Carlson Returns!

This has got to be the best signing so far! The Everblades announced that Ross Carlson has agreed to return for his third season with the team. I absolutely love that the team has decided to bring one of the best players from last season back. He wasn't just a great captain, he was a really dependable player.

Carlson will bring a big scoring presence to the team. For most of last season, Carlson was one of the best players on the ice. He led the team in goals, points, and plus-minus. He was also a very calm dude. I really can't recall seeing him lose his cool at any point over the last two seasons.

 

 

This really is the best signing so far. Ross Carlson is just what the team needs, a solid veteran presence and a proven record of on-ice success. He's also a tarpons worst nightmare:

(I'm sorry, I just can't be serious no matter how hard I try)

At least August is over. We only have one more month to get through and then hockey season is upon us.

YouTube Tuesday: Blades vs. Glads

The Everblades and Gladiators have been fierce rivals since the Gladiators came on the scene in 2003. The team was originally the Mobile Mysticks, an ECHL franchise that played from 1995-2002, the team was transferred to Duluth Georgia for the 2003 season.

The Everblades have been responsible for some recent disappointments for the Gladiators. They knocked them out in the first round of the playoffs in the 08-09 season, and ruined any chance they had at making the playoffs last season. Ruining the Glads teddy bear toss last season was pretty funny though...



Games between these fierce rivals are almost always very physical affairs with lots of fights.







One Everblades player in particular seemed to relish getting physical with the Gladiators.





The first game against Gwinnett is October 15th, and it can't come fast enough.

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.

Friday Links

Another Friday, another week closer to hockey season. As always, I have some links to keep you busy.

- If you have some time to kill, check out these hockey trivia quizzes.

- This story on a player battling cystic fibrosis is really inspiring.

- I found a really great tribute to video hockey. The NES ice hockey clip brings me back to the good old days when video games didn't look anywhere near real.

- Your Wikipedia Hockey page for today- "Making the Cut: Last man Standing"

- If you haven't read this interview with new player Mike Egener check it out (via the Blades' Blog)

- This hat is ugly and cute at the same time.

- I recently discovered that this blog shows up on the first page of Google when "funny hockey blog" is typed in. I'm not really sure why that is, but I think it may have something to do with the kitty pictures I love to post.


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Blades Sign Nikiforov

The Blades are at it again. They announced the signing of right wing Vladimir Nikiforov. He's spent the last two seasons with the Utah Grizzlies. First, his stats:




Obviously, he's not the biggest guy, but he does have decent numbers. His father is a pretty well-known coach on Long Island. If his Wikipedia page is to be believed, he's coached some pretty awesome players.
 
For some more insight into this guy you can check out this story from the New York Islanders. It mentions, amongst other things, that he played on the same power play unit as Steve Stamkos in his OHL days. I also, found this little gem from his time in the OHL. This appears to be the one and only fight he had:
 

 
Have I mentioned I love small, feisty players? This seems to be another signing that's focused on improving the teams speed and skill. I'm really looking forward to the season more and more. The Blades are going to be a lot of fun to watch.

YouTube Tuesday: Shoot-out Edition

There's been a lot of talk lately about the possibility of the shoot-out going the way of the dinosaurs. Most hockey fans I know hate it. Personally, I've always found it exciting, as long as the team I love comes out on top. Enjoy these great Everblades shoot-out moments from last season.

First, Shea Guthrie and Chris Beckford-Tseu helping to win the last game of the regualr season.



And a little bit of Ahren Spylo (remeber him from the two games he played with the Blades?).



There should be another signing announced by the Everblades some time this week (if they keep up their habit of announcing a signing a week that is), Cross your fingers and wish for a good signing!

Need a Giggle?

If you'll remember last week, I seem to have tons of pictures of hockey players making funny faces from last season. Today I bring you Matt Duffy and Elgin Reid.

The puck-in-midair part is pretty cool, but the faces on the guys just makes the picture.

Friday Links

It's Friday again, and that means one thing... Friday Links!

- Your Wikipedia hockey page for today, "Sudden Death (film)." I'm not ashamed to admit this is one of my favorite movies of all time.

- Our new affiliate has one of the funniest fan bloggers I've come across. His latest post is all about ranting goalies and Finnish curses.

