Afternoon Delight: Midterms

• Jon Tavares and Victor Hedman are once again at the top of the mid-term rankings. Complete rankings are available at www.nhl.com
• The Winter Classic was a ratings success.
• Will Wenatchee, WA be the site of the next WHL team?
• Darryl’s Reaugh’s 10 Steps to getting beat by Detroit.
• Pierre Lebrun weighs in on the Lecavalier story over at ESPN.
• The lastest college hockey rankings, as posted at Goon’s World.

As a bonus, please enjoy a hockey related joke (with apologies to Red Wings fans and my Auntie):

The Detroit Red Wings foreign scout flies to Baghdad to watch a young Iraqi
play hockey in the new American sponsored league in Iraq, and is suitably
impressed and arranges for him to come over to the U.S.

Ken Holland signs him to a one year contract and the kid joins the team for
the preseason.

Two weeks later the Wings are down 4-0 to the Blackhawks with only 10
minutes left to play. Mike Babcock gives the young Iraqi the nod and he goes
in. The kid is a sensation scoring 5 goals in 10 minutes and wins the game
for the Wings.

The fans are delighted, the players and coaches are delighted, and the media
all love the new star.

When the player comes off the ice he phones his mom to tell her about his
first day of NHL hockey. “Hello mom, guess what?” he says in an Iraqi
accent. “I played for 10 minutes today, we were 4-0 down, but I scored 5
goals and we won. Everybody loves me, the fans, the media, they all love
me.”

“Wonderful,” says his mom, “Let me tell you about my day. Your father
got shot in the street and robbed, your sister and I were ambushed, raped
and beaten, and your brother has joined a gang of looters, and all while you
were having such great time.”

The young Iraqi is very upset. “What can I say mom, but I’m so
sorry.”

“Sorry? You’re Sorry?” says his mom, “It’s your fault we moved to
Detroit in the first place!”