Dudley Jumped Ship at the Right Time

More bad news for the Blackhawks front office. According to TSN, the NHL is investigating Hossa's new 12 year contract with Chicago to determine whether or not it improperly circumvents the CBA.

What the Hawks did was pretty transparent. Hossa's deal pays him almost 8 million per year for the next seven seasons, but the team will only feel a 5.5 million dollar cap hit. The reason for that is that Hossa's salary drops to 4 million a year for the 2016-2017 season, then to less than 1 million a year for the final 4 years of his contract.

Now, you could look at that and say that it makes sense to build in a declining salary for a player whose skill will be declining as he ages. Indeed, Hoss will be 42 by the time this contract expires. And if the Blackhawks honestly intended for the Magician to play in Chicago until the ripe old age of 42, there would be nothing wrong with that.

The problem comes in when you figure that Dale Talon probably had a good little chuckle to themselves about signing a contract for 12 years with a player who will probably retire in 8 years at the most. That means the Hawks get Hossa's services for the next 8 years, paying him a pretty fair market value of 7.9 million a year for most of that time, but only have to suffer a 5.5 million dollar cap hit thanks to those four years when the only Blackhawks games Hossa is likely to see are the ones he watches on plasma tv from a castle in Slovakia.

Loopholes are there to be exploited. Unless the league and NHLPA built in a "spirit of the law" type anti-circumvention clause in the CBA, this type of deal is shady, but not illegal. Since TSN is indicating that there is a risk of $5 million in fines and a loss of draft picks, there must be some kind of clause in there with that specific penalty.

For the Chronicle, I'm Razor Catch Prey.

Every Night I Have the Same Dream

Happy Friday, everyone. Hope our in-town readers made it through another night of horror. Have you read my important proposal for improving the Thrashers in virtually every way? If not, click the link above or scroll down one post. And don't forget to vote in our poll! We'll be sending the results to the Atlanta Spirit's front office.

For the Friday funs:

The greatest Atlantan visits Sea World and takes a particular liking to the penguins. Please watch this, as it's the most wonderful thing I've ever seen.


And this, just because:


At the very least, you have to admire Adam Clayton's risky fashion choices.

A Modest Proposal

So I'm driving across rain-swoggled roads during the Lunch Hour (the Chronicle always gives its employees at least enough time for a bottle of chardonnay) and listening to the radio machine. Wasn't in the mood for avant-gardist college radio, NPR is boring as hell, the resurrected 99x wasn't pleasing me and sounded much like it did in 1999, and needless to say the sages of AM are way over my head, and everything else is outright terrible, so I decided to listen to sports radio, which I almost never do outside of hockey season. 680 The Fan, if you must know.

Everyone's talking about the Michael Vick.

It was exciting, listening to people call in from all different corners of the Metro Atlanta Kingdom to express passionately-held, usually well-thought out opinions about where the famed dog-murderer might end up, whether he should be allowed back into the NFL at all, etc. I dream of the Thrashers someday drawing such controversy.

Anyway, I'm not here to express my opinion on whether Mike Vick should be allowed back into the Football*, but to make a modest proposal:

Presumably there are plenty of NFL teams that want Vick, but his game might be a little bit rusty after, what, 2 years in the pen. How to sharpen up his skills and get him back into NFL mode?

While we're asking questions, let me ask another one: How can the Thrashers improve their brand and draw more consumers?

We're in the business of killing 2 birds with 1 stone here at the Chronicle.

I think it should be obvious to everyone by now that the Thrashers should sign Michael Vick to a 1-year contract. Since his throwing and running skills might be restricted a bit by the hockey format, we can simply stick him on the 3rd line or even cast him as a bottom-pairing defenseman. He won't have to do too much work, but he'll get enough exercise and conditioning to get him back into NFL-ready shape, and the Thrashers will draw fans like mad. Probably even get in the papers.

Who's with me?

