HLOG Suckitude Fantasy Draft

Shit. I forgot to do the HLOG suckitude league draft/had other reasons not to be around for it, and I pretty much got a fantasy dream team. Unfortunately that was the opposite of what I was trying to achieve.
This is what Autodraft gave me:

Team Non-Domination
Round Pick Player Position
1.) 8 Dany Heatley RW
2.) 9 Roberto Luongo G
3.) 24 Evgeni Malkin LW
4.) 25 Alexander Ovechkin LW
5.) 40 Jaromir Jagr RW
6.) 41 Jason Spezza C
7.) 56 Vincent Lecavalier C
8.) 57 Dominik Hasek G
9.) 72 Chris Pronger D
10.) 73 Ryan Whitney D
11.) 88 Henrik Lundqvist G
12.) 89 Dan Boyle D
13.) 104 Philippe Boucher D

Whoops. My first matchup appears to be against HG. My money's on her.

Shoot Me in the Face

Just when I thought I couldn't hate the Ducks any more...it turns out that I can.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=219404&hubname=

This is only going to up the press coverage that smug asshole gets. Anaheim had better hope that Lauren Pronger doesn't get a bug up her ass and decide that she hates California, or else they will lose two captains in two years. Not gonna lie, I almost hope she does.

On another note, does this signal that Scott Niedermayer isn't coming back?

Suisse

Have you evert wondered why Switzerland writes Suisse on their sweaters instead of Schweitz when 2/3 of the population is German speaking (I should say, speaks German as a primary language)? Just me? Ok. Well in case you were secretly wondering, or are ever on some trivia-type game show, here's why.
I emailed the IIHF to ask them why this is, and they referred me to Karin Hoerhager, who works for the Swiss Ice Hockey Association. Here is what she said: "In the history of the Olympics the short form for Switzerland has always been SUI, that's why on every Swiss uniform (skiing, swimming etc.) you'll find Suisse instead of Swiss or Schweiz. I cannot tell you why exactly they chose to do that but over the years it has just become a rule."
The culture of Switzerland facinates me due to their intense multilingualism, and everyone I was told to email was really nice about sending quick and polite responses. I wish everyone were as nice as random people from Europe when you show interest in their team. I'm also pleased when I find that I can write Swiss German almost as fluently as I can speak it.

Things are starting to look good

Well, after their stomping on Tuesday night, the Wild have decided to get it together. Two more wins under their belt, and the kids are starting to get sent down. Much as I like getting to see them play, to me seeing the regulars in the lineup makes me think the season is really getting here.

To celebrate that fact, I made a hockey corner in my room using the pennents for all the NHL teams, and also some posters, pictures, and newspaper clippings. I'll decorate more later, but it's early in the school year and I'm already getting dumped on.

It's not much, and my camera is kind of fuzzy (or maybe I'm the fuzzy one), but it makes me smile.

The picture in the far left corner is of Boogaard looming over Chelios. That is definitely my favorite part of the wall.

Also, I'd like to send a big thank you out to Teebz for sending me a beautiful copy of the Heritage Classic game. I finally got a chance to watch it last night, and it's awesome! Thank you so much, Teebz!

Ooops

Well, that first preseason game didn't go so well for the Wild, but Wes Walz was a very speedy bright spot. He played like a man posessed. Boogaard managed to get himself into trouble, and Lemaire and MacT wore pretty much the same expression all night. Osgood was super lucky tonight. I can't even believe how much the Hockey Gods smiled on him.

Congrats, Steph. You have won this time, but there is a rematch on Thursday!

TSN Season Previews

TSN has their season previews up!
Here is the one for the Wild: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?fid=11200
My own season preview will hopefully be up soon.
Margee is doing a season Squee-view, so besure and stop by SportSquee and let her know who the MVSquees are of your team!

Training camp is finally here!

The Wild don't have a preseason game until Tuesday against the Dead Wings, but training camp has started! Technically it started yesterday, but whatever. I was busy/tired yesterday. Apparently Dominic Moore played well yesterday. From what I can tell (there are probably more that I'm not aware of...), the following players are in camp:
Center:
Wes Walz
Eric Belanger
Peter Olvecky
Somebody Fiala (I have never heard of him)
Pavol Demitra
James Sheppard
Serge Payer
Mikko Koivu
Dominic Moore
Steve Kelly

Left Wing:
Brian Rolston
Benoit Pouliot
Matt Kassian
Aaron Voros
Somebody Graham (yet again, I have no idea who this dude is)
Petr Kalus
Roman Voloshenko
Colton Gillies
Ryan Hamilton
Branko Radivojivic
Morten Madsen
Derek Boogaard
Somebody Hirsch

Right Wing:
Pierre-Marc Bouchard
Matt Foy
Cal Clutterbuck
Somebody Gutierrez (Yep, don't know him either, but maybe he is the one from Alaska that my mom was talking about?)
Marian Gaborik
Stephane Veilleux
Joel Ward
Mark Parrish
Danny Irmen
A. Foster ( I want to say it's Aaron, but I'm not sure.)

Defence:
Nick Schultz
Kim Johnsson
Keith Carney
Brent Burns
Shawn Belle
A.J. Thelen (Gross, I thought we were done with him)
Andre Lakos
Paul Albers
Clayton Stoner (YAY! I am pleased to see that he's healthy this season)
Sean Hill
Kurtis Foster
Martin Skoula
Petteri Nummelin
Eric Reitz
John Scott
Somebody Noreau (damn, another one that I don't know.)

Goal:
Josh Harding
Niklas Backstrom

Ok, so now that I feel like a bad fan for not knowing who half of these guys are, I will mention that I think there are only something like two roster spots up for grabs. Wonder who will get them? If I had watched the prospects tournament last week, I would probably have a better clue, but last week was crazy. I suppose I could go through and review what happened, but that's almost more time comsuming than going to the website and looking them up, googling, or asking people. I'm pretty sure we got 4th place in the tournament.
Sounds like Sheppard and Moore are currently in the top positions as far as making the team this year, but Ward might, and people in Minnesota think Irmen might, and they are pulling for him to do so (go GOPHERS!). Matt Foy almost made the team a couple of years back, makes me wonder what happened to him? Pouliot is always mentioned, but I don't think he's ready for the big show yet.
I appologize for not really knowing what's going on, I am still searching for efficient and effective ways to keep tabs on these things from the west coast. Games are easy, prospects are another thing.