Offside: I'm putting my offside up top today because it is hockey related. I have witnessed the worst commercial in the history of television. It's the EA Sports NHL 09 commercial with Lauren. Who were the ad wizards that came up with that idea? "I like the drama" Phaneuf scores, "oh". NHL 09 needs to put the centre line back in, because ladies and gentlemen, that commercial is two lines offside. Write that down.
Are you old school and still call them Exhibition games or do you go with Pre-Season?
There are eight games on the schedule tonight. Leafs and Sabres at the ACC. Are you excited? I predict a 4-3 Buffalo win in a shootout. Jiri Tlusty scores twice for the Leafs. Your call if you choose to write that down.
I'm looking forward to having a quick look at Luke Schenn and Dale Mitchell in the pre-season as I'm sure they'll both head back to junior. Mitchell can score and Schenn can hit. Mitchell had a bit of an off regular season with the Generals last year but he scored 10G in 15GP during the playoffs.
No big deal if the Leafs go without a captain, they did the same thing about 20 years ago when Rick Vaive was traded.
Do Zamboni drivers go through physicals and training camps?
Glenn Healy made a great point on the radio on Friday morning, he said teams should do away with the physicals, you’ll find out soon enough who isn’t in shape. Since most teams play a day or two after camps open, teams will know who’s gasping for air. The Minnesota Wild according to Healy (and we have no reason to doubt him) are the only team to do without the $45,000 physicals. $45,000 would buy a lot of Bowflexes and or Sweatin to the Oldies 8-tracks and Beta tapes to get those into shape quickly who need it.
Erik Johnson had a knee on golf cart incident and will be sidelined for part of the Blues training camp. No word on whether or not Bryan Marchment or Ulf Samuelsson was driving the cart.
Mathew Barnaby is going to ESPN to replace Barry Melrose. You can replace the man, but not the mullet.
I like the Leafs going with the Viktor Tikhonov CCCP approach going into training camp. Jamal Mayers could be the only player among the 12 forwards on opening night that shoots right.
Staying with the Leafs, I like this website, www.pensionplanpuppets.com, check it out.
Remember when NHL buildings use to be called Garden’s, Forum’s and Stadium’s? None of the new rinks come with that monacher, why not?
I wonder who will be back in the NHL first, Mats Sundin or Jason Allison?
With the NHL and KHL going to arbitration over Alexander Radulov, it makes you wonder if the KHL will pay anything if they lose the case? The Russians weren’t big fans of the transfer agreement over the past several years, any reason to believe that they’ll pay the piper if they lose in arbitration?
Hockey Canada will announce their Management for the 2010 Olympic games in the next few weeks. Steve Yzerman is the obvious choice to be in charge. Where does Wayne Gretzky fit in? How about on the Coaching staff. Seems like a logical position for The Great One now that he’s had sometime behind the bench in the NHL.
On This Date
September 22, 1972. Canada takes a 3-0 lead into the third period vs the Soviets in Moscow and they lose 5-4. Canada had a 4-1 lead with 15 minutes remaining, but the Soviets put four goals by Tony O for the come from behind victory. Scoring for Canada were JP Parise, Bobby Clarke and Paul Henderson (2). For the Soviets it was Blinov, Anisin, Shadrin, Gusev and Vikulov.
Trivia
Name the three players who tied for the Summit Series scoring lead with 7 goals. Answer below
Little Known Fact
This was the game were Phil Esposito took the infamous tumble during the player introductions
Trivia Answer
Esposito, Henderson and Yakushev
Gibby
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It's time for my annual hockey pool. Here are the details, I have an excel attachment ready to send out where you pick one player from a group, it's a points pool. Cost is $20 per entry. I will accept entries up until noon on Friday October 3rd, no pay, no play. I accept PayPal and Interac Transfer (Canada). To make things more exciting this season, there will be monthly winners. The person who's team gets the most points in the month (Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb and Mar) will receive their money back at months end. The pool will be posted on www.officepools.com, and they track who has the most points in a week, month etc. so the monthly winners will be easy to track. The rest of the money goes to the grand poohba at season end. Drop me an e-mail with any questions and for the excel attachment of the groupings.
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