Happy holidays from all of us at Regeneration Sports Network, we hope the season is treating you nicely! As 2023 draws to a close, we wanted to give you a recap of everything that has happened over the past year, provide updates on current projects, and more!
Regen Through the Year
Regeneration Sports Network was founded in March 2023, and we’re getting pretty close to being a year old! We started out as three friends who were sick of seeing clickbait articles as passionate sports fans. They’re endless! We wanted to do the job, but do it right. Together, we founded Regeneration Sports Network.
Our original brand concept, which didn’t last very long, but is more than worth including here. It held its place as our fundamentals, as the color scheme is still quite similar to what we use now. Much of the original design was used to inspire the second iteration.
In this rendition, only about a week after the first one, the color scheme and stripe concept were upheld. The major difference, is the new, dynamic font to represent us. This theme has held the longest tenure or this brand, as early November was the next time we changed our brand design concept.
It’s different, but it still holds properties of the original concept too. While the old grey has shifted towards black, our blue secondary has stayed consistent throughout each iteration. It feels fresh, and with an added vibrancy. For reference, our profile pictures progressed as such:
The 1st Iteration
The most recent version
Much of the original design was used with this new one. This new one being a more attractive and refreshed design, but still upholding our concept.
Regeneration Sports Award Ceremony
It’s time to award our first ever Regeneration Sports Trophies! We have three awards to give out, each with four nominations!
The first award has been converted from an old badge, and turned into a trophy! The Sutter Disappointments Trophy goes to a National Hockey League player, team member, fanbase or personnel member who royally goofed somehow. Whether it be a Derek Stephan empty-net goal attempt, or signing a certain 8x$10.5M contract following a single 115 point season.
The first nominee for this unfortunate award goes to the general fanbase of the St. Louis Blues. As per typical, because this teams’ groupies tend to do something ridiculous annually, the fans overwhelmed Jordan Kyrou with boos while at home on December 14, 2023.
via @MDeFranks on X
You may wonder what might cause a fanbase to boo their own star player. St. Louis fans tend to be dramatic. As is the case just recently with star-forward, Jordan Kyrou. Just following the firing of Stanley Cup winning coach, Craig Berube, reporters wanted to know the star’s opinion on the recent events. Jordan Kyrou responded in a professional matter by saying, “He’s not my coach anymore.” A true statement, and a professional one. Not everything needs to be done publicly. Kyrou probably just sent Berube a text, wishing him well. This caused Jordan Kyrou to breakdown following media pressure post-game. That’s why St. Louis Blues fans are the first nominee.
via @TSN_Sports on X
The second nominee is the general Chicago Blackhawks Media ensemble. Recent first overall pick, Connor Bedard has had a whirlwind of a first season in the National Hockey League. However, the big, bad media scrum has been all over this 18-year-old, hounding him for interviews any opportunity they can. He’s just a kid. Conner McDavid didn’t have to go through it like this as an 18-year-old, so why is there now so much added pressure? With scathing questions of poor team performance being part of this rookie’s interview docket, and high personal expectations, it’s incredible that this hockey prodigy is able to surmount the proverbial mountain in front of him, at all. Add in team drama that becomes deeply personal, and the talk of the NHL. Connor Bedard has been through media hell throughout his NHL career, and it’s just four months in. That’s why the Chicago Blackhawks media scrum is the second nominee.
via @TheAthletic on X
The third nominee for the Sutter Disappointments Trophy are the trio of Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, and Elias Lindholm. Once the star opening line-up for the Calgary Flames, is now dust, a shadow of their former glory. In the 2021-22 NHL season, all three surpassed the 40-goal mark, while Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk each surpassed 100 points for the first time in their careers. Now only Elias Lindholm remains in Calgary, with Gaudreau and Tkachuk both now halfway through their second year with their new clubs, the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Florida Panthers respectively. Matthew Tkachuk had a good first season in Florida, creating another new personal best. This year however, his numbers have dropped off significantly, and has now recorded 27 points in 36 games, well below his scoring rate from the previous year. Johnny Gaudreau set a career best 115 points in 82 games during his final season in Calgary. The following year, he notched 74 points for Columbus in 80 games played. Still very amicable despite playing on a bottom-3 team. Johnny is also noticing a steep drop in the first half of this year, with only 25 points in 38 games played. Finally Lindholm cements this trio as a candidate for our first trophy. From being a point per game player in 2021-22, with 42 goals and 40 assists in 82 games, to far beneath this year with only 23 points in 35 games played so far this season.
via @ajayissock on X
The final entrant for the Sutter Disappointments Trophy is none other than Mike Babcock of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Mike has a history of poor behavior on the job-site. In this instance, newly hired coach, Mike Babcock wanted to get to know the players that he’d be coaching. To get to know them better, Mike asked his players to give them their phone, so that he could see photos of family, and ‘get to know the person better’. Kind of robotic creepy at bare minimum. That is to say some players took offense to the order, and let the media know about it.
Following the virality of these accusations, Babcock swiftly stepped down, before ever coaching a game for the team he was hired to. That is more than worthy of a nomination.
The Winner of the Sutter Disappointment Trophy is…
Mike Babcock in a landslide victory! Congratulations!
The second award was created out of solidarity to a brave warrior. The ‘Elite Opportunist’ Merzlikins Trophy pays homage to a fearsome strategist, who managed to lure a wild, crazed, psychopathic Tom Wilson into his net, barring Wilson from causing more barbaric damage with that unkept rage that he tends to have issues with. This trophy goes to a member of sports who demonstrates ‘big brain’ mentality. Whether that be locking in a great contract, or making a smart play, etc.