*I love dogs, especially my own small yellow-furred Labradorian companion, and I think Michael Vick is a hell-monster for what he did. But he's been to federal prison, and when you've been to federal prison, you've been to federal prison. No need to punish him further by keeping him out of the NFL. He's really good, too.

Public Service Announcement, With Guitar (and by guitar I mean hockey links)

Still no hockey, but be warned Chronicle-ites! There is a specter haunting the American Internet: dorky libtard bloggers financed by a certain frightening Jewish gazillionaire and former pupil of Karl Popper! Watch this patriotic video and weep, like a flag-tattooed eagle, for our perishing republic!!!!11!!!!1!!!!


The horror, the horror...

Before America is destroyed by non-white bloggers with funny wigga-wallah-ching-chong-dirkah-dirkah names and their Jewish banker, enjoy the End Times with these edifying hockey items:

- Craig Custance on which 08-09 non-playoff teams have the best chance to make the playoff in 09-10. Agree, disagree, laugh, shout and rend your pantaloons, but READ. I myself don't see the Wild being so good, but as Bernard Shaw said, "You never fuckin' know, right?"

Oh yeah the Thrashers are on the list. HOMER!!!!!1!!!11!!1!!

-NHL.com confirms what we've known for years: Johan Hedberg is the greatest shootout goalie of all time. The Moose Check gets 'em every time.

- A fine discussion about hockey blogs, print media, newspapers, blogs, traditional media, new media, blogs, social media, the Twitter, etc. starring Greg Wyshynski and some other people at Defending Big D.

My favorite part:

It seems that bloggers in general get lambasted in the main stream media for lack of credibility. However, there is great stuff going on in the world of blogs; writing, analysis and research that is far beyond the scope of anything ever done in the mainstream media by mainstream writers. Why is this seemingly ignored by traditional media, and the narrative still revolves around "underwear and mom's basement?" To some, this is groundbreaking work that is going on.

Wyshynski: It's getting there. Keep in mind that the initial relationship was adversarial: A lot of blogs were born to tell the local media how much they suck.

Exactly.

Speaking of the Blogosphere...

Now that I've had a catharsis, of sorts, railing at the dullness of most of the hockey media, traditional and blogospheric, I think we should all take time to wonder how the better-read hockey blogs might generate some extra money through ad revenue.

They could follow the lead of this sexy promo reel from Gawker Media, hawking the network's various blogs to potential advertisers:


Curious. Can't Yahoo make a Puck Daddy promo reel to attract advertisers, possibly featuring Greg Wyshynski's appearance on Hockey Night or whatever Ron McLean* program that was? Surely James Mirtle can swerve his various media appearances into a suitor-attracting SB Nation promo video, right?

As for a smaller blog like the Chronicle (I say this only observationally, not in the spirit of whining and self-pity; if we wanted a bigger audience we'd probably make an effort to get one), our promo reel would probably look a bit like this, but worse:

If you don't invest in the Awl or Wonkette, you should.

*I'd like to stress that none of my criticisms of the hockey media apply to Ron McLean, ever. Ron McLean can do no wrong.

Breakfast at Half Moon Bay

Good noon, Chronicle-ites. Did you make it safely through the night, in murder-rich Atlanta? Truly a city of hell-demons.

Still nothing going in the Hockey right now, unless you're interested in depth signings for the Chicago Wolves or the ongoing "Where will Alex Tanguay land?" caper. It's amazing that right now, in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression, when magazine staffs and everyone else are being laid off by the gazillions and the blogging underclass offers up its writing for free, oftentimes every day, so many people still want to read what most of the hockey press offers: lifeless headlines, bad writing, and robotic daily coverage of stagnant news stories without a single new development. Well, all that stuff characterizes the press in general, so I suppose the beautiful and brutal sport of hockey shouldn't be an exception.

Truth be told, most of the hockey blogs are as dull as the traditional media, totally unsuited to the thrilling sport they cover. I mean, really: where is the Joseph Roth or Ryszard Kapuscinski of the blogosphere? I mean...really. So far there's not even a Hunter S. Thompson of the blogosphere. And he wrote about sports!

