Friday Links

Another Friday, another serving of fresh links.

- Four games between the Solar Bears and Everblades were rescheduled.

- Up to 12 returnees from  last season squad? Yes, please.

- This jersey is so spectacularly hideous that I love it.

- Al Larson, the Blades official photographer, has an amazing photo book for sale that commemorates the Blades Kelly Cup season.

- Gummy bears playing hockey in an outdoor arena. In cake form! So amazing.



- Your Wikipedia hockey page for today- "Victoria Cup"

- It looks like Jaroslav Janus will be playing in Europe next season.

- This has nothing to do with hockey, but I love lists of weird holidays. Here's everything you can celebrate in August. Personally, I'm looking forward to National Bad Poetry Day. Mostly because that's the only kind I'm capable of.

- The Solar Bears are going to honor the IHL Solar Bear's Turner Cup and raise a banner. Pretty cool of them to respect Orlando hockey history.

- It wouldn't be a Friday around here without a kitty.

News and Notes

With all that's been going on lately, it's definitely time for a round-up of all the news.

- Hockey Broad has an interview with Bobby Goepfert and it's awesome.

- I tweeted that Chris Beckford-Tseu was released from the Salmon Kings (yesterdayish?) as well as Ed Snetsinger. Well, today the Greenville Road Warriors picked CBT up.



I mentioned this to someone earlier on Twitter, how much would you look forward to CBT in net for Greenville in the playoffs.

- The Tampa Bay Lightning have released Mitch Fadden. Reports are slowly leaking out that there are some issues going on, including a possible DUI.

- Some roster news: Evgeny Timkin was released (consider me not surprised),the big reason for Timmy being dropped. Roster room had to be made for new forward Scott Pitt.



- Dusty Collins was signed by another AHL team. Although I wish him luck, I still hate seeing our roster get raided by non-affiliates.


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News and Notes

First let's get the exciting new out of the way. Former Everblades goalie Anton Khudobin had his third NHL start last night. He managed to earn a shut-out against the Canucks! Here are two links to catch you up on how he did.

- Hockey Wilderness has the game re-cap here, and their Wilderness Walk (their collection of Wild story links) here.

- Over at Puck Daddy, he earned the second star of the night.

- At NHL.com he was named one of the three stars of the night, and they included some great pictures of him in their photo gallery.

On to our current Everblades.

- Here's the NDN game re-cap from Saturdays game.

- This story on David Fischer is a must read. If you don't get a little misty eyed there's something wrong with you.

- I forgot to mention I got pictures up on Flickr from the Cincinnati series, 1/5 and 1/7. I also put pictures up from last season that I found buried on my hard drive. The Royals game is here and the game against the Jackals is here.

- Mike McKenzie has another post up on his blog. It's a good one.

This week's series will be a big one. The last time the Royals came to town they crused the Blades playoff chances. Hopefully, we some players will be healthy enough to be moved from the IR. We'll need them.

Friday Links

Happy Friday people! Here's your usual set of links.

- Big news! All reports point to former Everblades goalie Anton Khudobin starting in net tonight for the Wild as they take on the Avalanche. You should be able to catch it if you have Center Ice or Gamecenter. If you don't you can check out the Wild's beat writer on Twitter for live game updates. It's always exciting to see a former Everblade make it to the big time, and hopefully, this is just the beginning for him.

- How awesome is this? A working hand-held hockey video game from the 80's. I have to admit that calling something from the 80's vintage does make me a bit sad.

- The ECHL officially opened it's store. It's a crappy and hard to navigate as I thought it would be.

- This story is pretty cool.

- I loved this look at the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. Just another thing to add to my to do list.

- Your Wikipedia hockey page for today- "Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey"

- Third String Goalie is as awesome as always. This time, they cover one of my favorite players right now.

- I hate when this happens...


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News and Notes

Here's a quick round-up of some Everblades related stuff:

- It sucks that we lost Pistilli, but he had a great game yesterday and managed to score a goal in the Checkers win over the Hershey Bears. A fan up there was kind enough to send me a picture from the game.



