November 2, 2006

Some transactions.

In lieu of discussing the Bruins/Sabres game tonight in depth (I was encouraged by the fact that we scored first, and encouraged by the fact that we'd established a decent lead. I am disappointed in the fact that we allowed Buffalo to tie it up, but I am not shocked we lost in a shoot-out. I'll save the anti-shoot-out rant for another day, and instead just mention that I'm a little humiliated by the fact that we lost to the ugliest logo in all of the NHL.), I am instead going to mention a couple of transactions by other NHL teams that will better your local AHL teams:

1. Dan LaCouture was dropped down to Lowell by New Jersey.
2. Patrick O'Sullivan, the focus of Gare Joyce's Damage Control, was dropped down to Manchester by LA.
3. Keith Aucoin was dropped down to Albany by Carolina.
4. And though it won't better Albany (their loss, I feel), they've dropped Chris Dyment down to the Florida Everblades of the ECHL.

I was mostly intrigued by the drop of Patrick O'Sullivan to Manchester. I've been working my way through The Greatest Hockey Stories Ever Told as edited by Brian Urstadt, and Damage Control is one of the stories in the anthology. The opening sentence in the introduction to the piece reads as such:

When Wayne Gretzky read Damage Control in June 2003, he was reportedly moved to tears.

I read that and I wondered, now, why did Wayne cry? Instantly, I was hooked, because I like drama, and tears indicate drama. Plus, I had to read about an 18-year-old kid that had such a story that he made the Great One cry, because... who else could say that they made Gretzky cry? I'm going to guess it's a rare claim to fame, unless Wayne's really a secret crybaby, in which case, it's not much of a claim to fame at all. So I read on, and I read about Patrick O'Sullivan and his path to the NHL, and I read about his obstructions on his path to the NHL. And I'm not going to tell you why Wayne cried (I didn't cry, but ask anybody; I'm a soulless meanie with a heart of the blackest coal). Go read it for yourselves. It's an interesting story, and I'm hoping that Patrick will stick with Manchester long enough where I'll get a chance to see him play.

Right now, though, I have to catch the first episode of NESN's 'Be A Bruin' series, because I want to count how many times I can spot the hockey player that changed my car tire for me back in September.

by Heather | 9:52 PM | 0
filed under: 06-07 season