The Around the NHL All-Reject Team
Chris Kunitz (ANA), Slava Kozlov (ATL), Brad Boyes (BOS), Thomas Vanek (BUF), Matthew Lombardi (CGY), Ray Whitney (CAR), Radim Vrbata (CHI), Brett McLean (COL), David Vyborny (CLB), Jere Lehtinen (DAL), Robert Lang (DET), Steve Staios (EDM), Nathan Horton (FLA), Anze Kopitar (LA), Pierre-Marc Bouchard (MIN), Chris Higgins (MTL), Shea Weber (NSH), Zach Parise (NJ), Rick DiPietro (NYI), Martin Straka (NYR), Joe Corvo (OTT), Mike Knuble (PHI), Ed Jovonovski (PHX), Jordan Staal (PIT), Milan Michalek (SJ), Lee Stempniak (STL), Nikita Alexeev (TB), Darcy Tucker (TOR), Taylor Piatt (VAN) and Dainius Zubrus (WSH).
Voting will be done entirely via the internet and mobile phones this year, so use that write-in column and plug in someone from the all-reject team!
Encouraging news for HD Hockey fans. Comcast is planning to create a new HD-Sports channel, which will provide you with programming from Versus (including HD NHL Action) and The Golf Channel (MMM...Natilie Gublis Show in Hi-Def). Also good news? Comcast may be picking up HDNet, Mark Cuban's hi-def channel, which presents hockey on Thursday and Saturday nights. As HDNet Global correspondent Dan Rather might say, that makes me more excited than Carol Alt in an NHL locker room.
Manny Fernandez is proving us all that he can be a number one goaltender. After splitting time with Dwayne Roloson for what feels like 50 years, both goalies have performed well this season on their own. Fernandez is 9-4-0 with a 2.15 GAA, while Roli the Goalie is 7-6-1 with a 2.41 Goals Against, while both have a shutout to their name. Of course, Manny has a defensive system around him, and Roli ... well, he had one, but it made a run for sunnier pastures.
A great book for all you hockey history buffs: The Rebel League by Ed Willes. With a bunch hilarious anecdotes about the long defunct World Hockey Association, Willes really paints a picture of the league's various financial and on-the-ice foibles. You can also read the stories of the real-life Hanson brothers from Slap Shot, which, as most of you know, is the greatest film ever made.
Zach Parise is totally the new Brian Gionta. After struggling in his first season, and seeing relegations to the fourth-line and even the scratch list, Zach is playing like man possessed so far this year. According to Devils color analyst Glenn "Chico" Resch, he took power-skating courses over the summer. Few players, as skilled and probably more so than Parise, are willing to go that extra mile. You know what? It shows. Parise's strides look smoother and faster this year.
Adding to the list of well-run sites with good NHL content is NBCSports.com's hockey section. Featuring weekly columns from Off Wing Opinion's Eric McErlain, some guy disguised as a Moose, and a blog from Pierre McGuire, it shows the commitment NBC is laying down to hockey.
Is there a more jovial experience in the game of hockey than hearing Rick Jeanneret call a game for the Buffalo Spermbolts, er, Sabres? Just so much energy to a single game. Watch the highlights of any Buffalo game on NHL.com and tell me it's not fun. An added bonus to the calls are the fact that the TV and Radio broadcasts are simulcast in Buffalo, so you know they won't waste any time on the long, boring, distracting-from-the-game tales the plague other broadcasts.
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