Author Archive: Avi Goldberg
Avi Goldberg, Ph.D. teaches sociology full-time at Vanier College, an English language CEGEP in Montreal and part-time in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University. Goldberg's teaching and research interests are in culture (including popular culture, sports, & digital communities and media) and political sociology. He intensely follows North American sports and talk radio and often injects a healthy dose of current topics in his stimulating lectures.
The Kaufman Show: Deadlines to Meet
By Avi Goldberg, Featured Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine MONTREAL, QC. — It’s two hours after a Montreal Canadiens victory and only minutes after midnight in the early morning of what will become opening day for the Toronto Blue Jays. … Continue reading
All Habs Top 5: Waking From the Bad Dream Team
“Brad who?” Waking From the Bad Dream Team By Avi Goldberg, Featured Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine MONTREAL, QC. — It can be called the real start of the Marc Bergevin era, and with the Habs returning to the playoffs, … Continue reading
Reconcilable Differences! The Return of the Fans to the NHL
By Avi Goldberg, Featured Contributor, All Habs Hockey Magazine MONTREAL, QC. — As we roll to the trade deadline of this shortened hockey season, it’s hard to believe that only months ago many of us were cursing the NHL and … Continue reading
Digital Voices: Social Media, Hockey Reporting, and the Fans
By Avi Goldberg, Featured Contributor, All Habs Hockey Magazine MONTREAL, QC. — In the ongoing consideration of the effects of social media, one unsolved puzzle is the extent to which digital technologies are changing human communications and interactions. And, with … Continue reading
113 Days of What, Exactly? The ‘Catelli’ Lockout
I know that we’re all sick and tired of the lockout. And, though it won’t be long before hockey fans in Canada get back into the routine of the games, many of us are also somewhat troubled by what we and local businesses and their workers have had to endure over the last 113 days. Continue reading
Sports and Tragedy: Good Grief?
Last month, following the NFL’s acknowledgments of the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide in Kansas City and the horrific school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, media commentators took time to assess the place of sports in relation to real life human tragedies. Is it helpful, it was asked, to play on and to use sports as an activity to help citizens cope with the horrors they’ve witnessed, or is it better to push sports to the sidelines and to encourage participation in true practices of grieving loss? Continue reading
Accepting a Team’s Present by Not Living in the Past
We’ve all heard people say that fans don’t come to the games for the coaches or the general managers. The accuracy of this sentiment is highlighted by the painful absence of NHL competition and player storylines during the lockout, yet at times like the trade deadline, the free agency period, and the firing and hiring of a coach, fans give their rapt attention to the GMs. Continue reading
The Politics of Sports and the Hockey Lockout
It’s been a rough couple of years for hockey fans in general and for fans of the Montreal Canadiens in particular. Between the lockout, intractable negotiations over arena deals, and intense scrutiny over whether the Habs coach and GM must be bilingual, much attention has been focused away from the game of hockey itself. Continue reading
Krys Barch, Messages From The Margins
There has been a fair amount of debate surrounding the Krys Barch Twitter rant from last Saturday night and whether there was any big picture significance to the thoughts of a marginal NHL player. Judging from the media coverage of the incident, in which the analysis has mostly alternated between slim and scathing, skepticism reigns. Continue reading
Goldberg: Cheering For the Fans
In the early days of the NHL lockout, much attention has been directed towards hockey fans. Talking points have ranged from accusations that Gary Bettman takes the fans for fools to suggestions that the lockout is an opportunity for them to wean themselves off their obsessive involvement with a sports business whose economics are too unseemly to deserve their time and money. Continue reading
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