Whooo, quite a week for hockey in general, with the Blackhawks clinching the Stanley Cup in one of the most anticlimactic overtime victories in NHL history.
On the CBJ front, we had quite a week of our own, with first Guy Boucher declining the head coaching position while Scott Arniel accepted the job.
Since then, we’ve looked at what’s ahead for the law firm of Scott & Scott, and laid out some possibilities for Tyler Wright on his trip to Russia to meet with Nikita Filatov.
Around the Jackets’ blogosphere, DBJ had to give Don Cherry some credit with his approval of the Scott Arniel hiring, while The Hockey Writers, Jackets Blog, and Waiting for Next Year welcomed the new coach to Columbus.
The Blue Jackets have announced their Development Camp Roster. (Puck Rakers)
Tom Reed offers an Ode to Claude Noel. (Puck Rakers)
Doug MacLean went on a tear blasting Mike Priest and Scott Howson over the Arniel hiring. Jeff Little over at Ten Minute Misconduct delivered an elegant smackdown in response.
Finally, in the community, the Jacket Backers will be holding a blood drive at Capital University on July 17th. If you’re an eligible donor, please consider giving blood. (And if you need extra incentive, everyone who shows up to donate will be entered to win some nice CBJ prizes!)
News from around the NHL after the jump!
First off, you may have heard they’re having a parade today in Chicago – check out this aerial shot of Michigan Avenue! (Chicago Now)
On the other side of the coin, here’s SBN’s own Travis Hughes talking about what it feels like to see the other team win the Stanley Cup in your rink. (SBNation)
And does the Stanley Cup make all those bad contracts for the Hawks worth it? (From The Rink)
A great look at the role of bloggers (and how much access to the press box or players they should be given) in covering the NHL from the Atlanta Journal Constitution and their blog community.
In the continuing saga of the Phoenix Hamilton Winnipeg Arizona Coyotes, Ice Edge Holdings has announced that they do have enough money to buy the team, and have laid out their plan to carry out the purchase. Color me skeptical about them getting a tax through the voters specifically to finance the team. (AZ Central, AZ Republic)
Chicago’s French Pastry School delivers a 50 pound pure chocolate Stanley Cup. Reports that the cup is actually taller than Patrick Kane have yet to be confirmed. (Stick tap to Raw Charge)
Dion Phaneuf will be formally named the new captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs (TSN)
Rob Blake calls it a career. (CSN Bay Area)
Mike Cammalleri consoles himself in the offseason with Formula 1 racing, apparently.(Tweetphoto via Cammalleri13 twitter account)
I don’t believe this is an official effort by the NHL or Blackhawks, but check out the “Where’s the Cup?” twitter feed – a great crowdsourced effort to get pictures and tweets of where the cup is and what people are doing with it. Yesterday and today were fairly easy – I’m interested to see if they can keep this up all summer. I’d love to see pictures of the cup going to Sweden or Finland.
Michael Leighton is probably crazy. (Delaware Online)
Guy Boucher was formally introduced by the Tampa Bay Lightning as their new head coach on Thursday. First article from the Dispatch complaining that he didn’t want to discuss why he turned down the Columbus job on Friday. Guys, can we drop this already? (Puck-Rakers)
Hockey Canada announces their WJC development camp roster. Potential CBJ first round picks Erik Gudbrandson and Brandon Gormley are both invited. (Hockey Canada)
Puck Daddy gives us the last Jersey Fouls of the season, a look at Alex Ovechkin‘s ride from zamboni driving poster boy of the NHL to first round flop, and their final playoff eulogy for the Philadelphia Flyers.
Last of all, it’s not hockey, but you may have heard something about the World Cup kicking off today in South Africa. Follow SBN’s Daily Soccer Fix for news, game notes, and the experience of being on the ground in Jo’burg for the entire month! Also, Nathan over at Hockey Wilderness is doing a neat series explaining the tournament for hockey fans, starting with a nice primer on the differences between offsides rules in the two sports.