- Also worth a mention is Jacob Micflikier's (this is the 8th way of spelling his name that I'm aware of) two goals and an assist in the same game. He now plays on the top line, and has 11 goals, and 10 assists so far this season.

- Francis Lemieux has appeared in two games for the Manitoba Moose and has yet to earn a point.

- Everyone's favorite Jake Gyllenhaal look-alike has been blogging for the Watertown Daily Times. It's a pretty cool look at what goes on behind the scenes.

- If you get the chance, why not head on over to here, and submit your ballot for the AHL All Star Classic. There are a lot of former Everblades to choose from.

News and Notes

Here's a bunch of bits and pieces to make Monday a little easier.

- The Blades ended up losing Saturday night 3-1. I missed most of the game, but what I did see was not impressive. You can read re-caps from Woody here.

- This great story from Woody on Alex Imbeault made the front page of  the ECHL website.

- I have all the pictures (10/17 & 10/19), and videos up. It's going to take me a while to get all the pictures tagged with the players, but it will be done eventually.

- Now that I've built up some pictures I'm going to try to tweet a picture of the day every day at 11:00. If you're still not willing to join twitter you can see it in the box on the lower left side of the blog or you can just peek at my Twitter profile.

- Former Eveblades goalie Barry Brust was featured in a post on Puck Daddy! I know Blades fans aren't suprised by Brusty being awesome, we saw all that last season, but it is nice to see the rest of the hockey world realize what we already know.

- The Jr. Blades have put up another hilarious video. It was too good for me to put off until tomorrow. (You probably shouldn't click play if you're at work though)

Friday Links

Happy Friday everybody! I know it's a little late, but I think these awesome links will make it up to you.

First, some business...

- The Blades almost had another comeback win last night. Unfortunately, Greenville actually has a functioning defense.

- We may have lost Tarnasky, but we went ahead and brought on another player with NHL experience.

- In Alumni news, Jacob MicFlickier (I guess we still can't collectively agree on how to spell that) had the first hat-trick in Charlotte Checkers history!


Now, time for fun!

- I have two books that I just finished (and have mentioned before), and another that I'm about to begin. Zamboni Rodeo was amazing (to be fair I love anything minor league hockey), The Rebel League gave a lot of insight into how much of an impact the WHA had on professional hockey in North America, and I'm really excited to begin The Code.

- I would be silly not to make your Wikipedia hockey page for today "The World Hockey Association"

- Love hockey and art? This might just be the sculpture you need on your mantel.

- I think I'm going to use most of this stuff for my birthday party.

- Kitty time!


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ECHL Announces All-Decade Team

The ECHL announced the players for the All-Decade team, and some former Everblades actually made the list! Defensemen Darrell Hay (00-01), Peter Metcalf (08-10), and goalie Marc Magliarditi (00-01), all made the list. If your interested in the full list you can find it here, that link will also explain the qualifications for making the list.

Some lovely quotes from the ECHL's list on the three former Blades:

"Darrell Hay scored 224 points (50g-174a) in 387 games during the decade with Florida, Columbia and Idaho. He was a part of Idaho’s Kelly Cup championship teams in 2004 and 2007 and was named All-ECHL First Team in 2007-08. Hay was named to the starting line-up for the 2007 ECHL All-Star Game and was selected to serve as an alternate captain at the 2008 ECHL All-Star Game."

"Peter Metcalf led all ECHL defensemen during the decade with 245 assists and 297 points and was tied for fifth with 52 goals. Metcalf was named ECHL Defenseman of the Year in 2007-08 and was the Plus Performer of the Year in 2005-06. He was named All-ECHL First Team in 2006-07 and 2007-08 and All-ECHL Second Team in 2005-06 and 2008-09. Metcalf won two Kelly Cup championships during the decade, winning with Atlantic City in 2003 and Alaska in 2006."

