With games now canceled until November 1, the time is ripe for more players to jump ship over to Europe. Players such as Nicklas Backstrom, who has joined Alex Ovechkin in the KHL on Dynamo Moscow, according to the blog Alex Ovetjkin and @plysenkov of Sovetsky Sport.

This makes me very happy.
» Continue reading “Backstrom Joins Ovechkin In Moscow”

In another installment of “Charitable Actions from Unlikely Sources,” we have Alex Semin’s lockout plans!

Per Sovetsky Sport (and via Dmitry Chesnokov), Semin will play with Sokol Krasnoyarsk of the VHL (the KHL minor league) for the league minimum, which is about $1600 a month.

Semin told SovSport the reason he signed to play for free is to give back to the club and the city where his career started.

How weird, that a notably selfish and chronically apathetic European(-ish) enigma would do something noble and good-hearted!
» Continue reading “Alex Semin To Play For Krasnoyarsk”

I’m terribly excited the action has moved to DC. I just finished reading American Pyscho, and frankly I’ve had enough of Manhattan. Patrick Bateman is one of the creepiest protagonists (or at least designated protagonists) in modern American lit.

Wait… extremely good-looking, well-dressed, physically fit, wealthy man who spends his downtime at the coolest restaurants and bars in NYC? I guess I should be relieved Henrik Lundqvist (Reebok sweater, glove, blocker, stick, helmet and pads all by Bauer) didn’t mistake Mojo (Reebok sweater, Reebok shorts, helmet and gloves by Bauer) for a hardbody at Dorsia and kill him with an ax.

To continue with the theme of relentless narcissism, I found this quote in an entry by moi from last season’s Rangers series:

[Ovechkin]’s always been able to bring his game to another level when the situation calls for it, but now it seems like he’s bringing the rest of the team with him. The reason we made him captain was because he steps up and scores the big goal when we need it. In game 1, that wasn’t a pretty highlight reel goal that left Gretzky speechless, it was an in-the-trenches garbage goal with no glamour or flash.

I’m not saying, I’m just saying.

Anyway, how about some link salad:

Here’s Ryan Lambert (@twolinepass) writing sarcastically over at Puck Buddys because they bought his and Chemmy’s (@felixpotvin) services for the second round. It’s a nice antidote to the millions of “LOOK AT OVIE’S ICE TIME” articles circling around (not that I would ever write such a thing please don’t look at my last post).

Here’s the less sarcastic examination of Hunter’s thought process in lightening Ovechkin’s ice time, though it makes more or less the same point.

Since yesterday was May Day, people have been celebrating Alan May (@MayHockeyCSN) all across twitter, and this article came up. If the idea of rats doesn’t make you immediately vomit thanks to American Psycho, I would suggest reading it! It’s the saga of Alan May rooming with Hall-of-Famer Dino Ciccarelli (and you can tell it’s really written by him, because the writer clearly has only a tenuous grasp on spelling and grammar).

On a totally different tack, here’s the confirmation that Evgeny Kuznetsov will be playing in the KHL for 2 more years, because he wants to represesnt Russia at the Olympics, and pretty much every Russian player not already in the NHL is being held emotionally hostage. If you jump ship to the land of good hockey and guaranteed money, you won’t get picked. Aren’t Russian politics fun?

And of course I would be remiss if I didn’t link my opposite number over on the Intermission Report. Great article on Tortorella, whom I find to be the least objectionable member of the Rangers (and also the man with the most Pokemon-like name).

Game 3 on NBCSports at 7:30. Be there or be square (and it’s not hip to be square!).

The offseason is always tough, even if you aren’t obliged to come up with an article about literally nothing on a regular basis (“Someone else is badmouthing Sasha?! Quelle horreur!”). But this offseason is even worse than usual, because every time I turn my computer on, something horrible has happened. And not horrible like my favourite goaltender is on the other side of the continent, or Tom Poti is still kind of broken, but horrible as in the hockey summer death count is nearly 50.

Today we add the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl KHL team to a list that already includes Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak. Familiar faces from that team were Pavol Demitra and Ruslan Salei. And, fun fact, Lokomtiv is the team Varlamov would’ve gone to if we hadn’t traded him. So I look pretty foolish now for being so broken up about his being gone, eh?

The only two survivors are a flight attendant, suffering burns on 20-30% of his body, and Alexander Galimov, who, with burns on 80-90%, has a much slimmer chance of survival. He was apparently a personal friend of Ovechkin.

His reaction was:

I’m in shock!!!!!R.I.P ….

…which is probably as good an indication as any that pro athletes shouldn’t be on Twitter.

Speaking of the Great Eight, he’s now sponsored by Bauer! So that’s exciting.

Rookie camp starts Sunday, 9/11. Training Camp starts the Saturday after that, 9/17. Although if you’re an eagle eye, you might have spotted some Caps or prospective Caps training at Kettler already (apparently Mike Knuble is a real taskmaster when running casual practice!).

And of course, the season opener is October 8th against the Carolina Hurricanes. Clear your calendars.

Yes, there is much to-do in the Capitals org of late. Things like Troy Brouwer and Brooks Laich, but if you picked two articles at random from this blog, I think you could extrapolate what recent news I find most compelling. No, it’s not Jagr’s waffling about which league and then team to join (I secretly hope it’s the Penguins and he absolutely implodes — can’t think of two things that deserve each other more).

» Continue reading “Semyon Varlamov to the KHL (probably)”