First off from the desk of Pucking Awesome, I want to congratulate the city of Pittsburgh on their Stanley Cup Championship. Also, a special congrats to Marian Hossa, who got to watch the cup being raised from a front row seat twice! I know this is awful of me to say but I did laugh a little, actually a lot, when I saw the shot of him on the bench looking like a kid who had his kickball stolen by the neighborhood bully. Now comes the fun part for ever sports fan…the off-season. This is the time when all teams, except the Islanders, have the chance to improve their team. Well, the Islanders do have the first overall pick in the NHL Entry draft in Montreal on June 26th, so maybe they can improve.
On June 26th, the general managers will all get together to officially start the off-season and there should be some prominent names floating around the stands of the Bell Center. The number one name of course will be the 25-year-old franchise defenseman who is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st. The Florida Panthers have already publically come out and say they are shopping the rights of Jay Bouwmeester to the highest bidder, in hopes to get something for their all-star defenseman before he walks for nothing on July 1st. The new practice of trading a free agent before July 1st has been seen only a few times, most notably with the Philadelphia Flyers trading a 1st round pick to the Nashville Predators for the negotiation rights of Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timonen. I, for one, am in favor of this practice. With the growing nature of players leaving town regularly, why not get something for leaving? From the other side, if you target that person to be your top priority and the piece needed to complete the team, why not be proactive and give something to get something. That is the idea behind the trade deadline, which all hockey fans will admit is a national holiday for the sport, so why not bring this concept two times a year?
I have to take time to call out one person that has nothing to do with the NHL, but a lot to do with my playoff pool, which I finished a respectable 5th out of 171. One year ago my friend Adam won the whole thing and thus promised me and another person a steak dinner at Ruth’s Chris. I have never been to that place and now, a year later, still no steak dinner. I hope you guys have better friends than that. Lastly, on another personal note, I want to congratulate the Cyclones on a great Roller Hockey Championship, after two straight finals losses, and even with their backup goalie playing during the championship game, they pulled through to win it all.
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