It's hard to even think about hockey when you know the Mets have pretty much locked in pitcher Johan Santana. But still. Hockey goes on. The Rangers are trying to move defenseman Marek Malik, supposedly looking for a top four defenseman in return, ignoring:
- Malik's status on the Rangers as a seventh defenseman
- Malik's often horrible mental lapses and love of cross-ice passes in his own zone
- Malik, rather bizarrely, winding up benched right before the All-Star break, for not shaking coach Ranger coach Tom Renney's hand after a victory.
So yeah. The Rangers should get a lot of nice offers for Malik.
Also, thanks to Matt Law for yesterday's Alyssa Milano tips. While I would love for him to mine that stuff full-time, I think he's going to be pretty busy with his brilliant Subway Barbers project.
So just about everything today is from Bruce Garrioch. I'm not sure, but I think he might be my muse.
Ottawa goalie Ray Emery showed up four minutes late for practice, and coach John Paddock was mad. The crazy thing is, Paddock's daughters were on the bench with him at the All-Star game. So apparently, his daughters understand the subtleties of hockey (don't be late!) better than Emery.
Speaking of the All-Star game, Garrioch says the NHL doesn't love the All-Star game, and it could eventually go the way of wooden sticks.
Also, hot on the heels of the news of Alyssa Milano's NHL clothing line, a reader points out Milano actually is a hockey fan: Exhibits A and B.
The Detroit Free Press had a nice, long piece on Darren McCarty's NHL comeback attempt. It's pretty brutal, in terms of McCarty's gambling/money issues and a marijuana problem.
Things are going better, though. It seems he's been called up to the AHL from the IHL Flint Generals. I didn't realize Kris Draper is a co-owner of the Generals. He helped McCarty land with them.
Also, Brian Leetch has some crazy friends:
In the end, scheduling conflicts having kept Bobby Orr, Derek Jeter and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder from attending, the night was left solely to Rangers.
I wonder what the three would have talked about. Or if all three had the same conflict. Like they're all in the same poker game or something.
