Thursday, November 23, 2006

 

A Hockey Rants Thanksgiving Post

While our American friends are busy stuffing themselves into a coma with antibiotic-laced Turkey, high-calorie stuffing, and hypersweet cranberry sauce while watching No Fun League Amerikaner Football, us Canadians are just living yet another standard Thursday.

Still, I've been told that I need to be more positive in life, so I'll take this opportunity to give thanks for the good things in the Hockey World.

This really does take an incredible amount of energy for me. (Must resist jab at Gary Buttman)

  • Thanks to the country of Slovakia for producing some of the world's finest hockey talents: Pavol Demitra, Marian Gaborik, Robert Svehla, Peter Bondra, Marian Hossa, Ladislav Nagy, Vladimir Orszagh, Michal Handzus, Lubomir Vaic, etc...
    Lubomir Vaic

  • Speaking of Lubomir Vaic, the tabloids caught him being a good boy and dishing out turkey dinners to the men and women of the US Army who are fighting hard over in the Middle East. What a guy! You wouldn't see Nicklas Lidstrom do something like this, would ya?

  • Thanks also to the Czech Republic for producing some of the world's finest talents. Of course, it shouldn't have been too hard when they kept most of the resources to themselves after the breakup of the CSSR (See how hard it is to keep positive?): Jaromir Jagr, Tomas Kaberle, The Brat, Hepatitis Boy, Petr Cajanek, Jaroslav Balastik, Roman Kadera, Richard Kral, and Valdemar Jirus.

  • Thanks to OLN/Versus for actually caring about hockey. Sure, the reach isn't nearly as good as the mainstream networks, but it's nice to see the network actually take care of hockey and treat the game with respect.

  • Thanks to the CBC for the Hockey Night in Canada double-header. If my foggy memory isn't failing me (thanks to cannabis and NyQuil for that!), the CBC used to show just one game on Saturday nights. From 4pm onward, us Canadians are set with good hockey coverage

  • Thanks to the LA Kings for not only taking Dan Cloutier from the Canucks, but signing him to a 2-year extension, thus guaranteeing the Canucks have an easier time scoring goals versus the Kings.

  • Thanks to the NY Islanders organization for providing great lessons in mismanagement and a lot of humourous news stories. The funniest things in life are always non-fiction.

  • Thanks to the friends, contacts, bloggers, and other people I have met through this site. This place has given me plenty of new opportunities as well as helped me learn a lot about the game. Reading the various blogs is the best way to get hockey news + analysis + a fan's perspective. (Stan Fischler's site, notwithstanding)

  • Thanks to YouTube for providing a free and easy service that lets us upload our Pavol Demitra videos for all to see.

  • Thanks to Sportsnet and TSN for increasing their hockey coverage of both games and analysis. The CBC and local broadcasts aren't the only thing in town now that we have more national broadcasts.

  • Thanks to Sweden for 4 of the Canucks' 5 best players, Britney Spears lyrics, Ingmar W. Bergman's LSD laced sweater creations, and cheap, decent, and easy-to-assemble furniture.


  • Thank you to the Columbus Dinner Jackets for giving me a reason to hate again now that Bobby Clarke 'resigned'. Thanks also the Red Wings, Avalanche, Stars, Leafs, Donald Brashear, and the Devils for your continuing contribution to my hatred.

  • Thanks to Sidney Crosby for being the best young thing to come out of Canada since Wayne Gretzky and for helping rescue the Pittsburgh Penguins.

  • And a BIG thank you to Jim Hughson for throwing Greg Millen out of the broadcast booth and onto Sean Avery. (or was that just a dream?)

    • # posted by Unknown @ 2:15 pm
    Comments:
    Jes,

    We can be thankful the San Jose Earthquakes will be returning to MLS within three years, and playing in a new soccer specific stadium.

    You didn't want to have to root for the new Toronto team. In the meantime keep pulling for Vancouver's Pat Onstad, keeper for MLS Champs Houston Dynamo. We hope to have him back in SJ. BTW, the Dynamo org and their fans were a cut above the usual Texas scene...hard to resent them after all the respect shown SJ throughout this season.

    Incidently, seeing Jim Hughson with a rage-on would be quite a sight. Maybe he should be driving a beer truck in Edmonton for a couple of weeks, just to get the juices flowing.

    --Sharkalope
    # posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 3:12 pm
     
    Gotta love the Stan Fischler bashing. I've never been exactly sure whether he's in the pay of ownership or if he's just an idiot - if the owners fed him a shit sandwich he'd ask for a second.
    # posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 7:12 am
     
    Thanks to the country of Slovakia for producing some of the world's finest hockey talents: Pavol Demitra, Marian Gaborik, Robert Svehla, Peter Bondra, Marian Hossa, Ladislav Nagy, Vladimir Orszagh, Michal Handzus, Lubomir Vaic, etc...

    Forgetting Someone?
    # posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 9:31 am
     
    Forgetting someone?

    Branko Radivojevic, Andrej Meszaros, Peter Stastny, Anton Stastny, Yan Stastny, Marian Stastny, Paul Stastny, Jan Lasak, Richard Stehlik, Richard Lintner, Lubos Bartecko, Lubomir Visnovsky, Zdeno Chara, Milan Jurcina, Peter Budaj, Robert Dome, Peter Bartos, Lubomir Sekeras, Zigmund Palffy, Josef Stumpel, Jaroslav Obsut, Stan Mikita, Juraj Kolnik...

    maybe just 1 or 2 :)
    # posted by Blogger Unknown : 10:33 am
     
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