Shrapnel - 6/16/11

Let's get the important one out of the way first:

Happy Birthday, Rick Nash! I hope you're out doing something fun.

Now, we move to the other important one: Congratulations to the Boston Bruins and their fans, who succeeded not only in coming back from 0-2 to win the Cup based on Tim Thomas' heroic effort and exceptional defense eliminating the firepower of the Canucks, but also in not burning their city down afterwards.

I realize it's the act of selfish, childish fools who probably don't really give a damn about hockey, and just wanted an excuse to cause damage to those around them, but it is a shame, and reflects poorly on all hockey fans as a result. 

Ok, want some cool news? It looks like OSU hockey will play Michigan outdoors at Progressive Field, Jacobs Field, whatever we call it now. Count me among the many looking at this and hoping to get tickets when they go on sale.

I recently got my girlfriend into hockey towards the end of this past season. It was the first time she'd ever seen the Cup handed out, and she was fascinated by the handshake line. The emotion, the tears, the grace, the pain. "It's a more personal sport", she said, and she's right. I'm sure players in every pro sport take things seriously, but you really feel the relationships, the personal achievement, and the personal pain in hockey in a way you don't  see anywhere else. Reason #4824 I love this game. And how about Thomas and Luongo talking as they shook hands, and Thomas telling him "You're a good goaltender, man." Wow.

A neat interview in Czech on Jan Hejda and the Jackets' attempts to re-sign him. Here's the google translation.

(Did you know that Jamie Arniel of the Boston Bruins, who got to hoist the cup around 12th in line or so, is CBJ head coach Scott Arniel's nephew? If not, 10,000 people on Twitter probably told you last night.)

Unsurprisingly, Scott Howson plans to have a busy offseason. If Vancouver chooses to blow up the team a bit, I'd happily take Bieksa, Ehrhoff, Schneider, or those Sedin Guys off their hands...

Justin Bourne points out that Brad Marchand was damn good in Game 7. For all the talk about Seguin, he's the rookie who really took off in these playoffs.

Over at Puck Rakers, Porty discusses the buyout window opening. Note that he expects Mike Commodore to be bought out at the end of the window, just in case a salary dumping trade opens up...you never do know.

Claude Julien celebrated the Stanley Cup win in his press conference with his young daughter. That's teeth-meltingly cute.

In news that we follow because we want Jeff Carter with the fire of a thousand suns we're curious to see how it works out,The Bryzgalov Has Landed. Despite concerns over that salary cap thing, it seems the Flyers are preparing to roll out the money truck. Is Paul Holmgren insane? The goalie wants a 5-6 year deal at 7-8 million, and his response is "Can we pad that out to 8 years instead?" Wow. 

Not surprisingly, The Fourth Period has a look at it, too, and evaluates the various options. 

Also, not shockingly, we're learning that a lot of the Canucks played hurt in the finals, but I've got a lot of respect for them not using it as an excuse. I'm genuinely curious to find out if Luongo was hurt, too. When he was in the handshake line, his eyes appeared to be stupid dilated on TV. Last time I saw that outside of an eye exam, it was because my roommate had major back surgery and was doped to the gills. If he was playing through injury, especially one that needed to be medicated before each game? Yeah, that explains a lot.

OK, that's it. You can go back to your desk.