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September 14, 2005

Carnival of the NHL, #8

A few weeks ago, I says to myself as I was perusing these innernets, "Self, it would be awfully fun to host a Carnival!" And then myself replied, "It would be!" Thusly, calls were made, project meetings were held, committees were formed and numbers crunched- could it be done? Ultimate answer: It could be. Cheers erupted from... my desk. People looked on in mild curiousity at the lone crazy girl, cheering. But the one thing the committees and project managers failed to note: my tiny attention span on this, the eve of the most holy of days: my first day at (full) training camp. Buckle in, because this will be an... interesting, if not one-track-minded ride, to say the least:


Jason hasn't posted much lately; presumably working on his hockey-centric site, but he's a little incredulous that Bruins Brass thinks that this is the best team to hit the ice in 20 years. (Bet those teams of yesteryear HAD GOALIES. AND MAYBE A VERY SOLID DEFENSEMAN THAT SHOULD BE BACK, but noooooo, why would we WANT THAT???? Maybe we should have cryogenically frozen those others two years ago ...)


Tom Benjamin discusses Saskin's call for a secret ballot.


Bob at Bruins Beat has been sticking to the press releases and straying from commentary, but it was this line that made me choke on my dinner: Suprise! O'Connell pats himself on the back.


J.J. addresses the retirement of Mark Messier.


Jaci Donahe has been going to camp. Lots of camp. Ooodles of camp. And y'know what? She likes it.


Jez Goblez looks at the goalies who love the stay-puft look in the wake of new restrictions. (DEAR GOD, HOW DO Y'ALL MAKE THAT SQUIGGLY LINE ABOVE THE E? I CANNOT DO IT AND ARGH! IRRITATION!)


Habs Blog reports on training camp. Is reading things about the opposition considered spying? What about bugging their team meetings and practices and such? Is that? I'm just asking. Y'know, in theory. For a friend.


Hockeybird covers everyone else who is covering camp.


Michael discusses the new NHL/XM satellite radio partnership. My brother has XM, and when I steal borrow his truck, I enjoy it immensely. Wonder if he'd notice it missing from now til June?


James Mirtle asks how much Crosby is enough. I say when I'm hearing about him driving to camp. Or eating dinner. Or the colorful anecdote about how when he was doing his laundry, he accidently mixed up the "warm" wash clothes with the "cold" wash clothes! What a crazy imp that Sid is!


Steven Ovadia says that hockey will be like baseball with the specialized positions. I hate baseball. I don't want to hate hockey.


Ben is moving to the ATL. I was in Atlanta once. I was flying standby. I was only there for an hour, but the airport seemed nice. I bought a magnet while I waited to know if I was flying out or taking up residence in a lounge. I live life on the edge. Good luck with moving, Ben. You could not pay me enough to move again for several years.


Dave of BeanBallInc submitted three posts to the Carnival, all about players going overseas, but this is the post I liked reading the most.


Over at redblackhockey.blogspot.com, d-lee called Keith Aucoin and David Gove schmucks. This is wrong information. Keith and David are not schmucks. They will do good things for Lowell. All the name-calling aside, d-lee's got a great post on Ron Francis' retirement here.


Thanks for comin' on this trip around the internets, Innernets! It was informative and exhausting, all at once. Thanks also, to Eric McErlain of OffWing Opinion- the Carnival of the NHL was his brainchild. I am now off to bed, to start my whirlwind tour of camp. See you on the other side.


Heather | 10:37 PM | 10
filed under: nhl news

Comments

stacy said:

Grrr...Keith and Dave are NOT schmucks...grrr... Is this the same dudes that said Girard won't make it and Hannu won't hack it??? Grrr...someone is going to get the people's elbow!!!


September 15, 2005 07:40 AM
Heather said:

No. d-lee's a good blogger who's a Carolina fan.


September 15, 2005 08:27 AM
stacy said:

yeah, i just read. well, someone's gonna get an elbow...it's too early.


September 15, 2005 08:41 AM
Brushback said:

A very spirited and lively Carnival-- great job!


September 15, 2005 09:18 AM
J.J. said:

lol! I do enjoy reading your blog, Heather. Good job on the Carnival... thanks for hosting!


September 15, 2005 11:59 AM
dlee said:

Great job with the Carnival, Heather....

I should never have called Aucoin and Gove "schmucks". Clearly, they're not. It was a knee-jerk reaction to a pair of signings that I didn't quite understand. Granted, we had just signed Cory Stillman (who, at $1.75M/season might be THE steal of the off-season), but we still needed to fill some holes in our big club roster. I didn't understand, and I still don't understand why they made it a higher priority to fill Lowell's roster than to re-sign our own players or pick up other free agents. Obviously, I have no idea what was going on behind closed doors, how many players we were courting, how many times we had been turned away, etc, but I'm sure Aucoin and Gove would have still been available a few days later.
So instead of saying that I thought we had our priorities out of line, I took an uncalled for pot-shot at those two guys.


September 15, 2005 12:55 PM
stacy said:

Well, you know... I'm glad to see blogs out there dedicated to hockey... Now I have something to look forward to everyday when I leave here. Good job to both you guys for awesome information that I can't even imagine the research and responses. So kudos and happy endings to each day! CHEERS! :)


September 15, 2005 01:25 PM
Heather said:

I'm not too offended by you calling David and Keith schmucks. It's almost understandable, but if you look at the numbers posted for Providence, the two of them will help turn Lowell to a contender for the Calder Cup, which will benefit all of Carolina's rookies (playoff experience). I am not sure if they have two-way contracts, but if they do and should get the call to Carolina for whatever reason, they will do good things.


I do not think that they would have been on the market a few days later. They are quality players- dynamic and very offensively driven. They are two that I DESPERATELY wish that Providence had kept, but from what I understand, the two of them had been in talks with Carolina for awhile; for quite a bit prior to the free agent signing boon. It may have just been an announcement of poor timing.


September 15, 2005 08:19 PM
dlee said:

No. Aucoin and Gove each have one-way contracts with Lowell.

They'll definitely be needed in Lowell. Of their top seven scorers from last year, only Colin Forbes is back for sure. Staaly and Mikey C are on Carolina's roster. Ziggy is probably 85% going to be in Carolina. Larose maybe 50%. Kobasew was property of the Flames. Carolina has given up on Ryan Bayda (whose father works for the company that prints our season tickets), so he remains an UFA. I'm not sure who the Avs will be giving to Lowell, but we hope they've got some offensive guys to help out. We have like fourteen million goaltenders down at Lowell, and we loaded up on D in the draft for the same reason, so those areas are good. Offense is another story.


September 16, 2005 03:07 AM
Heather said:

Gove and Aucoin will both help Lowell's depth offensively. They are both solid pick-ups, and the only reason that I am not REALLY UPSET that they are no longer with Providence is because I can still catch them in Lowell. Of course, it'll be a different song I'm singing when we're FACING Lowell, but for all those other games? I'll be kosher with it. Good signings for Carolina/Lowell. Trust me.


September 16, 2005 07:36 AM