The opening nominee for our second prize are the Los Angeles Dodgers for locking up two of baseball’s most pivotal and compelling talents for a decade. Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Matsuhisa both signed contracts with LA this offseason, accumulating a combined AAV of $1,025,000,000. This is huge money for an athlete, but for the Dodgers, they know they have world class talent for the next decade plus.
via @MLB on X
Next are the Denver Nuggets. They returned to the finals after several years of injuries riddled the core of the Nuggets, they seized and opportunity, winning the franchise’s first championship with an opportunistic 4-1 series win against an 8th seed Laker’s team. The Laker’s were streaky to make it to the Finals, but weren’t quite the caliber needed to stop the Nuggets.
via @NBA on X
As for the Kansas City Chiefs, they also won league championship this year. This was the team’s third Super bowl win in franchise history, this time beating out the Philadelphia Eagles powerhouse team. Both teams were set at the beginning of the season to be spectacular teams, and it almost seemed fate that they might meet each other in the playoffs, but eventually the Chiefs won, and in a major comeback fashion.
via @PopBase on X
The final nomination for the second trophy goes to Brad Treliving, the former Calgary, and now current Toronto Maple Leaf General Manager. Due to numerous bad contracts he signed, and elite prospects that got fed up and left, Brad Treliving has put the cap situation of the Calgary Flames organization in shambles. Then, with the drop of a hat he left his position in Calgary, and was granted another, higher paying job in Toronto, doing the same thing.
via @BParkerTV
The Winner of the ‘Elite Opportunist’ Merzlikins Trophy is…
The LA Dodgers in a very tight race. Better luck next year Denver and Kansas City!
The third and final prize is the Mark Sanchez Fumble Trophy. We all know the Sanchez story, hell I’m sure he’s sick of being on the butt-end of all the jokes. Mark Sanchez Fumble Trophy goes to an individual in sports who is probably going to make it, but isn’t quite there. Often we expect great things of these candidates that for whatever reason, does not reach the mark.
J.P. Hoornstra, a reporter of the LA Dodger’s is the first nominee for this unfortunate award. If you, as a very reliable Major League Baseball reporter, release an article saying that the most impactful player in the game EVER, will be signing a major deal in the city of Canada’s only team, you’ll earn a nomination for this prize when that turns out to be false. Toronto Blue Jays did not in fact sign Shohei Ohtani to a multi-year contract, and instead of respecting Ohtani’s privacy as he wished, J.P. skyrocketed speculation, maybe forcing the baseball star to sign elsewhere.
via @jphoornstra on X
Next comes the Boston Bruins, our second nominee. The Boston Hockey Club got off to a fantastic start last season, but move on to the second half of the season, and this powerhouse Boston team broke the NHL record for wins (65) and points (135) in a single season. Towards the playoffs, the Bruins would have to go against 8th seed: Florida Panthers. Florida barely even made the playoffs. Their point total to end the season were less than some West Conference teams who didn’t make it in, and despite that, the underdog Panthers team would comeback from being down 3-1 in a best of seven, to winning three in a row, breezing by the President’s cup winning Bruins.
via @BR_OpenIce on X
Jack Jones earned a nomination less by his playing career, and more for his criminal behavior. Earlier in the year, Jones viewed a viral TikTok of Ja Morant waving a gun around. To show the vilification of Morant’s carelessness, Jones called out the TikTok creator, criticizing him for the poor behavior. Not long after, Jack Jones getting arrested on gun charges that are hypocritically similar to what Ja Morant was criticized for doing. The weapons charges have since been dropped, but it’s the irony for me.
via @Boston25 on X
Our last nominee this year is none other than the New York Jets new and incredibly healthy quarter back, Aaron Rodgers. Aaron had a promising fresh start this season, starting his first of a three year, $112.5 million contract. This contract was huge news for the New York team, as they needed a solid quarter back to help propel them back into playoff contention. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite come to fruition, as Aaron’s Achilles tendon snapped within the opening couple plays of his first game for the Jets. He has yet to return.
via @espn on X
The Winner of the Mark Sanchez Fumble Trophy is…
Jack Jones in a very narrow race! Thanks for playing, Aaron and Boston!
That’s it for the Regeneration Sports Awards this year, thank you for participating in the polls on Facebook and X, we’ll be back with more awards next year!
Regeneration Sports Badge Send-Off
The last point we wanted to cover for 2023, are the badges that will be retired today. Either these badges are of players that have moved onto other teams, or the badge itself isn’t really relevant anymore. The latter is the instance for our first retired badge, #SutterDisappointments.
You may recognize this badge name from a certain trophy noted earlier in this article. It just doesn’t really apply to the Calgary Flames anymore, despite only being made post-firing. Sutter’s legacy may have been tarnished at the end of his tenure in Calgary, but the former bench-boss still seemed to have a lasting hold on the still-struggling Flames team. Now, that feeling is dead. We have a new Flames team this year, and while they’re still bad, it’s Ryan Huska’s team now. I’m at peace with that.
The only other badge that we are saying goodbye to this year, is the #KeepingUpWithTheJoneses badge we’ve used for the New England Patriots. With most of the Jones’ players likely departing New England, with Jack Jones legal turmoil. Adding to the fact that Mac Jones likely getting traded or just cut completely and Johnathon Jones probably won’t getting be re-signed. Finally Jon Jones is retiring. With all that hovering over next season like a dark cloud, the best move would be to switch Patriots tags.
That’s All Folks!
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the growth and starting success of Regeneration Sports Network! We couldn’t have accomplished what we did without the many members of our team, or our followers across all platforms. 2023 was an incredible year for us, and we can’t wait to see what 2024 has to offer.
Happy New Year from Regeneration Sports Network!
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