It turns out to be some guy from Pittsburgh I’ve never heard of.

Malkin is awesome. He's Russian who just bailed from his team in the Russian Super League without telling them, and then reappeared in the Penguins training camp.

Apparently his old team is suing the NHL, the Penguins, and Malkin for breech of contract. He still has another year left on his Russian contract.

I've just never gotten into hockey, perhaps owing to my Sun Belt upbringing. I've been to a few NHL and minor league games and it's interesting enough, although they've seemingly taken the worst elements of soccer, basketball, and football and combined them into a single sport.

Ideally, it would be a faster version of soccer. But by infusing it with the annoying blaring music and gimmickry of the NBA (No, I am NOT ready to rumble. I want to watch the game. And quit shooting t-shirts at me and having floor shows every five minutes.) with the ridiculous amount of stoppages in play of the NFL.

I was going to make a snarky comment about Michelle, hockey masks and horror movies but that would be a needless personal attack so I won't.

Regards, C

I’ve just never gotten into hockey, perhaps owing to my Sun Belt upbringing. I’ve been to a few NHL and minor league games and it’s interesting enough, although they’ve seemingly taken the worst elements of soccer, basketball, and football and combined them into a single sport.

The main problem has been the league's expansion over the past decade or so. Interestingly, 1/3 of the NHL teams are Sunbelt teams.

The other problem with hockey is that it does not translate well on TV.

I actually got into hockey years ago in Alabama, of all places. For some reason the Univ. Alabama, Huntsville had a Division I (I'm pretty sure) team. They played in a small stadium and the team was basically populated by a bunch of Canadian brusiers.

James,

This may be an early warning sign of blogitis, where you start to perceive all of reality in terms of blogs. You should consider seeking professional help ... in person, not on line.

yaj: Maybe so! That sort of thing happens a lot, though, and not just in blog-related contexts. I'll often see a last name that's familiar to me as, say, a political figure or member of one of my favorite sports teams, and get the wrong impression from a headline. Similarly, headlines about Ariel Sharon than omitted his first name or other Middle East references often made me think of a girl I knew named Sharon and gave me a couple seconds' confusion.

A post I just wrote reminds me that I also often get my SEC's--Securities and Exchange Commission vice Southeastern Conference--and USC's--University of Southern California and University of South Carolina--confused out of context

Although, of course, there is a blog and website for internet addiction, with an online test. I couldn't find any online therapists offering treatment for internet addiction yet - perhaps even they have a sense of when they would be pushing things too far.

Regards, C