Sleeksays

Time to take a break from my normally scheduled Burke Week -- tomorrow I'll get to the positive GM lessons we can learn from the Burke. Today instead I'm just going to toss a few links and call it a day (partially because I feel bad just tossing these at the end of a long post; mostly because I'm lazy) . First off, in keeping with Burke-themed tradition, I was a guest again on The Rink Podcast this week to talk about what the Burke departure means for Anaheim. I'm the first of three guests in a virtual All-Star Game of blog guests -- Steve Lepore of Puck the Media also talks about Versus ratings, and Alanah McGinley of Canucks and Beyond talks about Roberto Luongo's shutout streak. Not my strongest work, but then again, podcasting ain't my forte. Secondly, I wanted to give an update on the guy sometimes known as Kyle J and sometimes known as "the Swede" -- our mysterious comic book contributor here at BoC ( Episode 1: Toronto , Episode II: Detroit )...

Battle of California (0-0-0) vs. Behind the Jersey (0-0-0) Round One -- Single Elimination I really should have been promoting this semi-event more (I've had it in the sidebar for a few weeks, I think) , but I guess BoC was one of the last entries in the field. Anyhoo, the NHL Arena messageboards are running an online Battle of the Blogosphere, where 128 blogs are stacked head-to-head in an NCAA-style vote-off for a champion. You can read about it here . Before I link to the list of match-ups, though, I do want to mention a few things, and first is a quick profile of why you should vote for BoC's first round adversary, Behind the Jersey . If you're unfamiliar with the site, Christy Hammond is a Red Wings blogger, and if information is your game, she's all over it. Take a scan of her posts, and check out her profile page , and you'll see that she loves her Wings pretty dearly. And while I'm a guy who holds plenty of hate for Wings fans, that's never an iss...

While Sleek is calling for positivity from the Ducks side (for you fellow indie music geeks out there, "Positivity" is probably the worst song ever recorded by Suede ), things are moving a little smoother here in the Bay Area. In terms of lineup changes, it sounds like Douglas Murray is out with the mysterious "upper body injury" while Tomas Plihal is still out. Which, if the Sharks had made the fan-pleasing move of giving Jeff Friesen a minimal contract (say, a weekly pizza and some old Friesen merchandise), would have been the perfect time to debut that new #13 Friesen jersey. Easy money for the Sharks, a team that's had a habit of money-grubbing from fans. As for the rest of the team? I can spout off about what I like (shots from Rob Blake, speed through the neutral zone, Devin Setoguchi driving the net, Jonathan Cheechoo one-timers) or what I don't like (Joe Thornton looking a tad bit lost away from his usual half-board position, Marc-Edouard Vlasic tryi...

Cobra. Fucking. Kai. Aside from linking the Hockey Orphan for the Kings, Stars and Sharks this should be the last bit of shameless self-promotion for quite a while. And, if I do say so myself, it's a damn doozy. In order to break up some of the monotony that is Tuesday, I'm starting up a tradition on Cycle like the Sedins called "Bertuzzdays." Basically, it is a weekly tribute to the most shameful and sometimes hilarious moments in hockey history. This week, naturally, begins with a study of The Todd Bertuzzi incident . Then quite unnaturally, it devolves into a troubling comparison between that Vancouver Canucks team and Cobra Kai from "The Karate Kid." Eventually, "The Jesus" makes an appearance and all hell generally breaks loose. It does end with an intriguing question, though: what would Bertuzzi have to do to gain your forgiveness (or at least your respect)? Hopefully, you'll find this Bertuzzday as entertaining as I find it psychological...

Very quickly into my perusing of the hockey blogosphere, it became clear that there are a ton of NHL team blogs and sometimes very little to suggest that one is empirically or artistically or functionally superior. We all gravitate to blogs that feature our favorite teams and, once we've covered our teams, then maybe our favorite writers. Or Photoshops. I figured posting this on BoC first would be the best move while Cycle like the Sedins works through its training wheels stage. Simply put, I want to know what other blogs BoCers follow: blogs that capture the spirit of their team or at least deliver a helluva one-liner. Naturally, teams such as Washington, Edmonton, Detroit and Pittsburgh are covered very nicely (not to mention the BoC teams of course) . But what about other teams? Are there some heavyweights one cannot ever forget? What about some "diamonds in the rough"? Feel free to nominate your own blogs, your best friend's blog or a blog owned by someone you w...

Anaheim Ducks (t-1st in west) at San Jose Sharks (t-1st in west) Winner of tonight�s game is on top of the west! Ah, the beauty of a new NHL season afoot, and what better way to kick it off than with a good ol� Battle of California (competitive version) ? Yeah, I know there were some "counting" games already played in Europe, and Ducks/Sharks is the only game on tonight's schedule without some version of national coverage, but I can�t care. Because tonight is Ducks-Sharks, one of my favorite matchups since the lockout. It's a measuring-stick game, a pride game, and an awesome way to start the NHL season (assuming the Sharks have paid their electricity bill this year) . To open this set of Gamedays and this NHL season, Mike Chen and I devised a little cross-state exercise. You know Mike, of course, from Battle of California, though I heard he has some side gig too . Anyways, instead of rehashing our own previews again, we instead decided to write about the oppositio...

There's a ton of great blogs out there and BoC is certainly one of them. But after posting here (and facing the existential crisis of: does anyone want to read about the Stars?) I would often get the itch to talk about the NHL as a whole. So, after coming up with some silly gimmicks I decided to roll out a blog that (hopefully) will be a celebration of the hockey blogosphere: Cycle like the Sedins . Please keep in mind it's still a bit of a work in progress, as I expect it to be considerably "prettier." Aside from shameless self-promotion , there are two other reasons I want to bring this to your attention: There will still be some posts relevant to the BoC - and get this - there might be some familiar faces on the blog! We've already had a Earl Sleek sighting and expect to see Rudy Kelly at some point. The blog is designed to include commentary from all kinds of sources, so it's quite possible that your ideas and thoughts could see the light of day. So I...