This season we're going to be trying a new News & Notes format. Instead of the weekly column (which we all know was actually a "non-column" last season), I'll be doing more of a blog-type column. That is, whenever the mood strikes, be it stats night on Wednesday, the middle of a Canucks-Flames game at midnight, or maybe even a Friday morning before I leave for work, I'll come here and post entries. Sometimes it will be just a paragraph or two, sometimes longer.

I'll make sure I put a date on everything so you can easily tell what's new from what you may have already read. So feel free to come to this page often, or continue checking in once a week as the stats update, to check out and catch up on the latest entries in what I hope to be a season long stream of (un)conciousness.

If anyone else has anything to contribute, I'll be more than happy to post it here, with all credit given to the author of course.

October 25th, 2007

Well we're three weeks into the long season and The Phantoms are still setting the pace. Well "co-setting" should say as Ronnie and J.R. have been joined atop the leader board by Mikey Bineau, who has steered The Devils Rejects into a share of first place. Fab and Rob (no they're not the guys from Milli Vanilli!) have The DiPietro Code and Seka Koivu in 3rd and 4th places respectively, but there's a gap between 2nd and 3rd place that would make even Ms. Seka gasp! Meanwhile, way down at the bottom of the heap, Kevin and The Commish, like their team's namesake, have regained visitation rights. To the league cellar that is as Two Minutes For Spearsing has hit rock bottom in the early going… Johnny La's got no five hole as his Secular Progressive Goalies take over best netminder status (with 33 ˝ RPMs worth of points. Anyone old enough to remember LP records?) and despite being in 10th place, the Tenors On Ice have the best offense thus far (38 points) but the Fat Lady's certainly singing for their goaltending (a mere 4 points)

Some more random thoughts as we're easin' into the season…

This new defensemen for the Flyers, Randy Jones. Didn't he used to pitch for the San Diego Padres? Could be the first guy to win a Norris Trophy and a Cy Young Award, eh?… Looking at the top of the free agent points list last week I come across this: Hagman (DAL). Hagman? Dallas? As in Larry Hagman, who played J.R. Ewing on the TV show "Dallas" back in the day when Randy Jones was winning Cy Youngs? Who Slap Shot J.R. (Burnham)! So I guess it's fitting that a guy named Hagman would play for the team in Dallas now isn't it? Now if we could only get that Martin St Louis guy out of Tampa and on the correct side of the Mississippi River…

I'm reading that the Penguins and the Senators are going to open up next season with a game in Prague. By the way, that's "Prog" rhymes with "frog" as in what some folks in London might call Montreal Canadiens defensemen Francois Bouillon as an insult. Not "Praig" rhymes with ex-secretary of state Alexander Haig. Geez, I wonder if he thinks he's still in charge?… From Geez, let's move on to the Beez as Gee Wally, it looks like friendly neighborhood goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck has been elected into the American Hockey Hall Of Fame. Now this is very cool indeed and a nice honor but the "american" hockey Hall? Ok, it's obviously a small step on the way to immortality but wouldn't this be the equivalent of electing someone to the Canadien Football Hall of Fame? So I ask you Doug Flutie, how does one say "igloo" in Czechoslovakian?…

Anyone else notice the Devils are playing games that more closely resemble baseball scores instead of English Premier League soccer results? Gone apparently are the 1-nil, 2 - 1 games, having been replaced recently by the likes of 6 - 5 and 5 - 4 tilts. Gone apparently as well is the winning record as despite the birth of this offensive in the making, the Devs have lost more games than they've won as of this writing. They are however coming home finally, having been on the road for the entire season thus far as the new arena in Newark is completed but as Bon Jovi sang in concert on opening night of the new building, "who says you can't go home"? Stay tuned for more because with the home-ice advantage in Newark restored and a good field goal kicker in place, I believe we've got a shot at seeing a 9 - 8 hootenany in the 'Hood one of these days. And I couldn't leave this paragraph without failing to re-introduce two ex-Devils. Scott Gomez, I'd like you to meet Bobby Holik. Bobby, you remember Scott don't you? Talk amongst yourselves (I'm getting verklempt), topic of "how green money and a blue jersey isn't all it's cracked up to be"…

And finally, Scandanavian Scrabble anyone? The word spelling game that's sweeping the nations, from Sweden to Finland and every fjord in between. "Fjord"? That's 32 points if you land it across a double word score! For those of you who only play Scrabble in America (Vanbiesbrouck, 26 points if I've done math right which is about 25 Canadian right? Kev, can I get an exchange rate please), what if I told you that in Scandanavian Scrabble you've got alphabetic freedom beyond your Minnesota wildest dreams? Get this. The "Q" no longer has to be followed by the "U"! Who knew!? This opens up all kinds of possibilities. Tellqvist (21 points), Lundqvist (22 points) and even high-scoring Holmqvist (26 pts, that's Tampa Bay goalie Johan not Seattle Seahawks coach Mike by the way). The aformentioned (as well as a-fjord-able) F-followed-by J combo is 12 points plus and wait to you see what you can do with that "O with the line through it" and a blank! Scandanavian Scrabble, it's fan-tastic…

October 11th, 2007

Let's get this party started with our first Top 10 of the season, from the Home Office in Glastonbury, Connecticut...

Top 10 Ways To Tell It's The Start Of The Slap Shot Fantasy Hockey League Season