I love how Wayne Gretzky and Janet Jones are using a complex "except" strategy to defend themselves against the "Operation Slapshot" allegations.
In today's edition, Jones explains how her husband is no gambler.
Except:

Other than an occasional horse race, my husband does not bet on any sport.

You might remember Gretzky's explanation yesterday, that he never gambles.
Except in Las Vegas.
So so far, we've learned that Gretzky is a non-gambler, except for Vegas and the ponies.
This is a great defense.
I think it might be time for the Gretzkys to start working with some kind of PR person.
As is often the case, there is now a blog dedicated to the NHL gambling scandal. It's hockeyscandal.blogspot.com.
In other fun hockey news, Jose Theodore's Propecia is really working: You can see it in this picture.

I'm not too interested in this whole "Operation Slapshot," hockey gambling thing.
Obviously, I think it's a great name for an operation. In fact, I wish the authorities could have gotten the Hanson Brothers involved in some way.
But other than that untapped possibility, it's kind of a non-story for me.
If players want to bet on other sports, I don't really care (although, Las Vegas bookmakers are saying that athletes always claim they don't bet on their own sports — even in the cases when they do).
I don't even think the allegations against Janet "Mrs. Wayne Gretzky" Jones are that interesting. If she wants to bet on sports (if she even did, that is), she's an adult. It's not legal, but it's not like she's killing drifters.
I'm fascinated by Wayne "Mr. Janet Jones" Gretzky's reaction to all of this, though. Like his bizarre denial:

First of all, my wife is my best friend...My love for her is deeper than anything. The reality is, I'm not involved, I wasn't involved and I'm not going to be involved.

What's deeper? Your love or your denials? Is it me, or did Wayne just totally throw his wife under the bus? Did he really need to express his love and his innocence in the same sentence? Couldn't he just say the charges are BS? He's her husband. Any accusations against her are going to involve him. Does he not realize that? It's just such a slimy thing to say.
I'm also not a big fan of Wayne's whole 'I don't gamble except in Las Vegas' defense. What is that? That's like saying, 'I don't drink, except in bars.' You either gamble, or you don't. But to try and qualify it and rationalize it is really weak. Why didn't he just say what he obviously yearns to: 'I don't gamble except for when my wife makes me. At gunpoint.'
So yeah. I don't think Wayne is doing a great job of handling this.

I think it's pretty cool that Bill Guerin has a good sense of humor about his lack of production this season (login info.).
The Dallas Morning News asked him about his two goals against St. Louis. Two goals he scored 18 games ago.
Guerin asked the paper, "What's that now, two since '96?"
Good one!
Guerin is making $6.7 million this season.
I can understand the awkwardness of his situation, but maybe he should try and seem a little more contrite.
You know. At least until his goal production hits double digits.
I'm sure he's trying, but joking about it just makes things worse.
UPDATE: Guerin scored last night. Maybe he can work out a bit about a hat trick spread out over a decade.

Can anything stop Scott Niedermayer? His knee is supposed to be in bad shape, yet it's had just about no impact on his ability to play.
Apparently coach Randy Carlyle is prepared to ride the knee until it breaks (login info.).
Niedermayer has to decide if/when he's going to have surgery. A big factor has to be the fact that Ed Jovanovski will miss the Olympics. Niedermayer seems to be trying to hang in there for his country.
I wish the Rolling Stones were less like that. I just watched them perform at halftime of the Super Bowl and it was brutal. When will they hang it up? My five-day-old niece actually tried to claw her way back into the womb when she saw them.

You had to love the Scott Stevens number retirement ceremony last week.
Where the retirement of Mark Messier's number 11 was more about bombast and how he was perceived by the New York media, Stevens' retirement was really about hockey and his career.
The ceremony was nothing more than a chance for the fans to say goodbye to a beloved player. It was simple and truthful and respectful.
But I think the biggest tribute to Stevens was the 60 minutes of oppressive hockey his team played right afterwards, against one of the league's best teams.
Stevens was still able to inspire his team, even from the rafters.
It was pretty cool.
Too bad the game was followed by plane trouble (login info.).
I think that kind of brought everyone down.