Ice-Cold Takes Summer Tournament Final: Good dogs vs. golfing

Ice-Cold takes is a weekly humor column covering what is trending around the NHL. The summer tournament finale is finally here. Find out who wins this completely meaningless NHL trend tournament right now!

I am writing this in advance of leaving the country for the next 10 days. As such, there’s the off-chance that by the time you are reading this, I may have missed something huge in the NHL world. Here is my reaction to that crazy news:

“Oh my God! Did you guys see that thing that happened? The one with that player from that team? It was so crazy! I can’t believe it!”

That should cover anything big, but if the only news from the week is something like “someone signed Kari Lehtonen,” then I take back the above statement and offer no reaction in its place.

One thing that did happen was the release of this video of Connor McDavid skating a little bit better than you can. His footwork here is nothing short of magical.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmO5fLxBTs6/?taken-by=tsn_official

McDavid is pretty good at hockey-related stuff.

The NHL summer trend tournament finale is here and the two finalists are exactly who we expected them to be. Good hockey dogs against golf in a winner-take-nothing battle of summertime supremacy. Here we go!

Good hockey dogs

It feels like a day removed from hockey dogs winning their semifinal matchup (get it?), but the good dogs are back and as ready as ever to take on the world. Leading the pack is the Vegas Golden Knights’ biggest fan, Bark-Andre Furry.

As you know, we’ve featured Bark-Andre before. His good looks and great personality made him a hit within the Vegas hockey world; he even got to meet his hero, Mark-Andre Fleury.

While most NHL superstars are out golfing and relaxing, there are no days off for Bark-Andre, who just became a police cadet for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (movie, please).

Bad boys always get caught and this good boy is going to make sure of it. Speaking of good dogs, Clifford over here is the biggest dog we’ve ever seen (or maybe it is a miniature Cup). Daphne the silver lab is taking after her favorite team and celebrating the Stanley Cup as long as possible.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj40FG4FnJF/

We’re closing out the final good dogs section with a slightly controversial pick. While there is no denying that this pup cheers for the absolute worst team in the NHL, she is one of the most gorgeous dogs we’ve ever seen. Rocket Rubin has phenomenal salad! Wow.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl1Kz68hibP/

Golf

Golf is coming in hot with this ridiculous video of Carolina Hurricanes center Teuvo Teravainen working on both his stick handling and his short game. This had to have taken a couple of tries, right?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmLyMr4hQxG/?taken-by=teravainenteuvo

A man who needs no tries to be perfect is perfect specimen McDavid. As it would seem, McDavid is good at a lot of things, including golf, where he holed his second shot on the second hole at Magna Golf Club in Aurora, Ontario.

Golf has the added benefit of being the go-to sport for hockey players enjoying their offseason while hockey dogs have been around forever, but really only took off with the rise of social media. As it turns out, dogs also love golf.

Winner: It’s a Tie!

Could you imagine if I made you read all of this just to tell you the final two NHL trends tied? “Everyone can go home now, there are no losers here!” That would be terrible.

Actual winner: Hockey dogs

If you thought any trend but the good dogs of hockey was going to win you are sadly mistaken. I’d lose half of the people who read this if I turned my back on dogs. Call it blackmail by readership, but we’re all about giving the people what they want here at ICT.

Even the NHL stars themselves love Dogs (except Patrick Kane, who doesn’t like pets. Really, guy?)

https://twitter.com/NHL/status/1026831620127436801

A couple of things before we sign off. Jonathan Huberdeau doesn’t know what a pet is. When he gets confirmation that a pet is “something you have at your house,” his first answer is panther. What? We’re definitely going to feature more Huberdeau coverage in the future.

Next: 20 hockey smiles that prove teeth are overrated

So that is it! The tournament champion is crowned and hockey dogs take the ICT Cup! Ice-Cold Takes will return to its regular format in two weeks time (August 29), covering the good and the bad of the week in the NHL.

Keep your head up!