Around the Blogosphere: Where Every Word Is Its Own Sentence

Today being March 22, it is of course the birthday of William Shatner. This really doesn’t have anything to do with hockey; despite Shatner’s origins in Montreal, I haven’t been able to find an instance where he acknowledged himself as a hockey fan. On the other hand, there is that picture of him with the Stanley Cup from Boston Legal, and there is this rather bizarre online petition requesting that the Montreal Canadiens hire him to sing the National Anthem before a hockey game. I call the petition bizarre because (with all due respect to Has Been) Shatner’s musical career hasn’t been particularly notable. In any case, this entire opening has been a digression, so let’s take a look at what’s happened on the blogs over the last couple of days:

-Have you ever experience schadenfreude, where you feel delight at the suffering of others? If you haven’t, or even if you just enjoy the feeling this recap of Calgary Flames playoff defeats is a must-watch.

-Scott Howson, Kevin Lowe’s former assistant here in Edmonton, has been making great progress in Columbus. To quote him: “I’ve always believed in making methodical step. I just don’t believe you can expect to hit the home run deals that everybody dreams about.” With the Oilers’ fixation on Hossa and Jagr the last year and a half or so, it’s nice to hear someone interested in methodical gains.

-Lowetide continues his strong work, evaluating possible Oilers’ 2009 selection Scott Glennie and putting up a tribute to former Oiler Walt Poddubny who died over the weekend.

– Dean Millard has a nice summary of what’s happened in Springfield since Daum took over as coach. My only quibble with this excellent article is that it doesn’t note how Dubnyk has struggled the last little while.

-Andrew Cogliano has been a disaster for two years in the faceoff circle. How much of a disaster, you ask? According to the Church of Kurri, he’s on pace to be the worst faceoff man in the NHL since 2000.

-In the face of serious family problems, an 8-1 win over Colorado can provide a moment of escape. Best wishes to your dad, BDHS.

-How closely does the current Oilers’ coach resemble a Chinese communist dictator? Find out at Bringing Back the Glory.

-A summary of scoring chances for this last stretch of games.

-In closing, I’ve been busy at my other site, writing about the difficulties that Europeans face in NHL coaching/management, and taking a look at the fading fortune of the Dallas Stars.