Puck Daddy, who can always be counted on to avoid the demented gopher-hole of banality, shares two items of interest:

- Some homeless Christian rock fan stalks Mario Lemieux with letters, advice, and music.

- Ovechkin, Semin, and several other Russians throw down in Moscow, with blondes.

His commenters are complaining that he "favoritizes" Ovechkin and that he shouldn't be writing about such fluff when there are important hockey news stories to be covering, like the impending retirements (unannounced, but still) of Brendan Shanahan and Chris Chelios, how great the Penguins are, etc.

How to avoid the horror of boredom? Well, read Eliot Weinberger's new book, for one. If that's not your cup of tea (and really why should it be?), try these these two concrete examples of the fruits of our republic's long slide into morondom:

First, a young lady whose disjointed, meaningless psychobabble is so appalling and stupid that, well, just watch:


Reminds us a bit of Miss Teen South Carolina, of course, not to mention the probable next President of the United States. An important difference, though: being from Santa Cruz she 1) has a slightly larger vocabulary, even if she doesn't know what she's saying, and 2) is on drugs.

Second, this untouched, non-Photoshopped image from America's favorite news outlet:


Whoa hey the Bolts have bought out Prospal. He's an on-again, off-again sort; is it time for the Thrashers to claim him for his scheduled upcoming good season (which inevitably follows all his bad seasons)?

Oh yeah I believe the Chronicle is planning a hockey-oriented road trip during that long stretch in December when the Thrashers out of town battling various teams in faraway places. Except we won't be following the Thrashers. No sir, we've decided to go West. The Sharks, the Ducks, and the Kings. The romance and poetry of the Pacific Highway, with swelling mists and lumbering elephant seals and enormous waves breaking against black crags. Yessir, that's our game, along with Union Square and City Lights and the Marin Headlands. And Venice Beach and the Hotel Figueroa and the Philip Marlowe tour.

And hockey too, of course.

Georgians in the News

I believe many of our readers live in Georgia's District 6, which somehow encompasses the exotic hamlets of Alpharetta, Roswell, Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Woodstock, and Vinings. I didn't know this until a minute ago, but it turns out your Congressional representative is a man named Tom Price.

Here he is, in action, at about the 1:46 mark. And don't miss his words of wisdom at about 2:24.


Congressman Price, if you're reading: you truly are a great American.

********************************

To balance out that patriotic video--and because it's late July and anyone who's actually writing about hockey right now is a) making money from it, or b) really needs to broaden their horizons--here's an Al Qaeda recruitment video, presented without explanation or context:

TALKING HATS from Choire Sicha on Vimeo.

Question...

- How many articles about the Phoenix Coyotes fiasco, the greatness of Scotty Bowman, the history of the RFA offer sheet, or how various Penguins will spend their days with the Stanley Cup (is there any other sport in human history where the actual trophy is this fetishized? Curious) can one person read before getting really, really bored?

- Even the ongoing douche-hattery of Dany Heatley is drearily predictable. I mean, not going to Spezza's wedding? The man's either clueless about how he's coming across or he simply doesn't care. Oh well; wherever he ends up going, he's somebody else's problem.

Hey, lookee here. Via James Mirtle, here's a Heatley-themed video that--if you don't understand a word of German and can imagine Hitler as a funny Ottawa Senators fan that praises folks like Hossa, Havlat, and Chara instead of wanting to enslave them as the Slavic untermenschen they are--is really fucking funny.


All this really does make me want to watch Downfall again.

- Oh yeah, good news: Pollstar Magazine thinks Philips Arena is the best arena in the United States. I've always thought Philips was a world-class facility, so hooray!