"Marc Magliarditi was 150-77-22 in 258 appearances during the decade with Florida, Louisiana, Richmond and Las Vegas. He was named All-ECHL Second Team in 2005-06 when he went a career-best 34-11-5 in 51 games with Las Vegas. Magliarditi is first in ECHL history with 25 shutouts, second with 217 wins and tied for 12th with a 2.55 goals-against average."

Sadly, standout like Reggie Berg and Tom Buckly didn't make the list. Neither did one of the most beloved players to ever don an Everblades jersey, Ernie Hartlieb. It is pretty exciting that the Everblades tied for second most players, and blew our divisional rivals out of the water. Gwinette and South Carolina didn't have a single player named to the list."

All in all, I'm proud of the guys that made the list. Although I still want Peter Metcalf to come back, and I really wish they had switched sides during the Alumni game so I could post awesome photos of Maglarditi from that game, but oh well. You can't win them all.

Need a Giggle?

I promised myself I would be classy about Thelen coming to town. Unfortunately, I just couldn't resist. This is also a good excuse to try the e-mail posting feature. Yeah, you know what let's go with that. It makes me seem less petty.

News and Notes

- The Jr. Blades won both their games this weekend. They are undefeated so far this season. The team has tweeted a preview of the game notes for this weekends series against the Atlanta Hawks.

- I got all the pictures from the Alumni game and Fridays game against Greenville up on Flickr.

- You can check out the game summaries for the two games against the Road warriors here and here. I have no idea why they announced the three stars wrong on Friday (they said McColm [who didn't even play], Raymond Nikiforov), but they seem to have corrected it.

- One of our affiliates has finally sent us a goalie. The Charlotte Checkers have reassigned Bobby Goepfert to the Everblades.Check out his stats:



- The Checkers have also assigned defenceman Kyle Lawson. His stats:



- I have to link to this blog post that talks about the growth of youth hockey in Florida. Especially because of the mention of two local boys R.J. Boyd and David Bohem.

Blades vs. Alumni Recap

I think it's safe to say the inaugural Alumni game was a resounding success. All the players looked like they were having fun, and everyone around me seemed to be having fun as well. I was a little sad they only played two periods (and didn't switch sides), but it was still an awesome game. Theses are only a few of the pictures from last night. I should have everything up on the Flickr page late Saturday.

Two moments from last night really stood out to me. The first was when Vladimir Nikiforov was trying to put on a show. Tom Buckly looked at him like he was crazy and threw him into the glass. The other was at the end of the second period. Mitch McColm took on Michael Grenzy. At the time I called it the nicest hockey fight I've ever seen, and it really was. I'm hoping this becomes a regular event. It was great to have fun  and raise money at the same time.

It wasn't all fun though, I did pay attention for you guys. In no particular order some of my thought on watching the guys in action:

• Mitch McColm seems to be becoming a leader on the team.
• Evgeny Timkin is either a really likeable guy or a really funny guy. He had all the other players on the ice smiling and laughing.
• Vladimir Nikiforov does this little turn thing anytime he's challenged by another player.
• I'm glad Reid has returned, I didn't realize how much I enjoyed him playing.
• The Everblades had Reed Swanson and Brian Makowicz in net. Given the choice I'd go with Makowicz simply because he had a whole Tim Thomas thing going on (and I love that in a goalie).
• Nate Zervos, Bobby Goepfert, Phil Paquet, Mathieu Roy, Shea Guthrie, Trevor Hendrikx, Mike McKenzie, and Ross Carlson didn't dress for the game. There were two players in the stand watching, but I was on the opposite side of the arena so I couldn't tell.

YouTube Tuesday: Alumni Edition

Tonight's the big night. Several Everblades alumni will  be returning to take on the current roster in the first ever Alumni Game. Seeing past Everblades players return to the ice is pretty exciting, but I have to admit, I'm more excited about the point of this night. All proceeds from the ticket sales as well as money raised from the alumni jersey auction and a silent auction will be going to the Piper Buckley Foundation.

