Wednesday, December 21, 2005

News and notes

Took a few days off from blogging. Nice to be away. Nicer to come back.

Not too much going on, other than the previous entry about the new arena. No official release on that one yet. I'll have an entry after the official press release.

Mario Lemieux is out indefinately following a recurrance of his heart problems. From what I've heard in the media, it'll be ten days to two weeks before he resumes skating. They're adjusting his medication currently.

There is a nice article on Shane Endicott in the Post-Gazette. Seems that his ankle sprain was pretty severe, and it will likely not be the same until next season. He says it shouldn't affect his play too much, but having had a bad ankle sprain, I can tell you that you're certainly aware of it in just about everything you do. He injured it when his right skate hit the boards behind the net back in training camp.

Bob Smizik writes a nice column on Michel Therrien. Basically, he says that the Buffalo games were all about evaluation (how much can you change in one practice?), and that we'll see some of the dividends of Therrien's focus on system and conditioning starting this Friday against the Flyers. Smizik has some nice quotes from Therrien in the article, including

"I like to pay attention to details. I'm really strict about where we're supposed to play. I know when a team plays all together inside the structure, that's a tool a hockey team can use to win some games.

"That's all I can do. I can put a system in place, I can bring some structure to the hockey team. I can bring conditioning. But the players still have to play."

I recommend checking it out.

Looking forward to more arena news, and especially looking forward to going to the game on Friday. I think I will take the camera and post some of the pics afterwards.

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