- This is barely about hockey, but I don't care. The Kids in the Hall have a new miniseries coming out! There better be a lot of head crushing.

- How adorable is this hockey print with its little goalie? Awwwwww.

- Three words for you: Zamboni on fire.

- Is it possible to have a Friday around here without a kitty picture?


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Blades Sign Egener

I guess someone with the Everblades wanted to prove my prediction of a signing tomorrow wrong. They just announced the signing of Defenseman Mike Egner. He's the eight signing so far, and he's a pretty interesting one. First his stats:




As you can see he played with the Ontario Reign last season. It appears to have been a standout year for him. His 11 goals and 18 assists are a career best and led all the defensemen on the Reign. You may also notice he was selected 34th overall in the second round of the 2003 draft by the Lightning. Unfortunately he never made it with the the Lightning.
 
To be fair, he didn't seem to cut for a few reasons. For some reason the coaches in Norfolk decided to switch his position to forward because he could skate and they had too many defensemen. I'm sure anyone could imagine how difficult a time you would have if all of a sudden you were playing a totally different position. It also appears he had some poorly timed injuries. Maybe he's suffering from the same problem A.J. Thelen has (which, in my opinion [not that it matters], is an inability to handle the pressures of playing in the AHL or NHL).
 
Whatever the true reason it is I don't care. If he puts up the same numbers he put up for Ontario last year I'll consider him a successful signing. He seems to be a big, physical guy that's not afraid to drop the gloves. The Blades press release mentions that he's a good two-way defenseman (I'm pretty sure every defenseman has been described this way so far), it also mentions that he'll be used on the power play. If this guy can improve the Blades dismal power play, and his stats seem to indicate he might be able to, I'm sold.
 
Overall, it looks like the Everblades are trying to find a balance between speed, skill, and grittiness. If that's the case, I'm on board. The little "lets get as many skilled guys as we can but not find anyone to protect them" experiment was awful to watch.

YouTube Tuesday: ECHL Goalie Fights!

I'm guessing the Everblades are going to make a signing announcement sometime today or tomorrow. That's been their pattern lately. Until then, enjoy some ECHL goalie fights.

I recommend turning your sound down now, some of these videos are extremely loud.

First up, from the 07-08 season is David Shantz (stats) taking on Dan Turple of the Gwinnett Gladiators:



Now, Dan Turple (still a Gladiator) taking on Jonathan Boutin of the South Carolina Stingrays:



And a pretty good find from either the 06-07 or 07-08 season, Cedrick Desjardins (just acquired by our new affiliate the Lightning) of the Cincinnati Cyclones takes on Joel Martin of the Elmira Jackals:



And one final one, although technically not an ECHL fight, was too good not to include. I love how all the players stop the minute they realize there's a goalie fight. This video is from the days of the Elmira Jackals UHL days. Tyson Gajda of the Jackals takes on Shawn Conshafter of the Roanoke Valley Vipers:



One of the last things on my hockey bucket list is to see a goalie fight. I've seen a hat trick in person (Bucky's this season), I've seen Sidney Crosby score (in overtime!), and I've seen my Penguins lift the Stanley Cup a few times. All that's left is a Kelly Cup for my local boys and a goalie fight. Is that too much to ask?

Goodbyes and Affiliation News

There has been lots of little bits and pieces of news over the last few days. Since I'm feeling oddly productive today (I never feel like this on a Monday), I thought I'd do a round-up of everything that's been going on.

First, some Goodbyes.

Two more players have left for the Elite Ice Hockey League. Both Mike Bayrack and Mike Hoffman have signed with the Belfast Giants (All the logos in the EIHL are super hideous for some reason). I'm not going to miss Hoffman, he played for one game before signing with the Syracuse Crunch. I will miss Mike Bayrack though.

He's was probably one of the most experienced hockey players in the entire ECHL last season (he should hit 1,000 regular season games while playing for the Giants).  He was a great presence on the ice, and he was a pretty nice dude.

Eric Lampe has also signed an agreement with the Syracuse Crunch (they love poaching our players I guess). I don't blame him for opting for an AHL contract, and I don't blame the Crunch for signing him. He was one of the best players  in the playoffs, and deserves to get noticed. I just wish one of our affiliates had done the noticing.