Among the alumni playing tonight will be Brandon Coalter. Here he is mixing it up with a player from the now defunct Agusta Lynx:



Some of the other alumni for tonight are Tom Buckley (99-04), Reggie Berg (99-07), Marc Magliaditi (98-01), Terry Lindgren (99-02; assistant coach 02-04), Brent McDonald (00-07), Ryan Brindley (03-07), Keith Anderson (01-05), and Matt Pagnutti (03-05).

It starts at 7:30 tonight and I can't wait.

News and Notes

First, some Everblades alumni news:
- Josh Harding had what is likely be a season ending injury. This means that former Everblades goalie Anton Khudobin has a chance to earn the back-up job in Minnesota. You can read about his rough start in last night's game here.

- A wonderful reader sent me pictures of Ryan Lang practicing in the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago (I think an e-mail was lost somewhere along the way). Thanks for the awesome pictures!

 

Also, If you remember I went to the Jr. Everblades exhibition game against the FGCU Eagles. I was really impressed by both teams. I really do recommend seeing both teams play, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

-  I've added a page for the Jr. Blades with their roster and calendar, and I've done the same for the Eagles.

- Pictures Fridays game are on Flickr. You can check out the set here.

- A couple of the Jr. Blades are on twitter, here's the teams official list.

YouTube Tuesday: Meet Bobby Goepfert

Since it seems like we're pretty much guaranteed Bobby Goepfert will be one of our goalies this season, I figured know is as good a time as any to learn a little something about him. First, some videos (it is Tuesday after all):





And, just for fun:



And his stats (for readers not used to goalie stats check out save percentage and goals against average):


He's listed as playing for the checkers because he signed a two-way contract with our AHL affiliate. He wasn't invited to the Hurricanes training camp, and as the story I mentioned above hints at, he's been training at Germain. As you can see, he has some pretty respectable stats. I do actually remember Goepfert playing for the Stingrays. I really can't remember anything specific about what I though of his play (I barley remember last season to be honest), but I am excited to see him play this season.

One of the first chances we may get will be the Alumni Game on October 5th when our current roster takes on past Everblades. Also, for those of you who just can't wait any longer for hockey, our new junior team will be taking on the FGCU Eagles in exhibition games on Friday and Saturday this week. I'm looking forward to seeing my first junior hockey game and finally seeing some live hockey again. The tickets are free for FGCU students and $5 for everyone else.

News and Notes

Last night was the first season ticket holder party of the season, and a lot of news was announced. You can read the story and see some video of the event here.

- The most exciting announcement had to be the Everblades alumni game. The game will be held on October 5th. The current team will take on some former Everblades and the money raised will go to the Piper Buckly Foundation. They didn't announce the alumni roster, but the story indicates that Reggie Berg will be one of the players and I imagine Tom Buckly will play as well.

- I was expecting last nights big announcement to be the signing of Ernie Hartlieb. Unfortunately, it appears he is still undecided. He indicated that he will have a decision by October 1st, and will play in the alumni game. Whether it will be as a current player or former player is still up in the air.

- The team also announced some of the signings, and oddly, Defenseman Elgin Reid appears to have come up. I have no idea why, he has a contract with the Checkers. It's a two-way contract, meaning they can send him down here, but they haven't even held their training camp. I'm a little confused by this, have the Checkers already decided to send him down without giving him a chance to prove himself or was that just a mistake on the team (or NDN reporters) part?

- You'll all need to change your radio settings too. The team has a new radio home at 1440 AM in Ft. Myers and 1660 AM in Naples.

- Finally, the Blades announced they had brought on Brad Tapper to be the new assistant coach. I'll have a more detailed post on him later in the day once I've had some time to do a little more research.

There will be a party for fans tonight from 7-9 p.m. in the Cypress Club. I'm still undecided as to whether I'm going or not, but I think it will probably be not since I'm the only person on Earth who can manage to catch a cold this time of year.