- And finally, WHY did the French treat their fallen-while-jogging President with their own ramshackle and nightmarish Frog proto-Obamacare? Why didn't they immediately fly him to the United States so he could receive Jesus' own healthcare, the Best Ever in the Planet Earth's Short History? And how in HEAVEN'S NAME did they cure him of his falling-while-jogging sickness, being gubmit-dependent welfare queens who can't do the Doctoring? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? Didn't Glenn Beck tell us that foreign leaders come to the US for their healthcare?


I'm so confused.

I Hear You're Paying A Lot of Money for That Hossa Fella

...who won't be able to play until December, hee haw haw.


Happy Friday, everyone.





Very touching.

Baffling Report of Extravagant Kovalchuk Contract Terrorizes Internet

There's a post at Russian-language hockey forum All Hockey.Ru that reports Ilya Kovalchuk either has or is about to sign a DW-authored contract that will see him paid $11.35 million a year.

At first I suspected this was just a rumor, but I decided to look into it. All Hockey.Ru isn't a professional news site, so I scoured actual Russian news services like Russia Today, which covers Kovalchuk and all things Russian hockey in detail, and couldn't find anything.

BUT THEN I Googled the phrase ""Атланта" собирается подписать многолетний контракт с Ильёй Ковальчуком. При этом ежегодная зарплата форварда составит $11,36 млн. в год - максимум, возможный в НХЛ." on Google.ru and several things popped up; it looks like Sports Daily Russia, a reliable source, has picked up the exact same story. BUT WHAT WIRE REPORT IS THIS COMING FROM?

Most bizarre of all, this report specifically references the AJC as its source. WHAT THE FUCK?

Oh yes. The other day Jeff Schultz wrote on his blog: "Kovalchuk has a year left on his contract at $7.5 million. Theoretically, his new deal could pay him up to $11.2 million per season (20 percent of the NHL salary cap of $56 million). The bigger issue is term: The NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement has no cap on length of contract."

Through either bad translation (these days usually left up to Google and Babelfish robots) or very poor reading skills, some Russian reporter took Schultz's brain-wave for an empirical fact and set off a firestorm of false reports in the Russian sports press and spread confusion among Thrashers fans.

False alarm, ha ha, GO BACK TO BED. What a terrifying night it's been, though, full of endlessly circling M.C. Escher-like mirror games that plan to eat you.

Man, I Like That Moon

It amazes me that in the dead of summer, no hockey around, that ALL FOUR OF US at The Chronicle neglected to say something about the 40th anniversary of our landing on the moon a few days ago.

Just shameful, all the way around.

So, here is a tribute. All of us at The Chronicle love space, and we promise not to slip up like this again:

A Small Non-Hockey Note (Do You Realize How Great JR Is/Was? If Not, DO Read the Next Post)

Even though America is a nation of morons, it needs a public health care option.

JR to Retire?

It looks like it might be imminent, given this highly readable interview. Maybe the reports of his retirement are premature; either way, read the article. He offers his thoughts on the Coyotes trouble (silly to move the arena to way out in Glendale), and just how much impact former teammate Chris Chelios has had on his career.

It's no secret your Chronicle staff are all huge JR fans. He's a rare thing in so many ways:

1) An American NHLer.

2) A great American NHLer: 513 goals (36th of all time, and one of only 4 Yanks to score more than 500) and 1,216 points (40th of all time)

3) Unlike fellow great American NHLers like Mike Modano (simpering) and Keith Tkachuk (strong, silent type), he has an outsize personality that's a delight on and off the ice.

4) He went from scoring star to nonentity to, when Doug Wilson invited him to San Jose, third-line grinder with no trouble. The Sharks period saw a renaissance of a sort, and JR reveled in his new role. I can't think of many hockey players who've followed a similar trajectory.

So then, a toast. I'm raising my Evan-and-Coke, sir. Long may you flourish (as a commentator for either the Blackhawks or the Sharks?).

Like Calling Up Thunder

Kovalchuk contract negotiations about to begin in earnest, according to reports at the AJC and the Fourth Period (whom Jay Grossman, agent of the Czar, has spoken to directly). Rumors of Malhotra still floating in the cyber-ether. Otherwise, no hockey. And very little interesting Thrash-news. If anything happens we've got the Short Handed Mole on the beat.

