first name inevitably evokes Arthurian legend, Fery’s march through the draw gave Britain reason to believe again. No sword, no Round Table, just world-class shot-making, a lion’s heart and a Centre Court crowd thrilled to rally behind him.
“This is really quite something to see on home soil,” said Russell Fuller, the BBC’s tennis correspondent, who compared it with Raducanu’s stunning U.S. Open win in 2021 as a qualifier.
Fery earned every bit of it.
In the first round against Damir Dzumhur, Fery dropped the opening set and trailed by a break in the second before surging back. Against Zizou Bergs in the third round, he faced a 4-1 deficit with a double break in the fourth set, and again fell behind 4-1 in the fifth, before somehow surviving.
Then, stepping onto Centre Court for the first time against former top-10 stalwart Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria in the fourth round, Fery clawed out of a 2-sets-to-1 hole and a break down in the fourth set to clinch the victory in a fifth-set tiebreak.
“He carries himself with humility, but he’s a fierce competitor, and he’s got a ton of belief in himself,” said Stanford men’s coach and former top-60 player Paul Goldstein, who flew to England Tuesday to see his former charge compete against Cobolli.
While Fery attempts to outmaneuver Zverev on Friday, the other semifinal features a 2025 Wimbledon semifinal rematch between seven-time Wimbledon winner Djokovic and top-ranked Sinner, who defeated the Serb in straight sets on his way to the title. It’s also their second Grand Slam semifinal meeting in 2026. At January’s Australian Open on hard courts, Djokovic bested 24-year-old Sinner in five sets before falling to now-injured Carlos Alcaraz in the Melbourne final.
Arthur Fery hits a return during his Wimbledon quarterfinal win over Flavio Cobolli on Wednesday.
(Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)
Djokovic, 39, enters the match after surviving a grueling five-set, 5-hour-plus quarterfinal slugfest against No. 3 Félix Auger-Aliassime that concluded just minutes before Wimbledon’s 11 p.m. curfew. But the seventh-seeded Serb has a way of defying Father Time and he has had two days to recover on a surface where points are shorter and generally less taxing on the body.
Italy’s Sinner, who defeated Alcaraz in last year’s Wimbledon final, has been efficient if not at the level that saw him capture five consecutive titles before crashing out in the second round at the French Open. After a first-round scare here, the four-time Grand Slam champion has dominated opponents behind his improving serve, winning 80% of his first-serve points. He hasn’t dropped a set since the opening round. Sinner leads the head-to-head with Djokovic 6-5.
According to Eubanks, Djokovic must disrupt Sinner’s movement to break his rhythm, and take his chances.
“He’s got to play similar to how he played in Australia, where it was just all-out aggression,” Eubanks said.
For Sinner, he added: “His serve can be a neutralizing force for what Novak is going to try to do.”
On the other side of the ledger, Fery’s poise under pressure and deft use of the home crowd will be paramount to continue his surprise run against Germany’s Zverev, whom he called a “step up again” from his last five matches. Zverev, 29, is seeking his fifth major final and first at Wimbledon.
“I’m ready for it,” Fery said. “I have nothing to lose. I’m just going to go out there and … put my game on the court, do what I’ve done, believe in myself. We’ll see where that takes me.”
Home has never been closer to Centre Court. Nor has Arthur Fery ever been closer to tennis history.
Sports
Pirates star pitcher makes unfortunate history after being taken out in middle of perfect game bid
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Jared Jones was flirting with Major League Baseball history on Wednesday night — he got it, but it was not what he originally envisioned.
The Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher retired the first 18 batters he faced, but he was taken out in the middle of his perfect game bid after six innings.
Now, the Pirates certainly have their reasons — the 24-year-old Jones hasn’t thrown more than 81 pitches in eight starts since returning May 20 after missing all of last season while undergoing ulnar collateral ligament internal brace surgery on May 21, 2025. He was yanked with 77 pitches and likely would have needed more than 100 pitches to record the 25th perfect game in MLB history.
Jared Jones of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches during the first inning against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park on July 8, 2026, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
However, Jones left the game after getting zero run support, so when the Atlanta Braves tacked on three runs late for a 3-0 victory, Jones instead found himself in the wrong chapter of the history books.
According to Opta Stats, Jones became the first pitcher in the modern era (since 1920) to pitch at least six perfect innings and not record a win.
“It does suck. Something’s cool coming on, but I’m on what? My eighth start off of surgery? I completely understand it, and it is what it is,” Jones told reporters after the game.
Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jared Jones (17) makes his way to the field to warm up before pitching against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park. (Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images)
JUSTIN VERLANDER ANNOUNCES HE WILL RETIRE AFTER THIS SEASON: ‘I’VE REALIZED THAT TIME HAS COME’
Jones said he didn’t entertain attempting to complete the perfect game.
“Not with the pitch count,” he said. “Not really ever expecting to go nine right now, so that was never in my head.”
Joey Bart, traded to the Braves from the Pirates on June 18, followed a double by Mike Yastrzemski with a 422-foot, two-run homer to left-center field off a slider from Dennis Santana. Drake Baldwin added an RBI single to center in the ninth for good measure.
It was the second time in less than a week that a pitcher was taken out of the game with a perfect bid through six innings — the Miami Marlins took Eury Perez out after seven innings in which he had 92 pitches. Perez, too, is in the midst of returning from injury and has surprisingly found himself right in the postseason mix.
He was pulled for Lake Bachar to start the eighth, and the Marlins allowed eight runs to the Athletics in the final two innings, but held on to win 9-8.
Jared Jones (17) of the Pittsburgh Pirates delivers a pitch during a MLB game against the Cincinnati Reds on June 27, 2026, at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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The Pirates are 4.0 games out of the final wild card spot, which is held by the Marlins.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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