Too... much... going... on.

It's been a busy week, especially with the extremely complicated, convoluted, and unfortunate story that broke yesterday afternoon.

Also spent much of my day preparing for tonight's Mooseheads game against the Rimouski Oceanic.

But most importantly...



TONIGHT IS THE FREAKIN NIGHT!

There's four games opening the NHL season tonight. And not a moment too soon.

Washington vs. Habs at 8pm AST

Leafs and Habs at 8pm AST

later tonight, San Jose v Colorado and Canucks take on the Flames.

Oh yah, then there's this other stuff happening:

Brendan Shanahan.

Weird story... apparently the New Jersey Devils and Brendan Shanahan have "mutually decided" to part ways. I'm thinking he was cut. But whatever.

I don't even know what to say about this. Actually it's kind of weird. I was reading an Olympic story the other day and it was talking about Steve Yzerman, which led me to think about Brendan Shanahan. And I did that... "Is Shanny still playing?"

Guess he was.

Sergei Kostitsyn.

Is apparently asking for a trade after being sent down to the minors by the Montreal Canadiens. There are also rumours that the younger Kostitsyn brother wants to play in the KHL.

I'm sort of hanging out on the fence on this one. On one hand he is getting demoted to the AHL, just days before the opening of the NHL season. Then there's the fact that he's being a whiny little....[insert name here]... And the Kostitsyn brothers were one of many off-ice distractions last season with their... random Russian mafia connections.... something about And one of the few distractions that are actually left on the team after the summer clearout.

In keeping with the teams cleaning house motto... might as well send Kostitsyn packing. Just start the hell over.

On the upside the team was on a "team bonding" trip for the past week, and the players are all praising new coach Jacques Martin and his system.

I'm mildy optimistic...



COYOTES SAGA



Well that was a whole lot about nothing. Judge Baum said neither children can have the candy. er... Judge Baum said neither the NHL or Jim Balsillie can have the Phoenix Coyotes.


really?


Come on man, don't you get it, sagas need endings eventually. I'm sick of this one. This is possibly longer than the famous Sundin Saga of 2008.


I won't bore with the details, (because quite frankly i don't understand a lot of this freaking crazy arse legal story) but JimBalls is saying he is not appealing.

But I doubt that will be the end of JimBalls... there are plenty of teams in the NHL that has no fans. See: 24 teams located in the United States. So I reckon he'll be after another team before 2010.

I'm now accepting bets on his next victim.


Avalanche retire Joe Sakic's #19.

thumbs up.


Michael Landsberg.

Okay so this is just frikkin bizarre. I really do think that Lansberg possibly took the good pills before yesterday's broadcast.

"So I'm going to lay it out here. Being a hockey captain is similar to leading the Jews from slavery and persecution in that they have one ultimate common goal: get to the promised land."

WHAT?! That's nothing like that at all. Are you serious? I'm speechless.

Friday Recap

Douche McGee Update

A few comments from Avery's teammates:

Dallas forward Brad Richards went on record in Dallas yesterday, saying the team "doesn't want to talk about him any more ... hopefully it will be handled and that will be the end of it."

Off the record, one teammate told TSN: "We hope it's the last time we ever see him."

Another Stars player said, "Our locker room is the happiest it has been all year right now." And still another added, "An apology to the team won't work."


He's a cancer to any dressing room he's ever been in. And the Stars are nuts to have signed him in the first place. Let him head to Russia to play with Ray Emery.



Duthie-isms

I told my nine year-old son I was going to interview Bobby Orr on Wednesday. His response, word-for-word: “You mean that guy on the car commercials?” (Heavy sigh.)

I wish they’d make it a mandatory course in Canadian Elemetary School. “Your Thursday timetable, son: Math, Science, English, French, Orr.”

I’ve played weekend beer-league sports for my entire life. (I know what you’re thinking: “His whole life? Aren’t beer leagues inappropriate for nine year-old soccer players?” Hey, we grew up fast in Gloucester.) I’m still pretending to be an ath-ell-ete, playing in a couple of touch football leagues in the Toronto area.


Sundin Saga and #2 collide

One thing is for sure. Brian Burke has no intention on having Mats Sundin back on the leafs. No word from the man himself whether he's going to finally show up on a team and just play orrr retire into the background and play online poker.



Habs remember how to pass?

Last night the Habs won a convincing victory of 6-2. All the goals were nice passing plays. It appears (let's be cautiously optimistic...) that the Habs have taken my advice. Looked down at their sweaters. and remembered to pass to the players wearing similar colours. we'll see.

Canadian History, or lackthereof

And finally, this is for all the geeks out there. Parliament is now prorogued. And after a week of spin from both sides of the coalition, i'm astonished with the ease that some people lied and their lack of Canadian history knowledge. I think a few people need to get sent back to university to take Canadian History 1000.


One of the interesting things i heard was from Don Newman who said some spin doctors targeted Justin Trudeau who said that his father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau would have never sat down with the "separatists".


ummm. The elder Trudeau sat down numerous times with Rene Levesque to negotiate.



"and they wouldn't even have the Canadian flag behind them," said Stephen Harper... in the House of Commons.

Looks like a Canadian flag to me.....







And finally in Stephen Harper's address to the nation on Wednesday night he said that never has a government formed in parliament that was not elected by the people.

Oh ya?

Saga #1 and Saga #2 collide.

I was just watching That's Hockey on TSN. And both sagas were mentioned in one Perfect Saga Storm.

#1:

It appears Mats Sundin is thinking about a mid-December return.

"Mats is currently training daily with the intention to return," Sundin's agent, J.P. Barry said. "He may still decide not to play, however, if his training regimen doesn't produce the results he expects."

So he might think about making a mid-December return.

#2

The Toronto Maple Leafs' ownership group is expected to officially initiate contract negotiations with Brian Burke very soon.

I think this is a bad call for Toronto. I just don't know why yet.


Sometimes even if you think it's a good idea, you shouldn't do it.

Did this just happen? Is it real? Can I touch it?

My god. Someone lost their mind when they thought this would be a good idea. And my theory that every idea goes through at least seven people before it makes it to the general public is definitely in play here. What seven people were like, Slapshot 3? Great idea.

I mean, slapshot 2 was sacrilegious enough. But to make a third one.... I can't even talk about it. Next Question.


Democracy.

pfft. who needs it when you have electronic ballot stuffers...

"Forwards Alex Kovalev, Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay, defencemen Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek and goalie Carey Price are not merely leading every other player in their Eastern Conference categories. They are ahead by ridiculous margins, their monstrous numbers fuelled by computer-vote programs written to carpet-bomb, around the clock, for all six at once.

As of Sunday early afternoon, four days into balloting, Kovalev, Koivu and Tanguay had vote totals in the 190,000 range. The next closest forward, Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, was approaching 84,000"

That does explain it. I was extremely surprised to see the margins. I wouldn't say many of the Canadiens have had allstar-worthy performances thus far. But then again... Sidney Crosby has six goals in 18 games and he's behind the Montreal forwards...

Magic Mittens.

Kyle Wellwood just scored the nicest goal i've seen in a while. I believe that Gord Miller just said he had "magic mittens". Remember when Toronto put him on waivers? good call guys. as usual.

Also, when checking Wellwood's wikipedia entry, i found this gem: "As of November 2008, Wellwood is currently on a 121 game streak without taking a penalty, which is by far the longest active clean-streak. His last penalty was taken on April 10, 2006."



"How do you spell intimidation? L - U - O - N - G - O." - Pierre McGuire.