Surprise, surprise

As I am anxiously awainting the start of the Caps/Canes game (serious nail biting and antacid popping is taking place) I wanted to share a piece of hockey news that just shocked me. I mean truly really was unblievable........

Quebec Remparts goalie Jonathan Roy was suspended for seven games, and Remparts coach Patrick Roy -- Jonathan's father -- was suspended for five games following Saturday's melee between their team and the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoff.

Also, isnt it kind of weird that Jonathan Roy refers to his dad as Patrick?

"Patrick looked at me and told me to calm down," Jonathan Roy said. "I said to myself, 'He doesn't want me to go,' but when the line judge released me, I said to myself ... 'I'm going.'"

I never thought I would say this...

...but I feel bad for the 'Ning.

TAMPA, Fla. -- A group led by former Florida Panthers coach Doug MacLean has agreed to buy the Tampa Bay Lightning from Palace Sports and Entertainment.

The NHL team said Tuesday that Absolute Hockey Enterprises signed a purchase agreement that also includes the leasing rights to the St. Pete Times Forum and adjacent properties. The sale is subject to approval by the NHL's board of governors.

Absolute Hockey also includes Jeff Sherrin and Oren Koules. Team spokesman Jay Preble said Sherrin is a Coral Springs real estate developer and Koules is a TV and movie producer. Preble declined further comment until a news conference later Tuesday.

MacLean coached Florida to the Stanley Cup finals in 1996. He was fired in April as the Columbus Blue Jackets' president and general manager.

The Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004.

The knock on MacLean is that he is a nice guy, but a terrible manager. If he is inserted as GM of the Ning, I think the club is going to start going south very quickly. But then again, I really dont mind if the Caps division rivals start to unravel. I cant wait to see how management deals with Tortorella.

"journalism"

(I was going to print this yesterday, but my Mom is staying with me this week while she rehabs a lower body injury -- ok, ok, its her ankle -- and told me to wait a day to see if I was still pissed about this article. I am, so here it is).

http://www.startribune.com/10073/story/1306535.html

My issues with the "article" above:

1) Ms. Blount cherry picked the same information that 99% of sports journalists do when writing again and again about how hockey is "dead". She fails to mention that the NHL is actually doing booming business and ticket/merchandise sales are doing quite nicely.

2) There is NO SALARY WAR happening. I am a hockey blogger, I spend a good amount of my day reading articles about hockey, and I have yet to hear of a salary induced lock-out type situation that Ms. Blount implies is on the verge of happening.

3)I wont bother to go into detail on this one because everyone but sports journalists seem to understand it -- fighting is part of hockey. It has nothing to do with gratuitous violence and everything to do with protecting your team mates. Check out the post about Clark a little further down this page for an example.

4) How is the NHL tagged as the violent sport when off the top of my head I can think of at least half a dozen instances of unnecessary violence in more "mainstream" sports? What about this or this?

5) If Ms. Blount wanted to single out Boogaard for his camp, why couldnt she have done so without taking jabs at the NHL as a whole? Is someone having too much fun this summer to actually research and write a good article? She has an "expert" chiming in but doesnt say a word about the history and significance of hockey fighting.

I have other glaring problems with this article, but since my face has just turned from brown to red (not an easy task), I am going to go meditate or something.