–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch thinks Jared Cowen should be part of the Calder conversation (link), but admits Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Adam Henrique are going to be hard to beat. I think the award is Nugent-Hopkins‘ to lose.
-Pierre McGuire told the The Team 1200 (link) that he likes the Kyle Turris–David Rundblad trade. He thinks Turris is a legitimate #2 centerman. Paul MacLean was quoted in the Garrioch article above said this about Rundblad, “With Rundblad, he still had more to learn. We’re getting a really good player and in order to get a really good player, you’re going to have to give up a really good player. Whether it was him or somebody else, we were going to have to give up somebody really good.” In another Garrioch article (link) Blues analyst Darren Pang tries to assuage Sens fans fears with this, “He’s a dynamic forward that sees the ice really well. The big thing for him is that he can really shoot the puck. That’s important for a centre. For a guy you don’t think is that big or strong, he snaps the puck very hard.” Adding, “This is going to be a great chance for him to develop.” For me it’s a wait-and-see approach.
–The Silver Seven‘s Mark Parisi makes a terrible comparison (link) in an attempt to illustrate that Rundblad isn’t a guaranteed great player because other winners of the Borje Salming haven’t panned out. Here’s the problem with his approach: every other winner was a veteran player. Briefly (the age is what they were when they won the trophy): David Petrasek (34), Mikko Luoma (32), Marcus Ragnarsson (38), and Magnus Johansson (37). He makes the same mistake in looking at other top-scoring players from Sweden. Mark, what made Rundblad‘s accomplishment significant was how young he was! It doesn’t guarantee he’ll pan out, although Pierre McGuire (link above) thinks that at worst he’s a #5 blueliner (at best #3).
-Binghamton beat Adirondack 4-1 yesterday afternoon, with Mike McKenna earning the win and goals from Corey Cowick, Pat Cannone, Mark Parrish, and Wacey Hamilton. Corey Locke did not play (despite being listed in the lineup) purely as a maintenance measure. For the box score go here link and for Joy Lindsay’s game summary go here link.
-In Joy’s post-game quotes (link) Kurt Kleinendorst talked about the team’s effort, “I’m very encouraged, obviously. I’m very pleased. We’re at a point now where we’re just, we’re looking for any little positive we can get. And for us, coming into tonight, we knew that if we could get this, that’s two out of three. Nothing we can do about yesterday. Get tonight, two out of three. And we can live with that. Moving forward, if we can just focus on two out of every three for now, that’s where we need to be.”
-The media here in Ottawa have been making a big deal out of the new scoreboard coming to the arena and I haven’t mentioned it because I couldn’t care less. The only issue I’ve ever had with the arena is how infrequently they update out-of-town scores. Bigger screens will be nice, but just don’t produce any level of excitement for me.
-Most fans have heard how ESPN and Hockey Night in Canada‘s Mike Milbury has been charged with assault after an incident at a youth hockey game. The Boston Globe has his side of the story here (link). I hope nothing happened, but it’s a relief to have him off my TV. Milbury is many things, but a good hockey analyst he is not. I always assumed Don Cherry was a big part of why he was hired by Hockey Night in Canada, but it’s been to the detriment of the broadcast.
eyeonthesens 