Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Bloggers Team Up to Interview Brian Engblom

Versus continued its podcast interviews a few weeks ago, giving a number of bloggers a chance to interview hockey analyst and former NHLer Brian Engblom.

Engblom was an absolute pleasure to interview. He took a lot of time providing a thorough answer to each question.

2MFB asked Engblom a "different" sort of question. After looking up Engblom's fight card at http://www.dropyourgloves.com, we noticed that Engblom had a bit of running feud with Capitals' legend Dale Hunter. Engblom had a feeling we were going to ask him about Hunter when we brought up his fight card.


Engblom said that he and Hunter didn't like each other too much on the ice. He also noted that he was probably on a long list of names Hunter has fought and forgot about. Engblom noted that he probably fought to a draw in all of his dozen or so NHL fights. He also went on to say that he supported fighting in hockey and that it served a number of purposes... all things 2MFB loves to hear!

Versus plans to continue it blogger interview podcasts some time in the next month. The next guest has yet to be announced; but I will let you know as soon as I do so you can propose a few questions.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Apparently "Sloppy Seconds" Gets You Suspended

At least saying it anyways...

Hot off the presses, Dallas Stars' superpest Sean Avery has been suspended indefinitely by the NHL for "conduct detrimental to the League or game of hockey."

In this case, conduct detrimental to the game of hockey were the words"sloppy seconds." That phrase was used to describe Calgary Flames' defenseman Dion Phaneuf's relationship with actress Elisha Cuthbert, Avery's ex-girlfriend.

Avery's comments came hours before the Stars played the Flames tonight in Calgary.

The NHL reacted quickly. The NHL reacted irrationaly.

In a league that sorely lacks regular season drama, Avery's comments provided a spark to a game that would otherwise be an uneventful meeting featuring a last place team.

Queue the NHL's brass. Gary Bettman and his cronies have orchestrated yet another pre-game anticipation meltdown. And whereas a typical NHL rainstorm would involve pre-game phone calls to both locker rooms and to the night's referee's, the NHL has set another unjustified standard with this bold move.

The question remains, will the NHLPA stand for the unprecedented action? Or will NHLPA Executive Director Paul Kelly step up and support Avery and actually stand his ground against the league office for once?

Regardless, NHL fans will be the ones paying the price.

NHL message boards are buzzing tonight; and they all agree that the league has acted irrationally and stolen away a game the offered anticipation and excitement.