Hockey Hits: Sidney Crosby with a play from the playbook of former President George W. Bush!

Some news and notes from the Blogs today:

• Hockey for the Ladies:  Pictures of Sidney Crosby arriving on an aircraft carrier in Nova Scotia with the Cup via a Chopper.  First words I expected to hear from Sidney was “Mission Accomplished”.
  
• Defending Big D:  What can we expect from the Dallas Stars this season.  I could see the Stars rebounding and challenging for the 7th or 8th spot in the Western Conference next season.  Alot of this though, will rest on the shoulders of Marty Turco.
• Snapshots:  Does the NHL care more about the Olympics or its own bottom line?  Seems somewhat obvious.  The NHL is cleary happy to take advantage of the Olympics as a means of promoting hockey on an international scale but at the end of the day, its always going to be about the bottom line.
• Puck Daddy:  A chat with Ryan Kesler about video games, future in Vancouver and guaranteeing Olympic medal for U.S.  Very good Q & A.  My Blades of Steel configuration was 2 Skinny’s, 1 Med and 1 Fatty.  And I think he’s being a bit bold in prediciting Gold for Team U.S.A.
• The Copper & Blue:  Are Canadian hockey fans losing interest in hockey?  I would imagine if you are reading this then you are likely in disagreement with the results of this study.
• T.O. Sports:  Maple Leafs not interested in Nikolai Zherdev, but can they still CAPITALize?  As Richard already pointed out in his analysis of where he thinks Zheredev will end up, the Leafs were not high on that list, but the Caps were.  If anyone can benefit though, I could easily see Burke doing so.
• Lions in Winter:  The puzzling case of Alex Tanguay.  Should be an interesting run to the Regular Season.  Good speculative analysis.
• TSN:  Theo Fleury to attempt a comeback.  Wow.  41 years old.  He’s been clean and sober for 4 years.  But he hasn’t played competitively in 6 years.  And did I mention that he’s 41.  That being said, I wish him well, as I always enjoyed watching him play.  Should be interesting.
• NY Islanders:  Isles Ice Girls tryouts are next Saturday at 10 AM.  Apparently in addition to being hot, you need to know how to fix a broken down Zamboni.