Since there's no hockey this time of year, why not listen to the Music? I've always found it a fine way to pass the time. Not that you asked, but some suggestions for summer days, cloudy and sunny:

I've made two great discoveries this week. One of them is Blur/Gorillaz auteur Damon Albarn's record label Honest Jon Records. It's the exact musical equivalent to New Directions Publishing: it puts out records by great musicians from all over the world, from Morocco to India to Latin America to Iceland, in all genres, American blues to Czech jazz to baile funk to Japanese noise-rock. Best of all, perhaps, it's brought great old bossa nova, Delta blues, and funk records back into print. Just how do the likes of Blind Willie McTell and Sarah Vaughan go out of print? Anyway, have a look; it's a treasure-house.

The other great discovery is seminal 80's L.A. roots-punk band the Gun Club. They played a combination of country, punk, and surf rock. Their songs are unbelievably energetic, passionate, and catchy. Their song titles are mysterious and tantalizing: "Ghost on the Highway," "Black Train," "Like Calling Up Thunder," "Devil in the Woods," "Texas Serenade," "Sleeping in Blood City." Their lyrics are a mix of Raymond Chandler noir and Biblical warnings of apocalypse. The singer occasionally drifts into anguished-sounding Spanish crooning. They've done a bitchin' cover of CCR's "Run Through the Jungle."

Listen to their masterful 2nd album Miami right here, all the way through if you wish. It's a warm and overcast summer day in the form of a record.

The Most Amazing News of Our Admittedly-Still-Young Century

World's most loyal Thrashers fan--and, okay fine, Braves fan too (hence the nickname, which I can never remember to address him by)--and Chronicle seat-neighbor/conqueror of Big Shooter's cell phone_______ (am I allowed to say his actual name on the Internets? Or would that qualify me for a Henry Louis Gates-esque arrest in my own house? Probably would) has his very own Facebook tribute page!

Join.

Searching for Manny Malhotra in Sydney

What's up, kids. Or is it more grammatically proper to say "What's up kids?"

Short Handed Mole here, blogging from a secure location in New South Wales. The Park Hyatt in Sydney*, to be exact, in a room overlooking the Harbour. It's nearly noon on a Wednesday here, so to our North American readers I'm technically writing from the future.

the actual hotel where the Short Handed Mole is actually staying, under the bridge and all

And the future is where I am, personally. You might have heard that Editor Peacock exiled me to rehab--in Kentucky, of all places, among Trappist monks who occasionally practice Zen Buddhism--when he and FrenchCatalogues discovered me on one of Georgia's Golden Isles, drunk as a mole in a mug of Black and Tan plus Jameson. Needless to say, I'm much better now; the rehab was the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. Yes sir, 100% clean and sober for 1 month now. At first, I was pretty angry with Mortimer for sending me to Kentucky, but as soon as I got there I was bowled over by the bluegrass and the endless hills of big-dicked horse ranches. I realize now he did the right thing.

What does any of this have to do with hockey? You know.

Actually, you don't (how could you?!) so I shall have to explain.

You see, as soon as I got out of the rehab monastery I decided I'd return to the Chronicle a much healthier, happier, sharper-penned rodent, with actually interesting news to report. News that actually matters to your Atlanta Thrashers. I decided, ladies and gentilhommes, to search for Manny Mahotra in Australia. To see, that is, if this whole "Thrashers are interested in Manny Malhotra" rumpus is for real or a just a fever-dream in the teeming psyche of Dave Pagnotta. You see, I got a tip from the Australian bureau chief of Short Handed Mole Reports that Malhotra had been sighted on Bondi Beach, and I was on the 1st commuter plane out of Lexington to Atlanta, and then on the first marathon nightmare flight from Terminal E to Sydney.

