In the first half of the NHL's regular season, the MVP debate was short and sweet. Sidney Crosby, come on down. The Pittsburgh Penguins superstar was easily the league's most pivotal player.
He led all players in goals and points, while leading the Pens to the top of the Eastern Conference with his tenacious and determined style. He was the NHL's best player, and nobody worked harder, either.
Then a not-so-funny thing happened: Crosby stopped playing.
Not on purpose, of course, but due to head shots in back-to-back games, one via "incidental contact" by Washington's David Steckel on January 1, and one via on-purpose contact by Tampa Bay's Victor Hedman.
With Crosby out of the running, Steven Stamkos, the Tampa sniper, and Tim Thomasm the Boston goalie, are being bandied about as MVP candidates. Their teams are doing well, and Stamkos leads the league in goals while Thomas is having a statistical season for the ages in the net.
However, both players have tailed off a touch in the second half, after being overshadowed by Crosby in the first half. That has opened the door for a hat-trick of Canucks: the Sedin twins, Daniel and Henrik, and Ryan Kesler.
Henrik Sedin is the defending scoring champion and league MVP; might voters have some fun by picking the other twin for the Hart this year? That seems more likely than the upstart Kesler, who is either the league MVP or the third-best player on his own team, depending who you ask.
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A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
Junichiro Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books
How will Gen Alpha invest?
Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.
“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.
Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.
He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.
Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”