Now, on to affiliations!

This of course means it's spreadsheet time!

As you can see, the Greenville Road Warriors have announced two new affiliations. They'll be receiving players from the Rangers and Flyers. This leaves the Canadiens and the Wild as the last two NHL teams without an ECHL affiliate (that had one last season at least). I'm still holding to my belief that the Wild will sign with Bakersfield (the only team without an affiliate). My best guess is that the Canadiens will sign with Kalamazoo Wings. It makes sense location wise, and really, what player wouldn't want to wear these awesome jerseys (and helmets) during warm-ups?

Something Random

I've slowly been wading through all the pictures from last season and I've come across several pictures like this.

If my google abilities haven't failed me this is Mat Robinson (that's the spelling of his first name, I triple checked). I really don't know what to say about the look on his face. It's really just too weird.

Friday Links

Every Friday means we're a little closer to hockey season, it also means it's time for another round of links. Enjoy!

- Your Wikipedia hockey page- "All-American Hockey League"

- I love the idea of turning old hockey sticks in to new things. This article gives you some ideas.

- I'm always afraid when I'm typing out a tweet or taking a picture during the game I'm going to get a puck to the noggin like this reporter.

- I found a hockey table similar to the one outside of Breakaways! I wish I had the money and the room for it.

- the ECHL has a great list of players that have made it to the NHL.

- And a kitty picture just because


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Lucky Number Seven

How awesome is it to finally have signing announcements happen regularly? The Everblades made another announcement today, defenseman Trevor Hendrikx will be joining the team. You may remember him playing for the Checkers last season (he was traded from Johnstown to them somewhere in the middle of the season), and you may actually remember his name from some of the trouble he caused. A look at his HockeyFights.com fight card reveals he took on both Brady Calla and Benn Olson (I was at the game where he fought Olson and it was more of a hugging match than a fight).

The team press release calls him a good two way defenseman, but really, this guy is good at one thing. You might be able to tell just by looking at his stats (really one particular stat).





Seriously, how many players have you seen play that have a record of 200 PIM in one season and averages somewhere over 100 every season?

In case that wasn't obvious enough, let me give you some of what you can find when you do a YouTube search on him.







And it keeps going and going.

I think it's safe to say that this guy has been signed to basically be an enforcer. He doesn't strike me as a Benn Olson do what needs to be done enforcer. Rather, this guy is the kind of enforcer that really enjoys what he does, and really does it well. I know this signing is going to rub some fans the wrong way, but he's going to be good for the casual fans. He's also what the team needs. You may have noticed, the signing up until this point have been smallish skill guys. I don't think I ever have to remind you about the start of last season and all the liberties the opposing teams were taking. Trevor Hendrikx (and to a lesser extent Mitch McColm) is going to be the reason that we don't see that repeated, and honestly, I'm all for that. 

Besides, better to have a guy like him on your team than against it.

Old Guy + New Guy = YAY!

I'm glad that I get to use post number 200 to break really good news. The Everblades announced that Mathieu Roy has agreed to return for his third season with the Everblades. I have always liked Roy, he's a good contributor and a dependable guy. He didn't have the greatest season last year, but did get a call up to both the Rochester Americans and the Albany River Rats. His stats:




And a video re-cap of a game agianst the Trenton Devils that includes him taking on Justin Coutu:
 

 
The Blades have also signed forward Brennan Sarazin. He played with the same team in France, and the same college team as Bobby Ryan. I'm guessing Ryan's decision to sign with the Blades may have been an influence in bringing in Sarazin. 
 
Check out some videos from his college days.
 

 

 
Oh, look! Local news can cover college hockey too! 
 

 
And his stats of course:
 



I love that we're finally getting signing announcements from the Everblades. The problem is, it just makes it that much harder to wait till October. 

YouTube Tuesday

Happy Tuesday everyone. I'm hoping now that the Blades have started announcing signings they'll keep it up. Until the next announcement, enjoy this proof that local news stations do actually include hockey in the sports segment. Also, Ryan Lang goal and Brusty in net!



