Around The Rink 01.14.09

-So, Brendan Shanahan has finally signed a deal with the New Jersey Devils, which will see him paid $800,000 divided by two, since we're in the halfway part of the season. While we can only wonder how much rust is in Shahahan's gears-- you can only hope he can help with some secondary offensive punch and get some leadership in the room while Marty Brodeur continues to sit on the sideline.

-The World Juniors could be the new way for drafted junior players stuck in Europe to get over and play in North America, should they have a problem with their club team. Point in case, Mikael Backlund, who played for Team Sweden last Monday, the Calgary Flames last Wednesday, and now has settled in Kelowna of the WHL. While his Swedish club Vasteras wasn't too keen on the idea, they, along with the IIHF and the Swedish Hockey Federation, signed off on the transfer for Backlund to play in the Dub. I'm sure it's a coincidence that Backlund's coaches had criticised him before he headed off to the WJC for his play on Vasteras. I couldn't translate it that well, but I think it was something to the effect of "Birdy-bird bork, bork, bork."

-So much hype has been build up between tonight tilt between the Caps and Pens, it's almost like the Caps are up 3-1 in a playoff series. This could be the most watched game tonight, especially with all the smack talk and random news stories that have come out in the past few days. I mean, the fact that Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin's friendship has cooled down a bit and it being headline news-- oof-ta. I think it'll be a fantastic game, but I doubt it'll have the bloodshed of a Federal League game that the media is hoping for.

-Roberto Luongo is ready to come back, which means that one of the goalies for the Canucks has to be placed on waivers and sent down. Since they recently acquired Jason LaBarbera, as well as his lack of consistent play down the stretch; Curtis Sanford was placed on waivers. Way to go, you big dummy.

-Speaking of LaBarbera, what the hell is with this guy?? There are times where he looks like the second coming of Ken Dryden, then other nights he looks like Hardy Astrom. Why wouldn't the Canucks place LaBarbera on waivers and let him walk out?? If a team wants to pick him up after seeing his pure bi-polarism in net in both Los Angeles and now Vancouver-- more power to them. He could be one of the best minor league goalies in history, but the hype of him being able to make the jump to the show is completely wasted.

-The Edge jersey has finally made its way to the ECHL. The All-Star Game in Reading will have both the American and National teams wearing the Edge uniform. The thing that I have wondered is the actual statistics on whether or not the Edge uniform system is actually that much better that it's going to the top-three professional hockey leagues and be hailed as the greatest thing in hockey since they stopped using cow-shit as a puck. I'd be willing to conduct this study for a nominal fee, of course.

-Just some blog issues to take care of, so just feel free to skip it if need be. Soon, I'll be trying to integrate video to this blog for the fact that it'll be a lot funner for you folks to watch and listen rather than read.....and it cuts down on my typing. We'll see how that goes. Also, there could be a nice little project coming up here in the next few weeks that I'm sure with be...just....just super.