ESPN.com has a nice piece on Theo Fleury playing hockey in Ireland.
He seems to have his demons under control, plus he's treated like a rock star there.
All in all, it seems like a really good match for him. He's doing something he loves, but not under a crazy spotlight.
He must be doing well there. Wednesday was the team's first regulation loss in 10 games.
Speaking of 10 games, how freaking hot is Red Wings goalie Manny Legace with his 10 wins for October?
What's next for Legace?
Suing Reggie Jackson for the right to be called Mr. October.
You know, I've really always used Legace as an example of the prototypical backup goalie. A guy who's OK not getting a lot of work. A guy who's happy being second banana. And if you had asked me, I would have told you he didn't have the makeup to be a successful starting goalie.
So yeah.
I just needed to get that off my chest.

Mike Comrie has always fascinated me.
He was so dynamic in Edmonton.
Then, he sat out and ended up a Flyer, which was a bad fit for him and his more freewheeling style.
His having sat out a few months of the season didn't help things, either.
Then, he was traded to the Coyotes, where it seemed he would return to his Oiler form.
And, for whatever reason, it just isn't happening.
Comrie was a healthy scratch Sunday. Irony, of ironies, he was actually sat for Jamie Lundmark, the recently acquired former Ranger who was rather infamous for his inability to fully develop as a player in New York.
Every preseason, I think the Coyotes are going to be a sleeper team, and every season, they do a great job of proving me wrong. This year's line-up has a lot of offensive skills, but apparently, not a ton of grit and determination.
Speed is important in the new NHL, but you still have to have the puck to score.
So far.

Larry Brooks, as he usually does, has some interesting gossip this week.
He's reporting the still-winless Penguins are pretty miserable in the locker room (login info.).
There are a few reasons, according to Brooks. There's a feeling that some players aren't working hard enough. But there's also some feeling that Marc-Andre Fleury should be the starting goalie (Fleury's in the AHL — still) and not Jocelyn Thibault. Brooks says Fleury is being kept down in the minors because of his contract, which pays some serious money for some not unattainable statistics. Apparently, the Penguins are trying to stay under their own cap, which is a bit less than the league-wide cap.
Brooks seems kind of mad about the whole thing, but I think every team is well within their rights to set their own salaries. The market will correct things for them. I can't imagine Penguin ticket sales, which had been pretty high, will keep up if the Penguins continue to lose. And I doubt Sidney Crosby, as much as he loves living with Mario Lemieux, will want to spend his prime NHL years with a losing franchise. I can almost see the trade demands already. So if the Penguins don't improve soon, they're going to lose a lot more than games. And that realization will force them into spending more money. Or spending the same amount of money more intelligently.
And as far as Fleury goes, the guy is still very squirrely. He's got a lot of nervous energy and you can see it when he plays. It's a lot of Hasek-esque scrambling and diving and sliding. It's like he can't read a play until the puck is crossing into his blue goalmouth area. As athletic as Fleury is, he still has a lot of work to do in terms of positioning. Ideally, he should probably be watching and learning from Thibault, but I'm not sure he needs to be starting yet.
Meanwhile, Penguins coach Eddie Olczyk is is playing with his lines, trying to get something going.
I'd start with a penalty kill.

Tim Panaccio writes about what a lot of people have probably noticed: Checking is leaving the NHL (login info.).
I've certainly noticed that. It's cool that a player can get through the neutral zone without having some guy water-skiing behind him, but I can't remember seeing any kind of neutral zone checking so far this season. It's slightly better in the offensive zones, but not a lot better. You still see lots of nice hits behind the nets, but the corners are pretty peaceful.
Is this better for the game?
I don't know. You can easily score a goal and not bring a crowd to its feet. But if you land a huge hit? Everyone is getting up.
Heck. Miro Satan finally decided to start scoring for the Islanders, but people are more excited about his previously-untapped checking abilities.
So I'm one of the people hoping the NHL will clarify things with the officials, and encourage them to keep blowing the whistle for hooking and tripping, but also let them know that a little bit of physical contact is OK.
Wow. I just channeled the high school version of myself. In fact, I almost recommended giving the officials a few wine coolers so they're more OK with physical contact.

This isn't scientific, but I'm definitely noticing a rise in hockey's popularity. Especially when compared to the 2003-04 season.
Like Thursday night, I walked past two bars playing the Rangers-Islanders game. Granted, I think that was the only sporting event on TV that night, but I still thought it was kind of a cool thing. And when I sat down for a quick beer, I actually had hockey converastions with two separate, unrelated people.
Then, on Saturday, I signed for a delivery wearing a Rangers t-shirt and the delivery guy and I talked hockey for a few moments, something that hadn't happened in a few years.
Is it because the Rangers are/were playing well? Is it because baseball season is over and the NBA season hasn't started yet?
Maybe. But it's still cool to be talking hockey and hearing hockey around town.
I'm starting to think the lockout might have been good just in terms of giving the NHL a fresh start.
Now, if they could just put the checking back in.

Mike Lee of TheFeeder.com has launched a campaign to save The Instigator, a comic strip published on the CBC site. The strip disappeared during the lockout and now the CBC won't bring it back without a sponsor. Mike set up a site to save the strip here: http://savetheinstigator.blogspot.com/.
Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of most Internet comics (the two I love are here and here) but I figured I'd post a plug here. But then, I was actually doing something else on the CBC site, having pretty much forgotten about the email, when I noticed the comic on this page (the one about the new NHLPA logo).
It cracked me up and then I realized it was The Instigator. The archives are here. It's definitely worth checking out. I especially liked this panel and this panel.
So check out the archives, and if you like what you read, check out http://savetheinstigator.blogspot.com/. It's a genuinely funny Internet comic. I hope the CBC finds a way to keep it (and maybe put up an RSS feed for it). And I hope everyone can take a few minutes to let the CBC know they'd miss the comic if it was gone.