Random stuff

A few things on my mind that don't quite warrant their own post.

1. Let me know if you see Francois Allaire, the renowned goaltending guru, hanging around. From what Bobby Goepfert indicated to me, Allaire was at the Gladiators game on Tuesday, traveling with the Augusta Lynx (Anaheim's ECHL affiliate). I would have loved to meet him and talk to him about Goepfert, JP Levasseur, or really anything. But I didn't know until Augusta was getting back on the bus that he was there. And I didn't know what he looked like (a small problem in itself). I may print out his photo and tack it on my bulletin board because he's sure to be back someday. That's a crazy suit/tie combo there, but if you're Francois Allaire, you can wear whatever you want.

2. Where do Europe's rookies go? There's an article on the IIHF website that tries to be objective about when the appropriate time is for Europeans to come over to North America. It relates to the problem I talked about a while ago -- the tension caused between European clubs/countries and the NHL, which was exacerbated by the new CBA. Most of the highly talented players in the NHL are European, so you can easily see why this is a huge issue, the consequences of which will have ramifications for the talent pool in the NHL for years to come.

3. Arturs Kulda's Latvian national junior team pulled out the victory over Belarus today to win Pool B and the promotion to Pool A next year. Congrats to Latvia. Kulda had five points in five games and ended tied for the scoring lead among defensemen.

4. Thrashers 2007 draft pick Niklas Lucenius has made the Finnish World Junior team.

5. We'll have to go back to moderated comments because I'm starting to get spam in them. Argh. Please don't let the delay discourage you from leaving a comment though.