Mullet stays as OSU sweeps

Ohio State's John Albert was going to shave his head, but as an intermediate step, went with a mullet. The team won both of its games against the Michigan State Spartans, so, well, the mullet stays. He was a good sport and let me take a picture of it.


I talked to him as he had his leg in a mechanical cold water treatment. OSU's training room is amazing. I think they share it with the basketball team, as they do the very nice arena.
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OSU vs. MSU, part 1

Looking for Jeff Lerg. (That's a short goalie joke).


Here's Thrashers first rounder Daultan Leveille on a face-off. He look fine. Once he gets a lot stronger on the puck and reads the play perfectly, he'll be a lot more effective. His skating is so effortless. It doesn't seem like he's trying that hard, and suddenly he's at his destination. MSU was shutout tonight. Leveille had two shots and was -2.

I don't have a shot of John Albert yet, but he played really well. He was money on faceoffs, first of all, won several cleanly back to his D. He quarterbacked the power play. Very patient with the puck. Made some great passes, though once or twice I thought he should just shoot and get the rebound. Good read of the play though.

I assume they put the band behind the opposing goalie on purpose to distract him.

The OSU band played the national anthem just the way I like it -- up-tempo and strong on the cymbal. I think that song should always have a cymbal part, and I add my own when there isn't one. Really.

You'll note the stands aren't very full. A security person I talked to said that when Michigan and Michigan State come to town, it's more full than usual -- 3000 instead of the usual 250. That's not a typo. One particular attendant to note, a Blue Jackets scout.

The band came onto the ice at intermission.

The drum major actually twirled the baton. I've never seen that. He was a real ham.


Band meets Zamboni. A near miss.

OSU's goaltender Dustin Carlson. He struck me as more than a little nutty. Even for a goalie. Look at those crazy eyes.
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Greetings from rainy Columbus

I'm in town to see Michigan State take on Ohio State, which means Thrashers prospects Daultan Leveille and John Albert against each other. I'm looking forward to the college atmosphere. I already saw a tuba player waiting to cross the street next to the arena. Awesome.

I guess I better get going. I have about a mile walk from my hotel to the arena, which seemed like a fine plan on paper, but less so in this weather.
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Tavares' former protector touts him

It's November, but the standings indicate that Atlantans may want to pay attention to the top picks in the draft for 2009. Currently ranked No. 2 on most lists is John Tavares of the Oshawa Generals. I talked to his muscle from last year, James DeLory. The four questions about Tavares are at the end of the article.

HF: You played with (2009-eligible) John Tavares there in Oshawa. What should fans of the team who drafts him know about him?
JD: He sees the ice great, great hands. Obviously by his points you can tell he has a great scoring touch. He works pretty hard so if you get him, he’ll be good for you.

HF: Did you have to fight some of his battles?
JD: Yeah, well, the thing is with JT, he doesn’t really go out looking for it, but obviously being the caliber of player he is, guys are going to be trying to get in his face. It’d be my job to step in there once in a while. Yeah, you could say I had a few because of him (laughing).

more...

Oh and my guess is that the Panthers will send DeLory to Dayton, where they reassigned goaltender David Shantz. If their affiliate doesn't want to play their players, they'll find someone else who will.
Edit: Nope, they sent him back to junior. "The Thrashers never send players back to junior," but other teams sometimes do.
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How to get all your work done by the start of the second period

Tonight I went to the Gladiators/Everblades game to talk to James DeLory, their rookie enforcer who is under contract with the Panthers. He didn't come out for warm-ups though, which caused me to utter something we'll abbreviate as "#%*!@^$."

Since he wasn't in the line-up, I didn't get to see him play, or get a photo in uniform for his profile, but I managed to get a good interview and -- bonus -- cut out early.

Steps involved:
1. Go up to press box for reconnaissance. You can see the entire bowl from there, so I figured I could spot my subject in my binoculars.
2. Ask Everblades broadcaster if DeLory was going to join him on air. No, good. Get current description of player from broadcaster. He has a mohawk-type deal going on -- good info.
3. Spot copse of suits in Florida end as game begins. Head to the section.
4. Approach faux hawk guy and ask if he's DeLory. Bingo. Would he be able to talk now or at intermission? He has to keep stats during game, so he says to meet downstairs during intermission. Take photo of him working. Wait for him to stop smiling first.


5. Do interview (real nice guy), then pick up belonging in press box and get on elevator down as puck drops on second period. Done.

By the way, some of what he said will be of interest to Thrasher fans. I hope to have the article together tomorrow. I'll provide the link when it's done.
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Burke may not approve of Bogosian staying

Anaheim GM Brian Burke has something to say about everything. The topic of 18-year-old defensemen playing in the NHL is no exception.

“I worry about some of these kids," he said. "The number of drafts from '08 that are playing in the league I’m not sure how many of them are ready. I think Drew Doughty (LA) is clearly ready and he’s playing extremely well, Luke Schenn (TOR) appears to be fitting in but some of the other guys -- [Steve] Stamkos you knew was gonna be there -- but some of these other kids appear to be finding their way still so I think you’ve got to be careful rushing especially defensemen. If you rush them, sometimes you can ruin them so I’m not sure it’s wise to have as many guys in the NHL right out of their draft year as you do this year.”

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Rules: AHL roster limits

My posts on rules relating to prospects have consistently been the most popular on the blog. In fact, I should give a shout out to southern Californians visiting via the LA Kings official site, which recently cited my post explaining why junior-aged players have to return to junior if they're not in the NHL. Welcome, California.

I've referred to AHL roster limits in passing before, but never gathered it all into one post, so let's do that now, as people are still looking for the information.

There is neither a salary cap nor roster limit in the AHL. There is a limit to the playing roster, meaning how many players take the ice in a given night, but teams can keep as many on the payroll as they like. Relatedly, there is also no IR (injured reserve) in the AHL. The need for an IR comes out of roster limits, so given no roster limit, there's no need for a special shelf for injured players. (And because of this, AHL teams give virtually no information about injuries. They don't need to explain why someone is sitting, so naturally they usually don't.)

Why is there no salary cap in the AHL? Salary caps are usually done for parity reasons, but there's no real need for one in this case, given that most of the players are on NHL deals that limit the amount they can make in the minors. The rule about how many veterans a team can play in a game helps keep parity as well. The AHL refers to this as its "development rule":

Of the 18 skaters (not counting two goaltenders) that teams may dress for a regular-season game, at least 13 must be qualified as "development players." Of those 13, 12 must have played in 260 or fewer professional games (including AHL, NHL, IHL and European elite leagues), and one must have played in 320 or fewer professional games.

All calculations for development status are based on regular-season totals as of the start of the season.

Eighteen skaters a side for 2008-09 is a change from 17 skaters in previous seasons, and brings it in line with the NHL.

There are usually a few players in the AHL that make over $1 million, but most make around $50,000 or so.