Turns out, I haven't found Manny Mahotra yet. No idea if he's even in Sydney. But I thought I saw his wife on Bondi Beach. I'll keep you posted. Seriously.

*The Blueland Chronicle is in no way in the pay of the Park Hyatt Sydney. Not at all.

Hockey Media Power Rankings...You Know You Want It

We really need something like this for hockey blogs. Heck, all of hockey media, divided up like the Mediaite grid into Online stuff and Other stuff.

Oh, come on. Don't act like you don't want to see the Chronicle ranked somewhere around #261 on the Weblogs Power Grid.

Interweb Briefing

- As Big Shooter reported earlier, the Thrashers have signed Evander Kane, which makes all kinds of sense, because we drafted him, to our team.

- The Falconer unleashes his statistics hounds and confirms what your Chronicle staff has known all along: if you don't believe in Ron Hainsey, you don't have a soul, and if you did it would burn in hell for eternity. The problem with Hainsey last year was not Hainsey. After all, he's a fine top-4 defenseman, good in his own end and adept at that carrying-the-puck-and-shooting business. And such a handsome feller too, I feel I can admit. LADIES, am I right? Ladies? La--

The problem with Hainsey was his partners, especially Garnet Exelby, who was, let's be real, awful in just about every way. And now we've exchanged him for Pavel Kubina, a legitimate top-4 defenseman. This is a good thing. As the Falconer says:

Ron Hainsey demonstrated that he could be a positive defenseman last year when paired with some stronger defenseman. Pavel Kubina has been a top four guy for several years. Hainsey strength as a defender is his mobility and passing skills. Kubina is not the most mobile but uses his size effectively and he passes well. If Hainsey and Kubina can learn to complement each other the Thrashers could really benefit from having a top 4 pairing that can put up a positive goal differential.

A good thing.

- I'm not sure what to believe about all this Manny Malhotra talk. If the rumors can be believed, we've offered him a 4 year, $8 million contract. Reports say he's thinking about it, but he doesn't want to sign with the Thrashers, because they're-the-Thrashers-that's-why. But then there's the money...to be honest, I'm not sure I want him if he has to think this long and hard about signing with us. But then again, he's a great defensive forward who could really, REALLY help our weak penalty kill. Versatile, too; he can score when he needs to. What to do?

- Are there things in the world besides hockey? Why yes there are. Pictures of English ultra-rose Anna Friel, the ghost of 60's London come back to sexily haunt us all, for instance.

- Oh yeah, ha ha, this is HILARIOUS. Who are these Rage Monkeys? They don't seem to be prioritizing very well.

Kane Signs

Heeeennnggghh!

The Unhockey

Tick tock, etc., IS IT OCTOBER YET?

Summer has many advantages, but, uh, em, no hockey. So sad. But there are other things going on in our world, things that aren't directly related to the Hockey but are, kind of, if you think about it in the woods after dark while fumbling around on the ground searching for the spilled resin ball. In some ways the stories of our day-to-day world of the headlines and 24 hour news babble are a bizarro inversion of the World of Hockey. Seriously, bear with me. Can you dig...

Your Chronicle editor doesn't know much about the Detroit, other than the following: 1) the Red Wings, 2) Motown Records, 3) late 60's garage rock sonic terror like the Stooges and the MC5, 4) the Great Cecil Fielder, 5) glorious Detroit techno, from Juan Atkins to Matthew Dear, and 6) cars or something.

Being a hockey fan you'd never know it, but apparently Detroit is having a tough time these days, even as it flourishes in the NHL. Not sure if the two phenomena--the decline and fall of Detroit's auto industry and perhaps the city itself; the Hockey greatness--are linked. What do I know is that the usually execrable TIME Magazine has put together an astonishing photo essay on "Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline." Massive and elegant public buildings, totally abandoned and left to rot. Crumbling Victorian homes. Empty, rusting factories and upturned broken pianos on the floors of luxurious hotels of the 1920s. It's stunning stuff: the city is well on its way to becoming an actual ruin, no different from Carthage or Persepolis, but one wonders if the death of Detroit's economy might actually transform the city into something new and different, something totally other to what it was before, but more interesting.

