There was actual Blues news yesterday. Rejoice!
BLUES NEWS:
- Vladimir Sobotka will be paid $2.725MM in one season when he returns to the NHL, be it with the Blues or someone else if he gets traded away. As noted from Paperwork Ninja in the comments . . . neither side got what they wanted out of this. I'd think the Blues especially so, since Steve Ott is now a part of the team in a lot of ways because of Sobotka's defection. Barf. [SLGT FanShots]
- Other Blues signings? A couple of AHL depth guys . . . namely, Wild(s) defenseman Nate Prosser and Canucks forward Jeremy Welsh, both signed to one-year, two-way contracts. [Pro Hockey Talk]
- Also, the Blues signed 2nd rounder Ivan Barbashev to a three-year entry-level deal. He'll still be with the Moncton Wildcats next season, most likely, as he's too young for the AHL. [Blues]
- The Hockey News keeps getting shittier . . . now there's a writer there who has a thing called the "Combativity Award" (taken from the ever-becoming-irrelevant Tour De France), and his first winner is David Backes . . . well whoopty-damn-doo, Brian. (S/T to HallPlante) [The Hockey News]
- This is pretty cool . . . some former Blues who were teammates and friends of the late Pavol Demitra will go to Slovakia for a series of exhibition games to raise money for grass-roots hockey fundraising in Slovakia in Demitra's honor. Some names you'll remember are on the list, including one of my personal favorites . . . JAMAL MAYERS, BABY!!!! [Blues]
HOCKEY NEWS:
- Sad news . . . our condolences to our friends at The Committed Indian (even if they DO root for Those Fuckers Up North). They lost their "Ombudsman", Adam Fels (brother of Sam, one of their managing editors), on Monday night. He will be missed. [The Committed Indian]
- Ever wanted to egg a Twitter account? Well, you can't, but you can heckle Tim Peel on Twitter now. (I have a sense this won't last long.) [Twitter / @TimTPeel]
- Given the contracts given to Tanner Glass and Lee Stempniak, Ryan Lambert says that GM's should learn to shop smarter (#NoShit) in this week's What We Learned. (He also takes a shot at the Blues' signing of Chris Butler.) [Puck Daddy]
- Part 4 of Icethetics' look at NHL designs of the 90's focuses on the Nordiques/Avalanche(s) and how: 1) the Nordiques were planning a redesign before they were moved, and 2) the Avs considered calling themselves the "Rocky Mountain Extreme" at one point. Whoa. [Icethetics]
- So we know what happened to Sobotka. What happened in some of the other arbitration cases around the league? Well, here's a small roundup. Cody Franson re-signed with the Maple Leafs before court, and the Ryan O`Reilly situation is getting just Goddamn silly at this point, so let's all laugh at it! [Puck Daddy]
- Gino Odjick, basically on his last few weeks at this point, made a surprise visit to his hometown in Quebec for a ceremony where an arena was being renamed after him. Awesome stuff. [Van City Buzz]
- Also awesome . . . Tim Bozon, the son of former Blues grinder Phillipe Bozon and recent survivor of a meningitis scare that probably should have killed him, will suit up for France in a U23 tournament in Ostrava, Czech Republic. [Y! / Buzzing the Net]
- Capitals megastar Alexander Ovechkin and Russian tennis player Maria Kirilenko have ended their engagement. [Puck Daddy]
OTHER SHIT:
- I didn't mention this yesterday, and I should have. RIP, James Garner, best known for characters such as Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford. Great, great actor. [CNN Showbiz]
- A memorial tree planted in honor of George Harrison (the greatest Beatle, and no one can convince me otherwise) in 2004 is now dead after an infestation of . . . yes, beetles. So the tree was killed by irony. It will be replanted. [LA Times]
- Oh, fucking stop it, Tim Tebow. Just fucking stop it. [SB Nation]
- Pennsylvania has 11 bridges for sale, if you're interested. [Y! / Reuters]
VIDEO:
This might be the weirdest fucking thing I've ever seen. And then it was expanded upon. (S/T to @the_jen for the original two clips of this, and Childhood Trauma for the full video):
The 80's, man. The 80's.
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