The N.H.L’ s Greatest Hits

Sunday afternoon brings feelings of family, home and comfort…

Standing in the backyard among a pile of leaves,stepping in dogpoop while your kids borrow the car and you suspect that your wife/husband is having an affair with the neighbor down the street.All your bills are due and you have to wait ’til next week to cash your payday cheque.

Is there a better time to reflect back on the week in the NHL…?…

Grab a beer, sit back and before you cruise the internet for porn or cheap handguns…take a look at how better off you are than some of the players and teams that skate in and around the league and our lives.

The Grapes of Kovalchuck

• The NHL –  in their latest attempt to make the league appear like a sideshow to the men’s leagues like the NBA, NFL and MLB , issued a deadline for mid-week in the on going ‘will I get paid in U.S dollars or Rubles’  Ilya Kovalchuk saga. Guess what? The deadline was pushed ahead to Friday at 5pm edt. and…all together now… there are worse problems in the world….

• Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in Mirabel,Que. this week and was asked if he thought the Nordiques will become a staple in the Capital city once more.Harper, responding in perfect French replied that “Yes it would be wonderful if Quebec was awarded a Hot Dog franchise.” Well, almost perfect french…

New York Rangers goalie – Henry Lundqvist has joined Donald Trump and Whoopi Goldberg among those whose faces have been plastered on the side of a city bus. He is the first Ranger to have such a honor bestowed upon him if you don’t count former Ranger Ron Duguay whose face was planted on the ‘back ends’ of many women during his time in N.Y.

The ‘you really gotta love hockey dep’t.‘ Former Hab and Islander goalie Yann Danis has signed to play for the Far Eastern club Amur Khabarovsk in the KHL this season. Metallurg Novokuznetsk is the next closest hockey town and it’s a distance of more than 3,000 km and a couple of time zones away.Hmmmm maybe we should send Kovalchuk there…..?

Dale Tallon – the guy who assembled the majority of the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Black Hawks is attempting to do the same in Florida.He’s drafted an eighteen year old defenceman, Erik Gudbranson and twenty year old goalie Jacob Markstrom – both of whom may crack the line-up this season.Note to Tallon…there were no beaches in Chicago.Note to Tallon…don’t sign Carey Price!

Antti Niemi – The only guy that I know of who spells Antti with two T’s has signed a two million a year contract with San Jose.The arbitrator awarded him 2.75 million and Chicago offered him 2.5 million before that.Someone get this guy an agent before he agrees to a feminine hygiene endorsement.

St. Louis Blues netminder Jaroslav Halak...wait a sec, St. Louis Blues netminder Jaroslav Halak…nope doesn’t sound right…was back in Montreal yesterday signing autographs at a local shopping center.Twenty bucks got your pictures signed and the money went to charity.Carey Price plans on thanking Halak later in the week…

Finally…A Winning Habit in just two short months has increased it’s readership ten times! The money was well spent on caricatures(see far left),a line of A Winning Habit hygiene products(someone get me Niemi on the phone)and playing cards(Gary Betteman is the Joker). A Winning Habit action hero is planned for release before Christmas – it come complete with a laptop, a hockey team with an ex-baseball mascot and three million G. M’s…

There ya go…more tidbits than in a Tid Horton’s garbage bin…hope you enjoyed and let’s see what this week brings us in the wild and wacky world of the NHL….

Rick