Odds and ends

We haven't updated in a while. It's not necissarily that news has been slow, it's that what news there is seems to either be focused on speculation over whether Patrick Kane actually beat up some guy over twenty cents, or forum arguments about whether the Red Wings Todd Bertuzzi experiement is really worth repeating (I'm willing to see how it plays out before I cast any judgement).

I heard from a friend of a friend that a blog was reporting that Elliot Friedman said that Aaron Downey's going to see if he can't be a Coyote next season, and you know what? - I'm pulling for him. I'll sure as hell miss him (so will an awful lot of Griffins fans), but it'd be good to see him back in a regular/semi-regular NHL lineup.

Puck Daddy posted an article about the new US Olympic men's ice hockey jerseys like... a week ago, but if you haven't already read it, it discusses this image, which I guess will be on the sleeves or something... I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I'm not exactly sure if it resonates any kind of patriotic vibe for me (and I can't get over thinking that thing at the top looks sort of like a swastika), but then again, the stories in the symbolism are kind of neat, and it's not like it's the ugliest thing the United States has ever used to represent itself.

The US's orientation camp this week, which from what I can gather, involved an awful lot of press releases, playing with small children, signing autographs, and taking embarrassing yearbook pictures in front of a varied set of studio backgrounds. I'm not sure whether my favorite is Old Glory, or Dramatically lit frosted glass blocks, which, I'm not gonna lie, sort of reminds me of the bathrooms at Van Andel Arena.

But you have to agree that Brian Rafalski is totally working it in that picture.