Take a deep breath...

It seems like everyone (including me) has just about taken Monday off. Oh, there were some actual paid performers out there cranking some stories out, ya know, gotta pay the bills and all that, but most of the Net-fanatical were seemingly snoozing at their keyboards. It's like when you've just started to dig a long ditch, and you stop and look up, think 'Damn, this is going to take a while', and then take a deep breath and get back to work. (wow, did that sound blue-collar zen, or what?). Well, I've looked up, seen a long season, taken a deep breath and decided I can only hold my incessant babbling in so long.


It seems that our revered (?) Hockey-fuhrer, Bettman, is not a big fan of spanning the globe to bring the NHL to the Olympic world beyond 2010. Unless, of course the North American Hockey-money paying public can get into the action. I'm of two minds about this. Yes, it puts a big hole in the middle of the season, but it's only once every 4 years, and who wouldn't want to represent their country in the Olympics? Am I crass and selfish enough to deny that to someone just so I can watch uninterrupted hockey every year? (yeah, I know, that's a tough one) Buried at the bottom of that article is MAF's take: Freeing its players to participate in the Olympics is completely necessary, said Penguins' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
"We have to go," Fleury said. "This trip shows how big hockey is everywhere. The Olympics is the biggest (stage), wherever (the games) are. I think any player wants to go." Ok, the Flower should not be denied. Go, play hockey, win medals, you have our blessing. BTW: Two of the Pens seriously considered for the Canadian team at the Vancouver games are Flower and The Kid, and that's still a ways down the road.
Found a podcast interview Flower gave at 105.9 The X where he seems to be warning Ryan Malone that he'd better bring a cup with his camping gear if he intends on setting up shop in front of any net that Fleury's in charge of.

Say what you will about Ruuuuutuuuu (I know, I keep doing that), I know he went from 'honored agitator' to 'cheapshot artist' in less time than it takes for a 50 dollar bill to disappear at a homeless convention, but he has some really nice things to say about Da Burgh in the middle of a different article about Bettman not liking the whole international competition thing.
One more thing about Dur Hockey Fuhrer, he seems to have developed an almost stalker-like fascination with El Sid. And plans on continuing to ride him like a money making horse for the foreseable future, foresaking all others.


Michael Dell over at LCS hockey has some nasty things to say about Marian Hossa at the bottom of a list of the coolest underrated players in the league. Hint: Hoss didn't make the list. I used to think that this kind of thing would get old pretty quick, but it hasn't happened yet.

Add on: This is just a sick, sick save that Carey Price made against the Redrags during this year's pre-season game on 8/30


All in all a fairly off-topic day, but I'll continue randomly inserting even more random things. I've looked up, seen how long the season is, and now I'm ready to go.