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I remember the phone was ringing. I knew it was important because it kept ringing louder and louder. I had to run over. I was panicked. I felt like I was running in jello. I picked up the phone, I knew it was important,
"It's Sundin! He's signed!"
"Buddy!", I tried to yell, but it was only a whisper, "Buddy, is that you?!" I tried to hear over the ringing.
"He's signed! He has signed! He's coming! The Cup is coming!" It was real. I had to tell the girl. I had to tell everyone, but I couldn't move. Buddy was still screaming.
But I couldn't hear him any more because the phone was still ringing, warbling and ringing, dancing and ringing, louder and louder until...8:30...aw hell!
Time to get up.
Nuts...
You know,! there is something on my mind for the last couple of days and it is nothing to do with hockey. A lot of you know of my different kind of navigation formula of life I have taken from child hood through to 65. I have gone down hundreds of spokes on the wheel always searching for where I fit on this planet. At one point around 20 years old, I found myself looking for work in the Pacific shore line town of Gold Beach, Oragon.
I took a Job illegally,with a carnival, as I had done many times and different types of jobs without the proper papers to work in the States. But of coarse pulp and paper never meant anything to me anyway as I could not read or write. I would just take work anywhere I could get it as I traveled all over North America. I traveled on freight cars, hitchhiked and when I had money, I bought a train ticket or road the bus.
I came into contact with all kinds of people in my travels, many of whom to put it mildly were from the lower side of the tracks, and most of the time I used my street smarts to keep me some what safe most of the time.
But for the last couple of days, I have had a very heavy heart for a family and it seems to be a very nice young man who was prayed upon on a bus ride home after working for a carnival. I just can't help but thinking about this tragedy and knowing what a very fortunate and lucky man I am today.
Just imagine! my largest concern in life today is how our hockey club will perform. I am a very fortunate human.
Ian
But that is life Ian. We are hard-wired to survive. That means that we learn not only what harms us, but others. The older we get the more we learn what is dangerous. We priortize risks. Then we see something like this, it strikes against everything we have learned. It is random, like a semi bouncing into our lane. Add in young, travelling, going home, relatives, bus. There are too many associations to our past. Add in our pretty good lifestyle, giving us time to wait on a Swede who is looking for the max return in his last few years, and voila, we have angst.
The lesson to learn, if there is one, is that random happens. Caution, prevention, armed security guards in every other seat, none of that matters. So when you see a (excuse me ladies) pretty girl, smile. When you see the sun, get out. When a warm breeze crosses your face, sigh. Hear a child laughing, add a day to your life.
And play any game as if it was your last shift.
Take care.
Ian, good post. Hopefully we do not dwell on this tragic episode here on HIO, but I too have been thinking so much about that poor lad and his family. It's the sort of thing that "doesn't happen in Canada".
Good morning boys and girls, it's a beautiful Sunday morning here, and I have not got a thing to talk about. Life is just not stressful enough anymore I guess.!
Bolt's new coach Barry Melrose had his mullet but was it comparable to these ..... http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-mullets,0,6778458.ugcphotogallery
Hockey notes ; Addressing goalie equipment , incentive bonuses and faceoff winners .. by Fluto Shinzawa .. boston.com ..... http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/articles/2008/08/03/addressing_the_g...
Good informative read as usual, nm49. It covers a lot of things including:
1. Bryan Smolinski, and wonders why he has not been signed by anyone yet. There is also a reference to him centering Montreal's most effective threesome against Boston in the playoffs, including Kostopoulos and Begin, who they call the "back-cracker". They speculate he might have to try out with some team in training camp.
2. Only 2 players actually went to arbitration, even though 15 had applied for it.
3. Francois Beauchemin is scheduled to become a UFA next year. There is some good coverage of his performance last year, and reference to the fact that he played with Claude Julien in Hamilton. There are also comments on his Canadiens' connections, and on the fact that Boston will have enough cap space if they wish to go after him. I'm sure that there are lots of teams who would love to have him if he becomes available.
Ed - Beauchemin should be set for life financially next year at this time and Smols started in Boston and may get a tryout there now that Murray's been bought out.
NM49 - Great read, very informative. Bruins will certainly be on the rise if they get some goaltending. Sure wish we could have been able to sign Wheeler.
The Original 24 Cups
Steve - The more i think about it the more i am convinced that the goalie equipment has to change , just looking a videos from the pre lockout era and seeing wingers with something to shot at which has gone now has changed my thinking. How many times last year that you seen a goalie supposedly make a save and he doesn't even know it as it hit him and didn't really feel it. The shooter is not relevant these days that's why I'm so persistent in emphasizing the need for forwards to be strong in front of the net and not like the Red Wings do which should be clamped down on as it's taking away a lot of skill and turning it into a gladiator contest and playing with the grey zone created by the rules, the poor "D" man. No wonder Higgy and Ryder shot wide so often last year as there's no spots to shoot at.