Also, it's been too long without a kitty!


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News and Notes

Here's a quick wrap-up of some recent Everblades related news.

- The ECHL should be making an announcement later today. They will be adding a new franchise in Thunder Bay, Ontario. (via the Blades' Blog)

- The EIHL season is underway:

• Brad Zannon scored in a pre-season match for the Coventry Blaze. They went on to beat the Cardiff Devils 4-2. 
• The Blaze (with Brad Zanon and Scott Hotham) played the Belfast Giants (with Mike Bayrack and Mike Hoffman) in a charity shield game the next day, and lost 4-2.

- The Buffalo Sabres signed David Leggio to a two-way contract. He will most likely be playing for the Portland Pirates, the Sabres AHL affiliate.

Remember David Leggio?

This seems to be quite the year for ex-Blades goalies. Both Anton Khudobin and Justin Peters made their NHL debuts this season, both winning in those starts. Now, David Leggio has won a championship in the Finnish hockey league, and been selected to represent the US in the World Championships happening right now in Germany.

In the playoffs with his Finnish team, TPS Turku, Leggio had a record of 5-2, a 1.58 GAA, and a .942 SVP. TPS Turku had fallen on some rough times and was the Cinderella story of the Finnish leagues playoffs (you can find out about that here).

Leggio joins goalies Scott Clemmensen of the Florida Panthers, and Ben Bishop of the Peoria Rivermen. If you are interested in watching the games USA Hockey has a link on it's website for a pay-to view site (sadly, what they charge per international game is way cheaper than what B2 charges for ECHL games).

I'm hoping Leggio gets a chance to prove himself, and maybe find a spot back in the States. Then my game worn, signed 3rd jersey may be worth some money...

YouTube Tuesday

You guys know I love my Everblades alumni. Check out this awesome goal by Chad Larose from last Thursday.

Friday Links: Khudobin Edition

One of my favorite things about being an ECHL fan is seeing a player work his way up the ladder to the big time. As excited as I was when Flick scored a hat trick in the AHL, seeing Anton Khudobin play in his first NHL game was amazing. First, a little flashback...



Sadly, I wasn't able to catch most of the game, luckily the hockey gods were smiling down on me. I got home from class, turned on my TV, found the game on center ice, and a few minutes later Khudobin was in net. I can't describe how happy I was without embarrassing myself.

And so, in honor of Anton Khudobin's first NHL game and victory I'm dedicating these Friday Links to him (and his adorable dimples), enjoy!

- The Third Intermission (my favorite Aeros blog) has a first hand account from someone at the game, as well as an interview and awesome videos.

- Michael Russo, a must read writer if your interested in the Wild, has two different re-caps. His blog piece is here. And his story in the Star Tribune is here.

- Hockey Wilderness has a re-cap that name drops the Everblades (I'm aware of how lame I am for being excited about that).

- There is a little mention in the honorable mention section in this Puck Daddy post.

- I'm tempted to buy this team Kazakhstan jersey now...

- Or this signed team Russia photo.

The Blades take on the Checkers again tonight at 7:00. I'll be tweeting as I listen to the radio broadcast, so check back.

Flick Is It!

(photo courtesy of Keith Wozniak)

Jacob Micflikier is having quite an amazing year. He's finally playing in the AHL, still leads the Everblades in points, is an ECHL All-Star, and last night earned a hat trick. Keith over at Lets Go Amerks had made a side trip on his way to the AHL All-Star game and was kind enough to send me some pictures. You can read his account of the game here.

(photo courtesy of Keith Wozniak)

Flicks first goal in the second period of the Rats game against the Providence Bruins put them up 2-0. His second goal at the start of the third, and his final goal in the closing minutes gave the Rats their 23rd win of the season. You can read the River Rats official account of the game here.

(photo courtesy of Keith Wozniak)

It's awesome to see Flick doing so well. Hopefully, an NHL call-up is in his future and the rest of the hockey world can see what we blades fans have know for a long time.