One of the nice things about the blog is that I get alerted fairly quickly to things happening...not by some special perk offered by management, but because the moment news springs up regarding one of the boys, I get flooded with hits pertaining to that individual from the country most interested in said news.
As a result, I knew about Hugo being dropped from the Flames roster before it occurred officially and his subsequent pick-up (link is in French, have fun...I did) by Saguenay, Brock Wilson and Shea Guthrie accepting contracts in the UK (Brock to the Nottingham Panthers and Shea Guthrie to the Coventry Blaze), JP Lamoureux going to the Austrian Elite League, Matt Reber making the All-Academic team for the third year, and what looks like Engy heading to New Zealand in a few weeks to put on a show for the Kiwis....and if that man doesn't make that country into a resulting den of rabid ice hockey fans I don't know what else will.
This, of course, in addition to the announcement of the eight qualifying offers issued...among those the familiar faces of Kevin Deeth, Paul McIlveen, Matt Clarke, David Shulz, Brendan Milnamow, and Samson Mahbod, in addition to, unseen in the Maverick Center last year but no less exciting, David Marshall and Igor Gongalsky.
I think it will take me some time to process the gains and losses. I am, of course, thrilled to see the offers being made on the likes of tremendous players like the Deether and Paul. You better believe Goliath and I will have a bag of sour patch kids waiting for Kevin the moment he steps off the ice October 14th and a huge man-hug for the man-with-the-hair, Paul McIlveen. Matt Clarke's legions of fan girls are certainly delighted with the news and management had better consider having him sign some autographs early enough in the season to calm the excitement. I'll get some photos set aside for David's return. And, of course, I am looking forward to seeing the friendly smile of Brendan Milnamow again. The Stockton Thunder were impressed with Samson, and so was Goliath and I though I do not like his wearing of the number 16 which will always be retired to a certain Tanguay in my mind. But Samson is a hell of a player and one we never had enough time to get to know, so I'm certainly looking forward to seeing him in the Center this fall. And he's from Montreal...so I'm sort of obligated to love him despite his choice of jersey numbers.
As for the new guys. Well, Igor must be loved if for nothing else than being named Igor. Besides, he has the stats and the history, as well as (from what we can see) a tough and physical game that makes him an obvious choice for the Utah Grizzlies. He'll be on our radar.
As for the "Marsh" David Marshall, I am definitely excited to see a man who's a bit of a fan favourite wherever he goes land some potential ice time in the Maverick Center, especially considering the loss of a community staple in Brock Wilson. And 22 points in 28 games? Come on, this is just stroke-worthy death-from-extreme-happiness potential here.
In the meantime, I am keeping one ear tuned to the news every day. No word yet on Simon. Or Giffen. Or Marcus or Chris or Brett or Riley or Tommy or Matt S. or Nick, etc. And it's about going to kill me. It'd probably be much easier if I had facebook to keep track of these crazy guys, but Goliath says Facebook is an evil den of viruses and old high school boyfriends which must be fended off with firewall of doom. *sigh*
First let me say the new banner..had me rolling with laughter, two I'm very intrested to see how this season plays out :D Third, you could just make a facebook fanpage? Have them join the page so you get a feed of what their doing and what not?
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