August Rundown

Wow, that was exciting...

Okay, the summer is almost over and I haven't posted yet this month, so I thought I'd best chime in on a couple things while I still remember. This time I'm going to post the more pressing issues first...

Its a hockey pool!!!

For those in the Flames blogosphere that are interested and haven't noticed yet, Dave over at Open Ice Hits has posted a link for a fantasy pool using a points based system. I'm more of a head to head and rotisiree veteran myself, but I don't see why my hockey pool dominance can't extend to another format...

Giordano heading to Moscow

I didn't notice this until this morning, well after many a blogger had already put their two cents in, so I'm a little late in this, but here goes...

I'm more than a little disappointed to see Gio go after he showed a fair bit of promise last season, but I've talked myself into a similar camp to conroytoiginla when it comes to the whole thing. Yes, it sucks that he won't be playing for the Flames this year, but he's not going anywhere else right now either. I don't think another season (or partial season) in the AHL was going to do a whole lot for him, and with the number of blueliners that the Flames have signed on for this year already, I don't know how much playing time he would have gotten with the big club anyway. At least in Europe he will get to see plenty of ice and he can work on his finesse skills while he's over there. From what I understand the Flames still have his rights, so its like we are getting him to develop while not having to pay him this season (kind of). If we have somebody go down with a long term injury later in the season, it would be impossible to get him to come back over, especially with the lack of a transfer agreement. But a more plausible end result is that we have a chance to bring him back next season when we have more space for him...

Note to self: check on d-man contract status after this season...

Ed Belfour to play overseas as well

Eddie the Eagle has signed on to play hockey in Sweden next season. I think he still has something to offer the hockey world, and he obviously hasn't lost his love for the game, so I can't see this as anything but a good thing. Let's just hope that he doesn't get his hands on a golf cart after a drinking binge...

Numbers to change

If you head on over to Flames Daily, conroytoiginla has an interesting post up regarding the numbers that some of the Flames will be sporting for the upcoming season, the most interesting of them being Yelle switching to numbers to allow Owen Nolan to wear the number 11 for the second time in his career. I wonder what NHL players give each other for switching numbers, does it work similar to the NFL?