Gone Quiet

It's eerily quiet again today.

No big trades. No shocking events from last night to discuss and analyze. No big standings moves.

*Sigh*

It's so quiet that to keep all you hangers-on, well, hanging on, I had to go to Canada.

Okay, not really - just the CBC, where Scott Morrison is rehashing the All-Star Game. A little late, maybe, but that's the charm of our neighbors to the North. No need to rush something like that, a week or two is fine...ah, I miss it so.

Anyways, he has some shocking ideas (eliminate the All Star Game? Really? Why, no one has ever made such a statement before, in the history of the NHL!!) but he also had a good suggestion. Scrap the whole thing and replace it with a 30-team, 2 day, 3-on-3 tournament for charity. Representatives would be voted on by the fans of each team, and with two forwards and one goalie you can bet the actual risk of injury would decline significantly. What's more, there would be some passion to it, since the winners would get a generous donation to the charity of their choice at the end.

Sound good? I think so. As much as I love the midseason craptacular that is so widely booed and hissed by many others, I think this would be a great substitute. You still get to see the best as voted by the fans for real this time - so logically we could assume that gone would be the ballot-box stuffing of certain cities who shall remain nameless. You'd still have the fun and frivolity of players from each team just enjoying themselves, and you completely remove any illusion that what is taking place even remotely resembles a real game.

I may like the All Star Game the way it is, but I know I'm in the minority - and to be fair, it doesn't take much more than a couple of NHLers on the ice to make me happy in any situation, so I'm not exactly a good mouthpiece for what should and should not be changed. And I think I could get on board with something like this. I've never seen 3-on-3 played before, and just the thought of our two Russian phenoms flying around the ice largely undefended makes me a little bit giddy.

I guess it's something to ponder...

- NHL.com took their lips from Crosby's, er, derriere long enough to write a full article on little Ovechkin...in fact, there's nary a mention of the elegant Mr. Sidney! Gary must be sick today or something - that's the only way I can explain such a blatant oversight.

Anyways, it's nothing new to those of us who absorb everything in the local mainstream media about Ovie or the Caps in general, but it's a really nice article nonetheless. If nothing else, I love hearing the way his teammates and coach talk about him - it makes you think that what we see is not just a public persona but the real thing. It gives me a warm squishy feeling, too, to hear comparisons of Ovechkin with the likes of Gretzky and Messier, Lafleur and Yzerman.

And yes, I'm leaving out the 5th name mentioned on principle.

- I'm like a day behind the mainstream media - did anyone see this nice piece on Clarkie before yesterday's game? It's funny how often we overlook how impressive his accomplishments have been so far this season. The 20-goal plateau is something so many NHLers aspire to, and it seems to just be a jumping off point for Clark to set a new career high that will leave last year's mark in the dust.

- Tarik's blog entry about "Semin: International Man of Mystery" literally had me cracking up at my desk yesterday, and now my co-workers think I'm insane. Not that they didn't already kind of assume that was the case, but still. Anyways, CanWest news service picked up the story and ran with it, exposing the mischievous Mr. Semin for the English-speaking fraud he is. Or isn't. I don't know.

The truth is probably somewhere in between; I'm sure he speaks a bit and probably understands even more, but I can see how it would be easier (and more fun) to just claim ignorance. From what I've read and seen so far this season, I think it's pretty clear that Semin has a very dry sense of humor - such a change from the player with an attitude who came over back in 2003-04. What a difference a few years (and Ovechkin as your roommate) can make, right?