Playing Catch-up

Let's not lie, the summer is, well, (save for a few particular dates) slow in terms of good juicy NHL news. Still, the past few days have brought a bit of interesting news where the Wings are concerned:

• First of all Igor Larionov, who was eligible to enter the Hockey Hall of Fame last year, was elected this year. Larionov helped the Wings win three cups in eight season and gets referred to as the Wayne Gretzky of Russia - making this effectively a no-brainer. "The Professor" gave a quote, when asked about his time with the Wings, that I think really sums up the team, and the team's ideals as a whole - and just why they're as successful as they are:

"To play the style that I was taught to play back in Russia, which was back control, puck-possession and skating, and the creativity that you saw, and more important, to have a coach and an organization that was driving to win the Stanley Cup […] Those eight seasons with the Red Wings, I put in comparison with the eight seasons with the Red Army team and the national team. That was success. That was fun. It was unbelievable support from the fans. It was incredible.”

Congratulations, Igor, and best wishes for the future - it's an honor you completely and totally deserve.

• I didn't make it to the Darren McCarty signing after all, but NPI correspondent Lady did! Here's what she passed along to me:

"McCarty is a super nice relaxed guy. He said that morning he'd been driving all around because his son had a baseball game, but that every day is a good day when you win the cup. I should have paid extra and had him draw a heart around Osgood and write "No one messes with my Ozzie" by it. The Wings are adorable and full of so much amazing bro-love."

She also sent some pictures my way but as they're personal shots that she and her boyfriend are in, I'm disinclined to plaster them all over the internet. Looks like everyone involved was having fun though!

• This is the cutest video I've seen yet of the post-parade celebration at Cheli's - a big chunk of the team singing along to "We are the Champions":

My favorite part is Henrik Zetterberg holding up the mic for Nicklas Lidstrom - the Captain sure has been doing a lot of singing lately, hasn't he?

Finally there are plenty of upcoming events as well - of course the NHL Entry Draft is tomorrow and plenty of our fine blogger friends will be in attendance including Pookie and Schnookie (McCrotch) of Interchangeable Parts, Patty of Penalty Killing, Heather of Top Shelf, and Alix of the Humming Giraffe, so be sure to check out their respective blogs for coverage of the event itself, and stop back here for news of the Wings' draft selections!

The Continuing Saga

Having just gotten off the phone with the fine people at Charter Communications yet again, I've learned that the reason they are not yet offering Centre Ice is because they haven't finalized their contract with the NHL. Um, big news right, we all knew that. The girl I talked to today was actually helpful, however, and informed me that apparently the hangup is over the NHL wanting them to bundle the NHL Network with Centre Ice, thus increasing the price, and Charter doesn't like this plan. (So, do we all start blaming Bettman instead of Charter? Better yet can I blame Chris Pronger?)

Personally, hey, if they did it, I'd go for it. But as it stands, they're still arguing the details. Hang in there guys, we'll have hockey...eventually. You know. Maybe by the playoffs.

Blogroll! (Because sometimes we like to think we have readers.)

Having forgone (forwent?) sleeping at a reasonable hour yet again, I have spent the past while cleaning up our blogroll (after being inspired to do so by my favorite IPBers), adding some of our newer finds, editing links (because people like Jordi can't stay in one place), etc. I doubt I'm done yet, but before I spend any more of time that should really be devoted to sleep on making things pretty, I figured I might as well make sure I've got everything covered.

So, if there is anyone out there reading who would like their blog added to our blogroll, or if there's someone you know we're missing, or hell, just someone you think we should check out, now is the time to let us now! Leave us a comment here and we'll get right on it!

(Oh and uh, which is the bigger scandal of the day, Comrie/Duff or Lowe/Pennersquee?)