Robert L.,
In case you're wondering why you and numerous others had trouble getting into your blog (and numerous other blogs) recently, the problem apparently stemmed from SiteMeter and has been corrected. Here is a message SiteMeter sent to another blogger:
Dear [name omitted],
We apologize for the problem this has caused on your websites. We became aware of a compatibility issue with our SiteMeter tracking code and IE 7 (possibly IE 6) browsers that started last night.
The problem was related to some work we were doing on the backend system for our upcoming website launch.
We've identified and resolved two separate but related issues -
1 - IE Users viewing pages - There was a problem with users who placed their SiteMeter tracking code outside of their HTML Body Tag. Because of the changes we made this created a failure for visitors viewing sites using Internet Explorer 7.
2 - Accessing SiteMeter and Stats - Individuals trying to access or view their SiteMeter stats by clicking on their SiteMeter logo/icons were unable to gain access. This again appears to have affected only individuals using IE7.
At this time both problems have been fixed and our services are fully operational.
If you have any additional questions please let me know.
Sincerely, . . .
SiteMeter Support
First sentence edited by me to correct misspelling of "stemmed."
Thanks Peter, I had a hunch something related with Site Meter might have had something to do with it, as I could not access my traffic stats as well from their site. The coincidence did strike me as being odd. Much appreciation for clearing this up. For a spell there, I thought I had a virus!
Also, in the last week, Blogger has had issues with numerous Blogs being marked as "spam blogs" by some of their own software glitches.
Lemme ask ya sumpin' Stevie Y: What's YOUR interest in Mr. Sundin, may I ask? Huh?
Do me a favor, aw'ight? Take your little wings and go back to Detroit with your little Hossa and poop in the Stanley Cup some more and laugh it up and enjoy yourselves, ok?
Get yer dirty motor-oil city paws away from Mats and let's leave it at an even keel, okey-dokey? You don't get him; we don't get him and it's all good.
Cuz we're comin' to get ya.
Punks.
Re-Post and please check criteria - 10 Most Valuable Players now in the New NHL .. in the Bleacher Report ..... http://bleacherreport.com/articles/41722-the-10-most-valuable-players-in...
Jose Theodore's interview with Mike Vogel (Part - 2) ..... http://capitals.nhl.tv/team/console?type=fvod&id=20106&catid=208
The Most often used words during the regular NHL season are ..... "The information on the page at Hockeybuzz isn't correct".
I can't argue with that!
A well deserved offer made to Richard Matvichuk by the Blue Jackets for a tryout and a summary of the teams over the salary cap .. by Tom Reed .. Columbus Dispatch ..... http://blog.dispatch.com/cbj/2008/08/an_old_hitch_acquaintance.shtml
After reading the article and seeing how far the Kings are from the floor of the cap, they might be in the hunt for mats.They play in a city that likes big names, lots of free publicity if he signs there.They can also ask for draft picks if they take a player from a team that is over the cap.Its going to be interesting to see what happens there.
M A - Good thought but the Kings are in the midst of selling a nice portion of their club so until that is done big deals are out and the GM has to get permission from the owners for any move at 4 million and more so his hands are tied and anyway Sundin is not what they need while rebuilding.
Not so, for the Kings.
http://mirtle.blogspot.com/2008/07/kings-dont-fear-floor.html
Mr. Boone may be able to answer this : when i pull up the Gazette my security site advisor gives me a "caution" alert which it doesn't with the other rags , is their something the Gazette is offering like spyware or another perk that causes this and i know it has nothing to do with your tasty art. I like to thank those posters for their kind words earlier and informed the word as few trools are informed.
You've stumped me, Nightmare. I'm not up on techno-nerd issues pertaining to this site or the main Gazette site.
Mike - I just get a little worried when i check the Gazette's obituaries and the site advisor has the caution alert. It may just be my site advisor.
"Techno - nerd" issues?
That's it, somebody photo shop this mug shot and put some white tape on those glasses! :)
Next year i would like to see the canadians, play with a more physical edge.A great hit is better then a goal sometimes. Can anybody in the farm system make an impact next season?
Not that way.O'bryne should play more this year and he has some physical presence .On the farm,we have a first year pro named Valentenko(D-21) who developed a rep for hard hits (needs at least another year there).And in Russia ,we have Yemelin(D-23) who is one of the hardest hitters there(last year of his contract there).He has always been compared to Kaspritis but bigger. Montreal has not had much luck getting him over here so far (Father is a coach and has a russian agent)and he seems to have regressed last season.Stewart(F-23),who you saw play TO the last game of the season is the most physical of the forwards but more of a checker.Coming up from US Collage , we have another couple of d's and a forward who are physical but they are not close yet.Hope this helps.
Two simple rules on this site 1) No capitals in leafs,lafs,laffs etc. 2)people catch you when there's no "e" in Canadiens. There's also an unwritten rule that you don't compliment Boone's work too much as he may be missing from the action for a few days as he parades around the Gazette office pounding his chest.