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Thursday Links - Now We Show You Letterman Clips

There's a game tonight. There's a podcast coming. There are other links. There's a video about soccer analytics. But there's also a video with a dude balancing cigar boxes on his chin and a dude skipping rope with two ladies on his back. Enjoy!

By Donut King

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I assume Alexander Steen cannot balance cigar boxes on his chin, even when he's not puking his guts out.
I assume Alexander Steen cannot balance cigar boxes on his chin, even when he's not puking his guts out.
Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

The reason what happened in Ottawa yesterday is more terrifying than every murder in the United States might be . . . and whether or not this is sad is another issue . . . that shit just doesn't HAPPEN there.

If you want to know what I'm talking about, I'll lead off with that link . . . right here. A gunman and a Canadian soldier are dead following an incident on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Yikes. [CBC]

Now, to the rest of the links.

BLUES NEWS:

  • A couple interviews with Blues current and future to lead off . . . first, one with second-round pick Ivan Barbashev, translated from a Russian site. (S/T to J-Mill, with an extra S/T to the translator, Alessandro Seren Rosso) [The Hockey Writers]
  • Then, The Nines Magazine did a piece on Paul Stastny for their October/November edition. (S/T to Marcus E. Pettersson) [The Nines Magazine]
  • Speaking of Stastny . . . with him injured, it appears Steve Ott is the new Vladimir Sobotka. Except with a shit-ton less talent. [SLGT]
  • T.J. Oshie is going through a bit of a sluggish offensive start (HEY, MAYBE DON'T PUT STEVE OTT ON HIS FUCKING LINE, THANK YOU), Jake Allen feels pretty good about his game, apparently Jori Lehtera is better but now Alexander Steen is ill and Carl Gunnarsson is not quite ready yet. All that in Lou Korac's notebook. [In The Slot / Lou Korac]
  • Hildy says NHL GameCenter Live is better for her this year than it was last year. Which is good, because I'm about to order a full season of it so I can use it on my Roku, so I hope there's a carry-over from PS4 to Roku. [SLGT]

KNOW YOUR ENEMY--THE VANCOUVER CANUCKS:

  • We get to see our old friends, the Canucks, tonight! Sans Ryan Kesler! Plus our old pal, Ryan Miller! Want to catch up on these ol' chaps? Head on over to Nucks Misconduct. But please (as shown in an earlier links post this week), don't post your images of ladies or gentlemen in the comments over there. [Nucks Misconduct]

HOCKEY NEWS:

  • There were supposed to be four games, but because of the Ottawa shooting incident, there were only three. Good call by the NHL to postpone the Maple Leafs-Senators game, I say. [NHL.com 10/22/14]
  • Eight games scheduled tonight, including that one in St. Louis I may have mentioned earlier. [NHL.com 10/23/14]
  • I noted the Ottawa shooting at the outset of links, and I mentioned just a moment ago that the Leafs/Sens game was postponed due to the incident. Here's more info on the game postponement. [CBS Sports Eye on Hockey]
  • The Penguins and Flyers played in Pittsburgh last night. They performed "O Canada" before the game, obviously something that doesn't happen often between two American sides. Here was Sean Gentille's view from press row at Consol Energy Center (S/T to CrossCheckRaise). [The Sporting News]
  • Apparently Barry Trotz and Alex Ovechkin are getting along just fine in D.C. [Puck Daddy]
  • Speaking of the Capitals . . . defenseman John Erskine went in for surgery to repair a disk in his neck and will be out a while. [USA Today]
  • Speaking of injuries . . . Mikhail Grabovski has resumed skating with the Isles, but was placed on IR with a concussion retroactive to last week. They also waived Colin McDonald, and the combination of the two moves could see the return of Lubomir Visnovsky from IR and the callup of Anders Lee. [Lighthouse Hockey]
  • Speaking of the Islanders (as right now, EVERYTHING flows in to EVERYTHING) . . . they formally introduced their new ownership group yesterday. [Islanders]
  • In a Yahoo! Sports exclusive, the lawyer for Slava Voynov says his client "clearly did not hit (the alleged victim)" . . . but didn't go into details because that'd be a bit much for a lawyer, I guess, to turn over his opinion but not step over legal bounds. [Puck Daddy]
  • Speaking of that case . . . Chris Johnston of Sportsnet wonders if the NHL may be walking down a slippery slope. [Sportsnet]
  • Also a bit related to the Voynov case . . . Jake Muzzin has been cleared to return to the Kings, and probably not a moment too soon for the defending champions (or, as J-Mill calls them, "Those Assholes Out West" or "TAOW"). [CBS Sports Eye on Hockey]
  • Our old friend Bryce Salvador, now Captain of the Devils, responds to his critics and manages not to rock the boat in the process because he's cool as shit even if he's not as good as he once was. (S/T again to CrossCheckRaise) [NJ.com]
  • Ryan Lambert takes on the Jets, Tuukka Rask, Eric Staal trade rumo(u)rs, jersey-tossers and so much more in this week's Power Rankings. [Puck Daddy]
  • Wild(s) forward Charlie Coyle, who wears a defenseman's number, agreed to a five-year extension with the club yesterday. [CBS Sports Eye on Hockey]

OTHER SHIT:

  • The Royals won Game 2 of the World Series on the strength of a five-run sixth inning, sending the series to the Bay Area tied at one. My wife was pleased. [SB Nation]
  • Merritt Paulson, the owner of my favorite MLS club (the Portland Timbers), got owned by the Timbers Army after the Portland side lost in CONCACAF Champions League play. And rightfully so, I declare. [Deadspin / Screamer]
  • DeMarco Murray is having a hell of a start for the Dallas Cowboys. Usually, this involves paying his offensive linemen with steak dinners. But I think what Murray did for them was better . . . iMacs for the lot of them. Nice gesture. [SB Nation / Lookit]
  • A Nebraska trucker took a lost bull mastiff back to his owners Monday. The doggie even got to ride shotgun! D'awwwwwwww. [Y! / AP]

VIDEOS:

A couple. First one is a long one, but if you have about 30 minutes to spare, please do check out what they're doing with soccer analytics in Europe. (S/T to CanesAndBluesFan):

Damn. And you can bet your ass that's coming to the NHL one day. Probably soon.

Also, in continuation of Stupid Human Tricks Week, you knew I was gonna bust out a clip from David Letterman. You may NOT have known that I would bust one out from 1987, when he was still doing Late Night on NBC. Here, see a dude balance a shit-ton of cigar boxes on his chin AND a dude skipping rope with two ladies on his back:

Impressive, both.

Links? Stupid human tricks? You know where to send them:

AND be on the lookout for Episode 57 of Beyond Checkerdome here on the website a few hours before the game . . . or this morning on iTunes. Yay!