Did you know the Red Wings play there?

Sports Business Journal on the Decline of Local Newspaper Coverage (of the Sporting)

Via Puck Daddy, an article about this tired old (true) theme. It's a good read, actually, and it offers plenty of interesting insights about the way sports is covered today, complete with quotes from Mark Cuban (plus a surprisingly generous helping of NHL references).

Sadly, and as P. Diddy points out, the article fundamentally fails to understand the modern Internet by framing the story as a battle between newspaper reports and the official team websites. The likes of Sports Business Journal and Mark Cuban are correct that most (certainly not all: think of David Pollack, Michael Russo, Tarik el-Bashir) newspaper coverage of local sports is appalling, but surely official team websites aren't the only alternative. Team websites are a fine enough source of news (signings, etc.), but the whole point of journalism, surely, is to explore the news beyond the official version offered by the team's front office. This is just as true in sports as it is in politics; a journalist should investigate, not be a mere stenographer for the received story. Imagine just how poorly people would understand the Atlanta Spirit's legal war if the means of communication were controlled exclusively by, uh, the Atlanta Spirit.

And that, ladies and gents, is why Baby Jeebus invented independent journalism, which sometimes coincides with blogging. The Chronicle can't lay claim to much original reporting (except for the Short Handed Mole's reports), but some blogs can. If newspaper coverage is declining, surely that is where most interested fans go for coverage of their favorite teams, not to the team's official website. Right?

There is No Hockey

right now, in the summer. The delirious highs of the draft, free agency, and prospect camp are over and done with, and we'll have to wait until training camp at the end of September for any substantial NHL action.

But that doesn't mean there aren't hockey things to talk about.

There is exactly one interesting hockey-related thing going on right now: ice girl try-outs. The estimable crew at Melt Your Face Off knows what's up: they've generously documented a few try-out notices from various teams around the league.

The Phoenix Coyotes contingent is called "The Pack." Who knew? The one on the far left of the 2nd row sports a very nice combination, I have to say. Glasses + ice girl wear = the Smart One, possibly?

Oh yes, there is one other hockey news item to report. Chronicle commenter PK Waldrop has heroically converted the Thrashers 09-10 schedule to Excel format, for any of you that wish to import it to Excel. Email him at pkwaldrop@hotmail.com for the goods.

That's pkwaldrop at hotmail dot com, folks.

This is Friday, isn't it? I think that means I'm obliged to offer you all a Friday Fun Post.

Been in a Tex Avery/Chuck Jones sort of mood lately. Some stone-cold classics:



Another early Tex Avery:



Does. Not. Get. Any. Better. Then again, there is Daffy:





And WWII-era Bugs, possibly as funny as The Great Dictator:

Thrashers and Armstrong Agree to Terms...

According to Chris over at the AJC.

Big Shooter says... good news. You never want things to go to arbitration. The player says how he is soooooo good, and the team has to point out all the ways he sucks. Not a good situation for anyone involved. Way to go Don and Army!

And just because it's the offseason and I feel like a good laugh:

A Day in the Life

Went to the office.

Looked at pictures of El Guapo from ¡Three Amigos! (1986, Landis) all morning.

Read and re-read the schedule for 2009-10, over and over, most of the afternoon.

Left office.

Descended into traffic hell.

Re-entered the Peacock Estate.

Opened my electronic correspondence.


KARI LEHTONEN HAS BEEN RE-SIGNED.

Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

I wonder if these terms include being traded.

Not that I want Kari to be traded.

UPDATE: Word is this deal is, yet again, for 1 year at $3 million. I figure Waddell and Dudley are waiting until play starts, until they see how Kari actually performs this year, before they sign him to a longer deal and give him a raise. Here's hoping Kari has a great year; we all know he's capable of it. All he needs to do is stay healthy.

2009-2010 Schedule

Link