In the movie Major League III: Back to the Minors, the Minnesota Twins lose a ball game to their fictional minor league affiliate — “The Buzz.” This of course brings great embarrassment to the entire Twins organization. The reason I bring this up is because something like this really happened and it happened to the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL. To add to the laughs it was the last game ever to be played at the famous Philadelphia spectrum. The Flyers lost 4-2 to the Phantoms. Apparently the defense and goaltending supplied by the big club that night couldn’t stop the offensive juggernauts; Patrick Maroon and Jonathen Matsumoto. The Flyers are going to need to seriously step up their game. I mean… a loss to your minor league team? Oh, and I don’t think the addition of Andrew “McGilla Gorrilla” Alberts is going to help shore up that blueline either.
I also wanted to talk about the infamous “on pace stats.” I can’t be the only one who thinks these things are hilarious to look at after the first couple games of the season. Here are some of my favorites…
1) Ethan Moreau of the Edmonton Oilers is on pace for 0 goals and 164 assists after playing his first game last night against the Avs.
2) Daniel Sedin is on pace for 82 goals and 123 assists while his brother Henrik is on pace for 41 goals and 123 assists — I’m sure Canucks fans wouldn’t mind seeing either of those totals.
3) Minnesota’s Derek Boogaard is on pace for 0 goals and 0 assists…. although that one may ring earily true.
4) Sharks rookie Lukas Kaspar is on pace for 27 goals and 0 assists.
5) Ladislav Nagy is on pace to not play in the NHL this season… or for the rest of his career.
6) Kevin Bieksa is on pace to hurt his leg 41 times this season… ouch.
Now that I have had some fun I think I should try to get back on track here. Allow me to do that by talking about the Marian Gaborik trade speculation. Latest from everyones favorite blogger, Eklund, had Gaborik possibly making his way to Ottawa. As a Wild fan I am truly fed up with this whole situation (And for those who haven’t figured it out yet, I AM a Wild fan). Some reports state that the Wild offered Gaborik a 10 year deal somewhere in the range of $80 million dollars. If these reports are true… then Doug Riseburough is officially INSANE… YOU’RE INSANE DOUG! Gaborik is not worth that kind of coin and never will be. I would rather the franchise player on this team be a center first of all, a guy like Vinny Lecavier. Gaborik is a fairly soft winger with a bad injury history. He can score like the greats but he doesn’t have a lot of intangibles. If Ottawa wants him then I say trade him. I would love to get a guy like Nick Foligno or Antoine Vermette in some kind of package deal.
Finally I wanted to pay my respects today to both Luc Bourdon and Alexei Cherepanov. Both players were way too young to leave this earth. I thought the ceremony the Canucks had for Bourdon was beautiful and the game Luc’s best friend Alex Burrows had was deeply inspirational. I’m sure the Rangers will be having a similar ceremony for their 2007 first round pick. It’s just so sad to see, what would have been two great careers, cut short like that. I’m sure that there is a special rink up there in heaven for them. God bless.
