Wednesday Links - Go See Sir Paul, If You Can

I am forever on board the George Harrison As Greatest Beatle train, but Goddamnit, if you ever get the chance to see Sir Paul McCartney and you have the means to do so . . . do it.

In a related matter, I am not likely to have a voice today.

Also . . . happy birthday to my fiancee, Kate. I love you.

Alrighty . . . enough. On with links!

BLUES NEWS:

• If you've been paying attention to the Twitter feed of David Backes this offseason, you knew that he and his wife Kelly were involved with a special trip to Nairobi, Kenya to provide hearing aids to those in need, accompanying the Starkey Hearing Foundation. Backes's website has a great write-up on the trip along with some other tidbits. [DavidBackes.com]
• A couple Blues prospects and the son of Al MacInnis were among those cut from the Team USA Junior Evaluation Camp. J-Mill tells you why this is (kinda) a big deal. [SLGT]
  
• Why do winning teams score more goals? Because, well, they have to. But there's analysis that can go behind this as well, and CanesAndBluesFan is all over it. [SLGT]
• Speaking of the numbers and analysis stuff . . . Stars coach Lindy Ruff and Blues coach Ken Hithccock, both thought of as "old school" coaches, both use the "fancy stats" to their benefit, but in different ways from one another. Quite the interesting read. (S/T to Robb Tufts) [Nichols On Hockey]
• Get your votes in! Your "Days Of Future Past" Blues games are happening soon . . . but VOTE BY TODAY AT NOON as to which games you want this week! [SLGT]

HOCKEY NEWS:

• Kimmo Timonen has blood clots in both lungs and his lower right leg. The early presumption is that the Flyers' aging defenseman's career is over. [Puck Daddy]
• So, the Flyers picked up Michael Del Zotto to presumably replace him. If you can really replace a guy like Timonen, I guess. [Flyers]
• I find Tyler Dellow to be a bit of an asshole at times, but . . . his analysis of hockey is pretty damn good. And it's been determined to be good enough that his favorite team, the Oilers, asked him aboard as a consultant. What a summer it's been for the "Fancy Stats" crowd. [Puck Daddy]
• Somehow, though this has been up for a couple months, we haven't linked to this. But seriously, Plus/Minus is a shitty way to judge a player. (S/T to J-Mill) [Arctic Ice Hockey]
• Puck Daddy's Summer of Disappointment series continues with . . . the Dallas Stars, written by some Stars blogger I've honestly never heard of. [Puck Daddy]
• "Cool Skatings"? Maybe. Jamaica's trying to put together an Olympic-class hockey team ahead of the 2018 Olympiad in Pyeongchang. (S/T to the writer of this piece, Bill Douglas, who runs a great blog) [Color of Hockey]
• The headline here should probably read "HOW will Claude Loiselle screw up the NHL's Department of Player Safety?" . . . but hey, I didn't write the piece. [Puck Daddy]

OTHER SHIT:

• Reports say that Jon Bon Jovi's bid to buy the Buffalo Bills isn't even halfway there. *SHOOTS SELF* [Deadspin]
• File this under "Headlines That Are Pure America". [Y! / Reuters]

VIDEO:

Joe Kelly gets the start for the Red Sox today against the Cardinals, making it a pretty quick turnaround from Joe Kelly the Cardinal to Joe Kelly facing the Cardinals. Anyway, here's, like, the only good thing Joe Kelly ever did in a Cardinals uniform. (S/T to Childhood Trauma):

Yep. A stare-down contest. That's it.

I get to take one more trip around the links park. You get one more shot to send me shit to link and/or show you:

• gtdonutking AT gmail DOT com
• @KingDonutI