The Washington Post had a small blog entry discusing talk-sports.net last week.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2008/01/brooks_laich_ladies_man.html

• Andrei Markov: Underanked d-man gets his due with an all-star game start.
• Zdeno Chara: The best non-puck moving d-man in the new game.
• Brian Campbell: A great puck moving d-man that occasionally delivers the biggest hits of the year.
• Sergei Gonchar: The best power-play d-man in hockey.
• Thomas Kaberle: Great d-man with zero confidence in his own game.
• Kimmo Timonen: Unknown in Nashville, getting his due in Philly.
• Tim Thomas: Singlehandledly took the Bruins out of the race for the 1st overall pick.
• Rick DiPietro: Great puckhandling goalie with the entire Isles franchise on his shoulders.
• Thomas Vokoun: Consistantly one of the best goalies in the NHL since the lockout.
• Vincent Lecavalier: Perennial all-star.
• Daniel Alfredsson: I think he's getting better. Con Smythe candidate from last year and MVP candidate this year.
• Scott Gomez: Why is he at the all-star game? The Rangers can't be this bad.
• Evgeni Malkin: Malkin is at the game only because Crosby is hurt. This means they actually picked Gomez ahead of Malkin. WTF?
• Marc Savard: Finally. 187 assists since the strike is one of the most.
• Marian Hossa: Only on the all-star team because they wanted another player from the home this years all-star game. Most years, he would be a legit pick. Not this year.
• Alex Ovechkin: If the Caps qualify for the playoffs, then he is the league MVP.
• Mike Richards: Breakout season.
• Jason Spezza: One of the friendliest characters of the game. Awesome attitude!
• Eric Staal: Hasn't returned to the form that won the Canes the Cup. Still great.
• Martin St Louis: Needs to return to that MVP form that won the Lightning the Cup.

Wow, I'm watching the NHL all-star skills competition. Complete joke.

• In the fastest skater competition, the timers were wrong on every heat and showed times that didn't make any sense. It appeared that, in the end, the two slowest skaters were chosen for the finals, not the two fastest. There was even confusion as to who would be in the finals and/or whether they should re-run the last heat because of the faulty timers.
• Malkin missed stick-handle in one competition and wasn't eliminated. That's like running around a hurdle in a hurdle race. WTF?
• Last, WTF is Scotty Gomez doing at the all-star game? Great player and al, but he's no all-star?
• I really have no idea what is happening. Stuff is happening and people are winning and I really don't know why.
• In the young guns competition, they played two 1st periods??? Who is running this?
• Kaberle, the player voted most likely not to shoot, won the target shooting competition.

Sunday, my son's hockey team was invited to the Brampton Battalion hockey game against the Soo Greyhounds. We sat behind the visiting teams net. After the game, we played a father and son's hockey game on the Battalion ice.

In the next couple weeks, we are introducing Gold, Silver and Bronze memberships for the talk-sports website. We're introducing these new membership plans in an attempt to cut down on the inappropriate comments. People who don't have a special membership will be limited to how many times they can post. People who have special membership can post more often and may also delete comments from other users to help me moderate the site. Nothing is set in stone, but bronze members will likely be allowed to delete 10 comments per month, silver 100 per month and gold 1000 per month. Any athletes who have forums on talk-sports can have a bronze membership for free. Any athlete that creates a YouTube video where they mention talk-sports can have a silver membership for free. The price of the membership will be small; $5 for bronze, $10 for silver and $20 for gold. Several of the athletes who already post and visit the site have already agreed to be part of our Beta bronze members; for free of course.

http://www.talk-sports.net/upgrade.aspx

Update: We're giving away bronze memberships for free. Get them while they last.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have hired an interim General Manager. Welcome back Cliff Fletcher. Cliff was the orchestrator of the Leafs only rise in the last 40 years. A dozen years ago, he was hired for the same role and the Leafs went to the conference finals in successive years. Cliff is looking really old, so interim is a given. In the meanwhile, Cliff will bring in a new GM to replace himself, likely before the end of 2008. He'll then remain with the Leafs as an adviser. Fletcher didn't fair well in his last GM role with the Phoenix Coyotes, his only GM experience in the salary cap era.

Paul Maurice will remain as coach for the remainder of the season. That makes him a lame duck coach who is unlikely to return for the next season. I suspect Fletcher's first orders of business will be to prune the dead-weight from this team, look for younger talent and find a long term coach.

http://mapleleafs.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=350824

The I hate Randy Charles Morin club is growing. I hate him too!

http://www.latribuduverbe.com/archives/2007/12/maniere_dentartage_virtuel.html

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS REVISED 2008 SCHEDULE

January
15 vs. Bloomington Jr. High School Girls
22 vs. Cub Scout Troop #101
29 vs. CNIB Senior Team

February
5 vs. Spanish-American War Vets
12 vs. Crippled Children's Hospital
19 vs. St. Cloud Home for Wayward Girls
26 vs. Girl Scout Troop #69

March
5 vs. Ontario VD Clinic Post #3
12 vs. Church Street Boy's Choir
19 vs. Korean War Amputees
26 vs. VA Hospital Polio Patients

Special Monday Night Game:
March 3 vs. Utopia Gay Boys

Name Change:
The Toronto Maple Leafs will be changed to the Toronto Tampons' as they are only good for one period, and they don't have a second string.

Coaching Change:
Paul Maurice will be replaced by Pamela Anderson. No doubt she will blow a few, but she won't choke up on the BIG ONE.

Rule Changes:
1. When playing the Girl Scouts, the Leafs must not eat their cookies.
2. The Leafs will be allowed to substitute with band members at any time during the game.
3. When playing the Polio Patients, the Leafs must not disconnect any of the leg braces.
4. There will be no more dancing with opposing teams, like the last time they played the Utopia Gay Boys.
5. The Leafs MUST PROMISE to remember that when the referee drops the puck, this signals the beginning of play. This is to ensure that no more time will be wasted while the Leafs try to figure out what just happened.
6. The Leafs must also stop tangling the crippled children in the net mesh.

"GOLF LEAFS GOLF"

Red Bull Crashed Ice in Quebec City is one event that is on my Bucket List. No, I don't want to skate, but I do want to be in the crowd someday. This years event is January 27th. Already have plans. Maybe next year.

http://www.redbullcrashedice.ca/

Play the game online.

http://www.redbullcrashedicegame.com/

CBC now provides an interface for creating your own highlight reels. I created my own, which you can view at the link below. There's less than 100 plays to choose from, some of which aren't highlight worthy, but it was fun. I picked the best, which didn't include any goals or save as they weren't any great goals or saves. Unfortunately, you can't embed the video. Check it out! And create your own.

http://hockeynightmashup.cbc.ca/watch/10264

Today, I made two major changes to the talk-sports website.

1. At the request of a mom, I removed all the girlfriend and sucks forums for OHL, WHL and QMJHL players. I didn't like what people were saying in those forums about teenage players.
2. I added Pic forums for all players in all sports. On these forums, you can add and download pics of your favorite players. This will make it easier for me to identify and removed copyrighted materials.