Amazing right? A sportscaster talking about something other than football, high school football, baseball or golf. I would start watching the local news again (and suffer through the inane smalltalk and hideous hair) just to hear some Everblades talk.

Friday Links

It's Friday. You know what that means... Friday Link time! Hopefully, these links will help you waste the last few hours of your workweek.

- Your Wikipedia hockey page for today "Mutant League Hockey"

- I don't know how I feel about hacking up hockey jerseys (it hurts my wallet and my inner hockey fan at the same time), but these jerseys turned dresses are amazing.

- I'm so obsessed with hockey players superstitions. THN has a list of some good ones.

- How awesome is this t-shirt?

- According to a judge in New Jersey, you can't get a D.U.I. on a Zamboni. So nice of him to clear that up, I was really worried.

- I'm not sure which of the Donati brothers this is, but it doesn't matter. He has an evil look on his face.

Paquet Returns!

(Tomorrows links are going to be posted late again. I'm pretty sure my chosen method for dealing with the crazy branch of my family is going to equal a monster headache tomorrow)

I said the Everblades would make an announcement today and they did. Defenseman Phil Paquet has agreed to return for another year! I'm super excited simply because he was one of the nicest players last season (that's really all I need to like a player). He also happens to be a really smooth skater. I think he'll fit into the new system coach Greg Poss will be introducing. As always, here are his stats....

I think it's a little weird that the team isn't evening out the announcements, three defesemen and one forward so far (and no goalies or red-heads at all). It's also a little weird how much the team likes Clarkson alumni. I can name David Leggio, Phil Paquet, and Shea Guthrie of the top of my head. I'm guessing someone on their staff knows someone on our staff?

Whatever, I'm just happy the Blades are finally announcing some signings. Now can the next player be a goalie? Please?

News and a Goodbye

I have no idea why I forgot to mention this earlier, but Milan Gajic will not be retuning to the Everblades next year. He has signed with the Victoria Salmon Kings.

Last season was rough on him. He was injured very early on, and it took a long time for him to heal. When he finally did come back he put up some spectacular numbers. If you take a  look at his stats it not hard to imagine that without the injury, last season could have been one of the best of his professional career.



As I have said many times before, it's sad to see any of the players leave. To see such a solid forward, and such a nice person leave is almost painful. I don't blame him for choosing to play in Victoria, he's spent three seasons playing for them, but I'm still sad.

In some less depressing (for me at least) news The Florida Panthers have signed an affiliation agreement with the Kelly Cup Champion Cincinnati Cyclones. It also appears the Cyclones chose not to announce they're no longer affiliated with the Montreal Canadiens. They instead chose to change their website to omit the Habs and include the Panthers. I guess they thought no one would notice?

The South Carolina Stingrays also announced they have extended their affiliation with the Washington Capitals for another season.

I'm really expecting the announcement of a new signing tomorrow. The last time I was in Venice they announced the affiliation with the Lightning. I'm sure the announcement tomorrow will be a good one.

Mitch McColm Returns!

I love that the Everblades announced a signing just when I needed it! They didn't announce just any signing. The Blades announced that Mitch McColm will be returning next season. I guess I chose correctly when I decided to make him my new favorite.

I think this is really good news. I really liked McColm, he was a solid, dependable defenseman that was always willing to stand up for his teammates. Anyone who remembers the beginning of last season will realize how important a signing he is. As you can see from his stats (or a simple YouTube search of his name), the dude has no problem dropping the gloves.

I'm hoping the Blades start announcing some signings soon. More than likely, they'll wait until Thursday when I'm in Venice to announce Peter Metcalf is coming back. That would figure (and make my month).

YouTube Tuesday

I don't know about you, but this off season is taking forever (the lack of signings isn't helping either). I know I'm reaching a new low in my off season sadness when finding this video makes me sad.



Yes, I miss Swampee (this is the correct spelling by the way). To be completely honest, all mascots freak me out a little. I will admit Swampee is a pretty cool for a mascot, but it's still bothers me to see a giant anthropomorphic alligator walking toward me. The fact that I'm missing Swampee is a sign that this season is taking too long.

I think planning some trips to Tampa and Sunrise for some NHL action will cheer me up. Some signing announcements from the Blades wouldn't hurt either.