Tuesday's Thoughts

by Jes

Let's start off with the Photo of the Day. Ryan Kesler has Patrick Sharp in a very ... precarious position.

"Get up, you big baby!"


Get your captions in!

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Wow, the Canucks BARELY managed to not get swept in the season series by the Los Angeles Kings. Of course, it took a 2-1 overtime win to give the Canucks one frickin victory against Marc Crawford's poorly coached squad.

I totally love the Alex Burrows/Ryan Kesler combo. Sure, we don't expect them to score every night, but we love the effort and defensive ability. I'd match up Kesler/Burrows to the other great checking duos, like the ones in Detroit, Anaheim, and New Jersey.

Markus Naslund should take notes on how to deliver an honest effort. Why is it the Canucks captain gets a free pass? Vigneault ought to make Naslund a healthy scratch to sink in a message.

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Wayne's World - Some thoughts from our Southern-fried correspondant.

The Avalanche are playing the Thrashers tonight, and Thrasherw marketing has designated tonight as one of those "White Out" games where the first 10,000 in attendance get a white T-shirt.

Ooooooooh...Is that supposed to scare the opposition?

These so-called "White Out" games are getting so ubiquitous in sports that even college basketball teams are doing it these days...And the T-birds are scheduling it against the same team that started this trend...

In reality, Atlanta Spirit (GOOOOOOO Team!) should give away 10,000 carving forks, as in, "This team is done; stick a fork in 'em".

Agreed. For the Coyotes/Jets, it's good. For everyone else, it's sad.

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From IIHF correspondant Joeri Loonen, a cool article about Slovakia's hockey factory: Trencin.

Hockey is a religion in Slovakia, especially in Trencin. When talking with players from the city, dropping the name brings a twinkle into their eyes. Trencin has embraced its NHL stars, but the players embrace the city as well. A good example is a prestigious project that Marian Gaborik supported. To create more ice time for local children, he funded a new sports complex called the MG Arena. Situated in the city centre, the complex offers more than just an ice-rink. It also includes two gyms, a small hotel and several shops. Gaborik’s father takes care of the day-to-day operations while his brother Branko (a scout for the Minnesota Wild) was also involved in the project.

If only the rest of Slovakia was as good as producing talent, the Slovaks wouldn't be stuck behind the usual Top 6 countries :(

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Author Joe Pelletier is also a rabid reader, and decided to do a list of the books he considers best in the realm of hockey.

HockeyBookReviews.com has a special feature today. Book reviewer Joe
Pelletier names the top five most important hockey books of all time:

Unlike other sports, baseball in particular, hockey does not tend to
transcend the literary world very often.

I'm not sure why that is. Is it because the game does not translate
onto paper that well? I don't think so. Is it because hockey attracts
few great writers? Not at all. Perhaps it is there are just fewer
hockey books out there, and therefore fewer classics?.

Well, can you really name basketball and football books that are popular and considered classics?

The Hockey Sweater gets my #1 vote, since it's a story that most any Canadian kid was exposed to, and the exlusion/wanting-to-fit-in story line can pretty much hit the heart of anyone who reads it.